A season on the Sprink

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ANNAPOLIS — Billy Lange watched his first Navy team lose to Gettysburg a night earlier, so there were probably any number of reasons he would pop in a tape of the 2001 U.S. Merchant Marine Academy team he coached to the Division III Sweet 16.

It was a day after Lange didn't even bother to play Greg Sprink, a freshman who contributed some but was particularly sluggish in practice for the Midshipmen that week. But as he assessed the identity of his old team — guard-oriented, capable of moving the ball, driving and kicking it out to an open man — Lange had an epiphany.

Of all the players he inherited with the Mids, Sprink most resembled the guys who created past success.

"I remember saying to myself that night, 'I just have to go through it with him,' " Lange recalled this week.

So he has. And more than three years later, Sprink averages a Patriot League-best 20.9 points as the Midshipmen (15-12, 8-4) enter tonight's showdown for first place with American (17-10, 9-3) at Alumni Hall.

The germination of his productive career came a day after Lange's bleary-eyed film session. Lange called Sprink into his office and told the surprised freshman he would start the next game.

"It showed me how much faith and how much time and effort he wanted to put into my development, not only as a person but as a basketball player and the confidence he had in me," the 6-foot-5 Sprink said. "That kind of showed me a lot."

There were caveats. It wasn't guaranteed to be permanent, and Lange promised to keep pushing Sprink as much as he had throughout the preseason.

But the mutual commitment was there — from Lange in considering the long-term ramifications for the program and from Sprink to continue to come early and stay late to improve his game.

There were competitive bumps. The Mids went 10-18 in consecutive seasons as both Sprink and Lange grew into their roles. Last season, Navy couldn't build on a 9-3 start and wound up 14-16. And just as the team could play uneven at times, so could Sprink.