Path to the Hall of Fame

[Wayne23]

Great start, Coach!

[randy]

Great start, Coach!

Thanks Coach. Dana Cook is a great player as expected, but Jason Carr has been a revelation so far.

My bench is very thin though. Foul trouble and/or injuries presents a lot of risk.

[Wayne23]

DDS:CB2 presents many realistic challenges. The best part is that the game is SO deep. I've been playing the various versions since 2007 and still continually find new aspects. I'm enjoying reading about your association.

[randy]

11/22/93

Middle Tennessee St (1-3) @ Sam Houston St (2-0)

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

Opp Off: Normal-paced, not many freedom, High post
Opp Def: Man to man, rarely press

Their 3 is averaging 18 ppg and 7 rpg; in their last game (a win), he scored 23. We will double on him


Tip off

11:52
Up 19-9; Coulibaly 7 on 3-3 shooting; their 3 has struggled for 1-4 shooting and only 3 pts

3:28
Up 39-23, even though Carr and Cook are on the bench; Coulibaly contiues to wax hot 14 pts (6/7). Our team is shooting 76% from the field (16-21).

Halftime
Up 44-31; I played my bench the last 2 1/2 minutes, and MT trimmed down the lead to 10. A desperation 3 by Sam Thomas at buzzer went in. It further shows that my bench is far from being reliable. Hopefully, that little experiment of mine wont backfire when this game is over

Coulibaly leads all scorers with 14. Cook has 9. Carr with only 2, but has been doing a good job defending their 3.

Adjustments
- Def Intensity: +1
- Off Crash: +1
- Def Crash: -1

19:03
3 fouls called against us in less than 1 minute! I yelled at the ref. I was called for a T.

14:57
Lead is down to 7, 48-41. I called for time, and I expressed my concern to the team. Inserted Majerus at 4, and moved Cook to 5 (in lieu of Griffin)

12:14
Up 56-43, but both Carr and Coulibaly on the bench with 3 fouls each

10:12
Up 63-45; Cook (18 pts) has kept MT at bay
Adjusting Def Crash to -1 as MT only has 1 Off Reb so far

3:51
Up 79-57
Clear the bench; slow down the game

Final score: Middle Tennessee St - 62, Sam Houston St - 84

Box Score
Cook: 26, 5, 1 (* - POTG)
Coulibaly: 20, 5, 0
Granville: 9, 3, 5
Carr: 6, 6, 0
Majerus: 5, 6, 3
Griffin: 5, 2, 1
Johnson: 4, 4, 7 (good quality minutes off the bench)
Thomas: 4, 0, 0
Belton: 3, 2, 0
Smith: 2, 2, 0

Team Stats Comparisons
FG: 52% - 43%
REB: +14
TO: -4
Paint: +4
2nd Chance : +7 (7-0, as MT only had 1 Off Reb)
Fast Break: -4

Other notes:
- MT shot 5-22 (23%) from 3

[randy]

The "favor inside" instructions has worked wonders for us so far, in terms of shot selection. During the first 3 games,

1. We have attempted a total of only 13 3-PT shots, making 5 (38%); so just a little over 4 3-PT attempts per game

2. Our 33 ppg in the paint represents 40% of our total offense.

3. Combine that with our 17 ppg from FTMs, that means approx 60% of our total points come from "high percentage shots" (inside points + FTM)

[randy]

11/25/93

Lehigh (1-2) @ Sam Houston St (3-0)

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

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

Their 2 is averaging 19 ppg; he had 30 in their last game. We will double on him


Tip off

15:31
Up 9-0; Lehigh is 0-6 FG
I have switched Granville, my 6-4 PG, to guard their star 2 guard who is only 6-1. Add the double team we are throwing at him, he only has 1 FG attempt thus far (a miss)

12:56
Up 20-2; Lehigh called time
To counter my above strategy, Lehigh has put a tall SF (6-8) at the 1 spot. Now my SG (Coulibaly, 6-2) will have to guard him since I switched my 1 (Granville) to guard their 2.
Obviously, it has backfired on them as their tall "point-forward" now has 4 TOs

6:34
Up 35-8. I inserted my bench

2:26
Up 37-18. They had a 10-2 run. I'm disappointed with my bench. I reinserted my 3 Cs (Coulibaly, Carr, Cook).

Halftime
Up 43-25. Lehigh has picked up their offense in the last 6 minutes of the half
Carr has 16, Cook 13. Their star 2 guard is still scoreless

Adjustments:
- Def Intensity: +1
- Off and Def Crash: -1

19:30
- 3 consecutive fouls on Majerus. Yelled at the ref. Got a T again

15:45
Up 54-35

4:11
Up 75-54. Just trading baskets with them the past 10 minutes. I clear the bench. Slow down the game.

