I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[CoachC]

On the road again. Yay! The Gaels are a very deliberate low scoring team averaging less than 60 pts a game. Our goal is to keep them below 90.

We shoot 52% in the first half and hold them to a semi-respectable 43.8
We own the boards 21-10 and 7-4 on offensive glass.

Those advantages mostly drowned out of course by the usual 5-12 disadvantage in turnovers. But we still manage to go into the locker room with a lead at the half...trying to remember.. have we ever done that before? I don't think so.

At the half we lead 34-31. Woods had 19 first half points but not much help other than 5 pts out of Lemeke. They'll be all over him in the 2nd half so someone had better step up. Also there were just 7 fouls called in the half, 3 on us, 4 on them, so we can expect to get homered repeatedly in the 2nd half.


Here we go again. At the final media timeout we lead 64-61, but they are at the line to shoot a pair when play resumes. As expected they are triple teaming Woods' shadow in the 2nd half, but Lemeke has stepped up big to take up the slack. We still have a large rebound advantage and are still shooting over 51% for the game. But we've let them get to the offensive boards to often in the 2nd half. We've only turned the ball over 4 times in the second half, but they still have a huge advantage there.

After the official timeout they hit both freethrows to make it a 1 point game.
Brown drives from the top of the key and gets fouled. Next foul puts us in the double bonus. Brown misses both freethrows. They miss two shots and Brown rebounds. I call time out in the frontcourt to draw up a play. We'll use Woods as a decoy and try to get a shot for Bonney on the blocks. Best Bonney can do is put up a 12 foot jumper, but Brown gets the putback. Up 3 with 2:39. Woods fouls Garren on the baseline. Both teams in the double bonus now. Garren splits the freethrows and we are up 2 with the ball. Woods fouled on a freethrow line jumper at 2:12. Woods a surprisingly poor freethrow shooter, but we need both of these. He makes them both, and it's a two possession game 68-64. Garren misses but they get another offensive rebound, kick it out to the high post and Hale drives to cut it to two. Woods looks to drive all the way from beyond the arc and travels with 1:10. Harvath misses a jumper and Sheals in for Brown grabs the board. Up 2 with 6 seconds difference between shot clock and game clock. Lemeke drives with 14 and misses but Bonney gets the rebound and is fouled. Once again we need both of these. Makes the first. The 2nd would give us a 2 possession lead with :13 on the clock. of COURSE he misses the second. They call TO in the backcourt with 10. On the road with a 3 point lead I've made up my mind.. will intentionally foul and put them on the line.... make sure everyone knows they MUST block out on the second freethrow. We foul Horvath with :08. Yelling at the guys in the 3 spots to be aware he will probalby try to intentionally miss the 2nd freethrow. Horvath hits the first.. now comes the moment of truth. He makes the 2nd!?! 4 guards and Evans in. We still have a timeout left if they can't make the 5 second count. They foul Lemeke at :05. We send Brown down to basket hang. Everyone else is instructed to be an obstacle but under NO circumstances foul after the freethrows. Lemeke makes the first. 70-68. makes them both 71-68, no timeouts for the Gaels length of the floor to go in :05. We apply the token pressure. They bobble the ball near midcourt... get it back... can't get a shot off. Horn sounds.

I look at Kevin, he looks at me. Woods runs over to the bench.... we won??? we won?? I look at Kevin.... we won?? we won??? Kevin breaks out in a big grin.. "Grats coach, you've won your first DI basketball game" Pandemonium breaks out on the floor. Josh Brown picks up Q Lemeke and kisses him. Woods falls to the floor in a mock faint. The kids are acting like they just won the national championship, and who can blame them?

In the lockerroom there are tears, there is laughter, and above all there are huge ****-eating grins. It feels so good to have that damn monkey off our backs.

We shoot well the entire game with barely a blip. 50% of the game.. we got stops down the stretch FINALLY when we needed to and "hold" them to 43.5 shooting. We overcome poor defensive rebounding in the 2nd half. We overcome the 7-17 turnover disadvantage. We overcome them holding Woods to 7 points in the second half, in large part thanks to Q who stepped up with 16 second half points.

Woods winds up with 26, Lemeke 21. Brown got lost in the offense but gets us 11 boards, none bigger than his putback of Bonney's shot down the stretch.

I'll sleep well tonight. Tomorrow it's back to reality. We won despite getting beat in almost every aspect of the game. We shot well, but took 12 fewer shots and made 2 less. We still have MUCH MUCH work to do, but for tonight, all is well with the world.

Final Score: Runnin' Bulldogs 71 Iona 68

[CoachC]

12/12

The pimply kid with the bad haircut and the halitosis and the ugly girlfriend wisely keeps his mouth shut in Monday's student newspaper. In fact, there is no writeup of the game at all.

[Wayne23]

On the road, of all places. Congrats, Coach. I predict things will get better from here on. There's no tonic like that first win.

[CoachC]

Hope so, Wayne. Defense should get a bit better the rest of the way, but unfortunately Gary will have to let go of some of his philosophy this season. Most of this team is very young though, and with 4 or 5 weeks to practice in the spring while everyone else is playing, he can wait til then to start drilling some of the more advanced concepts into their brains. Outside of the turnovers this team seems to know what it's doing on the offensive end of the court. The focus for the rest of the season will be on man to man defense. With no one on the entire team rated higher than 3 on defense, it's paramount that talent be replaced with skill.

[Wayne23]

With this type of team philosophy, at least in the short team, has to be compromised somewhat. Still, in time the system will be put in.

TOs are my problem as well. We're having a great run right now but TOs will likely do us in when we get to the big dance.

[CoachC]

With this type of team philosophy, at least in the short team, has to be compromised somewhat. Still, in time the system will be put in.

