Retrievers Show They Can Win Ugly
by Sam Perkins
BOSTON – How much could one really take away from a game when the league’s best team takes on one of the league’s worst? When the best team plays well below its potential, and their opponent is playing without its best player, a player whom the offense and defense flows through, and without whom the team can not function?
In UMBC’s win over Boston University on Tuesday night, which was such a game, you could actually take away a great deal.
For starters, if anyone out there had any doubts as to Corey Lowe’s validity as a conference Player of the Year candidate, they needed to look no further than how the Terriers functioned on the court without him. It was also very evident that Randy Monroe should be the front runner for the conference’s Coach of the Year awards, as he has not only been able to seamlessly blend together first-year transfers and four-year players, but he has them believing and buying in to everything he preaches. Beyond that, the Retrievers looked as dangerous as they have all season by being able to win when they play a flat-out bad game, by their standards at least.
The Retrievers currently lead the league in points per game, scoring margin, three-point field goal percentage, turnover margin, assists, and assist-to-turnover ratio among other categories. Suffice to say, they can score, a lot. All five starters for UMBC have at least two twenty-plus point scoring games on the season, and Matt Spadafora has provided a scoring spark off of the bench – he scored a career-high 18 points against Hampton earlier this year. Four of the five (Jay Greene being the exception) have won the conference player of the week award at least once. The Retrievers love to put points up in bunches, firing away from behind the arc as well as in the post, and they excel in fast-paced, high-scoring games.
Terrier head coach Dennis Wolff was quoted as saying the UMBC is “physically the most talented team in the league right now,” before adding, “they’ve got grown men.” When UMBC plays on all cylinders and plays at their potential, there isn’t a team in the league with much of a shot of beating them.
But the Retrievers have struggled to win when they don’t come out firing on all cylinders on offense. The Retrievers have struggled when they have an off shooting night, as happens to all teams, and when they aren’t simply blowing their opponents out of the water, the Retrievers have been very vulnerable, as they have lost low-scoring games (at least by their standards) to Central Connecticut, Maine, and most recently Binghamton. The common theme in all three of those losses, games which UMBC should have won, was that the Retrievers seemed to play with a lack of fire and enthusiasm, they seemed to get flustered when their shots weren’t falling, which carried over to the defensive end of the floor.
Earlier this year Monroe stated that he “constantly tells (his team) that you need a staple, and it needs to be on the defensive end. We’re going to have games when our shots don’t fall, and we need to be able to come up with stops on the other end.”
Tuesday night, the Retrievers finally bucked the trend, as they had one of their worst shooting nights of the year from behind the arc in hitting only two of seventeen three-pointers (11.8%), and managed only 62 points. But they held BU to 40 points in getting the win. Furthermore, the Retrievers played as hard as they have all season, despite having an off night. They played tremendous defense in several different sets.
It would be incredibly easy to dismiss the Retrievers’ efforts on the defensive end as simply being the product of playing against a punch-less BU team reeling from the loss of Lowe. There is no argument that the Terriers’ effectiveness is exponentially diminished without their leading scorer, but they still have some big-time shooters on the team. UMBC used a pressure-zone defense that had BU playing scared and bewildered all night. But it was more than simply forcing BU to shoot 25 percent from the floor: UMBC played with an energy on the defensive end that they haven’t had all season. Players rotated over around the perimeter and collapsed in the post, and there didn’t seem to be a single blown assignment or play all night.
“Our defense was terrific,” Monroe said. “These guys probably go to bed at night hearing my voice talking about defense, whether its man defense, zone defense, low post defense. They exemplified what type of team they could be if they really devote and really work hard at the defensive end. I was really proud of their efforts because I thought it triggered our offense.”
The Retrievers’ effort all night, and their effectiveness on the defensive end especially, made their coach especially pleased. Despite a sluggish night on the offensive end, the always animated Monroe kept his sports coat on for the first fifteen minutes of the game, and didn’t lose his tie until five minutes into the second half (quite possibly personal bests).
