SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

Re: SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

Postby PointGuard » Fri Mar 17, 2023 10:25 pm

Rob Benchley, Athletic Director

Rashon Richardson, our 3rd assistant coach, had just one year left on his contract. We tried to negotiate with him to get an extension, but he wanted to move up to a higher level. We had no intention of cutting either Bryan King or Justin Traore, our first and second assistant coaches, loose. We realized that even if Rashon were to stay with us for remaining year on his contract, he would be leaving after that since there’s no expectation that our 1st or 2nd assistant jobs will be available next year either. Rashon said he wanted to test the waters to try to get a 1st or 2nd assistant coaching job at another school. But had we held his job for him and he had gotten a new job, that would have left us with an opening after many of the better coaches had been hired this year. That was unacceptable, so we told Rashon if he wanted to talk with other programs, he needed to do by being totally free from us. Rashon decided to leave and take his chances. So we had to find and hire a new 3rd assistant.

We considered a few assistant coaches who were good scouts and then made an early offer to Jody Hedde, who had been the 3rd assistant at Virginia Tech. We thought he likely was looking for a 1st or 2nd assistant position and might possibly turn us down flat. He considered our offer though, and to our surprise, he accepted. After spending the past 4 years at a losing program, I think he’s excited to be coming to a winning program that has been on the upswing. Jody is 50 years old and we signed him to a 4-year contract. We’re excited to be getting him. Whereas Rashon’s skills in areas other than scouting were a bit stronger, Jody’s scouting skills are very good, so we feel he will be an upgrade for us in that role. He’s already begun studying our Big West opponents and is encouraging me to set our pre-conference schedule in stone so he can focus on those teams as well.

Oh, and Rashon Richardson? He got hired by Columbia as their 1st Assistant, so things have worked out well for him.

Fred’s assistants now populate many programs in Division 1 basketball:

Chris Evans is the 1st Asst at Western Carolina
Kevin Abney is head coach at Boston University (the Terriers were 12-18 last season)
Robert Wilson is the 3rd Asst for Dayton
Darrell Montgomery is the head coach at Tulsa (the Golden Hurricanes were 6-24 last season)
Jeremy Anderson is the 2nd Asst at Dayton
Landon Friel is head coach at Florida International (after being as asst. at Boston College for 5 years, he was hired by the Panthers a week ago)
Rashon Richardson is 1st Asst at Columbia
C.J. Costa is the 1st Asst for Southern Illinois
Bob Rowland, David Woodruff, and Eugene Wallace have retired from coaching
Dynasty Threads:
Fedora-CB;Town Crier-CB;FIve Friends/Foes-CB;Media Perspective-CB;Whatever It Takes-CB;Who's Bret Vandergard-CB;Gym Rat-CB;Repairman-CB;S. Mastroani-TPG;V. Stevenson-TPG
User avatar
PointGuard
DDS:CB Support Squad
 
Posts: 13265
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:14 am

Re: SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

Postby PointGuard » Sat Mar 18, 2023 6:13 pm

Bryan King, 1st Assistant Coach (recruiting)

We had 4 more players accept our scholarship offers in March and April. So we filled 7 of our 8 available scholarships. We will look to fill the last remaining scholarship by picking up a transfer player. Here’s the 7 new players we’ll be welcoming to campus soon:

PF Darcel Aygar, 6-6, HS Sr, Healdsburg, CA. This season averaged 18.5 ppg, 3.5 apg, 7.9 rpg, 1.7 bpg, 1.6 spg. Strengths: Inside shooting, Scoring, Defense, Tremendous work ethic, Durability. Weaknesses: Ball handling, Free throw shooting. 4 star, ranked #95.

C Dekker Chambers, 6-8, JC So, Potter Valley, CA. This season averaged 12.6 ppg, 3.3 apg, 10.2 rpg, 3.4 bpg, 2.2 spg. Strengths: Inside shooting, Rebounding, Shot blocking, Outside shooting, Passing. Weaknesses: Ball handling, Athleticism. 4 star, Ranked #97.

