Yesterday at Belk Arena, Davidson hosted Drexel in a match-up of two of the better mid major programs in the country. It was by chance that my color analyst, aka my older son Matthew, and I were able to see the game. Due to the torrential rain on Saturday, Matthew's pickup baseball game was canceled because the Little League field he plays on was covered with large puddles. So instead, we spent a lovely Sunday afternoon in Davidson, North Carolina.
Last season, both the Dragons and the Wildcats were favored to win their conferences. Davidson held up their end of the bargain, winning the Southern Conference Tournament, then led Marquette most of the way before losing on a last second game winning layup by the Golden Eagles. Meanwhile, Chris Fouch got hurt for the Dragons during their third game of the season and Drexel never recovered, finishing 13-19 on the season and losing in the second round of the CAA Tournament to George Mason.
Entering the game, both teams were down some of their best players. Davidson was without leading scorer, senior forward De'Mon Brooks, who had missed the four previous games as well with a knee injury suffered during a loss to Clemson. The Wildcats were also without senior guard Tom Droney, who injured his foot in a loss to Niagara. Between Brooks and Droney, they average 30 points and 10 rebounds per game. The Dragons are without starting guard Damion Lee for the rest of the season due to a torn ACL. Lee was the team's leading scorer last season, averaging 17 points per game. Before he got hurt, Lee was averaging thirteen points per game. So you could day both teams were equally disadvantaged entering the game.
Belk Arena is one of my favorite arenas in the country. It seats a little more than 5,000 people and the rafters are rich with the history of Davidson Basketball. Scores of NCAA Tournament and Southern Conference championship banners fill the top of the arena. But after seventy plus years of affiliation with the SoCon (sans a period of four years in the late eighties/early nineties where Davidson was an independent, then a member of the Big South), the Wildcats will be leaving the conference after this season to join the A-10.
Matthew and I weren't the only CAA stalwarts at the game. Dan Crain, author of the terrific Dragons Speak blog and longtime fellow #CAAHoops tweeter made the trip down, along with several friends, from Philadelphia for the game and just happened to have seats right next to us. Dan was looking forward to the Drexel debut of junior guard Freddie Wilson, a transfer from Seton Hall.
It was clearly evident from the start that Drexel's plan was to drive it inside on Davidson. The Dragons' first eight points came from within the arc, mostly on layups. Meanwhile, Davidson struggled from the field, missing on their first twelve shots of the game. Yet the Wildcats managed to stay close early on, trailing only 8-7 with all their points coming from free throws.
But it was only a matter of time before Davidson's cold shooting would come into play. Drexel would score the next ten points over the next five plus minutes. A Frantz Massenat jumper would put the Dragons up 18-7 with 10:15 left in the first half. Wildcats' coach Bob McKillop called timeout to try to get his team going from the field.
It took nearly eleven and a half minutes of game action, but Davidson finally hit their first field goal, a three pointer by Brian Sullivan. Tyler Kalinoski followed with an old fashioned three point play and suddenly the Wildcats were only down five, 18-13. Davidson hung around for the next few minutes, only trailing by six, 26-20 with a little less than four and a half minutes left.
But without Brooks, Davidson had no inside scoring threat and continued to miss regularly from outside the arc. Meanwhile, Massenat was a one man wrecking crew for the Dragons. He first scored on a three point play to put Drexel up nine. Then he buried a three pointer to put the Dragons up twelve, 32-20. Later a Kazembe Abif three point play put Drexel up fourteen, 37-23. Davidson scored the final four points of the half, much to the chagrin of Dragons' coach Bruiser Flint and the Wildcats were only down ten, 37-27 at the half.
Davidson has a great halftime fan participation game, a variation of "Musical Chairs". Several kids dribble around a group of chairs at center court while music plays. When the music stops, the kids have to go to either basket and make a layup. If they make the layup, then can dribble back to the chairs. One by one, a kid was eliminated. It got down to two kids and it turned out both kids ended up on the single chair at the same time, which resulted in a tie. The fans gave the kids a rousing ovation for a well played game.
The start of the second half had Chris Fouch channeling Loren Stokes (Google "Loren Stokes") with a couple of floaters in the lane to put Drexel up 41-29. The Dragons maintained their eleven point lead, 44-33 with about fifteen minutes left.
Davidson went on a 11-5 mini spurt over the next three and half minutes. A Jake Belford three cut the Drexel lead to six, 46-40 with eleven and half minutes left in the game. Over the next few minutes, Davidson stayed within six, 50-44 with a little less than eight minutes left in the game.
But the Wildcats would get no closer. The Dragons outscored them 9-4 over the next three minutes. The newest Dragon, Wilson, would score four of those points within the span. A Fouch three pointer put Drexel up 59-48 with just less than five minutes left.
Davidson had several opportunities from the free throw line to cut the deficit to as little as three points. But the Wildcats missed four of six free throw attempts over the span of thirty seven seconds. A Jordan Barham layup cut the deficit to seven, 59-52 with 2:47 left.
