aighounds03
Freshman
Posts: 46
Age: 42
Reg: 09-23-08
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11-04-10 09:44 AM - Post#88211
Here is the Bule Ribbon Preview for Drexel. This will definetely be a tough test to open the season. They return 4 starters, but are missing one key player due to suspension. It will be interesting to see if we can match up with a middle of the pack team from the CAA (Drexel was picked to finish 6th this year).
COACH AND PROGRAM
There is a castle that sits on the James River just west of the Richmond city limits, home of the CAA. Belmead was founded at the turn of the 20th century by Katherine Drexel -- yes, that Drexel -- to educate African-American and American Indian children. The school was long a haven but has deteriorated since it closed in the early 1970s.
The team that bears her name again played a basketball season apropos of the school's lineage. Drexel stood tall at 10-5 in the CAA before crumbling late in the season. For the second consecutive year the Dragons lost four of five down the stretch and bowed out as a six seed to an 11 seed in the opening round of the CAA Tournament.
"A couple of guys got very tired," Flint said. "Derrick [Thomas] didn't play as well and Chris [Fouch] got hurt, but the guy who ran out of gas was Jamie [Harris]. He was playing 37, 38 minutes and we wore him down."
However the summer would be dominated not by the news of conditioning drills for Harris. It would bring devastating news that would render Harris's basketball future a meaningless point.
Harris, a senior point guard, and reserve frontcourt player Kevin Phillip, were arrested in July and charged with armed robbery after an incident at a classmates' apartment. The pair was officially suspended pending the hearing and not expected to return.
While Phillip was expected to challenge for extended playing time this season in the post, the loss of Harris is particularly crippling. Harris topped 20 points eight times last year, including a 32-point outburst against Georgia State. He was the team's leading scorer, assist man, and earned third team All-CAA honors. Perhaps most important is that Flint trusted the team in his hands for three years.
PLAYERS
Still four of six leading scorers are back and Flint hopes a staple of his teams that's been missing is back -- toughness. They will need it.
Drexel Dragons
Last Season 16-16 (.500)
Conference Record 11-7 (t-5th)
Starters Lost/Returning 1/4
Coach James "Bruiser" Flint (St. Joseph's '87)
Record At School 149-124 (9 years)
Career Record 235-196 (14 years)
RPI Last 5 years 125-55-240-134-145
"At times we got tired and caved and that's unusual for my squads," Flint said. "These kids play hard and they're good kids and they practice hard, but mentally the last two years we haven't finished strong."
Junior Samme Givens (8.0 ppg, 8.1 rpg) is a load to handle and a ferocious rebounder. With Harris no longer on the team, Givens becomes the primary focus of opposition scouting reports.
For the second consecutive season, the 6-5 Givens led the CAA in offensive rebounding (107), and he posted three double doubles. He made strides on the offensive end, including a 21-point game against James Madison in the season finale. Givens could become a better free throw shooter (48-of-81, .571). Flint believes Givens's ability to expand his game farther from the basket is huge.
"If he shoots it out to 15 feet, there's nobody in the league that can guard him," Flint says. "I tell him he can be a consistent double-figure scorer and rebounder if he can do that."
Though he's battled injuries both years he's been at Drexel, 6-0 Chris Fouch (11.3 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 1.3 apg) is firepower personified. Fouch missed his freshman year with a torn ACL and underwent a clean up surgical procedure on his knee over the summer. Still, Fouch was good enough to win the CAA Freshman of the Year award, and had six-three sprees against Hofstra (29 points) and Towson (28 points) and hit five threes against Villanova and VCU.
Fouch managed to score in double figures in 10 of Drexel's final 12 games despite nagging knee problems and a freshman wall episode -- he hit 64-of-169 threes for the season (.380) but just three of his final 18. Flint laughs at what Fouch needs:
"The kid guards no one," Flint said. "It became a joke on the team and actually at the end of the year opponents would run plays at him. But he knows it, and he'll get better."
Derrick Thomas (6.4 ppg, 2.6 rpg, 1.8 apg) is Drexel's version of the guy you don't see coming until he's the reason you lost. The sophomore is a rock solid 6-3 and always guards the other team's best perimeter player. Thomas took care of the basketball as a freshman -- 57 assists and 38 turnovers in about 25 minutes per game -- and showed there's an offensively dangerous player in there somewhere. Though he was only a 34 percent shooter (78-of-227) and 23 percent three-point shooter (19-of-81), Thomas hit for 23 points against Villanova and posted a 13/10 double-double against Niagara.
