Bad news on the court, good news off it for ODU

Jones set to go home, make full recovery from heart attack

HONOLULU — On paper, Old Dominion’s strategy to take away Massachusetts star Josh Cohen made complete sense. But to make it work, the Monarchs needed two things: missed shots from the

Minutemen guards and timely baskets of their own.

And that was where things fell apart Sunday.

Old Dominion got neither half of its equation for success in the fifthplace game of the Diamond Head Classic. While the Monarchs shot just 11 for 30 in the first 20 minutes, Rahsool Diggins and Robert Davis Jr. hit their first three 3-pointers of the game for Massachusetts, blowing up ODU’s game plan. Cohen took control of the game as feared, scoring 28 points as the

Minutemen cruised to an 87-65 win over the Monarchs on Sunday at Hawai’i’s Stan Sheriff Center.

“Things fell apart for us there, and they fell apart quickly,” Old Dominion interim coach Kieran Donohue said. “We were never able to really regain it. We started off the game the right way, but it got away from us, and once it got away from us, we weren’t able to bring it back.

“That’s on me. In retrospect, I wish I had done some things differently. I wasn’t good enough today to help our players get it back. That was a disappointing way to end (here), especially after a good performance Friday.”

The Monarchs (4-8) knew full well what Cohen had done to Portland on Friday night with a 28-point performance and came out with the intention of making someone else from UMass them. But the Minutemen (8-3) refused to play into Old Dominion’s hands, instead waiting patiently for their opportunities to come.

Once Diggins and Davis Jr. showed they could make shots from outside, the Monarchs had to scramble. And once that happened, Massachusetts was able to attack the paint the way it wanted.

“They’re undermanned at the center spot,” UMass coach Frank Martin said. “So (Sunday) was just a concerted effort of executing the right way so we could space the court the right way so we could play through him. We obviously did that, and he did an incredible

job in finishing those plays at the rim.”

Donohue expected that from Cohen, but he’d hoped that the Monarchs would make life difficult for the Minutemen for longer than the first few minutes. Instead, Old Dominion contributed to its own demise by making several mistakes that opened lanes up for Cohen, Matt Cross and more.

“Josh Cohen is a very good player, and he made some really difficult shots,” Donohue said. “Then their guards stayed within themselves and made good decisions and took their opportunities.

“We had too many breakdowns defensively. We didn’t switch properly on a ball screen and left someone open, we came out of a scramble, didn’t find a guy and gave up a wide-open layup. We didn’t execute and we couldn’t stay with them.”

The Monarchs’ other issue was a lack of shooting. Much like Friday’s win over Temple, Old Dominion got to the hoop and took good shots from close range. But the Monarchs couldn’t finish, shooting 42.6% for the game.

Nor could they create looks with their passing the way they did against Temple. ODU actually got more inside looks off of steals (11) than assists (seven), which wasn’t a recipe to win once UMass settled into the game.

“Defensively, they forced us into one-on-one situations,” Donohue said. “I thought we made some good decisions, but we weren’t able to capitalize and keep scoring with them. When you can’t keep pace, that’s a lot of pressure to put on your defense. And when the separation came, we did not handle the adversity very well.”

While that’s been an issue for ODU at times throughout the year, this week was the most understandable, given how much the Monarchs have been through emotionally. Recovering coach Jeff Jones is on track to return home to Norfolk and make a full recovery, something that both benches were happy about on Sunday.

“Jeff Jones is a good friend, and not seeing him on the sidelines with his team is disheartening,” Martin said. “I know how much he cares, and he’s one of the great guys in this business that we call coaching.”