Dan Reddan takes a blue-collar approach to basketball. It shows in the Brick resident’s nofrills style of playing and in his determination that helped him earn a starting spot for every game last season.
“I thought I did a pretty good job last year and played well,” said
Reddan, the former Brick Township standout who helped Rowan to a 20-6 record, including 12-2 at home, and a berth in the New Jersey Athletic Conference playoffs as the No. 1 seed. The Profs lost in the opening round of the NJAC playoffs to Ramapo, 92-84.
“I played in every game because I had a role and played in my role,” said the junior.
After seeing his minutes increase in the previous season as the team was beset by injuries, Reddan showed he had a place in the lineup right from the start of last season as Rowan reeled off 10 straight victories and won 13 of its first 15 games. It won seven straight leading to the Ramapo loss, with four of the last six by 20 or more points.
Reddan’s average minutes per game – 24.5 – was more than half a game and he made the most of them. He shot an impressive 43 percent from the floor with free-throw shooting just under 70 percent and averaged 6.9 points per game.
And he sees even better things on his role for this year’s team.
“I got a lot stronger,” Reddan said. “I fine-tuned things. I’m shooting the ball better and not making too many mistakes. I had too many stupid turnovers. We lost games we shouldn’t have with one possession, one shot.”
He got a good test last Saturday when the Profs, ranked No. 20 nationally in NCAA Division III in one poll with all but two players back, opened their season against No. 3- ranked Brockport University in the Lackawanna University Tournament.
“Things are going really well with the team,” said Reddan as Joe Cassidy is back as coach. “We’re all really confident. We have a chip on our shoulders to go back. We’re really deep at every position.”
Another former Brick Township player came aboard Rowan this season – small forward Tom Paterno. In fact, four township residents are playing in the NJAC, including former Brick Memorial star Jay Frank, a sophomore at The College of New Jersey and former Brick Township standout Mike Gawronski, a freshman at William Paterson.
“It’s hard to adjust to college where there’s more speed and strength. It’ll take a while, but he’ll get used to it.”
Reddan, in fact, may see his role change a bit from playing as the offguard to moving over to the point at times. “Last year, I got the ball a bit at the point and I kind of liked it. I had the ball in my hands [more] and I like that.”
Reddan will look to help ease the loss of all-conference guard Thomas Baker, who fired home 23.8 points per game (ppg), to graduation. Nearly all of the rest of last year’s team is back, including Matt Byrnes, who sank 16 ppg last season.
Not only with mismatches, Reddan has shown that he makes the most of every opportunity that comes his way.