A New Era For the Huskies
BOSTON – On a miserable, rainy night outside, indoor activity like that at Northeastern’s Cabot Gym was just what the doctor ordered.
The Huskies, who enter the Colonial Athletic Association this season, kicked off the season with Midnight Madness on Friday night. It wasn’t very different from the formula used in previous years, including the event coinciding with Parent’s Weekend and Homecoming. The crowd, which was a little late-arriving, had a fair number of parents as well as students by the time most arrived.
The events started off with the Faculty/Staff vs. Student game, which featured men’s basketball head coach Ron Everhart and assistant Kim Lewis, as well as former players Jamaar Walker and Darrell Keys, all of whom played integral roles in the game’s outcome. Lewis hit two big three-pointers early to stake the Faculty/Staff to a lead, but Walker sparked a run off the bench and Keys beat the halftime buzzer with a three-pointer off a broken play to start an 11-0 run by the Students. Everhart came in and scored five straight as part of a 10-0 decisive run as the Faculty/Staff went on to a 31-23 win, their second straight.
After the game, Everhart remembered the kind of player Lewis was when asked (jokingly, of course) if he might see if he has any eligibility remaining.
“People don’t believe me when I tell them he was a lottery pick,” said Everhart, who was an assistant coach at Tulane when Lewis played there. Lewis was not known for his shooting when he played at Tulane, but couldn’t miss both during the game and afterwards while casually shooting around. He earned his fair share of honors in the old Metro Conference, including Freshman of the Year in 1991 and second-team All-Metro in 1992, when Tulane won the conference title. Everhart says he was on the fast track to the NBA when a torn ACL changed everything.
The teams came out onto the floor not long after the game, and after a few minutes of layups and dunks, the players and coaches were all introduced. A three-point shootout followed, then the two-ball shoot, the latter of which was won by the duo of Shawn James and Kendra Walton as they easily defeated Jose Juan Barea and Shaleyse Smallwood. James and Smallwood each won America East Rookie of the Year last season, and if Walton’s shooting was any indication, the lady Huskies have a contender for that award in the CAA this season as James was content to rebound and pass back out to her to keep hitting jumpers.
The slam dunk contest, as expected, was the highlight of the evening. This time around, it came down to junior roommates Bobby Kelly and Bennet Davis, and both wowed the crowd in their own way. Davis pulled the ball rack about halfway between the foul line and the basket and successfully dunked over it. Not to be outdone, Kelly brought out a student and had him stand a little in front of the basket, and dunked right over him. The second dunk for each left a little to be desired, but both were still good ones. In the end, Kelly retained his title.
It was a fun evening for those who turned out, a nice relief from the weather outside. The evening marks the start of a big transition, but one that looks promising thus far. All CAA home games will be played at Matthews Arena, and the athletic department looks to be taking steps to be successful going forward with moves like that and the recent hire of their first full-time assistant baseball coach. With preseason magazines largely picking the Huskies near the middle of the pack, they’re in a position to surprise some people this season, and with a scorer like Barea and the supporting cast in the frontcourt, they just might do it.
