February 8, 2010

This Week in the A-10

By: Chris DiSano, Ian Nolan, Christian Marge & Doug Tifft
Photo Credit: Brian Ford

Player of the Week & Starting Five

Team Capsules

Charlotte: (18-5, 8-1), The skinny- The Niners remarkable turnaround season continued this past week with two more W's for the team from the Queen city. Now, however, Bobby's Lutz's bunch is playing from a different perspective: as a team with a target on its back. Charlotte sits as one of the six Atlantic 10 teams with a legitimate chance to earn an NCAA bid, not to mention they sit atop the conference standings entering the second half of league play. In both contests this week, the Niners found themselves trailing late. Against George Washington, the Niners were down three with 1:25 to play, but went 6-for-6 from the line in the pivotal final minute-plus of action, helping complete the comeback win. The story was similar against Fordham, as Charlotte found itself down 10 with 6:59 to play. In a perhaps a postseason saving rally, the Niners once again were solid from the stripe, going 7-for-8 from the line in the final minutes to earn the win. Charlotte has now won seven in a row.

Up Next: The Niners have just one game this week; a huge tilt on Wednesday night against Dayton (16-6. 5-3) at UD Arena.

Dayton: (16-6, 5-3), The skinny- The high-pressure system that Brian Gregory runs, often will create a quick punch for the Flyers, as it did in a home loss to Rhode Island and with the 17-3 surge out of the gate on Saturday in a 90-65 win over Xavier. With an 11-man rotation, Gregory can afford to run his defensive system to speed up opponents' offense for 40 minutes. Also, the Flyers are ending possessions well by outrebounding opponents by an A-10 best 6.3 boards per game. With the fifth lowest opponent field goal percentage in the A-10, defense has not been the problem this season for UD. It has been poor shot selection that has plagued the Flyers, an issue that was addressed in the win over Xavier. Rob Lowery had 16 points on 4-7 shooting, Marcus Johnson scored 10 points on 3-4 shooting and Chris Johnson was 6-8 from the floor for 18 points as Dayton shot 56.4 percent for the game. Chris Wright also chipped in 17 points, as usual getting majority of his points on straight-line drives to the rim or hard slashes to his right hand. The win over Xavier, especially in such convincing fashion, will likely serve a big recruiting tool for the Flyers in the future. The two schools draw from a similar talent pool in the Midwest, often running head-to-head for top prospects in Southwest Ohio. So it cannot hurt for Dayton to have recorded its largest win over Xavier in 32 years.

Up Next: The Flyers will have another chance to add to their NCAA resume with a home game against Charlotte on Feb. 10. Sharpshooter Luke Fabrizius is slated to return from a bawdy back for the matchup, lending his 47 percent three point shooting to a squad that thrives with a spread court. UD then rounds out the week with a dangerous road trip out to Saint Louis to take on the stingy Billikens.

Duquesne: (12-11, 3-6), The skinny- The Dukes have alternated wins and losses over their last six games, but Damian Saunders did everything he could make sure their last game out against GW ended in a "W". The Dukes had not won at the Smith Center since the year 2000, so they knew going in that earning a victory would be tough and a complete game would be needed. So that's what they authored. First, the Dukes played a solid, fast-break offensive game, outscoring the Colonials 19-4 on the run. Secondly, they were able to play tough defense, holding the home team to just 34% shooting for the game. Lastly, they had Damian Saunders in their lineup. Saunders, who played all 40 minutes of action, scored a career-high 27 points, and pulled down 16 boards, recording his 17th double-double of the season. In fact, Saunders had a double-double in the second half alone, as he scored 15 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the final 20 minutes. To boot, the double-double machine logged the final six points of the game to lock up the win.

Up Next: The Dukes look to put together back-to-back wins for the first time since mid-December when they tangle with UMass (8-15, 2-7) on Thursday, and then face La Salle (11-12, 3-6) on Sunday afternoon. Both games are at the Palumbo Center.

