Finalists, Identify Yourselves
by Matthew Moll
The 2K Sports Hoops Classic (Coaches vs. Cancer) featured choppy play (thanks to reemphasis on palming and a high number of unforced turnovers) and four teams looking to identify themselves after a season of change. Here is a breakdown of each team from bad weekend to good weekend.
Wake Forrest Demon Deacons: Bad
Chris Paul is not the only player missing from the team who a year ago was pegged by many as a Final Four contender, but his hole is the most gapping. Paul’s former wing mate Justin Gray has taken over at the point and has floundered playing out of position. In the first three games of the young season, Gray has committed 27 turnovers, including 17 in the two games at Madison Square Garden.
But if not Gray, who?
“Right now he [Gray] is the best we have at that position. For us to be good our veteran guys have to play well until our younger guys get their legs under them,” Coach Skip Prosser said.
Freshmen Harvey Hale and Shamaine Dukes are two of the younger guys needing legs. Both failed to seize the opportunity to run the Wake offense in the few minutes they played in the New York.
Gray did help salvage the weekend in the win-loss column by hitting a last-second 25-footer to send the consolation game into double overtime. In that second extra frame, Gray’s fade away with four ticks left sealed it. Wake prevailed over Texas Tech 78-73.
Gray also displayed his ability to breakdown defenders with his crossover and his arsenal of other moves, but while his efforts created shots for himself they did not manufacture opportunities for his team. His final assist to turnover ratio for the weekend was 7:17, including a 19-point, five-assist effort in the 77-72 loss to Florida.
6’5″ wing Trent Strickland, who a year ago was buried on the Wake bench, is averaging over 17 points per game and has proven to be a defensive stopper and an athletic finisher in the early part of the season. Strickland had a pair of dunks in the consolation game that elicited some chatter among the partisan ‘Cuse crowd waiting for the next game.
Strickland’s size and shooting touch can cause match-up problems later in the year if they are able to keep him at the two, but because his major weakness is ball handling, it would be hard to see him at the two if Gray is moved out of the point position.
Freshman forward Kevin Swinton saw his first action, though it was limited, coming off of an NCAA suspension. Wake’s short rotation offers a chance for the new guy to earn playing time and contribute now.
Other than Wake’s most noticeable difficulties, the Deacons seemed reluctant to feed big man Eric Williams as the games wore on. When Williams was able to get touches early in the shot clock, his teammates we either open or the 6’9″, 280-pound forward attempted high percentage shots. Williams scored 20 in the loss to Florida, but only attempted eight field goals in the double overtime win over the Red Raiders.
Yes, the Decs went 1-1 for the weekend, but this is a team who does not look like a legitimate threat to make a run for the second-best team in the ACC.
Texas Tech Red Raiders: Not as bad as one may think
Losing two out of two games can never be what a coach wanted, but Bobby Knight’s youngest starting lineup in his career showed good signs, and did what an unranked team is predestined to do against ranked ones in losing.
The first loss was exceptionally hard to watch, even for the opposing coach.
“We are nowhere near that good and they are nowhere near that bad,” said Jim Boeheim.
Although it is not 1987 and it is not March, Boeheim knows early season games have meaning but he also had a point about his adversary’s team – it is hard to judge either club in a game so lopsided. Tech started the contest giving up 11 unanswered points, and as Knight would later say, “the game was over in the first five minutes.”
The freshmen looked tentative, Jarrius Jackson could not penetrate the Boeheim zone and the team shot an abysmal 16 percent from beyond the experimental arc.
Although it looked as if nothing went right the first game, it provided fodder for Knight to jumpstart his young Raiders as they battled the embattled Deacons. Jackson showed why many believe he can be a First Team All-Big 12 performer in scoring 27 points and sending the game into overtime with an acrobatic runner in the lane, which was made possible by him weaving with the ball the length of the court and splitting two Wake defenders.
Where Tech lacked the most was in the middle. Forwards Dior Lowhorn and Jonathan Plefka simply gave up too much size to be able to make significant contributions on the offensive end. The guards at times looked suspect more suspect than the leaky MSG roof on the South side of the 300 section, and at other times looked poised, turnovers and inconsistency will plague the young team. But when Jackson comes into his own, the other Raiders will have playmaking pressure taken off them and more confidence in their leader. Coach Knight should have his team ready come conference play and will make a run at upsetting some unsuspecting Big 12ers, but only after enduring some growing pains.
