RIVERDALE, N.Y. — Sitting at 4-8 with one more game before conference play resumes isn’t where John Gallagher imagined his Manhattan Jaspers coming into the season. He said on Thursday that he was hoping for two more wins than what the team has right now. But the always-optimistic third-year head coach has been on the ride of a college basketball season enough to remain focused on how his team can improve.
Manhattan has now lost three games in a row, and six out of its last seven, after dropping 75-68 at Draddy Gymnasium to a Furman team Gallagher believes would be “one or two” in the MAAC. The teams traded the lead for much of the first 30 minutes, but the Paladins made the necessary plays late in the game.
On paper, Furman was a difficult matchup for Manhattan, as the Paladins don’t start a single player under 6-foot-5, and have two 6-foot-11 big men. The Jaspers are the third shortest team in the country per KenPom, while the Paladins are the third tallest.
Neither side’s personnel fit in a matchup against the other, and both teams fell into a Game of Zones. I don’t know if I’ve been to a game with more combined possessions of 1-3-1 over the last five years of attending college basketball games.
But in the last five minutes, Furman created just enough creases.
“We had a couple slides miss,” Gallagher said. “If you really look at it, we had rotational slips, and that happens in a 40-minute game; it just happened at an inopportune time.”
Gallagher added that the Jaspers’ zone defense numbers are “off the charts good,” and that the team plays four different zones. Most notably, the 1-3-1 that we saw on Thursday, and the 2-3 that comes with some extended 2-2-1 full-court pressure, which featured prominently in the two conference games.
Manhattan’s size disadvantage against Furman forced the Jaspers to make a strategic decision. Gallagher was okay giving up alley-oops and dunks inside to national dunk leader Cooper Bowser, as long as it meant his defense could do a better job shutting down the rest of the team.
Bowser threw down seven dunks, a season-high against Division-I opponents, but Furman scored just 1.08 points per possession, its second-lowest output in any of its eight wins. It just came down to a few plays.
“What beats us is when the three is drilled,” Gallagher said. “The slides in the second half on those drilled threes were the reason (we lost), not the dunks, in my opinion.”
In a man defensive look with five minutes left, down by five points, the Jaspers doubled a ball screen and completely left Charles Johnston open on the wing for a three. Alex Wilkins found Asa Thomas on the right side of the floor, and Thomas whipped the ball immediately back across the floor to Johnston, who extended the lead to eight.
The Jaspers pulled the game back to four points but lost Johnston again with two minutes left in the 1-3-1 zone. Devin Dinkins went into the middle when the ball got entered to Ben Vander Wal, and Anthony Isaac was at the top of the key, leaving the space between the right wing and corner open for the triple.
The Jaspers are still playing without star forward Will Sydnor, who is “dealing with an NCAA eligibility matter unrelated to any malfeasance on his part,” according to a University release from Oct. 31.
At this point, we don’t know if or when they’ll get Sydnor back. He’s such a dynamic frontcourt creator that even though Manhattan’s guards are good, it still feels like there’s a hole offensively without him on the floor. Perhaps in a game like this one, he breaks through for a few extra buckets that the Jaspers would’ve needed to win the game.
Bringing Furman up to Draddy is the type of matchup not many MAAC teams get on their home floor in the non-conference. It’s a championship-level program that has been at or near the top of an out-of-region mid-major league for a while. And while it’s disappointing to not be able to protect home floor, Gallagher thought Manhattan was mostly good enough to win.
“The fight tonight, it was a 50-50 coin toss to see who was more physical,” Gallagher said. “That’s a good sign for us. I feel way better than I did five days ago. I love our competitive nature. I love our depth. We’re way deeper than we were last year, and we’re going to start shooting the ball better.”
Manhattan takes on Presbyterian on Sunday for the last non-conference game before returning to the MAAC slate with Rider and Quinnipiac.
“We’re ready now,” Gallagher said. “We’re ready to compete in the MAAC.”