Finals score: Lehigh - 59, Sam Houston St - 87

Box Score
Carr: 21, 8, 2(* - POTG)
Coulibaly: 20, 7, 1
Cook: 19, 11, 2
Majerus: 12, 1, 1
Hatter: 6, 3, 0 (in 6 minutes of play)
Granville: 4, 4, 10, 4 stls, only 1 TO
Johnson: 2, 5, 1
Thomas: 2, 0, 2
Griffin: 1, 6, 1

Team Stats Comparisons
FG: 51% - 41%
REB: +29
TO: -3
Paint: +30
2nd Chance : +13
Fast Break: +16

Other Notes
- Despite not being considered a 3 PT shooting team, we shot 5-6 from downtown
- FT shooting continues to be an issue for us; we shot 4-10 today
- Their 2 guard, whom we hounded the whole game, finished with 10 pts on 4/8 FG shooting
- Despite being not a natural PG, Granville has been averaging 7.0 apg and only 1.8 topg for the 1st 4 games, with an A/TO ratio of 4.0. Good stuff!

[CoachC]

off to an awesome start, randy!

[randy]

11/29/93

Detroit (2-2) @ Sam Houston St (4-0)

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

Opp Off: Fast-paced, not many freedom, Triangle
Opp Def: Man to man, rarely press

Their 2 is averaging 24 ppg in the past 3 games. He is a big guard (6-5), so we will again switch Granville on him + a double team.


Tip off

15:24
Up 8-5. Detroit already has 4 TOs. Their star 2 guard has not attempted a shot; we are double teaming him even beyond the 3 PT line


11:59
Up 12-7; turning out to be a defensive battle so far
They moved their star 2 guard at the 3 spot. We will continue to double him with our 3 (Carr). It's like a chess game; I'll counter every move the opposing coach is making

7:44
Up 24-16. Cook has 8. Their star 2 guard has 5 (and moved back to the 2 spot; will adjust again)

Halftime
Up 46-30. Cook has 14; balanced scoring for the rest so far. Their star 2 guard has hit some tough jumpers, and has 10.
What is killing Detroit so far is TOs - they have 15 already (we have 4)

Adjustments
- We are losing the rebounding battle: +1 for both Off and Def Crash
- +1 on Def Intensity; no one is on foul trouble except Majerus (3)

19:01
Up 50-30. Detroit called an early timeout after committing 2 more TOs in the 1st minute of the 2nd half

11:56
Up 58-41. Refs are racking up the fouls on us. Coulibaly and Majerus has 4 each. I'm trying to hard to keep my mouth shut; I had a T in each of the past 2 games

6:41
Up 68-49

3:43
Still up by 19, 76-57. Comfortable lead at this point. I clear the bench. Slow down the game

Final score: Detroit - 66, Sam Houston St - 88

Box Score
Cook: 26, 6, 1 (* - POTG)
Carr: 11, 3, 4, 4 stls (good all around game)
Coulibaly: 10, 4, 3
Johnson: 8, 1, 5
Hatter: 7, 1, 1 (in 4 minutes of play; 2nd consecutive he has put quality minutes, albeit during garbage time)
Granville: 6, 6, 3
Majerus: 6, 2, 0
Griffin: 5, 5, 1
Belton: 4, 2, 0
Thomas: 3, 1, 0
Smith: 2, 1, 0

Team Stats Comparisons
FG: 53% - 43%
REB: +10
TO: -9 (DET had 21)
Paint: +14
2nd Chance : +5
Fast Break: Even (I wasn't pleased on how we gave up 20 fast break points; it could be the case where I am currently using several press defenses, and some of them are not working, leading to easy baskets by the opponent)

Other Notes
- Much better job at the FT line today: 20-24 (83%)
- DET was 5-23 (22%) from 3-PT; we only attempted 2, and made both!
- Their star 2 guard still finished with 26 pts (he played 36 mins); you can't put a good scorer down

[randy]

12/1/93

Academics
- Still no improvement for Todd Reed (1.5); more tutoring
- Carr is holding at 2.3, despite zero work ethic
- 4 players have 4.0 GPA

Recruiting
- Instructed my scout to start scouting live the 3 remaining JuCo PGs we have in our watch list, should I proceed in cutting Reed

Strategy and Practice
- Decreased off freedom to 75% (from 80%), as the team is starting to gain familiarity (although still small) on the Motion offense
- Started practicing 5-out; we may be able to use this during tight games where we are protecting a small lead
- Decreased a bit on Man-to-man press and more on the HC press, as this could be part of the reason why we are giving up many fast break points (I think)

[CoachC]

as i've said elsewhere, excelling at pressure defense is something you achieve over time (years not months), but if it's part of your philosophy, stick with it! just be sure to recruit players into your system with the skills for it.

As far as that 2 guard burning you, sometimes the best thing you can do on defense is dare that prime time player to beat you by himself while keeping everyone else in check. A lot of times I won't even double that guy.. i'll double team the guy that seems to be getting all his leavings.