City of Basketball Love

Stephen Pianovich (@SPianovich)
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John Giannini made no mistake about it: What has happened to his La Salle team this season lies entirely on his shoulders.

The 12th-year coach was not talking specifically about what went on during the Explorers’ 95-46 loss to No. 13 Miami at the Palestra on Tuesday, the worst loss ever for a program which started playing basketball in the 1931-32 season. But Giannini was talking about the state of his team’s roster.

With three players sitting out this season due to NCAA transfer rules, the Explorers have just nine players who started their collegiate careers with scholarships. La Salle has lost four in a row, and has beaten just Division-III Rowan since starting the year 3-0.

“Our kids really tried hard and gave great effort. This loss has nothing to do with our players,” Giannini said in his opening statement as he met with the media. “This loss has to do with me not evaluating this team properly in the way I put it together. This is not a team with injuries. This is not a team that had to be rebuilding. This is a team that I thought was better than it is, and that is a billion percent my fault. I chose everything you see out there. I can live with these kids, because they’re great kids and they play really hard. I am going to have a hard time living with myself for the next three months.

“Injuries didn’t do this, rebuilding didn’t do this, I did this. I know when people’s teams don’t do well they like to be angry at the cause. Anyone has every right to be angry with me for putting this team together the way I did.”

Giannini pointed out a few times he was pleased with the effort his players gave. And there is talent on the La Salle roster – it just didn’t show Tuesday.

Against the Hurricanes, La Salle was dominated in every major statistical category, and Giannini called Miami “infinitely ahead of us right now.” Jordan Price, who entered as the nation’s sixth-best scorer with 24.6 points per game, had his worst game of the season. The junior wing had just six points on 2-of-11 shooting and was scoreless in the second half.

Miami had five players score in double figures, including forward Ivan Cruz Uceda, a former Harcum College player who had a game-best 20 points. Meanwhile, the Explorers did have anyone crack 10 points, and guard Johnnie Shuler had a team-high nine points. The Hurricanes shot 53.1 percent from the field to the Explorers’ 29.8 percent mark, and the opponent also held the rebounding edge 51-24.

The final score was the worst margin of defeat ever for La Salle, topping the previous mark, a 42-point loss to the City College of New York on Dec. 15, 1945.

Giannini showed a lot of frustration on the sideline during the loss to Miami, but as he said afterward, it did not all stem from just those 40 minutes of basketball.

“I wish I had gotten these kids more help. They’re doing all they can, they don’t have any help. They’re doing everything they can. You saw missed layups, missed threes, blow-bys, guys who couldn’t rebound with elite level guys, he said.

 “…The shots that we’re missing and the shots that they’re making – until it got out of hand late – were not actually that different in quality shots. I’m not saying I don’t have good players, I’m saying I didn’t give this team the help and depth and overall talent that it needs. That’s even worse than not coaching them well. Because not coaching them well, you can game plan, you can tweak and do a better job as a coach. But when you don’t put a team together properly, there’s no quick fix for that.”

The good news for La Salle is the team won’t face back-to-back games like it just had against Miami and No. 17 Villanova, which topped the Explorers, 76-47, earlier this month. La Salle has one more game (Dec. 31 at Florida Gulf Coast) before it starts Atlantic 10 play.

Giannini noted this group of players has 20 opportunities to get better and the transfers – Demetrius Henry, B.J. Johnson and Pookie Powell – will have more time in the program on the practice court.

“My kids won’t quit, we’ll get better,” Gianinni said. “…This is no false humility. This is no like trying to beat the blame before it comes to me. This is just stating a fact. My assistants put us in position to recruit other players that in hindsight could’ve helped this team, and I said ‘We’ll be OK.’ Obviously, I was phenomenally wrong, and it’s my fault. We’re going to keep fighting, keep trying to get better, long term I still have a plan that I do think is going to make us a good (team) in the next 12 months. But this is just – I don’t know how I did this – but I did it.”