City of Brotherly Love: Run LaSalle, Run

[TheShow23]

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2022 NCAA Tournament


West Region



2nd Round

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[font="Comic Sans MS"] (2) La Salle Explorers vs. (15) Cal. State Fullerton Titans



At halftime a upset potentially was on the cards, we went into halftime trailing 37-38. Donnell Smith came off the bench and sparked us with his attacking play. Fred Black hit two 3s, Donnell scored off a drive to the basket, and Dave Williams and Jason Smith made layups for a 62-52 midway through the second half, prompting Cal. State Fullerton to call a timeout. We would never be seriously threatened again. Traves Black’s alley-oop pass to Donnell for a dunk off a fast break gave us our biggest lead, 71-55, with 5:24 left in the game. The Titans seemingly ran out of energy as we advanced to the 3rd round with a 81-69 win.



La Salle Player of The Game: Derrick Morrison 16 points 11 rebounds 6 blocks.
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[TheShow23]

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2022 NCAA Tournament


West Region



3rd Round

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[font="Comic Sans MS"] (2) La Salle Explorers vs. (7) Stanford Cardinals



Though we were the higher seed it felt like a road game due to it being played in Anaheim. The crowd was 80% Cardinal fans. Fred Black hit the first of our three first-half 3-pointers on our opening possession, and he was followed in quick succession by Dave Williams and Travis Black, whose own shots from beyond the arc effectively silenced the crowd. We pushed our lead to 65-46 late in the second half, and even when the Cardinal made back-to-back baskets -- and their subdued fans started to stir -- our veteran backcourt was there to answer with a slicing layup or a fall-away jumper. At the end of the game it was our fans making all the noise as we won 75-55. It truly was a balanced team effort as ten players scored at least 6 points.



La Salle Player of The Game: Juan McCullum 11 points 6 rebounds.
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[TheShow23]

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2022 NCAA Tournament


West Region



Sweet 16

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[font="Comic Sans MS"] (2) La Salle Explorers vs. (11) Bucknell Bison


With Wake Forest winning on the other side of the bracket an elite 8 rematch seemed to be on the cards. Whether it was looking ahead to Wake Forest or undervaluing Bucknell we came out flat. We got shocked to start the game, with Bucknell outscoring them 14-2. The ended ended the half on a 9-1 run, to lead 31-24 at the break. Midway in the second half we found ourselves trailing by double figures when we turned aggressive, answering with a 10-0 run to close to 54-48, with Fred Black scoring the first seven points and Dave Williams making a 3-pointer. Lydell Gates of Bucknell scored nine straight points to push Bucknell’s lead to 63-48. Another 6-0 spurt, capped by Brad Hill’s dunk, made it 68-48. The Elite 8 would have to wait another year as we were stunned 55-73.


La Salle Player of The Game: Fred Black 14 points.
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[TheShow23]

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2022 NCAA Tournament

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[font="Comic Sans MS"]Final Four



UCLA (1) 55 vs. Wake Forest (1) 68



Michigan State (2) 59 vs. West Virginia (9) 45



National Title Game


Michigan State (2) 58 vs. UCLA (1) 65
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2021/2022 La Salle Season Recap

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[font="Comic Sans MS"]Overall Record: 27-8


Atlantic 10 Record: 12-4


RPI: 8

National Rank: 9


Derrick Morrison – Atlantic 10 Player of The Year.

Fred Black – Atlantic 10 Freshman of The Year

Derek Morrison – Atlantic 10 1st Team

Fred Black – Atlantic 10 1st Team

Dave Williams – Atlantic 10 1st Team

Juan McCullum – Atlantic 10 1st Team

Derek Morrison drafted 22nd, Dave Williams drafted 28th, Aaron Slider drafted 45th in the 2022 draft,



Recruiting

• Ben Pryor is a 6-11 power forward. The Reston, Virginia native is the 13th ranked player in the country. A best on offense and defense, with eye popping numbers. 24.7 PPG, 14.3 RPG, 5.4 BPG.

• Chris Dawson is a 6’5 lanky shooting guard from New York, New York. Using great athletic ability Chris is natural scorer, overall he’s ranked 22nd in the country.

• Jimmy Tompson is a big man with great passing ability, the 6-8 power forward from Adams, New York excels in the paint. Jimmy is ranked 32nd in the country.

