The Assignment: The 2012-2013 Northeastern Huskies were historically successful. Seniors Joel Smith (First Team All-CAA) and Jon Lee (Third Team All-CAA) were irreplaceable parts of that historic run. Explain how a bigger, and still skilled Northeastern team can keep pace in the CAA in ’13-’14.

***

After trimming rival Boston U and Princeton with game-winning heroics in the final seconds of the first two games of the season, we knew the Northeastern Huskies were in for a special season.

We came to expect late-game heroics from the Cardiac Canines (or Hypertension Huskies, if you will). Double-digit comebacks were the norm, highlighted by a 24-point comeback against George Mason on Semifinal Sunday. It was the largest comeback in the program’s 93-year history.

It was the quintessential example of senior point guard Jon Lee’s greatness, as Lee drove the right side of the paint and banked home the game-winner to complete the comeback. A senior knows when there’s nothing open, you’ve got to “put your head down and drive.”

Winning on the opponent’s floor was commonplace, as Northeastern tied for the nation’s fourth-best winning percentage (11-4, .733), a direct product of spending Thanksgiving in Alaska. The Huskies led the CAA in steals (259) and 3-pointers (231), and were masterful at capitalizing off turnovers. They were superb from the foul line (75.3%), including a 27-of-27 showing at Georgia State in February.

This isn’t to say that the Huskies’ games weren’t close — 23 of Northeastern’s 33 games were decided by seven points or less. It came down to the fact that, on a given night, the odds favored Lee and Joel Smith outplaying the opposition down the stretch. A 20-point win over George Mason on January 27th put Northeastern at 8-0 in conference. The Huskies started 12-1 in league play, and coasted to their first conference title in 20 years.

Smith in particular was an ace in every sense of the word. When Lee missed the season’s first nine games, the veteran Smith stabilized the Huskies’ young core. When Lee returned, Smith continued to be the number one option on offense. Smith averaged a career-high 16.1 points per game and earned All-CAA First Team honors.

Smith led the CAA in effective field goal percentage (61%), points per shot (1.3) and true shooting percentage (65.7%). Smith hit 86 3-pointers, which established a new single-season record at Northeastern.

But near the end of that 12^th conference win, Smith suffered an ankle injury. He missed a game and was ineffective in the next few, before finishing the season strongly. Somewhere along the line, Smith suffered major ACL damage, but you wouldn’t have known it from watching him play. Smith was forced to miss Northeastern’s NIT game against Alabama.

There’s really no replacing the Lee and Smith’s talent and leadership, but the cupboard is far from bare in Boston. A team that had the CAA’s highest-scoring offense last year will make strides in other areas. Last year, the Huskies’ 3-2 zone gave many teams problems, but was ultimately average (68.3) in terms of points allowed. Additionally, Coen’s teams have been among the bottom 50 rebounding teams in five of his seven seasons in Boston.

Next season, with the addition of St. Francis transfer Scott Eatherton (14 points, 7 boards in ’11-’12), as well as redshirt freshman Kwesi Abakah, the Huskies will suddenly boast one of the biggest frontlines in the conference. The added length will give them a chance to clog up more passing lanes, and maintain high steal percentages.

Additionally, the Huskies should be a much better rebounding team. Coen has assembled possibly his biggest frontcourt to date, and just in time for the departure of George Mason and Old Dominion. Obviously when you’ve got a super efficient offensive group, there simply aren’t as many rebounds to grab, but boasting a bigger frontcourt will allow Northeastern to pull in more than 18.5 defensive rebounds (340th) per game.

The question will be how big of a jump rising junior Quincy Ford can make. Last season, back issues limited his effectiveness down the stretch, but playing alongside Eatherton and redshirt freshman Kwesi Abakah should alleviate the pressure on Ford to contribute down low. At 6’8″, Ford is a huge mismatch when playing on the wing. Ford averaged 12.2 points per game, a number that should jump considerably this year.

Last season, rising junior Reggie Spencer had the task of guarding the opponents’ big man. At 6’7”, it was a tough assignment to play alongside Rendleman and Hagins on the low block. With Eatherton and Abakah on roster, Spencer should get more breaks, which will help him avoid the late-season slide he experienced last year. He’s a true power forward who will be a double-double threat each night.

Rising sophomore David Walker will step in as Northeastern’s floor general. Having played alongside an experienced leader like Lee should do wonders for the 6’6″ Walker, who earned All-Rookie Team honors. Walker had the second-most steals of any Husky (1.3 per game) last season. As one of the biggest guards in the CAA, his length will create the easy turnovers that helped the Huskies build their leads last year.

