Down Goes Quinnipiac!! Sacred Heart Pulls Off the Season Sweep

Merely six games into the Northeast Conference season, it had already felt like a long year for this Sacred Heart fan.  Of those six games, three of them were lost in excruciating fashion to NEC title contenders Central Connecticut, Long Island, and Robert Morris.  In each game, the Sacred Heart Pioneers (9-11, 3-4 NEC) were always a play or two away, two free throws swished, or a couple of defensive stops from bettering their conference record.  Instead, the Pioneers lost all three and found themselves mired in the bottom half of the NEC standings at 2-4.

Against an equally desperate Quinnipiac Bobcats (9-9, 2-5 NEC) team on Thursday night, in front of 1,100 energized fans at the Pitt center, Sacred Heart finally won a close game by succeeding in several clutch moments.  And they won in spite of missing their 6-foot-9 center Justin Swidowski with a shoulder injury.

To do it, they followed a recipe cooked up by the coaching staff.  SHU assistant coach Anthony Latina explained after the game, “We had four goals coming into this game – get to the free throw line, compete on the glass, get to the loose balls, and limit our turnovers.  We did three of those four things tonight.”

Ironically, despite getting manhandled on the boards by the bigger, more athletic Quinnipiac front-court, it was SHU coming up with two monster offensive rebounds in the final minute.  Up a meager point with a minute remaining, Stan Dulaire picked up an offensive rebound in traffic off a wild miss from Phil Gaetano.  And then Nick Greenbacker, who had earlier drilled two unlikely three-pointers to spur a 14-4 SHU run, grabbed another offensive rebound off a Chris Evans miss.

Those rebounds allowed the offensive hero of the game, Louis Montes, to sink two free throws and put SHU up three with 35 ticks left on the clock.  Shortly after, a James Johnson miss – one of his 15 missed shot attempts of the night – and an Evan Kelley rebound (again very timely) sealed the game for the Pioneers.  It was a must win, especially with CCSU, Wagner, and Mount St. Mary’s next up on the difficult schedule.

Here are some statistical highlights that allowed SHU to sweep the season series against Quinnipiac for the first time since the 2007-08 season:

- SHU was more aggressive, slashing to the hole instead of settling for jump shots.  The aggressive strategy paid off, with the Pioneers getting 22 points and shooting a respectable 73% from the free throw line.  They outscored Quinnipiac from the charity stripe, 22-13.

- Louis Montes scored a career high 28 points on 13 shot attempts, serving as a terrific compliment to Shane Gibson and his 23 points.  Overall, it was a fantastic effort for Montes, who provided SHU with some clutch play as well.  Last in the game, he forced a Quinnipiac turnover in the backcourt thanks to his hustle and he calmly sunk those aforementioned free throws with thirty seconds remaining in the contest.

- Nick Greenbacker, who I’ve been critical of in this blog, came up big in the second half by scoring eight straight points when it looked like Quinnipiac was ready to pull away in the middle of the second half.  The Jeff Franceour of SHU basketball had 10 points and 4 rebounds – along with 0 turnovers – in 33 minutes.  It doesn’t sound like much of a stat line, but he had to absorb a lot of contact down low between the more athletic Jamee Jackson, Ike Azotam, and Ousmane Drame.  He did an admirable job.

And finally, I’d be remiss if I didn’t at least bring up the low-lights from the game:

- SHU allowed a staggering 23 offensive rebounds to Quinnipiac.  Yes, they were undersized considerably, but this must be addressed by the staff (assuming Swidowski stays off the floor), especially with reigning NEC player of the year Ken Horton of CCSU and 6-foot-11 Naofall Folahan of Wagner coming to the Pitt within the next week.

- I brought this up on Twitter already, but it warrants mentioning again – whoever was responsible for handling the camera for SHU’s internet video feed did a terrible job!  That person had to be drunk, because seriously how difficult is it to follow a game with the camera?  If I had a podcast or radio show, I’d go Chris Russo on his/her ass, but this blog post will have to suffice.

- The SHU play-by-play radio guy had Connecticut Post and SHU beat writer William Paxton on for the halftime show.  I was looking forward to an insightful interview…you know because Paxton probably knows some things about Sacred Heart and NEC basketball that we aren’t privy too.  Well, I was wrong.  About 75% of the interview was spent on the NFL and Yankees offseason moves!  Why?  If I’m enough of a diehard fan to listen to the SHU halftime show through my spotty internet feed, I’m not really interested in hearing Paxton ramble on about Michael Pineda and the New York Giants.  Talk about the game, Sacred Heart basketball, and the Northeast Conference, please!

(Sorry for the rant, but I needed to get that off my chest.  Now I feel better.)

Moving forward, SHU quietly (thanks to LIU at Wagner playing tonight at 7 pm on ESPNU and seriously check out this Youtube promo) takes on CCSU on Saturday afternoon at 3:30 PM in a Pack the Pitt event that should give the Pioneers another respectable home crowd.  With any luck, SHU will no longer be last in NEC home attendance games after this homestand!

SHU will certainly have their hands full – since Swidowski is doubtful for the game - containing Central’s scoring trio of Ken Horton, Robby Ptacek, and Kyle Vinales.  All three players are averaging nearly 60 points per game for the Blue Devils.  Once again, Gibson will need help, either from Montes or Evans to offset Central's scoring attack.  The Pioneers will also need to bring the same passion and intensity they found against Quinnipiac.

