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Syracuse’s Johnson magic
By Jason King
November 20, 2009
NEW YORK — Late Friday night, shortly after his team’s 87-71 embarrassment of sixth-ranked North Carolina at Madison Square Garden, Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim walked into his postgame news conference and smirked.
“I told you so,” he said.
Boeheim hadn’t predicted a win, but what he had promised months ago was that one of Syracuse’s newest players would also be its best. And so, after Iowa State transfer Wesley Johnson scored a game-high 25 points and grabbed eight rebounds against the defending national champions, Boeheim couldn’t help but rub it in a bit.
“What?” he said. “Did you think I was lying?”
Not exactly.
In two seasons at Iowa State, Johnson averaged 12.3 points and 6.1 rebounds, so it’s not as if people didn’t think he’d be effective. Most folks, though, weren’t expecting performances like the one Johnson turned in Friday, when he went 10 of 17 from the field in a victory that upped Syracuse’s record to 4-0.
As Johnson celebrated in the locker room after being named Most Valuable Player of the 2K Sports Classic, Boeheim stood in a nearby hallway and recalled the moment nearly two years ago when he heard Johnson was seeking a transfer.
“I wasn’t interested at first,” Boeheim said.
In 34 years as a head coach, Boeheim said he had signed just four transfers. But the more he thought about it, the more the move seemed to make sense. Boeheim was expecting to lose players such as Eric Devendorf and Paul Harris after the 2008-09 season, and he kept remembering those stats from Iowa State. Phenomenal, Boeheim thought, for a freshman and sophomore competing in the rugged Big 12.
Boeheim decided to bring Johnson in for a visit.
“He was the nicest kid I’ve ever recruited, and still is,” Boeheim said.
Despite not watching any game film of Johnson, Boeheim offered him a scholarship. Johnson – who picked the Orange over Pittsburgh and Ohio State – made Boeheim feel good about the decision the following fall.
“I didn’t see him in the gym until you can watch workouts in the middle of September,” Boeheim said. “It didn’t take more than a second or two [to tell how good he was].
“In one early scrimmage he was 15 for 17. We took him mainly because we thought we were going to lose guys and we knew he was pretty good. We just didn’t know at the time how good he was. Now we do.”
And so does the rest of college basketball.
Especially the North Carolina Tar Heels.
During one three-minute stretch early in the first half, Johnson scored 11 points. In a move his teammates described as uncharacteristic, Johnson smiled and winked at the camera following a dunk off his own steal. It was easy to understand why Johnson was so juiced.
He grew up in small town Corsicana, Texas, which is just outside of Dallas, and was passed over in the recruiting process by most of the schools in his home state. As well as he played at Iowa State, Johnson never experienced the NCAA tournament. He said he decided to transfer after a “falling out” with coach Greg McDermott.
Now, two years later, here Johnson was at the famed Garden, playing on national television against tradition-rich North Carolina in front of 15,552 fans. Before the starting lineups were announced he turned to former Syracuse star Gerry McNamara, who’s now an assistant coach.
“Gerry said, ‘Once the lights come on, you’re going to [feel] it,” Johnson said. “After that, the shots just started falling.”
Syracuse trailed 39-37 at intermission before opening the second half on a 22-1 run. Johnson scored just one basket during that stretch, but his defense was one of the main reasons the Tar Heels missed their first 13 field-goal attempts.
“He brings a lot of fire, a lot of energy,” Syracuse point guard Brandon Triche said of Johnson. “It’s hard for coach to take him out because he does so much. He scores, he rebounds, he’s always around the basket, he plays good defense. He does a little bit of everything.”
North Carolina pulled within 68-60 with about seven minutes left, but that’s as close as it would get.
While the Tar Heels lamented their first loss of the season, the celebration was on in the Syracuse locker room. Just two weeks removed from an exhibition game loss to Division II LeMoyne, the Orange now appear to be one of the better teams in college basketball following this week’s victories over No. 12 Cal and North Carolina.
“Offensively, we played as well as we can play in the second half,” Boeheim said. “But you have to understand, this wasn’t the national championship [North Carolina] team. If that team was here it would’ve been a whole different story. They lost a number of players. It’s almost a completely different team.”
And so is Syracuse with Johnson in the lineup.
