After Quinnipiac defeated Marist in Poughkeepsie again in January, Tom Pecora remembered what Bobby Cremins as soon as advised him: “Once you win on the street, it’s magic, it doesn’t matter what league you’re in.”
Properly, if one street win is a magic trick, then Greg Paulus should be the reincarnation of Harry Houdini.
In seven MAAC street video games Niagara is 7-0, solely Colgate and Saint Mary’s can match that mark. However, these groups are clearly a lot better relative to their league than the Purple Eagles are. So, what’s the key?
“We don’t have a look at it prefer it’s a house sport or an away sport,” Paulus advised Mid-Main Insanity. “It’s a possibility for us to compete, and with so many shut video games house and away on this convention, we’ve been lucky to make a number of extra performs down the stretch.”
Amongst these performs down the stretch run of video games is Braxton Bayless’ game-winning shot at Iona. It was simply the eighth Niagara win in New Rochelle in 34 makes an attempt. Bayless’ shot capped off what was on the time the most effective weekend of his profession. He scored a career-high 20 factors in a win over Manhattan at Draddy, and adopted it up with 22 towards Iona.
It was an excellent weekend for the Purps, marking the primary time in precisely six years that Niagara had swept a street weekend in MAAC play. Since then, the Purps have swept two extra, with wins at Rider and Mount St. Mary’s in late January, and the spectacular Connecticut sweep this previous weekend over second-place Fairfield and first-place Quinnipiac.
“Our protection did a extremely good job in each of these video games,” Paulus mentioned of the sweep. “Each of these groups have lots of expertise and flexibility, and so they play an up-tempo model, so it took a staff effort for us, completely different guys stepping up.”
The important thing to Niagara’s defensive success in MAAC play is 7-foot massive man Harlan Obioha. The Hoxie, Kansas, native was a extremely touted offensive sort out recruit, however selected to play basketball on the collegiate degree, and Niagara is stoked that he did.
He confirmed flashes all through his freshman yr, however struggled considerably with foul bother. He was solely in a position to play 21.6% of the minutes, however this yr, he’s stayed principally out of foul bother, and performed 63.9% of the minutes.
Along with his scoring and rebounding averages rising dramatically from 2.9 and three.1 to 9.8 and seven.8, Obioha’s defensive affect is great. When you gained’t discover it on the field rating, Hoop-Explorer’s On-Off information permits us to see simply how a lot he can disrupt an offense.
When Obioha is on the ground, in MAAC play, simply 37.4% of opponents’ subject aim makes an attempt are taken on the rim, a quantity that skyrockets to 55.2% when the massive man sits. Moreover, on these rim makes an attempt, groups are taking pictures 11.1% worse with Obioha on the ground than with him off, and getting fouled considerably much less as nicely.
Lastly, the Purple Eagles declare 6% extra defensive rebounds when Obioha is on the ground versus when he’s off the ground.
“He offers us an excellent presence on the rim,” Paulus mentioned of his massive man. “He’s a extremely good communicator, he is aware of precisely what we’re making an attempt to do on every possession, nad he’s earned that accountability. He does an excellent job of studying the sport defensively.”
That doesn’t remedy the issue of why Niagara is 7-0 on the street and 3-5 at house although. Paulus himself is aware of hostile street environments from his days at Duke, however he deflected the query when requested if he instills any form of villain mentality into his group.
Earlier this month, Niagara misplaced at house in time beyond regulation to Manhattan, however adopted it up with an enormous time beyond regulation win at Saint Peter’s. The mentality shifted in between these video games.
“After we acquired the sport to time beyond regulation towards Saint Peter’s,” Paulus started. “The blokes coming off the court docket, the fellows on the bench, all of them got here off and talked about studying from the expertise beforehand the place it didn’t go our method. Whether or not you win a sport otherwise you lose a sport, you simply need to use these alternatives to study and get higher at no matter it’s we have to get higher at.”
Niagara travels to Canisius on Friday within the Battle of the Bridge, seeking to sweep the Griffs for the second time in three seasons and push their MAAC street file to 8-0.
Different MAAC Notes
Fairfield and Quinnipiac will battle on nationwide TV at 9:00 p.m., not the customary 7:00 p.m. time slot, on Friday night time. The Stags are simply 1.5 video games again of the Bobcats, as QU are on a two sport skid. If Quinnipiac falters once more, then Matt Norlander would say it qualifies as a slide.
It’s additionally an enormous sport within the race for MAAC Participant of the 12 months and All-MAAC honors. These two groups every have 4 gamers within the dialog for All-MAAC honors (Leach, Fields, Floyd, Goodine, Balanc, Lewis, Tice, Otieno), and an enormous sport towards the opposite may cement someone’s spot on a given staff.
Fairfield scored 1.32 factors per possession and drained 18 three-pointers final weekend towards Mount St. Mary’s, bouncing again from the loss to Niagara. Nonetheless, the Stags are simply 3-9 towards groups with an offense pretty much as good as, or higher than Quinnipiac’s per KenPom. Fairfield is 13-1 in all different video games.
It’ll even be the primary sport for Tom Pecora since signing a contract extension that retains him in Hamden via the 2027-28 season.
Saint Peter’s was boosted final week by the return of celebrity Corey Washington, their offensive drawback solver. The Peacocks are an elite defensive staff, rating 83rd in hte nation and first within the MAAC, however offense has been a serious battle.
Between Washington’s damage and his return, the Peacocks gained simply as soon as in six video games, however SPU scored back-to-back victories together with a street win at Iona. It’s simply Saint Peter’s second sweep of Iona since 2010, and Bashir Mason improved to 3-0 all-time towards Tobin Anderson.
Washington’s back-to-back KenPom Recreation MVP performances earned him MAAC Participant of the Week, and the moment return to profitable makes a coherent argument for him to be the MAAC’s Participant of the 12 months as nicely.
The Peacocks tackle Mount St. Mary’s on Friday, and Marist on Sunday.
On the subject of the Mount, Dakota Leffew limped off the ground within the first half of final Sunday’s matchup with Fairfield, and missed the remained of the sport with a lower-body damage. Moreover, freshman level guard Dallas Hobbs missed that sport with a lower-body damage of his personal.
In response to Mount head coach Dan Engelstad, the 2 are day-to-day. The Mount doesn’t have an alternative choice as a real level guard with Hobbs out, contemplating Xavier Lipscomb is out for the season, and has been since November. Leffew, the Mount’s star and a candidate for participant of the yr, is a succesful ball handler, but when he’s unable to go, De’Shayne Montgomery and Josh Reaves, each nearer to wings than level guards, must shoulder the ball dealing with load.
It’s a tricky job for the Mount to face this weekend if they’re with out these two, as key matchups with Saint Peter’s and Iona loom at Knott Area. Mount St. Mary’s had gained 4 in a row earlier than dropping back-to-back video games final weekend.
Rider took down the Mount final Friday, however the storyline is how badly it obliterated Manhattan on Sunday. The Broncs had the very best single-game subject aim proportion within the nation towards a Division I opponent within the final 12 years.
76.4% from the sphere with 33 assists is tremendously spectacular in a street convention sport, and the Broncs are starting to spherical again into type after a 3 sport dropping streak.
It was the primary time within the Kevin Baggett period that three completely different Broncs recorded 5 or extra assists in a sport. 4 gamers reached the mark.
Rider takes on Iona and Quinnipiac at house this weekend.