11/25/2020 basketball Edit

BEHIND ENEMY LINES: Sacred Heart Basketball Edition

Richie O'Leary • TheKnightReport

Publisher

The Rutgers Scarlet Knights men's basketball program is all set to open up the season this week as they are set to welcome Sacred Heart Pioneers to the Rutgers Athletic Center for a Wednesday night matchup.

To learn more about the Pioneers basketball program, The Knight Report spoke with Dan Gardella of The Spectrum Newspaper aka the official school newspaper for Sacred Heart University.

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What were some of the main storylines surrounding the Pioneers this offseason? Have any been answered so far?

DAN GARDELLA: The main storyline has been how will Anthony Latina replace all the talent he loses from last year. He essentially lost all five starters from the beginning of last season (Aaron Clarke stepped into the starting five in the middle of the season last year). That’s a lot of production with no clue how it will get fixed. Latina has told me that the question regarding production will be answered as the year goes on and he sees the newcomers playing. Another storyline is how will Aaron Clarke handle defensive gamelans centered around him. Toward the end of last season, he was playing really well and is now essentially the number one option with all the departures. He wasn’t the most efficient shooting the ball, but he is not afraid of any task or matchup.

What kind of offense does Sacred Heart run and who is their top player on that side of the ball?

DG: Sacred Heart loves to be a team that can stretch you out, and Latina certainly brings guys in who can space the floor. The pace they have played with in recent years has been very up and down with typically a strong guard with the ball in his hands. At this point I would say Clarke is the best offensive player that we know can play at the college level given all the newcomers to the team. Other than Clarke, I would say Tyler Thomas is bound to have a bigger chunk of production from his freshman year to sophomore year. Thomas is a 6’4 athletic guard who has been working on his jumpshot since he got to SHU last year.

The Pioneers lost their top two scorers to the transfer portal this offseason in EJ Anosike and Koreem Ozie, how hard has it been to replace that scoring production and who has replaced those guys?

DG:On top of losing Anosike and Ozier, SHU also lost Cam Parker, who had 24 assists in a game last season to the transfer portal as well, not to mention two starters to graduation. I think SHU lost somewhere around 75% of their scoring from last season, so there are so many unknowns with this group. Add in the COVID problems, and Latina hasn’t really gotten to see what he has at full strength.

What about the defense, is it more of a zone or man to man? Same as the O, who is their best player on defense?

DG:SHU typically stays man to man but will switch to zone in some cases. Defensively, Cantavio Dutreil, who is a JUCO transfer who came in this year, is a bouncy forward who will be a rim protecter and run rim to rim. SHU certainly has athleticism to guard a team like Rutgers, but there are certainly going to be growing pains.

Prediction for the game and why?

DG: I would say Sacred Heart has a tough game in terms of getting in a flow. Add in Rutgers’ returning depth, I’d say they handle SHU pretty easily, I’ll say 85-59.