Staley Wins 300th Career Game as Gamecocks Defeat 49ers

Entering last night's contest with Charlotte, Dawn Staley had 299 career wins as a head coach, 127 of which had come at the University of South Carolina.    There was little doubt that she would get her milestone Thursday evening at Colonial Life Arena as her #1 ranked team faced a 49ers team that entered the contest having lost five straight games.  The surprise came in the effort of Charlotte.

As per usual, the Gamecocks wanted to use their height advantage and looked to score inside right from the tip-off.  Center Ibiam Elem was fouled in the act of shooting and hit her two free throws for the first two points of the game.  The 49ers responded with an unusual game plan, go inside on the taller Gamecocks front line,  Charlotte forward Olivia Rankin, a player who only averages four points per game, matched her season average quickly with two straight baskets off post plays and the 49ers took a 4-2 lead.

South Carolina responded with six straight points.  Elem was responsible for four of those points and her jumper, which gave her six early points, put the Gamecocks up 8-4.   The Gamecocks would slowly extend the lead to five, 16-11 on an A'ja Wilson jumper with about fourteen minutes left in the half.

Charlotte answered back, outscoring South Carolina 8-2 over the next two minutes.  The 49ers leading scorer on the season, Lefty Webster would score six of the eight 49ers points in that spurt.  Her jumper gave Charlotte a 19-18 lead.

South Carolina tied the game on an Alaina Coates free throw, then regained the lead for good with a Tina Roy three pointer.   The Gamecocks would extend their lead to five, 26-21 on two more free throws by Coates.   However, Charlotte refused to go away as their second leading scorer on the season, Hilary Sigmon nailed a three pointer and with about seven and a half minutes left in the first half, the score was 26-24 South Carolina.

For twelve and a half minutes, the Gamecocks were in a battle with the 49ers.  But as shown throughout the season, South Carolina was capable of huge runs at any time.  The time finally came with 7:38 left in the half.

The Gamecocks would outscore the 49ers 20-2 over the next seven minutes and 37 seconds. Tiffany Mitchell, the SEC Player of the Year and Gamecocks' leading scorer, would score seven of those points, including at three pointer to make the score 44-26.  The run was highlighted though by a sweet no-look pass from Bianca Cuevas to Wilson for a layup.  Coates would cap the run with a layup to make the score 46-26.

But just as it looked like the Gamecocks would enter the locker room up twenty at the half, Cuevas inexplicably fouled Charlotte's Ayanna Holmes.  Holmes would hit two free throws and we went to the half with South Carolina up 46-28.

At the start of the second half, everyone figured that the Gamecocks would continue right where they left off from at the end of the first half and put the 49ers away.  Charlotte had other ideas.

The 49ers would hit on all of their first six field goal attempts in the second half.   Webster, who was a thorn in the Gamecocks' side the entire game, nailed another jumper to cut the Gamecocks lead to thirteen, 55-42 with fifteen minutes left in the half.   A team that had lost five straight games and had lost their most recent game in a tournament in Mexico to Princeton by thirty points, was fighting tooth and nail with the #1 team in the country for twenty five minutes.

But the height differential between the 49ers and the Gamecocks proved to be too much in the end. Despite their early second half offensive flurry, Charlotte could not keep South Carolina from scoring inside.  Eventually the Gamecocks started pulling away, going up by as many as twenty five points several times, the last being 82-57 before Charlotte scored the last four points to make the final 82-61 and give Staley her 300th career game.

The Gamecocks again showed the balanced scoring that is going to make them very difficult to beat this season.  Six players scored between nine and seventeen points for the Gamecocks.  The freshman Wilson led the way with seventeen points off the bench and Coates came off the bench as well to score fifteen points, The Gamecocks had a 41-8 advantage on bench points. Ibiam scored sixteen points and Welch had ten points, as South Carolina outscored Charlotte 46-20 in the paint. Mitchell and Tina Roy each had nine points for the Gamecocks, who shot fifty five percent from the field.

Charlotte, a WNIT team last season, had to be proud of the fact that they had the highest field goal percentage of any team that has faced South Carolina this season.  The 49ers shot forty five percent from the field for the game and fifty four percent from the field in the second half.  No team had shot higher than thirty eight percent against the Gamecocks coming into the game.  Webster led the 49ers with seventeen points and Sigmon, who was a perfect 3 for 3 from beyond the arc, added thirteen points.

South Carolina now faces their most difficult road game of the season, a matchup with #8 Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium on the campus of Duke.  Having been there two years ago for an Iona -Duke women's basketball game, I can tell you that place will be really loud on Sunday.   But if the Gamecocks show the balance they did last night and get good three point shooting from Mitchell and Roy,  South Carolina will get Staley her 301st victory.

Where We've Been, Where We're Going

On March 4, 2012, I was sitting on press row during the second CAA Tournament Semifinal in Richmond Coliseum. Sitting next to me was my good friend Jerry Beach, aka Defiantly Dutch, who made the trip down with me in a trip that would have made John Candy and Steve Martin proud. Nearby was our friend Tom Block, covering the game for George Mason and directly in front of us was CAA Beat writer Rob Canady and longtime CAA and UNC Wilmington beat writer and friend Brian Mull. Our friend, @VaBeachRep, Joe Suhoski, had been at the tournament on press row the day before.  Somewhere in the stands was our friend Mike Brodsky, who had done the radio broadcast for the Northeastern game the night before, along with Matt Cerilli and Alan Wilson, two George Mason friends I had got to know via their love-hate relationship with Beach.

I think all of us were amazed at the start of the VCU - George Mason game, which was the fifty sixth Division I basketball game I had covered live that season.  The Rams had jumped out to a 32-4 lead.  The sold out, mostly partisan Rams crowd was likely setting record decibel levels of sound in the creaky, leaky, often cold arena.  The Patriots would roar back though, cutting a once twenty eight point lead down to six with three minutes left in the game.  However VCU would hold on for a 74-64 win.

