Fordham Basketball

David Duke may not have been the face of Fordham basketball, but in some ways he was the voice of the Rams.

On the recruiting trail, Duke was responsible for convincing young men to choose Rose Hill over other programs. On the radio, he was the one fans would hear on WFUV's postgame show.

Earlier this week, Fordham lost its voice.

Duke, a Rams' assistant since 2010, was named head coach of the Adelphi Panthers on Tuesday.

He takes over the Division II program after spending four years at Fordham, the last two as associate head coach.

"We are thrilled to welcome David Duke as the new Head Coach of Adelphi University men's basketball,” Danny McCabe, Adelphi’s Director of Athletics and Recreation, said in a statement released by the school on Tuesday:

David is a person of high integrity and character and he fits into the values and culture here at Adelphi. ...

His extensive experience in being part of building two college programs in the metropolitan area separated him from the rest of the candidate pool. David is known as a tireless worker and recruiter as well as a teacher of the game. He and his staff will assist our student-athletes in reaching their potential both on and off the court.

Adelphi, which plays in the Northeast-10 Conference, went 5-21 last season and 14-15 in 2012-13, but prior to that it had won 20 or more games in eight straight seasons.

This will be Duke's first head coaching job in college.

"I had been an assistant coach for the last 16 years," Duke said in a phone interview on Wednesday. "The one experience that I felt I clearly hadn't captured yet was becoming a head coach. I felt that was really important after all the time I had put in."

Duke grew up about 20 minutes from Adelphi's campus, located in Garden City, New York. After visiting the school and interviewing there, he was convinced it would be a good place for him to go.

"I know the area very well. I know the school well. I know what an incredible institution it is academically and athletically. They've had a great tradition there," he said. 

Duke's coaching career began at Hofstra, where he served as a graduate assistant for two years before being elevated to assistant coach in Jay Wright's final season with the Pride.

He joined Tom Pecora's staff when Pecora was named the head coach at Hofstra in 2001, then followed Pecora from Hofstra to Fordham in 2010.

Duke said that for the past 13 years he's spent every day with Pecora, making the decision to move on a difficult one.

"It was extremely difficult to go," he said. "Tom and I have been together for so long. You get so close with the players.

"At the end of the day, the biggest thing for me was that I had put so much time in as an assistant always trying to help everybody else in so many ways. I thought this was a great time for me to get out there and [put] my own name on something."

At Fordham, Duke developed a reputation as a strong recruiter. It's an area where the Rams, despite their struggles on the court, have found some success. 

A little over a year ago, the school landed Jon Severe, Mr. New York Basketball in 2013. Last November, Eric Paschall, the New England Prep Player of the Year this past season, announced he would be coming to Fordham. Two weeks ago, Nemanja Zarkovic signed a National Letter of Intent. Yesterday, Christian Sengfedler signed.

Duke knows what it takes to build a program, something he'll now try to do at Adelphi.

"I was a part of two turnarounds at Hofstra," he said. "I feel Fordham's in great shoes right now with the players that they have. I think this will be a nice opportunity for me to have that all under my watch and do it with my stamp on it."

As a head coach, Duke understands that he'll have even more responsibilities than he did as an assistant.

"I'm looking forward to the challenge of the X's and O's," he said. "As much as I've worked on it on my own you don't really get that opportunity until you're a head coach."

Of course, you can't really talk about Duke's promotion without mentioning what he's leaving behind.

So much of what Fordham will put on the court in 2014-15 will be a result of what he accomplished during his tenure at the school. After spending four years in the Bronx, Duke is confident that Fordham is ready to turn the corner.

He expects big things from senior Bryan Smith; he talks about the potential of Ryan Canty, Ryan Rhoomes and Travion Leonard; he points to Severe and Zarkovic; and he mentions how Antwoine Anderson and Manny Suarez, who were ineligible last season, will be in the mix.

Then there's Paschall, Fordham's prize recruit.

"Eric Paschall is a phenomenal basketball player and a phenomenal young man," Duke said. "I don't know what he can't do. He shoots the ball, he handles the ball, he's so unselfish passing the ball and he rebounds and blocks shots. He's an incredible basketball player."

One of the reasons, perhaps the biggest reason, why Fordham was able to land Paschall when so many other schools were after him, was because of the impression the coaching staff made on him and his family.

Paschall's father, Juan, told the New York Post's Zach Braziller and ESPN New York's Ian O'Connor that he believes the coaching staff will take care of his son. Zarkovic and his coach, Mike Chmielewski, said the same thing.

Duke takes great pride in forming that trust.

"That's incredibly special," he said. "I look forward to bringing that with me to Adelphi.

"In every relationship the foundation is trust. That's just being honest with people. It's a great thing to hear from the recruits and their parents."

In fact, anyone you talk to has only kind things to say about Duke. That, too, makes him proud.

