Senior leadership is a common catchphrase for coaches, but seldom can it be measured in the way this Westfield State men's basketball team has captured the essence of it.
After spending the semester break pondering a four-game losing streak and a pedestrian 5-5 record, the Owls hit a turning point on January 6, when they rallied from a late-seven point deficit to beat Regis College, the capper coming on a Grant Cooper steal and layup for a three-point play that gave the Owls the lead for good with less than a minute left in the game.
Armed with a starting lineup that included all five of the team's seniors, and a will to win, the Owls launched on a streak of 15 wins in 16 games, rolling through the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference with an 11-1 record, winning the post season tournament, and earning the school's first NCAA Tournament bid since 1993 and a date with the fourth-ranked team in the country, Babson College, on Friday night.
With three four-year members of the Owls in Cooper, and "The Dan's" Tessier and Johnson, and two transfers in Robby Jones and Andre King, the Owls have built a heavyweight contender that will battle to the end to unseat their opponent this weekend.
"It's been unbelievable; it's been a ride you know," said Cooper of his four year experience at Westfield State. "Being able to grow with these guys, learn from the guys before me, and try to take what they taught me and pass it on to the younger guys has been a ride."
"It's been awesome - the best four years of my life for sure," said Johnson.
"I have loved it here," said Tessier. "A lot of ups and downs, but Coop, Johnson and I came in and stuck it out for four years. Made great friendships . . . a lot of great kids came through the door . . . I've loved every minute . . . especially the championship . . . it's all worth it" added Tessier in a stream of consciousness.
Undeniably, these Owls have talent. Cooper is all-everything. First team all-conference, tournament MVP, seventh all-time leading scorer in the program's history, and more accolades will certainly follow. He's averaging better than 17 points and nine rebounds a game, and still finds time to dish out more than three assists a night to his teammates.
King joined him on the league's first team, dropping 16 points a game in his lone season with the Owls as a senior transfer from Division II St. Anselm College. He hands out better than three assists a night and shoots at a 40 percent clip from downtown.
Jones was named to the league's second team, as he and King formed the league's, and perhaps New England's strongest backcourt. For the year he averages 11 points and two steals a game, but clearly was at his best in conference play where he finished with a kick, averaging nearly 14 game against league foes.
""We're not talking about the success of the other three without those two," said Sutter.
Those two are The Dans. The same first name has made them largely inseparable, whether in talking about one without the other, or even seeing one without the other on campus.
"Playing with The Dans for the four years has been unbelievable," said Cooper. "They are great teammates and we have become best friends off the court as well."
On the court Dan Johnson has been a dangerous three-point threat, drilling 51 treys and shooting 42 percent from beyond the arc.
"No one has grown in our program – EVER – like Dan Johnson," said Sutter. "He was the 19th man on an 18-man team as a freshman and he stuck it out."
"As a freshman I wasn't even on the team for like the first two months," said Johnson. "I had a girls' team jersey, girls' shorts on . . . finally about halfway through the year coach Sutter came up to me and said congratulations you're on the team. Ever since then I felt like I had something to prove."
Johnson spends hours in the Woodward Center, shooting and working out.
"It clears my mind when I come in here. I put my headphones in. I like to be by myself and shooting, I think about different scenarios in the game, it's kind of therapeutic. I used to do it a lot as a kid. It's nice to come in and shoot."
"Dan Tessier gets the toughest cover on the other team every single night," said Sutter. "He's one of the best defenders I have ever coached. At the end of the night when you look at the box score he shows up in a lot of categories."
It seems every good team has a glue guy. Someone who doesn't always show up in the scorebook, but makes everyone around him better.
When asked about his role on the team, Tessier readily agrees.
"I'm pretty much the glue guy," he said with a grin. "I grew accustomed to it; sometimes I'll score 10 points, sometimes I don't. I'm rebounding - try get some steals, play some defense - do the little stuff we need to do, dive on the floor, the other stuff guys don't wanna do."
