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Drexel: New coach expects a work in progress

Bruiser Flint won more games than any coach in Drexel history while simultaneously having perhaps the least luck of any coach in city history. The list of players lost for a season due to injury was about as long as all the really good players Flint coached. He survived just about all of it but could not survive 6-25 a season after 11-19.

Bruiser Flint won more games than any coach in Drexel history while simultaneously having perhaps the least luck of any coach in city history. The list of players lost for a season due to injury was about as long as all the really good players Flint coached. He survived just about all of it but could not survive 6-25 a season after 11-19.

Enter Zach Spiker, whose Army West Point team won 19 games last season and played a pleasing style quite reminiscent of Steve Donahue's Cornell teams, which makes sense since Spiker was an assistant on those teams.

Now, he is just up 33rd Street from buddy Donahue, who is at Penn. He is not going to win 19 games this season. Nine will be an accomplishment.

"Our depth will be one of our bigger challenges throughout the season," Spiker said.

There is that, and there is a talent vacuum. This will take a while.

Young point guards Terrell Allen (UCF) and Rashann London (North Carolina Central) both transferred. The Dragons are the proverbial house whose foundation cement remains wet.

Holdovers Sammy Mojica, Rodney Williams and Austin Williams will be joined in the starting lineup for Friday's opener at Monmouth by freshman point guard Kurk Lee, who scored 1,372 points at Baltimore's St. Frances Academy and shooting guard Miles Overton (St. Joseph's Prep, Wake Forest transfer).

Lee descends from Baltimore basketball royalty. His dad, also Kurk, was a major star at Towson University, where he scored 1,541 points in his final two seasons. His grandfather, Ralph, was a great player for Towson High, the school that would eventually send Michael Phelps into the world.

Back in the day, Ralph's teammate was Billy Jones, who would lead Towson to a state championship before going on to Maryland and becoming the first African American to play basketball in the ACC.

"Kurk Lee is a guy who has an opportunity to lead our program as a point guard," Spiker said. "It doesn't matter what year you are. . . . He has earned and deserves to have the ball in his hands as a point guard from Day One."

Overton, son of Doug, the La Salle all-timer and first-year coach at Lincoln, played a season and a semester at Wake after a great run at the Prep alongside Notre Dame's Steve Vasturia. He will have two full seasons of eligibility.

"We are excited to have Miles back in Philadelphia," Spiker said. "He is a naturally very gifted basketball player."

The coach is under no illusions. He went 102-112 in seven seasons at Army, a terrific record at a school where nobody has won since Bob Knight - not even the coach who has won more games than anybody, Duke's Mike Krzyzewski.

Two pretty talented transfers are sitting out the season. Troy Harper, who played on some of those star-studded Neumann Goretti teams, averaged 13.5 points last season for Campbell. Tramaine Isabell played last season at Missouri.

Scoring will be a problem this season. So will defending and rebounding. Other than that, everything is perfect.

Spiker has a style he would like his teams to play, just like Donahue's Penn teams are playing and like those Cornell teams played - quick passing, threes, layups, speed. It will be Spiker's task to find a style this undermanned team is capable of playing.

"These are great kids," Spiker said. "This is circumstance and happens in transition. It's nobody's fault. I don't know that Year One will reflect what we're trying do."

Spiker is pragmatic.

"We're not going to play my style just so I can feel good about it," he said.

This season will be about teaching the style. Feeling good about it all is going to take a few seasons.

All About Drexel

Last season: 6-25 (3-15 Colonial Athletic Association, ninth place.)

Coach: Zach Spiker (first season at Drexel; overall, 102-112).

Where is the depth? There is none. It is going to be an issue all season. And if somebody gets hurt . . .

Scoring must develop. Spiker would like to play fast, get the ball moving and shoot threes. That will have to wait as this team will be in survival mode most of the season.

Rebounding woes. The Dragons are not very big and don't figure to shoot all that well. So there will be a lot of misses for opponents, while Drexel's big men will be under siege by teams looking for second shots.

Watch the fouls. Drexel will have to use them very judiciously. The coach will have to get inventive. Two or three fouls in the first half for a player may have to be treated more as a nuisance than a reason to substitute.

Roster

Schedule

November

11 at Monmouth. . . 7

13 *at Rutgers. . . 4

18 *Hartford. . . 7

20 *at North Texas. . . 2

23 *at Niagra. . . 7

27 La Salle. . . 4

30 at Lafayette. . . 8

December

3 at High Point. . . 7

11 St. Joseph's. . . 6

16 at Rider. . . 7

18 Kean. . . 4:30

21 at Quinnipiac. . . 7

28 at Penn. . . 4

31 at James Madison. . . 2

January

2 Northeastern. . . 4:30

5 UNCW. . . 7

7 at William and Mary. . . 4

12 at Northeastern. . . 7

14 Delaware. . . 4

19 at Elon. . . 7

21 at UNCW. . . 4

26 Hofstra. . . 7

28 Charleston. . . 2

February

2 at Towson. . . 7

4 at Hofstra. . . 7

9 William and Mary. . . 7

11 Towson. . . 4

16 at Delaware. . . 7

18 Elon. . . 2

23 James Madison. . . 7

25 at Charleston. . . 5

*-Scarlet Knight Showcase

jerardid@phillynews.com