Wright State leans heavily on one man
Mar 14, 2007 23:53:25 GMT -5
Post by Admin on Mar 14, 2007 23:53:25 GMT -5
www.post-gazette.com/pg/07074/769689-150.stm
Collier: Wright State leans heavily on one man
Thursday, March 15, 2007
By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- This town flaunted every last one of its 18 shades of gray yesterday, but inside the fog-bound HSBC Arena, a Wood fire still burned brightly.
Throwing the heat in an evening practice on the eve of Big March Dance Madness was Wright State University's DaShaun Wood, who found the bleached white NCAA nets much like most others in his remarkable college career; they too seemed to suck his jumper straight into their vortex.
"All year I've been making plays," he said matter-of-factly before practice. "If they try to take me away, I'll just get it to someone else."
Wood gets the Warholian imperative of fame tonight against Pitt in the first round and fully expects to get his 20 points, if not 30. But aside from the final math, DaShaun (say it, "DAY-shon") will be the Raiders. Wood will be the show. Wood will run the offense. Wood will direct the defense, take the shots, attempt the steals, be the man.
"I was that guy at East Carolina," Pitt transfer Mike Cook said just a little wistfully before the Panthers practiced yesterday. "If you're winning in that role, it's great. But if you're losing, everything's on you. He's having a great season; he's getting 20 a game, his team is winning, he's in the tournament. Good for him."
Fact is, Pitt has three, four, five players with the talent and court intellect to play like Wood, but it's Jamie Dixon's job to recast those aptitudes so that it results in a more elaborate basketball portrait. Dixon yesterday called Wood "a great, great player," but surely said it in the full knowledge that he would never afford a Pitt man the same kind of strategical latitude.
"He's very good at it," Panthers point guard Levance Fields said of Wood, "but you're not going to get very far when one guy's getting 30 every night. I like to think that if the situation presented itself, I could fill that role, but I'd rather play the way we do."
Somewhere in the fast-forgotten backgrounds of tons of Big East players, there are numerable instances when they virtually owned the floor. None of them ever said they weren't having fun at it, but all of them got to a level where the game became way too complicated for such Maravichian impulses. Fields once scored 18 points in the second half, in the Jordan Classic High School All-Star Game in Madison Square Garden, no less.
"My senior year [at Xaverian High School in Brooklyn], we had no true center and I had to take a lot more shots and that was fine, but I'd still rather be doing what I'm doing now. That [All-Star] game, we were just running up and down like it was an NBA game. It was fun, but I remember with about 12 minutes left, we got together and said, 'Hey, let's play serious.' "
Playing most seriously tonight, Fields revealed, will be teammate Antonio Graves, who'll draw the initial man-to-man assignment against Wood. That will be Pitt's opening bid to dissuade Wood from the 52 he poured home in his past two games, the games that flew Wright State to the championship of the Horizon League.
"Ninety percent of their plays are run for him," Graves was saying yesterday. "This will definitely take a team effort. We'll need help inside and help with him on the perimeter. We have to stick to our defensive principles."
Last seen, Pitt's defensive principles were somehow allowing Georgetown to thunder to a 32-17 lead in the first 20 minutes Saturday night in New York City. Wright State isn't Georgetown, but the Raiders might look suspiciously dangerous if Pitt isn't Pitt.
Wood, who has scored 30 and 32 this year, had a career high 35 last year against Youngstown State. As a sharpshooter at Detroit's Crockett High, he once hit for 44 in 48 minutes. No Pitt player, by the way, has scored 25 in game this year.
"We've seen a little bit of everything," Wright State coach Brad Brownell said of the defensive approaches to Wood. "What separates DaShaun from a lot of players is that he recognizes defenses and recognizes what his role is against whatever he sees. If he's going to be allowed to shoot, he'll shoot, but we've won games when he's scored 12 points and gotten seven assists. I think it's the sign of a great player when he can beat you in other ways. He's really matured and improved as a player."
Dixon was typically coy on what Pitt's advanced plans are, although Fields said there would be no gimmicks.
"You can't give him anything easy, you can't give him open shots," said the Pitt coach. "And you can't put him on the foul line."
In one stretch this winter, Wood made 37 consecutive free throws, and 49 of 50. Very late tonight, DaShaun Wood might well go into history as one of the more overhyped aspects of Big March Dance Madness Eve, as it's not like Pitt has never successfully defended a big-time scorer before.
But yesterday, Wood was the only Wright State Raider practicing without his uniform number (5) evident. I guess he figures everyone will know who he is soon enough. Pitt should hope everyone doesn't.
