Xavier back on track in A-10

Prior to Saturday, it didn’t seem like things could get any more jumbled at the top of the A-10. But that was before league-leading Dayton lost at home to a previously winless URI team, or before preseason title contender Saint Louis was slammed by a surprising UMass squad that was picked to finish in the dregs of the conference.

Things almost got a little wilder at Halton Arena in Charlotte, as perennial contender Xavier (14-7; 5-3) barely edged a reeling Charlotte (10-10; 2-5) team that’s now lost five straight conference games after a 2-0 start. A loss could have severely hurt XU’s chances at a conference title or at-large bid, but with the 74-70 win, head coach Chris Mack thinks his Musketeers are right where they need to be.

“We talked about in the locker room that there’s nobody that’s 8-0 or 7-1 in conference, where you feel like some things have to happen for you to even be able to talk about a race,” Mack said after Xavier moved to 5-3 in A-10 play. “It’s very, very wide open at this point.”

Xavier’s win Saturday puts them half a game back of a trio of teams at the top of the league, two of which were picked to finish in the bottom half of the 14-team league. UMass, La Salle and St. Bonaventure sit at the top of the standings with 5-2 records. UMass and La Salle, picked preseason to finish 12th and 13th, have surprised, while St. Bonaventure, which struggled to a 7-5 non-conference record, seems to be rounding into form just in time.

Losing to Charlotte wouldn’t have been unheard of for the Musketeers. Xavier won the regular season conference belt a year ago with a 15-1 record. Their only loss? You guessed it, at Charlotte.

“It’s a different race than it was a year ago, and that’s ok, our goal is to win the conference,” Mack said. “We’ve got a long way — every team in this conference has a long way to go until it ends.”

With seven of the A-10′s 14 teams within just one game of first place, Mack thinks the opportunity is there for an exciting finish come March, and that the league right nowis as tough as its ever been.

“This used to be a league of have and have nots,” Mack continued. “From top to bottom, this league is as strong as its ever been. It may be a little jumbled right now because of records, but there are some good teams in this conference and we’ll see who wins the race.”

–Josh Carpenter

 

Canes win with heavy hearts

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — New Miami Hurricanes coach Jim Larranaga learned a lot about his team in Thursday night’s 76-61 win over the Charlotte 49ers inside Halton Arena. And he probably likes what he found out. 

The Hurricanes were dealt a huge blow Thursday morning, learning that the brother of preseason All-ACC guard Malcolm Grant had passed away unexpectedly. Grant left the team immediately to be with his family, leaving the Canes without one of their senior leaders and leading scorer (15.1 ppg). But Larranaga couldn’t have been happier with the way his squad responded. 

“Our team is a very close knit group,” Larranaga said after his team moved to 7-4. “One of the most impressive things about being a new coach is working with a group of guys that are so close off the court.”

The Hurricanes were aided by the return of 6-10 big man Reggie Johnson, who was playing in just his second game back from a knee injury he suffered over the summer. Johnson shut down Chris Braswell, one of the A-10′s top post players. Johnson, weighing in at 280 pounds, held the smaller Braswell (6-8, 235) to just 3-of-15 shooting from the floor (12 pts, 7 rebs). 

“We’ve been very shorthanded up front and then today we had a bunch of front court players available,” Larranaga said. “One of the things we have now is balance.”

The Hurricanes also got a boost from 6-7 swing man DeQuan Jones (7 pts, 6 rebs), who made his season debut after being caught up in the NCAA investigation of UM and former booster Nevin Shapiro. 

“The guys genuinely care about Malcolm,” Larranaga said. “He’s one of the nicest human beings you’ll want to be around.”

–Josh Carpenter

 

Swashbucklers

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Jarvis Jones picked the perfect time to hit his first shot of the night. The redshirt junior East Tennessee State guard stuck a dagger in the hearts of Charlotte 49er fans, draining a corner trifecta as time expired to push the Buccaneers (3-1) past Charlotte (2-2), 70-69 in Halton Arena. 

“Yeah I guess it was a pretty good time to hit my first shot,” said Jones, who was previously 0-3 from the field. “I hit one like that two years ago. It was actually on the same spot on the floor at Lipscomb. It looked good coming off my hand, I was a little frustrated having not made the first two.”

