BOSTON – What more was there for Mo Cassara to say? Saturday’s 58-51 loss at Northeastern was a case of déjà vu for Hofstra, as they’ve seen this one before.
“We continue to hang around and be in games and have opportunities,” said the Hofstra mentor.
Jr. G Stevie Mejia
Sr. G Nat Lester
Sr. G Mike Moore
Jr. F David Imes
Fr. F Moussa Kone
Three starters are gone from last season’s team: Charles Jenkins (22.6 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 4.8 apg), Greg Washington (7.5 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 2.2 bpg) and Brad Kelleher (7.5 ppg, 2.1 rpg, 3.3 apg).
46.3 percent of scoring and 64.7 percent of rebounding
Jr. PG Stevie Mejia, a transfer from Rhode Island
Jr. F-C Bryant Crowder, a junior college transfer
Fr. F Moussa Kone
Fr. F Jordan Allen
The Pride has a nonconference schedule that is tougher that it might first look. They open with Northeast contender Long Island at home, then head to Oregon State, return home to play Sun Belt contender Florida Atlantic before heading to Rhode Island for three games, a couple of which will be tough contests. They also play MAAC contender Iona, although they get the Gaels at home. In CAA play, it doesn’t get any easier, as the only team picked ahead of them that they don’t play twice is Old Dominion, and their only contest against the Monarchs is in Norfolk.
To say Jenkins was the heart and soul of last season’s team would be a great understatement, although the Pride will also miss Greg Washington more than many think as well. While those are not small losses, the cupboard is not bare for Mo Cassara’s second season at the helm as they get back Nat Lester after he had to redshirt last year and add Stevie Mejia to run the show alongside Moore, the conference’s second-leading returning scorer. That means the perimeter should be in pretty good shape, especially since there appears to be more depth there than last year with Dwan McMillan and Shemiye McLendon being key parts of that.
The frontcourt is where the uncertainty is aside from Imes, who came along well last season. They like Kone thus far, and Crowder will give them more size there. This will be a different team, but this time around the team comes in not off a topsy-turvy off-season, so there’s more stability and still a good veteran presence in the backcourt. And after the top couple of teams, it’s wide open, so it would be no more of a surprise to see the Pride in third than it would to see them in ninth place when it comes time to seed the teams for the conference tournament.
RICHMOND, Va. – Some quick hitters from Saturday’s quarterfinal games at the CAA Tournament:
BOSTON – Hofstra has become quite adept at making lemonade out of lemons. There’s a simple reason why: for most of the past nine and a half months, they’ve been handed lemons quite often, including en route to their 4-0 start in Colonial Athletic Association play.
The Cliff Notes version is that Tom Pecora left to take the head coaching job at Fordham in late March, ultimately succeeded by former Providence head coach Tim Welsh. In early May, Welsh resigned and Mo Cassara, who joined the staff after former boss Al Skinner was fired from Boston College, took over. Along the way, a starter and key reserve from last season’s team transferred as well. … Continue Reading
Although the Colonial Athletic Association didn’t produce multiple NCAA Tournament bids as was hoped before the season, the postseason was a very successful one for the conference. Six teams played in the postseason, with Old Dominion knocking off Notre Dame in the NCAA Tournament and VCU winning the College Basketball Invitational. With much of the talent returning from last season, including many from projected top teams, there is reason to believe this year could be even better.
Nine All-CAA players return, including the reigning Player of the Year. 40 of 60 regular starters return, along with 12 of the top 20 scorers and rebounders. Around the conference, there are some solid newcomers as well, and a couple of players who missed last season due to injury also return.
The Colonial Athletic Association’s 25th anniversary season saw something that rarely happens these days: the team picked to win actually won. Old Dominion, the preseason favorite, was the top seed in the conference tournament and took home the title and lone NCAA Tournament bid. They proceeded to beat Notre Dame in the first round before bowing out to Baylor in the second round.
What the season didn’t see is a second team in the NCAA Tournament. Although a couple of teams had good non-conference wins and relatively good profiles, no one joined Old Dominion in the NCAA Tournament. Northeastern and William & Mary made the NIT, while VCU and Hofstra made the CBI (VCU won it) and George Mason made the Collegeinsider.com Tournament. The general feeling was that the Monarchs had a good chance at an at-large bid if someone knocked them off in the CAA Tournament.
The CAA set a record with the six postseason teams, one more than the five from last season.
The conference had a clear top seven teams and a good drop-off to the five teams behind them in the standings. All seven teams won at least 10 CAA games, the first time that has ever happened. Hofstra, who finished seventh, got there largely from a great month of February. There wasn’t a dominant team among the top seven, and while the bottom five were clearly a notch below them, every one of those teams scored a win over a team in the top seven. All five teams were there for a reason: Towson lacked any semblance of frontcourt play, Georgia State was consistently inconsistent, UNC Wilmington could never get their offense going, and injuries hit James Madison and Delaware hard.