PG Danny Preston, 6-5, HS Sr, Cincinnati, OH. This season averaged 17.0 ppg, 3.8 apg, 4.1 rpg, 2.0 bpg, 2.4 spg. Strengths: Outside shooting, Defense, Scoring, Passing, Ball handling, Tremendous work ethic. Weaknesses: Rebounding, Shot blocking. 4 star, Ranked #107.

SF Ben Smith, 6-6, HS Sr, England. This season averaged 15.7 ppg, 3.7 apg, 3.5 rpg, 2.1 bpg, 2.4 spg. Strengths: Athleticism, Outside shooting, Defense, Inside shooting, Scoring, Tremendous work ethic, Doesn’t cause problems. Weaknesses: Ball handling, Rebounding, Shot blocking. 4 star, Ranked #116.

SF Trey Small, 6-5, JC So, North Las Vegas, NV. This season averaged 13.6 ppg, 3.2 apg, 6.4 rpg, 2.2 bpg, 2.6 spg. Strengths: Outside shooting, Passing, Scoring, Athleticism, Durability, Hard worker. Weaknesses: Ball handling, Shot blocking. 3 star, Ranked #187.

C Justin Clausen, 6-10, HS Sr, Gustine, CA. This season averaged 16.2 ppg, 2.2 apg, 3.9 rpg, 1.8 bpg, 1.8 spg. Strengths: Inside shooting, Outside shooting, Scoring, Defense. Hard worker. Weaknesses: Free throws, Ball handling, Shot blocking, Athleticism. 3 star, Ranked #193.

PG Tim Lepore, 6-5, HS Sr, Tucumcari, NM. This season averaged 16.7 ppg, 4.5 apg, 4.3 rpg, 1.9 bpg, 2.2 spg. Strengths: Outside shooting, Athleticism, Scoring, Passing, Durability. Weaknesses: Inside shooting, Rebounding, Shot blocking, Attitude, Not a hard worker. 3 star, Ranked #203.

Coach Aura and our AD Rob Benchley are, as am I, very pleased to have landed four 4-star and three 3-star recruits. We also filled our most pressing positional needs and got a nice class mix with 5 high school and 2 JC recruits. While there’s no way to be sure any of these recruits will star for us this coming season, I think at least some of them will come in ready to compete strongly for starting positions and this group of newcomers should provide some real strength for us in the coming years.
Dynasty Threads:
Fedora-CB;Town Crier-CB;FIve Friends/Foes-CB;Media Perspective-CB;Whatever It Takes-CB;Who's Bret Vandergard-CB;Gym Rat-CB;Repairman-CB;S. Mastroani-TPG;V. Stevenson-TPG
User avatar
PointGuard
DDS:CB Support Squad
 
Posts: 13265
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:14 am

Re: SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

Postby PointGuard » Sun Mar 19, 2023 8:51 pm

Rob Benchley, Athletic Director

Coach Aura’s request for a facilities upgrade was again nixed by the board. So our facilities are still rated as a C-.

Another strong season by our team. Here’s Coach Aura’s overall record as a head coach in Division 1:

Coach Frederick Aura’s Division 1 Coaching Summary:

2019-20: Towson, 18-15, .545, unranked, 6th (tie) in CAA, No post-season tourney
2020-21: Towson, 13-17, .433, unranked, 5th in CAA, No post-season tourney
2021-22: Towson, 24-9, .727, unranked, 2nd in CAA, NCAA (Round 1)
2022-23: Towson, 27-7, .794, ranked 24th, 1st in CAA, NCAA (Round 2)
2023-24: Towson, 30-4, .882, ranked 15th, 1st in CAA, NCAA (Sweet 16)
2024-25: Towson, 25-8, .758, unranked, 1st in CAA, NCAA (Round 1)
2025-26: Boston College, 21-17, .553, unranked, 10th in ACC, CIT (Finals)
2026-27: Boston College, 25-10, .714, ranked 25th, 3rd in ACC, NCAA (Sweet 16)
2027-28: Boston College, 34-5, .872, ranked 2nd, 1st in ACC, NCAA (Final 4)
2028-29: Boston College, 30-6, .833, ranked 2nd, 1st in ACC, NCAA (Round 2)
2029-30: Boston College, 26-9, .743, ranked 8th, 2nd in ACC, NCAA (Round 2)
2030-31: Boston College, 30-8, .789, ranked 8th, 1st in ACC, NCAA (Champions)
2031-32: Cal Poly, 15-15, .500, unranked, 2nd (tie) in Big West, No post-season tourney
2032-33: Cal Poly, 16-15, .516, unranked, 4th (tie) in Big West, No post-season tourney
2033-34: Cal Poly, 26-8, .765, unranked, 2nd in Big West, NCAA (Round 2)
2034-35: Cal Poly, 21-12, .636, unranked, 1st in Big West, NIT (Round 1)

