FEDORA (using DDSCB2020)

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Baltimore Sun 

CAA TOURNAMENT BEGINS

Last night two play-in games kicked off the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament. 

In the first game, Elon got by Hofstra in a low-scoring 53-49 game.  The Hofstra Pride looked to be in control in the first half, building a 14 point lead before settling for a 31-23 lead at the end of the first half.  But the Elon Phoenix applied a lock-down defense in the 2nd half to go u by as much as 9.  The Pride then made a late run that came up a little short.  C Colt Morris came off the bench to score 13 points, grab 4 rebounds, and hand out 3 assists in the 15 minutes he was on the court for Elon.  Hofstra was led offensively by PG Marco Smith who finished with 14 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists.  Elon earned the right to go up against Charleston in tonight’s quarter-finals.

The late game was a defensive game as well as both teams combined to force a total of 43 turnovers.  The Delaware FIghtin’ Blue Hens edged the NC-Wilmington Seahawks 61-57.  The Seahawks had the best of it in the first half and took a 31-27 lead to the locker room.  But Delaware began hitting their shots in the 2nd half and quickly caught up and then moved out to a 13 point lead.  NC-Wilmington cut into the lead late in the game but was unable to catch up.  Delaware’s PG Kenyon Jefferson led all scorers with 17 points while NC-Wilmington’s top scorer was SG Mike Clay who chipped in 13 points. Delaware will take on top-ranked Towson tonight.  The Seahawks’ loss was their 9th straight to end their forgettable season.

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Baltimore Sun

CAA TOURNAMENT QUARTER-FINAL RESULTS

#5 seed Northeastern-79, #4 seed Drexel-57: The first half was close with Northeastern escaping with a 36-33 advantage.  But the Huskies completely destroyed the Dragons in the 2nd half.  Northeastern hit 46% of their field goal attempts, while Drexel knocked down just 29% of theirs.  The Huskies also dominated the boards 40-29.  PF Anthony Serraville and SF Steve Leath both scored 22 points for Northeastern with Searraville also hauling down 10 rebounds.  SF Aaron Dupay with 11 points was the only player for Drexel to score in double figures.

#3 seed James Madison-77, #6 seed William & Mary-56: In another blowout, James Madison never trailed and jumped out to a 40-22 halftime lead.  The Dukes continued to roll in the 2nd half, never letting the Tribe make a serious run.  James Madison’s guards, Nick Calhoun and Chris Archey combined to score 31 points.  William & Mary was led by C Brandon Williams with 10 points and 9 rebounds.

#2 seed Charleston-83, #7 seed Elon-70: The lead shifted back and forth throughout the entire first half with Charleston coming out on top 42-41.  The score remained extremely close during the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half.  But then Charleston clamped down defensively to pull away in the latter stages of the game.  Four of the Cougars’ starters scored in double figures, led by SG Grant Hopkins who scored 18 points.  PG Nathan Martin was the leading scorer for the Phoenix with 15 points.

#1 seed Towson-86, #8 seed Delaware-69: Delaware came out firing and took an 11 point lead midway through the first half.  But the Tigers defense then clamped down and Towson came back to overtake the FIghtin’ Blue Hens and pull away to a 45-35 advantage.  The Tigers continued their onslaught in the 2nd half to extend their lead to 26 points before playing their bench allowing Delaware to trim the lead a little.  C Donny Flint was nearly unstoppable with 30 points and 14 rebounds for Towson.  SG Dominick Collins and PF/SF Jason Vickers both scored 11 and SG Ryan Taylor added 10.  SG Ronnie Carter led Delaware’s scoring with 16 points.  Coach Frederick Aura said, “It was great to see Donny (Flint) come out with a huge game.  He’s been limited late this season by double-teaming and foul troubles, but he showed what he can do tonight.”

[Toffees666 0]

excellent experience can not wait to join

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Baltimore Sun

NO SURPRISES IN CAA TOURNAMENT

There were no upsets in the Colonial Athletic Association's Semi-Final round last night.

#2 seed Charleston-80, #3 seed James Madison-70: Charleston ground out a 43-37 in the first half.  The Cougars then expanded their lead to as much as 18 points in the 2nd half before settling for a 10 point win that put them into the championship game.  Even though the Dukes shot better than Charleston, the Cougars won the game by controlling the boards 44-31 and making just 9 turnovers compared to 15 by the Dukes.  Five Charleston players scored in double figures with SF Russell Brown’s 16 points.  C Gale Thorne had 17 rebounds for the Cougars.  SG Chris Archey scored 23 points for James Madison.

#1 seed Towson-71, #5 seed Northeastern-59: The two teams exchanged the lead throughout the first half.  Defense dominated on both ends of the court with Towson coming out on top at the intermission by a score of 31-28.  In the 2nd half, the Tigers control of the boards (46-29) gave them the advantage and they slowly edged away, gradually expanding their lead to the end.  C Donny Flint scored 15, grabbed 10 rebounds, and had 3 blocks for Towson.  PF Deon Penn also recorded a double-double with 10 points and 11 boards with SG Dominick Collins tossing in 13 points, PG Shaun White adding 12 points, and SF Wayne Burrough hitting for 9 points while also pulling down 10 rebounds.

Those games pit the two top teams, Towson and Charleston. against each other in tonight's CAA championship.

