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LOCATION: Detroit, MI
CONFERENCE: Midwestern Collegiate
LAST SEASON: 25-6 (.806)
CONFERENCE RECORD: 12-1 (1st)
STARTERS LOST/RETURNING: 2/3
NICKNAME: Titans
COLORS: Red, White & Blue
HOMECOURT: Calihan Hall (8,837)
COACH: Perry Watson (E. Michigan '72)
record at school 113-64 (6 years)
career record 113-64 (6 years)
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ASSISTANTS: David Greer (Bowling Green '83)
Mickey Barrett (Xavier '90)
Michael Jackson (Detroit '95)
TEAM WINS: (last 5 years) 13-18-16-25-25
RPI (last 5 years) 65-88-151-36-44
1998-99 FINISH: Lost in NCAA second round.
ESPN.com Clubhouse
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New millennium, same old team to beat in the Midwestern Collegiate. Under coach Perry Watson, Detroit has perfected the mid-major's recipe for success in today's watered down, early entry-infested world of college basketball: Recruit more fearless guards than a state prison, sprinkle in some reliable three-point bombers and enough athletes under the basket, play stingy defense and presto you too can be an NCAA office pool wrecker. In the last two years, Detroit has pulled off first-round March Madness stunners beating St. John's in the 1998 NCAAs and sending UCLA home early last season. Can they do the same this year? Sure. Even without 1999 MCC Player of the Year Jermaine Jackson, the Titans returns lots of backcourt firepower led by 5-9 Rashad Phillips. Phillips looks like and evens displays some of the same explosiveness of his idol, Philadelphia 76ers scoring whiz Allen Iverson. So, scoring won't be a problem. Generating offense against the Titans will be tough, because Watson has put the "D" back in Detroit. They were second in the nation last season in scoring defense, allowing just 54 points per game during the regular season (only Princeton was stingier). Can anyone in MCC hope to clash with the Titans? Probably not, although Butler is a threat thanks to its powerful frontline and the coaching skills of Barry Collier. Butler seeks its fourth straight 20-win season in 1999-2000, but expect Detroit to beat all comers in MCC and earn its third consecutive ticket to the Big Dance. The leader of this pack will no doubt be Phillips (15.7 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 132 assists, 51 steals). The senior might be even smaller than his listed height, but he's undoubtedly Detroit's Big Man on Campus. "Rashad is extremely talented," Watson said. "He's worked extremely hard. He understands the game and knows how to make the players around him better." Not to mention how to make himself better. Phillips has come a long way from his senior year in high school when everyone thought he was too small to play big-time D-I ball. A partial academic qualifier, Phillips didn't sit around and sulk that first season he had to sit out. He worked on his game. Phillips went every day to work out with his father who ran the REACH program at Detroit's St. Rita's (REACH stands for Religion, Education, Athletics, Character and Hope).
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Blue Ribbon Analysis |
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BACKCOURT B BENCH/DEPTH B
FRONTCOURT C+ INTANGIBLES A
Some of the faces will change, but the modus operandi will remain the same for Perry Watson's club. Detroit will continue to rely on explosive guard play and stingy defense to get the job done. Sure, the Titans will miss 6-4 triggerman Jermaine Jackson (the 1999 MCC Player of the Year), but Detroit still has plenty of backcourt firepower in seniors Rashad Phillips (16.0 ppg) and Desmond Ferguson (12.6 ppg). Phillips wears the same uniform number (3), the same hairstyle (cornrows) and possesses the same air of confidence as his idol Allen Iverson. He's the odds-on favorite to win MCC Player-of-the-Year honors in 1999-2000. Ferguson is a sweet-shooting swingman. The frontcourt appears to be in good hands too, thanks to the return of 6-10 junior center Walter Craft and 6-7 senior forwards Daniel Whye and Julian Van Dyke. And with four of their top six players back from last year, don't expect the defense (the Titans were second in the nation in scoring defense in 1999-2000, allowing just 54 ppg) to rest any time soon. And expect Detroit to hold off Butler to win the MCC's ticket to the Big Dance. |
