City of Brotherly Love: Run LaSalle, Run

[TheShow23]

[font="Comic Sans MS"]Though my stay at Arkansas was brief one of the things I enjoyed the most was southern cooking. When Richard Roach invited me to his NBA Draft viewing party it was a no brainer that I would show up, one to support my player and two the spread of food at Richard’s household. In addition to Richard’s family, the rest of the graduating class Ruben Carter, Gerrick Wright, Jesse Howe, and Tega Lee were also in attendance.



Ruben knew pro basketball wasn’t in his plans, immediately after graduation he accepted a job as a high school teacher and basketball at a school in Delaware. Tega Lee was weighing up a few offers he had to play basketball over in Europe. Gerrick Wright and Jesse Howe were expected to be selected in the second round. Draft analysts had Richard all over the board, mock drafts had him going anywhere from the late lottery to midway through the second round.




As expected Cory Petteawy from Pitt was the first pick of the NBA draft, that brought some friendly chatter in the room as Richard completely shut down Cory in the NCAA Tournament. One of Richard’s uncles said his nephew Richard should have been picked first based on that head to head matchup. Though I’m biased his uncle had some truth in his logic.




Through 27 picks none of my players were selected, Richard was getting a bit nervous as he continuously walked around the room. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver came up to the podium to announce the 28th pick in the draft.
“The rights to the 28th pick in the 2017 has been traded to the Charlotte Bobcats, with the 28th pick in the 2017 NBA Draft the Charlotte Bobcats select Richard Roach from La Salle University.” It’s safe to say everyone went wild in the room, not only was Richard drafted in the 1st round but he was drafted by his hometown team. In addition he would get to play for the team owned by his idol, Michael Jordan.



As the draft went on two more La Salle players heard their named called, Gerrick Wright was drafted 43rd and surprisingly Tega Lee was selected at pick 54. Another surprise was Jesse Howe going undrafted, initially upset Jesse received calls from 10 NBA team immediately after the draft. He would end up signing a rookie free agent deal with the Philadelphia 76ers.
[/font]

[TheShow23]

[color="navy"][SIZE="5"]

2017/2018 La Salle Explorers Roster

[/SIZE][/color]



[font="Comic Sans MS"]Starting Lineup


*Denotes Returning Starter

Matt Graves 6-1 Junior PG 4/5
Ben Anderson 6-0 Senior SG 2/4
Eddie Robinson 6-3 Freshman SF 4/4.5
*Keith Riley 6-8 Senior C 4/4.5
Marcus Romar 6-10 Junior C 4/4


Bench


Clyde Nielsen 6-11 Senior RS PF 3.5/4
Owen Evans 6-0 Senior PG 3/4
Brian Stone 6-8 Senior RS SF 2.5/4
Peter Lutz 7-0 Freshman C 4/4.5
Ryan Jones 6-1 Freshman PG 2/3.5
Mike Williams 6-3 Sophomore RS PG 1.5/4
Dave LaRue 6-2 Sophomore RS SG 1.5/4



Redshirt
Aaron Slider 6-7 Freshman C 2/4


*In addition to the new players we welcomed a new assistant coach. This new assistant is a familiar face to fans of the program. Bryan Taylor led us in scoring during my first season at La Salle. After playing basketball overseas Bryan has returned to La Salle as a graduate assistant.
[/font]

[TheShow23]

[SIZE="5"][color="Navy"]

2017/2018 Non-Conference Review

[/color][/SIZE]




[font="Comic Sans MS"]First game of the season would be the biggest home game we have had in my time at La Salle. We welcomed the 5th ranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets into Tom Gola Arena. With four new starters I sensed some jitters early in the game. Turnovers and bad shot selection plagued us early, however our defense was great and we led early. As the game played out it unfolded as a battle between our team against Richard Caldwell of Georgia Tech. We held a slim 33-32 lead at the half, Caldwell was a machine scoring 22 points in the first half. In the second half Caldwell continue to torch us, made me wish Richard Roach had another year of eligibility left. Eddie Robinson having an excellent debut made a mid-range shot to put us up 65-63 with 2 minutes left. Caldwell scored his 38th, and 39th points of the night to tie the game at 65. Our next possession saw Keith Riley make a hook shot to put us up two. Caldwell who had made 8 three’s went for a 9th, to our relief he missed and we grabbed the rebound. With the shot clock running down Matt Graves found Ben Anderson in the corner, he swished a 3 pointer to secure a 70-65 win. Eddie scored 19 while Keith had 15 and 7 rebounds.


The rest of the non-conference schedule was disappointing. We lost a 80-81 heartbreaker at Oregon State. A 77-87 lost at Kansas State, and home losses to Virginia and Vanderbilt meant we went 1-4 against BCS conference team.


Overall we finished 7-4 in the non-conference, the win versus Georgia Tech was great. The other four losses hurt seeing how the national perception becomes the Georgia Tech win was a fluke.

[/font]

[JMD]

Just try to rebound from it and move on to the National Championship game.