TOs are my problem as well. We're having a great run right now but TOs will likely do us in when we get to the big dance.

Forced turnovers or unforced?

[Wayne23]

Some of both, of course, but lots of just plain bad passes when not being pressured. Do you have advice?

[CoachC]

yes, when committing too many forced turnovers, i.e. steals increase tempo in game, and when faced with too many unforced turnovers, decrease it. Not sure what your situation exactly looks like at the moment, but my instincts say to decrease your tempo by 1 at the start of games even though you hate it. Fact is, I'm doubting too many teams can match what you can do per possession in the first place. Decreasing the number of possessions per game will probably work in your favor. As I said at the beginning of your season, teams that have most of their talent in the front line tend to do best with a deliberate offense. But be prepared to adjust up and down in every game until the final buzzer.

[Wayne23]

Oh, I'm deliberate. I played with 4 and 5, trying to see what worked best, even went to 6 occasionally, but unless I'm trailing late it became clear that my team does much better at 4, generally speaking. But 3? Really? If you think that will work I can give it a try. My next game is against a team that shouldn't be competitive with me so it's a good time to experiment. The fact that my starting PG is down with an injury also makes me want to slow it down some. But first... a nap!

[CoachC]

Who would have thought that this far into the season we'd be facing a team as inept as us? Ran into the Raiders head coach Derek Finley in the halls after the mornng shoot-around. Like me, he's in his first year as a D1 head coach. Like me, he got his first D1 win in his last game on the road (vs Alcorn St.). There the similarities end. He is 20 years my senior, and his teams play a very deliberate brand of basketball. We commiserated and agreed that someone tonight is going to go on a 2 game winning streak and that someone is going to leave the game unhappy. He's a great guy. Hope he loses.

As I said they play a very deliberate brand of basketball and look to clear out for their 3, Rodney Jackson averaging 15.6 a game. I put a bounty hunt on him with our best defender, Tony Evans. I tell everyone else to keep their guys in check. As long as Jackson is held to his average, and they wind up with fewer than 3 guys in double digits, we can win our first home game, and that is huge.

We've won on the road now, time to get one at home where someone might notice. Less than 900 in attendance tonight, but let's send those 900 home to tell 900 friends.

Jackson picks up his 2nd personal at 17:51 of the first....huge. We need to take advantage.

At halftime, I'm speechless. I truly can't speak. Rob Woods just had his worst performance of a half all season. 4 pts and picked up his 2nd foul at 8:36 and never came back. I just don't know what to say. Finally, Kevin comes over and says it for me. "Just keep kicking their asses".

Whatever light went on in Lemeke's head in the 2nd half of the Iona game stays on and he leads us at the half with 12. In Wood's 9 minutes he still manages 4pts, 2 asts. 3 rebs amd 3 steals.

We shot damn near 70% for the first half (66.7) while holding them to 28%. TO are 6-10. They did outrebound us (13-15, 2-8) but then again almost all the misses were at their end of the court.

Our biggest lead of the season was the 8=0 start we had against Norflok St. at the outset of the game.

To be leading 39-16 at the half? Impossible. I finally regain enough composure to yell at them. Hit the boards harder.... they outefforting you (is that a word?) on the 50/50s. Woods, get your head in the game and play smarter. You can't sit out more than half of the last 20 minutes. Q, I know you are in a groove but don't forget your teammates. You've got one assist for the first 20 for crying out loud. Brown.. you aren't a freshman any more.. start calling for the damn ball. you only took 3 shots the first half. Stop playing like a bunch of ninnies! They run out of the tunnel to take the court for 2nd half warm ups. Following behind me, Kevin can't stop laughing. "NOW you really are a DI coach!"

Woods scores 17 points in the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half before picking up his 3rd foul. we are getting killed on the boards though. when they get the lead to single digits with 8:14 to go I call time out. I tell them to stop screwing around and put this one away.

Final score:Runnin' Bulldogs 66 Colgate 54

After the game I embrace Finley and tell him to keep his head up. I know where he's been.

I take my time getting to the locker-room.

Everyone is all grab-ass happy. They see the look on my face and think I'm joking. They look at Kevin and he looks away. They look back at me, and see I'm not happy.

"What are you all so happy about? Are you happy that you let them back in the game with 5 minutes to go? Are you happy that you just got your asses kicked on the boards? You've won two games in a row now. You think that makes you champion of something?"

Q. you were a leader in the first half, and then in the 2nd you stand around and let Woodsie take all the heat? Brown, didn't I tell you to start calling for the ball? Did you lose your voice muscles or something?

Yeah, you've won 2 in a row now, but what you going to do for me next week? Stop playing like you did in this one? I'm here to win a conference championship. What are you here for? You disgust me.... go take 3 laps around the arena all of you.


They all look at me like I've lost my mind. They look at Kevin and know I mean business.


We get out-rebounded 28-36, 5-16. With everyone waiting around for Woods to score in the 2nd half our shooting percentage for the game plummets to 48% for the game. Instead of putting them away we let them creep back in. The game stats don't mean anything to me in this one.. we still wound up dominating most of them... I resent the fact that they thought they could coast to a win and stop playing though. They've learned to win, but dammit, their next lesson is going to be learning how to hold on to a lead without getting cocky.

Final: GW 66 Colgate 54

Woods being Woods, puts up 21 pts in the second half but it was a mixed blessing.. everyone else forgot they were on the floor. Q gets just 2 freethrows in the 2nd half. Brown still only winds up with 6 shots for the game. Only Gary Porter felt any urgency. Since so few minutes are available for him behind Woods, we may have to start giving him minutes behind Evans as well.

Despite the early foul trouble Woods puts up 25 pts, 2 asts. 9 rebs and 3 steals. He's a coaches dream. I'm not much happy with anyone else in this one.