Monmouth’s comeback win over Hofstra shows roles being defined and refined
“I’m hoping that it will give our guys a lot of confidence,” Monmouth coach King Rice said as the Hawks moved to 4-4 in the CAA.
WEST LONG BRANCH – It likely wasn’t a pretty sight at practice Friday, the day after Monmouth allowed Stony Brook to shoot 60 percent in the second half and score 48 points on an estimated 36 possessions to pull away for a 72-65 win.
Monmouth coach King Rice mentioned assistant coach Rick Callahan, the grizzled 40-plus-year vet of the business, and some “truth-telling” with the players that had to take place. It was the Hawks’ fourth defeat in five games, even if the three straight road losses to the CAA’s best teams – UNC Wilmington, Charleston, Drexel – were understandable.
“You would think that the roles have been talked about and everything, but they’re kids and they want more. Everybody always wants more,” Rice said. “… Well, keep your head in the right place, keep working. Eventually it’s going to happen for you. But that’s hard (to hear) when you’re 18 to 24.”
Saturday’s game against Hofstra represented another measuring stick, but also a chance to start fresh after the Stony Brook debacle. And the Hawks trailed by 13 points in the first half, but a lineup change led to a spirited rally that illustrated the roles players must continue to fill to sustain success down the shore.
Hofstra, a pretty good shooting team, made a preposterous 11 of 17 3-pointers in the first half for a 50-38 lead. The Hawks proceeded to hold the Pride to 28 points in the second half, Xander Rice drew a foul on a 3-pointer before the buzzer and he converted the winning free throws for an 81-78 Monmouth victory.
It was Rice’s third 30-point outing of the season (31), yet it’s not breaking news that King Rice’s son, a grad transfer from Bucknell, gives Monmouth a killer on offense that it lacked last year.
The key lineup change to open the second half was to play freshman Cornelius “Boog” Robinson Jr. in place of starting center Nikita Konstantynovskyi, after the game plan to stop Hofstra’s middle ball screen was beaten during the first half.
“We were trying to play in drop (coverage) and they were just driving us and kicking and everybody was making it,” King Rice said. “So in the second half, we changed the lineup and then it was switch everything, except when Tyler (Thomas) got the ball. We were gonna trap his ball screens. It just gave us enough confidence to get a couple things going.”
They did that by playing the 6-foot-6 Robinson as a small-ball five, a wrinkle that had barely been practiced.
“At first I had (forward Jaret Valencia) at five and Boog was like, ‘Am I the five, is he the five?’” King Rice recounted. “I’m like, ‘He’s the five! … No, you’re the five!’ Right as we’re walking out. And we haven’t practiced that a lot. We’ve done it a few times in practice. That’s why I don’t throw it out there enough. Jaret can do some things in the 1-3-1 and the 1-2-2 … You can’t do that to kids, if you haven’t practiced it where they feel comfortable, I’m not going to throw things out there.”
Yet it worked. Robinson, who King Rice described as the “glue guy” on last year’s Camden High School team that featured Kentucky stars DJ Wagner and Aaron Bradshaw, played tight, energetic defense, his size allowing him to switch onto guards and bigs alike.
Robinson also had seven rebounds, another area where Monmouth often impresses. Jack Collins, a guard and Manasquan native whom I wrote about last year, is scoring at about the same clip he did as a freshman, but his rebounds are up to 6.7 per game. The way he elevates and always gets two hands on the rock is reminiscent of Princeton rebounding extraordinaire Caden Pierce. Opponents hate playing against someone with Collins’ hustle.
Valencia, the redshirt freshman starting at the four, has cemented his job as a secondary scoring option complementing Xander Rice who can rim-run, shoot the three and use his length on defense (he had two blocks and two steals Saturday). Jakari Spence won’t bowl you over if you only care about the points column of the stat sheet, but his hustle defensively and under the basket created some crucial Monmouth possessions as he finished with six boards, six assists and three steals.
Finally, there is freshman Abdi Bashir Jr. from Omaha, Neb. The Hawks’ fifth-leading scorer is shooting exactly 50% from three on 78 attempts. Eight of his 11 points Saturday came in a quick stretch late in the first half to bring Monmouth within 36-32. And after the Hawks grabbed a narrow lead with roughly six minutes to play, Bashir nailed a corner three to make it a two-possession game in their favor for the first time.
“I think (Valencia) and Boog and Abdi, they’re special young guys, they’re very special,” King Rice said. “… I think about the future with (Valencia) and Jack Collins and Boog, just them three. On defense, that can be crazy. Then you add Jakari in there and now we should be able to guard everybody next season.
“The way (Bashir) shoots, he’s gonna play. I’m trying to get him to understand (defense). I’m still gonna play him because I’m crazy like that, but we gotta get you better on D so these guys don’t take advantage of you.”
The win snapped a seven-game losing streak to Hofstra that well predated Monmouth’s entry into the CAA. The Hawks moved to 4-4 in the CAA, right in the thick of things before league-leading Drexel arrives Thursday for a rematch after Monmouth lost by just four in Philadelphia the other week.
