City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
& Will Slover (@WillSlover31)
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The non-conference portion of the 2016-17 Division I college basketball season is nearly over, as many of the leagues the area teams play in -- Atlantic 10, American Athletic, CAA and Big East -- are ready to move into the meat of the schedule.

With that, we figured this was a good time to take a look at the City 6 to see how things were going. Below you'll find a brief look at each of the teams so far, one area they've been deficient in and a comparison with how they're playing compared to what we thought would happen two months ago.

Drexel Dragons
Record: 6-6
Best win(s): @ North Texas (83-62)
Worst loss(es): @ Niagara (93-74)

Area for Improvement: Free throw shooting. The Dragons are having no trouble getting to the line, as they average 19.8 attempts from the stripe per game, but it’s what Drexel is doing once they get there that has been their Achilles heel. Drexel is shooting just 66.4 percent from the line on the season, which puts them at 253rd in Division I hoops. With their two most recent losses to St. Joe’s (72-71) and Rider (80-72) being close-knit affairs, converting from the stripe could have changed Drexel’s fate in both contests, the Dragons will look to tighten things up from the line so that the same doesn’t happen to them once conference play rolls around.

Expectation Adjustment: Coming into the season with low expectations following a 6-25 season last year which lead to the firing of former head coach Brusier Flint, Drexel has certainly outplayed expectations in Zach Spiker’s first season at the helm. The Dragons, who were picked to finish 9th out of 10 teams in the Colonial Athletic Association, have shown the ability to play with opponents from bigger conferences, as they took both St. Joe’s down to the wire, losing on a last second free-throw, and also giving La Salle a run for their money. With just one more non-conference opponent on the slate in city-foe Penn, Drexel will look to head into their conference play already with more wins than they had in the entire 2015-16 season.

Propelling the upstart Dragons has been freshman point guard Kurk Lee Jr., who hasn’t needed much time to adjust to playing at the college level. The 5-foot-10 Lee was thrust into the starting point guard role from day one after the loss of Terrell Allen to transfer, and the Baltimore (Md.) native has thrived. Lee is averaging 15.3 points per contest, while also dishing out a team-high of 5.4 assists and adding in more than a steal per contest as well. Another freshman, Kari Jonsson, is averaging 10.4 ppg as he begins his college career on the right foot, while senior Rodney Williams (17.1 ppg, 6.3 rpg) is enjoying a career season. With James Madison (1-11) and Delaware (6-6) currently below them in KenPom’s CAA conference projections, Drexel could easily surpass their preseason ranking if Lee and Co. continue to keep up what they’ve been doing all season.

Conference Opener: @ James Madison (1-11) -- Sat., Dec. 31, 2 PM

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La Salle Explorers
Record: 6-4
Best win(s): vs. Lehigh (89-81), vs. Florida Gulf Coast (W, 84-80)
Worst loss(es): vs. Texas Southern (77-76)

Area for Improvement: Defense, defense, defense. The Explorers can score the ball at will, getting at least 74 points in every game they’ve played thus far this season, but they’re not locked in on the other end of the court like head coach John Giannini wants them to be. They’re 248th in the country in defensive efficiency, according to KenPom, giving up 1.064 points per possession, because opponents are making 43.1 percent of their 3-point attempts (344th nationally) and aren’t turning it over much, either.

Expectation Adjustment: The Explorers were something of an enigma coming into the season, with a number of new pieces set to play large roles for head coach John Giannini. Their preseason selection of No. 7 in the Atlantic 10 -- right smack in the middle of the 14-team league -- reflected the uncertainty around a team that won just nine games a year ago but was set to add three high-major transfers into the mix. After six weeks, they haven’t exactly answered many questions, though they’ve certainly showed flashes of potential.

Syracuse transfer B.J. Johnson (20.2 ppg) has been the most impressive of the newcomers, though former Memphis guard Pookie Powell (12.7 ppg, 3.1 apg) has had more than his fair share of moments, as well; Demetrius Henry (6.2 ppg, 2.6 rpg) hasn’t been as effective as he needs to be. But the Explorers have yet to pick up a resume-highlight win, losing by five to Temple in overtime to start the year and then playing No. 1 Villanova tough before ultimately falling by 10 at the Palestra earlier this month. They start off Atlantic 10 play with another high-level matchup against Dayton, the preseason conference favorite; win that one, and that could show the lessons learned in the preseason are paying off.

