Delaware -1 at Drexel
Pick: Delaware -1
Previous Match-Up
On January 18, 2015, Drexel visited Delaware and came away with a 66-62 win. Drexel shot its way to a 12-point halftime lead in the 151st meeting between the Colonial Athletic Association's most familiar men's basketball rivals. Delaware spent the next 20 minutes playing catch-up.
Eight-man Drexel, its roster reduced because of injuries (however, one Drexel player that did dress that night was G Damion Lee), scored as many points in the first half – 35 – as it had in a 54-35 home loss to James Madison in its previous game Thursday night. The Dragons arrived determined and with their shooting aim focused, just as Delaware Hens coach Monte Ross warned his team they would (I will return to this point).
"The whole week in practice, [Ross] stressed how good they were…and how when they play Delaware they always have a chip on their shoulder. Their two stars, Tavon Allen and Damion Lee, came out with a chip on their shoulder, and it showed tonight how good they can be when they play us.'', said Delaware freshman Chivarsky Corbett, whose 15 points led the Hens.
Lee, the CAA's leading scorer (20.4 ppg) who missed most of last season with a knee injury, scored 17 points keyed by 10-for-10 foul shooting and grabbed 11 rebounds. Fellow guard Allen, whose career-high 25 came at the Carpenter Center last year, scored 13.
Among the problems that cursed the Hens on Saturday were a 16-for-25 (64-percent) effort at the foul line.
"I thought we ran some really good offense and a product of good offense is you get to the free-throw line….But if you don't make the other team pay when you get to the free-throw line, it's all for naught'' Ross said.
"We didn't come out strong at all….that really what put us behind…..We didn't have the energy that we brought out in the second half. We weren't playing defense as well.'' Delaware freshman point guard Kory Holden said.
Impact of Damion Lee injury
The junior guard broke a bone in his hand in Drexel's overtime loss at Northeastern Saturday. Lee will miss the rest of the season. Lee's 21.4 points per game lead the CAA and rank No. 5 nationally in Division I, a major boost for a Drexel team that has been undermined by injuries and a lack of depth all season. Lee was also 2nd on team in rebounds (6.1per game), tied for 1st in assists (63), 1st in steals (41), 2ND in FG% (.438), 1ST in 3P% (.385), 1ST in FT% (.887). Not to forget Lee averaged more than 38 minutes per game and had played the entire 40 minutes of games in 13 of Drexel’s 27 games this season, including 45 minutes in OT game. Refer to Table 1.
Table 1 – Damion Lee Stats since January 3, 2015
Date
|
vs.
|
Score
|
Line
|
O/U
|
Min
|
Pts
|
Ast
|
Reb
|
Blk
|
T/S
|
2/21/15
|
@ NE
|
L 73-83 (OT)
|
L 9
|
O 122.5
|
45:00
|
30
|
1
|
5
|
0
|
0/1
|
2/18/15
|
@ JMU
|
L 78-82
|
W 4.5
|
O 122.5
|
40:00
|
26
|
1
|
6
|
0
|
3/1
|
2/15/15
|
HOF
|
L 57-81
|
L 3
|
O 133.5
|
34:00
|
15
|
1
|
4
|
0
|
1/1
|
2/10/15
|
TOWS
|
W 53-49
|
P -4
|
U 116
|
40:00
|
23
|
2
|
4
|
0
|
2/3
|
2/7/15
|
@ COFC
|
W 59-45
|
W 4.5
|
U 118.5
|
40:00
|
12
|
2
|
4
|
0
|
1/1
|
2/5/15
|
@ ELON
|
W 67-63
|
W 4
|
P 130
|
38:00
|
16
|
5
|
8
|
0
|
2/2
|
1/31/15
|
UNCW
|
W 85-76
|
W -1.5
|
O 124.5
|
40:00
|
32
|
3
|
13
|
1
|
4/1
|
1/28/15
|
NE
|
W 65-60
|
W 6
|
O 118.5
|
36:00
|
33
|
3
|
4
|
0
|
0/1
|
1/24/15
|
COFC
|
W 53-51
|
W 1
|
U 113.5
|
40:00
|
21
|
3
|
5
|
0
|
1/0
|
1/21/15
|
@ HOF
|
L 58-86
|
L 12
|
O 132
|
38:00
|
27
|
3
|
7
|
1
|
4/2
|
1/17/15
|
@ DEL
|
W 66-62
|
W 4
|
O 125
|
40:00
|
17
|
4
|
11
|
0
|
3/0
|
1/15/15
|
JMU
|
L 35-54
|
L -3
|
U 124
|
40:00
|
14
|
0
|
4
|
0
|
1/2
|
1/10/15
|
@ UNCW
|
L 57-64
|
L 5
|
U 127
|
39:00
|
32
|
0
|
8
|
0
|
3/2
|
1/8/15
|
@ TOWS
|
W 55-41
|
W 5
|
U 120.5
|
38:00
|
16
|
0
|
7
|
2
|
0/1
|
1/5/15
|
CWM
|
L 47-73
|
L 5.5
|
U 124.5
|
34:00
|
18
|
3
|
7
|
0
|
1/3
|
1/3/15
|
ELON
|
L 67-77
|
L -5.5
|
O 131
|
40:00
|
29
|
6
|
6
|
0
|
2/2
|
With Lee out, Drexel is again back down to eight players. How the team will adjust in its first game without him will be interesting. Lee is just as important if not as important as Justin Anderson is to Virginia (reference David Malinsky’s Point Blank article and subsequent game results). It took nearly three games for Virginia to adjust and there is pretty of more talent on that roster.
