OMARI

[PointGuard]

Dec. 15: Coppin State Eagles—81, Grambling Tigers--70

We kept it close for 30 minutes during which there were 15 lead changes, but let it get away from us in the final 10 minutes. We were simply outplayed by the Eagles. They hit 57% of their shots to our 40% and dominated the boards, 35-24. Our only players to score in double figures were C Rob Adkins with 15 points and SF Garick Weaver with 14 points, but PF Drew Bekale and SG Melvin Dickens were close with 9 points apiece. [4-6]

[PointGuard]

Dec. 20: Grambling Tigers—82, Northern Colorado Bears--65

It was nice to get back into the win column with a solid victory. We rocked in the first half to lead 47-27 at the break. We never let the Bears seriously threaten in the 2nd half. We hit 56% of our FGA’s and 50% of our 3PA’s and were +7 on the glass. PF Drew Bekale had 17 points and 6 boards, C Rob Adkins put together a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds, SF Garick Weaver and SG Melvin Dickens both scored 11, and SF Brandon Harper came in off the bench to add 10 points. [5-6]

[PointGuard]

Dec. 27: North Carolina A&T Aggies—72, Grambling Tigers--58

The home and home pre-conference games with the Aggies were instituted by the previous coach, but I have no plans to continue that. We beat this team by 18 points on our court and now we lose to them by 14 on their court. Poor shooting (39%) led to our demise tonight. C Rob Adkins and PF Drew Bekale both scored 12 while SG Melvin Dickens hit for 9 points and had 6 assists and 7 steals. [5-7]

[PointGuard]

Pre-Conference play has concluded

Certainly an unspectacular pre-conference record (5-7) given that we had scheduled absolutely no tough opponents. We were 5-1 at home but winless in our 6 away games. We averaged 73.8 ppg while giving up an average of 72.0 ppg to our opponents. Two weaknesses offensively were our 3-point shooting which was a lackluster 32.9% and our free throw shooting (70.0%). We’ve been picked to finish 10th out of 12 teams in the SWAC this season.

SG Melvin Dickens is our top scorer (12.2 ppg) plus has averaged 3.3 rpg, 3.0 apg, and 2.8 spg. C Rob Adkins is averaging 11.6 ppg and 7.2 rpg and PF Drew Bekale is averaging 11.7 ppg and 5.3 rpg. At SF, Garick Weaver is averaging 7.7 ppg and 4.3 rpg while Brandon Harper has scored 8.3 ppg but has pulled down just 2.0 rpg. Mario Kelly has scored just 5.8 ppg and grabbed just 1.9 rpg but has dished out 4.9 apg.

I’m sticking with the same starting lineup I’ve been using recently: PG Kelly; SG Dickens; SF Weaver; PF Bekale; and C Adkins with 4 regular subs: G David Jamison; SF Brandon Harper; PF/C Aubrey Johnson and Anthony Erwin. I’ve not played Junior Duane Robinson and sophomore Josh Williams at PG much at all thus far, but both have shown improvement in practice so I’m going to give them more of a chance in games since freshman Mario Kelly has not come on as strongly as we’d initially thought he would. We’ll see which of the three play best.

[PointGuard]

Holidays with Family

My entire family (Mom, Dad, my sister Devany, my Grandpa Al Miller, and my bro Malik and his wife Celia) came to visit for the Christmas and New Years holidays. Not a lot to do in Grambling, but we all spent some time checking out Shreveport, Louisiana and the rest of the family is going to spend a couple days in New Orleans (I’ve got some meetings so can’t go). It was nice of them to come and they liked looking around Grambling State College (a picture of Long-Jones Hall and the Tiger statue is below) and going to the Eddie G. Robinson Museum that’s located on the campus. They’ll take in our first conference game at Alcorn State. It’s a couple hour drive from Grambling. The Braves went 6-5 in preconference play and played a little tougher schedule than did we. They’ve not lost at home yet this season so it’s likely to be a tough test for us.

