11/21/07

Derek Miller Profile

New Jersey City University
Height 6-1
Weight 213
Freshman Small Forward
Newark, NJ / East Side


2007-2008 Game-by-Game Statistics to date:
2007-08 Highlights: (11/19 at Scotty Wood Tournament vs. Curry College; Muhlenberg College): Added eight points and five rebounds in 19 reserve minutes... (11/19 at Scotty Wood Tournament vs. Philadelphia Biblical University; Muhlenberg College): Sank 3-of-6 three-pointers and 5-of-12 overall, finishing with 13 points in 14 minutes...

11/17/07

O'Neil Hurt in First Game of the Season

Calvin O'Neil was injured in the second half and did not return. A MRI will be done on his right knee Friday to determine the severity of the injury.

"Calvin is one of the toughest kids I've ever coached and he couldn't put any pressure on it," Davis said. "It doesn't look good but we will wait and see what the results of the MRI are."

"Middle Tennessee Postgame Quotes"

Head Coach Kermit Davis:
On Junior guard Calvin O'Neil second-half injury: "He is the heart and soul of our team. It is too bad for him because he has been playing so well. He is one of the toughest guys I've ever coached."

Junior Guard Demetrius Green:
On taking over for Calvin O'Neil and finding rhythm: "I had to step up. Calvin is big - he is one of the best players on our team. We really miss him when he's out. I had to step up and fill in for him and for what he does."
Get Well Soon Calvin - East Side Staff/Family

11/10/07

Chandler looks sharp in debut

BY ALEX DELANIAN
Star-Ledger Staff

Rutgers coach Fred Hill hoped for early maturation and growth from his incoming freshmen this season, and Corey Chandler delivered last night.

The 6-2 guard from East Side High School in Newark scored 16 points in his college debut, the most by a Rutgers freshman in a season opener since Charles Jones had 19 points against Manhattan in 1993.

Chandler added three steals, two assists and two rebounds on 7-of-9 shooting, playing with a maturity that had Hill excited after the game.

"I guess that's pretty early, huh?" said Hill, referring to Chandler bursting out of the gate with nine of the team's first 11 points. "Corey's got a chance to be a really good player, he was certainly the guy that did some good things for us tonight."

And Chandler knew it. "I came out ready to play, intense, I kept my composure," Chandler said. "I really didn't play like a freshman."

11/9/07

Smith trains RU's Chandler, Coburn


By ADAM ZAGORIA
HERALD NEWS

WEST PATERSON – Whenever Daryl Smith goes to the Rutgers Athletic Center with Corey Chandler, he points to the banners on the wall and reminds Chandler about his own piece of history.

The 6-foot-5 Smith, known as "D-Train," was a member of the last Scarlet Knights team to make the NCAA Tournament in 1991. A three-year starter under former coach Bob Wenzel, he also helped the Knights notch a couple of Atlantic 10 titles and reach the National Invitation Tournament in 1990 and 1992 and the NCAAs as a freshman in 1989.

"(When he looked at the banners), he just kind of laughed and said, 'I'm going to break all your records,' " Smith, a South Orange resident, said Wednesday. "And I said, 'If you finish up better than me, I'll be the first one to congratulate you.' "

Now a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), Smith has trained both Chandler and Rutgers freshman Mike Coburn, as well as numerous other high school and college standouts. He also worked this summer as the lead trainer on the Jordan Brand's nationwide Breakfast Club Tour. He hopes to link the success of Rutgers past to its future, beginning with Chandler.

Chandler is a 6-2 combination guard and the most heralded freshman in head coach Fred Hill's four-man recruiting class. He is expected to be a valuable contributor for the Knights when they tip off the 2007-08 season on Friday against Tennessee Tech in the Blue Ribbon Classic.

Chandler knows the recent history at Rutgers – which was picked by Big East coaches to finish 15th in the 16-team league -- and he knows it will be an uphill climb to put more banners on the wall over the next four seasons, but that is his aim.

"Absolutely, that's a goal," said Chandler, who was named second-team All-State by The Associated Press and rated the 10th-best point guard in the Class of 2007 by Rivals. "Our whole goal is to make the NCAA Tournament."

The list of players Smith has trained in recent years reads like a Who's Who of area basketball talent: former St. Patrick of Elizabeth stars Corey Fisher (Villanova) and Jeff Robinson (Memphis), as well as current St. Patrick junior Dexter Strickland, who is considering North Carolina, Michigan State and Florida; Lance Stephenson, the talented junior out of Brooklyn's Lincoln High; Seton Hall freshman Mike Davis; Indiana recruit Devin Ebanks of Brooklyn; and Rutgers' freshmen Chandler and Mike Coburn.