I truly had enjoyed soaking in the raucousness of the crowd that day.  Drexel had won the earlier semifinal against Old Dominion, the alma mater of Joe Suhoski, who covers CAA football and is also a friend of Beach and mine.  A season after three CAA teams making the NCAA Tournament and another CAA Semifinal Tournament team, Hofstra, had one of their players taken in the NBA Draft (Charles Jenkins), it looked like there would be again multiple #CAAHoops teams in the NCAA Tournament.  Things couldn't have been brighter for the CAA.

Little did I know that things would never be the same in the CAA again.

I drove my "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" partner in crime back to New York after the VCU-Mason post game press conference (Picture is from Hofstra-Delaware game in 2011. Notice how Hofstra is spelled on the ticket), once again having not been able to stay for the CAA Championship game. It's become sort of a twisted tradition.  When I attend the CAA Tournament, I never can stay for the championship game, basically due to work.  When my alma mater Hofstra made it in 2006, my dear friend Tony Terentieff had to be back for work and he drove my friend Mal and me down for the tournament.

In this case, I wanted to stay again, but this time, I had to go to Colorado.  I was a finalist for a position at the University of Colorado.  There was a fifty-fifty chance that I would get the position and that things for me would never be the same.

Drexel, who had lost to VCU in the finals of the CAA Tournament, was snubbed out of an at large bid for the NCAA Tournament.  Instead, Iona, a team I heavily covered during 2012 for both my site and the Mid Majority, made the tournament.  The Gaels went down in the first round of the tournament in spectacular fashion, blowing a twenty point lead vs. BYU.

Where this involves me is that Drexel was now playing in the NIT and was playing home games in Philly.  Thus a road trip to the land of cheesesteaks!  The Dragons had made it to the NIT Quarterfinals and were hosting the Minutemen of UMass.

It was a disappointing night all around.  Drexel blew a fourteen point second half lead and lost to UMass. During the game I had found out via email that night that I didn't get the position at the University of Colorado.  I took it in stride, figuring perhaps that staying in New York, working for Hofstra and covering college basketball was my place in life.

Suddenly the dominoes started falling.   First, the Atlantic-10 offered VCU a spot in their conference.  The Rams, understanding that the A-10 gave them a better media presence, more competition and a better chance for future at large bids, left all their two years of NCAA Tournament CAA money and joined the A-10.   Old Dominion and Georgia State announced they were jumping to Conference USA and the Sun Belt, basically for football conference dollars.   A year later, George Mason decided to reunite with VCU in the A-10.

The three teams that had been the face of #CAAHoops - VCU, ODU and George Mason were gone in the span of a little more than a year. What was once a Virginia based conference, has become more of a North-South mix with only two Virginia teams left (James Madison and William and Mary).

The CAA will never be the same.

Then, just when I thought I was going to be a lifelong New Yorker, an opportunity arose at the University of South Carolina School of Law.  This time, fate shined on me.  I was offered the position and in August of last year, I moved everything I could into a 2001 two door Honda Accord and made the trip down to Columbia, South Carolina.  Six months later, our house in New York finally sold and my family made the trip down with me.  The job has been absolutely great and my family is very happy in its new house.

My coverage of the 2012-13 college basketball season had started off pretty well.  I knew that I could not repeat the feat of covering fifty nine Division I men's games, at least fifteen Division I women's games and a couple of Division III games.  But there was plenty of college basketball around me in South Carolina and North Carolina.  I had season tickets to USC.  Wofford, Davidson, Charlotte, Winthrop, Presbyterian and USC Upstate were all relatively nearby me, plus I used my Christmas Break trip to New York wisely and covered a lot of games while I was up there.

Then February in South Carolina hit.   Let me explain.

Baseball season starts in February.  Not just college baseball season, as most informed, college sports fans know, but also Little League Baseball season.  Yes, baseball season for little kids starts at that time.  And we're not talking late February, we're talking February 2.  Yup.   In fact, my family was still not with me at that time.  I was an assistant coach for my older son's coach pitch team in February and there were two practices that I helped run where he was not at since the house in New York didn't close until February.

So when college basketball season was at its height the first weekend of March with the CAA Tournament, we were having opening day for our league that Saturday.  And I wasn't involved with just one team, I was also the head coach for my younger son's tee ball team.  Very quickly, I was spending at least four, five and even six days a week at Trenholm Park in Forest Acres, home to the Trenholm Little League.

And I was loving every minute of that.  As much as I love college basketball, baseball is my other love.  And I wouldn't have moved to South Carolina if my older son, Matthew, didn't sign off on it.  And one of the reasons he was willing to move down here was that, in his own words, he "could play baseball ten months of the year."

When Matthew was two and a half years old and already was fond of watching baseball live, he asked me if I could pitch to him.  So at two and a half, I started pitching to him.  And I found out very quickly, he could hit a ball.  Hit a ball real well.  So well that my family would come over to see him hit.  Then quickly, he wanted to play catch and learn how to field.  By the time Matthew was five, I could have a regular catch with him and I don't mean soft toss either.  I was fortunate to be able to coach him and his friends for two years in North Bellmore before I moved down to South Carolina.  It was a dream come true.

When I was a kid, I loved baseball just as much as Matthew.  However, my parents were separated and later divorced by the time I was thirteen.  My brother had been in the Air Force from the time I was eight until I was twelve.  The key time frame for when a kid who loves baseball plays Little League.  Yet there was no one around to help me cultivate my love of baseball.  My parents never signed me up for baseball, never asked me to play baseball.

My brother got out of the Air Force in 1978.   It was then, through his high school friends and him, that I started learning about baseball through their various slow pitch softball teams.  I sort of became the team mascot/scorekeeper/bat boy.  I practiced with the team, learned baseball, learned how to score etc.

