By Tom Haley

The St. Michael's College men's basketball team and their fans are enjoying the holidays this year in a way they have not in a long time.

The last time the Purple Knights had a winning record was in the 2014-15 season when they went 18-11. Since, it has been a steady diet of losing, including last year when the Knights weathered an 11-18 campaign.

Three of those seasons since 2014-15, the Knights went 7-19 and one year (2016-17) they were a dismal 5-21.

Eric Eaton came to town for the 2019-20 season. He would be the architect of the building process and he knew it was not an overnight build.

This is his first season where the roster is filled with all of his own guys, the players he recruited.

The season has demonstrated that his recruiting connections and evaluation of talent were spot on. The Purple Knights are off to an 8-2 start and, most impressively, are 5-0 in the extremely tough Northeast-10 Conference, one of NCAA Division II's most highly regarded leagues.

The Knights have depth and boast four players scoring in double figures led by Darrel Yepdo at 17.2 per game. CJ Crews, Romar Reid, Jhamyl Fricas join him in averaging double digits and Jacob Duniver and Nolan Marold are threatening to crash the double-figure scoring party, averaging 9.8 and 9.5, respectively.

Yet, to understand the success of this team, you must look beyond the numbers. They have an intangible that great teams must have.

"I feel like there is a hunger to these guys," Eaton said.

That is what makes going to practice for Eaton so much fun this season. There is that burning desire to succeed.

"This is my first team with all my own guys and my first team with an experienced backcourt," Eaton said.

This hot start bodes well for the 2023-24 season but Eaton does not want only a successful season, he wants a successful program, one that can contend on a yearly basis.

Recruiting is the lifeblood of a program and Eaton has been around the Northeast in enough places to cultivate connections. He has been on staffs at Division I schools Iona, Quinnipiac, UAlbany and Holy Cross. He played on a Division III UMass Dartmouth team that went to the Final Four.

While on this journey he made many connections that allows him to be successful when it comes to the recruiting game.

"I have built relationships and trust with high school and college coaches in the Northeast and with AAU coaches. AAU coaches are huge," Eaton said.

He knows the Knights will not sneak up on anyone when the season resumes on Dec. 30 against Queens in Flushing, New York. SMC has branded itself as a team to be reckoned with and the NE10 is loaded with imposing obstacles.

"Every game, you are going to be in a fist fight," Eaton said.

"There are a lot of good coaches in this league from all different backgrounds.

"You need to put in a couple of wrinkles in the offense. We try to be an intensive defensive team and then try to push the ball on offense."

The Purple Knights are alone in first place in the NE10 with the 5-0 record and Southern New Hampshire University is a game behind at 4-1. Southern Connecticut, Pace and Adelphi are in a tie for the next spot with 3-2 league records.

St. Michael's has already played and beaten Southern New Hampshire 63-62, the Knights' first road victory over the Penmen since November of 2011.

Beating a quality team like that away from home in a close game speaks to the experience of this edition of Purple Knight basketball.

The dearth of victories over recent seasons has meant that the Purple Knights usually played to tiny crowds at the Ross Sports Center.

This is a team that just might energize the Greater Burlington community and bring the fans back.

"Our athletes are very supportive of all the other teams and when we have had our students here on campus, we have had good turnouts," Eaton said.

"There are a lot of basketball fans in the community and the hope is that they will find that there is more than one team in the area."

It is only too bad that Jim Browne '60 was not still around to watch the resurgence of St. Michael's College basketball.

Browne, a popular and successful basketball coach at Otter Valley and Mount St. Joseph, died in the spring of this year.

He was a prominent member of the 1958 SMC basketball team nicknamed the Iron Knights. That team made a run all the way to the national championship game of the college division in Evansville, Indiana.

The moniker Iron Knights came from the fact they had to pretty much go with five players due to injuries and illness before finally losing in the national championship contest to South Dakota.

There were 2,000 appreciative SMC fans greeting the Iron Knights upon their return to the airport in Burlington.

There might not be that type of mania for the latest edition of Purple Knight basketball but it's building.