WhoÂ’s Bret Vandergard and whatÂ’s he done for us lately?

[Wayne23]

Davis, West, Dawson, Robisch. So THERE!

[PointGuard]

OK, so far one vote for each of those guys.

[Wayne23]

It's a landslide!

[PointGuard]

LOL...yes, could be the only vote, then you get all your faves.

[Wayne23]

There is always a way to "bullet vote." I found one.

[JMD]

I vote for Wayne's cousin.

[PointGuard]

Dearman seems to be the crowd favorite. 4 more players to vote for, JMD.

[PointGuard]

Got some input for starters from GMGames forums and will incorporate that with the votes from here.

[PointGuard]

Game #10, Dec. 16, 2013: Eastern Washington Eagles (2-7) at Cornell Big Red (1-8)

Thus far, Cornell’s strength has been at its guard positions with starters and reserves shooting well. But their inside game has been weak.

All of us assistant coaches are shaking our heads at Coach V’s promise to the Eagles’ Wings Fan Club to start whichever players got the most votes from their members. Based on that input from the Eagles’ Wings Fan Club (as posted here and in the GM Games Forum), we will start Tim Dove at PG, Brian Robisch at SG, Joe Blackwell at SF, Brian Dearman at PF, and Cory Davis at C. So 3 different starters than normal and one normal starter playing at a different position than usual. Dearman’s ecstatic…let’s hope that translates into some points and good defense.

Trailing 9-6 at the 14:12 mark, tonight’s starters move to the bench. The refs ensured that everyone on our bench not only got into the action, but got plenty of playing time. That plus weak defense (allowing Cornell to hit 57% of their shots) resulted in a 44-36 deficit at the half. Joseph Palmer and Odie Joseph both scored 6 points for us. Coach Vandergard tore into the team during the intermission about their poor defensive intensity.

We chipped away at the Big Red lead in the 2nd half and finally captured the lead with 9 minutes to play. But Cornell caught fire in the final 6 minutes and pulled away to win it.

Final Score: Cornell (2-8)—84, Eastern Washington (2-8)—76.

Team stats:
FG %: 56% (25-45) vs 53% (20-38) in favor of Cornell
FT %: 91% (29-32) vs 84% (27-32) in favor of Cornell
3 pt %: 36% (5-14) vs 33% (4-12) in favor of Cornell
Reb: 20 (including 4 offensive reb) vs 19 (including 3 offensive reb) in favor of Cornell
Turnovers: 11 vs 11 so even
Blocks: 2 vs 2 so even
Steals: 7 vs 4 in favor of Cornell
Assists: 12 vs 12 so even
Fouls: 25 vs 24 in favor of EWU
Pts in paint: 24 vs 20 in favor of Cornell
2nd chance pts: 5 vs 3 in favor of Cornell
Fast break pts: 10 vs 0 in favor of Cornell
Biggest lead: 11 vs 4 in favor of Cornell
Lead changes: 8
Times tied: 1

Leading Eagles’ players: C Joseph Palmer-18 pts, 4 reb, 2 blocks; PG Tim Dove-15 pts, 1 reb, 1 assist. Brian Dearman did absolutely nothing (other than making 1 turnover, picking up 1 foul, and letting his opponent score 4 points over him) in 9 minutes of play. I think the “let the fan’s pick the starters” promotion has been dropped forever.

Player of the Game: Cornell’s PG Aaron Boyd--16 pts, 2 reb, 1 assist, 3 steals.

[PointGuard]

Game #11, Dec. 20, 2013: Clemson Tigers (3-5) at Eastern Washington Eagles (2-8)

Coach V came in for a haircut the other day. He’s a nice guy and gives a good tip. I was glad the shop wasn’t busy since guys have been ragging on the Eagles and Coach V. I’ve been telling them to have patience. Give the team and coach a chance. Pretty damned tough winning when all but one of the games thus far has been on the road. But my customers think they have all the answers and know how to run a team better than Coach V. I’m not surprised though, because most everyone that comes to my shop has an opinion about nearly everything under the sun.

I don’t have much extra money, but decide to splurge and go to the game tonight to see for myself. The Athletic Director sure didn’t do this team any favors in the scheduling…not only all those away games, but then they finally get a home game and it’s against an ACC team. Even though they don’t have much of a record, they still likely have more talented players that EWU has been able to recruit. Looks like their best player is their senior center, Michael Calton, who’s averaged 14.0 ppg thus far. Given the Eagles’ record thus far, there’s a surprisingly good crowd here tonight…guess others want a chance to find out more about the team.

Eastern shoots themselves in the foot early with 5 turnovers in less than 4 minutes to start the game, putting them in a 10-2 hole. Didn’t get any better from there on. What can you say about a team that lets their opponents hit 67% of their shots while making 12 turnovers, picking up 13 fouls, getting beat on the boards 12-7, and letting the opposing center drop in 12 points in the first half. Only EWU player that did well was sub SF Delawn West who scored 7 points and stole the ball twice in 8 minutes on the floor. With the Eagles trailing 44-26 at the intermission, I felt like leaving, but decided since I’d paid my money, I was gonna stay.

In the 2nd half, the only Eagle who looked really good was PF Cory Davis who dropped in 15 points. I guess my customers were right, the Eagles are a sorry team.

Final Score: Clemson (4-5)—70, Eastern Washington (2-9)—51.

Team stats:
FG %: 54% (26-48) vs 43% (20-27) in favor of Clemson
FT %: 72% (13-18) vs 67% (6-9) in favor of Clemson
3 pt %: 36% (5-14) vs 25% (3-12) in favor of Clemson
Reb: 31 (including 8 offensive reb) vs 19 (including 5 offensive reb) in favor of Clemson
Turnovers: 14 vs 16 in favor of Clemson
Blocks: 3 vs 2 in favor of Clemson
Steals: 7 vs 7 so even
Assists: 12 vs 8 in favor of Clemson
Fouls: 15 vs 19 in favor of Clemson
Pts in paint: 32 vs 28 in favor of Clemson
2nd chance pts: 13 vs 10 in favor of Clemson
Fast break pts: 18 vs 16 in favor of Clemson
Biggest lead: 22 vs 2 in favor of Clemson
Lead changes: 2
Times tied: 0

Leading Eagles’ players: PF Cory Davis-15 pts, 5 reb, 1 assist, 2 steals; Delawn West-7 pts, 1 reb, 3 steals.

Player of the Game: Clemson C Michael Calton-20 pts, 10 reb, 1 assist, 1 steal, 2 blocks.