Nov. 23, 2010
| Live Audio/Video | UMES Game Notes | Northern Illinois Game Notes
PRINCESS ANNE, Md. - After earning their first win of the season on Saturday against Kean University, the University of Maryland Eastern Shore men's basketball team hosts the Northern Illinois University Huskies Wednesday at the W.P. Hytche Athletic Center with a 1 p.m. tipoff.
The Hawks (1-3) ended their game against the Cougars on a 31-14 run over the final 10:23 to defeat Kean, 86-68. The game was closer than the final outcome for most of the contest as the score was tied 10 times and there were nine lead changes. Four UMES players scored in double figures and were led by junior Dishawn Bradshaw (Baltimore, Md.), who poured in a season-high 18 points. Junior Tyler Hines (Sicklerville, N.J.) led the team in rebounds with eight.
Senior Kevin White (Brooklyn, N.Y.) leads the team in scoring with an average of 12.5 points per game and Bradshaw closely follows with an average of 12.3. Hines leads the team in rebounding with an average of 6.5 per contest.
Northern Illinois (1-2) picked up its first win of the season on Sunday against Cardinal Stritch, an NAIA school from Milwaukee, by a final of 81-56. Senior Xavier Silas paced the Huskies with 34 points and no other NIU player scored in double figures. The Huskies lost their first two games of the season to Northwestern (97-78) and Bradley (66-63).
Wednesday's matchup will mark the second between UMES and NIU and the first in Princess Anne. The Hawks traveled to DeKalb, Ill. last season and lost, 87-69 on December 22. The Huskies led 44-30 at halftime and never looked back. Silas led NIU with 19 points and redshirt senior Tim Burns (Franklinville, N.J.) had a breakout game for UMES, scoring a career-best 29 points on 9-of-16 shooting from the floor.
The contest between the Hawks and Huskies can be seen and heard live on the Internet at UMESHawks.com thanks to allinbroadcasting.com and heard live on the Hawks Radio Network on 95.9 The Sports Animal. Bret Lasky, David Byrd and Dave Vatz have the call for UMES.
HAWKS AIM FOR TWO STRAIGHT WINS A win on Wednesday would mark the first time since the 2001-02 that the Hawks won multiple games in the month of November. During the 2001-02 season, UMES beat New Orleans 48-46 (11/14) and Eastern Michigan 65-61 (11/26). The Hawks are 6-30 in the month of November since the 2001-02 season.
200 CAREER ASSISTS In just one season and four games, Kevin White has exactly 200 assists. The Brooklyn, N.Y. native has 28 assists through the first four games of the season. He set the single-season UMES record last season with 172. He broke the record previously held by Jesse Brooks, who dished out 142 assists during the 2005-06 season. White led the MEAC in assists per game last season. The next closest player was Jay Threatt of Delaware State, who averaged 4.2 assists per game.
MOST POINTS ALLOWED SINCE The Columbia Lions ran up 108 points against UMES on Monday night, the most points the Hawks have allowed since Nov. 27, 2007 when West Virginia beat UMES 110-44.
PRESEASON HONOR Hillary Haley was named preseason Second Team All-MEAC. Haley is the lone UMES player to earn a preseason conference honor. Haley led the Hawks in scoring with 12.4 a night last season.
PICKED SEVENTH UMES was predicted to finish seventh in the conference as voted upon by MEAC head coaches and sports information directors. Morgan State was picked to win the MEAC for a third consecutive season. UMES was predicted to finish dead last (11th) in the conference last season. The Hawks were also predicted to finish last in the conference in 2007-08 and 2008-09.
LAST WINNING SEASON UMES is in search of his first winning season since the 1993-94 season when the Hawks posted a 16-12 record. The Hawks have been below .500 in each of the last 16 seasons.
SEVEN CONFERENCES The Hawks will play teams from seven Division I conferences in 2010-11. They will play teams from: Conference-USA (Tulane), Ivy League (Columbia), Patriot League (American & Navy), Mid-American Conference (Northern Illinois), Colonial Athletic Association (Old Dominion), Missouri Valley Conference (Evansville), Big East (Pittsburgh) and the Big 12 (Colorado & Oklahoma).
