| Garrett Cox is one of five starters averaging in double figures, or if you prefer, another name to know for Hood in addition to Jevon Yarbrough. Hood athletics photo |
By Joe Sager
D3sports.com
For Hood, offense equals championships.
The Blazers have ridden their “Let It Fly” offense to one title. They remain in the hunt for a second.
Hood, winner of the Middle Athletic Conference Commonwealth crown, continues its historic NCAA Tournament run Saturday when it meets No. 1 Trinity (Conn.).
“There are no bad teams in the tournament at all, but that’s what we want,” Hood junior guard Jevon Yarbrough said. “We want to play the top teams in the country because we feel we are one of the top teams in the country, too. It’s a blessing.”
The Blazers (26-3) captured the first two NCAA Tournament wins in program history when they downed Vassar (84-71) and Redlands (114-104) last weekend.
“It’s exciting,” Hood forward Garrett Cox said. “It’s going to be a tough game. Trinity is No. 1 in the country for a reason. But, if we go in there and do what we’re supposed to and stick to what we do really well, I think that’s a game we can win, for sure.”
What Hood does really well is score the basketball. The team boasts the country’s fourth-highest scoring offense at 95.9 points per game.
“I was always big on trying to have one of the best shooting teams in the country, so we structured our recruiting around not having anyone on the court who wasn’t a threat from the 3-point line. Having five guys like that on the floor at once can do a lot to affect defenses because of how much you can stress them out,” Hood coach Chad Dickman said. “Our philosophy is, if you are open, you need to shoot it. The guys will never come out for missing shots, but they will come out for not shooting open shots.
“It blossomed into the ‘Let It Fly’ motto. We’ve been going with that for the last seven or eight years. We’ve arguably had one of the best shooting teams in the country over that span. It’s a fast, up-and-down and flexible style that’s given a lot of teams problems.”
The Blazers aren’t just firing up shots haphazardly. They rank seventh nationally in field goal percentage (49.54).
“I love it. I know everybody does,” Cox said. “I know some schools are very picky about the shots they want and the shots guys are allowed to take. We just get to play so free. We’re so confident. We’re not taking bad shots. It’s so much fun. I think that’s been a big part of our run. Guys are having fun playing.”
All five starters — Kullen Robinson (16.9), Jude Huseby (12.0), Karron Mallory (11.4), Yarbrough (25.9) and Cox (12.5) — average double digits in scoring. But, the team has had contributions from the rest of its roster, too.
“One through 16 — any of those guys can come in the game and they know they can knock down shots,” Dickman said. “You really have to account for each of our guys and close out hard on all of them. The great thing about our players is they are not one-dimensional. All of them can put it on the floor and pass it and shoot it. Having a versatile team, we are able to do a lot of things a lot of teams wouldn’t be able to do or not do nearly as effective.”
“Everybody trusts each other and I think that’s been a very big part of our success,” Yarbrough said.
While the Blazers eclipsed the 100-point mark in 14 of their wins, they can adapt, too.
“We like to make sure we’re playing at our own pace, but there are games where teams slow us down a bit,” Yarbrough said. “This year, compared to years past, we are so much better in the half court. We’ve been really good in transition and in half court. We don’t want to slow down, but we know, if we have to, we can do it. We’ve had a few of those slower-placed games this year.”
Still, though, Hood is ready to keep its feet on the gas this weekend.
“Getting stops is going to be a huge part of Saturday’s game. With the amount of possessions we have in our games, teams are going to score points on us. We just have to make their shots as tough as possible,” Cox said. “For Saturday’s game, I think the biggest factor will be who will control them tempo. Trinity will probably try to slow it down. If we can get it going up and down and get the tempo working in our favor, I think we could give them some problems.”