Northeastern is not yet a contender in the CAA

BOSTON – Wednesday night was an opportunity for Northeastern to show something. One way or another, we would find out if this Husky team is a contender or pretender at the moment, as they hosted Drexel. And after a 61-53 loss, one thing is clear: this team is not a contender right now in the Colonial Athletic Association.

Northeastern is now 7-5 in CAA play, which is a respectable mark. But take a closer look, and one notices problems. One is that they are now three games out of fourth place, which means they need some help if they are to ultimately get a bye in the conference tournament next month. That has meant everything over the years, and it’s very difficult to win four games in four days. Perhaps more importantly, the Huskies have put that record together only against the teams they “should” beat. The Huskies are 0-4 against the teams that are ahead of them in the standings.

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Quick Hitters – January 27, 2012

Quick hitters as we get ready for the weekend:

• Boston University was not rebounding well in the early portion of their seven-game winning streak. But in the last two games, the Terriers have dominated the glass, and keeping that up will only help. Granted, it came against two of the worst teams in the conference, but one of them (UMBC) is normally a decent team on the glass. Part of that has come from an emphasis on rebounding of late, but not just at the defensive end. … Continue Reading

An emerging freshman helps Northeastern play well at a good time

BOSTON – Northeastern is playing well and at a good time. The non-conference slate saw a lot of ups and downs, as well as question marks, so the Huskies were something of an unknown heading into CAA play. But after Wednesday night’s 60-57 win over Georgia State, the Huskies are right in the mix with a tough stretch ahead.

Northeastern started the non-conference slate with some promising results, winning at arch-rival Boston University in overtime in the season opener and picking up a win at St. John’s before November was out. The Huskies didn’t seem primed to be as good as they were a couple of years ago, but it was a good start as they were 3-1 after winning in Queens.

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Northeastern needs answers in the backcourt, and fast

BOSTON – Heading into the home stretch of non-conference play, Northeastern’s 71-62 loss to Princeton doesn’t portend good things. It’s not so much the loss as much as some of what could be seen in it, and given that this is college basketball, the backcourt questions that are raised are troublesome.

The Huskies only played two true guards on Sunday, and spent some time with just one on the floor. At times, the shooting guard spot was occupied by sophomore Alwayne Bigby or senior Kashief Edwards, neither of whom is a guard. While freshman Quincy Ford has some guard skills, he’s more like a big wing, with better ball skills than Kauri Black, who handled the ball a little too much on Sunday as he led the Huskies with five turnovers.

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Northeastern’s frontcourt looks much better already

BOSTON – One reason Northeastern is a hard team to project this season is the frontcourt. The Huskies were beaten badly on the backboards last season, and the group got something of an overhaul with the freshmen they have. The backcourt was fine, but the frontcourt was sure to have a different look and, since it’s a young group, some growing pains. If first impressions are worth anything, though, the Huskies may be a team we can project more favorably, because they more than held their own in Northeastern’s 82-74 win at Boston University on Friday.

The one statistic that will leap out at you is rebounding. Northeastern out-rebounded Boston University 52-32, and it wasn’t just the raw numbers that tell the story. The Huskies rebounded 19 of 39 available misses of their shots, and 33 of 45 available Terrier misses. They had a 22-11 edge in second-chance points. Two players, include one of the freshmen, had double-doubles with points and rebounds.

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Northeastern-BU reminds us what we miss and will miss more

BOSTON – The gym was packed. Not only that, but it was a lively crowd, rocking from start to finish and on seemingly every play. It helped that the game went to overtime, although that didn’t always look like it would be the case as the visitors led by double digits for a stretch in the second half. It wasn’t just the home team whose fans made the atmosphere what it was, because the visiting team had its share of fans as well. In short, it was a great setting.

And sadly, it’s relevant to things to come in the larger picture of college basketball.

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Northeastern Huskies 2011-12 Preview

Northeastern Huskies (11-20, 6-12)

Projected starting five:

Jr. G Jonathan Lee
Jr. G Joel Smith
So. G-F Alwayne Bigby
So. F Ryan Pierson
Jr. F Kauri Black

Important departures:

G Chaisson Allen (16.7 ppg, 6.1 rpg) graduated and G Alex Harris (6.4 ppg, 2.0 rpg) transferred.