Walker will bide time with junior Marco Banegas-Flores. When Lee was sidelined in the first nine games, Banegas-Flores received valuable playing time. The emergence of Walker relegated Banegas-Flores to bench duty, but the rising junior point guard had a career-high 10 points in the CAA Championship. He got to the rim easily, which will be a welcome skill on a team that can space the floor will multiple talented shooters.

One of those shooters, Demetrius Pollard, is the guy who hit the game-winning three against Boston U. Pollard shot 36.3% from three, and averaged 5.6 points in his 16.4 minutes per game. When Smith missed the Delaware game, Pollard played a career-high 41 minutes, but shot just 1-of-8 from the field. For Pollard, consistency is the key to more playing time.

Zach Stahl is a versatile wing who plays bigger than his 6’5” 200-pound frame. He’s a strong shooter who played stretches at the four last season. Now that the Huskies will boast a much bigger frontline, expect Stahl to see more minutes at the two and the three.

He didn’t play as much as classmates Walker and Stahl, but I expect Derrico Peck to find the floor a lot more next season. After playing 22 minutes against Belmont in the Great Alaskan Shootout, Peck didn’t play double-digit minutes again until the CAA Championship, when he provided a huge spark in Northeastern’s comeback efforts. Peck finished with a career-high eight points in 13 minutes.

Northeastern is set to bring in three freshmen. Pflugerville, Texas’s TJ Williams has grown from a diminutive 5’7” guard into a 6’3″ steal. Unfortunately for Williams, that growth spurt came with an assortment of nagging injuries which have limited his court time over the past few seasons. That may have been Coen’s gain, as many people in the Longhorn State think Williams is another steal in a long line of Coen recruits.

In early May, Northeastern received commitments from 6’6” small forward Jimmy Marshall and 6’2” guard CJ Hill. Marshall is a sharpshooter who can spread the floor. Hill is a late-blooming combo guard who should be an immediate contributor on defense. Both are Virginia natives.

Chris Avenant will be the Huskies’ only senior next season. Thus, Northeastern won’t have the veteran presence it had last season, but will be far from bereft in talent. Northeastern will still be among the best three-point shooting teams in the CAA, and should be a better defensive and rebounding squad. The Huskies will push to remain in the top half of the league this year, and will be one of the favorites to win the CAA heading in ’14-’15.

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CAA shopping title sponsorship for Baltimore basketball tournament Baltimore Business Journal The Colonial Athletic Association is reaching out to some of the largest companies in the Baltimore area in hopes of locking up a title sponsorship for its 2014 men’s basketball tournament. Philadelphia-based Front Row Marketing Services, the CAA’s arm …

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CAA’s Yeager energized, optimistic after league meetings Daily Press No one can forecast what the Colonial Athletic Association will look like moving forward, but commissioner Tom Yeager came away from the spring meetings far happier than a year ago. “From the outset, there was just a much better vibe,” Yeager said last …

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The Assignment: During James Madison’s CAA Championship run, four seniors accounted for 75% of the team’s scoring. Using statistical evidence, show what those seniors meant to the Dukes. Then, describe why the future is bright for Matt Brady’s program.

***

After coaching the CAA’s Most Injured Team for four years, James Madison head coach Matt Brady finally caught a bit of a break. Years of consistent ailments allowed the Dukes to put six seniors (five redshirts) on a roster that formed the NCAA’s most experienced team.

Although no player managed to play all 36 of JMU’s games, everything culminated at the right time, and allowed Brady to guide the Dukes to their first CAA Championship since 1994.

Aside from relative health, there was one big difference between last year’s JMU team, and the JMU team from Brady’s first four years: the CAA champs played defense. JMU’s CAA-best defense allowed 60.8 points during conference play. JMU averaged 11.1 turnovers per game (23rd in D-I) and just 9.8 in CAA play. JMU averaged 7.6 steals per game, and was at its best in transition.

Next season Brady, the recent recipient of a well-earned four-year contract extension, will find out what it’s like to coach with a roster chock full of freshmen and sophomores. For Madison, ’13-’14 will be Year One A.D. — the year After Devon.

Fifth-year senior point guard Devon Moore led the CAA in assists (4.9 per game) and shot a career-high 39.3% from three. Moore became JMU’s all-time assist leader on Senior Day, and finished his career with 502 dimes. When you consider everything else that’s gone on in his life, Moore’s on-court performance was all the more impressive.

And JMU wouldn’t have reached its potential without a midseason turnaround from uber-athletic wing AJ Davis. Starting with a 27-point outburst on February 6^th, Davis averaged 20.5 points over JMU’s final 10 conference games. He shot 50% or better eight times in that run. Davis averaged 20.7 points in the CAA Tournament, and received the Most Outstanding Player Award.

