Charlotte wanted more but feels like they accomplished something

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Just minutes after a season ends, it’s not easy to sum up a season in an instant analysis style. Ask Alan Major about this season right now, however, and there’s a clear theme from the Charlotte head coach: pride in how his team handled so much that was thrown at them in the 2012-13 season and a feeling the program is on its way to where he hopes it will be.

Charlotte’s final record this season is 21-12. It’s a good record, although plenty of teams will sport better ones come April 9. They also started off 9-0, so one might wonder what’s impressive about going 12-12 to end the season. Let’s just say that none of it came easily, and along the way this team developed an identity as a team with the chemistry and belief in one another that they can get through anything.

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Atlantic 10 Tournament: Notes, quotes and thoughts

BROOKLYN, N.Y. – Ladies first. The first championship game of the tournament was Saturday evening following the men’s semifinals at the Barclays Center. Saint Joseph’s edged Fordham 47-46 in a thriller.  About 4,400 attended, the largest for an A-10 women’s title game, but the enthusiasm and excitement generated by the respective followers made the crowd seem three times as large.

Sophomore guard Natasha Cloud paced Saint Joseph’s with 15 points, 6 rebounds earning the tournament MOP. Marah Strickland, Fordham’s graduate student forward, in her last year of eligibility, led all scorers with 16 points adding 7 rebounds.

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Barclays to MSG: A long (and enjoyable) day’s journey

Two main venues, two great tournaments, just miles apart. A day filled with some very good basketball and interesting stories. Why not ? It is March Madness….

11:30 AM – Riding the subway to Brooklyn. The  preceding train ride from New Jersey to Penn Station was spent talking with a Cincinnati fan. The train has fans wearing gear from Pitt, Syracuse (most prominent) and of course, Cincinnati. The Bearcats, our new found basketball friend admits, have a tough assignment facing Georgetown at noon. Overall he is satisfied with the way things are going with Cincinatti but would like to see a little more inside play on offense. For now the Big East can wait. It’s onto the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the Atlantic 10. It is difficult typing on a moving train.

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Butler bounces back from blowout loss, look more like themselves

AMHERST, Mass. – Butler was much more like themselves on Thursday night, a game after a decidedly un-Butler-like performance at VCU. In between, there was some reflection and focused practices, and the end result was a 73-62 win at UMass where the Bulldogs were solid all around and for most of the game.

The 84-52 loss at VCU caught everyone by surprise. Butler may lose games, and they have been blown out before, but it is very rare. Games like that just don’t happen. So it’s not surprising that after the game, it was a little unusual.

“You question yourself a little bit when you get beat in the way we got beat on Saturday, and these guys deserve to enjoy this one,” said head coach Brad Stevens.

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Galloway, La Salle closing in on the NCAA Tournament

SOUTH KINGSTON, R.I. – When Ramon Galloway gets going, he can be fun to watch unless you’re on the other team. While he has a couple of teammates that can be like that as well, the La Salle senior guard stands out among them. While he didn’t do that on Sunday to the level he has often this season, he was able to spur his team to a 72-65 win at Rhode Island by leading a big stretch when he came alive.

Teammate Tyreek Duren, who led the way with 21 points, said Galloway didn’t feel good about his performance but knows how good he has often been for this team.

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Lalanne could be the missing piece for UMass

AMHERST, Mass. – Cady Lalanne just might be the missing link for UMass.  His play of late seems to indicate as much, and on Saturday, he was a difference-maker in the Minutemen’s 76-66 win over Dayton.  He showed what they’ve needed from him all year in a season that has been hampered by things outside of performance on the court.

Lalanne scored 22 points and grabbed 14 rebounds on Saturday to help the Minuteman out-rebound a Dayton team that is pretty good on the glass.  The Flyers entered the day with the fourth-best rebounding margin in the Atlantic 10, while the Minutemen held the slightest of edges on the season.  But the Minutemen had a 36-27 edge on the glass on the afternoon, including 13 rebounds, and that made a big difference.

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Dayton can’t get over the hump to reach its potential

AMHERST, Mass. – Dayton might be best summed up as a team that’s been knocking on the door all season but hasn’t been able to get inside. They have looked very good, they have looked just okay, and they seem very close to being a good team. But the Flyers haven’t been able to get over the hump quite often this season, and Saturday’s 76-66 loss at UMass was no different.

Watch the Flyers and you can see that there’s a high skill level with this team to go along with some length and athleticism. They don’t have as much of the physical gifts as some teams, but they are hardly lacking. The big problem is that they haven’t yet been able to maintain a high level of play to reach the potential they have.

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Xavier starts big home stretch with a road win

SOUTH KINGSTON, R.I. – Xavier opened its home stretch with a road win, and while it’s not a big one in that it came over an 8-17 team, it is a road win nonetheless, and one they had to battle to take home. In beating Rhode Island 55-42, the Musketeers got back on track as they head into a tough slate to end the regular season. They also ended a stretch with seven of ten games on the road and now get to go home for a few games.

This is not your vintage Xavier team in more ways than one. Whereas the Musketeers have in recent years had teams with good class balance, this year’s is a decidedly young edition with just four scholarship upperclassmen. They also come into mid-February not being a lock for the NCAA Tournament, and in fact they don’t look like an at-large candidate at all. They entered the week with an RPI of 98.

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Making shots a key reason VCU is back in the win column

SOUTH KINGSTON, R.I. – The keys to VCU snapping a two-game losing streak were a couple of simple ones: make shots and hang in when the game gets tough.  The former is one they struggled to do in the two losses, and while an unexpected issue showed up, offensive rebounding helped overcome that as well.

VCU beat Rhode Island 70-64 on Wednesday night in large part because of 48.1 percent shooting and 17 offensive rebounds.  They had just a slight 18-15 edge in second-chance points on the evening, but that helped cover up for giving the ball away 19 times, tying a season high and a total head coach Shaka Smart described as “way too many turnovers.”  It also helped them overcome another tough night from long range, as they were just 2-11 on the evening.

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Fordham 66, Rhode Island 63: A second look

BRONX, N.Y. – A game decided by a possession invariably tells you one made the plays in the stretch while the other team did not. In Saturday’s 66-63 Fordham victory over Rhode Island, you can say that was the case. A much closer look, specifically under the glass, tells us where the game was decided: the offensive boards. In raw numbers Fordham held an 18-6 advantage. In the offensive rebounding percentage Fordham held a 44-19% edge. That basically told the tale.

The possessions:

Rhode Island 68
Fordham 68

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