Fleming, Birdsong a big help for Patriots
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By Joe Conroy
Published: March 9, 2008
The second time around, the Patriots tried to compensate for that attack by adding defenders to the paint and leaving nothing inside for UNC’s big men to exploit. The Seahawks adjusted in-game, kicking the ball out to their guards for jump shots and 3-pointers by seniors T.J. Carter and Daniel Fountain (Woodbridge ‘04) along with freshman Chad Tomko.
In round three, this time in the Colonial Athletic Association Championship semifinals and for a chance at an NCAA tournament bid, the Patriots were adamant that neither would happen again — they had learned their lessons.
“When you play a team a couple of times you can recognize how they scored on you,” Mason coach Jim Larranaga said after the Patriots’ 53-41 win. “If you can eliminate those ways, they have to find other ways [to score]. By fronting the low-post, we did such a better job of getting on their post feeds.”
Two largely unsung frontcourt players, sophomore Louis Birdsong and junior Chris Fleming (Osbourn Park ‘05) were instrumental in that scheme’s success Sunday evening at the Richmond Colliseum.
Will Thomas and Folarin Campbell, both seniors, attract most of the attention given to the Ma-son men’s team due to their status as elder players and obvious skill levels. But Birdsong has qui-etly begun to play the way Larranaga envisioned at the beginning of the year.
“He’s a challenge,” the coach laughed. “Louis is an extremely gifted athlete who, when he is fo-cused, can do so many things well on the basketball court.
“The last two practices we had before [Saturday’s] game I thought he forgot everything we worked on,” Larranaga continued. “A lot of times he gets more opportunities to get offensive boards because Will gets so much attention, there’s always someone blocking him out.”
The 6-foot-6 forward put those abilities on display against the Seahawks, scoring 10 points (eight in the first half alone), grabbing five rebounds and playing air-tight defense against Kuljanin and Hendley under the basket. Birdsong was around the hoop on nearly every play of each Mason pos-session, finding the right spot to receive an entry pass from freshman point guard Cam Long (Free-dom ‘07) or to clean-up a missed shot by a teammate.
Fleming also received quality minutes versus the Seahawks, earning time with similar defense to Thomas and Birdsong. Fleming often contested shots along the baseline and in the key, contrib-uting to UNCW’s shooting woes (28.1 percent from the field).
“Chris Fleming is my newest hero,” Larranaga said. “We got some great production from Chris and Lou… Chris is probably the hardest working defender in the post we have. He does a great job taking charges, blocking out, helping on cutters, helping on ball-screens.”
Larranaga added that Fleming switched defenders because of screens and wound up covering guards during some of the game, something that is not typical for the 6-7 Manassas native.
Fleming, listed at 240 pounds, even found his offensive stride with a couple of quick finger rolls and sharp post moves around or under the much larger 6-10, 265-pound Kuljanin, finishing with six points and two rebounds.
“He’s a really good player,” Fleming said. “I just tried to be a little bit quicker than him. I actu-ally try to do some of the things he does really well like pump fakes and his moves to the basket.
“It’s big,” Fleming added regarding the bench’s improved play from earlier in the season. “Half-way through the year we kind of struggled with the bench and now we’re starting to step up.”
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