Phillips shot 500 jumpers every day. That hard work paid off as he was 1998 MCC Newcomer of the Year. Last season, Phillips was even better, earning first-team All-MCC honors as well as a spot on the all-defensive team and MCC Tournament MVP honors. In short, Phillips is a natural scorer. He is equally adept at stroking the three or blowing by a defender off the dribble. He'll be the outspoken leader of this group of Titans. "I set goals high because people have doubted me because of my height," Phillips said. "But you can't measure heart. Every time I go out on the court, I have something to prove." The scary part? There is growing talk that Phillips might graduate on time this spring. Under NCAA rules, that would allow him to reclaim that lost first season of eligibility so he could take the court with his boyhood friend Greg Grays. Grays, a 6-1 junior, is a Penn State transfer who is sitting out this season. Grays was a former first-team all-state player at Southfield Lathrup (Mich.) High School, where he once posted three straight games of 42 points or better (including a 63-point game) in the span of one week. With Jackson gone, Phillips will run the team in 1999-2000. His running mates in Detroit's three-guard attack figure to be 6-6 senior swingman Desmond Ferguson and either Oregon State transfer Ronnie Walton or 6-4 sophomore Darius Belin. Ferguson (12.5 ppg, 4.5 rpg, 50 assists, 27 steals, 12 blocks) is certain to start. He started all 31 games last year and set a Detroit school record for three-pointers made in a season. Ferguson, or "Dezi" as the tattoo on his shoulder reads, moves well without the ball and runs through screens galore to free himself up for open jumpers. Watson would like to see Ferguson become more of a scorer, not just a shooter. Translation: More than 60 percent of Ferguson's shots were from behind the arc last year, and Watson would like to see him drive the ball to the basket more and shoot more mid-range shots off the dribble, too. Ferguson's shooting skills impressed the NBA scouts this summer at the Nike All-American Camp, where he worked as a counselor. Walton, a 6-2 sophomore, gets to play after sitting out as a transfer last season. He arrived at Oregon State at the same time as 6-2 Deaundra Tanner, who has blossomed into one of the nation's most underrated point guards. Rather than sit behind Tanner, a future NBA player, for four years, Walton elected to transfer. After all, he was quite a point guard in high school, averaging 19.0 points and 8.0 assists at Grant High School in Sacramento, Calif. Walton's game was no doubt helped last season by going head-to-head with Jackson and Phillips every day in practice. Belin (1.3 ppg, 1.0 rpg, 13 assists, 19 steals) is a fine all-around athlete who was part of Watson's eight-man rotation last year. But he struggled mightily with his long-distance shooting less than 30 percent of his three-point shots went in the basket. Still, he's a dogged defender who will garner significant playing time for Watson. Two other possible backcourt gems are 6-3 junior Brandon Gray and 6-3 freshman Willie Green, a scoring machine at Detroit's Cooley High School. Green is considered a player who slipped though the cracks, a la Phillips. He averaged 23.0 points in the always-tough Detroit PSAL. Gray (2.2 ppg, 1.1 rpg) appeared in only 11 games last season for Detroit. The frontcourt needs to be retooled after the graduation of its emotional leader, 6-5 muscleman Bacari Alexander. But there is talent here as the team's starting center Walter Craft and its first two subs from a year ago, 6-8 senior Daniel Whye and 6-7 senior Julian Van Dyke, all return. The 6-10 Craft (3.6 ppg, 3.6 rpg, 24 blocked shots) is a work in progress. He only played one year of high school ball, so he's mechanical in the low post and sometimes gets into foul trouble because he tries to block everything that foes throw up near the basket. Expect Craft to continue to take baby steps forward in his progression. Whye (6.6 ppg, 4.7 rpg, 20 assists, 23 steals, 12 blocks) looks like he'll be the Titans' main frontcourt scoring option after serving as the team's sixth man a year ago. Like Phillips (the Titans' pocket-sized Iverson wannabe), Whye patterns his game and his look after another NBA bad boy. In Whye's case, the mold is Latrell Sprewell. Whye wears the same hairstyle and uniform number (15) as his idol. Also like Sprewell, Whye is a skinny scoring machine who thrives in the transition game as well as driving the baseline. Also back in the fold is the 6-7, 240-pound Van Dyke, a former high school teammate of Ferguson's. Van Dyke (1.4 ppg, 1.3 rpg) isn't a huge-scoring, leading-man type. Instead, he does all the little things hitting the boards, playing a physical brands of defense and setting screens that coaches love. Another promising frontcourt addition is 6-7 sophomore Terrell Riggs. A partial qualifier last year, Riggs was rated among the top 65 high school seniors in the nation by Basketball Times two years ago when he helped Detroit Finney High School to a Class A semifinal.
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