"It's extremely humbling and flattering, just really nice to hear," he said. "I do my best to be the best person I can be and work as hard as I can. For people to say those things about me, it's really appreciated."

Now, the adjustment begins. After so many years as an assistant, Duke will be in charge of his own program. He said he's looking forward to the opportunity but knows it will be a challenge. For starters, he'll have to do it without having Pecora at his side. 

Duke said Pecora has been instrumental in his growth as a coach, teaching him about the game, about coaching and dealing with people. 

"He does a great job on so many different levels," Duke said about Pecora. "I've been able to see how great he is with the administration, with the alumni, just how he is dealing with people. I've been able to step back and watch.

"There are a lot of different levels in coaching. I've tried to really watch all these years as much as I could to pick up everything just to be well-rounded in this profession."

As for any advice Pecora may have given Duke during this process, the rookie head coach said he told him to be himself and to "do what comes naturally."

After he got the job Duke said that Pecora told him he deserved it and that he was "glad we spent this time together and that this opportunity came up for you."

Adelphi is a short drive from the Bronx. Though he'll have plenty to do in Garden City, Duke said he won't forget about Fordham any time soon. He plans on visiting Rose Hill when he can, and when he can't catch a game in person he'll watch on television or listen on the radio.

When asked what his greatest memories were at Fordham, he talked about the home wins against St. John's in 2010 and against Georgia Tech and Harvard in 2011.

"Those wins showed us what a special place Fordham has the ability to be," he said. 

"Fordham is an amazing place. The campus is absolutely spectacular. The academics are top-notch."

"I met so many wonderful people. I'll really miss them."

But Duke is also convinced that this was the right move to make and that Adelphi is the right place for him to be.

"Adelphi's given me a great opportunity," he said. "I'm just looking forward to doing the best job I can and hopefully getting this program up and running in the shortest amount of time possible, and having consistent success."

Quotations in this article were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted.

Charles Costello covers the Fordham Rams for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @CFCostello.

As it turns out, Fordham's basketball season never really ended—not after the Rams lost in the first round of the Atlantic 10 tournament, and not even after the University of Connecticut cut down the nets after winning the national championship.

Of course, it's no different for any other team in the country, but when the goal is to rebuild a program that hasn't had a winning season since 2006-07, that's won 39 games in six years, that's finished above .500 just once in the last 22 years, you basically have no other choice but to keep at it.

For the past few weeks, the Rams have been in the gym participating in a series of workouts, with the final one set for next Tuesday.

The workouts will resume when summer school begins, but the recent activities have given coaches and players an opportunity to get in additional work that, if you saw the way things went in 2013-14, is much needed.

For Tom Pecora, the Rams' head coach, this is the time of year when he and his staff have the opportunity to look closely at a lot of the things that they're not always able to address during the hectic season. Essentially, this is the time for player development.

"I have individual meetings with every guy," Pecora said last week when asked about what he hopes to get out of the workouts. "We talk about specific goals, what they need to work on [and] weaknesses in their game.

"The offseason is when you do that. In season, working on your weaknesses is near impossible. You can do a little bit in practice each day, but there's too much on the line to be doing that."

Last season, Fordham went 10-21 and lost its last eight regular-season games. Obviously, there's a lot of room for improvement.

Pecora likes having the time during the offseason to address the needs of individual players.

"We really have specific things that they're working on and it varies for each guy," he said. "That's why it's important."

For Pecora and his staff, one of the added benefits of the workouts is that the assistant coaches get to play a lead role working with players. Pecora doesn't participate in every workout, instead giving his assistants the opportunity to lead the sessions.

Earlier today, for example, it was assistant coach John Morton working with forwards Ryan Canty, Ryan Rhoomes and Travion Leonard. Later, he worked with guards Bryan Smith, Jon Severe, Mandell Thomas and Antwoine Anderson.

Pecora meets with his coaches beforehand, talks about what needs to be done, discusses drills and puts a plan in place for each workout. He thinks that's an integral part of their development as coaches.

"There were times when I was assistant that I didn't get to work with [the players]," Pecora said. "You don't develop as a coach and as a player [as a result]. I think it's part of my responsibility to give them the responsibility. It gives them a chance to almost learn how to run a practice."

Pecora believes it's good for the players as well.

"They can't hear my voice all the time," he said.

At a workout last week and again on Thursday, shooting was a main area of emphasis. Throughout the season, Pecora talked a lot about the Rams' struggles shooting the ball, evident by their overall field-goal percentage (.393). Shot selection was also something that Pecora consistently identified as being a problem.

Pecora says he and his coaches sit down with every player and go over all their shots, contested and uncontested, and their mechanics.

"Every shot that they took during the course of the year is on a DVD," he said. "We sit down with them and go through every make and every miss.

"It's a great time of the year to tweak and break things down for them."

Basketball continues to be played at Rose Hill.

All quotations in this article were obtained firsthand. 

