Men's Basketball Preview - Part 8: Detroit
Oct. 25, 2005
Try playing along with Dick Clark's $20,000 Pyramid, a long-running television game show:
Ten-carat diamonds. Gold coins from the 1800's. Original Gutenberg Bibles. Lightning striking twice. Stradivarius violins.
Need another clue before guessing what's being described? Try, Losing basketball records at the University of Detroit Mercy.
Oh yeah. I've got it now, Dick:
Things That Are Rare.
Coach Perry Watson has certainly taken care of that at UDM. Entering his 13th season at the Titans' helm, he's already posted 10 winning campaigns. And, though 2005 ended up on the wrong side of break-even, it was a close call, too, as Detroit finished 14-16, and just missed making it closer to .500 when it lost by a single point in the Horizon League Championship contest. Coach Watson would like to keep those non-winners rare and, as he enters the 2005-06 campaign with optimism, he does it with veterans, too. Experienced hands, the coach believes, will get the job done this season - especially since one of them, guard Brandon Cotton, is among the Horizon League's most dynamic players and has already been selected All-League in pre-season balloting.
The Titans lost only one starter, point guard James Thues, through graduation. While senior center Ryvon Covile will likely miss the season following summer knee surgery, the Titans do return nine other players who averaged at least 10 minutes a game. The group suffered through some early growing pains in 2004-05 as players like the talented Cotton became comfortable in new roles and with new teammates, but it saved its best basketball for the end. UDM hopes for similar growth and end results this time around as well.
The Titans captured their last two regular-season games of 2005 - matching their longest winning streak of the year - and then kept on going once the post-season arrived. They busted past Wright State and UW-Green Bay in their first two tests of the Horizon League tournament, and never stopped until they were nipped by eventual Sweet 16 entrant UW-Milwaukee in the conference title game.
Throughout it all, the Titans played with Watson's trademark emphasis on defense and rebounding. Detroit finished the year ranked 13th nationally in scoring defense (60.3 ppg), 17th in rebound margin (+6.0) and 38th in field goal percentage defense (.406). Detroit stood first in the Horizon League in all three departments, too.
"We learned a lot (last) season. It was a long process. Our goal was to keep getting better as the season wore on. We were better in February than we were in January, and we were better in March, when it was time for the conference tournament, than we were in February. We became more of a team," said Watson, whose 227 career victories rank him second on the all-time Titan coaching list.
"Hopefully, it will pay dividends next season. We were a young team and, like (former Detroit Pistons coach) Larry Brown says, we played the right way."
The new season's roster is a deep one that includes no less than six seniors, but the Titan in the spotlight is a junior who has actually played just 22 games in a Detroit uniform - Cotton, a 6-0 guard. A former McDonald's All-American who transferred to UDM after one semester at Michigan State, Cotton joined the active roster last December and proceeded to be voted 2005 Horizon League Newcomer of the Year. He was also named second-team all-league and, after helping the Titans to the conference championship game, earned a berth on the All-Tournament Team as well.
Cotton started off with a bang, pouring in 27 points against Eastern Michigan in his Titan debut, and he never really stopped. He averaged 18.8 points per contest, a figure that would have put him first in the league had be played just one more game in order to reach the qualifying minimum. Cotton also averaged 2.0 assists to rank second among the Titans, and he shot .458 from the field and an even .700 from the free throw line.
Not only did Cotton make an impact on his teammates and their rivals, but his coach stood up and took notice, too.
"He's tremendous," Watson said flatly. "He's just scratched the surface on how good he can be. He did it all out there last year on talent and not know-how. He's going to keep learning how to play and score so much easier."
That's simply unlucky for the other eight Horizon League members, who saw Cotton average a sizzling 21.3 points in his final six games against them a year ago.
The loss of Thues - Detroit's No. 2 scorer (10.2) and top assist man (2.6) in 2005 - could mean Cotton may have to handle the ball a bit more as a junior. That's especially true since Marquette transfer Brandon Bell, the brother of Milwaukee Bucks guard Charlie Bell and an outstanding playmaker and defender, is feared lost for the year after undergoing Achilles tendon surgery. Bell redshirted last winter and, before being injured, would have been eligible to join the Titans on-court in December.
Even without Bell, though, Detroit has numerous other perimeter options, as it can call on senior Ben Green, juniors Muhammad Abdur-Rahim and Jonathan Kelly, and sophomores Jon Goode and Zach Everingham.
