I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[CoachC]

We let our first game against the Flames get away from us at the end at their place. They pummeled us on the boards in that one, and their center Doug Martin scored 23 points. Our big men need to be more of a factor in this one.

We have perhaps our best all-around 20 minutes of the season in the first half shooting 53% from the field, turning them over 14 times with 6 steals while limiting our own turnovers to 5. We also hang with them on the boards (12-12, 4-2). Martin was still a handful scoring 13 firsthalf points while Harrison added 9, but they got little contribution from anyone else. Meanwhile we were scoring inside and out. Woods had 9, but Williams added 10, while Brown had 8 giving us a 22-10 edge on points in the paint, despite Martin's efforts. Now the real test. Can we play at this level for 40 minutes?

At half we lead 45-28.

We show no letdown at the start of the 2nd half and by the 12 minute media time out have stretched the lead to 21. When I remove all the starters at 1:55 with a 19 point lead, they get a standing O from our crowd of about 1700. Seems like a few people are starting to care about this team a little bit.

A solid 40 minute performance from our guys and a great team effort as we led from start to finish and never let up. We did turnover the ball too much in the 2nd half (mainly Woods who accounted for over half of them) but everything else was positive.

We shoot 59.6% for the game! I'll take that every night, please! We hold them to 38% for the game. I'll take that every night too, please!

Rebs(31-24, 7-7)
A/TO (19-15, 7-17)
Points in the Paint: 46-24
2nd chance scoring: 11-7
Fast break points: 16-12

They did get to the line 9 more times and made 6 more, mainly because of Martin 25 pts, and 11/13 from the line. But we held everyone else in check, and he didn't get much help from his supporting cast.

Woods led us with 24 points, but turned the ball over 8 times...we'll have to go over the film with him on that.
Williams added 12 pts, 5 rb
Brown had a solid all around game and did as good a job defensively on Martin as he could when in the game(14 pts, 3 asts, 7 rebs, 3sts, and a block in just 18 minutes)
Lemeke had 8 pts, 7 asts, and only 1 turnover
Porter had 6pts, 4 asts

and most everyone else gave us good effort.

Final: GW 82 Liberty 58

[CoachC]

2/9 with Liberty, Campbell and Charleston Southern all losing last night, we vault over all 3 into sole possession of 3rd place! We're two games behind the Blue hose for 2nd, but as a reality check, we are only a game and a half out of 8th!! The middle pack of the league is really clumping up.

[CoachC]

over our last 6 games since the Campbell fiasco, our opponents have been shooting just 43.4 % from the field, and only Presbyterian shot better than 44.9%. That's a big improvement from earlier in the year. Over those same six games we've shot 46.7% from the field and have averaged 3.67 more shots a game than the opposition, due mainly to better ballhandling (12.8 TO/g...still too many but better than we were). The baby steps are starting to add up. Hopefully, with most of our key players returning next season, the team will continue to gradually improve the rest of the way.

[CoachC]

Also , despite our 8-14 record, the opposition is only scoring 1.3 points more/pg for the season. Furthermore, our 4 legitimate conference losses have been decided by an average of 4 points. We've let very few teams get away from us completely, and I point this out to our players by way of showing how with just a little more effort in a few close games earlier in the season we could be a .500 team. The effort is there now, and I want to see it every night.

[CoachC]

Despite terrible shooting and porous defense in our first meeting with the Panthers at our place, they managed to escape with just a 1 point victory, their closest call in conference games. Only Campbell at home has played them closer than 6 points. We got back in the game in the 2nd half of that one mainly by forcing turnovers (19 for the game) and a 14-3 domination of the offensive glass. We will need a MUCH improved effort at both ends of the floor to keep this one close. Fortunately, we've improved since our first meeting, but unfortunately, so have they. Their 2 guard Rod Jones is now the conference leading scorer at 22.0 ppg. He had 21 pts in our first meeting and forward Haven Davis added 13. We'll need to watch them both, but they aren't their only weapons, so our defense will have to be smart. Woods had 24 and Porter 18 for us in that game, but had little support. We need much more support from everyone tonight.