Charles Costello covers the Fordham Rams for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @CFCostello.

Fordham's 2013-14 season came to an end on March 13 when the Rams lost to Dayton in the first round of the Atlantic 10 tournament.

The work, however, continues.

Not only has the coaching staff continued its pursuit of recruits—efforts that paid off last week when senior point guard Nemanja Zarkovic, a native of Serbia who migrated to Canada and who currently attends Montreal's College Jean-De-Brebeuf, signed a National Letter of Intent with Fordham—but the returning players are back at it as well.

Once the season ends, teams are allowed six one-hour workouts during the spring that end a week before final exams and resume when summer school begins. 

Last Tuesday, inside Fordham's Rose Hill Gym, a good number of players took part in the workouts.

Two of those players in particular, Ryan Canty and Bryan Smith, will have a lot of responsibility placed on them in 2014-15. Both will be seniors looking to improve on junior seasons that fell short of expectations.

Canty played in the Rams' first three games, but then took a leave of absence and missed the next six. He returned on Dec. 21, but it would take him a good two months to return to form. When he did, he was one of the Rams' most productive players.

In five of Fordham's final six games, he had 10 or more rebounds. On the last day of the regular season, he grabbed 16 rebounds against George Washington. In the play-in game of the Atlantic 10 tournament against George Mason, he had 19. In the first round against Dayton, he had 10.

"It gave us that little extra push we needed," Canty said after Tuesday's workout, referring to his performance down the stretch.

When asked what the difference in his game was late in the season, Canty said "getting comfortable again, feeling comfortable on the court," made all the difference.

As for Smith, he's the first to admit his season did not go as planned. He averaged just 7.3 points per game and shot only 33.8 percent from the field. He, too, is looking forward to his senior year.

"I'm looking for a big improvement next year," Smith said after participating in Tuesday's workout. "My junior season was not how I wanted it to go.

"I have a lot to work on. I'm staying positive and [I'll] keep working in the gym. I want to go out on a positive note."

Smith said he thought the Rams continued to play as a team this past season, despite a 10-21 record and eight straight losses to close out the regular season.

"We all struggled at [some] point, but we stayed together," he said. "We didn't give up on each other." 

Canty also offered his take on last season.

"Stuff's going to happen in life," he said. "Things aren't always going to go your way. You have to just give 100 percent effort and just push through it."

That's exactly what Smith says he's seeing from teammates during the offseason workouts.

"We're all working hard [and] staying in good shape," he said. "Everybody is positive. Everybody wants to get better. Everybody's tired of losing."

Smith understands what's expected of him going forward.

"With Branden (Frazier) leaving, it's big shoes to fill," he said. "He was a good leader for us. He did a lot for the team. Stepping into our senior season, we (he and Canty) each have to take part of that leadership [and] lead everybody else."

Canty sounds like he's ready to accept that role as well.

"It's a lot on us," he said. "Leading by example, going out there and giving 100 percent effort every game and hoping other people follow."

Head coach Tom Pecora is counting on Canty and Smith to contribute on and off the court. He has high hopes for both.

Pecora, like everyone else, saw at the end of last season what Canty is capable of bringing to a game. He's talked about how important it is for Canty to have a productive offseason to get himself ready for his senior year.

"He's never had an offseason because of his back," Pecora said during an interview in his office last week. "We want him to be able to get through this spring, summer and fall healthy. In turn, take that step to put himself in position to have a huge senior year.

"He's a guy who can average double-digit rebounds for us. He's going to defend the post. He's a good screener. He can get 10 points a game just on the foul line, off rebounds, on pick and rolls and lobs. We talked to him about the various ways he can score points. He's not going to score points on jumpers; that's not his world. That's OK.

"In the (George) Mason game at the end of the year he had 19 rebounds. There aren't a lot of kids in America that go get 19 rebounds. He has that ability. Now he's got to be consistently good as a senior."

Pecora also expects more from Smith.

"Bryan Smith's too good a shooter to have the shooting percentage that he had," Pecora said. "He's going to compete for minutes. Whatever his role is, his offensive field-goal percentage needs to go through the roof.

"Being consistently good is where he needs to get. His whole career's been a roller coaster. It's been up and down. We've always said he's been the X-factor. But now he's a senior. There are no excuses, whether he's starting or whether he's coming off the bench. He's got to have a positive impact. I know he will in the locker room—he's a great kid. I know he will in practice. But I want him to contribute.

"I want it for them," Pecora added. "They're seniors. They deserve it."

All quotations in this article were obtained firsthand. 

Charles Costello covers the Fordham Rams for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @CFCostello.

The Fordham Rams made news Wednesday with the signing of international guard Nemanja Zarkovic. The 6'3", 185-pound point guard signed a National Letter of Intent and will join Fordham for the 2014-15 season.

