Air Force Holland looks to find mark

[IE]

A little more than an hour before last Thursday?s game against Colorado, Air Force junior forward Matt Holland stood along the 3-point line in a corner of Clune Arena, draining practice shot after practice shot.

Less than a minute into the game, however, when a play designed for Holland gave him nearly the exact same shot on the other end of the court, he missed. He also missed his only other field goal attempt of the game, another 3-pointer.

Heading into tonight?s contest at Northern Illinois, Holland has made 11 of 32 field goal attempts, including 4 of 19 3-pointers, in eight games. Those aren?t the kind of numbers the 6-foot-6, 205-pound junior from Dallas puts up in practice.

?I really haven?t been productive offensively, and it?s been frustrating because I make it happen in practice,? Holland said. ?I?ve been doing my best, working hard every day. Seems like I would?ve gotten over any slump, but it?s been hard for me to make it happen in a game.?

Holland has been a microcosm of his team. The Falcons combined to miss 10 of 17 free throws in their loss to Colorado. On Saturday, in practice, they shot free throws ?very well,? Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds said. Air Force also missed 10 of its first 12 3-pointers against the Buffaloes despite shooting 3s well in practice.

?We?ve got to become game shooters,? said Reynolds, whose team will face the 1-6 Huskies and former Colorado coach Ricardo Patton in DeKalb, Ill., tonight.

Reynolds said Holland will stay in the starting lineup and compared the junior to a batter working his way out of a hitting slump.

?We have a lot of confidence in his ability to shoot the basketball,? Reynolds said. ?If he can get off to a right track in a game, I think you?ll see him become more consistent. What it boils down to is he?s got to make a couple shots to feel good about himself.?

Holland said confidence hasn?t been a problem, and he said inexperience ? he had played just 69 minutes prior to this year ? is not an excuse either.

?I think experience is probably overrated,? he said. ?We know what we have to do, we have to just do it.?
Note

Air Force senior guard Tim Anderson sprained his right thumb late in the Falcons? victory over Radford on Nov. 19. In the four games since, he has made 16 of 38 shots from the field, including just 4 of 19 from 3-point range.

?The thumb definitely is a factor I?ve noticed the last few games with shooting,? he said. ?But it continues to get better slowly. As time goes on that will get healed, and I won?t have any more excuses.?

 

[shawn555]

Paradise lost for Huskies hoopsters
By BEN GROSS

No one has secured a starting spot for men’s basketball coach Ricardo Patton. That is, except for senior forward Egan Grafel.

After a 74-50 loss against Stephen F. Austin, the head coach said he’s still looking for four more players to join Grafel as his core group.

“We’re still looking for guys that will separate themselves from the pack and will establish themselves as the guys who ought to be playing the bulk of the minutes,” Patton said. “At this point no one has done that other than Egan.”

A total of 13 players saw action on the court in the Huskie loss. Of those, eight played 10 or more minutes.

However, one player’s time was cut short due to injury. With 35.7 seconds left in the first half, senior Ryan Paradise left with a fractured nose.

The senior played 14 of 20 minutes in the first half. With a majority of the time at point guard.

“I also think in fairness to Northern Illinois, when you lose a young man at the caliber of Ryan Paradise that’s going to make a big difference to them,” SFA coach Danny Kaspar. “I think they lost a lot when they lost him.”

Paradise left the game with two points, two rebounds, and an assist.

However, Kaspar felt the guard was a key weapon for NIU. In his eyes, without the senior the Huskies were missing an outside threat when they penetrated.

“The penetration, though it hurt us, it didn’t hurt us as much without him in the game,” Kaspar said. “It seemed like they needed him to answer. It looked like they were missing that outside threat.”

Although the Lumberjack’s coach thought NIU was missing a lot, Patton felt the loss of Paradise was not a factor in the game.

For Patton, rebounding and giving up penetration were the keys to NIU’s loss. The first-year coach felt that the guard did not play a key in these aspects of the game.

“I’m not one to hang my head on many excuses,” Patton said.

However SFA guard Eric Bell said he noticed a difference with Paradise in the game.

In the first half the Lumberjack point guard scored seven points, dished out four assists, and produced one steal. In the second half, without Paradise, the sophomore put up 11 points, seven assists, and added another steal.

“While [Paradise] was in, I was focused on keeping him from scoring. When he went out I was trying to occupy the ball handler from running the offense,” Bell said. “I was just trying to concentrate on disrupting [the other point guards] enough to where they weren’t focus on running the plays for the other guys.”

 

[shawn555]

Paradise Out: Senior guard Ryan Paradise fractured his nose against Stephen F. Austin. The Naperville, Ill., native underwent surgery last week and will be out for an undetermined amount of time depending on the extent and findings of the procedure.

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