West Virginia’s Second-Half Surge Tops Irish

Alex Ruoff scorched the nets to the tune of 24 points on 9-for-16 shooting, and West Virginia reeled off a decisive 16-6 second half spurt, leading to the Mountaineers’ 79-68 victory over Notre Dame before a raucous 13,126 at WVU Coliseum last night.

This crass crowd littered the floor of the arena with 2:34 remaining, their reaction to a Luke Harangody foul.

A simple scrap for a loose ball between Harangody and Cam Thoroughman turned ugly. Fans felt Harangody got too physical and out of line during the play, and they clearly weren’t shy with their reaction.  Warnings would surface, but no fan was ejected.

With the win, the fresh-faced Mountaineers closed within a half game of Providence. It’s beginning to look like a mud-wrestle for sixth place, in a Big East conference that’s got a surplus of talent.

Providence (16-10, 8-6) was cooked to the recipe of a 94-76 blood-lettering by Louisville. The Cardinals came roaring back from a one-point deficit at the intermission, and the Friars couldn’t withstand a wild second-half rally.

The WVU/ND game was projected to be the battle of the snipers, as two ballclubs who employ a brand of basketball similar to a Wild Wild West flick came out firing.  Neither team, however, was too impressive from beyond the arc (Notre Dame shot 8-for-22 while WVU went 7-for-27), but Ruoff and a trio of New York-bred freshmen outhustled, out-toughed, and eventually clamped down on the Irish and the inside-outside tandem of Harangody and Kyle McAlarney.

The once dynamic duo combined for 38 points. The Irish, however, were negated by a 6 minute, 45 second scoring drought. It underscored a second-half power outage.

Ruoff, known simply as a trigger man the past three years, proved he’s upped his full offensive package.  The senior busted out stepback jumpers, went to the hole, and had a huge putback – which cut Notre Dame’s early lead to one point – in the first half.

“He’s really worked. You have to give him tremendous credit,” said Mountaineers coach Bobby Huggins.

“He shot the ball really well today, but he hadn’t shot the ball well before. He’s found ways to score. He’s become more versatile. He’s become maybe our best defender – period.”

Freshman Kevin Jones, who hails from the rich basketball breeding grounds of Mount Vernon, N.Y. (see: Gordon, Ben) turned in a double-double with 12 points and 10 boards.

Jones wasn’t alone.  Devin Ebanks, the ultra-long freshman from Long Island City, N.Y., scored 11 points and ripped down nine rebounds.

Huggins, who typically doesn’t like playing freshmen, has gotten solid production out of the three-headed monster of Jones, Ebanks, and Darryl “Truck” Bryant.  Bryant, though, was a non-factor last night, as he went 0-for-7, contributing to WVU’s woeful shooting.

“I reminded them we can’t shoot so we have to rebound,” said Huggins.

“They were switching some things, which gave us some mismatches. We had some pretty good shots, but we didn’t make them. We weren’t in great position to rebound.”

The Irish, who have now lost eight of their last ten, couldn’t rebound from their second-half dry spell. They cut it to 64-59 following a 9-2 surge capped off by Harangody’s three-point play, but they couldn’t inch any closer.

Chants of “NIT” rang out across the arena in the final minute.

“A lot of teams would have given up right now, but that’s not us,” Harangody told USATODAY.Com.  “There’s a lot of basketball still to be played.”

ND came out on all cylinders, jumping out with a 10-2 burst after McAlarney’s corner trey. West Virginia stormed back, as Ruoff drained a three and then a mid-range jumper completing a personal 7-0 run and pulling WVU to within four with 8:53 to go.

Ruoff’s aforementioned putback cut ND’s lead to 37-36 but Ryan Ayers – the son of Washington Wizards assistant coach Randy Ayers – drilled a 3-pointer to bump the Irish ahead, 40-36.

Moments later, Jones’ bucket deadlocked it at 40. Da’Sean Butler got into the paint for the go-ahead bucket, sending the Mountaineers into halftime with the momentum rolling.

Butler, who erupted for 43 points in a statement win over Villanova, finished with 19 points.

Harangody, the defending Big East Player of the Year, scored a game-high 26 points and pulled down 12 boards.

Pitt-Stopped

HARTFORD, CONN. – DeJuan Blair, Pittsburgh’s sophomore strongman, took the ball to the tin early, often and with efficiency.  Blair cooked Hasheem Thabeet and UConn to the recipe of a whopping 23 points and 22 rebounds Monday night, helping Pitt stamp a 76-68 victory before a raucous 16,294 at the XL Center.

Levance Fields, the Brooklyn native who’s adopted the nickname “Mr. Big Shot” from his teammates, canned two titanic three-pointers over Kemba Walker and then Craig Austrie in the final, defining three minutes.

Fields, a senior and floor general who’s operated a number of potent Pitt offenses, had been an arctic 0-for-8 up until his two clutch, late-game daggers.  Fields scored 10 crucial points in those three crucial minutes, en route to handing the nation’s top-ranked team just their second loss of the season.

The win snaps UConn’s 13-game win streak.

“I told Levance to just keep shooting and to be ready to take the big shot when we need it,” said Pitt junior Jermaine Dixon, who scored 11 points and handed out five assists in 24 minutes.  “We expect him to come through in the clutch, and he did that tonight.”

Dixon, a 6-foot-3 guard, is the younger brother of NBA player Juan Dixon.

Juan Dixon, who had a storied stay at the University of Maryland in leading the Terps to a national championship in 2002, had some advice for lil bro, who he spoke to via cell phone before the game: “Be ready.”

If anyone was ready in this ultra-physical, black-and-blue marked dog fight, it was Blair.  The 6-foot-7 widebody simply destroyed Thabeet, pounding the ball into the paint and permeating the teeth of the defense.

On mano y mano moves, Blair made the highly-touted Thabeet, who’s projected to be a top-five pick in the 2009 NBA draft, look D-league bound.

After erupting for a near triple-double and swatting nine shots in a win over Seton Hall on Saturday, Thabeet scored a meager five points and was just 1-for-5 from the floor. He registered two blocks, committed three turnovers, and was whistled for five fouls.

Thabeet picked up his fourth foul with 11:20 remaining, prompting an irate Jim Calhoun to scream his lungs out at referee Mike Kitts, whose suspect call instigated a chorus of boos.

Sam Young, he of the patented shot fake, led all scorers with 25 points. Young shot a sublime 8-for-13 from the field, and the offensive pace of Young and Blair seemed overwhelming.  They served as a two-man wrecking crew in the second half, though it was the 5-foot-9 Fields who emerged with the late-game heroics.

“We started calling him ‘Mr. Big Shot’,” said Young of his teammate.  “Even in pickup games and in practice, he’s always looking to take the last shot, the big shot. He’s always telling us, ‘I’m taking the big shot. At the end of the game, the ball’s going to be in my hands’.”

On a colossal stage in easily the biggest game in college basketball this season, Fields lived up to his nickname.

High-Adrenaline Adrien

Cruising through Jeff Adrien’s bloodstream is an overabundance of adrenaline.

Adrien, a jacked and jacked-up 6-foot-7 forward who epitomizes the ultra-physical Big East player, feeds off his own high energy attitude. His workmanlike game (one which he’s added a shallow jumper to) and a heart that pumps lion’s blood revs up the crazy, at times crass, UConn fan base.

A Brookline, Mass., native, Adrien speaks softly but carries a big stick on the hardwood.

He poured in 18 points, 17 of which came before the midway mark of the second half, as UConn cruised to a 68-51 drubbing of Rick Pitino’s Louisville Cardinals. Adrien also tore down seven rebounds as the Cardinals got too much from Terrence Williams (game and career-high 26 points) and too little from everybody else.

Earl Clark turned in easily his worst performance of the season, a la John Starks in Game 7 of the 1994 NBA finals. Clark shot an abysmal 2-for-16 from the floor as Louisville (17-4) suffered its first Big East loss.

Adrien’s emergence as Hasheem Thabeet’s bruising buddy down low has been an aspect paramount success. The signature shellacking of Louisville gives UConn a 21-1 record, leaving just one Big East team – Marquette – with an unblemished record in conference play. The formidable frontline seems to inject fear into opponents, keeping scorers out of the paint more often than not.

UConn’s relative balance in the scorebook and ability to seal the basket shut (Thabeet had four blocks and altered the trajectory of shot after shot) threw Louisville into a paltry 22-for-64 shooting night. It’s become a pattern with the two behemoths down low.

“We made our presence known,” said Adrien, following the Huskies’ 94-61 thrashing of Providence at the Gampel Pavilion in Storrs Saturday.

“Me, Hasheem, and Gavin (Edwards) just want to prove that we’re here, that we’re going to get some buckets regardless,” Adrien added.  ”The win gives us great momentum. We were playing a team that had been hot, you know?  Almost similar to Louisville, a team that we’re playing (Monday night).”

Adrien is almost similar to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.  Off the court, he’s as soft-spoken as they come.  He’s a chill, muscle-bound kid who slaps hands with an army of students on his way to the cafeteria.  On the court, he’s in-your-face, cleaning up the glass, and grappling for loose balls as if he just downed a ginseng/taurine mix drink.

He’s the kid who busted out a Superman shirt and cape during UConn’s First Night. The kid who’s registered more double-doubles than any Big East player. The kid who swipes a ball out of an opponents hands after they commit a travel. The same kid Calhoun had to pull from a game against Pittsburgh in the first half last year – for being too revved up. Yes, he’s also the kid that bops and weaves in pre-game boxing matches with the air.

The kid with adrenaline-laden veins is a lot of things. A go-to-guy isn’t really one of them. Yet with his new shallow water jumper, coupled with his penchant for putbacks and his knack for attacking the basket, Adrien has evolved into the Huskies’ leading scorer.

And UConn has become the leading team in the national polls, as the nation’s No. 1 ranked team looks to keep rolling.

Route 6 Rivalry Renewed

The stage is set for a supreme dogfight between UConn and Providence at the Harry A. Gampel Pavilion in Storrs on Saturday.

The No. 2 Huskies, who have won eight straight following a listless home loss to Georgetown, will look to get the Providence monkey off their back.

The Friars have won four consecutive games at UConn, where they owned the Huskies in every aspect of last year’s 77-65 rout. The game was actually more of a shellacking than the score indicates. Doug Wiggins canned a pair of treys in garbage time to cut down a 17-point deficit. So, UConn will renew the Route 6 rivalry. Wiggins has since transferred to UMass. Tomorrow’s game will also have some extra juice.

If UConn defeats Providence, they will likely become No. 1 in the country for the first time since 2006.

The matchup comes in the aftermath of fourth-ranked Wake Forest’s thrilling, 70-68 win over North Carolina.

The game, won on forward James Johnson’s layup with eight tenths of a second to play, indicated that the ACC is almost as stacked, talent-laced, and wide open as the Big East this season.

“Between the ACC and the Big East, there must be about a dozen teams that can make the Final Four,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski told the New York Daily News. “I think you’re going to be in a lot of games like this, where teams get a chance to show their grit.”

UConn showed a complete lack of grit during their lone loss of the season, a late December game Jim Calhoun dubbed a “home-serving.” The Hoyas did a solid job containing Jerome Dyson, who shot an abysmal 1-for-10. Some of Dyson’s offensive woes were self-inflicted, however, as he botched a layup and exited the game mentally.

Georgetown also limited 7-foot-3 center Hasheem Thabeet to four field goals.

“It’s better that we get this loss out of the way early,” said A.J. Price, following the lackluster loss. “We didn’t by any stretch of imagination think we were going undefeated.”

Undefeated? No.

No. 1 ranking?

If the Huskies erase the past and clamp down on a well-oiled offensive machine that features three-headed monster Weyinmi Efejuku (13.4 PPG), Marshon Brooks (13.1 PPG) and 5-foot-10 point guard Sharaud Curry (10.4 PPG, 4.5 APG), yes.

The Friars have other firepower with 6-foot-7 playmaking point forward Geoff McDermott and Jeff Xavier, a fifth-year senior shooter who is playing this season despite nagging injuries.

Randall Hanke, a veteran center and never the sharpest tool in the shed, is beginning to flower. The 7-foot beanstalk scored 12 points (6-for-7 FG) in 19 minutes during the Friars’ 100-94 defeat of No. 15 Syracuse.

Providence (14-6, 6-2) has won three of their last four since Xavier’s brother walked onto the court toward the referees in the Marquette loss.

Still, with the inside manpower of walking double-double Adrien and Thabeet, UConn looks to end Providence’s win streak and success at the Constitution state.

A Look Back: January 17, 2008

UConn was buried under a barrage of three-pointers, as Providence’s perimeter assault did the Huskies in during the second half. The Friars’ 14 treys tied for the most three-pointers allowed by UConn in a Big East game. Providence’s Dwain Williams, who dialed in from a different area code, led the long-range assault with 23 points and six trifectas. Jeff Adrien led the Huskies with 16 points and 15 boards. The Friars held Stanley “Sticks” Robinson, a double-digit scorer, to just two points on a wowing putback dunk in the first half. Jerome Dyson was off his game as well. Calhoun certainly wasn’t in good spirits during the press conference.

