COLLEGE PREVIEW(Third of a series)

Fordham basketball coach Bob Hill lost four starters from last season, one of them to the NBA. And he couldn’t be happier.

“Last year’s group was the furthest thing from a team that I’ve ever been around in my life,” said Hill. “But [this year’s co-captains, Mark Jarrell-Wright and Michael Haynes] have done a very good job up to this point of providing team leadership. We’ve never had that since I’ve been here.”

Compare this season’s Ramsroster to last year’s and you’ll notice a slew of missing names. Three starters graduated, Smush Parker turned pro, Jeff McMillan transferred and Liberto Tetimadingar and Adrian Walton quit. Good riddance, says Hill.

“The distractions some of them had off the floor, I just couldn’t control,” said Hill, a former NBA coach who’s entering his fourth season at Fordham.

“I knew I had to get rid of guys. They took great pride in fighting against what basketball stands for. We started preparing for this year halfway through last season.”

And what a sorry season it was. The Rams finished 8-20 overall and tied for last place in the Atlantic 10 with a 4-12 mark.

“Two-thirds or halfway through last season I secretly made Mike and Mark the captains for this year,” Hill said.

If that doesn’t tell you how bad things got, nothing will.

Hill wrote off the rest of last season and started planning for this one. He says that jealousy of Parker – now with the Cavs – was rampant, and that team morale, discipline and cohesiveness were nonexistent.

Not anymore. This team, while not as skilled as last year’s bunch, won’t be fighting Hill’s system.

“What we have this year is 10 or 11 guys that will help you now, that will accept roles and not pout and not be locker-room lawyers and all the things that were here before,” said Hill.

What the Rams have is a core of three very good players, all of whom Hill thinks could eventually play in the NBA, and a supporting cast that could be as good as the high-profiled prima donnas of past seasons.

Those three are 6-foot-5 shooting guard Jarrell-Wright, Haynes (a 6-8 small forward), and 6-10, 340-pound center Glenn Batemon, who shed 25 pounds over the summer.

Jarrell-Wright, a junior, won the Rams’ MVP last season, but the victory was as political as they come. Because Hill knew Parker was going to enter the NBA draft (though he failed to be selected), Hill gave Jarrell-Wright (8.3 ppg, 2.2 apg) the award.

This season the ball will filter through Jarrell-Wright more often and those stats will climb.

Rose Hill patrons know Haynes from last year as a player who racked up most of his points via the alley-oop. Haynes averaged 9.4 and grabbed 2.7 boards a game last season.

“Mike and Mark are the kind of young people you want in your program,” said Hill. “They’re taking the extra step and helping me create the kind of environment that you have to have if you’re going to sustain some sort of success.”

Still, Batemon could become the most integral piece on the team. With McMillan at USC, Batemon becomes the only big man to clog the middle.

Next: LIU