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King Rice

Monmouth basketball bench turns sideline into sideshow

Nicole Auerbach
USA TODAY Sports
Players on the Monmouth men's basketball bench can't match the action on the court, but it's close. In this photo, In this photo, left to right: Chris Brady, Austin Tilghman’s (on ground), Pierre Sarr,  Louie Pillari, Dan Pillari (arms extended) and Greg Noack.

First, one Monmouth basketball player pretends he's a fish. Then, he dies.

Two teammates pick him up, so he's parallel to the floor, and they pose for a faux photograph — just as any great fisherman who'd caught a trophy fish would.

"When we came up with that in the hotel room, we laughed for about 20 minutes," Monmouth junior Greg Noack said. "I was so excited to do that one. It's still my favorite."

"Trophy fish," as that one is nicknamed, is one of dozens of creative (and exceedingly hilarious) choreographed bench celebrations that have made the Monmouth bench a viral hit this season. And the team on the floor is a hit, too, having beaten UCLA, Notre Dame and USC already this season en route to a 4-2 record.

"We're always high-energy guys on the bench and throughout practice," said sophomore Dan Pillari. "We started to win big games, so it's rolled from there. It's easy to have these celebrations when you have a very good team hitting big shots."

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Monmouth's Greg Noack will use props when necessary to to celebrate great on-court moments for the Hawks just-so.

The bench really upped its game after the team's season-opening overtime win at UCLA on Nov. 13. It realized its game against a nationally ranked Irish squad two weeks later would provide a huge opportunity for both the on-floor players and the bench players.

Which called for some serious brainstorming.

"When our team has the scout on another team, the whole team has a meeting," Pillari said. "Then, the Monmouth bench takes it upon itself to have its own meeting right after, a 15-30 minute meeting. We make sure we know what celebrations to do at what time. It's a real strict meeting. Can't be late to it."

Noack, Pillari, Pillari's cousin Louie and Tyler Robinson spend these meetings bouncing ideas off each other. Some are vetoed; the reason given is usually that the idea was too over the top. Then, they come up with choreography and practice a bit so they'll get it right when the game is on the line. "The trophy fish one — we had to practice that a few times," Dan Pillari said.

On game days, Noack keeps a card in his sock that lists all of the bench's planned celebrations — in order. There's a new card for each game.

"During a timeout, we'll listen to the coaches and then when we go to our seats, we'll look at our card to see what celebration is next," Pillari said.

Said Noack: "Being at the end of the bench, you have one job — and that's to go nuts and support the team as much as possible."

Beyond trophy fish, there's the fake heart attack (and subsequent CPR effort to revive the actor), re-enacting a dunk, the touchdown pass, the human scissors and dozens more that the bench guys say cameras haven't caught.

The celebrations have turned what normally would be anonymous end-of-the-bench players into campus celebrities.

"Everyone's kind of whispering and looking at you and laughing," Noack said. "People you've never talked to before are coming up to you and telling you you're awesome. It's really surreal. It really hasn't hit us yet, because we don't know how big this really is, but in the little bubble we have on campus, it's starting to get a little nuts."

Dan Pillari said he received a tweet from a stranger, asking if he'd speak at his daughter's graduation. Pillari said he's hoping to get more details, and that he'd deliver "a mean graduation speech."

Count Monmouth coach King Rice among the adoring fans. Rice never gets to see his bench in action live — he's too busy focusing on the actual basketball being played in front of him — but he's watched highlights of the bench after games and found his guys pretty funny.

What Rice likes most, though, is how obvious it is that the players are having a blast.

"When we write things on the board before the game, one of the things that's been on there every game since I got here is: Have fun," Rice said. "I truly think that 18-22-year-old college athletes should be having fun. They have their whole lives to be grownups. As grownups, sometimes, we don't let them express themselves the way they want to.

"I have great young men in this program. Their parents did unbelievable jobs raising them. They're really good students. … They keep it clean. It's not against any other team. It celebrates how our players play."

Plus, it puts the spotlight on a group of players who normally don't get attention.

"Every day in practice they're there, and we go after them really hard, just like everybody else on our team," Rice said. "They never get any credit for getting our team ready. They never get any credit for the work they put in on a daily basis. I'm glad that they're getting notoriety."

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