Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

La Salle relies on Wright, guards

IT IS a mantra that is recited like gospel by every Billy Packer clone during college basketball's postseason: Tournament time is when guard play especially is at a premium.

Devon White and the La Salle Explorers play Saint Louis in the opening round of the A-10 Tournament. (Alex Brandon/AP)
Devon White and the La Salle Explorers play Saint Louis in the opening round of the A-10 Tournament. (Alex Brandon/AP)Read more

IT IS a mantra that is recited like gospel by every Billy Packer clone during college basketball's postseason: Tournament time is when guard play especially is at a premium.

For a lot of teams, including Philadelphia's three Atlantic 10 Conference members, those words hold true not only in this particular postseason, but throughout all the games that went before. Temple, Saint Joseph's and La Salle not only had three guards on the floor on a consistent basis, but sometimes four.

For Dr. John Giannini, La Salle's eighth-year coach, this evening's A-10 quarterfinal matchup of his seventh-seeded Explorers (21-11) and second-seeded Saint Louis (24-6) in Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall also figures to prominently feature stellar backcourt performers for both squads. The Explorers will line up for the 6:30 opening tip with four guards - Tyreek Duren, Sam Mills, Earl Pettis and Ramon Galloway, who range in size from 6-feet to 6-5. Rick Majerus' Billikens counter with 5-10 whirling dervish Kwamain Mitchell and 6-1 Jordair Jett, a member of the A-10's all-defensive team whose first name, as one might expect, calls to mind a former Chicago Bull celebrated for his flying dunks, coolness in the clutch and rip-your-heart-out competitiveness.

Maybe it really is a small world, after all.

But the name of the game is still basketball, which means that somebody with XXL-length still has to pull down rebounds, block the occasional shot and provide a low-post scoring threat. And for La Salle, those duties primarily fall to 6-8 freshman Jerrell Wright and 6-8 junior Devon White. Each is listed as a forward and is a stand-in for what passes as a big in this era in which perimeter poppers rule and 7-footers are edging toward the endangered-species list.

If the Explorers' 80-72, first-round victory over Richmond on Tuesday in Tom Gola Arena is any indication, the key to a deep La Salle run in the A-10 Tournament could be the play of Wright and White, who came up, well, large in tag-team fashion. Wright, the former Dobbins Tech standout, sank all six of his field-goal attempts in finishing with 14 points, 12 coming in the first half. When Wright got into foul trouble early in the second half, White, a Strawberry Mansion product, kept things under control en route to 13 points, six rebounds and two blocked shots.

"I think it's very important," Wright, whose drop-step jump-hook in the lane should be patented, said when asked if La Salle's presence in the paint is as necessary as it is underrated. "When Devon and I are scoring inside, it makes it easier for our guards to score, too. You have to have an inside/outside game to be effective. I think that's way better than having your offense be all one way or another."

The Billikens know all about Wright, who went off for a game-high 18 points, snatched nine rebounds and blocked a shot as Saint Louis won, 59-51, in Gola Arena on Feb. 11. Several of his baskets came on the jump-hook, which sometimes seems to catch opponents by surprise as delivered by the lefthanded Wright.

"I've been doing that since high school," Wright said. "It's just something that works pretty well for me. Coach G tells me that when I get the ball down low to go straight up and shoot."

What Giannini also tells Wright is to avoid taking silly fouls, which is a lesson he is still in the process of learning. Although Wright has fouled out of only one game this season, he has finished 12 others with four personals, a big reason his minutes-per-game average is a relatively constricted 19.7. When Wright goes to the bench, his replacement often is White, whom Giannini said has shown flashes of all that he can be throughout his career, but hasn't done it as regularly as he might have preferred.

Against Richmond, however, White turned in one of his finest all-around games of the season, more than doubling his season scoring average and keeping the Spiders' burly forward, Derrick Williams, mostly in check.

Saint Louis is sparked by first-team All-Atlantic 10 forward Brian Conklin, but the Billikens' real forte is team defense. They allow only 58.6 points per game, tops in the league and No. 7 nationally, and they forced La Salle into 20 turnovers in the first meeting.