Bill Coen talks about a thrilling win that saw the Huskies snap a 6-game losing streak just three days before returning to conference action.
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In a contest that was close all afternoon, Joel Smith hit a buzzerbeater to give the Huskies a 53-51 victory.
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Though only about a third of the games have been played, this is a good time of year to step back and look at where the Northeastern men’s basketball team is at. The majority of the non-conference schedule has been played, with the exception of a tilt at Vermont on Friday and the BracketBusters game against a still to-be-determined opponent in late February. After winning three of their first four, the Huskies have now dropped six straight and head into the weekend of the new year with a 3-7 overall record, including one conference game.
It’s a slate that features just two power conference teams, in St. John’s (Big East) and NC State (Atlantic Coast), but it has proven to be yet another challenging non-league schedule nonetheless. That is not to be unexpected, however, as Bill Coen tends to schedule strong mid-major opponents to prepare his team for the challenges of the Colonial Athletic Association. Before the season started, nearly every one of these games could have been considered winnable – some more than others, but none that Northeastern seemed to have absolutely no shot at winning. After the victory at St. John’s, it seemed like the Huskies would be on a roll and even the tougher games like NC State, which many expected to be a loss to begin with, seemed more winnable than they had.
Here’s an update on each of the ten teams Northeastern has played so far this year, plus a look at the Huskies’ next opponent, Vermont – click the team name to read our recap from each of those games (all records are through Wednesday, December 28):
Boston University: 4-8 (1-3 home, 0-0 America East) – 82-74 win (OT)
After starting the season on a 4-game losing streak, the Terriers won their next four over Rhode Island, CAA members Hofstra and Delaware, then Boston College to even their record. They have lost all four since then, with two games remaining before AE play begins at Vermont on January 5 (at La Salle, 12/29; at Quinnipiac, 12/31). Just two of the losses have come by fewer than seven points, while only one of the wins was decided by more than seven (75-61 at BC).
University of Massachusetts: 10-3 (6-0 home, 0-0 Atlantic 10) – 83-67 loss
In contrast to BU, the Minutemen started with four wins, lost three of five including a 1-2 record at the Paradise Jam in the Bahamas, and are currently riding a four-game win streak. Each of the recent wins have been close, but all of the team’s first six wins were decided by double-digits including a 36-point blowout at BC and a 30-point trouncing of Towson. They’ll have one more non-con game vs. Central Connecticut (12/30) before opening their A10 slate vs. Fordham. UMass will then finish their out-of-conference schedule at La Salle before returning to Atlantic 10 play for the rest of the regular season.
Southern Illinois: 3-8 (1-2 away, 0-0 Missouri Valley Conference) – 64-57 win
It’s been a tough season in Carbondale, where the Salukis fell to Division II Ohio Dominican to start the year before a 19-point loss at the hands of Saint Louis and a trip to Boston that resulted in yet another loss at Matthews Arena. The three wins were all decisive, but came against Chicago State (0-13), Northern Illinois (0-11) and SIU-Edwardsville (2-7). The only OOC game remaining for SIU is the BracketBusters game, as they start MVC play at Evansville on Thursday.
St. John’s: 7-5 (7-1 home, 1-0 Big East) – 78-64 win
With a similar pattern to UMass, the Red Storm opened the season with three straight wins, including their season opener against William & Mary in the 2K Sports Classic, before dropping five of six with three more wins since their last loss. They have already started Big East play with a 91-67 win over Providence on Tuesday that saw Moe Harkless post 32 points, a record for Big East freshmen in his conference debut. Their only non-conference game remaining is UCLA on February 18 – although with the Big ‘East’ expansion, the Bruins will probably be joining the conference before too long.
