NEW BRITAIN, Conn. – Northeastern may be in a position to turn a corner at a good time. That might seem like an odd proclamation about a team that just snapped a five-game losing streak on Friday night, but take the way they won and add the recent return of their leader, and things could be looking up for the Huskies with CAA play right around the corner.
Friday night was Jonathan Lee’s second game back from a broken foot that shelved him for nearly two months. An All-CAA candidate, the senior leader doesn’t look like he’s missed a beat, and given how competitive he is that isn’t entirely surprising. With 15 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists, Lee was the catalyst in Friday’s 82-63 win at Central Connecticut, and figures to be the rest of the season.
“Just his confidence and his experience level is big,” said head coach Bill Coen. “There’s always a portion of the game that it could go either way, somebody needs to step up and make a play or settle you down, and he did that.”
Without their floor leader, Northeastern’s offense seemed to lack direction at times. Give all the credit in the world to Joel Smith, who handled the ball often in Lee’s absence, but he is not a natural point and having the ball in his hands more was not a good thing for the team. Back in his more familiar position, Smith had 22 points on Tuesday and had a big night on Friday with a game-high 27 points on 9-15 shooting.
“Joel is most effective when he’s off the ball, coming off screens,” said Lee. “I know that and he knows that, too. Now he’s only bringing it up some of the time, which brings up his comfort zone.”
While the offense has looked better, it hasn’t come smoothly. In the first half on Friday night, the Huskies had a five-point lead on several occasions, but could never grow it more thanks to turnovers, missed free throws (they missed both front ends of one-and-ones) and other bad offensive possessions. The second half was much better, when they went over seven minutes before committing their first turnover and had assists on six of the first eight baskets while turning a close game into a blowout. They had just four turnovers in the entire second half after giving it away 11 times in the first half. With that, they ran off 11 unanswered points to turn a five-point lead into a 52-36 advantage, and Central Connecticut never got closer than 14 points the rest of the way.
From a personnel standpoint, the other concern the Huskies have is with sophomore forward Quincy Ford. After being the runner-up for CAA Rookie of the Year, Ford has not made the kind of leap that was expected and has not been much of a factor thus far even though his numbers are mostly up from last season. The Huskies needed him to be at least a strong complement to Smith while Lee was out, but Reggie Spencer was probably their second-best player as he became a bona fide scoring threat inside.
“I think he’s the missing piece right now to getting us from where we are to where we hope to be,” Coen said of Ford. “We’ve got to get him on track.”
Lee said the team is still finding their identity, which is to be expected when a key player is out at the beginning of the season. Ford is part of that, and while they have all the confidence in him and what he’s done right now, they know there is a lot of upside there.
“We don’t even know what getting Quincy going is, but when it happens, we’ll know,” said Lee.
As important as Lee’s return is, a return to playing defense is something this team needs the most. Opponents shot over 52 percent from the field during the five-game losing streak, and Central Connecticut is just the second team the Huskies have held below 40 percent on the season. Lee can certainly help at that end, as that’s always been something he does well, but it comes down to more than just him.
“I think we came out with some energy,” said Coen. “We concentrated on that, and I thought the guys responded, they executed the game plan and really played with great energy and awareness on the defensive end.”
The Huskies got the season off to a nice start by winning four of their first five. With a slate full of home games in front of them after the Great Alaska Shootout, one would have thought they could reach CAA play with a nice record. Instead, they lost four straight at home after losing the title game of the Great Alaska Shootout and are hopeful they can enter CAA play with a .500 record. In hindsight, it’s worth noting that none of the four wins early on were convincing ones, as the Huskies won those games by a combined 14 points.
Lee said he wanted to come back before CAA play so that the team could adjust to playing with him again before the games that matter most. As competitive as he is, he would love to have been back sooner, but he did what he could to be a great teammate and another coach on the bench all the while. With him back this week, that gives them some chances to re-integrate him.
“We basically have three games to get it right before conference play,” said Coen. “We were hoping that by January, we would hit some type of rhythm and get a rotation down and get some chemistry between guys on the court. I think tonight was a great step in that direction.”
Northeastern’s last non-conference game is at UAB on December 29. After that, CAA play begins with a bang: at George Mason, a quick turnaround to play UNCW at home about 40 hours later, then at Drexel. The CAA has not had a banner non-conference run by a long shot, so it looks like no one will run away with the conference. That likely helps Northeastern since the Huskies should trend upward as conference play begins with Lee now back in the fold.