Davis has always had a knack for jaw-dropping dunks, but coach Brady would argue that it was his extra effort on the defensive end that made the difference. Although his end of the year statistics might not show it, you’d be hard-pressed to argue that Davis wasn’t one of the CAA’s most talented players. His supreme athleticism was rare for this league.

Senior power forward Rayshawn Goins was JMU’s rock in the post, and carried the team through the nonconference season. Goins scuffled through the tail end of conference play, but responded with a big time performance in the quarterfinals of the CAA Tournament. He was downright dominant in the first half of the CAA Championship against Northeastern.

While he didn’t post the same offensive statistics as his teammates, senior forward Alioune Diouf was critical to JMU’s late season success. The 6’5″ Diouf was often turned to as JMU’s number one post defender. He had a huge part in JMU’s CAA Championship win. It’s a shame that years of playing on injury-riddled teams deprived the 21-year-old Diouf of an opportunity to redshirt.

Make no mistake, the ’12-’13 Dukes were guided to the NCAA Tournament by their seniors. But if you watched them play in the Big Dance, you understand the significant optimism surrounding the future of this basketball program.

In JMU’s First Round victory over LIU-Brooklyn, freshman Andre Nation became just the ninth player since 1986 to accrue at least 14 points, seven rebounds, five blocks and four assists in an NCAA Tournament game. Seven of the eight players on that list went on to play in the NBA, with Shaquille O’Neal and Joakim Noah being the two headliners.

The 6’5″ Nation can handle the ball, and was the catalyst for JMU’s fast break offense. Nation, who played a prep year before enrolling at JMU, has an advanced feel for defense, and an offensive game that will continue to grow. In JMU’s final game of the season, Nation netted a career-high 24 points against Indiana. He’s a dark horse candidate for CAA Defensive Player of the Year.

Fellow freshman Charles Cooke averaged 16.5 points in JMU’s two NCAA Tournament games, including a career-high 18 points against Indiana. It was the first time Cooke scored in double figures in consecutive games on the collegiate level. Cooke played most of the second half of the season with a fractured wrist, which may have hindered his production.

Nation and Cooke, with classmates Ron Curry and Taylor Bessick, are the main reasons there’s an exciting future for Brady’s bunch. Overshadowed by Moore’s stellar play, it’s easy to forget the hype that Ron Curry had going to last season.

Here’s what I love about Curry’s game: after setting a career high (slash low) with four turnovers in a season-low 12 minutes in a February loss against George Mason, Curry responded by committing just one turnover in his next 211 minutes (spanning nine games). Granted, with Moore as de facto point guard, Curry played most of the season off the ball, but it’s still a neat stat.

That’s what JMU needs Curry to do this year: be smart and value the basketball. He’s a confident guy who should be much-improved as a sophomore.

The 6’9″ Bessick played the least of the four freshmen, but there were certainly a few games JMU wouldn’t have won without him. He’s only played basketball for a few years, and has plenty of room to grow. In an early January win against Drexel, Bessick scored nine points and snagged 13 rebounds.

It’s strange that the four rising sophomores (Bessick, Cooke, Curry and Nation) will be four of the most experienced players on the team. But with the aforementioned ailments comes some excellent news: Mr. Andrey Semenov will return for his 15th sixth season at JMU.

If you discount the two minutes Semenov played in the first game of the season, he averaged 11.2 points in six games last season. At this point, you know not to expect 30+ minutes a night from the guy, but if he can give Brady about 25 minutes each game, it’ll be huge for this team.

In 2012, Semenov shot 33-of-61 (54.1%) from downtown in JMU’s eight February games. He’s a sharpshooter who can stretch the defense and open up opportunities in the lane. The Russian Semenov’s veteran presence will be crucial to a young JMU team, and he’ll help JMU’s seven freshmen (five are foreign-born) acclimate to collegiate life.

So, what do we know about the seven freshmen? There’s a ton of length there — Mark Selig did the math to find that next year’s team, with an average height of 6’7″ inches, would have been the third-tallest team in D-I last season. It’s kind of crazy when your 6’4″ point guard in the shortest guy on the team.

The incoming freshmen:

6’10″ PF Dimtrije Cabarkapa (redshirted ’12-’13)
6’8″ PF Yohanny Dalembert
6’7″ PG Jackson Kent
6’8″ SF Ivan Lukic
6’6″ SF Thomas Rivard
6’8″ PF Paulius Satkus
6’9″ PF Tom Vodanovich

Matt Brady gave a nice breakdown of the incoming recruits here. Since that video, the Dukes added Dalembert, who will add defensive aggressiveness and athletic ability to the frontcourt. He should fit in well with the transition game the young Dukes love to play. And Brady’s said before that Cabarkapa might be the best shooter on the team.

