Fresh start for Harper

What Harper College men's basketball players did or didn't do in the past didn't matter to Tony Amarino.

Amarino brought an open mind to Harper when he was hired in the spring after a successful 16-year run at Morton College.

"Everyone got a fresh start," said Amarino, who was 263-236 with a national tournament trip at Morton.

And Amarino hopes he's starting another long and prosperous run at Harper as the Hawks open their season at 7 p.m. today at home against the Olivet Nazarene JV.

"The only thing I'm worried about, not that I'm not worried about it any longer, is generally my teams get off to slow starts," Amarino said. "The tough part with starting here is all the sophomores are true freshmen as far as I'm concerned.

"Our system is totally different than whatever they ran and that's made jobs wide open for people."

Amarino does have some established talent. Guard Bobby Rhodes (8.4 ppg, 37 3-pointers) from Schaumburg and 6-foot-6 Garrett Staniec (7.6 ppg, 5.6 rpg) from Glenbrook South are co-captains after a tumultuous season.

Staniec was named honorable mention on the All-Region team but is about 2-3 weeks from getting back to playing at full strength after tearing up his knee in the summer.

Mike Silungan (10 ppg, 46 3s) from Conant is a dangerous outside threat and Jon Winsor (6.6 ppg) from Maine West can score off the drive.

"He's a big part for us," Amarino said. "He's a very good athlete and we're fortunate with him."

Guard Jamal Roper (Hoffman Estates) averaged 2.5 points in 15 games. Lars Overland saw limited time last year and guard Ricky Drehobl (Leyden) saw action two years ago.

Amarino did have a pair of talented guards follow him from Morton in Dartanian Wells and George Ramirez. Two products from perennial state power St. Joseph figure to help in guard Rashee Wallace and Jarrel Tolbert.

Providing size and a variety of skills are former all-area players Fred Taylor (Conant) and Andy Merklein (Prospect). The 6-7 Taylor is a scoring and shot-blocking threat inside and the 6-9 Merklein can score from 3-point range.

Guard Josh Toon (Elk Grove) is another all-area performer.

"We're capable of playing a couple of different styles, which I like," Amarino said. "We can be patient or we can go. That's always a good thing to have."

Amarino runs a motion offense and said his teams play 90 percent man-to-man defense.

"If we're playing well, we'll pressure people," he said. "We want to get after it defensively.

"We're definitely quick enough to guard people man-to-man."