But Massenat would score nine of the last thirteen Dragons' points, seven on free throws despite a fan trying to distract him with a large Ron Burgundy head, as Drexel would defeat Davidson 72-58. With the win, Drexel is now 7-2 on the season, with their only two losses against #22 UCLA and #1 Arizona. Davidson falls to 4-7 on the season.
Massenat was a stat sheet stuffer on the day, leading all scorers with twenty five points and adding seven rebounds, two assists and two steals. Fouch had seventeen points, while the newcomer Wilson added seven points. The Dragons out-rebounded the Wildcats 47-38, not surprising considering Drexel is 44th in the country in rebounds.
Sullivan led Davidson with fourteen points, Kalinoski added thirteen points and Barham had eleven for the Wildcats. Davidson was held to thirty two percent shooting from the field including an ugly 3 of 22 from beyond the arc. The Wildcats also struggled from the line, missing fourteen free throws.
For a team that is trying to get back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1996, Drexel appears to be back to their 2011-12 form. But they have their annual test at fellow Philly native St Joe's on December 18. Another road win over the Hawks would further strengthen their non conference resume.
Meanwhile, things don't get easier for Davidson. The Wildcats have consecutive road games vs. North Carolina and Wichita State, both nationally ranked before playing former conference foe College of Charleston on New Year's Day. Then they start their last regular conference season in the SoCon.
Davidson very likely will be under .500 when they start conference play, Then again, in the 2007-08 season, the Wildcats started the season 4-6. They never lost again that season until the Elite Eight against Kansas. Never count out a Bob McKillop team.
Matthew and I said our goodbyes to Dan and his friends and wished them a safe trip back to Philly. Then we walked back into town, made our way to our car and headed home. On a nice sunny, relatively warm December day, maybe Matthew and I saw two eventual 2014 NCAA Tournament Teams.
One never knows in the wacky world that is college basketball.
When Drexel defeated Northern Iowa on Sunday in the second round of the NIT, it gave the Dragons another home game. This was assured when UMass upset Seton Hall on their home court on Saturday. It also gave me the opportunity to purchase three tickets for the Tuesday night game at the DAC.
It also meant that Dragons' Head Coach Bruiser Flint was going to face for the first time his former pupil, Derek Kellogg, head coach of the Minutemen. Flint was an assistant coach at UMass when Kellogg was the point guard under John Calipari. It's a fascinating story that was described here on CSNPhillyTalk.com.
I left work early on Tuesday Afternoon (cue the Moody Blues song) and picked up my color analyst, aka my older son Matthew from school. Then my friend Tieff met up at our house and we went on our way to Philadelphia. The trip lasted about two and half hours due to traffic on the Staten Island Expressway and the New Jersey Turnpike (a New Jersey State Trooper had to clear downed road signs from the left lane due to an accident).
When we drove down Market Street, a spot opened up literally in front of the DAC. I parallel parked the car into the spot, then paid six bucks for three hours at the kiosk. Needless to say, we were quite happy with our good fortune.
For Tieff and I, this was the fourth game we had seen at the DAC. As were about to walk into the entrance, Tieff commented that the gym might be very warm tonight. In our previous trips, the gym had been pretty warm.
But Tieff had been the harbinger of doom on Tuesday night. When we entered the gym, it was the warmest it had ever been. It turns out that the oppressive heat at the DAC would play an integral part of the second half. All that was missing was Matthew Broderick commenting that the gym was "Africa hot".
Matthew was dressed for the "Africa hot" gym wearing a Drexel Dragons T-shirt. When I was in Philly last year for the Hofstra-Drexel game, I signed him up for the Drexel Dragons Youth Club and I got him the t-shirt for free. Matthew was excited to see his new favorite player, Samme Givens, who he watched have a terrific game vs. Northern Iowa on Sunday morning.
This was my second NIT quarterfinal that I have witnessed in person. Back in 2006, when Hofstra "made the NIT", thanks to another NCAA Selection Committee snub, the Pride hosted a quarterfinal against Old Dominion. Due to that NIT Quarterfinal in 2006, I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach about this. But I did my best not to show it and hoped that Drexel would continue their run with another win on Tuesday night.
We got our tickets from Will Call and sat in one of the upper rows behind the Drexel bench. The DACPack, the great Drexel student section, was already in their seats raring to go, chanting loudly before the tipoff. One of those students sitting behind the UMass basket held a sign that said "Kellogg's Frosted Minutemen". Give the kid an A for humorous originality.
Drexel did not seem fazed by the oppressive heat and stormed out to a 9-0 lead. Samme Givens scored five of the first nine points with his usual display of post moves. What had already been a loud gym was now way above raucous.
The Minutemen would finally score behind a very familiar face to Tieff and me. Chaz Williams, who played his freshman year at Hofstra, would score the first five points for UMass on a layup, then a three point play to cut the lead to 11-5. Williams, who is definitely not the five foot nine he is listed at, was a member of the CAA All Rookie Team for the Pride two years ago before he transferred to the Minutemen. When he saw Williams for the first time, my color analyst commented to me "Number three is so small".
