When I got home last night, the first thing I did was look up whether Western Illinois has a wrestling program. Sadly, they do not. Its too bad, because I think Matt Lander could have a nice career in pro wrestling if basketball doesn’t work out for him. He’s got several moves down, and after getting booed by 13,000 people every time he touched the ball in the second half, he’s got some great experience as the villain, or in wrestling lexicon, the “Heel.”
Early in the second half while running up court, he got tangled up with — and I’m being kind here — Gregory Echenique, and the two fell to the ground. At first, he laid there for a couple of seconds to keep Gregory from getting back on defense, hoping his team could convert an easy basket without the Jays biggest defender there. That’s gamesmanship, and I can appreciate that. But then, once he finally did get up, he lingered just long enough to push Gregory back down to the ground as he got up. The crowd expected a foul. When none came, what had been a passive late-December Monday night crowd came unglued. Boos rained down, equal parts directed at the refs and at Lander.
Now, was it a foul? Depends how closely you’re calling the game. The World-Herald’s Steve Takaba tweeted from courtside that he thought it wasn’t, and he’s likely right. But you have to understand, after just two games Echenique is already a fan favorite — monster dunks and volleyball-spike-blocks and sky-high potential will do that — so whether it was technically a foul or not isn’t the point. Lander was messing with “our” guy, and that won’t be tolerated by the Bluejay faithful. Thus, on every possession for the remainder of the game, whenever Lander touched the ball — and for the entire time he had the ball, whether that was two seconds or 20 — the fans booed lustily, silencing immediately when he would pass the ball, just in case there was any doubt who or why they were booing. Being the point guard, he had the ball a lot, so he got booed a lot.
The thing is, he’s their best player and most dynamic scorer, and he had been their most effective scoring option against the Jays. Then the tussle happened, he started getting booed, and he got rattled — he went scoreless the rest of the game save for a late basket after the outcome was no longer in doubt. Combined with a solid defensive effort on him, their best offensive weapon was taken out of the game.
After the game, Gregory reiterated something he’d mentioned postgame on Saturday — that he’s glad the fans like him, because he likes them too — and then said he appreciated them having his back. I’m not sure how the fans at Rutgers treated him, but he’s a Bluejay now and when someone messes with him, they mess with all of us. Matt Lander found that out, to his peril, Monday night.
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11 games into the season, and two games into the Echenique Era, what is this team’s identity? They’re not pretty, their style of play isn’t going to result in many games played in the 70s or 80s, and they aren’t going to blow anyone out, but with Echenique in the fold, they’re a tough, gritty group that’s going to leave opponents with a lot of bruises, if not losses.
That’s not dissimilar from how McDermott won at Northern Iowa, incidentally. Teams dreaded playing against them because, in addition to being pretty good, they were tough as nails. That’s why a lot of Jays fans took a dislike to the Panthers — they were no fun to play against. But they won.
Given the identity that’s emerging with this group, they figure to be on the free throw line a ton, which is a good thing. Despite the struggles last night, they’re a Top Twenty team in free throw shooting. Seriously, you could look it up. If you make more free throws than your opponent attempts, that’s a good indicator of a winning team. People may be frustrated with the way games have gone, stylistically, but that’s because they’re 7-4. Look not at wins and losses but at how the foundation is being built for the long-term here. Defensively, at the line, in the paint … the Jays are getting it done everywhere except behind the arc, where they continue to be horrible. They’re 262nd (out of 345) in the country in three-point shooting percentage at 31%, including last night’s stellar 3-19 effort. Open looks have abounded over the first 11 games, and those figure only to become more commonplace as teams double-team the post. The Jays can be a 18 or 19 win team and go to the NIT on the backs of defense and free throw shooting, but if they can start hitting open shots from outside even at a 35% clip, they can be much more dangerous than that. The shots are there, they just need to hit them. Sounds so easy, doesn’t it?
You may think their defense has been horrible, given some rather high-profile breakdowns on ball screens leading to wide-open threes. But consider this: in eight of their last ten games, the Jays have held the opponent’s leading scorer to less than his average. John Shurna of Northwestern had a field day against the Jays (scoring 23, while his average was around 17 at the time; its over 24 now). Broderick Gilchrest of Idaho State is the only other top player to exceed his average, but that’s a bit of an unfair comparison because he took a staggering 21 shots in the game. In every other game, the Jays have made someone other than the opponent’s top scorer beat them — sometimes they have (as BYU did when Jimmer Fredette was slowed) and sometimes they haven’t. Its a bit of a gamble, sure, but I like it, especially when you have an elite defender like Antoine Young to apply the majority of the shut-down defense on the perimeter.
I’d say the identity of this group is pretty simple: tough interior defense, a knack for taking away the opponent’s top scoring option, and grinding out close games played in the high-60s and low-70s. They won’t win season ticket holders many free pizzas. But they may yet win a bunch of games.
You bet.
