When Liki Turner’s baseline jumper barely beat the buzzer and bounced
Concord in the first round of the WVIAC Tournament, it provided a fitting finish to the season.
Concord played well and never quit, yet came up just short.
So to speak.
With only one player taller than 6’5”, Concord head coach Steve Cox went into the season worried about rebounding. His worries were well-founded. The Mountain Lions ranked near the bottom of the WVIAC in total rebounds, offensive rebounds and rebounding margin – and Concord finished 10th in the league with a record of 10-18.
The box score from the tournament game at Shepherd shined a klieg light on Concord’s shortcomings. The Mountain Lions shot .553 from the field, 10-20 from 3-point range and 14-19 from the free throw line, committed only 14 turnovers, and held Shepherd to .426 shooting, .381 from the arc.
But Shepherd outrebounded Concord 39-29, including a 19-5 advantage in offensive rebounds. Shepherd’s 6’8” center Justin Jarman alone grabbed 15 boards, nine on the offensive end. Numbers like that allowed Shepherd to attempt 21 more field goals than the Mountain Lions, including Turner’s game-winner.
The 2008-2009 season ended with a heartbreaker. But Concord showed great heart just to put itself on the verge of upsetting a higher seed, in the conference tournament, on the road.
After starting the season 2-1 – including a stirring run to the championship of the Currance Classic Tournament in Bluefield the weekend after Thanksgiving – the Mountain Lions slid into an 11-game losing streak, with seven of those defeats by 12 or more points.
At 2-12, many other teams might have started looking ahead to next year. But Concord instead rallied to win eight of its final 14 games and just missed earning a trip to Charleston for the conference quarterfinals.
The turnaround can be attributed largely to shooting, a must-have for Concord’s guard-dominated lineup. Much of that turnaround was due to the return to form of Matt Parker, who was slowed by nagging injuries for the first part of the season. But, once healthy, Parker combined with Cordale Boyd, Rafee Smith and Cory Willard to stretch opposing defenses nearly to the breaking point.
The Mountain Lions ended their 11-game losing streak with an 89-77 win over Shepherd in Athens January 24th. That victory began a stretch in which Concord won seven of nine games that lifted them out of 15th place in the WVIAC.
Over those nine games, Concord shot a remarkable .540 from the field and an impressive .442 from three-point range. In seven of those nine games, the Mountain Lions made at least 10 three-point shots.
Indeed, for the season as a whole, three-point shooting had a huge role in Concord’s chances of success. In the Mountain Lions’ ten victories, they .462 from the arc and made an average of 10.4 3-pointers. In Concord’s 18 losses, those numbers fell to .321 and 7.6.
Steve Cox will have to replace four seniors from this year’s team. The most noteworthy departure will be that of Cordale Boyd, whose value and versatility showed in the numbers -- he led the Mountain Lions in ten of the 22 major statistical categories, including scoring, assists, steals, offensive rebounds, field goals attempted and field goals made.
What’s more, Boyd attempted and made nearly 40% of Concord’s free throws – a significant number for a team that was last in the conference in free throws attempted and next-to-last in free throw percentage and free throws made.
Boyd got to the line so frequently because of his ability to drive to the basket, another aspect of his game that will be sorely missed.
Boyd finished his senior season among the conference leaders in scoring, field goal percentage, steals and assists. Yet he wasn’t flashy, and went about his business so quietly that he somehow wound up as only an Honorable Mention when the All-Conference team was announced in early March.
Seniors Ryan Vance and Jeremy Lewis didn’t get as much attention as Boyd, but they excelled as what are called “program players” – they worked hard in practice, provided leadership to younger teammates and produced when called into action. In fact, Lewis’ energy level in practice helped him solidify a spot in the rotation as the season progressed.
Then there’s Derek Calloway. After a bumpy first half of the season, during which foul trouble and inconsistent decision-making curtailed his playing time, the man whose teammate dubbed “Old School” emerged as Concord’s “glue guy,” doing the little things and the dirty work that were instrumental in the team’s progress.
