Thoughts from TicketCity Legends Classic in Rhode Island

Though I only attended three of the six games that were played this weekend up at the Ryan Center on the campus of URI,. I saw more than enough to make the following observations;

• Had it not been for a mistake by the timekeeper in their game against Cleveland State, Boston University would have swept the entire subregional.  The Terriers played really inspired basketball all three days and rallied twice to beat Rhode Island and Hofstra. They also controlled most of the action against Cleveland State.
• The reason the Terriers are now my favorite to win the America East is that they have a terrific trio in Darryl Partin, Patrick Hazel and D.J. Irving.  
• Partin had a terrific three games.  He averaged twenty three points and five rebounds per game in the subregional.  He needs to work on his free throw shooting; 16 of 25 from the charity stripe. But considering he averaged eight attempts per game means he is not just a jump shooter (though he was 4 of 10 from beyond the arc vs. Hofstra).
• Hazel and Irving also had a good three games for the Terriers.  Hazel averaged thirteen points, nearly nine rebounds and three blocks per game in the subregional.  Irving averaged sixteen points, four assists and nearly three steals per game.
• One of the keys for Hofstra this season was whether Mike Moore would step up his game after the graduation of Charles Jenkins.  He certainly proved it this weekend.  Despite being taken out of the game vs. Cleveland State, Moore had a terrific rest of the subregional.  He poured in twenty seven vs. BU and twenty five vs. Rhode Island.  He also averaged nearly eight rebounds per game in the subregional. 
• Moore has fifty two free throw attempts on the season, shooting seventy-seven percent which is under his average of last season (eighty five percent).  But still he is averaging over seven free throw attempts per game.  In his last five games, Moore has averaged nine free throw attempts per game.
• Speaking of free throw attempts, Hofstra averaged twenty six free throw attempts in three games.  When you get to the line that many times and you average 73 percent from the line (as they did this weekend), you will stay in games.
• Outside of the first ten minutes vs. Rhode Island and the last ten minutes vs. Boston University, Hofstra played very well in the tournament.  With the addition of Bryant Crowder, the Hofstra rotation now goes nine deep. 
• So far, Crowder seems to be a nice find for Coach Mo Cassara.  He might be the most athletic big man Hofstra has had since Adrian Uter.  He has energy, attitude, very good leaping ability and even a nice touch around the basket.
• The rebounding continues to be solid for the Pride.  The Pride out-rebounded the Terriers yesterday, dominated the physical Vikings on Saturday and hung in there vs. the taller Rams. They are much improved from last season.
• The Pride have a nice bench now with Crowder, Stephen Nwaukoni, Dwan McMillan and Shemiye McLendon. 
• With ten minutes left in the game yesterday up 52-45, Hofstra was shooting 17 of 32 vs. Boston University.  They ended the game shooting 2 of 15.  It's hard to win when all your points come from free throws when the other team is hitting baskets.  
• Nathaniel Lester missed all nine of his field goal attempts.  The Pride need Lester to be Moore's wingman to be consistently successful.  
• Outside of those ten minutes against BU, Hofstra shot the ball well. Fifty one percent vs. Cleveland State, which I think is remarkable considering their defense, and forty six percent vs. Rhode Island.  The Pride are shooting forty four percent on the season.
• Cleveland State just manhandled Rhode Island.  They forced twenty turnovers on the Rams, and URI missed all eight of their three point attempts.
• D'Aundray Brown is a very good all around player for the Vikings.  He is not only their leading scorer but their best defender.  He just has to stay out of foul trouble. 
• URI's Jonathan Holton is a dynamic talent, but as a freshman he is a work in progress.  After scoring twenty points vs. Hofstra, he only scored a combined sixteen points in his next two games. 
• After a good first fifty minutes, Rhode Island had a bad last fifty minutes in the subregional.  They blew an eleven point lead against Boston University and got hammered by Cleveland State.  Heck, they nearly blew a nineteen point lead against Hofstra.  They are a better team than their 1-5 record indicates, but they need to find consistency.
• I think I saw the best team in the America East and I certainly saw the best team in the Horizon this past weekend.  I also think that Hofstra will be right in the mix in the CAA.   I love URI's length and athleticism.  But again, the Rams have to play a full forty minutes game in and game out.

Hofstra Beats Cleveland State at Its Own Game

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day in Rhode Island.  The temperature was around sixty degrees as I left my hotel and took the short drive down to Newport.  I spent part of the morning sightseeing, first around town, then I visited the Newport Shipyard.   I had never seen so many large expensive boats in one place in all my life.

As I walked back from the shipyard past the Marriott where the Hofstra team was staying, an older gentleman came up to his wife by the dock and said "The Hofstra University basketball team was having a team meeting in one of the rooms...". I didn't hear the end of the conversation, but I smiled as I made my way back to town.  It was nice to hear your home team making an impression on someone in Newport.

I got to the Ryan Center about an hour early before game time. When I sat down in my seat, the Pride were practicing on the floor.  Hofstra assistant coach Patrick Sellers was working with reserve Matt Grogan about defensive positioning.  After watching the game between Cleveland State and Hofstra, it definitely felt that the entire team was listening to Sellars.

