We are on the way back from the Charleston Classic. I have never been to Charleston before and would love to go back to enjoy it more.

Our team played a strong first half against a very good South Carolina team before they outplayed us in the second half. I would be surprised if they are not an NCAA Tournament team. Their length and athleticism and the offensive talent of Downey and Archie make them very good.

We then played our best game of the year against an outstanding Davidson program. Even without Stephen Curry, they will win a lot this year, as they have for many years before Curry. Their execution, skill and toughness are constants in their program and to win was something for us to feel good about.

We then played our most mistake-filled game against a very solid Tulane team that beat Penn State the game before. We missed free throws, didn’t box out on their free-throw attempts, had some defensive miscommunications and had some key players just have an off day.

Still, we held them to 35 percent from the field in the second half and outrebounded them by 13 to win with the toughness coaches love. We are 3-1 but still have much improvement we can make. It is a good position to be in.
 

ATLANTIC CITY -- Kwamain Mitchell hit a driving layup with 1.8 seconds left in overtime to give the ninth-seeded St. Louis Billikens a 62-60 win over 8th-seeded La Salle in the first round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall.

“We were fortunate to beat them today,” said St. Louis coach Rick Majerus.

La Salle started the game well, jumping to a 12-4 lead, scoring on five of its first six possessions. But the team got cold, finishing the half hitting just 10-for-27 from the floor, and fell behind by 26-24.

It never led in the second half and forced the overtime when Rodney Green (24 points) grabbed a rebound, dribbled the length of the floor and made a layup with one minute, 48 seconds left for a 52-52 tie.

Mitchell, who finished with 18 points, missed a three pointer from the top of the key at the buzzer.

Four straight points by Rodney Green (game-high 24 points) in the overtime gave La Salle a 60-58 lead with 1:10 left, but Tommie Liddell hit a layup off a feed from Mitchell to tie it with 42.3 seconds remaining. La Salle then couldn’t get a good shot off and St. Louis took over with 6.6 seconds left after a shot clock violation.

Mitchell got the ball on a side court inbounds pass and drove the ball straight to the basket, lofting the winning shot high over the hand of La Salle’s Yves Mekongo Mbala.

The loss ends the season for La Salle (18-13), which shot 23-for-63 (36.5 percent) from the floor. Kimmani Barrett was the only other Explorer in double figures with 10 points.

“He just drove to the basket and we got beat off the dribble,” said La Salle coach John Giannini about the winning basket. “We wanted to stay in front of him and make him miss. And it would have worked.”
 

WE'RE MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO: Stopping by one of the nearby racebooks between sessions to check out the action from Gulfstream Park. Semi-seriously, just some competitive hoops. Trying to make sense of this bracket is like trying to make sense of the regular season. There was a three-way tie for second and four-way tie for fifth. The regular-season champion had four losses. Should be a few games decided late where good luck or bad can change everything in an instant.

TEAM ON THE RISE: La Salle was playing its best basketball at the finish. No player in the league is playing better at the moment than Rodney Green. The Explorers just came from behind to win at Saint Louis Saturday night. The same matchup opens the tournament.

TEAM ON THE DECLINE: Since upsetting Xavier, Charlotte has lost four of five. Its only win was against Fordham, which really does not count. This team is more talented than its record, but injuries and inconsistency put them 11th in the standings when they were picked fifth

WORTH NOTING: This is the third year the tournament has been at Boardwalk Hall. It has not been announced where next year’s tournament will be. The finalists are Dayton, Cincinnati, Springfield (Mass.), Pittsburgh and Atlantic City. Sadly, no Philadelphia on the list.

DARK HORSE TO WIN IT ALL: Richmond. Chris Mooney’s team has won five of six. The Spiders beat Xavier on Saturday. Richmond is playing faster now that Mooney has amassed more talent. Having to win four games in four days obviously plays against them, but this is a dangerous team.

TEAM THAT NEEDS HELP TO MAKE THE NCAAS: All of them except Dayton and Xavier. Rhode Island and Temple might have been in play for an at large until late-season home losses to Massachusetts and La Salle respectively. The rest of them have been playing for conference seeding in recent weeks.

BEST PLAYER: Ahmad Nivins (Saint Joseph’s) led the league in scoring (tie with Temple’s Dionte Christmas), rebounding and field goal percentage despite constant double and sometimes triple teams. He was named Player of the Year by the coaches. Athletic artistry would be the best way to describe his game.

BEST SHOOTER: Rhode Island’s Jimmy Baron just set the league record with 345 made treys. This season, he made 102 and shot 45.3 percent. If he is in the gym, he is in range. He nearly beat Duke at Cameron with his quick release until the striped shirts remembered who was supposed to win.

BEST DEFENDER: Tony Gaffney (Massachusetts) led the league in blocks (113) and was second in steals (59). The frontline of the Minutemen defense is not particularly strong which puts all kinds on Gaffney as he mans the back line.

DON'T FOUL THESE GUYS: Kevin Lisch (Saint Louis) shot 82.9 percent and made 107 free throws. Duquesne’s Aaron Jackson, a wonderful all-around talent, shot 81.2 percent and made 134 foul shots.

ULTIMATE TITLE GAME: Temple-Rhode Island. With all due respect to Xavier and Dayton, they are already in the NCAA. The league would like this final as it would give them a third NCAA team. And this game would have the potential to be high scoring and quite entertaining with shooters like Baron and Christmas firing from deep and enough athletes around the basket to make it a game played in all places.

