It’s nice to welcome an historical basketball program to Cameron
Date 11/21 || Time 7:00 || Venue Cameron Indoor Stadium || Video ACCN
Next up for the Blue Devils are the LaSalle Explorers. A Big Five school out of Philly, LaSalle is a program of great historical significance.
Aside from the Big Five ties, which is a big deal by itself, LaSalle won the NCAA tournament in 1954 and was runner up in 1955.
It’s also had three National Players of the Year - Tom Gola, Lionel Simmons and Michael Brooks.
But you have to maintain and expand your legacy and it’s 2023. Where are the Explorers these days?
LaSalle plays in the excellent A-10, which, like all numerical conferences these days, is inaccurate: there are 15 teams now, including Dayton, George Mason, Loyola of Chicago, Rhode Island, Richmond, Saint Louis, Saint Joe’s, VCU and Davidson (of course that works both ways - the PAC-12 is down to two). That’s a pretty good basketball conference.
And coaching the Explorers is Big Five legend (he’s coached at three of the Big Five now, having previously been at Penn and Temple) and Mike Krzyzewski buddy Fran Dunphy.
Now 75, Dunphy had been out of coaching for a couple of years but so far LaSalle is 4-0 and no one has ever questioned his talent or character. He played at LaSalle in the late 1960’s so it’s bound to mean a lot to him to be there near the end of his career.
What’s he working with?
Well, there doesn't appear to be a Gola, Simmons or Brooks, but it is an experienced group with eight upperclassmen, five sophomores and just two freshmen.
They also have some size with four players 6-8 or above and one big rascal in 6-10/260 lb. Rokas Jocius.
Dunphy is controlling his rotation pretty tightly - he has 15 guys on his roster but only eight appear to have played this season.
Junior guard Khalil Brantley (6-1) is averaging 17.5 ppg, 3.8 boards and 3.5 apg. His running mate is Jamie Brickus (5-11) is getting 14.3 points, 3.3 rebounds and 4.3 assists. Anwar Gill, a 6-4 senior, chips in with 11 ppg, 2.8 boards and five dimes. And Jocius mans the post. His stats aren’t massive (6.8 ppg, 4.8 rebounds, and a block per game), but he is: at 6-10 and 260, he’s going to try to throw his weight around.
The bench so far consists of Andres Marrero, a 6-5 sophomore out of Venezuela, Tunde Vahlberg, Fasasi, a 6-8 Swedish import and 6-7 Ryan Zan, a 6-7 sophomore out of Princeton, New Jersey.
So far, LaSalle has taken down Drexel, 67-61, Northeastern, 79-74, Bucknell 69-57 and Southern Indiana 79-78.
The oddsmakers are going to make Duke the prohibitive favorite, but that doesn’t necessarily matter, as Michigan State, which lost to James Madison, Michigan, which lost to FAU which was (truly) shocked by Bryant, and Arkansas, which was most likely embarrassed by UNCG.
We’re pretty sure that all of these were home losses so if you don’t think it can happen to Duke, think again. It can always happen.
And keep in mind that LaSalle, ably coached, is vastly more experienced than is Duke. And we don’t want to make too much of this necessarily, but it is intriguing: Dunphy has players from Lithuania, Serbia, Venezuela, Argentina Spain, Turkey and Sweden. How many times have we seen American teams in tight games instinctively play conservatively while international opponents fire up threes in a way that we just don’t?
It may never get to that point, but it’s something you can’t ignore either.
Our expectation is that Kyle Filipowski, who hurt his ankle against Bucknell, will play. Will he be 100 percent? No way to know.
Will Christian Reeves be ready? He had a boot on for the Bucknell game. Again, we can’t know.
Duke has gotten up-and-down play from its freshmen, which is no surprise. Caleb Foster was a revelation against Michigan State; against Bucknell, he shot 3-9 and scored nine points.
Jared McCain had a goose egg against the Spartans in scoring and assists and had just one rebound.
Against Bucknell? McCain hit 5-7 from three point range and pulled down a remarkable 10 rebounds.
Freshmen: you just don’t know what to expect.
Hopefully Duke’s more experienced players - Filipowski, Tyrese Proctor, Jeremy Roach, Ryan Young and Mark Mitchell - will help their younger teammates raise their play.
If McCain and Foster both get it rolling at the same time, look out. That would make Duke a very, very dangerous team.