“I mean, did Jerome Dyson play tonight?” Calhoun quipped. “I’m not sure if he did or he didn’t.”

Born Ready: The Greatest Or Just The Latest?

Ah, to be a 17-year-old and have scouts drooling over your every move.

It’s never a rarity with nationally-ranked, hyped up to heaven-sent high school basketball prospects in the Big Apple.

We saw it five years ago at Lincoln, a traditional basketball breeding ground in Coney Island. In the island where throwbacks are in and Abercrombie is out, where pickup ball is played at all hours, top-shelf players are never in short supply.

The Sebastian Telfair saga is indicative of the hype and hyperbole that comes with the territory. The pint-sized guard was a highly-sought after item on the recruiting market back in 2004, with the eyes of the city watching. Telfair currently balls for the Minnesota Timberwolves, albeit he’s yet to evolve into the electrifying, playmaking point guard that the New York basketball culture saw back in ’04. He’s posted some resume reels this year and his game has made some strides, but he hasn’t panned out. Let’s not forget, however, he’s only 23.

During Telfair’s senior year at Lincoln, when he averaged 28 points and led the Railsplitters to the state championship, he lived his life like the star of his own movie. Fitting, because there actually was an ESPN documentary, Through The Fire, about his last hurrah at Coney Island and the pressure that splashed the shoreline.

Telfair abruptly ascended to celebrity status. His games were aired on ESPN. His name was all over the New York tabloids, his mug pictured on the front of every big sports magazine. He kicked it with Jay-Z, then a frequent visitor of the Lincoln locker room.

Telfair penned with Rick Pitino and the Louisville Cardinals during the early signing period. The marriage never was, however, when Telfair decided he was going to play in the NBA.

There’s a buffet-line of dribble-happy, go-go New York guards that have flamed out due to the inevitable pressure that being pegged as the city’s next great one brings. (Remember God Shammgod, who was supposed to be the second coming of Michael?)

This is what makes Lance Stephenson’s story all the more interesting.

The hype machine was kick-started early for Lance “Born Ready” Stephenson, who also attends Marbury and Telfair’s alma mater in Brooklyn. Born Ready is a promising 6-foot-5, 200-pound proverbial manchild.

Stephenson went eyeball-to-eyeball with then top-ranked junior O.J. Mayo as an eighth-grader at 2005 ABCD camp at Farleigh Dickinson. It was a matchup described as Stephenson’s “defining moment.” The epic mano y mano showdown abruptly turned into one for the ages.

Stephenson forged a name for himself in the first half, ignoring Mayo’s constant trash-talk. At moments, it looked as if he was feeding off it.

He slammed home alley-oops. He worked off the dribbled and glided to the hole. He eluded defenders off the baseline, penetrated the teeth of the defense, and buried three-pointers.

“I really didn’t intend on getting into a type of battle like that, sometimes it happens,” said Mayo (who now stars for the Memphis Grizzlies) during an interview with CSTV.

Mayo, then the no. 1 ranked player in the country, eventually got the better of Stephenson, outscoring him 21-16 and rolling to a victory over Lance’s star-studded squad.

“(Mayo) was saying, ‘you can’t score. You can’t do this, you can’t do that’,” Stephenson said before a horde of reporters that day.

“I was saying, ‘listen you’re saying this to an eighth grader. I don’t care, I’m trying to play good.’”

Now Lance is New York’s vaunted senior guard, and the hype surrounding him and the railsplitters has hit towering heights.

It happens every day, like clockwork. Just like in the Ray Allen flick (He Got Game, 1998), “Where are you going next year?” Lance is asked as he traipses the halls of Lincoln.

He’s constantly reminded of the magnitude of such a decision. He’s also the subject of constant rumors. One recent rumor is that he is foregoing college at an opportunity to play professionally in Europe. It was quickly squashed during Stephenson’s interview with ESPN.

Stephenson had an online TV show about him this summer, where his every move was analyzed, dissected, and thrown back at the nifty neophyte.

“He definitely has the chance to be the best out of Coney Island,” said head coach Dwayne “Tiny” Morton, who coached Telfair and was an assistant during Marbury’s stay at Lincoln.

Still, Stephenson’s road to greatness has hit plenty of potholes.

He was suspended for a game last year after a fight between a teammate (which reportedly resulted in the teammate being sent to the hospital) and was charged with groping a 17-year-old girl in October.

Some say he’s got an attitude and brings baggage, others say it’s his will to win and the “attitude” comes with the territory.

Lance is more likely to go to a school like St. John’s (or a school where he can pull a one-and-done, get buckets and bolt for the league) than a school that wants to invest 2-4 years in him.

“Off the court, he (Lance) is like the nicest kid you’re going to ever meet, because he’s still just a kid,” says Lance’s cousin, known as “Bigz.”

Lincoln lost three out of four for the first time in recent memory. The Railsplitters were bludgeoned by top-tier St. Benedict’s at the Newark National Invitational Tournament. Stephenson was held to just 15 points on 5-for-17 shooting in a loss to Syracuse power Jamesville-DeWitt earlier this month.

Shortly after this, Lincoln fell 67-54 to Alambama power LeFlore at the Spalding Roundball Challenge in Springfield, Mass. Stephenson scored 24 points – 20 in the second half – in an eyeball-to-eyeball battle with DeMarcus Cousins, a top-ranked 2009 recruit. Cousins, a 6-foot-11 behemoth and soft UAB commit, went after Lance in various mano y mano battle scenes between the two highly-touted players.

The ensuing couple of weeks will be a major test of Stephenson’s fortitude, as Born Ready seeks to bounce back and continue the quest for Lincoln’s fourth consecutive PSAL championship at The Mecca of Basketball, Madison Square Garden.

Big East Notebook – Friars’ Geoff McDermott is Still a Quarterback

During his high school days, Geoff McDermott was known as rifle-toting Geoff McDermott.

Then a quick-strike 6-foot-6 quarterback, McDermott helped lead perennial power New Rochelle to back-to-back state championships.

He was a dual-threat who fired bullet passes to a talented receiving corps that was supplemented by standout running back Ray Rice, who resurrected an ailing program at Rutgers. McDermott, the 2005 Westchester Mr. Basketball winner, was actively pursued to play QB and tight end and basketball at a number of Division I schools – West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Rutgers, and Syracuse, to name a few.

After committing to Providence, where there’s no football team, he kissed all gridiron dreams goodbye.

Today, McDermott is still whipping passes. He’s still under the center of attention, making critical decisions and dictating the tempo of the game. Only his primary receivers are no longer sporting shoulder pads and helmets with “NR” emblazed on them. And Rice, who was actually a key cog in New Rochelle’s vaunted 2005 hoop team – one that put together a 26-2 mark that included a berth in the National Prep Top 20 rankings – now plays for the Baltimore Ravens.

This season, McDermott’s go-to-guys have been Marshon Brooks, who’s suddenly blossomed (averaging 14 points and shooting a sublime 56 percent from the floor) after averaging under ten minutes per game last year, Weyinmi Efejuku, Jonathon Kale, and Jeff Xavier, the latter a Pawtucket native who started his career at Manhattan but bounced following the departure of Bobby Gonzalez.

As the point forward, McDermott shoulders the burden of playmaker. The offensive show at the Dunkin’ Donuts center is orchestrated and run by “G Mac,” who’s averaging 7.7 points, 7.7 boards, and is second on the team in assists (25) and steals (15). McDermott, however, has registered a team-high 23 turnovers despite the fact that he doesn’t dominate the ball like an archetype New York point guard. At his coaches’ urging, G Mac has been more active on the glass.

“(Assistant) coach (Pat) Skerry is always yelling at me to get rebounds,” said McDermott. “First, he told me I could be the leading rebounder in the country. Now he’s toned it down to the Big East. But if I do that, I’ll probably be leading the country, anyways.”

Considering the Big East is dripping with talent this year, McDermott is probably right. He met his coaches’ wishes during back-to-back victories over Sacred Heart and Maine, where he pulled down 13 and 14 boards, respectively.

McDermott, who underwent some sort of self-revelation last year, dished more and shot less. A deft passer who’s ballooned to 6-foot-7 and a chiseled 240 pounds, G Mac emerged into one of the Big East’s leading assist men last year, doling out 4.9 per game. He averaged 5.1 during the 2006-07 campaign.

As a pure scorer in high school, is this dish-before-swish mentality out of his old nature?

“Not at all,” said McDermott. “It comes with the territory.”

Now an elder statesman, Mr. Versatility knows he must also be Mr. Clutch this season. Against blood-rival Rhode Island Dec. 6, McDermott proved he’s ready for the challenge.

The senior calmly sank two free throws with 17.9 seconds remaining. It was the final say during the tight, down-to-the-wire in-state feud in which neither team led by over seven points.

McDermott was once again at his best during a 85-71 win over Jackson State Wednesday night. He scored 13 points, pulled down 11 rebounds, and handed out five assists, including Brian McKenzie’s game-tying jumper with a swift pass. He helped Providence recover from a sloppy first half.

Football player no more, McDermott is still a quarterback at heart.

Notes

• St. John’s sophomore guard Paris Horne explored some uncharted territory this past week. Horne’s game visited a new zip code when he was named to the Big East Weekly Honor Roll (Dec. 15). Horne, one of the Johnnies’ many young guns who Norm Roberts sees panning out and revitalizing the program – Roberts recently stated that by recruiting eight freshman last year, he created the path that St. John’s is currently on – averaged 14.5 points, handed out 3.5 dimes, and shot a sizzling 64.7 percent from the field as the Johnnies ripped off consecutive victories. They are off to their best start, 8-1, since the 1994-95 campaign.
• Bobby Gonzalez shocked the NCAA world with Seton Hall’s early season upset of USC. Now, as the Big East slate inches closer the former Manhattan coach believes the Pirates will make some waves in what’s expected to be one of the premier conferences in the NCAA. The Big East, let’s not forget, is dripping with talented and guard play will be a major determinant of fate for several teams. The man behind the Pirates’ offensive assault this season? Jeremy Hazell. The Harlem World product averaged 19.5 points and six boards during SHU’s back-to-back wins the week of Dec. 15 and is already drawing Terry Dehere comparisons. Come tournament time, he could be a problem.

Last Stop On Rollercoaster Collegiate Career For Brown’s Skrelja

For Brown University senior Chris Skrelja, the road to success has been about as smooth as a Providence-bound trip up I-95 in snow-blanketing conditions.

Skrelja, a 6-foot-6 point guard, has gone from frustrated freshman to significant senior starter.

“As a freshman, I honestly thought this point would never come,” said Skrelja, once the callow, unsung backup to sharpshooter Damon Huffman.

“A lot of things went wrong for me that year. I think it was a combination of me struggling with the new surroundings and also being a little homesick. My passion for the game really just wasn’t there.”

Skrelja remembers being on a short chain with then-coach Glen Miller (who has since moved on to perennial Ivy power UPenn) just like he remembers averaging a meager 3.3 points and playing just 13-14 minutes a night. He remembers the freshman jitters, the intense rushes of pre-game anxiety and the lofty expectations immediately heaped on the then 17-year-old.

There were a few bright spots. The night he erupted for 19 points and 12 boards in a pulsating, signature victory over Harvard, for example. There was his Ivy League Rookie of the Week selection that followed. For the most part, however, freshman year was a struggle.

After establishing himself as a three-point rainmaker at vaunted Trinity Catholic High School (Stamford, Conn.), getting acclimated to the up-tempo, speedball brand of basketball took time.

“The game is just so much faster in college,” said Skrelja. “So, it was almost like a rude awakening for me.”

Fast forward to three years later.

A second team All-Ivy League selection who posted 8.4 points, 7.6 boards and 4.1 assists during the 2007-08 campaign, Skrelja has evolved into the face of the program. He’s a team captain now, synonymous with versatility, and the guy they want with the ball in crunch time. A big picture of Skrelja, skying to the basket with his heart speeding and eyes burning, is emblazoned on the cover of the team program.

Tremendously similar to former Holy Cross guard Torey “The Mayor” Thomas (who, like Skrelja, grew up in Westchester County and starred at Trinity Catholic), Skrelja lives out his senior year like the star of his own sitcom.

He engages in conversations with just about everyone – the hot dog man, security guard, and a 10-year-old fan – en route to his first home game of the season. The student fan base knows Skrelja like a surrogate family member. After games, a big entourage of them wait around for the rangy Albanian kid, who played for the NYC-based Gauchos on the AAU circuit.

Students in the stands sport a replica of his no. 22 jersey. Off the court, Skrelja invites people to games with the mindset of an event promoter.

He even manages to get the anti-athletic bookworms into the seats of the Pizzitola Center. He lives about 25 feet from there and never fails to put in post-practice hours there. It’s a good life.

Having undergone the metamorphosis from off guard/small forward to point forward, Skrelja is funneled into a leadership role this year. The role of point forward usually demands playmaking antics, control of the tempo, and Skrelja has subscribed to this niche.

