Sean Kane is in Mobile, Alabama this week covering the Senior Bowl. But he still passed along a few brief thoughts and predictions for his share of this weekend's games.
Saint Joseph's (17-3, 6-1 A-10) at Rhode Island (12-8, 4-3 A-10), Saturday, 6 p.m.
AF: I visited with the Hawks at Hagan Arena for practice this week and spoke with both Isaiah Miles and DeAndre' Bembry as well as head coach Phil Martelli. This Hawks team knows they're flying under the radar and that is just fine with them. Opponents may take them too lightly, because as Miles put it, they aren't the biggest team. But he added when teams do that, they usually find themselves down 20 points to St. Joe's.
Miles has been a pleasant surprise this year. While he was a double-digit scorer last year, the consistency wasn't there like it is this season. Yes, Bembry is the one who gets most of the recognition and rightfully so, but Miles is actually just barely outpacing Bembry in the scoring department. And that is how Bembry likes it. Last season, he was forced to jack up as many shots as possible to try to keep his team in games. Bembry, while a scorer, likes to distribute and create for his teammates more. He finds that a more natural fit for his game.
Miles was the reason for St. Joe's win this week over UMass. He posted a game-high 27 points with 12 rebounds in the 78-70 victory. And perhaps more importantly, Miles scored eight points in the final minute and a half of the game.
Side note: I previously wondered in this space if all basketball players named Isaiah also carried the nickname Zeke. Of course I had to ask Miles this, and it was confirmed. Zeke Miles was actually named after Isiah (Zeke) Thomas, so he comes by it honestly. But even he said any guy he knows named Isaiah also goes by Zeke, so the phenomenon continues.
Back to basketball, and the Hawks have a tough test on the road Saturday against the Rams of Rhode Island. Danny Hurley's team is a bit up and down this year. They lost by only two points to Providence earlier in the year, but then needed overtime to beat Brown. URI has two excellent guards who can score in Jared Terrell and Jarvis Garrett.
I don't expect the Rams to overlook the Hawks or the scoring prowess of Miles. The days of underestimating St. Joe's are likely over.
News
But I think the Hawks are flying high.
Saint Joseph's 76, Rhode Island 70
No. 6 Villanova (17-3, 7-1 Big East) at St. John's (7-14, 0-8 Big East), Sunday, Noon
AF: If Sean wasn't in Mobile covering the Senior Bowl, he'd mention that despite St. John's not having any wins in the Big East, you throw out the records when the 'Cats and the Johnnies get together. Especially when it's at the World's Most Famous Arena. He'd also mention that head coach Chris Mullin and Slice (assistant coach Barry Rohrssen) will have their kids ready to play. But finally, he'd mention that it's been three years since Jay Wright lost two games in a row.
Villanova 78, St. John's 61
La Salle (5-13, 1-6 Atlantic 10) at Dayton (17-3, 7-1 Atlantic 10), Saturday, 2 p.m.
AF: Sean's thoughts here: La Salle shocked Dayton in early January at Tom Gola Arena. This weekend's rematch is in Dayton, with the Flyers eager to prove the first matchup of the season was no indication of the talent level on their roster. Dayton's Archie Miller is a very good coach. I can't see him losing twice in one month to this depleted La Salle team.
Dayton 81, La Salle 64
Temple (11-8, 5-3 AAC) at South Florida (5-17, 2-7 AAC), Sunday, 2 p.m.
AF: Sean's thoughts again: It's looking more and more like Temple may need to win the AAC Tournament to get into the NCAA Tournament. The Owls' regular season résumé — including this week's loss to ECU — leaves a little to be desired. The Owls had some momentum following last Sunday's win over SMU, but the loss at ECU was puzzling. Look for Temple to get back on track against South Florida.
Temple 61, USF 55
Hofstra (15-6, 7-2 CAA) at Drexel (3-17, 1-8 CAA) Saturday, 4 p.m.
AF: There was good news in the Dragons' most recent game: They shot 57 percent from the field. The bad news, for the 17th time this season, was that Drexel lost. It's getting to be an epidemic for Bruiser Flint's team. The Dragons improve defensively just to have a bad night shooting. Or, they improve their scoring ability only to have a defensive letdown.
Hofstra is second in the CAA. The Pride are balanced in their attack and while they don't play great defense, they do know how to close out games. This is an issue for the Dragons.
A few weeks ago, when Drexel faced a tough Charleston team, I picked against the Dragons. They won. This Pride team lost 72-61 to Charleston. So I'm a bit hesitant to pick against the Dragons.
But if I'm wrong, that's actually a win.
Hofstra 72, Drexel 68
Penn (6-9, 0-1 Ivy) at Yale (11-5, 2-0 Ivy), Friday, 7 p.m.
Penn (6-9, 0-1 Ivy) at Brown (5-11, 0-2 Ivy), Saturday, 8 p.m.
AF: The Quakers have all Ivy League games remaining. It starts Friday night with, of course, the tradition of back-to-back weekend games, first in New Haven, Connecticut. Yale leads the Ivy early on at 2-0 in league play. The Bulldogs have 11 overall wins and have won six in a row.
Steve Donahue's team just wrapped up Big 5 play with the second game of an old-school Palestra doubleheader. The Quakers struggled shooting against the Hawks nearly a week and a half ago, shooting worse than 30 percent from the field and an abysmal 56 percent from the free throw line.
One bright spot for Penn recently has been Jackson Donahue (no relation to his head coach). In the loss to St. Joe's, Donahue led all scorers with 19 points. It was the fourth straight game in which the freshman hit double-digits in scoring. Fun note: Coach Donahue recruited Jackson's older brother to play at Boston College.
While Yale is 2-0 in Ivy League play, that's a bit deceiving, as it has played only Brown, back-to-back actually. What isn't deceiving are some of the wins and close losses on the Bulldogs' schedule. Yale has wins over Lehigh and Vermont, and lost by only two points to SMU and by only four points to Illinois.
The second part of the Quakers' Ivy weekend is Brown, the team below them in the conference standings. The Bears lost both of those games to Yale and have one fewer overall win than the Quakers.
I think Penn splits this weekend, a loss to start then a win to finish.
Yale 71, Penn 59
Penn 68, Brown 61
Season prediction records:
Sean Kane: 14-5
Amy Fadool: 11-7