• Grant Petion is a 6-8 small forward from Silver Spring, Maryland. He can do it all on both sides of the court.

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La Salle 2021/2022 Season Stats

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[font="Comic Sans MS"] PPG
1. Fred Black 14.4
2. Derek Morrison 13.1
3. Dave Williams 11.7
4. Juan McCullum 9.3



RPG
1. Derek Morrison 10.3
2. Juan McCullum 6.9



APG
1. Traves Black 5.3



SPG
1. Fred Black 1.2
2. Dave Williams 1.2


BPG
1.Derek Morrison 2.0
2. Juan McCullam 1.9
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[PointGuard]

Has John Wooden been reincarnated at UCLA????

[TheShow23]

It seems like each champion defends. After Oregon won 2012, Michigan won in 2013 and 2014. Maryland 2015 and 2016. Kansas in 2017 and 2018. Wake Forest 2019 and 2021 with Pitt in 2020

[PointGuard]

Interesting...in my most recent association, I've had no repeats in 7 years:

2012-Florida
2013-Syracuse
2014-Michigan
2015-Duke
2016-Indiana
2017-Iowa
2018-Oklahoma St.

[TheShow23]

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2022/2023 La Salle Explorers Roster

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[font="Comic Sans MS"]Starting Lineup


*Denotes Returning Starter

Donnell Smith 6-3 Junior SG 4/4.5
*Fred Black 6-2 Sophomore SG 5/5
Grant Petion 6-6 Freshman SF 4/5
Jason Crawford 6-7 Sophomore RS PF 2/4.5
*Juan McCullum 6-10 Junior C 4.5/4.5


Bench

Jason Smith 6-5 Sophomore SG 2.5/5
*Traves Black 6-3 Junior RS PG 2/4
Jonathan Butler 6-6 Sophomore PF 2/5
Roderick Andrews 6-6 Sophomore PF 1.5/4
Ben Pryor 6-11 Freshman PF 2/5
Freddie Watkins 6-1 Sophomore RS PG 1.5/4

Redshirt

Chris Dawson 6-5 Freshman SG 1.5/5
Jimmy Tompson 6-8 Freshman PF 1/4
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[TheShow23]

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2022/2023 Non-Conference Review

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[font="Comic Sans MS"]In a season opening 84-71 win against Drexel our starting backcourt excelled. Fred Smith led the team in scoring with 28 and Donnell Smith had 19 with 6 assists and 9 rebounds. In a 70-50 win against Hartford Grant Petion scored 31 points making 7 3’s in the process. At Cal. State Fullerton we overcame a 12 point halftime deficit to improve our record to 5-0 with a 71-64 win. Fred Black on both ends of the court played a great game, 27 points 5 rebounds 5 assists and 8 steals.



We suffered our first loss in heartbreaking fashion falling 66-68 at Utah on a last second shot. At (8) Seton Hall Fred Black’s 32 weren’t enough to prevent an 86-91 overtime loss. The last tough non-conference game would be a trip to faced 5th ranked Kentucky. Down 26 at the half we never were in the game failing 65-82. An 86-55 win against Indiana State ended our non-conference slate of games.



After the game we received the news that Donnell Smith would be ruled academically ineligible for the rest of the season. This would be the second time Donnell has been suspended due to grades and I was not happy. Since last season has ended we’ve scheduled extra study halls and time with tutors each month. My assistant coaches talked me out of kicking Donnell off the team because I came extremely close to doing so.



La Salle overall record of 8-3 with a national rank of 22.
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[TheShow23]

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2022/2023 Atlantic 10 Review

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[font="Comic Sans MS"]Starting off league play 8-2 we seemed to be on course for a typical stellar Atlantic 10 season, and then the unexpected happened a rough patch in league play. It started with a tough 54-58 loss at Fordham, road games are tough so I didn’t dwell on that one too much. Losing by 14 at home to Richmond was something else, we rarely lose at home especially by that margin. Going down the stretch we split our last 4 games meaning we lost 6 Atlantic 10 games. The glaring issue was at point guard, with Donnell Smith suspended Traves Black and Fred Black split time at the position. Traves struggled some and taking Fred away from his natural two guard position hurt our offense.



La Salle finished Atlantic 10 play 10-6 to finish with an 18-9 regular season record.
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