Delaware defeats depleted Drexel

IT IS never a positive when the number of coaches in suits outnumbers available bench players, 4-2. It is definitely not good when your opponent has more players (10) on its bench than you have players (seven).

That was Drexel last night against Delaware. These endless injuries began with the starting power forward and point guard declared out for the season, continued as two rotation big men missed a combined 17 games and finally appeared to have tilted back in the right direction when the Dragons somehow won six straight. It not only seemed to be too good to be true, it was.

Damion Lee, one of the best players in the city and the fourth-leading scorer in the nation, fractured his right hand Saturday at Northeastern. He is out for the season. Top sub Sammy Mojica, who might have taken Lee's starting spot last night, sprained his knee slipping on a wet spot during Wednesday's practice. Lee was on the bench with a cast on his right hand. Mojica had a foot-to-thigh brace on his left leg.

Total it all up, and Drexel has lost 94 player-games to injury this season, a season after losing 4,000 points to graduation.

It could always be worse. A season after coaching Delaware to 25 wins and the Colonial Athletic Association championship, Monte Ross apparently is about to lose his job.

That was the strange backdrop at the Daskalakis Athletic Center for Drexel's final home game of a season bizarre even by its recent injury-dominated seasons.

Drexel (10-18, 8-9 CAA) hung around for much of the first half, but never had a chance. Delaware pushed the pace, stretched a seven-point halftime lead to 15 in the first 5 minutes of the second half, got up by as much as 20 and eased across the wire, 58-44. The game, with only 12 free-throw attempts, 20 personal fouls, 14 turnovers and only a few team timeouts, took only a merciful 90 minutes.

"It's just been one of those years,'' Drexel coach Bruiser Flint said. "Guys got tired. We got no guard subs . . . I just want us to just keep fighting, that's all.''

Apparently, the rules don't allow his good buddy John Calipari to lend him any of his players. He certainly has enough at Kentucky.

The good news is that Lee, with his 1,538 career points and five 30-point games this season, will be back for one final season. One can only hope that Lee, who missed almost all of last season with a torn ACL, will stay healthy and have enough teammates to practice and play games.

"I feel bad, because I think the kid was going to get the MVP of the league,'' Flint said. "I hope this doesn't hurt him.''

It was going to be either Lee or William & Mary's Marcus Thornton. Now, it probably will be Thornton.

Lee had made 29 consecutive free throws before finally missing last Saturday, apparently right after he hurt his shooting hand. He proceeded to make his final nine. So, he could be working on 39 straight. And he could be playing, but, unfortunately, he's not.

Last March, Vice President Joe Biden, a 1965 Delaware grad, called Ross the day of the CAA championship game and again the day after. Last May, the team got a tour of the White House and attended a cookout at the U. S. Naval Observatory, the VP's home. Unfortunately, the VP does not have enough athletic juice to save Ross. That decision apparently was made last summer when there was no agreement on a contract extension.

Delaware (9-19, 8-9) played its first seven games with only freshmen and sophomores, as its only two experienced players were injured. The Blue Hens have gotten progressively better in 2015, a one-point overtime road loss from a 4-0 sweep of the CAA's top two teams, William & Mary and UNCW.

None of that will help Ross. Barring a change of heart, he almost certainly is gone at season's end. Ross talked about his team, Drexel's team and the game. Flint talked about Ross.

"It makes you feel sad," Flint said, when asked how he felt about this possibly being the last game he would coach against his friend. "It shouldn't be. He's done a good job there . . . [When they coached together at UMass] 'Cal' used to always say it's all about your administration. The administration backs you, you'll have success.''

And, if they don't, you will be out.

"They go to the tournament last year, you should be rewarded for that,'' Flint said.

Ross has not talked about his situation. He does like his improving young team.

"We intentionally made the schedule very tough, and we wanted to make sure they didn't break, that they didn't crack, and they didn't," Ross said.

The coach told them that if they stayed with it, they would have success in the league. He was right, but he might not be coaching them much longer.

Just another late February hoops night where up is down and down is up.

"I want to take one from 'The Godfather'; it's the business that we're in,'' said Flint, summing up his and Ross' situations perfectly.