UNCW Falls to Davidson’s Three Point Shooting Prowess (Recap of UNCW v. Davidson)

When you statistically take a look at the Davidson Wildcats, one statistic in particular stands out to you.  Entering their game yesterday, Davidson was the nineteenth ranked team in the country in three point percentage at 39.6 percent.  They average eight three pointers per game.  It stands to reason then that Davidson defeated Vanderbilt and West Virginia in the Old Spice Classic and the Wildcats were a handful in their close losses to New Mexico and Charlotte.

For the second week in a row, I went to Belk Arena on the lovely campus of Davidson College to watch the Wildcats host the Seahawks of UNC Wilmington.  But as I did last week with Matt Cayuela, I wanted to have dinner and a tasty beverage first.  But when I went to the Brick House Tavern, the place was packed and there were no spots at the bar, as there were the week before.

So I took a short walk to Main Street looking for a place to eat.  I found the Toast Café, saw the dinner menu on the board outside the restaurant and walked into the place.   There was a bar on the right hand side and a main dining error with more tables in the back.   Immediately a waiter and the hostess said they would be right with me.

  

The hostess led me to a small table in the back, midway between the main dining area and the smaller back dining area.  I liked the paintings done by local artists and the tapestry hanging on the wall.   When I first came in, there were a few people sitting at tables.  Within fifteen minutes, just about every table was filled, several with Davidson fans.  A sure sign that this was not only a local hangout, but a well liked restaurant as well.

I decided on the Prix Fixe menu; Caesar salad, chicken Marsala and what turned out to be a terrific brownie ice cream dessert.   I washed that delicious meal down with a Fat Tire beer.  The Toast Café in Davidson is very highly recommended by yours truly.

After the meal, I made the familiar walk down Concord Road to Belk Arena.   Before I went to my seat, I went to see my friend, Brian Mull, the terrific sports writer for the Wilmington Star and the beat writer for UNC Wilmington.  Brian was starting to tweet his fun facts about UNCW, as he does before every game, when I said hello.  We talked for about five minutes or so about the game, CAA, Atlantic Ten and Big East basketball as well as our families.  

After talking with Brian, I made my way to my seat on the other side of the arena.  My seat in section 106, Row G, was basically center court.   I took a picture of the seventeen Southern Conference Championship banners in the rafters and tweeted that to the few, the proud, the followers of my twitter account. 

Before the game, I also noted on my twitter account that if UNCW could gain an advantage on the boards, especially on the offensive end, the Seahawks would have a shot to win the game.   They needed that advantage to offset the three point advantage Davidson had. Coming into the game, UNCW was 288th in the country in three point field goal percentage at 28.7 percent.  The Seahawks only average four three point field goals per game.

Early on, UNCW was holding its own.  In the first eight and a half minutes, the Seahawks held the Wildcats scoreless from beyond the arc and Davidson was only 2 of 10 from the field.  The score was 9-9 with 12:30 left.

  

Keith Rendleman, the wonderful forward for the Seahawks, did his best to keep his team in the game in the first twelve minutes.  Rendleman scored ten points during that time frame.    He did it in various ways; layups, a sweet little face up outside jumper and his best was a one handed putback slam that tied the score early on at seven.

But you can only keep a good shooting team like Davidson down for so long.  First it was De’Mon Brooks working inside to put Davidson up to stay 13-9 with a couple of free throws and a basket.  Then the Wildcat three point barrage started.  Davidson would hit four three pointers over the last nine minutes and forty three seconds of the first half.   

Clint Mann was in the thick of things scoring nine straight points for the Wildcats who opened up a fourteen point lead, 35-21.  The Davidson student section started a large chorus of “You can’t stop him” and gave Mann a loud ovation when Mann took the bench late in the first half.   The Wildcats led at the half 35-23.

People ask me why I prefer to sit in the stands than sit on press row, which I do on occasion.  The main reason is that most of the time in the past two years, I am with my older son Matthew, which due to my family situation has been rare this season.  The other reason I tell them is that you get a better perspective from sitting in the stands, especially what other fans are thinking about the game and the players. 

Last night, I was sitting near several UNCW fans, who made the drive from Wilmington to Davidson.  Late in the first half, Seahawk guard Freddie Jackson drove the lane, stopped and nailed a short jumper.  A  UNCW fan behind me yelled “See, a little penetration will go a long way!”  Hearing the fan talk with his friend afterwards, apparently Jackson doesn’t drive the lane enough.

And that actually was a telling remark about the first half of play and the difference between the two teams.  Davidson passes the ball really well; quickly, sharply, looking for the open man on the defense.  It’s a trademark of a Bob McKillop coached team.  This often leads to open three point looks and as noted, the Wildcats are very good at hitting the three pointer.  

Meanwhile, the Seahawks struggle on offense.  As noted, they don’t have good three point shooting.  Also, the Seahawks, especially point guard Tanner Milson, dribbled the ball too much.  This allows the defense to concentrate on the ball handler and often results in forced shots with not much time left on the shot clock.  Such was the case for UNCW last night.

Just like last Saturday, there was another entertaining grade school basketball game at halftime.  Once the second half started, the Seahawks made their best run of the game.  Rendleman made a couple of layups while Milson buried two three pointers and hit a two point jumper in the span of barely over four minutes.  UNCW had gone on a 14-5 run to cut the Davidson lead to 40-37 with fifteen and a half minutes left.   During a timeout, the student section heartily sang along with Mariah Carey’s version of “All I Want for Christmas”.

Then the Wildcats’ Jake Cohen went to work, giving the student section an early Christmas present.  In the span of a little over four minutes, Cohen scored thirteen points, including six from the free throw line.  After a JP Kuhlman layup, the Wildcats had outscored the Seahawks 21-11.  Davidson was up 61-48 with about eight minutes left.  During the under eight media timeout, the entire crowd sang along to “Sweet Caroline”, which was their theme song during their magical run in the 2008 NCAA Tournament (remember it fondly from being at the Raleigh regional).

Rendleman and Cedrick Williams each hit jumpers to cut the lead briefly back to single digits, 61-52 with seven minutes left.  But once again, Davidson went back to its bread and butter, the three pointer to close the deal.  Chris Czerapowicz nailed two shots from beyond the arc and Cohen as well hit a three pointer.   The Wildcats had opened up a fourteen point lead, 70-56 with three and a half minutes to go in the game.

All that was left was the creative Davidson student section to start loudly singing “Silent Night”, which brought a lot of smiles and laughs from the crowd in my section.   It was fitting because UNCW was about to” sleep in heavenly peace” as far as the final score.  Davidson would eventually win 77-61.

Cohen led four Davidson scorers in double figures with twenty one points, most of which came in the second half. Brooks was a double double terror inside for the Wildcats, scoring fourteen points and adding twelve rebounds, six on the offensive end.  Mann had all thirteen of his points in the first half while Czerapowicz added fourteen points, including four three pointers. 

Rendleman led the Seahawks with twenty points and nine rebounds, but only two came on the offensive end.  He was double teamed all night and was forced to hit outside jumpers, which kept him from the glass.  Milson was the only other Seahawk in double figures with ten points.

UNCW shot the ball well, shooting forty seven percent and actually had more field goal attempts than Davidson (57-53).  But as Brian Mull so aptly put it, the view of their three point statistics told the difference.  UNCW was only 3 of 7 from beyond the arc while Davidson was 9 of 22.  That’s an eighteen point difference.  The margin of victory was sixteen.  Also the Seahawks were only 4 of 10 from the line (Rendleman was 2 of 6), while the Wildcats, the ninth ranked team in the country in free throw shooting at 78.3 percent, was 16 of 20.

