FEDORA

[PointGuard]

Frederick Aura

Today is Janeka’s last day of self-quarantining. About damned time! Playing Mom and Dad the past two weeks has been hell. I think the kids were unhappy about not having her with them and also saw an opportunity to take advantage of the situation whenever they could. My response to their efforts was occasionally over blown which made things worse.

Even though she is in the same house and we talk through the door, I’ve missed her a lot.

I’ve told Janeka to spend as much time as she can with the kids the entire week after she gets “freed”. I’m then planning to take her on a surprise weekend…just the two of us. I’ve got my parents coming to our house then to take care of the kids.

Then a few weeks later, the whole family will go on a great vacation to the Canadian Maritime Provinces.

[PointGuard]

Omar McDade, 1st Assistant (Recruiting) Coach

We’ve only got 2 scholarships to offer this coming season. We’re going to focus on getting at least one interior player and maybe two. But if we can’t get a 2nd big man, we’ll go after a guard. Crash (Coach Aura) wants to try to land high flyers this year. I reminded him our college's name was spelled T-o-w-s-o-n rather than D-u-k-e and tried talking him into lowering his sights a bit, but he was adamant. So I’ll give it a try, but I think we could get shut out his fall.

Anyway, we put together a list of some very good big men and I’m starting to try to get them interested in us. It’s a struggle.

[PointGuard]

Omari Aura

Hey, this is Omari Aura, but most guys just call me “O”. My whole family and I are up in Nova Scotia. We’re into our 2nd week of an extended family vacation. I think my Mom and Dad are doing this to make up for all the Covid-hell we’ve been through the past few months. It’s really cut into my socializin’.

The last few days we were out on Prince Edward Island. Went there because my Mom is a big fan of “Anne of Green Gables”. Since the author was from there and based her story on that place we went all over the blasted island going form one “Anne” location to another. Pretty damned boring for Malik and me (and I think my Dad also even though he doesn’t say so), but Mom was in heaven. She was in a Green Gables fog and tried to excite Dee (Devany) about the story even though Dee is only 4 years old. She even made us all go to the island’s playhouse one night and watch an entire play about the story. The ferry ride over to the island was cool though.

The tides on the Bay of Fundy are also pretty cool. But the best thing about the Canadian Maritimes are the Canadian girls. Super friendly! Maybe I will move up here after high school, although I don’t think the level of basketball is strong enough…and I want to continue that for sure. Oh yeah, and the lobsters here have been great too.

Like normal, my parents are also trying to get Malik and me to understand what being black is like here in Canada and telling us about the history of blacks in the Maritimes. Some came here as slaves from the Caribbean primarily and others as came as free (including 3000 who transported to Nova Scotia and given their freedom by England for supporting the British during the American Revolution). Slavery was outlawed in 1833. My impression is that there is less overt racism here, but prejudice still exists and Blacks are economically disadvantaged as they are in the States.

We’re going to take a larger ferry (my Dad says it’s like a ship) to leave Nova Scotia and return to St. John, New Brunswick in a couple days. He says that trip takes a few hours.

[PointGuard]

Michael Snoddy, 2nd Assistant Coach

Been getting reports about how some of our guys are doing in summer leagues and summer camps. Sounds like Ross Davis is doing pretty well, so maybe Coach Aura was right not to cut him to try to get a highly talented transfer player. Wayne Burrough is also performing well this summer and from what I hear, he could be ready to be a starter as a freshman for us this season. On the other hand, I’m hearing that Keiron Stone needs a lot of maturing. That probably means we wont be getting much out of him this season. Redshirting is a possibility.

[PointGuard]

Late August 2020: Coach Aura Receives a Phone Call (VOTP = Voice On The Phone; CFA = Coach Frederick Aura):

VOTP: Hey, is this Coach Aura?
CFA: Yes. Who’s this?
VOTP: Let’s just say I’m Your Lucky Day. I’m going to get right to the point. I hear you’re trying to recruit Kenley Carter. The kid’s great. I’ve watched him play since he was in junior high school and am amazed how he’s developed and now stands head and shoulders over any one he’s ever played against. He’d make your team into a real contender. But the kid is getting recruited by a lot of big name powers. So you’ve not got a chance. Unless…
CFA: Unless what?
VOTP: I’m a good friend of the family. They know Kenley’s going to star for someone. They’re a good family but they got nothing. In fact, they’re in debt up to their ears. Kenley’s their chance to finally get a leg up. So if you want him on your team, you’re gonna need to ante up.
CFA: Hey, I’m just going to hang up.
VOTP: No problem, but hear me out at least. As I said, I’m not part of their family, but have good connections with them. Obviously doing what’s necessary to get Kenley leading your team to the promised land is risky. But as the family’s intermediary, I can make things not only happen, but provide a way for everyone to keep their hands clean. There would never be a trail between you and Kenley and his family. If you want to move the Tigers up in class, you need some real talent and Kenley Carter is it. I’m just giving you the chance for that to happen….to make your dreams come true.
CFA: Look My Lucky Day, I think you’re My Ticket to Infamy.
VOTP: (Laughing) Well, actually I think I’m your ticket to the NCAA Tournament and doing well when you get there and you know it. So let’s quit beating around the bush and make this happen.
CFA: ** CLICK **

