By Dan McLoone, news staff
Depth wasn’t supposed to be an issue coming into the season, but the Northeastern men’s basketball team will be playing without yet another guard from last year’s squad.
After three seasons playing for the Huskies, senior guard Demetrius Pollard has left the basketball program for unknown reasons. He is still enrolled at the university and plans on graduating, but will not be with the team as it prepares to open its season against Boston University at the TD Garden on Nov. 16.
The Virginia Beach native averaged 8.9 points, 2.1 assists and 1.8 rebounds while starting all but three games for the Huskies last year, including a career-high 27 points on 8-11 from three against Central Connecticut. In his three years with the team, he appeared in 85 games and averaged 5.9 points.
While Northeastern can most certainly cope with the loss, it is still a rather crushing blow to a team that will sorely miss Pollard’s shooting range. While an inconsistent shooter at times, Pollard still shot .329 from deep and took a team-high 167 three-point attempts last season. With the loss, Head Coach Bill Coen will need one of his other guards to step up and be the team’s deep threat from beyond the arc. Junior guard David Walker seems to be the most likely beneficiary as he took 148 three-point shots last season, hitting at a respectable .324 clip.
Other than Walker, however, Northeastern has a major drop off in three-point production. The next highest number of three-point attempts after Walker’s was sophomore guard T.J. Williams and his 36 attempts, of which he only hit 10. Redshirt senior forward Scott Eatherton has also proven that he can hit a three when open, going 15-34 on the season. However, it is doubtful that Coen will prioritize getting his preseason All-CAA First Team selection open threes on offense when he is needed in the paint.
With Pollard’s departure, there will be even more added pressure on redshirt junior forward Quincy Ford to play an immediate role in the scoring department. After appearing in only two games last year before injury forced him to redshirt the rest of the season, Ford was initially expected to be eased back into his scoring duties. With Pollard gone and much less depth in terms of perimeter shooting, the preseason All-CAA Second Team selection will have a little more pressure to regain his old dominant form as soon as possible. With strong returning members, including Eatherton, Walker, Ford, Williams, senior forward Reggie Spencer and junior guard Zach Stahl, Northeastern was picked to finish first in the CAA based on preseason polls. However, the loss of Pollard, combined with guard Marco Banegas-Flores’ transfer to the University of Massachusetts Lowell and Derrico Peck’s departure from the program, leaves the Huskies without three guards that each saw over 12 minutes of court time per game.
With only 11 players on the roster going into the season, Northeastern’s depth is not as strong as it once was. On a roster without three guards from last year, only Williams and Walker logged significant minutes in the Husky backcourt last season. While Stahl is quite capable of playing in a guard position, he was mostly used last year as a post player to stand in for Eatherton or Spencer when they were tired or got in foul trouble. This means that someone with an unproven ability will have to step up and provide valuable minutes off of the bench as guard for the Huskies.
That role could fall to guard C.J. Hill, a redshirt freshman who sat out last season with an injury. Or maybe we will see freshman guard Devon Begley find a spot in the rotation. Both of these young players will look to replicate the freshman success Williams had last season, earning more playing time as the season progressed. Sophomore guard Jimmy Marshall could also hugely benefit from added minutes as an improved three-point stroke could see him filling the role Pollard vacated.
Pollard’s departure is nothing the team cannot recover from. While everyone certainly appreciates what Pollard has done for the Huskies in his three years, the team will move into this season without him. With a team that is strong at all five starting positions, Northeastern is primed to make a strong case for the CAA title and achieve the ultimate goal of an NCAA tournament berth.
Dan McLoone can be reached at [email protected].
Photo courtesy Zack Williamson, Northeastern Athletics
