How five teams beat SFA
March 16, 2016 by Mike Casazza
Stephen F. Austin photo
West Virginia has lost six basketball games since we turned the calendar from December to January and from 2015 to 2016. Stephen F. Austin, WVU’s first-round opponent in Brooklyn Friday in the first round of the NCAA tournament, hasn’t lost once in that same period of time. The Mountaineers lost five times in 36 days spread across January and February. The Lumberjacks have only lost five games during this 4-month-old season.
This is not where we’ll compare resumes, and I don’t have to tell you that life in the Southland Conference is easier than it is in the Big 12. But SFA, which was already used to winning with 18-0 and 17-1 conference records followed by tournament titles and NCAA bids the past two seasons, has won 20 games in a row. It doesn’t know losing, and though in the grand scheme that might not mean much come 7:10 p.m. Friday, it means something.
The Lumberjacks won their final 26 regular-season games and then two in the Southland tournament before beating VCU in the first round in 2014. Three players remain from that team. Last season, SFA won its final nine regular-season games — and 19 in a row before a surprising road loss at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi — and lost to Utah in the first round. Seven of those players are back this season.
But enough about wins. WVU’s coaches and players aren’t studying film and box scores to see how SFA will win Friday. What happened the five times the Lumberjacks lost?
Loss No. 1: No. 22 Baylor, 97, SFA 56
Nov. 13, 2015, in Waco, Texas
Baylor never trailed in this one and led by double figures for the final 28 minutes,
“We missed some shots early, free throws and missed a few layups,” SFA coach Brad Underwood said after the game. “We had good offensive flow early, and then it just steamrolled. We were not nearly tough enough. We’ve got young guys out there that we are trying to play. Everybody has a bad night.”
This is a game a lot of people are pointing at to say SFA can’t be taken too seriously alongside WVU. It was lopsided. It was a laugher. But it’s worth stating this: It was the season-opener.
“I think when you prepare a month in advance, it kind of gives you that edge to go out there and basically execute everything you know you’ve been working on for the past month,” Baylor forward Rico Gathers said. “We’ve been preparing for them ever since camp, and our last scrimmage was against Houston, who played similar basketball. So, reps are reps.”
That’s relevant today because by the time the game tips, WVU will have spent parts of six days physically and mentally readying for this game.
Something else that’s worth stating — and I’m not trying to acquit the Lumberjacks — is that Baylor played exceptionally well. Best it shot the ball from the field and from 3-point range all season. If Baylor does this to anyone, that other team is going to look bad. (Seriously, check out that second-half box score.)
“I can honestly say that I am a little bit in shock with my team and extremely impressed with theirs. I don’t know if I ever had a team give up 70 percent on the field goal percentage in one half,” Underwood said. “Thirty-one assists and eight turnovers is not what we usually do on the defensive end.”
SFA wasn’t very good either. In fact, it was its worst game of the season — lowest shooting percentage, second-worst 3-point percentage, second worst free-throw percentage, fewest baskets, second-fewest shots, fewest steals, fewest forced turnovers, second-fewest rebounds … that kind of night.
“From my perspective, this was more of what we were not after two scrimmages, one against Texas and one with North Texas,” Underwood said. “I am in shock, and, again, I don’t want to take anything away from Baylor.”
What about those two scrimmages, you say? So glad you asked.
“Well, they scrimmaged Texas and won by 18, they beat North Texas in a scrimmage by 26, so we knew coming in that this was going to be a really good team,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said. “They finished 29-5 last year and we couldn’t have written it up any better.”
Loss No. 2: Northern Iowa 70, SFA 60
Nov. 17, 2015, in Cedar Falls, Iowa
This one was a little more upsetting for the Lumberjacks, though it was a — and I’m serious — 7:05 a.m. tip because of the ESPN marathon to start the season. But the year before, UNI went on the road to Nacogdoches and ended SFA’s 34-game home winning streak. Underwood was hoping for better, but his defense was again suspect. The Panthers shot it straight in the first half and, like Baylor, took control early. It was 14-4 seven minutes in, and NIU led from start to finish and was once up by 19 points.
That was what an 0-1 team needed.
“Had we won or lost, we got 10 minutes in and I felt like, ‘OK this is more like our basketball team, and whatever the score ends up being today, that’s going to be OK,'” Panthers coach Ben Jacobsen said. “This is more like the team we’re working hard to be.”
SFA did pursue and found its defense in the second half. Thomas Walkup, who scored 30 points, played sound defense after halftime, and the Lumberjacks would get as close as eight points, but the rally felly incomplete. The Lumberjacks shot 35.5 percent, missed 15 of 21 3-point shots and, in a connected development, had only 10 assists and 24 points in the paint.
“Our guys understand that’s where we have to get to,” said Jacobson. “It’s being a team that’s going to force the opponent to run offense and not allow them to get easy things in the lane and keep that basketball outside of 15 feet, then do a great job of chasing down rebounds. No question, that’s where we’re striving to get to.”
Four days later, UNI beat then-No. 1 North Carolina.
Loss No. 3: Tulane 60, SFA 59
Nov. 27, 2015, in Nashville, Tenn.
I’m not positive this loss happened, and I have to think SFA feels the same. I could only find very limited coverage of something called the Challenge in Music City. This outcome is completely inexplicable.
Tulane was very poor this season. How poor? Well, the Green Wave opened play in the American tournament with a win, but the next game was against Houston, which won regular-season games by 19 and 13 points and is generally superior. Someone in the athletic department leaked that the school was firing head coach Ed Conroy while Tulane was playing, no doubt assuming a loss. Naturally, the Green Wave won, and it was really awkward afterward.
Q. This is awkward on our end as well. There’s a report that came out start of the second half that you wouldn’t be back.
ED CONROY: I know I had two guys behind the bench put their phone up and tell me “Hey, Coach you’re gone.” So that was fun when you’re trying to come back from an eight-point deficit. But you know what? I talked to our guys about it before the game and what we have been saying all along, we are the madness. We can be a part of that and this is a — nobody loves college basketball more than me. This is a new story for March Madness, right. I got axed because we’re down 8 at the half. But I talked to the players about it before the game and I don’t mind you asking.They have been through a lot, and a few weeks ago there was some comments made about people didn’t like our program. And then that was right before a key basketball game. Then two days before we come here, they said that I was fired. Today it came out that I was leaving them. It’s almost like somebody’s putting something out there every 24 hours to try to distract this group. And as you can see, that’s going to be a tougher job than they think. Because they’re pretty focused about what they’re doing. And the thing I would say is, anybody putting those things out doesn’t care about these kids. It’s about them, and this is their time. March is a really special month to me, and everybody that ever grew up wanting to play college basketball, and this is Louis Dabney’s last March and Cameron only has a couple more.
So to do anything that would distract or take away until this thing is done, I think is really not thinking about the students and the student-athletes. It’s a shame. But it gave our guys a chance through adversity to step up and show people what they’re made of, and I love them for it.
Q. You have not been told anything specifically about your future, have you?
ED CONROY: I have not. It makes for good pregame speeches though.(Laughter.)
Q. How does that make you feel though just day-to-day, hour-to-hour, knowing that not only are these reports out there, but just you’re coaching for your life, I guess?
ED CONROY: I really do believe this: It’s a blessing. My family has absolutely loved New Orleans. We love Tulane. It’s been great. It’s a blessing to have a platform to coach and be around guys like this every day. So I never take one of those days for granted, and I know they can always be taken away from you. So I just wake up and these guys will tell you, we just go to work every day. That’s what we do in our program. We love what we do. But we’ll do it wherever we’re welcome.
Anyhow, Tulane. Bad. So bad that SFA was up 36-10 with 6:15 left in the first half. Tulane then went on a 50-23 run and stole the game on a layup with 16 seconds to go. Dreadful game for SFA, particularly the second half, when it shot 5-for-23.
Loss No. 4: Arizona State 80, SFA 73
Dec. 22, 2015, in Tempe, Ariz.
Another weird tip for SFA: 1 p.m. on a Tuesday, and it didn’t start well, either. The Sun Devils led 10-2, but the Lumberjacks, who had won five in a row and were playing much more like themselves on offense and defense, would take a 20-19 lead and then trail for the final 29 minutes. It wasn’t as bad as other performances, but it wasn’t even, either.
That said, it was close late. SFA trailed by 12 points in the second half but had it down to three with 5:27 remaining. It was a 73-70 game with 1:06 to go and the ball in point guard Trey Pinkney’s hands, but he missed a layup with 38 seconds left.
“I thought our kids really fought and got some clean looks,” Underwood said. “We just didn’t make them when we normally make them.”
Arizona State made six straight free throws in the foul-to-win game. SFA had a turnover, a made 3-pointer and a missed 3-pointer, that when down 79-73 with 16 seconds to go. The Sun Devils shot 66.8 percent at the free-throw line last season, which ranked N0. 259 out of 351 teams. They were 22-for-30 against FA.
“If it wasn’t for those free throws everybody hit,” said Arizona State’s Willie Atwood, who was 10-for-10, “it probably would have been an overtime game or maybe we would have lost.”
Things got a little ugly on SFA’s final miss. Arizona State’s Tra Holder got the rebound and was fouled by Clide Geffrard. The Sun Devils didn’t like that, and Geffrard and Atwood took technical fouls and a SFA reserve was ejected with just a few ticks to go.
“They never give up,” Atwood said. “They’re scrappy. They’re going to foul you, and they’re all up into you the whole game.”
Loss No. 5: UAB 76, SFA 66
Dec. 29, 2015, in Birmingham, Ala.
The Lumberjacks win in bunches, but this loss gave them their second losing streak of the season, and it was another stunner. This time, SFA lost an 18-point lead with 5:58 to go in the first half and was tied at halftime.
WVU has one loss when it leads a game by 10. It was to Virginia, a No. 1 seed, on a neutral floor. SFA’s done it twice to one bad and one above-average team.
“We were woeful, and we certainly flipped that,” UAB coach Jerod Haase said. “At the under-eight timeout, there was a message that was delivered and thankfully accepted by our team, and their play improved. This wasn’t a game about Xs and Os. We told the guys it was going to be about effort, energy, physicality and matching fire with fire.
“We certainly didn’t do that the first 14 minutes. I do think we have the mark of a more experienced team, to be able to have adversity like that, to be down 18 and then respond to it. I was certainly pleased. A lot of guys contributed in different ways.”
SFA led 50-44 with 10:54 to go and was outscored 16-1 in the next seven minutes. UAB made its final seven shots and went 12-for-13 at the foul line. The Lumberjacks didn’t shoot well at all, but had 18 assists on 27 baskets and only committed nine turnovers while forcing 18 and stealing the ball away 1o times. But a 26-13 edge in points off turnovers was easily negated. UAB was 21-for-27 at the foul line. SFA was 4-for-7. UAB had a 36-22 scoring edge in the paint and a 40-26 rebounding margin.
“We were a lot bigger than they were. We knew that we would be able to go down low this game,” forward Chris Cokley said. “They were more physical than we were, but we a height and weight advantage, which allowed us to feed the ball down low.”