I started getting a lot better at baseball/softball and started playing stickball, a favorite sport among northeast kids.  I ended up playing against several members of the high school baseball team and I more than held my own. My friends in high school (some of us, like me who ran track, two of us played high school baseball) and I played other members of the baseball team in slow pitch softball in high school and I remember us at least winning one game.

After high school, I ended up playing organized slow pitch softball for twenty years.  I was pretty decent and I was fortunate to play on some really good teams.  Still, I never played little league baseball or high school baseball.   If I really have one regret in life, it's that I never played organized baseball when I was young.

Even before I met my wife of seventeen years, Michelle, I told myself that if I ever had kids and they wanted to play baseball, I would do everything in my power and I mean, EVERYTHING, to help with that.  So when Matthew came to me that day asking me to pitch to him, it was like true illumination to me.

And five and half plus years later, here I am, the co-head coach of his fall Minors baseball team.  Matt hits second for us, is one of our three pitchers and can play anywhere in the field.  He loves the game and works at it everyday.  I am proud to say he was a Coach Pitch League All Star in the Spring and started at third base in our district tournament (and I was proud to be one of the assistant coaches).

My younger son, Jonathan, is on my tee ball team.  He's not like Matthew and would rather play Angry Birds than baseball.  Jonathan doesn't practice baseball when he's not playing an actual game, but he's pretty good when he plays.  Maybe the baseball light bulb will turn on for him someday, but that's okay if it doesn't for him.  Still love him as much as Matthew.

So Matthew got his ten months of baseball.  His dad coaches both his sons in baseball.  And neither of us could be any happier.

So what does that mean for The College Hardwood?

Fear not my college basketball loving friends.  The blog is alive and well, as you can see by this post.  This is the start of our basketball season on the blog.  I will still be covering a lot of games between mid-November and February. Once again, I have University of South Carolina season tickets.  Our live first game coverage will be November 9 when South Carolina hosts season opener sacrificial lamb Longwood.

But it's not just USC basketball I will be covering. My trip to New York around Christmas time will allow me to cover some good New York local basketball (see you soon, Hofstra and Stony Brook friends).  You can count on short road trips to Davidson, Charlotte, Wofford and Winthrop.   Plus, I have already got NCAA second and third round tickets for the regional at Raleigh.  If you remember the last regional in Raleigh in 2008, we were witness to the Stephen Curry show against Gonzaga and Georgetown.

However, once February comes, there won't be as much live basketball coverage from me as their used to be here. Certainly not fifty nine games of Division I coverage like the 2011-12 season.  But as I did once say nearly three years ago, that my commitments come before this basketball blog.  However, I do have a plan up my sleeve to increase the coverage here but I am not yet at liberty to say. :-)

Rest assured, college basketball is still a great love of mine and as for long as I can keep the site up, The College Hardwood is still a place college basketball fans can call home.

Regards Always,

Gary Moore
Author, Founder of The College Hardwood

A Night of Havoc (Recap of VCU v. Charlotte)

Some days don't go as you plan. I had made plans for quite some time for yesterday. Hofstra was playing at UNC Wilmington. I had media credentials waiting for me, plus I was going to see my friend Brian Mull, the terrific beat writer for the Wilmington Star as well as my friend Hofstra Head Coach Mo Cassara, who I haven't seen in a long time since I moved down to Columbia, South Carolina.

Wilmington, North Carolina is a three hour and fifteen minutes drive from Columbia, South Carolina. As I started driving on I-20 at 7:30 AM, my "Check Engine" light came on. Never a good thing. But perhaps it was something minor, perhaps a sign that it was time for an oil change (which I was due for). So I found the closest Jiffy Lube, which wasn't that close to the interstate.

The service manager at Jiffy Lube told me that the light indicated a temperature sensor issue, either a coolant issue or perhaps the water pump and that the light would stay on until I took it to a repair shop to have an engine diagnostic done. Turns out also my transmission fluid was badly needed to flushed out on my 126,000 mile 2001 Honda Accord. So I agreed to a quick oil change and the transmission fluid flush.

So I got back on the road around 8:45 AM. I still could make it to Wilmington on time. But it was still about three hours away. With my family still in New York until the house closes (which is soon), I couldn't risk having my car breakdown on the highway. Thus, I sadly turned back and drove to Midlands, Honda in Columbia. I got in touch with Brian and Coach Cassara to let them know I couldn't make it.

The Honda service manager quickly took the notes on the car and noted that there was also a recent recall for the passenger airbag. I had got that recall letter and knew it had to be fixed too. As I sat in the amazing waiting room with the HD 3D TV showing "The Dark Knight" while drinking hot chocolate, I briefly lamented the fact that I would not see Brian, Coach Cassara and what turned out to be Hofstra's first road win of the season, which was a terrific effort by the Pride.

However, I had known in the back of my head that Charlotte was hosting VCU at Halton Arena last night. I had brought my IPad to write my story for the Hofstra-UNC Wilmington game and Midlands Honda had free WiFI. Were tickets still available? As I went on the Charlotte 49ers ticket site, the answer was YES! Thus I got one ticket.

It turns out it was just a sensor issue. I got my car back shortly before noon and I drove home. There I watched the Hofstra-UNC Wilmington game online, where the Pride rallied from a ten point first half deficit to defeat the Seahawks 65-56. Then after quickly sweeping up the house floors and taking a nap, I made the now familiar drive up to the campus of Charlotte.

I got my ticket from will call and entered the Student Center, where Halton Arena is located. After my ticket was scanned in, an usher asked if I wanted a program. I said "Yes, thank you." In return, I got this gorgeous program. It looked like a yearbook/media guide to me. It's the nicest free program I have ever received at a college basketball game. Nice work Charlotte Athletic Department.

As I made my way to my seats, it was pretty evident that Ram Nation had made the trip in full force. There was a good number of fans in the gold and black colors of VCU. But they were minus Chris "Pav" Crowley, the ultimate VCU fan who I have become friends with over the past couple of years thanks to Twitter and the CAA community that the Rams were once part of until joining the A-10 this season. I have maintained ties to those knowledgable, fun VCU folks on Twitter. Pav couldn't make it last night. It was also Chris' birthday this week, so Happy Birthday Pav!

