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Blue Hens, built on 'trust', one game from NCAAs

03/10/2014, 12:00pm EDT

By Jeff Neiburg

Jeff Neiburg (@Jeff_Neiburg)
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Early in the second half of Delaware’s Colonial Athletic Association quarterfinal game with Hofstra on Saturday, the Blue Hens were at the free throw line.

After a tight first half that saw the ‘Hens trailing at the break, coach Monté Ross wanted to turn the heat up on the Pride.

Like many other teams, Delaware likes to get into its press after shooting free throws.

The eighth-year head coach wanted his Blue Hens to go into one of their various zone-presses. But his team had other ideas.

“I called the press and they said, ‘no we just want to go whatever our full court man-to-man is,’” Ross said.

And that sits just fine with the Philly-native and CAA Coach of the Year.

“These guys are in tune to what’s going on out there,” he said. “I always say to them, ‘look, you guys are going to see things that we as coaches don’t see, so give us some suggestions.’ Sometimes it’s, ‘no, you’re crazy, get out of here we’re not doing that.’ But most of the time it’s, ‘alright look, we’ll give that a try.’

“They always give suggestions in the huddle.”

The person calling the shots this time was senior guard Devon Saddler.

“I made a choice because Hofstra is a good shooting team, they make a lot of three’s,” Saddler said. “I just wanted to go full-court man so we could just be settled.”

What resulted was 11 second-half turnovers from Hofstra, accounting for 18 Delaware points and another victory for the CAA’s No. 1 seed, who trailed eighth-seeded Hofstra for the third time this season.

But more importantly, it manifested the trust Ross has built with his experienced group – and vice versa.

As little as three seasons ago in the 2010-11 season, it wasn’t quite like this. Then again, the Blue Hens were only one-year removed from a miserable 7-24 campaign.

Saddler, who joined the program as a freshman in that 2010-11 season, remembers the darker days in Delaware hoops.

“When I first came here we had to do everything that coach said. If you didn’t run a play you were coming out of the game,” he said.

Now, the four-year starter is part of the best team that Newark, Del. has seen in years. Three-straight winning seasons after his freshman campaign, the current of which tops any Blue Hens season in this century: Fourteen conference wins (including a stretch of 11-straight), two All-CAA First Team honorees and at last, the program’s first-ever appearance in Monday’s CAA Final. A win will give them a chance at another first-ever accomplishment to add to the list: an NCAA Tournament victory.

Delaware hasn’t reached the NCAA’s since 1999.

The program and players alike have all come a long way. So too has their coach.

“He just grew as a coach, gained a lot of trust in me and other guys going along my four years here,” Saddler said. “When times get tough usually I call the plays or Jarvis [Threatt] calls the plays instead of coach. He puts his trust in us.”

Ross has seen that maturation in his coaching as well. Finally playing with a roster entirely recruited by him has helped that transformation.

Early in Ross’ tenure as coach, he admitted to being “bull-headed,” so taking suggestions from players was something that wasn’t happening so easily. But this group is different.

“It’s interesting,” he added. “I give these guys a lot of leeway and a lot of – I wouldn’t say complete autonomy, but I listen to them because I have so much trust in the group. I’m not saying it’s to the extent of Gregg Popovich where I say, ‘I don’t have anything for you,’ and walk out.”

Winning usually has that effect, but it’s been the players that have driven Ross to this level of comfort. He guides one of the most skilled lineups in all of “mid-major” college basketball.

Saddler became the program’s all-time leading scorer this year, fellow senior Davon Usher joined him on the league’s first-team with his 19.4ppg average and Threatt is a dynamic point guard and quite possibly the most talented third-option in the league.

There’s also senior big-man Carl Baptiste, a former St. Joseph’s Hawk, in his second year with the Blue Hens. He’s more than capable of putting the ball in the hoop when needed. And sharp-shooting junior Kyle Anderson rounds out the four-guard lineup, possessing a confident and smooth 3-point jumper.

