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There’s an old axiom in baseball that says an erratic pitcher is unlikely to get a close call from the home plate umpire. Of course, all this does is make a struggling hurler’s life that much more difficult. He’s already having a devil of a time getting the ball over the plate; now the borderline pitches are going against him, too. By the end of the night, the pitcher is mentally exhausted, he’s given up a half-dozen runs, and he wishes that one of these days somebody would just throw him a freakin’ bone.
Welcome to the Detroit Mercy Titans’ basketball season in 2016. They scrap, they fight, they claw; and when the dust settles, the whistle is being blown, with a near-guarantee that one of their men has been deemed the guilty party.
Subconsciously, perhaps the referees are aware that this Titans bunch is losing a lot of games. Last night’s defeat to Toledo marks eight in a row. And just like the zig-zagging pitcher getting no sympathy from the man behind the dish, the Titans are drawing the short end on virtually every 50/50 call. When you’re desperate to wind up on the right side of that score line after 40 minutes of play, you just need to catch a break once in a while. The Titans, unfortunately, are still waiting for that moment.
Wednesday night’s road affair down I-75 was another “almost” for rookie coach Bacari Alexander and his resilient, if not at times overmatched, Titans. It was announced before the game that ace freshman Corey Allen would sit with a minor injury, a blow that a 1-7 team could ill afford.
Strong Out of the Gate
Detroit Mercy came out with a vengeance, attacking the offensive glass and defending with passion. They jumped to a quick six-point lead. It grew to nine late in the first half. Chris Jenkins, one of the few players in college hoops to dress every game in a long-sleeved undershirt, was on fire throughout the first half. The senior shot the ball with a confidence not seen often enough so far this year. And even when the Rockets drew to within three at the half, Alexander’s crew responded.
Jarod Williams, a senior that doesn’t get much ink, came out of the locker room blazing. He buried a 3, the Titans lone triple of the night. He followed it up with a gorgeous spin move and finish. Nobody is ever going to confuse Jarod Williams with Earl Monroe or Rod Strickland, but on that play, the comparisons would have been plenty appropriate. By the time Josh McFolley hauled in a Jenkins feed and converted an and-1 double pump layup, the Titans lead had grown to nine and Dancin’ Bacari Alexander was practically shimmying up to the half court line in jubilation.
For anyone that thinks the fresh-faced coach is okay simply losing a bunch of games in his opening campaign and building from there, try to catch a replay of his celebratory two-step after that bucket. The man is thirsting for a victory, and after that flurry, the Titans looked to be in prime position to collect.
But then the basket started to get small. Emotional sophomore McFolley took shots so far from the hoop that you wondered if he was under the impression that Toledo’s arena had a “4-point line.” Foul trouble, a bugaboo for this squad all year, began rearing its ugly head. Both of the Titans top interior players were flirting with danger all night long and eventually would get ousted from the action with their fifth fouls. When asked after the game how Jaleel Hogan and Gerald Blackshear could combat this nightly issue, Bacari the part-time stand-up comic was able to find a little levity.
“I gotta teach those guys how to be more charming. You have to have a conversation with the officials when you come to the pre-game circle, do a little bit more research,” Alexander said. “These guys have the advantage I didn’t have as a player; they have Google. Find out what their pet’s name is, their wive’s names, and try to stretch out some minutes on the floor as a result.”
One thing that was not a laughing matter -- the aforementioned Hogan and Blackshear, and their struggles at the free throw line. The pair of bigs were active on the glass throughout the night, combining for seven offensive rebounds and converting down low when given the opportunity. But they got to the charity stripe seven times between them and were unable to come away with even a single point (including a missed front-end). It is statistics like this that a team like the Titans can simply not afford. The margin for error on most nights is going to be fairly thin, especially on the road, and missing that many free throws is almost assuredly going to swing momentum to the other side.
Fighting Valiantly
It sounds funny to suggest that a coach currently riding an eight-game losing streak is doing a perfectly fine job, but such is the case with Bacari Alexander. This Titans team is yet to come out for a game and simply lay down. Young athletes mired in a prolonged slump might be prone to a night of disinterest, but it has not happened with this bunch.
Alexander’s squad fought valiantly for a half against a seasoned Eastern Michigan team boasting a couple of future pros. Then they went down to Murray State, a mid-major that practically never loses at home, and gave them all they could handle for close to 40 minutes. And again last night, the “T’s” (as superfan Reggie Hall would refer to them), were the better team for the majority of the evening. But they couldn’t quite hold the line from opening tip to final horn; as Alexander noted, “What would our record be if we only had to play one half?”
In today’s sports world, fans and organizations have come to be known for impatience, a demand for excellence not tomorrow or the day after, but right now. Followers of the Detroit Mercy basketball program are being asked to adjust, to allow for stumbles. At the moment, instead of hurdles being cleared, the Titans are just nicking them at the top of their leap, creating little bouts of drag that when added up, contribute to a lengthy stretch of defeats.
Detroit’s College Team is knocking on the door. They just need a friendly neighbor to open up and serve them some tea.
And maybe even offer the benefit of the doubt on a critical block/charge call in the closing minutes.