[PointGuard 70]

Baltimore Sun

CAA CHAMPIONSHIP

The CAA championship game matched the two top teams in the conference.  Charleston (21-12, 11-7) and Towson (25-6, 15-3) split their games this season with the Cougars winning at their home by 6 points and the Tigers winning by 31 at home.

Early in the first half, the two teams traded the lead back and forth, but then Towson went on a 14-3 run and pulled away to lead 50-36 at the break.  The second half turned into a defensive battle with Towson clamping down so tightly that they were able to go ahead by 25.  Then the Tigers shooting went completely cold and Charleston chipped away at the lead but was too far back to challenge.  When the final buzzer sounded the Towson Tigers won their second straight CAA Championship, scoring a 81-64 win over Charleston.

Towson hit just 37% of their shots in the game but Charleston could only knock down 32% of theirs.  The Tigers only got to the free throw line 5 times the entire game, but out-rebounded the Cougars 50-36 and held a 18-14 turnover advantage.  Towson’s PG Shaun White poured in 20 points with SG Dominick Collins adding 15 and reserve PG Matt Faust hitting for 13.  C Donny Flint and PF Deon Penn commanded the boards with 18 and 10 rebounds, respectively.  For Charleston, SG Grant Hopkins and reserve PG Kris Bean both scored 13 points with PF Ed Jenkins recording a double-double (11 points and 16 rebounds) and also making 3 steals and 3 blocks. 

The win earned Towson a trip to the NCAA Tournament with a 26-6 season record and 38th best RPI in the nation.

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Tiger Blog

BREAKING NEWS!

After compiling a 26-6 season record, a league-leading 15-3 CAA record, and winning the CAA Conference Tourney, the Towson Tigers cracked the Top 25 in the polls.  They are ranked #24 in the Media Poll. This is the first time the Tigers have ever been ranked in a national poll.  Their RPI is now 34th best in the country.

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Tiger Blog

Here's the player stats for 2022-2023 for the Towson Tigers:

 

And here's Towson's Team Stats:

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NCAA Tournament #1 seeds: Oklahoma (31-4), Ohio State (29-3), Kentucky (30-4), Georgetown (30-5)

CAA Teams:

NCAA: Towson (26-6) is a #7 seed in the East Region and will play #12 seed Tulsa (22-10)

NIT: Charleston is the #7 seed in the South Region and will play #2 seed Mississippi

CBI: James Madison is the #2 seed in the East Region and will play #7 seed Detroit Mercy

CIT: Drexel is the #7 seed in the East Region and will play #2 seed Fairfield

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Tournament Results:

CIT:

Round 1:

Fairfield-90, Drexel-73: The Fairfield Stags were in control the entire game.  By halftime the Stags led 45-38 and then expanded their lead in the 2nd half to as much as 20 points.  PG Ryan Killian led the Dragons scoring with 15 points.

CBI:

Round 1:

Detroit Mercy-88, James Madison-85: The Dukes had a 13 point lead at one point in the first half but had lost the lead and trailed 46-43 at the break.  The Titans then moved ahead by as much as 13 points in the 2nd half.  James Madison came back to make a game of it, but just couldn’t retake the lead.  SG Chris Archey was high point man for the Dukes with 18 points.      

NIT:

Round 1:

Mississippi-74, Charleston-62: The score stayed close the entire first half with Ole Miss wresting a 39-37 advantage at the buzzer.  But in the 2nd half, the Rebels took control as Charleston went cold from the field.  C Gale Thorne scored 16 for the Cougars and also had 8 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 8 steals.

NCAA:

Round 1:

#24 ranked, 7th-seed Towson-85, 12th-seed Tulsa-70: The Tulsa Golden Hurricanes came into the game with a 22-10 season record, and placed 4th place in American Athletic Conference.  Towson (season record of 26-6) scored first and never trailed in this game.  Shooting well, rebounding strongly, and taking care of the ball, the Tigers rolled to a 48-35 halftime lead.  Towson continued their dominance in the 2nd half, going ahead by 24 points before easing up down the stretch with reserves playing but still winning with ease.  C Donny Flint had an awesome game with 28 points, 14 rebounds and 4 blocks.  PF Deon Penn dropped in 15 points and had 9 boards.  SG Dominick Collins hit for 15 points while grabbing 5 rebounds and handing out 4 assists.  PG Shaun White scored 10 and dished out 9 assists.  The Tigers dominated the boards 44-30 and had just 10 turnovers compared to 15 by the Golden Hurricanes.  Towson scored 32 points in the paint while Tulsa had just 14 and had 15 second chance points compared to 8 by Tulsa.

Round 2:

The Arizona Wildcats are the #2 seed in the region and are ranked #1 in the polls with a season record of 31-4.  It’s hard to understand why the Wildcats weren’t a #1 seed.  They came into the game with a 13-game win streak and allowed just 59.8 ppg throughout the entire season.

#1 ranked, #2-seed Arizona-68, #24 ranked, 7th-seed Towson-60: Towson built a 9 point lead midway through the first half, but the Wildcats came back to take a 39-35 lead to the locker room.  The 2nd half was close throughout, but Arizona pulled away late to send the Tigers home.  But Towson gave Arizona all they could handle.  SG Dominick Collins led the scoring for Towson with 17 points.  C Donny Flint was held to 8 points by the Pac-13 All Conference C Travis Earl, but Flint pulled down 8 rebounds and had 6 blocks. 

