I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[CoachC]

Feb 8: With VMI losing on the road last night, and Presbyterian blowing out Campbell at home (gee, I hate when that happens to the poor camels), VMI and the Blue Hose are again tied at the top of the standings by a game and a half over Coastal Carolina. We are now alone in 5th a half game behind Radford.

Off for the next week, we give the guys a day and a half off from practice and then it's back to work.

[CoachC]

Feb 12: Presbyterian pummeled VMI on the road in the biggest matchup of the season by 23 and gets the hammer to move into sole possession of 1st place. Radford gets back into their winning ways at home and beats Coastal Carolina to move into a 3rd place tie with the Chanticleers. We are a game behind both now still in sole possession of 5th 1/2 game in front of the hated Camels.

[CoachC]

Feb 12: Neilson got into a childish argument with Derrick Bradley last night about how he would have been a much better player now if he had been allowed to red-shirt. That was before my time of course, and Bradley (good kid) took it in stride and let it pass, so I stayed out of it.

Our RPI stands at 120, and although I'm not going to lose any sleep about it, a strong finish could get us a post season date someplace if we don't win the conference tournament. I'm not gonna mention that to the kids at this point, but if we can take care of things in our last 2 home games coming up, I may be able to use it as a carrot later.

[CoachC]

Feb 13: Having had so much time to prepare for our game tomorrow night the last week, I'm leaving the afternoon practice session in the hands of Kevin, while I fly to Illinois to get a first hand look at a JUCO point guard we are trying to woo and hope my presence there will help convince him we are serious about him. It's a gamble this time of year. If inclement weather in Illinois delays my red-eye back here tonight, I'll be shot for the morning practice session. Won't get much sleep regardless, but our need for a point guard next season is so high, I decided it was worth the gamble.

[CoachC]

The first of our final two home games before finishing the regular season with 2 on the road. Crowd of little over 2800 tonight, our biggest in two years. We need to give them something to cheer about.

We lost by 9 in Asheville the first time we saw the faux Bulldogs. We didn't do anything very well in that game. Since we saw them last their star point guard broke his hand, and they've struggled while he's been sidelined.

Our offensive execution in the first half was excellent, and for the first time in several games, Rob Woods looked like Rob Woods with 24 first half points. Defensively however we didn't play very well and we need to step it up at that end of the court.

At the half we lead 45-40
3:20 Not only has our defense not improved, but they went to zone in the second half and we've turned the ball over continuously and we find ourselves down 7.

A Woods drive at 1:16 cuts the lead to 1. At :41 Feeley drives down the lane to give us a 1 point lead. They get inside for a dunk at :25. Brown misses front end of a 1 and bonus. We send them to the line at :08. They miss the front end, Woods gets the rebound from the 3 spot, outlets quickly to Myers who misses the buzzer beater.

Once again we choke at home. Too man turnovers, too little defense. Not enough rebounds. Take your pick.

Woods has 31 pts, 7 rebs, 3 asts, 3 stls, but turns it over 5 times.
Myers has 12 pts, 5 asts, but turns it over 4 times.
O'Conner has 9 but gets lost in the zone in the 2nd half, and has just 1 rebound for the game.

Only Feeley gave us anything off the bench.

A game we should have never lost

Final UNCA 70 G-W 69

[CoachC]

Jan 15: VMI loses on the road to Charleston Southern. Presbyterian blows out Radford at home and now have a 2 game lead in first. We fall into a 3 way tie for 6th.

[CoachC]

Senior night for Woods, Myers, Henry, Nielsen, Bonney, and Porter.

We badly need this one before playing our final 2 games on the road. We still need a win just to surpass are win total from last season.

Every game we play with the Panthers seems to be filled with drama. We won the last against them on the road by coming back from a 17 point deficit in the last 10 minutes. They are trying to get some momentum heading into the tournament and have won 3 in a row.

Very good first half in all aspects of the game, but especially defensively where we turn them over 10 times and hold them to 32% from the field. The big question: Can we put two halves together? at halftime we lead 43-24.

Our offense sputtered in the 2nd half but our defense remained strong enough to ensure they never made a serious run at us, turning them over 19 times with 10 steals and holding them to 34.5 from the field. Jones had 22 for his average, but no one else got away from us.

Woods had 15 pts, 5 rebs, 3 sts, and a block.
Myers had 8 pts, 4 asts, and 2 stls but was in foul trouble much of the game
Sheals set the tone on the defense end, and had a better game than his numbers might indicate: 6 pts, 7 rebs, 2 sts and a block.

Final: G-W 64 HP 52

[CoachC]

Feb 18: Presbyterian lost on the road last night, while VMI had a road victory to cut the Blue Hose's lead to one game. We are now in a 5 way tie for 4th after it all shakes down, but headed on the road for our final two regular season games.

[CoachC]

Feb 19: Rob Woods earns conference Player of the Week

[CoachC]

A win tonight against last place Winthrop guarantees G-W's first winning season in 6 years, and at least .500 in conference. We beat them easily at home earlier, and this is a very winnable game for us on the road. As always the question remains, which team shows up for us? Jeckyll or Hyde?

Our offense was not very good in the first half, but we dominated the boards and played enough defense to take a 35-23 lead into the intermission. We need to find an offensive rhythm in the 2nd half to keep this small crowd out of the game.

4 fouls on us in the first 83 seconds of the second half and I get T'd.

Our anemic offensive performance would not likely have been good enough to win on the road anywhere else other than against the woeful Eagles, but our Defense was adequate,and we won the game by going to the boards(39--25,10-2).

Woods had 18 pts, 2 asts 5 rebs, 2 blks
O'Conner was very good with 10 pts, 2 asts, 10 rebs, and a steal for a double double.
Henry and Porter gave us some quality minutes off the bench.

An ugly win, but we'll take it.

Final: G-W 67 Winthrop 61