"We're going to full court press, run, and shoot a lot of 3s"

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Recruting

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[color="Black"]Delaware incoming recruits for the 2017-2018 Season
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SG Glendon Avery Bennington, VT 21 (A)


Overview: The biggest recruit we have ever signed, scoring points is something he does with ease and hopefully we will have him for four years.



PF Ray Stanfield South Hill, VA 42 (A) Jc. So.


Overview: Like his versatility, can play all three spots on the front court. He is the type of player who can impact a game without putting up huge numbers.



PF Jerry Nabity Baltimore, MD 242 (B)



Overview: A banger who will help us out rebounding and on defense.



SF Casey Fowler Montpelier, VT 432 (B)



Overview: Solid player, can shoot, willing defender, and has decent athletic ability.

(13th ranked recruiting class)

[TheShow23]

[SIZE="5"][color="Blue"]2016-2017 Delaware Roster[/color][/SIZE]

[color="Yellow"]Starters[/color]


#4 Osei Burns 4.5/5 Sr. 6-5 212
#20 Mike Stallings 2/4 Sr.Rs 6-3 216
#40 Jason Marshall 3.5/4.5 Sr. 6-7 208
#43 James Arden 3/4 Sr. 6-6 197
#35 Eddie Howard 3.5/4 Jr. 6-8 214


Overview: 4 seniors and 1 junior, rarely in this day in age does a team have this kind of expierence. Stallings moves back to his natural shooting guard position, this team is his and Osei Burns. On the frontline we will have to use quickness to offset a lack of size.


[color="yellow"]Bench[/color]


#14 Donnie Watkins 2.5/4 Jr. Rs 6-0 170
#11 Jaraan Hall 3/4 Fr. 6-5 174
#41 Nathan Williamson 2.5/3 So. 6-10 260
#33 Jonte Guinn 1.5/4.5 Fr. 6-8 217
#23 Shea Ragin 2.5/4 Sr. 6-4 214
#52 Lamoni Nelson 1/3.5 So. 6-9 248
#24 Sam Landram 1/1 Jr. 6-8 202
#34 Brian Kanaskie 1.5/4 Fr. 6-3 211 (Redshirt)
#22 Mark Royten 0.5/1 Fr. 6-8 215 (Redshirt)
#45 Taliek Deren 3.5/5 So. 6-8 196 (Transfer Kansas)



Overview: Watkins and Hall have the green light to shoot coming off the bench, after those two what I'll get from the bench is unknown.



[color="Black"]AD Expectations[/color]


Win 15 games
Top 3 CAA Finish

[PointGuard]

Great group of recruits!

[TheShow23]

November 2016


Loyola-Maryland 70-62
Weber St. 83-53
@Seton Hall 72-79
@Murray St. 68-75
@Princeton 72-80



[color="Black"]Recap: 0-3 on the road, the losses were close but at this point in my tenure a loss is a loss regardless of if it was a close game.



UD Record: 2-3
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December 2016


@Loyola-Chicago 85-75
Gonzaga 78-74
@Delaware St. 80-84
Eastern Michigan 86-66
William & Mary 81-57
@Towson 69-70


[color="black"]Recap: We were two close losses away from a perfect month, last second tip-in cost us against Towson and a loss to Delaware State didn’t enamor the fan base and boosters.



UD Record: 6-5 Overall 1-1 CAA
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[TheShow23]

January 2017


George Mason 54-63
@Northeastern 90-56
Drexel 88-68
@Hofstra 64-78
Old Dominion 65-51
Virginia Commonwealth 73-72
@William & Mary 65-72
@Georgia St. 74-61
James Madison 81-71



[color="Black"]Recap: Not thrilled at where we are at, granted we had flaws coming into the season but I expected better than 12-8. The positive is the fact we won 4 out of our last 5 games.



UD Record: 12-8 Overall 7-4 CAA
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February 2017


@UNC Wilmington 89-67
Towson 83-67
@George Mason 71-49
Northeastern 83-57
@Drexel 73-58
*Southern Illinois 70-57
Hofstra 72-64
@Old Dominion 75-62



[color="black"]Recap: We finished the season playing at the level I envisioned us playing from the beginning of the season, Senior leadership really came through as our guys have really embraced finishing strong.