After the game, I finally met Mid Majority Writer, Ian “The Machine” McCormack, who is ubiquitous in his coverage of South Carolina and North Carolina college basketball.   I have been an admirer of his work and we will be sitting together for the Appalachian State – South Carolina game on Wednesday.

I made my way back to my car which was in a school parking lot across from the Brick House Tavern.  After talking with my wife on the phone briefly, I drove my car over to the Brick House parking lot. I went into the Brick House and had a beer at the bar while waiting for Brian Mull to come by after he finished his work.   

Since there were no seats at the bar available, I was standing by the corner of the bar.  A few minutes in, a gentleman came up from behind me and said "Excuse me".  It was Coach McKillop.  He was out celebrating the win with his wife and his coaches.  I introduced myself as a fellow former Long Islander (read my previous article for Coach McKillop’s Long Island background) and we talked for a few minutes.  He described his team’s play last night as “efficient” and he couldn’t have been nicer.  I wished him a Happy Holidays and we toasted.    

Brian came by after he finished his article and we sat at the bar and talked for a while.  Mr. Mull knows his North Carolina basketball and we talked for seemingly a good hour.  Afterwards, we said our goodbyes and I told him I would certainly see him on February 9th for the Hofstra-UNCW game and some good barbecue.  Brian is good people.

I was smart enough to have had only one beer in three plus hours at the bar.  Also I had two coca colas before I left the bar, which was important because the caffeine more than kept me alert on the road.  Turns out I needed that caffeine.  About twenty minutes outside of Columbia on I-77, there was a deer in the middle of the darkened road.  I saw it just in time and honked.  The deer moved just enough as I swerved to the right to avoid it.   

Knowing my wife would be up, I called immediately to tell her what happened.  She picked up immediately and thought I had been in accident.  I told her I was fine and just wanted to share with her what happened.  You always hear of stories about cars hitting or nearly hitting deer late at night.  This was my first experience with that and a reminder that I wasn’t in Long Island anymore.

But no potential deer in the road will deter me from going to Davidson again for a Saturday night basketball game if the schedule warrants it.  Davidson is a wonderful college town with a cozy basketball arena, nice local surroundings and a good basketball team.   

And if you’re fortunate, you might literally run into the head coach at the local bar/restaurant after the game.

What Really Matters

Four months ago, I packed everything I could in my 2001 two door Honda Accord and drove down by myself to Columbia, South Carolina to start at my new position as Assistant Dean of Academic Technology at the University of South Carolina School of Law.

I had been wanting to move down south since 2006 for quality of life reasons.  All I wanted was the right opportunity, the right position to come along.  And this position came along, six years later.  I left Hofstra on my own terms.  No one forced me out of Hofstra. In fact, everybody I know there wanted me to stay there.  But they understood that this was a great opportunity for me. It was something I couldn't pass up, even if I also gave up covering New York City basketball.  It's worked out.  The job has been great and there's plenty of college basketball to cover in South and North Carolina.

But I left my family, my wife of sixteen years and my two sons, seven and now five up in New York until the house closes.  I did that with an incredibly heavy heart.  Despite the five times that I have gone up to North Bellmore since then to see them, despite all the times of talking to Chelle and the kids on Skype and now that my wife also has an IPhone, Facetime, the nights at my rented house in Columbia are very lonely.

Being away from your two boys when one is experiencing second grade and the other is experiencing kindergarten, you feel a major void in your life.  What used to be common place, talking to them about their day and school is now a much harder chore.  Over the phone or Skype, I try to ask them about how they are doing in school.  Matthew will tell me some things about his school day.  Jonathan will only say something that he really liked.

Also, previously having been a Little League coach in North Bellmore for two years, I had got a good understanding of  my boys' school from the parents of the other boys on our teams.  Earlier this year, there was a murder-suicide of two parents of children from our Newbridge Road School.  The murder occurred at the parents' home.  The North Bellmore community rallied around those children raising funds/scholarships for them.  I was never more proud of where I lived and it will be with great sadness when my family eventually leaves North Bellmore for here.

So when the news came out about the shooting at the Newtown, Connecticut elementary school, my heart sank. When Columbine happened years ago, you knew high school wasn't safe anymore.  The murder suicide of those children's parents in North Bellmore made you realize that anything can happen in your community.  But it's just another level when you talk about a mass murder of kindergarten children.

Now I have many friends - friends who are moderates, friends who are liberal and friends who are conservative.  I am a registered independent.  I am conservative on economic issues, but very liberal on social issues.  You could say I am borderline libertarian and I voted for Gary Johnson for President.  There I said it.

Now just about all of my aforementioned friends are on Facebook with me.  There have been several events the past few years, the shootings in Virginia Tech and Aurora as examples, where my friends put on their Facebook statuses their differences of opinion on gun control.  My liberal friends advocate gun control.  My conservative friends say it's the culture.  I understand both their views and their rights to say it.  But I have avoided saying anything on Facebook or anywhere else for that matter for years.

Then came today.  The shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, mostly of kindergarten children, who were in the room where the shooter's mother was their teacher.

Again, my friends on both sides of the political spectrum said their views on Facebook (and also on Twitter).  Again, they are entitled to them.  I have kept quiet on Facebook.

But I can't keep quiet in general anymore. Not when it comes to this.  This hit too close to home, especially when I am far away right now from the children I so dearly love.

I never have used my college basketball blog for a forum for an article that doesn't concern basketball, except the death of my mom.  I have never written an article that solely expressed my views on an issue outside of basketball.

Till now.

Yes there is a culture issue here.   There needs to be some national discussion. forum whatever on the desensitization of guns, especially in video games.  I can honestly say I have never played Call of Duty, Doom or any of those zombie killing games.  Would rather play baseball on the Wii.

And I am not saying that I want to ban ownership of guns.  There are responsible gun owners and several are my friends.  I personally never want to own a gun or use a gun, but I respect my friends' rights to do that.

But I also realize that these mass murders in Columbine, Virginia Tech and Aurora are the result of guns.  You do not see mass murders on this level with knifes, bats, axes etc.  You can't kill thirty people quickly with a knife, a bat, an axe etc.

You can only do that with guns. Automatic weapons.

I would like to hear all the evidence of how he got the guns, if he had known, documented mental issues etc.   It will come out soon enough and I am pretty sure all of us won't like what's found out.

But something has to change.  Trying to change the gun culture is not going to do it.

But, I will say this and I have thought this for years.  If there was a national 72 hour waiting period for background checks for owning gun, whether at a gun show or online, maybe it could have prevented this.  Maybe it could have prevented some other event where someone was killed with a gun.  If that prevented just one person from being killed, wouldn't that be worth it?

My philosophy is this -  If you are of legal age and don't have any prior felony convictions that don't allow you to have a gun or any known mental conditions, then fine, you can have a gun.  But you need to wait 72 hours to make sure of those two things.

Simply put, if you can't wait 72 hours for a gun, then maybe you shouldn't have one.

That's my philosophy.

To those families affected by this tragedy my deepest, deepest sympathies. To lose a loved one, especially a child, I can't even fathom what those families are going through right now.  They need support. Everyone's support.

Also, unlike my basketball articles, I am not accepting any comments about this article, whether pro or against on this.  I don't want this to be a town hall. Nor will I speak about this again on my site.  I just needed to speak my peace today.

And I need to hug my kids, even if it's over the phone.  Right now, they are what really matters to me.

