1. This morning, as I see it, college basketball fans got a chance to see just how good St. John's might be as this this season plunges deeper into conference play. I've made the following point before: St. John's plays harassing, relentless, hounding defense, from baseline to baseline. They turn their opponents over a lot. This is terrific. But, there's a problem: they haven't had a ton of success translating these turnovers into points and they've had problems scoring out of their set offense.
I think there's good reason for this: Mike Anderson is coaching the Johnnies for the first year; only two experienced players returned from last year's team; Anderson is working with different combinations of players, seeking to find which players work well together and who the Johnnies' scorers will be.
The Johnnies faced Seton Hall this morning at Madison Square Garden. Seton Hall has been blossoming into a well-rounded offensive squad, led by the peerless Myles Powell, and has developed into a stern defensive team. Coming into today's tilt, Seton Hall was atop the Big East standings, yet to lose a conference game. St. John's conversely had only won once in conference.
In today's first half, everything clicked for the Johnnies. As expected, they hounded Seton Hall into bad passes and made occasional steals off of the Pirates' dribble, making it difficult for Seton Hall to get comfortable on offense. What was not expected was that the Johnnies had a terrific scoring half in the first stanza. Mustapha Heron splashed shots from the outside. L. J. Figueroa scored in a variety of ways. The Johnnies raced to a thirteen point half time lead, 43-30.
In the second half, Seton Hall not only handled St. John's pressure more surely, they applied some full and three quarter defensive pressure on the Johnnies and it bothered St. John's. Myles Powell hadn't scored much in the first half, but came alive in the second, scoring from distance and on some mighty drives to the iron and finished with 29 points. Quincy McKnight was instrumental in keeping Seton Hall's second half possessions clean and scored 20 points. Romaro Gill continued his emergence as a force in the pivot and scored key buckets and free throws.
Seton Hall erased St. John's thirteen point lead and with their better offensive balance, tight defense, and ability to hit shots in pressure packed situations, eked out a victory, 82-79.
It's got to be tough for St. John's not to get demoralized. They are fortunate to have, in Mike Anderson, an experienced and patient coach with a quiet disposition who, as far as I can see, is positive and encouraging from the bench during games. (I don't know how he comports himself in practice.) I hope the Johnnies learned a lot today about just how potent they can be and continue to gel. No, they won't win the conference, but they could make life difficult for teams higher up in the standings and could develop into a formidable team by the time the conference tournament rolls around in March.
2. The other televised game I cared a lot about today? The Oregon Ducks playing the Washington Huskies in Seattle.
For much of this game, the Ducks looked impotent against the Huskies' match-up zone defense. Husky coach Mike Hopkins learned while serving as Jim Boeheim's longtime assistant at Syracuse that the 2-3 match up zone defense requires players with a lot of length -- not only tall players, but ones with long arms. He's recruited such players. It's a difficult defense to score against and it gave the Ducks a lot of difficulties for much of the game. At the same time, especially in the first half, the Huskies were, well, unconscious on offense, especially freshman guard, Marcus Tsohonis and their mighty freshman inside, Isaiah Stewart. The Huskies built a 37-25 lead at halftime.
With just over ten minutes remaining in the game, the Huskies extended their lead to 16 points, 48-32.
Soon, however, the game's momentum shifted for a couple of reason. First of all, Oregon went into a full court press that flustered the Huskies into turnovers and seemed to affect their confidence in setting up their offense and scoring. At the same time, Oregon began to unlock the Huskies' match up zone. The match up zone has cracks in it, especially about twelve feet from the basket in the key. If a team can make passes into this area and if the player receiving those passes makes sound decisions whether to shoot the mid-range jumper, kick the ball back outside, or drive to the hoop, an offense can begin to pick this defense apart.