This year was one where juniors fared well, which lends some hope for next year. Nine of the 15 all-conference players were juniors, with seven of them placing on the first or second team. One will not be back, as VCU big man Larry Sanders declared for the NBA Draft and signed with an agent, but having eight all-conference juniors return for one more year bodes well.
One subject of discussion around the conference tournament centered on the future of it. Right now, the CAA Tournament is set through 2012 in Richmond, but the condition of the Richmond Coliseum is the elephant in the proverbial room. Sources say the city is likely to put some money into it, but commissioner Tom Yeager had a long list of issues with the facility and it’s unlikely enough money will be put into it to resolve an appreciable number of them. The current economic conditions have something to do with it, but there’s also a question of the bang for the buck the city would get as the Coliseum is used for more than just the CAA Tournament. For a lot of reasons, it’s hard to imagine the tournament being held outside of Richmond, and that was the general sentiment expressed, but that possibility may be explored more in the months ahead as the conference looks for where it will be held following 2012.
Final Standings
| Overall | Colonial | |
|---|---|---|
| Old Dominion | 27-9 | 15-3 |
| Northeastern | 20-13 | 14-4 |
| William & Mary | 22-11 | 12-6 |
| George Mason | 17-15 | 12-6 |
| VCU | 27-9 | 11-7 |
| Drexel | 16-16 | 11-7 |
| Hofstra | 19-15 | 10-8 |
| Towson | 10-21 | 6-12 |
| Georgia State | 12-20 | 5-13 |
| UNC Wilmington | 9-22 | 5-13 |
| James Madison | 13-20 | 4-14 |
| Delaware | 7-24 | 3-15 |
Conference Tournament
The first round saw just one upset, with No. 11 James Madison sending Drexel home early. A night later, the Dukes threatened to do the same thing to William & Mary before a big second half by Danny Sumner and a clutch shot late by David Schneider put the favorites in the semifinals. Hofstra narrowly escaped in the first round against Georgia State, then took Northeastern to the brink in the quarterfinals in a double overtime loss. The semifinals were terrific games, with Old Dominion knocking off arch-rival VCU and William & Mary handing Northestern a heart-breaking loss to set up the title game matchup. William & Mary made it a game after a slow start, but the favorites had too much and took home the title and the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. It marked eighth time in the last nine years that the top seed has won the tournament.
Postseason Awards
Player of the Year: Charles Jenkins, Hofstra
Rookie of the Year: Chris Fouch, Drexel
Defensive Player of the Year: Larry Sanders, VCU
Coach of the Year: Tony Shaver, William & Mary
All-Conference Team
Chaisson Allen, Jr. G, Northeastern
Matt Janning, Sr. G, Northeastern
Charles Jenkins, Jr. G, Hofstra
Gerald Lee, Sr. F, Old Dominion
Larry Sanders, Jr. F-C, VCU
Season Highlights
What we expected, and it happened: Old Dominion was the conference’s best team. They were the preseason favorites, and for much of the conference season was on top in the standings. The Monarchs rode the leadership of Gerald Lee and a well-balanced lineup to the NCAA Tournament and a first round win.
What we expected, and it didn’t happen: James Madison finished near the bottom. A torn ACL ended Devon Moore’s season before it began, and that didn’t help since he was a big reason the Dukes surprised many last year. The Dukes never really got untracked, and head coach Matt Brady felt the team didn’t improve over the course of the season the way he hoped they would.
What we didn’t expect, and it happened: William & Mary was a contender and in the discussion for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid. Certainly, one had to figure the Tribe would be closer to the team of two seasons ago than that of last season, but surely no one had them picking up the aforementioned non-conference wins and then getting to the conference championship game for the second time in three years.
Team(s) on the rise: George Mason and VCU. The Patriots showed their youth at times this season and might have overachieved a little, although they certainly weren’t lacking talent. The Rams had some growing pains at first adjusting to new head coach Shaka Smart and life without Eric Maynor, but they took advantage of the CBI to grow as a team and improve from the regular season. Larry Sanders is gone a year early, but the Rams have a year under Smart and will return a lot next season.
Team(s) on the decline: Georgia State. It’s hard to put anyone in this category with so many teams having a lot of players back, and if we’re talking about projections for next season, it would be easy to put Northeastern here because the Huskies lose so much. But the Huskies are in a good position looking a little past next year even if they take a step back. Georgia State, on the other hand, doesn’t appear to be getting better. They looked to be a team on the rise before 2008-09 and didn’t hit their stride until late in the season, and never seemed to get untracked this season. What next season holds is anyone’s guess, but most figured this team would be off and running by now after all the promise Rod Barnes’ first season had.
