We’re in the homestretch with only two games remaining on our schedule. On Wednesday, Northeastern comes to the DAC in a real pivotal game for both teams. Northeastern has had a real good year and are a game in front of us, tied for second in the CAA. It should be a tough battle, just like it was in Boston a few weeks ago when we came from behind to beat the Huskies.

This will be an emotional game as well since it is senior night. It will be the last time our fans get to see Scott Rodgers, Tramayne Hawthorne, Bobby Jordan and Chris Mohl play in the DAC. Those guys have done a great job this season of staying focused and playing hard every day in practice.

One thing about Senior Night is that you remember how fast time goes by. You remember their first days as freshman and how far they have come. Scott has been one of the most improved players in the CAA and is a legitimate candidate for All-Conference honors. Tra has had some big games this year and will finish his career among Drexel’s all-time leaders in both steals and three-pointers. Bobby and Chris have both played a big role as practice players for us.

I’m proud of the way these guys have worked all season. All will graduate and all have been great people as well as players. We hope to finish strong and make it memorable for our seniors.

 

Since returning home we have continued to play well. We started the week with a good win against Delaware. Our bench came through for us as Leon Spencer, Tramayne Hawthorne and Samme Givens all gave us important minutes in the game. Samme scored 19 points and Leon had 11 as we were able to get some scoring inside. Their play over the last few weeks has been a plus for us. Tramayne has brought energy and leadership off the bench. He’s not scoring as much as he has in the past, but he is making contributions that don’t always show up in the box score.

We had one of the best crowds of the year against William & Mary for homecoming. Our defense did a nice job guarding a team that can be difficult to defend. We had a balanced scoring attack and Jamie Harris, our point guard, continued to play well. Jamie has done a nice job on controlling the game and making open shots.

We’re halfway through our conference schedule and are 6-3 after starting off 1-3, so I’ve been happy with the way we have been playing. Hopefully we can keep it up as we look try to move up the conference standings.

Our team has played much better the last week or so. We rebounded well from the loss to VCU and picked up a pair of conference wins. Last weekend we went down to Georgia and defeated Georgia State on their home court. It was a good win for us in many ways. It proved to our guys that we are capable of winning tough, physical games on the road. We also won the game without Scott Rodgers, our leading scorer, who had a death in his family. It was a great team effort and although we were shorthanded, every player stepped up.

We returned home for the first time since Dec. 18 and had our best overall game of the year against Hofstra. It was our best effort from beginning to end. We really executed offensively and continued playing well defensively. We got a key contribution from Kenny Tribbett early, which got us off to a good start. Leon played well off the bench and Scott played one of his best games since arriving on campus. It’s always good to get sweeps in the league and Hofstra has always been a tough opponent, and we have played some tough games with them over the years.

Then we headed down to UNCW, one of the toughest places for us to play since we joined the CAA, and won behind a career-high 21 points by Leon Spencer.

We hope that our momentum continues and we continue to improve.

Freshman Samme Givens started his first game for Drexel in place of Kenny Tribbett on Thursday night against Niagara. Dragons coach Bruiser Flint said the 6-5 Givens started because Niagara plays four guards. Givens swept a season-high 12 rebounds. His eight points came at crucial times for the Dragons. Tribbett only played 3 minutes.

Senior Tramayne Hawthorne scored seven points for Drexel, but he continued his shooting woes: 3 of 10 from the field, 1 for 6 on threes. Hawthorne entered the game shooting 25 percent from the field and 19 percent on treys.

Last season, Hawthorne averaged 11.2 points as he shot 38 percent from the field and 35 percent on threes.

Reserve point guard Bobby Jordan, a senior from Roman Catholic High, is sidelined with a torn ligament in his right hand.

*

As Niagara’s basketball team filed into Drexel’s Daskalakis Athletic Center, coach Joe Mihalich held open the door to the building’s entrance until everyone was inside. He said he performs the duty before every game. “I want to make sure they all get off the bus,” he said, smiling.

The Niagara bus is rolling. The Purple Eagles, 8-2 after their 67-52 victory over Drexel, are off to their best start in Mihalich’s 11 seasons as coach. Last season they were 19-10, 12-6 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. Mihalich is a two-time MAAC Coach of the Year.

Last night was Niagara’s third visit to Philly already this season. The Purple Eagles lost to Villanova by 15, then beat Monmouth and Hartford in the Philly Hoops Group. Overall, Mihalich has a 5-4 record coaching in Philly.

*
Saint Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli arrived during the first half. His son Phil Jr., is a Niagara assistant. Phil Jr. played for the Hawks.

“Scouting the assistant coaches?” I asked Dad. He nodded and smiled.

Last weekend we played at Fairfield, one of the best teams in the MAAC, and lost a close game. Our guys battled hard and took care of the ball, but we just couldn’t make a shot when we needed one. We had 22 offensive rebounds and only five turnovers, but if you shoot 32 percent you’re not going to beat too many people. That is something we need to work on as the season progresses.

We’ve got a pretty tough stretch ahead of us over the next two weeks. It seems like we went for months without playing and now we are looking at playing three games in a five-day stretch against some pretty good teams. It starts off on Thursday when Niagara comes to the DAC. They just won at South Florida and we know this will be a hard-fought game.

The next morning we practice and drive up to Bucknell where we play on Saturday. Bucknell has played a lot of close games and beat Old Dominion earlier in the season in Lewisburg. As soon as we finish there, we hop on a plane and head to Memphis to face Coach Cal and his Tigers. I don’t have to tell you how good they have been over the years. This will be the first time I have coached against Cal, so it will give people something to talk about. I just want to make sure our guys don’t play like we did at Georgetown and play to a level that I think we can. But we have to shoot it better.

