I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[CoachC]

lol! Yes it does.

[PointGuard]

You beat the team who's supposed to be the best in the conference and are in FIRST place.

Then you lose to the team that supposed to be the worst in the conference...damn Liberty and their refs!

Your team seems to be a bit bipolar.

Congrats on wrapping up some solid recruiting.

[CoachC]

Bipolar is one word for it! lol Thx, PG.

[CoachC]

They had that big win over Va. Tech at home back in November, but their only other non-conference win came on the road at San Jose St. in their final tune-up. Their non-conference schedule wasn't that tough, but they were on the road for most of it. They won their first conference game at home handily against Liberty. They were ranked 3rd in the conference pre-season, and at least on paper they have the talent to contend. They rely on good perimeter guys for most of their scoring, but their big men are strong rebounders and defenders. They are second in the conference in FG defense, so poor play at either end tonight will probably result in another loss. Bonney's knee has healed and he is ready to go.

We aren't just bad at both ends in the first half, we were horrendous. We shoot just 26.5 from the field, while allowing them to torch us for 57.7. Woods was just 1/8 from the field and held to 4 pts. Only another good showing by Porter off the bench, 15 trips to the line, and domination of the boards (23-17, 12-1) keep us in remote contact.

At the half we are going down in flames 30-39.

Despite playing only marginally better in the 2nd half we find ourselves down 3 with the ball at 3:53 and the last media timeout. Their 17 turnovers have helped us get back in it. We are able to cut it to 1 twice, but no further.

We "warm" up to 35.5 shooting for the game, but they continue to shoot well at 54.2. Domination on the offensive boards (14-3) and freethrow shooting gave us a chance, along with 9 steals forcing 19 turnovers. But defensively we stink like rotting fish left out in the hot sun.

Woods still manages to get 20 on an icy shooting night, and the ever-improving Porter adds 18. Unfortunately scoring points isn't our problem.

We lose yet another close one: 66-67.

It's frustrating to know that with just a little bit of defense along the way, and even a little bit better ball-handling, we could be a .500 team. Unfortunately all the little things you have to do to win close games are exactly the things we suck at.

[CoachC]

The Highlanders have played even worse defense than we have, giving up almost 79 points a game and 47.7% shooting defense. If we play semi-not horrible we may be able to keep it close on the road. They were picked next to last in the conference pre-season and have been playing like it.

We do manage to play semi-not quite horrible in the first half, and it's good enough to forge a 33-26 lead at halftime.

If we can continue to be just a bit better at being really bad in the 2nd half we may have a chance to win this one, or at least not get blown out. In the 2nd half, feeling sorry for the Highlanders, the referees decide to make it a 5 on 8 game to help even things out. After the T, one of them decides to play for me making it 6 on 7. The two technical freethrows at the 14:13 mark bring them within 1, and they took a 2 point lead before the 12 minute mark, but that was it for them. We win 70-62.

The guys celebrate and I congratulate them on the road win, but keep my mouth shut about how we won by only being the 2nd worst team on the court. They've not had much reason to celebrate. To be honest, I doubt this effort would have won on the road anywhere else in the conference, and wouldn't have won many at home either.

We do shoot 50% for the field, but then again everyone shoots 50% against the Highlanders. They shoot 41.8% for the game, but I hesitate to say that we "held" them that low. For them that's a good shooting night.

The rest of the stats weren't as pretty:

A/TO (12/16, 15/19)
Rebs were even at 28, we had 2 more offensive boards.
We have a slight edge in the paint: 24-20
Second chance and fast break points were even.

Woods had single digits (9) for just the 2nd time this season, and Porter only chipped in 6 off the bench. Fortunately we had enough output from other people this time. Lemeke had 12 pts, 4 asts. Brown had one of his better nights in a while with 12 pts, 6 rebs. Evans came out of his funk for 11 pts, 5 rebs. Sheals added 8 off the bench, and Bonney and Williams had their usual handful of points and rebounds.

Not pretty but we'll take it.

Final: 70-62.

[CoachC]

1/13 High Point's road win over NC-Asheville coupled with Campbell's loss at Liberty last night, gives High Point sole possession of 1st place at 4-0. We are in a 3 way tie for 4th at 2-2.

[CoachC]

The 3rd place Soup Cans.. err check that Fighting Camels (Soup Cans would have been less silly) are in tonight. Picked 7th behind us pre-season they have proven to be much better than that, and are clearly a top contender for the conference title. Led by conference leading scorer Kent Augustine (20.5 ppg, 5.8 rpg, 1.9 spg) their non-conference schedule was not loaded, but better than ours. Their marquis win was a blowout of Alabama back in November. They are in the conference top 5 in almost every category at both ends of the court other than turnovers, but still have a plus advantage there as well.

Keys to the game:
1. Win turnover battle by at least 5.
2. Shoot 15 more freethrows.
3. See if Duke will let us borrow the back end of their bench.

To win this game we will probably have to play better than we can. On the other hand, they lost to Liberty in their last and are 2-5 on the road, giving us at least a ray of hope.

We do have our largest crowd of the season tonight at around 1900. It's still a mausoleum.

