Rider hosts resurgent Marist in weekend set
John Dunne and the Marist men’s basketball team already have experienced how unpredictable this season can be.
For the second time, the Red Foxes had a series opponent changed due to positive Covid tests within somebody else’s program. So Dunne will bring his team to Lawrenceville on Friday and Saturday for a pair of games against Rider instead of what was originally going to be a bye week.
The Broncs were supposed to play against Quinnipiac on the road, but that series was shifted to February and this one was moved up a week.
“You just never know,” Dunne said after the Red Foxes settled for a split against Fairfield last weekend. “... We haven’t had a lot of practice time with all the new bodies,
so we were really looking forward to the practice time and the next thing you know, you’re playing. I would love where we could have a week of practices and rest some legs and get sharper with some tings, but you just never know. You might get thrown into two games the next weekend.”
Marist (7-5, 5-5) has dropped four of the last five after getting off to a great start in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Play. It has lost the second game of the series in each of the last three sets. The Broncs (3-10, 3-7) are 0-5 in the second game.
“We just mentally weren’t great (in the second game),” Dunne said. “That’s just the reality in the back to back. We’re a young team and we have to keep better spirit when things aren’t going good. We have to learn and continue to grow.”
Dunne, in his third season since he was hired away from league rival Saint Peter’s, has the Red Foxes over .500 12 games into the season for the first time since 200607 when Matt Brady guided them to a 25-9 overall mark and berth in the NIT (they actually won a first-round game at Oklahoma State that season). Marist has not finished over .500 since going 18-14 in the 2007-08 season.
The Red Foxes get it done with balanced scoring. Only freshman Ricardo Wright (11 ppg) averages in double figures since top returning scorer Michael Cubbage was lost for the season after just four games. Senior forward Jordan Jones has netted double figures in each of the last five games and had 17 last time out against Fairfield.
Marist ranks second in the MAAC in overall field goal percentage at 44.3%, however, it doesn’t shoot the 3 particularly well, connecting at a 31.4% rate. Dunne-coached teams tend to be hard to operate against because of their tough man-to-man defense. The Red Foxes are third in the league in field goal percentage defense (40.4%) and scoring defense (65.1 ppg).
Rider has won eight straight games over Marist and leads the all-time series, 38-24.
In 10 MAAC games, Rider
is tops in the league in percentage of points scored on two-point baskets (60.9) and last in three-point baskets (20.8), according to KenPom.
The Broncs also have the fewest number of assisted baskets (44.7%) and are last in defensive efficiency (106.9). They do, however, lead the league in steal percentage (7.5) and freethrow shooting (78.5).
Dwight Murray Jr. is having an all-conference season. The junior point guard, who transferred in from Incarnate Word, is averaging
14.8 points, 6.2 rebounds and 4.4 assists in 37 minutes per game. He’s shooting 41.9% from 3 and 89.1% on free throws (41-for-46).
Jeremiah Pope was 5-for13 from beyond the arc in the two games against Siena last weekend. The 13 triples are the most he’s attempted in any of the two-game sets the Broncs have played.
The junior college transfer is averaging seven points per game and shooting 36.6% from 3 in 19.5 minutes per game. He’s come off the bench in 11 of the team’s 13 games.