FEDORA

[PointGuard]

Tiger Blog

Losing Billy Thomas for the rest of the season seems to have created more problems for Coach Aura than expected. Trying to replace his minutes on the court has created issues not only at PG but also at SG and SF as the coach tries to keep fresh legs on the court. It’s necessitated him having to sub more often and to put players at different positions than he planned at certain points during each game. Ultimately this could be a good or bad thing. If players don’t adapt to playing multiple positions, their performance may suffer. And if the shallower bench tires players too much, both their offensive and defensive proficiency may deteriorate. But if they do adapt, his players may ultimately improve their skills more quickly than they would have otherwise as well as providing the flexibility for a coach and team that is always important as the season progresses. Time will tell how this goes for Towson. Another potential major issue would be if there is another major injury. That could well cripple the Tigers.

Last night the Towson Tigers ventured to Itta Bena, Mississippi, a town with a population of 2,000 souls in an area of Mississippi of even smaller towns. Their mission: to take on the Mississippi Valley Delta Devils. The Delta Devils came into the game having lost their first two games but then turning things around to come out victorious in their next two games. Mississippi Valley was led by PF Greg Fry who was averaging 15.0 ppg and 8.0 rpg. The Delta Devils primarily employ a 2-3 zone so the question on the minds of Tigers’ fans was: could the Tigers solve to shoot as well as they had in their previous game against Eastern Illinois? Coach Frederick Aura must have been thinking that way also because he started Matt Settles at SF who thus far has hit a much higher percentage of his shots than previous starter, Eric Shannon. That means Ryan Holmes will start at PG. Thus far Holmes has more assists than does Settles so that was also a likely factor in the coach’s decision. Ryan Taylor has been the team’s best shooter from the perimeter, so he probably will be getting more time at SG which will all the coach to move Mitchell Evans from SG to PG when there is the need.

The starters for the game means that Aura’s starting lineup is in shambles. Of the 5 original starters, only 2 remain in tonight’s lineup. Mitchell Evans continues to start at SG (but he’s being challenged by Ryan Taylor, the surprising freshman mentioned above) and Craig Smith is still in the starting lineup but has been moved from C to PF. But…Billy Thomas is no longer at PG due to his injury, PF Jason Vickers wasn’t yet ready for prime-time, and Eric Shannon’s transition from SG to starting at SF has at least been placed on hold due to his shooting problems.

And as to last night’s game?

During the first 14 minutes of the first half neither team could gain an advantage, but as fouls mounted against the Tigers, the Delta Devils began pulling away. Towson outshot Mississippi Valley 50% to 41%, but had a 19-13 rebounding deficit, was -3 in turnovers and picked up 12 fouls compared to 5 by the Delta Devils. This results in Mississippi Valley scoring 11 more points on free throws that the Tigers which was more than enough for the Delta Devils to lead 40-30 at the break. Craig Smith and Nick McPherson each were saddled with 3 fouls.

Mississippi Valley’s shooting improved in the 2nd half, particularly their 3P shooting Meanwhile Towson’s shooting went south. The Delta Devils gradually expanded their lead and finishes with a 75-56 win over the Tigers. SF Jay Thomas knocked down 20 points for Mississippi Valley and PF Greg Fry had 12 points, 10 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks for Mississippi Valley. Although PF Craig Smith’s time on the court was limited due to foul trouble, he still led Towson with 10 points and 6 boards.

The loss dropped Towson’s season record to 3-2. Aura’s search for a dependable starting lineup cotinues.

[PointGuard]

Omar McDade:

Crash is finding out how difficult it is to mold a team into a cohesive group who blend their talents to create success. Sometimes we have 5 independent and very inconsistent individuals out on the court.

Thus far I’ve been most impressed by Melvin Steele, Ryan Taylor and Craig Smith. Steele has played well while on the court but his endurance sucks. Taylor is a good shooter and is our top scorer thus far, but needs to work on his defense and distributing the ball, so we’re going to continue to bring him in off the bench as a spark plug. Smith is solid inside and a good rebounder but has yet to demonstrate the offensive production we need from him. Unfortunately freshman Jason Vickers hasn’t been the force we expected inside. After dropping him from the starting lineup, we’re returning him tonight but at SF to see how he does working a bit more outside.

Tonight’s opponent, the Florida A&M Rattlers are 1-3. And speaking of those kind of numbers, they also employ the 1-3-1 defense so I’m hoping Steele and Smith can do some damage inside against that. The Rattlers’ best player is PF Alex Williams, but their scoring is pretty evenly distributed.

