‘The job’s not done’ working as mantra
Amid their historic start in MEAC, Hawks are thirsting for more, setting sights high
With Maryland-Eastern Shore men’s basketball at 6-1 in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, hardly anyone would begrudge the Hawks for enjoying the view from the top.
But that’s not the way senior shooting guard Da’Shawn Phillip sees it.
“I don’t even look at stuff like that,” the Baltimore resident and Dunbar graduate said. “We really haven’t even done much if we really want to be honest. Unless we won the championship, I probably wouldn’t be happy.”
Phillip’s perspective is endorsed by fourth-year coach Jason Crafton, who is one victory away from leading the Hawks to a winning regular-season record for only the third time in the past 40 years.
“The job’s not done,” he said. “It only means something because Maryland-Eastern Shore has been so awful all of this time. To us, it doesn’t mean absolutely anything. The job’s not done. We’ve got to win the championship, and we’ve got to get to the NCAA Tournament and win some games. ... It’s a great story in terms of the program that we’re building and the progress that we’re making, but we could[n’t] care less about getting caught up in that stuff because it does not mean anything.”
While it is true that the mission is ongoing, the Hawks find themselves in a position they’re unaccustomed to. They are 6-1 in the MEAC for the first time since the 1973-74 squad won its first eight games against league competition. They are also 9-0 at home for the first time since rejoining the conference in 1981-82 and are riding a seven-game winning streak, which is their longest since that same 1973-74 team won seven in a row before falling to Jacksonville in the National Invitation Tournament.
UMES, which has won 11 of its past 12 games, will face its biggest test of the season when it welcomes reigning MEAC champion Norfolk State (16-7, 5-2) on Saturday at 4 p.m. and then travels to Howard (14-10, 6-1) on Monday at 7:30 p.m. The team owns a head-to-head tiebreaker over the Bison thanks to an 82-73 home victory Jan. 9.
At 14-8 overall, the Hawks have the most wins since the 2014-15 squad went 19-15. For a program that has not captured a MEAC regular-season or tournament championship since the 1973-74 team collected both, the current run is welcomed.
“Last year, it was, get the MEAC title,” graduate student forward Nathaniel Pollard Jr. said of the players’ expectations. “This year, it’s: Get to the national tournament. So we just all had to get to a different place, and we’re all still growing into that stage.”
Much of UMES’ success can be traced to its players. Four starters from last season’s team — senior shooting guard Kevon Voyles (12.9 ppg), graduate student shooting guard Zion Styles (11.0), Pollard (10.1) and Phillip (9.7) — raised their scoring averages this winter, and graduate student point guard Ahamadou Fofana (6.1 ppg and 2.6 apg) has stabilized that position.
Seven players have led the offense in scoring in the 22 games thus far, and that depth makes the unit unpredictable, Phillip said.
“We have a team that is unselfish,” he said. “It could be me one night, it could
be Nate one night, it could be [sophomore shooting guard] Chace [Davis] one night, it could be Zion one night and everybody is just filling in the blanks.”
The one constant in a Crafton-coached squad is defense. The Hawks lead all Division I teams in steals (10.8 per game) and rank fourth in turnovers forced (18.3). Their commitment to defense is imprinted on the shirts they wear during pregame warmups.
“It’s always five of us against the ball,” said Pollard, who leads the team in total blocks (15) and ranks second in overall steals (33). “So it’s hard for teams to score against us. That’s why the chemistry is always there because we’re always on that type of stuff. We don’t want to let each other down.”
While Fofana is a transfer from Canisius, Pollard, Styles and graduate student guard
Donchevell Nugent are in their third year together, and Phillip, Voyles and senior guard Glen Anderson are part of Crafton’s first recruiting class.
“If that’s not going to bring some type of unity and fight and bond, then I don’t know what is,” said Crafton, a former assistant at Navy and Villanova. “They stuck together through a lot of adversity, and they’re here to finish the job.”
As important as this weekend’s games are — especially Saturday’s matchup against Norfolk State, the one conference opponent that tagged UMES with a loss, 57-46 on Jan. 7 — Pollard said he and his teammates refuse to look past anyone.
“We’re just handling it one game at a time,” he said. “So I wouldn’t say it’s a different type of confidence. I would say that we just trust each other more so that it’s easier for us to do certain things.”
Even if the Hawks were to emerge with a pair of wins, Phillip said they would not yet be satisfied.
“We’re not blowing out everybody, and we’re not dominating teams,” he said. “So there’s more to be done. We can rebound more, shoot free throws better, get more stops, get better transition points. There’s a lot of stuff to be done. So until we’re dominating each team and winning multiple championships, even still it’s not going to be done.”