Fight Fiercely Harvard

Fight Fiercely Harvard

Postby Wayne23 » Sat Mar 26, 2016 12:02 pm

Test Dynasty- Harvard

(Author’s note: My first “real” dynasty is going to feature the first woman to be the head coach of a Div. I men’s hoop team. And it will be at Harvard. So I want to test out Hahvahd Yahd first. This may be a bit sparse after it gets going.)

5/1/2015: Mervin Smythe here. I have just been named head coach of my alma mater, Harvard, the greatest university in the world. It is indeed an honor. My family has not been this proud since cousin Wadley finished second in the last save one Henley Regatta.

I engage three assistants. L. Desmond (Dizzy) Phrytch will recruit; he is the #1 assistant. Clyburne (Cly) Doody will scout, and my old roommate, Eliot (Fibby) McPhybber is #3, practice and bench coach.

We purchase the Eastern Gold and National Basic scouting reports.

Our recruits will come here because of who we are, of course.

6/26: We’ve 4 scholarships to give. We are looking at 28 recruits as we may open a roster spot or two come spring.

8/21: We offer to 2 PGs, and 2 SFs.

9/11: We lose an SF.

9/18: We lose the other SF. Oh dear!

We feel it necessary to win this season, in order to have something to convince recruits to join us, so we put together a rather soft schedule.

9/25: We lose a PG.

10/2: We snatch up 2 recruits, PG Ad Loyd, #495, and C Mate Palm, #694.

Today was the first day of practice. It went as expected.

10/23: Recruiting could be going more positively, but we may need to wait until spring.

10/30: Aha! We have a commitment from Jay Fred, PG, #134.

11/6: Here is our lineup. There will undoubtedly be changes: Senior Jay Rhoe and junior Roy Cord start at guard, with junior Greg Hand and soph Clint Palm backing up. Junior Brad Post is at SF. Senior Jan Wall and junior Ferl Scot are starting inside. Senior Paul Hart and frosh Dick Wick back up at 3, 4, and 5.
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Re: Fight Fiercely Harvard

Postby Wayne23 » Sat Mar 26, 2016 2:42 pm

11/20: One’s first game as a head coach is rather stressful. We won by 4. We then proceeded to win our next by 12. One must caution that both were at home.

All three committed recruits signed. We continue to pursue a fourth, and may open a spot or two come spring.

11/27: We are 3 and 1 after our first 4, but to reiterate, all were at home.

Jan Wall is our finest player. He is averaging 21.3 and 8.8. Rhoe and Cord are doing quite admirably at guard. As a whole we need to improve our rebounding. Ball handling is a smaller issue. All else is well. We are +6.8 PPG, +1.0 RBs, even in TOs, +1.0 assists.

Now we go away from home for three games. To be frank, 1 win would suffice, 2 would be marvy!

12/11: 6-2 after 8 contests. I am rather pleased. Jan Wall continues to lead us- 19.8, 6.7. We have inserted Paul Hart as a starter at the other inside position. We lose a tad on defense but gain in both scoring and rebounds. We still need to improve our ball handling but all else is going quite well.

+4.3 PPG, +1.9 RBs, +1.3 TOs (but 14.6), even in assists.

Dizzy Phrytch continues to work at recruiting. We have several showing a bit of interest.

Cly Doody’s scouting reports have been enormously helpful.

I know not what I should do without the valuable assistance of my friend and colleague Fibby McPhybber. We consult at all crucial times during game play, and he assists me in planning our practices. We have been dear friends since our sophomore year here at Harvard, and dear Cissy and I have him to dinner at least weekly. Oh, Cissy is my wife and helpmate of the past 9 years.

12/25: 8-4. We won the two home games, lost the two road games, which is rather as one might expect.