2010-11 CAA Outlook
2010-11 could be a banner year for the conference just based on returning talent. Of the 15 all-conference players, 10 will return next season, including the Player of the Year, and all but one from the All-Defensive team will return. But go to the statistical leaders and it gets better, because the top four scorers and six of the top ten all return, along with 11 of the top 13 rebounders and eight of the top ten assist men. For good measure, the top five marksmen from long range will return as well.
It doesn’t stop there, as many teams will return a high percentage of starters and key players, while the two bottom teams in the conference will each return a starter who missed this season due to injury. Old Dominion will have a strong chance to repeat as champions with only two departing seniors, although Gerald Lee will not be a small loss. George Mason and VCU will bring back most of their teams and should be contenders, and Hofstra will also return much of its team but has not had a smooth off-season in the coaching department. Northeastern and William & Mary will take hits in the personnel department, but neither should fall far and both are in good positions long-term.
It all adds up to reason for optimism in the conference next season. Coaches expressed plenty of that at Media Day last October, and chances are there will be even more of it five months from now.
RICHMOND, Va. – Some additional quick hitters from the CAA Tournament:
A key opening stretch of four games in eight days for each team has just concluded. While there are still 13 CAA games left to play for each team, how a team starts can influence how they finish, especially if they start strong or in the hole.
With that in mind, here’s how each team fared in this stretch:
Team Record George Mason 4-0 Northeastern 4-0 James Madison 3-1 VCU 3-1 Drexel 2-2 Towson 2-2 Delaware 1-3 Georgia State 1-3 Hofstra 1-3 Old Dominion 1-3 UNC Wilmington 1-3 William & Mary 1-3
With UNC Wilmington knocking off Delaware Saturday night, every team came away from this stretch with at least one win. At the end of it all, George Mason and Northeastern are tied at 5-0, with VCU right behind at 4-1 and James Madison further back at 3-2. A host of teams are 2-3.
Right now, next Wednesday’s matchup of George Mason at Northeastern looks like a game to keep an eye on. But first, the Huskies hit the road for two games, playing at Delaware on Thursday and Hofstra on Saturday, and the Patriots go to William & Mary before hosting James Madison.
Unexpected Bright Spot Emerges For Seahawks
It hasn’t been a season full of fun for UNC Wilmington thus far. Saturday night’s win over Delaware snapped a ten-game losing streak for a team that was already young and has been ravaged with injuries, especially in the frontcourt. But on Saturday, a bright spot emerged in the victory aside from snapping the losing streak.
Daniel Mercer came off the bench to contribute a career-high 10 points in a career-high 17 minutes. He made all five of his field goal attempts, and six of those points and all three of his rebounds came in the second half, when the Seahawks rallied from an eight-point deficit coming out of the locker room.
Who is Daniel Mercer, you ask? He’s a 6’6″ junior forward from Raleigh who had not played basketball for a long time. His previous claim to fame might have been attending the same high school as former Duke forward Shavlik Randolph (Broughton High School), although he did transfer from the other half of college basketball’s best rivalry, North Carolina.
Mercer had been working at a basketball facility for skill development in Raleigh, one whose owner was a friend of former Seahawk big man Todd Hendley. Hendley also worked out there this summer before he headed overseas. That was the connection that set in motion a transfer down the road to Wilmington, and ultimately an opportunity to walk on.
“He plays like a guy who cherishes that opportunity,” said head coach Benny Moss. “He’s definitely the heart and soul of this team.”
Moss added that Mercer, who he describes as “almost a real-life Rudy story,” is the team’s hardest worker and does a lot of work in the weight room on off days. While Moss hasn’t had a lot of wins this season, he’s spoken highly of the character of his players all along, and this has shown up again with regard to Mercer and how he has helped out a team whose frontcourt has been decimated by injuries.
“Part of the tribute is to his teammates, because from day one when he got here, those guys treated him as one of their own,” Moss added. “They treated him like a teammate. They’ve worked with him, they’ve battled with him, they’ve helped him along the way.”
In a season like this, it’s been challenging for Moss to find a lot of positives, especially since this is a bottom-line business to a fault. But Mercer is the latest one to emerge, and this probably helps him get through this difficult season a little more.
Tigers Don’t Look Different
It’s never a good sign when a team in January looks much like they did in late November. But that was the case in Towson’s 68-53 loss at Northeastern on Saturday, as the Tigers looked frighteningly similar to how they did at the Philly Hoop Group Classic in November.
A couple of plays stand out, both of which involved the ball being taken out of bounds. Once, the defense fell asleep as the inbounds pass went to Manny Adako, and he easily hit a jumper. Later, when they got the ball after a dead ball, no one came into the backcourt to take the inbounds pass until they nearly got a five-second violation, and the pass was errant to boot.
Back in late November, the Tigers looked like a team trying to find their way, in large part because they have a number of newcomers. For a lot of the first half, they looked very similar, which isn’t a good sign. Head coach Pat Kennedy thinks they’re a little further along in that respect, but it’s hard to tell from game to game.