Entering the game, Charlotte had defended it's home court perfectly on the season, eleven straight wins. That included wins over good conference teams such as LaSalle,  a game that I saw in person, Xavier and U-Mass. Still one female fan sitting next to me asked her boyfriend "Is this the largest crowd of the season. Seems like it". Turns out it was the second largest crowd of the season, 8,794 in attendance. The previous home game vs. UMass had 9,100 in attendance.

This was going to be a battle between one of the top fifty teams in the country in effective field goal percentage defense, Charlotte, and the number one team in the country in defensive turnover percentage and steal percentage, VCU. I had seen Charlotte's guard length give LaSalle fits. But the 49ers were now without two of their best players. DeMario Mayfield, their best three point shooter, has been suspended from the team and J.T. Thompson is out for the season with a torn ACL.

The Charlotte pep band and student section were ready for Ram Nation. The band started with a very good version of Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" and were solid all night. The student section did their part during the VCU team introduction by drowning out Ram nation with a loud chant of "FORTY - NINERS".

Charlotte scored the first basket on a Willie Clayton offensive rebound and putback. But VCU responded with an 8-0 spurt, which included forcing two 49er turnovers. Rob Brandenburg's jumper put the Rams up 8-2 barely with 16:55 left in the first half.

Barely three minutes into the game, Charlotte senior forward Chris Braswell was already incurring the wrath of the fans in my section, 217 Row K. Braswell had missed three jumpers and committed a turnover. When they saw Braswell camped out by the three point line, which he is warranted to do sometimes, one fan yelled "Braswell, don't shoot a three pointer, because you always miss them!" The fan knew what he was talking about as Braswell attempts nearly two three point attempts per game and is shooting 22.5 percent from beyond the arc on the season.

VCU extended their lead to ten, 18-8 on a Treveon Graham three pointer. Nine minutes into the game, the Rams had forced five turnovers and hit on more than half their shots. A Juvonte Reddic jumper with about eight and a half minutes left in the half kept VCU's lead at ten, 22-12.

But Charlotte ramped up their intensity on both sides of the ball and went on a 10-0 run over the next four plus minutes. The 49ers gave the Rams a little bit of their own medicine, forcing two turnovers in the span, which led to four Charlotte points. Terrance Williams' jumper tied the game at 22 with a little more than four minutes left in the half. The 49ers' fans were the loudest I had heard them in the three Charlotte games I had attended on the season. Shaka Smart was forced to call timeout as Halton Arena was rocking.

But off the timeout, Smart got the ball in the hands of Brandenburg who calmly buried a three pointer to put VCU up three, 25-22. The next play that ensued was the craziest play on the night. Chris Braswell had an open two on one break for an easy layup. But as he awkwardly dribbled toward the basket, he fumbled the ball, much to the displeasure of the fans by me. But fortunately for Braswell, Clayton was there and put in the layup to cut the Rams lead to one, 25-24.

VCU though would end the half outscoring Charlotte 9-4. With 00.1 seconds left in the half, Theus leaned into Charlotte's Pierria Henry on a jumper. The jumper was good and the foul was called on Henry. Theus would make the free throw and the Rams would go into halftime up 34-28.

After an entertaining halftime show by a local acrobatic fitness group (Astro Fitness I believe), the 49ers had an inauspicious start to the second half. They committed turnovers on each of their first two possessions. However Charlotte maintained their striking distance to VCU, still only down six, 41-35 with fifteen and a half minutes in the game.

But the turnovers kept coming for the 49ers. Their fourth and fifth turnovers on consecutive possessions led to Rams' baskets. After Henry committed a turnover, Reddic's layup put VCU up ten, 45-35 with fourteen minutes left in the game. A Brandenburg layup and two Reddic free throws extended the Rams lead to twelve, 49-37.

The 49ers chipped away at the lead with a 5-0 mini spurt over two plus minutes. A layup by Hentry made it 49-42 with 8:54 left. But Charlotte could have made the score much closer in that time frame had they not missed four free throws; two by Clayton, one by Darion Clark and one by Braswell, who was ingratiating himself with the fans more and more as the game progressed.

After Henry's layup cut the lead to seven, sensing a momentum shift, Smart again called timeout. And again off the timeout, it was Brandenburg who made the 49ers pay for their missed chances. He buried a three pointer and followed with a layup to extend the Rams lead back to twelve, 54-42 with seven a half minutes left.

Charlotte again responded with four straight points to cut the lead to eight again, 54-46. But for the third time in the game, Smart called timeout. And for the third time again, Brandenburg responded burying a three to put the Rams up eleven, 57-46 with six minutes left. A little bit later, Troy Daniels finally got into the act, hitting his first three pointer on the night to put the Rams up twelve, 62-48 with four and a half minutes left in the game.

It was at this time that the 49ers' fans had seen enough. They started leaving in droves. And even when Terrance Williams' ridiculously banked in a three pointer to make the score 66-57 with one minute left, the mass exodus from Halton Arena was well under way. The 49ers put in a meaningless last second basket to make the final VCU 68 Charlotte 61. Thus ended the 49ers undefeated streak at Halton this season.

With Graham in foul trouble for most of the game, Brandenburg and Reddic stepped up for the Rams. Brandenberg had twenty one points on seven of twelve shooting including three 3-pointers. Reddic added fourteen points on six of nine shooting and added three blocks and two steals. Graham still had twelve points for the Rams who shot nearly fifty two percent from the field against one of the better field goal defensive teams in the nation. VCU also scored twenty three points off seventeen Charlotte turnovers.