"He was the one kid who really ran out of gas, so he knows what his conditioning needs to be," Flint said, partly referring to Thomas's 2-of-16 three-point shooting in February and March. "We want him to be a more consistent shooter, but he did a lot for a freshman -- the kid did some great things."
Gerald Colds (9.3 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 3.2 apg) enters his senior year never having fulfilled the promise of a big freshman year. However the 6-0 Colds remains a dangerous threat, torching VCU for 19 points in January. He will also get first shot at point guard replacing Harris.
Blue Ribbon Previews
Take an Inside look at the Colonial with Blue Ribbon's 2010-11 team reports:
Delaware
Drexel
George Mason
Georgia State
Hofstra
James Madison
Northeastern
Old Dominion
Towson
UNC Wilmington
VCU
William & Mary
Colds had a poor shooting season -- 93-of-297, .313 overall -- that includes making just 24-of-103 threes (.233). He did, however, look more comfortable on the floor and thus took better care of the basketball. His 101/64 assist-to-turnover ratio was tops on the team and 10th in the conference.
Make no mistake, Flint is a system coach and Colds fits the unselfish mold. Flint asked Colds to stop taking so many threes last February. Colds listened and shot just 14 in the Dragons' final eight games despite playing more than 32 minutes in six of those games. The problem was he made just one of those 14.
"He's going to be a senior, and I told him to go out and do what you do," Flint said. "He did a better job of taking shots within what we're trying to do, and part of that was stepping away from all the threes and working on a floater to be more effective. The competition in the backcourt has made him better."
In the absence of Phillip, much is expected from 6-9, 260-pound sophomore Daryl McCoy (1.3 ppg, 4.2 rpg). McCoy still needs to get into basketball shape, but has shown flashes of being a solid contributor. McCoy contributed back-to-back double figures rebounding games in January, and he has the want-to. He had more offensive rebounds (48) than points scored (41).
"One of our things to him this spring was to stay on the floor and work on his offense," says Flint. "Darryl's a big kid and he played a lot last year -- started some games. We need him to score and stay on the floor."
Senior Yannick Formbor (1.4 ppg, 1.3 rpg) is an active and physical player who will push for time.
Flint signed two freshmen and will also probably add two walk-ons this year to fill out the roster. Frantz Massenat is a 6-4 combo guard who give Flint the versatility and toughness he needs in his backcourt. Massenat is waiting in the wings and valuable insurance if Colds cannot handle the point guard spot.
"Frantz was recruited to play point guard anyway," says Flint in reference to a freshman replacing Harris at point. "It's where he played in high school and he was always going to be our point guard. That part of the plan is not going to change, but now we've got to throw these guys into the fire."
The other freshman, 6-8, 240-pound Dartaye Ruffin, is a solid player who knows his job is to take care of business around the basket.
"He and Frantz can play," says Flint. "I don't promise playing time but those guys can play and they were told they will play. They are physically ready, like Darryl and Derrick."
Late in the summer Flint added two freshman, 6-5 combo guard Stevan Manojlovic, from Toronto's Martingrove Collegiate Institute, and 6-9 Goran Pantovic, a Serbian-born forward who played at Life Center in New Jersey.
BLUE RIBBON ANALYSIS
BACKCOURT: A-
BENCH/DEPTH: C
FRONTCOURT: B-
INTANGIBLES: B
Drexel is in a rut. In seven of the Dragons' nine CAA seasons, they've won between 10-13 conference games. The nagging problem has been a tendency to fade -- Drexel is 14-6 in its last two Januarys and 7-11 in February and March.
Depth will be a complicating issue. The Dragons were thin before the summer troubles, and now Flint has added walk-ons just to fill out a practice roster. Flint is not deterred.
"We only had 8 guys when we got here," he says. "I've had teams with 13 guys and I only played eight so I'm not worried. We won't run as much and play more ball control. Some guys were laughing at me because I said we might play some zone."
The Dragons will take a fall trip to Turkey and hope to reap its benefits, but Flint's secret to getting over that hurdle?
"Mentally we've just got to get tougher," he said. "We know we can beat [anyone in the league] because we did it, and I've been harping about things like making foul shots since the end of the season. If we can mentally keep it up, we'll be fine because we've got a good team."
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