“We’re not nearly as experienced as some of the teams we’ve played, so at times we look like we have a fair amount of talent, I think more than we’ve had in the past,” Kennedy said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if this team bounces back and beats VCU. But we’re not consistent by any means.”
He was quick to credit Northeastern’s defense for giving the impression that they haven’t improved much, if at all.
“That’s about as well-scouted as we’ve been since I’ve been here,” said the fifth-year Tiger mentor. “They had us so well-scouted, they pushed up at all five positions – at all five positions, they were up in our chest, and they just didn’t let us run any offense and we panicked.”
Kennedy also noted that this team has been feast or famine for much of the season. Only four of their 17 games thus far have been decided by single digits, so they haven’t often been in games that are decided in the final minutes. Four of their seven wins have been by double digits.
Huskies Start Fast, Get Help For Janning
The pattern lately for Northeastern has been clear: shut down the opponent defensively and own the glass, and ride it to a victory.
Besides that, the Huskies have done another new thing to get wins: help Matt Janning. A month ago, when they went through a three-game losing streak, the Huskies looked like they wouldn’t stand a chance if Janning had an off night. But this past week, several players have stepped up to help lead the way while Janning hasn’t been quite at his best. Best of all, it hasn’t been just one player or the same one each time out.
On Monday night, Chaisson Allen controlled the game and Manny Adako and Nkem Ojoughboh had the best numbers. In Wednesday night’s big win at Georgia State, Janning had his first career double-double with 11 points and 14 rebounds, and he handed out five assists to players like Allen (14 points), Eugene Spates and Adako (13 points apiece), and Matt Smith came off the bench to make three of five from behind the arc.
In Saturday’s win over Towson, the Huskies were again in control from the outset, and Janning struggled from the field as he was just 4-15 (he made all eight of his free throws). But Adako had 24 points on 12-15 shooting and grabbed 12 rebounds, and he had a big second half. Spates made two early three-pointers as they scored the game’s first 13 points.
“The basket was as big as the ocean today for him,” Janning said of Adako’s performance. “He hit everything, and it’s just nice that when somebody has an off night we have guys on this team who step up.”
“Whenever you can have a balanced attack, it really helps your chances,” said head coach Bill Coen. “In particular, when we can get Manny giving us a low post presence, that just opens up the basketball game for everyone else on the team. We’ve gotten contributions up and down the lineup from guys off the bench as well as the starters, so it’s nice to see.”
Adako has always been adept at scoring when he gets the ball within about 15 feet, but foul trouble has dogged him and he’s tended to be hit or miss with his rebounding. Despite starting all but seven games in his college career, the junior forward averages 4.3 boards per game for his career and is averaging a career low total this season. It hasn’t always been a major liability since the guards he has played alongside can rebound, and as a freshman he had support from Bennet Davis in the frontcourt.
“We were trying to get Manny to understand what he’s capable of on the backboards,” Coen added. “He’s got a chance to be a very good rebounder, and I think today he took a big step in that direction.”
Now the Huskies hit the road for two straight games. They made out well with the recent stretch, as three of the four games in eight days came at home. They take on Delaware on Thursday night, then head up the road to Hofstra for a Saturday afternoon game.
Georgia State Needs Their Veterans
Although Georgia State added five transfers who sat out last season, the Panthers weren’t a bad team last year. They returned three starters from that squad, but the two best players among them have been slow to get untracked this season.
While Rashad Chase has gone from being a key player to a bit player, having started half of the team’s 16 games, Leonard Mendez, a preseason first team All-CAA selection, is the most noteworthy one. One of the top shooters in the conference last season, Mendez is averaging less than nine points per game and shooting below 38 percent from the field, including just over 30 percent from long range.
Meanwhile, the Panthers have struggled at the offensive end, averaging just over 60 points per game while shooting a touch over 40 percent from the field. That doesn’t seem to be a coincidence.
“I think the biggest problem with our team right now is our scoring, and he definitely could answer that,” head coach Rod Barnes said, alluding to Mendez. “If he comes around, it changes the complexion of our team.”
All of his aforementioned numbers are slightly up in the first five CAA games, so there is reason to believe he may be coming alive. He showed some signs of life against George Mason, then had a few good moments against Northeastern, but had a light knee injury in the second half of that game.
One had to wonder what would change with the influx of talent into the program this season. Mendez was the team’s most proven player in the CAA, so he figured to be a leader. But that hasn’t been the case, and it isn’t because the newcomers are taking opportunities from him. Instead, Barnes thinks it’s because Mendez is very laid-back as opposed to having the mindset of being a go-to guy.
“I think last year, he felt like we forced him to be a good scorer and really attack people,” the second-year mentor reflected. “I feel like the year before that, watching him on tape, he kind of let it come to him. Now we’re back to trying to force it on him to score.”