Coach Murry Bartow‘s squad, winners of 24 games a year ago, found themselves down 10 midway through the second half to a Charlotte squad that was desperate for a win. But Bartow’s Buccaneers, who made the NCAA Tournament in 2009 and 2010, didn’t show any signs of quitting. 

“We just kept fighting, started playing defense harder and started rebounding,” Jones said. “We just started playing together as a team.”

The Bucs got a significant second-half boost from another junior guard, Marcus Dubose. Charlotte held him in check in the first half to the tune of six points, but Dubose exploded out of the gates in the second stanza and finished with a game-high 26 points on 9-of-17 shooting. 

“I think winning all those games last year helped us a lot,” Jones said. “We were in situations like this where we had to fight and grind it out and we just learned from those.”

Charlotte, losers of two straight, could have iced the game away, but sophomore missed a pair of free throws with 10 seconds left to give the Buccaneers one last shot. 

“Obviously if they hit the free throws late, it’s a different outcome,” Bartow said. “Jarvis is one of those guys that doesn’t mind taking a big shot. Whenever it leaves his hand, it looks good.”

–Josh Carpenter

 

Things heating up in Charlotte

Alan Major’s second year as Charlotte 49ers head coach is already off to a tough start, but not in a negative way.

A year after being stuck with no more than seven scholarship players, Major has added some depth to the 49ers’ bench. With depth generally comes more toughness and competition, Major said.

“I think it’s called roster competition and that’s a healthy thing,” Major said Thursday. “When you have multiple guys that have the ability to get on the floor, what you create is this standard of effort.”

With seven new players on the roster for 2011-12, competition in practice has certainly picked up. Senior guard Derrio Green, who averaged more than 35 minutes per game at point and shooting guard last year, will be pushed for playing time.

“It’s been a lot more competitive in practice,” Green said. “We haven’t been getting in fights but there have been some scuffles.”

Green, along with redshirt junior Jamar “Deuce” Briscoe, were Major’s only viable backcourt options last season. 2011-12 sees the backcourt additions of freshmen Pierria Henry and Terrence Williams, and Luka Voncina and DeMario Mayfield, who both sat out last season due to NCAA rules.

Briscoe and Green are natural shooting guards, so Voncina and Henry seem like possible suitors for the starting point guard spot eventually. As a result of Major’s ‘roster competition’, practices have gotten a little bit scrappier. Henry and Voncina both received incidental broken noses in practice this week, while Mayfield also caught an elbow up high.

“I don’t think guys got complacent last year,” Major said. “but they know that, ‘Hey, if I meet this standard of effort, it’s going to potentially put me in the mix to be on the floor.”

Junior forward K.J. Sherrill spent much of last season rehabbing from knee surgery. He didn’t have much competition, either. Now, Sherrill is near 100 percent, but talented Georgia freshman E. Victor Nickerson is waiting in the wings.

“Some days it kind of gets out of control with everyone going so hard, but I can just see everyone getting better from Derrio to the freshman,” Sherrill said. “Coach is just pushing us harder every day.”

Charlotte, selected 11th in the preseason A-10 poll, begins the regular season Nov. 11 against North Carolina Central.

–Josh Carpenter

 

Big Blue looking for big return to tournament

When a team loses in the round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament, it’s normally the end of the road for many seniors’ basketball career. There are tears, people wondering what could have been or what’s next.

John Beilein’s Michigan Wolverines lost a heartbreaker to the defending National Champion Duke Blue Devils on Sunday. Michigan trailed all game, never leading in the last 35 minutes, and when Darius Morris’ pull-up jumper from the lane bounced off the back of the rim, their season was over.

“We’d like to have some plays back earlier in the game. I can’t even recall any of them, but there were a few.” Beilein said.

The Wolverines are upset—rightfully so. They were a missed jumper away from taking the defending national champs to overtime not long after it looked like they might not even be playing in the NCAAs after a rugged 1-6 start to Big Ten play.