Millis Athletic Center is sold out tonight with over 2500 screaming Panther fans.

Their smothering defense held us to just 22.2 % from the field in the half. And despite playing decent defense ourselves and getting to the line 18 times we still trail by 9 at the half (the same margin we were down at our place against them, I note). If we could have made a few more freethrows, this would be a tighter game. Obviously we need to figure something out offensively in the 2nd half to stay in contact and get back in this game.

Continued cold shooting in the 2nd half prevented us from ever getting closer than 8. If we had shot better than 64.7% on our freethrows, we might have been close enough to make a run at the end, but all in all I let my guys know not to hang their heads. I didn't fault their effort in this one, and give all the credit to the Panthers and frustratingly solid defense. We do shoot considerably in the second half (up to 36.7% for the game) but couldn't get to the boards enough to make a game of it (31-37, 16-14). We turned them over 19 times again, but turned it over 15 times ourselves. Porter went scoreless in 12 minutes in this one, and could have been a difference maker. In a battle of marquis players, Woods did outscore Jones 22-21. They had 19 points from their Center Greg Davis though and it was too much.

High Point is on a roll, a regular jelly donut. It'll take a huge effort for anyone to knock them out in the tournament, and their RPI is high enough now that they'll likely be playing someplace in March regardless. Those 11 games they played on the road in the non-conference season while going 2-9 really toughened them up. My hat is off to their head coach Roy Thompson who is almost assuredly going to be conference coach of the year and deservedly so.

Final: HP 78 GW 69

[CoachC]

Feb 12: After the games shake out last night we drop to a 4th place tie with NC-Asheville, a half game behind Liberty.

Jerrold West jammed his finger in last nights game and will probably be out a week or so.

High Points RPI is now up to 85.. even the NIT might be in their reach should they fail to get the automatic bid.

[CoachC]

When we first entered CSU Fieldhouse today for shootaround, I though we'd taken a wrong turn and wound up in a student cafeteria by mistake. S.I.D. Bobby Randall tells me it seats 790. I look at him incredulously. "Bobby, if they try to put 700 people in here there won't be any room for oxygen!" Maybe that explains the Buccaneers 8-3 record at home... they've suffocated most of their opponents. I guess we'll find out though, because 600+ are expected for the game tonight.

This is an important game for us in terms of conference standings and eventual tournament seeding. We won our conference season opener against the Bucs by playing solidly at both ends of the floor, and we need to do the same tonight. We'll have to do it with a shortened bench however, because Jerrold West is still sidelined with the injured finger and won't play.

I've never felt so claustrophobic in my life at tip-off. Granted, we played in some pretty small gymnasiums during my JUCO days, but they were usually mostly empty. Tonight it feels like all 600+ CSU fans are right on the court with us. I guess the one good thing about playing your games in someone's garage is that it doesn't take a lot to establish a big home court advantage.

The first half is a disaster. Even though we shoot well enough, our defense isn't any such thing. We are also getting beat on the boards, and worst of all they've stolen the ball 8 times for several runouts to keep the crowd in a frenzy. We are well on the way to getting totally humilated in this game. I rant at the guys for 15 minutes in the lockerroom about their disgusting lack of effort.

at the half we are getting pummeled 25-43.

at the 7:41 mark down by 26 I empty the bench. Only Woods and Brown have played any semblance of defense in this game and no point in letting them get injured if they are the only ones playing. Our back end of the bench can't possibly embarrass us any more than the regular rotation has. Lemkeke has 9 assists in the game but has left their point guard wide open time and time again. Enough is enough.

After the game I say nothing other than to tell them they have 15 minutes to shower and get on the bus or we are leaving without them. I remind them that 240 miles is a hell of a long walk. Then I leave for the press conference. At the press conference, I apologize for forgetting to bring my team with me to Charleston, and leave for the bus myself.

The final embarrasing score: GW 57 CSU 81

[CoachC]

Feb 16: High Point finally loses in overtime on the road to last place Radford. Go figure. We fall back into a 3 way tie for 6th.