Even with loss of Devendorf, Harris and first-round draft pick Jonny Flynn, this Syracuse team may be even better than the one that reached the Sweet 16 a year ago.
Boeheim said his squad is better defensively on the perimeter thanks to the size and length of Johnson, Triche, Scoop Jardine and Andy Rautins. And offensively, they’re doing a better job of getting the ball down low to big men Arinza Onuaku and Rick Jackson.
The biggest difference, though, is Johnson. As Boeheim prepared to leave Madison Square Garden on Friday, he made another bold prediction about college basketball’s newest star.
“He’s still trying to figure things out right now,” Boeheim said. “I’m telling you, he’ll get a lot better.”
This time, we’ll believe him.
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Q&A with Indiana coach Tom Crean
By Gerry Ahern
November 20, 2009
Tom Crean took over an Indiana basketball program in tumult in April 2008.
Kelvin Sampson’s departure from IU after an NCAA investigation and the ensuing defections of players – some with academic and discipline problems – left a scar on one of the nation’s most storied hoops schools.
On came Crean from Marquette, where he had restored glory and raised a Final Four banner in 2003.
Year One in Bloomington was bumpy for Crean. The Hoosiers finished 6-25, 1-17 in the Big Ten. Playing an inexperienced roster that included freshmen, junior-college transfers and walk-ons in a league that featured seven NCAA tournament teams was at times embarrassing.
“Bumps? We had body parts removed a year ago,” Crean said.
Hopes are a lot higher for his second season in the brutal Big Ten, arguably the deepest conference in college basketball. Crean welcomes a top-10 recruiting class featuring forward Christian Watford, guard Maurice Creek, guard Jordan Hulls, forward Derek Elston, center Bawa Muniru and forward Bobby Capobianco. The 2009-10 Hoosiers will be bolstered by Georgetown transfer Jeremiah Rivers and returners such as Tom Pritchard, Verdell Jones III and Devan Dumes, who have benefited from significant playing time.
Gerry Ahern caught up with Crean at Big Ten Media Day and discussed a range of topics.
Gerry Ahern: What was the biggest takeaway for you personally with everything you went through last season?
Crean: “How valuable a feeling it is when you win. I think sometimes, when you are doing it, you take it for granted. You don’t allow your players to enjoy it as much, and move on to the next thing. Second, I think if you play extremely hard, if you really go out and give everything you have, people will really appreciate that. That’s got to be there first. Before you can be a real competitive team that takes the next step, you have to have the ability to play hard. We want to go from playing hard to being a team that can really compete and believe they are going to win. Last was how great the fan base is at Indiana – the way they supported us after everything that happened, how they really bought into that we were all in it together. The train wreck wasn’t their fault, it wasn’t our fault. It was there and we had to deal with it.”
Gerry Ahern: What do you think was the biggest takeaway for returning players such as Pritchard, Jones and Dumes?
Crean: “I think we’ll see when they get into games what their confidence level is like, based on the fact they’re a year older. Some guys have definitely gotten better. I think that going through the Big Ten has helped them understand how physical the league is. Everbody’s stronger. The skill value [in the Big Ten] is so high because of the way people play defense. You have to be able to make plays. We couldn’t make plays when the defense didn’t give us a shot last year. We couldn’t compete on the backboards to get easy baskets. We didn’t run well enough to get easy baskets in transition. And we certainly didn’t defend well enough to create scoring opportunities off turnovers.”
Gerry Ahern: What’s a realistic expectation in terms of record for your team in 2009-10?
Crean: “I wouldn’t do a numerical goal or an expectation with what I thought was a Final Four team and I’m certainly not going to do one with what we are dealing with. We’re going to be better – I don’t think there’s any question. How it translates to winning, I don’t know yet. I love where we are heading. But to think we are on par with other programs in this league right now would not make any sense. We want to get there. But where we sit right now, it’s hard to put into perspective. We have to focus on getting better competitively, sustaining all the things we need to grow up and make progress, and get better throughout the year.”
Gerry Ahern: What’s been the biggest difference in terms of coaching and recruiting between Marquette and Indiana?
Crean: “At Indiana, when you get somebody on campus and they get a chance to see the fan base in action at Assembly Hall … every game is on television. There’s five or six programs in America that, decade after decade, have been in the same breath – and Indiana has always been one of those. We don’t want to do anything to lose that. We have to get it built back up. I would never take anything away from my time at Marquette. We didn’t take a back seat to anybody in the state, in the [Big East]. I like having that mentality at Indiana as well because of where we’re at.”