“Being a senior, coach trusts me with the ball. My role is to basically be a facilitator. This year I’m going to be more of a scorer than in previous years. I’m still going to have to be a well-rounded player, grabbing rebounds, finding the open man, playing tough defense,” he explained.

Skrelja is averaging nine points and five boards while shooting 49 percent from the floor this season. The transition to game manager role has allowed Skrelja to refine elements of his game and add new compartments to it.

The point forward has become a presence in the running game, operating an offense that features sophomore sniper Peter Sullivan, 6-foot-8 forward Matt Mullery (14.1 ppg, 5.8 rpg), and sophomore Adrian Williams. Williams, the son of Doug Williams, the first African-American quarterback to win a Super Bowl, has surfaced as a go-to-guy this season.

In an 80-73 win over Army, Skrelja erupted for 15 points while doling out a career-high 11 assists.

“Chris faces a lot of pressure. He has to dribble the ball and make all the right decisions,” said Brown coach Jesse Agel.

He made the right decision against Army. He whipped a pass to Matt Mullery for the go-ahead basket and sealed the deal with a pair of free throws. He had four assists down the stretch and scored on a crucial lay-in.

Skrelja’s sophomore year was marred by injuries. Skrelja suffered a stress fracture in his left foot prior to the first game of the 2006-07 campaign. It hampered him throughout the rollercoaster season.

During his junior year, Skrelja shot less and passed more, handing out assists like a frat house hands out cups of jungle juice.

He rectified a free throw shooting problem by switching his form up completely. Skrelja began shooting his freebies with one hand, bringing back a lost art mastered by guys like Don Nelson Sr. and former New York Knick Anthony Mason.

This summer, Skrelja was once again bitten by the injury bug. Two herniated discs in his back prevented him from logging any game action at all.

“You just get so frustrated,” Skrelja said. “You don’t realize how much you love the game and how much it means to you until you’re away from it.”

Following a 3-5 start, Brown will look to resuscitate itself as the Ivy League slate inches closer. If anyone is ready for the challenge, it’s Skrelja. The elder statesman underwent a self-revelation prior to the season, one that reinforced the fact that this is the last hurrah.

While Skrelja’s got no crystal ball, he’ll continue to hold himself to a high standard and leave it all on the floor.

“I’ve always set standards for myself throughout high school and college,” said Skrelja.

“I’ve always had high goals, and this year is just about reaching those goals. Being a senior, this is it for me (at Brown). The most important goal is to win an Ivy League championship. Of course, every college player’s ultimate goal is to make it to the NCAA championship.”

After coming up short of the goal the previous year, Skrelja knows the onus to steer the big Brown bus deep into the playoffs is on him.

“Representing the team, it’s definitely an honor,” he reflected. “But with that comes a lot of responsibility. I know it’s up to me to lead this year. I’m excited for the responsibility.”

Role player no more, Skrelja has serious illusions of a banner year and a berth in the big dance.

Now that’s something Skrelja couldn’t have envisioned his freshman year.

Big East Notebook: Orange Turn Heads, Irish Run into a Buzzsaw

STORRS, Conn. – Easy-Going Gavin rapidly morphed into Gung Ho Gavin last night, an aggressive individual UConn fans have rarely seen during the reserve forward’s stay with the Huskies.

The kid from Gilbert, Az., finally got physical, played above the rim, and displayed a sense of urgency, en route to the reserve forward’s career-high 17 points in 16 minutes on 7-of-9 shooting.

“Gavin’s one of the more talented players on the team, at least athletically talented,” said Jim Calhoun, following UConn’s latest 79-49 roasting of marshmallow MEAC native Delaware State.

“He’s got a very high basketball IQ, he makes good passes… he’s got to be more physical. I’m encouraged by what he did tonight and I’m sure he is too.”

For Easy-Going Gavin, life isn’t always that easy. He has to go up against two physical specimens and behemoths in Jeff Adrien and Hasheem Thabeet every practice, is forced to take a backseat to the two larger-than-life bigs when game time rolls around, and is sometimes forced to play out of his nature (“I’m more of a finesse player,” Edwards admits) and play a physically intimidating brand of ball at the four-slot.

So, Easy-Going Gavin’s Monday night coming-out party came with much fanfare and to the delight of his teammates. Edwards established himself early, connecting on a jumper and a layup and then delivering an eye-popping block with 13:28 remaining. The son of former NFL defensive lineman Earl Edwards, who entered the game averaging a meager 3.3 points, continued his sublime showing in the second half.

He came soaring in, finishing a catch-and-run alley-oop from Kemba Walker that pumped the then insurmountable Husky lead to 71-42. He dunked home a Jerome Dyson miss that put an exclamation point on his career night and UConn’s drubbing of another smurf-sized foe.

“I think he got something out of it tonight. I know I got something out of it. Gavin has a chance, he’s got a fight on his hands. The more he fights, the deeper we can go,” explained Calhoun.

That “fight” Calhoun refers to is between 6-foot-9 swingman Stanley “Sticks” Robinson (who will soon be available) and newcomer Ater Majok, a 6-foot-10 recruit via the Sudan. Majok is undergoing the NCAA clearing process right now, but should be eligible to play soon.

On the surface, it looks like Edwards will have to wrestle for burn as the season progresses and Big East play emerges.

Following a resume-building game, however, Edwards is confident he will remain a fixture off the pine.

“Coach said during the Paradise Jam, as cliché as it is, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

Still, if Edwards is to continue turning in expectations-slaying performances, as he did against undersized Delaware State, he needs to get more physical.

“It’s definitely something I’m still trying to work on a lot,” said Edwards, adding that “shooting over 6-foot-7 is definitely easier than shooting over 7-foot-3, National Defensive Player of the Year (Thabeet).”

Edwards continued, “From what I hear, Ater is a very good player. I’m taking baby steps, but I’m definitely working on it.”

Pressure?

None. Well, nothing that the mellow, muscled forward hasn’t seen before during his stay at the Big East’s NBA machine. But constructive criticism and words of encouragement are only one long distance call away.

“I get at least one call a week from my Dad on how I need to play stronger. He gives me all the old football stories. I know I have to step it up.”

Flynn Leads Hot Start For Orange

A radio reporter looked into Jonny Flynn’s eyes but received only a pithy stare in return. This was back in October, during Big East Media Day. Coaches, players, TV/Radio stations, and the New York media circus alike came peppering the conference’s key cogs with questions.

The question heaped upon Jonny Flynn however, could only elicit an empty stare from the proven point guard. The man asked if Flynn was ready to take on such a significant role as just a sophomore. If you could read Flynn’s expression, it said “Are you kidding me, or what?”

Flynn has been no joke this season. The kid who erupted for 29 points and nine dimes in his first NCAA game has been the catalyst for a ‘Cuse team looking to mute the detractors and naysayers and bounce back from two underachieving campaigns.

The 19-year-old offense operator is averaging 18.9 points and 5.3 dimes as Syracuse is off to a 7-0 start that includes marquee wins over Florida and defending national champion Kansas.

Flynn was named Big East Player of the Week, as was announced by the conference office, following his villain-slaying showings against Kansas (25 points and a key trifecta with six seconds left that lifted the game into OT) and Virginia (15 points and six assists as the Orange gutted out a 73-70 triumph).

Don’t You Dar Sleep on Him: Dar Tucker, 4-0 DePaul’s 6-foot-5 forward, is having a breakout start to the 2008-09 season. The Michigan native is averaging 20.8 points and 6.5 boards. He hung 26 points and pulled down nine boards in a 75-70 win over Indiana State on 11/29. Tucker and DePaul, one of five Big East teams without a loss, could watch their stock mount this season.

Moving Em’: With the reigning Big East Player of the Year in Luke Harangody, and the 2007 and 2008 Big East Coach of the Year in Mike Brey, the Irish have picked up where they left off. The Irish blitzed South Dakota to the tune of a 26-point blowout Dec. 3, with Ryan Ayers erupting for 35 points on 12-for-20 shooting.

Team Notes

Cincinnati Bearcats (5-1 overall)
The Bearcats suffered their first setback of the season, losing to Florida State, ending a 4-0 start. But against Coastal Carolina earlier in the week, Deonta Vaughn led the Bearcats with 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting, including 4-of-8 from three-point range. The Bearcats hit 11 three-pointers in the game. Larry Davis added 14 points, and Anthony McClain added 11 off the bench. The Bearcats shot a solid 53 percent from the field.
Against Florida State in Las Vegas, Mike Williams had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds in 25 minutes. Vaughn led the way once again with 16 points, but had six turnovers, and shot just 5-of-18 from the field. The Bearcats weren’t able to overcome a poor shooting night, shooting just 33 percent from the field, 47 percent from the free throw line and committing 19 turnovers.
Then against UNLV, the Bearcats rebounded with Vaughn and Yancy Gates collecting 16 points each. Gates was 7-of-10 shooting off the bench. Dion Dixon added 13 off the bench as well for the Bearcats.
So far this season, the Bearcats have held their opponents to under 40 percent shooting in each game.

DePaul Blue Demons (4-0)
The Blue Demons maintained their perfect start with two victories last week. They’re 4-0 for the first time since 2002. This week, they will travel outside of the Chicagoland area to play California, before returning to Chicago to play a “road” game against Northwestern.
Last week, Dar Tucker had a big night against Detroit, scoring 22 points on 6-of-12 shooting, including 4-of-7 from three-point range, and was 6-of-6 from the free-throw line. He also grabbed seven rebounds, had four steals and two assists. Mac Koshwal added 18 points as well.
Against Indiana State, Tucker had another big game with 26 points.

Louisville Cardinals (2-1)
The Cardinals’ postseason resume took a hit last week with a 14-point loss to Western Kentucky.
Louisville shot just 27 percent from the field for the game (15-of-56), including an abysmal 21 percent in the second half (6-of-28). The game was tied at 28 at halftime before Western Kentucky scored 40 in the second half, thanks largely to 50 percent field goal shooting, and a 15-of-18 showing at the free-throw line.
Three players were in double figures for the Cardinals. Terrence Williams led the way with 19 points, while Earl Clark and Samardo Samuels each had 11. Clark also had 11 rebounds. But only four other players scored for the Cardinals, who were outrebounded 48-36.

Marquette Golden Eagles (5-1)
The loss to Dayton could loom large at the end of the season. But the Golden Eagles get in-state rival Wisconsin, which will be a statement game for both teams.
Entering the Texas Southern game averaging 100.3 points per game, Marquette didn’t quite measure up to it, but still pulled it out.
Five players were in double figures for first-year coach Buzz Williams’ squad, led by Jerel McNeal’s 20. Lazar Hayward added 18. Texas Southern hung tight, shooting a blistering 64 percent from the field in the second half, and forced Marquette into 19 turnovers, leading to 21 points.
Against Northern Iowa, the Golden Eagles used an early 20-0 run in the first half to seize control of the game, and were never challenged afterwards in the Chicago Invitational Challenge.
Wesley Matthews scored 17 points for Marquette, followed by Haywood’s 15 and McNeal’s 13. Dominic James added eight points and six assists.
Against Dayton, the Golden Eagles couldn’t match the Flyers, who are now off to a 6-0 start. Dayton got a career-high 21 points off the bench from Rob Lowery, and got a double-double from Chris Wright with 13 points and 13 rebounds, and added four assists. Marquette still got a career-high 28 points from Matthews, and 19 points from James, but that wasn’t enough.
Dayton outscored Marquette’s bench 48-5.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish (5-1)
The Irish made a deep run in the Maui Invitational before running into the nation’s No. 1 team – North Carolina.
Five players were in double figures for the Irish against the Hoosiers, led by Tory Jackson’s 21 points. Jackson was 10-of-17 from the field, had five rebounds and six assists. Also in double figures was Kyle McAlarney with 18, Luke Harangody with 14, and Ryan Ayers with 13. Luke Zeller added 10 points and 11 rebounds off the bench, providing the Irish a big lift.
Notre Dame shot 51 percent from the field for the game.
In a thriller against the Longhorns, Harangody proved why he is an All-American. The big man scored 29 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lead the Irish.
Against North Carolina, the Tar Heels’ Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson were brilliant.
Hansbrough scored 34 points, and Lawson had 22 points, six rebounds and 11 assists to take the Maui Invitational championship.
Lawson was named the tournament’s most valuable player.
For the Irish, they were led by a masterful game from McAlarney, scoring a career-high 39 points and dished out six assists. He was 10-of-18 from 3-point range, breaking his own school record of nine 3-pointers in game set last season.
This was Notre Dame’s second appearance in Maui. The Irish finished sixth in 1993.

Pittsburgh Panthers (7-0)
Starting with Duquesne, the Panthers will play their next four games at home. During that span, they will play all non-conference foes (Duquesne, Vermont, UMBC and Siena).
Sam Young scored 33 points, despite not making a field goal until the 11-minute mark of the first half to lead the Panthers past Belmont, who nearly upset Duke in last year’s NCAA Tournament.
During a 12-2 run in the second half, Young scored all but two points. And during a run in the first half, he scored 13 of Pittsburgh’s 14 points in a 4½-minute span.
Against Texas Tech, Young scored 24 points, and DeJuan Blair added 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Panthers in the semifinals of the Legends Classic. Young also had eight rebounds and four assists.
Pittsburgh outscored the Red Raiders 40-14 in the paint.
In the championship against Washington State, two of the best defenses in the nation locked horns, and the game was far from pretty. Both teams shot identical 35.4 percent from the field (17-of-48).
Young continued his solid week with a 15-point, eight-rebound effort against the Cougars, who lost their first game of the season. Levance Fields added 14 for Pittsburgh.