The insertion of Paul Hart into the starting lineup was rather a failed experiment on the whole. We shall revert to Ferl Scot forthwith. Not everything goes according to plan, or to quote the Scottish wit, “The best laid plans…”

All of our players maintain a grade point average of at least 3.5.
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Re: Fight Fiercely Harvard

Postby Wayne23 » Sat Mar 26, 2016 3:26 pm

1/1/’16: We complete pre-conference play at 9-4. Delish! Paul Hart plays ever so much better coming in from the bench. Evidently he needs to see the beginning of the game in order to feel comfortable. He will play nearly as many minutes as Scot, but Scot will start.

By the by, the pundits predicted we would finish last in the Ivy League, while our esteemed Athletic Director, Clausen P. Gherkin, has set for one of our goals that we win the conference. Oh dear!

Our other goal is to win 10+ games which is rather a given. Oh, no academic ineligibility- at HARVARD! Preposterous notion that anyone would- or perhaps even could!

1/15: 11-6, 2-2. It perturbs me no end that we were defeated by that “school” in New Haven! In Overtime!

1/29: 14-7, 5-3. We went 3-1 for these games as we needed to do. 4 of the final 6 conference games are away.

We are in a three way tie for 1st, with 4 others one game to the rear. Poor Dartmouth is 1-7 in conference play. Again, we are on the road hence.

+3.1 PPG, +2.3 RBs, -0.4 TOs (15.6, sadly), -1.6 assists. Again, ball handling requires improvement. We are making every effort.

All of our signed recruits met the SAT standard.
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Re: Fight Fiercely Harvard

Postby Wayne23 » Sat Mar 26, 2016 5:15 pm

2/5: Victory is indeed sweet! We defeated the Neanderthalers from New Haven by 9. Since revenge is indeed a dish best served cold I enjoyed a celebratory bowl of vichyssoise at the Harvard Club last evening! It was delish, as I knew it would be.

We also won at Penn, 81-74.

16-7, 7-3, tied for first with Brown, 1 game ahead of Cornell and Columbia with 4 to play.

2/12: 1-1. Given that both were away, it is quite acceptable.

We remain tied with Brown for 1st, 1 ahead of both Cornell and Columbia.

We play Brown here and then 5-20, 5-7 Dartmouth away, to conclude the regular season.

2/19: Champions! 69-59 over Brown, and then 66-61 over Dartmouth.

In the Brown game guard Roy Cord had 23. As a team we were +18 RBs.

Dartmouth was a total team effort. +9 RBs.

We end the regular season at 19-8, 10-4, RPI #61. Wunderbar!

We won 10 of our last 13, and one of the losses was in overtime.

(Author’s note: The Ivy does not have a postseason tourney. I want one. I will do it through exhibition games. The AI won’t recognize it so it will have no effect on who is and is not invited to postseason play.)

(Second author's note: Okay, I have come to like Mervin Smythe. I'm not abandoning this dynasty until I need to. The next one can wait!)
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Re: Fight Fiercely Harvard

Postby PointGuard » Sat Mar 26, 2016 6:30 pm

Wayne23 wrote:(Second author's note: Okay, I have come to like Mervin Smythe. I'm not abandoning this dynasty until I need to. The next one can wait!)

It was indubitable that you would. :p
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Re: Fight Fiercely Harvard

Postby Wayne23 » Sat Mar 26, 2016 6:40 pm

I beg yowa pahdon!!!
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Re: Fight Fiercely Harvard

Postby Wayne23 » Sun Mar 27, 2016 5:09 am

3/1: Ivy League Quarterfinals:

#1 Harvard 67-#8 Penn 58.

#2 Brown 74-#7 Dartmouth 51.

#6 Princeton 65-#3 Cornell 63.

#5 Yale 59-#4Columbia-54.

3/2: Semifinals:

#1 Harvard 79-#5 Yale 57. This was sweeter than Aunt Fanny’s butterscotch fudge.

#2 Brown 66-#6 Princeton 65.

3/3: Final:

#1 Harvard 65-#2 Brown 50. It wasn’t that close. +10 TOs. 4 starters in double figures. Guard Jay Rhoe was tourney MOP.