Their meeting early this year led to thrilling CCSU overtime win 82-80, but SHU had a couple of opportunities, as I chronicled here, to put the game away.  Today, it should be a competitive game nonetheless, and hopefully Sacred Heart can get back to even in the NEC!  You know I’ll be watching...

Pioneer Pride Quick Hits I

It is time for the first installment of the Pioneer Pride’s Quick Picks!  Let’s begin…

• I’m excited to announce my inclusion into Big Apple Buckets Power Poll!  John Templon, the creator of nycbuckets.com, does a terrific job covering college basketball programs in the New York City area.  Every month on his website, he releases a Power Poll, which ranks all the teams in the tri-state area.  The NEC teams included in this poll are St. Francis (NY), Monmouth, Fairleigh Dickinson, Wagner, Long Island University and, of course, Sacred Heart.  I’ve been recently added as a voter of the poll, along with 13 other beat reporters and bloggers of different teams.  Time to study up before I cast my vote this Sunday night!

• It’s been a light week in college basketball – thanks to finals week – therefore I’ve caught up on some reading material.  In the past 2 weeks, there have been 3 features on individual Pioneer players.  William Paxton, of the Connecticut Post, wrote an excellent piece on SHU forward Femi Akinpetide, detailing his charitable work off the court.  Chris Elsberry, also of the Connecticut Post, featured junior forward Justin Swidowski, by illustrating the toxic losing atmosphere Swidowski was subjected at his prior school, Holy Family.  Reading this article is a must, because if you stick with it until the end, you’ll be rewarded with a Dave Bike fat joke!  And finally, a small piece on Phil Gaetano was penned yesterday by Record Journal writer John Petit.  It was evident in the article that Bike is expecting big things from his freshman guard.  Look for Gaetano's playing time to increase during the conference season if Evan Kelley continues to provide erratic minutes at the point.

• Tim Tebow is clearly God's quarterback.  But who is God's team in college basketball?  We are about to find out!  On Monday night, SHU will travel to South Bend to take on their second and final Big East opponent of the year, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.  Notre Dame (7-4, RPI 228) has struggled out of the gate, thanks to senior Tim Abromaitis shredding his knee ligament, thus requiring season-ending surgery.  Without Abromatitis, Notre Dame has failed to defeat anyone in the RPI top 175 and now finds themselves only a couple RPI points ahead of SHU (6-6, RPI: 231).  So does SHU have a chance to end Notre Dame’s 26 game non-conference home winning streak?  Quite simply, no.

• David Wright apparently has it all.  A very good baseball player entering his prime, check.  Good looks and a boyish innocence, check.  A multi-million dollar contract, check.  But is he a dominant player in fantasy football??  David is currently part of a MLB players 12 team fantasy football league hosted by CBS Sports, and from the looks of it, he has one hell of a team.  Now if only David can hit the goddamn ball out of Citi Field every once in a while…

(Side note:  Ben Sheets evidently sucks at staying healthy and fantasy football)

After a Promising Start, SHU Gets a Dose of Reality

I was going to wait of couple of weeks before my next blog, but that was before I realized my first post would be viewed an astounding 15 times!  The masses have clearly spoken…

This past Saturday, Sacred Heart was in Virginia to take on the University of Richmond, the second game of a 2-game East Coast trip. I would have liked to make the 130 mile trek south to support my alma mater, but I decided against convincing my wife our Saturday night would be best spent watching the Pioneers and Spiders do battle, with a 4 hour round trip to boot.  That would have been a tough sell.  Instead, we spent our Saturday night racing to the mall before close in order to take advantage of Gap’s 60% one-day only sale.  If that’s our idea of weekend excitement now, just wait until we have children.

Anyway, enough about my exciting life.  SHU, after dominating wins over American East opponents Hartford and Stony Brook, had an opportunity to show college basketball they were for real, by facing Big East doormat Rutgers and NCAA tournament mainstay University of Richmond in a 2 game series.  This was their chance to prove themselves, hang in there against quality D1 schools, and better prepare themselves for the NEC grind.  They did after all, run that extra mile, lift that extra weight, and forgo their summer vacation (not even a trip to the beach?) to improve their defense, as portrayed in this mini puff piece, written by Connecticut Post writer William Paxton.   

Well last week, the extra work didn’t pay off.  Against Rutgers, despite leading 35-32 at the end of a sluggish first half, SHU was steamrolled in the 2nd half with Rutgers full court pressure and hot outside shooting.  The second tilt versus Richmond was even more of a disaster, as the Richmond Spiders raced out to a 24-3 lead, en route to a 25 point victory.  SHU's poor start versus Richmond was so bad that it conjured up memories of SHU getting drubbed at UNLV in 1997 to begin their final season as a Division 2 program.  Does anyone remember that infamous game, when a UNLV player told the media that their practices were more challenging than their lopsided contest against the Pioneers?

When it was all said and done, SHU was outscored 174-133 in the 2 games.  40 total turnovers to go with 23 assists.  Opponents shot a combined 54.5% from the field.  Not exactly a stark improvement in defense, if you ask me.  To make matters worse, Chris “The Future” Evans only played 7 minutes in the Richmond game.  Is he in Bike’s doghouse, or worse, injured?  Hopefully, SHU can right the ship against lesser opponents Hampton and Brown, before beginning their NEC campaign at Quinnipiac on Dec 1st.  Those are the games that will matter most, although it would be nice if SHU could not get blowout against a real team one of these days.