Detroit Mercy Men's Basketball October Newsletter

Unity ~ Perseverance ~ Appreciation ~ Integrity ~ Diligence

Detroit Mercy Men’s Basketball Newsletter #OurTurnOurCity

The Titan Identity!

Detroit Mercy Men’s Basketball is right around the corner and we hope you’re excited as we are! Our first official practice was this past Friday September 30th and we’re getting ready for a much anticipated season! There has been a lot of preparation going into our program thus far and we can’t wait to get the ball rolling.

To go along with The Detroit Mercy Way and it’s 5 core values of Unity, Perseverance, Appreciation, Integrity, and Diligence (UPAID), we also have The Titan Identity. The Titan Identity consists of: Playing Hard, Working Smart, Being Tough, Finishing Strong, and Staying Together. If we’re able to achieve these concepts, our Titan’s are destined for greatness on and off the court.

Coach Alexander during his press conference, letting the Detroit community that their college team will return to greatness.

Jaleel Hogan is bigger, faster and stronger heading into his Junior year for the Titans.

Titan Picture Day!

Class of 2020

Titan’s putting pictures up on Instagram

Head Coach Bacari Alexander and Kam Chatman

Our Titan’s recently had a great experience during picture day and all of our players were part of a wide variety of shoots. They had fun on the blue screen and were able to get creative with action shots, group action shots, team photos, class oriented photos, and much more! To add, this was the first revealing of our new Adidas apparel and our guys were looking sharp in the new gear!

Head Coach Bacari Alexander and Malik Eichler

Isaiah Jones

A group of Titan’s waiting to get on the blue screen

Detroit Mercy Men’s Basketball Staff Listed left to right: Athletic Trainer Joe Fawcett, Graduate Assistant Collin Barth, Director of Program Personnel and Operations Mickey Barrett, Assistant Coach Jermaine Jackson, Head Coach Bacari Alexander, Assistant Coach Canaan Chatman, Assistant Coach Pete Kahler, Video Analyst Kal Riebau, Strength and Conditioning Coach Nick Wilson

Titan Great Derek Hayes Gives Back!

Former Titan standout Derek Hayes dedicated a Sunday night to come speak with our players on persevering through adversity and being successful in life.

Coach Alexander’s First Recruiting Class to Detroit Mercy Listed left to right: Freshman Corey Allen, Transfer Kam Chatman, Freshman Jacob Joubert, Freshman Malik Eichler, Head Coach Bacari Alexander, Freshman Cole Long, Transfer Isaiah Jones, Freshman Ed Carter III, Transfer Dre Black.

Meet Assistant Coach Canaan Chatman

"Coach Chatman's national AAU and high school connections provide a borderless aspect that helps bolster our recruiting efforts at Detroit Mercy,” said head coach Bacari Alexander. “His deep connections specifically in Baltimore, Illinois, Northern Indiana and Washington D.C., will prove to be valuable in the immediate future. The fact that he is originally from Chicago provides instant credibility for our program in that area. His ability to connect and mentor young people was something that stood out as well in our discussions over recent years."

Chatman is a well-known and highly successful AAU coach serving as the Adidas Grassroots Basketball Northwest Regional Director from 1999-2007 and the Nike Elite Youth Basketball Northwest Regional Director for the last eight years. In those positions, he was able to evaluate and develop relationships with some of the top high school and college players as well as high school and college coaches in the game.

He was the director of the Adidas Superstar Camp from 2002-2007, where he planned and coordinated, in accordance with the NCAA, a five-day athletic and academic skill-building session for 200 elite U.S. and international basketball players.

Chatman has also been the director of the Great Northwest Summer League since 1999, a seven-week skill development basketball summer league for all regional collegiate and professional basketball players, as well as director of the SEI/ Nike Boys Basketball Camp since 1993, which is a one-week life skills camp that uses basketball as the incentive in understanding that “Life has Options”.

He is also the founder, Executive Director and head coach of Journey’s Foundation and the founder and President of Courtside Entertainment, with both of those located in his hometown of Portland, Oregon. Journeys Foundation is a non-profit organization geared towards inner city student-athletes, using athletic incentives as positive motivation towards high school graduation and secondary educational opportunities. Courtside Entertainment is a sports entertainment group founded on individualism and creativity and also has publishing rights in the music, literary and film.

Chatman starred on the court as a player in high school and college. He started his collegiate career at Oregon State before transferring to Portland Community College. He then finished his collegiate career at the University of Portland earning team MVP honors in 1994 and 1995. He led the Pilots in rebounding in both years with 8.1 in 1993-94 and 6.8 in 1994-95, and also topped the team in scoring with 18.3 points as a senior. A twotime First Team All-West Coast Conference selection, he is the fastest person to reach 1,000 points in Portland history needing just 58 games, while his 1,021 overall points is 31st in school history and his 17.3 points per game ranking fifth. As a prep, he helped Benson High School to a state championship as a senior.

