WORCESTER, Mass. – A blizzard that hit much of New England was an added challenge for Lehigh as they came to play Holy Cross. But for this team, it wasn’t as much to overcome as some of what they have faced this year, or in what became a back-and-forth game in which they pulled out a 68-61 win.
The biggest impact the storm had on the team was that they had to leave Bethlehem a little earlier than they planned. Instead of leaving early in the afternoon on Friday, they left first thing in the morning and headed straight to Holy Cross to practice. With a statewide travel ban in effect in Massachusetts, they couldn’t go anywhere for about 24 hours and weren’t sure for a while when the game would be played.
“We’ve had two long days of travel and sitting around and doing nothing,” said senior forward Gabe Knutson. “As much as that sounds relaxing, you get frustrated, you want to be playing, you want to know when the game time is going to be, you want to know if you’re playing, you want everything in order.”
Lehigh has already responded quite well to adversity this season, and they have had to deal with one very big case of it. C.J. McCollum, the Patriot League’s all-time leading scorer, was injured against VCU on January 5. What have the Mountain Hawks done since then? Only run off eight of nine, including a win at Bucknell, and adding that to a win at North Texas that he also missed, they are 9-1 without him this season. They reminded everyone that they have a pretty good team aside from their star.
“C.J.’s a wonderful player. His talent can cast a long shadow, because he’s just that good,” said head coach Brett Reed. “Meanwhile, we’ve had a number of very, very good players that we knew could contribute and we knew could play a major role for us, and ultimately they have.”
Besides the talent that has surrounded McCollum, this stretch has also shone a light on Reed, a bright coach on the rise. One of just two head coaches in Division I to have earned a doctorate degree (La Salle head coach John Giannini is the other), Reed is always thoughtful and understands the game from much more than just an X’s and O’s standpoint, and that’s been a big guide for how he adjusted this team when McCollum went down.
“I wanted to make sure that I demonstrated confidence in our players that we weren’t going to make major changes,” said Reed. “We were going to make some slight tweaks and adjustments, but ultimately, to change our identity wouldn’t make a lot of sense, and it would overstate what C.J.’s contributions were for us because, really, we’re built on being a team.”
That understanding of the game is evident when talking to the players. They understood they had to do more, but they also had to be who they are and get better the same way they would regardless of personnel. Not only do they believe in the team concept, but they understand exactly what this meant.
“Coaches never asked us and we never asked each other to do anything more than we’ve been able o do,” said Knutson. “We have talented players, and it shows. We’re not putting guys who aren’t good in ball screens in ball screens because C.J.’s not there. We’re putting shooters where shooters need to be. We’re using everybody’s skill set.”
Lehigh has plenty of talent aside from McCollum, but no one will kid themselves and say it’s not different without him. Besides how good he is, his teammates have played off him all along and many have been doing that for a while. Roles have changed and so have how teams defend them, so the adjustments are many and varied.
Interestingly enough, the player who has picked it up the most just from a numbers standpoint isn’t the guy who one might have first thought, Knutson. A solid second fiddle to McCollum the past three-plus seasons, Knutson has played more like someone who lost his best friend since the injury. The first issue is that teams have now felt free to double-team him often, and he hasn’t quite been able to play off others the way he played off McCollum because he benefited so much from it.
“I’ve had a pretty rough stretch in conference play,” said Knutson, who is also an excellent student. “I’m used to getting 2-3 passes from him off wide-open looks, or setting a screen for him and having two guys run at him and I get easy buckets.”
The area where the biggest gains have been visible has been the perimeter, where Mackey McKnight, B.J. Bailey and Anthony D’Orazio lead the way. McKnight, in particular, has come alive certainly from the numbers, but also in his increased role and how well he has played. Knutson said he’s put the work in all along and wants to be the best point guard in the Patriot League, and he’s certainly making a bid for it.
McKnight had 22 points on Saturday, but he did much more than that. In the last couple of minutes, he was seemingly always around the ball, helping them break the press and hitting free throws to seal it, and also getting a big steal.
“He’s been a very good player for us over the course of the last few years,” Reed said of McKnight. “I think he took it upon himself to lead more, to be more involved in a lot of the plays, as opposed to deferring to C.J. I’m proud of his play and his contributions on the defensive end.”
Added Knutson: “We need to have the ball in his hands late in the game.”
The big area where the Mountain Hawks have improved since McCollum’s injury is at the defensive end, and that’s something that needed to happen anyway. Since then, opponents have scored 70 or more points just twice and are averaging just under 57 points per game. On the season, they allow under 66 points per game. Some of that improvement owes to playing a tougher schedule in non-conference, but not all.
McCollum is undoubtedly hoping to come back before the season is over. The prognosis was 8-10 weeks from the injury, which would come close to the Patriot League Tournament. Knutson, McCollum’s roommate and good friend, said it’s been tough for him, but he’s doing what he can to get healthy. In the meantime, Lehigh is continuing to win through solid play at both ends of the floor and both coaches.
