Make your free throws: William & Mary made just 12 field goals (in 46 attempts, or 26%) in yesterday’s win over Drexel. How, then? The Pugs were 28-37 from the stripe (76%). The Dragons were 9-22 from the line.

What We Learned

1. Freshmen can indeed make you look good; sometimes better than seniors. Chaz Williams scored 18 points, grabbed a team leading eight rebounds (if he’s 5-10 I’m 6-4), and dealt six assists. Halil the Deal with 16/6. Those fellows allowed Chuck to hit 21 of his 27 in the second half. (Foul trouble limited Jenkins to 24 minutes.) The Pride is flip-flopping schedules with Mason to finish the season, and they are figuring it out.
2. VCU is rolling again. Yes it was at home, but a close perusal of the boxscore shows the lineup is stabilizing, and Joey Rodriguez is not going to slack off. Rodriguez led the Rams with 22 points and nine assists–that’s 22 assists and five turnovers in the past two games. Larry Sanders with an interested 13/13. Team rebound percentage is second is second in the CAA (53.3%) and they are averaging 1.144 point per possession. Turonover rate is second (16.9%) an assist to turnover ratio first (1.445).
3. Because of the above item, and because of The Pugs holding on to break a three-game skid, and because Mason’s schedule gets tough and because ODU can be beaten, and because few people outside of Boston believe in NU, and because Hofstra seems to have the wheels back on, and because JMU can go to the league’s first place team and play to a one possession game in the final seconds, February is going to be fun. We thought it was a possiblity, but we learned this to be true over the weekend.

What We Verified

1. Effort counts on defense. ODUs 3-2 (or 1-2-2) zone is a scary proposition, especially with 6-9 Gerald Lee playing point. So is the Monarchs ability to change defenses on the fly. But you have to give effort for 35 seconds, or no defense is a good one. I don’t how many times in the second half on Saturday NU had a wide open shot with less than 10 seconds on the shot clock, but I stopped counting at five. There’s the gut-wrenching shot clock beater where a challenged shooter buries a prayer. Then, there’s playing hard for 30 seconds, only to give up a wide open shot that is swished. I know which hurts more.
2. The CAA has great fans. VCU got 4,600 fans out at 8pm on Saturday with a foot of snow on the ground, against a bottom six team with no discernable tie to VCU. Mason/JMU got 7,800 out during the worst part of Saturday’s storm.
3. Chase Allen is different, and consequently so is NU. Leading 52-46, Northeastern was in danger of coughing up a 17-point second half lead, at home. Allen took an early-shot clock, semi-fast break 15 footer and nailed it. An eight-point lead, we say, is far better than four points better than a four-point lead. Allen doesn’t take that shot last year, and that’s the difference in NU this year and NU last year. Allen also took (and hit) the dagger three. Last year that’s Janning’s shot and Janning’s only.

What We Don’t Know

1. The extent of the damage at the beach. Firing your coach midseason, even if warranted, is difficult and uncomfortable. So there’s that. Then there’s this: no matter the spin UNCW still lost at home to a Towson team that had but one league victory (and four overall) and had just lost by 59 points. Oh, and assistant coach Henry Dickerson couldn’t make it to the game. He was snowed in 90 miles away in Raleigh. Look, it’s not like we didn’t know snow was coming. You’d think he’d be in Wilmington anyway, with the whole head coach being fired thing. I know they have hotels there–I’ve stayed in them. Curious, and getting curiouser and curiouser.
2. What’s going to occur in Mason’s end season run. The first place, 10-1 Patriots have played only two games against the top six (win vs. ODU, loss at NU). After a trip to Atlanta on Wednesday, Mason finishes with five of its final six against the top six. Marker: last game of the year is home vs. NU.
3. If you can win without a consistent three-ball threat. Kent Bazemore has made ODU exponentially better, which is doubly important since Darius James keep playing worse. Bazemore’s aggressiveness and ability allow me to look the other way at a couple bad turnovers each game. But ODU still needs the swisher. They really need that guy that they know can hit a three when trailing 52-46 on the road.

My Favorite Things

1. Fans. This week: ODU. There is a difference in slumping and losing to a good team on the road. Keep that in mind, ODU fans. Zip it, Mason fans, as you are next.
2. Cam Long scored Mason’s last 11 points against JMU. Long has scored 113 of his 299 points this season in the last five games. Over the span he’s averaging22.6ppg, has 17 assists and 10 turnovers.
3. Funny exchanges between player and coach: After the Delaware win, Charles Jenkins said, pointing to his coach: “The most important is putting a smile on his face.” Pecora’s reply: “You are so full of crap.”
4. Bonus Fave: Saturday was Northeastern’s Coaches vs. Cancer Awareness game with the coaching staff. Bill Coen pledged a dollar for every student who attended the game. A season-high 3,061 fans attended the contest, including 1,014 students. Coen will donate $1,014 to the American Cancer Society.

Boxscore Flunkies

1. Darius Theus with 10 points but hit big shots and continues to look comfy.
2. Manny Adako seemed invisible, until you did math postgame. 13 points on 6-7 shooting and eight rebounds.
3. Lou Birdsong with his second straight many-minutes and impressive performance game. Birdsong was struggling and lashing out via twitter earlier this year.

10 Interesting Statistics

1. Living by the three does not mean you are going to die by the three. It means you are going to shoot a lower percentage. After opening the game by hitting 3 of 7 triples to build an eight-point lead, UNCW hit 2 of its last 27 arcers.
2. Okay, maybe it’s all shots: Delaware misfired on 15 of its first 16 shots against Hofstra, and The Pugs missed 15 of its first 17 shot attempts.
3. NU is 1-4 when Chase Allen has more turnovers than assists.
4. Calvin Lee added 12 points and 12 rebounds to lead Towson. Kid hasn’t given up on anything. Towson also made 14-of-15 free throws.
5. Julius Wells had eight turnovers for JMU–clearly due to forcing the ball. Give ‘Em Hell with another double-double but also six assists.
6. Halftime changes: There were 11 threes made in the first half of ODU/NU. Chase Allen’s dagger with about three minutes to play was the only one made in the second half.
7. John Fields had 13 points, 4 blocks and grabbed a school record 21 rebounds.
8. VCU had just two turnovers in the first half. The Rams had 15 in the second half.
9. Eight different Pugs committed a turnover yesterday. W&M had 10 total. Think about that.
10. David Schneider has made just 7 of his last 34 threes.

BEST COACH QUOTE

“Basically, it came down to free-throw shooting for us,” Drexel coach Bruiser Flint said. “We were 9-for-22, they were 28-for-37.”