But Drexel continued to score at will in the paint and they jumped out to a 17-5 lead. UMass would come back and cut the lead to 23-17. But the Dragons responded and stretched the lead back to ten, where it would stay for the rest of the first half.
As I had previously noted, the Dragons kept doing most of their damage in the paint, where they scored thirty four of their forty one first half points. Most of the damage was being done by Givens and Dartaye Ruffin, who was a member of the CAA All Rookie Team last season. Givens had ten points, but it was Ruffin that was the most impressive. He hit eight of his nine field goal attempts and had seventeen first half points.
Drexel was up 41-31 at the half. Despite shooting forty seven percent, UMass was down ten points because the Dragons shot fifty one percent from the field. It was an impressive feat by both teams considering neither team had a three pointer in the first half. The Minutemen missed both of their three point attempts while the Dragons missed all seven of their shots from beyond the arc.
Thanks to the oppressive heat, it seemed like the entire crowd was waiting on the concession line during the halftime intermission. The concessions stand ran out of water. Thus Matthew and I had to purchase lemonade instead. Now this wasn't an issue for me, but for my six year old son who only drinks water, it was a big problem. He begrudgingly and slowly drank some of his lemonade, just enough to keep him hydrated.
There was no halftime show at the DAC. I guess the wonderful folks at ESPN, who were televising the NIT, didn't want to have any terrific performers like the Bucks County Bungee Jumpers, who we saw at the halftime of this year's Hofstra vs. Drexel game. Considering the great atmosphere of a sold out gym and a more than lively student section, the Bungee Jumpers this time might have brought the place down.
The Dragons picked up right where they left off in the first half. Derrick Thomas scored the first four points on layups and Drexel now had a 45-31 lead. Kellogg immediately called timeout to wisely slow down the Dragons' momentum. But Drexel continued to score in the paint and a Frantz Massenat three point play put the Dragons up by their biggest margin, seventeen, 53-36 with not even four minutes gone by in the second half.
It looked like the Dragons were about to punch their ticket to the World's Most Famous Arena, Madison Square Garden. It seemed that Drexel was about to have the chance to show on a national stage how the Selection Committee had wrongly left them out of the NCAA Tournament. All that stood between them and a bus trip to New York City was sixteen minutes.
That and the Massachusetts Minutemen.
UMass switched to a half court trap and that started to bother Drexel. The Minutemen would score nine straight points and cut the lead to eight, 53-45. Another Thomas layup briefly stemmed the tide and put the Dragons back up by ten, 55-45. But UMass' Jesse Morgan then scored the next five points and the lead was down to five, 55-50 with eleven and a half minutes left.
In the span of four and a half minutes, the Minutemen had outscored the Dragons 14-2. During this period of time, the Dragons were one of ten from the field and turned the ball over four times. When they weren't turning the ball over and broke the UMass press, instead of being aggressive and trying to score, Drexel just settled into their half court offense. Perhaps it was the heat that made them tired, but the Dragons didn't seem to have their legs.
As a result, the Minutemen continued their rally. Terrell Vinson was doing most of the damage, along with Williams and Morgan. Vinson scored seven of UMass' next twelve points, but it was Morgan's three that gave the Minutemen their first lead of the game, 62-60 with a little over seven minutes left.
Bruiser called timeout, perhaps a little too late. But the damage was done. UMass had completed a 26-7 run and left the DAC crowd stunned in silence. The points that Drexel had scored at will in the paint in the first half had dried up due to the Minutemen converging on any Dragon in the lane. Meanwhile, Chris Fouch had been rendered useless by the UMass' defense, as he hit on only one shot for the entire game, a three pointer early in the second half.
Out of the timeout, Givens scored to tie the game at sixty two. But Vinson had the hot hand and scored the next six points to put the Minutemen up by six, 68-62. The Drexel fans by me now were very anxious as they saw their season start to slip away.
But the Dragons rallied. After Massenat hit two free throws with 1:23 left, Drexel was only down two, 72-70. The crowd, especially the DACPack was now incredibly loud. Vinson missed his next shot and Drexel had a chance to tie. But McCoy missed a short open jumper and Givens just missed on a tip shot. The Dragons were forced to foul Williams, one of UMass' best free throw shooters.
Willams though missed the front end of the one and one attempt and Drexel had a chance to tie. Flint called timeout to setup a play. As Drexel came out on to the court, Kellogg looked over the Dragons' offensive formation and immediately called timeout. The chess match was on for the last sixteen seconds of the game.
As I recorded the last fifteen seconds of the game, Drexel inbounded the ball to Givens, who handed the ball to Massenat, with Williams guarding him. Massenat dribbled back and forth at the top of the key, then got a pick from Givens. Vinson, who had been guarding Givens, switched off and guarded Massenat, who then drove the lane. The taller Vinson forced Massenat's shot attempt to fall short and hit off the front rim. The ball was tapped out to center court and Fouch's desperation heave was off as the buzzer sounded.
