Impressive run fueled by intangibles
5/12/2016 10:09:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By: Justin Lafleur, Lehigh Sports Media Relations
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When thinking back to the impressive 2015-16 Lehigh men's basketball season, the word resilient comes to mind.
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A heartbreaking buzzer beater at Boston University on January 31 had stunned the Mountain Hawks. The team had faced one of the toughest nonleague schedules in the country and had just suffered its second loss at the buzzer that month. The Mountain Hawks responded with 11 straight wins and put forth a memorable run that won't soon be forgotten.
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"One of our team's lowest moments saw us make a number of mistakes at the end of the game and lose a game that we should have won," said Lehigh head coach Brett Reed. "I was concerned the loss would break our team because of the journey we had been on."
Â
Instead of breaking the team, the Mountain Hawks responded by going more than five weeks without a loss…
Â
The 2015-16 season was truly a journey, a journey which saw Lehigh begin the season 0-7, but end by hosting three games in the Patriot League Tournament.
Â
"We maintained the vision of what we wanted for the season and our guys bought in," said Reed. "As the season progressed, they trusted each other more and they took a greater deal of accountability for their individual performances."
Â
The season had its fair share of rough moments, but the program's positive culture and family atmosphere came to the forefront, allowing the Mountain Hawks to stick together - through good times and bad.
Â
Tough Start
The injury bug hit the team before the season even started. Late in the summer, Lehigh learned that Brandon Alston would miss his sophomore year due to injury. Freshman Matt Holba's status was also in doubt while Caleb Sedore suffered a season-ending injury early in the preseason.
Â
"After getting a clearer picture what our roster would look like, there were concerns about depth," said Reed. "We were put in a position where out of our 10 healthy players, only five had received any meaningful court time at the Division I level. As a coaching staff, we understood that inexperience could lead to some challenges."
Â
The Mountain Hawks struggled early in the season as the team was looking to gel. After a tough first half in the season opener at Syracuse, Lehigh came back with an impressive second half and give itself a chance down the stretch. A loss at Canisius was followed by another competitive game that fell just short against Yale.
Â
The Mountain Hawks had some strong moments, but couldn't get into the win column. There were many factors at play.
Â
"We soon learned that our players were reluctant to play defense at the necessary level in fear of foul difficulty and were conserving themselves a little bit more because they weren't sure how well our bench would produce," said Reed. "It took a while for us to develop more trust in some of those support players, but that trust would come."
Â
Despite the early-season struggles, Lehigh stayed the course.
Â
"An extremely challenging schedule didn't allow for mistakes," said Reed, whose team's strength of schedule reached No. 2 in the nation at one point. "We also had to overcome some of the self-doubt that would creep in from lack of tangible on-the-court success."
Â
"Through the tough times, it wasn't easy," said junior center Tim Kempton. "We had to pull together even stronger than ever. When you see teams that are losing games and struggling to find wins, it's easy to pull apart and point fingers, blame the coaches, blame your teammates and take the blame off yourself. But that's when we dug together."
Â
Entering Patriot League Play
Despite missing Kempton due to injury for three games in December, the Mountain Hawks earned a strong home win over preseason NEC favorite Mount St. Mary's, but weren't truly rolling into league play like they would have liked.
Â
"At that time, we were frustrated, mostly because we set the bar high coming into the season and we weren't meeting our expectations," said sophomore point guard Kahron Ross.
Â
At 2-9, Lehigh wasn't where it wanted to be entering Patriot League play, but strides were being made. Through the first 10 league games, the Mountain Hawks hadn't won two straight contests, but they hadn't lost two straight league games either.
Â
"During the month of January, we could see progress," said Reed. "For instance, after a home win against Boston University, we dropped a heartbreaker (at Loyola) when we missed some opportunities to ice the game and were beaten at the buzzer. We were really close to perhaps putting together some wins in a row, which would once again allow us to gain a little bit more confidence."
Â
In many ways, the Mountain Hawks were still suffering from a nonleague "hangover."
Â
"We played against some teams who were playing some pretty good basketball at that time," said Reed. "However, I do think in the games we struggled, we still had players who would try to do too much themselves because we hadn't seen the evidence of success together. It wasn't until our backs were against the wall that we had success."
Â
Turning Point
The heartbreaking loss at Boston University truly stung, but it may have been just what the Mountain Hawks needed.
