Twenty minutes after he entered the transfer portal last March, Grant Sherfield got a call from Nevada coach Steve Alford. A former four-star recruit, Sherfield had plenty of suitors from power conferences following his successful freshman season at Wichita State. He listened to overtures, but he committed to the Wolf Pack after just eight days on the market.
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“I knew I couldn’t mess up this decision,” Sherfield says.
He already had learned how quickly best-laid plans can go awry. The 6-foot-2 guard had originally planned to play for Alford at UCLA, where he signed in the fall of 2018. But the Bruins fired Alford on New Year’s Eve, forcing Sherfield to scramble for a new destination. A Wichita native who played his final prep season at nearby Sunrise Christian Academy, Sherfield settled on the hometown Shockers. If you followed the Gregg Marshall news, you can glean why he was eager to move on after just one season there.
While Nevada may not play on as big a stage as UCLA or even Wichita State, Sherfield has found a home in Reno. He’s leading the Mountain West in scoring, assists, assist-to-turnover ratio and free-throw percentage in conference play while spearheading a Nevada charge up the standings. Sherfield was the main reason why the Wolf Pack (16-7, 11-5) swept a series from Boise State earlier this month; he had 49 points and 22 assists in the two victories, including the game-winning shot on Feb. 5. Sherfield also drilled a game-winning 3 earlier this season against Nebraska, which he says was the first one of his career at any level.
“I’m hot now,” he says with a laugh, “Two-for-two. But I’m not shy about taking them anymore.”
Sherfield built a bond with Alford on the recruiting trail and was happy to reunite with him. He credits Alford for teaching him the difference between a good shot and a bad one, which has led to a marked improvement in his percentages. At Wichita State, Sherfield shot 35.3 percent from the floor and 30.4 from 3 while averaging 8.1 points and 2.9 assists. For the Wolf Pack, he’s making 44.4 percent overall and 37.6 percent from 3 while putting up 18.9 points and 6.2 assists.
He was often described as a combo guard coming out of high school and even by Alford when he signed with Nevada. Alford compared him to former UCLA star Aaron Holiday. But Sherfield has filled the role of a true point guard, albeit one who can score, with an assist-to-turnover ratio of better than 3-to-1.
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“He’s a tireless worker — always in the gym and watching film, learning and growing,” Alford says. “This work is now producing the results.”
Sherfield shared time at the one with Jamarius Burton during his lone season with the Shockers, and Marshall told The Athletic last April that tension between the two players led both to transfer. (Burton is now at Texas Tech.) But eight players in all left Wichita State after last season, and Marshall resigned under pressure in November after multiple allegations of verbal and physical abuse. Sherfield was never mentioned in conjunction with any of those accusations, but he had this to say about his time under Marshall: “I don’t think they discriminated at Wichita State. Everybody got their fair share of what went on. I just felt like I needed to find a place where I would enjoy playing the game again.”
That’s why the comfort level and trust with Alford was so important to him. Nevada needed an infusion of talent after losing five of its top six scorers — including first-team All-Mountain West guard Jalen Harris — off last year’s team. The pandemic-shortened offseason was not a great time to bring in a bunch of new players, and Sherfield says the team learned most of the playbook and sets through Zoom meetings with the coaching staff. But the Wolf Pack has steadily built chemistry and had won four straight games before a weekend series at San Jose State was postponed. They’re still fifth in the pecking order and would have a tough time making up enough ground in the regular-season race. But they still have two-game matchups left against Utah State and Colorado State and can at the very least play spoiler.
Then once the conference tournament starts, Nevada could do even more than that with the potential conference player of the year leading the way.
“We’re getting to the point in the season where everybody knows what they’re capable of and we’re just gelling as a team,” he says. “I think we can make a run. Everybody is locked in, and I think we’ll go into the conference tournament as a very confident team.”
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Akron’s 5-foot-8 spark plug
Loren Cristian Jackson has a lot riding on his shoulders these days. The Akron senior point guard is the only player ranked in the top 10 nationally in both points and assists per game. He leads the nation in points produced per game, ahead of luminaries such as Luka Garza and Ayo Dosunmu. In addition to his crucial role for the Zips, he and his fiancée, Heather, welcomed their first child, Kai, into the world three weeks ago.
We should also mention that Jackson’s shoulders are not particularly broad. He’s listed at 5-8 but is more like 5-7 without shoes. Yet he is making a run at winning Mid-American player of the year honors for a second straight season.
“People still don’t believe I can be where I am at my size,” Jackson says. “At the end of day, I’m still just proving everyone wrong.”