Coach Aura said, “I’m proud of how our guys played in the Big Dance.  We played extremely well in both games.  But Arizona showed why they’re the #1 ranked team in the nation.  We did everything we could to win but the Wildcats defense kept us from breaking out.  We usually control the boards, but we couldn’t do it against Arizona’s tough interior guys.”

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Matt Barnes, 2nd Assistant (Recruiting) Coach:

March 26, 2023

We landed our 4th recruit today.  It’s SF Mac McCaffery, a 6-7 HS Senior from Hampton, NH.  He’s a 4-star recruit who is ranked as the 108th best recruit in the nation.  Mac averaged 14.6 ppg, 4.5 apg, 5.0 rpg, 2.3 bpg, and 2.6 spg this season.  He’s an excellent outside shooter but also is good inside as well.  He’s a good defender and rebounder and has great hands with great blocking and stealing skills.  He’s a hard worker who had a solid, albeit not spectacular, showing at the Big Apple Showcase this past summer.

We still have one scholarship left to fill and don’t have a lot of money left in our budget so it might be difficult to fill this one, but we’ll try.

April 3, 2023

OK, I was wrong.  We picked up our 5th and final recruit today.  He’s C Donyell Porter, a 6-10 JC sophomore from Wilmington, DE.  He averaged 14.9 ppg, 4.0 apg, 7.5 rpg, 2.9 bpg, and 1.9 spg this season.  He’s an excellent inside shooter and good scorer.  He’s a strong rebounder.  Since he’s played 2 years of JC ball, we hope he can step in to back up Donny Flint right away next season.

We had some higher ranked interior guys on our list, but had not yet gotten their interest level high enough that we were confident we could sign them.

So here are the 5 recruits:

SF Mac McCaffery, 6-7, HS Sr., 108th ranked—pirmary strengths—outside shooting, scoring, stealing

C Donyell Porter, 6-10, JC So., 210th ranked—primary strengths—inside shooting, rebounding, scoring

C Calvin Williams, 6-8, HS Sr., 217th ranked—primary strengths—inside shooting, rebounding, defense

PF Valery Hensen, 6-6 HS Sr., 223rd ranked, primary strengths—rebounding and passing and a good scorer and defender

PG Jon Spann, 6-0 HS Sr., 266th ranked—primary strengths—outside shooting and scoring with good passing and ball handling skills and an excellent leader

It’s a solid group of recruits.  We’re hopeful that some of the high schoolers will come in ready to contribute as freshmen, particular the interior players since we need to add some depth there due to graduation of 3 of our big men.

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Perry Winkle, AD

Tournament Championship Games:

NCAA: Syracuse-87, Wichita State-76

NIT: Alabama-Birmingham-100, Texas Tech-84

CBI: Baylor-82, Stanford-56

CIT: St. Louis-79, IUPUI-72

Awards:

Coach Frederick Aura was selected as the CAA Coach of the Year.

C Donny Flint and PF Deon Penn were selected to the CAA First Team All Conference.

SF Wayne Burrough was selected to the CAA Second Team All Conference.

NCAA Actions:

This year the following teams had sanctions placed upon them by the NCAA for recruiting violations:

NC-Wilmington, loss of one scholarship next season, head coach fired.

North Carolina, no scholarships for 3 years and 2 year post-season ban, head coach fired.

Staffing:

Coach Aura met (and exceeded) all of his goals.  Coach Aura and all his assistants will be returning next season.

Coach Aura met with the board to request an upgrade to our facilities, but the request wad denied.  We just don't have that kind of money.

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2023-2024 SEASON

Coach Frederick Aura

Last season’s recruit class was rated as the 44th best in the nation.  I’m happy with the 5 players who are joining us this season.  My initial assessment is that 4 of the 5 will be solid contributors this coming season and one will likely be red-shirted, but we’ll see.

The next best recruit class in the CAA was James Madison, rated #57.  No one else above #112 (William & Mary).  I like our group of recruits MUCH better than the recruits those schools landed.  But whereas our recruits are unlikely to become starters due to the quality of our returning players, some of the freshmen at other CAA schools may become starters and shine since I don’t think other CAA schools’ returning players are as high quality as are ours.

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Coaches Meeting

(Head Coach Frederick Aura-HC; 1st Assistant Kenyon Haynes-1A; 2nd Assistant Matt Barnes-2A; 3rd Assistant Nate Culuko-3A; Graduate Assistant Adrian Brown-GA)

HC-I want you all to know how pleased I am with your work the past year.  It was a great season.  Our success was definitely a result of your outstanding efforts, so thank you.  I’m really happy that all of you are continuing on with us to provide consistency for our program.  Now it’s time to begin focusing on the upcoming season.  We lost 4 scholarship players and 2 walk-ons to graduation.  Where do you think that leaves us for next season?

3A-When you look at our team stats for last season, we ranked high in most all categories.  But there was an area where we were low…shooting…for FGA’s, 3PA’s, and FTA’s.  It’s rather surprising we did so well when we shot so poorly.  Hopefully our guys knock down their shots better this coming season.

