Men's Basketball Preview Part 6: Detroit

Nov. 15, 2004

This is the sixth in a nine-part series on the 2004-05 Horizon League men's basketball season. Each weekday leading up to the season opener on Nov. 16, www.horizonleague.org will profile a League men's basketball team, beginning with the team picked ninth in the preseason poll on Wednesday, Nov. 3, and ending with the preseason favorite on Tuesday, Nov. 16. The regular season will tip off on Nov. 16, when Wright State plays at Tulsa in the Preseason National Invitation Tournament. All stories are courtesy of their respective school's sports information office.

2004-05 Detroit Titans Outlook

There may well be college basketball coaches who dread the annual arrival of Graduation Day, simply because of the wide swath it can cut through their rosters. Just don't count Detroit's Perry Watson among them.

Despite the fact that his 2004 team graduated four senior starters, Watson looks forward to the new campaign with both optimism and high expectations. And as a veteran of 11 seasons - plus a total of 213 career victories - with the Titans, Watson ought to know best how his team will fare this season. UDM, as always, will be built around defense and rebounding.

"If we play our style of tight defense, solid rebounding and unselfishness on the offensive end, things usually turn out well for us," coach Watson noted. "Defense and rebounding are what we do well. It's not a glamorous part of the game unless you're Ben Wallace, but our guys have bought into it."

It's a formula that has worked before. A year ago, Detroit finished 10th in the nation in points allowed, a stingy 59.6 per game, while also standing 46th in field goal percentage defense (.410). UDM led the Horizon League in both departments.

Before too much time passes, the Titans also figure to find the firepower necessary to make a run at an eighth straight season of at least 18 victories. Two returning players from last year's 19-11 squad that finished in a Horizon League fourth-place tie remain critical to future success.

First, there's 6-9 junior center Ryvon Covile, a second-team all-league selection in the pre-season, who started all 30 games as a sophomore. The other is 5-10 senior point guard James Thues, who started 18 times last season before coming off the bench down the stretch. Both of them were voted to the Horizon League coaches' 2004 All-Defensive Team.

A reserve as a freshman, Covile really blossomed a year ago, allowing Detroit the luxury of a true center in the middle of its lineup. He set a school single-season record for field goal percentage (.637), pushed his scoring average to 8.1 ppg and was second on the team in rebounding at 5.0 rpg. He also finished third in the conference in blocked shots (1.3). He was voted second-team All-Horizon League in pre-season balloting by league coaches, sports information directors and members of the media.

Covile's return will definitely help ease the loss of his frontcourt running mates from last winter, forwards Willie Wallace and Elijah Warren, the 2004 Titans' top scorer (11.6) who earned second-team all-league honors at season's end.

"Ryvon really only played one year of high school basketball, and it was only a matter of time before things started to click for him," Watson noted. "It all starts with his willingness to learn and listen."

While Covile will serve as the cornerstone of Detroit's interior, Thues is ready to anchor the perimeter. He began last season - his first at UDM following two years at Syracuse - in the starting lineup, then took over in a Sixth Man's role once he got back from an early February ankle injury. Thues paced the Titans in assists (3.6), ended up second in the Horizon League in steals (1.9), and is Detroit's top returning scorer after averaging 8.4 points a game as a junior. He was third among the Titans in both three-point field goal percentage (.356) as well as triples per game (1.2).

"James did a lot of good things for us last year," Watson praised. "He steals the basketball, he makes shots, he gets into the paint and he passes the ball well. When he does those things, it makes us a better team. James is a guy who can change a game around."

Given the presence of his two key veterans, Watson has to find the remaining pieces to fit in around them. Forwards Warren and Wallace (8.9 ppg) and guards Jimmy Twyman (9.0) and Rulon Harris (8.9) left big shoes to fill, considering they took care of a whopping 58.4 percent of Detroit's scoring on a nightly basis in 2004.

Candidates will come from both last season's group of reserves as well as a solid cast of newcomers.

Forward Torvoris Baker, a 6-7 junior, played all 30 games a year ago off the bench. A former junior college transfer, Baker averaged 5.4 points and 4.8 rebounds (third-best on the team), while trailing only Covile with his .529 field goal percentage. Baker figures to be better with a year at the Division I level under his belt. Another possibility is 6-9 senior Clarke Headen, who has shaken off two major knee injuries since the start of his career. Headen saw action in 20 games a year ago. Junior forward David Dedvukaj is also back in the frontcourt picture.

Springy Ben Green, a junior swingman, will also contribute heavily. Like Baker, Green averaged almost 20 minutes of court time last season, and he scored 4.4 points a game while grabbing 3.5 rebounds. Though just 6-4, Green was second on the team with 10 blocked shots, trailing only Covile in that department. His cousin, Willie Green, is a former Horizon League Player of the Year who was a rookie last winter with the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Titans also have three holdover guards to call on in the form 6-0 sophomore Jonathan Kelly, his 6-4 classmate Muhammad Abdur-Rahim - his brother Shareef plays for the Portland Trail Blazers - and 6-4 freshman Zach Everingham, who played only three games last season before going to the sidelines with a wrist injury. Though still not completely seasoned, each of the three youngsters can bring an All-State resume to the table and they will have a chance to help the 2005 Titans. Freshman Jon Goode, who redshirted last winter, is still another backcourt possibility who was with the Titans a year ago.

Along with his lettermen, Watson also has four key newcomers in the fold, and each boasts the credentials to have a say in Detroit's hopes for success this season.

Two of them - 6-7 forward Chuck Bailey and 6-0 guard Brandon Cotton - are transfers from the Big Ten. A former teammate of Thues' on Detroit King's 1999 city championship team, Bailey played two seasons at Michigan prior to arriving at UDM. He already has 57 college games under his belt, and averaged 3.1 points and 2.3 rebounds in his two years combined at U-M. Bailey has the ability to help Detroit both in the post and on the perimeter.

Cotton will be eligible to join the active roster at the end of the fall semester, and should provide an immediate impact. A 2003 Parade and McDonald's All-American at Detroit DePorres, Cotton averaged 26.7 points and 4.3 assists as a senior while leading his team to the state Class C championship. He was runner-up for the state's Mr. Basketball Award, and played three games at Michigan State before transferring to UDM. Cotton is one of the most decorated players ever to land on a Horizon League roster. He was tabbed league Newcomer of the Year by Street & Smith's Basketball in the pre-season.

From the junior college ranks, Watson brought in 6-8 center-forward Ethan Shaw, Kelly's former Detroit Finney High School teammate. A year ago, Shaw helped Iowa Western Community College to its best record in nine years, 25-8, along with a berth in the NJCAA Region XI championship game. He averaged 6.4 points, 4.7 rebounds and a team-best 2.2 blocks as a sophomore and will definitely help solidify Detroit's frontcourt.

The Titans round out their recruiting class with one true freshman, 6-5 guard Shawn Morgan, from Hillside High School in Memphis. A tremendous athlete, Morgan was an honorable mention all-state choice as a senior and also excelled in track and field for his high school.

Together, this is a group capable of keeping Detroit in the Horizon League championship chase. Some veterans are gone, some faces are new but, when the Detroit Titans are involved, nothing will change in 2005 where lofty goals are concerned.