City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2017-18 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 10. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season, click here.)

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Austin Williams realized very early into last season that things would be different under new coach Zach Spiker.

Out was the methodical, slow-it down mentality of 15-year head coach Bruiser Flint, and in was the up-and-down, four-guard, fast-paced style of Spiker.

“Biggest thing was just the pace, playing faster,” Williams said. “Definitely had to be in shape, we were scoring in the first 10 seconds of the shot clock, compared to with Bru, in the last few seconds of the shot clock.”

Spiker came to Drexel in 2016-17 after two years with one of the fasted teams in the country at Army. In his last two seasons with the Black Knights, Spiker’s teams ranked 14th and 30th in Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted tempo ratings.

Flint’s Drexel teams were almost the exact opposite. In Flint’s final five seasons at Drexel, the Dragons’ average rank in adjusted tempo was 318th.

The Dragons moved from 323rd to 68th in adjusted tempo last season. It was the first time since 2003-04, Flint’s third season, that Drexel ranked among the top 200 teams in tempo. Spiker’s team was third in the CAA in tempo behind William & Mary (53) and conference champ UNC-Wilmington (65).

Spiker would like to push the pace even more this season but knows just playing fast doesn’t always translate to winning. Fourteen of the Top 30 teams in adjusted tempo had winning records in 2016-17.

“Only 50 percent of those teams have winning records,” Spiker said. “We’ve done the studies. … We want to play fast and efficient. I don’t necessarily care a ton about that number, but I think to the naked eye, the ball’s definitely moving and we’re flowing up and down the court a good bit quicker than we have.”

Drexel’s roster lacked depth at the guard spot last season, which wasn’t a great fit with Spiker’s four-guard system.

This season, transfers Tramaine Isabell and Troy Harper join seniors Sammy Mojica and Miles Overton and sophomores Kurk Lee Jr. and Kari Jonsson in the backcourt.

“We had to adjust to the players we had last year because with Bru recruiting and [Spiker's] type of recruiting with two different playing styles,” Lee said. “Over time we had to adjust to our players, so we couldn’t really play as fast as coach wanted us too. It will be even faster.”

Opponents shot 46.2 percent from the field and averaged 78.4 ppg against Drexel last season. The defensive struggles kept the Dragons from running at their desired pace.

To combat the defensive woes, Spiker starts and ends each drill with an emphasis on defense and rebounding. He brings referees into practices to help reduce the Dragons’ fouls.

“It starts on defense,” Lee said. “We were 10th in the league last year on defense. The talent is here for offense, but defensive-wise we’ve gotta step it up and that’s going to be the x-factor for us.”

Lee’s style of play meshed well with Spiker’s new philosophy last season. It was part of the reason he transitioned so well to the college game as a freshman in 2016-17. The 5-foot-10-inch Baltimore guard averaged 14.9 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 5.0 apg and 1.6 spg. He was one of the few bright spots on last year’s nine-win team.

Spiker said if the Dragons are better this season, Lee’s numbers will likely take a dip. With more scoring options around him like the  transfers Isabell and Harper, Lee won’t be tasked with carrying the scoring load night-in and night-out.

Lee will still be in charge of orchestrating Drexel’s offense and making quick, smart decisions as the Dragons try to play fast, yet efficient. He tallied 160 assists compared to 94 turnovers as a freshman. The Dragons averaged 13.3 turnovers per game as a team, which ranked ninth in the CAA.

“Gotta take care of the ball,” Spiker said. “That’s the advantage of having sophomores who played so much. They’re not really true sophomores. But if you don’t take care of the ball, it’s not worth doing.”