1A-The main thing is that of the 6 departing players only Deon Penn was a starter.  And while we’ll definitely miss Deon, I like what I’ve seen on Kevin Holmes.  We knew he played well as a freshman for Georgetown, and he practiced hard for us while sitting out last season year of ineligibility caused by his transfer.  I believe he improved almost all aspects of his game.  He’ll be a sophomore this coming season eligibility-wise.  His rebounding strength is approaching what we saw with Deon, he isn’t afraid to put the ball in the hoop from anywhere on the court, and has good defensive instincts.

3A-Yeah, I agree that we won’t see much of a downturn at PF and Donny Flint, who came to us as a interior stud, has continued to develop at C, so think we’ll be strong inside.  Two of our new interior players, Donyell Porter and Calvin Williams should be able to adequately spell Donny and Kevin inside.

GA-We’re also going to be improved at the guard positions with two starters Shaun White and Dominick Collins returning. I believe Matt Faust and Copley Dwiggins will be improved coming off the bench and freshman Jon Spann seems to be solid as well.  So I think our guards could be the strongest part of our game this coming season.

1A-And we knew we were going to be deep at SF with Wayne Burrough back to start and Ross Davis a stronger reserve.  Freshman Mac McCaffery probably will need some time to move up from high school ball to compete successfully for us, but he has such a sweet shot that he should be a good scorer for us in the future.  It’s possible a year of redshirting would be good for him but he just might surprise us once our practices kick into gear.

2A-Shaun White took a while to hit it off with his teammates but he made good progress toward the end of the season.  Matt Faust has a tendence to rub some of the guys the wrong way, so we need to keep helping him fit in.  Kevin Holmes came to us with a bad rep about being a disruptive force, but he really got along well with the team and all of us, so that was a pleasant surprise.  The same with Donny Flint.  I hear that Calvin Williams can sometimes have a hard time fitting in, but I don’t know that’s a fair evaluation of the guy.  So overall, I think team chemistry will be as good and probably improved over last season.

HC-You guys covered everyone except Valery Henson and Robert Jefferson.

2A-From what I saw of Valery he seems to have some rough edges that need to be rounded off, so he could be a development project but a guy who can be very productive in the future.  I think he’s a definite candidate for redshirting this season.  As to Robert, my opinion is it’s pretty much a wash as to whether we keep him or let him go.

3A-Robert Jefferson is our lone remaining walk-on.  We’re stacked at SF so I don’t seem him getting any minutes there.  But he could possibly fill in if needed at PF.  He’s a good guy and is well liked.  We’ll be able to take on another walk-on, so I’d say stick with Robert.  I doubt that if we cut him, a new walk-on will do more for us that what Robert can do.

1A- Overall I believe we’ll have an even stronger starting five that we had last season and our bench could be better as well, depending on how the new guys really play.

HC-Thanks!  I value your perspectives.  I too am optimistic about the coming season.  Let’s continue working on getting all our guys some camp time this summer so they sharpen their skills.  I’ll be talking with each of you privately to find out what skills each of our players needs to improve most.  I want to give every one of them a list of areas we’d like them to work on the next 5 months before our practice begins in the fall.

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Matt Barnes, 2nd Assistant (Recruiting) Coach

We have four scholarship players on our team who will be graduating after this season.  So we’ll be looking to fill those 4 scholarships this year.  We’re losing White and Faust at PG.  Even though I believe Jon Spann will be ready to become a starter after this season, we still need to recruit at least one, and preferably two, PG’s.  Neither of our two SG’s will be graduating so no need to add a player at the 2.  But we’re also losing two players, Burrough and Davis, at SF.  So that’s another position we definitely need a good recruit even though Mac McCaffery will likely be ready to start at the 3 following this coming season.  None of our five interior players is graduating, so I think we can just go after the strongest player, irrespective of position, that we can land for the 4th scholarship.

I’m going to encourage Coach Aura to buy the basic Atlantic East Report.  I’d like for us to get the Gold-star Report, but know we don’t have a big enough budget for that.  Maybe I can get him to go along with also buying the basic National Report.  And I’m pretty sure we’ll go to the Big Apple Showcase, but I’d also like to attend one of the national camps.  Not sure I can talk Caoch Aura into that, though.

None of our players are transferring, so that’s good news.  So all of our scholarships are filled for this season…meaning we won’t be going after any transfer players. 

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Matt Barnes, 2nd Assistant (Recruiting) Coach

Well, Coach Aura agreed to purchase the basic Atlantic East Report, but as expected, not the Gold Report. He also didn’t feel there would be enough players outside our region in the basic National Report that we’d be successful pursuing so nixed buying that also.

We don’t have any scholarships to offer to transfer players.   But I still reviewed the transfer players and there are several who are very interested in our school.  There also is Nick Calhoun, who scored 14.6 ppg for James Madison last season and was the CAA Freshman of the and a 1st-Team All-Conference player.  Calhoun does have the rep of being a tough guy to get along with, though.  There also is a PG from Northwestern I’d very much like to go after, but we have no room at the inn.  Another guy that I’m salivating about is a 7’0” center from North Alabama who was the Atlantic Sun Player of the Year, Freshman of the Year and 1st Team All-Conference.

Calhoun transferred to Long Island University…that’s good…he’s out of our conference.

