Hayden Rooke-Ley has stepped up into even more of a scoring role for Williams, with 31 first-half points and 43 overall in Tuesday night's game at RPI. Williams athletics photo

Kevin App, Williams College’s new men’s basketball coach, is taking the old with the new.

App took over the head coaching position in July after coach Mike Maker went to Marist to assume the head position. The choice of App at the helm by Williams was a natural one in that App had served as an assistant for the Ephs during the 2008-09 season.

In between App’s stints at Williams, he was an assistant at his alma mater Cornell (N.Y.) and an assistant at Army for the four years previous to his return to Eph country.

While App was not surprised that Maker had taken the head coaching job at Marist, the interest from his old team in the middle of the summer, he told me by phone, was unexpected.

“When it gets later into the summer and all that, you don’t think any movement is going to happen at that point, so that was a little bit of a surprise. … Having been [there previously] I felt very comfortable with the program and the town and the school … so that allowed it to be a not very tense situation,” App said.

Yet, there was some tension or tightness among the players early on this year, specifically in the first two games, which the Ephs lost to Southern Vermont and Oneonta State. App chalked up those early losses to lack of practice time and the fact that the seniors on the team were trying to be perfect in their new roles as team leaders.

“Our leaders, who are seniors, wanted to be great right away,” App said. “They wanted every shot to go in. You know, I’m a new coach here — I wanted to get my first victory. There was just way too much tension on the team. So we just talked about loosening up and relaxing.”

And relax or perform is what the Ephs did. Since their Nov. 18 loss to Oneonta State, Williams has rattled off six straight wins, the most decisive of which was over Johnson State, 94-59.

That win was not only big in margin but also big in relieving some of the pressure, especially from App, who got his first win as the head coach of Williams. There was no Gatorade bath or celebration. “There was just a big deep breath for everybody,” he said.

“I told the team after the second game [that] we kind of looked like, you know, a new couple at a coffee shop, trying to get a feel for one another.”

The deep breath and the tension-lifting have Williams playing some good ball. Over the last six-game stretch, the Ephs are shooting roughly 49 percent from the field, 44 percent from 3-point land, averaging 17 assists and 86 points per game, with an average margin of victory of 14. They are of course still playing their non-conference schedule and have only beaten two teams (Wesleyan and Union) with records currently over .500 and have only played three, but for good teams tune-ups come in all shapes and sizes.

The things this Williams team is trying to fine-tune are shooting and ball movement, the cornerstones of their offensive style.

“Offensively, my philosophy is very similar to what it has been,” App said. “We want to put pressure on the defense with our spacing and our ball movement. We have guys that are very skilled, that can really shoot the basketball …”

Some of those skilled shooters are senior guard Hayden Rooke-Ley, who is averaging 23.2 points per game and shooting 47 percent from the 3-point line. Joining Rooke-Ley in Williams’ talented backcourt are fellow senior Daniel Wohl (16.9 points per game) and sophomore Mike Greenman (12.2). On the inside, in their motion, Princeton-style offense, the Ephs rely on another senior, 6-7 forward Ryan Kilcullen, who is adding 11 points and grabbing 7.6 rebounds per game this season. 

While App had much praise to give his three seniors (Rooke-Ley, Wohl and Kilcullen), he also has been impressed with the play of freshman guards Chris Galvin and Cole Teal, as well as sophomore guard Daniel Aronowitz, who is the fifth-leading scorer on the team at 10.8.

Coach App is very aware of what the Ephs have done well, especially in the last six years, with three Final Four appearances and two appearances in the national title game, including a 75-73 loss to UW-Whitewater last year. Because of that success, App is more interested in trying to preserve the tradition than knocking the walls down and building anew.

“I’m coming into a program with a rich and great tradition, so I don’t know if there’s any new tradition,” App said. “I want to continue the tradition of Williams basketball, you know, a team that competes at a high level on the court, is respected and well-liked in the community and maintains that balance that we talk about here at Williams…

“I don’t need to build a tradition. I need to continue it and educate the new guys that come into it on what the tradition is. ”

The Ephs will try to continue that successful tradition at Springfield this Saturday and preserve their New England Small College Athletic Conference winning-ways vs. Trinity (Conn.) on Jan. 9.

It’s a start for Clarkson

The Clarkson men are 6-0 so far this season, beating nearby Potsdam State, 67-61, in the Golden Knights’ most recent win Tuesday.

The men’s unblemished record should be referred to as just a start because of the weak to mediocre schedule the Golden Knights have played so far, with SUNY-Canton (3-2) being the best team record-wise that they’ve played.

Then again, Clarkson’s early record might also be the start of improvement upon last year’s relative success, at least in-conference. The Golden Knights were 10-6 in the Liberty League last season, in a four-way tie for third place. 

They’ve still got senior forward John Coleman, scoring 20.3 points per game this season, and junior guard Felix Abongo at 13.2. 

On Jan. 9, though, Clarkson’s got something else — Hobart, at the four-time reigning Liberty League champs’ place. We’ll see.