"We are thrilled at Fordham University to have Nemanja Zarkovic become part of the Fordham basketball family," head coach Tom Pecora said in a press release issued by the school. "His experience, ability to run the offense from the point guard position and his talent to score the basketball will be a huge part of Fordham's future success."

Thrilled may be an understatement. Pecora hasn't hid from the fact that Fordham was in desperate need of a point guard, and he and his staff have been out trying to recruit one for some time now.

Whether it was Zarkovic, who made an official visit to Rose Hill last weekend, or someone else, the Rams needed to fill the void left at the position due to the departure of senior Branden Frazier.

"We think that that's a key for this," Pecora said on Tuesday about the importance of finding a point guard. "When you put (Jon) Severe or Mandell (Thomas) on one wing and Eric Paschall on the other, and you add a Manny Suarez and then you have an Antwoine Anderson, [it will contribute to] our depth and experience."

Zarkovic is a native of Serbia who migrated with his parents to Canada in 1998. He's currently a senior at Montreal's College Jean-De-Brebeuf—like Fordham, a Jesuit school—where he led his team to the provincial championship on April 6, scoring 34 points in the deciding game.

One week later, he visited Fordham. In a phone interview Wednesday night, just hours after he signed, Zarkovic talked about that visit and, ultimately, his decision to come to Fordham. 

"I loved it," he said. "I loved the school. I loved the campus. I loved the people there. A lot of similarities to my school here in Canada.

"It's a very good school in the middle of New York City. I plan on studying business so it couldn't be better for me.

"On the basketball side, I think it's a great opportunity for me to be part of something great if we're able to turn that program around."

Turning the program around won't be easy. For 19 seasons, playing in the ultra-competitive Atlantic 10, Fordham has struggled mightily. Zarkovic wants to change that.

"I know it's been very tough," he said, referring to Fordham's past. "We can't fear to fail. We can't think about that. I don't want to think about the past."

In fact, just about all of the talk around Fordham these days is focused on the future. The Rams would like to have more days like they had on Wednesday, which have been few and far between over the years.

While he's fully aware of the challenges, Zarkovic is optimistic that the pieces are in place at Fordham. 

"I know there's a lot of talent," he said. "The main thing will be to find a way to work as a team and to play together. My role will be to help the team play together and play for each other."

If you talk to those who know him best, Zarkovic's strengths are his presence on the court and his ability to lead, important parts of the game that don't show up in a box score.

"He does everything pretty well," Mike Chmielewski, his high school coach, said in a phone interview last night. "He can shoot the ball. He can defend really well.

"His biggest assets are his presence on the floor and his leadership. Any coach who has taken the time to see him live has immediately started recruiting him."

That was a big thing that Chmielewski made sure to mention. He said that if you just watch Zarkovic on tape, you don't get the full picture. You have to see him live to understand the intangibles he possesses.

"He's got the mentality," Chmielewski said. "Everyone overlooks the mental aspect of being a point—leadership, holding your teammates accountable, making sure they're in the right spots or on the same page. That stuff doesn't show up on a sheet, but it's way more important."

Fordham recognized that. In turn, Zarkovic began to recognize that the Rams would be the best fit for him. He could have gone elsewhere, possibly staying home in Canada or instead going to St. Francis College in Brooklyn Heights.

Zarkovic credited the coaching staff with being a big reason why he chose Fordham.

"The coaching staff was great," he said. "They were one of the main reasons why I chose Fordham.

"I trust them. They came up to Montreal and told me exactly what they wanted. I just felt that they were honest. I think they're driven and they're committed to winning. I think they understand that the upside of turning this program around would be huge, so they're working toward that."

Chmielewski, his high school coach, agreed.

"I told him it was a big decision," he said. "We had a good feeling about the coaching staff. They were very high on him."

Another thing working in the Rams' favor was that they were recruiting him to play point guard. While Zarkovic said that he takes great pride in his shooting, he said the opportunity to play the point guard position weighed heavily on his decision.

"That's one of the main reasons why I chose Fordham," he said. "That's exactly what I'm looking for. I want to help lead and distribute the ball. I don't need to score. I don't have that in my mind. I just want to help the team win. That's exactly the position I wanted and that's what they offered me."

Now comes the challenge of adjusting to the college game. It's never easy, but some struggle with it more than others.

Zarkovic is confident he'll be able to make a smooth transition from high school to college. A large part of that confidence stems from the fact that it won't be the first time he's on the court with college players, or, at the very least, college-level players.

Last month in New Hampshire, he played against Bridgton Academy and Brewster Academy, two elite prep schools. Last summer, as a member of the Brookwood Bounce Elite, he went up against four Division I college teams and averaged 20.5 points per game.

Still, he expects that there will be some period of adjustment.

"I think it will be hard, especially physically," he said. "The A-10's a very athletic league. It will be a challenge, but I think once I get used to it I will be alright ... I know it's a huge step but I'll be ready for it."

Unless otherwise noted, quotations in this article were obtained firsthand.