But at the turn of the new year, this team had a lot of work to do.
"We had a four-game losing streak," said Sutter. "It was against good teams, good competition (turns out that three of the four made the NCAA Tournament field), and we got punched right in the mouth, and I think that surprised them.
"I gave the five seniors starting roles, and told them it was an experiment, but it was their job to close the door – and that was the first step."
"The first part of season was experimental – trying to find lineups, organize offense and defense," said King. "Once coach figured that he was gonna start the five seniors , we really jelled together, we were able to buy in to the system, and play defense and the rest just fell together."
"Second half of the year Coach put a lot of trust in us to put all five of us in the starting lineup," said Cooper. "Over the preseason we all worked together, we all knew it was our last chance so it was kinda special to for us to all be in there at the same time and working hard together."
The win on a cold January night over Regis proved to be a turning point in a number of ways. The Pride themselves proved to be a NCAA Tournament team and a quality win, and after the game, Jones and Sutter conferred on his role with the team.
"Robby's progression is one of the main factors that led us to the MASCAC title," said Sutter. "He came to me at the front of the bus after the Regis game, and we had a really frank discussion. He could have laid down, but he responded instead, and that's all we try to teach."
"After the Regis game I was playing terribly, and I was frustrated and felt like I wasn't being played as much as I should," said Jones. "But after the conversation we saw eye to eye and he actually gave me the opportunity to play, it basically fit the piece into the puzzle. With Dre playing the one (point guard), he's been efficient. And me playing the two and scoring the ball and playing defense has helped the team."
While King and Jones swapped roles on the floor, the two both had similar experiences in transferring into Westfield.
"It was a little bit tough at first as Jordan Santiago was the lead guard on the floor when I arrived, but the team was easy to blend with," said Jones. "Everyone was open and friendly welcomed me in as if it were my freshman year. The biggest factor in transferring to Westfield (from Columbia-Greene Community College in New York) was my family. Being a local kid from Chicopee I thought it would be great for my family to be able to watch me play my last two years of college, and it saved me a lot of money as well."
"It's always tough to come into an established situation like this," said King. "I knew they had four established seniors and I had to be careful the way I integrate my game and try to mold and play with them – see what they needed and add on to that."
Why did King chose Westfield?
"Playing time," said King. "At St. Anselm's I wasn't playing much. I was given opportunities, but sometimes it's just the wrong team, the wrong player, like a piece of the puzzle that doesn't fit. I knew here that Coach Sutter would give me the opportunity. I talked to him a few times when I wanted to transfer, and he was very interested and basically got the process started real quick and it made me feel very comfortable coming here. I knew there was only a slim chance that it wouldn't work out with someone like me. I'm ready to work and ready to play, and I can fit in to any type of situation."
"Robby and Dre are from around here," said Cooper. "I've known them, played basketball with them. The chemistry has always been there. We put it together and realized it's our last year and put the hard work in and it has worked out well."
"Andre came in as an accomplished player, but he also came in ready to learn," said Sutter. He's very selfless and a leader in his own right. He's reserved but ultra-competitive, and has the ability to stay calm in tight situations."
Jones and King have been the epitome of calm late in games, when they have combined to shoot better than 80 percent from the foul line, shutting the door on opponents who have been reduced to fouling to try and catch up with the Owls fast paced and pressure defense game, en route to 15 wins in 16 games.
Despite the varied paths these four have taken to help lead the Owls back to the NCAA tournament, Coach Sutter, and the will to improve provides a common thread.
"I love coach, coach is great," said Johnson. "I don't what if he's taught me more on or off the court. He's high energy, he means well, I have got nothing but love for him and he's been great for me for these four years."
"I love the guy," said Tessier of Sutter. "He's a great coach, knows a lot about basketball and helped us all grow on an off the court.'
"It's not just one thing," said Tessier. "Every part of my game has gotten better."
"Coach is very energetic and wants us to bring it 100 percent of the time and that's what we need in a coach. He's led us for the past four years and now we're in the tournament."