CAREER RECORD: 381-165, .698
Dynasty Threads:
Fedora-CB;Town Crier-CB;FIve Friends/Foes-CB;Media Perspective-CB;Whatever It Takes-CB;Who's Bret Vandergard-CB;Gym Rat-CB;Repairman-CB;S. Mastroani-TPG;V. Stevenson-TPG
User avatar
PointGuard
DDS:CB Support Squad
 
Posts: 13265
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:14 am

Re: SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

Postby PointGuard » Mon Mar 20, 2023 10:56 pm

2035-2036 SEASON

[NOTE: Successfully imported this association from DDSCB2022 to DDSCB2023]

Fred Aura

I sort of feel like a teacher who starts the new school year with a lot of new faces in the room. We do have 5 players returning so there’s a small core of experience, but the rest of the team has never before played for Cal Poly. I’m pretty impressed by our new recruits. Lots of talent and even greater potential. So I’m not sure how many of our returning 5 will get a lot of playing time this coming season but we’ll need them to exert leadership.

Bryan Taylor considered transferring. He came to us as a PG, but I used him mostly at SG last season. So that made him begin thinking about going somewhere where he could play at the point. I let him know I felt he was a good PG but that he filled a need we had last season at SG and that he did a good job for us there. He’s a valuable asset to us and I let him know I want him on the court for us, but that I need him filling in where necessary. He mulled things over and made the decision to remain with us this coming season. So we have no one transferring away from us this summer.

We got word that UC Davis’ C Corey Heideman was considering transferring. That guy killed us (and the rest of the Big West) last year, so the rumor really perked up our ears. Possibly since he did such an outstanding job as a freshman last year, he figured he might be able to move up to a higher prestige program. But ultimately he decided to remain at UC Davis.

We had one available scholarship to fill this summer. After taking a good look at our roster for this coming season, I decided that we’d go after a transfer player, completely focusing on trying to get a good guard and preferably a SG. We got in touch with a bunch of SG’s and PG’s whom we thought were likely to provide instant offense. Most were intent on trying to transfer to basketball powerhouse programs, so didn’t give us the time of day. And we also found out that a good portion of them had personalities that could create locker room problems. So that cut down our list of potentials very quickly. One guy we talked with was 6’1” SG Nikolos Ivalitsch, who came from Russia as a highly ranked recruit. He chose to go to Syracuse and started and played well for the Orange as a freshman. He said he’d thought Syracuse was going to rebuild to get beyond their decade-long sub .500 play, but realized midway through last season that he’d been misled. He had no knowledge at all about Cal Poly or San Luis Obispo. But he warmed to us (and our proximity to nearby surfing). We offered him a scholarship, and to our immense delight he accepted. Last season Nikolos started every game for Syracuse and averaged 12.1 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 2.3 apg, and 2.0 spg. He’s durable and even though he sustained a bruised shoulder last season, he played through that without missing any games. His work ethic is excellent. He’s a decent shooter from mid-range who’s not afraid to put the ball up. Although not a good 3-point shooter, he’s a strong rebounder and more importantly, an excellent defender. We’ve rated him as a 4-star player and believe he will be an immediate starter who will become part of what we expect will be a formidable starting lineup.

With the recruits and the transfer player we added, I’m excited to get beyond summer and early autumn and get our next season underway. While inexperience will be a factor, I believe we have an opportunity to put a really solid team on the court this coming season. We’ll know more in November after fall practice has been completed.

