MBB beats Delaware 69-57 to win suspended game and capture first seed in the CAA Tournament

[mat1992 2,259]

Charles Thompson scored 15 points and grabbed nine rebounds to lead Towson to a 69-57 win over Delaware on Monday night from SECU Arena. This was the resumption of a suspended game on Jan. 27 that was suspended due to unsafe playing conditions. Towson started out down 38-29 with 18:42 left in the game, but quickly made a statement with a Jason Gibson three. They took the lead with 15:19 left on a steal and dunk from Terry Nolan Jr. at 41-40 and they never relinquished the lead. The Tigers won a share of the CAA title with UNCW, but won the tiebreaker based on beating third-place Hofstra twice. Towson will be the first seed in this week's CAA Tournament and will face the winner of the William & Mary/Northeastern game on Sunday at 12pm in Washington D.C.

Nolan Jr. did not play on Jan. 27, but came off the bench for this game and made an immediate impact with nine points in 14 minutes.

https://towsontigers.com/news/2022/2/28/mens-basketball-towson-mens-basketball-2021-22-caa-regular-season-champions.aspx

[mat1992 2,259]

Terry Nolan

"It feels amazing honestly. To manifest something and to see it in the summertime. It feels amazing."

On not playing first part of the game on Jan. 27

"I've been in college basketball for a long time. We knew what was at stake. We knew were down and had to come out with a lot of energy and we did that."

"I'm always confident in my guys. We have a lot of dawgs. We're built differently."

We realize that this is the goal we wanted in the summertime. This is one of the accolades we had wanted and glad that we can cross it off our checklist.

How good is this team?

"In my opinion, the best team in Towson history. I don't know anyone that can beat us."

[mat1992 2,259]

Charles Thompson

"Feels great. We were talking about it, that you never wanted to look too far into the future. You want to take it one game at a time. But we've been working for a long time for this. The job is not finished, but this is a good start to what could be a good end."

On difference from last year

"Just shows what you can do with hard work. A lot of guys wanted to leave and do this and that. This core group is good, We had obstacles to overcome. Once we overcame them, this was the result."

On coming from behind

"One play at a time. We knew we couldn't have a slow start. It was like one of those video game challenges you have to overcome."

On Terry Nolan

"He was a big difference. His playmaking, his quick hands. He can do it all."

 

[Chris Datres 427]

The 17-2 run at the beginning of the resumption was just a carryover from the last 2 games against Madison.  The team is just in another zone right now and it's pretty scary to watch.  But I think the biggest play of the game was Skerry calling timeout with 5:14 left after we got a layup to go up by 4.  The previous few possessions were rocky and we were teetering on letting the Chickens take back some control.  We come out of the timeout and get a stop and then run a set play to get another bucket and we were right back on our way.  The ability to see that and get them refocused was a huge key.  

[mat1992 2,259]

2 minutes ago, Chris Datres said:

The 17-2 run at the beginning of the resumption was just a carryover from the last 2 games against Madison.  The team is just in another zone right now and it's pretty scary to watch.  But I think the biggest play of the game was Skerry calling timeout with 5:14 left after we got a layup to go up by 4.  The previous few possessions were rocky and we were teetering on letting the Chickens take back some control.  We come out of the timeout and get a stop and then run a set play to get another bucket and we were right back on our way.  The ability to see that and get them refocused was a huge key.  

Good point, Thought Nick was losing his composure a bit and some guys wanted to play hero ball a bit instead of just sticking to the basics. The basics is to get the ball inside and pound it in or take it to the basket against a weak defensive team.

[mat1992 2,259]

Cam Holden

"Look at this thing. (Holds the trophy). From Day 1 we knew we could do it. We knew what it takes because we're older guys. Big milestone. Down by 9, nobody panicked. Came up with a great start. Hit that 3. We knew we were coming back."

"From a mental standpoint, we had to be prepared with 18 minutes left. Everyone took warm up very serious. We did shell drills and defensive drills. That got us going. Great idea by the coaching staff (shell drills)."

On personal feelings
"Honestly I felt like if it took my jaw to break to get this, I  would do it for these guys. These guys took me in from Day 1, they treated me like family. They did not treat me like an outlier. If it takes a couple of elbows to the face, I'm willing to do this for my teammates."

