Once the injuries started, an avalanche of injuries followed, leaving Wagner without six players and four scheduled starters for the rest of the season by the end of December.
“I’ve never seen anything like this,” coach Donald Copeland said in a phone interview. “If you find yourself in a situation like this in the pros, you just sign more players. In college, you’re locked into 13 scholarships.”
At that point, survival was at stake.
The Seahawks only had seven healthy players. After back-to-back upsets in the NEC Tournament, no one expected the team to still be playing 40 minutes into the NCAA Tournament.
The third edition will be held Tuesday night at No. 2 Merrimack, marking the first foray into dancing since 2003.
Wagner (15-15) finished sixth in the NEC with a 7-9 record, but could easily have done better.
Staten Island lost to regular-season champion Central Connecticut twice by one point, and twice lost by one possession.
Not bad for a team that hasn’t had contact practice since Dec. 27 and had to rely on assistant coaches for full-scale workouts.
Star guard Melvin Council Jr. rarely plays, averaging 35.3 minutes and is the team leader in points (14.7), rebounds (5.8) and steals (1.4), while fellow guard Javier Ezquerra is He played 34.1 minutes on the night. They even called up football quarterback Damien Magill for a few extra weeks.
“I would be lying if I said I knew what I was doing,” said Copeland, who is in his second season as head coach. “You kind of make it up on the fly. There’s no one to guide you through something like this. I’ve never treated them like they only had seven players. . I treated them as if they were a complete team.
“The daily expectations remained the same. No matter what we were doing, they needed to practice well. We needed to be sharp on film. We needed to be culturally good. And Jim had to sound a certain way. I held them accountable as if nothing had happened. That was the best way to normalize the situation.”
The losses were heavy.
That included senior guard Rahmir Moore (broken wrist), the team’s best all-around player. Experienced junior wing Zaire Williams (torn meniscus). junior forward Rob Taylor II (torn labrum); They also transferred Churchill Bounds (Central Arkansas) and Zay Blake (Green Bay), but both suffered knee injuries.
The biggest blow came just after Christmas. Sophomore DeAndre Howell South tore her ACL during practice. It was the last practice of the season with no contact. That injury hit the council hardest. Howell South was the cornerstone of the defense.
“I was shocked when he got hurt,” the council said. “He was the linchpin of our defense. He brought up our energy.”
Copeland, a 40-year-old former Seton Hall star and assistant coach from Jersey City, never made his players feel sorry for themselves.
The injury didn’t change expectations for him.
Wagner had to adjust his practice, but he didn’t let his healthy players take it easy.
The Seahawks were going to play the same way: physical, tough, aggressive. It placed them first in the NEC in points allowed per game (62.6) and 3-point defense percentage (29.7), and second in rebound margin (plus-1.1).
“‘Coach’ is like the movie ‘Coach Carter.’ He’s like that every day,” Council said. “He doesn’t care about winning or losing. God just wants us to have a dog’s heart and be tough all the time. Be the same person every day.”
Winning the NEC title has been our goal since the start of fall practice. No matter how many players we lost to injury, that didn’t change.
In fact, I felt even more motivated.
“We knew we were coming here,” Council said. “[Merrimack] We can beat them on their home floor because they were pretty bad on our home floor. Our confidence is very high and we are ready. ”