We kept tabs on transfers to Big West teams, but didn’t note any really highly rated transfer players heading to our opponents. UC Irvine and Cal State Northridge picked up 3 transfer players each, so it looks like there may be some problems at those schools that led to their having to go after so many players.
Dynasty Threads:
Fedora-CB;Town Crier-CB;FIve Friends/Foes-CB;Media Perspective-CB;Whatever It Takes-CB;Who's Bret Vandergard-CB;Gym Rat-CB;Repairman-CB;S. Mastroani-TPG;V. Stevenson-TPG
User avatar
PointGuard
DDS:CB Support Squad
 
Posts: 13265
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:14 am

Re: SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

Postby PointGuard » Tue Mar 21, 2023 11:04 pm

Bryan King, 1st Assistant Coach (recruiting)

I just found out that our recruiting class from last year was ranked as 40th best in the nation. We’re all very pleased with that.

We have no seniors on our team this year, so I’ll be helping with practices and providing bench support to Coach Aura during games. But we have 6 juniors on our roster this season, so that means the year after this one will be a full-blown recruiting year. Therefore, I will spend time taking a look at high school juniors and some JC freshmen this year.
Dynasty Threads:
Fedora-CB;Town Crier-CB;FIve Friends/Foes-CB;Media Perspective-CB;Whatever It Takes-CB;Who's Bret Vandergard-CB;Gym Rat-CB;Repairman-CB;S. Mastroani-TPG;V. Stevenson-TPG
User avatar
PointGuard
DDS:CB Support Squad
 
Posts: 13265
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:14 am

Re: SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

Postby PointGuard » Wed Mar 22, 2023 11:00 pm

Zahara Carter, Assistant (sports administration)

We just learned that for the first time ever Cal Poly has someone nominated for the Norton Award. Not just one player, but two! C Victor Collier and SG Nikolos Ivelitsch were both nominated. The Athletic Department is abuzz with excitement. And I’m busy getting a bunch of publicity out about this honor. Coach Aura said that he had players nominated for this award while he was coaching at Boston College, but didn’t expect it for a player on the Mustangs. The coaches have said they were extremely happy to have been able to pick up a transfer player with Ivelitsch’s talent…and now they feel they may have even underrated him, since others feel he’s one of the best players in Division 1 this coming season. Jody Hedde, our new 3rd assistant, provided some sage advice though by saying “Yeah, great he’s been nominated, but let’s see how he does when it counts before we crown him.” As to Victor Collier, the coaches were generally happy with how he did as a freshman coming in off the bench, but felt it was a maturing year and said that he has some big shoes to fill. So now he needs to step up and become the rock for us inside since we lost Seals, Pearson and LaLane to graduation.
Dynasty Threads:
Fedora-CB;Town Crier-CB;FIve Friends/Foes-CB;Media Perspective-CB;Whatever It Takes-CB;Who's Bret Vandergard-CB;Gym Rat-CB;Repairman-CB;S. Mastroani-TPG;V. Stevenson-TPG
User avatar
PointGuard
DDS:CB Support Squad
 
Posts: 13265
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:14 am

Re: SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

Postby PointGuard » Thu Mar 23, 2023 6:29 pm

Justin Traore, 2nd Assistant Coach (Player development/Practice)

Our season begins tomorrow with a really tough challenge: playing a road game against the Auburn Tigers. Are we ready for to take on an SEC team as an away game? That’s hard to say. I think we have a good bunch of strong players. But our roster is chock full of NEW guys. Our team is composed of 6 juniors, 2 sophomores, 5 freshmen and NO SENIORS with just 5 returning players from last season’s team. So while fall practice went well, the proof will be in the pudding as to whether these guys are yet ready to coalesce into a smooth functioning TEAM.

I believe we have 5 solid starters and very good depth at every position. So here’s how we’re set up to begin this season:

Starters

PG: Danny Preston—6’5” Freshman who was ranked #107 as a recruit…good mid-range scorer, excellent defensively, solid passing and ball-handling skills but will need to settle in and mature as a floor general.

