The Phenom

Re: The Phenom

Postby Wayne23 » Fri Apr 16, 2021 3:52 pm

1/9: 79-72 vs. 6-9 Davidson. Up 6 at the half. We were never threatened in the 2nd half; led by 17 at one point. 9 TOs, decent D.

18, 8 for Burr, 17, 5 for Risi, 16, 4, 4 for Herd.
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Re: The Phenom

Postby Wayne23 » Fri Apr 16, 2021 5:10 pm

1/12: 64-83 at 8-6 Richmond; the road is tough. We take an early lead but can't hold it. Down 17 at the half.

-6 RBs, 17 TOs. They shot 49.2% and we shot 39.7%. We were outplayed both inside and outside.

15, 6, 3 for Risi, but his man had 27. 12, 7 for Burr but his man had 12, 11.

I'm frustrated. I didn't expect a great season but I sure don't like losing.
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Re: The Phenom

Postby Wayne23 » Fri Apr 16, 2021 5:29 pm

1/16: 63-59 vs. 4-11 LaSalle here; way too close against this weak team. We took an early lead and held it. Up 8 at the half. The D was excellent (30.5%, 31.4% on threes), but the O was awful (37.9%, 4-21 on threes).

18, 4, 3 for Herd, 15, 6 for Burr.

Excerpts from Post Game press Conference:

Q: Coach, the team seems to struggling a bit lately.

Coach: It's a long season. You hit high spots and you hit valleys. And remember that we're playing with a starter out with an injury.

Q: Yes, but it seems like if the offense is clicking the defense isn't, and vice versa.

Coach: We use every practice to teach and to practice. But it takes time. We'll get there.

Q: This season?

Coach: With some luck. But there's a lot to learn, and learning takes time, dedication, and hard, hard work. We're getting the 2nd and 3rd, but time is time; you can't always hurry the practice.

Q: You're at Fordham next. You crushed them at your place.

Coach: We did, but the road is tough. We're not taking anything for granted.
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Re: The Phenom

Postby Wayne23 » Fri Apr 16, 2021 6:30 pm

1/19: 83-76 at Fordham. Up 2 at the half. At last an in conf. road win! It wasn't pretty but I'll take it.

Our usual poor D (52%), but we shot well, 51.8%, 8-16 on threes.

16, 8 for Burr, 16, 3 for Demo from the bench, 12 each for Risi and Stow.
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Re: The Phenom

Postby Wayne23 » Sat Apr 17, 2021 5:01 am

1/23: 86-66 over Rhode Island here. Back and forth through the entire half. Up 8 at the end. We took charge in the 2nd. A rare night when I was at least satisfied with both the O and the D.

SG Arvid Biel had a night, 28, 4, 3. 10, 6, 12 for Herd12, 7 for Risi, 11, 8 for Demo.

14-29 on threes. 6 TOs.

We're 13-5, 5-2, tied for 4th, 2 back of 1st.
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Re: The Phenom

Postby Wayne23 » Sat Apr 17, 2021 10:02 am

1/26: 88-75 at Dayton. A real battle early. Up 7 at the half. We never trailed in the 2nd half. Are we finally coming together as a team? Tied for 2nd with 3 other teams, 2 back of VA Commonwealth.

Team stats were pretty even, we shot 44.3%, they shot 42,4%. +2 RBs, -1 TO. BUT, we hit 17 threes to their 8, and that was the difference.

21, 2, 11 for Herd, 18, 11 for Risi, 14, 5 for Biel, 16 for sub F/C Len Barn.

I lead a solitary life away from work- not that I'm ever really away from work during the season. Anyway, I spend most of my waking hours at the office and in the gym. When we're on the road I'm usually in my hotel room when I'm not in a gym.

At home I get up at about 6:00, no alarm needed. I go for a 45 minute jog, not too fast. I come in, cool down while I'm checking the news and my emails, then shower.

I drive to campus, park the car, walk over to the cafeteria for coffee and a muffin, then go to my office. There's coffee in the office kitchenette, and I drink it slowly but continuously throughout the day.

I check in with my assistants, check my mail, email, texts, and phone calls, and do the zillion things that need doing.

I meet, usually for just about an hour, with my assistants in the morning and we talk about recruits, then the team. We bring up each player on the roster to be sure everything is going well academically, then what each player needs to be working on. And yes, we do all of that every day. I don't want any surprises and I want us right on top of things at all times.

I have lunch at the cafeteria, something healthy.

In the afternoon I meet with my assistants one at a time, going over what needs going over with each individual assistant.

Luke Jora, my bench/practice coach gets more of my time than the others except at the height of recruiting season. We design the practice or prep for the game.

Ty Weel's scouting report came to us before Luke and I met and that plays a key role. Of course Luke and I have also watched video of the next team we're playing, but Ty is the one who has broken it down and analyzed it in depth.

Recruiter Tony Berg gets a LOT of my time before and during recruiting, and some time talking about potential recruits in the recruiting slow times.

There's study hall for two hours in the afternoon, and either practice or a game in the evening, with a quick meal from the caf in between. UMass has a great caf with healthy choices. I try to always eat healthy. My kids eat too damn much junk, but I eat very little of that.

After practice I go back to my office and take notes on anything that I will need to follow up on, which could be a lot of things.

Eventually I go back home and often watch a college game until I start to feel tired, usually around midnight, give or take an hour.

If we're on the road it's not a lot different except we all eat together, and I use my hotel room as my office. In this modern age it's not difficult to use the hotel room as an office.

On Sunday I try not work for more than eight hours unless we have a game, and I also fit in a long afternoon nap to recharge my batteries.

