City of Brotherly Love: Run LaSalle, Run

[TheShow23]

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[SIZE="5"]2023 Atlantic 10 Tournament[/SIZE]

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[font="Comic Sans MS"](5) La Salle Explorers vs. (12) Rhode Island Rams

Playing on the opening day of the Atlantic 10 Tournament is something we have not been used to. We got off to a good start on offense but defensively effort was lacking as we took a 40-34 lead into halftime. Fred Black and Jason Crawford sparked a 17-3 run that broke the game wide open leading us to a 74-61 win. Fred finished with 20 points and 6 assists while Jason scored 15 points. Defensively the effort picked up in the second half as we held Rhode Island to 30% shooting in the second half.



La Salle Player of The Game: Fred Black 20 points 6 assists.





(5) La Salle Explorers vs. (4) Xavier Musketeers



In close games between even matched teams it tends to be the great players who make the difference in the game. Lucky for us we have the best player on the floor in Fred Black. He scored 32 points on 11 for 16 shooting and 5 for 9 from 3. We needed every single point as we narrowly held off Xavier 67-62. Down the stretch Fred scored our final 14 points.



La Salle Player of The Game: Fred Black 32 points.




(5) La Salle Explorers vs. (1) Duquesne Dukes



We trailed 25-34 at halftime, internally I wouldn’t would we be able to come back against the top seeded Dukes. In years past the answer would have been yes because of our mental toughness. This season’s team while talented has not shown the mental toughness of past La Salle teams. In the second half we decided to play 4 guards out with Juan McCullum as the only inside player. The four guards of Fred Black, Traves Black, Grant Petion, and Jason Smith would play the bulk of the half as I shortened the rotation. A three by Jason Smith gave us our first lead of the game 70-69 with a minute left. Grant stole the ensuing inbounds pass and dunk it to put us up 72-69. We survived three game tying attempts and Fred’s two freethrows iced a 74-69 win.



La Salle Player of The Game: Juan McCullum 14 points 15 rebounds.


(5) La Salle Explorers vs. (6) Richmond Spiders



Coming into the game the hype surrounded our guards, for good reason they have carried us the entire season. However shooting guard Dan Lewis didn’t get the memo about how our guards were supposed to steal the show. In a game full of talented guards Dan was the best one today, scoring 26 points. On the other hand our guards struggled, Fred Black went 1 for 6. Grant Petion shot 7 for 23, Traves Black shot 2 for 6 while Jason Smith went 0 for 5 off the bench. With the score tied at 64 late in the game Dan hit his 4th three of the game to give Richmond a 67-64 lead. With Fred unable to get free Grant got a look from three, his shot bounced off the rim with Richmond getting the rebound. They got the rebound with 50 seconds left, with a 15 second difference between shot and game clock we decided to play defense instead of fouling. With the shot clock running shot Dan Lewis hit a dagger three pointer to put Richmond up 70-64. Rushing the ball up the court Lewis stole the ball and raced down the court for a dunk which sealed a loss.


La Salle Player of The Game: Juan McCullum 12 points 10 rebounds.

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[TheShow23]

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2023 NCAA Tournament


Midwest Region



2nd Round

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[font="Comic Sans MS"] (6) La Salle Explorers vs. (11) Winthrop Eagles

Nate Martin of Winthrop was having the game of his life, he was the primary reason Winthrop took a 38-29 lead into halftime. His stellar play would continue in the second half, scoring 25 points of 12 of 14 shooting he couldn’t be stopped. Fred Black would step up to the plate and match the brilliance of Martin in the second half. His jumper put us up 68-67, Martin would bank home a hook shot to put Winthrop back up 69-68. Fred’s off balance fade away gave us a 70-69 lead. Joel Murray would give Winthrop a 71-70 lead with a 1:30 remaining. Juan McCullam’s put back gave us a 72-71 with a minute remaining. Martin and Traves Black exchanged baskets giving us a 74-73 lead with 40 seconds remaining. Martin’s 25 points of the game gave Winthrop a 75-74 lead with 6 seconds left in the game. Having no timeouts Fred rushed the ball up the court, euro-stepping into the lane his floater banked off the glass and through the net giving us a dramatic 76-75 win.