There’s no doubting the ‘Hens can score, just ask Hofstra and Northeastern. Each opponent got 87 points hung on them. Neither the Huskies or the Pride averaged more than 68.5ppg during the regular season.

Teams simply can’t keep up. Behind Saddler’s 20-per, the ‘Hens average a CAA-high 79.4ppg, six-points more than second-best Towson. That total is good for 27th in all of Division-I basketball.

Ross hasn’t seen anything like this in his stead. In his previous seven seasons, his teams averaged 65.1ppg. The newness of this season is something he’s learned to handle.

“You can’t suppress if you have guys that can score,” Ross said. “You can’t get in their way. There’s going to be times that they’re going to take a difficult shot, a shot that you would rather they have not taken. But to try to pull the reins in on their aggressiveness will be counterproductive. Especially for this team because they have a high basketball IQ, they understand.”

“Before I can yell at them or say anything, a lot of times they turn to the bench and say ‘that was me, I shouldn’t have taken that shot,’” he added. “They know, they understand. Sometimes their aggressiveness leads them to do it.”

There are times when Delaware can become too aggressive (ranking eighth in the nation in KenPom’s adjusted tempo rating), like in both first halves against Hofstra and Northeastern. They forced shots and played too quickly.

In Sunday’s semifinal against Northeastern, the Blue Hens built a 19-5 lead before falling into the aforementioned trap, allowing the Huskies back in the game.

“What it leads to is sometimes I cringe and our fans cringe at some of the shots we take,” Ross said about Delaware’s mistakes after the win. “But you have to live with them because there’s an opportunity to do what we just did in the second half.”

What they did in that second half was shoot 76 percent (19 of 25) from the floor to blow past the CAA’s fifth seed. The Blue Hens scored on 17 off their first 20 possessions of the half to turn their two-point halftime lead into a 22-point cushion.

Usher, who led the Blue Hens in scoring on Saturday and Sunday, came to Delaware for his senior season after stints at Polk (Fla.) junior college and Mississippi Valley State. He’s been enjoying his experience at Delaware.

Playing for a player’s-coach like Ross has allowed his game to flourish. Sunday was the 22nd consecutive game that the crafty lefty reached double figures.

“I feel like Coach Ross – we have a lot of scorers on our team – he knows how to keep us humble and keep us together,” Usher said. “Here I just came to an experienced group to add my leadership qualities that I have, and it’s just been a great experience.”

Threatt, who scored 18 of his 22 points in the second half of Sunday’s win, credits most of the Blue Hens success this season to team chemistry. The 6-foot-2 guard said that they do everything together. They eat together and they go out together.

The camaraderie shows on and off the court. They’re always smiling, always around each other and always encouraging one another. Threatt, the flashy Richmond, Va. native is usually the one with a smile on his face.

Being the point guard, he’s at the foreground of Ross’ trust.

“It’s something that I can’t describe for a coach to trust you that well and the trust for the team,” Threatt said. “It’s worked, it’s proven to work. But at the same time, he’ll still slow us down if we get ahead of ourselves. I think he’s been doing a great job with it.”

The trust isn’t just limited to in-game situations. Ross has allowed his experienced core the self-governance to make executive decisions on its own.

“He’s trusted us with saying, ‘maybe we don’t want to have shoot-around in the morning because guys are tired,’” Threatt said. “If we’re tired or a little sluggish, maybe we shouldn’t get up too early, 8 am or 9 am. Get some rest, come in at 11 and we’ll be still mentally locked in.”

Changing the time of practice or shoot-around? Ross, circa-2007, must be cringing.

“I like to think, probably early on I was probably bull-headed and wouldn’t listen to the players,” Ross said. “But now, they have ownership in what goes on out there and with our program. I trust these guys and it’s worked out pretty good.”

A seamless player-coach working relationship.

“We have a mature group,” Baptiste said. “We’ve all battled, he has a trust in us. We get what he’s trying to do and he gets what we’re trying to do. When we put our input in, we have enough of a relationship that he accepts it and will listen to us.”

And maybe if he didn’t listen, Hofstra would have burned his press and sent shockwaves throughout the CAA. We’ll never know.