THEME: 1ST YEAR COACHES The Hawks will play four different schools with new head coaches this season. UMES lost in Ed Conroy's (Tulane) debut on Friday night, followed by a similar result against Kyle Smith's Columbia team on Monday. The other first year head coaches that the Hawks will face are Ted Boyle (Colorado, Dec. 29) and Kevin Nickelberry (Howard, Jan. 29, Feb. 26).
DISHAWN IN DOUBLE FIGURES First-year guard Dishawn Bradshaw has been in double figures in three of the four games including a season high 18 points against Kean. Bradshaw has been a quick starter as 31 of his 49 points have come in the first half. He had 12 first half points against Kean and 11 first half points against Tulane.
HINES ON THE OFFENSIVE Tyler Hines is one of the best offensive rebounders in the MEAC. He has 13 offensive rebounds through four games. No other Hawk player has more than five (Hillary Haley). Hines has 154 offensive rebounds in his two-plus year career at UMES.
MINUTES SPREAD AROUND Nine players are averaging more than 10 minutes per game through the first four games. Josh Bright (9.3) is averaging just under 10 minutes per game. The bench logged 71 of the 200 total minutes against Kean University. The bench logged 88 minutes against Tulane.
FREE THROW SUCCESS The Hawks have been solid at the line this season, shooting 73.5 (72-98) percent through four games. Kevin White, Dishawn Bradshaw, Hillary Haley and Tim Burns are all shooting above 80 percent so far. The Hawks have shot below 65% at the line in each of the last six seasons. The last time the Hawks shot over 65% at the line was during the 2003-04 season when they shot 69.9 percent.
HALEY LEADS THE WAY Junior Hillary Haley led the Hawks in scoring (12.4) last year. He paced UMES in scoring in 14 of the 32 games. Haley poured in a season high 33 points against Howard on January 30. The Oxon Hill, Md. native ranked 11th in the MEAC in scoring. Haley has scored in double figures 25 times in his career at UMES.
UMES VS. MAC The Hawks went 0-2 against the Mid-American Conference last year. They lost to Eastern Michigan 76-51 (11/21) and NIU (12/22) 87-69. The last time the Hawks defeated a team currently in the MAC was on Nov. 26, 2001 when they beat Eastern Michigan 65-61. The MAC went 6-0 against the MEAC last season. The MAC went 2-0 against the MEAC in 2008-09. UMES is the only MEAC school that Northern Illinois has ever played.
LAST HOME GAME UNTIL... After tonights game, the Hawks will not have another home game until Dec. 21 when they play Washington, Md. Over the next 26 days, they will play five road games.
SIGNATURE WINS LAST YEAR UMES had several signature wins last season. A full list is below... - Dec 5 - UMES beats Delaware State 53-50. It was the first time they beat the Hornets since 2004. Delaware State had won 10 straight meetings. - Dec 9 - UMES beats Navy 80-72. The last time UMES beat Navy was on Dec 11, 1993. - Jan 16 - UMES defeated FAMU 67-51. It was their first conference first road win since March 3, 2007. They had lost 16 straight conference road games. - Jan 23 - UMES downs Coppin State 70-62. The last time the Hawks defeated the Eagles was Feb 26, 2005. - Feb 20 - UMES beats Coppin State 66-52 on Homecoming. It was their first homecoming win since 2002. - March 10 - UMES defeats Coppin State 64-58 in round one of the MEAC Tournament. It was the first tournament win for the Hawks since 2004.
3-POINT THREATS UMES fired 527 (16.4 per) 3-point shots last season. The Hawks connected on just 30.6 percent. Mark Robertson led the Hawks percentage wise (35.2%,17-105). Hillary Haley led the Hawks in 3-point field goals made with 47. Five players took more than 50 3-pointers (Haley, Burns, White, Robertson, Bright). Josh Bright led the MEAC in 3-point percentage (42.9) in the 2008-09 season.
DOWN AN ASSISTANT In early October, two-year assistant coach Mike Blaine left the Hawks program to take a similar post at Cornell.
10 SHY OF 400 Senior guard Tim Burns is 10 points shy of 400 for his career at UMES. The second-year player scored 362 points last season. Burns notched his second double figure scoring game of the season on Saturday with 11 points against Kean. He has scored in double figures 19 times over his career. Including his two-year stay at High Point, Burns has scored 624 points in his college basketball career.