Charlotte had a good shooting night against VCU, shooting over fifty one percent themselves. But what killed the 49ers was a) The turnovers, b) Shooting one of seven from beyond the arc (Williams' lucky three was the only three pointer for Charlotte on the night), while VCU shot seven of eighteen from beyond the arc and c) an abysmal twelve of twenty two from the line. Willliams had thirteen points and Clayton added twelve. With Mayfield now gone for the rest of the season, Charlotte's other two leading scorers on the season, Braswell and Henry, combined for only sixteen points on five of nineteen shooting (the rest of Charlotte shot nineteen of twenty eight from the field.

With the win, VCU remains tied for first in the tight Atlantic-10 with Butler and Saint Louis at 7-2. With the loss, Charlotte dropped all the way to a seventh place with Temple and George Washington , two teams that have beaten them, at 5-4. The bright side for the 49ers is that UMass, LaSalle and Xavier are all tied for fourth at 6-3. Charlotte has already beaten all three of those teams.

Only two games separate the first place team from the ninth place team in the Atlantic-10. The Atlantic-10 is the perfect microcosm to the wild 2012-13 college basketball season. Perhaps it's not just a night of havoc, but a season of havoc.

That's VCU's type of season.

Charlotte D the Difference in Win over LaSalle

In a conference as competitive as the Atlantic 10, every game is critical, especially when it comes to two teams whose early season records have set them up for a potential NCAA Tournament at large bid.  Such was the case Wednesday night at Halton Arena as Charlotte hosted LaSalle in the conference opener for both teams.

The 49ers and Explorers came into the game with a total of five combined losses.  LaSalle entered the game at 10-3, while Charlotte was 12-2.  However. neither team has an elite non conference win on their resume and both have a loss to Miami Florida.   In a stacked A-10, where four teams made the NCAA Tournament last season (Temple, Xavier, St Bonaventure and St Louis), another made the NIT championship game (UMass) and VCU and Butler have now joined in the fray, a 1-0 conference start seems even more important.

It was a clash of styles on Wednesday night.  LaSalle is one of the higher scoring teams in the country, averaging about seventy four points per game.  Meanwhile, Charlotte is one of the better defensive teams in the country, ranked tenth in the country in effective field goal percentage defense and in the top thirty five in three point field goal percentage defense.

I made the two hour drive from Columbia in rush hour traffic to Charlotte and got to the Halton Arena right before game time.   Desperately needing food, I went up to the concessions stand and ordered a Bojangles chicken sandwich and fries.  The attendant warned me the sandwich was hot.  She didn't tell me that it was actually nuclear temperature wise.   Combine that with the saltiest fries ever and I am glad I had a got a drink with the meal.

The teams came out and scored in each of the first three possessions of the game, with Charlotte taking a quick 4-3 lead not even a minute into the game.  Then over the next four and a half minutes, the teams combined to score another seven points as LaSalle had an 8-6 lead.

The 49ers would awake from their scoring funk with a 12-0 run over the next four and a half minutes.  A DeMario Mayfield three pointer would put Charlotte up 18-8 and LaSalle called a timeout with exactly ten minutes left in the half, desperate to find some offense against a suffocating 49ers defense.

At one point in the first half, the Explorers were shooting eight percent from beyond the arc.  No, that wasn't a misprint. Eight percent.  The main culprit was their leading scorer on the season, Ramon Galloway.  Galloway had a rough first half with much of the credit going to the Charlotte perimeter defense.  After hitting two of his first three field goal attempts, he proceeded to miss ten straight shots, most of them from beyond the arc.

That played directly into Charlotte's strength as one of the best two point FG percentage defensive teams in the country, ranked thirteenth in the category.  With the Explorers misfiring from three as badly as the 49ers T-shirt Gatling gun's misfiring during one of the media timeouts and the 49ers clamping down on any shots inside, the Charlotte extended their lead to 33-17 at the half.  Had the 49ers made a few of their free throws, the lead would have been twenty at the half.

LaSalle needed to score points quickly to get back in the game.  And give Galloway credit.  A graduate of the John Starks school of shooting ("When in doubt, keep firing), Galloway immediately buried a three pointer to follow a Jerrell Wright layup.  A Tyreek Duren layup made it a 7-0 run for the Explorers and just like that, the Charlotte lead was single digits, 33-24.

For basically the entire first half, arguably the 49ers best player, Chris Braswell, was out of it.  He wasn't aggressive on defense, wasn't hustling and took a couple of ill advised shots.  Having seen him twice now, Braswell can be brilliant with his passing and his inside post moves.  He can also be infuriating, taking long fallaway jumpers that never hit.  And the fans near me were not happy with Braswell and made their displeasure known.

But like the bad girl with the curl, when Braswell is on, he's one of the best forwards in the A-10.  And when they needed him, he came through.  After Duren's layup, Charlotte called timeout.  Off the timeout, the 49ers setup a play for their big man.  Braswell's strong post move resulted in a layup and one.  He made the free throw for the three point play.  The 49ers would add four more straight points to go back up sixteen 40-24 with sixteen minutes left in the game.

Charlotte couldn't put the game away however as LaSalle would hang around, mostly due to Galloway's second half heroics as he scored seventeen points in the final twenty minutes of the game.  With about three minutes left, Duren stole the ball and found a streaking Galloway who nailed a sweet reverse dunk that resulted in a large buzz from the crowd.  The Explorers were now down only six, 65-59 with 2:53 left in the game.

But Henry responded with an empthatic dunk of his own to put Charlotte up 67-59.  Despite Galloway, LaSalle would not get any closer.  The 49ers would get their first A-10 win of the season downing the Explorers 74-65.

Henry was the leading scorer for Charlotte with twenty points.  E Victor Nickerson added thirteen points, seven rebounds and four assists.  Darion Clark had twelve points and Mayfield added ten points. Braswell only had seven points on the night.  The 49ers shot 48 percent from the field and were 22 of 31 from the line.