SG: Nikolos Ivelitsch—6’1” Sophomore from Russia who transferred from Syracuse where he started as a freshman and averaged 12.1 ppg…confident shooter, excellent defender and rebounder, good ball handler and passer.

SF: Trey Small—6’5” Junior who came to us after playing 2 seasons for a JC…excellent outside shooter from both mid and long range, very good rebounding skills and solid defensively.

PF: Victor Collier—6’10” Junior who 4.5 ppg and 3.9 rpg last season for us after spending his freshman year at UC Santa Barbara…strong rebounder, good shooter but sometimes passes when he should have taken the shot, very good defensively.

C: Dekker Chambers—6’8” Junior coming to us after playing JC ball…like Collier, a good shooter and not afraid to put the ball up, excellent rebounding skills, very solid defender.

As you may have noted there is some commonality amongst these 5…all are good shooters, and more importantly, all are strong defensively.

Reserves:


PF Darcel Aygar—6’6” Freshman who could be a problem since he wants to start and has a personality that can be abrasive…likes to score and is good at it, good defender and rebounder who will develop into a very strong player.

SG Bryan Taylor—6’0” Junior who averaged 6.8 ppg and 1.5 apg last season…good player at either SG or PG, hits a high percentage of his shots from anywhere on the court, excellent passer and ball handler, satisfactory rebounder and defender.

PG Edouard La Touche—6’4” Junior who was starter for Rider as a freshman averaging 8.7 ppg, 4.5 apg, and 4.7 rpg and subbed for us last season averaging 2.8 ppg and 1.7 apg…needs to develop confidence in his shooting, excellent passing and ball handling skills, very good rebounder.

SF Ed Tenys—6’6” Junior who averaged 0.8 ppg and 0.6 rpg last season…good rebounding and defensive skills, developing offensively.

PF Rodney Boykin—6’7” Sophomore who averaged 2.1 ppg and 1.4 rpg last season…very good rebounding skills, good shooter but prefers to pass, needs to improve defensively.

PG Tim Lepore—6’5” Freshman with excellent potential…good shooter and scorer, developing his defense and passing and ball handling skills.

C Justin Clausen—6’10” Freshman who can provide good backup but still needs to mature and develop his abilities…good shooter, still developing defensively and working the boards.

SF Benjamin Smith—6’6” Freshman from England who was ranked #116 as a recruit who we possibly should have redshirted…excellent shooter, not as developed as we had anticipated but has excellent potential.

Matt Williams is a 6’5” sophomore SG and Jason Brewer is a 6’4” sophomore SG…both are walk-ons and will mainly help us during practices…Brewer is the better shooter.
Dynasty Threads:
Fedora-CB;Town Crier-CB;FIve Friends/Foes-CB;Media Perspective-CB;Whatever It Takes-CB;Who's Bret Vandergard-CB;Gym Rat-CB;Repairman-CB;S. Mastroani-TPG;V. Stevenson-TPG
User avatar
PointGuard
DDS:CB Support Squad
 
Posts: 13265
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:14 am

Re: SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

Postby PointGuard » Fri Mar 24, 2023 3:34 pm

Cal Poly Mustangs (0-0) @ Auburn Tigers (0-0)

Bryan King, 1st Assistant Coach

Following six straight down years, Auburn brought in Joey Evans as head coach last season and he began to rebuild the team and got them into the CIT Tourney at the end of the year. Still only 50% of the max Auburn Arena capacity of 9,121 was filled for our game with them. Of course that may also be a lack of interest in a little known opponent from over 2500 miles away.

Auburn blocked 3 of our shots in the first 3 minutes of play. Auburn hit just 2 of their first 13 shots…a combination of good defense by us but poor shot selection by them. But we’d only knocked down 4 of 15 of our shots so we led just 9-6 with 11 minutes to go in the first half. We came out of the half with a 24-15 lead. Good defense kept the Tigers shooting limited to just 19%. Our advantage should have been a lot greater had we hit more than 31% of our FG attempts. No one on our team scored more than 5 points and Auburn’s top scorers had just 3 points.