Four on the Floor for the Week of December 10

It’s time for our weekly segment – Four on the Floor. This is where we look at four teams and in the case of this week, why they are all successful.  One team, VCU, is now well known to most college basketball fans. The other three teams aren't so well known.

VCU

Shaka Smart’s Rams are in the thick of things again in college basketball this season.  Despite being only 6-3, the Rams have looked particularly impressive in wins over Memphis and Belmont and close losses to Duke, Missouri and Wichita State (those three teams are a combined 26-1).  Their average margin of victory in their six wins is an astounding twenty two points per game.

Last season’s success was based mostly on their ability to turn over the ball on their opponents as VCU was first in turnover percentage defense and steal percentage.  They were also twenty seventh in the country in turnover percentage offense, so when they stole the ball, they held onto it well.  This season the Rams are tenth in turnover percentage defense and fourth in the country in steal percentage defense.  Briante Weber averages over three steals per game for VCU.

This season, the Rams are statistically much better overall than the 2011-12 team that made the third round of the NCAA Tournament and nearly made the Sweet Sixteen. Last season the team was statistically in the lower third in three point percentage offense, two point percentage offense and free throw percentage.  This season, VCU is in the top one hundred in three point percentage offense and two point percentage offense, as well as thirty sixth in offensive rebound percentage.

The concern going into this season was who was going to fill Bradford Burgess’ scoring shoes.  Well, three players in particular, Treveon Graham, Juvonte Reddic and Rob Brandenberg have stepped up and increased their scoring averages from last season.   Graham averages fifteen points and five rebounds per game while shooting fifty percent from the field.  Reddic averages over fourteen points per game, eight rebounds, nearly two steals and shoots fifty nine percent from the field.

The Rams are averaging seven more points per game this season compared to last season.   VCU has five straight non conference home games before A-10 play.  Three games won’t be easy as Alabama, Western Kentucky and Lehigh combined are 22-6.  But considering they have played the Shockers, Blue Devils and two sets of Tigers (Missouri and Memphis), they should be prepared.

Canisius

The Golden Griffins won all of five games in the 2011-12 season.  It was the last season for former coach Tom Parrotta, who was fired in March.   Former Rhode Island coach Jimmy Baron was hired.   He brought his son Billy with him and instant success as well.  Already the Griffs are “bowl eligible”, having won more games than last season.   Their only loss came at 7-2 Stony Brook.  The Griffs already are 2-0 in the MAAC, which is more conference wins than they had all of last season.  Both of those conference games also came on the road.

Simply put, Canisius’ success lies in their offense.  They are thirty sixth in the country in scoring, averaging just under seventy eight points per game.  The Griffs are in the top one hundred in just about every offensive category. They stand out in particular in effective field goal percentage, fifty fourth at 52.2 percent.

Canisius is led by their two guards Harold Washington and Baron, who combine for twenty six points, eight rebounds and eight assists per game.  Washington is shooting a scorching fifty six percent from beyond the arc.   And the Griffs are a deep team, as nine players average fifteen minutes or more per game.

Three of the Griffs’ next four non conference games are all tough ones on the road – at #4 Syracuse, at Temple and at #20 UNLV (they also play at Detroit late this month).    However the Griffs should win their home games vs. Longwood and Alcorn State.   With a seemingly down year for the MAAC, it’s quite possible that Canisius will finish with a winning record.  Considering the Griffs haven’t had a winning record this decade that would be an amazing feat.

Middle Tennessee

Name the Sun Belt team with the most wins last season?  Yes, it was the Blue Raiders with twenty seven wins.   But they got upset in the first round of the Sun Belt Tournament and ended up in the NIT where they made the quarterfinals before losing to Minnesota.  MT has picked up where they left off with a 7-2 record, which includes a home win over Mississippi.

The Blue Raiders win by making their opponents cough up the ball, cleaning up the offensive glass and hitting three pointers.  Middle Tennessee is thirty eighth in turnover percentage defense, forty seventh in steal percentage, forty sixth in offensive rebound percentage and fifty fifth in three point field goal percentage offense.

The Blue Raiders only have two players who average double digits in scoring.  Marcos Knight and Shawn Jones combine for twenty three points and twelve rebounds per game.  What helps Middle Tennessee is that they have ten players who average thirteen minutes or more per game.  Including Marcos Knight and Jones, they have eight players who average five or more points per game.

Middle Tennessee has some in state rivalry games before they continue conference play on December 29.  They are at Belmont tonight and have a neutral site game vs. Vanderbilt on December 21.  Pomeroy has the Blue Raiders winning twenty six games and going 18-2 in conference, similar to last season.  Hopefully this time it leads to a NCAA berth for the Blue Raiders.

Eastern Kentucky

OK, name the only team in the state of Kentucky undefeated?  Kentucky?  Of course not.  Murray State?  Nope, lost to Colorado in the Charleston Classic.   And it’s not Western Kentucky.  It’s the Colonels of Eastern Kentucky.

So how have the Colonels won nine straight games?  It’s because they force teams to turn the ball over and they score in the paint.  The Colonels are second in the country in turnover percentage defense at 29.3 percent and nineteenth in the country in steal percentage defense at 14.1 percent.  Eastern Kentucky is FIRST in the country in two point field goal percentage offense at 59.5 percent, eleventh in the country in effective field goal percentage at 56.4 percent and thirteenth in the country in field goal percentage at 49.5 percent.  Simply put, they make you cough up the ball and then make you pay for it.

Three players on Eastern Kentucky shoot over sixty percent from the field.  Glenn Cosey averages nearly eighteen points per game while shooting fifty one percent from the field, including 46.6 percent from beyond the arc.  His teammate, Mike DiNunno averages fourteen points, forty eight percent from the field and shoots forty five percent from beyond the arc.

Belmont and Murray State get all the notoriety in the Ohio Valley, but Eastern Kentucky’s stats show that they are the third team to reckon with in the conference.   They have an incredibly tough test at undefeated and tenth ranked Illinois on Sunday as well as a tough game at West Virginia at the end of the month.   But you have to root for a team with an ABA team name (Colonels).

Celebrating 12/12/12 The Charles Jenkins Way

I was trying to find a college basketball way of celebrating 12/12/12, the last time we will see the same numbers for a month, day and year EVER.

Well, I decided to celebrate by remembering one of my most favorite moments in college basketball ever, Charles Jenkins game tying and game winning shots on my 45th birthday against William and Mary.  It was made even more special by the presence of my seven year old son, Matthew.  It was during this game that he got hooked on college basketball and became "my color analyst".

My seventh year of writing this blog has been in some parts my most difficult one.  Having been away for the better part of four months in Columbia, South Carolina, I miss my family very much.  I have season tickets to South Carolina games now.  Watching games without my son sitting next to me is just not the same.

I will be back up in New York for eleven days starting next Thursday night.  But hopefully it's the next to last time I have to fly up there.   With a little luck, the house in New York will close soon and my family will finally be down here with me.  Then I will be permanently reunited with "my color analyst" and our new basketball adventures below the Mason-Dixon line can begin.

Also, I think celebrating Charles Jenkins' heroics in a conference game is appropriate given the news that the CAA Tournament is moving to Baltimore, one of my favorite cities, starting in 2013-14.  Plain and simple, as much as enjoyed my memories of the tournament in Richmond, Baltimore is a better venue all around.

Finally, this also goes out to the basketball folks at Hofstra.  I know it's been a rough few weeks.  Hang in there and hopefully this will bring some good fortune your way.

Without further ado, "The Wolf", Charles Jenkins. Happy 12/12/12 everyone!