Drexel Coach Bruiser Flint take it away:
"I just lost the best player in the league….He had a phenomenal season….we've been adjusting all year….We know this is a big adjustment. I've been joking that we may not score 30 points in the game. We've been going through this all year. It's been a rough season in that respect. So we've just got to make another adjustment. We've been talking about next guy stepping up all season. We're almost running out of guys to step up to be honest with you.''
Table 2 (below) shows what Flint has left and it’s not all that pretty. Only Rodney Williams and Mohamad Bah shoot better than 40% and only one player averages in double digits Tavon Allen. Scoring points was already a difficult for a team that ranks 255th nationally in offensive efficiency and averages 59.8 ppg, Lee’s 21.4 ppg, represents nearly 36% of that production.
Table 2 - Drexel Player Statistics
The marketplace understands and appreciates your concern Coach Flint, already the market line has adjusted nearly 3.5 points, and Delaware is now a 1-point favorite (as of press time). I would not let the adjustment affect the decision making progress here.
The impact of Damion Lee’s injury however isn’t lost on Delaware Head Coach Monte Ross.
Coach Monte Ross said before practice Wednesday that the Blue Hens cannot afford to think any less of Drexel because losing a player like Lee "galvanizes the troops'' to beat the odds.
"You know what it's going do? It's going to allow the Rashann Londons, the Sammy Mojicas, the Tavon Allens – all those guys are going to play much freer and easier…..They're going to come out with 'We don't have anything to lose. Nobody's expecting us to win without Damion.' That's the fear of it.'' Ross said of Drexel's other players.
Ross is right, other players may step up. But again it is hard to get passed Lee’s importance, looking back at the earlier match-up we see that Lee produced 17 of Drexel’s 66 points, that’s 26% of the offense, not mention his FT ability 10-10 and rebounds (11). Notice also, that Bah, Allan and Williams each had 4, 4 and 5 fouls respectively. With Lee out, they will no doubt be more of the center of attention and foul trouble lurks. Take note that Delaware is 5th in conference in FTA/FGA % and got to the line 25 times in the previous match-up.
Table 3 - Drexel Boxscore vs. Delaware
|
REBOUNDS
|
|
PLAYER
|
MIN
|
FGM-A
|
3GM-A
|
FTM-A
|
OFF
|
DEF
|
TOT
|
A
|
PF
|
STL
|
TO
|
BLK
|
PTS
|
Freddie Wilson
|
8:00
|
0-1
|
0-0
|
1-2
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
3
|
0
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
Tavon Allen
|
31:00
|
5-10
|
2-4
|
1-1
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
0
|
2
|
1
|
13
|
Damion Lee
|
40:00
|
3-12
|
1-4
|
10-10
|
0
|
11
|
11
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
3
|
0
|
17
|
Mohamed Bah
|
16:00
|
2-3
|
0-0
|
1-2
|
0
|
2
|
2
|
0
|
4
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
5
|
Sammy Mojica
|
31:00
|
3-6
|
1-3
|
2-2
|
1
|
0
|
1
|
2
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
9
|
Austin Williams
|
8:00
|
1-1
|
0-0
|
0-0
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
5
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
2
|
Rashann London
|
40:00
|
3-8
|
1-3
|
1-2
|
0
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
1
|
0
|
8
|
Tyshawn Myles
|
26:00
|
5-8
|
0-0
|
1-2
|
6
|
5
|
11
|
0
|
3
|
0
|
0
|
0
|
11
|
TOTAL
|
200
|
22-49
|
5-14
|
17-21
|
7
|
23
|
30
|
10
|
20
|
2
|
8
|
1
|
66
|
|
44.9%
|
35.7%
|
81.0%
|
Team Rebs: 3
|
|
Total TO: 8
|
Ross’s message to his players about Drexel’s lack of depth in the previous match-up may have been lost amongst the players but this time it won’t be and for good reason...
