In March of this year, many basketball insiders questioned the sanity of Williston Park resident and former Hofstra University head basketball coach Tom Pecora.
After nine years atop metropolitan New York’s premier Division I hoops program, Pecora traded a 10-minute commute to Hempstead for an E-Z Pass over the Long Island Sound to take the helm of men’s basketball at Fordham University.
Fordham University? Five wins and 51 losses over the past two campaigns and one winning season in the past 18 years cast the Rams as the Atlantic 10 Conference doormat and virtually defined the depths of college basketball. The Rams have not seen success since Digger Phelps 1971 26-3 NCAA quintet propelled a long and illustrious career at Notre Dame followed by Tom Penders string of seven NIT bids ended with his 1985 departure to Rhode Island and Texas.
Why on earth would Pecora surrender a lifetime seat on the Pride bench to attempt a miracle resurrection at an Ivy League-quality institution in the middle of one of the city’s toughest neighborhoods? What was he thinking? If you question the decision, you do not understand Tom Pecora, New York born and bred Tom Pecora. If you don’t know the coach simply referred to as “TP,” you will soon. And much sooner than the insiders thought you would.
Last Saturday night, in front of the first sold out contest in more than six years at Fordham’s cozy 3,200 seat Rose Hill Gymnasium, TP belied his critics with the signature win of his career over perennial local icon St. John’s University – a job he was destined to attain and then passed over without an interview in lieu of Steve Lavin’s seven-year sabbatical from UCLA.
For the record, it was Fordham’s first victory over the Red Storm in more than 10 years. Down by 20 before halftime and trailing by an equal margin midway through the second half, it appeared to be another typical Ram loss. Twelve minutes later, after a pair of 16-0 runs, the Fordham faithful stormed the court in a ritual normally reserved for championships. A new day dawned in the Bronx.
This was nothing new to the down to earth Pecora, who had become adept at taking down the rivals from Queens during his tenure at Hofstra. What was remarkable was how he has begun turning a culture of defeat into a future of promise in only his ninth game (and fifth win this year- a coincidence or irony?) at Fordham.
Pecora is a basketball lifer. He was Jay Wright’s (Villanova’s current head coach) lead assistant and chief recruiter at Hofstra when they landed a diamond named Speedy Claxton and turned a dormant campus into chaos with a pair of NCAA Tournament bids not witnessed in over 20 years.
A member of Adelphi University’s Hall of Fame after graduating from Martin Van Buren High School, hoops took Pecora on a vagabond adventure including coaching stops at UNLV, Loyola Marymount, Farmingdale State and Nassau Community College. Uphill battles have never phased him – and never will.
After two consecutive trips to the NCAA tournament in 2000 and 2001, Wright bolted Hofstra to restore the legacy of the Villanova Wildcats, who had fallen on similar, but not nearly as hard, times as Pecora has inherited with the Rams.
Worse yet, Pecora assumed a team headed for a more competitive conference (the Colonial Athletic Association) based mainly in the deep South.
Pecora suffered early with a roster not nearly as athletic as it needed to be, but quickly became a force in the continually expanding CAA. Unfortunately, his greatest notoriety would not come from a conference championship, but a 2005 NCAA snub that gained national attention when CAA darling George Mason (which Hofstra had beaten thrice that season) took an at-large bid to the Final Four. A bitter pill for Pecora despite producing six twenty win seasons while recruiting four of the school’s top six leading scorers.
So you begin to see why the Fordham opportunity established another challenge for Pecora.
Rebuilding a program? No problem. Pecora, disdained by opposing coaches for virtually owning the local high school and AAU recruiting circuit, particularly for talented guards, would benefit from Fordham’s conference affiliation. The A10 is Northeast and Midwest centric, commonly gets multiple bids to the NCAA Tournament and plays the NCAA qualifying tournament at a neutral site while the CAA’s rare at-large berth is a weekend of home games for the majority of conference entrants.
Then again, it’s all about giving a college education to these kids for Pecora whose clean record in a competitive environment is exemplary. And who can refuse the merits of a Fordham degree. Getting to understand Pecora now? Just wait a few years and watch the Rams butt heads with the best in America – both academically and athletically. Saturday night was just the beginning.
Pecora expected it would take time to energize the fan base at Rose Hill, eradicate the losing mentality penetrating the attitude of returning players, convince incoming recruits and make the A10 schools take notice. There will be failures along the way before more success emerges. But Pecora’s belief, resilience and positive energy will once again prove fruitful. It may have arrived a little early and need to be tempered but the foundation has been set. Saturday was evidence of that.
This is why I sat on my couch last Saturday night and rooted long and hard for Tommy Pecora.
TP is a winner for his kids, a winner for his institution and a role model for those who need to believe good things happen to good people. A new attitude exists at Fordham University and it is Williston Park’s own Tom Pecora that fosters this.
Take a drive to Rose Hill and enjoy; Fordham’s future is bright.