Doubleheader Game 2 - A Fun Night at Davidson - Recap of Wofford vs. Davidson

I have had great admiration over the years for Davidson.  First, the Wildcats Coach is Bob McKillop, who happens to be a Hofstra graduate.  When I was growing up on Long Island, McKillop was the coach of Long Island Lutheran, a major power in New York high school basketball.
 
McKillop took over as head coach of Davidson in 1989.  He has taken the Wildcats to six NCAA Tournaments, including three tournament appearances in a row from 2006 through 2008, which was the year that Davidson made the Elite Eight and was a Stephen Curry three away from beating Kansas and going to the Final Four. The Wildcats were back in the NCAA Tournament in 2012 barely losing to Louisville in the second round.

I was fortunate enough to have gone to the NCAA Regional in Raleigh in 2008.   It was truly a magical experience to watch Stephen Curry and Davidson rally to beat Gonzaga in the first round.  Then in the second round game, once again Curry and the Wildcats rallied to take down the Georgetown Hoyas in front of a very pro Davidson crowd made up of mostly North Carolina fans (North Carolina lost to Georgetown in the NCAA Tournament the year before).

So during yesterday’s Charlotte vs. Central Michigan game, Matt Cayuela told me he was going to see Davidson host Wofford at 7:00 PM.    It turns out that Davidson is about thirty minutes from Charlotte.  Since I am still by myself in South Carolina until my house closes, I had no plans.  So Matt and I got into our separate cars and went to Davidson.

Davidson is your truly classic college town, a small town with a main street with the school as the main focus.  Matt suggested a place recommended by Trip Advisor called the Brick House Tavern.  The Brick House Tavern is a very large restaurant/ bar/brewery that's a short walk from Main Street.  It looks like it was once a large warehouse.

The hostess noted that there were two seats at the bar.   My seat was right behind a tap.  The female bartender said I was hiding.  I noted that being near the tap is one of my favorite places.

Both of us had a Blue Ridge Burger, which had bleu cheese.  I had mine with bacon and a side of mashed potatoes.  Matt had his with Mac and cheese, which would have impressed my seven year old son.  We each had a restaurant brewed beer, which was quite good. I recommend The Brick House Tavern highly.

We decided to walk from the Brick House parking lot to Belk Arena.  The walk briefly brought us onto Main Street into the main section of town.  Then we made a left and we were at Belk Arena in about ten minutes.

Matt had already had a ticket through a Living Social deal.  My deal was awaiting me at the ticket line.  An older gentleman asked if I needed one ticket.  He had bought a two for one ticket deal.  My cost for the seat, $9.00.  I thanked the very kind man who I ended up sitting next to during the game. Matt ended up sitting next to me since there were a decent number of available seats for the game.

Belk Arena seats a little over 5,000.  When you enter the arena there is a main concourse with concessions as well as a downstairs with concessions and bathrooms.  To make sure I would be able to drive home after a long day, I got myself a coke (there was only one size) and Matt got a drink as well. We went back up stairs to our padded seats.

In Belk Arena, what you first notice are the banners in the rafters.  One of the things you see among those banners is the 2008 Elite Eight banner.  But it’s not the only Elite Eight banner. There are two from 1968 and 1969 when Lefty Driesell coached the Wildcats (he also coached Davidson to a Sweet Sixteen in 1966).

The next thing you notice is that the students sit in one of two places, behind the opponent basket and behind the opponent bench.  Matt noticed that it was like a high school dance.  The male students sat behind the opponent’s bench while mostly female students sat behind the basket.

Before the game started, Matt pointed out to me that Wofford has a player from Australia named Indiana Faithfull. Faithfull plays twenty minutes per game.  Davidson also has several foreign players including starting forward Chris Czerapowicz from Sweden, Ali Mackay, a forward from Scotland, Nick Cochran, the starting point guard from Canada and seldom used Youssef Mejri, a forward from Tunisia.

It was the first Southern Conference game of the season for Wofford, who along with Davidson are the two schools that have represented the conference in the NCAA Tournament six of the past seven seasons (Wofford made the NCAA Tournament in 2010 and 2011).  Davidson had won their first conference game at Chattanooga on December 1st.  Wofford had come into the game having won two games in a row over Winthrop and Gardner Webb.   Davidson was coming off a tough home loss to North Carolina rival Charlotte.

The Wildcats came out firing away from beyond the arc as they hit their first six three point attempts.  Tyler Kalinoski made three of those shots from beyond the arc.  The score was already 18-4 Davidson not even seven minutes into the game.

Davidson’s first points that weren’t a shot from beyond the arc came on a De’Mon Brooks layup and one.  Thus Davidson’s first points came from three point plays, six three pointers and an old fashioned three point play.   Brooks then scored again on a layup and one, but missed the free throw.   After nine minutes, the Wildcats were up 23-6.

During one of the media timeouts, Davidson had one of those kids’ games where they dribble a ball, get dressed in basketball gear and then race to shoot a layup.  A blond haired girl impressively won the contest, and then just walked off the court without celebrating, as if it was nothing big.  It reminded me of Reggie Miller running off the court after beating the Knicks.  It was pretty cool.

Davidson’s lead swelled to twenty one, 31-10 with three and half minutes left in the first half after two Jake Cohen free throws.  The fans were very much enjoying the Wildcats’ impressive play.  It looked like it was going to be a blow out.

But as previously noted, Wofford is a team with a lot of success the past three seasons (last season, the Terriers won 19 games and made the CBI Tournament). They responded by outscoring Davidson 12-0 over the final three and half minutes.   Faithfull had three assists and a layup during the run.  Two of his assists setup three pointers by Taylor Wagener.   Davidson entered the half now only up nine points, 31-22.

After halftime, which featured a fourth grade AAU basketball game, Faithfull hit a jumper to cut the Davidson lead to seven, 31-24?   But the Wildcats responded with a 14-6 spurt over the next eight minutes. Brooks got another old fashioned three point play to put Davidson up 45-30 with twelve and a half minutes left.

But, as feisty Terriers are known to do, again Wofford refused to give up.  The Terriers outscored the Wildcats 20-8 over nearly an eight minute span.  Again, it was Wagener and Faithfull  in the middle of the run.  Wagener had eight points and an assist while Faithfull had two assists.  Karl Cochran’s three made it 53-50 with a little less than five minutes left.

But Wofford would not get any closer.  Jake Cohen hit a jumper then followed with a layup to put Davidson up seven, 57-50.  That would be the margin of victory as the Wildcats held off the Terriers 63-56.

For Davidson, Nik Cochran led the Wildcats and all scorers with fifteen points, including ten of eleven from the free throw line.  Kalinoski was the only other Wildcats player in double figures scoring with eleven points. Four players, Cohen, Brooks, Czerapowicz and Tom Droney each had eight points.  After hitting their first six three point attempts, the Wildcats went one of fourteen from beyond the arc the rest of the way.

Wagener had fourteen points to lead the Terriers. Faithfull added eleven points and five assists.  Wofford shot only thirty five percent from the field.

After the game, Matt and I walked our way back to The Brickhouse parking lot.  We said goodbye since both of us had long drives home.   I enjoyed hanging out with Matt and was glad he told me about the Davidson game.  I plan to be back at Davidson next Saturday when they host UNC Wilmington.

Depending on my plans, I plan to be back at the Brick House Tavern again next Saturday.  A good burger, a beer and basketball.   All good things start with the letter B.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gamecocks Use a Football Mentality to Defeat Dolphins (Recap of USC v. Jacksonville)

Sunday, South Carolina lost at home to Clemson.  It was their second straight loss after winning five of their six first games.   The Gamecocks needed a different approach to defeating the Dolphins of Jacksonville on Friday night.   And that approach would have made Steve Spurrier proud.