La Salle Player of The Game: Fred Black 31 points.
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[TheShow23]

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2023 NCAA Tournament


Midwest Region



3rd Round

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[font="Comic Sans MS"] (6) La Salle Explorers vs. (3) UCLA Bruins

Building an 11 point lead in the second we felt a trip to the Sweet 16 was on the horizon, after everything we have gone through getting to the Sweet 16 would be a nice landmark for this particular season. It seemed we were just trying to hold on to the lead rather than play to win as UCLA chipped away at the lead. Leading 65-59 at the 2 minute mark I felt we were in great position to win. Rob Throne’s dunk cut our lead to 65-61. A Fred Black missed shot was converted into a layup by Blake Wright. Another miss on our end and another dunk by Throne tied the score with less than a minute left. Grant Petion’s missed was rebounded by UCLA, Blake Wright’s 3 put them up 68-65 with 10 seconds remaining. Our last play was drawn up for Fred Black, he got a decent look but his shot missed ending our season.



La Salle Player of The Game: Grant Petion 18 points 7 rebounds.

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[TheShow23]

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2023 NCAA Tournament

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[font="Comic Sans MS"]Final Four



UCLA (3) 55 vs. Pitt (1) 57



Oregon (1) 57 vs. Duquesne (4) 70



National Title Game


Duquwsne (2) 56 vs. Pitt (1) 89
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2022/2023 La Salle Season Recap

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[font="Comic Sans MS"]Overall Record: 22-11


Atlantic 10 Record: 10-6


RPI: 51

National Rank: 24


Fred Black – Atlantic 10 Player of The Year.
Juan McCullum – Atlantic 10 Defensive Player of The Year.
Juan McCullum – Atlantic 10 1st Team
Fred Black – Atlantic 10 1st Team
Grant Petion – Atlantic 10 2ndTeam



Recruiting
Had zero scholarships so we did not recruiting
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La Salle 2022/2023 Season Stats

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[font="Comic Sans MS"] PPG
1. Fred Black 18.0
2. Grant Petion 13.2
3. Donnell Smith 8.7
4. Juan McCullum 7.8



RPG
1. Juan McCullum 9.3
2. Grant Petion 4.7



APG
1. Donnell Smith 4.5



SPG
1. Jason Crawford 1.1
2. Fred Black 1.0


BPG
1. Juan McCullum 2.3
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[JMD]

Happy Halloween, coach!

[TheShow23]

[SIZE="5"][color="Navy"]2023/2024 La Salle Explorers Roster[/color][/SIZE]

[font="Comic Sans MS"]Starting Lineup


*Denotes Returning Starter

Traves Black 6-3 Senior RS PG 4/4.5
*Fred Black 6-2 Junior SG 4.5/5
* Grant Petion 6-6 Sophomore SF 4/5
Roderick Andrews 6-6 Junior PF 3.5/5
*Juan McCullum 6-10 Senior C 4.5/4.5


Bench


Donnell Smith 6-3 Senior SG 4/4.5
Jason Crawford 6-7 Junior RS PF 2.5/4.5
Jason Smith 6-5 Junior SG 3/5
Jonathan Butler 6-6 Junior PF 2/4.5
Ben Pryor 6-11 Sophomore PF 2/5
Freddie Watkins 6-1 Junior RS PG 1.5/4
Chris Dawson 6-5 Freshman RS SG 3.5/5
Jimmy Tompson 6-8 Freshman RS PF 3/5
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[TheShow23]

[SIZE="5"][color="Navy"]2023/2024 Non-Conference Review[/color][/SIZE]

