The Dumpster Fire That Is Drexel

The last couple of weeks for me have been very busy.  Between work, starting a travel baseball team and a couple of road trips to Charleston and Elon for Hofstra basketball games late last week, sleep and a College Hardwood Post had been a rare commodity, just like a well played game by Fordham.

Thus I took a nap this evening after I got home and had dinner.  After my nearly two hour nap, I checked what was going on Twitter, caught up on a few things, then I noticed the Drexel - James Madison 54-35 score.  Ugh. Then I read this tweet of my good friend Jerry Beach, aka Defiantly Dutch.  I immediately went over to DragonsSpeak, the twitter feed of our friend Dan Crain, loyal Drexel alum and fan, who writes the Dragons Speak blog.

At about 8:30 PM, Dan tweeted "Let's Break Twitter".  Dan had had enough of what would turnout to be a Dragons 54-35 loss to a team that had just dismissed one of its better players earlier in the day, Andre Nation, who albeit was a true handful in his three years with the Dukes.  You would think that the Dragons would give a better effort against a team missing a player who averaged twenty seven minutes per game.  Basically Dan ripped into his alma mater, and rightfully so, for the play that he was forced to watch tonight.

But this was not a Monday morning quarterback rant.  Dan had predicted this in his preview of the Dragons earlier today.  Bruiser Flint, the longtime head coach of Drexel has a propensity to not bend in his ways and Dan knew what Bruiser would do this evening in his Thursday preview of the game.  He even nearly predicted how many points JMU would score this evening (he had the game as 56-48 JMU) and he wrote this gem.

Zone defenses are primarily beaten with quick ball movement, perimeter shooting and offensive rebounding.  Bru then has two options:  Flood the floor with guards who can't shoot, knowing that Allen, London, Wilson and Mojica will all get wide open looks from mid range and beyond.  The downside is that none of those guys have hit those looks before, and with only one forward on the floor against JMU's height, DU won't get any offensive rebounds.  The alternative is to leave two of those four guards on the floor alongside Damion and two big men, leaving just as many shooters on the floor (1) and the possibility to get stick backs and clog the lane on defense.

Just in case we haven't beaten this into the ground enough, look Tuesday for a stats post breaking down the 4 guard vs the 3.  It's ugly.

For my prediction, I'm assuming that Bru will show his stubbornness, because that's the track record.

So what did Drexel do?  The Dragons played a four guard set and proceeded to shoot four of nineteen from beyond the arc and twelve of fifty for the game. Twelve of fifty.  Yes, folks, that's twenty four percent.    And if you are basically shooting and missing the three on a zone, it stands to reason that you only get twelve free throw attempts, which they only hit on seven.  Thus, thirty five points.  Even Josh Verlin of the terrific City of Basketball Love tweeted that it was "an embarrassment".

But if that wasn't bad enough, Through one of Dan's followers, I saw them retweet this picture from DrexelOnline.

I have NEVER seen the DAC, aka the Daskalakis Athletic Center, this empty.  Ever.  And for those of you who are the College Hardwood Marines, aka the few, the proud, the readers of my site know, I have been to more than my share of games at the DAC.  It's usually one of the more fun places to watch a game, because it can be loud, hot and a drain on a road opponent.

Now it's looking like this.  The attendance figure says there were 1,186 at the game.  It sure doesn't look like 1,186.



The Dragons are 3-13 now, 1-4 in the CAA.  Only three seasons ago, the Dragons went 29-7, 16-2 in the CAA and made the NIT Quarterfinals, before losing at home to UMass.  Heck, I was there for the loss to the Minutemen at the DAC.  The attendance for the game; 2,293.  There was definitely 2,293 in attendance that rocking night!   The amazing thing was that the only starter that graduated from that team that season was Samme Givens.   The future should have been so bright for Drexel.

UMass-Drexel NIT Quarterfinal March 2012

So what happened to a team that in the span of three seasons may likely have twenty less wins than that 2011-12 Dragons team?

Well, first, that 2012-13 team seriously underachieved.   First, they suffered tough overtime losses to Kent State and Illinois State,  Then they lost Chris Fouch in the third game of the season.  Still, they had Frantz Massenat, Derrick Thomas, Dartaye Ruffin and Darryl McCoy, all key members of that 2011-12 team.  Plus Drexel added two talented freshmen in Damion Lee, who ended up being the leading scorer on that team and Tavon Allen.

