I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[CoachC]

Nov 22: Battle and White were getting into it quite loudly after practice. White was being belligerent about the whole thing, so I gave him a week off to think it over.

[CoachC]

With the Hokies in, there is a big buzz on campus and the community for our first contest against an ACC team during my tenure. Attendance inches closer to capacity. A crowd of 4713 is in attendance to give their support. This game will be a test of where we are. They beat Ohio St. last time out so they will be here looking to win.

Our half-court defense in the first half was horrible, but somehow we manage to stay in contact, trailing at the half 40-44. We have to come up with a solution on defense though after half-time or we are going to get eaten alive.

We struggled the entire game to get defensive stops, allowing them to shoot 62.3% for the game. Only forcing 23 turnovers on 10 steals and going hard to the offensive boards kept us in it. Just a modicum of defense on the halfcourt would have meant victory.

Sanders proved his last outing was no fluke as he led us again off the bench with 20 pts, and 5 stls.
Jeffers added 18 pts, 5 rebs.
With Sanders demanding so much playing time, and Felts looking comfortable at the point, Felts played more at the 1 in this game as well and again looked very good doing it with 10 pts, 5 asts, 7 rebs and just one TO in 34 minutes.
Battle hasn't yet got his motor running this season, although did not play a bad floor game with 4 pts, 4 asts and just 1 turnover.
O'Conner had one of those games where he suddenly remembered we need him to score and had 15 points.

We have to play better defense than this, because the schedule's not getting any easier.

Final:

G-W 79 Va Tech 83

[CoachC]

With the ranked Vols in another big crowd of 4,600+ is expected. The Vols may not stay ranked long after getting destroyed by UCLA on the road in their last outing. From here they go to Durham to play 2nd ranked Duke. Hopefully they'll be looking past us. This is a good rebounding team which may give us problems.

Our first half defense stunk once again and our offense was off and on. Still we are tied at the half amazingly, thanks to a surprisingly dominant performance on the boards (14-8,6-1). I'm a bit mystified about why our defense has been so poor thus far in the season. At the half it's 37-37.

Our defense was WORLDS better in the 2nd half as they shot miserably in the 2nd half and just 37.5 % for the game. Our offense was no great shakes either (41.3%) but we out-rebounded them (35-28,10-5) and had our usual A/TO advantage (17/8,16/16) with 11 steals allowing us to slowly pull away in the 2nd half. Once we put separation between us they never really seriously threatened again.

Godzilla had one of his best games in a long time and dominated the paint in this one with 21 pts, 10 rebs.
Felts had 17,3asts,6 rebs
Jeffers added 13, 2stls.
Battle still isn't quite hitting on all cylinders, but played well enough (5 pts, 3 asts, 1 stl, 1 blk, but 4 turnovers). He seems to be lacking confidence in his shot at the moment.
Sanders struggled from the field in this one (1-10), but still contributed 3 rebs, and 4 stls off the bench.
Madison (5 asts in 8 minutes) and Geisen (9 pts, 6 rebs, and a steal in 14 minutes) provided excellent minutes off the bench.

A nice win over a ranked team sent this loud and appreciative crowd home happy.

Final:

G-W 71 Tenn 61

[CoachC]

Final game of the homestand prior to a long road trip. After a couple of emotional games, it's important we not look past the Crusaders who are a pretty good team in their own right.

Good defense, but poor shooting leaves us trailing at the half by 1 24-25, despite turning them over 14 times

Shooting was a little better in the 2nd half but we still only shot 37.3 for the game. The game was won at the defensive end where we complimented 24 forced turnovers on 13 steals with holding them to 37% shooting as well.

Jeffers had a terrific all round game with a double double 21 pts, 10 rebs, 2 asts, and 3 steals.
O'Conner was in double figures for the 3rd straight game with 10
Felts added 11
Sanders added 8 pts off the bench, and Giesen had 5 steals.
Battle still is in a funk. He had 5 asts, 4 rebs, but was scorless and turned the ball over 4 times.

Final:

G-W 60 Valpo 51

[CoachC]

Dec 1: VMI who wasn't expected to be much of a factor in the conference this year got off to a 4-0 start before losing a heartbreaker last night on the road to #22 Purdue 68-66.

[CoachC]

Dec 2: It's still early but 5 games into the season we lead the nation in fewest turnovers (8.2/g), forced turnovers (22.0/g), turnover differential obviously (13.8), and steals (11.6), all numbers we like to see.

[CoachC]

The first game of our longest road stretch of the season. The Rockets are a decent team that pose a challenge for us. They play deliberately, looking mostly for good shots from the perimeter, and rebound really well. Of an even bigger concern they play mostly 2-3 zone, and our offense has not quite gotten up to expectations yet. The last time we played a zone, however, Sanders torched it for 30 points off the bench. We need Battle to get going offensively as well in this game. We definitely have the perimeter shooting to punish the zone when we are going well.

In the first half we struggled offensively (31.4), got lambasted on the boards (11-23, 4-5) and yet still take a 5 point lead into the locker room thanks to 15 forced turnovers. Obviously turnover differential is our calling card, but if we wan to win on the road we'd better start doing a few other things well, too.

Well, the bad news is that we didn't do anything else appreciably better, shooting just 35.8% for the game and getting outrebounded 28-41,7-9. The good news was that our defense was even better, holding them to 36.7 and dominating them in A/TO ratio (17-8, 12-26) with 12 steals. We actually win this one going away at the end.

Jeffers led with 20 pts, 5 rebs

Battle had his best game of the year with 12 points, 7 asts, 2 stls and just 2 turnovers in 25 minutes.

O'Conner was in double figures for the 4th straight game with 10 pts, 6 rebs.

Felts had a nice all around stat-sheet buster game with 5 pts, 5 asts, 4 rebs, 5 stls as he continues to be Battle's primary backup at the point. It's costing him scoring opportunities, but he continues to do a fine job at the point whenever he has the opportunity.

Moore did his usual stat-sheet filling thing without popping any eyes. Donald gives us consistent effort night in and night out and is probably one of the most under-appreciated players in the league, and is perhaps the BEST defensive big man in our league.

The only help we had off the bench in this one were Sanders (7 pts), and Brown (6 pts, 6 rebs).

Clearly this team is making it's mark with defense, but I'm a bit confounded why we have struggled so much offensively.

A good win, never-the-less

Final:

G-W 64 Toledo 51

[CoachC]

Dec 4: Ike Jeffers was named conference player of the week.

[Wayne23]

A win is a win, keep 'em comin'!

[CoachC]

Another good A10 team who opened their season with a win over then 12th ranked Pitt. They'll be looking to even the score after our win against them a year ago.

We played Bulldog basketball in the first half forcing 14 turnovers on 7 steals. We did enough other things well to forge a 35-26 lead at halftime.

Another so so game offensively where we shot just under 44%. We also uncharacteristically turned the ball over 16 times and had a negative a/to ratio (12-16) which is rare for us. But our defense was so strong it never mattered. We turned them over 26 times on ten steals and held them to 35.4% shooting for the game and won easily. Our rebounding was pretty good too and we had a 14-0 edge on second chance points.

Jeffers led with 24 pts
Godzilla had another fine game with 10 pts, 12 rebs for a double double.
Felts added 12.
Battle had 9 pts, 4 asts.
Moore had 5 rebs, 3 stls.

Not a lot of offense off the bench in this one, but Brown, Sanders and Giesen all contributed something.

Final:

G-W 65 Charlotte 45