James, Rider use ‘effort practice’ to get back on track
LAWRENCEVILLE >> Mervin James wasn't happy with the way he or his Rider men's basketball teammates started the season.
A side with high expectations had once just once in its first four games — against a Division III opponent — and was coming off two bad losses in Ireland and a 30-point wipeout 36 hours later at Rutgers.
While the Broncs won't be judged by what they did on a trip to Ireland or in a nonleague game against a Big Ten opponent, the eight days off prior to Wednesday night's getright victory over Monmouth may prove to be a crucial point in the season.
It allowed James and company to essentially restart.
“We came in after the Rutgers loss and we had some tough practices,” James said. “Between these games, we hit the reset button and we came in more hungry.”
James termed them effort practices.
“A lot of box out drills, lane slides, one-on-one,” he said. “Just the little things that you can bring by yourself without the coaches asking you. You're just bringing your dog, what the coach brought you here for.”
It showed up on Wednesday night. After spotting its former MAAC rival the game's first eight points, Rider dominated the remainder of the way in a 26-point victory.
“We needed to get better, we needed to challenge one another, we need to compete,” 11thyear coach Kevin Baggett said. “I thought our guys did a good job locking in with the scout this week and being attentive to the details that we needed for us in order to win this game.”
James responded with a season-high 17 points, while the Broncs were plus-20 in the 26 minutes he was on the floor.
For Rider to return to the level it was at when it reached the MAAC semifinals last year, James acknowledged that players not named Murray have to raise their level.
“When everybody clicks the way we did in the MAAC Tournament, and everybody gets on the same page, we'll be a problem,” James said. “We're just waiting for everybody to hop aboard. I'm slowly bringing it back together, Ajiri didn't get to play the last couple of games when we went to Ireland so he's shaking off the rust. We know AP is going to hit shots, so it's just a matter of everybody getting on the same page.”
Wednesday night's win was a good start, but it has to show up on Saturday when the Broncs travel to new MAAC member Mount St. Mary's for their league opener.
“We start back 0-0,” James said. “We have to lock in, take every game step by step.”
Ajiri Ogemuno-Johnson had a lively 15 minutes on Wednesday in which he had seven points and four rebounds.
Two of those points were courtesy of a rim-rocking putback of a James miss.
“That's what I've been waiting for to see him back in that mindset, he can catch anything off the rim because that's what he does,” James said. “When I saw that go down, I'm like ‘yes, we got him back.'”
It's been an inauspicious start to the season for OgemunoJohnson as he's only appeared in four of the six games because he wasn't able to travel abroad. But he showed last year, particularly in the MAAC Tournament, that he can string excellent performances together.
Baggett said he's likely to utilize a three-center rotation throughout the season. Ogemuno-Johnson has been the starter when available with Tyrel Bladen and Tariq Ingraham coming off the bench.
Ogemuno-Johnson is the best athlete of the three, Bladen the best rim protector and Ingraham the most skilled offensively.
“I want to play all three guys, but allow them to continue to run the floor and play with energy,” the coach said. “If they get in foul trouble, I need all three of those guys to be ready. I think they all bring something different. That's the way that we'll continue to do it. At times, we will go with two bigs, but more often than not, I prefer playing with one big. It just (helps) us get up and down and be more athletic.”
Baggett thought this was his team's best defensive effort to date.
Rider held Monmouth to 35.1% shooting and forced 14 turnovers.
“We do a lot of switching or what we call likes with bigs and guards,” Baggett said. “That starts with communicating. We worked on boxing out, although Monmouth has always been a good offensive rebounding team. We worked on keeping the ball in front of us as much as we could because that's something we've been breaking down with.
“Just team defense and really being in the position you're supposed to be depending on where the ball is on the court. Those are things we got better at last year and those are things we have to get even better at this year. We've got better athletes, I think we've got a better team and better personnel, so we just need to be more consistent with that.”