Returning:

64.3 percent of scoring and 69.2 percent of rebounding

Additions:

Sr. G/F Kashief Edwards, a transfer from Niagara
Fr. G Marco Banegas-Flores
Fr. F Quincy Ford
Fr. G Demetrius Pollard
Fr. F Reggie Spencer

Schedule highlights:

The Huskies open at cross-town rival Boston University and have just three home games in nonconference plus a BracketBusters game. The most notable home games are against Southern Illinois and Ivy League contender Princeton, while they’ll travel far and wide: St. John’s, La Salle, Bradley, Louisiana Tech, North Carolina State and Vermont. As if that’s not enough, when CAA play begins in earnest in January, three of the first four are on the road and they have three straight on the road in February.

Projected finish and outlook:

The Huskies are a tough team to project, as they lost their leader and perhaps their most talented player with Harris’ transfer. But Harris also had a very up-and-down season, and with four starters back and the return of Alwayne Bigby after having to redshirt, this team won’t be lacking in experience as was the case last season. Add in Edwards, who will certainly contribute and might start on the wing, and the Huskies could be a sleeper even though they appear to be a year away from contending.

Lee and Smith, the former of whom is a solid defender, made nice strides last year but must be leaders this year in addition to repeating that improvement. Black has potential and has had his moments but has often seemed to need a push, and he’ll get that from the talented newcomers up front. Pierson showed he can be a steady glue guy, and Bigby is a competitor who will lead the defense. The Huskies struggled at the defensive end and on the glass last year, so that’s the main area that needs strengthening if they are to jump in the standings.

Next: Old Dominion Monarchs

Back to CAA preview

Quick Hitters – April 22, 2011

A few quick hitters as we head into the holiday weekend:

• Miami‘s hire of Jim Larranaga is an excellent one, and an interesting move for the 61-year-old coach. Larranaga was thought to be in his final job after turning down opportunities a few years ago, at a school where he could win every year and a conference in which he was the dean of coaches. The school paid him well and he made money as a motivational speaker after leading George Mason to the Final Four. But as one person pointed out, there’s no risk here. If things don’t work out and he is let go, he can retire in 4-5 years anyway and after picking up more money. … Continue Reading

CAA Tournament Quick Hitters – First Round

RICHMOND, Va. – A few more quick hitters from the first round of the CAA Tournament:

• Georgia State big man James Vincent didn’t have big numbers, but you couldn’t help but notice him. He scored six points on 3-3 shooting, but all came on nice post moves to get close shots. UNC Wilmington doesn’t have much size, but Vincent could have scored on a lot of post players with what he showed. It’s enough to make you wonder why he didn’t do it more often. … Continue Reading

Not the Best Ending For Northeastern’s Star Guard

RICHMOND, Va. – In a different world, Chaisson Allen’s career would get the kind of better ending you would think it deserves. But this is the world we live in, and Allen’s career ended with his team scrambling to try to get a last-second shot off as the clock expired in a 60-58 loss to Delaware.

After steadily improving the win totals and finishing with high seeds, Allen’s Northeastern Huskies finished tenth in the CAA this season. They lost 20 games a year after they won 20. Wins were hard to come by early, and later on they struggled closing out games. They lost a number of close games, and also blew leads in a couple of games that would have been nice wins to raise the young team’s confidence. Yet he has never shown a sign that it has been difficult on him. He knew what this season would be like, and he’s taken the ups and downs in stride all along. … Continue Reading

Colonial Notebook – February 1, 2011

The CAA’s annual four-in-eight stretch has concluded, and as always there is plenty to look back on. It’s a challenging stretch that begins with three games in five days, and every team had to go on the road at least once in the stretch.

Here is a look at how the teams fared in this stretch and their overall CAA records:

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Huskies’ Start Looks A Little Familiar

BOSTON – It’s hard not to notice the similarities. While the players are different, Northeastern appears to be at a similar point now to a year ago.

Last year, the Huskies started out 2-7 with a number of close losses and against a tough schedule. This time around, through six games they are 2-4, having lost four straight after dropping Saturday’s CAA opener to Drexel by a score of 63-58. While they aren’t far from being 5-1, with three of the losses coming by two, five and five points, they’re also not far from being 0-6 since both wins were by a combined three points. … Continue Reading

Allen Leads, Young Players Follow For Northeastern in Win

BOSTON – It wasn’t pretty, but Northeastern’s 66-64 win over Boston University in Friday night’s season opener for both clubs had some bright signs for the Huskies, a much younger team this time around. In some respects, it’s a blueprint for success this season.

