Brett Reed, Murray H. Goodman '48 head coach, men's basketball: Let's get some context as to how this team developed. In the 2009-2010 season, we won a Patriot League championship. We had the most dominant performance in postseason play, winning every game by 15 points or more, on our way to play [top-seeded] Kansas in the NCAA Tournament. In that Kansas game, we lost, but we felt good about the way in which we were able to take a step as a program.
We advanced into the 2010-2011 season, and we had, in some respects, an underdeveloped team. There wasn't a lot of experience on the floor, except for C.J. He was a really talented player and that year finished in the top 10 in the country in scoring. But our team didn't once again compete for a championship.
The Mountain Hawks had made it to the Patriot League semifinals, but in a game with a controversial ending [an apparent last-second foul on McCollum wasn't called], lost to Bucknell, 66-64.
C.J. McCollum '13, Guard: I got fouled, [the referees] didn't call it. [Bucknell's] Mike Muscala admitted to fouling me in... We were just disappointed, because we felt we should have won back-to-back championships in the Patriot League, and we should have gone to the tournament two years in a row.
So the guys were a little discouraged, a little disappointed about it and kind of had that chip on their shoulders and that anger heading into the [2011-2012] season.
Reed: That was a moment of pain that led to greater focus and determination, because the game could have been decided by a single possession. ... After a season, we always give our players some time off. And then we'll begin our spring workouts—skill instruction, weight training, everything that might take place. A unique thing happened that year. C.J. and (senior captain) Jordan Hamilton came into my office, initiated a meeting with me and basically said, "Coach, we're ready to start the preparation for next year. We're going to take ownership of the workouts we have in the weight room, when we have skill instruction, and we're getting shots up. We want to go at a higher intensity."
We had some players who really stepped up, like Jordan, and who took more of an active role in pushing the agenda of the team to excel at a higher level, and taking personal responsibility in that. We had some other players, such as John Adams and Justin Maneri, who took on a more mature approach and perspective to what would be their senior year.
#1 Anthony
D’Orazio
#3 C.J.
McCollum
#4 John
Adams
#5 Cory
Goodman
#11 Mackey
McKnight
#15 Corey
Schaefer
#15 Holden
Greiner
#21 Stefan
Cvrkalj
#23 Tyrone
Staggers
#31 Justin
Maneri
#32 B.J.
Bailey
#40 Conroy
Baltimore
#42 Gabe
Knutson
#44 Jordan
Hamilton
#1 Anthony
D’Orazio
#3 C.J.
McCollum
#4 John
Adams
#5 Cory
Goodman
#11 Mackey
McKnight
#15 Corey
Schaefer
#15 Holden
Greiner
#21 Stefan
Cvrkalj
#23 Tyrone
Staggers
#31 Justin
Maneri
#32 B.J.
Bailey
#40 Conroy
Baltimore
#42 Gabe
Knutson
#44 Jordan
Hamilton
THE ROSTER: The 2011-2012 Mountain Hawks were more than just a great team. They were family. And those who had been to the NCAA Tournament just two seasons earlier were hungry to get back.
Rich Haas, assistant athletic director for sales and marketing: This team was very talented. ... They were hungry to get back to the NCAA Tournament.
Holden Greiner '13, Forward: There was really something special about our group, and I'm not just talking about in terms of individual players. We all had talent. We all had skill. But when a mid-major program like ours does something special, it's because of the way the team is together...
I feel like Coach Reed kind of gave us the keys to the car that season. He had seniors and captains that he trusted, players with a lot of experience. C.J. and Gabe [Knutson] were four-year starters, Mackey [McKnight] had a year as a starter under his belt. All of the seniors had a lot of experience. Coach trusted us, and believe me, that's tough for a coach to do.
Gabe Knutson '13, Forward: Everyone just bought in. We knew what we could do together. A lot of times in college basketball, you have a bunch of guys who come in who are used to being the star of their team, and then their attitudes are the same in college—they expect to start and they expect to be the star. But the best part about that team was that we had a great sense of what we could do together. Everyone accepted their roles. Everyone bought into the roles they were assigned. We celebrated that. We celebrated the hustle plays and knew they were just as important as C.J. being out there hitting three-pointers. We all bought in and cared for each other.
Reed: I had a meeting with C.J., and it was pretty candid. "C.J., you're talented enough to potentially lead the entire country in scoring. You can be featured here in such a way that you can do that, and if you decide to really push that agenda, there's a high likelihood that that could happen." But I asked him, "C.J., what's really more important to you? Leading the country in scoring or putting a little more trust in your teammates, passing the ball a little bit more, and our team performing at a higher level?"
If you know C.J., he selected pushing the team agenda, and everything that was part of that. One of the things C.J. had to do was develop more trust in his teammates. The pushback that he had was, "I need my teammates to work as hard as I'm working in the off-season to get in extra shots, because if I'm going to make the choice to toss them the basketball, I can only have trust in them if they've been in the gym with me." And, fortunately ... for the most part, people kind of adopted that and worked a little bit harder on their own individual skills.
B.J. Bailey '13, Guard/Forward: C.J. was definitely the most persistent about it, the most consistent about it, far more than anyone else on the team. He was always in the gym. If you went to Grace Hall, or the Taylor Gym, you could expect to see him in there getting up shots.
Knutson: There was a time where he called everyone in for a meeting, and it was a call to everyone to get out there and practice more and get up more shots. He said something like, "Look, I'm in here shooting after practice, and I'm not going to pass you the ball in crunch time unless you're out here shooting too. When we need to score, I don't need to pass you the ball. I can take that shot. I need to know you can make it."
We didn't take that as a selfish remark at all, though. It culturally changed the program, because we all wanted to improve together, and we all went out and improved our individual games together.
Greiner: C.J. and Gabe and I were all best friends from Day One at Lehigh. Literally from Day One were all very close, and the thing that people don't know about C.J. is that he's actually a really goofy kid. He loved to joke around. But when it came to hoops, it was all business. For C.J., yeah, basketball was a game, but it was also a means to an end. It was a way for him to be successful in life.
Freshman year, I'm this skinny, tall kid from Michigan. I walk into the gym, and we have a pickup game with the older guys. I walk on the court, and I'm nervous. I'm very nervous. The guy I'm guarding is first-team all-league, he's a monster. But then C.J. walks in and he's like, "OK, who am I cooking today?" He was so confident from the moment he stepped on the court as a freshman. He's out there calling for the ball from a senior, telling them, "I was open, get me the ball." I'm thinking, "This kid is crazy." But it only took him a couple of games to earn a starting spot, and then he's out there averaging 19 points a game.
Justin Maneri '12, Center: We knew we had something special. C.J. was just a freak—we saw him every day in practice—and we had our sights set on the championship. Nothing less was going to be acceptable.
Joe Sterrett, Murray H. Goodman Dean of Athletics: They worked hard to become better players, including those who possessed the most talent, and led by C.J. McCollum's remarkable work ethic, and a commitment by many to fulfilling important roles on the team, they became much better players than many thought they might be, as well as a very good team. ... Through a lot of focused work, they became a team that believed they could achieve distinction. And they did.