UD Record: 19-8 Overall 14-4 CAA
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[TheShow23]

[color="Black"]CAA Tournament[/color]



[color="Blue"](1) Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens vs. (8) Towson Tigers


With such an experienced team I wouldn’t have to worry about us overlooking anyone we play, the players were extremely business like in their approach knowing what it would take to win the CAA Tournament. Ideally we would love to play Drexel in the final to get payback from what they did to us in last year’s CAA Title game. The road to the CAA Title started with our quarterfinal game against Towson, starting off on a 15-2 run we never looked back and we cruised to a 70-49 win. Eddie Howard scored a season high 18 points and Chris Stallings scored 17.[/color]

[TheShow23]

[color="black"]CAA Tournament[/color]



[color="Blue"](1) Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens vs. (4) Old Dominion Monarchs

Over my time at UD our defense has been overlooked, yes my philosophy involves up-tempo basketball and shooting a lot of threes but a little known fact is over the past three seasons we’ve led the CAA in points given up per game. My players get in your face on defense and as a result we lead the league in steals, against Old Dominion we had 5 steals in the first minutes of the game. We didn’t shoot the ball well but because of our great defense we held a 30-16 lead at halftime. ODU would make some runs, in fact they cut our lead to 4 with 5 minutes left but our defense locked them down and we advanced to the final with a 66-54 win. Chris Stallings led our attack with 17 points, Osei Burns had 13 points and 5 assists, and Eddie Howard scored 10 points.


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[TheShow23]

[color="black"]CAA Tournament[/color]



[color="Blue"](1) Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens vs. (3) George Mason Patriots



In the semifinals George Mason knocked off Drexel so we would not be able to get revenge, but none the less we were excited to have a chance to erase the memories of last season’s loss in the CAA Title game. During our warm-up’s Osei Burns came over to me with a smile on his face and said, “Coach we got this, we gonna win the chip for you.” With 10 minutes left in the first half Osei looked quite the prophet as we were up 18-5. Our defense was phenomenal, we forced turnovers, allowed no offensive rebounds or fast breaks, and our man to man suffocated everything they did. We extended our lead to 38-18 at halftime and never looked back in route to a 65-55 win. Donnie Watkins scored 14 points off the bench, Eddie Howard had 12 points, and Osei Burns backed up his pre-game words with 12 points, 6 assists, 6 steals, and 3 blocks.[/color]

[TheShow23]

[color="Black"]NCAA Tournament[/color]



[color="Blue"](7) Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens (22 National Rank) vs. (10) Oklahoma Sooners



Media day “it” was all that the reporters wanted to ask about, “it” was all local media talked about, “it” was all anyone talked about heading into our opening NCAA Tournament game against Oklahoma. “It” refers to Osei Burns 14 turnovers the last time we were in the Tournament. To Osei’s credit he handled himself with the media extremely well. Before tipoff I told him “he didn’t have to prove anyone wrong” trying to redeem himself. The game evolved into a contrast of styles, Oklahoma’s inside game against our perimeter game. Our guards were controlling tempo as we took a 38-31 lead into halftime. When Oklahoma went on a 12-0 run to take a 55-51 lead with 10 minutes left it was Osei Burns who calmed the team down in the huddle. On the court we went on a 15-2 run with Osei accounting for 11 points via points and assists. We held on advancing to the next round with a 73-65 win. Chris Stallings led us with 15 points, Donnie Watkins scored 14 off the bench and Osei Burns had 12 points, 5 assists, and 5 rebounds.
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[TheShow23]

[color="black"]NCAA Tournament[/color]



[color="Blue"](7) Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens (22 National Rank) vs. (2) Michigan State Spartans



I’d already used two timeouts and we weren’t even 10 minutes into the game, the reason for the timeouts was because Michigan State blitzed us in route to jumping out to a 17-2 lead. Osei Burns and Chris Stallings hit a pair of threes to cut to deficit to 17-9, a James Arden tip in brought us to within 6 points, State then went on a 7-0 run and kept a working margin between 13-18 points as they went into the half with a 42-28 lead. Burns, Stallings, and Eddie Watkins were the offense in the first half, so I decided to play three guards as I felt this was the only way we could get back in the game. On three occasions we cut the deficit to 4 points but could never get closer, with a minute left we were down 16 points, I told the players to foul so I could sub out Chris Stallings to get a standing ovation from our fans. I hugged him and thanked him for turning our program around. On Michigan State’s next possession I called for another foul to get Osei Burns the same treatment from our fans. I hugged him and said “Thanks you for taking a chance on our program.” He responded by saying “Thank you coach for making me a better man.” Though we lost that statement meant the world to me, and to Paul Marshall Osei Burns will graduate this Spring with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management. We lost 67-87 but I had zero fault with me teams effort, Burns finished with 24 points and 5 assists, Stallings had 17 points and Watkins had 13 points.
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