NIT Title Game is Set
by Ray Floriani
NEW YORK – It will be St. Joe’s and South Carolina battling for the championship of the 68th annual National Invitation Tournament on Thursday. It promises to be an interesting final with the respective teams facing specific challenges.
St. Joe’s has to once again be concerned with tempo. South Carolina is dangerous in the open floor and runs the break well. Of greater importance, the Hawks have to take care of the basketball. The Gamecocks force about fifteen turnovers per game and run a great deal off those opposition miscues. All-SEC forward Carlos Powell leads South Carolina in scoring. The 6-7 Powell is effective in transition and is a lefty who is very effective inside. Dave Odom’s club is far from just Powell. They share the ball and have a number of players that can step up and beat you. A definite weakness for the Gamecocks is the foul line. They are shooting just above 60%, which can hurt in the waning moments of a close game.
St. Joe’s is playing with a great sense of purpose and confidence. Pat Carroll is a dangerous perimeter scorer and rarely forces or takes an ill advised shot. Dwayne Lee is running the point well and he will be tested by South Carolina’s cganging defenses. Dwayne Jones and John Bryant rebounded extremely well versus a Memphis club that had good size inside. Keeping St. Joe’s off the offensive boards will be a major concern in the finals.
St. Joe’s advanced with a 70-58 victory over Memphis in the first semifinal matchup at Madison Square Garden. “We had been playing well but tonight they out-toughed us,” said Memphis coach John Calipari. The Hawks outrebounded Memphis 40-31. In the first half St.Joe’s had 11 offensive rebounds. “that’s incredible,” Calipari said. “No one has done that against us this year.”
Dwayne Jones was largely responsible with a 13-point, 14-rebound (8 offensive) outing. The Hawks also showed outstanding poise against any Memphis pressure and dictated tempo. Point guard Dwayne Lee was a key factor there, and he forced Memphis lead guard Darius Washington into an uncharacteristic 4-of-16 shooting night. Another key factor was Carroll, who scored a game-high 24 points. Carroll drilled 6-of-9 from beyond the arc and had two huge threes in the final four minutes when St. Joe’s sealed the verdict.
Offense aside, Martelli credited the defense as crucial. “We have older experienced guys,” he said. “When we show them something on a break down they are able to acquire than information and use them in games.” Memphis, a smooth transition team that often gets in the lane, wound up forcing things. The Tigers assisted on only 6 of their 22 field goals while the Hawks patiently ran their offense and spread the ball around. The stats showed as St. Joe’s picked up 15 assists on their 20 field goals. St. Joe’s also did a good job of maintaing the lead and stopping Memphis runs. Rodney Carney led the Tigers with 21 points, 17 in the second half when Memphis threatened on several occasions.
In the second game, South Carolina and Maryland were tied at 18 with nine minutes remaining in the half. Over the next three minutes, the Gamecocks went on a 9-0 run and were never seriously threatened. South Carolina changed defenses, got in the passing lanes and ran on turnovers. Transition, quickness and balanced scoring led to the 75-67 decision. Lead guard John Gilchrist, who missed three prior NIT wins for the Terrapins, was still sidelined with ankle/wrist injuries. Without his presence, coach Gary Williams’ club never really got on track on the offensive end. Senior forward Carlos Powell paced the Gamecocks with a 17-point, 12-rebound effort. Chris McCray, Travis Garrison and Mike Jones had fifteen each for the Terrapins.
The final game is set for 7:00 on Thursday.
So much for a neutral site
The Garden is considered a neutral site, but this evening it was as if ‘Hawk Hill’ was moved to the Big Apple. The St. Joe’s fans came in droves, rocked the MSG and created a near home game atmosphere. Some samplings:
- Tom, a drummer in the band warmed up pounding his drum twenty something minutes before game time pausing to tell a friend, “I’ve got my cell phone and lighter. I’m set for the week.”
- As Maryland players assembled in before game one several members of the Hawk fan following chanted ‘you suck’, the same chant that greeted every Memphis player introduced.
- When Carroll drained his threes chants of ‘you can’t guard him’ rang out.
- Of course the traditional, ‘the Hawk will never die’ echoed throughout the building on several occasions.
- Overall, the St. Joe’s fans were animated and reveled in the moment. One member of the traveling party was asked if the fans are like this on Hawk Hill home games. “Kind of,” she replied. “But I think the availability of beer has got them a little more pumped up.”
Notes
- Calipari and assistant coach Derek Kellogg both praised the resiliency of Memphis during this run. “It was a heckuva year to come back from where we were,” Calipari said. “We had to deal with a lot (on and off the floor). To come back as we did the last few weeks makes me proud of these kids.” Kellogg specifically praised Darius Washington’s ability to bounce back from the missed free throws at the end of the C-USA final and become instrumental in the fine run in the NIT.
- South Carolina and Maryland had assistant coaches set to move on after the season. Ricky Stokes of Dave Odom’s staff will take over at East Carolina while Mike Lonergan of Maryland will replace Tom Brennan at Vermont.
- The Martellis are quite the basketball family. His children are all active in the game. Phil Jr. is an assistant at Central Connecticut, Jimmy is a senior player at Dickinson College and Elizabeth is a senior on the Merion Mercy Academy team. Wife Judy played with the legendary Immaculata College program. Judy’s teammates included coaching standouts Theresa Grentz and Rene Portland. As we spoke briefly about women’s basketball and how Rutgers was in the regional final against Tennessee, Judy reminded, “I played against (Rutgers coach) Vivian Stringer’s Cheyney State team when I was in college.” Back them in the early seventies Cheyney-Immaculata was as big a matchup as you could get in the women’s game.
- Pat Carroll drew praise from Phil Martelli for his work ethic. “We had practice at four on Saturday, and at two o’clock he was in the gym alone shooting jumpers two hours before practice.”
- Dave Odom will try for a second NIT title. He won it all in 2000 at the helm of Wake Forest and was runnerup at South Carolina losing to Memphis in 2002.
- Bob Valvano was working the game on radio. He was at the Albuquerque Regional for Louisville radio. “It was emotional going back,” he said in reference to the Pit, where his late brother Jim won the national title in 1983. “It’s nice to see they haven’t changed the place in 22 years,” he then added in jest. Valvano had nothing but praise for West Virginia and feels critics who feel they blew it are misguided, “being up 20 is not like it was about 20 years ago with no shot clock and a three-point lead. In today’s game a twenty point lead can vanish in a few minutes.”
- Mascot watch: The Hawk is the best, cased closed. The Memphis Tiger was verbally mocked by St. Joe’s fans who kept chanting, ‘what’s up Tony’. The Maryland Terrapin was good. The absolute worst was the South Carolina mascot. But one thing the Gamecock mascot did do was pick up a ball at halftime, walk to center court and heave a half court shot that swished. Not a great mascot but what a touch.
- CBS’ Len Elmore took in the Maryland contest. Elmore teamed with Tom McMillen to lead the Terrapins to the 1972 NIT title.
- Fordham coach Dereck Whittenburg was in attendance, lending support to fellow Atlantic Ten member St. Joe’s.
- Each of the NIT Final Four coaches has gone deep into NCAA tournament play during their careers. Gary Williams, in fact, won the 2002 national championship at Maryland. To a coach, they all respected and praised the NIT as a prestigious tournament in today’s game. As Dave Odom of South Carolina said, “in the NCAA tournament you play for THE national championship, in the NIT you play for A national championship. And that is very special.”