Even though the Palestra is just a four-block walk from the Daskalakis Athletic Center, visiting California State Northridge did not visit the hoops shrine during its two-day stay in Philadelphia. Coaches of several other Drexel opponents who travelled a distance have made the visit because they wanted their players to have a Palestra "experience" even if they didn't play there.

When Drexel eventually moves to the nearby National Guard armory as its new hoops home, the armory will have a mini-Palestra appearance. The armory will seat about 5,000 for basketball.

Most of Northridge's players are from California. But the team that is based 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles also has players from New Jersey (Irvington), Alabama, Arizona, New Mexico and Nanaimo, British Columbia.

WORTH NOTING

* Freshman Samme Givens, from the Academy of the New Church, had another strong game off the bench for Drexel: six rebounds and five points in 17 minutes. The 6-5 Givens was defending larger Northridge players.

* Last season, Drexel was last among Colonial Athletic Association teams in free-throwing shooting (.629 percent). Following its 18 of 26 performance vs. Northridge, the Dragons are now shooting .679 from the line.

Tuesday was a real fun day at Drexel. Our team is used to being up early since we practice a few days a week at 6:30 because of classes, so our guys are used to getting up and playing as their classmates roll out of bed. It was a little different with the ESPN trucks out front and a nice set up for breakfast for our fans. But as soon as we got in the building, our guys came focused and we played a good first half for the most part. I will say our fans were the ones that really enjoyed the day. They came out early and filled the DAC up. We really needed them behind us as we battled a tough Penn squad that wouldn't quit. The student body never thought they would have the chance to host a Big 5 team.
 
As I said after the game in the media room, I was just happy that we got the chance to host a Big 5 team in our building. It's the first time that has happened in a long time and it really gave us a chance to show what we can do, both on the court and with how our staff runs a game. I do want to really thank the people at Penn for allowing this to happen. We both have had good programs over the years and to get a chance to show it off to a national audience doesn't happen to much, so I'd like to than Glen and the administration for making the walk up 33rd Street and our fans for bringing the fire.
 
Our fans and staff are excited with the win, but we have a huge obstacle coming up on Saturday. We travel to D.C. to face Georgetown. The Hoyas have one of the top coaches in the country in John Thompson III and they have a number of players who have the potential to play at the next level. We've faced Big East teams in the past and have held our own, even winning a few two years ago, so we'll bring our best to Washington this weekend.

Some notes from the DAC ...

* Coach Bruiser Flint said he needs senior leadership from Scott Rodgers and Tramayne Hawthorne, the only two seniors on the team. Rodgers made some clutch free throws and only turned the ball over three times. Hawthorne seems comfortable providing a spark off the bench. Hawthorne (11.2) is the only returnee who scored in double figures last season.

* For a team picked last in the Colonial Athletic Association preseason poll, Drexel looked reasonably good vs. Penn on Tuesday morning. Eight players were in action for 10 minutes or more. Freshman forward Samme Givens collected 10 rebounds in 18 minutes and added seven points.

* Penn didn’t shoot well (5 of 19 threes, 13 of 28 free throws). In the first half, the Quakers had trouble getting second shots (only four offensive rebounds).

* Crowd watching: The 10 a.m. game at the Daskalakis Athletic Center attracted a sellout crowd of 2,434. It was odd seeing many adult male fans wearing suits…Pennsylvania Gov. Rendell, a Penn alumnus, was one of the suits attending the game…Former Drexel players Chaz Crawford and Bashir Mason were present. Crawford is rehabbing a knee injury. He plans to continue playing in Turkey. Mason is an assistant coach at Marist College.

* The DAC Pack, Drexel students wearing their familiar gold T-shirts, now sit behind the visitor’s bench. Previously, they sat across the court…

* In response to the renowned rollouts that Penn students present at the Palestra, Drexel students offered some clever rollouts:
“Daddy’s trust fund need a bailout? You could try working!” 
“If Ben Franklin were alive today, he’d be a Drexel engineer” 
Responding to a “high school gym” chant by Penn students, Drexel students held up “Our gym may be small, but we’re big where it counts: pride”

Here at Drexel, we are excited to get the season under way. We’ve had a good few weeks of practice and I think our guys are ready to play for real. I think our team will be playing with a chip on its shoulder after being picked last in our conference. It’s not a surprise that we were picked where we were. We did lose one of the school’s all-time leading scorers in Frank Elegar. However, I think we have a chance to be much better than where we were picked.

The start of the season should be a lot of fun as we open the year with Penn here in the DAC. This will be the first time ever that Penn takes the walk up 33rd Street, and having them come to campus is an exciting thing for our fans as well as our players. What makes this even more exciting is that we will be playing at 10 in the morning as part of ESPN’s College Hoops Tip-off event. This will be the first time ESPN’s main network will be in the DAC since I got here and from what I hear it is the first time since Malik Rose was a junior. Our students should really get into the game and I am hoping we have more than 1,000 kids in the stands showing Penn just how much they care about basketball on the other side of Market Street.

We are really looking forward to our seniors having a good year for us. Tramayne Hawthorne and Scott Rodgers are looking to end their careers on a high note and get us back to the level we have been at over the last six years. Tramayne can really knock down the three-pointer and is one of the better defensive guards in our league. Scott has played well in the preseason and we need for him to continue playing like that as we start the new year.