First-year coach Keno Davis has the Friars on the cusp of NCAA Tournament contention heading into the Big East tournament. He's rejuvenated a group that tended to struggle down the stretch in recent years.

Perhaps the player most affected by the coaching change has been Weyinmi Efejuku.

The senior shooting guard enters the postseason playing some of the best basketball of his career. That's a far cry from a year ago, when he was the chief victim of former coach Tim Welsh's lineup changes.

Efejuku averaged more than 14 points a game as a sophomore, but he fell out of favor for part of his junior season and saw both his minutes and production fluctuate. He was moved out of the starting lineup at times and wound up seeing his average minutes drop by more than five per game and his points by 2.5 per game.

The introduction of Welsh as the new coach gave Efejuku the fresh start he needed, and he's been particularly effective over the last month. He enters the postseason averaging 24 points a game over the past six games, and has been in double figures in eight of his last nine games. In the last week of the regular season, he combined for 57 points in games against Rutgers and Villanova.

The Friars' fate likely won't be settled until very late in the bracket-building process, but Efejuku is doing everything he can to get the team to the NCAA Tournament.

Copyright (C) 2009 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.