After watching Gregory Echenique in summer league, I wondered aloud how physical he would be allowed to be in MVC games — and if his effectiveness would be stymied by referees not used to such a beastly big man. He held his own in the Big East (and on many nights did much more than simply hold his own), a league known for having ridiculously physical centers. The Valley, on the other hand, is a guard’s league, and most teams’ centers are either natural power forwards who have been shifted to center, or skinny 6’11” project-type players. My worry — and I was not alone in this, so I’m not claiming to be a genius here (I’m far closer to “idiot” than “genius”, trust me) — was that because he’s so much larger than most players who would be playing opposite him, lots of instances that “look” like fouls would be called as actual fouls.
Sadly, the crew working the game Saturday night made those fears into reality. Gregory entered the game at the 16:50 mark of the first half; 44 seconds later he was whistled for a foul when the much skinnier Kraidon Woods flopped after getting beat for a rebound. Like many bad refs before them, the officiating crew fell for the flop and called the foul. 41 seconds later, Woods drew another foul, this time as he tried to drive the baseline. Echenique cut off the baseline with textbook technique, but a bit of theatrics from Woods combined with the referees anticipating worse contact than actually came to pass led to a whistle. One minute of action, two fouls. The first was the result of gamesmanship by a smaller player, and while regrettable, its something Gregory will need to get used to as opponents try to neutralize his size advantage. The second was the result of the referees not allowing Gregory to play as physical as he wants to — as physical as he had to play every single night in the Big East just to survive — and I’d hoped that wouldn’t be something he’d need to get used to. I still hope it isn’t. But it was clear on Saturday night that he was not going to allowed to play his idea of physical against Drake’s smaller, skinnier, less athletic post players.
When he’d entered the game just over three minutes into the game, it appeared he would need to have a huge game as Kenny Lawson looked to be having an off-night. But when Echenique took a seat on the bench for the remainder of the first half just 90 seconds later, Lawson jumped off the bench and decided to make the Bulldogs regret picking him as their poison. What resulted was his second-best effort of the season (after the redonkulous 30 point, 18 rebound game versus St. Joes). Lawson had 8 points and 8 rebounds in the first half alone, and followed with 6 points and another 8 rebounds in the second half en route to his fourth double-double of the season with 14 points and 16 rebounds.
Doug McDermott, playing the four next to Lawson most of the night, had a career game (that never gets old, even though I’ve typed it after about five games already), scoring 28 points with 10 rebounds of his own; combined with Lawson, they outrebounded the Bulldogs all by themselves. Seriously. McDermott and Lawson had 26 rebounds, and Drake had 24 as a team. The Bulldogs were outboarded 45-24, a thoroughly ridiculous statistic, and the second time in three games they’ve decimated an opponent on the glass. Its a key trend. The Bluejay wing players haven’t made a lot of three pointers this year, and with Ethan Wragge’s availability for the remainder of the season up in the air, they’re likely not going to be any better at making shots than they are right now.
The Jays will therefore need to dominate in the paint to win. That seems daunting, but given Antoine Young’s player-of-the-year caliber play so far, if any two of the combination of Lawson, Echenique, Wayne Runnels and McDermott can have a solid night every night, they should be able to score enough to win most nights. On Wednesday in Normal, Echenique carried the load with Runnels adding a couple of buckets at key moments on a night when the other two struggled. Saturday, Lawson and McDermott shouldered the load. Its hard to get used to for fans used to watching AltmanBall that required three-point shooters to win, but it can be just as effective.
While the final three non-conference games weren’t exactly against world-beaters, and the first two MVC games were not against the top of the league, its still clear the team is progressing in some important areas. Defensively, the McDermott System is working better each game: taking away the inside game, neutralizing their leading scorer, and daring everyone else to beat them with outside shots. Jays’ opponents will live or die by the three — and given that in all but two games this year, the opponent’s best scorer has been held to below their season average — more often than not, the opponent will die by the three, as not many teams have multiple great shooters from three-point range.
Its why McDermott had great success at Northern Iowa against everyone but Creighton, in retrospect; the Jays were one of those teams with multiple great shooters from outside, and were able to take advantage of his defensive scheme. Meanwhile, Southern Illinois, who the Jays couldn’t beat to save their lives, struggled against Mac’s Panther teams because they derived so much of their offense from big men like Randal Falker, who got nothing easy against Mac’s defense.
The characteristics of the Mac system are all over the place in this five-game winning streak that has seen the team play with more confidence. They rebound so well — +51 in the last three games alone! — that I’m about two or three more beastly games away from coming up with a catchy nickname for them, like, oh, I don’t know, “Monsters of the Midlands” or something (Bears fans probably love that one; my fellow Vikes fans not so much; I’ll keep brainstorming on it). They lock down teams defensively, holding the last five opponents to under 40% from the floor. They run a lot of sets in the half court, don’t get a lot of fast break baskets, and never, ever, ever press. They box out, they guard, they rebound, they hit free throws, they don’t turn it over, they don’t do anything flashy, they don’t seem exciting on the surface…but they win. Its fundamental basketball, and while some fans are grumbling about its lack of pizazz, I love it.
Missouri State, who comes to town on Tuesday night, will be a fantastic test to see where this team really is defensively as they shoot the ball well, and they have multiple scorers from behind the arc. Most importantly, it will be an outstanding litmus test before preseason favorite Wichita State comes to Omaha next week.
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Ever notice how the better halftime acts always seem to come when the students (and thus, the Jays Dancers) are out of town on Christmas Break? Maybe that’s merely a coincidence, maybe it only seems that way, or maybe the extra two minutes of halftime saved by not having a dance routine at the start of the half are the reason. In any event, the excellent “Champions Forever” family of unicyclists, jugglers and all-around badassery were the entertainment on Saturday, and before the game, Jahenns Manigat tried to learn their tricks of the trade as this video from Creighton Athletics shows.
You bet.