A week later, Omar McDade (OM) walks into Coach Aura’s (CFA) office:

OM: Crash, you’ll never guess what happened today!
CFA: You won the lottery?
OM: (Laughing) Not quite, but sort of.
CFA: What the hell you getting at?
OM: Well, you know we’ve never made any inroads with Kenley Carter, that hot stud center from across the border in Pennsylvania. Well today, I made my umpteenth call to him. His father answered the phone and instead of hanging up put Kenley on the phone. I’ll be damned…the kid actually talked with me and opened up. He ended up saying he had become really interested in our program. I nearly fell over.
CFA: Strange. Why do you think things turned 180 degrees around all of a sudden?
OM: Beats me. I have absolutely no idea. But as they say…don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. All of a sudden I’m thinking we have a good chance of getting this guy.
CFA: Maybe, maybe not. I think we need to not get over our skis on this one. Let’s just slow up a little and give things a chance to percolate rather than jumping in head first on such a sudden change of heart. If the kid really is interested, taking things one step at a time is the way to go.
OM: It’s your call, Crash. But if we go too slow, there are others who are trying to scoop this guy up and won’t take their time landing him if he shows interest in them.

That night, another phone call to Coach Aura:

VOTP: Hey Coach, you may be a hot-shot coach, but it will take years for little Towson to get strong enough to be anything but a good team in a so-so conference. But things could happen overnight and I hear your 1st Assistant got a surprise today. I told you I could make things happen.
CFA: Look, I don’t need an intermediary.
VOTP: Yeah, yeah…and Henry Ford didn’t need the Model T. Listen up, we need a more secure way to communicate, so here’s what you need to do….
CFA: **CLICK**

The next night, yet another phone call to Coach Aura:

VOTP: Coach, this is your last chance. Don’t screw this up. You’ll never handed such a golden egg again.
CFA: **CLICK**

Two days later, Omar McDade returns to Coach Aura’s office:

OM: Well Crash, I called Kenley Carter again. I’ll be damned. I didn’t get a chance to say a thing before he told me where I could stick it and hung up on me. I don’t know what to make of it.
CFA: What you make of it is to take him off our list. We got better things to do than chase after him.
OM: [Expletive deleted]

[PointGuard]

Omar McDade

The decision to go after top-rated recruits definitely upped the ante this year. We put a lot of them on our list and slowly got some of them interested, but minimally so. Some simply would not talk to us at all. When we were able to create interest, we just kept chipping away…phone call after phone call. Tedious work with only occasional minor victories. When it came time to offer two available scholarships, we first offered to #12 ranked C Llewellyn Alvin. Even though he was so highly rated, we thought we MIGHT have a chance since he was from Maryland. We also offered a scholarship to C Steve Buchanan from Maine. He was ranked #34 and had shown a fair amount of interest. But the home visit didn’t go well and he quickly opted to go to North Carolina (not much chance of competing against the Tar Heels). We offered the scholarship that Buchanan refused to SG Steven Campbell, #59-ranked recruit from New Hampshire. His interest level rose but and we had some good home visits, but he picked Clemson. In the meantime even though Alvin liked our home visits, he decided to go to Oklahoma State.

We then offered a scholarship to 41st-ranked PF Deon Penn who is attending a JC in Oregon. Surprisingly he showed some strong interest during the late summer. Penn’s interest in us rose with our first home visit but dropped significantly when we re-visited him.

With our budget running low, we decided to drop down to #243-ranked C Melvin Wilden from New York for our 2nd and last scholarship offer. Wilder was rated higher earlier this year and we like what we’ve seen of him.

At that point I was distressed that we were going to run out of money with no success at all. Coach Aura said, “Don’t worry, there are always transfer players to go after at the end of this coming season.” Then, lo and behold, after our 3rd visit to Penn (with no remaining time for home visits), Penn accepted our offer! You could have heard my sigh of relief in Oregon. That left Wilden interested but unsigned and dangling. We plan to cut back all costs and see if he accepts this winter and otherwise try to have a tiny bit of money left to hook him in the spring. Then in mid October, Wilden let us know he was going to go to George Mason. So we’ll continue to contact the remaining recruits on our list and see who rises to the top with the hope we are able to get a good recruit to commit this coming spring.