Not surprisingly, the Huskies will rely on senior guard Chaisson Allen. He’s coming off a big year in which he was runner-up for CAA Player of the Year, and with several key players graduating this is unquestionably his team. Head coach Bill Coen noted how the Huskies will ask him to do seemingly everything. But they also need him to not try to be what he isn’t, and more importantly for the younger players to take a cue from him and contribute. … Continue Reading

Colonial Athletic Association 2010-11 Preview

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.

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2010 Colonial Athletic Association Post-Mortem

The Colonial Athletic Association’s 25^th 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

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

• CAA teams were 80-76 in non-conference play, highlighted by seven wins over teams from the six power conferences, nine more against Atlantic 10 teams and a 4-1 mark against Conference USA opponents.

• Old Dominion became the third CAA team in the last five years to win at least one NCAA Tournament game. It was the first time since 2007 that happened, and coincidentally, all three teams were a No. 11 seed.

• William & Mary had the best non-conference run of any CAA school. The Tribe had a difficult schedule, but pulled off wins at Wake Forest and Maryland and also beat Richmond at home.

• Northeastern had a tough non-conference slate, and early on they lost a lot of close games. But late in December, they started an 11-game winning streak that carried them well into CAA play.

• Charles Jenkins could always score, he rebounded well for his size and people knew he was unselfish. But this year, he found a consistent jump shot, especially from long range as he was fourth in the conference at 40.9 percent, and that helped him become the conference’s Player of the Year.

• In a bad year for James Madison, Denzel Bowles was the big bright spot as he led the conference in scoring and rebounding.

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.

In the NIT, Different Feelings Can Lead to Surprises

Being in the NIT means different things for different programs.  Everyone wants to be in the NCAA Tournament, but some have that as an expectation.  In light of that, every year there’s an NIT surprise or two, often one that involves a team that almost made the NCAA Tournament putting up a clunker when they bow out.

On the first night, we probably saw that with Seton Hall being handled easily by Texas Tech.  Another case of this nearly happened in a battle of Huskies that Connecticut barely won over Northeastern thanks to a 9-2 run in the final minutes.

Seton Hall went 9-9 in the Big East but did not make the NCAA Tournament, a result of not getting enough quality wins along the way.  Connecticut had a disappointing regular season, going 7-11 in the Big East and then getting blown out by St. John’s in the Big East Tournament.  It would be easy for either team to play with some disappointment from not being in the NCAA Tournament and then losing a game they shouldn’t, especially a team like Connecticut where the bar has been raised to set expectations of not only reaching the tournament, but making a deep run.

“You’ll see the Northeastern Universities of the world – and I’ve been there, for 14 years – and understand what these games mean to you and the opportunity,” said Connecticut head coach Jim Calhoun.

On the other hand, you have a program like Northeastern, which was making just its second NIT appearance in program history and hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since 1991.  For a program like this, in a conference that is typically a one or two-bid conference, NCAA Tournament opportunities aren’t exactly plentiful.  Since their last trip to the NCAA Tournament, Northeastern has twice played in the NIT and played in the CBI last year.  For them, being in the NIT is a big deal.

“I thought it was an honor for our program to be playing at this time of the year,” said Northeastern head coach Bill Coen.  “I know our kids were excited about it, our fans were excited about it, our student body was excited about it, and I know I was excited about.”

Further demonstrating this is that Northeastern and Connecticut played in front of a crowd of 5,571 (Gampel Pavilion’s capacity is twice that), with a good number of fans for the school two hours away from the campus.  This is Northeastern – a school that has had a hard time drawing even 1,000 fans over the years to its home games in pro-dominated Boston.  Now they had a significant cheering section in an arena that normally is dominated by home fans

Northeastern played like it, too, playing with confidence and a sense of urgency all game long.  Even when Connecticut got going and seemed like they could be a play or two away from breaking the game open, Northeastern kept running their offense solidly and had just six turnovers all game.  They didn’t look like a team reeling from a heart-breaking loss to William & Mary in the semifinals of the CAA Tournament a week earlier; rather, they looked like a team with new life.