Shooting woes continued into the 2nd half, but we managed to carve out a double digit lead within 5 minutes of the start of the 2nd half. At the midpoint of the half we were up by 17 as we had finally begun to put some shots in the hoop. But a minute later C Dekker Chambers picked up his 4th foul. We finished the game by downing the Tigers by a 66-53 final score. An ugly win, but a victory on the road is good anytime…and sweeter since we defeated a Southeast Conference foe even though the Tigers are far from being the cream of the crop. Coach Aura was happy that we had just 9 turnovers which was good for our first game of the season. He was far less happy about our interior offense which was abysmal…just 12 points in the paint, 7 points on 2nd chance points (and lord knows there were a lot of 2nd chances), and our big men hitting just 5 of their 20 FGA’s. He didn't mention it, but I will...also our foul shooting sucked.

Topping our…Scoring: Trey Small—15, Nikolo Ivelitsch—12, Edouard La Touche—11, Bryan Taylor—8; Rebounds: Danny Preston—8, Trey Small—8, Dekker Chambers—7, Victor Collier—6, Nikolo Ivelitsch—6; Assists: Danny Preston—4, Edouard La Touche—4; Steals: Nikolo Ilevitsch—3; Blocks: Darcel Aygar--3.

Cal Poly: FG%--38%; 3P%--39%; FT%--53%; Reb—45; TO—9; PF--9
Auburn: FG%--32%; 3P%--19%; FT%--78%; Reb—40; TO—11; PF—17
Dynasty Threads:
Fedora-CB;Town Crier-CB;FIve Friends/Foes-CB;Media Perspective-CB;Whatever It Takes-CB;Who's Bret Vandergard-CB;Gym Rat-CB;Repairman-CB;S. Mastroani-TPG;V. Stevenson-TPG
User avatar
PointGuard
DDS:CB Support Squad
 
Posts: 13265
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:14 am

Re: SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

Postby PointGuard » Sat Mar 25, 2023 11:23 pm

5th seed Bucknell Bison (1-0) vs 4th seed Cal Poly Mustangs (2-0) in Round 1 of Cabo Challenge Tournament

Zahara Carter, Assistant (sports administration)

We finally have gotten into a pre-season tournament. And going to Cabo San Lucas is a real treat.

PG Tim Lepore played extremely well coming in off the bench in our first game of the season, but after the game complained of back soreness. Our athletic trainer said he expects full recovery will take about 5 days.

Bucknell’s perimeter players scored 59 of the team’s 69 points in their season opening win over Howard. PG Josh Pringle scored 23 points and SG Ricky Blackman dropped in 17 points. Pringle has been a consistent scorer during his previous 3 seasons with Bucknell, averaging over 14 ppg during his career. We’ll see if our Mustangs can hold them in check. During his collegiate career he’s actually played well at PG, SG, and SF for the Bison. Coach Fed has said he’s really pleased with the defensive skills of the players who came onto the team this year. So maybe this is a good test.

It took about 3 minutes before the two teams got their offenses in gear. We opened a 14-7 lead 8 minutes into the game with Trey Small dropping in 8 of our points. Defensively we’d already forced Buckness to turn the ball over 6 times. With 10 minutes remaining in the half, Bucknell’s TO’s are up to 8 and our lead is 22-9 and we’re getting scoring throughout the lineup. When the half ended we were up 43-28. Trey Small and Derreck Chambers scored 13 and 10 points for us, respectively. We held Pringle and Blackman to a combined total of just 7 points.

Trey Small continued to put points on the board for us, but the Bison were scoring also in the 2nd half. Then Nikolos Ivelitsch warmed up to to keep our large lead intact. We came away with a 77-64 victory by hitting 52% of our FG’s and 55% of our 3’s.

SF Trey Small and SG Nikolos Ivelitsch finished with 18 points apiece. C Dekker Chambers scored 12 points and grabbed 5 boards. PG Danny Preston had 8 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists.