We had a strong first half, hitting 61% of our shots and forcing Florida A&M to turn the ball over 10 times. The refs teamed up against us though resulting in the Rattlers being able to score 9 more points at the free throw line than us. Even with that inequality we still led 42-37 going into the 2nd half. Our scoring was distributed throughout all 10 of our players who saw action in the half.



The refs continued to favor the Rattlers in the 2nd half and they captured the lead from us at 51-50 with 13 minutes left. Florida A&M then got hot and quickly jumped ahead 67-54. Our inside game was effective but their 1-3-1 defense completely stymied anything by us from outside. With momentum clearly with the Rattlers, we never recovered and dropped this game 81-64. The difference in the game was primarily that the Rattlers outscored us at the charity line and outside the arc.

Craig Smith and Melvin Steele each scored 13 points while Ryan Holmes and Matt Settles combined for 11 assists.

Oh yeah...the Jason Vickers experiment at SF? It didn't pan out. While not a complete failure, it didn't result in anything special either. So I imagine he will continue to come in off the bench at PF primarily.

[PointGuard]

Harry Iacona:

As the academic term gets closer to ending, Coach Aura had me put 3 players (Bart Rose, Melvin Steele and Matt Heard) on our Study Table Program. Their grades are OK but Coach A wants those three to improve so they’re on really solid ground academically.

[PointGuard]

Notes taken by Bobby Simpson for Baltimore Sun article

Towson Tigers (3-3) host Central Michigan Chippewas )3-2)
Chippewas are agood shooting team, hitting nearly 50% of their FGA’s and 42% of their 3PA’s.
Central Michigan’s leading scorers: SF Ledard Crawford, 15.2 ppg and SG Ricky Gipson, 13.0 ppg.

1st half notes:
-Down 13-4 after 5 minutes…too few chances due to TO’s by Tigers and Chippewas shooting lights out.
-McPherson, scoring 7 in 5 minutes, sparks rally to tie game at 22-22 with 10:22 to go in half.
-Steele dominates inside and rallies team to 40-28 lead with 5 minutes remaining.
-Fouls mount allowing Central Michigan to reduce lead at end of half to 48-40.
-Towson hit 63% of shots, Central Michigan hit 42% of FGA’s and just 2 of 10 on 3PA’s; Chippewas outscored Towson by 9 at free throw line.
-14 points/6 rebounds by C Melvin Steele; 10 points by C Nick McPherson; SF Eric Shannon saddled with 3 fouls.
-SF Ledard Crawford scored 16 for Central Michigan.

2nd half notes:
-Ugly start by both teams with lots of TO’s.
-Tigers take advantage of TO’s to go up 61-45 with 15 min left.
-Chippewas exploit ragged play by Towson to narrow lead to 65-59 with 11 minutes remaining.
-Fast breaks give Tigers a 74-59 advantage with 8-1/2 minutes to go.
-Fouls have multiple Towson players on bench with 4 apiece. Central Michigan pours in free throws to cut lead to 78-73 with 4 minutes to go.
-82-78 with 46 seconds on clock.
-Chippewas foul and Holmes hits both free throws putting Tigers up by 6.
-Another intentional foul…Settles drops in both shots…8 point lead with 24 seconds on clock.

-Final Score: Towson-86, Central Michigan-78.

-Tigers outshoot Chippewas 54% to 42%; 19 turnovers by Central Michigan, 14 by Towson; 36 point in paint for Towson.
-C Melvin Steele-22 pts, 6 reb; C Nick McPherson-12 pts, 5 reb; PG Matt Holmes-11 pts, 4 ast; PF Craig Smith-10 pts; SF Eric Shannon-5 pts, 5 reb, 3 stl, 3 blk.
-SF Ledard Crawford knocks down 24 pts and gets 8 reb for Central Michigan.
-Coach Aura ecstatic about getting a combined 34 points and 11 rebounds from his 2 centers.

[PointGuard]

Matt Heard:

I’ve still not got into any game action this season. Not complaining but really hoping we blow out the Brown Bears (4-4) tonight and Coach Fed puts me out there. But there’s another reason I’d like us to blast Brown, I had a good friend throughout school. We spent a lot of time together and he was great. But his parent were another matter. They both went to Ivy League schools and continually were talking about how much better the Ivy’s were than other colleges. Their condescending attitude made me wanna puke. And of course they got Sean into Princeton on a legacy admission. I got together with Sean last summer in between our freshman and sophomore years, but things were different. We still got along but things just had changed. So I’m going to be boisterously cheering our team with hopes we rock. Coach wants us to get Brown out of their slow-paced discipline offense.

