2/18/2004 - Women's Basketball
From A Single Voice Comes A Vote Of Confidence

Tom Marryott was in his final year as athletic director and basketball coach at the Naval Academy Prep School during the winter of 1997-98 when he invited a young girl to practice with his team.

Without any semblance of a program for women, she was essentially left on her own to work toward a college career at the Naval Academy.

So Marryott did something many, if not most, boys' coaches would not. He shared practice time with the soon-to-be Midshipman, making a difference, however significant, in her life.

By the following fall, Marisa Ball was on her way to the first of three varsity letters, a freshman contributing to a 17-win season that didn't end until the Patriot League championship game.

That same year, Marryott also changed addresses from Newport to Annapolis, becoming an assistant on Don DeVoe's staff.

Returning to the Academy where his father once presided as Superintendent, he remained in that role until last spring, when Director of Athletics Chet Gladchuk asked him to become interim head coach of the women's team.

Just as he once helped a single individual during his days in Rhode Island, Marryott was now needed to give direction to an entire group of players.

Left without a coach after Joe Sanchez's nine-year tenure came to an end, the Mids needed someone to steady a seemingly unstable situation. And to do it in very short order.

Months later, Navy is 11-14 overall and 4-6 in the Patriot League with just four games left in the regular campaign. What remains of the next three weeks, culminating with the conference tournament, will likely determine Marryott's fate as coach and the future of Navy's program.

Should the Mids finish strong, building on their performance in a recent 23-point rout of Bucknell, then Marryott's would clearly be a successful season in the eyes of most, if not all.

Anything less and it might be deemed otherwise.

But for one of us who sits in judgement, the verdict's already in. Sure, it's influenced by personal friendship. Nonetheless, I believe, it's strongly substantiated.

Let's start from the beginning, with the situation Marryott walked into when he moved across the Yard, leaving his office at Alumni Hall for another at Halsey Fieldhouse.

The Mids had experienced three losing seasons in the last four years, including an 18-34 record in the Patriot League. Even amidst the lone exception, a 16-12 finish to 2002-03, they lost four of their last six games, failing to win in the opening round of the conference tournament for the fourth straight March.

More telling,and more importantly, was an apparent tension that restrained their play. Even where there might have been passion, there was seemingly little joy on the court.

What the Mids needed most from their new coach was to make basketball fun again, especially for the large class of seniors about to graduate into the Navy and Marine Corps.

As early as their first scrimmage in November and as recently as their last game on Saturday, Navy players have said publicly and admitted privately two things about playing for Marryott. They've worked harder than in the past. And never had more fun doing it.

If that sounds even a tad bit trifling, consider the circumstances that surrounded the preseason.

Shortly before the school year, the most experienced assistant on the staff Marryott inherited received an offer he couldn't refuse from American University.

So while planning to instill a new style of play, while trying to keep recruits interested in the Academy and while trying to adjust to coaching young women instead of young men, Marryott had to find a new assistant.

Not only did that require identifying a potential hire it meant convincing him or her to uproot for Annapolis with the promise of what amounted to a one-year audition. For everyone on staff.

Still two other “thunder bolts”, as Pat Riley would say, jolted the Mids when Bryanna Herring left the team and Allison Luchsinger was subdued by injury.

Herring, who averaged 10.6 points and 6.3 rebounds while shooting 49 percent from the field the last two seasons, embodied a rare blend in the Patriot League. Fast enough to easily outrun everyone up the floor, she was also strong enough to overpower opponents in the paint.

Luchsinger had started 19 of 28 conference games as a sophomore and junior as a steady, if unspectacular performer on both ends of the floor, the kind of role player every successful team employs. But her final season has been spent mostly off to the side, where she's watched the action unfold while dealing with chronic back pain.

Some welcome to the new job.

Meanwhile, there was a far more personal and infinitely more important matter to deal with. Day after day, Tom would leave the Academy, hop in his car and drive to Baltimore to be with his father, Ron, as he battled Leukemia.

