BOSTON – Six straight losses can certainly have an effect on a team and its coach, especially in a program where there’s been a good deal of winning recently. That might explain why Milan Brown spent over 45 minutes in the locker room with his team after Mount St. Mary’s dropped an 86-77 decision at Boston University on Tuesday night.
The loss was the sixth straight for the Mountaineers and ended a seven-game road swing. They haven’t played a home game in over a month, and after their next game against Vermont, they go back on the road for three more before they can finally play a few more home games.
“We’ve been on the road for about 35 days now,” said head coach Milan Brown. “It’s hard to get better when you’re on the road. It’s hard to work on things when you get on the road.”
The Mountaineers won 19 games each of the past two seasons, so this isn’t something they are used to. But they have experienced something like the current stretch, as Brown pointed out that they got off to a rough start last year before eventually reaching the NIT. In the month of December, they lost six straight games, although one was a home game (Navy), and went into Christmas with the same record (3-8) they currently have.
With much of that team back, there is reason for optimism going forward. But it won’t come automatically.
“We’re going to need some veteran leadership, a little bit of that has been lacking,” said Brown, who alluded to the loss of two key leaders from last season’s team in forwards Sam Atupem and Markus Mitchell. “We’re young in the post a little bit, and the perimeter guys are struggling. We’re going to need some of those veteran guys that have been in championship situations to step up. There’s no progress without struggle, and we’re definitely struggling, so hopefully some progress will come quickly.”
The Mountaineers have their perimeter unit back, but the offense hasn’t been there. They are shooting below 38 percent from the field, including less than 29 percent from behind the three-point line, and they have 58 more turnovers than assists. Defense is where this team wins, and thus far that hasn’t been a major concern, although they allowed Boston University to shoot 56 percent from the field. That game marked just the third time they have scored 70 or more points, a stat that was, interestingly, the same at this time last year. In their loss at Old Dominion earlier this month, they scored just 38 points, the lowest single-game total by a Mountaineer team in almost 60 years.
Brown knows their schedule has not been easy. Not only have they played all but two games away from home, but they have come against the likes of Oklahoma, Niagara, Georgetown, Robert Morris, Old Dominion, Pittsburgh and Boston University, several of whom are favorites in their respective conferences. But he isn’t about to use that to explain how they have played.
“We’re struggling shooting the basketball this year. That’s been an ongoing event for us,” Brown added. “It’s hard to win basketball games when you can’t score with consistency. We’ve had some long stretches, where we go 4-6 minutes without a basket.”
One thing that hasn’t helped is that the Mountaineers haven’t had their entire team together for much of the season. Tuesday’s loss at Boston University was just their second game with the entire team together, as academics kept two players out for about the first month of the season, an injury sidelined senior shooter Will Holland for seven games and senior walk-on Kevin Jones wasn’t immune as an illness kept him out of action for a while.
Getting everyone back and finally getting a home game, along with a brief holiday break (the players all go home until returning for practice on the 27th), may have come at a good time. When they come back, they can regroup for the rest of the season with the full roster intact.
Brown is also a realist and knows that their path to postseason play is through the Northeast Conference. Their first two games there in January are on the road, which means they will start with four straight road games in NEC play as they played two on the road earlier this month. But after that, they play five of seven at home and finish with four straight at Knotts Arena. If they can manage through this tough start, the home games could help make for a good finish leading into the conference tournament. It all starts with the two remaining non-conference games, at home against Vermont and at Siena.
“We know that the Northeast Conference is what we’re supporting and where we have to start playing our best basketball, but we need to get ready for that starting now,” Brown said.