Connecticut started the game and the second half very sluggishly, so it’s easy to think they might have been playing with some disappointment.  They insist otherwise, and it’s not impossible to believe considering they weren’t really on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament, not after being blown out by St. John’s when they really needed to make a run in the Big East Tournament.

“It’s our fault we’re in the NIT,” sophomore guard Kemba Walker said.  “At this point, we’re only thinking about winning the NIT.  This is where we’re at, and we can’t change it.”

The general thinking seemed to be similar: they would rather be in the NCAA Tournament, but they know this is what they have in front of them.

“Don’t get me wrong, we’d definitely like to be in the NCAA Tournament, but this is the hand of cards we’re dealt and we’re just going to make the best of it,” said senior forward Gavin Edwards.

A night later, it was clear that if Rhode Island had any disappointment about being in the NIT for the third straight season, they got over it pretty quickly.  The Rams played terrific defense all night long against Northwestern en route to a 76-64 win over the Wildcats.  They were aggressive all night long and very loose in the post-game interviews.  Will Martell, who started off strong, was engaging in some self-deprecating humor and happy to be in the tournament.

“Of course we’re disappointed that we didn’t make the NCAA (Tournament),” said the junior big man.  “I think we had an argument.  I think as a team, as a program, we moved on and we realized, hey let’s get to (Madison Square) Garden, that’s the new goal.”

At this point, the Rams have set the goal of getting to Madison Square Garden for the NIT Final Four.  They understand where they’re at, even while some in the fan base aren’t very happy about being in the NIT again.  They want the NCAA Tournament, and some think the coach needs to change because of that.  But the players take a different view, as does the coach, who’s continued to do a solid job of running the program.

“You could put your head down, and I was real concerned when we didn’t get the invite (to the NCAA Tournament),” head coach Jim Baron said.  “To come back and play against a very good Northwestern team that has 20 wins, that beat Notre Dame, beat Iowa State, beat Purdue, beat Minnesota, it’s a heck of a team and it’s a heck of a win for us.”

With the CBI and CollegeInsider Tournament (CIT), the postseason tournaments aside from the NCAA might seem like little more than alphabet soup to the casual fan.  But for a number of teams, it’s an opportunity in a couple of ways.  It’s a chance to play in a tournament recognizing the season they had.  It’s a chance to play for a championship.  And for teams with underclassmen, it’s a chance for more practice days and more games, which can only help.

This year’s CAA champions, Old Dominion, played in the CBI two seasons ago and won the CIT last season.  The Monarchs thus entered this season with a lot of players who gained extra experience from those tournaments, and that had to have helped in their development.  Though they had just two seniors and two redshirt juniors on the roster, this team came in more experienced than that might indicate.

But besides all of that, sometimes there’s a simple benefit to playing in a tournament like the NIT.

“The NIT isn’t the NCAA, but it’s better than sitting at home not playing,” said Rhode Island freshman Akeem Richmond.

Since players play the game, that right there is reason enough to keep competing.

This One Hurts For Northeastern

RICHMOND, Va. – This wasn’t how it was supposed to end.  It wasn’t what anyone had in mind, from the seniors to the coaches to the busloads of fans that made a long trip.  Yet it was also seemingly fitting, the opponent and the end result all too familiar – and the latter part of it the toughest part to take.

“Without question, we just left a very, very emotional locker room,” said a subdued Northeastern head coach Bill Coen.  “Kids are disappointed.  They had high expectations of themselves and really wanted to finish this year playing on Monday night.”

March is a month with emotions at both ends of the spectrum.  In this month, we truly see both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, especially when the game is as close as William & Mary’s 47-45 semifinal win over Northeastern, the second heart-breaking loss for the Huskies against the Tribe in the state of Virginia in less than a month.  Behind all the emotions are young men, playing for the one big goal of playing in the NCAA Tournament, excited if they get there and downright saddened if they never make it during their careers.

This looked like it might be the year Northeastern would break through.  Since joining the Colonial Athletic Association, they have finished at least .500 in the conference every year.  They had a senior core that has led this program’s slow and steady rise since they came to campus along with Coen, who has been the head coach since that time, and a couple of all-conference players and more capable of one day reaching that level.  They had a rough finish to last year, but they could learn from that with the core of the team returning.