We come out with great energy, at the 12 minute time out we've forged a 17-10 lead. Augustine has 6 of their 10 but has had to work for them. On the downside both Lemeke and Porter have picked up 2 fouls trying to guard him. I refuse to go zone tonight, no matter how deep on the bench we have to go. At the 7:49 mark we still lead 19-14, but I'm getting a bit frustrated with the officials. We are down 1-6 on fouls. I'm not irritated at our number of fouls, because Augustine is an honest to God handful. But Woods isn't getting the same calls at the other end. For the moment Augustine has finally sat down on the bench. He won't be out long. With Augustine out we will try to play zone for a couple of possessions, but given our past history with zone, we probalby won't be in it for long. We'll also gamble on getting Lemeke and Porter back in the game to give Feeney and Woods breathers. Our zone is as bad as ever but we are able to trade baskets with them for 4 minutes and avoid further foul trouble. Augustine is back at the 4 minute timeout and so is the man to man.

We play about as well as we can in the first half, and take 35-31 lead into the locker room. This is the most proud of our guys as I've been all season, and I try to pump them up for more of the same. We shoot 52% while holding them to 39%. We turn the ball over 8 times, but so do they. They have a 19-15, 8-6 edge on the boards, and we need to work on that. We have a 12-4 advantage on fast break points. Augustine had 9 points but it took him 12 shots to get there. Our biggest concern is we didn't do quite as good a job shutting down his supporting cast in the final 8 minutes, but the 4 minutes playing zone had something to do with that. Woods has just 6 points in the first half, with Augustine guarding him, but doesn't try to force anything and has 4 assists. Porter has 9 points in just 10 minutes and Augustine struggled against him defensively because of his size and strength. If he can avoid picking up a 3rd personal early in the 2nd half , he could be a potent weapon.

2nd half.

Lemeke picks up his 3rd personal 7 seconds into the half, and that doesn't help. Porter guarding their point picks up his 3rd at 17:54. Woods finally gets a call and Augustine picks up his 2nd at 17:38.... oh for another. Feeney gets stripped 2 possessions in a row and we have to call time out. Gilchrist gets a shot at some significant minutes for the first time in about 10 games. Woods picks up his 2nd at 15:30 after Gilcrhist got away with murder at the end. Gilchrist feeling it now, knowing he's going to get every call, and we trail 45-41. Not far from getting my 4th T of the season most likely. I'm going to start playing offense to defense with Porter. We'll give Evans a shot at guarding Augustine. Woods picks up his 3rd at 12:05 and I let them have it. We are getting homered at home. Woods picks up his 4th at 11:57 and I get ejected. Since I'm going to get fined anyway, I get my moneys worth. Augustine has hacked Porter in consecutive trips without a whistle. I hand over the keys to the car to Kevin.

I sneak peaks from the tunnel as the travesty continues. The kids play their hearts out, but this game was decided beforehand by conference politics. It was like a WWE match. Predetermined. We wind up losing by 11 on a night when we were the better team.

I don't know what to tell our guys after the game. How do you explain outplaying a decent opponent and still losing by 11? You can't. All I can do is tell them I'm proud of them and compliment their effort which was there all night.

Leaving the tunnel after the game, the pimply kid from the student newspaper approaches me and asks me for a comment about the officiating. I say, "you were here, what did you see?". He says, "I saw us getting robbed.". I say, "Well write that up then... there may be hope for you yet.'

final: Referees 75 Gardner-Webb 64

[CoachC]

12/16 The AD calls me into his office on Monday morning. As always he looks glum. The guy always looks glum. He says, "You know the league office is going to fine you. Mandatory for an ejection.". I say, "Yeah, and?". He glumly looks at me and glumly says, "The president of the university insists that I fine you as well for conduct unbecoming a representative of the university." I say, "You were at the game Saturday night. What did you see?". He glumly says, "I saw us getting robbed." I said, "Well then, fine me all you want as long as you know I was right."

In the student newspaper on Monday, the pimply kid writes a one-word headline in 32 pt. "ROBBED!" He comes over to my office Monday afternoon to wish our team luck the rest of the season. The powers that be have replaced him as our beat reporter. I buy him lunch.

[PointGuard]

The 3rd place Soup Cans.. err check that Fighting Camels (Soup Cans would have been less silly) are in tonight.

OK, you made me check wiki...here's what they have to say (of course, it might be wrong since it's wiki):

Before 1934 Campbell's athletic teams were known as the "Hornets." Other early known nicknames for the program were simply reflective of the school name, like "Campbells" or "Campbellites." The origin of the name "Fighting Camels" is popularly believed to be derived from a statement by early school patron Zachary Taylor Kivett, who approached school founder James Archibald Campbell after a fire had destroyed the three then existing school buildings in 1900 and said, "Your name's Campbell; then get a hump on you! We've got work to do." The current Camel is named "Gaylord the Camel" after Campbell alum and Hall of Fame Baseball Player Gaylord Perry.

[CoachC]

I do seem to remember seeing their mascot Gaylord the Camel somewhere along the way. But still their school team name has about as silly an origin as the Va. Tech Hokies. Maybe only the Wichita St. Wheatshockers have a sillier name in all of division I. But at least Wichita shortened it to Shockers about 50 years ago, and that actually sounds pretty cool.