As you may know if you are one of my marines, aka the few, the proud, the readers of my site, I work for the University of South Carolina in an IT capacity at the School of Law.  It’s been a great nearly four months so far working there.

One of the things I immediately learned when I got to Columbia is that parking is by seniority.  And since I have no seniority, I park in what’s known as the Z lot.   Let’s put it this way, I get good exercise walking to my office every morning.

But one of the perks of parking in the Z lot is that it is right near the Colonial Life Arena.  So on weeknights, I can leave my car in the lot, not pay the $5 for game parking and walk to the arena.  However, since I had a good ninety minutes to kill on Friday night, I went to what has become my new pre game hangout, the Thirsty Fellow, located across from the arena.

As I sat at my table with my pint of Newcastle and waiting for my meal, I was reading the Friday edition of the Daily Gamecock, the local student school newspaper.  On the back of the paper in the Sports section were two good stories about the basketball team both written by Paulina Berkovich, Assistant Sports Editor at the Daily Gamecock.

Her second story concerned how Coach Martin was looking for more offensive production to become as he put it “bowl-eligible” (winning their sixth game on the season).  In Berkovich’s article, Martin used a football analogy to describe his team’s communication problems.  “Right now, offensively, I’ll call for our tailback to run in the hole between the right guard and the right tackle.  Our offensive line is blocking as if we’re going to run in the hole between the left guard and the right.”  Martin then went onto explain in Berkovich’s article that bad communication has lead to bad execution.

Well, if Martin decided in practice to let Bruce Ellington instruct the team on a few football drills, it must have resonated with his team. The Gamecocks looked like Steve Spurrier’s run and shoot offense from the get go. They were aggressive and moved the ball around much better than they had done in previous games, especially against Clemson.

Leading the way was Michael Carrera, whose nice outlet pass to a Lakeem Jackson for a layup and one would make the score 5-2.  Carrera was all over the court in the first half, blocking shots, taking charges, rebounding, scoring baskets and assisting on others.  Carrera even got to be part of the maintenance crew during the game.  Late in the first half, he was involved in a scrum for a loose ball with Jacksonville’s Javon Dawson.  Jump ball was called.  Dawson came out of the pile with the ball.  Meanwhile,  Carrera grabbed a towel and cleaned the now slippery court.  He got a hand from the 6,980 in attendance for his cleanliness.

South Carolina jumped out quickly to an 11-2 lead on a three pointer by Brian Richardson and had Jacksonville reeling.  Ninety seconds into the game, the Dolphins had already four fouls as they couldn’t handle the Gamecocks’ intensity on both ends of the court.  In the first eleven minutes, South Carolina had a double digit lead several times.  But the Dolphins though hung around, cutting the deficit back into the single digits.  With just about nine minutes left in the first half, Jacksonville was only trailing 29-21.

Enter the subject of Berkovich’s main article in the Daily Gamecock Friday sports section, Brenton Williams.  In her article, Berkovich wrote about how Williams, after the loss to Clemson, asked Coach Martin for game tapes of Martin’s former Kansas State guards.  Williams wanted to see how the Wildcats’ guards played so he could play that way.  He impressed Martin who said “I thought that was a pretty powerful statement.”

Later in that article on Williams, Martin noted that “one of Williams’ biggest strengths is that he cares and he wants to improve.”   Williams is the Gamecocks leading scorer, averaging 13.6 points per game and leads the team in three point and free throw percentages.  He has done all this coming off the bench, providing the team a much needed spark early in the season.

Having seen Williams play several times this season, I can tell you that I am impressed with his mental and physical resiliency.  In their first home game of the season, Williams was benched by Martin early on against Wisconsin Milwaukee.  He didn’t come back into the game until late in the second half but he kept his head in the game.  When he did enter the game, he rallied his team to overtime and in extra regulation was a free throw shooting machine in the win over the Panthers.

Williams showed his physical resiliency by coming back and playing the next game after the scary incident at St John’s where a Red Storm player landed on him, resulting in a neck injury and an overnight stay in the hospital.

Williams again gave the Gamecocks a spark when they needed it.  He buried two straight three pointers which extended South Carolina’s lead back to double digits as they led now 35-21.  Jacksonville would briefly get the lead down to twelve points.  But that’s as close as the Dolphins would get the rest of the way.

The Gamecocks would outscore the Dolphins 22-7 over the last nine minutes to take a 57-30 lead at the half.   Carrera and Brian Richardson were already in double figures in scoring at the half.  Richardson would end up having a perfect night from beyond the arc, hitting all four of his three point attempts.

Earlier in the half during a media timeout, I was looking up into the rafters at all the banners.  I noticed a couple of Metro Conference championship banners.   Back in its heyday from the seventies to the early nineties, the Metro Conference was one of the premier basketball conferences with Louisville, Memphis, Cincinnati and Virginia Tech among its several schools. South Carolina was in the Metro from 1983-1991 before it left for the SEC.   The Metro merged with the Great Midwest to form Conference USA in 1995.   Just goes to show that conference realignment is not a recent fad and has been around for a long time.

In the second half, the game, to be honest, got ugly.   South Carolina, who looked so good on offense the first twenty minutes of the game, struggled to score.  In the first nine minutes, the Gamecocks only scored eleven points and didn’t score a basket for nearly six minutes.   Unfortunately for Jacksonville, the Dolphins only scored twelve points in the first nine minutes shooting four of fourteen during that time.  With eleven minutes left in the game, the Gamecocks were up 68-42.

Tempers started flaring during this time of ugly basketball.  A melee ensued at the South Carolina basket after a hard flagrant foul by Jacksonville’s Brian Powell with about fifteen and a half minutes left in the game.  Both teams were assessed double technical fouls.    It was also the start of unusual free throw drought for Ellington, who was a seventy seven percent free throw shooter last season, who missed four consecutive free throws.  

South Carolina would still be up by twenty six points, 89-63 after Williams hit his fourth three pointer of the game with two minutes left.  Martin would empty his bench from there putting in his reserves.  Jacksonville would make a late run due in part to some sloppy play by Martin’s bench and make the final score 91-72.

The Gamecocks had four players score in double figures led by Carrera’s nineteen points .  He just missed a double double with nine rebounds and had two blocks.  Richardson had a season high sixteen points.  Ellington had twelve points as did Williams, who had all his come from three pointers, as he shot four of five from beyond the arc.  Laimonas Chatkevicius added nine points while Eric Smith had seven assists and only one turnover.  The Gamecocks shot fifty five percent from the field and were ten of sixteen from beyond the arc.

With the win, the Gamecocks became “bowl eligible” at 6-3.  Their reward is to play in the Barclays Bowl in Brooklyn on December 22 to take on Manhattan (OK, they are just playing at the Barclays Center on December 22. It's not a bowl game, though it is part of a tripleheader).  Before that, they have a home game with Appalachian State on December 19 with an unusual start time of 5:00 PM.

Guess I am leaving work a few minutes early to catch the start of the 5:00 PM game at the Colonial Life Arena.  Good thing I can walk there.

Four on the Floor For the Week of December 3

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

Stony Brook

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

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

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

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

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

Charlotte

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

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

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

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

Lehigh

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

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

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

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

New Mexico

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

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

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

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

When Bad Beats Worse (Recap of Wagner vs. Hofstra)

I have seen my share of ugly basketball games over the years, on TV and in person.  In December of 2009, I witnessed in person Hofstra defeat Manhattan 44-39.   It was two hours of my life that I wouldn't get back and I noted various painful statistics from that game in my recap of the game.  It was one of those nights when bad beat worse.

