Quick Hitters on Dayton, BU, Harvard and Columbia

Quick hitters as we head into the final weekend of regular season play for many conferences:

• Brian Gregory said that while having Chris Wright healthy most of the season has certainly made a difference for Dayton, the effects of the injury last season are still evident in the time he missed. Wednesday night, he played just 26 minutes due to foul trouble, and Gregory felt there’s still a little relative inexperience showing up there.
  “Because of the time he missed last year, he’s going to make some mistakes that freshmen make, like with three fouls, you can’t go for a steal and take a chance on getting your fourth foul,” Gregory said.  “Or with four fouls, when a guy’s going to take a difficult post shot, you’ve got to make him shoot that and make him make it, you can’t reach in and get your fifth foul.”

• Gregory, like counterpart Jim Baron, was busy advocating for the Atlantic 10 after the loss to Rhode Island. He said he feels the conference should get four teams in, which is likely more than they will ultimately get, noting that LSU is about to finish the SEC with the best conference record and Xavier, who the Flyers knocked off earlier in the month, beat LSU in Baton Rouge.
  “Sean Miller at Xavier said the other day, if you lose on the road in this league, you don’t have to apologize to anybody,” said Gregory.  “I’m not going to apologize for our guys’ effort tonight.  The problem is, right now some people will say that’s a bad loss to lose to Rhode Island on the road.  It’s a sore subject because what we’re doing right now in this league is what the real good leagues do – you just beat the crap out of each other for two months.”

• While Wednesday was a wild night in college basketball, the prep ranks saw a game that would have fit right in. Blairstown (NJ) Blair Academy won the New Jersey Prep title with a 53-51 double overtime win over the Hun School from Princeton. There was plenty of drama in regulation and the first overtime, but the second overtime topped it. With the final seconds ticking away in a tie game, Blair junior guard Hakeem Harris grabbed an offensive rebound and somehow got off one last shot, and after bouncing around the rim it dropped to give the Buccaneers their first state prep title.

• The reinvented Boston University team continues to impress considering the toll injuries have taken on this team. The Terriers have faced no shortage of adversity, but will finish the regular season in third place in America East. John Holland continues to get them started fast out of the gate, and Corey Lowe has become the man in the second half among their two best players. In Thursday’s 76-65 win over Maine, the 1,000^th in the program’s history, the breakout performer was freshman Jeff Pelage, who posted his first career double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds. Pelage, who they have needed to contribute due to the injuries, has had some growing pains, but in the past week has started to really get it together.

• In their 72-63 win Friday night, Harvard took full advantage of getting a few more chances against Columbia early on. The Crimson struggled from the field in the first half, but had more offensive rebounds (11) than the Lions had total rebounds (10). In the second half, they were simply more efficient in shooting 60 percent from the field and clinching the game at the foul line. Also important was that when the Lions cut a 15-point lead down to 6, the Crimson got key baskets to answer, starting with a clutch jumper by Oliver McNally with the shot clock running down.
  “We really did a good job on the glass,” said head coach Tommy Amaker.  “I was really impressed and pleased with how we were able to rebound the ball.”

• A key for the Lions in the loss to Harvard was not being able to play with a smaller lineup. The Lions were without Asenso Ampim, who had been improving inside when healthy, as well as senior Joe Bova, and have been without Brian Grimes all season. Head coach Joe Jones said Bova is done for the season, finishing his career, and Ampim may be done for the season as well. That left no one behind senior Jason Miller, as Zach Crimmins has shown promise but isn’t ready to give them major minutes yet.
  “It’s had a huge effect on our team,” Jones said of the rash of frontcourt injuries.  “We have to learn how to play small.  We’ve been able to play some parts of the game small, but now we’ve got to play small and we have to play some of our younger guys more minutes than we’ve had all year.”

• Another injury concern for the Lions came up Friday night. In the second half, junior guard Niko Scott went down with a badly sprained ankle. When he was helped off the court, he wasn’t putting any weight on it, so one has to think he’s at best questionable for Saturday night’s game at Dartmouth.

• One other note on Columbia is that it’s clear Jones has continued to raise the talent level there.  It hasn’t happened quickly, but watching this team over the last few years it’s clear that there’s more talent all the time with varying degrees of experience.  With three games left, the Lions have their first winning Ivy season in 16 years in sight as they are 6-5.  Freshman Noruwa Agho has equaled Patrick Foley’s freshman point total of two years ago, and that was the most points by a Columbia freshman in over 10 years.