3/12: Today’s the day! 22-8, 10-4, RPI #36.

#11 South. We play #6 Tulane, 23-7. They are the better team. We need to be certain that Jay Rhoe and Jan Wall find ways if we are to stand a chance.

3/17: 65-81. They were clearly the better team. We lose three starters including our 2 best players, Rhoe and Wall.

4/4: Awards: Jan Wall made 1st team. I was aghast when Jay Rhoe did not make at least second. Unfathomable!

4/9: We met all of our goals and did NOT advance in Team Prestige. We remained at 20. Again, unfathomable.

4/16: We gather in the final two recruits, Lane Weil, C, #59- our best rated recruit, and John Snee, PG, #565. We released a sub who will never play. Never fear, he was, as we knew he would be, immediately granted an academic scholarship.

4/23: We request an addition to our meager budget. Alas, it is denied.

Things I learned in my debut as a head coach:

Post-game food: After our first game, at home, I arranged to have canapes and tea- both hot and iced. I learned that this was quite unexpected and unacceptable for our lads. The victuals of preference may hardly be described as “food,” but alas, they will eat naught else.

Hours required on the job: They are veritably endless. Cissy is a marvelous and a patient woman, but she grew increasingly upset, at times verging upon the hostile, regarding how little time I was able to spend with her and with little Fenwick, our nine year old son. Sadly, Fenny has no interest at all in Dr. Naismith’s creation.

Manner of addressing one’s players. “Now lads, let us consider the beneficial aspects of the 2-3 zone” was perhaps not quite the style to which they had become accustomed. I learned to use more of the vernacular and they learned that while their coach “talked funny,” his store of knowledge was rather replete.

Decent, intelligent young men will exaggerate, and even prevaricate when placed in uncomfortable positions.

Cissy and I have been discussing vacation plans for nearly a month. Tonight we finally decided. Since we depart upon the morrow this was rather fortuitous. The Lear gives us the ability to make last minute plans, of course.

We had at first considered our beach house in New Zealand, but late April in the Southern hemisphere is not beach weather.

For that same reason a return to Patagonia seemed ill advised.

We considered the Riviera but really, how cliché!

In the end it came down to our farm in the Highlands or our cottage in Victoria.

While Scotland owns our hearts in many ways, and while it would be nice to play a round or two at the Royal and Ancient, only 2 miles away, we decided upon Vancouver Island.

The farmhouse near St. Andrews is on the site of an 1,800 acre working farm, and the house itself is palatial and elegant. We try to get there at least every other year, so we shall undoubtedly visit in 2017.

The cottage in Victoria is cozy, three stories, only eight bedrooms- plus servants’ quarters, of course, but that goes without saying.

Cissy will have the opportunity to play tennis with some of the very best, as Vancouver is hosting the senior ladies’ Canadian Open whilst we are there. Oh, I have been remiss! Cissy played on the Ladies Tour for five years before our marriage. In 2005, her most successful season, she was a finalist at Wimbledon, and made the semifinals both at the Australian Open and here at Forest Hills. Alas, she never was able to win a major, although she did quite well, all in all. She continues to play regularly and, at 33, she remains marvelously fit.

I must tell you about my family background, and of course Cissy’s as well. That shall come in due course. At the moment I must complete my packing as the hour grows late. I shall return to this narration upon my return from lovely and serene Canada.
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Re: Fight Fiercely Harvard

Postby CoachC » Sun Mar 27, 2016 5:30 am

a woman coach in DI men's basketball? It's still difficult to get a female head coach in WOMEN's DI basketball!
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Re: Fight Fiercely Harvard

Postby Wayne23 » Sun Mar 27, 2016 5:36 am

Hey! When I finish this one that's next up. After that is a- no, that would be telling, but it will be ... different!
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Re: Fight Fiercely Harvard

Postby CoachC » Sun Mar 27, 2016 5:43 am

You are gonna coach as Caitlin Jenner! I knew it!
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