Seton Hall Pirates (5-1)
Seton Hall overcame a strong night by Delaware’s Marc Egerson, who scored 20 points and grabbed 14 rebounds. Delaware also got a double-double from Jim Ledsome – 13 points and 10 rebounds.
The Pirates had four players in double figures, including three starters. Jeremy Hazell had 17 points, but was only successful on 4-of-14 shots. Eugene Harvey added 14 points, and John Garcia had 13. Jordan Theodore added 13 off the bench.
Seton Hall also overcame being dominated on the boards, 40-29.
Delaware led after the first half, shooting 63 percent, but cooled off in the second half to the tune of 32 percent.

Power Rankings

1. Pitt (7-0): Too big, too strong, too many weapons. The pre-season point guard issue that surfaced did nothing to stop the defending champions, as Levance Fields is back in full force. The Panthers could have the upper hand on UConn if they can negate Hasheem Thabeet the way they did Roy Hibbert in last year’s championship game at MSG.
2. UConn (7-0): Thabeet is dominating the smaller opponents, but A.J. Price needs to get back to game-changer form.
3. Notre Dame (6-1): After nearly smoking his way out of school a few years ago, Kyle McAlarney has set the world ablaze with his three-point assault.

Pittsburgh’s Second Home

Jamie Dixon: King Of New York

by Zach Smart

“From now on, nothing goes down unless I’m involved. No blackjack no dope deals, no nothing. A nickel bag gets sold in the park, I want in. You guys got fat while everybody starved on the street… It’s my turn.” – Frank White (King of New York)

Frank: Come to the Plaza Hotel, I’ve got work for you. Ask for Frank White.

Jamie: Come to the Peterson Events Center, I’ve got work for you. We own a 96-10 record and .906 winning percentage there.

Like the legendary, fictional gangster Frank White, the main character in the 1990 thriller King of New York, Jamie Dixon has a penchant for getting some of New York’s toughest young guns to go to work for him. In the past, he’s bred players like Carl Krauser, a player who etched his name in New York streetball lure and made waves on the AAU circuit, playing for the Student Athletes Broncos. Last season, Dixon boasted an All-New York backcourt with Brooklyn’s Levance Fields, outside sniper Ronald Ramon (Bronx) and Keith Benjamin (Mount Vernon). All the king’s men fought for Dixon’s crown in March, turning in a titanic, Godzilla-slaying 74-65 triumph over Roy Hibbert and Georgetown in the Big East Tournament Championship game on Dixon’s home away from home: Madison Square Garden.

For the better portion of a decade, as head coach and assistant at Pitt, Dixon has sold top-flight recruits on a basketball culture, a top-of-the-line education, a New York pipeline, a chance to play before the bright, brimming Madison Square Garden in March and likely odds of a ticket to the NCAA tournament.

This season, however, Dixon’s street nemeses, Rick Pitino, Jim Calhoun, and Norm Roberts, amongst several others who are getting heavy in the New York recruiting game, are looking to outclass and dethrone the King of New York.

“We’re going to try to recruit the best kids in New York no matter what. We’re always going to try to,” said Roberts, who already secured 2009 guard Omari Lawrence.

For Dixon, or should I say White, the point guard dilemma may be a real test of his street credit. Fields, who had a storied career at Xaverian, the alma mater of former Pitt standout Chris Taft, is sidelined for an unknown period of time.

“We’ve got (freshman Ashton Gibbs) playing the point guard right now and we have walk-on Ryan Tiesi playing point guard for us right now.”

Freshman guard Travon Woodall, a 5-foot-11 Brooklyn-bred guard who played at St. Anthony’s across the river, is currently out with a concussion.

When asked about how the point guard situation has worked so far, Dixon responded with a Frank-like one-liner.

“They’ve got as much experience as you have, playing in our system,” he said to me. “So, it’s not ideal but nobody’s feeling sorry for us. You give it the best you can… they’re playing hard and getting better.”

The next area the ‘King of New York’ looks to be branching into is New Jersey. With an out of conference tournament appearance lined up for the Prudential Center in Newark and some Jersey recruits lined up, it looks like the King is branching out. But he will not forget where he came from; after all, Pittsburgh won six times more games in Madison Square Garden last season than St. John’s did (6 to 1).

Pittsburgh, the defending conference champions, returns their version of Earth, Wind, and Fire. Fields, DeJuan Blair, and scoring machine Sam Young, all vital cogs in last year’s offensive scheme, are back. While the Panthers will miss the three-point sniping antics of Ronald Ramon, freshmen Jermaine Dixon and Woodall could make an immediate impact in the injury-depleted backcourt. Gilbert Brown, a versatile wing, could also see some time in the backcourt given Pitt’s dearth of experienced guards.

The Panthers’ season opens up this Friday, as they host Farleigh Dickinson of the Northeast Conference at 7 P.M.

Nate Miles Makes Headlines Quickly

Miles From Ordinary

by Zach Smart

So, the biggest question of pre-season has already been answered for the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team.

It took Nate Miles, the controversial 6-foot-6 guard/forward, approximately a month before his name was enmeshed in controversy.

Miles, who had trouble getting enrolled at UConn, was arrested Monday night for violating the terms of a restraining order he received just 15 minutes earlier.

The 20-year-old Miles, of Toledo, Ohio, is slated to appear at Rockville Superior Court on Tuesday. According to police reports, Miles violated conditions of the restraining order by phoning the protected party (apparently a female UConn student) 15 minutes after the order was filed.

The Hartford Courant reported that Miles was arrested at 8:51 p.m. He was released after posting the surety bond of $2,500.

Miles, who had a tough upbringing and went through an Amare Stoudemire-like journey in high school (he attended five different high schools and was kicked off the basketball team at the Patterson School in Lenoir, N.C.), was the no.5-ranked player in Ohio last season.

He can play both guard positions and be utilized as a small forward. The highly-touted but controversial recruit’s style of play is most commonly compared to Tayshaun Prince and Lamar Odom, a tall versatile player who can handle the ball. Miles graduated from The Patterson School in January 2008.

After an ongoing NCAA clearinghouse and UConn admissions debacle, one that included a largely-publicized feud with coach Jim Calhoun and UConn athletic director Jeff Hathaway, Miles was academically cleared in June. He began taking class and getting acclimated to the new environment during Summer Session II at Storrs.

Miles has turned heads in the Huskies’ pickup games this fall. Calhoun said Miles is “doing great” when asked how the freshman is adjusting to the rigors of the college experience and the structured environment.

Now that Stanley “Sticks” Robinson won’t be with the team until the second semester, Robinson could be an instant lynchpin in the starting lineup when he returns. He is apparently a front-runner for the starting small forward slot.

Big East Notebook

Big East Conference Notebook

by Zach Smart

Stephenson Considering SJU, Rumors Are Rumors

Basketball is our city’s game. So how come, for the better of a decade, has there been a search warrant out for top-profile players at St. John’s University?

In the heart of a traditional basketball breeding ground, the New York City-based school should shoulder an arsenal of the city’s top talent. The Johnnies should ink five-star recruits from each of the five boroughs year after year, competing with the likes of first-class schools like North Carolina, Kansas, and UCLA.

Instead, the hoop tycoons at schools such as UConn, Pittsburgh (always front-loaded with some of New York’s finest) and even Kentucky sell players on the notion of leaving the city streets and hardscrabble basketball courts for the fresh suburban air, tall trees with leaves crumbling under the weight of autumn, burgeoning basketball culture and fanfare, and the blazing blue-eyed beauties from down south.

The days when Action Jackson shined, the late Malik Sealy soared, and Chris Mullin shot MSG to a power outage are long gone.

Playing in the media capitol of the world was a distraction for some of the New York neophytes who flamed out. The hype machine that fueled Omar Cook and Erick Barkley to declare early for the draft contributed to the backcourt tandem’s similar fade into obscurity.

Still, the city hopes its basketball culture can be restored at St. John’s.

For the few Johnnies fans left out there, there could be a glimmer of hope. Lance Stephenson, widely regarded as one of the top recruits in the nation, has entertained thoughts about staying local for his college career.

The 6-foot-5 off-guard/wing, who stars for Abraham Lincoln high school, has listed St. John’s amongst his elite eight. The finalist group additionally includes UCLA, Memphis, USC and Kansas.

Word around the hoop junkie rumor mill was that head coach Norm Roberts and the Johnnies were going to accept a Lance Stephenson-Tiny Morton (Stephenson’s head coach at Lincoln) package, a seductive recruiting move that would entice Stephenson to pen with SJU and bring basketball back to New York. A recent story from USA Today sports bloggers Reid Cherner and Tom Weir, however, squashes any such rumor.

“That’s New York City for you, everybody thinks they know a little bit about everything,” Roberts said, denying that a vacant assistant coaching position was available for Morton. “They know nothing about nothing. No, no, no. I haven’t offered it. We lost Will Lanier and he went on to work for (Marist head coach) Chuck Martin as basketball operations, so it opened up an (administrative) position for us. But I haven’t done anything with that, probably won’t do anything with that position until maybe sometime in August.”

Still, the thought of the Lincoln senior sporting a Johnnies uniform is enough to help restore basketball order at a place where it seems to be sorely lacking. A near-fight that broke out between two SJU teammates during a pick-up game at a camp run by St. John’s coaches is indicative of this.

The book on Stephenson is an easy read. He’s a hard-nosed wing with an NBA body who attacks the cup and scores at will.

“Sticks” Staying Put

The road to redemption nearly hit an early pothole for the University of Connecticut men’s basketball team this off-season. Stanley Robinson, a freakish 6-foot-9 junior forward and a significant cog in the starting lineup his freshman and sophomore seasons, entertained thoughts of leaving the NBA factory he was sold on as one of the top high school players in Alabama.

It turns out the kid the UConn fan base knows as “Sticks” won’t be taking his 10.4 points, 6.5 boards and ultra-athletic frame that screams NBA Draft elsewhere. Whether or not he will suit up for the 2008-2009 campaign, one which looks promising for the Huskies, is still up in the air.

Jim Calhoun, the eccentric, longtime Husky coach has made it clear that Robinson’s services will not be available for the first semester of the season. Robinson has said he still needs to pass a sociology course that he’ll be taking via the internet (at his uncle’s house in nearby Vernon, Conn.) and he’ll be ready to return before the start of the second semester.

Robinson has indicated that he’d like to return to UConn, just weeks after weighing his transfer options.

“I don’t want to jinx myself and say I’m coming back and then the class doesn’t go well,” said Robinson during a recent interview with the New Haven Register. “But I’m determined, because I have to be back in that uniform.”

But is it really an academic issue?

Throughout Robinson’s stay at UConn, he’s been a big man with a big question mark tattooed on his forehead. He’s shy around the media and is known to keep to himself. He’s a polite kid, with a smile as wide as the Withlacooche River who UConn fans love and his teammates would love to understand.

“Few people understand Stanley Robinson and I’m not one of those people,” said teammate Jeff Adrien, following the Huskies’ early-season drubbing of Buffalo in the 2K College Hoops Classic at Storrs. Robinson registered his presence that game (10 points, 13 rebounds, six blocks), after being called out by his coach for a paltry 0-point, 0-5, six turnover performance the previous game (Morgan State).

He’s the kid who hit up Maine for 32 points and 11 rebounds, but went to sleep against Providence (four points, five turnovers) despite cracking an ESPN Top Ten Play with a vicious rim-rattling putback in the first half.

He’s feast or famine. A ball of athletic potential, Robinson finds the frantic-pace northeast colossally different from his stomping grounds of Birmingham, Ala. It’s fitting, as the UConn family finds him to be different as well.

One second he’ll be chatting it up with Hartford Courant writer Mike Anthony. Moments later he’ll duck away from a media interview, as he did following his 18-point, eight-board effort in a 96-51 walloping of Cincinnati. UConn Sports Information Director Kyle Muncy said he literally chased Robinson down, to no avail, following that game.

Like Robinson’s game, this whole situation is inconsistent.

“Right now, he’s in a pretty good place,” Calhoun said. “He always wanted to go home to Alabama, then he couldn’t wait to get back here. He’s a young man that has a lot of work to do.”

While Robinson may need some time off and possibly a redshirt season, he’s certain he wants to continue to play in a Huskies’ uniform.

“There were so many rumors back at home – the papers were like, ‘he’s going to UAB, he’s going to Alabama.’ But I never said that,” explained Robinson.

“People asked me what I’m going to do, I said I’m still a part of the UConn family, I never left, I don’t want to leave. It’s my home, so I’ll keep it a home.”

Randy Culpepper

UTEP Getting Some ‘Pep’ In Its Step

by Zach Smart

Ah, to be 19 with otherworldly, eye-popping springs.

