Before the season started, Bashir Mason printed out statistics from last year’s team. It included how well Wagner played offensively — the third-highest scoring team in the Northeast Conference — but also how poor it was on the defensive end, a major factor in the Seahawks winning just 10 games and finishing eighth in the NEC.
The point? To show them how little their point totals meant if they couldn’t stop the opposition.
“If we could really start to defend, become one of the top defensive teams in the league, it would put us in a position to win a lot more games,” Mason said in a phone interview. “We started to work on defense. Guys bought into it. Once they had a little success with it, they committed even more.”
Despite being picked to finish sixth in the NEC, Wagner (22-9) won its second conference title, and now, the top-seeded Seahawks will play for their first NCAA Tournament bid Tuesday night, when they host No. 2 Fairleigh Dickinson (17-14) at the Spiro Sports Center on Staten Island. The two teams split the season series, each winning on the other’s home court.
Mason’s defensive principles were instilled in him in high school, when he played for current Rhode Island coach Danny Hurley at St. Benedict’s Prep in Newark. His team was loaded, full of Division I prospects and a future NBA player in Cavaliers guard J.R. Smith.
“In order for me to get on the court with those guys, I had to be committed to playing defense. There weren’t many shots,” said the 32-year-old Mason, in his fourth season as Wagner’s head coach. “Danny nicknamed me ‘The General.’ My job was to get everybody shots and just be a rock for the team, and I really bought into that role.”
His team has dedicated itself to the defensive end. Wagner was first in the league in points allowed (63.2), field-goal defense (40 percent), rebounding margin (plus 7.5) and second in 3-point defense (32 percent). In two NEC Tournament games, Wagner limited No. 6 LIU Brooklyn and No. 8 Robert Morris to 41 percent shooting or less and a combined 1-for-24 from 3-point range.
It is one reason, in addition to the development of sophomore guards Corey Henson, JoJo Cooper, Aaren Edmead and Romone Saunders, as well as JUCO transfer Michael Carey, Wagner won the conference, despite not having a single player on the All-NEC first team and being expected to finish in the second half of the conference.
“We felt people around the league didn’t think we had good enough players,” Mason said. “We brought that up throughout the year where we were picked.”