Marshall University Athletics
BOGACZYK: @HerdMBB's Loop Still Shooting With Success
3/9/2016 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By JACK BOGACZYK
HERDZONE.COM COLUMNIST
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - Austin Loop sent Marshall into the Conference USA Tournament on a positive note, but when he left the Henderson Center floor last Saturday night, he was like most of the 6,431 spectators that had witnessed one of the biggest comebacks in Herd hoops history.
The redshirt junior marksman thought Marshall had finally beaten Southern Miss, 109-106, in overtime on his buzzer-beating left-wing jump shot, launched with 00.9 on the clock.
Well, it seems a stripe got in the way ââ'¬Â¦ producing a rarity for Loop, and a 108-106 win.
"I had no idea it was a two (-point shot); I thought it was a three," Loop said prior to the Herd's exit for Birmingham, Ala., where Marshall (16-15) has a bye into the C-USA quarterfinal nightcap Thursday against the winner of tonight's UTEP-FIU game. "I went back home and I'm talking to my brother (Wes). I said, 'What was I, 4-for-10?'
"He says, 'No, you were 3-for-9 from three.' I'm like, 'What do you mean?' He says, 'That last one, they counted as a two.' I said 'What?'
"I was mad. I didn't even notice it in the media room (for postgame interviews), didn't even notice it. I thought it was a three, but then I saw the video and my toes were right there on the line. It was like, 'I don't even want to look at it; I don't want to see it.'"
The game-winner - the first buzzer-beating hoop of Loop's hoops life, he said - was his first score since he made a pair of threes in a span of 1:08 early in the second half. The first of those, at 15:56 on the clock, cut what at one time was a 23-point Golden Eagles' lead down to 67-46.
However, Marshall scored on 30 of its final 42 possessions - and 14 of its last 18 after Ryan Taylor fouled out with 4:47 left in regulation - to rally.
And if coming back from 23 down is a rarity, then so is the way Loop finished it.
His winning hoop was his first two-point jump shot in 18 C-USA games this season. His only other two-pointers in league play also came in wins - a dunk at home against Western Kentucky and layups at UTSA and at home against Charlotte.
Loop's last jumper for two was Marshall's first basket in its Dec. 27 loss at nationally ranked Maryland. He has only nine two-point baskets in 2015-16, four of those jumpers. No, the 6-foot-4 wing doesn't often toe the line, like he did Saturday night, when he didn't have time to look, just fire.
There's a notion that Loop isn't playing as well as he did last season. Well, the only thing coach Dan D'Antoni wants from Loop is for the South Webster, Ohio, resident to be a little more aggressive - "he wants everything to be perfect when he releases the ball," the Herd coach said.
A year ago, before the Herd had James Kelly, Jon Elmore and Stevie Browning in the lineup, Taylor and Loop were like 1940s Army football stars Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis - Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside. Loop gained so much attention for his perimeter shooting that he often played bracketed like an inside slot receiver.
This season, Loop's scoring average has dropped to 8.8 from last season's 11.3 per game. That doesn't mean he isn't playing as well for a much better team, one that's the No. 3 seed in the C-USA bracket and finished 12-6 in league play - the best record for MU in 11 C-USA seasons.
"I'm not scoring as much, but my percentage has been the same and my two- point percentage has actually been better," Loop said. "I'm still shooting the ball. I guess some people are thinking I'm having a rougher year than last season, because I'm not making as many - but that's because I'm not shooting as many."
Last season in 32 games, Loop was 84-for-214 (.393) from behind the arc. This season, in 31 starts, he's 77-of-195 (.395). He's not as weary late in games also, because he's playing about 4½ fewer minutes on average than he did for the 11-21 Herd last season. His turnovers also have been more than cut in half (32 to 14).
"I'm not having to shoot as much, and that's good," Loop said. "It means we have more ways to score. And the people who count really know what I bring to the offense, even when I don't shoot the ball - the spacing, making it easier for other guys, making the pick-and-roll really effective.
"That's what my skills can add to the team, and Coach D'Antoni realizes that and he's the one that matters. That's why even when maybe I'm shooting only three or four times a game, I'm doing more in the game and I think that's why Coach gives me my spot."
Loop, a two-time C-USA All-Academic selection, has 172 three-point goals to rank No. 8 on the Herd's career list. The school record of 251 belongs to Tamar Slay (1998-2002). And with 677 points, Loop has a shot at 1,000 for his career, although he played only 75 minutes in 13 games (with 41 points) as a 2013-14 freshman.
D'Antoni's wide-open system and much-improved personnel has aided Loop on a team that is the first in Marshall history to have six players score at least 250 points.
"I'm getting better shots this year than last year, and more open shots," said Loop, with opponents having to defense him and his teammates more straight up. "The offense is much better. The personnel is better, and we know the system better.
"The other night against Southern Miss, I got some great looks ââ'¬Â¦ and they all wanted to go down in and back out."
Well, except that last one. Two or three? He's not going to get all loopy. You can't beat a buzzer-beater.
# # #
Add another accomplishment to senior James Kelly's only Herd season, in which he's become just the second player in Marshall history to reach 600 points and 300 rebounds in the same year.
Besides joining Russell Lee (1970-71 and '71-72) on that list, it turns out that Kelly's 23 rebounds in his 20-20 game in an 87-72 victory over Charlotte on Feb. 18 included a Henderson Center record.
Kelly's 23 rebounds in that game set the Marshall single-game record in "The Cam," topping the 22 rebounds by Rodney Holden in a win over The Citadel on Jan. 18, 1986.
Kelly, who also had 27 points in the win over the 49ers, tied the Henderson Center mark that has been owned by Ray Smith of Armstrong State.
Smith's 23 boards set the record in only the second game in the history of the building, on Nov. 30, 1981, a 100-91 Marshall victory. That mark wasn't reached until 34 seasons later, by Kelly.