All game long, the Ducks seemed to be searching for the right player to flash across the key, set up in the vulnerable spot, and make things happen. In the second half, that player turned out to be Chandler Lawson. From that spot in the key, he made some great plays. I especially like it when he drove to the cup, created some two on one situations near the hoop and either he or a teammate scored inside. In addition to the emergence of Lawson, the Ducks' Payton Pritchard hit some shots under pressure; Chris Duarte hit one, too, and lo and behold, the game went into overtime.
In the last ten seconds of overtime, with the game tied and with time nearly expired on the shot clock, Payton Pritchard craftily created a tiny amount of space between himself and Husky defender Jamal Bey. He launched a rainmaker from beyond the three point arc, an atmospheric parabola that took what seemed like several seconds to return to Earth, and it was all nylon. Swish!
The Huskies had very little time to organize a last second shot, failed to do so, and the Ducks won a comeback thriller, 64-61.
It was what Byrdman and I might call a Petula Clark finish for the Ducks. The game winner came from "Downtown" and the Ducks epitomized Petula Clark's advice from another song: "Don't Give Up".
My final assessment? I think the Ducks are very much a work in progress. They are playing with a lot of new players on their roster and I don't think, understandably, that they've quite worked out which players perform the best with which others. Today, Chandler Lawson scored 16 points. His previous high scoring game had been half that. Will he continue to be productive or will support for Payton Pritchard come from elsewhere and will the time come when the Ducks have a more solid idea of who their most reliable players are? Right now, aside from the ever reliable Pritchard, it's unpredictable who will be the second, third, and even fourth scoring option. Some nights it's been Will Richardson. Others nights, Chris Durate. Today it was Chandler Lawson. Again, this is very much a team still working to define and discover itself. (And the Ducks aren't alone. It's a common challenge across the college basketball landscape.)
3. You'd think after two breathtaking games -- and some other televised action I haven't mentioned (Marquette/Georgetown and Louisville/Duke) -- I would have had enough basketball for one day.
Not the case.
Around six o'clock I blasted the Sube up to Andrews Memorial Gymnasium, to The Drew, to watch Kellogg play Bonners Ferry.
I arrived in time to watch about three quarters of the girls' varsity squad defeat the Badgers, 60-46. I hope to watch the girls play more often. I don't have a very good sense, after only seeing them play today, just what I think their team is about, aside from my impression that sophomore Hailey Cheney is developing into a very solid player.
When the boys' starting five was introduced before the game's opening tip, I was very surprised that their senior sharp shooter and reliable ball handler, Graden Nearing, was not starting. I sat in the bleachers opposite the Kellogg bench and, upon examination, saw that Nearing was wearing some kind of a cast or brace on his right arm and was injured.
So, I wondered, how will the Wildcats perform without Nearing?
After one quarter, sluggishly. Kellogg only scored eight points in the first quarter and Bonners Ferry led, 12-8.
This is the third straight season I've attended Wildcat games.
Clearly, they are a defense first team. They pressure opponents the length of the court with active feet and work hard to disrupt passes, pick an opponent's pocket from time to time off the dribble, and work hard to score points in the open court off their defense.
This is exactly what happened tonight. As the game progressed, Kellogg pressured Bonners Ferry into more and more mistakes. They scored a string of close in baskets. When Brandon Miller nailed a three pointer, maybe in the second half, I think it was their only basket from beyond the arc.
I admire the Wildcats' defensive persistence, what fine physical condition they're in, their hard work as rebounders, the way Coach Nearing substitutes freely, and their determination to score at close range, especially with their best long range scorer out with injury. Kellogg will never dominate an opponent with height and size. They are not a great outside shooting team, especially with Graden Nearing injured. They scrap. They get under their opponents' skin. They do everything they can on defense and on the boards to compensate for where they lack in size and certain skills. I very much enjoy watching the Wildcats play and am looking forward to Tuesday's game against Sandpoint.
I haven't seen a box score for this game and I couldn't tell you who Kellogg's leading scorer was. My impression was that several players scored. I thought it was a great team effort on defense and on offense. I was impressed that after only scoring 8 first quarter points, the Wildcats ended the game with 70 points and ended up cruising to a 70-56 victory.
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