Â
"That loss hurt us and at the same time, woke us up," said Ross. "After that game, we finally realized that one or two possessions could win or lose the game and we started to play with a real sense of urgency. For me personally, I started to be more aggressive and focused more on not letting my defender take any breaks on defense."
Â
"Our coaches talked to us and said 'I hope you guys haven't given up on us because we haven't given up on you,'" said Kempton. "That's when everything turned around."
Â
Following the BU loss, Lehigh defeated Loyola at home then earned a dominant 72-49 win over American, a team riding a five-game winning streak. The Mountain Hawks continued with two wins in three days, at Lafayette and Bucknell. The tide was beginning to turn.
Â
"Tim Kempton showed how emotionally invested he was in our season and Kahron Ross showed great grit and determination," said Reed. "Kahron is a terrific player who was involved with some of the difficult plays at the end of the Boston University game, but I think his continued belief in himself, our coaches' belief in him and greater aggressiveness, led us to push forward as we headed into February."
Â
Pretty soon, Lehigh's winning streak went from four, to five, to six, to seven. It kept going. The Mountain Hawks closed the regular season with an impressive win at Army West Point, effectively turning the tides from their league-opening loss against the Black Knights. It also wrapped up a 9-0 February, Lehigh's first month without a loss since November of 1993.
Â
The team was clicking on all cylinders.
Â
"The team found the delicate balance of playing aggressively and assertively, and playing unselfishly," said Reed. "They were working for each other to get the best shots possible, while also not dismissing their own individual talents. I believe that each of our players had a better understanding of what they needed to do, were executing that at a higher level and doing their jobs on the floor at a higher level."
Â
For Kempton and his teammates, winning became fun. There was a spiral effect.
Â
"We were playing hard and together basketball," he said. "If you do that night in and night out, even if you're not making shots on some nights, you're going to find a way to win games and that's what we did in that 11-game stretch. There were games we'd find a way to win just because we were playing hard, we wanted it more and we were playing Lehigh together basketball."
Â
The increased success didn't happen overnight. It involved the commitment from the entire team - from the players down to the coaches. As the season progressed, the coaches implemented some significant changes and the players bought in.
Â
"As a coaching staff, we had to make some pretty significant, but strategic changes in both our offensive and defensive attacks," said Reed. "It was done to increase our engagement and aggressiveness and also put us in a position where more people touch the ball on a particular possession to promote teamwork.
Â
"That didn't come without some bumps and bruises," Reed continued. "We had to build habits in those areas, understand how our decisions would affect everybody and how everybody could work within our schemes and still play their games."
Â
Postseason Run
The Mountain Hawks turned their late-season winning streak into a postseason run to remember. The Lehigh Valley came out in full force to support the team in Lehigh's three home games in the tournament, including a Patriot League Tournament record 4,587 fans for the championship game.
Â
After a thrilling quarterfinal win over Navy, the Mountain Hawks cruised to victory against a red-hot American team that was riding a five-game winning streak, setting the stage for the Patriot League Championship matchup in Stabler Arena.
Â
It wasn't just the title game that sticks in players' minds, but the tournament as a whole.
Â
"The tournament was such a fun feeling," said Kempton. "The Lehigh community came together and brought us tremendous energy. Just looking up in the stands and seeing almost no empty seats, it was unreal."
Â
Despite struggling early against Holy Cross in the championship game, the Mountain Hawks used team play, togetherness and tremendous heart to will themselves back into the game and give themselves a chance at the end.
Â
Having more than 4,500 energized fans in the building gave Lehigh a huge boost.
Â
"We couldn't hear ourselves talk," said Kempton. "We played at Syracuse, which had over 20,000 fans and the Patriot League Championship Game was ten times louder than the Syracuse game. Thinking about it to this day, it's still hard to describe because you have to be in the moment. I just thank the Lehigh community, and the students, for coming out and bringing that support."
Â
Life Lessons
To come so close, yet lose the title game, there was obvious heartbreak. The heartbreak shows how much the student-athletes care about each other, and care about their journey together.Â
Â
Amidst a tough loss, Reed had some bigger, more important and more resonating messages to his players.
Â
"One of the main messages I wanted our guys to understand and hear was a deep sense of appreciation," he said. "That appreciation was tied back to them buying in, working hard, pulling together and really focusing on the intangibles that led us to success."
