Like any freshman, Trey Blue, a guard on the Fordham Rams’ basketball team, has spent his first year at Rose Hill adjusting to the college life. But for the past 10 days, Blue has encountered what no freshman, no college student, no person, could ever imagine experiencing. It has been, by far, his toughest lesson yet.

On Jan. 24, Nova Henry, 24, and her 9-month old daughter, Ava, were found shot to death in their Chicago apartment. A funeral was held this past Saturday at the Cavalry Baptist Church in Chicago. Nova was a former girlfriend of New York Knicks’ center Eddy Curry, and the mother of his 3-year old son, Noah. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, a DNA test performed last September confirmed that Curry was Ava’s biological father, though the Knicks’ star denies that claim.

The tragedy reached Rose Hill when it was revealed that Trey Blue’s girlfriend was Nova Henry’s sister. Blue, who is from South Holland, Illinois, returned home late last week to be with family and to attend the funeral. He was expected to arrive back at Rose Hill late Sunday or early Monday. Blue missed Saturday night’s game against Saint Louis after playing in the Rams’ upset win last Wednesday at St. Bonaventure, scoring 12 points in one of his strongest games of the season.

“It’s a very tough time for him and another thing we have had to endure this year,” head coach Dereck Whittenburg said during an interview on WFUV Radio this past Saturday. ”Our thoughts and prayers are with him. Sometimes other things like family are a lot more important than basketball.”

For Trey Blue and the Fordham Rams, this is certainly one of those times.

Charles Costello

Jacob Green battles his way to the basket during Saturday night's loss to Saint Louis. (Photo courtesy of Joe DiBari, Fordham University's Sports Information Director)

BY CHARLES COSTELLO

For years, Rick Majerus had been at the top of the list of rumored coaches thought to be a possible candidate to take over the once proud St. John’s basketball program. Saturday night, in the middle of his second season coaching the Saint Louis Billikens, the legendary coach landed in the Big City, saw his team dominate Fordham at the Rose Hill Gym, then boarded a bus and plane for the trip back home to St. Louis. The life of a coach. At least one fortunate enough to watch his team pound an undermanned and seemingly lethargic Rams’ squad, en route to an 88-58 win over Fordham in front of 2363 in the Bronx.

“I think the team is still up in St. Bonaventure,” Fordham head coach Dereck Whittenburg said, referring to the disappointing encore to Wednesday night’s win in Olean, New York. ”There isn’t much I can say. We didn’t play defense. We didn’t play smart. We didn’t rebound. Saint Louis made shots. They got on a roll. They’re a good, solid basketball team but really it came down to us. I can’t tell you why. [With a] young team, they get home and their mentality is maybe to try to impress the home crowd, playing in front of their families. They were totally different (tonight). The focus wasn’t there. It’s almost like sometimes I’d rather play on the road because we’re away from everybody and we can focus. It was a totally different team (tonight).”

Forgotten in the 30-point loss was the game’s opening eight minutes that had Fordham scoring the first five points and looking like they were ready to build off of their first Atlantic 10 win of the season. The Billikens didn’t take the lead until Barry Eberhardt’s free throw with 11:53 left in the first half gave them a 17-16 advantage. Saint Louis would lead the rest of the way, using a 30-11 run to close out the half with a 44-27 lead heading into the break. The halftime deficit overshadowed and negated a strong start by the Rams. Sticking to a gameplan that called for taking the ball to the basket, better shot selection, timely rebounding, and aggressive defense, Fordham looked poised and confident. With Jio Fontan at the controls, the Rams were successful in dribble penetration, getting shots close to the basket, and controlling the tempo. Early baskets in the paint by Mike Moore, Jacob Green, Chris Bethel, and Alberto Estwick, a result of a patient, disciplined offensive attack, resulted in an early lead. But things would quickly change. And when they did, they changed for good.

“It just broke down,” Whittenburg said, addressing the team’s collapse the rest of the way. “We were doing fine early in the game. The defense started to slip and we were missing assignments. Then we started taking some bad shots and I saw it going south and it was hard to pull it back. We just didn’t play smart. It was just play after play. It just came down to the defense. Then we couldn’t do anything offensively after that. That’s what happens with young teams. We really don’t have a veteran person out there to help us and keep everybody calm. It just really got out of control. We just tried to hang in there as much as we could. But to give Saint Louis, [a team that] doesn’t score a lot of points, 87 points, that was not a good defensive performance.”

The story of the night for the Billikens was their shooting. For a team that was thought to favor more of a slow-paced game, they sure did put the best of their offense on display. Led by Eberhardt, who scored a game-high 26 points, Saint Louis shot 63.3 percent from the floor (31-of-49), including 10-of-15 (66.7 percent) from three-point range. Eberhardt took over the game in the second half, scoring basket after basket as the Billikens’ lead seemed to increase with each possession. But make no mistake about it, Eberhardt shared the stage with his teammates Saturday night. Willie Reed scored 17 points, Tommie Liddell scored 12, and Kwamain Mitchell added 11. That balanced scoring attack, and lackluster play by Fordham, resulted in the blowout win for the Billikens, who improve to 12-9 on the year, 3-4 in conference play. Meanwhile, after dropping to 3-16, 1-6 in Atlantic 10 games, the Rams will have one week to regroup before playing at George Washington next Saturday. That means getting back to playing defense.

“We really got away from the defensive effort,” Whittenburg said. ”When you have one or two guys who are not focused on defense the other team starts to get easier baskets. I’ve never been part of a team that let a team shoot 63 percent from the floor for the game. The defensive mindset is not there. Until we get that we’re not going to be a good basketball team.”

Jacob Green led Fordham with 16 points, Mike Moore scored 14, and Jio Fontan added 12. This for an offense that was out of sync for the game’s final 32 minutes.

“The shot selection was horrible today,” Whittenburg said. ”When we needed to run something and get something good we’d take a bad shot. We gave Saint Louis a couple of opportunities to get some easy baskets which they don’t get very often. Sometimes when we get out of control we’ve got to slow it down ourselves and try to execute and run some half court offense.”

RAMBLINGS: Both coaching staffs wore sneakers in support of the National Association of Basketball Coaches and the American Cancer Society Coaches vs. Cancer Suits and Sneakers initiative, for the benefit of cancer awareness and research…Senior Chris Bethel left the game with 5:49 remaining in the first half and did not return. Bethel was on the bench for the second half icing his right knee…Sophomore Jacob Green suffered an injury to his nose in the second half…The Rams were already playing without freshman Trey Blue who returned home to Illinois to attend a funeral for his girlfriend’s sister.