Henry, Atupem officially on staff

As first reported here, Matt Henry (assistant coach) and Sam Atupem (graduate assistant coach) were officially announced as members of the men's basketball staff on MountAthletics.com today.

Ahmad Dorsett and Mike Farrelly are expected to be announced soon as they probably have to fulfill the remainder of their contracts at Bowie State and Hoop Group, respectively.

It appears the staff has already been to work based on this Tweet by coach Dorsett on July 1 at 12:05 p.m.:

"Lunch time @ Rocky's with the Staff!"

Rocky's, of course, is the pizza place in Thurmont, Md., frequented by Mount students and employees.

BREAKING: Dorsett to round out Burke's staff

Ahmad Dorsett is expected to be hired as the final member of Mount basketball head coach Robert Burke's coaching staff in the near future, according to a source.

Although Dorsett has not been officially hired as of early Thursday, it appears that a deal is in place to bring him to Emmitsburg.

Dorsett's most recent stop has been as an assistant coach at Bowie State University in Bowie, Md., where he served for the 2009 - 2010 season.

This move would round out the coaching staff hand-picked by Burke in his first year as an NCAA Division I head coach after serving as an assistant coach at American.

While no members of the staff have been officially announced by the school, the lineup under Burke is expected to be as follows, via the reports of this blog:

Assistant coaches: Matt Henry, Mike Farrelly, Ahmad Dorsett. Graduate assistant: Sam Atupem.

The pending hiring of Dorsett means that no member of Burke's staff will have previous Divsion I coaching experience as Henry previously served as the Director of Basketball Operations for the Georgetown Hoyas while Farrelly worked for the New Jersey-based Hoop Group. Dorsett coached at Longwood University for a time, but during the school's transition period from Division II to Division I.

It should be noted that no member of Milan Brown's staff - Brion Dunlap, Kevin Robinson Jr. and Dan Engelstad - had previous Division I assistant coaching experience before coming to the Mount.

Additionally, Brown (Howard) and Dunlap (Old Dominion) played on the Division I level while Farrelly (St. Joseph's, as a walk-on) and Dorsett (George Mason) did the same. All four also played for a team that made at least one NCAA Tournament appearance.

Another notable aspect of this hiring is the fact that Dorsett is black. Like it or not, the Mount, like most schools, needed at least one black coach on staff. That statement is not to be confused with the proclamation that Dorsett is a token hire, which is clearly not the case. He is more than qualified and will be great addition and potentially the cornerstone of Burke's assistants.

Dorsett made an NCAA appearance as a member of Jim Larranaga's George Mason squad in 1999 and was a team captain in his final three seasons. For one season before joining the BSU Bulldogs he was an assistant at Division II Mount Olive College. He has previous head coaching experience on the high school level and, as mentioned previously, also served as an assistant at Longwood University.

What this also means, quite obviously, is that Greg Paulus will not be brought on staff. Reports were the Paulus initiated contact with Burke, not the other way around, and was given serious consideration for a position on Burke's staff as recently as this week.

To summarize, Henry brings experience from a successful Big East program as well as a familiarity with Burke from his days as an assistant under John Thompson III.

Dorsett won a conference championship at the Division I level, has served as an assistant on various college levels and has head coaching experience, albeit on the high school level.

And Farrelly played for a St. Joseph's University program in the pinnacle of its success with two future NBA starters. Additionally, he appears to have been a prominent member of the Hoop Group staff for three years.

Interestingly enough, the makeup of Burke's program very closely mirrors that of the one Brown employed in his seven years as the Mount head coach. In addition to the fact that all of the returning players were Brown's recruits, Burke and Brown are also fairly close in age and both employed three young assistants for their staff. This may continue the cycle of comfort and trust between the players and their young coaches, and hopefully lead to a smooth transition to the Burke era.

It appears that Burke took a very reasonable amount of time - 41 days - to compile a staff with great potential. Although there are a number of question marks entering his first season as head coach in Emmitsburg, it does not appear that he has created any additional reasons for significant skepticism than would have already existed with any new coach.

Follow Dorsett on Twitter

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The final piece of the puzzle that many of us are eagerly awaiting to take shape is the use of the remaining two scholarships. I agree, Richard, that it could be best to eat the two scholarships and use them with an entire year of recruiting as opposed to picking up a borderline player late in the process. I do, however, think that at least one of them will be used and as I get more concrete information on the subject I'll post it.

Additionally, I know very little of the upcoming schedule; a tentative one does not even exist as of a week ago. I'm not saying there are no non-conference games on the docket, just that there is not an actual piece of paper that lists them all yet that has been made available.

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Lastly, and probably least importantly to you all, is that I verbally agreed to take a job on Tuesday. I'll write a post on it when I get a chance for anyone who is interested. Thanks for all your support and reading.

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Tweet of the Night during the first half of the NBA Finals from Michael Jordan's son, Marcus: "@SASBMJ NO ONE...And I mean NO ONE should EVER com par kobe Bryant to my dad an say that he is anywhere near close to my dad He's jagging this game"

And hopefully no one compares Marcus's grammar to that of a fourth grader. Twitter or not - he would lose.

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Interesting fact: My dad turned 50 yesterday - along with Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho". Who else had a birthday yesterday? 2Pac Shakur (the best rapper of all-time), Phil Mickelson (best left-handed golfer of all-time) and Dana Collins - a fellow class of 2009 graduate, who pole vaulted for the Mount track team. I'm glad to know that my dad is in good company for birthday celebrations even if 2Pac couldn't make dinner!

BREAKING: Burke hires Hoop Group's Farrelly / Bye bye Burrell

According to a source, head coach Robert Burke has selected and hired Mike Farrelly, formerly a Hoop Group employee, as an assistant coach.


Farrelly has been a Director of Hoop Group ELITE for three years after coaching stops at Wilkes University as well as his alma mater, St. Joseph's University, according to the Hoop Group Web site. Farrelly was a three-year member of the Hawks team from 2000 - 2003 that featured Jameer Nelson of the Orlando Magic and Delonte West of the Cleveland Cavaliers. In Farrelly's time the team won two Atlantic 10 championships and made two NCAA tournament appearances.


This leaves the door open for one more assistant to join Burke's staff. According to an additional source, one of the four previous candidates mentioned on this blog was contacted recently about the vacant positions, although the source asked that that person's identity not be revealed. Since that person was not hired today, nor were they informed that they were out of the running for a position, it seems that Burke is on the verge of filling out his staff. As it has been 39 days since Burke was hired, this has been a perfectly reasonable amount of time to select a new staff as I explained earlier this month.


Farrelly, who turns 29 July 13, appeared in 31 games in three seasons with the Hawks.


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One additional note involving one-time Mount signee Justin Burrell. It appears all but official (although it may be official by now) that the Mount staff has given up on retaining the point guard, who will likely take his talents to prep school and explore options outside of Emmitsburg.


Other recruits have been seen visiting campus although it is unclear whether any additional offers have been extended.