He would go on to play professionally for seven seasons in the CBA as well as overseas in Australia, Dubai, Israel, Japan, Poland, Switzerland and Turkey.

Chatman graduated from Portland in 1995 as a double major in Sociology and Communications. He is the father of current Titan Kam Chatman.

Meet Director of Program Personnel & Operations Mickey Barrett

Longtime Titan men’s basketball assistant coach and former Detroit Mercy women’s basketball head coach Mickey Barrett joined the program as the Director of Program Personnel and Operations in the summer of 2016.

"Mickey is a staple in the Midwest basketball community,” said head coach Bacari Alexander ‘99. “His understanding of all facets of a program will prove to be invaluable to us. As a former head coach and long time veteran assistant, he will have a great understanding of how to provide mentorship throughout our program.”

Barrett is no stranger to coach Alexander and the Titans serving as an assistant men’s basketball coach at the University from 1991-2003 before taking over the reigns as the head women’s basketball coach for five seasons.

A veteran of over 40 years of high school and collegiate coaching, Barrett was the recipient of the 2002 AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year Award, given to only 500 coaches nationwide, from all levels of competition - college, junior college and high school - and from all sports, not just basketball. Barrett began his stint on the Detroit Mercy staff in 1991 and was promoted to a full-time assistant's role in 1996.

With the men’s program, he was actively involved in the recruitment of future talent, on-the-floor coaching, scouting of upcoming opponents and helping to monitor the basketball team's academic progress.

During his time as an assistant, he worked under two great head coaches in Ricky Byrdsong (1991-1993) and Perry Watson (1993-2003) and helped the Titans soar to new heights winning three conference championships (1994, 1998, 1999), earning two bids to the NCAA Tournament (1998, 1999) and the NIT (2001, 2002), and tying the school wins record with 25 victories on three occasions (1998, 1999, 2001).

In 1993-94 in coach Watson’s first year, Detroit Mercy won the MCC Championship as the No. 4 seed, defeating top-seeded Xavier and No. 2 seed Evansville in the semifinals and finals, respectively.

With coach Alexander and assistant coach Jermaine Jackson ‘99 in the starting line-up in 1997-98, the Titans shared the regular season crown and would go on to beat St. John’s in the NCAA Tournament, the schools first NCAA tournament triumph since 1977. The following year with both Titans back, Detroit Mercy captured the

regular season and conference tournament banners and would go on to shock 15th ranked UCLA in the NCAA Tournament.

With all-time leading scorer Rashad Phillips and future 12-year NBA player Willie Green in the starting line-up, the Titans made a historic run to Madison Square Garden and the NIT Final Four in 2000-01 as the red, white and blue went on the road to knock off Bradley, Connecticut and Dayton to advance to “The World's Most Famous Arena".

After serving 12 seasons as an assistant on the Titans' men's basketball staff, he became the head women’s basketball coach at Detroit Mercy from 2003-2007. He built the team to follow his belief on defense and ball control and that helped the red, white and blue finish with a 15-14 overall record and a 10-6 mark in conference play in 2003-04, advancing to the Horizon League championship game. Detroit Mercy also held opponents to a conference-low 55.9 points per game, a total which represented the 12th-best total in NCAA Division I. That season also saw the Titans earn a spot on the Women's Basketball Coaches Association’s Academic Top25 Honor Roll with a 3.308 GPA, tops in the Horizon league and the 15th-highest mark in the nation.

Overall, he coached a pair of players who earned All-Conference accolades in Nicole Anaejionu and Joyce Massey. He had two players tabbed to the HL’s All-Defensive Team in Anaejionu and Melissa Harakas, while Katie Solner was twice recognized on the All-Tournament squad.

Barrett also spent time in high school administration as the Athletic Director at University of Detroit Jesuit High School and Academy from 2008-2010 and been a consultant at Marfrank LLC for the last five years.

He originally came to Detroit Mercy from Jesuit-rival and his alma mater Xavier University, where he had served as an assistant on the women's basketball staff for three seasons (1988-91). In his last winter there, the Musketeers posted their first winning season since 1982 and came within one victory of making the MCC Tournament.

Barrett arrived at Xavier after spending five years as the assistant boy's basketball coach at St. Edward's High School in the Cleveland suburb of Lakewood, Ohio. He helped start AAU basketball in Cleveland and was the head coach of an AAU All-Star team that participated in several national tournaments. During his stint with the AAU program, Barrett also owned and operated the Recruiting Communication Service, designed to assist players and parents with the college recruiting process.

He is a graduate of Xavier with a degree in Liberal Arts.