[CoachC]

Hopefully the Highlanders are still hungover from ther upset overtime win over High Point. Hopefully our team has returned from their trip from outer space or wherever it was they disappeared to when they were supposed to be in South Carolina. We won at their place 70-62 by playing well at both ends of the court. If we do the same tonight it should be a victory. If we do like we did against Charleston Southern, the back end of the bench may be playing at the end again, but not in a good way. Containing their guards will be key again just as in the first one. Jerrold West is dressed and available, but it's only been in the last day or so he's been able to catch the ball without severe pain, so how much he'll play is yet to be seen.

After a slow start we played well enough in the last 10 minutes of the half to forge a 40-27 lead at the half. The shooting wasn't very good, but the defense was a huge improvement over our last outing. Woods had 21 first half points, and Porter came out of his slump to add 13 and played some stellar defense. We need to get our big men more involved in the offense in the 2nd half, especially Brown. Evans and Lemeke did little offensively in the half. The offense was all Woods and Porter.

Sheals and Brown each pick up their 3rd personals in the first 90 seconds of the 2nd half and we have a dilemna. We really don't want to go zone against these guys, but we have no choice at the moment.

The zone proves to be much more effective than I would have thought, as they keep turning the ball over trying to force it into the post. Meanwhile Porter has been on fire at both ends of the court, and we've forged a 22 point lead by the 2nd media timeout. Still the offense has been almost entirely Woods and Porter and as a team we aren't shooting very well.

We limp the rest of the way home for the win, but it was far from pretty. Our offense as a whole was pretty bad, shooting just 39.4% from the field. The game was won at the defensive end, which I was pleased with. They warmed up to 36% towards the end but were shooting about 25% for most of the second half. We also turned them over 18 times. Rebounds were about even although we had an advantage in offensive boards (37-37, 14-10). Ast/TO was good (16/10, 12/18). Points in the paint: 22-8, 2nd chance scoring: 16-8, FB scoring: 15-8. While those numbers all sound good it was much more a reflection of our defense than our offense. We did put them on the line 29 times which is not good.

Individually Woods had 29, and Porter who had been taking a lot of heat from myself and my staff lately responded with his best full-court performance of the season: 19 pts, 2 asts, 6 rebs, and 4 steals. We badly needed a 3rd option in the offense though, because they were able to key on Woods and Porter way too much in the 2nd half. Lemeke had a good floor game with 5 asts and just 1 to, but had just 4 points in 24 minutes. Evans had just 1 point in 25 minutes. We failed to get the ball into the post and Williams and Brown had just 2 points apiece. It's hard to score when they aren't touching the ball, although that can be partially attributed to some very good interior defense on the part of the Highlanders. Billy Sheals fouled out in just 4 minutes (!) and was a total non-factor. The biggest bright spot other than Woods and Porter was Donald Moore, who got some playing time with the foul trouble on Sheals and Brown. Moore had 8 pts in 7 minutes and didnt' hack anyone. Moore can definitely be a big contributor in the rotation next year if he can learn to play defense with his feet. He has a scorer's mentality, which is something we can use.

This wasn't a pretty win against the last place team but we'll take it.

Final: GW 74 Highlanders 66

[CoachC]

Feb 19: Williams had someone stomp on his instep last night in the game, and he is walking very gingerly. Probably helps explain his sub-par performance last night. He's day to day. If he can't go in the next one, Moore earned some playing time last night and will probably get it. We've considered moving Porter into the starting line-up, but we like having his offense off the bench. Evans has been really struggling lately though, so we have to take it into consideration. We'll be having extensive film sessions with both Evans and Sheals in the next couple of days. West was only able to get a few minutes last night, but his finger is doing well, and should be ready for the next game. Brown continues to perform much better than his stats line would indicate. As a freshman, he's just not comfortable being as vocal on the floor as he should be, but we really need for him to start calling for the ball. Not many guys can handle him in the league when he's on, but we struggle to make him a bigger part of our offense. That is on me. We are now in a 4 way tie for 4th with 2 games remaining. We have clinched no worse than the 8th seed, however, so there will be no last place finish for us. We'd love to finish in the top 6 though.