2015 Drexel Season Wrap-up

By Sean Kennedy (@PhillyFastBreak)

Many of us are familiar with the Greek myth of Sisyphus. As punishment from the gods, Sisyphus was forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down upon nearly reaching the top and have him continue the process for all eternity. Due to the bad fortune that struck the team over the 2014-15 season, Coach Bruiser Flint and his Dragons had to feel a good bit like Sisyphus. Whenever it seemed like they were ready to reach the top the hill, yet another injury would strike and they would have to start back down at the bottom.

Heading into the season, Bruiser Flint knew it would be difficult to replace 3 key starters with the graduation of Frantz Massenat, Chris Fouch, and Dartaye Ruffin. However, what he or any other coach could not prepare for was the injury of 7 of his players throughout the season, including losing two projected starters before the season even began. Big man Kazembe Abif tore his ACL last April, and right before the season, sophomore Major Canady, the projected starting point guard, went down with a season-ending ankle injury.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, the specter of injury continued to hover over Drexel the entire season. Sophomore big man Rodney Williams missed a month with a foot injury, graduate school transfer Sooren Derboghosian sat out the second half of the season with a knee injury, and freshman Austin Williams was sidelined about 6 weeks with a left foot injury.

Then, to extinguish any hope of a miracle run in the CAA tournament, star Damion Lee fractured his hand in late February and missed the rest of the season. Plus, within a week’s time from Lee’s injury, freshman guard Sammy Mojica sprained his MCL in practice. There were multiple times throughout the season when Flint would have just 7 available players on game day. After it was all said and done, Drexel was looking at a 11-19 campaign and a first-round exit from the CAA tournament.

When they weren’t sidelined by injuries, we saw flashes of the team the Dragons were capable of being. The one period of time when they were somewhat healthy in late January/early February, Drexel ripped off a 6-game winning streak that had them just a couple games back of first place in the conference. With some additional help around him to divert away attention, Damion Lee was making putting up 30-point nights look easy.

Really, it was a remarkable season for Lee, as he looked fully healthy (until his late-season injury, that is) after missing the majority of the 2013-14 campaign due to a torn ACL. Lee was 1st-team all-conference and a legitimate candidate for CAA player of the year, finishing 5th in the nation in scoring at 21.4 ppg. He impressively put up an efficient line of 43.8 FG%/38.5 3PT%/88.7 FT%, despite the first, second, and third bullets of opposing teams’ gameplans being ‘Stop Damion Lee’. Lee also did his job on the other end of the court, grabbing 6.1 rebounds per game, good for 2nd-best on the team, and being named to the conference’s all-defensive team.

As for the youngsters, sophomore Rodney Williams took well to his expanded role as the team’s primary big man, averaging 8.2 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 1.5 blocks per game on the season. Freshman guards Rashaan London and Sammy Mojica finished 4th and 5th on the team in scoring, with Mojica having a nice year shooting 36.9% from behind the arc, 2nd-best on the team behind Lee. Freshmen Tyshawn Miles and Austin Williams also received significant minutes for the Dragons, all of which can only benefit the team going forward as these young guys build on that experience.

That experience should be key, as despite the disappointment of the past season for the Dragons, there should be better days ahead. Drexel will return its top-5 leading scorers next year, including junior Tavon Allen, the lone player to average double figures aside from Lee. The only seniors the team is losing are Freddie Wilson (who averaged just 5.3 points and 1.5 assists per game) and Sooren Derboghosian (who played sparingly before getting injured). Everyone else should be back from injury with the exception of Kaz Abif, who despite having eligibility, is uncertain to rejoin the team as a redshirt senior in the fall.

As far as fresh faces go, although Drexel only has one commit thus far in 6’2″ 2-star recruit Terrell Allen, they will receive reinforcements from a pair of transfers. Ahmad Fields, a 6’5″ redshirt sophomore, sat out the entire year and will be ready to hit the court after coming over from Utah. However, the real prize may be Miles Overton, a former 3-star recruit from the Chester area who played his high school ball at St. Joe’s Prep. The 6’3″ guard will be eligible to play following the fall semester after transferring mid-season from Wake Forest.

So this season always had to be viewed as a bit of a rebuilding year, both because of the seniors they lost from the year before and the lack of a true senior class to carry the mantle. Next year, Lee and Allen will both be in their final seasons and the host of young players at Bruiser Flint’s behest will be another year older than wiser. The team couldn’t possibly have as bad of a time with injuries as it had this past season (knock on wood). Look for the Dragons to get that boulder to the other side of that hill starting next fall.