If Mendez would rather be a complementary player, that means someone must step up to help leading scorer Joe Dukes. Trae Goldston, the other returning starter, might be the most logical player to do that as he is second in scoring.
Other Notes
BOSTON – Northeastern showed something Monday night in demolishing Hofstra at Matthews Arena. It’s one game, but it didn’t happen in a vacuum, as some of what led to this 73-50 win has been developing for a while. If it keeps up, it won’t look like just one game later on.
What the Huskies did on Monday night is buck everything that could have been said about them a month ago, back when they were 3-4 with three straight losses and didn’t play well in any of those games. And after that, the boys on Huntington Ave are 3-0 in the CAA for the first time.
A month ago, they looked like they wouldn’t have a prayer of winning if Matt Janning struggled on offense, despite the talent that’s around him. Janning had just 10 points on 4-12 shooting and missed all four three-pointers on Monday night, although he did score eight of those points early in the second half.
At that time, Chaisson Allen didn’t seem like the most confident player in the world. He looked like your typical “potential” kid, someone you think is probably better than he’s showing. It didn’t look like a given that he would be the improved player his early practices suggested.
And at that time, whether or not the Huskies had toughness, especially inside, to compete with some of the CAA teams was an open question. Juniors Manny Adako and Nkem Ojougboh, their starters up front, are certainly skilled, but foul trouble has dogged Adako since he first set foot on Huntington Ave and something seemed to be missing with Ojougboh, who’s clearly talented and athletic but has all too often left you thinking he’s a better player than he shows.
None of that was in question on Monday night, a night when that was sure to be tested and especially the inside players. This is a Hofstra team that is loaded with big bodies, not just in sheer size but also in number. Tom Pecora has a lot of options in terms of lineups he can play in the frontcourt, so this was a game where we would see if the Husky big men could get the job done.
They did it, quite convincingly in fact. They thoroughly out-toughed and out-hustled Hofstra, and they were the more physical team.
“Going into the game, we were very concerned about Hofstra’s ability to rebound the basketball, and it’s been a focal point in preparation for this and I was very proud of our effort on the backboards,” said head coach Bill Coen.
The Pride came into the game with the 13th-best rebounding margin in the nation with an edge of nearly nine boards per game. They average almost 19 offensive rebounds per game. Last night, the Huskies, a team that was getting out-rebounded by about three per game, had a 39-32 edge on the glass, including 16 offensive rebounds. Ten of those offensive boards came in the second half, long after the tone had been set and the Huskies seemed to be in control. They simply never let up.
“Coach said they were leading in offensive rebounds in the country. They kept drilling it into us – you don’t want to be part of that stat, you don’t want to feed into it,” said Adako, who led four Huskies in double figures with 16 points and was more of a factor than his three rebounds would suggest. “We wanted to make sure tonight we end it, because they’ve been doing very well on the backboards.”
It didn’t stop there. Ojougboh had 13 points on 5-7 shooting and grabbed eight rebounds, while Chris Alvarez came off the bench for a season-high seven rebounds and Vinny Lima had a career-high six boards.
“Manny Adako and Nkem really did a nice job on the backboard and established our low-post game and controlled the game early,” said Coen.
And that’s how the Huskies won despite Janning and Allen combining to go 6-23 from the field, just two days after they combined to go 12-17 against William & Mary.
Helping Ojougboh lead on the glass was Allen, who was just 2-11 from the field but was the best player on the floor. He had eight boards, five assists with no turnovers and six steals, and always seemed to be around the ball. Entering the season, there was no question about his potential, especially since he showed an improved jump shot in early practice. But there were some early games that left you wondering if he would start to reach it. Now his confidence is clearly up, and he’s been solid in all three CAA games. He shot 12-18 from the floor in the first two and did everything else right on Monday night in the third game.
“He has such great court presence, and he gives everybody else confidence when the ball is in his hands,” said Coen. “He’s very steady with it and he gets us into our offense. When he rebounds the ball on the defensive end, we can start our fast break from there, and that’s a great advantage.”
Coen also emphasized the team defense the Huskies played, especially since Allen might be the only Husky who could guard Hofstra star Charles Jenkins one-on-one. Jenkins was 1-9 from the field with six turnovers and had a career-low three points, the first time all season he has scored in single digits and just the third time in his young career.
While this is one game, it was a game where the Huskies did some things one couldn’t be certain they would after building up to it with improved play. If they bottle this effort for future games, there’s no reason to think the three-game losing streak a month ago will be a very distant memory. All of a sudden, this team almost seems to have a swagger to it, which couldn’t be said before.
“I think we’re just going out there having fun and playing our type of basketball,” said Janning. “It helps to play at home, but I think this is going to carry over. We’re running our stuff right now, we’re playing D, and that’s the best thing you can have. If you’re playing defense, you can worry about offense later.”