The 6-4 Abdur-Rahim, whose brother Shareef is a Sacramento Kings forward, started 22 times as a sophomore. He is not a prolific scoring threat, having averaged just 2.3 ppg, but is an excellent defender and one of those "chemistry" players any coach likes on the floor. Abdur-Rahim registered a career-high nine points on three occasions last season, including the Horizon League championship game. Green, too, has a relative in the NBA, as his cousin Willie, the 2003 Horizon League Player of the Year while a member of the Titans, has spent the last two seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers. The younger Green averaged 4.3 points and 3.1 rebounds a year ago, playing in all 30 games while starting the first seven. He scored in double figures on four occasions, including a career-high 12 points at Purdue.
Goode is a third Titan with famous family ties, as he's the son of former Michigan All-Big Ten guard Eric Turner, a one-time Detroit Pistons draft pick. As a redshirt freshman, Goode contributed 3.4 ppg off the bench, with a one-game high of 17 points at Northeastern. With Bell hurt, Goode is probably the most experienced ballhandler coach Watson can call on to help share Cotton's load, and he comes off a rookie season in which he totaled 24 assists.
Kelly (2.0) started nine times a year ago, though he was hampered during the stretch drive after sitting out five games due to a case of the chicken pox. He is another of those valuable role players who can be counted on to make a good pass and work hard on defense. Everingham (2.1) is a long range shooting threat who got his first extended taste of action last winter, one year after redshirting due to a wrist malady. He finished third on the team by making 18 of his three-point attempts last winter.
With five healthy players standing at least 6-7 and four of them seniors, Detroit's frontcourt is both tall as well as experienced. However, the Titans will likely have to go without Covile, one of the Horizon League's best big men. Covile would have been back for his third year as the Detroit starting center, but suffered a summer knee injury and underwent surgery in August. He is a likely candidate for a medical redshirt. At 6-9, Covile is a two-time selection to the league coaches' All-Defensive Team. He averaged 7.5 points, 5.2 rebounds and 0.7 blocks in 2005. Covile also continued to show an accurate touch from the field, shooting .529 from the floor one year after setting the school single-season percentage record (.637).
"He always had the size and instincts to make an impact right away," coach Watson said of his big center. "He matured as time went by and he has a better understanding of the game. He's a defensive presence for us."
Covile's absence will be felt, though his 2005 running mate is still around to anchor the UDM frontcourt. Torvoris Baker moved into the starting lineup as a forward alongside Covile a year ago. Now a senior, the 6-7 Baker averaged career-bests of 7.2 points and 5.8 rebounds last winter, leading the team in the latter area. He also shot at a .521 rate from the field. Baker showed he can carry the load, posting two double-doubles last year, and his overall production may have to go up in 2006 to help offset the unexpected loss of his big classmate.
Two players who joined Detroit last season as transfers will again see considerable action up front, and both are seniors, too. Chuck Bailey, a 6-7 forward who began his career at Michigan, was fifth on the team in scoring (5.3) in his first year as a Titan. He is capable of helping the Titans both in the post and on the perimeter. At 6-8, 225, Ethan Shaw played both forward and center after transferring to UDM from the junior college ranks and proved to be a solid defender - his total of 21 blocks was just one off of Covile's team lead - and rebounder. Without Covile taking up his accustomed 20-25 minutes a game, Shaw will have to see even more action in the middle as a senior. To go with 3.5 ppg, Shaw averaged 3.6 rebounds per contest. That figure went up down the stretch, as he grabbed 32 rebounds in the last six games alone.
David Dedvukaj, a 6-4 senior, is another veteran candidate, and the Titans will also take a long look at 6-8 Justin Sample and 6-6 Chris Hayes, a pair of freshmen, in finalizing their frontcourt playing rotation.
To move up in the Horizon League standings - Detroit finished in third place at 9-7 a year ago, trailing UW-Milwaukee and UW-Green Bay, and was picked second in the league's official pre-season poll - the determined Titans must admittedly overcome Covile's and Bell's untimely injuries and, while doing so, find some more scoring punch. They were seventh in the league a year ago in field goal percentage (.436), eighth in scoring average (61.3), and dead last in both three-point accuracy (.301) as well as free throw percentage (.654). And they'll have to do it minus Thues, too, after his 48 three-point baskets last winter were more than any other two Titans could total combined.
But Detroit will definitely bring its longtime calling cards, defense and rebounding, to the court every night, and almost any coach will confirm those are priorities 1 and 1A when it comes to winning basketball games. They could be the springboard to put the Titans back above the .500 mark once again in 2006.
Story provided by University of Detroit Mercy Office of Sports Information
