Looking Back on a Narrow Win Over NJIT

Craig Leighton takes a look back on the Friars’ season-opening win versus NJIT…

Dominoes—Soon after Vincent Council went down with a hamstring injury it became apparent that losing Council meant much more to the Friars than losing a First Team All Big East point guard.

The prime example for this is Bryce Cotton. Instead of working off screens trying to get open for his patented catch and shoot threes, Cotton was forced to take over the point guard duties.  As Ed Cooley said in his post-game press conference, Cotton went from being a shot-maker to a facilitator.

Cotton did a credible job (only three turnovers) at the point, but he is clearly much more effective off the ball.  He was forced to drive to the basket much more frequently than he normally would, and had to force many shots inside. Cotton wound up shooting 6-16 from the floor (2-6 from three) and playing all 40 minutes.

Josh Fortune (from shooting guard to small forward) and LaDontae Henton (small forward instead of power forward) were also forced to play out of position, which most likely effected their overall games.

No Friar fan should rest easy until Council is back on the court and Kris Dunn is able to come back and provide meaningful minutes as a back-up point guard.

Still Concerned—In my recap after the RIC game I pointed out that one of my concerns was that Kadeem Batts still showed a tendency to get in foul trouble, limiting his time on the court. Sure enough, he picked up two quick fouls in the first half and wound up playing only seven minutes at the break.

To his credit, Batts was able to play the entire second half without committing another foul, but PC needs him on the floor for 35 minutes a game until Sidiki Johnson becomes eligible. A quick third foul for Batts to start the second half could have been disastrous for the Friars.

Still Concerned II—Another concern following the RIC game was Henton’s poor three point shooting in the preseason games. Granted it was a small sample size and nothing to get overly-concerned about, but it would relieve some nerves if he came out and knocked down a couple of quick threes against NJIC. Instead, Henton had another poor shooting performance (1-8) from the three. It’s too early for concern, but something worth monitoring over the next couple of games.

Kris Dunn— Dunn was on the bench in sweats during the game and there was a lot of speculation after the game among some that he is close to coming back. While I don’t believe that is the case I do think it is a positive sign that Dunn was out an hour before the game hoisting up shot after shot. He seemed to have total freedom of movement in his shoulder.

Hopefully he will be back sooner rather than later.  I no longer believe it is a case of if he will be back, but rather when he will be back.

A Win is a Win—Despite the opponent not being that highly regarded, this was still a great win for the Friars.  When Council went down with his hamstring my major concern for the Friars was to get through the game with a W and then regroup afterwards. Mission Accomplished.

Cooley mentioned after the game that last year’s team was so dysfunctional that they would have lost this type of game. That is no longer the case this year.

The All Suit and Tie Team—Every time I look over at the guys who can’t play on the bench I cringe. Let’s see, if we put Carson Derosiers at center, Sidiki Johnson at power forward, Tyler Harris at small forward, Ricky Ledo at shooting guard and Kris Dunn at point guard that would not be too bad of a team. Talk about talent: five top 100 players including two high school All Americans at five different positions.

Unfortunately, instead of being part of a basketball team right now they have to dress like they are part of a KPMG auditing team.

Even more unfortunate is the fact that Council will probably be joining them for the Bryant game.

Freshmanitis— It was a difficult debut for Josh Fortune, with obvious first game jitters. Under normal circumstance Cooley would have been able to take him out for an extended break and then ease him back into the lineup, yet with no bench he was not able to do that and the jitters just started getting worse.

Fortune has been solid throughout the preseason, will be fine, and is going to be a solid contributor to the program. He’s probably being forced to contribute more than he should have to at this point in his young career.

Another Visitor in the House—Jared Nickens, a 6’7 shooting guard from St. Patrick’s in New Jersey took in the game last night. Friar fans are starting to see a pattern here with the type of players Cooley is recruiting and bringing into the program. Gone will be the days of undersized guards. Going forward the Friar roster is going to be filled with the type of players who are going to be major match-up nightmares for opposing teams.

Email Craig at craig.leighton@friarbasketball.com

2 Comments

1. 

   Mike

   November 12, 2012 at 7:20 pm

   Great stuff here, Craig.

   Cotton’s ball-handling responsibilities will make his performance tonight very different from the clinic he put on hosting Bryant a year ago.

   Glad to hear Dunn is looking good and “Gone will be the days of undersized guards.” Exciting stuff….

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