Quick hitters as we move toward the first weekend of Championship Week:
- New Hampshire will head into the America East Tournament playing about as well as any team outside of the top three in the conference, and if you’re looking for a dark horse it’s probably the Wildcats. They went 6-2 in February and finished fifth, and they have won at Boston University and at home against Vermont. They didn’t break through against Stony Brook, however, and the Seawolves likely await them if they knock off Albany in the quarterfinals.
- One unheralded senior was honored in the Wildcats’ regular season finale on Sunday, Bill Herrion’s son Ryan. Getting his first career start, he hit a three-pointer for his only shot from the field and that brought a big reaction from the bench. Bill Herrion gave a lot of credit to his players for how they handled having his son on the team, and also said his son managed everything just right. He’s well aware of how having a son on the team can create tension, but that was never an issue here.
“He’s more of a teammate than he is my son, and that’s made my life a lot easier,” said Bill Herrion. “The kids on the team deserve a lot of respect for the way they’ve treated him, and I really appreciate that.” - Another team in the bottom half of the conference that has played better of late is Hartford. Early on, the Hawks struggled mightily at the offensive end, but they started to come around and finally turned some of their competitive games into victories in February. That included a four-game winning streak, making it clear this team had more confidence. Head coach John Gallagher also saw good intangibles with this team.
“We’ve got a winning locker room,” Gallagher said after the regular season-ending loss at Boston University. “The first mission of when you get a head coaching job is that you’ve got to make people care. They’re upset that they lost today, and I’m excited about that.” - While Andre Drummond came into college with the big-time reputation and at times this season has lived up to it, the best freshman on the court Tuesday night at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center was Providence’s LaDontae Henton. Henton scored 18 points and grabbed seven rebounds, but none of the points were bigger than two clutch three-pointers late in the second half, the latter of which came off an inbound pass with one second left on the shot clock. Ed Cooley has had a knack for finding solid players who were under the radar, and Henton is just the latest.
- At first glance, it would seem like Georgia Tech lost Wednesday’s game at Boston College on the offensive end. The Yellow Jackets have struggled there often this season, and on Wednesday night they shot below 38 percent from the field, including a 4-18 mark from behind the arc. But head coach Brian Gregory was quick to say they lost on defense, especially where they allowed the Eagles to go 5-11 from long range in the first half.
“Every mistake you make is magnified, especially in the lower-possession game that you’re going to get into when you play BC,” said Gregory. “You can’t make the mistakes that we made.” - It’s been a big bounce-back season for the Missouri Valley Conference as they are under way with their conference tournament. The big reason is the non-conference performance, and several metrics demonstrate the improvement. Valley teams went 5-33 against the RPI top 50 last year; this year they have 14 wins against that same group. Valley teams were 8-31 in true road games last season, and 16-19 this time around. Also, last year they were 6-18 against teams from BCS conferences; this year they are 11-14.