Gerry Ahern: How does Dumes look and what are you looking for from him?
Crean: “He’s made improvements. His ball-handling is not what I hoped it would be at this point, but he missed some time in the summer when he had knee surgery. … Devan has made strides. He’s trying to understand what we want. But it’s really a matter of everybody really being on the same page, knowing that we’re going to move the basketball. We’re going to share the basketball. We’re not going to overdribble. He can defend at a high level. He’s proven that he can get points in this league. He can make shots. We just need our entire team to stay really focused on how the team gets better.”
Gerry Ahern: Your father-in-law [Jack Harbaugh, formerly at Western Kentucky] and your brothers-in-law [Jim at Stanford and John with the Baltimore Ravens] are football coaches. How would you fare as a football coach?
Crean: “I’m a good assistant right now for 10- and 11-year-olds. We’re still undefeated. The Packers of Bloomington are going to play for the championship. I don’t know that I could go any farther than that.”
Gerry Ahern: How would the Harbaughs do on the basketball court?
Crean: “They’d be excellent. Coaches are coaches. Competitive, organized, tough, winning mind-set, winning backgrounds. They’d be fine. Jim might not know as much about the game as he thinks he does, but he’d figure it out. He’s a quick learner.”
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WOMEN'S COLLEGE BASKETBALL: Dunbar leads Vikings to win
November 20, 2009
Western Washington guard Amanda Dunbar scored a game-high 28 points, 21 in the first half, as the Vikings rolled to an 88-55 victory over Cal State University East Bay on Friday in a non-league women's basketball game in Hayward, Calif.
It was the season opener for both teams.
In all, four Western players scored double-figure points. Center Jessica Summers had 16, forward Willow Cabe 15 and guard Megan Pinske 11. Cabe also grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds and blocked two shots.
CSUEB was led by Claudia Nelson with 18 points.
"It was a solid team effort and a good start," said Western coach Carmen Dolfo. "We had some great spells of defense that really got our running game going.
"Willow (Cabe) did an amazing job on the boards, and Amanda (Dunbar) really stepped up when we needed her."
Western made six of its first eight shots, including two 3-pointers by Dunbar, and led 14-4 just over four minutes into the game. The Vikings were ahead by 13 points, 26-13, halfway through the first period, and they held a 16-point lead, 49-33, at halftime as point guard Ashley Fenimore made a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
In the second half, Western continued to increase its lead with its biggest advantage being 35 points, 87-52, with just over a minute to play.
The Vikings shot 58.1 percent (36 of 62) from the field. Dunbar was 11-of-16, including 4-of-6 from 3-point range, Summers 7 of 10, Cabe 6 of 8 and Pinske 5-of-9.
Western was without starting center Lauren Hefflin, who will be out until mid-December because of a fractured middle finger on her left hand suffered in an exhibition game against Simon Fraser on Nov. 1.
The Vikings are at San Francisco State with a 5 p.m. tip on Saturday.
WWU 88, Cal State East Bay 55
WESTERN WASHINGTON (1-0)
Dunbar,Amanda 11-16 2-2 28; Summers,Jessica 7-10 2-2 16; Cabe,Willow 6-8 3-4 15; Pinske,Megan 5-9 0-2 11; Fenimore,Ashley 2-4 0-0 5; Ramstead,Erika 2-4 0-0 4; Waltrip,Corinn 1-3 0-0 3; Schramm,Kristin 0-4 2-2 2; Harris,Britt 1-2 0-1 2; Robinson,Krystal 1-2 0-0 2; Stewart,Aly 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 36-62 9-13 88.
CAL STATE EAST BAY (0-1)
NELSON, Claudia 8-17 0-2 18; DOTSON, Azizi 3-5 2-6 8; SMITH, Jasmine 3-6 0-0 6; LUCCHESI, Lauren 3-6 0-0 6; RODRIGUEZ, Andrea 2-4 0-0 5; SANDERS, Amaris 0-2 4-4 4; MACMILLAN, Marlene 1-6 1-2 3; LI, Frieda 1-3 1-3 3; COOLEY, Colleen 0-1 2-3 2; BRAVO, Nia 0-3 0-0 0; VALENZIANO, Emily 0-2 0-0 0; MONTES, Natalie 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-55 10-20 55.
