Saturday, November 17, 2001
Miami: Shorts, Davis and . . .
Seniors Coles' only sure bets as starters
By Ian Duthie
Enquirer contributor
OXFORD — The Miami basketball team opens its season tonight at UNC Wilmington, and coach Charlie Coles has only two sure starters for the upcoming year: Doug Davis and Alex Shorts. The other three starting spots are going to be earned by performance.
In Davis and Shorts, Coles knows what to expect from his senior captains every night: leadership and scoring. He wants to see big things from the two.
“If they don't play well, it is going to be hard for us to win,” Coles said. “We can't afford not to have them on the floor. The offense runs through and around them.”
For Shorts and Davis, the heightened expectations from their coach are welcome.
“We like having that added pressure,” Shorts said. “As seniors, you expect it. We have a lot of young players that look to Doug and me (for scoring), and we have to deliver for us to be successful.”
Shorts, a power forward, returns after leading the RedHawks in scoring last season with a 15.7-point average. At times he was the Miami offense, scoring in double figures in 17 of the final 19 games as Coles demanded the ball be in his hands on key possessions.
Davis is Miami's floor leader, a steady ballhandler with a solid grasp for Miami's structured offense. Davis battled a variety of injuries last season that kept him out of seven games and slowed him on the defensive end. Davis fouled out of eight games last season, a number for a point guard that is far too high for Coles' liking. Davis returns healthy, which will mean heavy minutes, as Miami's top shooter.
Who else on the team will contribute is yet to be determined. The remainder of the roster is made up of a talented mix of youth and athleticism.
Included in this group are three sophomores: Juby Johnson, Eugene Seals and Chet Mason. Johnson showed flashes last season of living up to the hype of being MU's most heralded recruit since Ron Harper with his driving ability and agility to get off his shot. But many nights he looked tentative on the offensive end, settling for long jump shots that he missed consistently.
Seals is a leaper whose quickness off the floor makes him a natural offensive rebounder and shot blocker. With Miami's lack of size, the 6-foot-6 Seals will be expected to get inside and help rebound.
Freshman Danny Horace led Miami with 17 points in the RedHawks' lone exhibition game. Another talented jumper, Horace should see big minutes in his first season.
Mason is the RedHawks' future at the point but still needs time to learn the offense and take better care of the ball.
“It is going to be wait-and-see,” Coles said of his starting lineup. “We can have any number of combinations. All I know is Doug and Alex will always be on the floor (at the start of the game).”
Miami will be the second game for UNC Wilmington, which lost to Wake Forest 79-78 in the opening round of the Preseason NIT.
The Seahawks are a difficult opening test for Miami. They return a talented group of players that defeated Miami 59-44 in Oxford last season and made the NIT. They held Miami to 28 percent from the field and a season-low 19 points in the first half. Shorts also had one of his worst nights, shooting 3-of-11 from the field in scoring eight points.
Brett Blizzard is UNCW's top player. He scored 26 in the loss to Wake Forest and was the Colonial Athletic Association's preseason Player of the Year after averaging 13.8 points last season.
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