They don’t want to stop at 3-0, and if they’re going to make it four on Wednesday and continue the winning later, they need to do more of what they did on Monday and on a consistent basis.
Holy Cross head coach Ralph Willard was hoping to hear from Siena head coach Fran McCaffery to talk about what happened last week when the two teams met and had an ending that surprised just about everyone there. His preference was, understandably, to keep things in-house on the matter.
Since that has not happened, and McCaffery continued to hammer the Crusaders last week in published reports, Willard reluctantly took things to a public forum on his blog. You can read it in its entirety at the link, but here’s one noteworthy excerpt:
“(Fran McCaffery’s) reaction after the game this year shocked me. I have coached over 500 games at the college level, and many more at the high school level, and have never had a coach not have his student athletes shake the hands of an opponent after a game. I knew he had to play Fairfield in less than 48 hrs and had St Peters and Kansas, right after that, and just assumed he was upset about the two injuries happening in a game he probably thought would be a blowout. I saw the game as hard fought, by both teams. I assume, as my mother said, he has a different perspective. That’s fine, and if he wanted to convey that to me that’s fine also. What is not fine is his pronouncements to the media that he knew the intentions of our players, and the characterization of the way we play as being “dirty”, without ever having the professionalism of discussing it with me. The fact that it went on for three days after the game is incredulous to me. I’m not sure what he was trying to accomplish, other than justifying his actions.”
Other Notes
As the Patriot League heads into league play this weekend, the Rookie of the Year race looks to be R.J. Evans’ to lose. The Holy Cross guard has been named Rookie of the Week five times, including four of the last five weeks, and leads all freshmen in the league in scoring and steals and is second in rebounding. He figures to continue playing a significant role for the Crusaders the rest of the way.
Santa Clara came to New England for two games and came away with two losses. Both games highlighted issues Kerry Keating has seen with his team all season long: turnovers and defense. The Broncos turned the ball over 39 times in the two games, forced just six Harvard turnovers. They were better at New Hampshire defensively, but the Wildcats were 5-9 from behind the arc in the second half to pull out the win. Their 19 turnovers in the game hurt even more.
“If we don’t turn the ball over, we usually win, and if we do turn the ball over, it makes it very difficult,” said Keating. “That’s indicative of a young team, an inexperienced team that we have right now that needs to understand that little bit better.”
The Broncos are inexperienced in the backcourt, and that’s showing up at both ends of the floor. Perry Petty was a non-factor Sunday, while Kevin Foster continued to show some promise offensively but also some defensive struggles.
The Broncos begin West Coast Conference play with a bang: at Saint Mary’s, home against Gonzaga and at San Diego for their first three games.
Hofstra head coach Tom Pecora didn’t seem overly concerned about his team following Monday night’s 73-50 blowout loss at Northeastern. He gave the sense that his team gets it, understanding that there are plenty of games left and this can be seen as just an aberration.
“The good thing about college basketball, it’s not college football,” said Pecora. “If you lose one game, your season’s not over. You’ve just got to get yourselves right at the right time. I’ve been down this road before, we’ll keep grinding it out, and we’ll fix things.
“I have no doubt that they’ll be able to do it.”
The struggles have been largely with the guards, who still comprise most of the team’s scoring. Charles Jenkins hasn’t been making shots of late, which is also the case with Cornelius Vines. Tony Dennison has seen his minutes take a dip in the last two games after starting the first 11. The bright spot Monday night came from a promising place, as senior point guard Greg Johnson – their only true point guard – showed some good signs.
“I think he did a pretty good job of getting us into our offense tonight and making some plays,” said Pecora.
Who would have imagined that Arkansas would be in the position it’s in right now? When Patrick Beverly left after being declared academically ineligible, the Razorbacks certainly didn’t look like an NCAA Tournament team. But after Tuesday night’s win over a solid Texas team, they’re well-positioned to be just that as SEC play beckons.
And how many thought California would sweep the Arizona schools, albeit at home? Getting back Theo Robertson after he missed all of last season has been a big addition, but Jerome Randle’s play suggests he should be in the discussion for the conference Player of the Year honors when we get to late February and March. He flat-out knows how to play, and not only has he jumped up his scoring, assists and shooting percentages, but he’s also cut down on his turnovers.
CAA play has begun in earnest, and already it’s gotten interesting.
As we enter the middle of the big five-day stretch with three games for each team (save for Drexel and VCU, who play their third game of the stretch on Thursday), there is some symmetry in the standings as three teams are 2-0, six are 1-1 and three are 0-2. But that’s not all. After five of the six games played in December went to the road team, the home teams had their revenge on Saturday as only Drexel pulled out a road win at Hofstra.
On Monday, the earliest game of the day is the only matchup of 2-0 teams as Georgia State visits George Mason at 5 p.m.