Tonight was another one of those nights, though this was going to be a game I would be watching online 750 miles away in Columbia, South Carolina.  It was clear early on that things were not going to go well.  First, the Hofstra video feed was having issues.  The video was working fine.  The problem was no audio.   After several minutes, which included losing the picture, the feed came back with audio.  The problem was the audio was the WRHU feed, not the play by play feed which was on 1190 AM in New York.  So instead of play by play, you heard actors playing out a scene from a play.  After a few seconds, I had to mute the feed.  Eventually that was fixed.

Unfortunately, the Hofstra AV crew couldn't fix the play of Wagner and Hofstra the first twenty minutes.  There were long stretches of play where no points were scored. At the under sixteen minute media timeout, the score was 2-2.  At the under twelve minute media timeout, the score was 8-6 Seahawks.  With 3:23 left, the two teams combined for fifty four possessions and thirty four combined total points.   Hofstra entered halftime up 24-19.

(Warning, the faint of heart should not read the next paragraph due to the gratuitous violent nature of bad first half stats).

Wagner was 8 of 27 from the field in the first half, including 1 of 7 from beyond the arc. The Seahawks also had ten turnovers compared to just two assists.  Hofstra was 2 of 9 from the foul line. Taran Buie had an ugly first half trifecta - 1 of 7 from the field, 0 for 2 from beyond the arc and 0 for 3 from the foul line. Steve Mejia didn't do much better - 1 of 6 from the field, 0 for 2 from beyond the arc and 2 for 5 from the foul line.

The two teams didn't fare any better at the start of the second half.  It took three minutes for Hofstra to hit their first field goal.  At the under sixteen minute media timeout, the Pride were still up on the Seahawks at 26-23.

But Wagner was in the middle of a 12-2 run to go up 31-26 with 13:15 left.  The Seahawks press was starting to bother the Pride as the Seahawks forced nine second half turnovers.  Steve Mejia struggled to hold onto the ball on the night.  He had seven assists but also six turnovers.

Wagner was still up five, 34-29 with about eleven and a half minutes left.  The Seahawks then couldn't score for the next two minutes.  The problem was neither could the Pride. After Eric Fanning made two free throws to give Wagner their largest lead of the game at that time, Buie scored the next six points to cut the Seahawks lead to one, 36-35.

However Hofstra never could tie the game or take the lead the rest of the way.  This was due in large part to shooting eight of nineteen from the foul line.  Mejia had an awful night.  To go with his six turnovers, Mejia shot 1 of 11 from the field and 3 of 7 from the line.

Buie had a much better second half for the Pride, scoring fourteen points in the last twenty minutes.  The problem was the rest of his teammates only scored six points in the second half.  Hofstra shot 6 of 21 from the field in the second half with Buie making four of those shots.

Wagner didn't exactly the light the world on fire from the field in the second half, shooting 9 of 26 in the second half.  But the Seahawks lit up the foul line, shooting 15 of 18 from the charity stripe in the second half.  Wagner would go onto win 52-44.

Kenny Ortiz led Wagner with 15 points and Mario Moody added 12.points.  The Seahawks had fourteen offensive rebounds which helped give them a 13-4 margin in second chance points.  Wagner won despite missing their best player, Latif Rivers, who likely won't be back until January.

Buie led all scorers with 16 points, but no other Pride player was in double figures.  Walk-on Matt Grogan had another nice night with seven points and Stephen Nwaukoni had eleven rebounds.

Hofstra has now lost four straight games after their three game sweep in the 2K Classic Subregional and will now play another NEC team, LIU on their home court in Brooklyn,   Wagner has a home game against Coppin State.

Both teams had a chance to win tonight, but in the future they will need to play a lot better.  You can win ugly, but not that often.

Tigers Get Some Consolation (Recap of Clemson vs. South Carolina)

Eight days after South Carolina defeated Clemson for the fourth time in a row in their long storied football rivalry, the two schools hooked up again at the Colonial Life Arena  in a men's basketball game.  This time there were no burnings of each other school's mascot.  Just a high noon start time for the Tigers and the Gamecocks.

Both teams were coming off a loss in a conference challenge.  Clemson lost at home to Purdue by twelve in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge.   Meanwhile, South Carolina got hammered in Queens by St John's in the Big East/SEC Challenge.  Thus there was added incentive in the rivalry between these two Palmetto State schools.

When I got to Colonial Life Arena about forty minutes before game time, it was apparent that this was not Wisconsin Milwaukee the Gamecocks were playing.  The parking lots were full and the ticket scalpers instead of saying "Need Tickets?" had signs saying "Need tickets!"  I must have been asked at least five times if I was selling my tickets.

Inside the arena, for the first time this season, the seats behind each side of the basket were mostly full and there were a good number of people in the upper deck,.  Again, nothing sells tickets like a good intrastate rivalry.

The game started off with Michael Carrera being fouled on a shot attempt.  Carrera hit one of two free throws to give the Gamecocks a 1-0 lead.  It was the last time that South Carolina had a lead the entire half. It took over seven minutes, but Clemson would go on a 14-2 run to go up 14-3 with twelve minutes left until halftime.

The Gamecocks were struggling from the field, missing eight of their first nine shots.  If they weren't missing shots, South Carolina's was turning the ball over.  The Gamecocks' season long weakness of being careless with the ball continued as they turned the ball over seven times in the first eight minutes.  To complicate things, the Gamecocks' big men all got into foul trouble.  Carrera would have three fouls in the first half and Lakeem Jackson and RJ Slawson would each have two fouls.

Despite the first eight minutes, South Carolina did give their fans two reasons to be hopeful.  First, Bruce Ellington made his home game debut as he entered the game for Eric Smith. The crowd gave him a large BRUUUCE cheer upon his entrance.

Shortly thereafter, Brenton Williams entered the game to a warm welcome.  Williams had suffered what appeared to be a scary neck injury against St  John's after a Red Storm player landed on him while he was driving for a layup.  Williams was taken off the court on a stretcher and taken to a local hospital in New York.  Amazingly, Williams was playing only three days after the incident and he celebrated by burying a three pointer to end the Tigers run.

A K.J. McDaniels three put Clemson back up by double digits, 17-6.  They had opportunities to extend the lead further, but the Tigers turned the ball over four times and missed all three of their shots over a four minute span.  The Gamecocks cut the lead down to seven before Clemson scored five straight points to put their lead back in double digits, 23-11.

But the Gamecocks responded with an 11-0 run over the next six minutes as Williams scored six of the eleven points.  South Carolina now was back within one point and also finally had the crowd fully involved in the game.   After dominating most of the first half, Clemson went into halftime only up one point, 28-27.

The crowd gave their largest cheers of the day for the halftime festivities.  That's because there was a presentation/celebration of the Clemson-South Carolina football rivalry trophy. Coach Steve Spurrier and several players, including the phenomenal Jadeveon Clowney, came out to a thunderous ovation.  Athletic Director Ray Tanner first spoke, then Spurrier talked for several minutes, which included a funny Wofford/Clemson comparison (you had to be there).  It was a reminder that football is the big sport in Columbia, even at  halftime of the biggest non conference basketball home game of the season.

The start of the second half saw the Gamecocks score the first four points to take their first lead of the game since 1-0.  Layups by Williams and Jackson put South Carolina up 31-28. It looked as if the Gamecocks would make it two straight rivalry wins over the Tigers.