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(Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com or 412-263- )
Collier: Wright State leans heavily on one man
Thursday, March 15, 2007
By Gene Collier, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
BUFFALO, N.Y. -- This town flaunted every last one of its 18 shades of gray yesterday, but inside the fog-bound HSBC Arena, a Wood fire still burned brightly.
Throwing the heat in an evening practice on the eve of Big March Dance Madness was Wright State University's DaShaun Wood, who found the bleached white NCAA nets much like most others in his remarkable college career; they too seemed to suck his jumper straight into their vortex.
"All year I've been making plays," he said matter-of-factly before practice. "If they try to take me away, I'll just get it to someone else."
Wood gets the Warholian imperative of fame tonight against Pitt in the first round and fully expects to get his 20 points, if not 30. But aside from the final math, DaShaun (say it, "DAY-shon") will be the Raiders. Wood will be the show. Wood will run the offense. Wood will direct the defense, take the shots, attempt the steals, be the man.
"I was that guy at East Carolina," Pitt transfer Mike Cook said just a little wistfully before the Panthers practiced yesterday. "If you're winning in that role, it's great. But if you're losing, everything's on you. He's having a great season; he's getting 20 a game, his team is winning, he's in the tournament. Good for him."
Fact is, Pitt has three, four, five players with the talent and court intellect to play like Wood, but it's Jamie Dixon's job to recast those aptitudes so that it results in a more elaborate basketball portrait. Dixon yesterday called Wood "a great, great player," but surely said it in the full knowledge that he would never afford a Pitt man the same kind of strategical latitude.
"He's very good at it," Panthers point guard Levance Fields said of Wood, "but you're not going to get very far when one guy's getting 30 every night. I like to think that if the situation presented itself, I could fill that role, but I'd rather play the way we do."
Somewhere in the fast-forgotten backgrounds of tons of Big East players, there are numerable instances when they virtually owned the floor. None of them ever said they weren't having fun at it, but all of them got to a level where the game became way too complicated for such Maravichian impulses. Fields once scored 18 points in the second half, in the Jordan Classic High School All-Star Game in Madison Square Garden, no less.
"My senior year [at Xaverian High School in Brooklyn], we had no true center and I had to take a lot more shots and that was fine, but I'd still rather be doing what I'm doing now. That [All-Star] game, we were just running up and down like it was an NBA game. It was fun, but I remember with about 12 minutes left, we got together and said, 'Hey, let's play serious.' "
Playing most seriously tonight, Fields revealed, will be teammate Antonio Graves, who'll draw the initial man-to-man assignment against Wood. That will be Pitt's opening bid to dissuade Wood from the 52 he poured home in his past two games, the games that flew Wright State to the championship of the Horizon League.
"Ninety percent of their plays are run for him," Graves was saying yesterday. "This will definitely take a team effort. We'll need help inside and help with him on the perimeter. We have to stick to our defensive principles."
Last seen, Pitt's defensive principles were somehow allowing Georgetown to thunder to a 32-17 lead in the first 20 minutes Saturday night in New York City. Wright State isn't Georgetown, but the Raiders might look suspiciously dangerous if Pitt isn't Pitt.
Wood, who has scored 30 and 32 this year, had a career high 35 last year against Youngstown State. As a sharpshooter at Detroit's Crockett High, he once hit for 44 in 48 minutes. No Pitt player, by the way, has scored 25 in game this year.
"We've seen a little bit of everything," Wright State coach Brad Brownell said of the defensive approaches to Wood. "What separates DaShaun from a lot of players is that he recognizes defenses and recognizes what his role is against whatever he sees. If he's going to be allowed to shoot, he'll shoot, but we've won games when he's scored 12 points and gotten seven assists. I think it's the sign of a great player when he can beat you in other ways. He's really matured and improved as a player."
Dixon was typically coy on what Pitt's advanced plans are, although Fields said there would be no gimmicks.
"You can't give him anything easy, you can't give him open shots," said the Pitt coach. "And you can't put him on the foul line."
In one stretch this winter, Wood made 37 consecutive free throws, and 49 of 50. Very late tonight, DaShaun Wood might well go into history as one of the more overhyped aspects of Big March Dance Madness Eve, as it's not like Pitt has never successfully defended a big-time scorer before.
But yesterday, Wood was the only Wright State Raider practicing without his uniform number (5) evident. I guess he figures everyone will know who he is soon enough. Pitt should hope everyone doesn't.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Gene Collier can be reached at gcollier@post-gazette.com or 412-263- )