UMass had held onto the 72-70 win. The Drexel fans were numb, stunned by what had happened. It was the Dragons' first home loss of the season. In the second half, the Minutemen torched one of the best defensive teams in the CAA, shooting seventy percent (17 of 24) from the field.
Vinson scored fourteen of his eighteen points in the second half. Williams led all scorers with twenty points, as he shot eight of thirteen from the field. The Minutemen as a whole shot a blistering fifty nine percent for the game.
Massenat scored ten of his sixteen points in the second half, but was only six of twelve from the free throw line. The team that had led the CAA in free throw shooting during the season at over seventy four percent only shot sixty five percent on the night, sixty percent in the second half. Ruffin led all Dragons with eighteen, but none of those points came in the second half. In his last game in a Drexel uniform, Givens scored twelve points, but only two in the second half.
What had I thought had been a little familiar about this game, compared to what happened to Hofstra six years ago, really now had become very similar in its outcome. Six years ago, Hofstra, the third seed in their bracket, had won their first two games in the NIT before hosting Old Dominion in the Quarterfinals. This included a win over second seeded St Joseph's, who just happened to be the two seed in the three seed Drexel's bracket as well this season (St Joe's lost to UNI in the first round).
The Pride would end up losing to the Monarchs after having an early second half lead, just like the Dragons (Hofstra was up by eight compared to Drexel's seventeen point lead). Both Hofstra against ODU and Drexel against UMass on Tuesday night seemed very tired in the second half. In Hofstra's case, the Monarchs' physical play and deep bench wore the Pride's seven man rotation down. On Tuesday night, the Minutemen's trap and the heat of the gym wore the Dragons' seven man rotation down. In Josh Verlin's terrific recap of the game, Bruiser noted that they "ran out of gas at the end".
Still, even with the loss, Drexel, like Hofstra, deserved to have made the NCAA Tournament. The Dragons had won nineteen games in a row before losing to VCU in the CAA Championship Game, then won another two games in the NIT. Drexel won twenty nine games this season, a team record. Unlike two of the other NCAA bubble teams; Seton Hall and Mississippi State, Drexel made it to the NIT Quarterfinals.
With the win, UMass had its third NIT road win in a row. They had previously knocked off Mississippi State and Seton Hall. Now they added Drexel to their impressive resume of wins. The Minutemen head to MSG for a date with Stanford. I get to see them one more time next week.
As for Drexel, outside of Givens, their entire team returns next season. However, Givens will be a huge loss. After the game was over, many people in the stands called out Samme, thanking him for his contributions over the four years. He consoled Massenat, who was distraught from missing the potential game tying shot.
For one last time, Givens was again the consummate teammate.
When Drexel stepped on the Richmond Coliseum court to face Old Dominion right before tipoff of the first CAA Semifinal, the Drexel Band played the theme from "Rocky". Though they were the #1 seed in the CAA Tournament, Drexel was truly David. Outside of their DACPack faithful, several fans behind their bench and a few fans left from the other former America East schools that were gone by Saturday night, the Dragons were clearly in the minority. Richmond Coliseum was mostly a sea of fans from the three Virginia schools that made up the other three semifinalists.
Standing in the Dragons' way were the Monarchs, a team that had won the CAA championship the last two seasons. Blaine Taylor and several of his veteran players; Kent Bazemore and Chris Cooper were eager to end the Dragons' eighteen game winning streak. ODU had scored eighty eight points in their quarterfinal win over Delaware and barely lost at home by a point to Drexel at the end of the regular season.
One of the most wonderful things about the CAA Tournament is all the great pep bands. Not only did Drexel shine with "Rocky" but ODU's band had a great version of Aha's "Take on Me". However, the musical highlight of the day was hearing Chris "VCUPav" Crowley clear as day, belting out the national anthem in a beautiful, operatic voice. Now I know where he got the horns he wears; it must have been a production at the New York Metropolitan Opera House.
When you have two of the better defensive teams in the CAA playing each other, chances are you're going to get a low scoring, physical slugfest. Sure enough, neither team could score a basket in the first two and half minutes of the game. It had all the makings of a "First to fifty wins" game, just like Drexel's win over UNCW the day before.
The Dragons broke through the scoreless drought with a 9-0 run. The Monarchs missed on their first six shot attempts as the shots that fell against the Blue Hens the day before were now hitting off the rims with clanks and thuds. Two Chris Fouch three pointers extended Drexel's lead to 15-3.
ODU responded with a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 15-10 with a little less than seven minutes left in the half. But the Monarchs missed their last four shots in the half, all three point attempts. The Dragons would go into halftime up ten, 27-17.
Drexel only shot thirty three percent in the first half. But they held ODU to twenty seven percent from the field, including two of nine from beyond the arc. Bazemore, who lit up Delaware the day before for fifteen first half points, was held to four points, shooting one of six from the field.