Fordham: (2-19, 0-9), The skinny- It would be easy for the Rams to pack it in and call it a season at this point, especially coming off the horrific loss to Xavier last week. Instead, Jared Grasso got his young team prepared to play some of their best basketball of the season against A-10 leaders, Charlotte. The Rams did a nice job in areas that have plagued them all season. First off, they were able to shoot the ball with success. Fordham shot at a solid 46% for the game, including a strong 50% for the second half. For the season, they are averaging just 37% per game. Next, they did a much better job in ball control and distribution, as they had just 10 turnovers for the game, and dished out 14 assists. Considering they are averaging 10 assists and 15 turnovers per contest, the essential flip-flop of these totals gives reason for excitement. Another reason for excitement is, of course, freshman Chris Gaston, who continues to bolster his creds for Rookie of the Year. Gaston finished the game with 32 points, 12 rebounds, and a career-high six assists.

Up Next: The Rams will lock horns with St. Bonaventure (9-11, 2-5) on Wednesday before coming home to take on George Washington (12-10, 2-7) on Saturday.

George Washington: (12-10, 2-7), The skinny- The Colonials' fast-paced tempo has caused problems for more experienced teams, especially on the road, allowing the inexperienced GW squad to grab some early leads and stay in games late. Yet, it has been a series of late game blunders, especially three point shots late in the clock, that has spelled doom in tight losses against La Salle, Richmond, Rhode Island, Charlotte and Duquesne. In fact, the seven A-10 losses for GW have come by an average of 6.4 points. "We're playing 32, 34 minutes of good, quality basketball," GW head coach Karl Hobbs said to the GW Hatchet. "And we have six minutes of basketball where we're starting to do some strange things out there." A big issue in the lapses has been shot selection and turnovers, with Saturday's 34 percent performance with 17 miscues standing as a shining example. The Colonials are also giving up fastbreak points in bunches when opponents begin to break the GW pressure, leaving the Colonials susceptible to big scoring runs.

Up Next: The Colonials get a break in the schedule with their only game of the week being a road trip to Fordham on Feb. 13.

La Salle: (11-12, 3-6), The skinny- Consistency is one the hardest things for young players to grasp at this level of basketball. A couple of the future stars of this La Salle program experienced this first hand this week. Freshmen Aaric Murray and Parrish Grant both had standout performances against a strong Rhode Island side in the Explorers loss on Tuesday night. Murray, who has begun to demonstrate more consistency in the last few weeks, finished with 18 points and four boards, while Grant added his best game of the season, scoring 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting, including 4-for-4 from deep. But youth reared its ugly head the next time out against Saint Louis. Murray would be plagued with foul trouble all game, and was held to just four points and one rebound. Grant actually fared worse, scoring just three points and grabbing a single board as the Explorers fell to the Billikens by three points. In the future, lessons from these are types of games will help players like Murray and Grant turn the table and lead the Explorers to wins in the future.

Up Next: La Salle has eight days off to regroup before hitting the road to take on Duquesne (12-11, 3-6) on Sunday afternoon.

Massachusetts: (8-15, 2-7), The skinny - The Minutemen continue to experience growing pains under coach Derek Kellogg. UMass faced off against two of the A-10's best this week in Xavier and Rhode Island, and while the Minutemen were able to make the final scores look close, long stretches of these contests were total mismatches. To UMass' credit, they were able to put together spurts of basketball that resembled the kind of game they seek to play for the full 40 minutes. Against Xavier, the Minutemen came out of the intermission scorching hot on both the defensive and offensive ends of the court, as they created three steals in the first four minutes after the break, and shot 5-of-7 in that same time frame to go on a 11-2 run. Coach Kellogg agreed that consistency over 40 minutes is what will make the difference for his team. " It's still a learning curve, if you look at the stats and who played the amount of minutes, it's a lot of new faces, it's a lot of young guys and I foresee them getting better every game and as the season moves forward."

Up Next: The Minutemen hit the road to take on Duquesne (12-11, 3-6) on Thursday, and then will return to campus to take on Saint Joseph's (9-15, 3-7) on Sunday afternoon.