“I felt we spent a lot of time convincing them this year that they could win, no matter who they were playing against,” Beilein said. “They believed it and almost came through again today against another top, top team.”

So sure, the Wolverines are likely wondering what happened, or Beilein might be asking himself what he could’ve done differently in the game plan. But Michigan has one thing going for them; Sunday wasn’t the last basketball game for any senior on the Michigan roster—because they don’t have any seniors.

 The Maize & Blue will have a returning upperclassmen backcourt of Zack Novak and Stu Douglass while Morris will return as a junior. They’ll also return the talents of two fantastic freshmen in guard Tim Hardaway Jr. and 6-8 forward Jordan Morgan.

Michigan looked like a young team early on, struggling with Duke’s ball pressure on their guards, which resulted in a number of early turnovers that allowed the Blue Devils to jump out to an early lead. Michigan kept it close in the first half, only trailing by four at the break, but when Duke stretched its lead to 15 in the second half, everyone would have understood if the Wolverines had laid down.

After being down double-digits with under six minutes to go, though, the Wolverines threw a curveball at Duke—the 1-3-1 zone. The Blue Devils struggled to get good looks at the basket, and just like that, Michigan had a chance to tie or take the lead the last time down.

“It’s a group that never gave up the whole year,” Novak said. “We started 1-6, Big Ten season, come back, inch away from the Sweet 16, defeating the defending National Champion. Going to need that same resilience going into next year after this one, though. No doubt this group will get it done.”

With the returning talent, Michigan will likely be a top 15 preseason team, and their upperclassmen are going to make sure they aren’t left wondering what else they could have done at this time next year.

“I think they (young guys) want it real bad, and, you know, we’ve been talking about us being leaders and we’ve been in the Tournament,” Douglass said. “but these guys have got a taste for it. You don’t have to tell them much to get them motivated.”

-Josh Carpenter

 

Huskies look to outrun Heels

Today’s match-up of 7th-seeded Washington and 2nd-seeded North Carolina in Charlotte is shaping up to be one of the more fast-paced games of the NCAA Tournament thus far.

Lorenzo Romar and Roy Williams’ teams both have high-octane offenses and thrive when they get their transition game going.

“It’s going to be a fast paced game,” said Washington forward Justin Holiday. “We’re both teams that like to run in transition, so there might e a few heartaches here and there.. That’s the type of game we like to play.”

The Tar Heels have already been in an up-tempo affair, defeating LIU 102-87 on Friday night. Despite the win, North Carolina was outscored 30-23 on fast-break points by the Blackbirds, so UNC’s Harrison Barnes knows his team defense will have to be ready for the Huskies.

“Off Isaiah Thomas’ penetration, he’s going to find them good looks,” Barnes said. “We have to definitely work on our transition defense, get back and get the shooters and contest.”

Washington meanwhile, outscore the Georgia Bulldogs 15-4 in fastbreak opportunites in Friday’s 68-65 win. Romar’s team finished well below their season average of 83.1 points per game, good for third nationally, but that was against a slower, halfcourt Georgia team.

“We feel we’re at our best when we’re running the floor,” said Washington forward Matthew Bryan-Amaning. “Coach always says if you got a good shot in transition, take it. He’s always giving us that kind of green light.”

UNC faced the fourth-highest scoring team nationally in LIU (82.7) Friday night, but Williams thinks the Tar Heels will need to be much better to get past the Huskies today.

“Rebound the basketball and get back and get–three things, rebound the basketball, get back, and get picked up,” Williams said. “We didn’t do a good job with our transition defense (against LIU). And then the biggest thing, stop the silly turnovers.”

Wadshington is 0-1 all-time against the Tar Heels as the two teams haven’t met since way back in 1972–a an 89-72 win for North Carolina.

–Josh Carpenter

 

Irving returns, Duke wins big

When Mike Krzyzewski announced Wednesday that guard Kyrie Irving would be returning for the NCAA Tournament, he put a wrinkle in everyone’s bracket. Irving returned Friday afternoon in a limited capacity for the Blue Devils’ 87-45 second round win over Hampton.

