PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Kevin Willard has done a few things specifically because he has a young team. Look at Iona’s roster and you’ll see just two seniors and three juniors, which ties them for 19th in the country with the fewest upperclassmen. But one of their younger players will be quick to tell you that the inexperience doesn’t matter for them.
“Just because we’re inexperienced, doesn’t mean anything,” said redshirt freshman Kyle Smyth. “We still want to win. We’re trying to win, and that’s the main thing.”
The Gaels are 6-4 after Saturday’s 82-73 win at Providence, a game that may be a sign of growth as well as what they can be. Winning in a Big East team’s gym is one thing, but another noteworthy item about it is that the Gaels never trailed in the game and it was never tied after they scored seven straight points to break a 7-7 tie before the first media timeout. As if that’s not enough, they played well at the Friars’ speed and broke their press several times for easy baskets.
Willard said he has kept it simple with this team, giving them only “about five or six plays” since their emphasis in practice is on defense. He likes what they have done in picking up the defensive concepts, and the main idea with just a few offensive plays is to give them a base to work with. Against Providence, when the Gaels didn’t get an easy basket after breaking the press or off a turnover, they generally did quite well in the halfcourt offense.
Smyth, who was injured early last season and had to redshirt, scored 21 points in the win. He’s shooting 42.5 percent from long range, but looks like he can be more than just a shooter as he found a few places to drive and also got a couple of their baskets from breaking the press. With him now healthy, the Gaels have another good wing to get the ball to in addition to junior Rashon Dwight, another sign of the team’s youth as he and another junior comprise two of their tri-captains.
Sophomore point guard Scott Machado makes this team go. The reigning MAAC Rookie of the Year hasn’t missed a beat this season and had 14 points and four assists in Saturday’s win. In his young career, he has a better than 1.4 assist-to-turnover ratio, and he’s also the team’s top scorer, striking a balance that’s hard to do and especially for a sophomore. Willard asks a lot of him, but he responds, and continues to grow.
“He calls a lot of plays, gets the sense of the team and how the team’s playing,” Willard said. “Last year, he played terrific, but he was a freshman, so he would make big mistakes at the end of the game. I can see that this year, he’s making great strides and becoming a floor general – not just a point guard, but a floor general.”
A little over a week earlier, the Gaels dropped two early MAAC contests at home. While there’s no shame in losing to much-improved St. Peter’s and defending champion Siena, the games were at home and there’s always a feeling a team wants to protect its homecourt. Machado said that bouncing back from those losses was a must, and they have certainly done that as Saturday was their second straight since those losses.
“We were a little down, but we knew it’s a long season, it’s still early, and we’ve just got to bounce back and try to get better,” Smyth added. “We want to be at our best by February and March.”
The two home losses stand out among the four they have suffered this season. At the Old Spice Classic in Orlando, the Gaels dropped a close one to Florida State and took Baylor to overtime before succumbing. They finished by knocking off Creighton, sending the Bluejays home with an 0-3 mark. Willard felt like they didn’t take advantage of all the opportunities they had there, another reason he was happy to pull out this win.
“I thought tonight was the first time where we took advantage of some opportunities and made some layups and kept attacking,” said the third-year head coach. “I’m really happy for the kids because they’ve put a lot of hard work into a short period of time with a lot of young guys.”
Willard said that he doesn’t call a lot of timeouts in general, and with this team he does it even less often. He feels that by letting them continue to play, they get a better chance to grow. It challenges his young players to get a better feel for what’s going on and to battle through the adversity that will inevitably occur in a game. That was the case on Saturday night, and the result was positive.
Every time the Friars got within one possession, the Gaels had an answer. The Friars had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead several times late in the first half and in the second, but each time the Gaels got stops until they were able to score again to widen the lead. When the Friars scored five straight to get within 61-56, the Gaels scored the next four. Later, when the Friars got within 65-59, the Gaels responded with a 7-1 run that gave them their biggest lead with less than three minutes to go and basically put the game out of reach.
“They’re growing up, and that’s what I want to see,” Willard said. “We’re still a long way from being a good team, but I like the direction we’re going in.”
By keeping it simple, Willard has helped his team grow during the season. His team is inexperienced, but they’re gaining experience quickly, between the tough losses and now a good win. They have put themselves in position to have a winning non-conference record when it’s all said and done, which will bode well for a tough MAAC this season. It also means their ceiling may be higher than first thought when they become even more experienced.
