The men’s basketball team ended another woeful season on Friday when they lost to Virginia Commonwealth University 66-49. This capped off a 7-24 season, with the Hens winning just three out of 18 CAA games. This kind of performance should disappoint the student body of a Division I basketball school, but the Hens have fallen so far from their NCAA tournament days under former head coach Mike Brey that they are no longer a factor in student life at the university.
Their loss in the CAA Tournament was no surprise to anyone. They entered the tourney as the bottom seed and faced a hungry Rams team, fueled by the CAA Defensive Player of the Year and conference first-team selection Larry Sanders. Sanders had a game-high 15 points along with 13 rebounds, three blocks and a steal. But with all due respect to Sanders and the VCU squad, Delaware was going to lose regardless of their opponent. This was a Hens squad that was beaten, battered and bloodied, and simply had given all that it could.
The players can’t be blamed. Out of 13 players, six are freshman and three are sophomores. Junior point guard Jawan Carter played nearly every minute of every game this season and never gave up on his team. His play was enough to earn him Second Team All-CAA honors, but his team-high 18.2 points per game came on 39.2 percent from the field — far from the accuracy expected from the best player on a team.
Junior shooting guard Alphonso Dawson didn’t receive any honors on the season, but had the team been better rounded he most likely would have. With most defenses realizing Carter was the top scoring threat on the team, Dawson was left with a lot of shots to himself, since there was no reliable third option. Dawson finished the season with 12.1 points per game on just under 36 percent shooting, 27.8 percent on three point attempts.
The blame, then, has to lie with the coaches. Delaware may need to cut ties and start over. Head coach Monte Ross and his assistants relied too heavily on Carter and Dawson to make everything happen on the court and when that clearly wasn’t working, the coaching staff failed to right the ship. It may have been a young team, but Delaware certainly had some other talent that should have been utilized.
Sophomore forward Adam Pegg had the second-highest shooting percentage on the team at 46.6 percent, but saw the ball so few times that he averaged just five points per game. Most of the time Pegg would have position on the block but would never see the ball, leaving him obviously frustrated which would later result in frustration fouls.
One player who shined in his first year was freshman forward Josh Brinkley. Brinkley’s season was cut short to 22 games due to a stress fracture in his left foot. His talent is still very raw, but he’s a force in the paint and can move people at will. His 61.1 percent from the field was a team high (minimum 50 shots), yet he averaged just 5.1 points per game. Between him, Pegg and redshirt freshman forward Kelvin McNeil, the Hens have a legitimate interior game. The coaching staff just never gave it a chance.
As a journalist covering the team, I felt coach Ross’ frustration when he said the team needed students at the game to carry it and be the sixth man; as a Delaware student watching the Hens play, I understand why few others showed up. Watching your team lose by an average margin of 9.2 points per game is an unpleasant weekend afternoon activity.
If nothing changes — no talented recruits, no coaching or philosophy changes — don’t except the students to pencil the Hens in any time soon.
Send questions, comments and Monte Ross’s letter of resignation to mgwaters@udel.edu
Commentary: Time for something new
Published: Monday, March 8, 2010
Updated: Monday, March 8, 2010
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