La Salle counting on Tony Washington, Rohan Brown
NEW YORK - When a team played La Salle last season, it was pretty obvious what it was going to see.
NEW YORK - When a team played La Salle last season, it was pretty obvious what it was going to see.
Guard Jordan Price had settled in after transferring from Auburn and had developed into a lethal scoring threat from the perimeter. And on the inside, experienced big men Steve Zack and Jerrell Wright played a mean and nasty game on both ends of the floor.
Jordan, now a junior, is back. After averaging 17.2 points and connecting on 34 percent of his three-point attempts, he won't sneak up on anyone. But Zack and Wright are gone.
This didn't seem to worry La Salle coach John Giannini as much as some might think Tuesday at the Atlantic Ten's media day at the Barclays Center. The Explorers will open their season on Nov. 14 against Towson.
"I like the guys that we have coming in and getting ready to play in their places," said Giannini, whose Explorers went 17-16 overall (8-10 A-10) last season. "They are tough. They have been working hard, and they know that now is the time that we need them to emerge and show what they can do.
"We knew that we would be losing Steve and Jerrell, and those guys knew that this would be there year to make the contributions we recruited them to make."
"Those guys" are 6-foot-10 redshirt sophomore center Tony Washington, a native of Detroit, and 6-6 redshirt senior Rohan Brown of Hartford, Conn.
The two have never started a game. Brown averaged 1 point and 1.6 rebounds in limited action last season. However, Giannini says that the athletic guard/forward can guard several positions and players five or six inches taller.
Washington hardly moved the needle last season, averaging just 0.5 points in limited playing time. Giannini says he expects Washington to "shoot 60 percent from the floor, rebound and have a real impact" defensively.
The two players performed well in May when La Salle traveled to Prague, Czech Republic, and went 4-0 against European professional and under-20 national teams.
"They really played well over there," Giannini said. "You could see the improvement they made in that short time. They are replacing some very good players, but I'm confident that they'll have an impact for us."
@JmitchInquirer