Husky Guards Lead Them to 2-0
BOSTON – It’s not a surprise that Northeastern is likely to go as their guards go, especially since that can be said of a lot of teams. On Saturday, we saw Exhibit A of that as Matt Janning and Chaisson Allen led the Huskies to a 60-44 win over William & Mary.
Janning had an excellent shooting game as he scored a game-high 22 points on 7-9 shooting, including 5-7 from long range. He did most of the damage in a couple of stretches, most notably in the first half when he scored the last 12 points of a 16-0 run that saw the Huskies take the lead for good. The first nine came on three shots from deep, then a conventional three-point play finished it.
Janning didn’t get a shot off in the second half until 13 minutes in, but it was a big three-pointer that put the Huskies up by double digits for the remainder of the game.
“He had a couple of shots in that second half that were just daggers,” William & Mary head coach Tony Shaver said of Janning.
The other player Shaver was quick to mention, Allen, came through in the interim. Allen is starting to show the improved jump shot that was evident in early practice, and had it on display at a couple of key moments in the second half when the shot clock ran down. That helped them fend off the Tribe until they could pull away in the final minutes.
“I thought he played a terrific game,” head coach Bill Coen said of Allen, who had 12 points and eight rebounds. “From a defensive perspective, he really guarded for us and set the tempo, and then on the backboard. When you get eight rebounds from the point guard spot, that’s a bonus.”
The Huskies need both players to lead the way if they are to win. Coen said if that happens, other players can do what they do best and things have a better chance to fall into place from there. The captain can see the confidence Allen is developing with his jumper, as well as its importance.
“It’s the biggest thing for the whole team, if he can knock down that shot, it’s going to open up everything else,” said Janning. “If he’s playing well, that’s going to get us going.”
Tribe Faces Difficult Change of Pace
William & Mary played just four games in December, closing the month out with two games in the last 25 days. It’s partly due to having to schedule around the school’s two weeks of final exams, whereas most schools have one week. As a result, November was a packed month, and now they go from that long stretch without much game action to playing four games in eight days.
The Tribe didn’t begin it well, losing 60-44 at Northeastern in a game where they struggled offensively. They shot 34 percent, and Shaver was quick to note that their top two scorers, Danny Sumner and David Schneider, combined to go 3-16. Chris Darnell and Peter Stein didn’t do much in the frontcourt as well, getting just seven shots combined. Stein had a solid four-game stretch heading into Saturday’s game where he was finally coming alive offensively, something Shaver thought would happen this season.
One player they got a good game from is emerging freshman Quinn McDowell. He followed up a double-double against Harvard with 12 points on 4-5 shooting on Saturday, and his minutes look like they will continue to go up as he has now posted double figures in scoring in the last two games.
“We expected great things out of Quinn, really,” Shaver said. “He’s what we need a little bit more of right now, he’s good in all phases of the game.”
The Tribe’s first CAA game came against VCU last month, and after playing at Northeastern, they return home to play Old Dominion, which was also projected by many to finish in the top three, on Monday before a visit to UNC-Wilmington and a return home against James Madison. While the VCU game came last month, it’s nonetheless a challenging stretch to start, especially when the Northeastern game changes up the pace of games played.
“We have to be mentally tough enough to deal with it,” said Shaver. “Our first three conference games are against probably the best three teams in our league. It’ll be a great measuring stick for us, and we’re going to see what we’ve got to get better at to get back to the top.”
Other Notes
DURHAM, N.H. – With the non-conference slate in the books, save for a BracketBusters date in February, Hofstra will head into the meat of Colonial Athletic Association play looking better than a year ago. At that time, the Pride had struggled to a 2-8 mark, including a CAA loss early in December. This time around, they will enter at 9-3, including a 90-79 win at Towson on December 6.
In picking up a 62-57 win at New Hampshire on Saturday, the Pride also did something else: snap a two-game losing streak. Hofstra won eight in a row after dropping their season opener to Clemson in the Charleston Classic, then lost at UMass and at home to Iona.
“It’s a relief,” sophomore guard Charles Jenkins said of Saturday’s win. “One of our goals this year was not to lose two games in a row, especially one at home.”
Jenkins makes this team go. The conference’s Rookie of the Year last year is averaging 19 points per game and also leads the team in assists. His emergence as a passer, after he had 37 more turnovers than assists last season, is perhaps more noteworthy than the fact that he’s ahead of the departed Antoine Agudio’s scoring pace right now. After Saturday’s game, he has 51 assists and 41 turnovers; he’s nine off his assist total for all of last season. In the two games where he scored a season-low 11 points this season, he had nine assists in one and seven assists in the other.
“He’s got to be solid, and I think sometimes we forget he’s still only a sophomore,” said associate head coach Van Macon, who addressed the media after Saturday’s game because head coach Tom Pecora was under the weather and left the bench in the first half. “He’s still got some growing to do, but I think the end result is that he’ll be a really good player when it’s all said and done.”