Concord became a much better team once Calloway reined himself in and played deeper into games. He wound up leading the team in rebounding, blocked shots and assist-turnover ratio (an impressive 1.66), was second in steals and, while he didn’t shoot often, ended at a respectable .541 from the field. He also became an expert passer out of the post and took pride in his knack for setting up Boyd, Parker, Smith and Willard for open shots.
Calloway also fully embraced his role. Case in point: On the trip back from Concord’s 90-69 win at Salem International February 9, a game in which the Mountain Lions shot .545 and put four players in double figures, Calloway perused the box score and said, “I got my two shots.”
That was enough for Old School, who wound up that game with seven rebounds, two assists and a steal, to go with two points.
At first blush, Concord’s 2009-2010 season shapes up much like this ’08-’09 -- the Mountain Lions will be undersized, guard-oriented and will only go as far as their outside shooting takes them. That said, Steve Cox has a solid three-guard core to build around.
Parker and Willard will give Concord the WVIAC’s top returning three-point shooting duo; in conference games they combined to make 139 3’s and hit on a .450 clip. For the season as a whole, Willard led all freshmen (and was fifth in the league) with 98 3-pointers made and was named to the WVIAC’s All-Freshmen Team.
Rafee Smith will return for his junior season as a shooting guard-small forward hybrid and will be relied on to do more scoring. Look for Smith to get more shots than the 8.4 per game he took as a sophomore and to add to what was a solid average stat line in ’08-’09: 11.3 ppg, 3.5 rpg, .521 FG, .727 FT, .361 3-point FG and 1.51 assist-turnover ratio.
Aside from that trio Cox faces some big questions.
Who will succeed Boyd at point guard?
Sophomore-to-be Thomas Brown is one candidate. He bookended the season with two outstanding performances – 24 points, eight rebounds and five assists in the season opener against Alderson-Broaddus, and a 26-point outburst against Shepherd in the conference tournament. But between those superlative efforts were extended bouts of wayward decision-making that landed him on the bench.
Chance Smith showed flashes of potential as a sophomore and is perhaps Concord’s quickest player. But he too was prone to stretches of inconsistency and needs to improve his shooting.
Rustin Jessee could be the answer … if he can show the form that led Cox to bring him to Concord in the first place. Jessee was slowed by persistent foot problems that impacted his fitness (and his minutes) in the first half of the season, and just when it seemed he had overcome those woes, the problem flared up and knocked Jessee out of the lineup for the last 11 games of the season.
If Jessee can make a complete recovery, he should give Concord a steady, savvy starter at the point and allow Brown and Chance Smith more time to develop.
This will be a position to watch as the Mountain Lions try to follow up on a season in which they committed the fewest turnovers in the WVIAC.
What about rebounding?
Calloway and Boyd are gone, taking with them nearly a third of Concord’s rebounds. Among the potential returners, Daniel Johnson will be counted on most to fill the void. But the transfer from Potomac State is only 6’5” and had difficulty against taller opponents down the stretch.
Sophomore-to-be Derek Lewis could be poised for a significant step up; he has size (6’7”) and a year of experience behind him. Plus, Lewis rebounded at a rate of one every 3.5 minutes of time played. If he’s able to maintain that pace and plays, for example, 25 minutes a game next season, he’d average seven rebounds a game.
That would be a big improvement for a CU team whose top rebounder averaged 4.9 a game in ’08-’09.
The Concord coaching staff is also high on the potential of Damian Tunstalle, the Beckley Woodrow Wilson High School product who had to miss his freshman season with a knee injury suffered last summer. But, when healthy, Tunstalle he’s a leaper who would boost the Mountain Lions’ rebounding. He also has a Boyd-like drive to slash to the basket.
Who’s on the schedule?
Last season Concord endured a non-conference gauntlet that included:
Two games each against Johnson C. Smith and Tusculum. The Bulls went 23-8, won the CIAA championship and reached the NCAA Tournament. The Pioneers finished 20-11, just missed winning the SAC tournament and also earned an NCAA bid.