La Salle: 8-4 (5-0 home, 0-0 Atlantic 10) – 68-51 loss
By looking strictly at the record, an 8-4 mark might be a surprise for the team picked to finish last in the A10. However, despite a few blowouts, their 26-point win over Bucknell (8-6) is perhaps their most impressive. They also defeated CAA foe James Madison, 92-83, and smoked the still-winless Towson by 36. The losses are actually the brightest point of optimism for La Salle, after staying within seven at Villanova and four at Pittsburgh, and falling to an underrated Delaware team by just four on the road. The Explorers have two non-con games, next vs. Boston University on Thursday, then two A10 games before their final OOC game of the year at Penn.
*Old Dominion: 6-6 (1-2 away, 1-0 CAA) – 69-59 loss
The Monarchs started with a 63-46 drubbing by Northern Iowa (10-2) at home. Three straight wins, including the first win by a CAA team over a power conference team in a 68-66 victory over South Florida, and just a 10-point loss to #2 Kentucky in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off at Mohegan Sun seemed to have ODU back on track before a 10-point overtime loss at home against Vermont. After that game, they beat East Carolina and Northeastern, lost to Fairfield, Central Florida and Richmond (OT), then beat Virginia Military Institute. They’ll host #8 Missouri on Friday before returning to CAA action at James Madison on Monday.
Bradley: 5-8 (4-3 home, 0-1 Missouri Valley Conference) – 79-68 loss
Another team of streaks, the Braves started 2011-12 with three wins, then lost four in a row, won two, and have lost their last four. The latest streak started with a 73-68 loss at Drexel. That run also includes a one-point loss vs. Western Carolina, an 11-point defeat at the hands of #19 Michigan, and a 90-51 shellacking by Wichita State at home to open the MVC portion of their schedule. With the exception of BracketBusters, each of their remaining games will be against conference opponents.
Princeton: 6-7 (3-4 away, 0-0 Ivy) – 71-62 loss
The Ivy Leaguers started by winning just one of six, then won five of six. Their only game since the trip to Boston on December 18 resulted in a 4-point loss at Siena. The Tigers are in a stretch of 11 straight road games against Division 1 opponents when they won’t play any home games during the months of December and January with the exception of The College of New Jersey (Division III) on January 8, lasting from December 7 at Rutgers to February 4 at Yale. They’ll have a pair of games in Tallahassee, against Florida State on Friday and Florida A&M on Sunday, then their tune-up against TCNJ before opening the Ivy schedule at Cornell on January 13.
Louisiana Tech: 7-6 (5-0 home, 0-0 WAC) – 56-53 loss
A team that has been up and down over the past few years, a weak schedule has the Bulldogs looking like they’re back on the up – for now. They haven’t lost a home non-conference game since December of 2007, though they’ve had several close calls this season. Each of their last four wins, which were all at home, came by three points or fewer with a one point, double overtime win over Northwestern State. After Arkansas, who La Tech lost to by 14 in their last game, the only teams with much name recognition are Wyoming, McNeese State and Arkansas-Little Rock. According to RealTimeRPI.com, their strength of schedule ranks 306th in the country. They have two more non-conference games before starting WAC play, including NAIA Spring Hill on Thursday (their second non-Division 1 opponent after D-III Mississippi College to start the season) and Southern Methodist on Sunday.
North Carolina State: 8-4 (6-2 home, 0-0 ACC) – 88-59 loss
New head coach Mark Gottfried has the Wolfpack energized and in control, exciting fans and local media with a strong start to the 2011-12 season. The ‘Pack has three games left before starting their league schedule, with their next tilt coming against Campbell in their on-campus gym, the Reynolds Coliseum (instead of the RBC Center, their normal home arena). With no bad losses, a win over Texas and a couple other decent victories, NC State looks to keep rolling into conference play and hopes to make some noise in a weak ACC.