Charles Costello covers the Fordham Rams for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @CFCostello.

Fordham has been playing basketball in the Rose Hill Gym since 1925.

The gym, which opened with the Rams beating Boston College, 46-16, is the oldest facility still in use by an NCAA Division I basketball team.

ESPN The Magazine called it one of only four college basketball cathedrals.

John Feinstein told USA Today that it's one of the top 10 venues for watching a game.

Madison Square Garden it is not. Still, the place has some appeal.

But can Fordham compete with the big boys of college basketball when it plays its home games in a gym that seats 3,200 and doesn't have so many of the amenities found in more modern arenas across the country?

To many—probably the vast majority of people—the answer is no. They'd tell you that in order to attract recruits to come to Fordham, which would ultimately make the team better, the school needs a new arena.

Frank McLaughlin, Fordham's athletic director and executive director of intercollegiate athletics from 1985 to 2012, told me back in 2009 that building a new arena would be a huge boost for the struggling program.

“There’s no question we’re at a disadvantage,” McLaughlin said. “Kids that are basketball players come here and the first thing they want to see is the arena.

“There’s no question if we had a facility we’d really enhance the program.

“If we had Saint Louis’ facility or Xavier’s facility the first thing you’d get is a much higher level player. You get a much higher level player you have a much better team. You have a much better team then people want to come and see the team.”

McLaughlin said back then what's become a reality ever since. There won't be a new arena, at least not anytime soon.

“The plans are there,” McLaughlin said. "There’s no question that if there’s a major donor that was interested in building an arena and made a substantial contribution, obviously it would move up on the priority list.”

Five years later, there's nothing new to report, except for the constant rumblings about the drawbacks of playing in what many consider to more closely resemble a high school gym.

Last month, the New York Times's Matt Krupnick ran a story on the Rose Hill Gym and reported that a new 10,500-seat arena was almost built in the 1970s.

But Vince Lombardi, who was leading fund-raising efforts, died, and Digger Phelps, who went 26-3 in his one season at Fordham, left the school for Notre Dame. They took all hope for a new arena with them.

Per Krupnick, P.J. Carlesimo, the former college and NBA coach who played and coached at Fordham, offered his take on the current facility.

“I love it, but I think most people would say, ‘Come on, you can’t have a major Division I program playing in a place like that.' I do think it’s a real problem.”

Tom Pecora, the current head coach of the Rams, didn't deny that the gym presents its own set of problems.

“I knew it was going to be the biggest challenge in the recruiting area,” he said, per Krupnick, admitting that some recruits are turned off by the gym. “I know it’s something every other school uses against us. You have to find guys who can look beyond that.”

When I asked Pecora about those comments, he made it very clear that he was not using the gym as an excuse. But he was adamant about the challenges of recruiting players who aren't going to be sold on the history of the place.

"We address it immediately," he said about the Rose Hill Gym. "I tell them there are young men who visit Duke and they visit North Carolina, and they go to Duke. Duke's got an 8,000-seat arena and North Carolina's got a 24,000-seat arena.

"It's not about where you play; it's about how you play. It's about the experience you get while you're there playing."

At Fordham, it always comes back to the academics. The school can't sell victories or facilities. It can sell the value of a top-notch education.

"You can't base your decision on bricks and mortar," Pecora said. "You can't go to a place because they have a beautiful arena. [If] they graduate 50 percent of their players, where are you going with a degree from that institution as compared to what you can do and how you can set yourself and your family up for the rest of your life with a Fordham degree?"

Still, Pecora talked about how challenging it is to convince 17- or 18-year-olds to understand that.

Would a new arena immediately change the Rams' fortunes? Of course not. Would it help with recruiting, give the coaches more to work with and increase the prestige of the program? You bet it would.

Pecora talks about recruiting against Atlantic 10 and Big East schools. When a high school kid walks into the Chaifetz Arena in Saint Louis or the Dunkin Donuts Center in Providence, he's going to have a much different reaction than when he walks into the Rose Hill Gym. That's a major obstacle for Fordham to overcome.

At the same time, this is a complicated issue with no end in sight, mostly because there doesn't appear to be any movement underway to build a new arena.

Give the university credit on this front, however: The game-day experience has improved. There are new video scoreboards and a few other tweaks here and there. But there's only so much you can do with a facility that's so small and so old.

For now, and for the foreseeable future, it will only add to the challenges Pecora faces as he tries to rebuild the Rams.

Unless otherwise noted, quotations in this article were obtained firsthand.

There are a multitude of reasons one can point to when trying to explain why Fordham has had such a difficult time building a winning basketball program since making the move from the Patriot League to the Atlantic 10 prior to the 1995 season.

But over the four years that Tom Pecora has been the head coach, one stands out more than any other: talent.

Simply put, you can't win without talent. That's why Pecora and his staff have been out recruiting, trying to bring in players who can help lead the rebirth of Fordham basketball.

