Stony Brook Seawolves men's basketball

Main article: Stony Brook Seawolves

Stony Brook Seawolves
2015–16 Stony Brook Seawolves men's basketball team
University	Stony Brook University
Conference	America East
Location	Stony Brook, NY
Head coach	Jeff Boals (1st year)
Arena	Island Federal Credit Union Arena (Capacity: 4,160)
Nickname	Seawolves
Student section	The Red Zone
Colors	Red, Blue, and Gray
Uniforms
Home Away
NCAA Tournament appearances
2016
Conference tournament champions
2016
Conference regular season champions
2010, 2012, 2013, 2016

The Stony Brook Seawolves men’s basketball team is the college basketball program representing Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, New York. The Seawolves currently participate as part of the NCAA’s Division I basketball, and compete on the America East Conference. The Seawolves currently play their home games in the Island Federal Credit Union Arena.

The team had their most successful year in the 2015–16, winning the America East regular season and tournament title to earn a bid to their first NCAA Tournament. The school hired long time Ohio State assistant Jeff Boals as head coach after Steve Pikiell left to become the head coach at Rutgers University.

Team history

The Seawolves joined Division I play in 1999–2000 season. They have an all time win-loss record of 256–264 (.492) in Division I play following the 2015–16 season.

Pre-Division I era (1960–1999)

Stony Brook University first fielded a basketball program in the 1960–61 basketball season initially playing their home games at the local Walt Whitman High School (1960–1962) while located at Oyster Bay (at that time State University College on Long Island). The campus relocated to its present site in 1962 and temporarily played their home games at Port Jefferson High School (1962–64) until the construction of the Pritchard Gymnasium in the late 1960s. Since the 1960s the Stony Brook Patriots played at the Division III level and participated several different conferences, also spending many years of its development as an independent program. While first struggling in its initial years with Dan Farrell (1960–64), Stony Brook later enjoyed some success in the Knickerbocker Conference with coach Herbie Brown (Larry Brown's brother). He was head basketball coach at SUNY Stony Brook in 1964–69, earning Coach of the Year honors following the 1969 season. That team's P. A. announcer, Paul (the Bean) Kornreich, was once compared in the local press with the Philadelphia 76ers announcer Dave Zinkoff. Coaches Ron Bash, Dick Kendall, and Joe Castigle helped develop the program in the late 1970s and 1980s and by the early 1990s Stony Brook participated in the New York metropolitan-based Skyline Conference.

The 1990s saw the University experience tremendous growth in its academic programs leading Stony Brook to become one of the leading public research universities of the SUNY system, and a leading institution at the national level. However, its athletic programs were not on par with the rest of the successes at the university, and then president Shirley Strum Kenny set out to transition Stony Brook to the Division I level. In 1995, then Stony Brook Patriots were renamed as the Seawolves, the basketball program initiated a transition to Division I offering scholarships for the first time in 1995. Division II basketball was played until 1999, when the men's basketball officially entered Division I after a four-year transition under the command of head coach Bernard Tomlin. In 2001, after two years of basketball at the D-I Independent level, the Seawolves joined the America East conference.

Early years in Division I and Steve Pikiell (1999–2009)

The initial years of the Stony Brook men's basketball program in an America East play faced many hardships and the team remained in the bottom slots of the conference standings year after year from 2001 through 2008. Through this initial seven seasons Stony Brook didn't have a single conference winning season, even less overall. The program also struggled in the academic end being held in NCAA probation for the 2004–05 season prior to Pikiell's arrival due to a low APR. The program bottomed-out on the 2005–06 season in which the team ended with a 4–24 overall season, and 2–14 in the America East being ranked ninth in the conference standings. The 2006–07 didn't see much improvement as the Seawolves again performed poorly to a 9–20, 4–12 in the America East ending the season last in the standings for the second straight year. A 2007–08 season again reserved the last place for the Seawolves with a 7–23 overall, 3–13 America East record. During this initial seven year stretch the Seawolves were 55–140 overall, 32–84 in the America East. The 2008–09 season showed signs of improvement in the program leading to the first winning season under the America East with an 16–14 overall, 8–8 in America East play allowing the Seawolves to be fourth seeded for the first time in the AE tournament, however, they lost in the opening round against New Hampshire.