The first half was close the entire way, but we had 4 players in foul trouble. With no fans to cheer us on it was all up to we bench players and we did the best we could. We kept things close but trailed 39-35 at the break. PF Craig Smith led us with 11 points and 5 rebounds.

There was absolutely nothing to cheer about in the 2nd half. Brown began to pull away from the onset and then we simply fell apart. We trailed by over 20 points for most of the last 10 minutes. With 3 minutes to go, Coach Aura put me in the game. Going in with us trailing 75-55 was not the way I was hoping my first game time of the season would occur. I got to touch the ball a couple times but wasn’t able to do anything productive. Three minutes of play with no stats. We took a disappointing 79-61 drubbing. We headed back to Maryland with a 4-4 record, but fortunately play our next 3 games at home.

PF Craig Smith was our only player who had a good game. He finished with 17 points and 8 rebounds.

After the game, Coach Fed told us, “We played them pretty much even up in the first half. We hit a rough patch to start the 2nd half and they grabbed a double digit lead. At that point we needed to dig deep and come back. Instead we just gave in and let them run away. We should have been able to compete with Brown even when playing them on the road. So we gave this game away. We just can’t be doing that. Let’s put this game behind us, but it’s time to toughen up and compete the entire 40 minutes.”

[PointGuard]

Omar McDade:

We just got an update on the national ranking for recruits. All 3 of the recruits we signed dropped significantly. I still think they will be solid players for us, though. Meanwhile we continue to contact recruits on our list so that we will eventually award our last remaining scholarship. Slow but steady progress is the best we can hope for this time of the year. Recruits are focusing on their high school or JC seasons right now.

Here's what happened in our most recent game:

The Howard Bison (2-6) won their first 2 games this season but is now in a 6-game tailspin. But some of those losses have been to good teams and all but one were on the road.

We started well building a 28-14 lead midway through the first half. Howard cut into our lead but we renewed it to hold a 44-35 halftime advantage. We outshot the Bison 58% to 43%. PF Craig Smith and SG Ryan Taylor each scored 9 points. SG Don Moore kept Howard in the game by scoring 10 points.

We opened at 15 point advantage with 8 minutes to go and then coasted to an easy 86-77 victory over the Bison. We hit 55% of our FG’s and held an 18-9 turnover advantage. We scored 36 points in the paint.

Leading our team was PF Craig Smith with 16 points and 7 rebounds. Matt Settles and Ryan Taylor both tossed in 14 points. C Melvin Steele scored just 6 points, but had 4 rebounds, 7 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocks.

[PointGuard]

Tiger Tales (Towson University’s Public Affairs Newsletter)

Tiger Earns Award

The Colonial Athletic Association awarded it’s Freshman Player of the Week award to Towson’s Ryan Taylor. Taylor scored 14 points in the Tiger’s 86-77 win over Howard University last week. He hit 5 of 8 FG’s, 2 of 3 from outside the 3 point arc, and 2 of 2 free throws. He also had 2 assists and 2 steals. Taylor, who is from Washington, Maryland is one of the Tigers’ leading scorers even though he has yet to start a game. He is presently averaging 8.7 ppg. Coach Frederick Aura said, “Ryan has really impressed us with his ability to step right in and contribute as a freshman. He’s shown a lot of confidence on the court. In his first 9 games for us he has scored in double figures 4 times.”

[PointGuard]

Baltimore Sun article:

Towson in Thriller

Even though the Tigers started slowly in their game against the Montana State Bobcats last night, they were able to tie the Bobcats at 9-9 after the first 4 minutes of play. From that point Montana State took control, but the Tigers fought back and finished the half in a 40-40 tie. Leading scorers for Towson at the break were SF Eric Shannon and SG Ryan Taylor with 8 points apiece.

The Bobcats again moved ahead early in the 2nd half but with 10 minutes to play the score was tied at 63-63. The lead shifted back and forth from thereon. The Bobcats were kept in the game by the refs who called twice as many fouls against the Tigers as Montana State. But the plucky Tigers moved ahead 82-76 with 3 minutes remaining. The home crowd’s excitement and encouragement grew with each subsequent possession. The refs put the Bobcats on the line allowing them to cut the lead to 82-79, but then Craig Smith drove to the basket and scored on a reverse layup. Mitchell Evans then picked off a pass and sent the ball upcourt to Melvin Steele who slammed it home to put Towson on top 86-79 with 1:15 on the clock. The Bobcats hit a field goal to reduce the lead to 5. With under a minute to play, Montana State fouled sending Evans to the line. He made one of two free throws making it 87-81 with 44 seconds to go. Following a time out, Montana State hit a 3 to reduce the lead to 3 with 28 seconds remaining. Towson tried to work the clock down but the Bobcats fouled. Ryan Holmes dropped in two free throws to make it 89-84. Montana State hit another 3 and fouled immediately. Evans stepped to the line to sink both free throws to ice the game and make the final winning score for Towson 91-87. Towson’s season record is now 6-4.