When I watched Cleveland State play Boston University in the first game on Friday afternoon, I could see why the Vikings knocked off Vanderbilt and Kent State.  They play an aggressive man to man defense and every shot, pass and move are contested.  Watching two rows from the court yesterday, I can honestly tell you that Cleveland State is literally in your face.  They are literally on their man and it creates a very intense atmosphere.  You need to bring your lunch and be up to the task of playing them.

In the first half, it was clear that Cleveland State's had two game plans on defense.  The first was to come out with a press defense similar to the one that Rhode Island did so effectively against Hofstra.  The Pride were somewhat affected by the press, but not to the degree it was against the Rams.   The second was to take Hofstra's Mike Moore out of the game. D'Aundray Brown was assigned to Moore and he stuck to him like glue.  Moore attempted only three shots in the first twenty minutes, missed them all and only had one point.

However, the Pride found another scoring option in the first half and it came from an unlikely source. Reserve sophomore forward Stephen Nwaukoni came off the bench and sparked Hofstra with eight points, several of which came from offensive rebounds.  Nwaukoni had a career high with twelve points on the game.

The teams played evenly for the first twenty minutes as the largest lead by either team was four points.  The Pride took a late three point first half lead on two free throws by Nathaniel Lester.  But Jeremy Montgomery buried a long three pointer just before the buzzer and tied the game at twenty nine at the half.

Hofstra came out and took its biggest lead of the game at that time, 33-29 on two layups by Lester and Steve Mejia.  But the Vikings came back with a 13-4 run and took their largest lead of the game, 42-37 as Brown, their leading scorer on the season, scored the last two points of the run on a layup.

But the Pride followed back with a huge run of their own.  Over the next seven minutes, Hofstra outscored Cleveland State 20-4.   The Pride were mostly lead by their reserves Nwaukoni, Dwan McMillan and Bryant Crowder,  They combined to score sixteen of those twenty points.  Hofstra was up 57-46 with six and half minutes remaining.

The Vikings were frustrated on offense, as the Pride held them to 37.5 percent shooting on the field.  And when Cleveland State missed, Hofstra cleaned up on the glass.  In the second half, the Pride outrebounded the Vikings 20-8.   Cleveland State had only two offensive rebounds in the last twenty minutes of the game.

Cleveland State's frustration boiled over on one play late in the game.  On a fast break, Crowder was going in for a dunk attempt.  The Vikings' Aaron Pogue clearly intentionally fouled Crowder, who crashed to the floor and then was writing in pain on the court.  As the fans booed Pogue, Crowder was helped off the court.  Lester hit one of two free throws.   Hofstra would go on to win 63-53.

The bench came up huge for Hofstra.  Besides Nwaukoni's career high twelve points, McMillan matched him with twelve points and Crowder added eight.  The Pride Bench outscored the Vikings bench 32-14.   Lester and Mejia each had ten points.  Moore was held to five points overall, fifteen less than his season average. Hofstra shot 51 percent for the game, including 57 percent in the second half.

As for Cleveland State, they were led by Montgomery who had twelve points and Brown, who fouled out, had ten points.  The Vikings only had eleven free throw attempts as opposed to thirty one for the Pride.   Cleveland State was held to four of nineteen shooting from beyond the arc and scored their lowest point total of the season.  The Vikings had twenty nine fouls on the game and coach Gary Waters was clearly not happy with the officiating.

After a tough loss against the Rams on their home court, the Pride rebounded with their best effort of the season against a team many think could be the favorite to win the Horizon League.   And they did it in large part on the defensive end.   Hofstra truly beat Cleveland State at its own game yesterday.

The Rhode Island Less Traveled

A few months ago, when I first started planning  to see four basketball games in two days in Rhode Island, it was supposed to be my first ever road trip with just my older son, Matthew, and me.   Matthew loves basketball, especially Hofstra basketball.  So he was very excited about the prospect of seeing two Hofstra games in two days.

Then about three weeks ago, we adopted a new dog.  Walter is a pug that was a rescue dog from a puppy mill.  We saw him at a Halloween dog parade and noticed he was up for adoption.   He might be the calmest dog I have ever met and quite friendly.  Matthew and my younger son, Jonathan, were smitten.

So about ten days ago, shortly before I was going to make reservations to stay at a hotel, I asked Matthew "Are you still going with me to Rhode Island for the basketball trip?"  Matthew's response was "No, I want to stay home and be with Walter."

Needless to say I was stunned.  Then I decided to follow up with a question that turned out to very much humble me.   I asked, "So, you would rather be at home with Walter than be with your dad on a basketball trip?"

His response was a soft, yet very short and to the point.  "Yes."  I realized right there that my six year old son definitely had a lot of my wife in him.  He's very sweet, but very honest and direct. I couldn't blame him.  Our dog is pretty cute.

So I alone went out this morning on my trip to the Ticket City Legends Classic Subregional at the Ryan Center on the campus of the University of Rhode Island.  The trip was actually a quick one, about three hours. Apparently too many people were at the mall early today to be out on I-95.

