I remember talking with some friends back in October before basketball season started about our predictions for the men’s basketball team as they began their inaugural season in the Big South. I was certain that they’d at least get near the 10-win mark, which is where they ended last season. I was certain that if the team coalesced early enough, the defensive struggles that loomed so large last year would be just those – struggles of the past. I wasn’t expecting anything spectacular, but as it turns out, that’s what I (and everyone else) got.
The problem is things are going spectacularly awful.
I just can’t just write “things are going terribly” week in and week out; that’s boring for both you and me. When I sit down and write a column (usually about this team) every week, I try to find a different angle to, if nothing else, entertain you, the reader. The entertainment value that the team is offering right now is not dissimilar to the 2008 Detroit Lions season (sorry not sorry if you’re a Lions fan), the only difference being that the Lancers have won a game.
Against High Point, Michael Kessens and TT Carey combined for 37 points – not a bad number. But when two players tally nearly one-third of a team’s total like that, the team is doomed. To make matters worse, a manageable five-point halftime deficit was all but wiped out when Adam Weary made it 46-32 in favor of the Panthers early in the second half last Wednesday. Final score: 88-60. Okay, it’s not as bad as the Liberty loss, but there’s no excuse for lying down and losing by nearly 30 the way they did. And against Gardner-Webb, it was déjà vu all over again. Longwood made their first seven shots from the field but trailed 38-35 at halftime and eventually lost their 13th in a row, 76-65.
Make no mistake; there is talent on this team. Kessens leads the conference in rebounding and is top-50 in the country in that statistic. He has generally become a solid talent, one that was a solid pickup for head coach Mike Gillian’s recruiting class. Having said that, the coaching staff has come under fire by some in recent weeks for understandable reasons. Rather than sounding like your run-of-the-mill angry/inarticulate caller to a sports talk show, though, I’d like to let the numbers do the talking.
3-20, 0-9 in the conference. Again, last in the country for scoring defense. 224th in the nation in scoring offense. 13 losses in a row, a streak steadily approaching 19 (2004-05), the longest to date in Gillian’s tenure. 2-7 in the no-longer- friendly confines of Willett Hall and 0-12 on the road. Six of nine league games being competitive at halftime, none of which resulted in a win.
I won’t sit here and comment on people’s job statuses, because there’s nearly a month of basketball left to be played in the regular season, and anything could happen between now and the Big South Tournament near Myrtle Beach, S.C. the week of March 5. They could finish 3-28 heading into the tourney, or pull off a near-miracle and finish the regular season 11-20. However, not only is the former far more likely than the latter, I could envision that happening at this juncture.
Now, I’m not at the practices. I’m not privy to the nature of the conversations between coach and player. I do talk with Gillian three times a week, though, and listen to his postgame radio interview when they’re on the road; that’s my job as a professional. The tone has changed in the past few weeks. There is a definite lack of competition in the second half. You won’t win when you go eight minutes without scoring and the other team (Gardner-Webb in this case) goes on a 14-0 run.
I want to think the season is salvageable; I really do. But I’m not seeing the necessary adjustments made, and I’m seeing the team collectively fade down the stretch. There are teams on the schedule that should have been wins but weren’t. You can get close and be competitive for 20 minutes, but if the other team has more points on the scoreboard at the end of the night than you, there is no real progress happening.
Yes, they are both shorthanded and young, but there’s no sugarcoating 13 straight losses and a 1-20 record against Division I teams. I hope I’m wrong on this, but it looks like the team has quit in recent games. They appear mentally weak.
With seven conference games and a BracketBusters matchup against UT-Martin left, the players and coaches have time to right the ship before the conference tournament.
But will they do so? I want to be wrong, but this reporter says no.
*** This editorial is an opinion stated by the writer and does not represent the views of The Rotunda or Longwood University.
