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Scouting La Salle!!
By
Andy Mac Williams,
1/3/2012
The Muskies open Atlantic 10 play with back to back road games Wednesday nite at LaSalle (6PM-Fox Sports Ohio) and Saturday afternoon at Fordham (12 noon-Fox Sports Ohio). Xavier is on semester break until next week so the team knocks out 25% of their league away schedule with no missed class time for the players. It's also basketball boot camp with school out of session. NCAA limits on practice time do not apply. Considering XU's nasty reversal of fortunes (4 losses in 5 starts), you can bet Chris Mack, his coaches and players are spending tons of time together.
The Muskies made strides toward regaining their form New Year's Eve at Cintas in the 72-65 loss to Gonzaga. The Zags will be nationally rated and very possibly a Top 4 NCAA seed come March, in my opinion. For XU to get back on track for a decent NCAA seed of their own, they need to buckle down defensively as they did against Gonzaga plus win the rebounding and free throw numbers and start making 35 to 40% of their 3's (not 3 of 18 as they did vs GU). A modest number of 3 point attempts is fine (15 to 20). Xavier doesn't have the personel to live by the 3. X just needs to take better long shots and make more of them. It's a quality not quantity thing.
La Salle is improved over the team Xavier destroyed 100-62 at Cintas last February. 6-10 malcontent Aaric Murray has transferred to West Virginia. Huggs will either kill him or make him an NBA player. Starters Jerrell Williams and Ruben Guillandeaux have graduated. They could score but the Explorers couldn't stop anybody allowing 79 PPG. They played a sieve -like zone.
The new younger group under 9th year coach Dr. John Giannini has cut the points allowed drastically to 62 PPG but their borderline anemic schedule throws the numbers into question. Still LU is 10-4 overall with a 9 game home court winning streak at Tom Gola Arena (4,000 on campus in Philadelphia).
Their losses are tolerable (Villanova, Pitt, Delaware on the road, Robert Morris at the Palestra) but there isn't a Top 100 RPI win any where to be found. Bucknell? James Madison? Army? Come on, Dr. John. Play somebody!!
Enter Xavier-maybe lacking self-esteem. LaSalle rallied from 20 points down two years ago in Philly and almost upset XU.
This La Salle team has good guards. Soph Tyreek Duren runs the point well (2 to 1 assist-turnover ratio) and scores 13PPG. The new shooting guard is Ramon Galloway who started at South Carolina last season and got a hardship waiver and immediate eligibility at LU. He's a 47% 3 point shooter and averages 15PPG. Soph Sam Mills subs at both backcourt spots and hits 46% from long range.
The small forward is Rutgers transfer Earl Pettis (13PPG). Frosh Jerrell Wright (6-8 230) has filled a hole inside as has JR Devon White (6-8,240). 6-5 Frosh DJ Petersen comes off the bench. It's basically a 7 man team but they're playing together and they're dangerous from long range.
X has a huge edge inside and in depth that they need to capitalize on. If zone is still La Salle's defensive foot print, the Muskies will need to selectively make some open looks outside after running the offense for several passes.
The pressure is higher on XU after the travails of the past three weeks but they'll be prepared and LU although improved just hasn't beaten anybody. Expect an effort akin to the A-10 opener last season at Rhode Island when the Muskies came out with all guns blazing on a Sunday after looking like a limp noodle 3 days earlier at UC.
Chris Mack coached teams are 29-3 in regular season A-10 games with losses at Temple, Dayton and Charlotte. La Salle could pull off the upset but they'll need a flurry of 3 pointers from all angles plus a sad sack XU effort.
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