I was able to talk Coach Aura into attendance at not only the Big Apple Showcase, but also a national camp, the East Coast Jam.  Yeah!!!

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3rd Assistant (Scouting) Coach Culuko reporting to Coach Frederick Aura:

Hey boss, I got some good and some bad news for you from the summer training camps. 

I best start with the bad news first.  Reports are that C Calvin Williams has seemed overmatched.  He’s a tough kid and not dogging it or anything, but maybe he’s gonna need a lot more work than we expected before he’s ready to step on the court for us.  And as we’d sort of thought, PF Valery Henson is talented but green.  So our initial thoughts about him being redshirt material, just likely were correct.  SF Mac McCaffery is holding his own but has been inconsistent.  Some days he’s strong, other days he seems a bit overwhelmed and lost out there. 

On a more positive note, C Donyell Porter is looking good, pretty much what I think we expected.  So he should be ready to back up at either C or PF.  And the really good news is that PG Jon Spann is tearing things up.  He’s been exceptionally strong…so strong that he could possibly challenge for a starting role. 

With Valery and Calvin possibly not being ready to be solid backups for the interior positions, maybe we should consider running a 3-guard offense when our interior starters are on the bench, particularly since it looks like we’re going to have 3 excellent guards.  And also we could maybe use Ross Davis as a backup at PF even though he’s a natural SF.  Ross’ rebounding has really strengthened.  We’d suffer height-wise, but all 3 guards (White, Collins and Spann) know how to mix it up on the boards and we’d have some outstanding ball handling and passing. 

But we have a couple more months of summer to go and we gotta hope that some of our new players will make upward turns during that time.

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Perry Winkle, Athletic Director

Coach Aura wanted me to schedule very strong teams at home.  I tried my best, but the better teams would agree to host us but not play in our arena. 

The result was that I scheduled 4 of our 11 pre-conference games at home…and those home games are against good, but not great, teams.  But we have some really good teams scheduled for our 7 road games, including 2 that are ranked in the pre-season polls.

When I showed Coach Aura the schedule, I told him about the difficulty getting the teams I had booked as road games to play us at home and expressed, “I’m a little concerned that we’re in over our heads.” 

Coach Aura took a deep breath after reviewing the schedule, but then turned to me and said, “Let’s go get ‘em.  We’re likely will take a few hits, but I think we’ll be ready to compete.  If this doesn’t get us ready to take on CAA opponents, nothing will.”

Here’s our pre-conference schedule that I showed him:

• DEPAUL
• @ Air Force
• BOSTON COLLEGE
• @ Virginia Tech
• @ #19 Notre Dame
• @ Oregon State
• @ #24 St. Mary’s
• @ Arizona State
• GEORGIA
• @ North Carolina State
• RUTGERS

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Matt Barnes, 2nd Assistant (Recruiting) Coach

Sept/Oct scholarship offers:

·         Lost highly-rated SF to Villanova

·         Lost highly-rated PG to Florida St.

·         Lost strong PG to North Carolina St.

·         Barely missed out on highly-rated PG to Providence

·         Lost highly-rated PG to Colorado

·         SF Morris Graham, 6-6 HS Sr from Mechanicsville, VA; 14.9 ppg, 1.5 apg, 4.2 rpg, 0.8 bpg, 1.4 spg; Hard worker, Not many problems with injuries, Very good inside scorer, Ranked #110.

·         SF Freddie Jackson, 6-5 JC So from Hambleton, WV; 15.3 ppg, 1.8 apg, 4.3 rpg, 0.9 bpg, 2.6 spg; Hard worker, Very good inside scorer, Good passer, Strong rebounder, #147.

·         Offered scholarships to two very good PG’s…no commitment, but they didn’t commit to anyone else either…so we’ll let these offers ride through the winter and see if they accept in the spring…and we’ll continue to try to build interest with a pretty lengthy list of recruits we like.

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1st Assistant Coach Kenyon Haynes

Early November…Time to make some decisions regarding redshirting:

C Calvin Williams and/or PF Valery Henson…both could benefit from being redshirted, but interior depth would be jeopardized if both were redshirted.  Williams has has a slight edge over Henson.  So we redshirted Henson.  He took it well. It will be interesting to see whether Williams or Henson improves quicker and which one will be the stronger player next season.

Starting Lineup:

PG: Shaun White (6-0, Sr; Home: Clinton, MA; Last season: 10.6 ppg, 4.9 apg, 2.3 rpg, hit 46% of his FGA, 39% of his 3PA, and 89% of his FTA; Solid player both offensively and defensively.)

SG: Dominick Collins (6-0, Jr; Home: Battle Creek, MI; Last season: 11.9 ppg, 3.0 apg, 3.3 rpg, Hit 43% of his fGA and 34% of his 3PA; Scoring picked up in the latter part of last season, Good rebounder for his size.)

SF: Wayne Burrough (6-6, Sr; Home: Kane, PA; Last season: 11.2 ppg, 1.8 apg, 6.0 rpg, Hit 43% of his FGA and 30% of his 3PA; Solid offensive player, sound defensively, and excellent defensive rebounding skills.)

