The meeting with Big East New York City power St. John’s University, in which the Rams won up at Rose Hill Saturday evening, may have put Pecora ahead of his plan. Fordham certainly is a dominant squad and not showing any effects of a team that won five games the past two years.

The game was sold out, a rarity at Rose Hill. Fordham overcame a 20-point deficit, and showed no signs of a team that would quit. It was perhaps one of the most memorable games up at Rose Hill. And after their 84-81 triumph, that put Fordham over the .500 mark at 5-4, many in the crowd stormed the court

They were not storming the court for the “Red Storm” of St John’s.  It was the Rams of Fordham, believe it or not, who can truly say they are right now the premiere college basketball team in New York City.

“This wasn’t about me,” Pecora would say afterwards about the most significant win for a Fordham basketball team in the past five years. “This was for these kids, for the fans,” he said. Truly, after Saturday, at least for the time being the suffering was over up at Rose Hill.

There is still a competitive Atlantic 10 conference schedule to come in January, That will determine how good this Fordham team is, or if they truly are going to be a competitive basketball program once again in New York. Pecora has definitely seen the competiveness of his team and a revival of the interest since taking over the program last March.

“Saturday is going to be fun to play and fun to watch,” said Pecora after his team defeated Manhattan College earlier in the week up at Rose Hill in the annual “Battle of the Bronx.”  “These matchups revitalize New York college basketball,” he said about consecutive games against Manhattan and St. John’s.”

After that win over Manhattan, Fordham reached the .500 mark for the first time in three years. Pecora said more than once, something special is happening at Rose Hill.  There is no talk about the dismal past after an abysmal, 2-26 overall mark and 0-16 record in the Atlantic 10 Conference of last season under former coach Dereck Whittenburg.

They have already equaled their win total of the last two seasons. The players, many who have been a part of the previous losing seasons up at Rose Hill, believe there has been a change of culture. Their coach wants them to believe that.

“We don’t look at what happened here in the past,” said senior Brenton Butler had a game high 21 points for the Rams against Manhattan and was a big part of a 16-0 run against St. John’s that narrowed the gap. Butler averaging 15.3 points per game has now scored in double figures in seven of his last eight games and had 22 in the win Saturday.

The last Fordham win against the Red Storm came in December of 2000. The entire campus anticipated the matchup, a buzz about Fordham basketball that hasn’t been heard in a long time.

“It’s a great environment, it’s awesome, it’s exciting,” said Butler who had not heard this reaction about an upcoming game, the one with St John’s in his four years at Rose Hill. He is a five year player that wanted to stay and be a part of this new culture that Pecora has preached.

Pecora said his team stayed around and stole one late against St. John’s. To the contrary Fordham did not steal this one. They have convinced their faithful and suffering fans they are ahead of the plan to revitalizing basketball up at Rose Hill.

NOTES: Butler was named Most Valuable Player of the Manhattan game by writers at press row and received the Mike Cohen Award, a trophy in memory of the late New York City public relations executive and former Manhattan Sports Information Director….

Before tipoff prior to the Manhattan game, a moment of silence was observed for Freddy Schuman, “Freddy Sez” a fixture at Fordham and Manhattan games and also at New York Yankee games with his trademark frying pan and motivational sayings.  Also silence was observed for former New York Yankee and former Fordham baseball coach Gil McDougald who passed away last week.

e-mail Rich Mancuso: Ring76@aol.com

Om Thursday, a press conference was held at Fordham’s Rose Hill campus in the Bronx to introduce Pecora. The remarks from all parties at the conference were that there will be a cooperative and concerted effort to improve the level of success of the program but that the methods of improvement will be done in total conformity with the ideals that guide the Jesuit institution of learning. The spirit of cooperation was cited by Pecora,

“It takes a university to raise a program.” The high level in which change will be brought about was stated by the Executive Director of Intercollegiate Athletics Frank McLaughlin, “We are an educational institution, not a basketball factory.” The concern for the student athletes in the basketball program was described by the university’s president Father Joseph McShane, “We believe he [Pecora] will give the players the kind of college athletic experience they expect at Fordham. Our student athletes deserve the same kind of care and attention to personal development on the court as they receive in the classroom, and we are confident that Tom is the coach to deliver that experience.

“He [Pecora] gave the Pride {Hofstra] a reason to be proud.” McLaughlin spoke of on the court success expected, “We are extremely confident that Tom will build a successful program at Fordham to become competitive in the Atlantic 10.” All three speakers gave thanks to many for their cooperation in allowing this partnership to be made possible. Among those cited for cooperating were: the athletic director and president of Hofstra University, local high school and AAU coaches, the basketball leadership of the Atlantic-10 colleges and Fordham’s search committee.

Pecora, in explaining his decision to leave Hofstra after 16 years and come to Fordham, said, “I thought it was the right time to accept a new challenge.” He said it was a family decision that included his wife and three children.” He clearly stated that he was not a patient man and that based upon what he learned it attempting to better the Hofstra basketball program, he would recruit effectively in the metropolitan area for Fordham,

“I have a long-standing relationship with high school coaches in the area. Having been through this process, I know how to do it [improve the basketball program]. We can get the best players in the country because of the conference.” He intends to take no short cuts to achieve success, “The only way I know how to do it is the right way.”

Pecora was born, resided and worked in the metropolitan area through almost all of his life. He was born in Brooklyn. He moved with his family to Queens when he was a young child, attended Martin Van Buren High School in Queens and graduated from Adelphi University in 1983. He remained on Long Island to serve as an assistant coach at Long Island Lutheran High School after graduation. His next position was as an assistant at Nassau Community College (1978-89).

