Super Sophomores

By the conclusion of the 2008-09 season, Mike Rosario had more losses in one year than in his entire life.
“It was hard for me because I didn’t really understand losing,” Rosario said in reference to the Rutgers men’s basketball team’s 11-21 flop last season. “To go through a drought of losing games has put me in a position where I’m thinking to myself, ‘Wow, I’ve come a long way since high school to college and I was never losing how I was.’ It’s at a point where it’s like, ‘Wow, what’s going on?’”
But this is year two.
The sophomore is maturing both on and off the court. You can tell by the way he answers question after question in the same unruffled demeanor — just this year — with a little less shooting from the hip.
“[Last season] made me a better player because, first of all, now I understand losing. I went through losing and that was something I’ve never done before,” Rosario said. “Second of all, now that I have a year experience under my belt, it puts me in a better position because I know what teams are like now, and what they are going to try and do to me from a defensive standpoint.”
Rosario, a lanky 6-foot-3, 190-pound guard, comes off of a rookie campaign in which he averaged 16.2 points per game, ranking him fifth nationally among freshmen.
But even he admits the workload of a rugged 18-game Big East schedule was tough to handle.
“Physically, toward the end of the season, I felt a little drought where my body started to break down a little bit,” Rosario said. “[Head coach Fred Hill Jr.] told me when the season started that my body was going to break down around January, because your body is not used to this type of play. I lasted a long time throughout the whole season and didn’t really break down until there were four or five games left, and then my body started to ache in different spots.”
Yet the Jersey City native is more prepared for this season than he had been for any one in the past, something he credits to his experience playing for Puerto Rico’s national team over the summer.
“The international experience helped me a lot because I was playing with adults,” Rosairo said, as he mentioned teammates Carlos Arroyo of the Miami Heat and J.J. Barea of the Dallas Mavericks. “It was the best experience of my life, to just have an opportunity to play with the national team and play against older people who are playing at the next level after college. I think I did a great job and it motivated me to get ready for the season and work hard.”
Rosario’s not the only one reaping the benefits of international experience. Sophomore Gregory Echenique spent his summer competing for his native Venezuela.
“It definitely helped,” Echenique said of the experience. “It was my first time with the senior national team and everybody was older than I was so it was pretty cool to learn and bring that experience back here to help the team.”
Part of helping out for the 6-foot-9, 265-pound power forward is establishing a mid-range jumper to help take the scoring load off Rosario.
“In a way we have a lot of responsibility on our shoulders about this team and the success of it,” Echenique said. “I also think that we can count on other teammates to help us now that [junior Jonathan Mitchell] is back and we got a new point guard.
“But yeah, I think that Mike Rosario and I have a little bit more responsibility in a way than the other guys just from being higher recruits, but it’s still going to take a team effort to bring this program to the next level.”
Echenique averaged 8.4 points and 8.4 rebounds per game as a freshman, and Hill expects him to take the next step in his progression.
“Both Mike and Gregory are starting to come into their own,” Hill said. “You have to remember both came here as 17-year-old seniors out of high school, which is very unusual. They are just starting to develop physically and the big thing with Gregory is he just needs to be more assertive.
“We’ve talked to him about going inside and asserting himself. He has the potential to be a guy who averages a double-double.”
That works for Rosario.
“I feel as though I’m not going to have to do as much scoring, because we have multiple players on this team that can put the ball in the basket, and that’s one thing that we lacked on last year,” he said. “[It] will be great because that takes a lot of pressure off me and teams have to start worrying about our other players, and that could be a positive because that can open up the basket for me more, besides them not hugging me and playing me tight [on defense].”
The Scarlet Knights add six new faces this season, but the hard truth is that everything still revolves around the sophomore tandem.
“Me and Greg still look at it as we are the focal points of this team,” Rosario said. “When other teams go up against us they focus on us two, and we feel as though we still have to have the same role we had last year. We still feel like we can go out there and put the team on our backs and I know I feel like I can put the team on my back.”
Big words for Rosario to back up — but then again, he’s never backed down before.
“We’re right there,” he says, “on the route — just waiting for that time, that one block that we can turn so fast and just see this team explode.”
 

Comments

1 comments

DANIEL BERGER

Wed Nov 11 2009 05:54

DEAR MR ROSARIO,

YOU HAVE AN EXCELLENT ATTITUDE TO BE ABLE TO IMPROVE THE RESULTS OF RUTGERS' BASKETBALL FORTUNES.

GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR EFFORTS TO IMPROVE.

HAVE A NICE THANKSGIVING DAY HOLIDAY.

SINCERELY,

DANIEL BERGER - RUTGERS COLLEGE '71
REHOV ADMONIT 18/9
GANEI AVIV, LOD 71374 - ISRAEL

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