“I’m a little animated,” joked Monroe after the game, before turning serious and adding, “but it’s just because I want them to maintain that level of intensity. I love my guys to death, but I want them to really stay focused, and from the beginning of the game to the end to play hard. I was really, really pleased with that intensity and passion that they played with today, they really brought it.”
No one brought it more than Daryl Proctor, whom flustered Scott Brittain, BU’s lone low-post scoring threat, into fouling out in a mere 20 minutes of playing time. Proctor held Britain to zero points on 0-4 shooting while dominating the offensive glass. Watching Proctor (who stands much closer to 6’2″ in shoes than his listed 6’4″) go to work on Brittain (6’9″) was a thing of beauty in the early going, as Proctor fought for tremendous positioning on the offensive end, and simply dismantled Brittain and the rest of BU’s front court with an array of spin moves, and the prettiest fade-away jumper in the conference.
Proctor notched a double-double, which has seemingly become automatic at this point, scoring 12 points to go along with 12 rebounds. No one in the conference plays as hard as Proctor, and as is always the case, Proctor gave everything he had for all of his rebounds, fighting through double teams in the post, while catching an assortment of elbows, forearms, and hip-checks along the way. But for Proctor, being as undersized and physical as he is in the post, the beating he took in the paint was all in a day’s work.
“They came out playing tough,” said the junior forward. “Elbows, getting hit, that’s nothing, that happens every game, I just play through it.”
Monroe replaced senior Cavell Johnson, whom had started every game of the season, with sophomore Justin Fry, whom had slumped for much of the year, in the starting lineup. Monroe’s influence on his team, and the way his team believes in him, has never been more evident as it was with his lineup change. For many seniors like Johnson, being removed from the starting lineup more than halfway through the final season of his career, could cause an array of negative emotions and send ripples throughout the team. But Johnson not only accepted Monroe’s decision, but he agreed and embraced it.
“I’ve been in a skid the past few games, and for my own psyche, I thought was good to be coming off the bench at the beginning, to take a step back and calm down a little bit,” he reflected.
Johnson responded by scoring a game-high 13 points on 6-9 shooting, including a monstrous two-handed slam in traffic that sucked all the air out of Case Gymnasium. Even more important than Johnson’s play was the effect on Fry. It would be easy for Johnson to be bitter towards a younger teammate who took his starting spot, but Johnson was the first to erupt in applause or shout encouragement towards Fry, and the first to great him with a high-five or a hug at timeouts or during substitutions, which may well have played a big part in the confidence that Fry seemed to play with.
As big as the Retrievers’ newfound ability to win while playing ugly was, Fry’s performance was equally big, and will be equally key for the Retrievers if they hope to make a run to the NCAA tournament. Fry won a starting job last season, and as a freshman established himself as a top shot blocker in the conference, and at 6’9″ with the ability to score from in the paint and behind the arc, Fry was already presenting match-up problems for opponents. But after beginning the season as a starter, he seemed to regress, and struggle with his confidence. Against the Terriers, Fry played his best game of the season, scoring the team’s first five points and a team-high twelve in the first half on 5-7 shooting. Fry displayed the depth of his game, scoring on several pretty drop steps and spin moves in the low post, finishing off a picture perfect pick and role, and nailing a deep three.
While he didn’t score in the second half, spending most of the time on the bench in foul trouble, Fry made his presence known, and carried the Retrievers in the early going as their offense sputtered.
“Justin Fry has ability like you wouldn’t believe. He’s very big (in his importance to the team),” said Monroe. “I don’t think Justin knows how good he can be right now. I just think he’s terrific, for a big guy he has very good skills, and he’s starting to come into his own, over the past few games. He’s starting to be more aggressive, he’s starting to do an effective job, and he’s starting to really feel good about what he’s doing. I just think that his best basketball is certainly ahead of him. And I think as we move along in the season he’s going to be a very big part of what we do.”
