Winning on the road in any level of athletics is a satisfying accomplishment. It can mean many things for a college basketball program looking to establish itself as a legitimate threat in the landscape of the sport. Florida Gulf Coast, through eight games early this season, has tasted defeat only once to Green Bay at a “neutral site” tournament at Germain Arena in Fort Myers, in a game that Joe Dooley was less than pleased with on all fronts. The response from his club on their first trek outside Lee County - 1700 miles away to Sioux Falls, South Dakota? A strong team effort and a 13 point win against South Dakota State, an NCAA Tournament team two of the last three years.
Statement made?
As we all know, one game can mean very little in the run of a long season but for this group of Eagles, a win away from home, albeit at a “neutral” arena against an opponent playing less than an hour from its campus, is a rarity in its D-I history as a program. Since the 2011-2012 campaign, FGCU’s total number of regular season wins on the road out of conference? Two, against Samford and Furman, far from well-known commodities in the college basketball world. That total can be matched in one season this coming Sunday with a matchup against Massachusetts, a perennial contender in the Atlantic 10 year in and year out. It will take a better effort than the one shown against Florida Tech on Wednesday night.
Joe Dooley removed his starters just three minutes into the game, letting reserves battle for playing time and roles for games down the road. One player made the most of his opportunity: Christian Terrell. The 6-foot-2 freshman from Jacksonville poured in 22 points on 8/13 from the field, including 5/8 from beyond the arc, leading FGCU to a 77-58 victory.
“He’s been afforded a great opportunity because he has two great senior guards to teach him, and this year, we’ve talked about this, he’s going to be a really good player because he has to guard them every day in practice, and that’s really going to help him,” Dooley said regarding Terrell and his development going forward.
Having a game where the reserves competed for extended minutes should set up Joe Dooley’s rotation well as the Eagles roll into the difficult month of December. The trip to Springfield, Massachusetts looming on Sunday against UMass kicks it off. Julian DeBose has picked up his production offensively, and has rotated between the starting lineup and the first wave of reserves off the bench, along with Marc-Eddy Noreila throughout the first eight games. Brian Greene, Christian Terrell, and Logan Hovey have become more comfortable in recent showings, rounding out the five reserves I see getting the minutes when called upon going forward.
I was able to watch UMass playing against LSU on Wednesday night and saw one notable area in which FGCU should be able to attack. LSU’s guards raced all over the UMass transition defense after turnovers and loose balls, which should be make Brett Comer's eyes light up. UMass struggled from distance, going 2-13 from beyond the arc, but has two talented bigs in Maxie Esho and Cady Lalanne. They could pose issues for FGCU’s frontline. I expect Joe Dooley to rotate his bigs throughout the ballgame, and give his guards breathers to go uptempo against UMass. I see this game as a potential turning point in the confidence level of the squad going forward. A road 'W' against a quality opponent would be huge for this team heading into even tougher matchups against Xavier and Pittsburgh later on this month.
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