Pirates peaking at the right time
HU is tourney’s last seed, but has won three of its past five
This season hasn’t gone quite as planned for the Hampton University men’s basketball team and coach Buck Joyner. The Pirates finished the regular season 8-23 overall and, as the last-place seed, will face No. 11 seed Elon (13-18, 6-12) in the first round of the CAA Tournament on Friday.
But Hampton found somewhat of a groove in February, winning four of its 10 games in the month and three of its last five of the regular season.
“March is obviously when you want to be playing your best basketball,” guard Tedrick Wilcox, a graduate student, said. “We picked up a couple of wins coming right into March, so I definitely think we’re playing our best basketball at the right time.”
The way the regular season ended for the Pirates, Joyner said he’s confident in the team’s ability to string together a few wins in the CAA Tournament.
“That let us know that we put forth the right effort, night in and night out,” Joyner said. “Even though it is win or go home, it’s a different energy level or a different type of mind frame you need to go in there with, more intense. But we do feel good about the way that we ended the season.”
Wilcox said the preparation for the CAA Tournament has been the same from an “X’s and
O’s” standpoint, but the intensity and focus have been turned up a notch since Friday’s game has higher stakes.
“You try to keep it as normal as possible with a high-intensity game,” Joyner said. “The situations when you feel like you got to lock in, you got to lock in a little more. But you also want to keep them as relaxed as possible because sometimes going in with too much intensity can take you the other way. But again, we’ve tried to keep it relaxed as possible and as normal as possible with a higher intensity level.”
Hampton star forward Kyrese Mullen has missed the past four games for the Pirates with a nagging shoulder injury. Joyner told The Pilot on Wednesday that “it’s looking like” Mullen is going to play against Elon. Mullen leads the Pirates with 15.1 points and 8.5 rebounds per game.
“He’s one of the leaders and leading stat-getters on the team, not just by points, but by rebounds and other things,” Joyner said. “But it’s important because if we’re gonna have any opportunity to win this tournament, you got to win five games in five days. You need all hands on deck.”
Joyner said the Pirates should have a clean bill of health heading into the CAA Tournament, with
the potential exception of guard Ford Cooper, who was dealing with an ankle injury after practice.
If Mullen can’t go, the Pirates likely will hope for continued production out of Ja’Von Benson after the South Carolina transfer has emerged in the past four games. He’s logged two double-doubles, brought in more than 11 rebounds three times and set a career-high in points (19).
“He’s been tremendous, honestly,” Wilcox said of his teammate. “He kind of just springs a fire and intensity that no one else really can kind of bring. It uplifts all of us. I felt like on the defensive end, I’ll go harder trying to stop my guy knowing if I do get beat, I got someone like Ja’Von behind me.”
The Pirates lost 80-74 to Elon at home the last time the teams played in late January. The Phoenix’s top three scorers — TK Simp
kins, Max Mackinnon and Rob Higgins — all reached double figures.
“Elon’s a tough team,” Joyner said. “They play a lot of zone and do some things to try to disrupt you a little bit offensively. We’re working hard to be able to try and deal with that and be as comfortable as possible.”
A win over Elon would put Hampton in a second-round matchup with No. 6 seed Delaware on Saturday.
“No one’s really expecting anything of us,” Wilcox said. “We don’t really have anything to prove, so it kind of takes a little bit of pressure off our hands. But it also gives us that little chip and that little edge to want to go through something just because no one expects anything of us.”