Any hope that the Monarchs' fans had for a comeback quickly evaporated in the first four minutes of the second half. The Dragons outscored the Monarchs 14-8 to build their lead to sixteen, 41-25. During this span, Frantz Massenat, Drexel's star sophomore point guard, buried a three pointer and then later would hit three free throws after being fouled by Bazemore. In that span of four minutes, Bazemore committed two turnovers and picked up three quick fouls, as he seemed completely thrown off by Massenat on both sides of the court.
ODU never really threatened again, though they cut the lead in half, 46-38, with Cooper scoring on a three point play. But in the span of ninety seconds, Drexel had the lead back up to fifteen, 55-40, after Damion Lee hit his own three point play. From there, the Monarchs never got closer than ten points. The Dragons, the best three point defensive team in the CAA held the Monarchs to one of nine shooting from beyond the arc in the second half.
Drexel extended the lead to as much as nineteen before settling for a very convincing 68-51 win over ODU in a front of a very hostile crowd. How convincing was it? The team that had played #1 Kentucky tough before losing by ten and the team that battled #5 Missouri at home before losing by seven had been drubbed by seventeen points. It was the largest margin of loss for the Monarchs this season.
The Dragons had four scorers in double figures as Massenat had twenty points, Lee added seventeen, Fouch had sixteen points and Givens had twelve points to go with twelve rebounds. Drexel shot forty eight percent from the field in the second half and thirteen of sixteen from the line. Massenat made nine of ten free throws from the line.
Bazemore and Cooper were the only ODU players in double figures, as each scored twelve points. Bazemore was six of twenty from the field, including missing all five of his three point attempts. Drexel Head Coach Bruiser Flint noted in his post game news conference that his players "stepped out a lot harder" on Bazemore in this game than they did in the regular season finale. In that regular season finale, Bazemore had scored thirty seven points.
In his post game news conference, Taylor was thoroughly convinced that Drexel was a NCAA Tournament team. He mentioned how his team played tough against Kentucky and Missouri. Then Taylor stated that "I really think for instance a Drexel-Missouri matchup would be a very entertaining game and I give Drexel every opportunity to have success in that game."
I had seen both the ODU-Kentucky and ODU-Missouri games on television. Drexel's performance against Old Dominion was as good or even better than Kentucky's and Missouri's performances. I hadn't seen a Blaine Taylor team dominated like that in a very long time. The Dragons gave the Monarchs their worst loss in the CAA tournament since 2004 (VCU also defeated them in the CAA Semifinals by seventeen points). Taylor was right. Drexel deserved to be in the NCAA Tournament.
Unfortunately for Taylor and Drexel, a week later the NCAA Committee wrongly thought otherwise.
If you follow the CAA, what's the one thing that comes to mind when you think of Drexel? Well you might consider "Physical", considering the type of style the Dragons play. You might also consider "Intense", becuase that's how Head Coach Bruiser Flint coaches.
Well, when I think of Drexel, I think of the CAA's likely copyrighted phrase "Rock fight". It's a word that has often described CAA play. But when it comes to rock fights, no team does it better than the Dragons. Low scoring, physical, close games with both teams scoring in the fifties. More often than not in its history under Bruiser, Drexel usually has come out on top thanks to its very good defense and its just good enough offense.
Then came this season. The Dragons were 16-2 in conference, finishing first in the regular season. Yes, they were first in the CAA in scoring defense, second in field goal percentage defense, first in three point field goal percentage defense and first in rebounding. This season's team was Drexel defense at its finest.
But thanks in large part to the development of sophomore guard Frantz Massenat, freshman Damion Lee and returing stalwarts Chris Fouch and Samme Givens, the Dragons have had their best offense in a long time. Drexel was first in the CAA in three point field goal percentage and third in field goal percentage.
And not only was this the first Dragons team in their CAA history to shoot above seventy percent from the foul line, they actually led the Colonial in free throw percentage at nearly seventy five percent. The Dragons actually led the CAA in scoring margin at + 9.4 points per game. Drexel - Offensive Juggernaut.
The Dragons immediately showed off their offensive prowess against the Seahawks of UNCW, hitting their first four shots from the field to jump out to a 9-4 lead. But UNCW responded with a 12-4 spurt to jump ahead 16-13, which allowed the Old Dominion fans in attendance for the next game to roar in approval, since ODU was Drexel's likely next opponent. It wasn't like the Dragons were playing bad defense. The Seahawks were just hitting tough shots like Cedrick Williams turnaround jumper that put UNCW up 12-10.
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Still the Seahawks were beating the Dragons at their own game. In the first half, UNCW outrebounded Drexel 19-11 and they got Givens, Drexel's leading rebounder in foul trouble with two fouls. The Seahawks were still up 18-17 with six minutes left in the half.
However, the Dragons rallied as they outscored the Seahawks 10-4 the rest of the first half. Massenat came alive with several pretty passes for three assists in the final six minutes. One of the passes was thrown through traffic with such precision that Peyton Manning would have been proud. Then came a loose ball right by the Drexel bench where it almost looked like Bruiser Flint wanted to jump into the pile. The Dragons entered halftime up 27-22 on a driving layup, by who else, Massenat.