"We have to get that much better through player development and recruiting," Pecora told me during an interview in his office on Mar. 27. 

Of course, the player development can't happen until the players get here. The Rams have to get guys who can play at a high level. This is the Atlantic 10, after all, a conference that sent six teams to the NCAA tournament this year.

So how do you convince young men to choose a school that hasn't won consistently in a long time, one that has only 39 victories in the last six seasons?

Pecora has embraced the challenge. He knows this is going nowhere unless Fordham adds talent.

"You have to get really fine players," Pecora said. "Recruiting is a pyramid. The higher up that pyramid you go, it gets narrower. The best players are at the top of that pyramid. We can't take players in the middle of that pyramid and win in this league. If you do, you have to take those players and make sure you can develop them. That's the challenge."

There's another challenge. Nobody ever said that the recruiting process is a clean one. And we all know the trouble that some programs have gotten themselves into over the years.

So is Fordham at a disadvantage because it goes about its business the right way? While no one at the university would ever use that as an excuse, it's pretty apparent that having high standards—which today means going to class, learning something, being a good citizen and graduating—makes the task of building a winning program that much more difficult.

Recruiting, alone, poses enough challenges.

"There are ups and downs to the recruiting concept," Pecora told me. "College recruiting is a cesspool. The things grown men will say to get young men to go to a college, either about their school or negatively about other schools...There are a lot of men with no honor.

"But that's the nature of this business, especially when you're recruiting at the highest level. And we are. We're recruiting not only against the A-10 but the Big East and the ACC. Those are the things you have to work through."

While Fordham hasn't come close to matching the success of a UConn or a Kentucky, the two teams that will play in Monday's championship game, it does have one advantage over so many other programs across the country. The hard part is convincing young men to buy into what Fordham has to offer.

"We graduate everyone," Pecora said. "You're going to get a degree from one of the best universities in the world. Your decision has got to be a mature one. We always say it's not four years, it's a 40-year decision.

"If getting a degree form one of the best universities in the world is not appealing to a young guy we stop recruiting him. We walk away because that is what we're selling and that's what we feel comfortable selling. We can sleep at night because of that."

A couple big names have recently bought in.

Last year, Fordham welcomed Jon Severe, Mr. New York Basketball in 2013, to Rose Hill. Severe finished second on the team in scoring (17.3 points per game) in his first year with the Rams. Though he struggled with his shot and with shot selection, he was only a freshman and he has plenty of talent. There's no reason to believe he won't get better.

And then there's Eric Paschall, this past season's prep player of the year in New England. Everyone seems to agree that Fordham hit it big with Paschall. At 6'6", he'll start next season, and he should have an immediate impact.

A lot of people were surprised when Paschall chose Fordham over better programs in bigger conferences. But Paschall's father, Juan, made it clear why he chose the school.

"Eric could've signed with a school in any of those conferences," he told ESPN New York's Ian O'Connor. "But he established a great relationship with the Fordham coaches, it's close to where we live and, after the air comes out of the ball, a Fordham degree carries a lot of weight in the New York area."

He also told the New York Post's Zach Braziller that he knows the coaching staff will “take care of my son. I can’t say that about anybody else.”

The word "degree" is uttered a lot at Fordham these days. It's one advantage the school has. It may not have the wins, the facilities or the aura, but Fordham has academic standards that still mean something to a lot of people.

"The challenge is getting 17- or 18-year-old young men to make very mature decisions," Pecora said. "Their parents want them here. Ninety percent of the parents want them here because they understand the education you're going to get and the coaching you're going to get and the support from the university you're going to get."

Branden Frazier, who just concluded a stellar four-year career at Rose Hill, is one of the guys Pecora is talking about.

"Coming here and getting my degree, and just being around a bunch of people that supported me, made me who I am," he said after playing his final home game last month. "Basketball isn't everything. Fordham made me a man."

None of this, of course, will eliminate the pain of fans and alumni, who have been waiting a long time for a winner.

While Pecora understands the fans' frustrations, he's also proud of the fact that Fordham is doing it the right way.

"I'm a New York guy," he said. "We are the most sophisticated basketball fans in the world.

"When very bright people, Fordham alums, don't grasp the concept of what we're tying to do here—and doing it the right way...They wouldn't want us to do it any other way I don't believe. The people that matter I know don't. I know we're doing it the right way."

I'd like to think that still means something. It means something to the university. The fanbase? Well, that might be another story.

"I believe everyone here wants to win," Pecora said. "But it's my job to be creative in the way that we go about day-to-day business to find a way to do that."

If there's one certainty in all of this, it's that Fordham will do it the right way. 

Unless otherwise noted, quotations in this article were obtained firsthand. 

Fordham head coach Tom Pecora doesn't rest. When you're in charge of what might be the most difficult rebuilding job in college basketball, there's no time for that.

