City of Basketball Love

Eugene Rapay (@erapay5)
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When John Giannini sat down after La Salle’s 76-47 loss to No. 9 Villanova, he took the initiative during his opening statement to discuss several issues that had been plaguing his team.

After shaking off a preseason loss to Division-II Philadelphia University, La Salle started the season 4-1. Since a win over Lafayette on Nov. 23, though, it’s been a tough few games for the Explorers.

The Explorers have now lost three straight and sit at an even 4-4 record. During this stretch, they lost to a previously-winless Drexel team by 13. Their last win came from beating Division III Rowan College on November 28.

The Explorers’ 11th-year coach was candid with his feelings, open to sharing it to those who sat attentively in the post-game press conference. He shared his insights of where the team is lacking and how they can work on their deficiencies.

“If we could be better individual defenders and pass the ball a little bit better, that would make us a much better team,” he said. “So I think when you don’t succeed, you better learn something, and if you’re playing a really good team, playing one of their best games of the year, it’s a good teacher to learn from.”

The Wildcats took advantage of the holes in the Explorers’ defensive gameplan, finding an open man off of a backdoor cut a number of times. The La Salle defense failed to key in on this, resulting in easy baskets for Villanova.

Aside from that, Villanova looked to establish an inside presence early. Instead of settling for early threes, the Wildcats opened the game by driving to the basket. On a number of those possessions, they were able to shake off the La Salle defenders on them en route to the basket.

“Our individual defense is not where it needs to be,” Giannini said. “Our ability to ‘stop the guy I’m guarding and keep him in front of me and contest a shot’ is not very good.”

That allowed for Villanova to take shots from beyond the arc later in the game (28 total), and the Wildcats were able to get a lot of open looks. Unfortunately for La Salle, unlike in the Oklahoma game, Villanova was making them.

While trying to topple ranked Villanova on their home court was certainly a tough task, an unlikely one even, he doesn’t think his team is playing up to par. Defense isn’t the only facet of this team that is problematic.

“We’re a couple players, probably, short right now, and it’s not just the guys sitting out,” Giannini said. “We have some guys that will be the first to admit that they’re not playing as well as they expected. Or as well as I expected.”

While he did not specifically name anyone on his team, there are some players who aren’t doing as well as expected.

Amar Stukes, a 6-foot-2 guard now in his third year with the program, entered Sunday averaging only 4.7 points per game and 2.4 rebounds per game, a small step down from the 5.3 ppg he averaged a year ago. The redshirt sophomore had been shooting only 27.7 percent on the floor and 0-for-13 from long range; In Sunday’s game, he was 0-for-6 from the floor and scored his lone point off a free throw.

Aside from Stukes, 6-foot-7 forward Yevgen Sakhniuk is still adjusting to the collegiate level of the game, averaging 5.9 ppg and 2.1 rpg in 12.0 mpg. Although a sophomore, this is his first year of eligibility. Sakhniuk provides much-needed depth at the front court positions, but has limited himself by getting in foul trouble often and hasn’t hit double-figures since the first game of the year.

It doesn’t help La Salle that Demetrius Henry (South Carolina), B.J. Johnson (Syracuse), and Pookie Powell (Memphis), are all high-major transfers that have to sit out this year per NCAA rules.

Despite the unrefined parts of La Salle’s play on the court, Giannini saw some glimpses of hope to look forward to in the future.

“We actually did two of the things that I wanted to do,” he said. “Our 11 turnovers is not a horrible number, and we wanted to hold them under 70; 76 is not an astronomical number.”

However, the two small moral victories aren’t enough to be satisfied with, especially after a 29-point loss to Villanova to add to the big losses that have come earlier in the season. The difficult schedule won’t stop there, with another AP top 25 team around the corner in No. 17 Miami.

Giannini does not have much time to address the many plaguing issues and gaps in his team’s play.

“I need to coach individual defense better, I need to continue to coach the turnover, tempo issues better, I’ve got to get them passing and executing better, and I have to keep their confidence up,” he said. “So there’s a lot of things, I’m sorry to go on and on but I have a long list of things to do.”