"And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne ceaselessly back into the past." - F. Scott Fitzgerald,
The Great Gatsby
Arguably the greatest closing line of a novel in American literary history. Seems rather fitting for this Bryant Bulldogs team, with all our troubles in my first season and a half.
Northwest play begins with a home against winless Sacred Heart. We need to beat these guys to avoid a last place finish in the conference, I think. Happily, it's an 84-62 rout for the good guys,
Duncan Kumar lighting up for 29 points and
Junior Dillard adding 10 bench points. Solid game for
Chris Curtiss in his first start with 14 points, 7 rebounds, and a steal.
We always have trouble in New York, so I'm not shocked by the 81-70 defeat on the road to St. Francis (NY). 21 points from
Duncan Kumar and 8 points, 13 boards out of
Roger Redman don't come close.
Horrendous shooting dooms us in a 64-45 beatdown via Wagner on their court. As in, 29.6% team shooting horrible. It doesn't help that
Duncan Kumar sprains his wrist so badly, he's out for a week. Cue up
Andrew Hinshaw for the starting SG spot.
Without our star guard, we lose 78-71 at home to St. Francis (PA), despite a phenomenal 24 point bench outpouring by
Junior Dillard. I'm happy to see him really step up as he has periodically through this season.
We actually pull off an 84-68 road upset of Robert Morris. Really nice 19 point breakout game from
Blair Isley and
Roger Redman narrowly misses the double-double of 9 points, 9 rebounds.
Duncan Kumar comes back for the home game against Quinnipac, but their talent is way better than ours in a 91-66 blowout. That said, Kumar scored 23 in his first game back.
Whipping Monmouth 85-65 on the road feels great. 3 headed hydra attack with
Blair Isley racking up 18 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists,
Jeffery McCarron putting in 18 points and
Duncan Kumar sandwiching in 17 points and 8 rebounds.
All the joy goes out of it, though, when
Junior Dillard hits the court, screaming in agony, clutching his foot. He's rushed to the hospital, where X-rays reveal he
broke his foot and is Out 39 Days. Tough, tough blow for the team and for my first ever commit, the kid who fell in love with Bryant. He's also our best jump shooter, making the loss even more crippling.
And so it's with dispirited hearts that we go to Long Island, the New York Curse netting an 85-74 loss. 21 points for
Jeffery McCarron, but the sight of Dillard sitting there in that cast really puts a damper on our mood, even though he's yelling and cheering, trying to urge us on.
70-64 loss to Central Connecticut State in front of the home fans. 20 points from
Jeffery McCarron, 19 from
Duncan Kumar. Our bench has been terrible since Dillard went down, since we don't have his outside shooting to rely on anymore.
No news on the recruiting front this month. A little surprising, but it is what it is.
Code:
2012 Northeast Conference Standings
TEAM CW CL Pct W L Pct RPI Prestige
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Quinnipiac 7 2 .778 12 7 .632 176 27
Wagner 6 3 .667 11 9 .550 298 30
Robert Morris 6 3 .667 10 10 .500 149 35
St. Francis-NY 5 4 .556 8 11 .421 225 17
Monmouth 5 4 .556 8 12 .400 338 27
St. Francis-PA 4 5 .444 7 13 .350 274 10
Fairleigh Dickinson 4 5 .444 7 11 .389 294 26
Sacred Heart 4 5 .444 4 15 .211 319 18
Central Connecticut State 4 5 .444 6 12 .333 171 29
Long Island 3 6 .333 6 14 .300 331 20
Bryant University 3 6 .333 6 14 .300 314 3
Mount St. Mary's 3 6 .333 5 14 .263 343 29
We're barely hanging on to avoiding the cellar. Quinnipac has been on a tear this year. They and Wagner both are showing that last season's run to the conference tournament final was no fluke. I think Wagner's on its way to becoming a Northeast power. They won the automatic bid last year, had the conference's top recruiting class last season, and are looking strong now, too.