[font="Comic Sans MS"]We opened the season in the Coaches Classic with a 68-48 win against 14th ranked Louisville followed up with a 56-49 win against 13th ranked New Mexico. Juan McCullum paced our attack with double-doubles in both games. 9th ranked Michigan State defeated us 59-47 in the semifinal of the Coaches Classic.25 points from Fred Black helped us to a 62-55 win at number 4 Florida. Our next tough test was a road game at 14th ranked Ohio State, 25 points from Fred led us to an easy 75-64 win. Winning 10 straight non-conference games we finished the non-conference with a 12-1 record and ranked number 8 in the polls.[/font]

[TheShow23]

[SIZE="5"][color="Navy"]2023/2024 Atlantic 10 Review[/color][/SIZE]

[font="Comic Sans MS"]Becoming a perennial top 25 program has been great, one of the minor drawbacks is now we are the target for everyone in the Atlantic 10. As the clock winded down hearing the UMass student section chant “overrated” wasn’t a highlight of the season. A 61-69 loss in our Atlantic 10 season opener wasn’t the way we wanted to straight league play. After the game in the locker room Fred Black gave a passionate speech about playing La Salle basketball, he ended by saying we will not lose another league game this season. After three straight wins Fred Black went down with an injury against Dayton, the injury was serious enough to rule him out for the remainder of the regular season and probably the postseason. Instead of being dejected everyone stepped their game up, we would complete Fred’s prediction as we didn’t lose another game in conference play. Heading into the Atlantic 10 Tournament we were 27-2 overall, 15-1 in the league.[/font]

[TheShow23]

[SIZE="5"][color="Navy"]2024 Atlantic 10 Tournament[/color][/SIZE]

[font="Comic Sans MS"](1) La Salle Explorers vs. (8) UMass Minutemen

Our players remembered losing at UMass, I didn’t even bring it up as they were locked in. We smothered UMass from the start as they had no chance. Running out 75-47 winners it was truly a balanced team performance. Grant Petion had 15 points of 6-8 shooting, Juan McCullum had 12 and 6 inside, Donnell Smith scored 12 points on 6-9 shooting, and Chris Dawson added 12 points off the bench. Everyone had the good shooting rhythm, as a team we shot 51.7% from the field and 50% from three.



La Salle Player of The Game: Grant Petion 15 points.





(1) La Salle Explorers vs. (4) Temple Owls



We were off at the start, I don’t know what it was but we came out sluggish. Starting sluggish in a conference tournament game and against a city rival was unexpected. Holding a slight 31-30 lead at half I knew we had to increase our effort if we wanted to win. Three straight three pointers by Grant got us on the way and we never looked back as we cruised to a 73-54 win. Once again Grant had an efficient game scoring 15 points on only 8 shots. Roderick Andrews and Donnell Smith scored 14 points apiece.



La Salle Player of The Game: Grant Petion 15 points.




(1) La Salle Explorers vs. (3) Xavier Musketeers



Maybe it’s the New York nightlife, maybe it’s overconfidence, or maybe it’s something I can’t explain but once again we were sluggish in the first half. Sloppy turnovers, bad offensive possessions, missed assignments on defense we were off. Unlike the Temple game we weren’t able to flip that light swtich as Xavier deservedly won 71-58. Juan led us in scoring with 14 points, Donnell had 12 and Traves Black scored 10 points and dished out 9 assists.



La Salle Player of The Game: Traves Black 10 points 9 assists.
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[TheShow23]

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2024 NCAA Tournament


East Region



2nd Round
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[font="Comic Sans MS"](2) La Salle Explorers vs. (15) Oral Roberts

This wouldn’t be a repeat of last season’s 2nd round game, there was no Nate Martin and Oral Roberts didn’t stand a chance. Defensively we locked them down, holding them to 16 first half points we held a 14 points lead at halftime. Oral Roberts would shoot 24% for the game, lockdown defense led to a 59-38 win. Chris Dawson scored 14 points off the bench to lead our offense, and Grant chipped in with 12 points.



La Salle Player of The Game: Chris Dawson 14 points.
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