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La Salle explores a bright future

Riveting run to the Sweet 16 has La Salle eagerly anticipating next season.

LOS ANGELES - Tyreek Duren has plenty to look forward to, but what he most eagerly anticipates has nothing to do with the NCAA Tournament.

Of course, he hopes, and expects, to lead La Salle back, at least to the Sweet 16, where his Explorers found themselves for the first time in 58 years.

Before that, he hopes to guide the Explorers to the top of the Atlantic 10 for the first time. He wants to redeem this season's quick exit from the A-10 Tournament. He wants to win the Big 5 outright.

He knows that he, fellow backcourt revelation Tyrone Garland and power forward Jerrell Wright will be preseason favorites to populate the A-10 all-star teams, and each will have a shot of being the conference's MVP.

None of these goals lies fully within their power. None of these goals is guaranteed.

What is guaranteed is that, thanks to La Salle's run this March, the Explorers will be the darlings of the city . . . and, finally, Big Men on Campus.

"There are probably going to be sold-out crowds every game," Duren said. "We have our loyal fans, but, I mean, everybody is going to be looking forward to watching us play next year."

Even after the 2011-12 season, when it won 20 games for the first time in 20 years, and even after it emerged as the city's best team early this season, La Salle officially filled an average of just 2,100 of the 3,400 seats at tiny Tom Gola Arena; that spurious number likely allows for generous accounting.

Four of the top six players from this season are Philadelphians, and their indigenous supporters likely accounted for many of the spectators. Still, it is fair to expect what Duren expects for next season.

Not only will La Salle be returning as a winner, it will be returning virtually all of its winners. Only Ramon Galloway will be absent from the core that lost to Wichita State last week.

Of course, Galloway, a transfer, was the leading scorer and the emotional fulcrum in his two seasons, the first consecutive 20-win seasons since Lionel Simmons assaulted the NCAA scoring record. Replacing Galloway will be no small matter. Then again, it might be no big deal.

"They'll handle it great," Galloway said. "These guys will go in there with the mind-set of winning the game at hand."

Sometimes, even with Galloway, they didn't always manage the game at hand.

During the regular season, after beating ranked teams in consecutive games, they lost to Massachusetts. With the outright Big 5 title in their grasp, they sputtered in the first half at Temple and had to share the title. Then, finally, against a tough, strong team in Wichita State, they could not absorb the punishment.

"We let them beat us up and out-tough us," Duren said. "Everything we talked about not letting them do, they did. They hit us harder than we thought. I don't think we were prepared for it."

They will be better prepared for it next March, or there won't be a next March.

"It's going to be harder," Garland said. "People won't sleep on us. They'll know we're good."

Neither will the other Big 5 schools simply cede the title. In particular, Villanova, which also earned an NCAA Tournament bid, will be older and better, too.

But La Salle should be very, very special.

They add transfer Khalid Lewis, a 6-3, all-state guard from Trenton Catholic who started 32 games as a freshman at Delaware in 2011-12. He is the latest gem in coach John Giannini's fruitful mining of the national transfer quarry.

Steve Zack, a 6-11 rebounder who missed the postseason with a foot injury, certainly will be a major cog.

Garland, this season's transfer godsend, should team with Duren to comprise the city's best backcourt, if not the conference's best.

Wright, a sophomore, was stunned in the first 10 minutes against Wichita State but was strong down the stretch. He developed by leaps in the past 2 weeks, learning to use his 6-8, 240-pound frame and his lefthanded power moves to greater advantage.

"I'm just more confident now," said Wright, who might be the centerpiece of the offense as a junior next season. "I know I can score when I get it in the paint. I'll call for it more."

"He's going to be tremendous," said D.J. Peterson, a starter this season but likely a super-sub in the coming campaign. "He'll be able to slide to power forward full time, because Steve [Zack] won't be hurt. When Steve and Jerrell are in there, they'll feed off each other extraordinarily."

While Wright and Zack hope to be symbiotic, Rohan Brown, in his second season, will be complementary. He developed into a viable post defender and doubled his minutes per game from the regular season to more than 14.7 in the NCAA Tournament. He is 6-6 and 220 pounds, and he is growing.

"Rohan is going to be a big factor," Wright said. "Next year, he'll be a greater player. We're going to work out together every day. He's like my brother right now."

Brotherhood is all well and good, but, really, much of next year will hinge on the progress of Garland, who left Virginia Tech to gain this chance. It is he who best creates his own shot. Transfer rules cost him the first half of this past season, so, by the time he was eligible, the Explorers' roles already were established.

La Salle never would have made it past the first round without Garland's spark off the bench. He led the team in scoring in two of their four NCAA Tournament games and his famous "Southwest Philly Floater" beat Mississippi.

"I like playing on big stages. I'll have to take on Ramon's role and lead this team next year," Garland said. "I transferred to get a bigger role. It's up to me, what I do with it.

"I wish the season started next week, so I would get into it."

Garland is not alone.