But Clemson responded with a 13-2 run over the next few minutes as the Tigers started using their frontcourt size advantage.  McWilliams scored seven points and added an assist during the run.  The Tigers were now up 41-33 with twelve and a half minutes left in the game.

The lead grew as South Carolina continued to have problems containing Clemson's big men.  Devin Booker scored six straight points and extended Clemson's lead to twelve, 49-37.  One had to wonder if Clowney was available for a few minutes to guard the paint.

But Ellington and Williams led a Gamecocks' 10-2 comeback as they scored seven of those points. An Ellington layup cut the Tigers' lead to four, 51-47.  At the under four minute media timeout, the crowd was now out at its loudest point of the game, halftime football game celebration excluded.

But Damarcus Harrison quieted the crowd with a big three pointer to put the Tigers up seven, 54-47.  He wasn't on the court long enough to celebrate it, as he quickly picked up his fifth foul.  But Carrera made only one of two free throws.

From that point, the game became a free throw shooting contest and the Tigers made their free throws.  In fact, Clemson would shoot 27 of 37 from the charity stripe and down the stretch, they put the game out of reach.  The Tigers would go up by as many as twelve before settling for a 64-55 win.

McDaniels, Booker and Rod Hall would each score in double figures for the Tigers.  Together they combined for forty four of the sixty four points scored by Clemson. McDaniels added five blocks and Booker had two of his own.

For the Gamecocks, their bench had a strong game as Ellington, Williams and Mindaugas Kacinas each scored in double figures and combined for thirty eight points.  Unfortunately, the South Carolina starters combined only scored fourteen points. The Gamecocks shot only 4 of 15 from beyond the arc and 34.6 percent overall from the field.  They also had nineteen turnovers.

For South Carolina, it was their second loss in a row after winning five of their first six games. It was also their second loss at home on the season. The Gamecocks look to bounce back with another home non conference game Friday night vs. Jacksonville.  Coach Frank Martin's team will likely have to bounce back without Ellington, who will be practicing with the football team now that South Carolina is in the Outback Bowl vs. Michigan on January 1st.

Clemson had gathered a measure of revenge beating South Carolina on its home court.  It was a solid road win for the Tigers, who are now 6-2. Coach Brad Brownell had to be pleased with the effort.

But you got the feeling that all things considered, the Clemson fans in attendance would have much rather won the football game instead.

Be True to Your School (Recap of SMU vs. Hofstra)

When it came to college, I didn't have much of a choice over twenty eight years ago.  Though I was in the top ten percent of my class, I couldn't live out of state with my family situation.   My parents were divorced and I lived with mom, my older sister, albeit briefly, and my little sister.  We were struggling to get by on 81 Cherry Avenue in Bethpage.  Thus Valparaiso, a school that sent me a lot of information because I was Lutheran (I guess you could say they "recruited" me), was out of the question, despite the knowledge that they played Notre Dame in basketball every year (that was their claim to fame at the time, long before the Drews).

My mom wanted me to be the first person in my family to go to school full time and graduate (my older sister and brother went part time and both graduated).  I wanted to go to a good school and Stony Brook was too far of a commute, especially for someone who didn't have a car till his junior year of college.  So Hofstra offered me a half scholarship.  Other scholarships, TAP (NY State's Tuition Assistance Program) and federal loans helped me get by those four years.  That and my mom driving me to and from Hofstra for the first two years.

Back then, I barely followed the men's basketball program.  I concentrated on keeping my half scholarship and worked part time.  But the Flying Dutchmen, as they were known then, were about to get a life long alum and friend.

It was at Hofstra that I met my dear friend Tony Terentieff, aka Tieff to the readers of this blog.  Through Tieff, I got to know my dear friends Tony Bozzella and Mal Galletta, though neither went to Hofstra (both went to Glen Cove High School).  I met other dear friends, directly and indirectly through Hofstra.

Then after I graduated in 1988, an IT position came open in the Axinn Library at Hofstra.  Though I had many opportunities to work in New York City, the thought of being close to home was appealing.  I accepted the position, gained a lot of knowledge and more lifelong friends.

Four years later, I accepted a position at Hofstra Law School.   My first day there, I met my future wife.  Over my nineteen years there, I became friends with a lot of faculty, administration, staff  and students (now alums) there and at other places on campus.  It was a wonderful twenty eight years that ended when I accepted my new position at the University of South Carolina in August.

Over the last thirteen years, I became a fan of the basketball program at Hofstra.   I became a season ticket holder, went to many CAA Tournaments and Hofstra road games.  My fondness for college basketball grew and in December 2005, I started this blog on college baskebtall.

Yes, this is the seven year anniversary of my blog.  What started as a dare by two friends, as an offering to my love of college basketball, has become a deep seated passion for me, as well now for my seven year old son, Matthew. I have seen so many countless games as a result of this blog, so many memories.

All of this would not be possible without Hofstra.  My wife, my sons, my dear friends and colleagues and even this new job/life in South Carolina would never have happened without that Dutch commuter school in Hempstead, New York.

Yesterday, I had a choice.   I could have gone to Charlotte and covered the East Carolina - Charlotte game, which featured the only two undefeated schools left in North Carolina (won by Charlotte) or I could stay in my rented house here in Columbia and watch the SMU-Hofstra game online.

Considering the circumstances of Friday, people would have understood had I chosen the ECU-Charlotte game. I, along with many others including Jerry Beach, aka Defiantly Dutch, were frustrated, disgusted and exasperated  by what four members of the men's basketball team did over the past few months.   It would have been easy to say "I need a break from the Hofstra basketball team.  Those four student athletes ruined the team".   No one would have blamed me.

Except me.  In a relationship, a life long relationship, like say marriage, you take the good with the bad.  You know "in sickness and in health.  Till death do you part".  There are bumpy roads and to quote Sylvester Stallone from the most recent Rocky movie "The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows."

Yes, what those four kids did were wrong and I took them to task for it yesterday.  But since I couldn't be there in person, to give the remaining kids on the team that did no wrong an ovation and support and for the coaching staff,who as Mo Cassara stated in press conference were "heartbroken", I had to show support in some way.

Thus I made my choice.  I stayed home and watched the game online.

Larry Brown's SMU team came in to yesterday's game at 7-1 on the season.  The nomadic Brown, who Cassara noted "Has forgotten more basketball than I know", basically plays seven players,several of whom came from other schools.  Leading scorer Nick Russell was a transfer from Kansas State and was a key member off the bench for the Wildcats' 2010-11 Elite Eight team.  Shawn Williams transferred from Texas.  London Giles came by way of Nevada.

Unlike Matt Doherty, who was fired after an 8-20 season, Brown has got this team to mesh and playing tough defense.  It was evident early on, as the Mustangs jumped out to a 10-0 lead.  They packed their defense inside, limiting Hofstra to just six first half points in the paint and forcing the Pride to shoot from beyond the arc, much more than Hofstra had on the season.

The result was the Pride missed their first seven three point attempts.  When David Imes finally hit Hofstra's first three pointer, Hofstra was down 26-10.   Despite shooting 2 of 11 from beyond the arc, amazingly the Pride were only down twelve, 31-19 at the half.   This was due in large part to Steve Mejia, who scored the Pride's final five points of the half and had eight at the half.

There was hope that Hofstra could make a game of it after ending the first half with a 12-5 run.  And after Jordan Allen started the second half with a dunk to cut the lead to ten, 31-21, it seemed that the fans in the Mack Center might be treated to another exciting finish as they had in wins over South Dakota State and Marshall.