And so last Thursday, exactly two weeks after Fordham played its final game of the 2013-14 season, Pecora was on the go. There was a meeting in the morning, a media interview right after that and then a television appearance later in the day.

All of that was in between the recruiting and everything else that fills Pecora's time. There's no offseason for a college basketball coach, especially one trying to resuscitate a program that's been down for two decades.

"I get a kick out of people that, at times, think that myself and my staff are comfortable, or that losing doesn't bother us," Pecora said during an interview last week in his office just outside the Rose Hill Gym on Fordham's Bronx campus. "We're the ones that are literally losing sleep over it."

Pecora hasn't gotten much sleep of late. How can you when you're the face of a program that hasn't had a winning season since 2006-07, or when you're out on the road recruiting, doing everything you can to change a school's fortune?

"You can't work harder at it than we do as a staff," Pecora said. 

Pecora insists things are getting better, pointing to an influx of talent as the reason why the Rams are ready to turn the corner. Four years into his Fordham tenure, the coach hasn't lost hope.

"It's a challenging job and that's obvious when you look at the history of Fordham," Pecora said. "What lured me here was the tremendous potential that it had. That's still there. Are we still having growing pains? Yes, in a lot of ways. We continue to grow and push and move forward in the way we do business day to day. We still continue to try to change certain things."

It's proven to be quite the task.

"If we were in the 15th-ranked league in the country we would have turned the corner already," Pecora said. "If we were a CAA (Colonial Athletic Association) team we would have turned the corner already. If we were in the MAAC (Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) we would have turned the corner already. But we're not. We're in the Atlantic 10. And I want to be in the Atlantic 10. I came here to coach in the Atlantic 10. That's why it has become such a great challenge."

Spend time with Pecora these days, and you'll hear him mention that one word—challenge—a lot. It comes with the territory. 

"It was the greatest challenge of my coaching career," he said about the decision to come to Fordham after 16 years at Hofstra. "I didn't want to be seduced by the idea of doing it quickly and not having it sustained. If you want to sustain and build something long-term, like we did at Hofstra, you have to do it with good players and quality people who are willing to work hard to become better players. That's kind of where we are as we move forward."

Pecora doesn't lack confidence, and he doesn't lack motivation. He knows what he needs to do to turn this around.

"A very smart coach once said, 'It's about recruiting, it's about scheduling and then it's about coaching.' We continue to try to get better at all three of those things."

Pecora's knowledge of Fordham basketball is impressive. It's not just the current squad. He'll go back a long way and talk to you about the history of basketball at the school. He talks about Fordham's proud tradition, and you know it means something to him. He's also realistic.

"Is Fordham still a very challenging job? You bet it is. One of the most challenging jobs not only in the A-10, but anywhere. I knew that when I came here," he said. "That's why when we have our success it's going to be that much more exciting."

Pecora is 34-85 in his four years at Rose Hill. After going 10-21 this past season, he was asked during a radio interview about whether or not he thought his job was in jeopardy. Pecora said it wasn't the first time the topic was brought up.

"Somebody [asked me], 'Are you on the hot seat?' I said I've been on the hot seat my whole life," Pecora said when I asked him if that kind of talk bothered him. "I'm a kid from Queens. I'm living the dream. I'm doing what I've always dreamt of doing. I got very lucky over the course of my career and the harder I work the luckier I get. I know we're doing it the right way. I have great faith in my staff and the people around us. We're continuing to just stay the course with it.

"I came here to stay here. My loyalty is to Fordham. I know there's work that's undone here and I want to do that. I'm not wavering from the challenges put ahead of me and believing that we can get this done."

Pecora was being modest when he said he's been lucky. He won 155 games in nine seasons as the head coach at Hofstra, took the Pride to the National Invitation Tournament three times and is well-respected throughout college basketball, especially in the New York area. You could make the argument that he's Fordham's last, best hope to turn this thing around.

"If Fordham is going to be successful in men's basketball, they have to understand that—and when I say they I mean the basketball community that supports the program—they have to understand that it's a process," he said, "and the worst thing you can do in college athletics, whether they let me go or they don't...if we go 5-20 next year and they let me go so be it. I had a five-year run here. I'll go to sleep at night knowing I did everything in my power to help us win basketball games. But it will set the program back again.

"Because I love Fordham and because I love coaching, I want us to have success so we can stay here for the next 10 years and win basketball games. The alumni deserve it. The alumni at this university have been so supportive for the most part. I'm talking about the people who invest in this program—with their time, with their hard-earned dollars, with their support at home games—they deserve it. They deserve to have a winning team here. That drives me. I've never been around a better group of alumni when it comes to supporting a basketball program. They've done their job and some."

So has Pecora. If you're part of that group of alumni he talked about—the ones who have been waiting and waiting, the ones who deserve a winner and the ones who have become more and more frustrated through the years—you should admire his resolve.