SECOND HALF TEAM The Hawks have scored 52 more points in the second halves (166) compared to the first half (114) through four games. The Hawks have had better second halves in three of their four games with the exception being Tulane.
SEVEN STRAIGHT Dishawn Bradshaw has made seven straight free throws over the last two games. He went 4-of-4 against American and 3-of-3 against Kean.
CENTURY MARK Josh Bright has played in 83 games at UMES while Tim Burns has played in 96 college games. Burns played in 60 total games in his two years at High Point.
DEFENDING THE 3 The Hawks were one of the best in the nation last season at defending the 3-point shot. UMES ranked 14th in the country last year in 3-point FG defense (29.6%). Only four teams shot 40% or better from beyond the arc against UMES (Eastern Michigan, The Citadel, Nebraska and Howard). The Hawks held 17 of their 32 opponents under 30% from 3-point range.
BETTER ON OFFENSIVE GLASS Hines was the only player in the MEAC that had more offensive rebounds than defensive rebounds (amongst players with at least 20 offensive rebounds). Hines finished eighth in the MEAC with 2.3 offensive rebounds per game.
TAKE CARE OF THE BALL The Hawks committed more turnovers than their opponent in 22 games last season. They committed just 11 in the game against Columbia, which committed 18. UMES averaged 15.1 turnovers per game. UMES opponents averaged 12.06 turnovers per game.
COACH'S CORNER RADIO SHOW UMES basketball coaches Frankie Allen and Fred Batchelor (women's basketball) will be featured on an hour long radio show that will originate from Peaky's Restaurant in Princess Anne every Thursday night from 7-8 p.m. The show will also air on WGOP 540 AM. The next show will be on Dec. 2. The coaches corner will not air on Nov. 25 because of Thanksgiving.
HUSKIES SCOUTING REPORT The Huskies lost their first two games of the season to Northwestern (97-78) and Bradley (66-63) before defeating Cardinal Stritch (NAIA) 81-57 on Sunday. Senior Xavier Silas poured in 34 points including 6-of-9 from 3-point range. Against Bradley, Silas missed a 3-pointer with 8 seconds left that would have tied the game. Silas had 22 points and Nate Rucker had a double-double (14 points, 10 rebounds). The Huskies have done a nice job on the glass, outrebounding their opponents 39.0 to 33.7. However, Northwestern outrebounded NIU 35-29. NIU features seven newcomers on their 2010-11 roster. Only two starters return (Silas & Fisher).
PATTON AND ALLEN Huskies head coach Ricardo Patton was an assistant coach at Tennessee State from 1991-93 under Frankie Allen. In 1991-92, the Tigers went 4-24. The following year, they turned things around and posted a 19-10 mark. Patton went onto coach at the University of Colorado, where he won 184 games, second most in CU history. Allen and Patton have a combined 37 years of head coaching experience\ and 453 combined wins.
SILAS RECEIVES MAC HONOR Senior Xavier Silas was named the Mid-American Conference West Player of the Week on Monday. Silas scored 56 points in two games against Bradley (22) and Cardinal Stitch (34). It was the third time in his career that he has been named the MAC West Player of the Week.
38 STRAIGHT FREE THROWS Xavier Silas has hit 38 straight free throws dating back to the 2009-10 season. He is 24-of-24 at the stripe this season. His last free throw miss was on March 4, 2010 against Toledo. He shot 81.1 percent from the line last season (159-196). The NIU record for consecutive free throws made in a single season is 33, accomplished by Todd Peterson during the 2005-06 campaign. His 159 free throws made ranks fourth in a single-season in NIU history. He ranks 10th in NIU history in free throws attempted (196).
WOEFUL 2009-10 The Huskies lost 12 of their last 14 games to end the 2009-10 season including 10 in a row between Jan. 23 and Feb. 20. The Huskies finished with an overall record of 10-20.
LAST 20 YEARS The Huskies have only managed six winning seasons over the last 20 years. Their last winning season was in 2005-06 under Rod Judson when they posted a 17-11 record. Since joining the MAC in 1997-78 (13 seasons), the Huskies have had just two winning seasons in league play (2002-03 & 2005-06).
BEST SINCE 1984-85 SEASON Xavier Silas paced the Huskies in scoring last season with 19.7 per game. It was the highest single-season scoring average at NIU since the 1984-85 season when Kenny Battle scored 20.1 points per game.
