Way to the top - a promotion dynasty

[randy]

Mar 1, 1999: (8) Central Connecticut St (11-17, 8-8) vs (1) #15 Sacramento St (24-5, 14-2)

1st Half

• 12:57, Up 11-8
• 7:45, Up 21-15.
• Halftime, Up 39-26. CCSU with 12 turn overs.

2nd Half

• 15:56, Up 47-28.
• 11:55, Up 57-35.
• 7:41, Up 70-48.
• 3:57, up 74-58

Final Score: Central Connecticut St - 63, Sacramento St - 86


Box Scores
[INDENT]Irvin 25, 14, 1, 4 stls (*)
Franklin 25, 11, 0
Richerson 9, 3, 2, fouled out
Hemsley 9, 0, 6, 4 tos
Brewer 8, 2, 11
Osbourne 8, 1, 1
Williams 2, 3, 1, 2 stls
[/INDENT]
Stats Comparison
[INDENT]FG: 58-36%
REB: +9
TO: -7 (11-18)
Pts in paint: +40
2nd chance: +10 (13-3)
Fast break: +18 (22-4)
[/INDENT]

[randy]

Mar 3, 1999: (4) Morehead St (19-9, 11-5) vs (1) #15 Sacramento St (25-5, 14-2)

1st Half

• 13:32, Up 13-10.
• 7:57, up 23-18.
• Halftime, Up 39-33.

2nd Half

• 15:37, Up 44-36.
• 11:39, Up 55-43.
• 7:45, Up 51-54.
• 2:55, Up 69-61.

Final Score: Morehead St - 63, Sacramento St - 72


Box Scores
[INDENT]Irvin 22, 9, 1, 2 stls, 5 blks (*)
Richerson 17, 5, 4, 8 stls
Brewer 15, 3, 3, 3 stls, 4 tos
Franklin 13, 9, 0
Hemsley 3, 1, 2, 4 tos, fouled out
Williams 2, 7, 2, 5 tos
Osbourne 0, 4, 0
[/INDENT]
Stats Comparison
[INDENT]FG: 41-40%
REB: +11 (+7 off)
TO: Even
Pts in paint: +24
2nd chance: +11 (13-2)
Fast break: +15 (25-10)
[/INDENT]

[randy]

Mar 4, 1999: (6) Fairfield (17-13, 8-8) vs (1) #15 Sacramento St (26-5, 14-2)

1st Half

• 12:40, Up 16-5.
• 7:40, Up 28-9.
• Halftime, Up 43-20. FAIR 28% FG, 12 turn overs.

2nd Half

• 15:31, Up 47-24.
• 11:39, Up 55-27.
• 7:24, Up 63-39. Everyone will play today.
• 3:33, Up 69-48.

Conference U Tournament Champions!


Final Score: Fairfield - 57, Sacramento St - 75


Box Scores
[INDENT]Franklin 21, 10, 2 (*)
Irvin 15, 9, 1, 2 blks
Brewer 12, 4, 5, 2 stls
Richerson 10, 3, 2, 2 stls
Reid 6, 1, 0
Hemsley 3, 0, 4, 5 tos
McIntosh 3, 0, 2
Celuck 3, 0, 1, 4 tos
Osbourne 2, 1, 0
Williams 0, 2, 3
Minor 0, 1, 0
Fomby 0, 0, 0
White 0, 0, 0
[/INDENT]
Stats Comparison
[INDENT]FG: 54-35%
REB: -1 (-6 off)
TO: -2
Pts in paint: +14
2nd chance: -9
Fast break: -5
[/INDENT]

[randy]

Rank (Media/Coaches): #14/#14; RPI: #17

We're in the East (Philadelphia) Regionals

1st round matchup:
(5) Sacramento St (Conf U) vs (12) Rutgers (Conf E)

Teams in the East Regionals

• (1) #2 Syracuse (A)
• (2) #8 Oklahoma (A)
• (3) #7 Kentucky (B)
• (4) #16 Memphis (B)
• (5) #14 Sacramento St (U)
• (6) Cincinnati (B)
• (7) #20 South Alabama (T)
• (8) Purdue (C)
• (9) Brigham Young (C)
• (10) Texas (A)
• (11) Campbell (U)
• (12) Rutgers (E)
• (13) Virginia (B)
• (14) American (G)
• (15) Oral Roberts (T)
• (16) Play In

Other Ranked Teams

Midwest

• (1) #1 Louisville (A)
• (2) #6 Michigan St (B)
• (3) #9 Pittsburgh (A)
• (4) #19 Northwestern (C)
• (5) #18 Milwaukee (D)
• (6) #25 Creighton (G)
• (7) #24 South Dakota St (S)

South

• (1) #3 Connecticut (A)
• (2) #5 Illinois (B)
• (3) #13 North Carolina (B)
• (4) #15 Duke (A)
• (6) #23 Colorado (M)

West

• (1) #4 Georgia Tech (A)
• (2) #11 Maryland (A)
• (3) #17 Wake Forest (A)
• (4) #10 Bryant (J)
• (5) #21 Clemson (F)
• (6) #22 Idaho (J)
• (8)

On Probation

• #12 Temple (A)

[randy]

Mar 16, 1999: (12) Rutgers (19-10, 11-5) vs (5) #14 Sacramento St (27-5, 14-2)

Scouting Report

1. Primary defense: M2M
2. Offense focus: Balanced (slow)
3. Key players:
   
   • Sr C Anthony Broussard (10.7 ppg, 4.8 rpg)
4. Strengths:
   
   • Defense: 60.2 opp ppg (#27), 41.4% opp FG (#50), 31.0% opp 3PT (#40)
5. Weaknesses:
   
   • Offense: 63.1 ppg (#278), 43.3% FG (#191), 30.4% 3PT (#310)
6. How they got here:
   
   • Finished 3rd Conference E; Lost Conference Tournament Quarter Finals

Strategies

1. If we can play fast and control the pace, we'd be fine. Forcing a lot of turn overs on Rutgers, and getting on transition, would be key so they can't set up their half court defense.

