ESPN Men's Basketball

Updated: October 15, 2009, 12:38 PM ET

Team preview: Holy Cross

Blue Ribbon Yearbook previews the 2009-10 season, exclusively on Insider

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Blue Ribbon Yearbook

Editor's Note: ESPN Insider has teamed with Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook to provide a comprehensive look at all 334 Division I teams. To order the complete 2009-10 edition of Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, visit www.blueribbonyearbookonline.com or call 1-877-807-4857.
(Information in this team report is as of Oct. 1.)

COACH AND PROGRAM

Back in late August, there probably was nobody in Worcester, Mass., more excited about the students returning to Holy Cross than Sean Kearney.

Kearney, a former assistant to Mike Brey at Notre Dame, was hired in June when Holy Cross alum Ralph Willard decided the ties of friendship were more important than old school ties and went off to Louisville to serve as top assistant to his best friend, Rick Pitino.

By the time Kearney arrived on Mount St. James, most of his players were gone for the summer. Aside from a little film, which he purposely limited to avoid prejudging, Kearney didn't get a chance to see most of the players he inherited until they returned for fall classes.

"I have to warn you," said Kearney, at the start of a late summer interview. "I don't know a whole lot about this team yet."

The rest of the Patriot League's coaches do know the Crusaders pretty well. And pretty much to a man they picked Holy Cross as the team to beat.

"Holy Cross has a real good nucleus," Colgate coach Emmett Davis said. "They are the preseason favorite."

PLAYERS

That nucleus includes four returning starters from a team that finished second in the league last season: first-team all-league pick Andrew Keister, last year's Patriot rookie of the year R.J. Evans, 6-8 senior Eric Meister, an all-tournament team pick last season and 6-4 junior playmaker Andrew Beinert.

Toss in a freshman class heralded as tops in the league and 6-4 sophomore guard Mike Cavataio, who sat out last year after transferring from St. John's of the Big East, and it's easy to see why everybody is calling the Crusaders the favorite.

Keister (8.5 ppg, 6.3 rpg), a 6-9 fourth-year junior, came into his own last season after being hampered by injuries his first three years. After a slow start in non-conference games, Keister broke out when league play got underway, averaging 12.5 points and 8.8 rebounds. The league leader in field-goal percentage, Keister shot 58.8 percent from the field overall, 67.3 percent in league games.

A torn labrum in his shoulder hampered Keister at the end of last season. While rehabbing the shoulder, Keister was also diagnosed with a sports hernia that shut him down for part of the summer. By late summer, Kearney said the medical reports on Keister were looking good, though nobody would know for sure until fall workouts got underway.

Assuming Keister is healthy, the combination of him and Meister (6.7 ppg, 4.9 rpg) gives Holy Cross a one-two frontcourt punch unmatched in the Patriot.

Adam May, who started 12 games as a junior, is a 6-8 forward with some back-to-the-basket scoring ability and three-point range on his jumper.

Blue Ribbon Previews

Take an Inside look at the Patriot League with Blue Ribbon's 2009-10 team reports:

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Freshman Eric Obeysekere, a 6-8, 205-pound forward who averaged 17.5 points, 12.0 rebounds and 5.0 blocked shots per game as a senior at Miramonte High School in Orinda, Calif., could also compete for minutes in Kearney's frontcourt rotation, along with fellow freshman Phil Beans, a 6-9, 233-pounder who averaged 22.1 points as a senior at Toledo, Ohio's Ottawa Hills High School.

In the backcourt, Beinert (8.5 ppg, 2.1 apg) returns at the point after a leading the league in three-point field goal percentage (.454 49-of-108) as a sophomore. Kearney is expecting a lot from Beinert again this season.

"This is his team. He's got the keys to the car," Kearney said. "His leadership at the point guard position will be very big for this team."

The 6-3 Evans (13.4 ppg, 5.2 rpg) will probably grab one of the wing spots after starting there 25 times as a freshman last season, when he led the team in scoring. Evans reached double figures in 24 games, including a career-high 31-point showing against Bucknell in the opening round of the league tournament.

"Evans is a talented guy. He can really do a variety of things on offense," Kearney said. "He can post up and he is a good rebounder."

May could compete for the other wing spot, but more likely it will go to one of the newcomers, Cavataio (1.4 ppg, 1.2 rpg in 2008 at St. John's) or 6-5 freshman Jordan Stevens, who scored almost 1,800 points in high school. Stevens averaged 21 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three blocks per game as a senior at Saratoga Springs in Gansevoort, N.Y., despite being hampered by an ankle injury a good part of the season.

Devin Brown (5.8 ppg, 1.0 apg), a 6-1 sophomore, should also be in the backcourt mix. A natural two, Brown could also see minutes backing up Beinert at the point if 6-0 freshman Dee Goens is not ready. Goens is a late signee who committed to Holy Cross after averaging 14.5 points and 5.0 assists per game in his senior year at Marist High School in Atlanta.

BLUE RIBBON ANALYSIS

BACKCOURT: B
BENCH/DEPTH: B+
FRONTCOURT: A
INTANGIBLES: B

"This is a team of talented guys with a great feel for the game, who play extremely hard. They have been a part of a system and a program that is all about winning," Kearney said. "I hope we continue that success."

Under Willard, that winning system was built on a tough switching match-up zone and a patient half-court offense. Kearney's system will be different on both ends of the court.

"I would like to run a little more than they have in the past. In the half-court we'll use a variety of sets and some motion," said Kearney. "On defense, half-court man-to-man will be our staple."

That does not mean Kearney is completely ditching Willard's defensive system. With two of Willard's top assistants and a core group of players used to playing the match-up, Kearney said Holy Cross will still deploy that D at times.

"I won't be so stubborn as to completely clean the cupboards of all those notes. We'll definitely keep it in our bag of tricks," Kearney said. "We may also look to use some full-court pressure and some traps to try to get a few more possessions in a game."

Even if Holy Cross stumbles this year as it adjusts to Kearney's ways of doing things, the Crusaders' future is bright. With only two seniors on the roster, Holy Cross should be a contender in the Patriot League for the foreseeable future.

For the most comprehensive previews available on all 334 Division I teams, order the "Bible" of college basketball, the 2009-10 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook, at www.blueribbonyearbookonline.com or call 1-877-807-4857.