Mixed reviews from Puerto Rico

Following another disappointing performance to Morgan State it appears La Salle head Coach John Giannini had seen enough. With 11 days to prepare for the San Juan Shootout Giannini revamped the Explorer offense and let the wild horses loose from the stables of which confined the like of Rodney Green, Kimmani Barrett, and Jerrell Williams.

While most Explorer fans have yet to see the new up-tempo offense, most who listened to the games from Puerto Rico like what they heard. After easily disposing of the host team Puerto Rico-Mayaguez on Thursday 117-86, the team saw Mississippi and De Paul on the horizon. Mississippi came into the tournament undefeated and De Paul despite an unimpressive record played a fairly strong schedule and is part of the powerful Big East conference. La Salle would end giving both teams all they could handle before finally succumbing late in both games.

The Explorers put an incredible 8 different players in double figures against Mayaguez led by freshmen Jerrell Williams (20pts, 11 rebs) and Kyle Griffin (16pts, 4-6 3pt). Unfortunately for La Salle Griffin would never find his stroke again in the tournament which would hurt the Explorers in their final two games. While La Salle pressed and ran by Mayaguez they would allow outside shooters easy open shots that would be critical mistakes in their losses to Ole Miss and De Paul.

In the Ole Miss game La Salle would jump out to an early lead before falling behind and playing catch-up in the second half. The team displayed a lot of energy in the second half to grab the lead from the Rebels. Strong play from Yves Mekongo-Mbala was a key ingredient to the La Salle second half surge. Mbala scored key baskets on second chance opportunities and with swingman Rodney Green led 5 different Explorers in double figures with 15 points. Poor free throw shooting would hurt La Salle late in the game as well as several empty trips on the offensive end in conjunction with key baskets from the Rebels would prevent La Salle from pulling the huge upset. Giannini called it the best game La Salle had played this season.

After the heartbreaking loss to the Rebels on Friday, the Explorers were back at it Saturday against De Paul. After a slow start which saw the Blue Demons go on a 19-4 run La Salle found themselves back in a familiar position, playing catch-up. Like the day before, they would battle back and give De Paul all they wanted. Led by torrid shooting from senior Darnell Harris and fine play from sophomore point guard Ruben Guillandeaux La Salle fought and clawed its way back to lead the game by two points and was looking to extend the lead with a 3 on 1 break and instead of taking it to the basket and getting an easy two points Harris would pull up behind the arc for a three point jumper that would clang of the rim and allow the Blue Demons to come back and immediately spot up for their own three point attempt which they made to go back up by one point. The momentum changed and the Explorers never recovered. Four empty possessions around the four minute mark of the second half would seal the Explorers fate for the afternoon. Despite some fine play and encouraging signs La Salle still walked away without a win and wondering how to get over the mountain which holds the sweet taste of victory.

Almost everyone approves the new style of play and the results show on the floor and in the box scores. The Explorers now find it much easier to score the basketball with this new style. Up and down transition game really benefits players like Rodney Green, Kimmani Barrett and others but also allows snipers like Harris, Griffin and Guillandeaux to shoot the ball with more space. The defense allowed a lot of open looks which De Paul took advantage of but it also forced turnover that led to easy La Salle baskets. After just 11 days of practice one would think this team should play better and better with this style of play. The real concerns are still apparent and have not gone away. Poor basketball decisions are the norm, long droughts of scoring still exist and the team continues to miss easy shots. While the style of play will make this team more competitive you cannot win a lot of games making poor decisions at critical times, suffer through those scoring droughts, and missing easy shots whether that team is Mississippi and De Paul, or whether it is Howard and Morgan State. Consider the San Juan Shootout a mixed bag of success and failures. Make no mistake though; the ride for the rest of the season has gotten a little more interesting.