On confidence

"We all trust each other. I find a better way to play with my teammates. I can do the glue guy stuff like get the loose ball, I will do this for my team to get the win."

[TuTigers2012 1,079]

Nolan being able to and available to play tonight was a big difference. Obviously besides painter being a shell of himself.  Nolan brought ~5 minutes of energy after he subbed in 

[mat1992 2,259]

Skerry

"Thank everyone for getting out students out. That provided major energy to our guys. They were shot out of a cannon. There is not script to try and do this. We'll enjoy it for a couple of days and then get back to work. Wish we had some this a bit earlier. Been in the mix before. Happy for our players, staff, former players, staff. Kevin Clark and Pat O'Connell, have been with us a long time. Means a lot for our great school."

On great start

"I have to watch it. Delaware is really good. Tonight was just our night. Jason made that shot right away and the roof popped off. We were going to start Terry. After the walk-through, Terry said he wanted to come off the bench and didn't want to mess with what we were doing. The only problem was that there was not a lot of time left in the game. Can't wait too long. He came in and was ready to go."

Big picture

"We've had a couple of seconds and thirds. We've never won a regular season title in the AEast or CAA. It's nice to enjoy it. "

On difference between this team and the rest

"They play for each other and the right way. They have talent. It's the nicest group of guys I've been around in 30 years. My wife told me to just enjoy it today. You want to coach a good game. I make the most mistakes, because I make the most decision. These guys are just great to be around."

On how good this team is

"You have to win your last game to get to where you want so we have work to do. A couple of days. We're off tomorrow. Lifting and shooting on Wednesday. Game plan for W&M and NE game."

On guys coming back this seaosn

"Those guys didn't practice or were hurt and the product was poor. Just to have those guys back. They worked so hard to get healthy. You add good older players. How good is Timberlake playing? Charles and Jaon. Juwan. Those guys have an edge and competitive spirit to them."

[TSU88 1,078]

Not enough superlatives to describe how we feel about Holden. Incredible basketball IQ and talk about toughness and overcoming adversity. I thought he was going to be out indefinitely after that clown on Navy cheap shotted him, and he didn’t miss a game. 

And Nolan’s return has been huge. He’s given us what we’ve sorely lacked for what seems like forever-a talented PG who can score & dish out assists.

And of course there’s the development of returning guys like Thompson and Timberlake. The improvement these guys have made is immeasurable. 

Let’s snowball DC and go dancing!!!

 

[mat1992 2,259]

Alright, finally get to give an opinion instead of grabbing videos and pictures off of Twitter and transcribing quotes.

Let's hope that we close this out, but even if we don't, I do want to thank everyone that has been loyal to this board over the years and those who just showed up for the first time in years tonight. That's fine. I get life gets in the way. But I wouldn't still be doing this if not for this program and our small, but loyal fanbase.

I've been waiting for 31 years for a tournament title and 28 years for a regular-season title. I never really thought about the Big South regular-season title. That was a good team, but I remember driving back from work one night listening to Spiro on WITH (I believe) broadcast an early tournament loss in the Big South Tournament. Little did I realize that losing in the tournament first round or quarterfinals would become the norm and winning the regular-season title would never occur again until tonight.

I honestly felt, even though I was rooting for UNCW to lose, that was supposed to happen tonight. We needed to win this or share this thing and not have it handed to us. If you believe in some kind of Karma, that the CAA reg. season needed to be won at home. In front of the loyal fans, who show up every game and students who normally don't. Give them a taste of what our fans felt in 1995 against Louisville or 1991 against Rider or 1990 against Lehigh. With 1,500 fans or less (at least 1,000) and a strong student crowd storming the floor.

Is this a special team? I guess we'll find out in D.C., but this is not the typical team that won 20 games in the last 10 years or so. They can get grimy and dirty. But they can also pass better than any other team that has played at Towson. Ball move equals smooth efficient offense. While they don't have that incredible shotmaker, they found a way to get it done, whether it's get the ball down low to CT or find a way to get to the basket and get fouled. Delaware is not a bad basketball team. Whether they had a lot to play for or not, that lead was gone in barely three minutes. It was that swift. I can only hope that the momentum and confidence we have will continue down in D.C. because this recent stretch of basketball that we are playing is the BEST I've ever seen in the 30+ years I've covered them. Not just about wins, but the way we've dominated teams is pretty scary.