Vermont: 6-7 (1-3 home, 0-0 America East)
The Catamounts have a solid balance in the difficulty of their schedule. After beginning the year with a two-point defeat at South Florida, they bounced back with wins over Dartmouth and Marist. A loss to Long Island was followed by an overtime win at Old Dominion and a home victory over Siena. A five-game losing streak may look like a rough patch, but that included a 7-point loss to Harvard (in the week preceding the first-ever appearance in the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls in program history), a 4-point loss to Quinnipiac and a 1-point loss to Iona are nothing to be ashamed of. The contest against Northeastern will be their last before traveling to Stony Brook, last year’s AE runner-up, to open the conference slate.
For those wondering what next year’s non-conference schedule will be like, it is very similar to this one. Not all of the opponents will be the same, but BU, UMass, La Salle and Vermont are expected to make a return trip to Boston, while the Huskies will travel to Princeton. In addition, UNC Asheville owes a return to Northeastern as part of the BracketBusters contract from last year, and NU will be playing in the Great Alaska Shootout over Thanksgiving break against a field that will be announced in March or April. They will also have a road BracketBusters game, leaving room for just two more opponents to reach the total of 27 games plus the tournament allowed by the NCAA.
In the coming days, we’ll evaluate the team’s performance as they head into the meat of the conference schedule. In the meantime, be sure to tune into WRBB Sports as we bring you live action of three Huskies athletic events this weekend, including the basketball team’s game at Vermont on Friday and a pair of hockey games at the Mariucci Classic in Minnesota.
4:15 p.m. – Huskies Basketball Pre-Game
4:30 p.m. – Northeastern Basketball: Huskies at Vermont Catamounts
from Patrick Gym in Burlington, Vt.
with Patrick McHugh and Andy Towne
4:45 p.m. – Huskies Hockey Pre-Game
5:00 p.m. – Northeastern Hockey: Mariucci Classic – Huskies vs. Princeton
from Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis, Minn.
with Alex Faust, Jared Shafran, and Ben Horner
Available on WRBB Sports Extra; joined in progress on WRBB-FM
6:45 p.m. – Huskies Hockey Pre-Game
7:00 p.m. – Northeastern Hockey: Mariucci Classic – Final
from Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis, Minn.
with Alex Faust, Jared Shafran, and Ben Horner
What happened?
The ugliness of basketball that was on display at Louisiana Tech’s Thomas Assembly Center on Tuesday night stayed in Ruston, Louisiana, but the result wasn’t much prettier for Northeastern.
After about two minutes, the Huskies were still in the game with the score tied 5-5. To that point, each team had traded a two-pointer for a two-pointer, then a triple for a trey. Quincy Ford and Reggie Spencer had each recorded a block, and they were keeping up with the Wolfpack’s pace. Then, NC State went on an 11-0 run, making it 16-5, that lasted nearly three and a half minutes and never looked back. Two baskets later, it was back within seven for NU, but that’s the closest they would get. At halftime, it was 38-25.
The first three points of the second half went to the Huskies on Joel Smith’s 3-pointer, but the ‘Pack followed that with another 10-0 run to push their lead to 48-30. As late as 8:37 to go, it was a 15-point difference, but NC State gave themselves a 26-point advantage before a batch of substitutions that took all of the starters for both teams out of the game for the final two minutes of play. After that point, it was all offense as the team combined for 14 points in that time. The Wolfpack bench won that frame, 8-6, and pushed the team’s lead out to a game-high 30 before finally coming away with the 29-point victory.
Player of the Game:
It’s hard to really come up with a player of the game for Northeastern. Though the team didn’t play poorly, the limited offensive attack was fairly well-balanced and the defense wasn’t really there. Strictly by the numbers, Jon Lee would be the one to earn the honors after tying Joel Smith with a team-high 15 points. He also pulled down 6 rebounds, 2nd-most on the team to Quincy Ford (10). Lee made 7 of his 12 shots, including 1 of 3 from long distance.
The Wolfpack also came out with a balanced attack, making it difficult for the Huskies to key in on one or two players defensively. Richard Howell posted a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds, almost exclusively in the paint. C.J. Leslie helped him out in the post, matching Lorenzo Brown’s 16 points for a game-high. Leslie also had 8 boards.
