Some quick hitters as we reach the holiday and head into the long weekend:
- Steve Donahue is throwing his freshmen right into the mix at Boston College, and it’s helping in the immediate. In particular, Danny Rubin started against Holy Cross and had 14 points and six rebounds, going 4-9 from long range and making a couple of key shots during a run where the Eagles first broke the game open.
- Prior to making the key three-pointer that ultimately sank Bryant, Harvard sophomore Christian Webster was just 2-9 from the field on the day. But he made the shot when it counted, and although it wasn’t a big game after he had a career-high 29 points in their prior game, it didn’t surprise the coach.”He’s a very confident player right now, even though he didn’t shoot it particularly well overall,” said Tommy Amaker. “I think having that moment, and the way he’s played recently and coming off the Mercer game, I didn’t doubt for one second that he had a great shot at burying that shot, and he did.”
- Bryant figured to be more talented this year with Frankie Dobbs now eligible, and Alex Francis has already made an impact that has led to back-to-back NEC Rookie of the Week honors. Add in the return of senior Cecil Gresham, who hit a big three-pointer that put them up by four on Wednesday, and it’s clearly a new team. Now they have to finish games, which they did against Iona but didn’t against Army and Harvard.”We’re more talented, I thought Corey Maynard played well,” said head coach Tim O’Shea, referring to the talented freshman from Australia. “I think we have to find a way to get over the hump.”
- Drexel started the season with three straight on the road and went 2-1, with the loss coming Wednesday night at Rhode Island. Head coach Bruiser Flint took note of the team’s 11-24 showing at the free throw line, which compounded another problem that has cropped up with his team’s offense in past years.”We started getting into too much of a quicker pace, and then we started rushing,” Flint said, noting that Rhode Island started dictating the pace later. “Even the shots, when we were open, we were rushing to shoot them.”
- Rhode Island senior Delroy James is a fine example of a player who has steadily improved over his career to approach the potential he showed before college. Every year, you could see the strides he has made, and now he’s grown into the best player on his team. James had 33 points on Wednesday, one off his career high, and did it on 11-18 shooting.
- After missing all of last season, Central Connecticut State junior Ken Horton has come back with a vengeance. Against Army, he scored a career-high 34 points, and thus far is averaging 21.3 points and 9 rebounds per game.
- Andy Toole has Robert Morris picking up right where they left off at the defensive end. That was an area of emphasis for Mike Rice, and thus far the Colonials are keeping it up as they have yet to allow an opponent to score 65 points. In yielding 155 points in their first three games, they have posted the lowest three-game opponent total to start a year in NEC history against only Division I competition.
