Men's basketball takes what Rider gives them in home opener

Basketball is dynamic. Strategies change quickly and the coaches are paid to make adjustments throughout the game.

Such was the case last night, as Princeton went into the game planning on dominating Rider with its forte -the back-door pass. But the Broncs, recognizing Princeton's strength, guarded against the back-door furiously.

"We came into the game thinking they were going to play extremely strong defense, and we'd be able to hit the backdoor more often," freshman guard Will Venable said. "But they closed that and left us open for some threes."

Some was an understatement, as the Tigers put up the three time and time again.

Rider's idea worked in theory against the Tigers, who had been cold from behind the arc in previous games, but the Tigers shook off their shooting woes last night.

"We deny a lot of passes. That's the way we play," Rider head coach Don Harnum said. "With them not shooting very well, we figured that we'd take the back-door away in the first half and make them make threes. If they make the threes, though, we've got problems, and we had problems."

Princeton went 6-for-11 behind the arc in the first half. With the threes the Tigers were able to spread the Rider defense.

"The fact that Princeton shot the ball in the first half made us a little jumpy," Harnum said. "That's typical of the way they play. The three sets up the spacing, which sets up the posts and the back doors. They hit a lot of threes on us in the first half which spread us out a bit."

Recognizing that it had to stop the three to stay in the game, Rider brought in a smaller, more agile lineup. The change limited the Tigers to only one three pointer in the second half, but its consequence for the Broncs was leaving the inside wide open to penetration.

"We recognized their three-point shooting in the first half, and we adjusted," Harnum said. "It hurt us with [sophomore forward Andre] Logan a few times, but we had to take that gamble."

The outcome of the gamble was what Rider expected — fewer threes but more penetration. In the second half, Princeton turned the ball over 11 times and hit just one of four threes, but was also able to produce once it got inside.

In the last 20 minutes, Princeton went eight for 13 on two pointers — almost all of which were within eight feet of the basket.

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But more importantly, Princeton's inside pressure forced Rider to commit a number of inside defensive fouls, eventually sending Princeton to the line a total of 29 times in the second half.

"They were able to go to the post and then go to the line," Harnum said. "If you're going to try to deny passes and go in for the ball, you're going to get whistled."

"When they started to get into foul trouble, we took it to the basket and got fouled, shot our free throws," freshman guard Will Venable said.

With the different style of defense, Rider committed 17 of the team's 22 fouls in the second half.

"As soon as we got in the bonus, and down, that's not a good combination," Harnum said. "I told them that we have to be aggressive, but we can't foul, which is a hard combination."

Although it did not work out, one has to respect Rider's decision to force Princeton to take the threes. After all, the Tigers shot a mere 27-of-72 in the three games prior. Furthermore, the change surprised Princeton, who turned the ball over a couple times while trying to force an inside pass that was not there.

What it all came down to was Princeton being hot. It is hard to beat a team going 6-for-11 from behind the line, whether or not any adjustments are made.