Yet Drexel never recovered from the two overtime losses and the injury to Fouch and stumbled to a 13-18 record, finishing .500 in the CAA at 9-9 and quickly exited from the CAA Tournament at the hands of George Mason.   Brian Mull noted earlier that season that the loss of the post presence in Givens was a bigger loss than anyone could have realized for Drexel.

Drexel-Davidson December 2013

The 2013-14 team looked to be a better team with the return of Fouch, along with Lee, Massenat and Allen.   Unfortunately, Lee got injured five games into the season.   Still the Dragons started out strong, going 7-2 with wins over Alabama, Cleveland State, Illinois State and Rutgers.  Their only two losses were by five points and four points respectively to nationally ranked UCLA and Arizona.   The Dragons seemed to be back, especially when I saw them defeat Davidson at Belk Arena in December of 2013.

Then it all fell apart.  Drexel would go 9-12 the rest of the season and only 8-8 in the CAA.  The Dragons would then quickly be eliminated by Northeastern in the CAA Quarterfinals 90-81, in a game where Drexel was down several times by seventeen points.  

What had started out so promising ended in flames.  Now this season.   It's a five alarm dumpster fire.

So what are the reasons for this?   First, injuries have been a huge factor.  Their only real point guard, Major Canady and one of their main forwards, Kazembe Abif were out for the season before even the season started.  Promising sophomore forward Rodney Williams suffered a stress fracture in his foot in late December and he's now out for the season.   Even seldom used Sooren Derboghosian is out indefinitely with a knee injury.  The Dragons are playing with basically a seven man rotation.

Drexel-Davidson December 2013

But as you can clearly tell from Dan's posts that it is also coaching style.  Bruiser Flint has at times done a very good job at Drexel.  His 2006-07 and 2011-12 teams should have made the NCAA Tournament.  But in the last nine seasons at Drexel, there also have been four teams at or below .500, another team that finished one game above .500 and another team that finished two games above .500.  Only three times in the past nine seasons has Bruiser won twenty games.

Based on Dan's blog, Bruiser is very set in his ways during a game and does not make adjustments.  He starts a four guard offense despite only one of them, Lee, being a really good shooter.  Allen has seriously regressed as a shooter since his freshman year.  His three point field goal percentage has gone from 36 percent to 28 percent to 26 percent over the past three seasons.  Yet Allen is attempting double the number of three point attempts, 5.4 as opposed to last season 2.7.

2012 NIT Quarterfinal - UMass vs. Drexel

Yet Bruiser keeps using a four guard set and as Dan notes "Drexel is 1-6 in games where they have broken out the 4 guard set, beginning with the UD home game last year".   Drexel is also last in the CAA in three point field goal percentage at 29.4 percent.

The kicker is that Drexel is second in the CAA in free throw percentage at 70 percent, yet they have the fewest free throw attempts in the Colonial with 259 attempts going into tonight's action (that's sixteen per game).

When you also go with a four guard set, you leave yourself susceptible to inside scoring.  In the loss against UNC Wilmington, Dan notes that UNCW shot 60 percent on two point field goal attempts.  It also means that you are likely to get outrebounded.  The Dragons are 270th in the country in rebounds, dead last in the CAA in rebounds and eighth in the CAA in rebounding margin at -2.4.  For those of us longtime CAAHoops fans, this is sad to see, since we know that Drexel prided itself on toughness and rebounding.  The term "rockfight" started with Drexel.

When you are only making five three point field goals per game, when you are dead last in three point field goal percentage and are getting killed on the boards, the last thing you should do is play a four guard starting lineup.

It's sad to see Drexel at 3-13.  It's sad to see the DAC so empty.  And it's sad to see a friend like Dan so frustrated, along with many other Drexel fans, who are often the most creative fans in college basketball.

As Dan noted in a tweet tonight, Bruiser Flint is the third highest paid employee at Drexel.   After the past few seasons and what's happening this season, one highly wonders if that salary statistic will remain the same after this season.

Drexel's Wonderful Season Ends (Recap of UMass vs. Drexel)

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.

Drexel Dominates ODU (Recap of ODU - Drexel CAA Semifinal)

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.

Drexel - Rock Fight U (Recap of UNCW - Drexel - CAA Tournament Quarterfinal Game)

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.