Growing Pains: Young Wildcats learning the hard way
by Sam Perkins
Growing Pains
Young Wildcats learning the hard way
By Sam Perkins
DURHAM, N.H. – There’s one big problem for New Hampshire right now.
“The real issue that we have with our basketball team is that we are a very, very, very, average defensive team right now. Teams are just going wherever they want to go against us on offense,” head coach Bill Herrion reflected after his club’s 84-78 defeat at the hands of Long Island University Monday night.
Despite their tremendous heart and hustle, the Wildcats have now dropped five straight, with some serious defensive flaws being the main culprit in each of the Wildcat’s losses.
Another disturbing trend throughout the early season for New Hampshire has been the holes they dig themselves into early on in games, ones they have not been able to climb out of during their losing streak. The holes that the Wildcats are consistently digging for themselves into, however, correlates directly with their poor play on the defensive end, as they have been done in during the first five minutes of every game during their losing streak.
Freshmen center Dane DiLiegro has struggled mightily with touch fouls as of late, and has spent the majority of the time on the bench during the losing streak, making New Hampshire’s low post defense a huge liability. However, despite their lack of a low post presence whenever DiLiegro is on the bench, the true Achilles heel of the Wildcat’s has been their perimeter defense, as teams are shooting over forty percent from behind the arc, and if you take away UNH’s blowout of Division III Suffolk University, and Quinnipiac, a team devoid of outside shooters, opponents’ three-point field goal percentage skyrockets even more.
New Hampshire’s loss to Long Island was the result of yet another failure to defend the perimeter, as the Wildcats spent their week of preparation focusing almost exclusively on denying Long Island sharp-shooters (especially Eugene Kotorobai) any kind of decent looks from behind the arc, only to watch their opponents drain nine treys (Kotorobai nailed four threes, all in crucial moments). An exasperated Herrion exclaimed after the game, “We’re nine games in, I don’t know what it is, I’ve never had a team that can not defend the three, and it’s amazing what teams are shooting from three against us.”
After five straight games in the loss column, many Wildcats fans are sure to be getting a familiar feeling in the pit of their stomachs, and the thought of “oh no, here we go again” can’t be far behind. UNH has a history of failure and ineptitude in basketball as bad as any team in the conference (and almost any team in Division I basketball). However, before fans in Durham begin laying in the middle of Route 4 and waiting for a semi to put them out of their misery, let me reiterate that “there is light at the end of the tunnel,” as the Wildcats’ miscues this season are, for the first time in a very long time, the result of youthful mistakes and not lack of drive or on court ability.
New Hampshire’s struggles on defense, at least around the arc, certainly are not due to a lack of talent, as the combination of Alvin Abreu, Tyrece Gibbs, Tyrone Conley, Rony Tchatchoua, and Eric Gilchrese are as athletic and physical as any group of perimeter defenders in the league. UNH’s poor perimeter play has been in large part due to the mistakes of a team still getting used to playing Division I basketball. The Wildcats have struggled greatly to rotate over when playing zone defense, especially in transition and when teams run their shooters through multiple screens. The intricacies of college defense are something that can only be truly learned through experience, and of the Wildcats’ eight healthy scholarship players, only two had played even one full year of Division I basketball prior to this season’s tip-off.
Previous Wildcat teams have suffered from a dire lack of talent, especially young talent, as UNH has been a hard sell on any even mildly talented recruits who are getting looks elsewhere. For years the Wildcats have trotted out teams short on youth and even shorter on Division I ability, but that drastically changed this season. Herrion has as much (and probably more) freshmen talent as anyone else in the conference, and in a year or two this team could be very good.
While the youth of this squad has cost them on the defensive end, it has also helped greatly as the Wildcats never show any quit. Youthful ignorance may be the culprit, as they simply don’t “get” when they should be out of a game, as they have come back in every game, playing an incredibly hard forty minutes of basketball every night, and have been just inches away from stealing back a few contests during their losing streak. Their contest versus Long Island was no different, as New Hampshire, who trailed by as much as 23 points in the second half, came storming back and had victory within their sights before falling.
Young talent single-handedly kept New Hampshire in the game, as Herrion played the second half almost entirely with first-year players, and while it’s keeping New Hampshire in games this season, with a year of seasoning the same young talent will soon be winning games.
Freshman Rony Tchatchoua continues to develop. Tchatchoua’s sheer hustle is reminiscent of another Cameroonian, and former America East player, Germain Mopa Njila, as Tchatchoua was a bundle of energy on the defensive end. However, Tchatchoua’s ceiling is much higher than Njila’s, as he could turn into a solid offensive weapon to go along with his already blossoming rebounding skills and ability to clog passing lanes. Tchatchoua showcased the depth of his game Monday night, as he continued to display the ability move without the ball, running a picture perfect back door cut and punctuating it with a dunk. Moreover, Tchatchoua came out of his shell in the second half, calling for the ball and attacking the rim en route to a career high 14 points while pulling down a team-high seven rebounds.
The star of the game for the Wildcats, however, was freshmen Alvin Abreu. Having been named the America East freshman of the week earlier in the day, Abreu exploded for a career-high 23 points and nailed a career high four three-pointers. While he might not have come into the conference with the hype of some other freshmen, Abreu is clearly the cream of the freshman crop in the America East, as he does things on the court that no other freshman has done in a very long time.
When looking at his incredibly muscular build, penchant for posting up guards on the low block, and range from well beyond the NBA arc, it’s easy to compare Abreu to former America East star Kevin Reed, but Reed never could do some of the things that Abreu has already displayed a mere nine games into his career. In three consecutive possessions in the second half Abreu showcased his repertoire, draining a twenty-five foot three over a defender the first time down the court, before blowing by his man with an And1-like crossover before elevating in the lane and knocking down a jumper over two defenders. The highlight of the game, however, came on the next possession, when Abreu flew in from the right wing, spun in the post, and switched hands in mid air before finishing off an up and under lay-up with his left hand. Abreu finished off another drive with a lay-up off an impressive power hop in the post a few minutes later, and it was clear to everyone in attendance that this kid is for real. Abreu presents a combination of strength, speed, ball-handling, outside shooting, and explosiveness that the conference may have never seen before, as he could become a cross-breed between Reed and former BU standout Chaz Carr.
However, despite all of his physical accomplishments, it’s his mental makeup that has his coach the most excited, as Herrion was quoted after the game as saying, “Alvin Abreu just plays, and plays, and plays, he never asks questions, he just plays. What’s really refreshing with him, is how hard he plays every day. Not just games, but everyday in practice. He’s a great kid, he just plays, just does his job and competes. I tell the assistant coaches that we need a few more Alvin Abreus, he’s a warrior and has a chance to be something great here.”
With the freshman class of Abreu, Tchatchuoa, big-time high flier and explosive scorer Conley, and inside bruiser and shot-blocker DiLiegro, combined with junior Gibbs, and transfer Colby Santos (a 6’5″ wing and lock down defender from James Madison who will be eligible next season), the Wildcats finally appear to be headed towards the top of the conference. New Hampshire only loses one senior in Mike Christensen, and despite leading the team in scoring, Christensen has appeared to be on a different page than his teammates, and has missed an awful lot of big shots in the clutch, while providing little on the defensive end. The Wildcats will lose Christensen, but will gain Santos and injured forward Radar Onguetou, a trade off that next years squad will gladly take. A year of seasoning plus another strong recruiting class, could be just what they need.
