When John Dunne took over as the head men’s basketball coach at St. Peter’s College in 2006, the first team he coached won all of five games.
A year later, the Peacocks were vastly improved. They won six games.
“It was very frustrating,” Dunne said referring to those first two seasons. “Of course, you question yourself when you go through seasons like that, but it was never a question of whether you were playing the game the right way. You just wanted to win so badly, but when you’re losing, you start to micromanage everything. You wonder about the day-to-day routines, whether you’re practicing long enough. I was fortunate to have people like Bill Stein [the former athletic director] and Pat Elliott [SPC’s current AD], who were always supportive of me.”
Dunne’s second season featured a team of talented freshmen, kids like Ryan Bacon, Nick Leon and Wesley Jenkins, a group of kids who managed to defeat Rutgers at the Jersey City Armory early in the season and not much else. In fact, during one stretch of that season, the Peacocks lost an ungodly 18 straight games.
“It was definitely tough,” said Bacon, a product of Maplewood who played for Danny Hurley at St. Benedict’s Prep. “We knew that we had the talent that could turn this program around. But after our freshman year, we all could have left, transferred, gone somewhere else.”
Jenkins, who came to Harvard on the Boulevard after a highly successful career at Bloomfield Tech, where he played for current Hudson Catholic head coach Nick Mariniello, took a gamble on young coach Dunne and the floundering SPC program.
Jenkins was an All-State performer at Bloomfield Tech and could have headed to the college of his choice after high school, but he signed on with Dunne and SPC. But Jenkins wasn’t used to enduring 6-24 seasons, especially 18-game losing streaks.
“After my freshman year, everyone was in my ear about transferring,” Jenkins said. “But I’m a loyal guy and I don’t quit. I was going to stay no matter what. I came from a winning program. I never lost 18 straight games. But it would have been too easy for me to walk away. I’d have to sit out a year and not play, sit behind someone else for a while. I came to St. Peter’s to play. I didn’t want to leave. I figured you had to lose before you could win.”
So instead of bailing, Jenkins, Bacon and Leon all stayed at St. Peter’s. They had faith in Dunne and faith in the program.
“The main reason why we stayed was our togetherness,” Bacon said. “We stuck together and stuck it out.”
There was improvement the following season, with the Peacocks winning 11 games, then 16 last season, although there was a sense of disappointment at the end of last season, losing four of their last six games, including the opening round of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament to Rider.
“We ended last year on a bit of a negative note,” Dunne said. “But because of our senior leadership, we felt good about the season coming in.”
The good feelings disappeared long before the 2010-11 season would begin. In a preseason workout, Jenkins suffered what appeared to be a devastating knee injury. It looked as if the Peacocks’ season was over before it actually started, losing the team’s leading scorer for the last three seasons and a member of the school’s all-time scoring list.
“A whole lot was going through my mind,” Jenkins said. “When the doctor told me that my ACL was torn, I didn’t know what to think. I called my mother and cried. I just wanted to be by myself.”
Jenkins saw another doctor who recommended that he would not require season-ending reconstructive surgery; that he could get by with just a rigorous rehabilitation.
“I actually felt blessed to hear that news,” Jenkins said. “I just had to keep rehabbing the knee to get it stronger.”
When the season officially began in November, Jenkins was on the sidelines and missed the first four games, including an awful 55-30 at Robert Morris and two losses in the Paradise Jam tourney in the U.S. Virgin Islands. But the Peacocks somehow managed to defeat Alabama in the consolation round, a win that gave the team a lot of confidence.
When the Peacocks returned home from the trip, Jenkins was ready to go. He had a good game against LIU to begin his season, but disaster struck again right before the Peacocks were slated to face Rutgers in Piscataway. Jenkins re-injured the same knee.
“The second time, I definitely thought it was over,” Jenkins said. “The whole team thought it as well.”
However, Jenkins only suffered a hyperextension of the knee, which put him to the sidelines for a second time, this time for three games.
“I dodged two bullets,” Jenkins said. “I’m just blessed to still be playing.”