Irving didn’t wow anyone in the first half as he scored just two points and at times looked like a player that had missed 26 straight games. He picked it up in the second half, though, scoring on a number of acrobatic layups and two 3-pointers in the final minutes for a game-high 14 points. Irving played 20 minutes.

Duke’s bigs also had a profound effect on the outcome, as Mason Plumlee accounted for 12 points while his brother Miles pulled down 13 rebounds to go along with eight points of his own. Duke will face Michigan on Sunday, which defeated Tennessee by 30 earlier in the day. Krzyzewski was cautious to give Irving too much credit, though, and acknowledged the entire Blue Devils’ squad.

Here’s what Krzyzewski had to say about Irving’s first game back:

Q: What was your impression of Kyrie out there today?

A:  “Well the main thing is, my total focus is on our team. So I thought our team was sharp and I thought Kyrie was sharp. You can’t come on the court after being out for three months and having very limited practice time and expect to be fluid. But I thought as the game went along—because we played very well, we were able to have him in with the unit that he had been practicing with. So that gave him some familiarity, he wasn’t worried about getting in Nolan’s (Smith) way, he could run the team. I was really pleased, I thought he was very confident as it moved along.”

Q: You seemed to do some experimenting today, how did Kyrie effect that?

A: “In the first half, we wanted to see what kind of a rotation we might have using Kyrie. In the second half, we weren’t worried about a rotation but just about getting quality minutes for our bench and make sure that they’re fully vested into this tournament. We never pressed in the second half, we just picked up half-court, but that’s what we’ve done all year.”

Q: How did having an extra guard help with the ball pressure defensively to help your transition game?

A: “Well first of all, it all starts with ball pressure. Not just on the point, but any part of the perimeter, even if the big guys are out there pressuring the ball. If you do a good job of it, you can take away some vision of the offense and maybe force that offense out of its normal area of deployment. To have more guys be able to do that, the better. Again, I still think the key to today’s game—even though we won by a lot of points—was Nolan’s pressure on the ball. That’s something that—from the ACC Tournament—we continued to do that today.”

–Josh Carpenter

 

Michigan blitzes Volunteers

The Tennessee Volunteers might defer the next time they get invited to Time Warner Cable Arena. After losing to a bad Charlotte team in December at the home of the Charlotte Bobcats, Tennessee came into Friday’s match-up with Michigan looking for a different outcome in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

It didn’t happen.

6-8 freshman sensation Tobias Harris thrived early on, toying with Michigan’s smaller interior front line to the tune of 19 first half points and four rebounds.

Michigan trailed much of the first 20 minutes but used a late-half scoring burst to take the lead on the Vols at the half, 33-29. Tennessee wouldn’t get any closer.

Michigan obliterated Bruce Pearl’s squad in the second half, outscoring the Volunteers 42-16 behind nine second-half points by standout guard Zack Novak, who finished with the game’s only double-double (14 points, 10 rebounds). Tennessee’s Harris went scoreless in the second half while Michigan had five different players reach double-figures behind an effective inside-out game.

“We thought we played well in the first half but we knew we had to come out and take it to another level in the second half,” said Michigan guard Stu Douglass. ”We just willed it and executed the game plan.”

Big Blue forced the Vols into 18 turnovers, resulting in 20 Michigan points and outscored them in the paint by a margin of 46-22.

Tennessee has now scored a combined 93 points in its last two games in Charlotte’s downtown arena. Michigan will face the winner of the Hampton-Duke matchup while Tennessee will be wondering what went wrong in a season that had so much promise at the start.

-Josh Carpenter

 

Galloway’s big day leads Saint Joe’s

It’s been a tough year to say the least for both Saint Joe’s and Charlotte. Mired by injuries, suspensions and eligibility issues, Alan Major’s 49ers struggled through the A-10 and found themselves in 13^th heading into their match-up with Saint Joe’s. Phil Martelli’s young Hawk team had similar struggles through conference play and were just one game ahead of Charlotte entering Saturday’s finale.

So even though it wasn’t for a conference title or an NCAA Tournament berth, the 49ers and Hawks finally had something on the line, a trip to the A-10 Tournament.

In the end, it was Saint Joe’s youth that came through.

