RICHMOND, Va. – Some of us used to call Old Dominion junior center Gerald Lee soft, not finishing as strong as he might at the goal, not dominating down the stretch, not winning the biggest of games. Not anymore.
The player Hofstra Coach Tom Pecora calls the Tim Duncan of our league, got into a CAA Tournament shootout yesterday with Hofstra’s star sophomore guard Charles Jenkins, and by the thinnest of margins, bad foot and all Lee prevailed, giving the Monarchs a 52-51 win over the Pride and a berth in today’s all-Virginia semi-final against Virginia Commonwealth.
It was a thing of beauty to watch. Lee got the deepest position I’ve ever seen him get, on a host of Hofstra defenders, sealing beautifully to create openings for entry passes, and then finished powerfully at the goal. He also put the ball down and penetrated from the perimeter, again finishing everything. When all was said and done, Lee had a game high 30 points, on 13-19 shooting, and 10 rebounds, 5 at the offensive end.
And by one point and the strength of senior Jonathan Adams’ last-second block of a short jumper by Jenkins, ODU had its one-point win. Jenkins pulled his weight in the shoot-out, finishing with 27, though he had to take 23 shots to get them, making nine. Jenkins also rebounded, pulling down six.
ODU has become a powerful team, winning the rebounding battle virtually every night, and starting (and finishing with) four powerful players on the floor, along with point guard Darius James. Super sophomore Ben Finney is listed as a guard, and Adams defends opposing two-guards in man-to-man defense, but along with Lee and powerful sophomore Frank Hassell, they form as formidable rebounding group as you will find in mid-major basketball anywhere in the country. With Adams adding eight boards this day (along with seven points, on ODU’s only two treys), Lee’s 10 resulted in a 46-34 rebounding edge over Hofstra, and shooting just 37 percent from the field and 14 percent from the arc, ODU needed every carom they could get.
Coach Blaine Taylor beamed about Lee in the post-game, and Lee told the press that he wasn’t conscious of any kind of shootout with Jenkins. “I just wanted to win the game,” Lee said.
I asked Taylor about the four-forward alignment (even against full-court pressure, protecting the lead), wondering if that wasn’t too much pressure to place on his sophomore guard. “I trust him,” Taylor said, “and I call him the snake. Really, he’s the head, and I think of that as the head of a snake. And I named him after another lefty, the Raiders’ Snake Stabler. And Darius performed well as our lead [and only] guard, and that’s how I always use him.”
I also asked Taylor about possible concerns about his team’s poor perimeter shooting this game, about seeing more zone defenses down the road. “We shot 52 percent from the floor our last 9 or 10 games, and I’m not worried about our shooting. Some good shots didn’t fall tonight, but they will. We managed to win tonight, without shooting well, so the next time out, I expect we’ll shoot the ball better from the outside.”
Well, given the monster four-forward lineup, if ODU shoots the ball better today against VCU, the Eric Maynor’s Rams – with Defender of the Year Larry Sanders at center – had better be careful. The Rams are liable to be pushed around in today’s semi-final by Gerald Lee and Co.