Recent success (2009–present)

After coming off their most successful season in 2008–09 the Seawolves showed signs of a more improved team. In the 2009–10 the Seawolves marked a 22–10, 13–3 record to propel them to the top of the ranks of America East conference in the 2009–2010 season. Ranked as top seed for the AEC tournament, the Seawolves posted a Quarterfinals 68–59 victory over 8th seeded Albany advancing to the semifinals to face off the Boston Terriers. The Seawolves played against Boston University in a decisive game but ending in a 70–63 loss against BU, erasing their chances of reaching their first ever NCAA tournament. However, due to their regular-season record the Seawolves were invited to the post-season NIT but lost to the top seeded Illinois in a sellout crowd at the Stony Brook Arena. After a successful season for the Stony Brook Seawolves, with increased expectations for the upcoming year and increased interest from fans, the Seawolves were able to obtain their largest broadcasting package in the school’s young Division I history. A 2010–2011 season broadcasting package included a historic three regular season national broadcast on the ESPN network, a game on SNY, and five games spread throughout the season to be broadcast on MSG+PLUS across the tri-state region. New expectations also came in with disappointments as one of the prominent players was lost with a season-ending injury, the forward Tommy Brenton who was out for the entire season with a medical redshirt. In March 2016, the Seawolves achieved their first NCAA Tournament in their school history.

2010–11 Season

Further information: 2010–11 Stony Brook Seawolves men's basketball team

The 2010–2011 season started with a season opener game against the Connecticut Huskies at the Gampel Pavilion resulting in a 79–52 loss to the eventual national champions. The Seawolves then opened their home season two days later with a 80–43 win against Division III Mount Ida. The Seawolves posted a second straight win at Monmouth on for a 51–49 end of the game for their first ever national broadcast on ESPN (College Tip-off Marathon). The Seawolves went on to win their third straight with a 66–59 over Fairleigh Dickinson. Coming back home the Seawolves played against Wagner, losing a close 58–54 game in which free-throws percentage largely affected the team. After the lost against Wagner, the Seawolves hosted Lehigh at the Gymnasium and at one point in the second half held to a 14-point lead, however, a late run by Lehigh allowed the team to get tie and eventually beat the Seawolves on overtime by a score of 79–76. The Seawolves then traveled to New York, NY to play a match up against the Columbia Lions, a game which the Seawolves lost by a score of 73–72 which resulted in the third straight lost by the Seawolves by four or less points, and the second straight lost in which the Seawolves held substantial leads in the second half but weren't able to close it. The Seawolves then traveled to Holy Cross to play a game which also resulted to be very close but which ended on Seawolves favor with a game winning layup by Dave Coley with a second of regulation to capture the Seawolves fourth win of the season, a score of 54–53. The Seawolves battled Sacred Heart but fell at home to a score of 75–66 and then traveled to South Bend, Indiana to face off against No. 24 Notre Dame, their second Big East team of the season. Seawolves battled Notre Dame for most of the first half keeping a score of 29–26 but allowed an 8–0 run to end the half leading to an eventual 88–62 loss.

The Seawolves opened conference play with a win against UMBC and continued throughout the season with struggles in the offensive end and with injuries affecting their sole senior Chris Martin and other players for most of the season. Due to injuries, Pikiell resorted to using the bench more often allowing for Sophomore like Leonard Hayes to get more playing time. Hayes was able to show his potential, entering the starting five and showing his improvement in the conference tournament. Overall, Stony Brook ended the regular season with a 13–16 record and 8–8 in the America East and headed to the tournament as the number fifth seed. In their quarterfinal match against Albany the Seawolves were able to use strong defense and a stellar offense to drag a 67–61 win against Albany at Hartford against an opponent that swept them in the regular season. The Semifinals then played the next day against No. 1 Vermont ending in a surprising offensive effort by Stony Brook, who led from the beginning to the end, to capture a 69–47 promising win against a Vermont team who also swept them in the regular season. For the first time in Stony Brook's Division I program history, the Seawolves were to participate in the America East championship game. Their next match up was announced to be the No. 2 Boston Terriers. On March 12 the Championship was hosted at Agganis Arena at Boston. Again, Stony Brook showed a strong first half outing and a strong defense for most of game and held to a lead of up to 15 points. However, with less than a minute in the clock the terriers tied the game thanks to the John Holland (America East POY), and then captured the lead with a decisive foul on Stony Brook with 2 seconds of regulation left. Boston went on to win 56–54 to end the Seawolves hopes for their first-ever NCAA tournament bid. Chris Martin is to graduate, and Tommy Brenton (injured Junior) is set to return for the 2011–12 season

