WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – Quinnipiac was supposed to win their opener at Hartford on Saturday in the Connecticut 6 Classic opener. They did that by a 65-61 margin, and they did it the way they will probably have to win much of this season.
While Hartford has 10 freshmen and sophomores, with four sophomores starting, the Bobcats start three seniors and a junior. The Bobcats have grown from being a young team into a veteran group that should contend in the Northeast Conference this season, with experience being one thing on their side.
Quinnipiac was in good shape just about any time they got the ball inside. They often did it by way of the pass, but they have guards who can drive inside as well. They scored 22 of their 29 first-half points in the paint and didn’t hit a single shot from long range. They continued that into the second half, not hitting from downtown until under 12 minutes were left to play. When it was all said and done, the Bobcats scored 44 of their 65 points in the paint and were 2-9 from long range.
“We were scoring inside today, so if it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” said Azotam.
It’s understandable that the Bobcats would want to pound the ball inside just from looking at their personnel. They start Ike Azotam and Jamee Jackson, two veterans who can score on just about anyone inside using their bodies and, in Azotam’s case, his athleticism. They bring in Ousmane Drame and Justin Harris as very capable reinforcements off the bench. The four combined for 36 points on 16-27 shooting and 22 rebounds on Saturday.
In particular, Azotam should become a double-double guy this season. He finished a little shy of it last season, but the junior has all the tools to do that this time around.
Look at the perimeter unit and the plan to live inside as much as possible makes more sense. Senior point guard Dave Johnson is a fine floor leader and a reasonably good scorer, but he’s not someone who will strike fear into opposing defenses with his shooting. Sophomore Zaid Hearst is similar in that he does some things well, but his shooting isn’t going to keep opposing guards up late at night. They are the team’s top returning three-point shooters, both having shot below 36 percent from deep last season. As a team, the Bobcats shot 33.3 percent from long range.
“I think it looks like more of a weakness because our inside game is so strong,” said head coach Tom Moore. “[The guards] held up their end.”
Saturday’s game seems to be an indication that this season could be more of the same. Hartford played a good deal of zone defense, including a 1-3-1, which Moore admitted they were not ready for. Teams will often play zone against an opponent to try to slow down inside scoring and make a team win with shooting or better ball movement. That’s something the Bobcats could face a good deal of unless a shooter or two emerges.
“I didn’t expect that, to be honest with you,” said Moore, who admitted he thought he would see a different zone than that. “They’ve played it, but I didn’t expect it.”
To their credit, the Bobcats only took nine shots from long range on Saturday. They don’t have to make many, either, but at some point this team will probably need to make a reasonable percentage of jumpers from outside the paint in a game. The good thing for them was that Saturday was not such a game, although Hartford did all they could to make them a jump shooting team. That means someone or a couple of players will need to emerge as outside threats, something that might seem concerning but doesn’t appear to be to the Bobcats.
“They’ve just got to get their confidence up,” said Jackson. “We believe in them. Once everybody starts clicking, it should be a good run.”
Moore said he felt Saturday’s game played out as a toughness contest, and his team had that down the stretch. It’s something one would expect of the more experienced team, and in all it worked out as expected in how they went about winning. They rode their formula to success the way they will try to all season, while they will surely hope to develop some jump shooting to keep defenses honest.
“Coach told us what it was going to be at the beginning of the season, with veteran bigs, and we’ve accepted that role,” said Jackson.