[PointGuard]

Jan. 3: Alcorn State Braves—87, Grambling Tigers—82

Another game where we outplayed our opponent in the first half, leading 43-36 at halftime. But then the Braves decimated our defense in the 2nd half. They caught up with us with 16 minutes to play and then the two teams exchanged the lead until Alcorn State moved ahead for good with 3 minutes to go. Good offense by us, but sloppy D. SG Melvin Dickens scored 15 and Drew Bekale both hit for 13 points. PF Aubrey Johnson and SF Garick Weaver both added 9 points. We split time at PG between Mario Kelly, Josh Williams, Duane Robinson, and David Jamison. While none really stood out, all played reasonably well and together contributed 14 points. [5-8, 0-1]

[PointGuard]

Jan. 6: Mississippi Valley Delta Devils—74, Grambling Tigers—61

The Delta Devils jumped out to a big early lead. We fought back midway through the first half to exchange the lead with Mississippi Valley 7 times but slipped behind 38-33 at halftime. We simply got hammered in the 2nd half, falling behind by as much as 20 points. A bad road loss as we hit just 39% of our shots and got outplayed in most all aspects of the game. We had 4 players score in double figures: PF Drew Bekale—12; SG Melvin Dickens—11, SF Garick Weaver—10; PF Aubrey Johnson—10. But we got little offense from anyone else. None of our PG’s looked good. Worst of all is that PF Aubrey Johnson suffered a strained abdominal and C Rob Adkins sprained his ankle. Both are day to day and if they play in our next game, are likely to be limited. [5-9, 0-2]

[PointGuard]

Jan. 10: Alabama State Hornets—77, Grambling—61

Damn, we get a home game and play well for 20 minutes, leading 43-36 at the break…and then simply fall apart completely in the 2nd half, scoring just 18 points in the final 20 minutes. We let the Hornets not only get past us but open an ever-increasing lead all the way up to the end of the game. I could blame the loss on the injuries to C Rob Adkins and PF Aubrey Johnson. But while Adkins was definitely sub-par, Johnson played pretty well even though he isn’t 100%. It was a team loss though, and we just didn’t come out with a fire within us in the 2nd half. We only hit 39% of our FGA’s, 28% of our 3PA’s, and were -15 in rebounding. Aubrey Johnson (10 points) was our only player to score in double figures, but he didn’t attack the boards. Rob Adkins did a good job rebounding but could only play 15 minutes and score 2 points. And again none of our PG’s distinguished themselves...and that’s really hurting us.
[5-10. 0-3]

[PointGuard]

Concerns

Being the head coach is tougher than I expected. It seemed so easy for my Dad. I thought my team would do OK in conference play. I mean I didn’t expect us to contend for the top of the standings, but really figured we’d do better than what others predicted for us. But we couldn’t even win at home. Yeah, I’m discouraged. And since we’ve only corralled one recruit with 2 scholarships yet vacant, I’m becoming concerned about my recruiting as well. While we’ve gotten some of the uncommitted recruits to show interest, it’s been minimal. But we just need to keep chipping away at ‘em, I guess.

[PointGuard]

Jan. 13: Texas Southern Tigers—84, Grambling Tigers—72

We travelled to Houston to take on unbeaten Texas Southern. After trailing 38-26 at halftime, we made a valiant comeback effort and actually slipped ahead by a couple points with 7 minutes remaining. But we ran out of game so we were unable to stop Texas Southern from rallying late in the game. We dominated the boards, 42-28, but made 9 more turnovers and were outshot by our opponent. SF Garick Weaver led our scoring with 15 points. SG Melvin Dickens added 12. C Rob Adkins came on strong from his injury to record a double-double with 11 points and 12 boards. PF Drew Bekale had 10 points and 9 rebounds. PG Mario Kelly had a good game with 7 points, 3 rebounds, and 6 assists. We’re tied with Arkansas-Pine Bluff for last place in the SWAC. PF/C Anthony Erwin left the game with a calf strain, but our athletic trainers feel he’ll not miss a game due to it. [5-11, 0-4]