SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Just over a month ago, La Salle looked to be in a good place. They were 6-3 and had just won a tough road game at Boston University. Their next five games would be at home, an opportunity to get on a roll. But that hasn’t happened, and after a blown opportunity on Saturday against UMass, the Explorers are 0-3 in the Atlantic 10 and John Giannini is reflecting on his role in where they are.
La Salle had plenty of opportunities to win Saturday’s game right up to the end. UMass turned the ball over twice in their own end and missed two free throws in the last minute, sweating it out until a three-point shot by Ruben Guillandeaux missed at the buzzer. The Explorers out-rebounded UMass 40-29, including 19 offensive rebounds (UMass had 17 defensive boards), but all that did was keep them within striking distance for most of the game.
In the end, the combination of offensive struggles (shooting 39.4 percent, committing 15 turnovers) and a recently common undoing of defense (UMass shot nearly 51 percent) did the Explorers in. Much of that came in the first half, when Giannini said they were “awful defensively” as UMass shot over 59 percent from the field. Tyreek Duren was the only starting guard to do anything on offense, while Aaric Murray was 5-15 from the field.
Despite the recent struggles, which place the Explorers at 0-3 in the Atlantic 10, Giannini doesn’t feel like this team has a long way to go to be in contention.
“I think if I handle this team a little bit better, we can make a run in this league,” said the La Salle mentor. “As easily as we lose a few games in a row, I think we can win a few games in a row and get right back in there. There are no easy games in the A-10, but I feel like we’re right there if I can just do a little better job with them.”
Giannini said the biggest thing he has to do is manage the team’s mentality, which is never easy no matter the team or the coach. He felt the big difference in the second half was mental, that they had a better defensive mindset than in the first half, and that has mirrored the season. So his challenge is to keep the team together and committed to the defensive end. Or, as he summed up, “I just have to get us more consistent.”
Adding to the challenge is that he feels he needs to be very positive with this team. With the adversity they have gone through via the struggles of the last month, that has been a challenge. It’s also a team that doesn’t have the kind of experience that last year’s team had, especially of playing together as last year’s group came in as freshmen.
You can see the ongoing theme here: so much of the challenge is on the coach. Giannini didn’t say much about the players, even though he is surely holding them accountable. But the constant theme of Saturday’s post-game was about his challenge, his role as the coach in trying to make the run in the conference he talked about.
Perhaps what summed it up best was his explanation for their struggles in the homestand, at a time when they looked like they could get some very positive momentum going before Atlantic 10 play.
“We’re better than we were, but we’ve lost our edge mentally for a lot of reasons,” Giannini said. “We weren’t the same team from our first six games through the following six games.”
The games don’t get easier, naturally, and that is true in the immediate as well as the long term. The Explorers host undefeated Duquesne before traveling to Rhode Island in the week ahead. The conference picture as a whole is hardly clear, but the Explorers are 0-3 and thus have to play from behind.
Giannini likes his team’s intangibles, so that could go a long way toward mitigating the challenges. As it is, the Explorers have a pretty good hill to climb due to their recent struggles.
