La Salle coach hopes turnaround is first step...

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La Salle coach hopes turnaround is first step to long history of accomplishments





John Giannini received his Ph.D. in kinesiology from the University of Illinois in 1992, but the eighth-year La Salle coach believes he has a special mission to serve as an instructor of local hoops history.

From the time they are being recruited, prospective Explorers are made fully aware by Giannini of the school's many basketball successes.

"In the recruiting process, we talk about the La Salle tradition," said Giannini, whose Explorers (21-12) host Minnesota (19-14) at 7 Wednesday night in a first-round NIT game at Tom Gola Arena. "We talk about the NCAA championship [1954], the two Final Fours ['54 and '55], the NIT championship [1952], the three national players of the year [Tom Gola in 1955, Michael Brooks in 1980, and Lionel Simmons in 1990]. We take them through the Palestra, through the Big Five Hall of Fame. We show them all the memorabilia."

Giannini is pleased - no, ecstatic - that he has a La Salle team that won 20 games for the first time since the 1991-92 season, when the Explorers last appeared in a major postseason tournament (NCAA).

"Our job is to bring La Salle back and to have a great program again," Giannini said of the Explorers' 12th trip to the NIT. "This is a step in the right direction."

With just one senior (guard Earl Pettis) in the regular rotation, Giannini is convinced this season's turnaround is the beginning of better things.

Given the fact that this season marks the 60th anniversary of the Gola-led NIT championship team, and the 25th anniversary of La Salle's reaching the NIT final, a deep run to at least the semifinals would go a long way toward recalling some of the more hallowed echoes of the past.

Pettis, who leads La Salle in scoring with a 15.3-point average and was named the Atlantic Ten's most improved player, said it's time for today's Explorers to add a few lines to the legacy Giannini keeps reciting as if it were holy scripture.

"Maybe this team is the start of something really good," Pettis said. "Nobody expected us to be as good as we are."

 

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Gophers basketball: NIT foe can't win close games, either



If the Gophers want to make a postseason tournament run, they will have to figure out how to become better closers.

Luckily for them, their first-round opponent in the National Invitation Tournament on Wednesday, March 14, in Philadelphia has the same problem.

Eight losses for Minnesota (19-14) this season were by single digits. But every loss for La Salle (21-12) was by single digits.

The only two teams to beat La Salle at home were Saint Louis and Atlantic 10 conference regular-season champion Temple. Both of those teams are in the NCAA tournament.

"We just made stupid mistakes at the end of the game," La Salle freshman and former Hopkins High School standout D.J. Peterson said. "A turnover here and there allowed games to slip away. We're excited to be where we're at, but we just thought if we pulled those games out, we would have been dancing (in the NCAA tournament)."

The Gophers could say the same.

But playing in the NIT is a big deal for the Explorers, who last advanced to a postseason tournament in the 1991-92 season.

The Gophers missed out on the postseason last season but went to the NCAA tournament in 2010 and 2009 and the NIT in 2008, all under coach Tubby Smith.

Each time, Minnesota lost its first postseason game.

In the Big Ten tournament last week, the Gophers showed how to win and lose close games. First, they beat Northwestern in overtime because of a clutch performance from freshman Andre Hollins. Then they collapsed at the
end of an overtime loss to Michigan.

"I look back at it, the substitution patterns, some things you do, you constantly think about what you could have done differently," Smith said. "We've had a number of opportunities this year to do that. So that's where this time of the year, this postseason play in the NIT against La Salle, will help us a lot in seeing if what we did in the last few games can carry over."

Giving the ball to Hollins worked against the Wildcats. The Memphis native scored a career-high 25 points, including a driving layup to tie the score 61-61 with 1:02 left in regulation. Hollins also hit a jumper with a minute left in overtime to extend the Gophers' lead to three.

"I was really pleased with the way they responded to the challenge after losing six games in a row," Smith said, "stepping up against Northwestern in a real pressure-packed game. But we had a chance to ice the game against Michigan. Once again, we really didn't do that. That's something we've got to work on."

After Michigan rallied from a nine-point deficit to tie the score, Hollins missed a jumper with five seconds left, and Rodney Williams missed a shot with 1.1 seconds left. Williams then missed two of three free throws in overtime as Michigan outscored the Gophers 8-1.

"That's definitely going to be on my mind," Williams said of his missed shots and free throws, although he finished with 20 points. "I kind of had a feeling (the jumper) was going in. We had a chance to win it at the end; it just didn't go our way. When you play good teams, you can't have lapses at the end."

La Salle watched video Monday of the Minnesota-Michigan game. Peterson said his coach, John Giannini, made sure to mention that the Gophers had the Big Ten co-champion Wolverines all but beaten before losing in overtime.

The Gophers are using the loss as motivation for the NIT.

But Peterson said his team is doing the same with its own near misses.

"We think those (close) games will come in handy now for us," he said, "because we've learned from our mistakes."