I live in Richmond and went to U of R for grad school, so they're generally my #2 team in college sports. Tonight, they hosted Oakland in the 2nd round of the NIT, so I went to try to ease the sting of last night's loss. I'm sure many of you remember that Sherron Dorsey-Walker transferred to Oakland from ISU, and I was always a fan of his, so that was another factor in my decision to go.
SDW was their 3rd-leading scorer for the season at 13.4 PPG, and he led the team in assists. Former Longhorn Martez Walker was their leading scorer at 17.8 PPG, and he had 25 points tonight, including a great 4-point play in the last minute to pull within 1. Unfortunately for SDW, he struggled offensively tonight: 6 points on 2-8 shooting, 0-3 on 3P including an air-ball, but 6 assists to 1 turnover. What impressed me, though, was that for most of the night, he guarded T.J. Cline, a 6'8" forward who averages almost 18, 8, & 6 and was the A-10 Player of the Year (also the son of Nancy Lieberman, which I didn't know until recently). Looking at the boxscore and Cline's 25 points, you'd think he did a poor job, but he really made him work for everything he got, and it seemed like most of Cline's highlights came after a switch or when SDW was on the bench. My recollection of his time at ISU was that his defense was the main thing really holding him back, so it was nice to see how much he's improved in that area. It was also just nice to see that he landed in a place where he could contribute to a decent team. I felt like he had a great attitude, but we all know he was never to going to be a star in Ames, playing behind Morris, Thomas, Naz, etc. I can't blame him for finding somewhere else to play more.
Overall, it was a fun game to watch, especially since Richmond won in an exciting finish. I was hoping that either the Spiders or SDW would get a chance to take out Iowa in the next round, but TCU beat them to it. I'm curious to see how Richmond will look against a Big 12 team in the next round.
Anyway, I just thought some of you might be interested, as I don't think I'm the only one who appreciated SDW's efforts while he was here. Congrats to him on finishing out a nice college career.
SDW was their 3rd-leading scorer for the season at 13.4 PPG, and he led the team in assists. Former Longhorn Martez Walker was their leading scorer at 17.8 PPG, and he had 25 points tonight, including a great 4-point play in the last minute to pull within 1. Unfortunately for SDW, he struggled offensively tonight: 6 points on 2-8 shooting, 0-3 on 3P including an air-ball, but 6 assists to 1 turnover. What impressed me, though, was that for most of the night, he guarded T.J. Cline, a 6'8" forward who averages almost 18, 8, & 6 and was the A-10 Player of the Year (also the son of Nancy Lieberman, which I didn't know until recently). Looking at the boxscore and Cline's 25 points, you'd think he did a poor job, but he really made him work for everything he got, and it seemed like most of Cline's highlights came after a switch or when SDW was on the bench. My recollection of his time at ISU was that his defense was the main thing really holding him back, so it was nice to see how much he's improved in that area. It was also just nice to see that he landed in a place where he could contribute to a decent team. I felt like he had a great attitude, but we all know he was never to going to be a star in Ames, playing behind Morris, Thomas, Naz, etc. I can't blame him for finding somewhere else to play more.
Overall, it was a fun game to watch, especially since Richmond won in an exciting finish. I was hoping that either the Spiders or SDW would get a chance to take out Iowa in the next round, but TCU beat them to it. I'm curious to see how Richmond will look against a Big 12 team in the next round.
Anyway, I just thought some of you might be interested, as I don't think I'm the only one who appreciated SDW's efforts while he was here. Congrats to him on finishing out a nice college career.