Â
Lehigh's program has several values, including a high level of toughness, commitment, unselfishness and having a family atmosphere.
Â
"These core values tie directly back to the way we progressed," said Reed. "The thing I wanted our guys to understand after the season had closed was because we did a good job in those intangible areas, it made a major difference in our performance."
Â
Success wasn't handed to the Mountain Hawks. When they could have quit, they worked harder, which is a testament to the people associated with the program.
Â
"The type of players that Lehigh brings into this program is completely different than a lot of other places," said Kempton. "We're all-around student-athletes. To be able to prosper in any aspect of life, you need to have that no-quit attitude."
Â
For as much as sports is about winning and losing, athletics teaches life lessons that are more important than wins or championships. Those teachers of life lessons are Lehigh's coaches.
Â
"I would like to recognize our assistant coaches, their positive attitude and togetherness," said Reed. "That unity and buy-in from them set a model that I believe helped our student-athletes understand the direction we needed to go."
Â
Everything came back to a belief in each other, from the coaches down to the players, which allowed the team to stay unified when things weren't going well.
Â
"Our student-athletes have a great deal of care and concern for each other and because of that, it allowed them to find a way together to get us where we wanted to be," said Reed.
Â
"One of the biggest factors of our success was our belief in each other and belief in our team as a whole," said Ross. "Throughout all the adversity during the season we knew deep down that we would overcome it, rally together and live up to the expectations that we set for ourselves before the season."
Â
Motivation
The Mountain Hawks will admit, they fell short of their ultimate goal of a championship. That alone is motivating.
Â
"I think our guys are hungry," said Reed. "I think they understand just how close they came to being named champions."
Â
The team is using the number three as motivation heading into offseason workouts. The final score of the Patriot League Championship Game was 59-56, a three-point margin.
Â
"Every time I miss a shot or want to end my workout early, or in the weight room, I don't want to hit that last rep, the thing we've been saying is three," said Kempton. "We lost by three points and that one three pointer could have changed the entire makeup of the game.
Â
"People are leaving with a chip on their shoulder," he continued. "At this point, all you can do is look back and learn from the experience. It will keep motivating us through the offseason, preseason and summer classes when everyone gets on campus."
Â
Â
When thinking back to the impressive 2015-16 Lehigh men's basketball season, the word resilient comes to mind.
Â
A heartbreaking buzzer beater at Boston University on January 31 had stunned the Mountain Hawks. The team had faced one of the toughest nonleague schedules in the country and had just suffered its second loss at the buzzer that month. The Mountain Hawks responded with 11 straight wins and put forth a memorable run that won't soon be forgotten.
Â
"One of our team's lowest moments saw us make a number of mistakes at the end of the game and lose a game that we should have won," said Lehigh head coach Brett Reed. "I was concerned the loss would break our team because of the journey we had been on."
Â
Instead of breaking the team, the Mountain Hawks responded by going more than five weeks without a loss…
Â
The 2015-16 season was truly a journey, a journey which saw Lehigh begin the season 0-7, but end by hosting three games in the Patriot League Tournament.
Â
"We maintained the vision of what we wanted for the season and our guys bought in," said Reed. "As the season progressed, they trusted each other more and they took a greater deal of accountability for their individual performances."
Â
The season had its fair share of rough moments, but the program's positive culture and family atmosphere came to the forefront, allowing the Mountain Hawks to stick together - through good times and bad.
Â
Tough Start
The injury bug hit the team before the season even started. Late in the summer, Lehigh learned that Brandon Alston would miss his sophomore year due to injury. Freshman Matt Holba's status was also in doubt while Caleb Sedore suffered a season-ending injury early in the preseason.
Â
"After getting a clearer picture what our roster would look like, there were concerns about depth," said Reed. "We were put in a position where out of our 10 healthy players, only five had received any meaningful court time at the Division I level. As a coaching staff, we understood that inexperience could lead to some challenges."
Â
The Mountain Hawks struggled early in the season as the team was looking to gel. After a tough first half in the season opener at Syracuse, Lehigh came back with an impressive second half and give itself a chance down the stretch. A loss at Canisius was followed by another competitive game that fell just short against Yale.
 The Mountain Hawks had some strong moments, but couldn't get into the win column. There were many factors at play.