Galloway led all scorers with twenty three points, but he had to earn them.  He shot 7 of 29 from the field, including a brutal 3 of 14 from beyond the arc.    He did also add nine rebounds.  The Explorers had twenty one offensive rebounds but couldn't take advantage of the second chance opportunities. Duren added twelve points, five assists and three steals, while Wright had eleven points and nine rebounds.  LaSalle entered the game shooting over 38 percent from beyond the arc.  On Wednesday night, the Explorers were 4 of 29 on three point attempts, thirteen percent on the night.  LaSalle shot thirty two percent from the field in general.

Charlotte had their conference opener win.   Every win is precious in the rough and tumble A-10 conference.  LaSalle left Halton Arena licking their wounds and still looking for that precious first conference win.

Doubleheader Saturday - Game 1 - 49ers Remain Undefeated (Recap of CMU v. Charlotte)

Charlotte has long had a successful men’s basketball program.  The 49ers made the Final Four with Cornbread Maxwell in 1977.  They were also briefly a part of the famed Metro Conference from 1991-1995. From 1992 to 2008, Charlotte made the NCAA Tournament nine times and the NIT four times.

But Charlotte has fallen on hard times recently. Since the 2006-07 season, the 49ers have had only two winning seasons and one postseason appearance, the 2008 NIT.  So when Charlotte knocked off Davidson on the Wildcats home court for their eighth consecutive win, I featured them in my Four on the Floor weekly segment series and made plans to travel up north to see them yesterday as they hosted Central Michigan.

It was a beautiful drive up to Charlotte yesterday as the temperature was around seventy degrees. Halton Arena is right on the campus of Charlotte. After you park in the parking garage, it is a short walk to the arena, which opened in 1996.  It seats 9100 and it is quite a pretty building.  Inside, there is a huge, spacious concourse where you can easily walk around with table and couch seating.  When you walk in from the concourse to the actual arena, you are surrounded by green everywhere.  It reminds me a lot of the Nutter Center on the campus of Wright State.

The last time I was at Halton Arena was the start of the 2006-07 season when they hosted Hofstra. Both teams had made the NIT the season before.  Hopes were high for Hofstra fans going into the season as they were the favorites to win the CAA.  But the 49ers used their size advantage to knock off the Pride 88-82.

As I noted in my weekly segment, Charlotte has won with defense.  Heading into the game vs. the Chippewas, the 49ers were twenty fourth in the country in two point field goal percentage defense.  And it was clearly early on why that was the case.  Charlotte swarms to the basketball, especially in the paint, with active hands and very good help defense.  

Central Michigan made their first shot attempt, but would then not score another basket until seven minutes later as they missed their next seven shots.  However, the Chippewas came out in a zone and forced the 49ers to shoot from the outside and Charlotte struggled as a result.  Thus the score was tied at 13-13 nine minutes into the game.

Charlotte would go on an 8-0 run led by senior Chris Braswell, who comes off the bench for the 49ers. The 6-9 senior forward would score four points in the spurt and showed some nifty passing skills with a couple of assists in the first half.   He is also very effective scoring in the paint, though he has a tendency to take open shots from the outside and is not a good outside shooter. Despite being Charlotte’s leading scorer, Braswell only averages about twenty four minutes per game.  But he gives them a much needed spark off the bench.

The 49ers were still up seven 27-20 with a little more than three minutes left.  But the Chippewas, realizing that they couldn’t score in the paint, went long range on the 49ers.   Chris Fowler assisted on two three pointers, the second by Blake Hibbitts and the game was tied at 27.   Charlotte scored the last four points to go up 31-27 at the half.

There were two major developments at halftime.  First, it was Mascot Day at Halton Arena, and that included a mascot basketball game as the halftime show.  Second, I found out that Matt Cayuela, writer for the Mid Majority and known to the Twitter world as Myrtle Beach Happy Hour was also at the game and we sat together for the second half.   Matt is also known as the man who called Tulane “The Iron Mike Sharpe of the Big East” after the Green Wave joined the conference for the 2013-14 season.

Speaking of a Green Wave, the tide started going the way of the 49ers in the second half.  Charlotte outscored Central Michigan 14-2 over a period of five minutes.  The 49ers finally started hitting their shots from beyond the arc, hitting four three pointers in the first nine minutes.  DeMario Mayfield’s second three pointer of the half put Charlotte up 51-38 with 11:15 left in the game.

During this time, there was a scrum for a loose ball and a melee ensued.  Whistles blew and after all was said and done, Charlotte starting sophomore guard Pierria Henry was tossed from the game.  Not to be outdone, Central Michigan Head Coach Keno Davis was given a technical foul and nearly got tossed from the game.

Central Michigan refused to go away and continued to make shots from long distance, similar to the large t-shirt Gatling gun used during a media timeout.  Over the next seven and a half minutes, the Chippewas hit four three pointers.   The last of which, a Hibbits three point shot, cut the 49ers lead to six, 64-58 with 3:40 left.

But Charlotte scored eight straight points, including two three pointers of their own to put the game out of reach.  A Braswell layup made the score 72-58.  Charlotte would eventually win 78-66.

Mayfield led Charlotte with fifteen points, while Denzel Ingram added thirteen points and Willie Clayton had ten points and nine rebounds.  Braswell had eight points and twelve rebounds.  The 49ers shot forty nine percent from the field and had twenty three assists and only nine turnovers.

Charlotte continued to show its two point field goal defensive prowess as Central Michigan shot better from beyond the arc, 10 of 27, than from two point range, 10 of 29.  Hibbits, Olivier Mbaigoto, Kyle Randall and John Simons combined to score fifty two points and hit all of the team’s ten three pointers.

The 5,263 in attendance got to see the team’s ninth straight win.  The 49ers have five more non conference games before they start A-10 play against LaSalle at Halton Arena on January 9.  If the 49ers can win at Miami and defeat Florida State in a neutral site game, they have a good chance entering conference play undefeated.  In the very competitive Atlantic Ten, every win is needed if you want to get back to the NCAA Tournament after a seven year drought.

