Portfolio at NYU

Posted 03.30.03
COLLEGE BASKETBALL; Kings Point Cadets Thrive on the Court

By Erik Boland

KINGS POINT, N.Y. -- There was only one possible answer for Rear Adm. Joseph D. Stewart, who stopped cadets at random amid the lunchtime clank of silverware and dishes in the United States Merchant Marine Academy's Delano Hall last Saturday.

''Are you coming to today's game?'' he asked.

Each cadet understood the implied message from the academy's superintendent, a 1964 Naval Academy graduate dressed casually in a yellow Kings Point windbreaker and tan khakis instead of his usual impeccable dress whites but still an intimidating presence. He elicited a prompt response: ''Of course, sir.''

Stewart was not able to ask each of the academy's 934 cadets. But a larger number than usual, 300 of them, with their hair tonsured short and dressed in the requisite weekend campus gear of blue shorts and gray T-shirts, filed into Liebertz Gymnasium and rooted the Mariners to a 73-72 victory over Manhattanville in the Skyline Conference's championship game. The cadets even rushed the court after a last-second shot by the sophomore Gabe Whitney secured a second straight N.C.A.A. Division III tournament appearance for Kings Point.

Mariner players hope for a similar scene Thursday night when Kings Point (24-4) plays host to Cabrini College (17-11), the Pennsylvania Athletic Conference representative, in a rematch of a first-round game last year, which Kings Point won, 106-96.

''Our fans pulled through,'' said Mark Medvetz, a stocky 6-foot-3 sophomore forward from Medford, N.J. ''To do that here is a big thing because on the weekends, everybody wants to get off campus for liberty.''

Jason Bernick, a junior guard from Toms River, N.J., whose brother, Kevin, is a senior on the team, said that during the regular season the team had as fans ''20 or so guys who sat behind the basket.''

''Those were our hard-core fans,'' he said. ''But they were at every game.''

Kings Point rewarded those fans this year, continuing its steady rise in the Division III ranking. The N.C.A.A. appearance is the academy's third in four years, and the Mariners have a 49-5 conference record over the past five seasons. They have have won with a press-and-run style embraced by the players, who find time for basketball amid a rigorous academic schedule typical of the service academies.

''We like to get the ball up the floor,'' said Chris Carideo, the first-year head coach.

''Our offense is a byproduct of our defense,'' said the senior Nate Barton, the leading scorer at 14.2 points a game on a team that averaged 80.7 this season. ''It's especially effective in our conference, where most teams play a slow-down offense.''

Kings Point advanced to the N.C.A.A tournament's round of 16 last season and expects to surpass that effort this year.

Playing in the airplane hangarlike Liebertz Gymnasium, one of the campus's original sandstone buildings, built in 1943, should help. The Mariners have won 27 straight at home.

''The team is taking a different approach than last year,'' said Medvetz, a sophomore marine engineering and shipyard management major who scored 14 points in Saturday's championship game.

''We were excited, like little kids, to be here last year, but this year it's all business.''

Basketball is far from the business of the academy, whose campus sits on Long Island Sound in the affluent, wooded village of Kings Point, the Manhattan skyline visible on clear days.

Not always clear to outsiders is the academy's purpose.

''I talk to people and right away the first question is, 'What's a merchant marine?' '' Whitney, a transportation logistics major from Nashua, N.H., said.

Barton, also a transportation logistics major, from Hummelstown, Pa., said, ''You try and keep the explanation short, but they don't understand.''

The compact, 82-acre campus serves as the training ground for the nation's commercial and military mariners.

Students graduate with a bachelor of science degree and must serve for five years on active duty in the armed forces or in the United States maritime industry.

Cadets realize that their academy, financed by the United States Department of Transportation, will never attain the glamorous status of West Point or Annapolis. Still, Kevin Bernick hopes basketball can enhance the academy's image.

''We hope to gain our school, conference, and most importantly our team, recognition that has been neglected in the past,'' he said.