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Ain’t no fun when the rabbit's got the gun.
Those words came courtesy of the always feisty Bacari Alexander, rookie head coach of the Detroit Mercy Titans, after a thrilling matinee victory over defending conference champion Green Bay on Sunday afternoon at Calihan Hall.
While much of the focus around these parts centered around Blue vs. Green in East Lansing, it was the underdog Titans that penned the most memorable hoops screenplay on this day.
Coming into the game, the visiting Green Bay Phoenix found themselves on the doorstep of Horizon League supremacy. Their record was a sparkling 7-2. Detroit Mercy was the exact opposite, just 2-7 in conference and 4-17 overall.
And for much of the contest, things were going perfectly according to script. Jaleel Hogan (28 points) would toss in a bunch of free throws and layups, Corey Allen (20 points) would knock down a host of triples, but Green Bay was essentially unstoppable. They lived between 60-65% shooting for the duration of the game on the heels of countless uncontested layups.
Fighting for a Fair Whistle
It was during a particularly heated exchange in the second half when Alexander picked up his first technical as Titans’ head coach. Hogan was double-teamed and got rejected, Green Bay raced the other way for a layup, and Alexander was halfway across the court before the ball went through the hoop. There are some techs in basketball that are debatable -- this was not one of them. But as is often the case in the highly-pressurized world of college and pro hoops, where referees are prone to rabid fans and temperamental coaches, the calls began to swing the other way.
Post-technical, the Titans earned a trip to the line. Then the visitors were whistled for a semi-questionable offensive foul. The opposing coach, Linc Darner of Green Bay, shed his sport coat and got to work on sweating all the way through his dress shirt.
Inside the viciously steamy Calihan Hall, in a game that saw 56 fouls called and 74 free throws shot, there was hardly anyone without a choice word or two for the men in stripes.
But even with the mini-surge after Bacari’s T, the Phoenix just continued to work for layups. The Titans often went with a shorter, quicker, lineup; they did force 21 turnovers, but the trade-off was 61 percent shooting for the kids from Wisconsin. With just a handful of minutes left on the clock, Detroit Mercy trailed 81-71.
The Green Bay Phoenix lineup is laced with upperclassmen and they coasted to the league tournament championship last year. Such a seasoned club is not in the habit of coughing up double-digit leads so late in any game.
Unluckily for them, they just happened to be facing one of the grittiest 4 and 17 teams in the country. Josh McFolley grabbed a pair of steals leading to dunks. Prized freshman Corey Allen buried a huge 3. The Phoenix started throwing the ball away, stepping on the end lines, and bricking free throws. They’d finish the game 24-of-39 at the stripe, which would be their undoing.
Wild Final Sequence
With just 15 ticks on the clock, the Titans were down 92-90. They were inbounding under their own hoop, but without any more timeouts to work with. Get the ball in successfully or forget about a comeback. That’s not a given, either -- the Titans made two costly turnovers trying to pass the ball in during the second half.
The referee started the five-second count while Bacari’s crew scrambled for open space. The Titans were looking to get it to Hogan or Allen. Only, Allen curled around a screen and smashed heads with teammate Dre Black. Allen took the worst of it and crumbled to the floor.
It was Game 7 of the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals all over again. In that contest, Adrian Dantley and Vinnie Johnson famously collided noggins with a shot at an NBA championship hanging in the balance. It sent Dantley -- the Pistons top scorer in the series -- to a Massachusetts hospital, and Vinnie to the bench. Larry Bird and his fellow leprechauns took control from there and it was pure heartbreak in Motown.
Thirty years later, albeit on a far lesser scale, some good fortune came back around to the city of Detroit.
Dre Black, a junior guard playing his most efficient game as a Titan, managed to shake off the cobwebs and receive the ball. With time melting away and the crowd in a frenzy, he did what he’d been doing all game long: give his defender a shake, a little spin, and figure out a way to get to the bucket. He did that and more.
Going to his left, Black absorbed a healthy whack to the arms and still managed to muscle the ball toward the basket. It kissed off the glass and through the net, with a shriek of the whistle added for on a special treat. The junior guard Black would be headed to the line with one free throw to take the lead.
After the game, the transfer from Schoolcraft College was asked about his level of certainty going to the stripe with the game hanging in the balance. “I was very confident,” Black said. “My teammates were very confident in me. Coach was very confident in me. So I had nothing but confidence.”
As you can tell, Mr. Black was fairly confident the free throw would go in. He calmly made good on his word, and one frantic defensive sequence later, the Detroit Mercy Titans had stunned the champion Phoenix.
Motor City Madness Is Ahead
Normally, Bacari Alexander would be making a direct line up the sideline to shake the opposing coach’s hand immediately after the buzzer sounds. Forgive the man if he took the scenic route after this unexpected triumph.
When the last-second Green Bay shot attempt went begging and the Calihan crowd erupted, Bacari dashed onto the court, pumping his fist and screaming in delight. It was as emotional you’ll see any coach get during the regular season. But it didn’t feel over the top or inappropriate. It felt like a coach enduring a difficult rookie season -- fighting off injuries and losing streaks and 9-of-29 nights at the free throw line -- and letting some of that emotion out of the cage after a heart-stopping home victory against a league champion.
The Horizon League Tournament is a little more than a month away (March 3-7). Even though all games will be at Joe Louis Arena, right in Detroit Mercy’s backyard, they’ll still mostly be an afterthought when fans and media start evaluating the Motor City Madness bracket. The Titans are sitting in 9th-place in the 10-team league.
But they’ve taken on the best this conference has to offer and haven’t blinked an eye. They beat Oakland when Greg Kampe’s team was still firing on all cylinders. They slayed 2nd-place Green Bay Sunday. And they gave perennial conference Valparaiso all they could handle on the road before finally coming up a little short.
When the rabbit’s got the gun, it means all the foxes and snakes and other predators better go run for cover. Bacari Alexander’s hungry group won’t be scaring away everyone in the Horizon League forest just yet; but they’re growing, and could be a very dangerous underdog when the ball is tipped at Joe Louis in 32 days.