THE PICK: I liked Temple last year and the Owls got home. Without Mark Tyndale and Chris Clark scoring and leading, I don’t think this team is quite as ready as that one. I also don’t think this field is as good as last year’s. If Lavoy Allen can put together three strong games and Dionte Christmas can shoot a decent percentage from deep, I like the Owls. Juan Fernandez is going to be a very good player on North Broad. If he had been there all season, the Owls might be in play for an at large. Slowly, Fernandez’s talents are starting to emerge. If he is locked in for three games, the Owls will have even a bigger chance.
 

We were very pleased with our last win in St. Louis where the Billikens were 14-2 at home going into the game with wins against outstanding Dayton and Boston College teams. Now, we have the difficult task of beating them again in the A-10 Tournament. While we are please with a fifth-place finish in the tough Atlantic 10, we are certainly not satisfied. We have a great opportunity ahead of us and we know a few more wins in the regular season would have helped our postseason chances.

We are playing with an “edge” again. In our first 21 games we outrebounded teams 16 times. Then, we hit a bad stretch where we lost games and were outrebounded in those games. We are back to outrebounding our opponents and winning in our last four games. I believe rebounding is a measure of effort for our team. In a very long season, I think we lost some of that “edge” in practice a couple of weeks ago. We responded by making our practice scrimmages competitive and rewarding winning teams with an opportunity to start the next game. It has really helped our intensity and preparation.

With our win at Saint Louis, Paul Johnson, our first recruit, will leave La Salle with a winning career record and his degree. The most important goals for any student-athlete should be to receive a great education and have a winning experience. Paul set the standard and we feel we will continue to give our student-athletes successful experiences on and off the court.
 

We just finished what I feel was our poorest week of the season. Explanations are very difficult and theories are too numerous to go in to. It is especially disappointing because our fan support was great Sunday.

I know we can and will play better. For some strange reason we play better away from our homecourt.

The cliché's about sport being a microcosm of life are true. We must overcome disappointment and work to do better. Our minimal goal this year is to produce a winning season. That is critically important to us.

We will learn from each game and each season to keep La Salle Basketball moving forward.

Our practices this week will be especially competitive for this time of year.

Our team is playing better but consistency and toughness in very close games will be the keys for us and every A-10 team. With the exception of Xavier (I feel they are as good as last year’s Elite Eight team), most A-10 games are a toss-up. The talent level among each school’s starting five is very equal. Depth, toughness, good shooting, smart decisions and some lucky breaks will make the difference in games, but the talent level is very even and at a high level.
Leadership in not only games but also in practice is key. Paul Johnson and Rodney Green do a great job for us on a daily basis. We constantly stress to our players the importance of practice (“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail” – John Wooden; “Every battle is won before it’s fought” – Sun Tzu).

Here is a great insight into Paul Johnson’s leadership. In the offseason we lift at 7:30 a.m. Paul personally checks to make sure each teammate is up early and ready to go. In season, we have our normal strength maintenance program and lift after practice. Devon White, as a redshirt freshman, comes in early for the extra workout. He is doing a great job with his strength and conditioning. We are excited about him, Karon Burton and Aaric Murray as freshmen together next year. But all that extra work is hard and developing discipline is not easy. How has Devon done it? With the help of Paul, who does the extra workout with Devon every day.

There are so many great stories that are not told in college basketball and we are fortunate to have some special ones at La Salle.

We are on our way to Charlotte. Our next three A-10 games are at Charlotte, at Xavier and at UMass. The first half of our A-10 schedule is about as tough as it gets. We have to get some wins and I feel at some point we will put a winning streak together.

We were extremely disappointed in our showing against Temple. We have great respect for them. We are very frustrated we did not challenge them more. We have numerous theories besides the obvious fact that Temple has an excellent team. They include a game plan that may have caused hesitation defensively, 8 days between games when we were playing well (and I wonder if we did too much or too little in that time) and early foul trouble for Vernon Goodridge.

We move on and I am convinced that we are better off when we focus on our own team and what we do as opposed to spending time becoming more familiar with our opponents.



We have highly committed kids in our program and we are sure to continue improving over the course of the season.

I really like the opportunity to have extended practice time durung the holidays. It is a chance to do a lot of teaching, make certain changes, get a lot of repetitions and practice with high energy. When we have a game every few days we try to conserve some energy, stay healthy and work on some game-specific strategy for our next opponent. Lately, we have been able to focus on us and go all out. We are hoping it helps us against a tough 7-4 Manhattan team at 4 p.m. Wednesday. Their four leading scorers are perimeter players who can drive and shoot. Defending them will be key.

At 6-5 we are off to a solid start that would be much better if we would have won close games against Florida State and Southern Mississippi. We are focusing on constant effort and focus in practice to make the difference in close games. Vernon Goodridge is feeling better after playing with bruised ribs. With health, better conditioning and added game experience we feel he will have a strong A-10 season. We are especially pleased with the consistency of Kimmani Barrett. All our other players are aware of where they need to improve and are working hard at it. Finishing with a good non-conference record is key with games left against Manhattan and Howard before the A-10 starts.

Watching the Villanova-St. Joe’s game got me excited because I could feel the energy and intensity through my television. The TV people did a great job explaining the uniqueness of the Big 5. Anyone who thinks the rivalries have diminished are off base. The players and coaches could not possibly go at it any harder.

We are obviously excited about playing Villanova Sunday for many reasons. I have often said it to our fans, but to me the Big 5 is a measuring stick and not just locally. If you win in Big 5 games, history shows you have a great chance of being a postseason team.

There is no one key to playing Villanova. You have to handle great ball pressure, you have to fight for the rebounds and loose balls and you have to defend talented players. Sunday night promises to be another hardfought game.