Lorenzo Williams has lit a fire under his Brooklyn College teammates, as has new coach Rich Micallef. Brooklyn athletics photo by Damion Reid

Augustana is a high-profile team which returned its entire roster for the 2014-2015 season, but isn’t the only one. Brooklyn College has used its experience to leap out to a 12-3 record, tying already the total wins by this squad all of last season. They’re doing it with a lot of familiar faces, but also with the key addition of two newcomers who both took roundabout paths to join the Bulldogs.

Lorenzo Williams is a 6-4 forward who played at Kingsborough Community College and D-II Francis Marion before sitting out two seasons. The Brooklyn native, determined to get his degree, enrolled this summer and has blossomed on the hardwood. After a slow start, getting acclimated to a team already quite familiar with each other, Williams broke out with a 29 point performance against Sage and has been averaging almost 18 points per game since, including four consecutive double-doubles in January.

“We knew he was good coming in, but I’ve been surprised at just how much of an impact player he’s become so quickly,” says coach Rich Micallef.

Micallef himself is the other newcomer to the team, taking over from 20-year head man Steve Podias in early summer. Once the all-time leading scorer at Brooklyn, Micallef might seem a prototypical hire – Great Alum Returns To Lead Alma Mater – but his path to the job was anything but typical.

“I worked on Wall Street for 15 years, then my daughters wanted to play basketball. I started with rec league, second grade, and sort of followed them up from there.” After three years coaching a middle school team, Micallef headed up the boys’ basketball program at Fair Lawn High School in New Jersey for three seasons, winning Bergen County Coach of the Year honors in 2014. Then the Brooklyn job came open and the favorite son came home.

“Every day I wake up and pinch myself that I’m coaching basketball at Brooklyn College. I just want to be a program everyone can be proud of – our students, fans, alumni, people in the neighborhood, the borough of Brooklyn, all my old coaches. It’s just such a good feeling.”

Micallef, Williams, and company have their work cut out for them in the CUNYAC. It isn’t a power conference, but it does have a winning record in 2014-15 and three NCAA Tournament wins in the last three years. “We’re very athletic. This conference is full of athletes and it’s a battle every single night,” says Micallef.

The team isn’t resting on its laurels. Despite being among the top ten nationally in total rebounds, blocks, assists, and scoring offense, the rookie coach sees lots of room for improvement. “In the long term, we can be pretty good. We’re going to run, we’re going to score, and we’re going to try and play defense. We’ve got a deep bench, good experience, and talented players. The goal is to win the conference and see what happens from there.”

Junior co-captain, Jamel Gist, is excited about Brooklyn’s additions. “Coach came in and instilled a family environment. There’s so much buy-in; we’re playing for each other.”

On a team with five returning starters a new addition like Williams could cause real chemistry problems. But it’s been exactly the opposite for the Bulldogs, said Gist: “[Williams] is our missing piece. He’s our enforcer, a leader, even though he’s new. We look to him to score when we need it.”

Despite a rash of minor injuries (they were down three players in a recent loss to CUNYAC leader, Baruch), there is a real spirit of optimism permeating this Brooklyn squad. Williams summed up those sentiments well, “Everywhere I’ve been it’s been nothing but basketball. Once we left the court we barely spoke. Here we’re always together. On the court. Off the court. It’s a real family environment.”

There’s been a history of peaks and valleys at Brooklyn: from the Final Four squad of 1982 (which featured Micallef), to a decade in Division I, and two years with no program at all, but this team is focused on the future and seems to have found a winning formula. “We’ve had a great history, but there’s still a lot of work to do,” says Micallef, “It’s just so good to be home.”

The Landmark gets stronger

The Elizabethtown women finished atop the MAC Commonwealth last year, then left to join the Landmark this season. The Blue Jays have found things a little tougher in their new digs, losing consecutive games (to conference foes Scranton and Catholic) for the first time since early 2013. The team got back on the winning track with a win vs. Juniata, but face an uphill challenge, sitting in the middle of the conference pack despite a solid 9-3 overall record.

Milestone performances

The Dickinson Red Devils are flying high in the rankings this year, partly due to the contributions of All-American Gerry Wixted, who topped 1500 career points earlier this season, also becoming Dickinson’s all-time leading scorer in an 83-71 win over York (N.Y.).

Anna Hackett of Salisbury and Megan Nowak of Eastern both hit the same 1500 point mark this season as well. Meanwhile Alyson Caiazzo brought down her 1,000th rebound for Manhattanville in an 80-50 win over Simmons and senior forward David Louison grabbed his 1,000th board for St. Joseph’s (Bklyn.).

St. Mary’s keeping a low profile

Picked to win the conference this year, St. Mary’s dropped games to Eastern Mennonite and Delaware Valley early to fall off the radar a bit. Ultimately, though, all three losses were on the road, by a combined seven points and the Seahawks ride a six-game winning streak into a big showdown at Christopher Newport on Wednesday that could put them right back into the mix.

Three key contributors for Chris Harney’s 8-3 St. Mary’s team were part of the Seahawks squad that made the final eight two years ago, including senior captain and two-time All-CAC guard, Nick LaGuerre, who leads the team in scoring at 19 points per game.

Centennial splash

The Muhlenberg women went into the holiday break 4-5, looking inconsistent and out of sorts. Santa brought the team a new zone defense for Christmas and they’ve emerged from the break 2-0, defeating two previously undefeated conference foes in four days. Both Gettysburg and McDaniel sit tied atop the Centennial standings with identical 10-1 overall records, but they have to be looking over their shoulders for the now-fearsome Mules, just a game back.

Games to Watch

Number one ranked and defending champion FDU-Florham takes on rising conference foe, Eastern while Montclair State puts its undefeated record on the line against Richard Stockton.

On the men’s side, Johns Hopkins has a chance to make noise near the top of the Centennial Conference, hosting Dickinson this week. Two teams receiving votes in the D3hoops.com national poll face off in a tense NJAC clash when William Paterson visits Rowan on Wednesday.