La Roche finds 5 words to live — and win — by on its way to NCAA Division III Tournament

Eight years ago, the basketball players at La Roche University — stung by a 1-24 record — met with coach Hermie Carmichael to figure out what went wrong.

“They came to us and said, ‘Coach, we don’t have an image,’ ” Carmichael said. “’We don’t have a certain way that we play. We don’t have certain things we believe in.’ ”

Carmichael listened, was pleased with the players’ concern and said, “OK, let’s establish this.”

He asked each player to submit five words that define what they believe should be the team’s core values.

The five words that garnered the most votes are emblazoned on a photo of the gym displayed inside the team’s locker room at the Kerr Fitness Center on La Roche’s 80-acre McCandless campus:

Focus, together, trust, unselfish and respect.

The word respect is on the picture next to the opponent’s bench.

“We want to respect our opponents and we want to respect the game of basketball,” said Carmichael, who’s in his 11th season as head coach.

The following season (2015-16), La Roche improved to 12 victories before starting a stretch of six consecutive appearances in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference championship game, including the 84-61 victory last Saturday against Penn State Altoona.

La Roche won at least 20 games in five of those seasons, three times capturing the AMCC title and the NCAA Division III Tournament berth that goes with it. La Roche (20-7) will attempt to win the school’s first NCAA Tournament game Friday when the Redhawks visit host Stockton University (22-5) in Galloway, N.J.

Not long ago, Carmichael and his four assistants — Lorenzo Archer, Darius Lawrence and veteran high school coaches Harry Jenkins (Fox Chapel) and Victor Giannotta (Seneca Valley) — decided to put 90% of their recruiting efforts into WPIAL players.

“I think there is a lot of Division III talent in the WPIAL,” said Carmichael, who played at Seneca Valley and La Roche and is a member of the university’s Hall of Fame.

Six of the team’s top eight scorers played for WPIAL schools, including Chartiers Valley graduate Joe Pipilo (12.7 points per game) and McKeesport grad Jordan Grayson (10.8).

The leading scorer is AMCC Player of the Year Devon Darrell, a senior guard from Lockport, N.Y., who is averaging 20.3 points per game (second in the AMCC). He is a transfer from D’Youville (N.Y.) University.

To recruit Darrell, Carmichael just needed to be himself and open an email.

“I remember hugging him one time after we played them and I told him how much I loved his game,” Carmichael said.

Soon after that, he received an email from Darrell, who wanted to transfer to La Roche after D’Youville had decided to transition to Division II.

“He’s so quick, so fast,” Carmichael said. “Doesn’t always shoot the ball really, really well. Other teams know that, but he’s still able to get wherever he wants to on the court because of the way he uses his body and the way he uses his eyes. He’s become a grown man for us, academically, too.

“He’s the type of guy, every time you need something on the floor, shot clock is down low, end of the half, game-winning basket, he’s just really, really hard to defend. But at the same time, he finds everybody on the court because he passes the ball so well.”

Division III limitations dictate that Carmichael can’t be an around-the-clock coach. The four-time (including this season) AMCC Coach of the Year works in the finance department at Carnegie Mellon.

“I’ll work from 7:30 to 3:30, practice 4-6 and drive to gym from 7-9:30 to watch a high school game and then come home,” he said.

Plus, he’s the father of five boys: Rowan, a sophomore guard at Avonworth, fifth-grader Ryker and fourth-grade triplets Reegan, Raleigh and Ridley.

“If I’m not at a high school game (recruiting), I’m usually at one of my kids’ games,” he said.

Of all the stats associated with La Roche’s season, including an average of 10.1 made 3-pointers per game, this one may be the most impressive:

Since Oct. 15, Carmichael said he was in a gym — somewhere — for all but two days.