Jackson grew up in Chicago, where no one gave an inch in pickup games at playgrounds or rec centers. “They don’t really call many fouls there,” he says, “and I was always the smallest player. I was getting beat up and pushed around. That helped me get tougher and learn ways to get my shot off over bigger guys.”
His father, also named Loren, was a prominent Chicago high school coach who started Victory Rock Prep in Bradenton, Fla. Dad and son spent many hours working on the best way to utilize LCJ’s speed and smarts to overcome his lack of height. Jackson had an offer from Oklahoma State out of high school but went to Long Beach State instead. After a year there, he decided to transfer. His dad knew Akron coach John Groce from Groce’s days leading Illinois, and that connection led the younger Jackson to the Zips.
Jackson averaged 19.8 points and 4.5 assists last season as Akron won 24 games and led the MAC with a 14-4 record. But the Zips never got a chance to seal their first NCAA Tournament bid since 2013 because of the pandemic shutdown. This season Jackson has upped his numbers to 21.3 points and 6.6 assists. He has had four games of at least 30 points, including 34 in a home overtime win over league leader Toledo on Jan. 16. Akron (12-4, 10-3) moved into a virtual first-place tie with the Rockets over the weekend.
“He’s as hard a player to defend as I’ve ever had a chance to compete against,” Toledo coach Tod Kowalczyk says. “He’s a very good shooter, and he’s elite at changing speeds.”
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Jackson worked this offseason on finding the open man when defenses collapse on him. The end of that Toledo win showed how much that has paid off. With his team trailing by two in the final seconds of overtime, he drove past his defender to the rim. Instead of taking a challenged shot, he catapulted laterally to feed a pass to teammate Maishe Dailey, who drilled the game-winning 3.
Akron @ZipsMBB.. @maishe Dailey from deep for the WIN!
Akron 95 | Toledo 94 |
Highlights courtesy of ESPN
📺 ESPN+: https://t.co/JiZBrgHuhO
🎙 Radio: https://t.co/KWo0wpZRJw
📊 Live Stats: https://t.co/PgkWIgA0PK#GoZips 🦘 #1Akron pic.twitter.com/SC5xvQmebl— Akron Zips MBB (@ZipsMBB) January 16, 2021
Jackson could elect to come back to Akron for another season, but he is already 24. His main focus is getting the Zips into the NCAA Tournament, then seeing what opportunities are out there. He’s had a few sleepless nights the past three weeks, but he says his fiancée has handled night duties with their newborn so he can get his rest. Jackson likes to take Kai into the gym sometimes when he goes to shoot around. “She enjoys the music,” he says. And Akron fans have enjoyed all the memories Jackson has provided.
Howard’s end
Few MEAC teams have ever entered a season with as much buzz as Howard did last fall.
The Bison made national news by signing five-star big man Makur Maker and later added Purdue transfer Nojel Eastern. They had a home game scheduled against Notre Dame on MLK Day that would have been nationally televised, with the intended goal of shining a light on HBCUs.
But last Monday, the program decided to end its season after playing just five games, the last one coming on Dec. 18 when Howard notched its lone win.
“There were a lot of reasons we wanted to come back and play,” coach Kenny Blakeney says. “But the safety and well-being of our players is the most important thing, and we felt like we had to take a stand.”
Blakeney says that positive tests among players first showed up on Jan. 1, with more continuing to test positive in the days that followed. While the team held out hope that the Notre Dame game could still be played, several players continued to have symptoms, some of them severe. The Bison wouldn’t have had enough healthy players to face the Irish, and school officials worried about the threat not just to players but also their families. “It was like a gut punch,” Blakeney says.
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Eastern never played for the Bison, choosing instead to play professionally overseas with the looming uncertainty of the season. The 6-11 Maker appeared in the first two games, totaling 23 total points and 12 rebounds in 48 minutes, before he was shut down with a groin injury. Maker signed in August and joined the squad just as the semester started, and Blakeney says he already was banged up when he arrived. He was supposed to return to full workouts on Jan. 2. Maker remains enrolled in classes this semester, but it’s unclear whether he will come back to Howard next season or pursue professional opportunities.
“He and I have not talked about that yet,” Blakeney says. “But whether he stays or goes, he is a Bison man for life.”
The Notre Dame game has been rescheduled for MLK Day 2022 and will be aired on Fox, Blakeney says. The team isn’t practicing, but a few guys are coming to the gym to stay in shape. Some are still experiencing lingering symptoms of the virus.
“I’m just happy we were able to conclude our season without anybody having anything tragic happen,” Blakeney says.
