Explorers Are Frequently Lost: Joy in Mudville

written by Sam

 

Tunde Vahlberg-Fasasi's career day beat back the misery for a week.

PHILADELPHIA (Mt. Airy) – I'm a bit at a loss for words. Something unexpected but delightful has occurred. The La Salle Explorers (11-9 (2-5)), subject of this weekly interrogation of mediocrity, and lately, woe, comfortably beat an opponent on Saturday.

More surprisingly, nothing crazy happened to cause the freak occurrence. The opponent isn't bad and didn't play awful; all of their players were available (a conspiratorial plot to have a minx seduce their best player to thwart his basketball stamina wasn't necessary); and the weather or timing or national tragedy didn't cloud anyone's judgments. La Salle just made the basketball go in the hoop more (a whole lot more) than the other team, and grabbed the W. 

While many of this blog were celebrating the Feast of Sean Francis (HBD), the Explorers were taking it to George Washington (14-6 (3-4)) in our nation's capital, 80-70. The win marked La Salle's second conference win, and mercifully stopped the bleeding of a four-game losing skid.

For weeks, I've been bemoaning the meaninglessness of enduring lackluster basketball throughout La Salle's pretty embarrassing conference play. Other than an anomaly against Fordham Jan. 6, the Explos have been thoroughly defeated by their A-10 brethren. 

My plan for this week was going to be explore the ethics of sports bigamy and potentially pick another team to follow for the rest of the season. While that debate may eventually occur, I must enjoy the moment.

Against the hated Revolutionaries (surely one of the dumbest names in the A-10***—though not as puzzling as the St. Louis Billikens), La Salle started off lukewarm. The 2,054 spectators at the Charles E. Smith Center (with alumni pep band on hand) created a fairly lively atmosphere, as GW was favored by 5.5 points. It took 6 minutes for La Salle to make its first basket, and GW held an early lead at 9-3. 

But then slowly, methodically, La Salle started to make buckets, and the Revs (ugg... even the short-hand is gross) could not. The Explorers had a bit of hot shooting from deep, but it wasn't luck. They've been shooting something awful for weeks, and finally started to see their open looks go in.

They won the game due to a balanced scoring attack that saw three different players carry the load. Freshman Tunde Vahlberg-Fasasi scored a career high 19 points, with several big three-pointers in the first half. Junior Khalil Brantley finally played consistently (if not super efficiently), and led the way with 20 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 steals. 

And senior Jhamir Brickus was electric in the second half. He made some silly scoop shots and deep heat-check threes to finish with 19 points and 8 assists.

Your eyes may be glazing over with this box score regurgitation. But the numbers don't frequently sing in La Salle's favor. And these stats hum. I will dwell here for one more minute: La Salle made 10 three-pointers (comparted to GW's 3) and shot an unstoppable 71.4% in the second half. With our big men in foul trouble, we more or less played the rebound battle evenly. La Salle also made 10 of 13 free-throws, and committed a respectable 12 turnovers.

My mark of whether my team is going to win / can my team come back is whether the leading team is up by more points than minutes left. Basketball is a game of runs, and college basketball especially breeds late-game meltdowns, which is why March Madness is fun. My rule of thumb generally proves accurate.

With 8 minutes left Saturday, La Salle was up 11 points. I was able to take note and smile. Brickus began to skip after draining a three-pointer. The camera depicted the Revs' faithful in glum dispositions. The GW announcers, who I really enjoyed, began to throw in the towel and laud Coach Fran Dunphy's squad.

Of course, my mind began to irrationally look forward. Hmm... La Salle's next three opponents have a 7-14 conference record. If they can beat Rhode Island (9-11 (3-4)) on the road Jan. 31, they have the fucking Hawks (13-7 (3-4)) again at the Gola Feb. 3, and the embarrassing St. Louis Billikens (8-12 (1-6)) home on Feb. 7. With PoYB editor Joe K**** in attendance against St. Louis, how great will this column be if La Salle evens up the conference record at 5-5? ... Even further down the road, what if the La Salle Friends' UMass game Feb. 17 continues this La Salle-valanche and we're 8-5! ...

That indeed is getting ahead of myself. I don't know if the Mighty Casey walloped a game-wining homer on Saturday, but he at least put the ball in play and made the Mudville faithful not shamefully hang their heads. I won't cheat on La Salle for another week at least.

*** I fact-checked the mascot name after my draft. Apparently, GW changed its name from the Colonials to the Revolutionaries last year in an effort to not exalt colonizers. I credit the thinking and support moving away from the name, though I remain comfortable mocking the Revs as a bad name.

"Explorers Are Frequently Lost" strives to be a weekly column about the La Salle's Men's Basketball Team, but I hope is about other stuff, too.