NAIA power Bluefield College, which wound up 27-7, 18-0 in the Appalachian Athletic Conference and reached the second round of the national tournament.
The biggest non-conference challenge of all -- a visit to NCAA Division I Morehead State. The Eagles wound up winning the Ohio Valley Conference tournament and went toe-to-toe with mighty Louisville in the NCAA Tournament before being succumbing in the second half.
Safe to say Concord didn’t fill up on cupcakes in 2008-09.
Next season, the WVIAC will expand from 20 to 22 conference games, leaving Cox to fill only five vacancies. Tentatively, Concord is set to play in a two-game classic at Lincoln Memorial of Tennessee in mid-November, taking on the host school and Carson Newman. CU is also expected to return to the Currance Classic in Bluefield for games on the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving. The Mountain Lions fill out their non-league calendar by hosting Lincoln Memorial in mid-December.
Within the WVIAC, Concord will have home-and-home meetings with Bluefield State, Charleston, West Virginia State, Alderson-Broaddus, Glenville State, West Virginia Wesleyan and Davis & Elkins.
The Mountain Lions will play the other league teams once. Salem International, West Liberty, Pitt-Johnstown and Shepherd on the road; Seton Hill, Fairmont State, Ohio Valley and Wheeling Jesuit will come to the Carter Center.
As it stands now, how does the WVIAC look for ’09-’10?
Regular season champion West Virginia State will have to replace four seniors, including inside presence Hensley Charles, the gritty Wade Pidock and two-time conference Player of the Year Ted Scott. Bryan Poore always has the Yellowjackets near the top, but his program will have to recover from two straight puzzling season-ending losses that short-circuited what some thought would be a run to the Elite Eight.
Alderson-Broaddus faces the daunting task of replacing Sam Liggins, Stan Hall, Montel Lee and Zach Green. But they’ll return Terrell Eargle, one of the most versatile and dangerous players in the league.
Conference tournament champion Pitt-Johnstown will lose Marcus Tullis and William Sharpe, among others, but the Mountain Cats will build around freshman center Patrick Grubbs.
West Liberty State will have to do without Ben Howlett and front-liners Shane Maynard and Kameron Law. But the Hilltoppers look to be well-stocked for another run toward the top, with Corey Pelle and John Wolosinczuk due back.
Glenville State will try to follow on their 20-win season without Tryvan Leech, Anthony Kimble and Chase Groves, seniors who helped the Pioneers finish in the top five in the conference in offense and defense.
Fairmont State loses just two seniors, but one of them is Thad McFadden, the WVIAC’s leading scorer.
Shepherd will have to replace a trio of departing seniors, most notably 6’8” center Justin Jarman, who averaged 13.5 points and 7.6 rebounds a game. But the Rams get back the backcourt duo of Jonathan Motichka and Tyrone Roach, and forward Liki Turner.
West Virginia Wesleyan will get almost everybody back, but they’ll have to recover from a late-season fade that ended with them being the only home team to lose in the first round of the conference tournament.
The team that eliminated the Bobcats, Wheeling Jesuit, loses G Maqsood Harrington. But the young Cardinals are due to get back a remarkable 13 players, including Freshman of the Year Cedric Harris. Plus, their wins over Wesleyan and State in the league tournament could be signs of things to come – causing all the WVIAC coaches who aren’t Danny Sancomb some sleepless nights.
As for the rest of the conference, Charleston could be the team best poised for a move into the first division. The Golden Eagles lose point guard Anthony Anderson, who was a steadying influence on the court, but are set to return a deep, athletic roster.
Davis & Elkins gets just about everybody back, and Bluefield State could emerge as a spoiler if they can find complements to the talented outside-inside duo of Raylon Almon and Brian Tingle.
Where Concord fits in the conference landscape right now is anybody’s guess. But a productive off-season and health during the season could help elevate the Mountain Lions into the upper division.
Practice begins October 15th. The countdown is on.
No comments:
Post a Comment