Yet, despite the physical toll and emotional strain caused by a loved one's illness, Marryott has maintained a positive presence from the Navy bench.

To date, he's avoided the type of sideline histrionics so rampant in college arenas. When things have gone well, he's credited the players. When they have not, he's absorbed the blame himself.

During play, it seems his focus is on trying to calmly educate, not berate his team.

And lest you think a coach must rant and rave, as so many do while mugging for the cameras, take a look at Mike Krzyzewski, Lute Olson or Roy Williams the next time they're on television.

In reality, judging whether someone is a good college coach for the long haul is nearly impossible within the framework of a single season. He or she can be accurately assessed only after recruiting several classes, by which time a program and its philosophy take shape, for better or worse.

You probably know the story of a young Dean Smith's experience at North Carolina, of being hung in effigy long before the last of his record 879 victories. And perhaps you'll recall that down the road at Duke, Krzyzewski was just 38-47 after his first three seasons.

But Marryott must be judged for now on the merits of this season alone.

Granted, the Mids overall record is three games below .500. Yet, no one in Navy's 12 previous seasons at Division I faced a non-conference schedule as difficult as this team.

Three of the eight losses outside of the Patriot League were to Texas (23-2), Arizona (18-7) and Seton Hall (14-8), who are a combined 55-17 as members of three of the nation's best conferences. A fourth defeat was to Syracuse of the Big East.

The Mids opened the year with eight games in 15 days, including a trip to Hawaii. Then, less than a week before the league opener, they went to Wyoming and returned to play Brown, the third-place team in the Ivy League.

Two days later, Navy was at Lehigh for one of five road contests among its first six Patriot games. Hardly a schedule designed to ensure a strong start to the conference campaign.

The Mids began that schedule picked to finish third in a pre-season survey of conference coaches. Meaning that so far they have fallen short of expectations. Or have they?

After all, two of the five probable starters Patriot League coaches considered when placing Navy where they did were Herring and Luchsinger. The former has never played and the latter has barely played since.

Though currently tied for sixth, Navy is only two games behind fourth-place Lehigh in standings that feature a three-way tie for first.

And while inconsistent, like the rest of the Patriot League, the Mids have enjoyed several watershed wins.

First, they won at Holy Cross for the first time ever. More recently, they ended a 13-game losing streak against Bucknell. In between, they beat their arch rival from West Point.

Each of those victories suggests that Navy is capable of a deep run in the conference tournament. Which, all things considered, would be a remarkable accomplishment.

Yes, they have individual talent. None better than guards Courtney Davidson, who is on the verge of breaking the Academy's career scoring record, and Maile Shimoda, the conference leader in assists.

Still, for the purpose of context, whether comparing position-by-position or contrasting the sum of team parts, it's rather revealing to look at the last two Navy teams to win in the postseason.

In 1998 the Mids won 23 games and fell at Holy Cross, 67-60, in the Patriot League final. Three of their players, Becky Dowling, Laurie Coffey and Erica Hayes, were selected all-conference. A fourth was Joanne Groth, a hard-nosed defender who averaged 10.0 ppg and 7.3 rpg. And a fifth, guard Felicia Harris, was named to the league's All-Rookie team.

The following year, Navy completed a 17-11 finish with a 72-58 loss to the Crusaders in the title game. Both Coffey and Hayes were First Team All-Patriot League while Hillary Goodrich, a 6-foot guard, was an All-Rookie honoree.

Looking back at the rich depth and balance of talent, inside and out, on offense and defense, of those teams from the late nineties isn't to imply that the present-day Mids can't go as far, if not beyond.

Much more than semantics separate what someone should do and what someone could do.

Personally, I'm putting any objectivity aside and hoping this year's Navy team can define that difference, because of what someone has done.

Tom Marryott was asked to make a difference for the better.

I believe he has.