In 2006-07, the men’s basketball team is entering not just a new season but also a new era.
The Fightin’ Blue Hens have a new head coach in Monté Ross, a young but experienced assistant at St. Joseph’s University who was named to succeed David Henderson in March, and Ross in turn has brought a new energy to the program.

Ross came to Delaware after 10 years as an assistant to Phil Martelli at St. Joseph’s, an outstanding apprenticeship that he says afforded him the training necessary to take advantage of the opportunity presented by UD. And, Ross says he plans to continue to draw on his mentor’s deep knowledge of the games in all of its aspects, both on and off the court.

“I talk to Phil more now than when I worked for him,” Ross says, smiling. “I suspect he will be getting some late night phone calls from me this season.”

Ross says his first few months on the job have gone well as he builds relationships with his players and coaches, the local basketball community, students and alumni, friends and fans of the Blue Hens.
The response from the returning Hen players has been gratifying, Ross says, because he recognizes that they are in a difficult situation. “I give them a lot of credit,” he says. “It is not easy to be in the middle of change. They are trying to adapt, and they are adapting.”

He is realistic about the task at hand on the court, particularly given that UD is a member of one of the nation’s premier mid-major conferences in the Colonial Athletic Association, which last year sent George Mason University to the Final Four, and that the Hens struggled last season.

“A 9-21 season does not happen overnight, and we will not get out of it overnight,” Ross says. “This is a marathon, not a sprint, and we must condition ourselves to run a full race.”

Ross says fans who turn out to the Bob Carpenter Center to watch his team play will see strong defense and efficient offense. “We will demand defense,” he says. “Defense is what we will hang our hat on every single game.”

The team will play hard, he says, but adds, “Playing hard is a given. If you are attending college on a scholarship, you better play hard. Playing hard will only put us on par with everyone else. What we need to do is play efficiently.”

Offensively, Ross says, he likes to play an exciting brand of basketball in which the Hens will push the pace in a way that fits the personnel. That, he understands, may take time.

“What we want to do is improve every single practice, every single day, every single week,” he says. “We want to be playing our best basketball at the end of the season.”

Although the Hens lost a stellar player with the graduation of All-CAA forward Harding Nana, Ross says he does not dwell on what the team has lost but instead on how everyone remaining on the roster can be an important piece that fits into the puzzle of this year’s squad. Among the returning players are senior guard Calvin Cannon, who averaged 9 points per game last season, junior forward Herb Courtney and sophomore guard Zaire Taylor, who was named to the CAA all-rookie team.

Ross says he is keenly aware of the difficulties of the CAA, having been on the losing end of games against Hofstra and Old Dominion universities in recent years while at St. Joseph’s. “This is a league I am very familiar with, one with a lot of good players and a lot of good coaches,” he says. “The CAA is challenging every single night when you step on the floor.”

Ross says the UD coaching staff is coming together. His assistants are R.C. Kehoe, who is Martelli’s nephew and who previously served on the staff at the University of Maryland Baltimore County; Stephen Stewart, who was an assistant at Loyola College of Maryland; and Ryan Iversen, the popular former UD player who was retained from the previous coaching staff.

“We have a great deal of mutual respect and are aware of the challenges we have ahead of us,” Ross says. “We are going to put a lot of time and effort into this program, and everyone is striving toward the same goal.”

Since being hired, Ross says he has been out and about in Delaware, making himself visible to the basketball community and working to build relationships. “As far as recruiting, our first concern is the state of Delaware,” he says, adding the program also will have a presence in the nearby metropolitan areas of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and New Jersey.
Ross says he also has been reaching out to UD fans and believes they are hungry for the basketball program to “take off.” He is planning special activities to generate student support, including “dorm raids” in which T-shirts will be handed out.

The next chance to see the revamped Hens at home is at 7 p.m., Monday, Jan. 8, when they take on Towson University in a CAA contest. For those who want to make a quick trip to Philadelphia, UD will be competing in the LaSalle Classic holiday tournament, facing Niagara University at 7 p.m., Dec. 28; host LaSalle at 5 p.m., Dec. 29; and the College of the Holy Cross at 7 p.m., Dec. 30.

Final Four participant George Mason will visit The Bob on Feb. 14, to be followed by a home game in the national Bracket Buster tournament on Feb. 17. The CAA tournament will be held March 2-5 at the Richmond Coliseum.