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Lions Trying To Work Out Sunshine State Struggles

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By BART O'CONNELL, Tribune correspondent

Published: January 26, 2008

ST. LEO - Quentin Cullop might be the one player whose season epitomizes the struggles, the uncertainty and the unsettled nature of Saint Leo's men's basketball team this season.

By no fault of his own, the sophomore point guard began the year with a series of bizarre injuries, then watched as many of his teammates also were injured.

Those setbacks, coupled with the Lions' mistakes on the court, have disrupted with the team's chemistry. They enter today's game at Barry 1-5 in Sunshine State Conference play and fighting to stay out of the cellar.

"We're thinking about it right now, yeah, but to go along with those five losses, the margin was free throws, things we can adjust," Cullop said. "We feel like every team in the conference we're better than, we just haven't proved ourselves."

Cullop's strange season began in early December, when in the span of 10 days, he sustained a serious concussion during practice and was bitten on the elbow by a poisonous brown recluse spider in his dorm room, which caused swelling. He is currently dealing with a toe injury and his status is day-to-day.

He has only missed one game, a loss to Flagler, but in the weeks that followed, he has seen fellow guards Dusty Driggs and Anthony Gomez, and forward Kyle Rowland struggle with injuries.

Gomez, Cullop's backup, is out for the season with a broken wrist, and he will have surgery on Tuesday. Driggs sat out Wednesday's game against Eckerd with an ankle injury, and SLU lost by 45 points. Rowland has played sparingly with an ankle injury sustained late in the overtime loss to Nova Southeastern two weeks ago.

All this upheaval in the starting lineup has kept Saint Leo's top five from practicing together. Often, starting guard Jonathan Banks has to play point guard against Cullop in practice, so when they play together, there is an adjustment.

"I feel like we have a great team, but with Anthony out, it puts pressure on me as the primary ball handler," Cullop said. "No off nights for me. If I have an off night, it's going to be tough for us to win. But I think we have a great squad."

The players don't want to make excuses, but they are searching for reasons why they're falling short in close games. The Lions have lost four consecutive home games - three in overtime.

"I think sometimes you just don't need to search, you just need to listen and do," Coach Mike Madagan said. "I attribute it to one thing - I think winning is an attitude. And when you haven't won, when you're young and new together as we are, and I'm not making excuses, you have to get over the hump. You have to have some breakthroughs."

In addition to youth, Madagan has pointed to missed free throws in the overtime losses, saying if the Lions had made two out of every three free throws in those games, "we wouldn't be having this discussion."

But it seems clear that the Lions will rely heavily on Cullop, as well as leading scorers Jordan Prais and Rowland, to turn things around.

"He's a very driven guy, he's a competitive guy, he wants to be successful," Madagan said of Cullop, "and sometimes when it's new and a lot is heaped on you, which I have heaped a lot on him and asked him to do a lot that I don't want to say he's not capable, but to sustain it at the level that he needs to play, he's had a tough burden. He and Kyle and Jordan have had a huge burden to carry."

Bart O'Connell can be reached at
SAINT LEO SHORTS

HONOR ROLL: Two SLU student-athletes led all of NCAA Division II in a statistical category this season. Freshman volleyball player Kaitlin McKenna had the highest hitting percentage (.452, also a school record), while men's soccer player Brandon Whitsett led in assists per game (0.81). Both will receive commemorative plaques from the NCAA.

SOUND BITE CENTRAL: "They said six weeks, but it took me longer. I was scared about that, but ... just prayed a lot, talked to my dad a lot, and stayed focused. Coach said don't worry about your spot, because your spot is still going to be there." - Men's basketball sophomore Brandon Powell on returning this week from a horrific-looking ankle injury in mid-November. He's averaged 13 points in two games since.

KEEP AN EYE ON: The men's and women's swim teams, which faced Rollins and Tampa last weekend in a tune-up for the Feb. 17 Sunshine State Collegiate Championships. The men were led by double winner Tim Olson (a former Land O' Lakes High standout) and the women got one victory apiece from Julie Carusone and Alisha Adams.

Bart O'Connell

boconnell@pop.tampatrib.com.

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