Onus on writers to change Hall of Fame process

Julia A. Gavlick

First Posted: 1/21/2014 Winless in the first two games of the new semester, King&#8217;s opened the third game back with mistakes by its two senior captains.
Both Joe Caffrey and Kyle Hammonds missed layups in the opening two minutes of a non-conference game at Muhlenberg. Monarchs coach J.P. Andrejko called timeout and let them have it.
After 40 minutes? Hammonds had 32 points, Caffrey had 19 and the Monarchs had the first of four wins headed into tonight&#8217;s 8 p.m. showdown against rival Wilkes at Scandlon Gymnasium.
&#8220;The next day in practice, I thanked both of them for screwing up,&#8221; Andrejko joked. &#8220;When your younger players see that you&#8217;re chewing out your senior captains, it just goes down the line.&#8221;
King&#8217;s has managed to find a rhythm this month thanks in large part to its senior leaders. The Colonels, meanwhile, are hoping to get on track despite missing a senior captain of their own in Pat Furst.
The Monarchs resumed Freedom Conference play last week with wins over DeSales and Eastern while the Colonels lost to Delaware Valley and Manhattanville.
But a win by the Colonels tonight on North Main would pull them even with their crosstown foes in the league standings.
&#8220;It&#8217;s hard for us to establish an identity when &#8230; we&#8217;re not sure who should be in, who should be out in (a given) situation,&#8221; Wilkes coach Jerry Rickrode said after the DelVal game. &#8220;Pat Furst, not having him out there hurts us because he&#8217;s a good triggerman and keeps the guys together a little bit.
&#8220;But our identity&#8217;s gotta kind of be &#8212; keep people out of the lane on defense. Play a prevent-type of defense. And offensively, we&#8217;ve just got to work the ball until we get a high-percentage shot. By anybody. We post up anybody.&#8221;
King&#8217;s had been 5-6 overall before this win streak, with the team feeding off of the play of its veteran guards. Caffrey leads the Monarchs in assists and steals while ranking second in scoring behind Hammonds, who was just named Freedom Conference Player of the Week for the second straight time.
The chemistry between the two has been a big factor in sparking the team.
&#8220;Fantastic,&#8221; Andrejko said. &#8220;I&#8217;m telling you, four years they&#8217;ve been playing together &#8230; they know each other&#8217;s games so well. They know where each other likes the ball, they know where they&#8217;re going to be able to score from. Also important is they understand what we&#8217;re trying to do.
&#8220;For these two, it&#8217;s all clicking for them right now.&#8221;
Wilkes has had 10 different players in the starting lineup so far, with senior Steve Blish making his first start on Saturday.
For the Colonels, the key moving forward will be developing an identity, according to Rickrode.
&#8220;I don&#8217;t mean an identity like in the offense or the defense that we play,&#8221; Rickrode said. &#8220;Maybe it&#8217;s getting some of these guys to establish an identity in what they can and can&#8217;t do. I don&#8217;t know if we&#8217;re really 100 percent bought-in yet on what everybody&#8217;s role should be. As a result, you&#8217;ll get a turnover here and there because somebody&#8217;s trying to do something they can&#8217;t do.
&#8220;We can&#8217;t do that. There&#8217;s no room for error.&#8221;
Looking for a spark
On the women&#8217;s side, King&#8217;s and Wilkes will tip off first today at 6 p.m. with both teams looking for their first league win of the season.
The Lady Colonels snapped a four-game skid overall Monday with a big second-half surge against Penn State Hazleton. Wilkes guard Elena Stambone leads the Freedom Conference in scoring at 19.9 points per game, but the Lady Colonels don&#8217;t want every game to to fall on her shoulders.
&#8220;We&#8217;re trying to get to the point where more players are accepting bigger roles so she doesn&#8217;t feel that pressure,&#8221; Wilkes coach Chris Heery said last week. &#8220;We need to move the ball quicker inside-out and we need to get more scoring from our post.&#8221;
King&#8217;s opened 2014 with a road win at Gwynedd-Mercy but wasn&#8217;t able to build off of it.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve just not been able to continue to string two or three good efforts together,&#8221; King&#8217;s coach Brian Donoghue said. &#8220;It&#8217;s been the same broken record. We&#8217;ve been getting ourselves down double-digits at the half and then come roaring back. It&#8217;s happened almost like clockwork the last couple of weeks. We&#8217;re not very good defensively right now.&#8221;
King&#8217;s sets fundraiser
During a Feb. 1 doubleheader against DeSales at Scandlon Gymnasium, King&#8217;s will be holding a &#8220;Play Gray Day&#8221; in support of Donoghue, who was diagnosed with brain cancer last summer.
During the games, the school will be accepting donations and selling T-shirts and candy, with all proceeds going to the Donoghue family.
For more information on how to help, visit kingscollegeathletics.com.

King’s, Wilkes ready to clash