PF: Kevin Holmes (6-7 So; Home: Iselin, RI; Last Season: Ineligible due to transferring; As freshman at Georgetown scored 6.1 ppg and had 4.0 rpg, hitting 49% of his FGA and 43% of his 3PA; Good scorer from inside or outside.)

C :  Donny Flint (6-9 Jr; Home: Aurora, IN; Last season: 13.4 ppg, 1.8 apg, 11.0 rpg; Beast on the boards, Excellent scorer inside and from mid-range, very strong defensively.)

Reserves:

PG Matt Faust (6-1, Sr; Home: Gainesville, GA; Last season: 2.8 ppg, 1.5 apg, 0.8 rpg; Skills improving quickly, Primarily a mid-range scorer, Good at distributing the ball and finding the open man.)

PG/SG Jon Spann (6-0 Fr; Home: Buckingham, VA; Last season: High school; Excellent outside shooter, Strong ball handler and passer, Good rebounder, Lock down defender.)

SG: Copley Dwiggins (6-1, So; Home: Westminster, MD; Last season: 1.2 ppg, 0.1 apg, 0.4 rpg; Still developing but good improvement since last season, Outside shooting skills improving.)

SG: Nathan Parks (6-2, Fr; Walk-on; Home: Parkton, MD; Last season; High school; Good defensive rebounder.)

SF/PF: Ross Davis (6-5 Sr; Home: Baltimore, MD; Last season: 1.4 ppg, 0.8 apg, 0.7 rpg, Hit 50% of his FGA and 3PA’s; Improving offensively and on the boards.)

SF: Mac McCaffery (6-7 Fr; Home: Hampton, NH; Last season: High school; Excellent outside shooter from mid and long range.)

SF/PF: Robert Jefferson (6-8 Sr; Home: Baltimore, MD; Last season: 0.3 ppg; Primarily a mid-range shooter.)

PF: Calvin Williams (6-8 Fr; Home: Woodbridge, VA; Last season: High school; Good inside shooter; Developing other skills.)

C : Donyell Porter (6-10 Jr; Home: Wilmington, DE; Last season: Junior college; Strong inside offensively, Solid rebounder.)

Redshirt:

PF Valery Henson (6-8, Fr; Home: Hawthorne, NJ); Last season: High school; Good mid and outside shooter but other skills need development.)

Other news:

We’re picked to win the CAA title this season with Elon 2nd, Charleston 3rd, and James Madison 4th.

The NCAA has already found 3 teams guilty of recruiting violations including one that is on our schedule: Virginia Tech (they’ve been hammered with 3 years with no scholarships and a 2-year postseason ban as well).  Other teams that have received punishment include: St. Josephs (1 year with no scholarships) and North Dakota State (no scholarships for 2 years and no postseason play for a year).  I’m glad we’re running a clean program.

Edited January 7, 2021 by PointGuard

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November 14, 2023: DePaul Blue Demons (0-0) @ Towson Tigers (0-0)

Head Coach Frederick Aura

I’d like to get our new guys quite a bit of playing time to see how they do.  But we need to win this home game, so I expect the starters will carry the load since DePaul is likely to play us tough. The Blue Devils lack experience on the perimeter, but their interior players are strong and experienced.  We’re going to try pressuring their guards to force some turnovers and mistakes and keep them from working the ball inside to their big men.

CAA Shocker from last night: In their openin game of the 2K Classic Tournament, Charleston got by UCLA 91-89 with SF Russell Brown scoring 26 points.  The Cougars hit 52% of their FG’s including 44% of their 3’s.  Looks like Charleston will be a tough competitor when CAA action begins.

So much for inexperience outside.  DePaul hits two 3’s in the first couple minutes.  C Donny Flint picks up 2 fouls by the 17:36 mark.  Dominick Collins gets tagged with his 2nd foul joins Donny on the bench at the 16:21 mark.  The lead swings back and forth early but midway through the first half we began to outplay the Blue Demons and to pull away, leading 27-19 with 7 minutes left in the half.  We continue to dominate and build a 45-31 halftime advantage.  We outshot DePaul 56% to 35% and held a 12-7 turnover advantage.

With Flint riding the pine, Donyell Porter came on to pour in 12 points to lead our scoring.

We extended our lead to 17 but then DePaul trimmed it to 8.  At that point, Donny Flint took command and we jumped back on top 71-53 with 6-1/2 minutes remaining.  We failed to maintain the pressure the remainder of the game and let the Blue Demons to narrow the gap.  While we came away with a 82-74 win, I wasn’t satisfied with our effort.

Our shooting slipped to 48% for the entire game and we only hit 3 of 14 from beyond the arc.  We were out-rebounded 38-30 but held a 19-14 turnover advantage.

C Donny Flint finished with 16 points and C/PF Donyell Porter hit for 15.  SG Dominick Collins scored 10 and SF Wayne Burrough had 9 points and 8 boards.  Subs Calvin Williams scored 6 in 13 minutes on the court and SG Copley Dwiggins scored 7 in just 7 minutes of play.  In part due to foul problems for 3 of our starters, our reserves played a total of 109 minutes and overall played pretty well, so that was a positive.  But with a bunch of road games coming up, we need to pick up the level of our play.