The Takeaway:
North Carolina State was clearly the better team on the floor. Their size, length and athleticism along with their well-coached raw talent were too much for Northeastern to handle. Despite the 29-point loss, the Huskies actually played better than in the 3-point loss on Tuesday when they led for most of the game, including 19 minutes in the second half. It was the sixth straight loss, marking the third consecutive year that saw a losing streak of at least five games from late November into December. Last season, the final loss of the streak came in Cancun on December 22 – the same date as this game in Raleigh. The year before, it was on December 23 in Hawai’i.
Turnovers, or the lack thereof, was a definite positive for Bill Coen and his team. After five straight game in which they turned the ball over at least 20 times, Northeastern gave it back to their opponent only 10 times on Thursday to match a season-low (also at St. John’s, 11/26). Before getting too excited about that, though, remember that three of those turnovers came in the first four minutes. At that point, NC State already had a comfortable lead and there was never any need for them to put on pressure to force turnovers. The Wolfpack also does not typically force all that many turnovers, so while it jumps off the scoresheet as something to be happy with, NU needs to show that they can hold onto the ball in a few more games to show consistency before believing the problem is solved.
Along with Howell and Leslie, the constant threat of Scott Wood and, at times, Alex Johnson, as distance shooters on the floor kept the Huskies from being too aggressive down low. As a result, the rebounding suffered and North Carolina State won the battle of the boards, 41-28, the largest margin against Northeastern so far this season. Northeastern took advantage of long bounces on their missed three-point shots, which there were 14 of, and picked those rebounds up near the perimeter. They weren’t very aggressive going after loose balls under the basket, seemingly because they were afraid that if NC State was able to pick it up, they would be much faster in transition and would be able to take advantage of an empty backcourt if the Huskies didn’t hustle back on defense after missed shots.
Finally, the team’s shooting percentage has been well below average over the past two games. On Tuesday, both teams complained about the ball not being completely round, and on Thursday, they were simply playing against a defense that didn’t allow many good shots. The reportedly misshapen ball also affected free throw shooting on Tuesday, when Northeastern shot just 43% from the line. In Raleigh, however, the team was back to a much better 82% at the charity stripe. There are reasonable explanations for each of those games, but it’s something worth pointing out and keeping an eye on over the next few games.
Quote of Note:
Bill Coen, on the team’s balanced scoring: “We moved the ball a little bit better tonight…I thought we did execute and we took better care of the basketball than we have been doing.”
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NC State pulls out to an early lead, proving too much for the Huskies in a rout, 88-59.
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What happened?
When Northeastern met Louisiana Tech on Tuesday night for a non-conference showdown, there may as well have been peach baskets at either end of the floor. The Huskies and Bulldogs combined for one of the sloppiest opening 10 minutes in basketball history, a dreadful display that mirrored that of the chaotic root of the sport invented by Dr. James Naismith in 1891.
In the game’s opening five minutes the clubs combined for nine missed shots and as many turnovers (5) as total points scored (5). It was not until the midway point of the first half that a team reached double figures when Cordarius Johnson connected on a three-pointer to make it 10-6 in favor of the Bulldogs. Slow, disjointed and woeful accurately described the play in the first half, a period in which the Huskies somehow managed a 21-17 advantage.
The visitors finally showed life at the start of the second half, with better motion offense and crisp passing aiding a 9-4 run. Though Louisiana Tech cut the deficit to two soon after, it appeared as though the Huskies were the team in command. Northeastern carried a lead throughout the second half, earning multiple offensive opportunities with aggressive work on the glass.
In the game’s final minutes, however, NU made critical errors down the stretch that wiped away what should have been a certain victory. With less than two minutes remaining, Northeastern committed four turnovers, failed to make a field goal and allowed the Bulldogs numerous open looks, resulting in Tech’s first second half lead with 59 seconds remaining. Joel Smith had an opportunity to tie the game at the buzzer, but his three-pointer rimmed out as time expired, giving the Bulldogs a 56-53 win.