So it’s on to the Cabo Challenge Semifinals for the Mustangs.
Dynasty Threads:
Fedora-CB;Town Crier-CB;FIve Friends/Foes-CB;Media Perspective-CB;Whatever It Takes-CB;Who's Bret Vandergard-CB;Gym Rat-CB;Repairman-CB;S. Mastroani-TPG;V. Stevenson-TPG
User avatar
PointGuard
DDS:CB Support Squad
 
Posts: 13265
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:14 am

Re: SAME FEDORA-NEW CROWN?

Postby PointGuard » Mon Mar 27, 2023 12:33 am

4th seed Cal Poly Mustangs (3-0) vs 1st seed South Carolina Gamecocks (1-0) in Round 2 of Cabo Challenge Tournament

SG Jason Brewer (walk-on)


I grew up about 2 hours from the border to Mexico but this is the first time I’ve ever been out of the country. My folks just didn’t have the bucks to take us. Cabo is great, man. Coach Fed was good enough to bring me and Matt Williams, his two walk-ons, to this tournament even though there’s no chance we will play. But we’ll be big “cheerleaders” on the bench.

South Carolina defeated Missouri State 74-63 in the 1st round. The Gamecocks got good production form the interior players in game one of this tournament with their starting C, PF, and SF combined to score 40 points. That’s the exact opposite of Bucknell, our first round opponent, for which we had to focus on their perimeter players. South Carolina mainly employs a 1-3-1 zone defense. But we played well against that in our 2nd game this season against East Carolina so I think we’ll do OK even though the Gamecocks are a tough team. While both Matt and I would like to get into the game, Nikolos (Ivelitsch) is averaging 16 ppg and Bryan (Taylor) is backing him up and doing a good job also, so we won’t have a chance of playing unless there is a HUGE blowout. But I’m learning a lot from both of them and our two PG’s by watching them in games and going up against them in practice.

It seems as though South Carolina is looking down on us since we’re from the Big West while the Gamecocks are members of the Southeast Conference. But hopefully that means they’ll take us too lightly when the game begins. I like our chances.

The Gamecocks win the tip-off and pop in a quick FG, but we get it over to Danny Preston on the left side and he drills a 3. Then as the shot clock is close to expiring, Danny picks off a pass and after we work the ball around, Victor Collier gets free for a floater that makes it 5-2. Holy cow…Coach Fec just got a technical called on him. That’s the quickest T in a game I’ve ever seen…there’s 17:52 remaining in the first half. Coach Fed was protesting how one of the Gamecocks had been pushing around Trey Small…and the ref took umbrage. Some of our guys are up hollering, but our coaches are quick to tell all of us subs to cool it. After going up by 5 early in the game, South Carolina’s 1-3-1 zone clamps down and gives us fits. We have a tough time getting free for good shots and go ice-cold from the field, dropping behind 13-12. Bryan Taylor finally hits a bucket to break a near 7-minute scoreless period. The same ref calls a T late in the half on Trey Small. I overhead one of our coaches saying that ref has a vendetta out against Coach Fed for something that went on between them when Coach Fed was head coach at Boston College. The half ends with us trailing 28-20. We hit just 31% of our FG’s and never got to the foul line once in the half.

We begin the 2nd half with an 32-5 run, putting us ahead by 17 points with 8-1/2 minutes to play. The Gamecocks finally woke up their offense, but it was too late. We held them off and won convincingly, 69-57.

PG Danny Preston and SG Nikolos Itelitsch both scored 17 points with Preston also getting 3 rebounds, 7 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks. PF/C Victor Collier scored 8 and grabbed 10 rebounds.

The win sends us to the Championship game which will be against Texas-San Antonio which has recorded two upset wins.
Dynasty Threads:
Fedora-CB;Town Crier-CB;FIve Friends/Foes-CB;Media Perspective-CB;Whatever It Takes-CB;Who's Bret Vandergard-CB;Gym Rat-CB;Repairman-CB;S. Mastroani-TPG;V. Stevenson-TPG
User avatar
PointGuard
DDS:CB Support Squad
 
Posts: 13265
Joined: Mon Dec 17, 2007 1:14 am

PreviousNext

Return to DDS: College Basketball Dynasty Reports

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest