Mid Major Hoops

ODU's Taylor May Be the Answer for St John's

After watching ODU-Georgia State, I turned on the end of the Kentucky-Tennessee game to see that Jodie Meeks scored 54 points against the Vols.  I am sure it was an absolutely terrific performance by Meeks, and I will have to see if I can watch it on ESPN 360. However, my first thought was to a great comment made by Jay Bilas in the second Gonzaga vs. Tennessee matchup this season.  Bilas noted that Tennessee could still win the SEC but stated "They have to learn how to guard someone".  Meeks' performance no doubt was in part to shoddy defense and  reinforces my belief that Bilas is the best TV analyst in college basketball.

My friend Mal is looking for the next coach of St John's. He believes Norm Roberts is on his way out, which could be the case after the Jonnies have not made the NCAA tournament since he got there several seasons ago and Roberts is definitely on the hot seat. Well after watching ODU pull away from Georgia State, I texted Mal last night. I told him, if the Jonnies want a coach, they should look no further than the very underrated coach of the Momarchs, Blaine Taylor.  Think about it.  Taylor is now in his eighth year as coach for the Monarchs.  In the past four years, Taylor's team has won 94 games.  NINETY FOUR.  That's 23.5 wins per season.  In those four seasons, Taylor's team has gone to two NCAA tournaments, a semifinal NIT berth, and a CBI berth.  Three of those four seasons saw twenty plus win seasons, the best of which was the 2004-05 team that won the CAA tournament and went 28-6. He had 136 wins going into this season with ODU and now with 10 more this season, he has 146 wins.  This gives him at least 140 wins for two different schools.

Taylor has a significant background as a coach having been a head coach at Montana for eight seasons, after which he was an assistant at Stanford under Mike Montgomery.  His record at Montana - 142-65.  Two NCAA tournaments, one NIT.  In 1992, Montana went 27-4.  Five of his Grizzlies' teams won twenty games.

Taylor can recruit.  Among several of his players at ODU were Alex Loughton, a former CAA player of the year, who was drafted in the second round of the NBA draft.  Loughton was found in Australia. Isaiah Hunter was a terrific scoring guard for the Monarchs during his time there.  Current Monarch Gerald Lee is a terrific post player with a deft scoring touch.  Taylor found Lee in Finland.

Taylor is an absolute terrific game manager, with the ability to make adjustments and his ability to ably rotate players into the game.  His teams' style is very physical and grinds opponents down late in the game while his players keep fresh.  This is due in large part to Taylor giving nine, ten, even eleven players significant minutes during games.

A great example of Taylor as a game manager was last night's win over Georgia State, televised on ESPNU.  In the first half, the game was very close as the Panthers' Joe Dukes was lighting up the scoreboard with 16 first half points, often on dribble drive penetration.  In the second half, the Monarchs held him to five points.  So thus what was a two point game at halftime turned out to a 17 point win, 73-56.  And Taylor's trademark with ODU, player depth again showed last night.  Nine players averaged at least 11 minutes last night.  Eight of those nine contributed at least seven points.

Think about it. In fourteen years of coaching, eight 20 win or more seasons with two different teams.  Has the pedigree of  being an assistant coach at a big time program (Stanford made the Elite Eight in 2001, Taylor's last season as an assistant there).  He has the ability to recruit around the world and find gems.  He is an excellent game manager.  And if you have eight 20 win seasons in fourteen years, you are also a good game preparer.  St John's needs all these things.  An experienced coach who is a good recruiter but more importantly someone who is good with Xs and Os and game management.  Blaine Taylor is that man. 

Quick Observations

I was at the Mack Arena on Saturday where Drexel led start to finish in a 63-56 win over Hofstra.  Scott Rodgers had a terrific day scoring 25 points on 7 of 15 from the field including 4 of 6 from three.  Last year, Rodgers couldn't hit the side of a barn for the Dragons, shooting 33 percent from the field including 29 percent from beyond the arc.  He has improved his shooting to 35 percent from the field but more importantly he has improved his shooting from the free throw line from 63 percent to 74 percent.  Until a bad performance in a loss to JMU where he shot 2 of 11 from the field and had no free throw attempts, Rodgers was averaging 7 free throw attempts a game compared to not even averaging 4 last season.  One of the reasons why Drexel is playing better than I thought.

Now one of the reasons why Hofstra is not playing so well is the struggles of Charles Jenkins.  Jenkins was in foul trouble on Saturday (more on that in a second) and only finished with ten points before fouling out.  It was actually one of his better shooting days going 5 of 10 from the field.  In a 23 point drubbing at the hands of Northeastern on the road on Monday, Jenkins shot 1 of 9 from the field. In Jenkins' first eight games, he was shooting 47 percent from the field.  Consequently Hofstra's record was 7-1.  In Jenkins' last six games, he is shooting 29 percent from the field. Consequently, Hofstra's record is 2-4.  The team as a whole is shooting 38.7 percent from the field.   This may be a reason why Hofstra had been leading the NCAA in rebounding; they are rebounding their own shots.  

By the way in that Northeastern game, won by the Huskies 73-50, Hofstra had SEVENTEEN turnovers in the first half.  They had almost as many turnovers as points (18).  Talk about a team that was not prepared.  Hofstra had twenty five on the game and shot their average, 38 percent.  Northeastern actually outrebounded the Pride 39-32 and had 15 more field goal attempts in the game.  It was also the first game that I noticed where Matt Janning had a bad game, yet Northeastern still won. Janning only shot 4 of 12 from the field (and I believe he was 0-4 the first half).  Yet the Huskies went out to an 11-0 lead on the strength of their frontcourt; Manny Adako, Eugene Spates and Nkem Ojougboh.  Combined, they scored 38 points on the game. Imagine that Hofstra fans, the frontcourt had more than half the team's points.  Bet you won't see that for Hofstra in a game this season.

By the way, back to that Drexel game. Well, I already broke my New Year's Resolution not to yell at the CAA refs.  They were bad..for both teams.  Remember in a previous posting where I said Bobby Knight would have a cardiac watching CAA games because of the traveling calls not made.  Well, this was a classic example of it.  At one point, my friends and I saw Drexel Coach Bruiser Flint with such an incredulous look on his face to the refs after one non call.  But to top that, after another non traveling call, Hofstra coach Tom Pecora yelled 'That's a ___ walk!" Result - technical foul.  Two of the foul calls on Jenkins, especially the fifth foul charge call where the Drexel player was moving his feet were very questionable.  All in all the officiating was bad. Really really bad.

Saturday night I watched much of the second half of George Mason - UNC Wilmington, which was easily won by the Patriots 101-60.  Very simply put - Mason is very good, Wilmington is very bad.  In fact, I thought last season's James Madison team was the worst defensive team I had ever seen.  Nope, not even close to this year's Seahawks team.  No post presence.  Open threes.  It was bad.  No wonder they give up on average 90 points per game.  Now mind you George Mason is on the verge of being very good.  They have four seniors in their lineup who are very solid, led by Jon Vaughn who had a terrific night against UNCW with 20 points on 5 of 6 shooting from beyond the arc.  But the Patriots also have three terrific freshmen; Andre Cornelius, Ryan Pearson and John Morrison, who combined to shoot 16 of 4 from the field for 33 points.  The Patriots are talented and deep. 

I have some thoughts already on the CAA season but I want to wait until after Saturday to write about them.  I will say this so far.  Outside of a couple of teams on one end of the spectrum - Northeastern and George Mason and one team on the other end of the spectrum - UNCW, I really don't know where the rest of the teams are going to end up.  Notice I didn't put VCU in with Mason and Northeastern.  I'll have more on that after the weekend.

Here's something for the "You Don't Often See This" category.  The Manhattan women and men's basketball teams pulled off a unique feat Sunday and Monday.  The Lady Jaspers were down 56-52 to the Iona Lady Gaels in New Rochelle Sunday afternoon with five minutes left in the game.  The Lady Jaspers then scored the five final points (and think about that - five points scored in five minutes) including a layup with two seconds left to beat Iona 57-56.  If that wasn't an impressive feat alone, then the men's team went out and topped that the next night.  Down 57-50 at Canisius with 3:17 left, Manhattan scored the last nine points to win 59-57 Monday night. How often do you see that, especially with both games being road games.  Impressive.

As for the rest of the mid majors, I was all set to come out with a new Baker's Dozen, then Ilinois State went to Bradley and lost their first game of the season.  That's just life on the road in the Missouri Valley.  Then Creighton followed that up by getting beat at home to Northern Iowa after getting drubbed by the Redbirds on Saturday. So, the two top teams in the MVC now are Bradley and Northern Iowa.  Ah the Valley. 

As for redoing the Baker's Dozen, I am going to wait till the smoke clears tonight.  Gonzaga needs to bounce back after bad shooting performances doomed them against Portland State and Utah.  However, it won't be easy as they go to Knoxville tonight in what is a revenge game for Tennessee. The Zags knocked off the Volunteers earlier in the season at the Old Spice Classic.  Also, because of Portland State's win over Gonzaga, everyone now knows who Jeremiah Dominguez is - one of the best guards in the country.   Davidson also has a tough game tonight..at #2 Duke. 

Siena lost another game last night to a very good opponent, Kansas, in a respectable 91-83 loss.  The Saints will only be stronger for the non conference schedule they have played.  Remember, Davidson had a similar schedule last season early on and they ended up in the Elite Eight.  Now, mind you the Saints aren't that good.  But considering they won a first round game over Vandy last season in the NCAA tournament, if they get to the Dance again, they will do damage.

As for the top team in the mid majors, that's easy..for now.  Given their impressive 12-1 record, their wins at Xavier, Cleveland State and Drake, topped with the #2 ranking in the RPI, the Butler Bulldogs are the best mid major team in the country. 

Points are Your Friend and the Pride Needs to Look Inside

I was at the Hofstra game Tuesday night vs. Iona, a home contest at the David Mack Arena.  The Pride had battled back from a second half deficit to go ahead 61-58 with 2:32 left and had the ball.  What happened then is what I have called in this blog before "Pulling a Hofstra".  I started saying this back in 2007, where Hofstra up late with the ball in a close game decides to run down the clock and start their offense with about 8 seconds left on the shot clock.  This is the strategy that Tom Pecora utilizes in a close game.  Put the ball in the hands of your best player, let him run down the clock and have your best player create a play.  It's a strategy that sometimes works, but often doesn't.  Time and time again, I have noted that in these situations, points are your friend, not time, and that you should run the play with 15 seconds left on the shot clock.  It has burned Hofstra before as noted in my link to my post from February where it killed them against George Mason.  It burned them again on Tuesday night.

So back to Hofstra and the ball with 2:32 left.  Hofstra wound the clock down to one second left on the clock before Cornelius Vines missed a jumper and Hofstra lost the ball on a turnover.  Iona would cut the lead to one 61-60 before Hofstra actually ran their normal offense and Charles Jenkins hit a jumper to make it 63-60.  Jenkins would hit one of two free throws to make it 64-60 before Iona again scored to cut the lead to 64-62.  Then with 50 seconds left, Hofstra had the ball.  My friend Mal, who was at the game with me, then predicted to us that Iona would get the ball back with 15 seconds left on the clock down only two.  So again, Hofstra ran the clock down to about 8 seconds on the shot clock before having the ball knocked out of bounds with 2 seconds left on the shot clock.  The Pride then ran an inbounds play where Cornelis Vines tried an off balance three pointer in the corner.  The shot was an airball and Iona got the ball back on the 35 second clock expiring.  So Iona had the ball back as Mal correctly predicted with 15 seconds left on the clock.  Jonathan Huffman, a seven foot center who leads Iona in three point attempts,  would then hit a three pointer to put Iona up 65-64. Iona would hit two free throws to go up three before Cornelius Vines' desperation half court shot went in and out at the buzzer as the Gaels scored the last seven points to win 67-64. 

Well, a friend that I have talked about in this column many times before happened to be at this game as well. My friend noted two things watching this game.  First, in two out of the last three Hofstra possessions, the best player on the Pride, Charles Jenkins did not shoot the ball.  That my friend said was a huge mistake.  You always want your best player having the ball at the end of the game.  This is unusual for Hofstra.  During Coach Pecora's career, he has always had the ball in the hands of his best player at the end of the game, whether it was Loren Stokes or Antoine Agudio.  Even in other games this year, Jenkins has had the ball at the end of the game.  Not in this case. 

The second thing was that my friend correctly noted as I have stated as well, points are your friend in a close game, not time.  His reasoning for this is that when you are playing an inferior opponent you do not want to shorten the game, especially when its close.  This was Hofstra's mistake.  They were up late in a close game against a team that going in was 4-7 on the season and just recently lost to a team that Hofstra had beat earlier in the season (Western Michigan).

There was also a third thing that my friend and I both noted during the game.  Hofstra rarely ever looks inside during an offensive possession.  Its actually common knowledge from the Hofstra season ticket holders during games.  Another friend and Hofstra Law School colleague, Jeff Silberfeld saw me at half time.  He noted to me that they weren't looking inside whatsoever.  Late in the game, I actually yelled "Work it inside!".  The fan across the aisle  from me turned and said something like "Exactly!".  We then joked that they never look inside. I have noted this several times before in this blog.  Last season, the Hofstra guards took about 80 percent of the shots on the season.  A Hofstra recruit, Yves Jules even said that one of the reasons he will be coming here next season is that "Hofstra guards take 78 percent" of the shots. I have stated several times that the more the Pride looks inside the more successful they will be.

So, let's look at the stat sheet from the game on Tuesday night.  Hofstra attempted sixty two field goals from the field.  How many were from the forwards/centers?  Thirteen.  Barely over 20 percent of the attempts were taken by the frontcourt.  How many did they make?  Eight.  That's over 60 percent.  Now compare that with the guards who shot 12 of 49.  That's barely 20 percent from the field from a group that was taking 80 percent of the shots.  So if you wonder why Hofstra shot 32 percent from the field, now you know why.  Not enough high percentage inside shots.

So Hofstra had a chance to bounce back yesterday against New Hampshire up in Durham, New Hampshire.  The Pride stormed out to a 17-1 lead against the Wildcats.  Then a combination of the Wildcats hitting their shots and the Pride going cold resulted in UNH cutting the lead to 30-24 at halftime. The Wildcats came out and went on a 16-4 second half run to go ahead 40-34 with 12:48 left. 

During this time, Charles Jenkins had picked up three fouls quickly in the first half and sat for most of the first half.  It was probably just as well because Jenkins only hit on one of his first nine field goal attempts.  In fact after Hofstra had hit on seven of its first twelve field goal attempts, the Pride would only hit on eleven on its next forty attempts and shoot 34.6 percent from the field for the entire game. But down the stretch Jenkins and Greg Washington would score eight of the last eleven Hofstra points as the Pride came from behind to win 62-57. 

Again in this game, the Pride did not look inside enough. Of the fifty two field goal attempts the Pride had, fifteen only came from the frontcourt, not even 30 percent.  This is a disturbing trend for the Pride.  Take a statistical look at the Pride's last five games to see the trend;

vs. UNH, 52 FG attempts, 15 attempts by frontcourt, percentage made by frontcourt - 40%, team FG percentage -34.6%

vs. Iona, 62 FG attempts, 13 attempts by frontcourt, percentage made by frontcourt - 61.5%, team FG percenage - 32.3%

vs. UMass, 85 FG attempts (no that's not a typo), 28 attempts by frontcourt, percentage made by frontcourt 35.7%, team FG percentage - 36.5% - note that Miklos Szabo went 0 of 4 from the three point arc

vs. St Francis, 69 FG attempts, 24 attempts by frontcourt, percentage by frontcourt 45.8%, team FG percentage 36.2%

vs. Stony Brook, 52 FG attempts,10 attempts by frontcourt, percentage by frontcourt 40%, team FG percentage 39%

So, in four of the last five games, the Pride frontcourt had at most 34.7 percent of the field goal attempts. In two of the games they had less than 20 percent of the field goal attempts.  When your team is shooting in the thirties overall percentage wise, its not wise to limit your team's frontcourt scoring opportunities.  Even if you look at their win over Towson, which was prior to this five game stretch, the Pride had 57 FG attempts and only 17 came from their frontcourt. The frontcourt hit on THIRTEEN of those seventeen FG attempts and shot 49 percent as a team from the field. 

So why not more looks inside, Coach Pecora? You have a six foot ten agile forward in Greg Washington who is shooting 58 percent from the field and shooting 70 percent from the line.  Why is he not averaging at least 10 field goal attempts a game instead of the not even five per game he attempts?  Dane Johnson averaged 54.5 percent from the field last year and is averaging 50 percent from the field this season.  Why is he averaging barely over three field goal attempts per game? 

Note to Coach Pecora - When your team shoots only 38 percent from the field on the season, you need to start looking inside more.  Much more. 

Sunday News and Notes

There were by my count five nationally televised basketball games that involved mid major teams (and no  I am not including Temple -Kansas..remember here A10 teams are not mid majors) and only one of them, Drake, ended up winning their game.  And the ironic thing is that three of the games started around the same time.

The first game involved #2 UConn vs. #8 Gonzaga in the Battle of Seattle and it was a battle.  UConn got out to an early 13-2 lead before the Bulldogs bounced back to cut the deficit to one, 38-37 at the half.  The Zags then went on an early 20-8 run to go ahead 57-46 led largely by the play of reserve guard Stephen Gray who had 23 points on the game. But despite Hasheem Thabeet being in foul trouble, the Huskies rallied back behind guard AJ Price and reserve forward Gavin Edwards to cut the lead to one 72-71 with 33 seconds left.

Matt Bouldin hit two free throws to make it 74-71.  Then after getting an offensive rebound, the Huskies got the ball to Price.  With Jeremy Pargo all over him, Price hit an off balance three to tie the game at 74.  Price then stripped the ball from Pargo to force overtime.  In overtime, a combination of several Bulldogs fouling out and the Huskies hitting big shots resulted in an 88-83 overtime win for UConn.

It really was a NCAA Elite Eight tournament quality game with a raucous Key Arena crowd cheering on the Zags (and yes this was considered a neutral site game - and thanks Stan for pointing out some other neutral site games to me after my post yesterday).  You had back and forth swings, excellent basketball from two very talented teams with some very talented players.  Austin Daye, Pargo and Gray had solid games or the Bulldogs, while Price, Edwards and Jerome Dyson did as well for the Huskies.   Gonzaga shot 50 percent from the field for the game, but led by Price, UConn stayed in the game by shooting 7 of 14 from three and 29 of 38 from the line).

CBS was showing regional action on Saturday. The early game shown in the NY area, Duke-Xavier was such a rout, they switched to Texas-Michigan State in the second half.  We got the UConn-Gonzaga game here in NY for the second game, while other regions of the country got Purdue vs. Davidson in the Wooden Classic in Indiana.  They were not switching to that game as the Boilermakers went out to a 25-2 lead enroute to a 76-58 drubbing of the Wildcats.  When I saw the 25-2 score originally on ESPN's online scores, I thought it was a typo.  Nope, Purdue went out to a 21-0 lead as all world Davidson guard Stephen Curry missed his first eight shots and went 3 of 18 from the field in the first half including 1 of 9 from three.  Purdue hit 7 of 11 three pointers and shot 56 percent from the field in the first half.

Curry was held to 13 points on 5 of 26 shooting.  A lot of the credit goes to the Big Ten defensive player of the year last season, Chris Kramer.  Curry noted that, saying "He did a great job, just attacking and staying on me the whole game. I haven't seen that all year, just the constant pressure of the ball."  The Wildcats only shot 35 percent from the field and only attempted seven free throws.

Meanwhile, the third game on around the same time featured top ranked North Carolina vs Valpo in Chicago on ESPNU. It started off competitive with Valpo actually moving out to an early 12-3 lead as Howard Little scored 5 of the first 12 Crusader points.  Then North Carolina remembered they were North Carolina and went on a 14-2 run to go ahead 17-14.  Valpo actually came back to take the lead at 19-17 before the Tar Heels went back ahead to stay.  The lead was only one, 24-23 with 5:20 left before NC went on a 17-8 lead to go up 10 at the half.  The Tar Heels never looked back winning 86-63.

The fourth game on at the same time featured Drake vs. Iowa on ESPN2 as Drake looked to win the state of Iowa Bball bragging rights after beating Iowa State earlier in the season.  This game was also never really that close as the Bulldogs were much too quick for the Hawkeyes.  Drake went out to a 32-18 halftime lead on their way to a 60-43 win.  Josh Young, one of the remaining starters from last year's Missouri Valley Champions, had 23 points including 14 of 15 from the line as Drake shot 23 of 29 from the line.  Drake held Iowa to 31 percent shooting from the field and outrebounded the Hawkeyes 37-21.

Finally late last night on ESPN, VCU went to Norman to take on Oklahoma and former VCU now Sooner coach Jeff Capel.  Unfortunately, Eric Maynor picked a bad time to have his worse game of the season as Maynor was held to 15 points on 5 of 18 shooting including 2 of 9 from three  with 8 turnovers as Oklahoma downed VCU 81-70. 

In other news, Hofstra had won eight straight games going into their road game at UMass yesterday.  The game against the Minutemen, who had come off a recent big road win against #25 Kansas, was their biggest test since their opening season loss to undefeated Clemson.  Well, the Pride flunked the test as UMass stormed out to a 28-10 lead on their way to a 97-81 win over Hofstra.  Hofstra would only come as close as 35-25 the rest of the game.  The Pride outrebounded the Minutemen 61-37 but that was due in large part to grabbing rebounds off their own missed shots.  UMass torched the Pride by shooting 15 of 26 from three and shooting 52 percent overall.  The Pride shot 32 percent from the field and only 12 of 24 from the free throw line. 

The good news for Hofstra; Cornelius Vines had 22 points (18 in the first half) and Greg Washington continued his improved play with a career high 13 points, 7 rebounds and 3 blocks.  The bad news for Hofstra; Charles Jenkins was held to 13 points on 4 of 13 shooting and 7 turnovers.  NIT finalists from a year ago, UMass forced 19 Pride turnovers. Hofstra coach Tom Pecora noted at the post game press conference that his team would be more focused for their next opponent, Iona. " Pecora stated "Trust me, I don't know if we'll win or lose, but I'll get them focused for Iona."   Here's the problem with that.  If you can't be "focused" for a road game against a team that made the NIT finals last season and had recently beat Kansas, how can you be "focused" for Iona?  I'll be there Tuesday night to see if the Pride will be more "focused".

Chris Gadley Resurrection Update - Chris has struggled in his last three games.  He did have a double double vs Navy with 10 points and 11 rebounds.  However Gadley only shot 4 of 11 from the line and 3 of 8 from the field.  He had his worst game of the season as the Cuse crushed the Golden Grifs 82-60 in a Big East televised matchup.  Gadley picked up three quick early fouls and only played 13 minutes with zero points and one rebounded.  The couple of minutes of the second half that I watched was like watching Gadley from two years ago.  He seemed unfocused and lost.  I could see why coach Tom Parotta benched him for the rest of the second half.  He still has the same body he had two seasons ago, in fact he looks a little heavier (and looks more like Omar Alston, if Hofstra fans remember that name).  Previously Gadley struggled against Albany, Gadley again struggled scoring only 3 points on 1 of 4 shooting and 1 of 4 from the line with 7 rebounds in 26 minutes.  Gadley's scoring average has dropped three points to 11 points per game.  Gadley must be more "focused", as Tom Pecora would say, and work on his game and his body if he ever wants to be truly successful. 

A Tale of Two NY Locals

When the basketball season started for the two teams I follow the most - the Hofstra Pride and the Iona Lady Gaels, there was much uncertainty for both teams.  For the Pride, they lost their best player, Antoine Agudio due to graduation.  For Iona, not only did they lose three starters to graduation, they also lost their best returning player, Anna McLean, due to medical reasons.  Hofstra had brought in three JUCO players; Cornelius Vines, Tony Dennison and Miklos Szabo.  By the sixth game of the season, all three were in the starting lineup.  For Iona, they had an entire team of underclassmen, of which the starters consisted of one junior, two sophomores and two freshman.   How they have done so far is an attestment to their coaches, Tom Pecora and Tony Bozzella.

For Hofstra, Tom Pecora has always believed in guard play.  Its been that way since he was an assistant coach on Jay Wright's teams.  He has been involved in the recruiting and coaching of some of Hofstra's all time great guards; Speedy Claxton, Norman Richardson, Jason Hernandez, Rick Apodaca, Mike Radziejeski, Loren Stokes, Antoine Agudio, Carlos Rivera and now Charles Jenkins.  The philosophy is simple; let your guards take advantage of one on one matchups, often drive to the basket and create scoring opportunities from there.  And there has been a great amount of success.  In the past ten seasons under Pecora and previously Wright, the Pride have made the postseason six times - two NCAA berths (should have been three) and four NIT appearances.  

Hofstra was picked to finish seventh in the CAA in the preseason poll. Then Hofstra started their season at the Charleston Classic.  After getting clobbered by Clemson, where the Pride seemed unprepared to face the Tigers, the Pride have rebounded to win their next two games in the tournament, albeit by close fashion in both games.  This would become a consistent theme as they would win an additional five games in a row, none of them really that easy, including a win at Manhattan that may qualify for "Ugliest Game of the Year".  

There has been inconsistent play as you would expect from a team with three new starters. But somehow Hofstra guts out their wins.  It all starts with Jenkins, the 2007-08 CAA Rookie of the Year. Jenkins has upped his game this year to average nearly 22 points per game.  As for the concern where Hofstra was going to get other scoring from, one of the JUCOS, Cornelius Vines has stepped up to average 13 points per game.  The Pride on average score 70 points per game.

Now, even though the Pride are 7-1, their play as aforementioned has been far from stellar.  There is still too much, as my friend Tieff would say, "dribble, dribble, dribble" by the Hofstra guards.  There needs to be more passing, more movement.   However, there are signs of improvement.  The first thing you may have noticed this season with the Pride is that eleven players play significant minutes for the Pride.  In fact those eleven players average 10 or minutes per game.  If you looked back at just two seasons ago, the Pride would go seven-eight players deep.  The Pride are starting to get their big men involved.  Unlike the two previous seasons where 80 percent of the scoring came from their guards, this team gets about 30 percent scoring from their forwards (this was very evident from their win over Towson).  However, the Pride still need to get their big men involved more consistently and need to look inside more first before shooting the three. Their first real test may come at UMass, though the Minutemen are struggling.  However the conference season gets in full swing in early January, and that should tell soon enough just how good the Pride are.

The Lady Gaels were picked sixth by the MAAC Preseason Poll. This despite having finished second in the MAAC two years in a row and having gone to the WNIT also two years in a row.  This was probably due to losing four starters from last season's team.  However, this didn't phase the Lady Gaels.  They immediately won their first three games including a ten point winner over West Virginia, who won a first round NCAA tournament game last year, in Morgantown.  That has been the Mountaineers' only loss so far this season.  The Lady Gaels would lose their first game, a tough two point loss at Wichita State, without starting forward Kristina Ford.   Then the Gaels would win two more including a 33 point blowout over UMES in the first day of the Iona Thanksgiving Classic, a game that I talked about in a previous posting. 

Then, as young teams do, a letdown occurred the next day, a ten point loss to Western Michigan on the second day of the tournament.  The question would be, going into two conference road games, how would the Lady Gaels respond to a disappointing loss.  The answer would be provided in their second half vs. Rider.  Having blown a fourteen point lead by the end of the first half, the Lady Gaels would come out against the Broncs with their best half of the season.  After giving up 48 points in the first half, Iona held Rider to 28 percent shooting from the field, including 3 of 17 from beyond the three point arc.  After having shot only 58 percent from the line in the first half, Iona shot 12 of 15 for 85 percent from the charity stripe.  The Lady Gaels also shot 50 percent from the field winning 82-71. 

The Lady Gaels then followed that up with another impressive road win, a 62-44 drubbing of Fairfield, the team picked to finish second in the MAAC preseason poll.  The Lady Gaels got off to a quick lead and never trailed after the 18:38 mark of the first half and led by as many as 22.  Finally, the Lady Gaels had their biggest test of the year.  At home against Fordham on Wednesday, the Lady Gaels trailed for most of the game. In fact, twice the Rams had double digit leads in the second half.  The second time was the largest lead, 60-47.  A good number of young teams might have called it a night. Not the Lady Gaels.  They started forcing turnovers and hitting threes.  With a little over two minutes left, Thazina Cook, who had 21 points, hit a three to time the game at 64.  Cook would then hit another three to put Iona up to stay 69-66 en route to a 72-69 win.  Ivkovic led the way again with 22.   As the Gaels have run out to an 8-2 start, its been different players picking up the slack.  Against Rider, it was sophomore Suzi Fregosi who led the way with 21 points.  Ivkovic had 18 points vs Fairfield, but 17 were in the first half. Kristina Ford picked up the slack in the second half and added 16 for the game.   It shows in the statistics as Cook, Ivkovic, and Ford each average double figures and nine Lady Gaels average 10 or more minutes (it will be ten once Milica Paligoric works her way into the rotation).

The Lady Gaels face three tough road games, the toughest a game against perennial women's power Purdue at West Lafayette.  And of course, Marist, the best team in the MAAC and winner of three games in the NCAA Tournament the past two seasons, stands in their way with a veteran team. But don't underestimate coach Tony Bozzella and this Lady Gaels team.  The MAAC has a history of doing that. Last season, the Lady Gaels were also picked to finish sixth.  They finished second and won their first round WNIT Game over Quinnipiac before losing to St John's.   This team might just be the best Lady Gaels team yet.  Just ask West Virginia. :-)

Mid Major Weekend in Review

It was a very busy weekend for the CAA and mid major teams in general.  But first, a day after playing perhaps their best game of the year, the Iona Lady Gaels played their worst game of the year, a 54-44 home loss to Western Michigan in the Iona Thanksgiving Classic.  The Lady Gaels only shot 32 percent from the field, including a horrific 2 of 15 from three.  The Lady Gaels only had one double digit scorer, freshman sensation Kristina Ford who had 13 points and 10 rebounds.  Ford and sophomore Anda Ivkovic  combined to shoot 9 of 21 from the field while the rest of the team shot 7 of 29.  The Lady Gaels also were outrebounded 43-34 and committed 26 turnovers.  I was there on Saturday when the Lady Gaels shot 55 percent in the first half (and 45 percent overall) in rout to a 80-47 drubbing of Maryland Eastern Shore.  Thazina Cook led four Lady Gaels' scorers in double figures with 18. Ford added 13, Ikvovic had 10 and freshman Tomica Bacic had 11 points.  The Lady Gaels also forced 37 Hawks turnovers.

My friend Tieff and I left the Iona game Saturday night with 10 minutes left and went to the Hofstra-Manhattan game.  First, it is very hard to park at Manhattan for a men's basketball game unless you get there very early, which we did not.  The lot was full and we ended up parking on a side street which resulted in a ten minute walk.  We brought some toys because it was Toys for Tots night and bringing a toy resulted in a free ticket.  The Draddy Gymnasium is actually a very nice gym, quite large actually and is a nice place to watch a game. 

As for the game itself, well it quite possibly might have been the ugliest played and officiated game I will see all season.  The Pride and the Jaspers each committed 17 turnovers (it seemed like more than that) and both shot poorly from the line;Manhattan went 17 of 27 - 63 percent, Hofstra 7 of 17- an abysmal 47 percent.  Despite all that, it was an entertaining game which was only decided in the final minute when Charles Jenkins stole a pass with seven seconds left and hit a free throw to seal the win for the Pride 65-61. Jenkins had a terrific second half scoring 21 of his 23 points in the second half.  Cornelius Vines had 12 points and Tony Dennison added 10.  The key player for the Pride (4-1) was Darren Townes (8 points) who along with Jenkins provided much needed energy in the second half.  The Jaspers (3-2) were led by Chris Smith with 15, Devon Austin added 11 and Brandon Adams had 10.

In CAA action, VCU (3-3) lost the championship game of the Cancun classic 71-66 to Vanderbilt.  Eric Maynor scored 31 points and Larry Sanders added 10 in the losing cause. Maynor and Sanders, the only double figure scorers for the Rams, combined to shoot 16 of 28.  Unfortunately, the rest of the VCU team shot only 9 of 30.  The Rams had defeated New Mexico the night before 67-55 as Maynor had 18, Joey Rodriguez added 12 points and Lance Kearse came off the bench to add 11. 

George Mason (5-1) continues to roll with a 74-65 win over Ohio. The game was a rematch of last season's Bracketbuster won by Ohio (2-1).  The Patriots had five players in double figures with Dre Smith and Cam Long each scoring 15 points, Ryan Pearson had 13, Andre Cornelius 12 and Darryl Monroe added 11.  Ohio was led by Jerome Tillman's 22 points and 16 rebounds.

ODU (1-3) lost another close game to Marshall 68-64.  Despite shooting 57 percent from the field, the Monarchs only had five free throw attempts (the Thundering Herd had 14, only hitting 8 of them),  were outrebounded 28-22 and had 16 turnovers to Marshall's 12.  This resulted in Marshall having four more field goal attempts from the field and the Herd shot 50 percent from the field.  Ben Finney led the Monarchs with 16 points. The Herd (2-3) were led by Tirrell Baines' 15 points.

Northeastern (2-3) had another ugly road game on Saturday night. Northeastern scored only 11 first half points on their way to a 55-37 loss to South Florida.  The Huskies shot 4 of 29 in the first half and 13 of 54 for the game (24 percent) including 1 of 9 from beyond the three point arc.  Huskies star Matt Janning shot 1 of 11 from the field for 3 points.

Towson (3-3) also had a rough weekend in Philly as first noted on Saturday, #22 ranked Villanova waxed the Tigers 64-47 Friday night.  Then on Saturday night in the consolation game, Penn State trounced Towson 78-54.  Troy Franklin was the only Tiger in double figures with 12 points as Towson shot 29 percent including 5 of 20 from three.  As for the Tim Crossin Burial Watch, Crossin actually played some quality minutes..ok, quality minutes for him.  In the Penn State game, Crossin played 5 minutes, scored three points on 1 of 2 shooting (both from three), with a rebound and a steal!

UNC Wilmington (3-4) had an up and down weekend.  Friday night, UNC Wilmington coasted to 79-64 win over NC Central in the South Padre Invitational.  Dominique Lacy had 20 points and 11 rebounds to lead the way for the Seahawks. Then on Saturday, the Seahakws got pasted by Texas A&M Corpus Christi 97-64.  The Islanders, only ahead by 1 at the half, proceeded to outscore UNCW FIFTY EIGHT to twenty six in the second half.  It was the fourth time this year that the Seahawks gave up 95 or more points in a game. Lacy again led UNCW with 16 points and 8 rebounds.

It was a better weekend for William and Mary (3-4), though they also split their games in the Liberty Classic.  In the first game, the Mary knocked off South Carolina State as David Schneider had 22 points and Danny Sumner added 20 to lead the way for the Tribe. In the championship game vs. Liberty, again Schneider and Sumner led the way with 23 points each, but the Mary lost in overtime to the Flames 80-74 in front of a paltry 934 people in Lynchburg (and trust me I have been to Lynchburg, not much to do there, so why not go see some good college basketball- Liberty has beaten Virginia this season). Sumner and Schneider are making quite the duo for the Tribe.

Delaware (2-4) had an early eleven point second half lead, but Seton Hall came back on its own home court to win 75-70.  Four Blue Hens players had double figures, including two that had double doubles, Marc Egerson with 20 points and 13 rebounds, while Jim Ledsome had 13 points and 10 rebounds.  The difference was Delaware had 19 turnovers to Seton Hall's 11.

Matt Brady seems to have righted the James Madison ship as the Dukes (4-2) have now two in a row.  At the Davidson Tip Off classic, JMU first lost to the now infamous Loyola Maryland 64-54.  JMU was led by freshman Julian Wells with 13 points. Then the Dukes came back to beat Florida Atlantic 81-64 as another freshman, Andrey Semanov led the five JMU scorers in double figures with 17 points. Wells had 15 points, Dazzmond Thornton had 11 points, and Kyle Swanston and Pierre Curtis each had 10.  The Dukes then followed up with a 73-53 pasting of Fordham at Rosedale.  Swanston led the way with 21 points including five three pointers.

Earlier in the week, Georgia State (2-4) lost to Troy 68-63 (a team UNCW beat earlier in the season 101-95). Leonard Mendez had 21 in a losing cause for the Panthers who allowed the Trojans to hit 10 three pointers in the game.

Drexel (1-2) has not played since November 22, when they got smoked by Georgetown 81-53. The Dragons shot 24 percent from the field (surprisingly they shot 38 percent from beyond three).   Four Dragons players scored in double figures and accounted for 46 of the 53 points led by Scott Rodgers 13. The six Drexel big men combined to score the other seven points on seven free throws as they shot 0 for 16 from the field.  UGH!

In other mid major action over the weekend, there was one major upset.  Western Kentucky shutdown #3 Louisville 78-64 at neutral site Freedom Hall (which is really a home game for Louisville) . A sweet sixteen team from a season ago, the Hilltoppers held the Cardinals to 27 percent shooting including 5 of 20 from beyond the three point arc. AJ Slaughter led the way for Western Kentucky with 25 points.  The Hilltoppers also outrebounded the Cardinals 48-34 as Stephen Pettigrew had 12 rebounds to go with his 17 points for Western Kentucky.  It was the Hilltoppers first win over a Top 3 ranked team in 40 years.

In other mid major games, #10 ranked Gonzaga ran the table impressively at the Old Spice Classic, winning the championship game from #12 ranked Tennessee 83-74. Stephen Gray led five Zags in double figures with 19 points as Gonzaga shot 52 percent from the field, including 11 of 20 from beyond the three point arc.  Matt Bouldin added 17, Josh Heytvelt had 15, Micah Downs 12 and Jeremy Pargo had 10.  The Zags get the Vols in a rematch at Tennessee on January 7.

Kent State had a rough weekend.  After losing to Illinois in overtime Friday night, the Golden Flashes lost to a very solid Texas A&M squad in the South Padre Invitational 77-71.   Kent State was up two at the half but couldn't contain A&M.  The Aggies shot 58 percent from the field for the game and went 16 of 19 from the charity stripe.  Al Fisher led the way for the Golden Flashes with 24 points.  It doesn't get any easier for Kent State tonight as they go into Lawrence and face Kansas.

After losing to soon to be new member of the Bakers Dozen Arkansas Little Rock, Creighton lost a tough 58-56 game to Nebraska.  It was a similar game to the UALR contest in that Creighton jumped out to a thirteen point halftime lead vs the Cornhuskers, only to see Nebraska come back and win the game on a shot with 3 seconds left (against UALR, the Bluejays had a 7 point halftime lead and lost at the end of the game as well).  The difference was 24 Bluejays' turnovers which counteracted a 36-25 rebounding edge for Creighton. Kenny Lawson Jr was the only Bluejay in double figures with 10 points.

Saint Mary's finished the 76 classic with a 2-1 record winning the 5th place game from Providence 81-75.  Patty Mills led four Gaels scorers in double figures with 24.  Finally, Butler continues to roll as they bounced Evansville 75-59.  Shelvin Mack led the Bulldogs with 18 points as Butler shot 52 percent from the field to now go 5-0 on the season.

Finally, we end with the Chris Gadley Resurrection Watch.   Gadley had 13 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks as Canisius defeated Saint Bonaventure 68-66 Saturday night.  In fact the former Pride player had almost as many  points as all of Hofstra's big men combined vs Manhattan (15 points from six forwards/centers).

Next post will be a new Baker's Dozen, with a couple of new members.

Stephen Curry - More than Just a Great Player

I am sure you all have heard by now of what Loyola Maryland did against Davidson in their game Tuesday night.  Loyola coach Jimmy Patsos had two Greyhound players cover Stephen Curry at all times when Davidson had the ball.   Yes, for the entire game.  Yes,even after Davidson scored 18 straight points to turn a 9-4 deficit into a 22-9 lead as the Wildcats went on to a 78-48 win.  Yes, even after the lead was 34 points with a few minutes left.  Davidson coach Bob McKillop, so bothered by Patsos' continuing the strategy after the game was no longer in doubt, left Curry in the game so that the Wildcats' reserves could hit open three pointers. 

But what most stories have focused on is Patsos' incredibly questionable decision about employing this strategy and I will talk about it later, but I want to focus more on what Stephen Curry did.

When the Greyhounds first came out with their defense on Curry, Curry was obviously confused, perhaps even dumbfounded.  But by the Wildcats third possession, Curry knew what he had to do.  He basically went to the end corner of the court and took his two Greyhound defenders with him.  The Wildcats then basically had a four on three power play when they had the ball.  And the Wildcats took advantage.

Stephen Curry had taken himself out of the offense for the good of his team.  During their second timeout, the Davidson coaches were trying to build a strategy to get Curry involved.  Curry told McKillop "Coach, I'll just stand in the corner and keep two guys with me and we'll play 4-on-3." 

Think about that.  One of the nation's five best collegiate basketball players just told his coach that he was willing to take himself out of his teams' offense for the good of the team.  How many players are willing to do that?  How many players are willing to end up with zero points just so that their team can win.  He sacrificed himself for his teammates and his team. 

That tells you how great a player and more importantly a person Stephen Curry is.  Its team first with Curry.  And as Curry said, he had "the best seat in the house" for this game.  Not only that, Curry said the strategy made him and his teammates incredibly focus more on defense where they forced 21 turnovers, held Loyola's leading scorer, Brett Harvey, scoreless.  With an opportunity to run up and down the court and score perhaps 100 points plus, the Wildcats instead played a team game, with Curry leading the way.

Curry's selfless act also helped his teammates to work on their offensive game and scoring balance, which Davidson so desperately needs.  Bryant Barr hit six three pointers.  Andrew Lovedale had 20 points and 10 rebounds.  Reserves Aaron Bond and Will Archambault scored in double figures.  Ten Wildcat players played  9 minutes or more in this game.  This game was very important in the development of Davidson.  They have two men to thank for that.  Stephen Curry and Jimmy Patsos.

Now by many standards, Patsos' decision was very questionable.  But there is no question in my mind that this was an all around absolutely terrible strategy by Patsos.   The biggest problem with Patsos' strategy is that he has now created a very negative feeling on his team.  He had to.  He basically told his team that even with a traditional double team help defense, they couldn't stop Curry.  Patsos even said this in his post game comments.  Here are several of them.

"If Oklahoma can't stop him, how is Loyola College going to stop him?"

"I'm not too worried with how people perceive me.  Why, for playing triangle-and-2? They only had 78 (points). The problem is we had 21 turnovers and 48 points."

"We had to play against an NBA player tonight. "Anybody else ever hold him scoreless? I'm a history major. They're going to remember that we held him scoreless or we lost by 30?"

"I know the fans are mad at me, but I had to roll the dice as far as a coach goes. I'm not some rookie coach. I won a national title as a top assistant coach to Gary Williams (Patsos was an assistant at Maryland under Williams). For 13 years I spent on Tobacco Road. I coached a couple of No. 1 picks in the draft. And we scored 48 points. That's the problem that Loyola basketball had today."

No, coach Patsos, the problem Loyola basketball had on Tuesday was that a coach decided it was more important to completely shut a player down then win a basketball game.  Is the object for people to "remember that we held him (Curry) scoreless" or to be competitive and win the game?  Patsos also basically told his team with that Oklahoma statement that you are not anywhere good enough to stop Curry. 

Right now, if I was a Loyola player I would really question my coach's belief in my ability and my teammates' ability.  If the Loyola strategy vs Davidson and the post game comments weren't enough, perhaps this other tidbit will sway you on this.  Against Cornell, Patsos went into the stands and let his assistant coaches coach the game for a period because he thought he was targeted by a referee after getting a technical foul.  If I am a Greyhound player, I would wonder who comes first in Patsos' mind; the team or Patsos.  Finally, this from Curry might be the best evidence of how the players felt about this.

"Every dead ball I asked them how long they were going to do this," Curry said he asked his shadowing defenders. "They really didn't say anything. They weren't very conversational about it."

Perhaps they weren't too happy about it either. My guess is that they weren't.

But let's get something straight.  The true reason that this all went down, that we will wonder about Patsos' decision for the rest of the season and perhaps beyond, is because one person realized the gravity of the situation.  One person saw that it was more about the team than that one person.  That it was more important to get his teammates involved than to worry about being scoreless for the entire game. He sacrificed himself for his team and the real goal, to win a basketball game.  And by doing that, he made his team better.  That person is Stephen Curry.  Dell Curry should be really proud of his son today.  He is the ultimate team player and the ultimate person. 

Mid Majors Stuff

If you are VCU and you want to secure an at large bid to the dance, especially after being left out of the tournament last year, you need to win games like last night at Rhode Island.  In the battle of the Rams, VCU kept it close throughout by shooting 60 percent from the field, but 26 turnovers led to 43 Rhode Island points, and Rhode Island held off VCU 92-86.  Eric Maynor led the way with 22 points for VCU but he had 10 of the 26 turnovers.  Joey Rodriguez had 14 points for VCU.  VCU also didn't help matters by shooting 11 of 19 from the free throw line (though Rhode Island only shot 22 of 35 for 62 percent..free throw shooting is a lost art).  Rhode Island shot 54 percent from the field and all five starters were in double digits led by Keith Cothran's 23 and Jimmy Baron and Kahiem Seawright each had 17.   An important note to VCU fans.  Larry Sanders only played 7 minutes last night and fouled out quickly with only 3 rebounds and more importantly zero blocks.  The previous game against South Dakota State, he played 22 minutes with 8 rebounds and 7 blocks, though he did have four fouls.  Sanders must stay out of foul trouble for VCU to be successful.  Otherwise Kirill Pishchalnikov ( Pishchalnikov is Russian for five fouls) will play more and he is simply nowhere near as skilled as Sanders.

The Chris Gadley Resurrection Watch continues as Gadley got his first start last night and again, the big man dominated.  Gadley shot 8 of 10 from the field, including get this 2 of 3 from the three point arc, for 22 points.  Gadley also had 8 rebounds as the Golden Griffins beat LIU 76-63 for their first win of the season.  Hofstra fans are finally seeing the potential Gadley had come to fruition.  Unfortunately its not for Hofstra.

Sadly, the Tim Crossin Burial Watch also continues as Crossin didn't even play last night in Towson's 82-73 win over Hampton.  Yes, the same Hampton George Mason lost to.  Huh?  Well this game was at Towson and the Tigers shot 10 of 24 from three (unlike the Patriots 2 of 17 in that Thursday night loss).  Jarel Smith led four Towson scorers in double figures with 24.  The Tigers are now 2-1 without having Junior Hairston for their first three games due to suspension.  The Tigers might be better than everyone thinks, including yours truly.

George Mason bounced back nicely from their loss to Hampton by beating East Carolina 77-71 as the Louis Birdsong Coming Out Party continues.  Birdsong had another strong game with 19 points and Andre Cornelius came off the bench to add 19 as well for the Patriots.  However, Dre Smith again struggled from beyond the arc, shooting 2 of 8.  Perhaps Smith (12 points) might want to stay within the arc from now on, because he did shoot 3 of 6 from the rest of the field.  Darryl Monroe nearly had a double double with 9 points and 9 rebounds.

Creighton smoked Oral Roberts 87-65 as Cavel Witter had 25 points for the Bluejays.  There are some teams that do know how to shoot from the charity stripe as Creighton shot 27 of 33 from the free throw line.  Siena struggled early but poured it on in the second half to beat Cornell 74-56 as Kenny Hasbrouck led four Saints players in double figures with 22 points.  The Saints play Tennessee on Thanksgiving in a nationally televised game.  Finally Illinois State went to 3-0 with a 107-70 win over Houston Baptist.  Osiris Eldridge led EIGHT Redbirds' scorers in double digits with 16 points.  And again, talk about great free throw shooting.  The Redbirds shot 29 of 32 from the line (90 percent).  Nice!

What to Look For Today - If you are San Diego, you need to win games like this vs. Wisconsin to strengthen your at large bid case.  Today the Toreros play the Badgers in the semifinals of the Paradise Jam.  A win over Wisconsin goes a long way at the end of the year when you are on the bubble. Also with a win over the Badgers and a win by UConn over Miami, and you get a rematch of the first round NCAA tournament game from last season in the Paradise Jam championship.  The Toreros beat the Huskies last season in that first round game.  OOOH! 

Kent State gets to face the Phoenix Suns of the CAA, as they play host to UNC Wilmington in what should be a very entertaining game for the Golden Flashes home crowd.  Also, I have to plug the Xavier Memphis game today at 7:30 PM on ESPNU, which is the championship of the O' Reilly Autoparts Tipoff championship in San Juan Puerto Rico.  This despite that Xavier in the A10 is NOT a mid major (waiting for a Tom Kemp response on that).

Tom Kemp is Back! Plus other goings on..

First, welcome back Tom Kemp.  Tom left me a comment from my most recent Baker's Dozen post.  Let's put it up front and center.

Hey Gary,

It IS that time of year. Hope you are doing well and ready for a strong year of mid major hoops!

Keep an eye on Cleveland State and the Golden Flashes of Kent State with Al Fisher, Chris Singletary, and Tyree Evans being perhaps the country's best guard trio in the country. See link below about Evans who at one time was considered by many the number one high school player in the country...but he comes with risk...hope Kent knows what they are doing...see site below.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/college/basketball/mens/bal-sp.terpshoop16apr16,0,2579316.story

He will not be eligible until December 15th I think Akron will struggle to be .500 with 10 freshmen on the squad. Miami will have some nice wins but the MAC all in all will have a down year. I really like VCU and Mason...and the CAA in general. Finally watch the A-10. I hammered them last year but they will have 6 or 7 strong teams...keep an eye on Richmond despite losing there leading scorer and big man Dan Gerrot. St Mary's will visit Kent in two weeks!  Hope all is well!

Well its great to have Tom Kemp back.  Tom knows the MAC very well,and it is very interesting to see Tom talk about the A10 being strong.  Mind you, I don't consider the A10 a mid major conference, but hey, I'll let Tom talk about it this year if he wants!  Looking forward to a lot of good post again, Tom!

Now onto other things.  Tony Bozzella's Iona Lady Gaels are 3-0 after a 53-51 win at Monmouth Thursday night. Anna Ivkovic and Thazina Cook combined for 22 points in the win.  Its the first time in 26 years that Iona has started the season 3-0.  The Lady Gaels look to make it 4-0 when they play at Wichita State tomorrow.

Its dangerous to be a member of the Baker's Dozen.  Soon as I added two teams, George Mason and Akron to the Baker's Dozen on Thursday morning, they went out and lost.  The Patriots led by my favorite mid major enigmatic shooting guard, Dre Smith, shot 2 of 17 from three, en route to losing to the Pirates 50-44.  Smith went 2 of 7 from the field, with all 7 shots being from outside the arc (typical).  The Pirates won despite not having a single player score in double digits (huh?!).  The good news for GMU was that Louis Birdsong finally had a solid scoring night leading all scorers with 15 points while Darryl Monroe chipped in with 11.  The big men for Mason shot 12 of 25 while the guards shot 7 of 32 from the field.  Note to Jim Larranaga.  Feed the post more next time!

The other new member of the Baker's Dozen, Tom Kemp's aforementioned Akron (and not in a good way mind you) went to #6 Pitt and got smoke by Sam Young and company 86-67.  DeJuan Blair had more rebounds for Pitt at halftime then the entire Zips team.  Young had 26 to lead the way for Pitt.

In other mid major news, Davidson on Friday walloped Winthrop 97-70 as Stephen Curry had 30 points and a career high 13 assists.   Curry seems to be taking to his new point guard duties quite well.  The key for the Wildcats is that they may have found a second scoring option in forward Andrew Lovedale. Lovedale had a career high 20 points and 15 rebounds for the Wildcats.

Baker's Dozen member Middle Tennessee State played host to #13 Tennessee last night in front of a sold out crowd in Murfreesboro, home of the Blue Raiders.  The Blue Raiders had the scored tied with seventeen and half minutes left but the Volunteers pulled away for a 76-66 win.  Despite the Volunteers shooting 55 percent to the Blue Raiders 47 percent and being outrebounded 35-20, the Blue Raiders stayed in the game by only committing 9 turnovers to Tennessee's 16.  The Blue Raiders downfall was at the line as they only shot 12 of 25 as opposed to Tennessee's 20 of 26.

San Diego continued to roll by beating Valparaiso in the Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands.  In the Toreros 73-66 win, Gyno Pomare at 17 points, 13 in the second half.  The Toreros outrebounded the Crusaders 50-30.

Southern Illinois had a rough two days in the Big Apple during the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic at MSG.  First #5 Duke turned a close game into a rout, downing the Salukis 83-58.  There was a huge disparity at the free throw line as Duke shot 40 of 47 while SIU was only 12 of 19.  Carlton Fay had 17 to lead SIU.  In the consolation game, SIU was only down two at the half to #4 UCLA.  But then the Bruins outscored the Salukis by 15 in the second half to win  77-60.   The Salukis shot much better in their second game shooting 47 percent from the field but had 23 turnovers to UCLA's 9.

Missed free throws cost two mid major teams victories Friday night.  Vermont's terrific forward Marcus Blakely missed one of two free throws with 16 seconds left which allowed Maryland's Greivis Vasquez to tie the game with a three pointer with 6 seconds left to force overtime.  The Terrapins would outscored the Catamounts 17-2 in overtime to win 89-74.  Blakely had a double double with 23 points and 11 rebounds.  Meanwhile, Iona lost in overtime to #15 Wisconsin 60-58.  The Gaels only shot 9 of 15 from the line as opposed to the Badgers shooting 25 of 34.  As I have noted several times on this site before, free throw shooting is a lost art and can be very costly.  Ask Vermont and Iona.

Finally, a little love to the Mercer Bears.  While Belmont gets all the press in the Atlantic Sun, Mercer started out to a 3-0 record with road wins over SEC members Alabama and Auburn.  The Bears tried for the canasta at home vs. Georgia Tech and almost got it done.  However, the Yellow Jackets won in overtime 82-76.  The Bears however have a star in guard James Florence who led the Bears with 26 points.  His lowest point total in four games has been 19 points.  He had 23 vs. the Tide and 25 vs. the Tigers.  The Bears are a team to watch in the A10 this year.  It doesn't get any easier for them though with a road game coming up vs. Dayton on November 25.

A Resurrection Watch and the New Baker's Dozen

If you haven’t seen it yet, check out Kyle Whelliston’s mid major preview on ESPN.  Whelliston has some teams he likes that are on my list and included some that I didn’t have.    Kyle knows his stuff.

The Phoenix Suns of the CAA, UNC Wilmington, scored 88 points tonight.  Problem is they gave up ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY to Wake Forest.  Yes the Seahawks lost 120-88 to the Demon Deacons.  The Seahawks were outrebounded 51-29.  UNCW is exciting for sure, but more often than not, they are going to lose with that lack of defense.  They have given up 101, 95 and 120 points respectively in three games. Eek.

Here at Midmajorhoops, I have started some “watches”.  First is the “Tim Crossin Burial Watch” to see how much further Towson Coach Pat Kennedy can bury the former CAA First Team Rookie Member.    Since we have a burial watch, we now have to have a resurrection watch.  Welcome to the “Chris Galley Resurrection Watch”.   For those of you in the know, Chris Gadley was a former Hofstra Pride center.  Gadley, a highly touted prospect from the Buffalo area, was recruited by now Canisius Coach Tom Parrotta when Parrotta was the Pride’s Associate Head Coach.  Parrotta is from the Buffalo area, having played at Niagara.  Gadley had a very successful freshman season, with several big games.  He looked to have a bright future and would be the big man to lead Hofstra to the NCAA tournament. 

Unfortunately, Gadley seemed to have lost his way after Parrotta left for Canisius.  His sophomore season was a bust.  He played a few good games but was mostly on the bench, sulking in coach Tom Pecora’s doghouse.   My “key player” for the Pride wasn’t much of a factor when the underachieving Pride was upset by George Mason in the quarterfinal round of the CAA tournament, leaving the Pride to go to the NIT and not fulfill their once destined run to the Big Dance. 

Gadley transferred to Canisius to reunite with his mentor Parrotta.  As per NCAA regulations, he sat out last season.   And as my friend Tony Terentieff predicted, in his first two games he came out dominant.  In a loss to Akron, Galley had 10 points and 10 rebounds.  Then in his second game against another MAC opponent, Buffalo, Galley had 20 points and 11 rebounds.  Two games, two double doubles.   It’s a good start for Gadley.  The question will be can he keep his focus.   If so, Canisius has a real find.

Ok, its time for our MidMajorHoops Baker's Dozen Update.  There was a lot of movement in the rankings this week as four teams dropped out and four new teams took their place.

Mid Major Hoops Baker’s Dozen - November 19

1) Gonzaga (2-0) - Two games, two wins by 30 plus points. Now mind you Montana Billings State and Idaho are not exactly St Mary’s and San Diego, but the balance is there early.  When Jeremy Pargo only scores in single digits and you win by 30 plus, that’s a good thing.  Austin Daye and Josh Heytvelt look like a great frontcourt tandem.  Now let’s see how the #11 ranked Zags do vs Oklahoma State, Michigan State and Maryland in the Old Spice Classic.

2) St Mary’s (2-0)- Now the Gaels had a more formidable opponent than their fellow WCC member Zags in their most recent game.   St Mary’s outran Fresno State 99-85 as Patty Mills scored 27 points to lead five players in double figures.  Diamon Simpson and Omar Samhan each had double doubles in the victory over the Bulldogs.  The Gaels had an earlier 88-55 win over Seattle Pacific The Gaels moved up one spot due to Davidson’s close loss to Oklahoma.  The November 27 ESPNU game vs UTEP should be a good test.

3) Davidson (2-1) - #21 ranked Davidson lost a close game, 82-78 to #14 Oklahoma.  Stephen Curry had 44 points for the Wildcats but Blake Griffin (25 points, 21 rebounds), Tyler Griffin and Willie Warren were too much for the Wildcats.  The good news, Stephen Curry has taken to the point well.  In his first game, a 24 point win over Guilford, Curry had 29 points, 10 assists and 9 steals.  In a 35 point win over JMU, Curry had 33 points and 9 assists.  He did all he could vs. Oklahoma, but it is very evident that the Wildcats miss Jason Richards scoring.  Andrew Lovedale was the only other Wildcat in double figures with 10 (Lovedale is the only other player besides Curry who has scored in double figures in all three games for the Wildcats).  They will need more balance to be successful.

4) Creighton (1-0) - A tough come from behind win over New Mexico at home keeps the Bluejays perched at #4.  P’Allen Stinnett and Booker Woodfox combined for 56 of the 82 points the BlueJays scored.   The Bluejays were down as many as 16 in the second half and down 10 with 4:34 left.  The Bluejays shot 48 percent from the field but only Stinnett and Woodfox averaged in double figures as the rest of the team shot a paltry 6 for 25 from the field.  As with Davidson, Creighton needs more balance.

5) Siena (1-0) - Now speaking of a team with balance, the Saints once again showed theirs against Boise State.  Eight players had at least eight points, with six of the eight having exactly eight!   Of course, Kenny Hasbrouck led the way with 20 points in an 82-52 drubbing of the Broncos.  It was the second time in nine months that the Saints waxed the Broncos by at least 23 points (Siena won at Boise in February by 23 on BracketBuster Saturday).  I think Boise has had enough of Siena for a while.  Next up is a weekend home game vs. Cornell before the much ballyhooed game vs. Tennessee.

6) San Diego (1-1).  The Toreros lost a very close game at UNLV 65-60 before rebounding to pound Nevada 65-51 at home.  Had not three Toreros including all conference Center Gyno Pomare been suspended for the game against the Runnin Rebels due to violations of team policy, chances are San Diego would have won that game as well.  Rob Jones has been the man so far for the Toreros having scored 42 points in two games.  Pomare came off the bench in the game against Nevada and scored 12 points on 6 of 7 shooting.  The Toreros play at undefeated Valpo on Friday night.

7) Middle Tenn State (2-0).  Trevecca Nazarene and Houston Baptist.  Not exactly South Alabama and Western Kentucky, but the Blue Raiders will take two wins early on.  Desmond Yates scored 39 points in the first two games as the Blue Raiders shot 64 percent and 48 percent respectively in the two games.  The Friday night game vs. Tennessee will be a much better test.  What’s with the Volunteers playing all these Baker’s Dozen teams?!

8) Oakland (1-1).   The Golden Grizzlies lost a tough road game to  Cleveland State 58-55.  Oakland was up 10 points with 15:44 left before the Vikings came back to win.  But the Griz made up for that game with an 82-79 overtime upset win at Oregon.   Keith Benson led Oakland with 15 points vs Cleveland State as the Griz were held to 33 percent shooting from the field.  In the win over Oregon, Johnathan Jones had a career high 32 points including 10 in overtime.  The Griz shot 43 percent from the field in the win.  Things don’t get easier for Oakland as they play Syracuse on Friday night.

9) VCU (2-0).  Ho Hum, two wins for the Rams.  TJ Gwynn had 20 for the Rams off the bench in an 82-59 drubbing of the Citadel.   Gwynn led four scorers in double figures.  In a 72-56 win over South Dakota State in the Siegel Center , Eric Maynor had 29 points, 16 in the second half to lead VCU.  VCU’s next contest won’t be so ho hum.  A road game at Rhode Island, who barely lost to Duke, should prove to be a more difficult contest.

10) Kent State (2-0).  Well it only took a week for the 2007-08 MAC champs to get back into the Baker’s Dozen.  The Golden Flashes started with an 83-42 drubbing of North Carolina Central as Al Fisher led five scorers in double figures in the first round of the South Padre Invitational.   Then the Golden Flashes followed that up with a 76-74 overtime win over at Saint Louis as Al Fisher scored SIXTEEN of the SEVENTEEN points Kent State had in overtime.  Fisher scored 35 points total on 15 of 28 shooting.   Kent State only had 9 turnovers to 18 for the Billikens.

11) George Mason (2-0).  Another 2007-08 NCAA tournament member comes back into the fold after two big wins.  The Patriots won 80-79 at Vermont in OT to start the season.  Darryl Monroe sank the two game winning free throws with less than a second left to cap a 19 point 17 rebound performance.  It was his first game back after sitting out last season due to injury.  Monroe led four Patriot scorers in double figures. Mason then drubbed Brown (who beat Holy Cross at Holy Cross today) 89-52 as John Vaughan led all scorers with 18 points.

12) Akron (2-0).  Akron beats out fellow member Ohio for the rankings by winning two games over solid competition.  The Zips beat Canisius and Chris Gadley 56-46 as Brett McKnight scored all 12 of his points in the second half to lead Akron to a comeback win.  Then in a 72-58 win over perennial NCAA tournament member and Big South Champ Winthrop, Darryl Roberts led the way with 17 points as the Zips only had 7 turnovers for the game.

13) Illinois State (1-0).  The Redbirds make the rankings after knocking off previous member Wright State  on their home court 69-61 in a rematch from February’s Bracketbuster, also won by Illinois State.  Osiris Eldridge had 15 points and Champ Oguchi had 14 to lead five scorers in double digits.  The author loves balanced scoring and perhaps the Redbirds have the balance to give the Bluejays a run for their money in the Missouri Valley.

A few teams dropped out of the Baker’s Dozen. Former #7 Belmont (1-1) lost at home to Austin Peay 86-84.   As noted previously, former #11 Wright State (0-1) lost at home to Illinois State.  Former #12 Miami Ohio played admirably against #4 UCLA, losing in the closing seconds.  But unfortunately for the Redhawks, their next game against Pitt was only close at the half.  Miami would lose by 35 to Pitt.   Finally, in its own Charleston Classic tournament, former #13 the College of Charleston struggled to beat SIUE, then lost to Temple before bouncing back to beat TCU.  I saw the first two games and though CofC is talented, they have major struggles at the free throw line and with shot selection.  I think they will improve on both but they are not currently Baker’s Dozen material.