"There are a lot of guys running around claiming to work guys out and basically there you get a lot of guys standing under the basket passing the ball around," Smith said.

"Whereas not only did I play at an extremely high level under NBA-caliber coaches, I have an exercise science background that allows me to understand how to develop players' strength, speed and agility and put all that together to be the total package."

Smith credits Jeff Van Gundy, who was an assistant at Rutgers in his freshman season, with turning him on to the benefits of hard workouts.

"I would always bug him about giving me a private workout and he took me out one day and I lasted about 10 or 15 minutes," Smith said. "At that point I realized how hard you have to work out on your own to be a great player.

"That same feeling is sort of what I give the kids who work out with me so they have the same feeling."

It was Van Gundy and Eddie Jordan, the former Rutgers star and current Washington Wizards coach, who gave Smith his nickname after he began to train strenuously during the offseason.

After playing professionally in Italy and Croatia, Smith came home and formed his company, D-TRAINED.

He works with various high school programs, most notably St. Patrick, a two-time Tournament of Champions winner.

Through his work with Newark East Side, he also developed a close relationship with Chandler, whom he has known since the eighth grade. And it was during the summer after Chandler's junior season, the same summer he committed to Rutgers, that Smith noticed a real change in Chandler's attitude toward basketball.

After playing well at Sonny Vaccaro's ABCD Camp in Hackensack, Chandler roomed with several big-name players at the Five-Star Camp, including Robinson and current college sophomores Larry Davis (Seton Hall), Wayne Ellington (North Carolina) and Gerald Henderson (Duke).

"He was among greatness," Smith said. "I was on Corey every day. First thing in the morning, I told him to work as hard as you can and tomorrow would be better.

"When we drove back, he thanked me numerous times. I could tell he felt he'd done a great job of putting himself on the map."

Smith continued to put Chandler through rigorous workouts involving weight training, shooting and ball-handling. Those workouts serve Chandler well now that he's at Rutgers.

"I do a lot of workouts with our new strength and conditioning coach, Phil Dyer, so some of the stuff that he gives me I was used to because I was doing it with D-Train," Chandler said.

The training Chandler did with Smith was one thing, but it was in the many car rides back to the gritty streets of Newark that the two men talked about life and the obstacles facing a young black man from the inner city.

"As a person who looks like him and has experienced some of the things that he had, I have enough perspective in terms of where he's going," Smith said. "I could share and convey life lessons as a person and as a student-athlete."

Said Chandler: "I learned a lot of things. Stay humble. Work hard."

Now, as Chandler embarks on his college career, Smith has no doubt that the young man from the tough streets of Newark can have an impact similar to his at Rutgers.

"The sky's the limit for Corey," Smith said. "He's competitive. He's strong. He's athletic. He shoots with range. He's not afraid to go to the basket. And when he wants to, he can be a great defender because he's very athletic, he's very strong.

"If Rutgers can put the right people around him, he can really flourish and blossom and have a tremendous career."

11/5/07

Pioneers Battle in 68-58 Exhibition Loss at Monmouth


Al Holloway plays good in defeat. William Paterson battled, holding a lead midway through the first half, before losing a 68-58 men’s basketball exhibition contest at Division I Monmouth Nov. 4.


William Paterson cut the lead to 59-51 with 2:55 remaining in the game, when sophomore Al-Basser Holloway (Union, N.J./Newark East Side) connected on a three-pointer from the top of the key, and pulled to within 60-53 at 2:12 when classmate Chris Brown (Newark, N.J./Newark Science) drained two foul shots.

The Pioneers outscored Monmouth 32-28 in the second half, led by Holloway's 10 points after intermission.

Spiegel and Holloway each tallied 12 points for the Pioneers, while Fowler and Abdoulaye Ouedraogo (Newark, N.J./Newark Science) each had seven rebounds.

Last season, William Paterson posted a 15-10 overall record and a 6-7 mark in NJAC action. The Pioneers will begin the 2007-08 season Friday, Nov. 16, against Emerson in the first round of the Vassar Tip-Off Tournament at 8:00 p.m.

11/2/07

Randy Foye is sidelined for at least three weeks


Tests revealed a stress reaction in his left kneecap, and the team said the second-year player will be out indefinitely. Foye, an NBA all-rookie team selection last season, is an important part of this revamped, inexperienced squad that has only five returning players on the 15-man roster. Sebastian Telfair, Marko Jaric and Greg Buckner are expected to assume the ballhandling while Foye is out. Get well soon and a speedy recovery Randy!!!!