For the following three years, he was the head coach at the State University at Farmingdale (1989-92). He left the area for two years, one as an assistant at UNLV and the other as an assistant at Loyola Marymount. The next 16 years he devoted to Hofstra University. He served as assistant for seven seasons before taking over the head coaching duties in 2001. Hofstra was a 20- plus game winner in four of Pecora’s nine seasons at the helm. The team finished 19-15 this year and was invited to the CBI tournament and appeared in three pot season NIT tournaments under his helm.

The group then traveled to Rhode Island to participate in a prep school tournament. The students and staff returned to New York City on the weekend for a round of sightseeing. Orellana said the trip had several purposes, to play basketball on U.S. soil, which most had never done, expose the youngsters to the eyes of U.S. scouts and give the players the experience of seeing New York City and the East Coast.

Orellana is an experienced basketball coach with many years of experience of coaching in the United States. He was an assistant coach at Division I colleges on both U.S. coasts, St. Francis in Brooklyn, Farleigh Dickinson in New Jersey and in California at the University of California-Irvine and the University of California-Fullerton. He also coached youngsters on the high school level and internationally in Venezuela.

In 2004, Orellana left his position in California to follow his dream of founding a basketball school overseas where he could help international players gain a scholarship to Division I colleges in the U.S. His first effort in this regard gave him the knowledge and experience to begin the Canarias Basketball Academy three years ago. Spain’s archipelago may seem a strange place to develop talented basketball players, but thus far,

Orellana has been successful. After his team’s game against Monroe, Orellana explained, “It was always a dream of mine to establish a basketball academy. We [CBA] offer an alternative to U.S. prep schools. Ninety per cent of our boys are looking for a scholarship to U.S. universities and ten per cent are hoping to play professionally in Europe. This experience has given me my greatest satisfaction. These are great kids. They have no baggage. They only want to play basketball and improve.” Approximately 30 of the 50 current students are from the United Kingdom. The director said, “We’ve had great success with U.K. players.”

The U.K.’s Danny Thompson is one of the British successes. After two years at the CBA, Thompson was given a scholarship to Fordham University in the Bronx this fall. Thompson reacted to the news with exuberance, “Everything about Fordham University excites me,…getting a world class education, living in New York City and playing in the Atlantic 10.”

He spoke with gratitude of his experience at the CBA, “My two years at CBA have been great. I can’t imagine being more prepared for the next level. I want to thank CBA for what they’ve done. People have all kinds of opinions about CBA but unless you’ve lived it, you can never understand how valuable it is.”

Thompson was joined at Fordham this season by a second CBA alum, Farho Alihodzic. The Bosnian native was a member of Great Britain’s U20 National Team. The 6-10 post-player has started several games as a Fordham freshman this season. An additional one dozen CBA students were given Division I scholarships to U.S. colleges during the past two years.

On Saturday, February 6, after a contest with Charlotte, Fordham’s head coach, Jared Grasso, spoke very enthusiastically of Orellna and the CBA, “Their coach [Orelllna] was an assistant coach when I played in the NEC. We developed a very close relationship. He does an excellent job over there. He’s very good at what he does. They hold three practices a day.”

He explained the reasons why CBA students make a fine fit at Fordham, “In Fordham, you could recruit in Europe because you can sell New York City and our fine education.” Grasso’s strongest words of praise for the CBA were, “I would send my son there.”

And though this is a much different Fordham team, eight new players joining five veterans, the win came at the right time because most don’t expect Fordham to be any more competitive than their 3-25 finish of last season.  “The streak is over,” commented Whittenburg now in his seventh year at Fordham. “It’s a new season,” he said.

There is some optimism that this could be the beginning of the resurgence up at Rose Hill. Whittenburg alluded to the lack of chemistry with some of the seniors last season. Clashing with the coach behind the scenes, or as he says, “outside influences that got into the kids heads,”

In other words it was the ugliest season in Whittenburg’s tenure at Fordham with the exception of the first year in 2003-2004 when the Rams finished 6-22. The Rams finished last in the Atlantic 10 Conference and for the first time failed to qualify for the A-10 post season tournament with a 1-15 conference mark.

You saw things in their third game that offered some optimism, though Sacred Heart offers no comparison to some of the nationally ranked teams in the A-10. Things that the coach liked coming from 6-7 freshman Chris Gaston who scored 22 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and blocked five shots.

“I saw him as a freshman and how he can be in there with the bigger guys,” said Whittenburg who recruited Gaston out of New Hampton Prep School in New Hampton, New Hampshire where he averaged over 17.0ppg and 12 rebounds. In the season opener against Maine last week, Gaston got his first collegiate double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds.

Gaston made 8-of-16 shots for the Rams. He showed confidence on the floor, but Whittenburgh cautioned he is still a freshman. “I want to keep him focused,” he said about Gaston. “I had a talk with him. If you don’t play defense and just concentrate on scoring then I’m taking you out of the game.”

Gaston listened to that talk in the second half. Perhaps what happened last season was that lack of communication. Whittenburgh sees the difference with Gaston and some of the other newcomers.  “We executed better,” said the coach, words that were hardly said all last year.

“I am just going to do everything that I can to show them my ability,” said Gaston.  He knows that his ability could lead the Fordham program back to respectability. “It’s been developing all week as to what I can do,” he said. “This is a team effort and all we have to do is execute and take control.”

Part of that execution against Sacred Heart (2-1) was Fordham going on a 21-2 run over a span of 7:25 in the second half. That gave them a 72-51 lead. Gaston had eight points during the run and senior guard Brenton Butler, 15 points, also had eight during that span.

So it was a team effort and reason for optimism before traveling to Hartford, and taking on the Jaspers at Manhattan College for the annual Battle of the Bronx all in the next ten days.

“We’re gonna see the true test of our team,” said Whittenburg.

E-mail Rich Mancuso: Ring786@aol.com