Delaware’s Monté Ross
Ted Bailey over at City of Basketball Love recently wrote a great piece on Delaware Head Coach Monte Ross. I have included some excerpts here:
“Following Delaware’s loss to Elon on Saturday, the final home game of the Blue Hens’ 2014-15 season, Blue Hens coach Monté Ross decided to address the crowd. “I love you all dearly,” Ross said over the PA system. “The support that you’ve shown my family, I can’t put into words. Obviously we want to send our seniors out the right way. Part of that is winning the game. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do that for them today. I’ll say this though, these guys left everything out on the court.” …..A season ago, Ross lead Delaware to its first-ever CAA championship, and its first NCAA Tournament appearance in 15 years. The magical season was buoyed by seniors Davon Usher, Devon Saddler and Carl Baptiste, plus junior Jarvis Threatt….. None of those players returned for the 2014-2015 campaign. Usher, Baptiste and Saddler graduated, and Threatt was dismissed from the program for another violation of team rules. Ross, meanwhile, saw 86 percent of his scoring vanish and was left with one of the youngest teams in the country….. It translated into a 1-13 start for Delaware as the Hens entered CAA play – but Ross wasn’t making excuses about his team’s youth. “It is what it is,” Ross said after almost every game. “We just have to trust the process.”…… Since the 1-13 start, Ross’s club has been able to easily exceed expectations. Despite inconsistency, Delaware has notched four wins against the upper echelon of the CAA, and at 7-9 in league play, are fighting for the final bye into the CAA Tournament Quarterfinals….. And what has the university done to reward a coach that is fast-forwarding a rebuilding process the right way? Absolutely nothing.
After being insulted of a contract extension offer last summer, Ross later decided to accept the extension. The university, meanwhile, told him that it was no longer on the table. Since then, it has been an interesting dynamic surrounding the Delaware basketball program. Ross has been all business, all the time. During press conferences and related interviews, it’s as if the people in the room are awkwardly avoiding the topic that is on everyone’s minds. Fans, though, have shown their overpowering support for Ross, who has held the Delaware reigns for nine seasons. Throughout the latter half of the season, members of the Blue Hens faithful brought signs related to the contract situation:
“Coach Ross IS Delaware Basketball,” said one. “We support 2013-2014 CAA Coach of the Year, Monté Ross,” another read. “I thought that those signs were a support of the team,” Ross said. “I appreciate them from the bottom of my heart for them appreciating us as a program from the bottom of their hearts.” Before Saturday afternoon’s home finale, a fan giving out signs reading “Renew Contract, Coach Ross” was told by Delaware officials to stop – and that her act was illegal and may incite a riot.
If Coach Ross stays, I’m going to stay,” King-Davis said.
Ross has every right to be bitter towards the university – but instead, he’s doing the opposite. Following Saturday’s game, Ross reflected on his appreciation of the Blue Hens faithful and what his program has been able to accomplish during the careers of his seniors.
“These Delaware fans have been so supportive, and I can’t say enough about them,” Ross said. “What they’ve meant to me and my family. They respect the way that we’ve built this program and the way our kids act on the court. Our kids respect the game and play the game the right way. I think that the Delaware fans respect that as well.”
“Kyle Anderson is a man that took a chance,” Ross said. “Coming halfway across the country. We were bad at the time, and we told him that we’re going to turn it around and just need him to trust us. He did, and it’s worked out beautifully for all parties.”
Now, Ross will look to guide his team against Drexel and Towson on the road to close out the campaign. Winning those games could lead to a bye in the first round of the CAA Tournament – a remarkable feat for the lack of experience he has had on the roster.
But would a tournament run be able to do anything for his contract situation? It certainly did last year, however it seems as if the athletic administration has given up on Ross – for whatever reason they have. With the apparent vendetta that Ross has been showed, a strong push in the CAA Tournament may sadly just be fruitless endeavor.”
After his post-game comments vs. Elon, the message he sent his team prior to the first Drexel game, his contract situation, the player’s future and a potential bye in the first round of the CAA tournament I am convinced this entire Delaware roster will be playing hard this evening for Coach Ross. This includes Freshmen’s Kory Holden, Chivarsky Corbett, Eric Carter and Anthony Mosley all of whom we’re impressive in their high school days and have since jelled together as the season has progressed and more so on the road. Speaking of which…..
2015 - Delaware Road Games
Delaware certainly defines the term ‘road warrior’. Delaware is 6-1 ATS in last 7 road games, beating market expectations by 45 points or 6.4 points per game that includes four wins while being underdogs of 6 or more points.
Figure 1 – 2015 - Delaware Road Games
So its Senior Night in Drexel…right?
Thursday will be the final home appearance for Freddie Wilson (4.0 ppg, 19mpg). However, Wilson is in his second year with the team after transfering from Seton Hall. Drexel's only other senior is Sooren Derboghosian and he is out with a knee injury and will not play in the game. Derboghosian is in his first year as a fifth-year senior. He is in graduate school. Put together, I don't see the senior night being an impact here.
A lot has been said here, but when you lose two games in a row, you want very angle. Delaware has legit revenge here, they playing for a beloved coach, have great road ATS record and can quite possibly (with a win) obtain a first-round bye in the CAA tournament, call that a significant turnaround from the 1-13 start and a testament to Coach Ross. Lee is too significant a piece for Drexel to recover from in the next game.
At -1, value still reigns with Delaware. Give me Delaware -1.