[PointGuard 70]

Nov. 17, 2023: Towson Tigers (1-0) @ Air Force Falcons (1-0)

Graduate Assistant Coach Adrian Brown

The Charleston Cougars pulled off another big upset win in the 2K Classic Tourney, topping #25 ranked Cincinnati 69-57, but then in the tournament championship game the Cougars lost to North Carolina State 90-82.

Air Force got balanced scoring from their starters in their first game.  But PG Jeff Hatter sunk a couple 3’s and we had to play catch up early in the game.  But then PG Matt Faust, SG Dominick Collins and C Donyell Porter began pumping in points and we went ahead 29-21 with 7 minutes left to go in the half.  We led by as much as 15 before settling for a 41-31 lead at the break.  Our two starting guards, PG Shaun White and SG Dominick Collins both scored 10 points and reserve PG Matt Faust added 5.  Reserve C Donyell Porter hit for 9 points during the 7 minutes he was on the court.  As in our previous game, we outshot our opponents 47% to 36% and made just 5 turnovers compared to 11 by the Falcons.  Since we were out-rebounded 19-16, Coach Aura focused on rebounding while the team was in the locker room.  He expects us to always attack the boards.

We held onto a solid lead throughout much of the 2nd half, but then went stone cold and Air Force came back to tie us at 67-67 with 3-1/2 minutes remaining.  We then fell behind by 2, but clawed our way back to lead 72-71 with a minute to play.  After the Falcons hit a 3 that put them up 74-73, PG Shaun White brought it down and buried a quick jumper to put us ahead by a single point again with 23 seconds remaining.  We pressed and C Donny White intercepted a pass, drove to the hoop and slammed down a dunk putting us up 77-74 with 4 seconds on the clock.  The Falcons beat our press and lofted up a 3 from midcourt as the buzzer sounded.  The shot was short and we escaped with a 77-74 victory.

Again we shot reasonable well, hitting 46% of our FG attempts, but as in our first game this season our 3-point shooting was abysmal…2 of 11.  Coach Fed pulled me aside right after the game to tag me with working with our perimeter players on getting clear shots from outside.  We also lost the battle of the boards 37-26 but held a 23-11 turnover advantage.  PG Shaun White topped our scoring with 20 points plus had 5 assists.  SG Dominick Collins hit for 17 points.  C Donyell Porter again came off the bench to make an impact, scoring 12 points plus getting 2 rebound, 3 assists, 3 steals and a block.

Coach Fed is concerned about PF Kevin Holmes.  He’s pretty much disappeared in both games, averaging 4.0 ppg and just 1.5 rpg.  He has the skills, but now we need to build his confidence level to get him attacking the boards and putting up shots.  Another concern is that C Donny Flint has gotten into foul trouble in both games which has greatly limited his playing time.  Since Flint is our strongest player on the boards, that (together with Holmes’ anemic rebounding) has impacted our rebounding.  We’ve got to get his teammates giving him some help defensively inside.  Coach Fed was clear that Air Force could well be the weakest of our 7 opponents we play on the road during pre-conference play this season.  Barely getting by the Falcons means we have to step up our play a lot for the teams we will be going up against in the coming weeks.

[PointGuard 70]

Nov. 21, 2023: Boston College Eagles (0-2) @ Towson Tigers (2-0)

Jackson Cramer, Tigers’ fan

BC has a much richer basketball history than Towson, but I like our chances against the Eagles. Not only are we playing at home, but I think that Coach Aura and his staff have been recruiting much better than BC the past few years.  I’m a big Donny Flint fan.  He was great last season and should be awesome this year.  Of course he doesn’t have to do it all since we’re strong at all positions.  BC’s Rashane Stephans is a good scorer from his 2 position and SF Jason Adams can get the ball in the hoop also.

We came out firing from outside against BC’s 2-3 zone.  Unlike previous games this season, the Tigers were connecting on their 3’s.  We opened a double digit lead midway through the first half.  Late in the half, our offense fizzled and the Eagles cut into our lead to trail by just 4 with 2 minutes until halftime.  BC scored the final 10 points of the half and Towson held just a 31-29 lead going into the 2nd half.  SG Dominick Collins topped our first half scoring with 10 points.    

Led by Donny Flint’s hot shooting, the Tigers spurted out to pull ahead 47-36 during the first 6 minutes of the 2nd half.  Midway through the half Towson had expanded their lead to 70-43.  Subs played the rest of the way for the Tigers allowing BC to narrow the gap, but the game was never in doubt.  Towson pummeled the Eagles 81-64 to improve their record to 3-0.

C Donny Flint scored 18, PF Kevin Holmes and SG Dominick Collins both had 12 points, and SF Wayne Burrough hit for 11.  The Tigers knocked down 49% of their FGA’s and 47% of their 3PA’s.  Towson turned the ball over just 9 times while Boston College had 17 turnovers.

[PointGuard 70]

Nov. 21, 2023: Boston College Eagles (0-2) @ Towson Tigers (2-0)

Jackson Cramer, Tigers’ fan

BC has a much richer basketball history than Towson, but I like our chances against the Eagles. Not only are we playing at home, but I think that Coach Aura and his staff have been recruiting much better than BC the past few years.  I’m a big Donny Flint fan.  He was great last season and should be awesome this year.  Of course he doesn’t have to do it all since we’re strong at all positions.  BC’s Rashane Stephans is a good scorer from his 2 position and SF Jason Adams can get the ball in the hoop also.

