Rams' transfers led 2015 revival

The 2014-15 Angelo State men's basketball team compiled the most decorated season in the 50 since the Rams' junior college era ended.

In their 50th season since becoming a senior college, the 2014-15 Rams broke or tied 11 single-season school records, including 28 wins. They won a record four postseason games, including their first two wins in the NCAA playoffs.

Before falling 66-64 to Tarleton State in the South Central Region championship game and finishing 28-6, the 2014-15 Rams won a record 17 home games. They also posted a 16-game overall win streak, going 74 days between losses from late-December to mid-February. Their victory margin of 20.3 points per game led all NCAA Division II teams.

They did all this on the shoulders of four transfers from NCAA Division I programs who were with ASU for only one season. Guard Chris Jones led the Lone Star Conference in assists and steals while averaging 15.4 points per game. Forward Demario Mayfield averaged 15.8 points and 8 rebounds. Guard Marsell Holden obliterated the school record with 105 3-point goals. Guard Raijon Kelly averaged 10.1 points and shot 53 percent from the field.
 

ANGELO STATE HALF-CENTURY TEAM

* As selected by Mike Lee (San Angelo Standard-Times)

First Team G Dennis McLaughlin 1974-76 Averaged 25.1 and 22.1 points per game in two seasons G Chris Mason 1985-89 No. 3 career scorer (1,356 points) and won two LSC titles F Tim Howard 1985-89 No. 1 career scorer (1,844 pts), No. 2 career rebounder (629) C Tommie Tyler 1979-83 No. 1 career rebounder (852), No. 2 career scorer (1,426 pts) C Ed Wheeler 1992-94 First team NCAA All-American in 1993 (25.3 ppg, 9.8 rebounds) Second Team G Kenny Smith 1983-85 Led Rams in scoring, assists and steals in 1984-85 G Glen Noesen 1983-88 Career assist leader (499); point guard for first LSC title F Lauren Prather 1965-70 No. 8 career scorer (1,071 points), No. 5 rebounder (574) F J.D. Koehn 1972-76 No. 5 career scorer (1,282 points), No. 4 rebounder (606) F Greg Wolff 1980-84 NBA draft pick led 1983-84 Rams in scoring and rebounding F Marcus Hubbard 2006-08 Two-year leader in scoring, rebounds and blocks One-Year Wonders G Jim Vaszauskas 1975-76 17 ppg. for freshman team, then 7.5 for varsity during LSC play  G LaMarshall Corbett 2009-10 All-American's 656 points rank No. 3 on single-season list G Chris Jones 2014-15 15.4 points per game, led LSC in assists (4.7) and steals (2.6) F Kenny Williams 2013-14 All-Region, averaged 8 rebounds, led LSC in scoring (17.2 ppg.) F Demario Mayfield 2014-15 Averaged 15.8 points, 8 rebounds for 28-win regional finalists

The one-year transfers — Mayfield, Jones, Holden and Kelly — were the Rams' top four scorers during their historic season.

Chris Beard, the head coach of the 2014-15 record-setting season, insisted that heavily recruiting transfers isn't necessarily his coaching philosophy and that he prefers a balance between four-year players and transfers.

"The conference you're in dictates the philosophy in building your program," said Beard, who left ASU three weeks after the 2014-15 season for a Division I job at Arkansas-Little Rock. "One of the first things coach (Cinco) Boone and I did when we got here was research the backgrounds of the players who made first- or second-team all-conference in the previous five years.

"We wanted to see who we were fighting and what we had to do to win the fight."

What Beard and Boone, who was promoted in April to replace Beard as ASU's head coach, discovered is that the LSC is a transfer league. Of the 50 slots on the first- and second-team all-conference list over the last five seasons, 80 percent were filled by transfer players. Of those, 44 percent were junior college transfers, 26 percent were Division I transfers and 10 percent were from other four-year programs.

Only 20 percent of the conference's best players in the last five years were recruited to their college fresh out of high school.

"Except for California, Texas has more junior colleges and more Division I universities than any state in the country. There are a lot of transfer players available in Texas," Beard said. "You've got to have talent to win in the Lone Star Conference, and geography makes that difficult to do with just four-year players.

"I can get on the Internet and see almost every D-I game online. With D-I transfers, you can see their body of work against good college competition. When you're recruiting a high school player, you don't see them against great competition."
Junior college transfers always have been visible in the LSC, especially since the late 1980s. Division I transfers are a newer development spurred by societal changes. Players now grow up in a culture of entitlement and mobility. They want considerable playing time immediately, and if they don't get it, they'll transfer.

Jeff Goodman, ESPN's national college basketball writer, reported that the number of D-I transfers grew from 291 in 2011 to 455 in 2013. During the current offseason, Goodman is tracking almost 1,200 potential transfers.
Players transferring from one D-I program to another have to sit out for a season. Players transferring from D-I to D-II are eligible immediately. Also, D-I programs shy away from recruiting transfers with only one year of eligibility remaining, making players like Jones, Mayfield, Holden and Kelly prime recruits for D-II.