Â
"We soon learned that our players were reluctant to play defense at the necessary level in fear of foul difficulty and were conserving themselves a little bit more because they weren't sure how well our bench would produce," said Reed. "It took a while for us to develop more trust in some of those support players, but that trust would come."
Â
Despite the early-season struggles, Lehigh stayed the course.
Â
"An extremely challenging schedule didn't allow for mistakes," said Reed, whose team's strength of schedule reached No. 2 in the nation at one point. "We also had to overcome some of the self-doubt that would creep in from lack of tangible on-the-court success."
Â
"Through the tough times, it wasn't easy," said junior center Tim Kempton. "We had to pull together even stronger than ever. When you see teams that are losing games and struggling to find wins, it's easy to pull apart and point fingers, blame the coaches, blame your teammates and take the blame off yourself. But that's when we dug together."
Â
Entering Patriot League Play
Despite missing Kempton due to injury for three games in December, the Mountain Hawks earned a strong home win over preseason NEC favorite Mount St. Mary's, but weren't truly rolling into league play like they would have liked.
Â
"At that time, we were frustrated, mostly because we set the bar high coming into the season and we weren't meeting our expectations," said sophomore point guard Kahron Ross.
Â
At 2-9, Lehigh wasn't where it wanted to be entering Patriot League play, but strides were being made. Through the first 10 league games, the Mountain Hawks hadn't won two straight contests, but they hadn't lost two straight league games either.
Â
"During the month of January, we could see progress," said Reed. "For instance, after a home win against Boston University, we dropped a heartbreaker (at Loyola) when we missed some opportunities to ice the game and were beaten at the buzzer. We were really close to perhaps putting together some wins in a row, which would once again allow us to gain a little bit more confidence."
Â
In many ways, the Mountain Hawks were still suffering from a nonleague "hangover."
Â
"We played against some teams who were playing some pretty good basketball at that time," said Reed. "However, I do think in the games we struggled, we still had players who would try to do too much themselves because we hadn't seen the evidence of success together. It wasn't until our backs were against the wall that we had success."
Â
Turning Point
The heartbreaking loss at Boston University truly stung, but it may have been just what the Mountain Hawks needed.
Â
"That loss hurt us and at the same time, woke us up," said Ross. "After that game, we finally realized that one or two possessions could win or lose the game and we started to play with a real sense of urgency. For me personally, I started to be more aggressive and focused more on not letting my defender take any breaks on defense."
Â
"Our coaches talked to us and said 'I hope you guys haven't given up on us because we haven't given up on you,'" said Kempton. "That's when everything turned around."
Â
Following the BU loss, Lehigh defeated Loyola at home then earned a dominant 72-49 win over American, a team riding a five-game winning streak. The Mountain Hawks continued with two wins in three days, at Lafayette and Bucknell. The tide was beginning to turn.
 "Tim Kempton showed how emotionally invested he was in our season and Kahron Ross showed great grit and determination," said Reed. "Kahron is a terrific player who was involved with some of the difficult plays at the end of the Boston University game, but I think his continued belief in himself, our coaches' belief in him and greater aggressiveness, led us to push forward as we headed into February."
Â
Pretty soon, Lehigh's winning streak went from four, to five, to six, to seven. It kept going. The Mountain Hawks closed the regular season with an impressive win at Army West Point, effectively turning the tides from their league-opening loss against the Black Knights. It also wrapped up a 9-0 February, Lehigh's first month without a loss since November of 1993.
Â
The team was clicking on all cylinders.
Â
"The team found the delicate balance of playing aggressively and assertively, and playing unselfishly," said Reed. "They were working for each other to get the best shots possible, while also not dismissing their own individual talents. I believe that each of our players had a better understanding of what they needed to do, were executing that at a higher level and doing their jobs on the floor at a higher level."
Â
For Kempton and his teammates, winning became fun. There was a spiral effect.
Â
"We were playing hard and together basketball," he said. "If you do that night in and night out, even if you're not making shots on some nights, you're going to find a way to win games and that's what we did in that 11-game stretch. There were games we'd find a way to win just because we were playing hard, we wanted it more and we were playing Lehigh together basketball."
Â
The increased success didn't happen overnight. It involved the commitment from the entire team - from the players down to the coaches. As the season progressed, the coaches implemented some significant changes and the players bought in.