Pecora isn't about to give up. That's not who he is. He believes in his heart that he can get it done at Fordham.

"If I didn't, I would have walked in and said I can't get it done here at Fordham," he said. "We're all competitors. I'm in this to compete. I'm in this to turn this thing around and to get this thing up and running smoothly long-term."

"We still have things to fix. The commitment here is greater than it's ever been, but so is the commitment at every other A-10 school. So that's the challenge."

There's that word, again. It keeps popping up. It's a popular one at Fordham these days.

All quotations in this article were obtained firsthand.

At Fordham University, the rebuilding continues.

Nearly two decades after it made the jump from the Patriot League to the Atlantic 10, Fordham is still trying to find its way in the world of big-time college basketball.

Just once in the last 22 years—which includes their last three in the Patriot League—have the Rams finished above .500. In 16 of their 19 seasons in the A-10, they've finished below .500 in conference play.

After winning 155 games in nine years as the head coach at Hofstra, Tom Pecora came to Rose Hill in 2010 to change that. While it's been a struggle, Pecora thinks the Rams are in a good position moving forward.

"I think everything is in place here," Pecora said during an interview in his office last week. "We've done everything here that we thought we would do, except win more games. I believe we're on the precipice of doing that." 

Pecora is 34-85 in his first four years in the Bronx, including 10-21 this past season. Still, he's talked a lot about how close his team is to turning the corner. Pecora expects that to happen in year five.

"I think it's very important for the growth of this program," Pecora said when I asked him if 2014-15 would be a crucial year for the Rams.

"Years one and two are easy because no one expects you to win. Years three and four are difficult because people expect you to turn the corner, but you're not quite ready to yet. And then in years five and six is when you start to reap the benefits of it. That's the way to build a solid program."

Coming off a three-win season in 2008-09 and a two-win season in 2009-10, the Rams won seven games in Pecora's first year at the school. They won 10 the following year, seven in 2012-13 and 10 this past season. Pecora expects better results next year, and he offered a quick response when asked why things would be different.

"Talent," he said. "We have more talent than we've ever had. The players we have are maturing. We played with one senior (Branden Frazier) this year. Next year we'll have players who got a lot of minutes as freshmen and sophomores."

"It comes down to maturation and talent," he would go on to say. "Talent wins basketball games."

That explains why Pecora has been so busy trying to secure talent. This is a process that started a while ago, of course, but over the past couple of weeks since the Rams' season ended, Pecora has been out on a daily basis trying to convince some of the best high school players to come to Fordham.

"The bottom line is you have to get talented players," Pecora said. "I don't think we've ever brought in more talented kids. And the other guys are developing and becoming better players."

His effort paid off in a big way last fall when Fordham landed Eric Paschall, the prep player of the year in New England this past season. At 6'6", Paschall is a dynamic player. He and Jon Severe, who just completed his freshman season, will be a big part of next year's team.

Severe averaged 17.3 points per game during his freshman season, but he struggled at times with his shot and with shot selection. Because of Paschall's size and athleticism, Pecora doesn't think he'll go through the same rookie struggles that Severe did. He expects Paschall to start next season.

"I think he's further along (than Severe) in a lot of ways," Pecora said. "His physical stature will allow him to get through a lot of the things that Jon struggled [with].

"The hardest thing[s] for high school players when they move to college are...playing with a yellow light instead of a green light, and understanding when you can and can't get to the rim. Eric will be playing above the rim. I think the transition will be smoother for him."

If you're looking for more reasons to believe that the results will be different next year, Pecora also pointed to the way his team competed this past season, even as the losses mounted.

The Rams almost pulled off two upsets late in the season—one against La Salle and another one week later in the regular-season finale against George Washington—and they won the play-in game of the Atlantic 10 tournament before falling to Dayton the next day.

"There was no quit in them," Pecora said. "We played in a lot of really close games in the A-10 this year. My first couple of years here we didn't." 

As if rebuilding isn't difficult enough, Fordham is trying to do it in a conference that's as strong now as it's ever been. Six teams from the A-10 made the NCAA tournament. One, Dayton, came within 40 minutes of the Final Four.

Pecora expects the league to remain competitive, but as teams lose key seniors and the Rams gain more talent and experience, he thinks they'll be able to move up in the conference.

"Each year I've been at Fordham the A-10 has become a better conference," Pecora said. "When you're trying to rebuild something it's a process. It makes it that much more difficult when everyone in the league continues to get better and better."

"I think it peaked this year," Pecora went on to say about the A-10. "It could be as good next year but I don't think it can be better. And I think we can be better."

"The league will come down and we'll come up a little bit," he added, "and that's how I believe we can make a move in the conference next year."

Pecora thinks the pieces are in place. Now, it's a matter of doing something that hasn't been done at Rose Hill in a long time.

"The last thing we need to do here is win games," he said. 

All quotations in this article were obtained firsthand.