Since I was saving my trip to Newport for tomorrow morning, I hung around Kingston before the game. Kingston is your typical sleepy New England town that you would find in a Stephen King novel.  Speaking of novels, I went into a new/used Kingston bookstore.  The owner greeted me as I walked in to the place.  They were having a 50% off sale due to their landlord forcing them to downsize their bookstore.  I found a good children's book for $3.25.

As I got to the Ryan Center, it's located in the back of URI.  You have to drive down Plains Road, which is aptly named, and loop around to the back of the campus.   It's a very nice facility that seats about 7,700.  Unfortunately, Cleveland State and Boston University are not much of a draw.  From my vantage point, there are maybe about one hundred spectators in the building at the tipoff of their game..

The Ticket City Legends Classic "Tournament"  is run by the Gazelle Group, the same folks that bring you the 2K Sports Classic "Tournament".  As I wrote in an article on my College Hardwood site last year, these so-called tournaments are not real tournaments. The top four Power Six conference teams that were chosen are guaranteed to play in Madison Square Garden or the Meadowlands.  They play a "regional" on their home court, which guarantees them two home games against mid major foes.  Then they play the last two rounds of "the tournament" at either MSG (2K Sports Classic) or in this case,. the Meadowlands.

Meanwhile the mid major teams that played in the TicketCity Legends Classic regionals play round robin in subregionals.  One is in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, on the home court of Bucknell.   The other is here in Kingston, Rhode Island, home of URI.  Four teams in each subregional and each team plays three games.

If this had been a real tournament, one of the two teams I saw in the first game, Cleveland State, would have been at the Meadowlands.  Cleveland State upset Vanderbilt 71-58 on the Commodores home court in the "regional".   Instead of the opportunity to play in New Jersey, the Vikings got to play in Rhode Island.  All things considered, I'd rather be near Newport myself.

The Vikings have had a terrific start to their season.  They are 4-0 and have the win over Vanderbilt, plus another impressive road win over Kent State, who had defeated West Virginia on the road prior to that contest.  Cleveland State is an experienced team.  Their four leading scorers are seniors who went to the NIT last season.  Now minus Norris Cole, who was taken in the second round of the NBA draft, the Vikings were looking to sweep the subregional and enhance their non-conference resume for a potential NCAA at large bid.

Cleveland State's opponent, Boston University, made the NCAA tournament last season.  Their best player from last season, John Holland, also graduated.  But unlike the Vikings, the Terriers have struggled, losing their first three games of the season.  They were hoping to leave Rhode Island with at least one win and they would have three chances this weekend.

The first half saw Cleveland State jump out to an early 9-4 lead.  But the Vikings quickly got into foul trouble as their two leading scorers on the season, D' Aundray Brown and  Trevon Harmon, each picked up two fouls.  Meanwhile, Darryl Partin was leading the way for Boston University.  He scored ten first half points as the Terriers went into the locker room up 24-21 at halftime as both teams had a hard time finding the basket.

Cleveland State scored the first two baskets of the second half and went up 25-24.  But just as it appeared the Vikings were going to gain control of the game, the Terriers responded.   For most of the second half, BU controlled the action.  The Terriers were up by as much as eleven, 45-34 with nine and half minutes left.

Partin continued terrorizing Cleveland State, as he would actually score more points in the second half than he did in the first.  Hardin had help in the second half as Patrick Hazel and D.J. Irving contributed from the field.  BU was playing really hard and maintained a nine point lead, 52-43 with six and a half minutes left.

However, the Terriers had numerous opportunities to put the Vikings away, especially from the free throw line.  But BU wasted a lot of those charity stripe opportunities, missing sixteen of forty four free throw attempts on the game.  Partin scored twenty four points on the night, but missed half of his twelve free throw attempts.  If you were watching the game, you had the feeling in the pit of your stomach that this might come back to haunt the Terriers.

And sure enough, Cleveland State's Brown caught fire and scored ten straight points for the Vikings, including a three pointer to cut the lead to one, 54-53.  After BU went up by four again, again Cleveland State got a three pointer, this time by Harmon, to cut the lead to one, 57-56.   Again, the Terriers went up by four 62-58, but again, Harmon buried another three, and again the lead was one, 62-61 with 5.6 seconds left.

What happened in the last few seconds of the game was simply unreal.  BU's Matt Griffin struggled to inbound the ball, but appeared to finally do so when the whistle blew.  The game clock was started before the Terriers could inbound the ball.  The referee ruled that the play had to be done over.  And sure enough Griffin again had problems inbounding the ball.  This time he lost the ball and fouled Cleveland State's Jeremy Montgomery during the scramble for the ball.  Montgomery calmly nailed both free throws with three seconds left.  The Vikings won 62-61 and absolutely broke the heart of the Terriers.

In large part due to a mismanaged clock, one team, Cleveland State, remained undefeated, while another team, Boston University, remained winless. The outcome truly seemed unfair to the Terriers. This was proof positive that this game will hurt you.