College of Charleston - The Happy Recap

The Drexel coaching staff trolled its fans on the final play of the game, and caught College of Charleston completely off guard.  All season long when Drexel runs four guard opposing coaches have been sending a forward out to the perimeter, taking Drexel's sole forward out with him and leaving the paint exposed.  When College of Charleston Coach Earl Grant saw Drexel's four guards in the game for the final play of Saturday's contest, he ran a play to do exactly that, attempting to get his guards to the basket.  And that's when the Drexel staff threw in a wrinkle.

Mohamed Bah did not follow Charleston star forward Adjehi Baru to the perimeter, he stayed planted right in the middle of the paint.  A surprised Charleston guard hit him in the numbers with a pass.  Ballgame.

It was a high risk move.  Two possessions prior to that play the four guard formation had given up an offensive rebound.  On the final play, had the Charleston guard penetrated and Bah had to step up and defend him, the backdoor pass that Charleston was looking for would have been available, and an unblocked Baru would be rushing in for the rebound as well.  But as it was, the four Drexel guards denied the hot shooting Cougars any looks from three, forcing Charleston to go for a tie before Bah and the Drexel coaches denied that as well.

Not only did the staff shoot the moon on the last defensive play of the game, the final offensive play wasn't too shabby either.  Bruiser drew up a play out of the timeout, and Sammy Mojica threw a perfect fade pass to Damion Lee enabling Lee to quickly release a three that swished home for the lead.  Repeat after me:  There is no such thing as a bad shot for Damion Lee.  He's a better shooter from 30 feet than some of his teammates are from 10, which is why this chart is so messed up:

Courtesy: Kenpom.com

The category highlighting is mine.  For all the good that the Drexel staff did in this game, it appears the decision to change Tavon's shot in the offseason was... poor.  Certainly his knee injury is playing into his shot as well, and he must be frustrated.  The coaching staff is starting to ride him a bit for not making key passes when he has the opportunity to do so, but they may be slightly late to the party on this one.

Despite giving a neon green light to Tavon's shooting, this win helps start a new narrative.  The Drexel Men's Basketball Team:  They're not as bad as you think they are!  With the reported return of Rodney Williams, Drexel seems to have weathered the early season storm, standing at 3-5.  Along with Williams, the Dragons have found a legit guy in Tyshawn Myles, and Sammy Mojica has shown that he can contribute as well. 

What is tremendously under-reported in the College of Charleston game is that the Cougars went 69% from downtown, outrebounded the Dragons (it was close), had a reasonable 11 turnovers.  The Dragons had to play their ass off to beat that team.  Only 5 turnovers, the best interior defense that they have played in quite some time including 5 blocked shots, and the effort that we have seen all season long is what helped the Dragons to victory on Saturday.  That is a baseline that they can work on in an exceptionally mediocre conference.  And so maybe this is the better narrative for now:

 The Drexel Men's Basketball Team:  It's not over yet