Interestingly, Flint left Givens on the bench to start the second half. It didn't seem to matter as Drexel came out and outscored UNCW 24-11 in the first ten minutes. Everyone in Drexel's rotation contributed, even Givens who finally came off the bench five minutes in the second half. The Dragons were up 51-33 and the game was basically over.
In the nine years that I have watched the CAA Tournament, Drexel had never had as large a student section as they did for this tournament. The DACPack was large and in charge with a resounding "D-U" chant with the Dragons' contingent of fans behind their bench. Considering how Virginia based the Colonial Athletic Association conference is, it was a welcome thing to see.
As for the Seahawks, they didn't give up. They cut the lead down to ten with about two minutes left in the game but they never got any closer. The Dragons would win the game 59-47.
Drexel did an excellent job on UNCW's star player, Keith Rendleman. Rendleman only scored ten points on three of nine shooting from the field. Often it seemed that he was literally bouncing off Drexel's mammoth Darryl McCoy (who's listed at 270 pounds, but as Shaka Smart noted the next day "That's a joke".). McCoy would foul out later after hammering Rendleman on a shot attempt, but not before the "270 pound" big man had ten rebounds on the day.
Rendleman, the fourth leading rebounder in the CAA at ten rebounds per game, also didn't have one single rebound in the entire game. When asked in the post game press conference if he ever had a game in his life, including the grade school level, where he didn't have at least one rebound, Rendleman replied "Never". Drexel also limited UNCW as a whole to twenty six percent shooting in the second half. That's how good Drexel's defense was on the day.
As for the Dragons' offense, they shot forty eight percent in the second half. Four players averaged in double figures; Fouch had fourteen points, Massenat and Givens each had eleven and Lee had ten points. Drexel outrebounded UNCW 24-13 in the second half.
As the Dragons' student section cheered in approval at the end of the game, the final score indicated one thing. Another rock fight won by Drexel.
Life is like a group of weather forecasters. You never know what you're going to get and apparently neither do they. Based on the forecasts that I heard on Friday, travel to Philadelphia for yesterday's Hofstra- Drexel game was going to be hazardous with snow and rain. I even warned my son Matthew that he was likely to stay home with his mom and little brother due to the weather reports.
But I should have known better. When I woke up yesterday morning and looked outside, there was barely any snow on the ground and the snow/rain was basically going to end in a couple of hours. My friend Joe Suhoski, otherwise known as @VaBeachRep on Twitter, was going to be at the game, since he was covering it for CAAZone. He noted that the precipitation had basically ended by him as he was making the trip up from Baltimore.
So, Matthew and I picked up our third member of the trip trifecta, Tieff, and headed down to Philly. The roads were a little wet, but nowhere near the conditions the "weather forecasters" had predicted. Our plan was to get to Philly by 1:00 PM, meet up with Joe for lunch to talk basketball, then head to the game at Drexel.
I had a revelation while we were crossing the Ben Franklin Bridge. "Why haven't I gone to more mid major basketball games in Philly?" It's only two hours away from where I live on Long Island. All the games I could have seen at the Palestra or on the campuses of St Joe's, Temple and Penn. Hell, all the games I could have seen at the DAC, otherwise known as the Daskalaskis Athletic Center (more than just Hofstra games). Note taken, note received.
I already knew the Sliante menu, which is online, so I already knew my choice; philly cheesesteak with cheese whiz and a side caesar salad. Tieff had his cheesesteak with provolone instead. Joe had a chicken salad and my son had his standard plate of french fries. We basically talked CAA hoops the rest of the time. Joe, Tieff and I went over a lot of recent Colonial Athletic Association basketball history in that ninety minutes. Matthew soaked it all in.
After a delicious lunch, Joe walked over to the DAC since his car was already parked there. We drove and found a spot on the street across from the DAC and paid for three hours of time at the kiosk. Then we took a short walk on a brisk day to the gym entrance. We sat behind the Hofstra bench, which turned out to be close to the Drexel Pep Band. The pep band started out with "We Want the Funk" and it was a very good rendition. They were sharp all day.
Last season, I sat mid court at the DAC as the Pride knocked off the Dragons in the second conference game of the season for both teams. At that time, you didn't know how good either team was at the time. Both teams would finish in the top half of the CAA; Hofstra finished third, while Drexel finished fifth.
This season is a lot different. Drexel came into the game tied for first with George Mason and VCU. The Dragons have the tiebreaker on both teams, having defeated the Patriots and the Rams at the DAC (and they don't play either team again in the regular season). Meanwhile, Hofstra has struggled with only two conference wins and came into the game tied for tenth in the CAA with William and Mary.
The game started out as a microcosm of the season. Hofstra struggled to score from the field as Drexel's defense forced the Pride to use most of the shot clock on their possessions then have to settle for contested shots. The Dragons jumped out to a 16-6 lead.
