On Saturday, March 3, one of the best athletes in Cabrini University’s history put on his Cavalier uniform for one last time.
Tyheim Monroe, the 6 foot 6 inch forward from Onley Charter High School in Philadelphia, finished his Cabrini basketball career in a loss to Springfield College in the second round of the NCAA Division III tournament. Even though the loss was frustrating, Monroe and his teammates did something they have been dreaming of doing since his freshman year: they won the CSAC title.
Monroe and his teammates had not been to the CSAC championship finals since 2014-2015 when they lost to hated rival Neumann University.
“We needed that [championship],” Monroe said. “Everybody stayed together through adversity. In practice, games, tough games— that’s why we were better than ever before.”
In his four seasons at Cabrini, Monroe became the first player to score 2,000 career points in the program’s history. He also finished as the school’s all time rebounds leader, with 1,480 rebounds. He additionally was fourth all time in blocks 105 and tied for 10th in steals with 155 in the school’s history.
The two-time CSAC Player of the Year also holds the CSAC record for career rebounds and is third on the all-time point scoring list, having tallying 2,030 in his career.
“[In a word], relentless,” Cavaliers head coach Tim McDonald said, when asked to describe Monroe. “He is right at the top of the list [of players I’ve coached]. I mean, he is the all-time leading scorer and rebounder in our programs history.”
McDonald and former Cavliers assistant coach Saleem Brown kept an eye on Monroe from an early age and believed in his potential to be a key piece to future championship puzzles.
“[When I was a senior in high school] it was either I was gonna go to a junior college or whatever, but Saleem and Coach McDonald persuaded me that [Cabrini] was the right choice for me,” Monroe said.
For the faith that Cabrini showed in Monroe early on, he never considered leaving the school, even with rumors of Division I and II schools considering recruiting him.
“I heard people saying, ‘I got this connect’ and that ‘this guy from such and such school wants you to come here at the end of my sophomore year,’” Monroe said. “I thought about what was best for me and what Cabrini has given me. I didn’t want to leave. Coming out of high school they believed in me so I stayed here. I had people try to reach out to me and whatever but I kind of let it go in one ear and out the other.”
During his freshman campaign at Cabrini, Monroe showed flashes of excellence in his limited playing time. Even though he only started nine of 25 games, the future two-time CSAC MVP tallied 12.8 points, 8.5 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game.
Going into his sophomore season, Monroe knew he had big shoes to fill with guard Aaron Walton-Moss, who at the time was Cabrini’s all-time leading scorer, graduating the previous spring.
“It was a lot coming into my sophomore year having to lead the team,” Monroe said. “I just worked super hard that summer and went from there.”
Monroe’s numbers shot up with his increase in playing time. Playing 34 minutes a game, Monroe averaged 18.4 points and 15.3 rebounds per game. This was the beginning of his dominance in the CSAC conference.
“On the court he really knows how to use his body and his size to his advantage, so he can pretty much do whatever he wants,” junior guard Mike Doyle said. “And that’s why he’s such a tough cover.”
“He’s unbelievable.”
Fast forward to 2018 and Monroe and his team finally won the CSAC title that eluded them since the days of Walton-Moss. Even though he waited four years to do it, Monroe is happy he will get to go out on top.
“Everyone wants to go out a winner, so winning it as a senior feels good, at the end of the day,” Monroe said.
While his counting stats were relatively similar to his output from his junior season— as he averaged of 21.5 points and 14.7 rebounds per game— it was his leadership ability and his all-around skill that saw the greatest improvement.
“The one aspect that he took a big step in this year that will help him throughout his life was in leadership,” McDonald said. “He became a vocal leader who always did things the right way and lead his teammates through adversity.”
Monroe credited the team’s success to an improved leadership dynamic in the locker room
“We stuck together through adversity,” he said. “In the previous years, we were so young that we didn’t really have that senior leadership role and this year it was me, Deryl Bagwell, Ivan Robinson and Devhante Mosley before he went down [with a torn ACL]. We just had older guys and even the juniors like Mike Doyle and Anthony Linder and we all helped out the sophomores and the freshman.”
Monroe spoke highly about his teammate Doyle.
“You need someone like Mike Doyle on your team,” Monroe said. “He’s one of our biggest leaders if you ask me. If we are all down, he gets us right.”
“He’s a genuinely great person and cares about others,” Doyle said. “He’s a great teammate and an incredible friend.”
Now that Monroe— who was named the NABC’s Atlantic Region Player of the Year on March 12— is getting ready to earn his diploma in May, he has started to think about his life after college like many other students at Cabrini. Monroe may be the only one with a chance to play professional basketball.
“Right now, I am not exactly sure what I want to do with myself,” Monroe said. “ I’ve been talking to [Brown] and [McDonald] about everything.”
“I know [pro basketball] is his goal right now and I am going to help him accomplish that goal,” McDonald said. “I think he will have a very successful career playing overseas. He is so talented that he can fit in with just about any style and system, so we will try to find the right fit for him and see where that takes him.”
Is it realistic for a player from little old Cabrini to play professionally somewhere? If it’s possible for anybody, it’s Monroe.
“I think Tyheim will have a great professional career wherever he lands,” Doyle said. “He has the work ethic to keep it going.”
“If I can play professional basketball, I’m gonna do that,” Monroe said. “Right now I am undecided.”
“I’d love to play. I think I have a good shot.”
Monroe is grateful for the opportunity he received at Cabrini and has a message for future recruits:
“You have to go out and give it your all everyday,” Monroe said. “It’s a tough program even though it’s a DIII school, there are high expectations.
“Some great players have come out of this school, so if your coming here to be average, than I’d say that this is not the school for you. You come to this program you should want to be the greatest player ever to come through this school.”
And that is precisely what Monroe did in his four years at Cabrini University. And now whenever he comes to visit the court he once called home in the future, he can look up and see his team’s success cemented in forever.
“When I come to Cabrini I can look up and see we won a banner,” Monroe said. “That feels pretty good.”