Maine also ended its season last week after not practicing since Jan. 17 and after playing just nine games. The school said the players deliberated about the decision for several days before deciding to hang it up. Chicago State shut things down in December. We suspect we will see more struggling teams decide to prematurely call it quits on this season before conference tournaments begin.
Mid-bits
• Valparaiso administrators last week decided to eliminate the nickname Crusaders, which anyone with even a cursory knowledge of history would tell you was the right and overdue call. Might we suggest the Dancing Homers, in a nod to Homer Drew? Also, you’re on the clock — again — Holy Cross.
• Sing a song about the Southland. That conference might have the wildest race to the finish line of any league this season. Going into this week, Abilene Christian and Sam Houston State are tied atop the standings at 10-1, with Stephen F. Austin on their heels at 8-1. Sam Houston State beat Abilene Christian at home earlier this month but has to go to the Wildcats’ court on Feb. 24. Stephen F. Austin beat Sam Houston State at home and lost at Abilene Christian and has the return games scheduled as its last two of the regular season. All three teams are headed to the WAC next season, so their final scrum for a conference title should be fun to follow.
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• Buzzer-beater time!
This one happened way back last Monday, but we’re still in total admiration of UT Martin’s Ajani Kennedy. It was one thing to hit a step-back 3 to beat Austin Peay. But Kennedy made the moment even better by sprinting off the court after sinking the shot. Legend.
Check out tonight's #SCTop10 worthy game-winner for Ajani Kennedy to give @SkyhawkHoops the 76-75 win over Austin Peay tonight! pic.twitter.com/FcqgOyrvKW
— UT Martin Athletics (@UTMSports) February 9, 2021
It’s doubtful we’ll see a stranger or more memorable “buzzer-beater” than the one between Longwood and Gardner-Webb on Thursday. After Gardner-Webb missed a potential go-ahead layup with eight seconds left, the shot clock failed to reset. Longwood’s DeShaun Wade grabbed the rebound and mistook the dwindling shot clock for the game clock. So he heaved one from just behind the half-court line and swished it– with 4.7 seconds still remaining.
DID THAT JUST HAPPEN!? DeShaun Wade with the half-court GAME-WINNER! #GoWood #SCTop10 pic.twitter.com/9OrkCepX2O
— Longwood Men's Basketball (@LongwoodMBB) February 11, 2021
It proved to be the game-winner, even if everyone was confused by the whole thing.
“Everybody was looking around like, ‘What do we do next?’” Wade said, according to Longwood’s web site. “I said we go get another stop and win the game.”
That’s exactly what the Lancers did. Wade’s half-court miracle was his seventh made 3 of the game.
“I can’t say we’ve ever practiced that,” Longwood coach Griff Aldrich said. “Even for fun.”
Games of the week
(All times ET. And because this is 2020-21, all games are tentative).
Richmond at VCU, 7 p.m. Wednesday, CBS Sports. The first installment of this rivalry was postponed due to COVID-19 issues in Richmond’s program, but the Spiders returned to the court Sunday with a tune-up against Division III St. Mary’s of Maryland. Will they be ready for what amounts to a must-win game for their A-10 title hopes?
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Utah State at Boise State, TBD Wednesday, CBS Sports, and 10 p.m. Friday, FS1. A sweep by either side could offer some clarity at the top of the Mountain West standings. Colorado State and San Diego State wouldn’t mind a split.
Vermont at UMBC, 7 p.m. Friday, ESPNU. It’s no surprise to see these two programs battling it out for the America East crown. And it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them in the league tournament title game.
Saint Louis at Dayton, 7 p.m. Friday, ESPN2. The Flyers are probably out of the A-10 regular-season race, but they did beat the Billikens on the road. And it’s never easy to play at UD Arena. Saint Louis doesn’t have much margin for error with its NCAA Tournament hopes.
Western Kentucky at North Texas, 8 p.m. Friday and 5 p.m. Saturday. Western Kentucky leads the C-USA’s East Division, while North Texas is out front in the West. We need no further convincing.