We came out firing from outside against BC’s 2-3 zone.  Unlike previous games this season, the Tigers were connecting on their 3’s.  We opened a double digit lead midway through the first half.  Late in the half, our offense fizzled and the Eagles cut into our lead to trail by just 4 with 2 minutes until halftime.  BC scored the final 10 points of the half and Towson held just a 31-29 lead going into the 2nd half.  SG Dominick Collins topped our first half scoring with 10 points.    

Led by Donny Flint’s hot shooting, the Tigers spurted out to pull ahead 47-36 during the first 6 minutes of the 2nd half.  Midway through the half Towson had expanded their lead to 70-43.  Subs played the rest of the way for the Tigers allowing BC to narrow the gap, but the game was never in doubt.  Towson pummeled the Eagles 81-64 to improve their record to 3-0.

C Donny Flint scored 18, PF Kevin Holmes and SG Dominick Collins both had 12 points, and SF Wayne Burrough hit for 11.  The Tigers knocked down 49% of their FGA’s and 47% of their 3PA’s.  Towson turned the ball over just 9 times while Boston College had 17 turnovers.

[PointGuard 70]

Nov. 24, 2023: Towson Tigers (3-0) @ Virginia Tech Hokies (3-0)

Rob Martin

I live in Towson and go to Towson University’s home games when I can.  But I’m in sales and travel quite a bit.  Since I was near Blacksburg, Virginia this week, I decided to come to the Tigers’ game tonight.  Both teams are unbeaten…I’d love to see Towson leave here with a 4-game win streak.  Virginia Tech’s schedule this season begins with 6 straight home games…thus far they are cherry at home, but none of their first 3 opponents were record beaters.  The Hokies seem to have solid, but not outstanding, players.  So I think the Tigers have a chance to win, but often home court trumps all else.  Although Cassell Coliseum isn’t full, there is a decent size crowd to root on the Hokies. 

The two teams had a hard time getting their offenses going, but once Towson began hitting their shots, they opened and widened a lead.  With 12-1/2 minutes left in the half, the Tigers were on top 16-8.  After gaining a 13 point lead, the Tigers offense was stymied by Virginia Tech’s defense, allowing the Hokies to get back into the game and get within a point of the Tigers.  But Jon Spann led a run in the final few minutes of the half that built a 33-25 halftime edge for Towson. 

In the 2nd half the Tigers slowly began to expand their lead as C Donny Flint completely dominated the boards.  Towson’s lead grew to as much as 18 points before the Tigers ended with a 65-51 stomping of the Hokies.  Towson’s defense was stellar and held Virginia Tech’s shooting to just 34% while forcing the Hokies to make 18 turnovers.

PG/SG Jon Spann came off the bench to score 19 points while playing just 18 minutes.  The hype about him appears to have been justified.  C/PF Donyell Porter scored 11 and C Donny Flint had 10 points, 17 rebounds, 4 assists, a steal and 3 blocks.

[PointGuard 70]

Nov. 28, 2023: Towson Tigers (4-0) @ #11-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish (5-1)

Head Coach Frederick Aura

Our RPI is now 13th best in the country…quite simply, the computer has overrated us.  Both teams beat DePaul…Notre Dame won by 12 on a neutral court; we won by 8 on our home court.  Notre Dame’s only loss was to #8 ranked Oregon, but their 5 wins haven’t been against any really strong teams.  This is the toughest team we’ve played in the regular season since I became the coach here.  The Fighting Irish use a 3-2 zone defense a lot.  While we’ve practiced extensively against it, we haven’t had to go up against it in a game, so we’ll see how we do.  Maybe we’ll get some open shots from the corners and Burroughs can get produce more for us offensively that he has so far this season.

We’re averaging 76 ppg.  Our guards have accounted for 33-1/2 ppg of that.  Our C/PF’s have combined to score 33-1/2 ppg.  Our SF’s have added 9 ppg.  Our SF’s are hitting a high percentage of their shots but just haven’t shot much so far.  But SF Wayne Burrough has done a great job on the boards (6.3 rpg), 2nd only to C Donny Flint’s 8.3 rpg.

PG Shaun White scored our first 11 points.  The rest of our team then got into the scoring act and we steadily pulled away from the Fighting Irish.  We hit 56% of our FG’s in the first half and we dominated the boards.  That resulted in a 51-40 halftime advantage for us.

With a double digit lead we switched our emphasis from offense to defense in the 2nd half.  Our guys did a heckuva job controlling Notre Dame, holding them to just 20 points in the 2nd half.  Notre Dame hit just 31% of their shots throughout the game.  While our shooting cooled off, our control of the boards did not.  We ended the game with an amazing 49-27 rebounding advantage.  We continued to increase our lead to the very end of the game and came away with a convincing 83-60 thumping of the highly ranked Fighting Irish.

PG Shaun White finished with 17 points plus 5 assists and 4 rebounds.  SG Dominick Collins scored 15 and SG Jon Spann tossed in 13.  C Donny Flint pulled down 17 rebounds and blocked 3 shots and held Notre Dame’s starting C Tahj Wilder scoreless.

This has to be the most impressive victory we’ve had in my now 4 years at Towson.  But there’s no time to spend celebrating.  Our next 3 games are also on the road.