2011-12 Season

See also: 2011-12 Stony Brook Seawolves men's basketball team

The Seawolves earned their second regular season championship after winning 14 games in the conference season for their first time ever. They clinched the top seed of the America East tournament and defeated Binghamton 78-69 in the first round. Stony Brook faced off against Albany in the semifinals and came out victorious on a decisive buzzer beater tip-in by Dallis Joyner to advance to the finals by a score of 57-55. The Seawolves would go on to play against the Vermont Catamounts on a soldout Stony Brook Arena falling by the score of 51-43 and failing to earn their first trip to the NCAA. By means of earning the regular season championship the Seawolves secured the autobid to the NIT and faced top seeded Seton Hall in a close matchup that went down to the last bucket as the Seawolves fell to Seton Hall 63-61 to close their season 22-10, 14-2.

2015-16 Season

See also: 2015-16 Stony Brook Seawolves men's basketball team

After five trips to the conference finals, the Seawolves finally won the America East Conference Tournament, earning their first berth to the NCAA Tournament.

Facilities

Further information: Stony Brook University Arena

Further information: Pritchard Gymnasium

The Seawolves currently play most of their home games in the Pritchard Gymnasium constructed in the late 1960s with a capacity of 1,600. In the early 1990s, Stony Brook, anticipating a transition to Division I, embarked in the construction of a $17 million, 4,000 seat arena in the west-end of the Stony Brook Sports Complex. The arena became the new home of the Seawolves men's and women's basketball program. In 2007 it was announced that the arena would undergo a $20 million renovation project. The arena was scheduled to be returned for use by 2010–11 season, however, the project has been put on hold until the 2012–13 season. While most of the games are currently in the gymnasium, the arena has been used for special occasions like the 2010 NIT first round against Illinois and also hosted one game of the 2010–2011 regular season due to its larger seating capacity and better media accommodations.

Coaches

Head coaches

The following have been the head coaches of Stony Brook men's basketball since 1960

• Dan Farrel (1960–64)
• Herb Brown (1964–69)
• Rollie Massimino (1969–71)
• Don Covaleski (1971–74)
• Ron Bash (1974–78)
• Dick Kendall (1978–84)
• Joe Castigle (1984–91)
• Bernard Tomlin (1991–99)
• Nick Macarchuk (1999–05)
• Steve Pikiell (2005–16)
• Jeff Boals (2016–present)

Current coaching staff*

Name	Type	College	Graduating year
Steve Pikiell	Head Coach	Connecticut	1990
Jay Young	Associate Head Coach	Marist	1986
Lamar Chapman	Assistant Coach	Lane	1993
Dan Rickard	Assistant Coach	Stony Brook	2004
Bryan Dougher	Director of Basketball Operations	Stony Brook	2012

*Through 2015–16 season. Pikiell was left to become coach of Rutgers in March 2016.

Postseason results

NCAA tournament results

The Seawolves made their first trip ever to the NCAA Tournament in 2016 after winning the conference regular season and tournament championships. They lost in the first round as a #13 seed.

Year	Seed	Round	Opponent	Result
2016	#13	First Round	#4 Kentucky	L 57–85

NIT results

The Seawolves achieved their first National Invitation Tournament (NIT) appearance in 2010. They achieved their first ever postseason tournament victory by defeating Massachusetts in the first round of the 2013 NIT before losing to Iowa in the second round. Their overall combined NIT record is 1–3.

Year	Round	Opponent	Result/Score
2010	First Round	Illinois	L 66–76
2012	First Round	Seton Hall	L 61–63
2013	First Round Second Round	Massachusetts Iowa	W 71–58 L 63–75

CBI results

The Seawolves have appeared in the College Basketball Invitational (CBI) twice. Their combined record is 0–2.