Mikeal Brown-Jones and the Rams are making a run at the Atlantic 10 title. (Geoff Burke / USA Today)
The Mid-Major Top 10
1. Belmont (22-1, 16-0 Ohio Valley): The Bruins are a windshield. The rest of the OVC is a bug. Belmont faced the top two teams chasing it in the standings last week. The results: an 18-point win over Eastern Kentucky and a 15-point victory over previously red hot Morehead State. Grayson Murphy had a triple double (13 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists) in the latter contest on Saturday. That’s 19 straight wins (only one of which came by fewer than five points) and 28 straight in the league, with wins in 34 of the last 35 overall for Casey Alexander’s club. The Bruins are one of two mid-major teams we can confidently say will win their regular-season league title. The other is coming up in a minute. Is this actually the best mid-major team in the country or just a product of a subpar schedule? Feel free to debate. But for one week, at least, we feel like the Bruins deserve this spot. Last week: 2
2. San Diego State (15-4, 9-3 Mountain West): The Aztecs played a doubleheader early last week against San Jose State and did what a good team should do to San Jose State: They won by 31 and then 22 points. That’s six straight wins, by an average margin of 29.8 points. Remember that Matt Mitchell wasn’t healthy during the two losses at Utah State. Up next is a pair with Fresno State, and then the big finale series against Boise State. LW: 3
3. Loyola Chicago (18-4, 13-2 Missouri Valley): Before last Friday, a split at Drake seemed like a good outcome for the Ramblers. Then the Bulldogs announced that leading scorer and rebounder ShanQuan “Tank” Hemphill had foot surgery and would miss at least a month. After Loyola Chicago cruised to an 81-54 victory on Saturday, a sweep became the expectation as Porter Moser’s team moved up to No. 10 in the NET on Sunday morning. But Drake turned Sunday afternoon’s game into a rock fight, managed to get it into overtime tied at 45 and played great defense down the stretch to eke out a 51-50 win. It shouldn’t do major damage to the Ramblers long term, but it probably cost them a seed line or two in March. LW: 1
4. Boise State (16-4, 11-3 Mountain West): The Broncos took two from UNLV over the weekend but not before sweating out Game 2. They trailed by five with a little more than four minutes to go and withstood a potential game-winning shot from the Runnin’ Rebels before securing the 61-59 victory. That was win No. 214 for Leon Rice, making him the winningest coach in program history. LW: 4
5. Saint Louis (10-3, 3-2 Atlantic 10): Now that’s more like it. The Billikens appear to have shaken off their rust and have now won three in a row. They beat Rhode Island and Fordham convincingly last week, the latter coming without point guard Yuri Collins (sprained ankle). Both were games this team should win, but it’s still good to see SLU getting its groove back. After Tuesday’s game against La Salle, a potentially season-defining stretch awaits: at Dayton, at VCU and vs. Richmond. LW: 5
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6. VCU (15-4, 8-2 Atlantic 10): A lot of people figured a team from Richmond would be leading the A-10 late in the season, just not this one. The Rams asserted themselves as perhaps the team to beat in the league with a 67-64 win over St. Bonaventure at home Friday night, avenging a 16-point loss to the Bonnies. They won despite shooting just 36 percent from the floor and going 4-of-20 on 3s. VCU has cracked the top 35 in the NET rankings, and an early season win over Utah State has gained stature. After a highly disappointing 2019-20 campaign, this program is back where it expects to be. LW: Not ranked
7. Winthrop (18-1, 15-1 Big South): For all intents and purposes, the Eagles wrapped up the Big South regular-season title by sweeping second-place Radford on the road. With four games left — against Hampton and High Point — Winthrop has a great shot at entering postseason with a 22-1 record, its only setback coming by two points against UNC Asheville. Will that be enough for an at-large bid should the team lose in the Big South tournament title game? LW: 8
8. BYU (15-5, 6-3 West Coast): BYU had only one game last week, at home against No. 1 Gonzaga on Monday. An 11-point loss to the Zags almost counts as a badge of honor; only West Virginia played them closer this season. As long as the Cougars don’t slip up the rest of the way — and they’re scheduled to finish up against Pacific, Loyola Marymount and Santa Clara unless more games are added — they should safely make the NCAA Tournament. LW: 9
9. Colorado State (14-4, 11-3 Mountain West): Players were warming up on the floor about an hour before Tuesday’s game against New Mexico when they were abruptly told the series had been postponed due to contact tracing within the Lobos program. So that left the Rams idle last week. They’ll get a tuneup against Northern Colorado on Tuesday before a pair of games at surging Nevada. LW: 10
10. Drake (20-2, 11-2 Missouri Valley): We were ready to do the harsh thing and knock the Bulldogs out of the top 10 if they had lost Sunday, based largely on the absence of Hemphill. But Drake turned in a gutsy performance to pull out that win in overtime despite shooting just 33.3 percent from the floor. If the team can hold serve the rest of the regular season and hopefully get Hemphill back in March, the dream of a two-bid Valley will live on. LW: 7
Dropped out: St. Bonaventure
Waiting room: Richmond, Utah State, Western Kentucky
(Top photo of Grant Sherfield: Orlando Ramirez / USA Today)