"If Demario Mayfield had two years left, every D-I team would have been after him. If Chris Jones had two years left, he would have played in the Big 12," Beard said.

The pros of recruiting transfers include getting proven talent and, typically, a more mature player.

The biggest con is that by the time a coach gets one-year transfers fitting into his program, they're gone.
Another risk with transfers is getting selfish players who can disrupt team chemistry. That's where coaches like Beard and Boone have to dig deep and do their homework.

"We really evaluate character as much as talent," Beard said. "With a transfer player, we talk to every head coach he's had. We talk to opposing coaches. We talk to his family.
"More than anything, we listen to the player. A 22- or 23-year-old player will tell you what he wants, and that will tell you whether he'll fit into your program. The players we got last year never talked about individual stats. They wanted to win. They wanted to be coached. And they wanted to enjoy their last year of college."

Beard said he and Boone talked with a potential transfer immediately after the 2014-15 season who wanted a certain number of shots from certain areas on the court. "We stopped recruiting him right there," Beard said.
With transfers, the ASU coaches also look at college transcripts and prefer players who realistically can graduate within a year and a half after enrolling.

"But when all that's said and done," Beard said, "it still comes down to a gut feeling. Do I believe in this kid?"

Boone, who recruited many of the 2014-15 Rams, plans to follow Beard's recruiting philosophy.

"The Lone Star Conference is dominated by juniors and seniors so we have to keep getting experienced players at that level," Boone said. "I'm hoping to stagger the classes a little more evenly. The four one-year transfers helped us have a great season, but we lost them in a hurry. We're trying to sign more two-year transfers and continue to recruit four-year kids."

Perhaps the biggest challenge with one-year transfers who become team leaders is that coaches are always forced to recruit for immediate needs. But with a 47-15 record and the best season in ASU's history over the last two years, Boone now possesses tangible recruiting tools.

"When we first got here," Beard said, "we were selling recruits a dream of what we hoped to do. Now, we're selling what we've done."
 

ASU HALF-CENTURY TEAM: 1988 squad set standard

It didn't matter that the Angelo State Rams never had won a Lone Star Conference championship in men's basketball. The two cornerstone players who helped end the drought knew how to win.

"Chris (Mason) and I came from championship pedigrees. We were used to playing for championships," said Tim Howard, a forward and prize recruit in 1985.

Howard, still ASU's career scoring leader with 1,844 points, had played at Fort Worth Dunbar for the legendary Robert Hughes, the winningest high school boys coach in the nation. Howard helped Dunbar make the playoffs three times and the UIL state tournament once.

Mason, still the No. 3 career scorer at ASU with 1,356 points, played at tradition-rich Lamesa, where he helped the Golden Tornadoes win three consecutive district championships and make a UIL state tournament appearance.
At ASU, Howard and Mason joined Ed Messbarger, a proven small-college coach at St. Mary's who eventually won 600-plus career games. In his first nine seasons with the Rams, Messbarger had come close but been unable to deliver a championship.
During the 1987-88 campaign, the LSC championship drought finally ended in the Rams' 19th season in the conference.

Through 50 seasons of senior college basketball, the Howard- and Mason-led Rams of 1987-88 and 1988-89 remain ASU's only conference championship teams. Even the 2014-15 Rams who won 28 games, advanced farther in the NCAA postseason than any ASU team and broke or tied 11 school records, didn't win the LSC championship.

"The feeling of winning the first conference championship for ASU and coach Messbarger was something I'll cherish for the rest of my life," said Mason, now 48 and in his 24th year of coaching Texas high school basketball.

The first two seasons of the Howard-Mason era produced a modest 29-25 record and not even one win in the LSC postseason tournament. But that forgettable past was about to change. The main reason was the players' commitment to defense.

"I came from a run-and-gun program in high school," Mason said. "But I learned in college that everybody can run and jump and shoot. I had to figure out how to get on the court, and I realized it was by playing good defense.

"The defense is what set our team apart. We learned to compete on every defensive possession."

Howard was a sleek and graceful 6-foot-6 forward whose 728 points in 1987-88 still stands as the ASU single-season record. Mason was a quick and wiry 6-3 guard who averaged 14.4 points and 5.8 rebounds. Additionally, the 1987-88 Rams had savvy point guard Glen Noesen, a fifth-year senior who was coming back from a knee injury and brought his native Chicago toughness to the team.

They also had John Thompson, a 5-11 freakish athlete who high jumped 7 feet during track season. They added 6-7 junior college post Bobby Darnell to patrol the paint, play defense and rebound.

The bench was a huge factor in that first championship. Guards Johnny Reese, Robert Barley and Darrell Collins, along with forwards Chris Simple and Chuck Phelps, combined to average 25 points per game.

Despite these pieces, the opening schedule was brutal — with the first eight games coming in 11 days. Seven of them were away from home, including four in Alaska.
The Rams started 2-6. A championship seemed far away.

"After going all the way and coming back from Alaska, our players were physically spent," said Mike Jones, an ASU assistant coach from 1985-1998. "It took time for them to recuperate, but by the time they got to conference, they knew they were a good ballclub."