And learn they did.  After struggling through some of non-conference play with a lot of tough losses, the Huskies began to win games.  They did that last year, too, but this time they kept up the level at which they played after their 11-game winning streak was broken.  They finished the season better than last year, with a better month of February, and then won their first tournament game, a game that looked a lot like one they lost less than two weeks ago, but this time they got the result they wanted.

But when David Schneider’s deep three-pointer from right in front of his bench went through the net, and seemingly a hundred shots in the final seconds (it was actually seven) all failed to catch the bottom of the net, the response of a couple of seniors said it all.  They were at a loss, for understandable reasons.  At a time like that, there’s no solace to be had in all the accomplishments on and off the court – there’s only sadness.  None of it matters at that moment.

At that moment, it doesn’t matter that Baptiste Bataille is finishing a nice career at the school.  The last remaining connection to the prior coaching staff, Bataille signed with the Huskies and came to the school after the coaching change largely because he liked the school and its marine biology program.  Though he played just 113 minutes as a freshman, transferring wasn’t much of a consideration, and he emerged as a key player by the end of his sophomore year and was indispensable to the team the last two years.  During that time, he’s been a CAA All-Academic first team selection both years, adding to his second team selection as a sophomore.

At that moment, it doesn’t matter that Nkem Ojougboh is well on his way to success off the court.  The native of Benin-City, Nigeria is the only member of his family in the U.S., and the Huskies basically took a flyer on him after he left Texas-San Antonio.  Not only has he quietly had a stellar season inside this year, but off the court he’s almost halfway to an MBA and turned his first co-op job into work as a realtor, a job he still has to this day while playing basketball and doing good work in the classroom.

At that moment, it doesn’t matter that Manny Adako is the epitome of the gentle giant.  He stands 6’8″ and weighs about 250, which is an imposing figure, but the Georgia native is a gentleman who has grown by leaps and bounds on the court in his time on Huntington Ave.  You don’t have to meet him to know about his character, although that would help; all you need to know is that over his young life, he’s done a great deal of community work in his hometown and is continuing on that path as a Human Services major.

At that moment, it doesn’t matter that the one walk-on among the seniors, Brian McDonald, was a CAA All-Academic selection and might be the most well-liked and respected kid on the team.  It’s a cliché, but like so many walk-ons his contributions to the team aren’t measured in numbers and it’s not lost on anyone in or close to the program.

And at that moment, it doesn’t matter that Matt Janning will be remembered as one of the best Huskies ever on the court.  He joins Ben Harlee as the program’s only three-time captains and has been the face of the program pretty much since he arrived as a lanky shooter from Watertown, Minnesota, a little west of Minneapolis.  To make this season what it was, he spent time in Chicago late last summer working out with the likes of Dwyane Wade, Tracy McGrady, Andre Iguodala, Julian Wright and Raymond Felton.  He’s grown into a combo guard and is much more mature physically than when he first got to Huntington Ave, and it doesn’t take much time interacting with him to understand that he gets it whether the context is basketball or life.  Like Bataille, he is a three-time CAA All-Academic team selection.  He has received admiration from many players and coaches across the CAA, getting more the night before when Hofstra head coach Tom Pecora said, “Matt Janning is an easy kid to root for, he’s a wonderful young guy.”

At that moment, none of it all matters.  None of it is any consolation.

It’s the stuff you take solace in later, when you’re not so close to it.  You reflect on it later, when you’ve stepped back enough that you can appreciate the positives that happened during the journey.  By then, you can appreciate winning 20 games, a 14-4 conference mark, the in-season title at the Cable Car Classic, the two first team all-conference performers.  By then, you can appreciate the fan support, something that hasn’t been there for a long time but was there in droves this year, from the lively students that line up to send the team off to the locker room after home games to the busloads that made the long trip to Richmond.  You can appreciate how the fan support is a sign of how far the program has come.

By that time, perspective comes in and you can realize that in the grand scheme of things, it’s just a game.  You realize that, yes, the fans rallied behind you because of the wins, but also because it’s a group of fine young men that are easy to root for – young men you would want your own sons to be like.  They know you appreciate their support, and the camaraderie that exists between players and fans makes it a mutual admiration society all its own.  You understand that you’re a winner in the game of life, the game that matters the most.