Rhode Island: (19-3, 7-2), The skinny- Sometimes one in-game adjustment can tell a whole lot about a team generally. That was the case this week for Rhode Island. Against La Salle, the Rams held a large lead for a majority of the game, but found it slipping away down the stretch. With two minutes to play, point guard Marquis Jones turned the ball over while attempting to dribble away some clock, and Baron replaced him soon after with Stevie Mejia. Mejia, who plays as more of a tag-team partner at the point with Jones than a backup, took over the ball handling reigns, creating foul shooting opportunities with dribble penetration. Mejia calmly sank his four freebies, helping to salt away the Rhody win. A week earlier, it had been Jones who hit a winning three-pointer in the final seconds to defeat Dayton, so it wasn't as if Baron didn't have faith in Jones at the end of games. Rather, having two viable point guard options is a luxury enjoyed by Jim Baron, who can platoon Jones and Mejia depending upon game situations. Its this type of depth that Rhode Island enjoys throughout its lineup, a significant reason for Rhody's success. And speaking of depth, freshman sharp-shooter Akeem Richmond continues to impress, scoring 19 points in just 20 minutes of action against UMass.

Up Next: It's a big week for the Rams, as they take on two other teams with NCAA aspirations. Richmond (18-6, 7-2) visits Kingston on Wednesday before the Rams head to Philly to take on No. 17 Temple (19-5, 7-2) on Saturday.

Richmond: (18-6, 7-2), The skinny - Chris Mooney and company earned a signature win that could loom large come NCAA Tournament time, with Saturday's 71-54 win over Temple. Kevin Anderson scored 29 points in the win as Juan Fernandez missed the game for Temple. Anderson has gotten out of his early shooting slump to raise his three point shooting to a respectable 34.2 percent. But his real value has come from his aggressive nature, using his elite-level quickness to get into the lane and to the free throw line 4.5 times per game-where he converts 81.7 percent. Still, the Spiders have a wart on their profile in their rebounding deficiency. After Temple outrebounded Richmond 34-24, the Spiders are averaging minus-4.4 rebound differential per game on the season.

Up Next: Richmond will have a chance to further solidify its NCAA resume on Feb. 10 with a road trip to Rhode Island, with a game in Olean against St. Bonaventure on the way home on Feb. 13.

Saint Joseph's: (9-15, 3-7), The skinny- A lack of interior size has been Phil Martelli's problem all season long, and the 68-58 loss at home to Richmond on Feb. 3 was no different. The Hawks will show flashes of brilliant offense when outside shooters Carl Jones and Darrin Govens are making three point shots, but without an inside game to collapse the defense, those attempts quickly become more difficult - see the 18.8 percent shooting in Sunday's win over St. Bonaventure. SJU was only 19-48 from the field against Richmond, and is shooting 41.4 percent from the field on the season. Any team with length, like the Spiders were able to put on the floor, can give the Hawks fits and force them into late shot clock heaves and lackluster turnovers. With a minus-8.4 rebounding disadvantage per game (entering Sunday) those lost possessions take on added importance, as well. Still, the Hawks are able to pull off seemingly implausible victories through unconventional means. In the Bonaventure win, that meant an astounding 45 trips to the free throw line, headlined by Idris Hilliard's 13-17 afternoon and Garret Williamson's 8-11 day.

Up Next: The Hawks will try to turn things around with a home game against Saint Louis on Feb. 9, their only game of the week.

Saint Louis: (14-8, 5-3), The skinny- Entering the season it was known that Saint Louis was going to be a young, inexperienced team without a single upperclassmen. Yet, many believed that such a situation did not necessarily mean that Rick Majerus was operating without a proven leader; after all, he had Kwamain Mitchell. Mitchell's deciding buckets in wins over St. Bonaventure and La Salle this week are the latest exploits of a sophomore averaging 16.2 points per game-over a quarter of the offensively challenged Billikens' points. SLU has also continued to get a shot in the arm from versatile power forward Cody Ellis, who scored 14 points at La Salle. There are lapses defensively, like when La Salle nailed five straight shots to grab an eight-point second half lead. But the Billikens' man-to-man focus has been its calling card on the whole, coming in as the third best three point defense in the nation.

Up Next: The Billikens will remain in Philadelphia through a Tuesday night game at Saint Joseph's, before returning home to take on a hungry Dayton squad on Feb. 13.

