GSU seniors hope to go out with 20th victory

By Doug Roberson

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Georgia State’s Rashaad Richardson answers a question about the importance of Wednesday’s game against Old Dominion before the questioner is done asking.

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Johnny Crawford, jcrawford@ajc.com Georgia State's Rashaad Richardson dribbles by Texas San Antonio's Jordan Sims inside the GSU Sports Arena on Feb. 18,2012.

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“Very important,” he said.

With a win, the Panthers will:

• Earn their 20th victory this season, something only three previous GSU basketball teams have done, none since 2003-04.
• Send the team’s six seniors out with a victory in what could be their final game at the GSU Sports Arena.
• Keep alive a chance of earning the fourth seed in the upcoming Colonial Athletic Association tournament. The fourth seed is important because it’s the lowest seed that earns a bye in the first round. The Panthers are tied with Delaware for fifth, but would lose the head-to-head tiebreaker should that status not change. Both are chasing Old Dominion.

The Panthers still need a lot of help to get that fourth seed. They need the Monarchs to lose their regular-season finale to Drexel, which is tied atop the CAA, and Delaware to lose at least one of its remaining games to Towson (1-15 CAA) or Northeastern (8-8).

Should the Panthers finish sixth, they would play the 11th seed, currently Hofstra (2-14), in their opening-round game in Richmond. A fifth-place finish would earn a game against the 12th-place team, currently Towson.

“This is really important for us as a team,” senior Jihad Ali said. “This will decide our seeding for the tournament, and it being our last home game as a senior. We want to go out winning our last home game.”

Old Dominion coach Blaine Taylor said while he understands this game is a big deal to Georgia State, he and his team haven’t talked about it. The Monarchs need to win one of their final two games to secure the fourth seed. Taylor said Monday that he hadn’t scouted Georgia State yet, but one stat stood out: wins and losses.

“With the clean slate that a new coach offers, all the juniors and seniors are winning,” Taylor said. “They could have an even better record. They have had several close losses.”

The Panthers could have surpassed 20 wins with a made free throw here or missed 3-pointer there. Five of their six CAA losses are by three points or less. Wednesday’s game also figures to be close. Aside from the stakes, the Panthers and Monarchs are two of the CAA’s beter defensive teams. ODU allows 60.6 points per game, while GSU allows 59.3. That also impressed Taylor.

“Our league is good defensively, and they put up good numbers all year,” he said.

Ali said that tenacity started when Hunter was hired. Despite no senior on the team having won more than 12 games in any of their previous years, he asked them to believe in themselves and to believe in his ultra-aggressive defensive system.

Ali and fellow senior James Fields said they bought in quickly. They were tired of losing.

“The seniors don’t want this thing to end,” Hunter said. “For the first time they are having success in February and want to keep playing.”

The results have been worth all the foot-stomping outbursts and face-melting glares Hunter gives his players during the games.

“Twenty wins ... that means a lot,” Fields said.