“No one can tell me these kids aren’t winners,” said Coen.

But when the buzzer first sounds, none of that matters.  It wasn’t what anyone had in mind for the ending, so it’s only natural that it stings at first, and will for a while.

Huskies Not Ready to Go Home Yet

RICHMOND, Va. – There was some déjà vu.  There was a team clearly learning from a year ago, as they’ve done before this season.  There was a senior and his classmates who didn’t want their careers to possibly come to an early end.

Call it what you will, but any way you slice it, Northeastern wasn’t about to go home just yet.

“After we came back in regulation, I knew in the back of my head that we weren’t giving that one up,” senior guard Matt Janning said after the Huskies’ 74-71 double overtime win over Hofstra.

For a while in the second half, Saturday night’s quarterfinal looked a lot like the last meeting between these two teams.  Less than two weeks earlier, Hofstra spoiled Northeastern’s Senior Night with a 73-62 win aided by a big defensive second half, especially in the final minutes as they closed the game on a 12-1 run.  On Saturday, the Huskies couldn’t muster up much on the offensive end, and as they played from behind for a lot of the second half it looked all too familiar.  With two minutes left in regulation, Hofstra led 52-48, a lead that almost looked insurmountable.

That’s when Janning brought the Huskies back.  A driving layup with 1:26 left made it 52-50, then he stole the ball from Charles Jenkins and found Kauri Black for a layup with six seconds left, ultimately sending the game to overtime.

When Hofstra guard Chaz Williams fouled out less than 30 seconds into overtime, the momentum clearly shifted to the Huskies.  But they continued to allow second shots – the Pride had 20 offensive rebounds – and they couldn’t close the deal as Cornelius Vines tied it with 14 seconds left on a three-pointer.  In the second overtime, they didn’t quite put Hofstra away until the final seconds, but they clearly out-played the Pride just like in the first extra session.

“It was close, but we weren’t giving it up,” added Janning, who scored a season-high 26 points and hit the three-pointer in the second extra session that put them ahead for good.

The Huskies have at many turns looked like a team that learned from a year ago, when they struggled in February and then lost in the quarterfinals after earning a bye.  This time around, the Huskies went 5-3 in February, including heart-breaking losses at William & Mary and to Louisiana Tech.  They also won George Mason to close out the regular season, and now they got past the quarterfinals.

Less than two weeks ago, the Huskies couldn’t quite muster up enough against Hofstra on Senior Night.  On Saturday, they were tough enough to make the plays down the stretch to win.  They weren’t about to give that one away.  They survived and advanced, and much like overtime gave them new life, this win gives them new life in a new game on Sunday.

CAA: Colonial Teams Get Bracket Busted

Entering the ESPN BracketBusters event this weekend, the Colonial Athletic Association had possibly the most to gain. Twelve games later, the CAA lost more ground in race for the NCAA Tournament than any other conference.

According to the RPI, the CAA is the 12^th best conference in the country. But the conference’s top teams lost to the cream of the crop from the Missouri Valley Conference, Southern Conference and Western Athletic Conference. William & Mary, which has one of the CAA’s best profiles for an at-large bid, suffered the most damaging loss in a road game against Iona, ranked No. 92 in the RPI, by 16 points. The only elite CAA team to win was VCU, which won a home game against Akron, ranked No. 100 in the RPI. The rest of the CAA pack didn’t fare much better as the conference ended BracketBusters with a 3-9 record.

Old Dominion, Northeastern and William & Mary had the most to gain in their BracketBusters match ups. But Old Dominion couldn’t solve Northern Iowa’s suffocating defense en route to a 71-62 loss. Despite the defeat, the Monarchs have a solid résumé anchored by a marquee win at Georgetown. Old Dominion doesn’t have too many other great wins to brag about, but the Moncarchs have notched good wins against Charlotte, William & Mary (twice) and Marshall. As co-leader of the CAA, Old Dominion should receive an invitation to the NCAA Tournament even if the Monarchs lose early in the CAA Tournament.

Unfortunately for the CAA, the Monarchs are the only team that can feel comfortable about their NCAA Tournament prospects. William & Mary has stumbled too many times since racking up non-conference victories against Richmond, Wake Forest and Maryland. The Tribe has two ugly losses to James Madison and UNC-Wilmington, both of which have RPIs worse than 200. The loss to Iona in the BracketBusters event, which was televised on ESPNU, might be the death knell for the Tribe’s tournament aspirations.