Meet Randy Culpepper, a generously-listed 6-foot guard for the University of Texas-El Paso. Mr. Culpepper, through a catalogue of soaring, emphatic, rim-ringing, gravity-defying and rim-punishing bangers, has etched his name in YouTube lore. The chances of the neophyte – who emulates The Matrix characters with his bounce – relinquishing talent is about as likely as John Edwards sporting his chiclet-teeth permasmile at the upcoming Democratic National Convention. As many would opine, the chances of Mr. $400 haircut polluting the DNC with his presence is about as likely as Ron Jeremy being warped in a dry spell during the mid-eighties.

The SLAM magazine-fiending, Google search surfing hoop junkies are already buzzing about the kid from Memphis.

Culpepper, he of the blazing-quick slashes to the cup and three-point sniping, has all the tools to emerge into one of the premier guards along the Western seaboard this season.

The spindly sophomore averaged 12.8 points in just 24 minutes of tick as a freshman. Culpepper, however, has shown flashes of freakish brilliance that’ll have you punching the “rewind” button in no time. The Miners hope these sudden flares – many of which have registered their presence on the aforementioned YouTube circuit – help them explore uncharted territory next season.

I have an affinity for under-sized guards audacious enough to poster a big man and learned of the half-pint guard by way of the Internet. Is this guy serious? Slim’s got springs like Colorado. While R.C. may have dipped below the national recruiting radar, his basketball pedigree and fearless game should now engender drool from the coaches who were put off because of his size.

Culpepper was a flat-out aggressive scorer in high school, blitzing opponents to the beat of 33.4 points per game as a junior at Sheffield High School in Memphis. The human trampoline nearly duplicated that average his senior year, shouldering the burden of go-to-guy. Game after game, tournament after tournament, all eyes were pasted on the little big man.

Culpepper’s game was on display during the early days, when his talent was just starting to splash the shoreline. He subscribed to a 24-hour, 365-days a year basketball regimen. He began making waves on AAU circuit.

Perhaps his most memorable game came when he was still trying to establish a niche. Culpepper rained on the Atlanta, Ga. 16-under-national tournament scorching the nets with an 14 trifectas. Playing for the acclaimed Memphis Grizzlies, he finished his volcanic eruption with 52-spot. The blood-lettering effort allowed him to garner the tournament MVP award. The so-called little kid with a big heart has continued to punish anyone ballsy enough to interrupt his date with the basket.

Are Culpepper’s high-flying antics and good life from beyond the arc the future for UTEP? I’m not certain, but what I am sure of is this: Any kid that young, with that kind of athletic upside, should punch tickets and help a school which certainly wouldn’t mind more national visibility.

DeMario Anderson Tries To Go Pro

Pro Scouts On The Prowl For Quinnipiac’s Anderson

by Zach Smart

HAMDEN, Conn. – It’s a true story. DeMario Anderson sauntered into a restaurant on Whitney Ave., sporting a black fitted hat with “D.C.” emblazoned on the front. Suddenly, he was approached by two model-slender and strikingly pretty young women. Both were resident fans of the basketball team at Quinnipiac University, where after two seasons the Oxon Hill, Md. product has left a legacy that few can eclipse.

“Can I just shake your hand?” asked one of the women, her eyes blazing like mini-fireballs.

Anderson, “D.A.” to the burgeoning basketball culture at Quinnipiac, responded with his hallmark ear-to-ear smile. Taken aback, Anderson let out a few abrupt laughs. When Anderson asked why they sought his permission (he would later explain he’s never had anyone ask to shake his hand before), one of the women was quick to answer.

“Because your like…famous.”

A bundle of talent, a winning personality, and an uncanny ability to thrive in the face of adversity. These helped Anderson skyrocket to small-school stardom. Now these facets are helping him mount a promising professional stock. Anderson is a full package. He’s an intriguing blend of otherwordly, wunderkid-like athleticism, strength, and talent. He’s 6-3 (maybe 6-3 and some change) with a penchant for losing defenders off the dribble and scoring in traffic. Because of this, Anderson – who cooked opponents to the recipe of 21.7 points and 6.5 boards per game this season – is prolonging an unpredictable basketball career that began at Central Connecticut. Despite being utilized as the Bobcats’ clear go-to-guy, a wing whom they featured nearly every game, Anderson peddled a team-high 91 assists on the season. It’s simply what his coach expected of him.

Tom Moore, the former UConn assistant (Moore served as the associate head coach during his final two years at the Big East NBA factory), said he was sold on Anderson’s upside since he opted to take the Quinnipiac job late last March.

“You become mercenary and see what type of hand you’ll be dealt if you do decide to take a job,” explained Moore in an interview with the New Haven Register last month. “I knew what I was getting from him. I wanted to give him some ownership of this team, that’s how much I thought of him. He made this year seamless for me, and I’ll always be indebted to him for that.”

Ever humble, Anderson deflects most of the praise that’s been sprinkled on him over the past year. He’s certainly not shy, however, when it comes to the subject of his hoops future.

“Basketball is definitely in my future,” said Anderson, he of the thick Washington, D.C.-drawl. “I’m definitely trying to get to the [NBA] league. I mean it’s really been my goal since the summer. I’d be lying if I told you otherwise.”

He’s D.C. through and through. With a streetball-like savvy and an arsenal of moves off the dribble and slashes to the cup, Anderson created matchup problems for nearly every team in the Northeast Conference this season. The freakish athlete’s name littered headlines for the youth-laden Bobcats this season, as the guard-forward shouldered the scoring load and served as a one-man wrecking crew during crucial moments.

“DeMario is a better than a lot of Big East players,” opined Mike Rice, the first-year Robert Morris head coach. Rice, who runs various youth basketball camps during the off-season, watched Anderson play during his high school days, when his scoring prowess first surfaced, and told him he could be a special player.

Anderson took the conference by fire this year. His numbers vaulted him to the high-end district of the NCAA’s scorers. Now a surplus of pro scouts are starting to take notice.

Anderson says his cell phone has been flooded with messages lately. Scouts everywhere from Lebanon (where former Quinnipiac forward and Cheverly-bred Kevin Jolley dominated a year ago) to Spain have been in contact with Anderson. He is leaning towards Cyprus. Still, nothing is etched in stone.

Not bad for a kid who didn’t start playing organized ball until his junior year of high school, when he was employed as an instant sparkplug off the knot. At Oxon Hill High, the alma mater of the Chicago Bulls’ Michael Sweetney, Anderson re-wrote the record books. He morphed into one of Maryland’s top players his senior season, garnering an All-County selection and an invite to the Capital Classic. A Ron Artest-like build that the 6-4 guard fully utilizes is a testament of his physical toughness. His emergence from the hard-scrabble streets of Oxon Hill and his mother’s death in 2006 are indicative of his mental toughness.

Putting the Bobcats on the Map

Quinnipiac, a perennial power in hockey, had been striving for some national visibility since the University forked out a king’s ransom on the TD Banknorth Sports Complex. The dazzling, glitzy 3,500-seat arena dwarfs those of conference foes and would be more fitting for a top-notch A-10 or MAAC school.

Moore, widely recognized for grooming a torrent of talent during his stay at UConn (see Butler, Caron or Gordon, Ben for more details) became the first coach in Anderson’s traveled five-year career (Anderson went to Global Institute in Manhattan for a year, but sat out to circumvent an NCAA rule that prevents a player from transferring schools in the same conference) to fully employ the talent which cracked the surface.

Former coach Joe DeSantis’ system featured a motion offense that emphasized crisp ball movement and perimeter shooting. Playing in the wake of grief (Anderson’s mother, Lisa Duncan, died of cancer in 2006), Anderson struggled to get acclimated to the new system through the first ten games. Then one Saturday in December of 2006, he hung 20 points on Vermont. Following this, D.A. quickly came into his own. Anderson averaged 22.3 points over the final six games of the regular season and his evolution as the Bobcats’ featured player had the slowly growing basketball culture buzzing. He managed to do all this despite popping off the bench as the team’s sixth man. DeSantis, who took ten seasons to reach his 100th win, opted to start three-point assailant Van Crafton instead.

Not this year. Moore swooped in and ripped the straight jacket off Anderson. The Bobcats’ offense allowed Anderson to execute the laissez-faire, mano y mano moves that makes the senior such a unique threat. It was under Moore that Anderson’s game truly flourished, as he fleed from a cloud of obscurity this season. He exposed vulnerable defenses and froze anyone unfortunate enough to guard him, barrelling his way to the bucket and canning mid-range jumpers off the dribble.

The University got what it wanted at the near-conclusion of the season. Anderson avenged a loss at Central by winning an overtime thriller in astonishing fashion. With the score deadlocked at 73, Anderson launched a buzzer-beating, half-court prayer that splashed through the net. The shot instantly sent the Bobcat bench into a frenzy. He then ran out of the Detrick Gymnasium, his teammates chasing after him, to celebrate the glory.

The game-winner would shoot to No. 1 on SportsCenter’s “Top Ten Plays” that Feb.28 night. It later became a finalist for Pontiac Game-Changing performance. Overlooked no more, Anderson and the Bobcats injected Quinnipiac with a shot of hoops energy.

Now basketball junkies around the country are voting amongst game-changing plays made by first-class schools like North Carolina, Memphis, Indiana, Stanford, Pittsburgh, and Wisconsin – and now Quinnipiac. The image is slowly being re-constructed. Maybe DA’s eye-popper will allow the school situated in the suburbs of New Haven County to be recognized for more than just its political polls, prestigious Physical Therapy department, and nationally ranked hockey team.

Enhancing the Image?

When a school has grown as quickly as Quinnipiac – once the tiny, Division-II liberal arts school – high expectations, hype, and hearsay tend to brew around campus faster than a freshman beer fest. There had been some hearsay about Quinnipiac eventually becoming a “Junior Ivy League.”

Whatever the University is doing to keep up with these Ivy League foes, Anderson certainly exacerbated Ivy League relations with his scoring prowess this season. In an 85-63 dumping of Dartmouth back in December, Anderson used a compilation of mid-range jumpers and quick slashes to the hole to help blood-letter the Big Green. He finished with 27 points in 27 minutes. Against Cornell, Anderson turned in a 20-point showing – in the second half.

Against Sacred Heart mid-way through the season, Anderson scored 30 and had a hand in virtually every play. It was a down-to-the-wire clash which concluded in video game fashion. When the Pioneers’ Drew Shubik hit a three, Anderson would answer with a three of his own. When Shubik got free for a lay-in, D.A. would break through two defenders and fashion a nifty reverse layup. In the end, however, the DA transit ran out of gas. The Bobcats would suffer a dizzying one-point loss.

“I’m not even going to vote for Player of the Year,” said Moore after that game. “I’m just going to send the (game) tape in. If he doesn’t get (Player of the Year), that would just be criminal.”

Wow.

D.A. backed up his coach’s potent words the following game, when the Bobcats walloped lowly St. Francis (Pa.) at home. DA did his best Chris Paul impression that game – handing out a game-high six assists. When they tried to trap him, they weren’t there in time. When they keyed on him, his teammates were beneficiaries of his presence.

The D.A. transit was looking to drive deep into the playoffs this season, but the Bobcats lost a tough one to eventual champion Mount St. Mary’s in the opening round.

Dickenman Saga: Squashing the Beef

Anderson evolved into Central’s leading scorer as a sophomore, averaging 14 points and turning in a titanic 32-point eruption against – oddly enough – Quinnipiac. His career as a Blue Devil would hit a major pothole however, after a scholarship dispute with head coach Howie Dickenman materialized. At the end of his sophomore year at Central, Anderson asked to be released from his scholarship. Dickenman refused to meet his go-to-guy’s wish.

“There isn’t really any hard feelings between us (anymore),” said Anderson, adding that he’s still close friends with Blue Devil guard Tristan Blackwood. “He just never let me out. That got real personal because it not only changed my basketball future but my academic future as well.”

Dickenman maintains that there’s another side to it. He explained to the New Haven Register that Anderson didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to appeal the decision.

It’s all in the past now.

“I don’t think (his decision to transfer) had to do with him bumping heads with coach really,” said Justin Chiera, the former three-point marksman for Central who now works as a basketball instructor in New Jersey.

“He wasn’t happy (at Central), it was a personal decision of his. That’s the real reason why he left. As far as how his career went, I honestly think he would have done his thing either way, had he stayed at Central. Just having him on the court was such a luxury, because with D.A., there’s just so much he can do when the rock is in his hands.”

Handling Adversity

You’ll find that few things in life can faze Anderson. The 23-year-old was forced to be extraordinarily self-reliant in the months following the death of his mother. He’s been instrumental in the upbringing of his younger sister, Parris. Anderson has her name emblazoned in India ink on his right arm. For every road game the Bobcats played this season, a framed picture of Anderson’s mother went with him.

This season, Anderson lost his grandfather and was forced to miss a pair of games against Wagner and Monmouth. After returning to Connecticut from the funeral, Anderson responded by pouring in 25 points and hauling down 11 boards in a loss to Sacred Heart.

D.C. Pipeline

Anderson, along with teammates Louis Brookins, Jeremy and Evann Baker, all hail from the D.C. area. Former Quinnipiac forwards Victor Akinyanju and the aforementioned Jolley, also from the Maryland/D.C. region, are enjoying prosperous careers overseas. Exactly when D.C. became the Quinnipiac pipeline is open to question. Most people date it back to Rob Monroe, the 5-foot-10 guard who became one of the NCAA’s scoring and assists leaders during his final season (2004-2005 campaign) with the Bobcats.

Duquesne Moving Forward

The Storm is Over

by Zach Smart

To paraphrase Michael Moore, the scruffy-faced, cow-sized huckster, “was it all a dream?” While the thought of George W. Bush winning the election and serving eight chaotic years is Halloween-scary (and the results certainly speak for themselves), this was a new ground-breaking catastrophe.

In the fall of 2006, tragedy hit Duquesne University like a tidal wave. A face-fight filled with dirty looks and stares spilled into a shootout outside of a school dance, on the private catholic University’s campus in Pittsburgh.

Adversity. We’ve all been dealt our fair share of it. A wise man once told me that nobody gets out of life unscathed. Those who try to are only dodging reality and inevitability.

Five players were shot and injured upon their exit from the dance. It was a nightmare that hampered every aspect of the season. Two players sued the school. The situation continued to fester as the Dukes posted a measly 10-19 record. This past season, the Dukes went 17-13, but were barely in the middle of the pack in the Atlantic-10. Still, it was quite a turnaround and the school rewarded coach Ron Everhart (if you replaced the “t” at the end of his last name with “d” he’d sound like someone you’d expect to star alongside Jill Kelly in a Vivid Video film).

With a revamped recruiting class that features well-traveled jumping jack Melquan Bolding (who has been through more schools than Amare Stoudemire), who played at Notre Dame Prep this past season, the Dukes continue to revamp the program.

The black cloud is no long hovering over them. Now that the strong pre-season status of the team is making headlines (not the shootings, the lawsuits, the constant turmoil of 2006-07) it’s an uphill climb for DU.

Bolding put Archbishop Stepinac (White Plains, N.Y.) on the map his senior year. An aggressive scorer who plays with a killer instinct that elicits drool from coaches, Bolding got looks from Louisville (where he originally committed), Syracuse, and St. John’s. He got game.

The Dukes also bring in B.J. Monteiro, a 6-foot-5 shooting guard from Waterbury, Conn. (aka Dirty Water). The Connecticut State Player of the Year averaged 21.3 points, 9.9 boards, and 5.3 dimes this year. Monteiro, who played for the Connecticut Elite on the AAU circuit, is looking to make an immediate impact.

The future is bright. The manifesto of hate, the fall of 2006 quagmire, the horrifying events that led to the lawsuits – it’s all in the rearview. The program will look to erase history and establish itself in what looks to be an intriguing 2008-2009 campaign.

Mount St. Mary’s Surprise Success

The Mount a Surprise Success in 2008

by Zach Smart

The road to success is not straight. It’s one of the more popular chestnuts of the King James Bible.

In the Northeast Conference, a topsy-turvy, up-for-grabs league that’s about as predictable as the next Britney Spears meltdown, the axiom has proved prophetic.

Mount St. Mary’s University, the little-exposed school situated in the near-Baltimore backdrop, shocked the lower-tier Division-I conference this season, emerging from the underworld to claim the Northeast Conference title.

Sacred Heart was the original favorite. Central Connecticut had lost too much of its offensive punch with the loss of Javier Mojica (2007 NEC Player of the Year) and Obie Nwadike, easily the most underrated (and undersized) big man in the conference prior to his final year. While the Blue Devils returned Tristan Blackhood, one of the conference’s top all-around players and an NEC player of the year hopeful, the overabundance of playoff-greenhorns, youthfulness, and lack of veteran leadership down the stretch hampered them.

Robert Morris seemed to be taking the conference by storm with the scintillating, floor-controlling inside-outside tandem of NEC Player of the Year Tony Lee and A.J. Jackson. That, plus one of the conference’s best all-around players in Jeremy Chappell and first-year coach Mike Rice, a former Pitt assistant who employed a militaristic zeal to mold the Colonials into one of the most disciplined and finely-tuned teams in the conference, was convincing.

Mount St. Mary’s sacred quest towards a conference championship was kick-started by a late-season tear. The Mount won four of their last five conference games. Finally, residual effects of their early-season winning streak and vigorous out-of-conference slate became evident.

In the first round of the Northeast Conference playoffs, a win over Quinnipiac didn’t seem like much of a daunting task. A one-man wrecking crew (scoring fiend DeMario Anderson, who averaged 21.7 points, shouldered the burden of savior for the young and injury-riddled Bobcats throughout the season) with a vulnerable perimeter defense couldn’t muster up the firepower to pull off a dramatic win at the Mount. With the defense keying on Anderson (who finished with 21 points while dishing out five assists but sat out the final six minutes of the game), the Mount proved to be too much.

Jean Cajou popped off the bench to score a season-high 20 points. Jeremy Goode, the smurf-sized guard who slipped below the recruiting radar while coming up in Charlotte, N.C., scored 15 points and deposited five dimes.

Goode simply came into his own during the post-season tournament. He dropped 23 points against top-seeded Robert Morris (which captured the NEC regular-season title) as the Mount cruised to a convincing 83-65 eye-popper.

In stamping the monumental upset, the Mount snapped the Colonials school-record 14-game winning streak.

The fun didn’t stop there.

The little engine that could scored 13 and shelled out five assists, but Cajou was once again the story. The 6-foot-3 freshman guard that averaged 7 points during the regular season scored 15, including some timely three-pointers, as the Mount coasted past Sacred Heart, 68-55.

The Mount punched their ticket to the NCAA tournament for the first time in the Milan Brown era. They took the NEC world by wildfire in the process. With the Mount out of the top-four picture throughout the season, it was an epic surge.

Cajou, a native of Fairfax, Va. Native who averaged under 20 minutes of playing time the first half of the season, averaged 17.3 points during the pulsating, six-game winning streak that the Mount concluded the regular season with.

During the NCAA tournament play-in game, the Mount came roaring back from a first-half deficit, outscoring Copping State 36-26 in the second half, en route to recording a 69-60 victory. Goode led all scorers with 21 points and handed out a game-high five assists.

It was pure alchemy as the Mount, originally written off by the naysayers, was giving the outside world an efficient account of themselves and their potential.

The wheels would fall off of the ride to the NCAA tournament, however, as they ran into a power wall known as Tyler Hansbrough and the UNC Tar Heels.

Psycho T and Ty Lawson, both of whom hung 21, dumped off the Mount to the tune of a 113-74 washout.

Could anyone from even a conference as unpredictable as the NEC have envisioned them playing at that stage, though?

Now that’s faith. The road to success is not straight.

Summer Ballin’

The smoking-hot month of July brings with it some top-tier summer hoops. Don’t miss out on the action, as a laundry-list of events are taking place.

Here’s a list of some of the NCAA-certified events on tap for this month around the Washington, D.C. and Virginia area:

LC Bird Varsity Summer League at LC Bird High School in Chesterfield, VA.
July 6, 9-12, 23-26 and 30-31

The Magic Showcase at Oxon Hill Senior High School in Oxon Hill, Md.
July 6-8, 13-15, 22 and 27-29

Nike Jabbo Kenner Pro City High School Summer League at Georgetown University – McDonough Arena in Washington, D.C.
July 6-15 and 22-29

The Rock Summer League at High Point High School in Beltsville, Md.
July 6, 9-13, 23, 27 and 30-31

Suburban Coalition Summer Classic at Capital Sports Complex in District Heights, Md.
July 6-8, 13-15, 22 and 28-30

Tale Of Stephen Curry

Curry Turning Heads, Finishing What His Father Started

by Zach Smart

There’s a quaint, old-world Deli/Bakery on the corner of the Ichabod’s Landing in the historic village of Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. You ever heard of Sleepy Hollow? Every Halloween this area garners some national visibility due to that classic, legendary, werd-around-the-crackling-campfire tale that Washington Irving scripted back in the day. This bugged-out saga about the headless horseman has certainly morphed into an instant staple on the “Are You Afraid Of The Dark?” circuit, but let’s be serious: Halloween doesn’t hold the significance it once did to me. The college years have helped shift my motivation-spurred gaze from candy corn, butterfingers, and 100 grand (that’s my man, 100 grand/that dude’s wild, black-and-mild-young) to extremely kinky outfits, cat woman and nurse uniforms. I’m starting to get out of my element here.

Allow me start over. At this aforementioned old-school deli that’s comfortably nestled in between the bridge leading to Ichabod’s Landing and some other archetype old-school building (I happen to believe it’s a chop shop due to my postulation that these cats employed there – all of whom rock cut-offs, ill tattoos of skull-and-crossbones which are emblazoned on their arms and necks, and the permanent pockmarks that come from hooping on the nearby no drips, no foul court – all think they’re Mickey Rourke-hard and shoot me a cold, Foreman-Grill whenever I happen to saunter into the deli), there’s a wonderful employee by the name of David “Chico” Gonzalez. I know, it sounds tremendously like David Gonzalvez, the Richmond guard who hung 25 on Memphis during a 80-63 loss back on Nov. 6.

The Cheeksta, who is actually a good friend, happens to service my workaday, hallmark order of a Bacon egg and cheese on a roll and a small coffee with milk but no sugar.

Anyway, Chico and I talk quite often. What do we talk about? A lot of intriguing aspects of life. We discuss just about everything from the state of the union to how there’s a whisper of wonder (amongst the townsfolk) about whether the Pelicans’ move from the water to the south was permanent or just for the winter season. We’ve had conversations about Pat Riley’s recent decision to tank the season and blaze the recruiting trails in hope of scoring a top-stratum, top-5 pick to run with Dwayne Wade and Shawn Marion next season.

The other day, however, Chico, the Queens-bred hoop fiend, brought to my attention (as I perused the mouth-watering goods of the bakery) the evolution of Dell Curry’s little young one, Stephen. He was certainly elevated from obscurity last tournament, giving Maryland a 30-spot to cap off a fine freshman campaign that saw him average 22 points in 30 minutes as the go-to-guy. This, of course, was after the 6-foot neophyte slipped under the radar and was overlooked by a bevy of ACC schools.

Those who remember his quick-release father, Dell Curry, scorching the NBA nets know that Stephen has a good bloodline. Chico reminded me of this the other day, mentioning how underrated Dell was and how people tend to neglect the fact that he left a lasting legacy as one of the NBA’s best pure and quick-strike assassins.

Whatever blueprint the elder Curry may have left, Stephen is now re-writing the script. Dell Curry may have blessed his son with a gift, there’s no question about that. But neither Chico or myself or anyone else recall Curry having the same swagger and killer instinct that has made his son one of college basketball’s most lethal scorers.

He erupted for 40 before our very eyes Thursday, blitzing Gonzaga with a steady mix of trey bombs from a different area code, quick slashes to the cup and an unprecedented craft for coming off screens and curls ready to stick with a blink-quick trigger.

“It was like an opening night, start performance on Broadway,” Davidson coach Bob McKillop told the New York Post. “And he (Curry) was the star, but he had a great cast.”

Curry, whose in his second year at Davidson but looks like he can be in his second year of high school, turned in an epic showing that jacked that Wildcats’ winning streak to 24 games, then 25 with a win over Georgetown in the second round where he scored 30 more.

Not bad for a kid whose father’s alma mater (Virginia Tech) didn’t want to take a gamble on the slender guard, fearing he was too small and frail to emerge as an impact player.

Now Curry is laughing his way to the ensuing round, as Davidson tries to pull off another major upset as they face No. 3 Wisconsin.

Please don’t get it confused, I ask you. Chico knows his hoop. No doubt about it. He’s seen a myriad of mythical performances and lived through a liquor store-list of battles. Thursday was one of those games you will tell your grandchildren about. And all along, Chico knew it was bound to happen. He is the Albert Einstein of college basketball. He will be glued to his couch the next few days, with no intention of moving. He is here now, a witness, watching and cherishing every moment of March Madness. He asks you to slip into his size 10 Air Pips, his beloved Yankee fitted hat, and do the same.

Big East Notebook

Big East Conference Notebook

by Zach Smart

NEW YORK – This is what it all trickled down to. After back-to-back-to-back do-or-die games, non-stop live hoops, constant reliance on live scores, updates, and television highlights, a Land Rover-load of buffalo wings and a Hudson River full of cold beer (which allowed the bulge in my stomach to truly balloon), we had arrived at the final and biggest stage.

I hadn’t had all that much sleep, but not even a 30-milligram Concerta pill would have made me any more wired. Not even a UPS truck-load of Red Bulls. Heck, not even Bill Gates and some random, slapdash, spoilsport techie from MIT could have had me more wired. For hoop junkies, this is why we wake up in the morning. Colossal events like these are what get us from the bed to the shower.