But despite their record, Hofstra has played hard all season and have not quit in any of their games. The Pride responded with a 15-7 run and cut the deficit to the two, 23-21. But Drexel would score nine of the last twelve points in the half and entered halftime with a 32-24 lead.
Then came the surprise of the day. It wasn't the surprise appearance by DefiantlyDutch and his better half, who originally weren't coming to Philly but yet, there they were sitting right next to us. The surprise was a group of young kids, known as the Bucks County Bungee Jumpers, a jump rope team that came out as the halftime show. Many of us didn't know what to expect. But what we got was stunning. These kids were incredibly talented as they showed off their various jump rope skills.
The crowd, especially the Drexel student section, got louder and louder with their applause after each trick the team performed. The Drexel Dragon mascot was in disbelief of how good these kids were. The best trick was the group jumping rope while on pogo sticks. Yes, jumping rope while on pogo sticks.
It was simply the best halftime show I had ever seen at a college basketball game. They have a video on Youtube, which doesn't even do them justice. You can find them at this site. Note to all the colleges in the Philadelphia metro area - You want these kids performing at halftime of your athletic events. They are awesome.
After they finished their show, the Bungee Jumpers were given a well deserved standing ovation from the crowd at the DAC. I didn't think anything could top that halftime show. But two players, Chris Fouch of Drexel and Nathaniel Lester of Hofstra, did their best to put on their own memorable second half performances.
The Pride came out with a quick 8-2 spurt, to cut the lead to two, 34-32. Lester was responsible for most of those points as he would for the rest of the second half. He would score ten of Hofstra's first sixteen points in the second half. But unfortunately for Lester and the Pride, a familiar thorn in their side, Fouch, would be equal to the task.
Earlier at lunch, the topic of Drexel came up and I talked with Joe about how Fouch had not been a real factor for the Dragons this season. Until yesterday, that had been the case. Fouch, who was the leading scorer for the Dragons last season, is fourth on the team in scoring this season coming into yesterday's game averaging 8.9 points per game, which is down six points from last season. With the emergence of freshman Damion Lee, he is averaging seven less minutes per game than last season.
But Fouch has had a history of torching the Pride. Coming into the game yesterday, Fouch had averaged nearly sixteen points per game vs. Hofstra with eleven career three pointers. When he was a freshman, he burned the Pride for twenty nine points on six shots from beyond the arc, in a 75-62 win over Hofstra on January 23, 2010.
Fouch decided to channel that performance from two years ago in the second half and make me eat my lunchtime words. He would score twenty of his twenty five points in the last twenty minutes of the game. Fouch was six of seven from beyond the arc on the game. He was a big part of Drexel's 10-0 run that made a two point game into a 44-32 lead. Fouch also scored his 1000th career point in the second half and as fellow Hofstra fan Lee Warner put it, seemingly 936 of those points came against the Pride.
Drexel extended the lead even further to nineteen, 61-42. But again, Hofstra refused to quit. Behind Lester and Mike Moore, who had eighteen points, the Pride went on a 10-0 run. Lester probably had the best second half of his career. He scored twenty two second half points. twenty seven overall and he had seven offensive rebounds on the game. The Pride had cut the lead down to eight, 67-59.
But Hofstra could get not get any closer. Drexel would win 78-67. The Dragons were truly fire breathing from the field as they shot nearly sixty percent in the game, including a blistering ten of seventeen from beyond the arc. Frantz Massenat had twenty points, while Lee had fifteen. That was the difference in the game; Drexel had three double digit scorers that combined for sixty points. Hofstra had Moore and Lester who combined for forty five points, but were the only two double digit scorers on their team.
Since we had a two hour ride back to Long Island, we said our goodbyes to DefiantlyDutch and Joe and made our way back to the car. Sure enough, as we walked on Market Street, it was lightly raining. The rain turned to wet snow as we traveled across the Ben Franklin Bridge. While we drove the entire way up the New Jersey Turnpike, it was coming down at a pretty good clip and made the drive a little more adventurous. But the weather meteorlogists on WCBS AM and WINS AM seemingly had no clues of this. They only talked about possible flurries in the area.
There are few certainties in life; death, taxes and a Drexel-Hofstra rockfight. I really don't know how to describe this rivalry otherwise. The games are tough, physical and almost always a closely fought game. The rivalry has its roots in the America East where the teams battled out from 1994 until 2001. In the 2001-02 season they both joined the CAA. The Dragons owned the Pride for the first several seasons in the Colonial, winning eight games in a row.
The Drexel winning streak ended in the quarterfinals of the 2005 CAA Tournament.when Hofstra won 89-77. Including that win, the Pride had gone 8-5 vs the Dragons since entering last night's contest. Many of the games in the series have been close. Since the 2003-04 season, ten games have been decided by eight points or less and three of those were overtime games. The teams have split those ten games.
Just before my six year old son Matthew and I left the house last night to go to the game, Matthew lost a tooth. He told me he knew the tooth fairy would come over night and leave him a present. I joked with him that maybe the tooth fairy will bring Hofstra a win.