But SMU quickly dashed that with an 14-4 run over four minutes.  Jalen Jones scored seven of those points including a three point play to put the Mustangs up 45-25.  From there, the rout was on.  Another Jones three point play put SMU up 55-28.  Bryan Bernardi, who comes off the bench for the Mustangs and was heavily recruited by Hofstra, got into the act with a three pointer to put SMU up twenty eight.  The lead got as much as thirty before the Mustangs eventually won 73-47.

SMU scorched Hofstra in the second half, shooting fifty nine percent and scoring twenty points in the paint. They outscored Hofstra 32-14 in the paint for the game. Jones scored all of fourteen points in the second half.  Russell had ten second half points and finished with twenty points

The Mustangs keyed on Taran Buie all night and he was held to ten points on 3 of 13 shooting.  Mejia led the way with eleven points, but only three came in the second half.  There were bright spots for Hofstra as  senior walk-on Matt Grogan had a career high seven points. Stephen Nwaukoni was back after missing a couple of games with four points and eight rebounds. Finally, Darren Payen, who originally was going to be redshirted for the season, came off the bench and scored two points and had five rebounds in twenty two minutes.

After the game, as you would have figured, Cassara faced a lot of questions from the media about the four players being arrested.  He couldn't talk about the case itself, but he talked about how the coaches do evaluate their recruits, get to know their parents and their families.  Cassara talked about how "heartbroken" he was over the situation.  He also noted "Our guys are resilient. My staff is resilient. And most importantly, I'm resilient. And we're gonna just keep working as hard as we can."

Finally he noted how much he loves Hofstra.  Hofstra hired him in 2010 after Tim Welsh resigned after a DWI incident.  As Jerry Beach has noted and I have seen as well, Cassara has been an ambassador to Hofstra and has been at many events/functions/charities promoting the school in person and in social media  In his first season, he took a team depleted by transfers and had not finished in the top four of the CAA in Charles Jenkins' first three seasons and that team finished third in the CAA and won twenty one games.  Of course that was the season of #3BidsForCAA and the Final Four run of VCU.

He may not have graduated from Hofstra, but Cassara has been true to "his school", the one that gave him a chance to be a head coach on the Division I level for the first time. I know that there are many of us who either graduated from the school or work for the school and are disgusted, embarrassed and frustrated by what those four players did.  It's understandable to feel that way.  But we need to be true to our school right now just like we are in good times.  The basketball program, with the good kids that are still there now and had nothing to do with those burglaries, needs our support.

This week my mom's house was officially sold, almost exactly three years after her death.  I was there last Saturday morning picking up a final few things.  Before I left, I looked around the house one last time.  All the memories growing up there.  I wondered about whether my mom is watching me from above and what she thinks of me.

I know that she is glad I went to Hofstra and got my degree.  That much I am certain.

The CAA - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The events of yesterday beckoned the title of my article.  And I needed to add the above clip to feel better. You had good news for the CAA, bad news (the recent play of CAA teams in general) and you all by now know what The Ugly is as far as the CAA.

The Good

The College of Charleston Board of Trustees vote unanimously yesterday to join the CAA.  The Cougars are a nice get for the Colonial, having had a solid basketball program for years under John Kresse and Bobby Cremins.  Doug Wojcik, a proven winner at Tulsa, is a very solid addition to a good group of CAA coaches   His team is fresh off a big upset win at Baylor and looks to contend with Davidson for a NCAA berth in their last year in the Southern Conference.

Not only that, but already Charleston will be hosting the CAA baseball championships in 2015 and 2016.  It's also a wonderful city having been there just recently for CofC's win over Towson.  Schools will enjoy visiting Charleston and there is even talk of having the CAA Men's Basketball Tournament in the the TD Arena in the near future.

The Bad

With a fifth of the season gone by, CAA men's basketball could be described as best as mediocre, somewhat chaotic and a little disappointing (which might be kind).  The supposed top two teams in the Colonial coming into the season, Drexel and Delaware,  are a combined 4-9.  Only two of the eleven teams in the conference are currently above .500.  Four teams are at .500 and the rest of the conference is below .500.

Let's look at a few teams that are struggling.  I have already briefly talked about Drexel in my new weekly "Four on the Floor" segment on Thursday.

In their last season in the conference, Old Dominion is 1-5.  ODU hasn't had a losing record since the 2002-03 season.  They are still a great rebounding team as they are 33rd in the country averaging
41.3 rebounds per game and 11th in the country in offensive rebound percentage at 42.8 percent.

The Monarchs problem is they can't shoot.  They are 328th in the country in three point field goal percentage at 24.5 percent and 280th in the country in effective field goal percentage at 44 percent.  ODU is also struggling with turnovers, as they are 250th in the country in turnover percentage at 22.8 percent.

Delaware looked to be on the cusp of being a very good team entering the season.  They enhanced their stature by making into the Preseason NIT Tipoff semifinals after upsetting Virginia on their home court.  Then they gave Kansas State all they could handle in the Tipoff semis before losing 66-63.  But they have unraveled since then losing to Pitt by twenty six points, then losing a close game at Temple.  Finally, the Blue Hens lost at Lafayette, a team that had lost five straight and just had won one game on the season entering the contest.

For the Blue Hens, it comes down to a lack of defense.  Delaware's opponents outshoot them from the field 48.4% to 47.9%.  Also, the Blue Hens have a problem forcing teams to turn the ball over.  Delaware is ranked #300 in defensive turnover percentage at 17.4 percent.  And unfortunately for the Blue Hens, they turn the ball over too much, 295th in the country in offensive steal percentage at 12.7 percent.   Devon Saddler is averaging more turnovers per game, 3.7, than assists, 3.0

Finally there is James Madison, the perennial CAA Enigma.  They are 1-5 on the season, with that one win being a one point win over Youngstown State.  This team has a lot of talent, but never seems to put it together.

This season, the Dukes are struggling on the defensive end.  They are 320th in the country in rebounding average.  But that's not even their worst defensive statistic.  They are 339th in effective field goal percentage, at 57.1 percent.  They are 335th in three point field goal percentage defense at 41.7 percent and 310th in two point field goal percentage defense at 54.1 percent.  They give up nearly seventy six points per game.

The Ugly

Unless you have been under a rock or you're not a die hard college basketball nut, you should know by now of what happened at Hofstra yesterday.  Four members of the men's basketball team; Jimmy Hall, Shaquille Stokes, Dallas Anglin and Kentrell Washington were arrested on multiple counts of burglary.  Newsday reports that court papers show that they admitted stealing over $10,000 in laptop computers. The four players have been immediately suspended from the team, classes, residence halls and facilities.  All four players have also been removed from the team roster.   Three of the four are still in jail as of last night.  Anglin was released on $2,000 bail.

Hall said in a court paper "I did something real stupid".

You think?

Simply put, these students not only robbed students of their possessions, they robbed those students of their trust,  robbed the trust of their teammates, robbed their teammates of an improving season, robbed their coaches of their trust in giving scholarships to and robbed their fans of chance to see a young and upcoming team. They put a major black eye on a program that only two years ago was improving thanks in large part to Charles Jenkins, a man of utmost character, who I am sure is quite saddened about all of this.

But most importantly, they robbed themselves.  They robbed themselves of an athletic scholarship, robbed of a chance to better themselves, robbed themselves a chance of getting a degree for basically free and perhaps playing professional basketball overseas.  All that for several laptops.

Instead, three of the four sit in a Nassau County jail in East Meadow wondering what is in store next.  It's certainly not coming back to Hofstra. They are done there.   They may not get a second chance anywhere.

Ultimately, they robbed themselves of a future. They only have themselves to blame. That is truly ugly.