Brady expects the defensive improvements of last year’s team to transition with this year’s group. Last season, JMU frequently had five guys on the floor that were all between 6’4″-6’6″. The players knew their roles, and rotated effectively on defense. With a taller roster, JMU might be able to establish a more traditional defense, if the coaches wish to do that.

The important thing to know is that Brady and staff will tailor the offense to the skillset of the players. With so many new faces, it’s difficult to say what that means for next season, but I’m certain that Selig will keep us updated on that throughout the summer.

Curry, Cooke and Nation can all lead the fast break, and like to play uptempo. Dalembert’s video shows a player who plays to the basket, and makes good passes in transition.

There’s plenty of reason for optimism in Harrisonburg, but buyer beware. These Dukes won’t have the benefits of seniority like they did last season. In late game scenarios, Brady knew he could put the ball in Moore’s hands, and trust that he’d make the best play possible. JMU will need a new go-to player in the clutch.

Seeing that more than half of the roster is filled by freshmen, it’s difficult to pick this team above most of the other teams in the CAA. The veteran Semenov will certainly ease the learning curve for this young team. This team will experience growing pains, but should be dangerous come next March’s CAA Tournament.

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Towson defeated Florida Atlantic 7-2 and William & Mary downed Ole Miss 4-2 on the first day of the NCAA Baseball Regionals on Friday. UNCW fell 10-7 to Elon.

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League attrition factored in Elon’s move to CAA Burlington Times News ELON — In the process that ultimately produced its decision to join the Colonial Athletic Association, Elon University viewed the Southern Conference’s state of flux as impossible to ignore. “Obviously, it was a concern,” Elon president Leo Lambert said. and more »

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Hofstra’s new men’s basketball coach Joe Mihalich announced his coaching staff, and it will look an awful lot like the coaching staff that he had when he was at Niagara. Mike Farrelly, Kyle Neptune and Shane Nichols, who were all assistants for Mihalich at Niagara, will remain on his staff at Hofstra. Mihalich’s Director of…

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Mark Selig of the Daily News Record reported today that JMU has officially announced a two-year home and home series with UVA in men’s hoops.  The Dukes will open the 2013-14 season at John Paul Jones Arena on November 8th.  Even more exciting, the Cavaliers will be making the trip to the Valley to take on JMU at the Convo in November 2014 early in the 2014-15 season.  Incredibly, Virginia essentially missed out an NCAA bid this year because of three CAA losses this past year, including a game at George Mason to open this past season.  Not sure who at UVA put out the mandate to play other state schools, but even we have to admit it’s pretty darn cool they’ve started doing this again after decades of joining their BCS Conference brethren in avoiding such matchups that provide little upside, but great risk.  I think I speak for all college hoops fans in saying these types of games against local and regional mid-majors is what we all love to see.

Nation dunking on a big-name team will be even better at the Convo!

It’s also fair to say this will be the best opponent, at least in terms of reputation if not on-court performance which is tough to judge two years out, JMU has hosted at the Convo in men’s hoops in quite some time (should be noted here that Kenny Brooks’ women’s team has frequently hosted solid major conference opponents the last few years, including both UVA and a string of high-majors in their two WNIT runs).  Not since Georgetown came to town in ’05 and VT in ’06 has their been a big opponent to get fired up over.  For two guys old enough to remember regular visits from schools like Minnesota, Purdue, and Mississippi St.  this could be a real reminder of what the Convo can be at its best, especially with what will hopefully be a sweet new court design!

On another note, exciting scheduling like this would go along way towards easing the pain of the potential for a lost, “transitional” season in the event (we hope likely event) JMU gets the hell out of the crumbling CAA.  A direct move announced this summer, or next, like those pulled off by VCU and GMU would be a hell of a lot better than the crap ODU had to suffer through this past year, but needless to say bold, decisive action, especially bold, decisive action requiring exit payments, does not quite line up with JMU’s m.o. when it comes to conference issues.  Hey, no harm in dreaming right?

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CAA makes best of difficult situation Daily Press Now that the excitement has worn off from the Colonial Athletic Association’s food chain addition of Elon, it’s worth asking: What did you expect? A moderately successful athletic program that’s competed at the NCAA Division I level for all of 14 years … Elon Joins Colonial Athletic AssociationElon Local News Elon to join Colonial Athletic AssociationFox News Elon joining Delaware in Colonial Athletic Associationnewszap.com NBCSports.com -Mid-Major Madness -The Pendulum all 53 news articles »

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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — When Elon looked at the ever-changing landscape of college athletics and the possibility that the dominoes from conference realignments will just keep on falling, an invitation to join the Colonial Athletic Association became more about the fit for the Phoenix than the future.

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