Conference Opener: @ Dayton (9-3) -- Fri., Dec. 30, 6 PM

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Penn Quakers
Record: 4-5
Best win(s): @ Central Florida (58-49), @ Robert Morris (67-50)
Worst loss(es): @ Navy (70-68)

Area for Improvement: Getting to the free throw line. The Quakers rank last in all of Division I hoops in both free-throw attempts (115) and free-throws made (77) on the season. Even with attempting just 12.7 free throws per contest, Penn is still scoring the ball just fine as they have scored at least 58 points in all of their contests so far, but if the Quakers add an effective free-throw shooting aspect to their game, they could see themselves become one of the finer offensive teams in the Ivy League.

Expectation Adjustment: Picked to finish in the middle of the pack, 4th out of eight in the Ivy, Penn has played right with their expectations so far. As always, the Quakers boast a difficult non-conference schedule that boasts the rest of the Big 5, city rival Drexel, and the Miami (Fl.) Hurricanes, the Quakers have played up to the task so far as they defeated the heavily favored UCF on their home floor and gave Miami (Fl.) all they could handle, as the ‘Canes beat the Quakers 74-62 back on November 19th. Penn’s early season success can be attributed largely to the instant impact made by freshman A.J. Brodeur.

Brodeur, a Massachusetts native, has been a force early on for the Quakers as the 6-foot-8 forward has already taken home the Ivy League Rookie of the Week honor three times in just six weeks of play. Brodeur is leading the Quakers in both points per game (13.8) and minutes played (30.0 per contest) while also adding in 2.2 blocks and 1.2 steals per outing. With the loss of NCAA tournament hero Makai Mason for the season due to a broken right foot for Yale, and neither Princeton or Harvard blowing the world away with their play, Penn just needs to do what they’ve been doing all season in order to make the inaugural Ivy League postseason tournament in March. The four-team clash, which will take place at the Palestra, will pick who the Ivy League’s representative in the NCAA tournament is and with no one in the eight-team conference playing like world beaters, don’t rule out the Quakers’ first appearance in the Big Dance since 2007.

Conference Opener: @ Princeton (5-6) -- Sat., Jan. 7, 5 PM

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Saint Joseph’s Hawks
Record: 6-5
Best win(s): @ Princeton (W, 76-68), vs. Loyola (Chi.) (71-57)
Worst loss(es): vs. Temple (78-72)

Area for Improvement: The absence of James Demery over all but the first game of the season due to a broken foot he sustained in that game meant the Hawks had to lean heavily on its only two remaining experienced players, junior Shavar Newkirk and Lamarr Kimble. And while both are enjoying breakout seasons, the offense has at times gotten too focused on those two; only 45.4 percent of SJU’s buckets come on assists, which is 311th in the country per KenPom. That’s the lowest for the Hawks in his 15 years of data, nearly 10 percent lower than last year (54.7 percent), which in itself was the low-water mark in Pomeroy’s data. Demery’s return for conference play should help the offense open up a little, but they’ll need to do a better job of moving the ball, which should lead to better shots and improve SJU’s 33 percent mark from 3-point range.

Expectation Adjustment: After graduating four seniors that included A-10 Player of the Year DeAndre’ Bembry (17.4 ppg, 7.8 rpg, 4.5 apg) and A-10 Most Improved Isaiah Miles (18.1 ppg, 8.1 rpg), the Hawks were expected to take a step backwards, and so were picked ninth in the league poll, just after George Washington and ahead of UMass, Fordham, George Mason, Duquesne and Saint Louis. But despite having to start two freshmen the majority of the season, the Hawks have been competitive against a difficult schedule, losing to five teams all ranked inside the top 100 on KenPom, getting blown out only by a Villanova team that’s been making a habit of that lately.

With Demery back in the fold, it could prove to be a nice boost to a group that’s playing with a vair amount of confidence, bouncing back from a four-game losing streak to win three of its last four, or it could disrupt the rotation; we’d expect the former much more than the latter. Pull one or two road upsets and win the tough ones at home and the Hawks could find themselves in the upper half of the league. Demery certainly makes them a better defensive team, and more turnovers should lead to more fast-break buckets on a team that’s good on the break; also key would be getting either Kimble (29.8 percent) or freshman Nick Robinson (27.3 percent) to improve their rate from 3-point range.

