By Aidan Joly
The second day of the Charleston Classic is in the books. It featured 10 hours of action, with lots to think about at the end of the day.
Here are my eight takeaways from the eight teams from Friday’s games.
Drake as a case study
Drake won for the second straight day on Friday with a 75-63 win against Florida Atlantic in the first game of the day that doubled as a semifinal game.
The Bulldogs are an interesting case study when it comes to Division II talent moving up to the Division I level. Four of the Bulldogs’ five starters – Isaiah Jackson, Bennett Stirtz, Mitch Mascari and Daniel Abreu – followed first-year coach Ben McCollum from Division II Northwest Missouri State in the off-season.
It is those guys who are the main contributors to the team. Stirtz (19.3 PPG), Abreu (17.8 PPG) and Mascari (11.8 PPG) are the top three scorers on this team as Drake gets off to a 5-0 start. In the win on Friday Abreu was limited to only five points, but Mascari led the game with 22 and Stirtz had 17. Jackson had nine points and 10 rebounds.
The aforementioned 5-0 start now includes wins against FAU and Miami. It’s a small sample size so far, but it goes to show that talent is talent and can translate to all levels.
Florida Atlantic is too fast for their own good
On the losing end of the first game of the day was FAU. There are definitely some things to like about this team. I was impressed with Matas Vokietaitis, who finished with 10 points on 5-7 from the field. It’s a guy who knows his role and does it well. The seven-footer was the largest player on the floor by far and the Owls played well when he was on the floor.
However, the guard play leaves something to be desired. The team almost plays too fast for its own good. Many plays looked discombobulated and the Owls turned the ball over 15 times. It’s surprising result due to the Owls ranking 20th in the nation in tempo and 14th in average possession length in KenPom.
It shot 5-16 from three, which is not bad, but not great.
FAU is now 4-3 on the season, but has some things to work on.
Oklahoma State has talent, needs to complete games
Oklahoma State beat Miami in the second game of the day 80-74. This was a game that Oklahoma State led by 16 at the half and looked like it could run away, but let Miami get back into the game in the second half and make it semi-interesting down the stretch.
It’s safe to say the Cowboys didn’t play a full 40 minutes in the game. Miami scored 31 points in the last 10 minutes of the game. If it did, this probably would have been a double digit win.
Steve Lutz’s team has some interesting pieces who have talent on paper. Bryce Thompson had 17 points in the win and Marchelus Avery had 15 off the bench. It also has pieces with plenty of experience, including Devo Davis, Abou Ousmane and Khalil Brantley.
It remains to be seen how it will compete in a stacked Big 12, but it has pieces to be competitive.
Concerns with Miami
Sure, Miami turned it around in the second half, but spent most of its game on Thursday against Drake and the first half of Friday’s game looking tired and uninterested.
It recovered nicely in the second half, but it dug itself too big of a hole. Miami is now staring down the barrel of 0-3 in this tournament, which would drop the Hurricanes to 3-3 overall. It plays VCU on Sunday.
The offensive statistics look good due to its first three games against Fairleigh Dickinson, Binghamton and Coppin State, but has only played one good half in four halves of basketball against more talented teams. It is certainly concerning.
Tyler Nickel may have found a home at Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt’s Tyler Nickel may have had the best performance of the entire day, finishing with 24 points on 8-16 from the field that included 6-13 from three as the Commodores blew out Seton Hall 76-6o in the other semifinal game.
Nickel began his career at North Carolina and played sparingly as a freshman and was not much more of a role player at Virginia Tech last year. Now, he has scored in the double digits four times in Vanderbilt’s six games and Friday’s 24 matched a career high.
Has he found a home where he can be a guy? Seems like it so far.
By the way, how about Mark Byington, who has Vanderbilt to 6-0 and will play in the title game on Sunday. The Commodores have wins against Seton Hall, Nevada and California in the 6-0 start. It is the first time Vandy has had that record since the 2007-08 season. Byington has a real chance to get this program back on track.
Seton Hall can’t win on physicality alone
It has been a tough start to the season for Seton Hall, who is now 3-3 after Friday’s loss. Before the tournament, it took losses to Hofstra and Fordham.
Much has been made about the physicality of this team, but it can’t win on its physicality alone.
The offense is not good. It has only scored 60+ points twice in six games this season, its season high being 69 in Thursday’s overtime win against VCU. It was gifted five points in the first half on Friday on an early technical foul committed by Vanderbilt’s Jaylen Carry, and three more on a mind-boggling foul committed by Vandy’s AJ Hoggard 65 feet away from the basket as the first half buzzer sounded. The offense ranks 278th in the country per KenPom.
Vanderbilt did a good job of matching the physicality and scored 76 points on a very good Pirate defense.
Seton Hall needs to find something on offense. Is it going to Isaiah Coleman? He had 20 points on 8-15 from the field. Nonetheless, the offense needs to get going.
Nevada has clutch shooters
The best game of the day ended up being saved for last, with Kobe Sanders banging in a three with five seconds left to give Nevada a 64-61 win against VCU in the nightcap.
It was a game of resolve for the Wolf Pack. VCU took the lead with 10:34 remaining in the first half and Nevada did not lead again until seven minutes left in the game, trailing by as many as 15 in the early parts of the second half.
Multiple guys on Nevada came up with big shots, including Sanders, Tre Coleman, who hit a three to tie the game with 54 seconds left, and Xavier DuSell, who ended up becoming a key cog in the win after early foul trouble. Nick Davidson had 11 points in the second half after just two in the first.
A big key was taking care of the ball. Nevada turned the ball over 10 times in the first half and then only once in the second half, a massive improvement.
This is a team that could have given up. It did not and it got a win for its efforts.
VCU’s defense was stifling, but faltered at the end
It is undeniable that VCU has one of the best defenses in the country. It ranked eighth in the country coming into the game and despite the loss only dropped to 12th.
It’s been two gut-wrenching losses for VCU in this tournament so far. It led most of the way against Seton Hall on Thursday before losing in overtime, and now it blew a 15-point lead and lost in the final seconds.
The defense stifled Nevada in the first half. The Wolf Pack scored just 23 points in the first half and really struggled, but things definitely changed in the second half.
VCU, who now probably needs to win the Atlantic 10 to make the NCAA tournament, will try to salvage a seventh-place finish in Charleston against Miami on Sunday.
AJ Hoops 