The No. 7-seeded Pittsburgh Panthers arrived at Madison Square Garden looking to defend their castle and avenge last year’s tough-to-swallow loss. Last season Aaron Gray, now with the Chicago Bulls, was supposed to turn in a Godzilla-slayer performance and negate Georgetown’s 7-foot-2 center Roy Hibbert. Only the moment came and Gray never showed. Did Gray play that night? I’m not certain if he did or if he didn’t. Oh wait, that’s right. He was the featured burger of last year’s Big East Barbeque, and Hibbert cooked him like a juicy, broiled half-pounder.

The past is the past, however, and the future is a blessing. There wasn’t a trace of doubt in the Pitt Panthers Saturday night, not a whisper of wonder in any of their minds. They were prepared to pull off a New York Football Giants 2008 Super Bowl-like upset.

This game was about revenge. It was about making up for a football field of lost opportunity. Keith Benjamin, who starred at nearby Mount Vernon High and made an immediate splash on the Rucker Park scene (he’s known as “K-Rucker” to some) since his neophyte high school days, said that Pitt owed this victory to a select few. An elite group of ballers consisting of Gray, Chevon Troutman, Carl Krauser and so on, that is.

The Panthers have become instant lynchpins at the Garden these past few years in March, but they’ve never emerged from the fray. They have appeared in the title game the past two years, but no rock.

Despite shooting a scant (or just straight up dreadful) 22-for-44 from the charity stripe – numbers even Shaq and Chris Dudley would turn their noses at – Pittsburgh stamped a 74-65 upset win on no. 9 Georgetown before 19,562 at the joint Michael Jordan once referred to as “The Mecca of Basketball.” Today the Mecca is more like an unsafe haven for guys with mammoth egos (see Thomas, Isiah) to elicit boos from their own supporters.

But this was an early spring barbeque we had all been waiting for, and a sign of the madness that’s to follow. Ronald Ramon, he of the sick mini-fro and Bronx baller resume, cooked the hoyas to the recipe of 17 points and a pair of timely, gut-churning trifectas. Dick Vitale wasn’t there to see it, but it was certainly “Awesome Baby!”

With a flurry of baby hooks and shots inside the cup, Hibbert – the league-bound behemoth who hit West Virginia up for a 25-spot in the semis – scored a game-high 17 points while snaring six boards. But the Hoyas did little to counter the forward tandem of Sam Young (16 points, 6 rebounds) and fabulous frosh DeJaun Blair. Blair, the 6-foot-7 265-pound homegrown product, turned in a double-double with 10 points and 10 boards as he established position down low.

He’s not shy on the Garden floor, as was evidenced when the UHAUL truck of a man went off for 15 and 15 in a 65-64 win over Duke back on Dec. 20.

That was essentially his coming-out party, as he registered a top-notch, sublime showing against a top-bracket program (right, Dickie V?). Fitting, because its this Garden floor that Pitt has flourished on. Pittsburgh is 23-8 in MSG since 2000-01. They’ve ripped through their garden schedule at a 6-0 clip this season.

Last night was no different, the free throw nightmare aside. “We love playing in New York,” explained Pitt coach Jamie Dixon, who hails from the Bronx. “We have New York guys. We’ll do anything we can to play in the Garden. We’ll change schedules around. We’ll change events around. We want to get our kids back here.”

Especially after Saturday night. This was Pitt’s turn. As the aforementioned K-Rucker stated, they owed it to a couple soldiers from the past. They owed it to themselves. They needed to get the monkey off their back.

And Saturday night they finally did it. They finally took home that championship they had spent the entire season thinking about, and before some of the same hoop fiends that grew up watching most of them play.

This was New York basketball at its finest, two gutter-tough teams battling for supremacy in one of the NCAA’s elite conferences. Now the Panthers have propelled themselves into the high-rent district of the NCAA Tournament pool and are slated for a date with scoring machine Robert Jarvis and Oral Roberts on March 20.

Notes

• Don’t Sleep On Joe: Few players dropped more jaws during their stay at MSG than West Virginia forward Joe Alexander. A 6-foot-8 jumping jack who was buried behind guys like Mike Gansey, Kevin Pittsnogle, and Pat Beilein the last time the Mountaineers registered their presence on the national scene, Alexander, who there was a whisper of wonder about after an apparently lackadaisical freshman campaign, averaged 22 points and hung 34 on UConn in their 78-72 triumph. Alexander’s efforts additionally bolstered the sports poster industry. His two-handed momentum-dunk over Stanley Robinson at the end of the game was indicative of this.
• Little Big Man: All of 5-foot-8, Marquette’s Maurice Acker was instrumental in sending Notre Dame and Big East Player of the Year Luke Harangody home early. Acker, a spare-part sophomore from Hazelcrest, Illinois, scored 11 points, all in the second half and hit timely treys that helped send the heart of the Irish down south.
• Let’s Get It Vaughn: Throughout the season, Deonta Vaughn’s name has slipped under the radar and been left miles from Big East discussions. But Vaughn, who averages 17 points and four assists for the Bearcats, allowed his team to resuscitate itself to a degree after being blood-lettered by UConn during the final game of the season. Cincinnati would give Pitt a run for their bread. Despite being handed a 70-64 loss, Vaughn continued to stamp his imprint as one of the Big East’s premier scorers with a one-man gang, 30-point showing.

Big East Notebook

Big East Conference Notebook

by Zach Smart

STORRS, Conn-Due to a vicious Ohio storm that shattered the state’s snowfall records, the Cincinnati Bearcats/UConn Huskies game originally slated for Saturday afternoon was delayed until Sunday night.

For the Bearcats, which committed a torrent of turnovers in the early going, the confines of the Gampel Pavilion weren’t much more comfortable. No.15 UConn’s arsenal of threes, jumpers, fast-break lay-ins, alley-oops, and rim-ringing dunks created a storm of its own. This would shatter another record, as UConn established the largest margin of victory by any team in Big East history.

UConn absolutely blood-lettered the Bearcats Sunday night, a 96-51 laugher before a strongly partisan and at times crass crowd of 10,167.

“It was almost surreal at times,” said UConn coach Jim Calhoun. “It multiplies, and I’ve been on both ends.”

A trademark pull-up jumper by A.J. Price, who handed out a game-high six assists, kick-started the Huskies’ most efficient offensive output of the season. The Huskies scored 20 of the game’s first 25 points before running off a wowing 30-0 run. That’s not a typo. There is not a vindictive, Husky-crazed copy-editor looking over this story. They ripped off 30 unanswered points.

The 30 straight points featured everything from Jeff Adrien’s first career 3-pointer to Hasheem Thabeet registering his presence in a larger-than-his-glacier-size-shoe way. Thabeet – a consensus top-10 pick in the 2008 NBA draft if he declares – made Cincinnati look nothing like the team that scored a pair of resume victories over Pittsburgh and Villanova and nearly knocked off the Huskies back on Jan. 23 (when they allowed a 12-point edge to slip away). Thabeet, who recorded a game-high eight blocked shots in 25 minutes, altered, influenced, manipulated, and changed the trajectory of nearly every Cincinnati shot near the key.

The eight plucks jumped Thabeet’s total to 94 this season, allowing him to eclipse Alonzo Mourning (who had 93 at the conclusion of the 1991-92 campaign) in the Big East record books for most swats in a season.

The Bearcats looked like a team that had fumbled the playbook, employing a run-and-jack offense en route to shooting an abysmal five of 32 from the field (15.6 percent).

UConn utilized a suffocating press and 2-3 zone that instigated 10 costly first-half turnovers.

“We looked like a tired ballclub,” said Bearcat coach Mick Cronin, looking emotionally and physically drained himself.

“We went through a terrible debacle with our travel situation the last three days. But give Connecticut credit. When they make perimeter shots the way they did today, combine that with their size and athleticism, they’re a devastating team.”

The Huskies (24-7, 13-5 Big East) continued to ratchet up the score in the second half, with Thabeet punching three consecutive Kenny Belton shot attempts in one eye-popper of a possession.

Thabeet unleashed a ferocious one-handed, posterizing dunk on Anthony McClain. The highlight-reel flush gave the Huskies a blistering 62-26 lead with 13:26 remaining. The Huskies then reeled off a 16-6 run, capped by a Jerome Dyson jumper, as the bulge ballooned to 50. With 7:19 still remaining, the fans headed for the exit signs.

Cincinnati’s Deonta Vaughn, who cooked UConn for 34 (including eight trifectas) last time the two teams met, was left looking for answers this time around. UConn negated Vaughn, holding the Indiana-bred sharpshooter to just nine points on 3-for-12 shooting.

Stanley Robinson, known to the Connecticut basketball culture as “Sticks,” had one of the finest games of his young career. The Alabama-bred sophomore scored a game-high 18 points, including three treys, and snared eight rebounds. Robinson, who has never been too crazy about the UConn beat writers, would flee the scene without speaking to the press following the game, as the 6-foot-9 wunderkind is known to do.

At the end of the brutal blitzing, however, Thabeet was the center of attention.

Thabeet has clearly reached the zenith pinnacle of his career. Still of relative neophyte status, Calhoun believes the Tanzania native could be league-ready defensively but is certainly not ready offensively. The scouts and gurus alike, however, peg the 7-foot-3 mountain of a man as the most promising big of the 2008 draft class.

Thabeet, who retreated to the bench to standing ovations and relentless chants of “one more year!” as the gangly Jonathon Mandeldove replaced him, has not yet arrived at a decision. Thabeet continues to keep the Connecticut media circus guessing, though his pro stock can only be weighed in whale-sized units.

His emergence as a menacing shot blocker has drawn the drool of a surplus of scouts, without question. It was evidenced against Pittsburgh, Syracuse, DePaul, Notre Dame (twice) and South Florida. The same skeptics that said he had miles to go have suddenly morphed into witnesses.

Calhoun, with his classic militaristic zeal but unmatched protection of his youth-laden hoop team (Senior Night festivities were nonexistent Sunday, as the Huskies are devoid of any senior leadership) demanded he stay put and avoid being vacuumed into mock draft lure.

Other pundits and detractors recited the Patrick O’Bryant story. Let’s not forget, O’Bryant needed just one game in the wild and dizzying 2006 NCAA tournament to mount his pro stock. The walking one-game wonder elicited some serious looks from the plethora of scouts who tuned into the Bradley game that night.

Thabeet’s evolution into the NCAA’s elite class of defenders, however, has come at a frantic pace and dropped quite a few jaws in the process.

Next Stop: New York, as a somewhat callow playoff squad – Calhoun admits that these are uncharted waters for a lot of his young guns, but is quick to point out that Adrien hung 17 in a tournament game back in 2006 and Austrie, who’s come into his own this season, has more experience than Dirk Diggler – looks to swim with the sharks of Louisville, Notre Dame, and Georgetown, in an aquarium that’s known simply as the Mecca of basketball.

Other Late Games of Note

• Pittsburgh 98, DePaul 78: At the Peterson Events Center in Pittsburgh, DeJaun Blair scored 22 points and hauled in 14 rebounds to lead the Panthers. Sam Young added 19 points on 7-for-13 shooting, while Levance Fields collected 11 points, nine boards, and kicked in a game-high nine assists. Dar Tucker paced the Blue Demons with 23 points. Depaul’s loss helped Providence seal a playoff berth.
• Georgetown 55, Louisville 52: At the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., the No. 10 Hoyas staved off No. 13 Louisville behind 15 points from super frosh Austin Freeman. Roy Hibbert added 12 points and six boards for the Hoyas, who’ve gutted out their last two victories by a margin of 2.5 points. Terrence Williams led Louisville with 14 points. Earl Clark registered his ninth double-double with 11 points and 10 boards.
• Syracuse 87, Marquette 72: At the Carrier Dome, Jonny Flynn and Donte Greene dropped 21 points apiece to help lift Syracuse to a signature victory, albeit at the dead-end of the regular season. Paul Harris, the 6-foot-4 freak of athleticism and long-time friend of Flynn, added 14 points and six boards.
• Notre Dame 67, South Florida 60: At Tampa, Luke Harangody continued to stake his claim as a Big East Player of the Year favorite, scoring a game-high 21 points while grabbing nine boards to lead the Irish. Rob Kurz added 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting in 19 minutes of play. Freshman standout Dominique Jones scored 20 points to pace the Bulls.

Big East Notebook

Big East Conference Notebook

by Zach Smart

HARTFORD – Apparently, Jerome Dyson’s 14.3 points per game-as well as his hounding defense, set three-pointers, quick slashes to the bucket and acrobatic, rim-ringing dunks- haven’t been sorely missed by the Connecticut men’s basketball team.

Forget, for a moment, the pre-Superbowl madness that’s leaving the northeast region completely split.

UConn has now reeled off five straight victories – three against nationally ranked opponents – since their standout sophomore guard was issued a suspension following an alcohol-related incident also involving guard Doug Wiggins (who was reinstated), on Jan. 24.

A.J. Price scored 21 points, hitting crucial shots down the stretch, and UConn gutted out a 60-53 victory in a supreme dogfight over Pittsburgh before 16,294 at the XL Center Saturday. Jeff Adrien added 14 points, six boards, and four blocks, despite being a bit too revved up in the Huskies’ sluggish first half.

