Path to the Hall of Fame

[randy]

month of August 1993

More tutoring

Cut the number of shortlist JuCo PG prospects to 8

[randy]

9/4/93

Academics
- Only 5 players with GPA < 3.0
- Todd Reed's GPA still at 1.5


9/18/93

Scheduling
- I made changes in the schedule that the AD came up. For this season, I want to play only against schools with similar prestige as we do ("half stars").
- 6 home + 7 away games comprise our non-conference games


(Addendum)

8/7/93

I forgot to report that Dana Cook has been nominated to the Norton Award (#26). He seems to be the real deal.

[randy]

Weekly Practice schedule
1. Offense
- Motion: 10%
- Zone Attacks: 5% each
2. Defense:
- Man to Man: 40%
- 2-3 Zone: 10%
- 1-2-2 Zone: 10%
3. Pressure:
- 2-2-1 HC Press: 15%

Academics
- Only 3 students with GPA < 3.0; sadly, Todd Reed is still at 1.5
- SF Jason Carr, a sure starter at the 3 spot, has a GPA of 2.3 but ZERO work ethic; need to keep an eye on him
- 1 made it with a 4.0 GPA


Conference Preview
1. Sam Houston St
2. Nicholls St
3. TX-Arlington
4. TX-San Antonio
5. Lamar
6. Texas St
7. Central Arkansas
8. TX A&M - Corpus Christi

[randy]

10/9

"Todd Reed made some kind of rude comment about Keith Jackson's girlfriend"

Tastes like honey nut cheerios? :-)

Aside from having very low work ethic, Todd Reed also has a disruptive personality. Not looking good for him. May start scouting my watchlist PGs starting November.

[randy]

Starters
1 - SG Osei Granville (6-4, JR-JuCo, 2.5/2.5)
2 - SG David Coulibaly (6-2, JR-JuCo, 3.5/4.0)
3 - SF Jason Carr (6-6, JR JuCo, 3.5/4.5)
4 - PF Dana Cook (6-8, JR JuCo, 4.5/5.0)
5 - PF Keyon Griffin (6-7 SO, 3.0/3.5)

Off the Bench
6 - PF Jojo Mejerus (6-7, JR JuCo, 2.0/4.5); will play 3/4/5
7 - PF Mark Belton (6-8, JR(R), 2.5/2.5); will play 4/5
8 - PG Brian Johnson (6-4, SR walkon, 3.0/2.5 - scouting error?); will play 1/2

Bench warmers
9 - SG Sam Thomas (6-0, JR JuCo, 2.0/3.0)
10 - SF Jonathan Smith (6-4, JR JuCo, 1.5/3.0)
11 - SG Brian Wadell (6-2, FR, 1.5/4.0)
12 - PG Keith Jackson (5-11, FR, 1.0/3.0)
13 - C Anthony Hatter (6-8, FR walkon, 2.5/3.5)

Transfers (ineligible to play this season)
14 - SG Todd Reed (6-3, JR, 4.0/5.0)
15 - C Jamaal Rowles (6-11, JR, 2.5/3.5)

[randy]

Situational lineups


Defense
1 - Granville
2 - Coulibaly
3 - Griffin
4 - Cook
5 - Belton

Ball handling / FT shooting
1 - Johnson
2 - Coulibaly
3 - Granville
4 - Carr
5 - Cook

Shooters / 3 PT Shooting
1 - Johnson
2 - Coulibaly
3 - Granville
4 - Carr
5 - Majerus


Blowouts
1 - Jackson
2 - Thomas
3 - Wadell
4 - Smith
5 - Hatter

[randy]

11/13/93

Strategies

Offensive Freedom: 80%
Focus: Favor Inside

Off Plays
- Motion: 57%
- Flex: 16%
- High Post: 15%
- Shuffle, Princeton, Triangle: 4% each

Defense
- Depending on opponent; would most likely start with Man to Man

Press
- Man to Man: 33%
- 1-2-1-1: 12%
- 1-2-2: 3%
- 2-2-1 HC: 52%

[PointGuard]

Getting 3 recruits in the top 100--fantastic. Your starting lineup looks pretty darned good for your conference.

Interesting approach (starting in 1940 and running over 50 seasons).

Good luck with this! Looking forward to seeing how it turns our for you.

[randy]

Finally getting in to my first game as a head coach.