Conference Opener: vs. George Washington (8-5) -- Fri., Dec. 30, 7 PM

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Temple Owls
Record: 9-4
Best win(s): vs. No. 11 West Virginia (W, 81-77), vs. No. 20 Florida State (89-86)
Worst loss(es): vs. New Hampshire (57-52), vs. George Washington (66-63)

Area for Improvement: Two-point field goal percentage. While the Owls have been stroking it to a tune of 38.5 percent from beyond the arc, good enough for 52nd in the country, they have been struggling from inside as the squad from North Broad Street is shooting just 44.6 percent from inside, 285th in the nation. In a conference that could realistically see any one of seven teams take home the conference title, the Owls need to sharpen their game from short to ensure that they’re one of the teams battling for that top spot come March.

Expectation Adjustment: Temple has been a tale of two teams this season. They have shown the ability to be incredible in their back-to-back wins in the NIT Tip-off Tournament, where they took down ranked foes West Virginia and Florida State, or they have shown that they can be incredibly underwhelming as displayed in troubling losses at home to both New Hampshire and George Washington. One thing that has remained certain for Temple this year, is that they will be relying heavily on junior Obi Enechionyia in both good and bad. Enechionyia has stuffed the stat sheet for Temple this year, as the 6-foot-10 forward leads the Owls in scoring (16.8 ppg), rebounding (7.6 rpg), and blocks (2.4 bpg, also good for 26th nationally).

For the third year in a row, Temple has been picked to finish right in the middle of the American Athletic Conference, 6th out of 11. Temple has outplayed expectations in the previous two years as they finished tied for third two years ago and came in first last season. If Temple can channel the Owls squad that we saw in their back-to-back wins over WVU and FSU, they might just be repeat champions of the AAC as well as make their eighth NCAA Tournament appearance in head coach Fran Dunphy’s 11 year tenure at the school. Of course, what happens to senior point guard Josh Brown -- who has to decide before the conference opener if he'll play the remainder of the season or take a redshirt year -- will play a big role in how this all goes.

Conference Opener: vs. Cincinnati (10-2) -- Wed., Dec. 28, 9 PM

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Villanova Wildcats
Record: 12-0
Best win(s): @ Purdue (79-76), vs. Notre Dame (74-66), vs. Wake Forest (96-77)
Worst loss(es): N/A

Area for Improvement: On the court, there isn’t a ton the Wildcats are truly deficient in; KenPom has them No. 1 in the nation in offensive efficiency (1.21 points per possession) and 13th on defense (.914 ppp), making just shy of 40 percent of their 3-point shots, 59 percent of their two-pointers and nearly 80 percent of their foul shots. Every single member of the top seven has an individual offensive rating of 102 or higher (100 is average), and six of the seven are above 113. Although rebounding is never a huge strength for a somewhat-undersized team, they’re still crashing the glass at a better clip on both ends of the court compared to last year. Jay Wright has had his program playing at an extremely high level for the last four seasons, and this group is no exception.

Expectation Adjustment: The unanimous preseason choice -- in the league poll and by the national media -- for No. 1 in the Big East, Villanova has a bigger target on its back than perhaps any other program in the country. This is a deep and talented league, though, and several programs are more than capable of pulling the upset; Creighton, Butler, Marquette and Xavier are all ranked in the KenPom top 40, and national No. 12 Virginia awaits in one more non-conference matchup on Jan. 29.

The biggest issue for ‘Nova at this point is depth; with junior guard Phil Booth sidelined the last nine games due to sore knees, that rotation doesn’t go any deeper than seven, and one more injury could spell disaster for the team’s national championship defense hopes. If Booth can return and provide useful minutes, and Josh Hart continues to play like the National Player of the Year (20.1 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 3.7 apg), then this could very well be the nation’s first repeat champs since Florida won it all in 2006 and 2007. It’s a fragile tipping point, but for now, the expectations haven’t changed: the Wildcats are one of the favorites yet again.

Conference Opener: vs. DePaul (7-6) -- Wed., Dec. 28, 6:30 PM