“Montana State played extremely well and we were continually having to come back. But our guys kept the Bobcats from pulling away too far. When we finally got a lead in the waning moments of the game, Montana State kept making it close. But each time we responded to maintain the lead. The cheering by our home crowd drove our players to do their very best,” said Coach Aura.

C Melvin Steele finished with 14 points and 8 rebounds while PG/SF Matt Settles, SG Ryan Taylor, and SF Eric Shannon each scored 13 and PF Craig Smith added 11. SG Mitchell Evans had 8 points, 3 rebounds,3 assists, 4 steals and a block. Montana State’s SG Rod Dixon and C Daniel Moody both scored 20.

[PointGuard]

Bart Rose, reserve SF:

Bigger than average crowd at SECU Arena tonight, so that’s cool. We may need their support since Chicago State (5-5) is favored. Their two main scorers have been SF Charlie Harrison (14.9 ppg) and C Damian Selby (12.8 ppg). Their primary defense is a 2-3 zone.

We had a hard time putting the ball in the hoop early in the game and fell behind 15-9 with 11 minutes left in the half. But our defense was solid and we scored the next 8 straight points to take a one point lead two minutes later. And even though the Cougars immediately regained a small lead, that 8-0 run restored our confidence and our shots started raining in. We scored 17 of the final 21 points in the half to sport a 42-29 lead at the break. PF Craig Smith had a big half scoring 10 points and grabbing 8 rebounds. We outshot Chicago State 42% to 29%, but more importantly dominated the boards 28-15.

We let Chicago State back into the game. After 6 minutes of play in the 2nd half they trailed by just 5 points. Coach Aura jumped all over our guys during a timeout. We responded with 5 quick points to raise our lead to 53-43 and forcing the Cougars to take a timeout. With us ahead by 10 points, I got into the final minute of play, but just got to touch the ball once. We beat the Cougars 74-64. Chicago’s C Damian Selby was the top scorer in the game with 20 points, but that was offset by Craig Smith’s 16 points and 11 boards, Melvin Steele’s 13 points and 7 boards, Matt Settles’ 10 points, Ryan Taylor’s 9 points, and Eric Shannon’s 6 points and 9 rebounds. The win improved our record to 7-4 with our final pre-conference game next week at Navy.

[PointGuard]

Paul Jonovich, CDR, USN(Ret)



Three other retired naval officers joined me for the hour drive to Annapolis. We all attended the Naval Academy and then served over 20 years in the Navy. So while we are fans of Towson, we also have a strong allegiance to Navy.

The Navy Midshipmen have won 5 and lost 4 this season. Two of those wins were against Penn State and St. Bonaventure. The Middies have won 4 of 5 at home while the Tigers have lost 4 of their 5 road games.

Towson held Navy scoreless for over 5 minutes and was up 7-0 at that point. PF Craig Smith, the Tigers’ top scorer and rebounder, picked up his 2nd foul at the 14:28 mark. But Navy scored 12 of the next 14 points. The Tigers fought back and the lead flipped back and forth. With 5 minutes left in the half, the refs called the first foul against Navy. By then 8 fouls had been called against the Tigers. Navy pulled ahead late in the half to take a 34-30 lead to the locker room. The Tigers hit just 33% of their first half shots. Mitchell Evans scored 10 points to top Towson’s scoring.

Navy went ahead by 5 points early in the 2nd half but Towson came back to lead 52-50 with 7 minutes left in the game. With 2:14 remaining the game was tied at 62-62. SF Eric Shannon hit 3’s on consecutive possessions by Towson to give them a 68-65 advantage with 58 seconds left. The Tigers’ PG Matt Settles picked off a pass and drove the length of the floor for a layin to put Towson ahead by 5 points with 35 seconds remaining. C Melvin Steele then blocked a shot on Navy’s next possession and Navy was force to foul. Shannon made one of two free throws. Navy wasn’t able to score and Towson came away with an exciting 71-65 victory.

PG/SF Matt Settles scored 14 points and dished out 4 assists, SF Eric Shannon hit for 12 points while pulling down 6 rebounds, and SG Mitchell Evans also scored 12 points.