Hofstra was desperate for their first win in conference playing at home in the Mack Center while Drexel wanted to maintain its position in the top four of the CAA. Just like their game against Northeastern last week, there were no cheerleaders, dance team, pep band or Lions Den student section due to no classes in session. But the Freeport Marching Band and cheerleaders were in attendance and they did their best to fill the void and the Lions Den Section seating area.
But even if the crowd was small, there will always be electricity in the air when Drexel Head Coach Bruiser Flint is stalking the sidelines. Bruiser is known for his animated coaching, whether he is arguing with officials, admonishing his own players or doing the classic Bruiser stomp. Watching him in action is worth the price of admission alone. It only took nineteen seconds of game action before Bruiser was yelling at a referee.
The Pride came out quickly and jumped to a 6-0 lead in not even a minute and a half gone by in the game. And as animated as Bruiser was, Hofstra coach Mo Cassara was equally as animated. You could tell that he really wanted this win badly.
But as quickly as they started out, Hofstra's shooting turned cold even quicker. For the next eight plus minutes, the Pride didn't score a point until Stevie Mejia hit one of two free throws. It would be about another two and half minutes before Hofstra scored its next field goal, a layup by Mike Moore with a little more than eight minutes left.
Fortunately for the Pride, the Dragons weren't much better in the scoring department. Despite outscoring Hofstra 14-1 over the span of ten and a half minutes, Drexel was only ahead by five points after the Moore layup. The Dragons missed nine of their first ten shots and hit six of seventeen overall in those first twelve minutes.
However, Drexel stretched their lead out to ten, 26-16 on a Damion Lee three pointer with about two and a half minutes left in the half. The Pride had a chance to cut into the lead but missed six free throws in the first twenty minutes of action. The Dragons entered halftime leading 29-21.
Looking back on the first half, Hofstra was fortunate that the Drexel lead was not larger. The Dragons struggled from the outside, shooting two of ten from beyond the arc. That counterbalanced the Pride's own struggles from the three point line as they missed all five attempts.
As we normally do at halftime, my friend Tieff, Matthew and I visited Defiantly Dutch, aka my good friend Jerry Beach and his better half, Michelle. After talking a few minutes with Jerry, Tieff came up with the idea that we should try to change our luck and change our seats. Since no one was sitting behind Jerry and Michelle (the crowd was listed at over 1500), we decided we would sit behind them. We were joined later by my friend Jeff, a colleague of mine at work. Together we all watched the second half unfold.
The second half saw Hofstra come out on a 7-1 spurt to cut the lead to 30-28 with sixteen and a half minutes left. The score remained within two to five points in favor of Drexel for the next several minutes until Hofstra scored four straight points, the last two by Shemiye McLendon and Hofstra had their first lead since early in the first half, 40-39. The crowd was finally into the game including the large Drexel contingent behind their bench.
The lead was short lived as McLendon missed a chance to extend the lead with a three pointer, but Chris Fouch didn't miss his three pointer and the Dragons were back out in front 42-40. Dwan McMillan tied the game back up with a layup. But then Drexel worked it inside and scored the next six points to go ahead 48-42 with two and half minutes left.
But Hofstra didn't quit and chipped away at the lead again, helped by a three point play by David Imes and a three pointer by Mike Moore with thirty five seconds left which cut the Dragons lead to 51-50. It was the Pride's first and only successful three pointer on the night. Hofstra tried to force a turnover in the backcourt, but had to foul with twenty five seconds left. Frantz Massenat hit the first free throw, but missed the second.
Hofstra had the ball and a chance to tie the game. Mike Moore drove down what appeared to be an open lane. As he went for the game tying layup, he collided with a Drexel player. The referee blew his whistle.
Moore was called for an offensive foul on a very questionable call. Drexel ball.
After the Dragons inbounded the ball, Shemiye McLendon fouled Damion Lee. Lee hit both free throws. Then off a Pride miss and a long outlet pass, Lee scored the final two points on an emphatic dunk. Drexel escaped the rockfight with a 56-50 win.
When it came down to it, two statistics jumped out and they were not in Hofstra's favor. First, the Pride shot nine of nineteen from the charity stripe. Second, the Pride hit only one three pointer out of thirteen attempts. In a low scoring game, those stats come back to haunt you.
Both teams played very hard in another typical Drexel-Hofstra rockfight. There were forty seven fouls called in the game, which is typical in this series. It was also the eleventh time that a Drexel-Hofstra game was decided by eight points or less since the 2003-04 season. The Dragons emerged victorious and now have won five straight in conference. The preseason CAA favorite is now tied for third place in conference in what they hope is the Year of the Dragon.
Meanwhile, the Pride left with another loss, their seventh straight in conference. Five of their losses in conference are by six points or less and it was their fifth conference loss when they had either had a lead or were tied in the second half. It doesn't get more frustrating than that.
Well, except for knowing that the tooth fairy doesn't bring wins. I guess that's another certainty in life now.