St. Bonaventure: (9-12, 2-6), The skinny- As Mark Schmidt continues his reclamation project in Olean, the Bonnies are still searching for road victories to serve as notches in their belt. They had an opportunity at Saint Louis on Jan. 3, shooting 41 percent from the field and beyond the arc, and outrebounding the Billikens 36-27. Yet 16 turnovers did not help matters, as the Bonnies came up two points short. Another shot came Sunday afternoon at Saint Joseph's, but four Bonnies fouled out in a whistle-plagued game that saw the Bonnies come up seven points short. Part of the improved play has been SBU's inside-out approach, getting Andrew Nicholson 14 shots against SLU and only putting up 17 three point attempts. With Nicholson leading the nation in field goal shooting through the month of January, a focus on the big man has helped the Bonnies shoot an A-10 best 47.1 percent on the season (entering Sunday). Still, defense is an issue on the thin Bonaventure roster, as SBU allowed the offensively challenged Billikens to shoot 52 percent and gave up 46 percent shooting to a Saint Joe's squad that operates without an interior presence. Schmidt has been aggravated with sophomore Michael Davenport's lack of production-four points and two rebounds in 25 minutes in the loss at Saint Louis, and zero points and three rebounds at Saint Joe's. Schmidt said that the 6-foot-3"wing needs to get more consistent, calling Davenport's effort into question at times during the season. There was also an odd quirk in the Bonnies' Feb. 3 loss at Saint Louis, when Jonathan Hall picked up his fifth foul, yet was allowed to return to the game because of a scoring error, scoring the final five points of the contest for SBU.

Up Next: The Bonnies get a chance to right the ship with a three game homestand beginning this week with Fordham on Feb.10 and Richmond on Feb. 13.

Temple: (18-4, 6-1), The skinny- The big news out of Temple this week is the injury to Juan Fernandez. Fernandez has been hurting for a few weeks now, ever since suffering a blow to head in the game against Fordham on January 23rd. He attempted to play against Duquesne, but was essentially ineffective due to the injury. Against Richmond, Fernandez dressed, but did not play. The Owls certainly could have used him against the Spiders, who came out and blistered Temple and their top-ranked defense. The Owls allowed the Spiders to shoot 58% for the game, including a first half clinic in which Richmond scorched the nets at 77%. Richmond became the first team to score more than its season scoring average against the Owls all season. Coach Fran Dunphy talked about the loss of Fernandez and it's effect on the team. "We need him if we are to play our best basketball. But he was not available, so guys needed to step up."

Up Next: The Owls will have a week off, and will hope that Fernandez is able to go against a team vying for the top spot in the conference, Rhode Island (19-3, 7-2), on Saturday.

Xavier: (16-7, 8-2), The skinny- For the past few seasons under Sean Miller the Xavier Musketeers always seemed to go through a stretch where teams would put up gaudy offensive numbers and Miller would complain about his guards' terrible on-ball defense. Well Miller is gone, but the ball pressure issues are not. The Musketeers got sliced for 50 second-half points by Massachusetts' dribble-drive on Wednesday, then turned around and gave up 90 points on consistent breakdowns of the packline defense in a loss at Dayton. The Xavier defensive system is designed to have a defender in help position at all times, mitigating the impact of on-ball deficiencies. Yet, when Terrell Holloway, Jordan Crawford, Mark Lyons, Brad Redford and Dante Jackson get beat on the baseline or with a quick crossover into the lane, the amount of help that the big men have to give is increase. As a result Jason Love and Kenny Frease have found themselves in frequent foul trouble, like when each big man sat on the bench during the first TV timeout against Dayton, saddled with two fouls apiece. Chris Mack also has issues at the other end of the court, where XU has felt the impact of Love's decreased minutes because Frease and Jamel McLean are both one-dimensional post players-a drop-step to their left shoulder is their preferred move the majority of the time. Without an inside presence, Jordan Crawford and Terrell Holloway have had to bear the responsibility of creating shots off the dribble, stagnating the Xavier ball movement and diminishing the contributions of role players like Redford and Andrew Taylor. The Xavier offense has been set back even further by the struggles of freshman point guard Mark Lyons. Lyons began the year averaging 9.0 points and shooting 38 percent from three, yet has become a different player after suffering a bruised knee in a Jan. 3 game at Wake Forest, averaging 5.7 points and 20 percent three point shooting in his last six games.

Up Next: After the setback at UD, the Musketeers will have a final opportunity to pick up a marquee road win with a road trip to Florida on Feb. 13. With Xavier sitting in the No. 7-10 seed range for March, and Florida sitting squarely on the bubble, the game will likely determine much of each team's outlook on the remainder of the season.

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