I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[CoachC]

12/27 As we prepare for our conference opener, I note that our average conference RPI is 271. Campbell the highest at 199, we are the worst at 333. At least our conference is bad enough someone might give us a win some time.

[Wayne23]

I'm beginning to think you don;t have a very good team, Coach. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[CoachC]

They can't hang on to the basketball, can't play defense, shoot the ball and rebound only on occasion. Even though 7 of the 9 guys I'm playing have steal ratings over 5, we never get any. Other than that, we look like contenders for the national championship!

[Wayne23]

Solid through and through!

[CoachC]

Picked pre-season to win the conference, the Buccaneers played a bit more difficult schedule than most of our league with road losses to Oregon St., Iowa St. and most recently to #13 Oregon. Their schedule may have cost them some wins, but they probably gained a lot in experience.

They are a deliberate team that likes to cough up the basketball almost as much as we do.

We shoot 52% in the first half and hold them to 35.5%. We are getting killed on the boards though, and Woods sat out the last 10 1/2 minutes of the half after picking up his 2nd foul. At the time we had a double digit lead. We manage to hang on from there for a 39-37 advantage at the half.

At the final media time out coming at 2:55 we find ourselves in uncharted territory with a 9 point lead and Lemeke at the line for 2 when play resumes. Can we finish one out? Still leading 78-71 with :55 and they intentional foul. Porter splits the freethrows and it's 79-71. They hit a 3 and foul again with 42. We need both to put it back to a 3 possession game. Lemeke hits them both. 81-74 and they are out of timeouts. They score and Lemeke fouls giving them an old fashioned 3. They foul at :20. Feeley hits both. Feeley fouls with :14. Just our 3rd team foul. They miss with :08, Woods rebounds with :06. Lemeke hits a 3 in transition at :04. Winner winner, chicken dinner!

We shoot 53% for the game and hold them to 43%. TOs are a wash at 10 each. We get to the line 30 times, but allow them to own us on the offensive boards (31-34, 7-14 offensive) which keeps them in the game. Still it was a good win for us to begin conference play. Woods leads with 26 points, 5reb. Lemeke adds 18 and 5 asts. Turner gives us 13 off the bench, and Larry Williams has 8pts, 10 rebs, 2 blocks. Without Williams tonight we might not have EVER gotten a defensive rebound.

We win 86-77.

[CoachC]

12/29: Bonney banged up his knee pretty good in the game last night and it's pretty stiff. He may not be available for Saturday's game with Liberty.

[Wayne23]

Beating the preseason #1 is a great start. You could make some real noise in conference this year. Better days are coming!

[CoachC]

The Flames were picked dead last in the preseason polls.

Vines Center is easily the largest venue in our league, and perhaps the smallest crowd we've seen all season is on hand. You have to squint really hard to see anyone at all in the seats. The Flames are winless against DI opponents this season, but it must be said they played a very difficult schedule. Last week they lost by 6 to 15th ranked New Mexico, and they are ready for a win. I don't want US to be the team to give it to them.

Bonney's knee is still pretty banged up and has not practiced the last couple of days. He's dressed but unlikely to play.

Apparently, the referees are trying out for the Liberty student band, since they keep blowing their whistles, and I think they are trying to make a song out of it. I notice too that they only blow them at the end of the court where the band director is. I wish them luck. I get T'd 14:50 with team fouls standing 1-7. Woods picks up his 2nd at 12:10 and we are in trouble. Have no choice but to go zone.

We shoot 68% in the first half. With Woods in early foul trouble again we get some nice contributions off the bench to take up the slack. Woods still had 12 points in the first half in 8 minutes, but Porter adds 12 off the bench, Sheals 8, and Feeley 6. As usual our zone defense is pathetic, and they shoot 56%.

At the half we lead the referees 54-44. We'll have to stick with the zone at the outset.

By the first media timeout at 14:56 they've outscored us 14-3 and have taken the lead. We have to go man. Our zone couldn't stop a piece of tissue paper.

At the final media time out at 3:47 we are tied 75-75. at 1:08 it's 79-79 and we take a timeout. Porter scores on the baseline for a 2 pt lead. TO Liberty with :55. They tie it at :40. We take another timeout at :35. Woods misses a 16 footer. They score and take the lead at :16. We use our last time out at :13. Lemeke turns it over at :10. I've read this book before. They break pressure and dunk it on the fastbreak for the dagger at :08. Once again we can't close a game out.

We shoot 54.7 for the game, but they 51.6 and kill us on the boards. 23-34, 5-12. Defense was better once we went back to man, but no rebounds meant no win.

They outscore us 44-12 in the paint, mostly against the zone. Woods has 22, Porter adds 20. Sheals has his best game of the year with 9 pts, 8 rebs, but no one else was getting after the boards. We missed Bonney in this one.

Liberty gets their first win against a DI opponent

Final: 81-85

[CoachC]

1/1: We recieve verbal committment from 6-7 201 lb Forward Derrick Bradley a high school senior out of Windsor, Vt. Bradley can run the floor, play solid defense and go to the boards. That will pretty much end our recruiting for the year unless something unusual happens. Both Bradley and O'Connor are good students and should have no problem making the minimum SAT scores.

[Wayne23]

So you beat the best, lost to the worst in your conference. That helps head coaches to sleep nights!

Congrats on the recruit.