Four on the Floor For the Week of December 3

Once again, it's time for our new weekly segment "Four on the Floor", which highlights four teams either playing very well or not so well.  In this week's segment, all the teams featured are so far having successful seasons.

Stony Brook

The Seawolves are 6-2 on the season with half their wins coming on the road.  They also led for a good portion of their game against UConn before eventually losing to the Huskies at Storrs. I got to see Stony Brook at home as they defeated Canisius.

Stony Brook does it with defense. They are nineteenth in the country in two point field goal percentage defense at 40.1 percent.  The Seawolves are also fifteenth in the country in block percentage at 15.4 percent. Late in the game, the Seawolves hit their free throws.  Only eleven teams in the country have a better free throw percentage than Stony Brook's 77.1 percent from the line.

Two players stand out in particular for the Seawolves.  Freshman Jameel Warney has been an absolute find for Coach Steve Pikiell. He averages eleven points, nearly eight rebounds and over one block per game. Warney is also shooting 59.6 percent from the field. Impressive.

And of course, there is Mr. Stony Brook himself, Tommy Brenton.  Brenton is the ultimate one man stat machine.  He averages eight points, eight rebounds, nearly five assists per game and over two steals per game.  Brenton seemingly has never met a loose ball he hasn't sprawled out for on the court.

The Seawolves have a huge test in front of them.  Their next five games are on the road and they won't play a home game until an America East conference game vs. New Hampshire.  If they can somehow win four of the five games, they will be in great shape for conference play.

Charlotte

The 49ers are putting the Atlantic 10 on notice.  They have got off to a tremendous start at 8-0 with a big win last night at Davidson over a very good Wildcats team. Charlotte also won the Great Alaska Shootout earlier in the season and gave East Carolina their only loss so far this season last Saturday.

It's all about defense for the 49ers.  They are twenty fourth in the country in two point field goal percentage defense at 40.5 percent.  Charlotte also ranks in the top fifty five in three point field goal percentage defense, block percentage defense and steal percentage defense.

Charlotte is a very deep team.  They have ten players that average ten minutes or more per game.  The 49ers are led by Chris Braswell who averages fifteen points, six rebounds per game and shoots fifty one percent from the field.  The senior Braswell surprisingly averages only twenty three minutes per game and it's not because he fouls a lot.  He only averages 2.3 fouls per game. Just shows you how deep Charlotte is as a team.

If the 49ers can win at Miami next Friday, they stand a very good chance of being undefeated come conference play in January.

Lehigh

The Mountain Hawks have picked up right where they left off from the NCAA Tournament when Lehigh knocked off Duke in the second round.  The Mountain Hawks are 7-2 with their only losses at Baylor and at Pittsburgh.  Their average margin of victory is nineteen points.

The Mountain Hawks are an offensive juggernaut.  They are eighteenth in the country in scoring, averaging 80.2 points per game.  Lehigh is second in the country in three point field goal percentage at 43.2 percent and sixth in the country in free throw percentage at 78.9 percent. They are twenty fifth in the country in field goal percentage at 48.2 percent and are number thirty in the country in assists, averaging 16.4 assists per game.  The Mountain Hawks are fifteenth in effective field goal percentage at 55.2 percent.  And they do all this without turning the ball over as they are ranked number twenty four in the country in turnover percentage on offense at 16.7 percent

But what's most impressive about Lehigh is one C.J. McCollum.  He averages twenty four points, five rebounds, three assists and one and half steals per game, while shooting over fifty percent from the field and an insane fifty three percent from beyond the arc .  Supposedly there will be nearly forty scouts for the Lehigh - North Texas game on December 20th to see McCollum play.

They might also want to watch his teammate Gabe Knutson.  Knutson is a 6-9 forward averaging fifteen points and five rebounds per game.  He also shoots fifty eight percent from the field and forty three percent from beyond the arc.  Little wonder why the Mountain Hawks are on pace for at least twenty two wins.  Game to watch is their January 5th road game at VCU.

New Mexico

Steve Alford really has the Lobos picking up where they left off from last year's 28-7 team that barely lost to Louisville in the third round of the NCAA Tournament.  New Mexico has solid wins over Davidson, George Mason and UConn.

The Lobos don't really stick out in any statistical team category except in two categories.  They are tenth in the country in free throw percentage at 78.1 percent and are twenty sixth in offensive rebound defense percentage at 26.3 percent.  Basically, they hit their free throws and they limit their opponents' second chance opportunities.

New Mexico has eight players who average about sixteen minutes or more per game.   Their offense is a three headed attack of Kendall Williams, Tony Snell and Alex Kirk, who combine for thirty eight points per game.  Williams also averages five assists per game, while Snell  adds three assists per game and shoots over ninety percent from the free throw line.  Kirk averages nine rebounds per game and shoots fifty three percent from the field.

The Lobos, with one of the best home court advantages in the country in "The Pit", will have some significant tests in the next seven games ;Valparaiso at home , home and home with New Mexico State, home to Nate Wolters and South Dakota State, then at Cincinnati, then at St  Louis, then home to UNLV.  By the end of the game vs. the Rebels, Alford should know where his team stands as far as NCAA hopes.

Six Degrees of Hofstra Separation - Part I - Growing Pains for Pecora's Rebuild of Fordham

I wanted to do something crazy for the 800 games Played Project.  An opportunity arose a few weeks ago to be able to see three games in one day; Charlotte vs. Fordham, Georgia State vs. Hofstra and Iona vs. Manhattan.  The time schedules were perfect; 1:00 PM, 4:00 PM, 7:00 PM.  With a little luck and a lead foot, I thought I could make all three games.


When I planned out my triple header for yesterday, I noticed that the three games all had something in common; Hofstra.  Thus the theme for all three stories is the "Six Degrees of Hofstra Separation". The first of the three games involved Charlotte at Fordham at Rose Hill Gym.  Fordham is coached by Tom Pecora, the former head coach of the Pride.

