By Paul Casey Gotham
It is that time again. Let’s hear from you readers. We had another week of stellar performances. Pick the ONE (1), UNE, UNO from February 28th-March 6th that stands out to you, and tell us a story.
Andrew Nicholson earns my POTW.
St. Bonaventure’s junior forward played his best when his team needed it most.
With the possibility of hosting a first-round Atlantic 10 conference game on the line, Nicholson poured in 30 points as the Bonnies defeated the Rhode Island Rams to close the regular season.
Nicholson paced the Brown and White with 10 points on five-of-six shooting as the Bonnies jumped to an early 13-point advantage.
The junior forward opened the scoring with what is becoming a signature move – catch in the post, dribbles to create space, pivot, up and under for the basket.
After spending the final seven minutes of the first half on the bench with two fouls, Nicholson picked up where he left off scoring Bonaventure’s first 11 after the break. He hit a turnaround jumper from the right. Then came a drop step in the middle of the lane for a layup. The native of Mississauga, Ontario followed with a 12′ jumper after a catch and reverse pivot. Nicholson finished a lay up in traffic and capped the run with a 3-point shot off a baseline out-of-bounds play to give the Bonnies a 46-30 lead.
“Big time players make big plays in big time situations,” Bonnies head coach Mark Schmidt noted. “There is no one in the country that could have played better. Inside, outside we jumped on his shoulders, and he carried us for that seven, eight minutes in the second half.”
Nicholson hit 12-of-14 from the field including one from behind the arc and five-of-six from the line.
“He’s a really good player,” commented former St. Bonaventure and current Rhode Island head coach Jim Baron. “He reminds a lot of Cyrus (former Bona player, Caswell) that we had here. He was a big difference maker inside. He’s worked to get better each and every year. He can shoot the ball. He can take it off the dribble. He did some things that I didn’t see him do the last time we played against him.”
With the win, the Bonnies escaped a three-way tie for seventh in the A10 and will host La Salle in the first round of the conference tournament. Tipoff is scheduled for 5 p.m. at the Reilly Center.The Rams needed the win to get a first-round bye. Instead, Rhode Island will host St. Louis to open the conference.
I was tempted to go with the Chicago Bulls … purely for making certain unnamed Miami Heat players cry (can you BELIEVE this drama???) and they had a pretty good week overall, esp beating the two Eastern Conference contenders … Orlando and Miami … on the road. HOWEVER, I’m gonna give my POTW nomination to the Chicago Blackhawks … remember hockey??? They’re on a run of 2+ stellar weeks by winning their last 8 games and again acting like the Stanley Cup defending champions. Last I checked, WINNING 8 games in a row in the NHL is a heckuva feat. Seems like they’ve got their groove back and here’s hoping for another run at the Cup!
Have to give mine to Jon Diebler of Ohio State. The Buckeyes just keep showing resiliency while other top teams continue to falter. OSU blew out Wisconsin, avenging an earlier loss, behind Jon Diebler’s 7-8 3-point effort. He had 27 total and looked like an absolute stud.
Ryan Callahan, NY Rangers. 4 goals. One game.
Bill – great call. I left Callahan’s performance for you to take.
I almost missed POTW, been a crazy week around here. It was nice, however, to see the Rangers crush the Flyers. The refs were horrid, the Flyers could give diving lessons to Louganis the way they dropped at a mousefart, or other attempts at selling nonexistent penalties. NBC’s trio of announcers make me want to put a railroad spike through my skull, and the win made it all worth it.