![]() He knew early on in college that he wanted to coach. Senadhi played at Division III Albright and then Division II Lock Haven, graduating in 2007. West went on to play at Division III Lebanon Valley, graduating in 2006. Senadhi averaged only about five points a game, West maybe seven, but they essentially started up that offense and kept it running. The Princeton offense is all backdoors and cuts and passing and anticipation so dependent on the precision of its point guard and center. They started working together early in life, playing against each other in middle school and town leagues, training together in preparation for their time on the varsity team at North Penn, one of the biggest high schools in Pennsylvania. We’ve all just got to work off each other and build each and help each other on this journey.” “We’re all a sum of the people we’ve met in our lives,” said Senadhi, known as “Krunch” since has a little kid. After different times, in their attempts to land the jobs they now hold, West and Senadhi relied on each other for guidance pertaining to the Bridgeport campus, its people, the evolving athletic situations. Senadhi was hired in June, taking over a program that reached the NCAA Tournament 11 times in 22 years under Ruane. Ruane left Bridgeport after last season to become coach at Palm Beach State. West was hired in August 2021 and relied on Senadhi, who had left in 2020 to take a job at Christian Brothers University in Memphis. ![]() West was a finalist for the job in 2018, when Senadhi was in the midst of his nine-year stint as an assistant on the men’s team under Mike Ruane. To have them go into the career that you went into is even more rewarding.” You're doing it to help kids mature into young men and go into any career and be successful. When you coach high school basketball, you're not doing it for the money. They're really good people and really good coaches and I couldn't tell you how proud I am of them. They’re both excellent coaches and I'm picking their brains all the time. “I took notes and asked them questions,” said Fergus, who is in his 47 th year of coaching, now at Dock Mennonite Academy in Lansdale. He recently drove from suburban Philadelphia to watch back-to-back practices run by Senadhi and West in Bridgeport. Neither one of us was the most athletically gifted, but one of the things I’ve always admired about Krunch was how hard he worked.”įergus remains close with both former players. We grew up working hard for everything we’ve earned. It’s, how do we work together? This is what we want. “And as the women’s coach, I didn’t need somebody in here who is going to make my life harder. “I knew what a fit he would be,” West said. When Senadhi was hired in June, almost exactly 20 years to the day from their North Penn graduation, West, a member of the UB search committee, told athletic department colleagues that the only issue he foresaw was the nightly debate over who would lock the gym doors and shut off the lights. The Purple Knights have left the East Coast Conference and are set to make their debut in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference, a move that follows Goodwin University’s $32 million acquisition of UB that was finalized in May 2021.īoth coaches are 38, both single, both wired in a way to spend just about every waking hour of their lives in the gym, coaching their respective teams, meeting together to share observations and philosophies. It is a season of change for the Division II programs. The women will spend the weekend at a tournament in Staten Island, N.Y., playing Franklin Pierce on Saturday and Staten Island on Sunday. The men play Southern New Hampshire Saturday and Southern Connecticut Sunday at home in the Bridgeport Tipoff Classic. Now, together again, they’re leading the Purple Knights into a new athletic era.īoth Bridgeport teams open the 2022-23 season of this weekend. “They were the smartest players on the court,” Fergus said. This partnership is as unique as the chemistry that Senadhi, the North Penn point guard, and West, the team’s center, developed as pivotal parts of the Princeton offense that North Penn ran back in 2002 under coach Mike Fergus. ![]() Is there another pair of high school teammates and classmates running both basketball programs at any of the NCAA’s 1,100 member institutions? It’s possible, though improbable. “Mike’s success is always going to be my success and my success is always going to be his.” “Our paths are so intertwined,” Senadhi said recently at Hubbell Gym, the Waldemere Avenue home of both Bridgeport teams. They share visions, goals and a friendship now bookended by the highlights of their basketball lives. Senadhi is entering his first season as the men’s basketball coach at the University of Bridgeport, where West is entering his second season as the women’s coach.
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