Code:
1 Duncan Kumar SG 26.3 16.9 5.1 1.6 0.1 0.2 2.6 Bryant University
2 Herbert Froehlich PG 30.2 16.2 4.1 3.4 2.0 0.1 2.9 Wagner
3 Carrol Saunders PG 29.3 16.0 1.3 2.1 0.8 0.1 2.7 St. Francis-PA
4 Alvin Glidden SG 31.2 15.8 4.2 3.8 2.5 0.6 3.0 Robert Morris
5 Chris Cherry PG 31.1 15.2 2.5 6.3 0.6 0.1 2.9 Quinnipiac
6 Michael Montana SG 31.1 15.2 2.3 2.7 0.5 0.1 2.9 Mount St. Mary's
7 Jack Gillespie PG 30.9 14.7 2.1 2.2 1.2 0.1 3.8 Fairleigh Dickinson
8 Kip Blume SF 27.5 14.1 5.8 3.2 0.9 0.2 3.6 Fairleigh Dickinson
9 Kenneth Marcano PG 28.9 14.1 5.3 1.6 1.4 0.1 1.5 Quinnipiac
10 Gary Kuhn PG 24.5 14.1 3.5 1.6 0.4 0.0 1.9 Sacred Heart
11 Todd Mack SG 28.6 13.7 3.0 1.5 0.4 0.3 3.2 St. Francis-NY
12 Robert Zimmermann PF 27.1 12.9 9.1 1.3 0.4 0.6 2.2 St. Francis-NY
13 Daniel Scott C 32.3 12.8 5.7 0.8 0.8 1.4 2.6 Central Connecticut State
14 Rubin Dawson SG 29.5 12.2 4.4 4.4 0.6 0.1 4.0 Robert Morris
15 Raul Shea C 29.1 11.8 6.7 1.0 1.2 0.6 1.7 Mount St. Mary's
16 Jefferey Hamilton SG 30.6 11.6 3.3 2.7 1.4 0.2 3.0 Monmouth
17 Bryan Philips SF 28.3 11.4 5.8 2.2 1.1 0.3 2.2 Quinnipiac
18 Jimmie Storer SF 22.9 11.3 4.8 1.1 0.9 0.1 2.8 Long Island
19 Jason Bailey SF 27.6 11.0 6.8 1.4 0.9 0.1 2.8 Monmouth
20 Charles Lamb PF 30.2 10.9 7.6 1.6 0.3 0.3 1.3 St. Francis-PA
21 Jerry Jordan SF 30.1 10.6 5.0 1.3 1.2 0.4 1.2 Robert Morris
22 Julius Gehrke SF 23.7 10.5 3.9 1.4 0.6 0.2 2.6 Long Island
23 Jeffery McCarron PG 27.1 10.5 3.3 3.8 0.7 0.2 1.7 Bryant University
24 Constant Fauvarcq SG 24.2 10.3 2.7 1.8 0.5 0.3 2.3 Sacred Heart
25 Gregory Wertz SF 30.7 9.9 5.0 1.5 1.1 0.1 2.0 Wagner
26 Ronald Nelsen PG 24.7 9.6 2.2 2.2 0.6 0.1 1.7 Monmouth
27 Jarred McElrath SG 32.9 9.2 3.9 3.7 1.2 0.4 3.4 Fairleigh Dickinson
28 Emiliano Pancher C 31.6 9.0 10.7 1.0 0.5 1.3 1.6 St. Francis-PA
29 Richard Cook C 27.5 8.8 6.9 0.8 0.5 0.3 1.0 Sacred Heart
30 Brooks Gibb C 30.4 8.8 7.5 1.1 0.4 1.1 2.0 Monmouth
31 Weldon Geyer PF 22.8 8.8 4.1 0.9 0.2 1.3 0.8 Quinnipiac
32 Johnie Marshall SF 27.8 8.8 3.1 0.9 0.6 0.2 2.7 Central Connecticut State
33 Blair Isley SF 30.6 8.8 3.5 2.2 0.6 0.2 2.4 Bryant University
34 Michael Brown SG 27.7 8.4 4.6 1.5 0.7 0.1 2.5 Sacred Heart
35 Jerrell Pierce C 33.3 8.4 9.8 1.6 0.5 0.9 1.9 Wagner
36 Clemente Vera PG 30.5 8.3 2.3 4.7 0.9 0.3 2.6 Central Connecticut State
37 Josue Wexler PG 19.6 8.1 2.2 1.5 0.6 0.0 0.8 St. Francis-NY
38 Roger Redman C 28.9 8.1 8.4 1.1 0.5 0.2 1.2 Bryant University
39 Chris Banuelos SG 27.1 7.9 4.5 2.1 1.1 0.1 1.9 Central Connecticut State
We'd be in a ton of trouble without Kumar, and of course, he's a senior. I'm quietly hopeful about
Isley, who's tied with Johnie Marshall of Central Connecticut State for the Northeast's leading scorer among freshmen.