Â
"As a coaching staff, we had to make some pretty significant, but strategic changes in both our offensive and defensive attacks," said Reed. "It was done to increase our engagement and aggressiveness and also put us in a position where more people touch the ball on a particular possession to promote teamwork.
Â
"That didn't come without some bumps and bruises," Reed continued. "We had to build habits in those areas, understand how our decisions would affect everybody and how everybody could work within our schemes and still play their games."
Â
Postseason Run
The Mountain Hawks turned their late-season winning streak into a postseason run to remember. The Lehigh Valley came out in full force to support the team in Lehigh's three home games in the tournament, including a Patriot League Tournament record 4,587 fans for the championship game.
Â
After a thrilling quarterfinal win over Navy, the Mountain Hawks cruised to victory against a red-hot American team that was riding a five-game winning streak, setting the stage for the Patriot League Championship matchup in Stabler Arena.
Â
It wasn't just the title game that sticks in players' minds, but the tournament as a whole.
 "The tournament was such a fun feeling," said Kempton. "The Lehigh community came together and brought us tremendous energy. Just looking up in the stands and seeing almost no empty seats, it was unreal."
Â
Despite struggling early against Holy Cross in the championship game, the Mountain Hawks used team play, togetherness and tremendous heart to will themselves back into the game and give themselves a chance at the end.
Â
Having more than 4,500 energized fans in the building gave Lehigh a huge boost.
Â
"We couldn't hear ourselves talk," said Kempton. "We played at Syracuse, which had over 20,000 fans and the Patriot League Championship Game was ten times louder than the Syracuse game. Thinking about it to this day, it's still hard to describe because you have to be in the moment. I just thank the Lehigh community, and the students, for coming out and bringing that support."
Â
Life Lessons
To come so close, yet lose the title game, there was obvious heartbreak. The heartbreak shows how much the student-athletes care about each other, and care about their journey together.Â
Â
Amidst a tough loss, Reed had some bigger, more important and more resonating messages to his players.
Â
"One of the main messages I wanted our guys to understand and hear was a deep sense of appreciation," he said. "That appreciation was tied back to them buying in, working hard, pulling together and really focusing on the intangibles that led us to success."
Â
Lehigh's program has several values, including a high level of toughness, commitment, unselfishness and having a family atmosphere.
Â
"These core values tie directly back to the way we progressed," said Reed. "The thing I wanted our guys to understand after the season had closed was because we did a good job in those intangible areas, it made a major difference in our performance."
Â
Success wasn't handed to the Mountain Hawks. When they could have quit, they worked harder, which is a testament to the people associated with the program.
Â
"The type of players that Lehigh brings into this program is completely different than a lot of other places," said Kempton. "We're all-around student-athletes. To be able to prosper in any aspect of life, you need to have that no-quit attitude."
Â
For as much as sports is about winning and losing, athletics teaches life lessons that are more important than wins or championships. Those teachers of life lessons are Lehigh's coaches.
 "I would like to recognize our assistant coaches, their positive attitude and togetherness," said Reed. "That unity and buy-in from them set a model that I believe helped our student-athletes understand the direction we needed to go."
Â
Everything came back to a belief in each other, from the coaches down to the players, which allowed the team to stay unified when things weren't going well.
Â
"Our student-athletes have a great deal of care and concern for each other and because of that, it allowed them to find a way together to get us where we wanted to be," said Reed.
Â
"One of the biggest factors of our success was our belief in each other and belief in our team as a whole," said Ross. "Throughout all the adversity during the season we knew deep down that we would overcome it, rally together and live up to the expectations that we set for ourselves before the season."
Â
Motivation
The Mountain Hawks will admit, they fell short of their ultimate goal of a championship. That alone is motivating.
Â
"I think our guys are hungry," said Reed. "I think they understand just how close they came to being named champions."
Â
The team is using the number three as motivation heading into offseason workouts. The final score of the Patriot League Championship Game was 59-56, a three-point margin.
Â
"Every time I miss a shot or want to end my workout early, or in the weight room, I don't want to hit that last rep, the thing we've been saying is three," said Kempton. "We lost by three points and that one three pointer could have changed the entire makeup of the game.
Â
"People are leaving with a chip on their shoulder," he continued. "At this point, all you can do is look back and learn from the experience. It will keep motivating us through the offseason, preseason and summer classes when everyone gets on campus."
Â
Players Mentioned
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