1st half

• 13:44, Up 14-4. RUT has no answer to our big men so far, who scored all our pts.
• 6:52, Up 33-14. We got into penalty early. We went exclusively to 2-3 zone to protect our big men from further foul trouble, and RUT not being able to hit their outside shots to counter our zone.
• Halftime, Up 51-28. C David Irvin had 10 pts before he picked up his 4th foul, but it hardly mattered as PF Syrone Franklin more than made up with 19 pts (11-12 FT). We shot 68% FG in the 1st half.

2nd half

• 15:46, Up 58-35. We're getting a little careless with the basketball. I reminded the team that this game is far from over.
• 10:29, Up 68-45.
• 7:51, Up 73-49.
• 3:51, Up 77-53. Bench will get some playing time.

Final Score: Rutgers - 59, Sacramento St - 80


Box Scores
[INDENT]Franklin 23, 5, 1, 11-12 FT (*)
Irvin 12, 8, 1, fouled out
Richerson 12, 7, 3, 2 stls
Williams 12, 0, 0
Brewer 10, 6, 10, 2 stls
Hemsley 9, 3, 1
Osbourne 2, 1, 2
McIntosh 0, 1, 0
Reid 0, 0, 0
Minor 0, 0, 0
[/INDENT]
Stats Comparison
[INDENT]FG: 52-44%
REB: +5
TO: -2
Pts in paint: +16
2nd chance: Even
Fast break: +9
[/INDENT]

[randy]

Mar 18, 1999: (5) #14 Sacramento St (28-5, 14-2) vs (4) #16 Memphis (22-12, 11-5)

Injury

• PG Matt Brewer (sprained toe, 75%, 10 days)

Scouting Report

1. Primary defense: M2M
2. Offense focus: Balanced (slow)
3. Key players:
   
   • Sr PF John Ballard (12.3 ppg, 7.7 rpg, #14 class rank)
4. Strengths:
   
   • Defense: 54.5 opp ppg (#4), 38.4% opp FG (#13), 4.4 bpg (#15)
   • Control of the pace: 65.1 tempo (#7 slowest)
5. Weaknesses:
   
   • Scoring: 59.9 ppg (#329), 43.4% FG (#184), 32.4% 3PT (#250)
6. How they got here:
   
   • Finished 5th Conference B; Lost Conference Tournament Finals
   • (Round 1) Def Virginia 66-51 (Ballard 22 pts, 8 rebs; VA 38% FG)

Strategies

1. The absence of Brewer is huge, not just his scoring (13.4 ppg), but his passing (#4 nation in assists) will be severely missed. Our other perimeter players must step up big time.
2. Memphis likes to slow down to almost a halt. We must generate turn overs, and get fast break pts, in order to neutralize their slow pace.

1st half

• 13:50, Up 12-6. Good offensive start, 5-8 FG, including 2 from downtown.
• 7:49, Up 17-15. We led by as many as 9, but our shooting has gone cold lately.
• Halftime, Up 27-24. Both teams shot below 40% FG. MEM's interior defense is very tight, as our starting bigs (PF Syrone Franklin and C David Irvin) combined to shoot only 5-15 FG. On the other hand, we have limited MEM's outside shooting to 1-6 3PT.

2nd half

• 14:34, Down 33-34. MEM beginning to hit their outside shots. We're going exclusively m2m defense.
• 11:37, Up 39-36. We managed a couple of inside baskets. Our foul situation is a concern though; we have 5 team fouls already.
• 7:38, Up 44-43. MEM's full court press starting to pressure our guards, as we have committed turn overs in our own back court. We're in the penalty.
• 3:34, Down 47-55. MEM's defense has shown its muscle. We will shift to heavy outside focus.

We made 2 successive defensive stops, and able to score on our end. Down 51-55, 2:18.

MEM missed, but we got called for a foul. MEM hits both FTs. Down 6. PF Shyrone Franklin hits a short-range jumper. Down 4. A drive by MEM resulting in another foul. MEM canned both FTs. Timeout. Down 53-59, 1:35.

There is plenty of time, as I told the players. C David Irvin missed. MEM with the ball. MEM missed also. Timeout. Down 53-59, 0:48.

We need to go for 3s. But we turned the ball over. We have no choice but to give up fouls. MEM getting their FTs to fall. We hit a couple of 3s, but still down by 5 with only 0:12 left. Not gonna do it.

We were able to hang on in the 1st half. But the pace, and the low-scoring game, were clearly the way MEM have planned. Our fouls, and shortened bench, wasn't enough in the end.


Final Score: Sacramento St - 59, Memphis - 66


Box Scores
[INDENT]Irvin 16, 7, 0
Franklin 13, 8, 0
Hemsley 9, 2, 5, 7 tos, fouled out
McIntosh 6, 2, 8, 5 stls
Williams 5, 4, 1
Richerson 5, 3, 0
Reid 3, 1, 0
Celuck 2, 0, 2
Osbourne 0, 3, 0
[/INDENT]
Stats Comparison
[INDENT]FG: 42-47%
REB: -2
TO: -2
Pts in paint: +14
2nd chance: -5
Fast break: +2
[/INDENT]