[TheShow23]

Definitely going to try, it's gonna be tough because the core of those Elite 8 teams is gone. Unlike past seasons this team scores by committee rather than have a main guy like we've had with Richard Roach or David Smallwood. Plus I'm using my 3rd different starting PG in the last three seasons. Atlantic 10, hopefully the new parts gel so I can get to a Final Four

[TheShow23]

[SIZE="5"][color="Navy"]

2017/2018 Atlantic 10 Review

[/color][/SIZE]



[font="Comic Sans MS"]Conference play started well as we won our first three games. Marcus Romar blocked 3 shots and had a double-double 11 points, 10 rebounds in a 70-59 win against Temple. Our first road game was at Fordham, Matt Graves did an excellent job of controlling the pace of the game. He scored 19 and handed out 12 assists in a 83-72 win. After losing our fourth Atlantic 10 game we went on a five game winning streak. In a 92-83 win our backcourt dominated St. Joe’s. Starting guards Ben Anderson and Matt Graves led the way with 21 and 16 points respectively. Ryan Jones scored a season high 12 points off the bench. Against Rhode Island Eddie Robinson’s 20 points on 6 of 9 shooting and Marcus Romar’s 16 on 7 for 8 shooting led us to a 86-75 win. Against Xavier, Marcus Romar went into beast mode. He scored a career high 27 points and grabbed 10 rebounds leading us to a 65-57 win. To close out Atlantic 10 play Brian Stone came off the bench to score 12 points in a 84-59 win at Dayton. The thing which impressed me the most, we never had a losing streak during conference play. After a loss we would run off a string of wins. This team probably resembled the closest what I had in mind when I took the job, scoring was balanced and 10 players averaged at least 10 minutes per game.



We went 13-3 in Atlantic 10 play to finish the season 20-7 overall with a national rank of 22.
[/font]

[TheShow23]

[SIZE="5"][color="Navy"]

2018 Atlantic 10 Tournament

[/color][/SIZE]




[font="Comic Sans MS"](2) La Salle Explorers vs. (10) Rhode Island Rams
A loss at Duquesne early in the season meant they would be the 1 seed, both teams finished 13-3 in league play but they held the tie breaker. Rhode Island kept the game close until Owen Evans changed the momentum. He made a three pointer to push our lead to 8, after a Rhode Island miss Evans hit his second straight three. Dave LaRue stole the inbounds pass and found Evans in the corner, Evans made his third straight three. In a matter of 40 seconds we pushed the lead from 5 to 14. In addition to Owen’s 9 points off the bench, Peter Lutz scored a season high 11. The 9-0 run took the steam out of Rhode Island as we cruised to a 84-66 win.

La Salle Player of The Game: Marcus Romar 17 points.





(2) La Salle Explorers vs. (11) Richmond Spiders

Richmond came out in a 1-3-1 Zone, now we have played against zones but this was the first time anyone has ran a 1-3-1 against us this season. To say the players were a bit confused would be an understatement. Early offensive possessions were ugly. Richmond took advantage of our sloppy play as they only trailed 28-27 at halftime. One of the assistant coaches suggested we go small to start the second half, four guards and a small forward Brian Stone a center. The change worked as the quality of the offense improved drastically. Once we figured out the 1-3-1, Richmond did not have a counter move. Scoring 41 points in the second half we were on our way to the A10 final with a 69-52 win.


La Salle Player of The Game: Ben Anderson 17 points.





(2) La Salle Explorers vs. (8) Fordham Rams

To say the Atlantic 10 Tournament has been wild this year would be an understatement, the 1,3, and 4 seeds all lost in the quarterfinals. Fordham is an undersized team so the plan would be to attack the rim as much as possible. Whether it’s feeding the ball in the post or guard penetration we were going to be very aggressive. Keith Riley carried the load in the first half scoring 10 of his 14 points in that half. Though we only were up 36-30 at halftime we felt in control, Fordham had never led and we knew we were two runs away from putting the game out of reach. The first run was a 9-2 run, the second was a 17-4 one. By that point we were up 23 and once again we won the Atlantic 10 Tournament.


La Salle Player of The Game: Keith Riley 14 points.

[/font]

[TheShow23]

[color="Navy"][SIZE="5"]

2018 NCAA Tournament



East Region



2nd Round

[/SIZE][/color]



[font="Comic Sans MS"] (5) La Salle Explorers vs. (12) Bucknell Bison



Turnovers are the ultimate equalizer in basketball, despite the fact we have more talent than Bucknell their defense got us turning the ball over. Despite shooting over 50% from the field we only led 37-31 at halftime because we had too many turnovers. Our defense played great in the first half, however the Bison made some shots and even took a 2 point lead with 6 minutes left in the game. Clyde Nielsen came off the bench and scored a quick 6 points to put us up by 4. After a Bucknell 3 closed the gap to 1, Matt Graves hit a clutch 3 at the 4 minute mark. Heading down the stretch we made the necessary plays and escaped with a 64-59 win.



La Salle Player of The Game: Marcus Romar 10 points 6 rebounds 2 blocks 2 steals.
[/font]

[JMD]

Good job on the 2nd round victory coach.

[TheShow23]

[color="Navy"][SIZE="5"]

2018 NCAA Tournament



East Region



3rd Round

[/SIZE][/color]



[font="Comic Sans MS"] (5) La Salle Explorers vs. (13) St. Joseph’s Hawks



Fans of offense would love this game. Both teams put on a display of great offense. Up and down the court, we would score, they would score. The first half was a game of runs. St. Joes had runs of 14-3 and 15-6 while we had runs of 10-2 and 17-3. At halftime we were up 41-39 with both teams glad the half came to catch their breath. The second half things remained the same, from three St. Joes was on fire hitting 10 3’s. Tim Murray’s fourth three of the game tied the score at 81 with 1:15 left in the game. Ben Anderson got free on a back cut and Matt Graves picture perfect pass found him for a layup to put us up 83-81. St. Joe’s found Murray for a great look from three, his shot rimmed in and out as Keith Riley grabbed the rebound. Eddie Robinson’s layup with 35 second left put us up 85-81. St. Joe’s missed a three and we rebounded it. Going four for four down the stretch on free throws gave us a 89-81. In a great showcase game for Philadelphia basketball we had 5 players in double figures while St. Joe’s had 6 players in double figures.



La Salle Player of The Game: Ben Anderson 21 points.
[/font]