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!

Speculation on Burke's staff / Burrell semi-update / Mount marriages

As far as I can tell, Mount basketball head coach Robert Burke is close to officially naming the rest of his staff. What we already  know is that Matt Henry, the former director of basketball operations at Georgetown, is on staff and has already been at work in the office. We also know that Sam Atupem is on staff in some form for the time being. On the camp brochures littered around the ARCC earlier this month, Atupem was listed as the contact person for sign-ups.


That leaves two positions remaining, which may have already been filled. It is possible that Burke already has his men and just has not taken the time to announce them, but allow me to speculate anyway.


There are two important items to consider and both point to June 1 as an important date. June 1, for one, is the date at which all of the staff from the Milan Brown era will no longer be on payroll at the Mount. Despite being formally announced as assistants as Holy Cross, not everyone from Brown's staff - Brion Dunlap, Kevin Robinson Jr. and Dan Engelstad - are off the books in Emmitsburg yet.


The second important tie to June 1, and one that has been mentioned here before, is the fact that it is the date when summer classes begin for undergraduate classes at Mount St. Mary's, and the date that Burke stated in his introductory press conference that he hoped to have named at least some of his staff to begin getting acclimated with the players. With Henry and Atupem already in place, he may have satisfied that goal in his mind and be in no rush to fill the final two positions. But I would still think that Burke is taking a "sooner the better" approach and will name his assistants very soon.


As recently as last week interviews were still being conducted to fill the final two spots. Additionally, some of the candidates, if not all, had been given game film from past Mount St. Mary's games and asked to scout both the Mount and the opponent for that game, then to send the scout back to Burke.


Now comes perhaps the most interesting information regarding the salary of these assistants. I will preface this information by saying that we do not know which two positions the remaining candidates are competing for (i.e. first assistant, second assistant, third assistant) because those positions may no longer exist at the Mount. What I mean is that the assistants may not be tiered - the three assistants under Burke could all be on the same level salary-wise.


There was either a clause in Burke's contract or a bit of finagling in the aftermath that granted him a pool of money - rumored to be a sum of $145,000 - $160,000 - that he will be allowed to split up as he chooses - in this case evenly - among his staff. The benefit I see to this is that he can offer three positions with respectable pay and have a relatively deeper staff as opposed to going strong for a proven first assistant, recruiting an up-and-comer for second and hoping to get lucky with a third (you know, in case a recent Duke point guard applies. Or something like that.)


Last I heard, which was before the holiday weekend, there were at least four candidates still fighting for the final two spots. Greg Paulus, of course, was still in the running. So was Duane Simpkins, an early-1990s player at Maryland and now three years into his head coaching job at St. Alban's High School in Washington D.C. A third nominee is Ahmad Dorsett, who is an assistant at Bowie State. And the final candidate of which I have knowledge is Harold Juluke, an assistant at Tulane.


Obviously I'm rooting for Paulus, but I don't know much about the remaining three candidates other than what I can find on the Internet. The only person who has been personally vouched for to me is Dorsett. I like the thoroughness that the process is undergoing and expect to see an announcement in the near future. If I hear anything I'll be sure to post it here.


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I'm even less confident in our ability to retain Justin Burrell than I was before. In addition to the hear-say that has been passed along, there is this:


Burrell was granted a partial release from the Mount weeks ago. Essentially this means that he can re-open his recruiting under the standard rules for every other school in the nation, except for the Mount. Because of the partial, and not full, release, Burke and his staff can still contact Burrell as much as they want as if he is still signed with the team, but he's not.


Considering the Mount has full access to the one-time top-priority recruit turned prized-signee turned more-urgent-than-ever-top-priority-recruit and he still hasn't re-committed to the Mount is troubling. If he isn't announced to be back with the Mount soon (as in two weeks ago) I would expect a school in a conference that is a level above the NEC's tier (AKA the bottom tier) to scoop him up with a late scholarship opening. And if he does not get any offers he likes in the near future he could just as easily enroll in prep school and potentially boost his stock even higher next year.


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Congrats to two Mount alumni on their recent marriages. Former Mount basketball player and current William & Mary assistant Jamion Christian was recently married in Hawaii while former Mount golfer turned head coach of the same team, Kevin Farrell, was married on campus Saturday and is spending his honeymoon in Puerto Rico this week.