PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Entering the season, there were a couple of things about Mercer that you could hang your hat on. After the first weekend of play, a few more things about this team are apparent.
Coming in, James Florence was a given. The second-leading scorer in the Atlantic Sun last season scored 70 points in three games in Providence, and that doesn’t surprise anyone. He makes this team go, and the offense will revolve around him.
Daniel Emerson was another you could put down as a given. The Atlantic Sun’s top rebounder last season, he recorded 15 double-doubles last season and picked up right where he left off this weekend, posting two in three games. On Sunday, the senior forward had 12 points and 16 rebounds in 29 minutes, limited only by foul trouble. He played the final 11:34 with four fouls. In the only game in which he didn’t post a double-double, he was two rebounds shy.
“Danny’s a double-double waiting to happen, I mean it’s going to happen all the time,” said head coach Bob Hoffman.
The Bears can hang their hats on E.J. Kusnyer to a degree. Because he’s a shooter, there will be nights where shots don’t go, as was the case on Friday night. But he’s a sniper who will benefit from the attention Florence, Emerson and a key newcomer all draw from defenses.
The key newcomer is Jeff Smith, who had two key three-pointers on Friday night to help the Bears pull out the win. Smith is another scorer on the wing who already looks like he’ll be able to play off Florence well, and he should also help Kusnyer get some good looks from long range.
Smith is part of the big key to the team – the complementary pieces to Florence. Emerson and Kusnyer are also keys to that, and if this weekend is any indication, there is plenty surrounding Florence for this team to succeed. Add in junior forward Brian Mills, a solid role player, and the Bears have a good, veteran starting five. Some depth will need to develop, but Hoffman is confident that will come when he looks at this team compared to last year.
“We’re more athletic and we’re deeper,” said Hoffman, adding, “Even though we’ve had some guys who haven’t played as well yet that are still trying to get used to me and get used to each other, I really think they’re going to help us be a better team when we get to conference play this year than we were last.”
The biggest thing that happened this weekend was the Bears not only going 2-1, but also coming back against Providence. Early on, they looked like they might have been ready to wear down as Providence opened up a 19-point lead in the first half and was still up 15 at the break. The Bears showed hints of a rally, but the Friars had early answers and still led by 17 at the halfway point of the second half. At that point, the Bears’ switch to a zone defense kicked in, and steadily they rallied to get within 73-70, and later within 78-77.
The players didn’t want to talk about a moral victory, but Hoffman felt the effort was there and that a similar effort will get them into the win column more times than not.
“I thought our guys played hard enough,” said Hoffman. “I told them in the locker room, you have nothing to be down about. You just as easily could have won the game, because you played hard enough to win the game. The ball didn’t go in, but you gave yourself a chance to win the game. When you’re on the road, those are the kind of opportunities you’ve got to have.”
What the Bears are most happy about is that they learned something about the team’s intangibles. Mercer has eight first-year players on the roster, so there were some unknowns in that respect, but this weekend showed something about this team. Mills and Smith had clutch plays on Friday night, while Kusnyer bounced back from an off night on Friday with a big night on Saturday. The team’s rally against Providence on Sunday just continued a pattern exhibited earlier in the weekend.
“We’re not going to quit,” said Florence. “No matter what deficit we have, we’re going to fight back. I couldn’t be any more proud of my team. I love playing with these guys, these are the kind of guys you dive for loose balls for, you take charges for. It’s going to be a good team.”
After coming up short, the team showed the coach something in the locker room. He liked the toughness they showed, but that wasn’t all.
“To play three games in three days, on the road, this early in the season, that’s pretty good,” Hoffman said. “That doesn’t mean we’re happy with losing – we’re never happy with losing, we want to win. We want to win the rest of them. We had guys crying in the locker room like we lost a championship, that’s what I love. That makes you, as a coach, know you’ve got something special, when people care like that.”
The Bears will get more tests like this after they host Fisk on Wednesday. Two contests against ACC foes follow it, and if the Bears show the intangibles they showed this weekend, they might break through in one of them, or perhaps later next month when they play at Vanderbilt and Alabama. They showed this weekend that they have more going for them than they might first appear to.