“You look at the tape of the game, it will be in black and white,” said Jim Calhoun, the eccentric, longtime Huskies coach. “Because it was much more of a Big East game that I kind of was weaned on when I first came to this league. Everybody puts the gloves on. Well, its 12 rounds now, it used to be 15 rounds. Last man standing, and very simply we were (today). It was such a tough, physical basketball game.”

Through the meat of their non-conference slate, UConn starved for a signature victory. Now the Huskies have been upgraded to the first-class district of one of the most competitive conferences in college basketball. The triumph bolsters the Huskies (16-5, 6-3 Big East) to a third-place logjam with Marquette, the team they stamped an 89-73 victory on to kick-start this mind-boggling five-game win streak.

The Huskies were able to overcome a double-double from the Panthers’ DeJuan Blair. The behemoth freshman scored 13 points and ripped down 13 boards, nine on the offensive glass. Down the stretch, however, the Panthers had trouble with the Huskies’ frontcourt, namely 7-foot-3 center Hasheem Thabeet, who finished with a game-high five blocks. The taller, physically superior Huskies altered shots during the back-and-forth battle. No block was more impressive Thabeet’s eye-popping, two-handed pluck of Gilbert Brown’s baseline drive in the second half.

Craig Austrie, whose role has enhanced significantly in Dyson’s absence, scored 13 points and connected on timely three-pointers. Austrie, who has played second and third fiddle to other guards throughout his time as a Husky (and had been playing around 10-12 minutes a game prior to the Dyson saga), was lauded by his coach for stepping up during crucial transitions.

“I’m really happy to talk about Craig Austrie, a guy who has been through an awful lot in this program,” said Calhoun. “He’s always been ‘the other guy.’ He wasn’t ‘the other guy’ tonight.”

For Price, the Huskies’ catalyst all season, his coach’s words resonated.

“He (Austrie) has been stepping up during this whole win streak. He helps me out when he goes to the one, at times, and gets me off the ball. He’s been playing huge for us, and I’m just happy to death for him. Hopefully we can continue to keep this up.”

The Huskies, whose foul shooting woes broke new grounds during last season’s 6-10 Big East bungle, continued to be efficient from the line this year. They shot freebies at an 85.7 percent-clip, going 18-for-21.

Price was once again the answer for UConn.

With around 1:10 remaining, Price took the ball at the top of the key and banged it between his legs before losing Brown off the dribble. The point guard then elevated to the cup and kissed one off the glass, giving UConn a 56-53 edge it wouldn’t squander.

“Coach told me to run the play, primarily,” explained Price. “If it doesn’t work, he wants me with the ball at the end of the clock. That’s the situation that was at hand, and I just tried to make a play.”

That he did. Calhoun saw the shot as another sign of his growing leadership. “Big-time players make big-time plays,” he explained. “In my opinion, he’s as good a guard as there is in this league.”

Calhoun has habitually referenced Price as the gem of his 2004 recruiting class, claiming he has all the ingredients to leave a legacy as one of the best guards in program history.

Now Calhoun’s dreams may be thrust to the forefront.

Following a Jamie Dixon timeout, Pittsburgh’s Ronald Ramon’s three-point attempt clanked off the rim. Price hit a pair of free throws to put the game on ice with 37 ticks remaining.

The teams entered the half in a 22-22 deadlock. The Panthers’ tight, physical defense instigated 11 first-half turnovers. They were chewed out by Calhoun, who quipped that he “spoke quietly” about it at the break.

The Panthers shot an abysmal 8-for-29 from the floor, despite jumping out to an early 19-11 lead. The Huskies were secured by an 11-3 closing burst and carried the momentum into the second half.

Forward Sam Young, who is sprouting into one of the top players in the conference, paced the Panthers with 18 points with a flurry of baseline jumpers.

Notes

New York State Of Mind: Price, a product of Amityville, N.Y., was reunited with a familiar face in Keith Benjamin, a Mount Vernon native whom he played alongside on the AAU circuit. Price clearly got the better of his counterpart, as Benjamin was held to just five points on 2-for-11 shooting.

Benjamin, glued to the pine for much of the past three seasons, was thrust into a starting role after the Panthers lost swingman Mike Cook (torn ACL) and Levance Fields (fractured left foot), the latter another New York-bred point guard who Calhoun pegs as the “heart and soul” of the Panthers. Price admitted that playing against guys like Benjamin and Ronald Ramon, who has shifted to point guard in Fields’ absence, gives him some extra juice.

“Whenever I see anybody from New York that I came up playing against, I know that mentally I have an advantage over them almost,” said the junior point guard. “I just try to use that to my advantage and get in their head a little bit.”

Price scored 1,394 career-points while leading his team to three consecutive Long Island Championships during a storied stay at Amityville High.

The Team Tha-Beet: The potential of the ultra-long Thabeet has finally cracked the surface this season. It made for a hard afternoon on Young, who was just 7-for-21 from the field.

“He’s a good player as far as blocking people and forcing (people out the lane),” said the junior forward. “I tried not to let it affect the way I shoot, but after they (UConn’s frontcourt) block a couple, you kind of have to. They kind of throw you off.”

Thabeet met his match, however, in Blair, a 6-foot-7, 265-pound homegrown product who has made an immediate impact this season. How was Blair able to swallow rebounds over the much taller UConn frontline?

“Just try to get position, get position on Thabeet and just work, you know?” said the freshman forward. “I try to go after every board. He (Thabeet) is a big dude, but I just kept my hands up. With my good hands and IQ, I know when it’s coming off the rim and when the box out is coming.”

Don’t Ask: Calhoun was exasperated by the media’s coverage of the incident involving Dyson and Wiggins, who were reportedly caught with bottles of alcohol on campus. Calhoun, who at times has indicated he might be numbering his days as the Huskies’ game general, felt that the reports (which revealed detailed aspects of the situation) added salt to the wound.

“I’d like to have you work as hard on our team, and as you do on your (expletive) job, than you would on trying to do things to hurt young people,” he said earlier in the week in classic, Calhoun lash-out. The state’s winningest coach also did not see eye-to-eye with UConn athletic director Jeff Hathaway, who requested that Dyson and Wiggins be drug tested in the aftermath of the incident and facilitated a release of the results of it.

Wiggins was back in his role off the bench Saturday, logging just 11 minutes. He did not attempt a field goal but scored two points on a pair of free throws.

Mountaineers Await: Pittsburgh, whose stock suddenly plummeted after being cooked by Rutgers at home, faces West Virginia and its arsenal of shooters Thursday. Blair said the onus might fall on Benjamin, Ramon and company to cool down Alex Ruoff (team-high 15 ppg, 3.3 apg), De’Sean Butler, and Darris Nichols. The Mountaineers also have a jumping jack in athletic junior Joe Alexander (14.6 ppg, 5.7 rpg).

“We just have to contest every shot and we’ll be good,” said Blair.

The Mountaineers bounced back from an embarrassing 62-39 loss to Cincinnati on Saturday night with a win at Providence. West Virginia couldn’t hit the side of a Morgantown barn against the Bearcats, shooting the rock at a horrific 20-percent clip – the worst shooting show by a Big East program in roughly 12 years.

Z. Smart’s Power Rankings

1. Georgetown (18-2, 8-1): After posting a 73-61 victory over Seton Hall, the Hoyas could run the table over the ensuing nine games. Roy Hibbert, who couldn’t complete a full push-up when he arrived at G-town, is playing the best ball of his life and with a top-flight supporting cast.
2. Notre Dame (15-4, 5-2): Kyle McAlarney, he of the quick ratchet and high-arcing floaters, has faded from obscurity this season, surfacing as one of the conference’s premier guards. If Luke Harangody can continue to turn in performances like his effort against Michael Beasley and K-State at the Jimmy V Classic in New York, pencil them in.
3. Marquette (16-4, 6-3): Louisville will be a yardstick game for the Golden Eagles, who still need to prove that the UConn rout was a fluke.

One who slipped below the radar: Deonta Vaughn, Cincinnati. The 6-1 sophomore is a scoring machine who’s capable of melting teams from beyond the arc.

Rookie of the Week: Michael Colburn, Rutgers. The half-pint point guard averaged 20 points and four dimes during back-to-back victories over nationally ranked opponents. He’s made his presence felt after a sloth start.

Keep An Eye On: Brian Laing, Seton Hall. The senior forward averaged 22.5 points while snaring 10.5 rebounds during a week that saw the Hall rip off a pair of victories. He had a game-high 24 points against Georgetown Saturday.

St. Francis Comes Together

Unity A Key For Red Flash

by Zach Smart

Adversity.

It’s an aspect of life that simply none of us can eschew. No matter how hard you try, nobody gets out of life unscathed.

Last season, the St. Francis (Pa.) men’s basketball team’s pursuit of the Northeast Conference post-season took a bone-crushing hit when center J.R. Enright left school after the sudden, tragic death of his girlfriend.

The 6-10 Enright averaged 12 points to go with 10 rebounds as a presence in the paint, but missed the final five games of the season as he returned home to Omaha, Neb.

A functional surrogate family situated in the Boondocks of Pennsylvania (the town of Loretto has a population of under 2,000 and is roughly 1.02 square miles), the Red Flash showed endless support for their teammate in the wake of tragedy and grief. The Red Flash managed just five NEC victories throughout the brutal 2006-2007 campaign, but grew closer as a team and hasn’t kept Enright far from their thoughts.

“They’ve continued to stay together through adverse times,” explained coach Bobby Jones, who’s now in his ninth season with the Red Flash. “I was a little bit surprised, particularly in the way we finished last season. Obviously going through that adversity with J.R. and his girlfriend (was a tough experience). But the team certainly rallied around, certainly pulled together.”

Jones admits he’d like to wash last season away from his memory bank. St. Francis slipped into a program-record 15-game free-fall and never smelled the NEC Tournament. Youth and lack of communication were two problems that surfaced during the drought.

Those problems have faded away quickly this season, as a young team with a well-balanced offense and the bit-by-bit burgeoning inside-outside tandem in Cale Nelson and Bass Dieng looks to re-write the script this season.

Despite falling into an early 0-6 hole, sporting a scanty 5-16 record (3-7 in conference play), St. Francis has their eyes pasted on a playoff spot. The new-look Red Flash is beginning to gel and have left a statement with recent victories over St. Francis (N.Y.) and Central Connecticut State.

“The chemistry has been real well,” said super sophomore Devin Sweetney.

Sweetney, a 6-6 wing and the cousin of Chicago Bull Michael Sweetney, is second on the team in scoring (12 ppg) and is averaging 5.1 boards per game. “These guys have been together. This is our second year together, we’ll be together next year as well. Every day that goes by, we’re just getting closer and we’re bonding together as a team. We know each other better than we did last year.”

Fitting, because Jones knows Sweetney better than he did last year.

“Devin is a tremendous athlete, he has great size, great anticipation skills,” Jones explained. “I think he’s at his best when he’s running the floor hard, when he’s defending hard, able to get a few deflections, and really rebound the basketball.”

Jones said that games in which Sweetney asserts himself are paramount to success this season. He was quick to add, however, that the Washington, D.C.-bred Sweetney too often gets complacent and settles for jump shots.

In the victories over the St. Francis (NY) and Central Connecticut State, Sweetney poured in 21 and 18 points, respectively. He shot a blistering 16-for-26 in those two games and grabbed a season-high five offensive boards against the Terriers, who the Red Flash took into three overtimes in a wild 92-84 triumph that made headlines.

“The last couple ball games, he’s really starting to play like Devin we all now that he’s capable of,” added Jones.

Jones pegged Sweetney and Nelson – a junior who’s averaging 12 points and a team-high 4.2 assists per game – as this year’s captains. It symbolizes a team that’s using youth as a charm this season.

“(Coach) tells us to go out there, lead by example,” said Sweetney. “Regardless of what happens on the court, we try to play through your mistakes, and keep the team together, you know?”

Junior off-guard Marquis Ford, the NEC Rookie of the Year in 2006, has come alive lately after playing a diminished role at the start of the season. Ford led the conference in three-point shooting last year, hitting a knot over 50 percent from beyond the arc. Ford has switched from the point to the two-guard to fully utilize his ability to score off the ball and come off screens and curls looking to shoot. Ford adds depth to a backcourt that also features Grant Suprenant (10 ppg).

Dieng, who hails from Dakar, Senegal, has discovered his niche in the paint this year, after looking raw and undeveloped for much of last season. Dieng is averaging 10 points and seven boards in an enhanced role this season. The 6-9 center has copped a pair of double-doubles this season and recently scored 18 points in a loss at Quinnipiac.

Down the road, however, Jones sees Nelson and Sweetney dictating destiny in a conference that features a surplus of guards.

“If you look around the league, guard play is so critical at every level – whether you talk high school, college – particularly Division I and certainly in the NBA. If you look at the teams that win consistently, I can show you good guard play.”

They’ve had a lot to overcome. The Red Flash is still St. Patrick’s day-green. The nation’s hotbeds have been scoured for talent, and the seeds have been certainly been planted for the future. A playoff appearance, however, would be testament to the harmonious hard work and perseverance.