Syracuse Orange: Not as good as it should have been
Coming into the weekend the Orange were the most highly ranked and most experienced team in the Classic. Bigs Terrence Roberts and Demetris Nichols were to patrol the lane while McNamara created offense and knocked down jumpers. The juniors were ready to start the season with quality wins in front of the Orange friendly crowd.
Most of this was true for the Orange’s initial game. Syracuse ran the floor well and everyone was touching the ball. The Boeheim zone stifled the Texas Tech guards and the inside was a clay shoot for the Orange men in the middle.
The blowout (81-46) proved little to Boeheim, who wanted to see more from his struggling star (McNamara) and more of a chance to execute on defense. Instead, the Orange faithful were given a lukewarm reason to chant in Big Apple bars.
The championship game began as advertised. McNamara, Roberts, and Nichols were all on, while Gerry M was drilling his jumper and creating offense. Nichols had 11 points before the 10-minute mark in the half, including three from long range.
A four-minute scoring drought coupled with an 11-0 Gator run forced the Orange to go man-to-man and the game turned. The offense continued to stall, while McNamara could not get into the lane and was forced to give the ball up off pick-and-rolls. To top it off, his jumper was again missing in action. The impressive court vision and playmaking by the Syracuse forwards was halted.
In the end, the new look Gators made more timely shots and it was over 75-70.
Syracuse proved in the tournament they play well together and can run in the open court well. McNamara is creating well for others (10 assists in final), but is expected to score. McNamara went 3-for-11 from three-point range in the championship game. Prior to Coaches vs. Cancer, he was only shooting 17 percent from the field.
Louie McCroskey was effective when he was on the floor, but was forced to the bench with over 14 minutes left in the first half of the championship game because of fouls. McCroskey would foul out after the game was already out of reach, but finished with nine boards.
The Orange only went six deep with any significant playing time (Eric Devendorf, the latest Oak Hill-to-‘Cuse project, played 16 minutes) in the tournament final. That means McCroskey will have to stay out of foul trouble, and Syracuse will need to either stay in the Boeheim 2-3 or will have to use Arinze Onauku on a more regular basis.
This team has plenty of talent to be in the top five in the Big East, but until a dominant star emerges from the Orange’s middle, it looks as if it maybe a year too late for this group.
Florida: Good(er) than expected
They have emotion, they have talent, they have burst on the scene. A team pegged as too young and too without the names of Roberson, Lee, and Walsh emerged as what they struggled to be as individuals who eyed the draft and individual stats: a team.
“They enjoy playing with one another,” Florida coach Billy Donovan said. “This is a fun group to coach… they really play well as a unit.”
Against Wake, Corey Brewer and Taurean Green put on a show with their pick-and-rolls and lob passes. Three Gators were in double figures in the 77-72 semifinal win.
The championship game started with a flurry of threes from Lee Humphrey, who was spotting up from 24 feet and hitting with regularity, and Green finding his middle men and his range. Native New Yorker and emotional sparkplug Joakim Noah and the steady Al Horford augmented Green’s play with finishes and found one another to pick up early assists.
But Green wanted the offense to run through him and so it did. In the waning minutes of the second half, Green found a cutting Chris Richard to go up 64-62. Green followed this series with a transition jumper, and then iced the game with 1:48 remaining netting an NBA three with five seconds on the shot clock.
At the end of the weekend two things became clear about this team. This is a pass-first, team-first group and Green is the man to initiate this mantra.
Although Donovan wants to believe it can be “any person on any night,” this team will come and go with Green. Yes there is other young talent on this squad and Green has plenty of help (after all, he is not the one finishing the pick’n rolls). But Green can shoot, drive, dish, and he is not afraid to throw it up in the clutch, but most importantly he wants to win.
“I’m just taking what the defense is giving me,” said Green. “I just let it go when I know I am open, but I want to get everyone involved. I know we will have four other guys on the court who can play.”
For now, Green answers more questions about his father, former NBA player and recent Florida Atlantic head coach Sidney Green, than about his jumper, but the sophomore is looking ahead and not taking anything for granted.
“To be honest, we did not play that well,” Green said after the semifinal win. After the winning the championship, he added, “We have to stay focused, this is a good win, but we need to stay focused.”
Since going to the NCAA Championship game in 1999-2000, the Gators have not advanced past the second round, with notable losses in the first round to Creighton in 2002 and Manhattan in 2004. But these Gators are deeper and are playing together as well as any other team in the country – all with a starting lineup that boasts four sophomores.
All-Tournament Team
Trent Strickland, Wake Forest
Jarrius Jackson, Texas Tech
Gerry McNamara, Syracuse
Al Horford, Florida
MVP: Taurean Green, Florida