After Charlotte’s Derrio Green tied the game at 64 with 1:26 remaining, Langston Galloway made the play of the night. The Saint Joe’s guard drilled a corner 3-pointer while being fouled with 1:20 left and converted the free throw, giving the Hawks a 68-64 lead.

“That was absolutely what we talked to our team about,” Martelli said about treating Saturday’s game like a tournament game. “That’s everything that it was. What they had to understand is that whatever was necessary, we were going to do it.”

St. Joe’s got some production from an unlikely source in the first half, its 3-point shooting. The Hawks entered Saturday as the 10^th-best 3-point shooting team in the A-10 but knocked down 6-of-10 treys in the first half to take a 35-33 lead into halftime.

Saint Joe’s dribble penetration worked to perfection against Charlotte’s 2-3 zone, often leaving perimeter shooters wide open for easy buckets. Saint Joe’s was even hotter to start the second half as four of their first five buckets came from deep over the first four minutes, helping the Hawks to a 48-40 lead.

Charlotte was without the services of sophomore starting point guard Jamar Briscoe in Wednesday’s game against Xavier, a 68-48 loss, due to a lower back injury. When Briscoe wasn’t in the starting lineup on Saturday, it looked like the 49ers would be without the 5-10 guard again.

After sitting out the entire first half, Briscoe checked in after Saint Joe’s stretched its lead to 48-40 early in the second half. Briscoe turned in what might have been his best half of the season, scoring 10 points, including back-to-back treys to give Charlotte a 62-60 lead.

Briscoe noted that he didn’t practice all week and didn’t feel like his game was completely ready, but once the shots started falling, he just got caught up in the game.

After Green tied it again with a 3 from the corner with 10 seconds left, Galloway put a dagger in the heart of Charlotte fans. Driving the length of the court, he was fouled on a layup attempt with four seconds left and after aking the front-end, had sent the Hawks to the conference tournament.

 Galloway finished with a game-high 27 points and single-handedly kept the Hawks alive in the A-10.

“I thought Langston played well off of our other players,” Martelli said of Galloway’s performance. “Our players found him and he got some shots in the air that were rhythm shots for him. When the ball goes in the basket, he plays a better brand of basketball.”

-Josh Carpenter

 

Harper makes his mark

Richmond senior Justin Harper is making the most out of his final season. Coming into the season as one of the most highly-touted players in the A-10, Harper is living up to the hype. Harper is big at 6-10, 225 but moves with the fluidity of his senior point guard, Kevin Anderson.

Harper has all the tools necessary and can take easy advantage of players his size because of his athletic ability. He showcased those talents on Saturday night when he abused Charlotte’s Chris Braswell (6-9, 235) in every facet of the game.

“I was just trying to be aggressive getting in there,” Harper said. “We knew we would have to be able to establish ourselves in the paint against this team.”

Harper scored 22 points and grabbed seven rebounds against Charlotte while showing why he might be a primetime NBA player. The Richmond native executed a number of pick-and-rolls to a T, unveiled his outside shot to the tune of three trifectas and hit four first-half fadeaway jumpers that were nothing but net. Harper is also adept to playing with his back to the basket, has a jab-step that could make Kobe Bryant miss and is money from the charity stripe.

“Justin’s a great player,” Richmond coach Chris Mooney said. “I thought the first half was a display of everything he can do. A couple of beautiful post moves, a follow-up basket, a 3-point shot. His rebounding was great, he blocked a shot which was kind of a highlight-reel type block. He’s got tremendous confidence right now.”

Harper likely won’t win A-10 Player of the Year—that’s likely to go to Xavier’s Tu Holloway—but he instantly makes the Spiders better and gives them one of the more dynamic talent sets in the league. Across the board, Harper’s skill set has visibly improved from 2009-10 to this year.

His 3-point percentage is up from 34 percent last season to nearly 49 percent this year, overall field goal is up from 48 to 55 percent and his free throw percentage has increased from 68 percent last year to 80 this season.

If Harper plays in the A-10 Tournament like he did Saturday night, there’s no reason to think the Spiders won’t be able to contend for a conference title and make a run in the NCAA Tournament.

-Josh Carpenter