Half: WWU 49, CSEB 33
3-point goals-Western Washington - Women 7-15 (Dunbar,Amanda 4-6; Waltrip,Corinn 1-3; Pinske,Megan 1-1; Fenimore,Ashley 1-2; Schramm,Kristin 0-2; Cabe,Willow 0-1), Cal State East Bay 3-7 (NELSON, Claudia 2-2; RODRIGUEZ, Andrea 1-3; LUCCHESI, Lauren 0-1; COOLEY, Colleen 0-1). Fouled out-Western Washington - Women-Robinson,Krystal, Cal State East Bay-MACMILLAN, Marlene. Rebounds-Western Washington - Women 41 (Cabe,Willow 11), Cal State East Bay 32 (MACMILLAN, Marlene 5). Assists-Western Washington - Women 13 (Waltrip,Corinn 3), Cal State East Bay 8 (COOLEY, Colleen 3). Total fouls--Western Washington - Women 18, Cal State East Bay 19. Technical fouls-Western Washington - Women-None, Cal State East Bay-None. A-179
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Siena Saints hope to continue March run
By Steve Megargee
November 20, 2009
The bandwagon started filling two years ago, after Siena upset Vanderbilt in the opening round of the NCAA tournament. When the Saints had a thrilling first-round victory over Ohio State in last season's tourney, more passengers came aboard.
Before long, Siena had gained so many supporters that the crowd was spilling onto the practice floor.
Thus, Saints coach Fran McCaffery had to close practices this fall for the first time in his five-year tenure because too many people were showing up.
"I opened practice when I first got there, and it was just a few people who came," McCaffery said. "It was just more and more people coming. It got to be too much."
Let's keep this in perspective: Siena wasn't working out in front of the types of crowds that might show up if Kentucky's John Calipari or North Carolina's Roy Williams opened up their practices. We're talking about dozens of fans, not hundreds or thousands. But it represented one more sign that Siena is embarking on the most anticipated season in school history.
Siena returns four starters from the team that knocked off Ohio State in the most exciting first-round game of last season's NCAA tournament. The Saints' lone new starter - 6-foot-3 junior guard Clarence Jackson - scored 24 points in a season-opening victory over Tennessee State.
"I think there's definitely more talent than last year and the year before," senior swingman Edwin Ubiles said.
There certainly is more firepower than when McCaffery arrived.
McCaffery interviewed for this position in 1997; the job instead went to Paul Hewitt, who led Siena to a 66-27 record in three seasons before taking over at Georgia Tech. McCaffery eventually was hired in 2005, with Siena coming off a 6-24 season under Rob Lanier, who now is an assistant at Florida.
McCaffery believed Siena's solid tradition and passionate fan base - the Saints ranked sixth among mid-major programs last season with an average attendance of 7,497 - could help him turn things around. He already had proved himself at Lehigh and UNC Greensboro, where he inherited losing programs and led them to NCAA tournament bids.
"I tried to sell [recruits] the tradition of the program, the fan base and the arena, the beautiful campus [outside of Albany, N.Y.]," McCaffery said. "It's an excellent academic institution. It's got a lot of things that would and should appeal to a young person. And I tried to sell my track record of working with young players and getting them to develop, the family type of atmosphere.
"Add it all together, and it's a pretty special place."
Before long, his team was creating some special moments in the NCAA tournament. The Saints have enough talent this season to maintain their status as the darlings of March - assuming they make it that far.
Even though Siena received the most votes of any team outside the top 25 in the latest Associated Press poll, an NCAA bid is no certainty.
Siena has won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular-season and tournament titles in each of the past two seasons, but the league should be tougher this season. Niagara returns four starters from a team that lost to Siena in last season's MAAC championship game. Rider opened the year with an upset of Mississippi State, which was ranked 18th at the time.
The Saints could have earned an at-large bid last season had they failed to win the MAAC tournament because of a tough non-conference schedule that included games with Pittsburgh, Kansas, Tennessee and Oklahoma State. Although Siena didn't win any of those games, its schedule strength gave the Saints an RPI in the top 20.