Player of the Game:
Though the play was sloppy at best, Northeastern surprisingly had three players nearing double-double totals in Reggie Spencer, Quincy Ford and Jonathan Lee. Spencer was the only player to accomplish the feat, dropping 10 points and grabbing a game-high 11 rebounds. Ford finished one rebound shy after scoring 10 points and Lee finished one point shy after collecting 10 boards.
Spencer led an aggressive Husky effort on the backboards, using his 6-foot-7 frame to establish position under the basket and work relentlessly for offensive rebounds. Spencer was only 5 of 13 shooting, however, and one has to wonder of the outcome had he been able to convert on a few more shots. Still, with three assists and only one turnover to go along with his double-double, Spencer’s 32 minutes on the court were some of his best in an NU uniform.
The Takeaway:
Another disappointing loss for the Huskies, their fifth in a row. Once again the team had trouble taking care of the basketball, committing 21 turnovers, many of them unforced and simply inexcusable. There are a number of reasons why Northeastern is in the midst of a five game slump, but the discussion begins and ends with turnovers. If the Huskies can’t take better care of the ball and cut the turnovers to a more manageable number (read: under 15) then they won’t beat many teams this season.
While a bad shooting night was a major reason for the loss — 20 of 60 from the floor, 3 of 17 from three-point range — awful free throw shooting was the silent killer for the visitors. Northeastern hit only 10 of 23 shots from the charity stripe, a paltry 43.5 percent. Ford was the worst offender, making only one of six shots despite entering the game as a 73.9 percent shooter from the line. NU endured multiple cold stretches without a field goal, but free throws could have allowed the Huskies to keep putting points on the board and continue to build a lead that was as high as nine in the second half. By failing to capitalize on trips to the line the Huskies wasted opportunities to score until the Bulldogs caught up in the final minute.
A lineup wrinkle worth noting was Bill Coen’s switch to a three-guard, two-forward lineup that seemed to work well at times. Marco Banegas-Flores shared the floor with Lee and Joel Smith at times, and at one point was with Ford, who has the shooting range of a guard. This smaller but quicker lineup forced Tech to extend its defense to the outside and spread the court, freeing up space inside. This allowed the guards to penetrate into the paint and create open shot opportunities for other players. The drawback with this lineup is that it sacrifices size and muscle down low, but considering NU had a 50-32 advantage on the glass it was worth the change to try and create more offense.
Finally, the play of the freshman continues to be encouraging. Ford and Spencer seem to be two of the most talented rookies NU has had in the last few seasons, and it will be exciting to watch them develop. Banegas-Flores also earned his most playing time as a Husky (19 minutes) and could see more time in the future. The hope is that as the younger players develop so too will the team an some of these losses can turn to wins.
Quote of Note:
“Their coach was complaining that the ball was lopsided, that might have something to do with [it]. He wanted the referee to swap the ball out, the game ball. I asked our guys, they didn’t seem to mention it but their guys seemed to think that the ball was not [round], which would help to explain some of the shooting out there, I hope.”
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The Huskies led for the majority of the 2nd half, but gave up the lead and committed costly turnovers late, leading to the their 5th straight loss, 56-53.
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Tuesday, December 207:45 p.m. – Huskies Basketball Pre-Game
8:00 p.m. – Northeastern Basketball: Huskies at Louisiana Tech Bulldogs
from the Thomas Assembly Center in Ruston, La.
with Andy Towne and Patrick McHugh
Thursday, December 226:45 p.m. – Huskies Basketball Pre-Game
7:00 p.m. – Northeastern Basketball: Huskies at N.C. State Wolfpack
from the RBC Center in Raleigh, N.C.
with Patrick McHugh and Andy Towne
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