Niagara's Greg Paulus knew he wanted to be a coach even before his All-American playing days. And while taking over the Purple Eagles a couple weeks before the season started wasn't how he planned it, Paulus led them to a successful campaign which included ten conference wins for just the second time in seven years while going 9-3 at home.

"I was really proud of our guys on how they bought in and stayed together. As a result we were able to do somethings together," Paulus says.

That ‘together’ should be able to grow next season as the Purple Eagles have a solid foundation to build on after losing just one senior.

"When you can have a team with a good number of players returning from one year to the next, you are able to have some carryover. We're hoping that the experience we went through this year, the ups, the downs, the close wins, the comradery we tried to create that that creates our culture and who we want to be," Paulus adds.

The 33-year-old may be in the infancy of his coaching career, but he has some elder statesmen in his Rolodex after playing for Coach Mike Krzyzewski at Duke and being an assistant for six years under Thad Matta at Ohio State.

"I caught myself each day reflecting back on a Coach Matta decision or a Coach K decision and I really thought that was helpful to me when I was going through a tough time or through a good spurt. I think that is part of using the experience we talked about before to reflect, learn, and share those," said Paulus.

Harnessing those traits and sprinkling in a bit of himself helped Paulus lift Niagara to four more MAAC wins than a season ago, earning him the Joe B. Hall award for best first-year coach. Even in that, he thought of his guys first.

"They would call and congratulate when they saw the news and I would respond with 'thank you, thank you for buying in, thank you for working hard.' This is something that we want to be a program that creates special memories for our program, our team, and our individuals,” he adds.

What may been the most special for years to come is that this team earned a cumulative GPA of 3.19. That's a program record.