During the course of the season, the Peacocks lost to Rider, twice to Fairfield and twice by lopsided fashion to Iona. These were all teams that the Peacocks were going to have to face in the MAAC Tournament at the Webster Bank Arena at Harbor Yard in Bridgeport, Conn. last weekend.
“I thought there were a group of talented teams and I thought we were one of them,” said Dunne, whose 17-13 team was the No. 4 seed entering the MAAC Tourney. “We lost to Iona [73-59 on Feb. 25 at SPC’s Yanitelli Center] and took three steps back, but I was so proud of the way we played against Rider [another loss, this time 75-72] right before the tourney.”
The Peacocks first disposed of Loyola of Maryland in the first round, then had to face top-seeded Fairfield, a team that annihilated the Peacocks, 70-43, earlier in the season, and lost by a point in overtime at home a few weeks ago, in the semifinals.
But somehow, the Peacocks stormed out to a 25-point lead, taking a commanding and startling 40-15 lead into the locker room at halftime.
In the second half, the wheels started to come off in a big way and the Stags came marching back. The 25-point advantage was whittled down to just six.
“It was really hard watching the lead go,” Dunne said. “I didn’t know how to react. I just tried to stay calm.”
“It was one of those times where the minutes felt like hours,” said senior Jeron Belin, who was the Peacocks’ leading scorer in six of their final eight games, including the MAAC Tournament contests. “At one point in the second half, I looked up at the clock and it read nine minutes. Then, we were playing for a while and I looked again and it read seven. I said to myself, ‘How is the clock not moving?”
But Belin scored two straight baskets, one on a relentless drive where his shot was actually blocked twice and he stayed with it, and the Peacocks held on for the 62-48 victory and a return date with Iona for the MAAC title. Iona had defeated the Peacocks twice, once by 18 points, the other by 14 and neither game was close nor was competitive.
“I tried to find some balance,” Dunne said. “I knew that if we played the game at our pace, we could give ourselves a chance. That the pressure was on them.”
“We all felt that it was hard to beat a team three times,” Leon said. “We proved that with Fairfield and we thought the same thing against Iona. We had so much confidence that no one was going to beat us.”
Sure enough, the Peacocks turned the tide on the Gaels and came away with a 62-57 victory, clinching the MAAC Championship and earning the school’s first berth in the NCAA Tournament, known as March Madness and the Grand Dance, since 1995.
“The Miracle on Montgomery” was complete. This group of seniors went from being a six-win team with 18 straight losses as freshmen to league champs and headed to the Grand Dance as seniors.
“Who would have thought it was possible?” Leon said. “We’re going to the NCAA. It doesn’t matter who we get. We’re going. It’s not about the size of the school. It’s the size of our hearts.”
“Thirty years from now, we can sit back and still not believe what we did,” said Belin, who was named the Most Valuable Player of the MAAC Tournament. “But we did it.”
“I woke up [Tuesday morning] and I still had the TV on,” Bacon said. “And as soon as I woke up, the highlights were on ESPN. It really didn’t hit me until I saw the highlights and saw St. Peter’s College on ESPN. I had people who don’t even talk to me coming up and congratulating me. It’s amazing that we’re going to be on the big stage, playing a big school.”
The two biggest national experts, CBS Sports.com’s Bracket Insider, has the Peacocks headed to Charlotte as the No. 14 seed and facing North Carolina in the first round. ESPN’s Bracketology has the Peacocks going to Chicago as the No. 15 seed facing Notre Dame. Yes, those are certainly big schools.
For the kid who thought his season ended twice, there was no greater feeling.
“You have to have a story in your life,” Jenkins said. “Everyone has to have a story. This is my story. We have one. The whole four years, the losing, getting hurt, it was all worth it. Everything happens for a reason. The bottom line is, we won.”
And for the young coach, in his first head coaching job, who thought he might have done the wrong thing in taking the SPC job five years ago, there were no words to describe the emotions.
“It was surreal, like was it really happening?” Dunne said. “It was euphoria. I was so happy for these guys, so happy for St. Peter’s College, the fans, the alumni. No question, I’m a happy man.”
That’s because Dunne got to live, got to experience “The Miracle on Montgomery.” And this one, unlike the championships in 1991 and 1995, was truly one that no one saw coming. – Jim Hague
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.