BOSTON – A year ago, Northeastern knocked off VCU to improve to 9-1 in the CAA. The Huskies were a top defensive team and in a great rhythm, having just knocked off George Mason, Old Dominion and VCU in succession, the last two coming on the road. But they peaked at that point, never playing the same the rest of the way and limping into the CAA Tournament before losing to Towson in the quarterfinals.
Can this year’s team avoid that same finish and fate?
The parallels aren’t perfect, but they are pretty good. On Saturday, Northeastern again knocked off VCU, this time at home (last year’s win came in Richmond, where the Huskies won again two weeks earlier), to improve to 8-1 in the CAA and run their current winning streak to 11 games. That’s the team’s longest winning streak since the last days of Reggie Lewis 23 years ago. Like last year, it’s late January and this team is playing very well. So naturally, Husky fans have to hope that this year’s team has learned from what happened a year ago.
Certainly, there’s reason to believe they have. They’re an important year older, especially the core players. They know why they didn’t finish well last year. They know it wasn’t the same team after the three wins over Virginia schools, even though they won the next game in an unconvincing fashion to go to 10-1 in the CAA.
This team has also been humbled already. Their 2-7 start to the season, with a lot of close losses, has been well-documented. Bill Coen loaded up the team’s non-conference slate, and it was risky. Had they won a few more games, they might be in the conversation for an NCAA Tournament at-large bid with a good CAA run. But the losses could easily have taken their toll on this team even though they came against good teams. No one wants to be 2-7, even if it comes against good teams because that’s no consolation.
The turning point came right around Christmas. After losing to Western Michigan in a game that wasn’t very close, the Huskies had a day off before playing for seventh place in the Diamond Head Classic. They realized their season was hanging in the balance and that something had to change. Not only were they losing, but they were losing thanks largely to a lack of defense, the very thing that helped them win last year. That, and some down time in California between the Diamond Head Classic and Cable Car Classic, went a long way toward changing everything.
“We just really decided, in Hawaii after a couple of tough losses, to put our focus on us instead of worrying about who we were playing,” said senior guard Matt Janning. “We said we want to become a defensive team, and that’s really what’s put us over the edge.”
The Huskies liked visiting the western part of the country, but they didn’t take in the scenery. They had time to watch tape and further analyze their play in addition to practices and scouting sessions. It was a stretch where a lot of insights came their way, and it started to show in the Cable Car Classic, which they won, and then once they got back home to start CAA play in earnest.
In CAA games, opponents are shooting below 40 percent against the Huskies. VCU shot below 38 percent on Saturday, and thus far no CAA opponent has shot better than 45.1 percent. In non-conference play, four teams shot better than 47 percent against the Huskies and four shot at least 50 percent from long range.
What’s more, the Huskies now have a real homecourt advantage this season. As much as the renovations at Matthews Arena help in some ways, the biggest change is that there are more fans on the floor. The Huskies now have a real student section with several hundred students lining the courtside area, making it a much better atmosphere than before. This season’s attendance isn’t quite what it was for all of last season, but recent games have seen the attendance jump up; Saturday’s attendance was 2,858. But even if the numbers are what they were last year, the atmosphere is different with students being right on the floor.
The meaning of it isn’t lost on the players, who also get a send-off from the fans after every game as they line up on the court to form an area where they walk off to the locker room.
“We’ve got to keep playing hard and keep putting on a show for them,” said Janning.
The Huskies will need to do that if they are to avoid a repeat of last season’s finish. Very soon, we will get to see an early indication of whether or not that may happen. The next two games are at home, as Drexel and Old Dominion come to town. Both teams beat the Huskies at home during the latter part of last season and figure to be tough matchups. Although the Huskies didn’t go winless after their 10-1 start, they didn’t beat a contending team in that stretch.
Like last season, the Huskies are riding high after a win over VCU in January. What happens afterwards will determine if they will be riding high at the right time this season.