But all those returning starters made it much tougher for the Saints to find top-flight teams willing to play them this season. Siena's biggest non-conference games are Saturday against Temple in the Philly Hoop Group Classic, at Georgia Tech on Dec. 2 and at Missouri Valley Conference preseason favorite Northern Iowa on Dec. 12.
The lack of RPI-boosting games could make it more imperative for Siena to win the conference tournament this season. At the least, Siena needs to rack up as many victories as possible to have any hope of earning a bid if it gets upset in the league tournament.
"We got a lot of wins last year - 27," Ubiles said. "Our goal is to get more than that this year."
While Siena doesn't feature much height or depth, the Saints boast a starting five that just about any major-conference program would love to have. Siena starts three seniors and two juniors who have played together long enough to grasp the growing expectations surrounding this program.
"There's tons of pressure, but we have a veteran group that can handle it," senior power forward Alex Franklin said. "There are a lot of expectations and responsibilities, but we can handle it because we've been through a lot."
The benefit of Siena's experience was evident Tuesday, as the Saints calmly erased an early 14-point deficit to beat Northeastern 59-53 for their 22nd straight home win. A look at each starter reveals a lineup without any obvious holes.
Senior point guard Ronald Moore is rather generously listed as 6 feet tall, but he boasts a toughness and court savvy that came from playing pickup games with his cousin (Chicago Bulls guard John Salmons) and brother (former Vanderbilt guard Chuck Moore). He made huge 3-pointers in the final seconds of each overtime session against Ohio State last season.
Ubiles has scored more than 1,500 points in his Siena career and spent the summer joining other top college players at skills academies run by NBA stars Paul Pierce and LeBron James. Ubiles is a 6-7 swingman, and his height and athleticism make him a matchup nightmare for MAAC opponents.
Junior forward Ryan Rossiter led the MAAC in field-goal percentage (.524) and ranked second in blocks (1.9 per game) last season. He has averaged a double-double - 10.5 points and 10.5 rebounds - through the first two games of this season. Rossiter also has the proper family background for a long NCAA tournament run: His brother, Steve, played on the Davidson team that reached the Midwest Regional final two years ago.
Franklin's 6-5 frame makes him one of the nation's shortest power forwards, yet he pulled down 7.5 rebounds per game last season and has averaged 10 rebounds per game this season. "He's just a beast on the glass," McCaffery said. "He's as good a rebounder as there is in the country."
Jackson didn't start last year, but he averaged 8.3 points in just 14.7 minutes per game. He scored 22 points in a span of less than 9? minutes against Tennessee State while also displaying a more well-rounded game. "The thing for Clarence that's impressive is he's doing so many more things other than jump-shooting the ball," McCaffery said. "He's doing great things off the dribble. He's playing much better defense. He's getting deflections. He's more physical defensively. He's rebounding. He's playing like somebody who has a chance to be a star."
McCaffery needs big performances from those starters because the Saints don't have much depth. Siena's reserves scored two points against Northeastern. While the starting lineup features five upperclassmen, the bench is full of freshmen and sophomores.
"That's what every coach would like to have - seniors and juniors in the starting lineup," McCaffery said. "But it's the players coming in behind them that typically determine whether you can have success over the course of an entire season.
"Somebody's going to get sick. Somebody's going to sprain their ankle. There's a lot of road games, a lot of travel, a lot of wear and tear. You need those young kids to play like veterans or at least come through for you when they have to."
Then again, Siena has succeeded in the past without an overwhelming amount of depth. The Saints went 27-8 last season while having only eight players average 10 minutes per game.
Siena's chances of matching its 2008-09 success could depend on how well the Saints can deal with their new status as one of the nation's mid-major powers. Siena earned a little more publicity than usual last season on the strength of its 2008 postseason success, but the level of attention has reached new heights this season.
McCaffery only needed to look around his practice floor for evidence.
When he first took over the job, only a few retirees and dedicated fans might sit in the corner of the gym to watch the Saints' workouts. This season, the fans grew more plentiful, with their faces less recognizable. Eventually he had to shut the doors.
"It's not like there were hundreds - just 25 or so," McCaffery said. "They were sort of looking at it like it was a spectator event. It's not. It's time to go to work."
If recent history offers any indication, McCaffery and Co. should plan to keep working well into March.
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