It’s easy to forget that about Jenkins not only because of what he’s done, but also what he’s being asked to do. He’s the team’s primary ball-handler and also the team captain, even though he’s the youngest player on the roster.
While some previous Hofstra teams featured guards, this team is loaded with frontcourt bodies. In fact, holdover Dane Johnson has been supplanted in the starting lineup by Miklos Szabo, and Mike Davis-Sabb, who was a key reserve as a freshman, is now a bit player. While they still play with three guards, they now have a world of options inside. They can play a few different ways depending on the matchup, and have the pleasant problem of a wealth of options.
The one inside player who is an X-factor with this team is Greg Washington. The redshirt sophomore didn’t have the kind of impact last season that some expected, but it was mainly a case of growing pains and, to some degree, unrealistic expectations. The physical nature of the game was difficult to handle, but he’s up to 220 pounds and has a better feel for the game.
“Last year was a lot of pressure, it was my first year,” said Washington, who led the Pride with 13 points against New Hampshire. “This year is different. I’m doing all that I can to stay on the floor, and it helps with my teammates. We have a lot of bigs, so if something happens, we can just go to the bench.”
Part of what makes Washington a key is that while his length allows him to block and alter shots at the defensive end, he offers something different offensively. He’s a capable outside shooter and had it on display Saturday, knocking down a couple of shots at key moments. That changes up from just about every other post player they have.
“A lot of teams think that our bigs can only work in the paint,” said Jenkins. “For Greg to hit big shots from about 15 feet puts a lot of pressure on the defense.”
Macon said that Washington is the one frontcourt player they can always use, based on his play to this point. The staff is hoping for a little more consistency out of the others, as well as a couple of the guards. While the guards still do a lot of the scoring – Jenkins and junior college transfers Cornelius Vines and Tony Dennison combine to average 40.4 points per game as the team’s top three scorers – Vines and Dennison both struggled shooting in the two consecutive losses. Neither was a star on Saturday, although they did combine for five assists and just one turnover. Vines, who has struggled from the foul line, made two key free throws in the last minute.
Hofstra has struggled mightily shooting from long range, a marked change from the past four seasons where Agudio was always a threat from just about anywhere past mid-court. But in turn, the Pride have become a solid offensive rebounding team, averaging almost 19 per game en route to having the best rebounding margin in the CAA. Those extra possessions help because they turn the ball over 15 times per game.
While Hofstra has a nice 9-3 record, they haven’t knocked off a group of world-beaters. None of the teams they have defeated is a good bet to be in the NCAA Tournament except perhaps as an automatic qualifier. It is, however, a record that should give the team some confidence. More importantly, the personnel options they have give them a chance to contend if they improve.
“We’ve got to get to a good eight or nine guys who are contributing at a high level every game, and if we can do that, I think we can be a pretty good team,” said Macon.
After losing to Drexel on Wednesday night, where Northeastern stands is clear in the CAA. They are not contenders yet, and until they knock off a team ahead of them in the standings, that’s where they will be.
The first full weekend of Ivy League play is in the books, and one thing that wasn’t too surprising happened: the league favorites asserted themselves as just that. Harvard looked like a team on a mission, and coming away with two convincing road wins is what was desired.
Some quick hitters about Boston University’s rebounding, a transfer helping Marquette, an improving Husky guard and a couple of key road wins among others as we head into another weekend.
Quinnipiac can now head home with the hope that their last game in the current road stretch does more for them than add one into the left-hand column. The Bobcats had a few tough games recently, and had another one in which they managed to pull out a 78-71 win in overtime at Bryant on Saturday.
We have a few quick hitters on a streaking America East team, another whose star had his first rough night, two inconsistent Patriot League teams and a couple of teams who have lost a player for the season but for different reasons.
Ron Hunter knew he had a culture to change at Georgia State, and he knew he was in a different place. Now he has a different issue on his hands with his team, which stands 5-2 in CAA play after a loss at Northeastern on Wednesday night.
There’s a big surprise near the top of the ACC standings. With only Duke sporting an undefeated record, one team in the logjam at 2-1 is the very young Boston College Eagles after two straight home wins.
Just over a month ago, Boston University looked ready go on a good run. But a six-game losing streak resulted instead, and the Terriers hope to regain confidence after ending it on Sunday.
Harvard improved to 13-2 on Saturday by winning the first Ivy League game of the season. While the bottom line is all positive, the Crimson also lived dangerously for a while, more so than the 16-point final margin of victory might lead one to believe.
With conference play, a bad non-conference run with one loss after another doesn’t matter on the bottom line. One example of that is UMBC, a team that won one game in non-conference play but is tied atop America East after an 82-76 win at New Hampshire on Monday night.
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