Burke's First 'Dayt'

I have some observations from today's 67-52 loss to Dayton based purely on the box score. In other words, I'm not giving any game analysis – that would be impossible – just pointing out a few statistics of note.


Brown, Krajina didn't play


Pierre Brown and Kristijan Krajina both have a fractured foot. They should be out for a few weeks. The interesting part will be whether Brown plays when he comes back. If the team is struggling, or if coach Robert Burke just believes Pierre would be more useful with a full and more healthy final season, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw a red shirt. That's pure speculation.


Barber only took three shots


If Raven Barber didn't have more than two fouls, and if he had played less than 23 minutes, this wouldn't stand out so much. There could be a dozen reasons for this, but it's still pretty curious.


Norfleet led the team in scoring in his college debut/Norfleet took 13 3s


I would be me encouraged by Julian Norfleet leading the team in scoring if he didn't take 16 shots to do it. The kid was either A. a gunner B. highly-trusted by Burke or C. wide open and missed a lot of shots. On the other hand, it's definitely encouraging that he wasn't afraid to put the rock up in his first college game against a very good team. With Pierre out, we will need a guard to step up as our primary perimeter scorer (in my opinion) so maybe Norfleet is the guy.


12 team fouls, only one player with three


I mean, it's about time. In my five years, every time we played a major program (I consider Dayton major) we would be lucky if we only had 12 fouls called on us in a half, let alone an entire game. For the record, Lamar Trice had the three fouls.


Atupem's line


Fourteen points on 5-for-11 from the floor and nine rebounds (Shawn Atupem only has one career double-double to my knowledge.) He was also 4-for-5 from the line; if he can make 80 percent of his free throws this year, he'll score at least 14 points a night. The best stat of all, though, is that Atupem only had one foul in 33 minutes. Early, I know, but it's encouraging.


Point guard play


Trice: Five assists, three turnovers to go with eight points and two steals
Josh Castellanos (freshman): Four assists, no turnovers to go with four points, all from a perfect night at the line.
I heard Trice improved a lot in the offseason (as he did the year before) and this line reflects that.


I could say a lot more about the stats, especially by comparing and contrasting to Dayton (we were out-rebounded 54–31,) but overall the numbers are encouraging. Great point guard play, great game from Shawn and a respectable showing at a tough venue in the first game under a new coach. It doesn't look like Dayton cleared the end of its bench until the very end, either, so it's not like we would racked up a bunch of stats against their walk-ons (as it appears.)


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-Someone found this site by searching for "mount st marys, md coach brown fired." So just to clarify, he wasn't fired.


-Holy Cross also had its season opener today. The Crusaders lost to College of Charleston, (who just lost to Maryland practically at the buzzer) 93–84. They trailed 48–30 in the first half, so a nice comeback, and definitely not the low-scoring game we're used to seeing from coach Milan Brown's teams.


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NEC Scores


Fairfield 62 Sacred Heart 45
Kent State 90 Bryant 49
Robert Morris 55 St. Peter's 30 (Think they were going to forget how to play defense without Mike Rice there? Nah. Also, why the hell wouldn't the coaches vote them No. 1? They won the last two NEC titles. Thanks for adding fuel to the fire, everyone.)
Central Conn. St. 64 Hartford 62
Quinnipiac 75 Yale 64 (3:25 remaining in game as I type this)

Barber will stay, Burke making good impressions / UPDATE on Krajina

Breathe easy, Mount fans, Raven Barber is here to stay. After meeting his new head coach, Robert Burke, in a team meeting Thursday at about 5 p.m., the highly touted rising sophomore post from Paul VI high school has no desire to look at other schools.

“I’m not going to go anywhere else, I want to be here with my teammates,” Barber said on campus Thursday afternoon. “There ain’t no reason to go somewhere else, sit out for a year, and [then I] gotta learn a whole new playing style. I’m just going to fulfill my college career here [at the Mount.]”

Barber, who missed the first nine games of the 2009-2010 season due to NCAA Clearinghouse issues, is optimistic about what Burke can bring to the program.

“After he started talking I could see that he’s a pretty cool dude. I know he’s real calm. All he wants is the best for us,” Barber said. “He said he just wants to win. He came here and said ‘I want y’all to win, I don’t want to stop what y’all are doing’ so I was really down for that.”

Barber added that his high school coach Glen Farello has known Burke for 10 years and that Farello reassured Barber that Burke is a good fit for the Mount.

Burke plans to meet with all of the players individually Saturday, according to Barber, who looks forward to getting to know his new coach.

“Probably what I’m really curious about is what he wants best for us, to see what he wants best. How he’s going to play us, how he’s going to use our team, and probably how he is as a person because we haven’t fully gotten to know him,” Barber said. “It’s our first day knowing him so that’s what I want.”

Although Barber expressed initial satisfaction in the hiring of Burke, he did say he was disappointed that Brion Dunlap was not named head coach.

“I was disappointed because coach Bri, he knows us as a team and as individuals, he’s like one of the boys. He knew the system and he was going to keep going with how it was and how we played in our playing style,” Barber said.

Nonetheless, Barber remains optimistic for Burke to take over.

“I’m going to see what’s in his head and what he wants with the Mount, what he wants best,” Barber said. “Hopefully it’s another good three years and we stay on our winning path and be successful.”

After making a good impression on the players, Burke put in a little PR work as well. The Mount’s intramural softball championship took place last night at 6 p.m. and Burke stopped by the game to watch as some of the basketball players participated in the championship.

Barber, who started 21 of his 22 appearances in his freshman season, averaged five points and 2.8 rebounds while shooting 53.1 percent from the floor in 15.1 minutes per game.

UPDATE 12:08 p.m.: The versatile 6-foot-10 forward from Croatia, Kristijan Krajina, has confirmed that he will stay as well. Krajina is a post with great size and deadly touch around the rim as well as from 3. He appeared in 20 games averaging 7.4 minutes for the Mount in 2009-2010.

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I don't know much about Burke personally but I agree with most of what Raff, who does know some things about him, wrote this morning.

Go Mount and welcome coach Burke.