After starting 2-7, Northeastern had won 16 of 18 games heading into its home match up against Louisiana Tech in the BracketBusters event. The best wins were against Kent State and CAA-foes like Old Dominion and VCU. The Huskies likely needed to beat Louisiana Tech to prove that their turnaround was complete. However, a three-point loss drops Northeastern to 18-10 and likely in need of the CAA’s automatic bid to reach the NCAA Tournament.

The lone member of the CAA elite to win a BracketBusters game was VCU, which stands at No. 61 in the RPI. The Rams have a couple of quality wins against Rhode Island and Old Dominion. But those are offset by bad losses to James Madison and Western Michigan. VCU closes the regular season at Old Dominion, which is an opportunity to pick up a quality road win. That would be the team’s fifth win against the RPI top 50. Even if the Rams enter the CAA Tournament with a 21-7 record, VCU almost certainly would need to win the automatic bid to reach the Big Dance.

Come Selection Sunday, the second-to-last weekend of February will likely be one of the big reasons why the CAA remains a one-bid conference when the selection committee reveals the brackets at the end of the second weekend of March.

Quick Hitters – February 15, 2010

Some quick hitters from the weekend:

• Brown split its two games this weekend, and the biggest development is that Peter Sullivan appears to be fully healthy.  The junior wing was injured early in Ivy League play and had struggled playing through it, but had two solid games in a row this weekend.  He had a double-double against Dartmouth with 23 points and 11 rebounds, going 14-16 from the foul line, then had 21 points and six boards against Harvard the next night.

• Harvard had its first Ivy League road sweep in 10 years with an 82-79 overtime win at Yale followed by an 81-67 win at Brown on Saturday.  Freshmen came up big in both wins, with Christian Webster reaching double figures in both and steadily improving guard Brandyn Curry scoring 15 against Yale.  Topping both was Kyle Casey, who had 20 points and seven boards against Yale and then had a terrific night against Brown, scoring 27 points on 8-9 shooting from the field, including 3-3 from long range.  That earned him not only the Ivy League Rookie of the Week, his fourth such honor, but also Player of the Week.”I thought Kyle Casey was just spectacular,” said head coach Tommy Amaker.  “For a freshman to have the kind of weekend he’s had is pretty darn special for us, and without him I’m not sure that we’re in the position we’re in right now.”
  Added teammate Jeremy Lin: “He’s just playing out of his mind right now.”

• Another Ivy note: it’s often said that winning on the road in the league is very difficult, but thus far this season road teams are 16-14.

• Northeastern suffered another heart-breaking loss at William & Mary on Saturday, which makes twice in three trips to Williamsburg that they had such an ending.  This time, the Huskies were the ones battling back from a deficit, as they trailed by 16 with over nine minutes left and rallied to take a one-point lead with 23 seconds left before falling 53-52.

• Speaking of road wins, one team that had an adventure on the road this weekend was Belmont, which moved to 16-10 overall and 11-5 in the Atlantic Sun with a 70-57 win at USC Upstate on Saturday.  The Bruins spent 20 consecutive hours on the team bus, from 2:30 p.m. Central on Friday until 11:30 a.m. Eastern on Saturday, as Interstate 85 in northeast Georgia was closed due to poor road conditions from the storm that hit the area.  The game was slated to tip off at 2 p.m. but was pushed back to 7 p.m. to accommodate the team, and they did not get a shootaround – only a 30-minute pregame warm-up.

• UMass scored a 70-62 win over Saint Joseph’s on Sunday, a good follow-up to their comeback win at Duquesne on Thursday night.  Ricky Harris continued his hot play, scoring 27 points, 17 in the second half.  In the last six games, he is averaging 26.7 points per game and looks nothing like the player he was nearly two months ago, when shots just weren’t falling.”In the first part of the season, I felt like I was forcing a lot of stuff instead of letting the game come to me,” said the senior guard.  “Now I feel more relaxed out there, I feel like the game is coming to me.  I’m not having to go do stuff that I’m not capable of doing.  It’s just coming to me and I’m feeding off my teammates.”