It’s legitimate progress for a program that had one of the lowest-scoring offenses in Division I last season, when they were a collection of young pieces that had yet to resemble a team with defined roles. King Rice admitted he still thinks about the trials of last year’s 7-26 team.
“I’m hoping that (the win) will give our guys a lot of confidence,” he said. “We’ve still got some young guys. Jaret’s in game what is it, 21, 22 now? … And I gotta do a better job with my young guys and not just be so hard on them because they’re so talented, and know there’s going to be growing pains. But I hope it gives my guys confidence.”
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Happy Sunday, and thanks as always for reading. Saturday featured plenty of victories for teams around New Jersey, but a couple of high-profile losses take higher priority in our Cleaning the Glass section this morning. But before any of that, let’s start with one more note from Monmouth.
Saturday marked King Rice’s 200th win as a college head coach, all 200 coming at Monmouth. Rice reflected on the career he’s eternally grateful to have, knowing the trouble he’d gotten into as a player at North Carolina and early in his coaching career at Illinois State could have prevented him from making it this far. He knows Monmouth could have moved on from him after three losing seasons to begin his tenure. As someone who grew up without much wealth, Rice is always thankful for the opportunities coaching Monmouth has provided his family. Then I asked Valencia what it means to him to be playing for a man like Rice.
“He has never lied to me,” Valencia said. “Everything that he says he’s gonna do with me, everything that he says I gotta work on, I just believe him and I got Xander with me too, and he’s my man so I trust him on everything. I kinda came from the same background (as King Rice). My mama had to raise me by herself with my grandma. And she was working all day so I had to be with my grandma, go to school and then I had to escape my house to go play basketball. But, I’m glad that I’m here.”No. 14 Marquette 75, Seton Hall 57. The Pirates have lost three straight, two without Kadary Richmond, who didn’t make the trip to Milwaukee. Jerry Carino reported that the Pirates’ plan was to fly home Saturday and head back out Monday to Chicago for their Tuesday game at lowly DePaul, so we can’t rule out Richmond’s return then. (They also don’t need Richmond to beat DePaul.) As for Saturday, Seton Hall kept it close throughout the first half and once again limited Tyler Kolek from scoring that much, but Kolek dealt out 11 assists to conduct the offense. Seton Hall got exactly two points from its bench (freshman Malachi Brown).
Princeton is now 15-2 and, more importantly, has vacated the driver’s seat in the Ivy League after losing 83-68 at Cornell. The Tigers were 1-for-15 from 3-point range in the first half and fell behind by 19 at halftime. Cornell, meanwhile, got everything it wanted on the offensive end. Now Cornell and the Yale Bulldogs (who beat Harvard) are 4-0 in the league and Princeton is third fiddle at 3-1 before visiting Yale and Brown next weekend. If you read my Tuesday editions for paid subscribers, you might remember discussion of a Quad 1 opportunity for the Tigers. Instead, it’s Cornell who’s got a Q1 win in its column. Princeton dropped 12 spots to 44th in the NET while the Big Red rose to 79th, marking a Quad 2 loss (for now) for the Tigers.
Rider is showing signs of life with two consecutive wins to get to 4-5 in the MAAC. After a gritty victory at Saint Peter’s on Thursday, the Broncs went to Mount St. Mary’s and pulled out a 66-62 win behind 26 points from Mervin James. T.J. Weeks Jr. is coming along as a consistent secondary threat; he scored 10 points to go with nine boards against The Mount, his sixth double-digit scoring game in the past seven. His 3-point shot has cooled off ever since he went a combined 11-for-19 against Quinnipiac and Canisius at the start of the month, but it seems he’s being trusted to take more shots in general.
There was a wild finish up in Hackensack before FDU held off Sacred Heart 93-91. A 71-50 Knights lead was whittled down to two points, but Joe Munden Jr. then scored on consecutive possessions for FDU. Heru Bligen (16 points off the bench) added a key jumper and the game was played at the foul line the rest of the way. That’s four wins in five games for FDU to get to 4-3 in the Northeast Conference.
Hats off to NJIT for its first America East Conference win under Grant Billmeier, a 75-74 comeback at UMBC. The Highlanders trailed by 22 at halftime before a 51-point second half was fueled by rising star Tariq Francis (22 points), Kjell de Graaf (18 second-half points) and Adam Hess (three 3-pointers after halftime). de Graaf tipped in the go-ahead layup with less than 20 seconds left — check out the highlight here.
In unsurprising Ivy League news: Princeton women 85, Cornell 47. Fourteen different Tigers players scored as the game was in the bag by halftime (a whopping 46-19 lead). Princeton star Kaitlyn Chen had just the first double-double of her career with 12 points and 10 assists.
I’ll be on the scene later today for Rutgers’ game against No. 2 Purdue. The Boilermakers have lost three straight games in Piscataway and Rutgers has won five of seven overall in the series. You knew that, I’m sure. But if you’re interested, I broke things down a bit more in this game preview for Field Level Media.