City of Basketball Love

By Finn Courtney (@finncourtney_)
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PHILADELPHIA — With perhaps a bit of a sour-taste in its mouth after a loss against Towson ended its seven-game win streak to open 2024, Drexel bounced back with a dominant 62-47 win Saturday against the North Carolina A&T Aggies, setting the tone on the defensive end from start to finish. 

The Dragons held NC A&T to just 47 points on 33% shooting (19-57) and a paltry 8.3% from beyond the arc (1-12). It was the 17th time this season they’ve held an opponent under 70 points, a testament to the change coach Zach Spiker’s brought on the defensive end in the past eight years.

Drexel is second in the CAA in points allowed per game (64.4), jumping 180 spots (283rd to 103rd nationally) in adjusted defense and most other defensive metrics since Spiker took over as coach in 2017. 

And Spiker thinks this squad can reach even higher heights on the defensive end.

“We’ve made progress, I would point to two things, we’ve got some physicality on the perimeter, where guys are keeping guys in front [and] guys that are really committed to moving their feet and defending,” Spiker said. “I think we’re defending well as a team on the perimeter and I think we’ve got some rim protection, and then you mix in there two four-year juniors and three fifth-year seniors, and there’s some switches out there that take place that we can’t replicate in a game, they just do it naturally.”

The Aggies were without superstar scorer Landon Glasper (21.3 ppg, ninth in the nation) and they missed him against a stout Drexel defense. Without him, they leaned heavily on junior guard Kyle Duke who played all but three minutes and finished with 14 points (5-15, 1-4 3PA), four assists and four rebounds in a day to forget for NC A&T.

In typical Drexel fashion, it was not a one-player affair on the offensive end, but as has happened time and time again, it was the well-roundedness of the Dragons’ roster making an impact. There were 12 distinct scorers for the Dragons as Shane Blakeney led the way scoring-wise off the bench with 12 points (4-8, 3-5 3PA) in just 12 minutes of action.

Speaking on the wide range of depth on the roster, Spiker said it does make things easier not to have to wear guys down by playing significant stretches of multiple games in a row, but also to test what lineups work best.

“We’ve got a lot of guys [so] we’ve got a lot of combinations, a lot of options and we gotta continue to make sure we got the right people out there to compliment each other,” Spiker said. “It doesn’t matter who’s on the floor, you better defend, you better rebound and make good decisions.”

Drexel shot  2-of-11 in the first five minutes, both Dragons makes belonging to Lucas Monroe who scored the first five for the team. Monroe, a graduate transfer from Big 5 rival Penn, played well in 21 minutes, the most for any player, finishing with seven points (3-4), eight rebounds and was one of four Dragons to record a block, while showing off veteran savvy and leadership in spades from half to half.

“I think Lucas brings maturity, experience, this guy is in his fifth college basketball season, he knows what’s going on, he understands the game, how it's played [and] what I had anticipated Lucas doing, he’s doing that and more,” Spiker said. “And it’s not only just how he’s playing but I think there is a seasoned veteran element, we’ve got a fun group, a group that creates a lot of smiles and laughs, sometimes that’s awesome, but also time and place, we’ve gotta be locked in and I think Lucas has a great feel for time and place [and] I think our guys respect him because Lucas puts the work in.”

Garfield Turner, he had a solid day while not lighting up the scoring statline, finishing with three points (1-3 FG, 1-2 FT), nine rebounds and three blocks, taking some pressure off Amari Williams on a day where the big man didn’t need to do it all.

For Monroe and the rest of the team, even though they’re coming off a recent seven-game winning streak, the attitude instilled in them is 1-0 after Saturday’s game. A team that’s anything but me-first ball, Monroe gave credit to all 13 players that got in the game and talked about how free the game becomes with the talent on the roster.

“We have the pre-season Player of the Year in our conference and even if you sub him out, Garfield [Turner] comes in and wreaks havoc on the offensive glass, getting deflections, taking charges. I think everyone trusts when [anyone’s] on the court, it takes pressure off and you can go into the game and don’t have to worry about making shots, doing anything but playing hard because you know there’s gonna be other guys if you’re off that night.”

Drexel finished under 40% from the floor shooting on Saturday, a  similar story to the 70-67 loss against Towson on Thursday when they shot 39 percent from the floor. The Dragons are shooting 46.4% from the floor on the season.

There’s still room for improvement for Drexel, especially on the offensive end.

“I don’t think there’s a panic, but I think we need to continue to get things better, we did a lot of things well today,” Spiker said. “I thought we got back to getting on the glass, I don’t know if we shot it quite well enough and we had 11 turnovers too.”