During the off season the day on campus is shorter. I usually get home after study hall, maybe 6:30 or so and cook a meal, nothing fancy, but something healthy. Might be a lamb chop or a chicken breast, a piece of fish- something like that; I like to cook but there's just no time during the season. Then I watch video of incoming recruits' high school games to get a feel for their strengths and weaknesses, and video of our games. I see a LOT of video because the more I see the more I learn about my players and about our system's strengths and weaknesses.

I've said before that I often see my parents on the weekend. Other than that I don't go out much. Maybe once a month I'll have dinner with an old friend.

I don't really date. As I've said I just don't see how I could do justice to a marriage so it seems like a waste of time. In truth I'm a bit lonely regarding female companionship. I like women. It's just that I've gotten into relationships, mostly back when I was in college, and when it starts to get serious I just don't have the time for it. Life is about trade offs and you can't have everything.
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Re: The Phenom

Postby Wayne23 » Sat Apr 17, 2021 10:16 am

1/30: 72-52 vs. 3-16 George Washington here. We expected a relatively easy game (I didn't tell the kids that) but GW came to play. Up 9 at the half. I sent a wake up call in the locker room and we completely took charge in the 2nd half; we led by as many as 27.

21, 3, 4 for Risi, 15, 5, 8 for Herd, 17, 5, 3 for Burr.

Only 7 TOs.

Still 2 back of 1st in a 4 way tie for 2nd.

We have 3 tough road games ahead of us so 2nd place may not be in the cards. We'll see. 3 more games without starting SG Chris Hobs and the 2 this week figure to be our toughest.
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Re: The Phenom

Postby Wayne23 » Sat Apr 17, 2021 10:40 am

2/2: 82-65 at 16-5, 7-2 Saint Louis. We played really well early and built a good lead. Up 14 at the half. Best win of the season. We led by 20 or more for almost the entire 2nd half.

Tremendous balance tonight. 8 players scored between 8 and 13 points. That made us very hard to defend. We moved without the ball beautifully and Herd found the open man all night- 13 assists, 24 for the team on 31 buckets.

On D we held them to 35.6% shooting, 28.6% on threes. Their SF and backup C were the only people who gave us trouble, and it wasn't all that much. +9 RBs.

Excerpts:

Q: Coach, going in this figured to be a really tough game for the Minutemen. It wasn't. What happened?

Coach: My kids listened! (laughter) We executed really, really well all over the court. This is best I've ever seen us at moving without the ball on O, and we shifted from man to man to the 3-2 really well, too.

Q: Talk about your Point Guard.

Coach: Voshon Herd has been playing well lately; really well on O. He's taking the shot when it's there which is vital. It took us a while to get him to do that but when he does it opens up so many things. And his passing has been terrific for the past few games. I couldn't be happier with him.

Q: Toughest game of the season coming up.

Coach: Yes. Virginia Commonwealth is #9 in the country, 21-1, 10-0, and we get to play them at their place. It won't be easy. They're on an 18 game winning streak and their only loss was to the #4 team in the country.

Q: What do you need to do to win?

Coach: Well, first we need to be at the very top of our game, the way we were tonight. They have a terrific PG. He dishes well, scores points, and plays great D. We need to contain him. They force lots of turnovers so the pressure is going to be on Voshon. Hopefully the other guys will help out by working to get open.

They're solid and deep inside. We need to control the boards, and we think we have a chance to do that if we play our game, but we can't let them have a lot of layups.

This one will be a challenge, and I wish we had more time to prepare for it. But I have confidence in my guys and I know we'll give it all we have.
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Re: The Phenom

Postby Wayne23 » Sat Apr 17, 2021 10:56 am

2/6: 57-84 . We fell behind early, then fell way behind. Down 22 at the half. In the locker room we talked about D, which was all but nonexistent in the 1st. We did a little better in the 2nd, but not nearly enough for it to matter.

23 TOs. That's the worst in my entire coaching career. -11 RBs, and that's about as bad as one of my teams has ever done.

7 players scored between 5 and 12 for us and no one else scored at all.

Excerpts:

Q: Coach, not the kind of performance you were hoping for.

Coach: No it wasn't. They are a very good team, and they sure showed it tonight.

Q: What went wrong?

Coach: Just about everything. If I had to name one thing, it would be quickness. They were way quicker than us, all through the roster. It felt like we spent the night chasing them and not quite catching up.

Q: What could you have done differently that might have helped?

Coach: We weren't nearly aggressive enough on D. I rarely want my team to foul more, but only committing 9 fouls showed that we needed to be a lot more aggressive, and if we play these guys in the post season we will be.

Q: You really are in the middle of a scheduling nightmare right now.

Coach: Hell yeah! We just faced the two toughest teams in the A10 and our next two games are against the other two toughest teams. That's really tough. The good news is that Chris Hobs will be back soon. I may get to play him for a couple minutes here and there in our next and he should be 100% for the game after that.
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Re: The Phenom

Postby Wayne23 » Sat Apr 17, 2021 11:17 am

2/9: 87-89 vs. #8 ranked ST. Joe, 22-3, 9-3, here. Good team. We fought to stay close; down only one at the half. We played catch up all night and missed an open 16 footer at the buzzer that would have taken it to OT.

It was an offensive game; they shot 56.6%, we shot 52.5%. We were more aggressive on D, and we had to be, but it meant they went to the line 33 times while we went 25, and they hit their free throws. We didn't rebound as well as we would have liked, -7. And 17 TOs was way too many, although they had 20.

17, 9, 3 for Risi, 19, 0, 5 for Herd, with only 3 TOs, 17, 0, 4 for Biel with only 1 TO. I thought we played well, and if we play these guys again, I think we'll have a shot, especially with Hobs back. It deepens our bench, which was a factor here. Their bench outplayed ours.

Hobs is back for our next game.

We've fallen into a tie for 4th in the A10.
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