Coach Aura admitted we shot too high this summer. It’s just too tough for Towson to recruit against the big boys for the top-rated recruits.

Deon Penn is a 6-6 PF from West Linn, Oregon. Not only is he ranked #41 in the nation, we’ve evaluated him as an overall A rated recruit. He’s a very good scorer, particularly from inside, but also has pretty good range from outside. He’s an excellent rebounder who has very good passing and stealing skills. Last season he averaged 18.9 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 1.8 apg, 1.9 bpg, and 2.5 spg. I expect him to fit right into our starting lineup when he arrives next year.

[PointGuard]

Harry Iacona, 3rd Assistant Coach:

Coach Aura had me set up a study table for any of our players whose GPA is below 3.0. So now I’ve got six players on it that I have to keep tabs on.

Michael Snoddy, 2nd Assistant (Practice) Coach:

We began team practice sessions in early October. Ross Davis and Matt Heard got into it during one of our early practices. So Coach Aura laid into both of them and both responded well to it. The team pulled together after that. I’m happy with how the team is developing, but we’re going to need to use pre-conference play to clean things up if we’re to challenge in the Colonial Athletic Association this year.

Here’s how I see the team shaping up:

Jr Adrian Brown definitely has the edge to start at PG. But Jr Mateen Carroll will be a good backup.

Sr Eric Shannon seems to have the early edge to start at SG, but Jr Billy Thomas and So Ryan Taylor both could challenge him. Thomas again probably will put in time at PG as well but we don’t plan to get him into any games until December 1st to let the MCL he tore last season to fully mend. Shannon is likely to continue to move over to SF for portions of some games after Thomas returns.

Fr Wayne Burrough is likely going to win the starting role at SF. But to my surprise, redshirt Fr Ross Davis really improved his game over the summer. So he’ll come off the bench to get some solid minutes at SF this season. If he continues his improvement Coach Aura was right not to have cut him to go after a transfer player.

So Jason Minor looks to be our starting PF with So Jason Vickers being a good substitute.

Sr Melvin Steele has a very small edge over Jr Nick McPherson (who has improved a lot) at C.

We’re redshirting Fr SF Keiron Stone as we figured we would. He has tremendous potential but needs some maturing and refinement of skills, and I don’t think he’d be happy riding our bench all season.

Media Prediction: The media has picked our team to finish 4th in the conference behind Northeastern, William & Mary, and Hoftstra.

[PointGuard]

Jeremiah Dunwoody (JD), NCAA Investigator visits Coach Aura (CA)

JD: Hey Coach, your first season as head coach in Division I went pretty darned well.
CA: Thanks. Not sure if any of the credit goes my way. The players worked their butts of and did their best I think.
JD: Yeah Coach, and I’m sure you’re doing your best to get even better players for the future. Actually that’s why I’m here.
CA: (Laughing) Your son plays ball?
JD: Hah! Hell, Coach…I got 5 kids and not one of them a boy. But a couple of my girls aren’t bad out on the court.
CA: Then it’s probably Coach Jenny Portman you want to be talking to. She’s doing a terrific job with our women’s team.
JD: Nah, that’s not really why I’m here. Coach, let me get right to the point. Tell me, have you been recruiting Kenley Carter?
CA: We had him on our list for a while, but not now. Why?
JD: He’s a helluva player, isn’t he? I’m guessing he will be a one-and-done for some college, but in that one year he certainly could make a difference for a team.
CA: You could well be right, but I really like guys who put in four years with us.
JD: Yeah, but I bet you wouldn’t turn down a kid like Carter.
CA: I’m sure he’s got his sights set on a college in a much higher level conference than we play in.
JD: Maybe, maybe not. We know his parents are dirt poor. A family like that sometimes sees a kid like Kenley as a way to move quickly up the economic ladder.
CA: That could well be true, but he’ll probably be getting a big payday when he signs with the pros.
JD: Absolutely, but it’s not a certainty. Even playing a year of college ball, he might sustain an injury that would take that all away. We see this all the time…a family just decided that they want what they can get, when they can get it. Let me be straight up with you, Coach. Did you ever have someone contact you about making a solid donation to the Carter bank account?
CA: No, not in so many words. I did get a call that led me to believe that MIGHT be the case. But I showed no interest. And as I said, he’s no longer on our list of recruits we’re going after.
JD: So who was it that contacted you?
CA: Beats me. It was just a phone call out of the blue and he never gave me a name and his phone number never showed up on my phone…it just said “Private number”.
JD: Come now! You can’t be serious that you never considered finding some way to get that kid to come to Towson.
CA: Sure, but through our regular recruiting efforts. Not by paying a bribe. As I said, I showed no interest. In fact, I hung up on the unidentified caller.
JD: Why didn’t you let the NCAA know that a bribe was being solicited?
CA: Hey, I had no idea who was calling, if he really was connected with the Carters, what exactly was wanted, or if he was just a complete scam. So there really was nothing to report since I never gave the guy the time of day.
JD: OK, OK. No need to get all defensive and in a huff. I’m just trying to put this puzzle together. Someone’s gonna take a fall. In the future Coach, if something like this occurs, you need to give us a holler and let us know. Not only does it help us keep the game clean, but it protects you. You’d probably have needed some serious coin to get a stud like that to come your way anyway. But you know, because you did get contacted and didn’t notify us, I can’t just delete you outta our list of guys we’re keeping our eyes on, even though I’d like to.
CA: Alright, I understand. It’s the first time I’ve ever encountered anything like this. And you can look this way as much as you’d like. We have nothing to hide.
JD: Like I said when I got here, nice job in your first season. It looks like you might be able to get the Tigers able to make some noise in the conference and in the post-season. Just keep your program clean, Coach.
After Jeremiah Dunwoody leaves Coach Aura’s office:
CA: [Expletive Deleted]

