Being a first-year head coach in today’s college basketball is extremely hard. Often, you have to put together a staff instantly, then a roster within a few weeks by sifting through thousands of players, and then build camaraderie for a group that has never met each other.
Navy didn’t have to look far to find its next head coach after Ed DeChellis retired over the offseason, and Perry, a longtime DeChellis assistant, didn’t have to do any shopping in the transfer portal – not that he could even if he wanted to – to build his roster. It was all there, following the development plans that were initially set out for them when they were recruited out of high school.
All seven of the Midshipmen’s rotation pieces are juniors or seniors who started off in the program as freshmen. Many of them got minutes early in their careers too. They’ve seen it all in the Patriot League, nothing flaps them. It’s why Navy is 10-1 to start conference play with a terrific opportunity to make its first NCAA Tournament since 1998.
“It’s really easy,” Perry told Mid-Major Madness. “I haven’t had a team that doesn’t have this much continuity. This is something we’ve been working on for three and four years. Building and growing together, and going through losing together, and going through winning, and learning how to win and learning how to play in different arenas and environments.”
Of course, the uniqueness of the Naval Academy as a Division-I school makes the program’s bed in terms of how its roster is built, but you’re still judged by wins and losses at the end of the day. And Navy is doing a whole lot of winning at the moment.
The team’s top two scorers, Austin Benigni and Aidan Kehoe, have been together for all four years. Kehoe barely played his first two years but has evolved into the most dominant big man in the Patriot League this season and continues to add elements to his game.
He did it the old-fashioned way.
“I wouldn’t say I really mapped out my career too much,” Kehoe told Mid-Major Madness. “You come in, and then you see some guys over you. That makes sense. They’re older. They’ve been there, and you just get to work. I worked with all the coaches on my game and just getting better every year.”
The Midshipmen went from the lowest eFG% in the Patriot League last season to having the second-highest this year. They’re creating more open looks and opening up more driving lanes.
They play disciplined and experienced basketball, making the right decisions and putting the ball in the hands of their playmakers. Kehoe is coming off a career-high seven-assist performance against Lafayette on Wednesday, paying off a key development strategy from the offseason.
“It was a big emphasis,” he said. “Because from last year, we knew that teams were going to double a good amount. We were prepared for it, and we talk about it before every game, how we think other teams are going to play, and we adjust off of that.”
There’s a familiarity and maturity within this group of players. Perry says their consistency and mentality trickles down from their seniors to the rest of the team. And it helps them in moments of adversity, although there haven’t been a ton of them in Patriot League play.
Six of Navy’s 10 Patriot League wins have been by 15 or more points, and only one of them came by one possession. But when the Midshipmen trailed 14-0 to open up a game at Boston University in late January, the team never panicked and played the way you’d expect a group of upperclassmen to.
“That’s something that really would’ve shook us two years ago and even last year,” Benigni told Mid-Major Madness. “But we got in the huddle after one of the TV timeouts, and nobody’s really phased. We’re all just telling each other this isn’t a big deal.”
“We’ve gotten down in some games, but we don’t panic,” Kehoe said. “Just playing with guys for a number of years, you grow that chemistry and know what they’re going to do on the court, which is huge when you’re in conference.”
And Benigni scored 20 points to lead all scorers, bringing Navy back to win 58-50 on the road and improve to 8-1 in the conference. He said that in past years, the Midshipmen would’ve started stressing and forcing it on offense, but they were patient and trusted in their teammates because that’s what they’ve been building for years to do.
Not only is Benigni this team’s leader, but he’s also at the head of the table in Patriot League Player of the Year discussions. His 3-point shooting percentage rose from 33% last season to 47% this year, making him a deadly inside-out threat with his already potent dribble drive and foul-drawing abilities.
He credits working with assistant coach Jordan Lyons on his jump shot from the first day that Lyons joined the staff, and it has paid off.
This year’s Navy team shows that while service academies are at a major disadvantage in recruiting and the transfer portal, they have been equipped with the superpower of seeing out player development.
“The players’ dreams become our dreams,” Perry said. “It takes time. Everybody’s better the older you get with the game, and that relationship you build of getting to know one another off the court and having an understanding of who these guys are, what their dreams are, and helping with being able to see that through over three and four years. You build a love, a connection, a commitment to each other, and when you have that feeling within your program, the sky is the limit.”
It’s growing together. It’s starting from the bottom rung on the ladder of success all together and building collectively over the years to reach the top. The top of that ladder for the Midshipmen may be the actual ladder that they may have a chance to climb next month to cut down the nets.
March is still a few weeks away, but for Navy, it’s been a few years to get to this moment.
“It means everything to us, and it means everything to the mission of the Naval Academy,” Perry said. “We might be the last amateurs.”