Year	Round	Opponent	Result/Score
2014	First Round	Siena	L 55–66
2015	First Round	Mercer	L 70–72

Season-by-season results

Season	Coach	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Dan Farrell (Independent) (1960–1964)
1960–61	Dan Farrell	0–8
1961–62	Dan Farrell	2–8
1962–63	Dan Farrell	4–6
1963–64	Dan Farrell	6–7
Herb Brown (Independent/Knickerbocker) (1964–1969)
1964–65	Herb Brown	6–9
1965–66	Herb Brown	5–14
1966–67	Herb Brown	9–10
1967–68	Herb Brown	7–15	3–4
1968–69	Herb Brown	16–9	7–2
1968–69	Herb Brown	16–9	7–2
1969–70	Herb Brown	16–9	7–2
Rollie Massimino (Knickerbocker) (1969–1971)
1969–70	Rollie Massimino	18–6	8–0
1970–71	Rollie Massimino	15–10	7–2
Don Covaleski (Knickerbocker) (1971–1974)
1971–72	Don Covaleski	16–10	7–1
1972–73	Don Covaleski	10–11	6–2
1973–74	Don Covaleski	12–10	7–1
Dr. Ron Bash (Knickerbocker) (1974–1978)
1974–75	Ron Bash	2–22	2–6
1975–76	Ron Bash	15–11	7–1
1976–77	Ron Bash	21–6	7–2
1977–78	Ron Bash	27–4	5–2
1978–79	Ron Bash	24–3
Dick Kendall (Independent) (1978–1984)
1979–80	Dick Kendall	19–9
1980–81	Dick Kendall	16–12
1981–82	Dick Kendall	10–15
1982–83	Dick Kendall	13–12
1983–84	Dick Kendall	11–14
1984–85	Joe Castigle	16–11
Joe Castigle (Independent/Skyline) (1984–1991)
1984–85	Joe Castigle	16–11
1985–86	Joe Castigle	20–8
1986–87	Joe Castigle	21–6
1987–88	Joe Castigle	18–10
1988–89	Joe Castigle	16–12
1989–90	Joe Castigle	24–5	4–0
1990–91	Joe Castigle	23–4	9–1
Bernard Tomlin (Skyline/NECC) (1991–1999)
1991–92	Bernard Tomlin	17–10	7–3
1992–93	Bernard Tomlin	16–12	6–4
1993–94	Bernard Tomlin	12–12	6–4
1994–95	Bernard Tomlin	13–13
1995–96	Bernard Tomlin	9–17	6–14
1996–97	Bernard Tomlin	10–16	6–12
1997–98	Bernard Tomlin	13–13	10–6
1998–99	Bernard Tomlin	11–16	10–8
Nick Macarchuk (Independent/America East) (1999–2005)
1999–2000	Nick Macarchuk	6–23
2000–01	Nick Macarchuk	17–11
2001–02	Nick Macarchuk	6–22	5–11	9th
2002–03	Nick Macarchuk	13–15	7–9	7th
2003–04	Nick Macarchuk	10–20	5–13	7th
2004–05	Nick Macarchuk	12–17	6–12	7th
Steve Pikiell (America East) (2005–present)
2005–06	Steve Pikiell	4–24	2–14	9th
2006–07	Steve Pikiell	9–20	4–12	9th
2007–08	Steve Pikiell	7–23	3–13	9th
2008–09	Steve Pikiell	16–14	8–8	4th
2009–10	Steve Pikiell	22–10	13–3	1st	NIT 1st round
2010–11	Steve Pikiell	15–17	8–8	5th	AE Tournament Finals
2011–12	Steve Pikiell	22–10	14–2	1st	NIT 1st round
2012–13	Steve Pikiell	25–8	14–2	1st	NIT 2nd round
2013–14	Steve Pikiell	23–9	13–3	2nd	CBI First Round
2014–15	Steve Pikiell	23–12	12–4	2nd	CBI First Round
2015–16	Steve Pikiell	26-6	14-2	1st	NCAA tournament First round
Total:		665–634 (.512)
National champion         Postseason invitational champion         Conference regular season champion         Conference regular season and conference tournament champion       Division regular season champion       Division regular season and conference tournament champion       Conference tournament champion

Rivalries

• Albany

Albany is Stony Brook's SUNY rival and biggest rival in general in athletics. This has led to intense competition in basketball games each year. Fans and players of both schools show a lot of passion in these rivalry games.

• Vermont

A heated rivalry between Vermont and Stony Brook was inevitable. Since 2009, Pikiell has won three America East regular-season titles and the Catamounts were the primary team Stony Brook had to knock off.

• Hofstra

The Seawolves and the Hofstra Pride have a geographical rivalry, a battle for Long Island supremacy. Due to a Hofstra decision, the rivalry was put on hold and since 2008-2009 Hofstra quit playing any games against the Seawolves for six years. Hofstra and Stony Brook resumed men's basketball rivalry in 2014. Hofstra leads the all-time series 19-4, since many of the games were played in the days of pre-Division I era (1960–1999) of Stony Brook.