[PointGuard]

The next day, Coach Aura (CA) let’s 1st Assistant Coach Omar McDade (OM) know what happened during Jeremiah Dunwoody’s visit:

OM: Damn, I’m sorry you had to go through that.
CA: I musta been asleep in coach’s school when this subject came up.
OM: (Laughing) Yeah, it’s just ONE of the dark corners of college basketball. We give these kids a free scholarship and that’s great. But a scholarship doesn’t mean much to a kid like Kenley Carter. He’s only going to college to punch his ticket to move on to the NBA, not to get a college degree. But the colleges are making money off basketball and football players and paying them nothing otherwise. Quite a few of these kids come from homes where money is scarce. And there’s a hell of a lot of pressure on coaches to produce. So it’s not surprising that there are those programs that cheat to get recruits.
CA: You don’t have to tell me all that. I’m well aware of it. But I want you to look at our recruiting protocols and tune them up so that there is absolutely no doubt about what we need to do to keep things totally on the up and up. Then we need to get all the coaches together and go over it so everybody completely understands and there are no unanswered questions. It’s just too damned easy for someone to say or do something even a little wrong or to not cross a T or dot an I in what we do. I also want to talk with our players to ensure they completely understand what can’t be done and that they need to let us know if an alum, a fan, or anyone offers or provides them with something that is illegal with the NCAA. We’re gonna have EVERYone sign that they’ve been apprised of all this also.
OM: I’m on it, Crash.
After leaving the office:
OM: [Expletive deleted]'ng NCAA!

[PointGuard]

Nov 14, 2020: Towson Tigers (0-0) @ Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers (0-0)

PG Adrian Brown:

I’m was excited to be starting my first game for the Tigers. The level of play is way above what went on in Junior College ball.

Andy Miller is The Mount’s starting PG that I’ll be going up against. Last season he averaged 7.6 ppg and had 3.6 apg. He’s a ball-hawk so I need to protect the ball. SF B.J. Jefferson scored 13.7 ppg so we’d like to shut him down.

We picked off passes by the Moutaineers on their first two possessions of the game. 50 seconds into the game I drained a 3 for our first points. We then pulled out to an 11-0 lead after 4 minutes of play. Then we went scoreless for 3-1/2 minutes and allowed Mount St. Mary’s to tie us. We then pulled away again and held onto a 5-10 point lead the rest of the half. We went to the locker room up 34-26. In his first collegiate game, SF Wayne Burrough led us with 9 points in the first half.

Our defense clamped down on the Mountaineers early in the 2nd half and we opened a 46-30 lead with 13 minutes remaining. But Mount St. Mary’s came back to tie the game at 51-51 with 9-1/2 minutes to play. We went on an 9-0 run to lead 64-55 with 6 minutes to go. We held on to come away with a 70-63 road win.

We hit 48% of our FG attempts and 50% of our 3P attempts. We held the Mountaineers shooting to 38% on FG’s and 27% on 3’s. We made 23 turnovers so I’m sure Coach Fed will be on us at practice about that.

After scoring just 3 points in the first half, I finished with 14 points and had 2 steals and 2 blocks plus held Andy Miller to just 3 points. So I felt good about my defense. SG Eric Shannon and SF Wayne Burrough both scored 11 points and each had 5 rebounds. The coaches gave me the Player of the Game award, but I didn’t feel I deserved it since I had 7 turnovers and only 3 assists.

Best performance by a Colonial Athletic Association team tonight was by Hofstra which scored a 76-65 upset on the road versus Tennessee.