Howard said, "I can't say we had a plan to win the conference that year. We just jelled at the right time. The trip to Alaska toughened us up."

The Rams regrouped and won nine consecutive games, including a 78-76 LSC decision that ended Abilene Christian's 44-game home-court win streak. It also ended the Rams' eight-game skid against the Wildcats. With Howard defended, Mason made the game-winning shot.

The Rams swept West Texas A&M, then a perennial LSC power, including an 85-82 win in Amarillo with Howard pouring in 39 points. The Rams clinched their first LSC title with a 70-63 win over ACU before 4,700 fans in the old ASU P.E. Building.
Howard was ASU's leading scorer in 28 of 33 games. Mason was the top scorer in the other five. The team defense was equally important. In the LSC tournament championship game, the Rams hit West Texas A&M with a full-court press that helped produce a 94-73 blowout.

"Coach always hung his hat on his defense," Jones said of Messbarger, who died in 2014. "You take Chris Mason. When he started out with us, he was not a good defensive player. But he turned out to be a great defensive player."

The Rams had won 20 of 23 games between Dec. 1, 1987, and March 10, 1988. Howard still insists they weren't satisfied with just the LSC title, that they were capable of a run in the NCAA Division II playoffs. But facing a playoff-tested Southeast Missouri State team in its 6,500-seat home arena, the Rams were overmatched in their NCAA opener.

"It was 111 to 75. I can still remember it like it was yesterday," Howard said. "The raucous crowd, the atmosphere, the physicality overwhelmed us. Because we had never been there, we didn't understand the scope of what we were playing for."
The 1987-88 Rams finished 22-11, the school record for wins in a season until the 2014-15 Rams won 28 games.

ASU was heavily favored to repeat as conference champs in 1988-89. Howard and Mason returned for their senior seasons. Thompson and Darnell also returned, as did role players Reese, Collins, Simple and Phelps.
Noesen was replaced at point guard by junior college transfer Jeff Fudge, who was more of a scorer. Darrell Roberts, another junior college transfer, provided another physical body in the paint.

The second championship figured to come easier since the Rams finally had won it the year before, but injuries and an unlikely internal issue involving Mason made 1988-89 a season-long struggle. Howard missed six LSC games with ankle and hip injuries. Roberts missed two conference games with an ankle injury, and Fudge also missed a couple of games.

"I was never 100 percent healthy. I had a sore ankle the entire year, and I never felt comfortable," said Howard, whose 17.4 points per game were the lowest since his freshman season. "Personally, it was probably my most disappointing season."
In early January, Mason was benched after missing 24 of 35 shots in three games.

"I remember calling my dad and telling him that I was 21 years old and already had two small children and that I was tired," Mason said. "I just wanted to go to school and finish. I talked to coach Jones and asked him if I quit basketball, could I still go to school for free."

Jones relayed the message to Messbarger, who summoned Mason for an overdue meeting. Mason called it a "heated debate," but when it ended, the senior forward returned to the lineup and to his expected performance.
Like in the previous season, the Rams struggled early and were only 5-6 entering LSC play. They held off West Texas A&M 86-84 in the conference opener in San Angelo.

"It may have been a season-salvager," Howard said after the game.

When Howard left the lineup with injuries, it was the refocused Mason who took the lead. He averaged 18 points per LSC game to lead the team, and he began playing tenacious defense. All the others who had played roles for more than a season simply moved up a peg as the Rams won the LSC regular season with an 11-3 record.

"Tim was like 1, and I was like 1A," Mason said. "With Tim out, I knew 1A had to become 1. Coach Messbarger let me become No. 1. He allowed me to take more shots. He allowed me to post up more on offense. I started playing well.

"Tim was such a great individual player, and without him, it actually made us run our offense better. We knew we couldn't just rely on him to make a shot."

Despite being swept by Texas A&M-Kingsville during the regular season, ASU thoroughly whipped the Javelinas in the conference tournament final, which the Rams had to win in order to return to the NCAA D-II playoffs. The Rams beat the Javelinas 84-66, defending them to 20 points below their season scoring average. Mason had 21 points and eight rebounds.

"There was no situation coach Messbarger hadn't been through, and his leadership pulled the players together that season," Jones said. "He convinced them that they were a good team, even without Tim."

Another first-round playoff game with Southeast Missouri State in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, awaited, and with a modest 17-9 record, not much was expected of the Rams.

However, they felt they should have beaten SEMO. The Rams led for the game's opening 36 minutes and held a 54-47 advantage with four minutes left. But they lost eight turnovers in the face of full-court pressure, and SEMO scored 15 straight points and eventually won 65-60.

Somehow, the Rams lost a game in which they limited the opponent to 31-percent shooting and outrebounded SEMO 41-31.

"They had great players, but we knew we could play with them," Howard said. "Their depth probably got to us. We ran out of gas at the end."

The 1988-89 Rams technically won the school's first NCAA postseason game since the four-team regional tournament had a third-place game at the time. ASU beat Northwest Missouri State 89-80 for third place, but it didn't advance the Rams in the playoffs.

It did allow the Howard-Mason era to end with a win.