The Retrievers also got terrific efforts on the defensive end from their two top scorers, Brian Hodges and Ray Barbosa, despite both struggling on the offensive end. Jay Greene once again showed that he is the best distributor in the conference, dishing out nine assists, including a forty-foot no look bounce pass to Johnson. Greene also nailed a three from somewhere in Brighton to end any hopes the Terriers had at a comeback. Matt Spadafora continued to bring energy and athleticism, as well as defense, off of the bench, and closed out the game with a high flying two-handed dunk right on a BU defender that had to leave the Terriers with a bad taste in their mouths.
For Boston University, the game illustrated just how much they need Corey Lowe, and just how ineffective the rest of the roster of the preseason favorites is. Lowe, who missed the game because of bursitis in his knee, is the only Terrier who can create his own shot. Lowe has literally taken over games this season, not only carrying the point guard duties, but also as the team’s go to scorer, and without him, BU was completely lost on the court.
Wolff took all of the blame on himself after the game.
“Obviously, very disappointing. My first thought was men against boys tonight,” said Wolff. “We, for whatever the reasons, are not physically or mentally tough enough to sustain good play. Ultimately, that responsibility is mine, and at the moment, I’m doing a bad job of trying to convey how we need to approach a game.”
As tough as Wolff’s comments were on himself, and as unwilling as he was to use the absence of Corey Lowe as an excuse for the performance, there is only so much he can do with the roster he has, as the Terriers are simply not a very talented team, at least not right now. Tyler Morris is nowhere near the player he was last year, as he missed roughly half a year due to injury, and while he is still a terrific shooter, right now he can’t physically attack the rim, or create his own shot like he could last season. Carlos Strong, despite being a terrific athlete, is a shooter who needs to be set up by someone else to score, and whose game seems to have taken a big step back.
Even more troubling is the Terriers’ absolute lack of a post game. Scott Brittain can score, but he isn’t a physical body, and certainly isn’t the kind of player (at least not yet) who can take over a game in the low blocks, and shed double teams and pull down rebounds in traffic. After Brittain, the Terriers don’t have any other low post options. Physicality is also a troubling part of BU’s team, as the Terriers are constantly out-muscled and pushed around in the paint every game. The only player against the Retrievers to display any physical play was Matt Wolff, whom gave a hard foul to break up a Cavell Johnson dunk attempt, and another hard foul on Proctor.
But the most troubling aspect of the Terriers’ woes has been their failure to grasp the fundamentals and play tight defense, a staple of all Wolff-coached teams, and the lack of composure and ability to do the basic things has the Terriers coach at wit’s end.
“The frustrating part of it, from where the coaches are sitting, are such fundamental things,” said Wolff. “We have numbers on a fast break and it turns into a lay-up for them. We seemingly have rebounds, and the next thing we don’t have a rebound.”
Wolff added that inexperience is a factor, but that’s not all. “Some of it is guys caught up in their own world. That’s something that I’ve been talking about since October. Now we’re in the middle of January. Now we’ve got to get that straightened out before we can start playing good basketball.”
For the Retrievers, the sky is the limit, as the resurgence of Fry gives them a seventh scoring option on offense, and while their bench isn’t deep, how many other teams in the conference can boast that they have seven scoring options? (You’d have a hard time finding another team in the conference with more than two true scorers). There has never been a question of whether UMBC can win when their scoring 80 or more points, but they have finally showed the mental toughness and resolve to win when their off, something crucial in the America East Tournament’s “win three or go home” format. Monroe’s ability to get his whole team to follow his philosophy, and to successfully mesh in 1st year transfers and veterans, and to have no fighting over playing time or shots, makes it hard to think anyone else is more deserving for top coaching honors.
The Terriers will struggle to win another game as long as Lowe is out, and looking at just how bad, and how lost, the Terriers were without him, is as compelling a case as anyone for why he is the most valuable player to his team in the conference, and a strong contender for Player of the Year.