Pecora was first an assistant at Hofstra under Jay Wright, whose teams made back to back NCAA Tournaments in 2000 and 2001, as well as a NIT appearance in 1999.  When Wright left for Villanova, Pecora was hired as the coach.  Under Pecora, the Pride had three straight NIT appearances in 2005, 2006 and 2007.  Yes, we all know about 2006.  Let's not go there. Hofstra also had four twenty plus win seasons under Pecora as a head coach.

He is also known for being a strong recruiter, especially when it comes to guards. Speedy Claxton, Norman Richardson, Rick Apodaca, Loren Stokes, Antoine Agudio, Carlos Rivera and Charles Jenkins were all very successful Hofstra guards that were recruited by Pecora.   Three of those players; Claxton, Richardson and Jenkins have played in the NBA.  Apodaca played for Puerto Rico in the Olympics.  Jenkins was three times the Haggerty Award winner for the best player in the New York City metro area.  Stokes and Jenkins were both CAA Players of the Year (Jenkins twice).  Agudio and Stokes were each two time First Team All CAA players.

That brings us to Pecora's latest talented guard, Branden Frazier.  Frazier originally was recruited for the Pride in Pecora's final season as head coach of Hofstra.  But when Pecora left for Fordham, he took Frazier with him.  Last season, Frazier averaged eleven points per game in his freshmen season while playing mostly point guard for the Rams.  His best game was his sixteen point effort in Fordham's home upset of St John's, where he  went three of four from beyond the arc and added five assists.

In his sophomore season, Frazier has moved to the two guard as the Rams have Devon McMillan playing the point.  While sitting in the Xavier section for Fordham's game against the Musketeers,  I was very impressed with Frazier's improvement.  Against one of the best teams in the Atlantic Ten, he had twenty two points, five steals, five rebounds and three assists.  It was the classic stat sheet stuffer performance I have seen from so many Pecora guards over the years.

When my son Matthew, my friend Tieff and I got to our seats up in the balcony of Rose Hill Gym yesterday a few minutes before another Saturday Mass, the gym was surprisingly nowhere as filled as it was for the Xavier game. Yes, I know the 49ers are not quite the Musketeers, but Pecora has brought an energy to the Rams' fan base.  As I suspected, it turned out it was a late arriving crowd for the game that was on the YES network.  Once we were a few minutes into the game, Rose Hill was filled pretty well as the listed crowd was near 2,500.

One of the more frustrating aspects about college basketball nowadays is teams' over-reliance on the three point shot.  The early action in the Charlotte-Fordham game was an excellent example of that.  Players on both teams were camped out on the three point line, while the ball movement and player movement off the ball were lacking.  In the first seven minutes, of the twenty shots taken, twelve or sixty percent of those shots were three pointers.  Fordham missed five of their seven three point attempts in the first seven minutes.

But after those first few minutes, both teams realized that they had a inside presence on offense.  For Charlotte, that was Chris Braswell.  Braswell actually scored the team's first four points but was a key in their 9-0 run late in the first half to put the 49ers up 27-16 with five minutes left.  Braswell would have nine first half points for Charlotte.

As for Fordham, the Rams started going to their double double machine, junior forward Chris Gaston.  Gaston is simply relentless inside. He scored ten first half points to keep Fordham in the game as they were only down 32-28 at the half.

At the start of the second half, Fordham quickly outscored Charlotte 6-0 to take a 34-32 lead.  But Jamar Briscoe buried two long three pointers to put the 49ers back up 38-34.  The teams would exchange the lead a couple of more times and the game was very close for the first ten minutes.  Charlotte was only ahead by one, 48-47 with ten minutes left.

But the 49ers extended that lead with a 8-0 spurt as a result of five offensive rebounds in the span of five minutes.  This was due in large part to Braswell and DeMario Mayfield.  The duo combined for thirty seven points and twenty six rebounds as each had a double double on the game (Braswell 20 and 12, Mayfield 17 and 14).  The 49ers outrebounded the Rams 53-36 with eighteen offensive rebounds.

Gaston did his best to keep Fordham in the game as he scored fifteen second half points to score twenty five for the game.  He shot ten of seventeen from the field and added fourteen rebounds as well.  He hit a layup to cut Charlotte's lead to four, 60-56.  With the under four minute media timeout, the Rams were still down only four, 62-58 and the Rose Hill crowd was soundly into the game now.

Despite Gaston, the problem was the rest of the team was ice cold from the field.  The Rams shot only twenty seven percent in the second half.  This was due to the previously mentioned over reliance on the three pointer.  Subtracting Gaston's field goal attempts, the Rams had fifty one other field goal attempts on the game.  Over half, twenty six of them were three point attempts.  Of those twenty six, Fordham hit only six, including going two of fourteen in the second half.

And no one was colder than Frazier.  Frazier hit his only two three pointers in the first half.  In the second half, Frazier was one of six from the field and two of nine overall from beyond the arc. A series late in the game highlighted Frazier's struggles on the day.  With a little over one minute left in the game and the Rams down five points, 65-60, Frazier had an open look for a three pointer. He missed the three, then right afterwards committed his fifth foul.  Frazier only had eight points on the day, four under his average on the season.

Charlotte would go on to win 69-62.  It was only their third win in the Atlantic Ten this season. But the 49ers evened their overall record at 11-11.

As for Fordham, 9-13 overall, it was only their third loss at home on the season in eleven games at Rose Hill Gym.  Considering that they only had two overall wins in the 2009-10 season, that's definitely an improvement.  Pecora has to be somewhat pleased with their home record and that his team already has more wins this season, nine, than last season, seven.  They also have already two conference wins, more than last season.

But for a coach that's used to having several twenty plus win seasons, Pecora knows that he still has a lot of work to do.   Fortunately for him, he has Gaston, Frazier and Bryn Smith, who had fourteen points yesterday, all returning next season.  The Rams will continue to improve.  But as yesterday showed, there will continue to be growing pains along the way for a rebuilding Fordham program.