11/15/93 (@ Belmont)

Matchups
1: Equal
2: Equal
3: Sam Houston
4: Sam Houston
5: Equal
Bench: Sam Houston

Opp Off: Fast-paced, lots of freedom, Princeton
Opp Def: Man to man, rarely press

Tip Off

15:17
Down 7-12, shooting 2-8 FG

12:01
Up 14-12 (7-0 run)
Cook commits his 2nd foul and has to sit. He only has 1 pt, but already pulled down 7 rebs

5:35
Down 27-28
Cook, Coulibaly, and Griffin is on the bench with 2 fouls each
Granville is keeping us in the game, 10 pts, 5-5 FG

Halftime
Up 42-37
Our rebounding advantage is the difference, 24-15
Poor FT shooting by both team: 10-16 for us, 8-15 for them

Granville has 10 pts, Carr 7, Belton 7 (off the bench)
Cook has played only 8 minutes

Adjustments
- Lower down Off and Def crash: both 7


19:25
Up 44-37
Cook gets his 1st FG, a drive to the hole slam dunk!

18:25
Cook commits 3rd foul.

17:03
Down 44-46, on Belmont's 9-0 run
Called time; I screamed to all of my players

11:49
Up 57-54; agressive driving plays by Coulibaly and Carr brought us back to the game
I have reinserted Cook (3 fouls) back in

6:23
Down 66-70, Belmont went on a mini run again

4:31
Tied at 72; Cook scored 4 pts since our last timeout

0:48
Tied at 80; our ball, I called time
Designed an isolation play for Coulibaly

0:40
Up 82-80, Coulibaly hits a clutch jumper; they call time

They miss; we get the rebound; I called my last timeout
20 seconds to go (20 sec shot clock)
Slow down the game
They would foul, so I put my FT unit in
I called for a 5-out play, to spread the floor

0:19
They fouled Johnson; its his first trip to the FT line in this game

Makes the 1st; up 3
Makes the 2nd; up 4

I will switch defense to 1-2-2, to prevent a 3 pt shot

They call time

0:08
They miss a 3; ball knocked out of bounce; our ball
We have no timeouts left; same play as before

0:05
They fouled Johnson again
He hits both, up 6

Final Score: Sam Houston St: 86, Belmont: 80

Box Score
Coulibaly: 19 pts, 4 reb, 1 ast (* - player of the game)
Carr: 15, 3, 2
Cook: 12, 11, 1
Granville: 12, 4, 5
Belton: 7, 8, 2
Griffin: 7, 7, 0
Johnson: 6, 2, 4 (4 clutch FTs in the end)
Majerus: 6,4,2
Thomas: 2, 1, 0

Team Stats Comparisons
FG: 50.0% - 44.8%
REB: +16 (17-8 advantage in Off Reb)
TO: +2
Points in Paint: +8
2nd Chance Points: +15
Fast Break Points: +8

Other notes:
- Both team committed 22 fouls each

[randy]

11/18/93

Sam Houston St (1-0) @ New Orleans (2-0)

Matchups
1: Sam Houston
2: Equal
3: Sam Houston
4: Sam Houston
5: Sam Houston
Bench: Equal

On paper, we are the better team

Opp Off: Normal-paced, some freedom, Triangle
Opp Def: Man to man, rarely press

Their 5 has averaged 15 ppg and 7 rpg during their first 2 games (both wins); we will double him early. Their starting 1 is averaging 4 TOs per game, so we will press often


Tip off

15:56
Tied at 10

7:51
Up 27-20; we're doing it mostly on the inside; Carr has 12, Cook 8

Halftime
Up 44-33; Carr has 19; Carr, Cook and Coulibaly scored 42 of the team's 44 points!
We are +9 in rebounding
Only Coulibaly has 2 fouls; the rest have at most 1

Adjustments
- Increase Def Intensity (from 7 to 8)
- Decrease Off Reb Crash (from 8 to 7)
- Increase Def Reb Crash (from 8 to 9)

15:56
Up 53-37; I praised the players

11:38
Up 60-47; New Orleans' 3 PT shooting (7-16) keeping them in the game; I will switch to 1-2-2

7:25
Up 70-54

5:20
Up 78-54; Carr and Cook continues to tear it on the inside
I have pulled out Carr, Cook and Coulibaly. Slow down the game; eat some time

Final Score: Sam Houston St: 82, New Orleans: 62

Box Score
Carr: 26, 7, 3 (* - POTG)
Cook: 21, 11, 6, 3 blk (excellent overall game)
Coulibaly: 11, 5, 2
Majerus: 8, 6, 1
Griffin: 8, 4, 0
Granville: 4, 2, 8
Johnson: 2, 3, 2
Belton: 2, 3, 0
All 13 players played

Team Stats Comparisons
FG: 48% - 39%
REB: +17
TO: +5 (satisfied with only 8 TOs)
Paint: +18 (the difference in the game)
2nd Chance : +14
Fast Break: +13

Other notes:
- We are 38-59 (64%) from FT the past 2 games; need to improve on this