To call a game a “must-win” affair anytime before an
elimination game is usually folly and/or the work of cliché-spouting reporters
who likely begin their “questions” with the phrase “Talk about…” That’s not a
question!
But the Flying Dutchmen’s game against UNCW last Saturday
was as close to a must-win game as possible in late January. In order to remain
on the fringe of the race in the watered-down CAA and provide some hope they
can make a little run in March, the Dutchmen, who haven’t won a road game since
last January 21, need to win as many home games as possible. This is especially
true especially when the opponent also last won a road game last January 21 and
didn’t leave for New York until 5:30 AM because of poor weather up and down the
east coast.
But the must-win became the latest most frustrating loss of
the season (so far) and the Dutchmen became the only team in the CAA without a
road win in the last 12 months after UNCW emerged from its Planes, Trains and
Automobiles day (see below—how awesome is that?) with a 57-51 win over the
Dutchmen.
As bad as the loss looks at the surface, it was much worse
when viewed up close and once the season-long ramifications were taken into
consideration.
“I told our guys tonight was the first time, really, on the
new season for us where we didn’t give our best effort,” Mo Cassara said. “And
that’s what I’m disappointed in.”
1.) The urgency of the must-win game increased after a first
half in which the Dutchmen fell behind 11-2 and then held UNCW to two field
goals and six points for THE REST OF THE HALF—a span of 16:49. You can’t lose a
game when you limit a team to two field goals and six points for almost 17 minutes.
But the Dutchmen did.
“I felt like we had a chance to kind of put them away in the
first half,” Cassara said. “We were up five points, we held them to 17, I
thought our defense was terrific. We had a lot of easy shots around the basket,
whether a breakaway layup or a dunk or an easy shot, and we didn’t execute.”
That’s putting it mildly. UNCW all but presented the game to
the Dutchmen on a silver platter, especially over the final 1:46 of the half.
In their last five possessions, the Seahawks turned the ball over four times
and missed three shots on the other possession. But the Dutchmen missed all
five of their shots in that span and paid the price when UNCW opened the second
half with a 12-1 run. The Dutchmen led just once, at 33-32, the rest of the
way.
2.) We needed no further proof that guard play wins in the
CAA, but while Chris Dixon and Tanner Milson were combining for 39 points and
10 3-pointers (on just 15 attempts) for the Seahawks, Taran Buie and Stevie
Mejia endured another rough game with 24 combined points on 6-of-26 shooting,
including 3-of-14 from beyond the arc. They also combined for six assists and
just 10 turnovers.
It’s not very fair to Buie and Mejia to demand they carry
the Dutchmen—Buie is basically playing his first collegiate season while Mejia
is far better as a facilitator than a creator—but the lack of guard play behind
them means it’s sink or swim with the duo. And during the Dutchmen’s four-game
losing streak, Buie and Mejia are shooting a combined 34.8 percent (33-for-95)
with 22 assists and 37 turnovers.
“Our Achilles heel right now is turning the ball over,” Cassara
said. “You can live with a couple, but it’s those careless turnovers. Our last
four games. we’re probably averaging, I would say, 16, 17 turnovers a game
[actual figure: 16.8 turnovers]. We’re not going to win, whether it’s at home
or on the road, playing like that. That’s been our big issue and we’ve got to
find a way to change that.”
3.) The struggles of Buie and Mejia were magnified once UNCW
took Stephen Nwaukoni out of the game. For the second straight year, Nwaukoni
was the lynchpin of a defensive effort that shut down Keith Rendleman (11
points, six rebounds). And it looked as if he might post his second straight
double-double against the Seahawks when he had eight points and four rebounds
in a first half in which the Dutchmen racked up 16 points in the paint.
But UNCW played more zone defense in the second half, when
Nwaukoni had just two points and one rebound in 13 minutes. While the 10 points
were his second-most of the new year, the five total rebounds were his fewest
of 2013. All of which is to say he’s been the Dutchmen’s most consistent
player, more often than not, during the CAA season and that the Dutchmen need
to find a way to keep him involved even when defenses are collapsing on him and
Buie and Mejia are struggling from outside.
4.) Cassara’s been forced to go back to basics with the
Dutchmen multiple times this season. It likely happened again during practice
this week as he drove home the importance of living up to Bruiser Flint’s
decree that nobody in the CAA plays harder than Hofstra. Effort is the
great—only?—equalizer for the Dutchmen this season, and it lagged when
frustrations mounted Saturday. Alas, it almost surely won’t be the last time
the Dutchmen get frustrated this year. They’ll need a better response to have
any hope of remaining afloat into February.
“We just didn’t have the effort today,” Mejia said. “Just
flat out there. When shots aren’t going in, we don’t defend. Frustrating.”
5.) Frustrating week too for the Dutchmen, who blew an
eight-point lead against preseason favorite Drexel before…well, you know. Now,
with two road games in the next three days and four of their next five away
from Hempstead, their already slim margin for error in the CAA has been
removed. The Dutchmen are 1 ½ games behind Drexel for the fifth seed and need
to find a way to win at least one game on the James Madison-William & Mary
trip to avoid falling into an almost unrecoverable hole as the sixth or seventh
seed.
“Certainly very disappointed in the outcome today,” Cassara
said. “It’s been a long week. We’ve got to get back to work here on Monday and
get ready to hit the road again.”
3 STARS OF THE GAME (vs. UNCW, 1/26)
3: Stephen Nwaukoni
2: Taran Buie
1: Stevie Mejia
SEASON STANDINGS***
30: Taran Buie
25: Stevie Mejia
16: Stephen Nwaukoni
7: Jordan Allen
5: David Imes
4: Moussa Kone
3: Daquan Brown
2: Matt Grogan
***21 points vacated
Email Jerry at defiantlydutch@yahoo.com
or follow Defiantly Dutch at http://twitter.com/defiantlydutch.
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