I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[CoachC]

thx Wayne! This has been such a Jeckyll and Hyde team. When they play well, they look pretty good. When they play poorly, they REALLY play poorly. Next year should be interesting though.

[CoachC]

Mar 2:
The pairings for the tournament at Asheville's new Kimmer Arena:

(8) Gardner-Webb vs (1) High Point
(5) Charleston Southern vs (4) Campbell
(11) Radford vs (3) Liberty
(10) Winthrop vs (2) Presbyterian

[CoachC]

The first time we played the Panthers we battle hard at our place and they barely escaped with a 1 point win. The second time on the road, they were just too much for us even though we put out a good effort and they beat us by 9. We quite frankly will have to play our best game of the year to beat these guys, and unlike us they are well-rested. Even our effort last night, good as it was, won't be enough. Regardless of the outcome, I just want to see our guys leave the floor knowing they gave it their all.

Asheville's new home, Kimmel Arena, is about 3 times the size of the old barn they've been playing in, but still on the smallish size. Capacity is about 3400. With Asheville eliminated from the tournament, crowd size won't be as big, but with High Point having sold about 800 tickets, about half the crowd will be cheering for the Panthers, and about half for the underdog. Well, maybe less than half cheering for us, since the Asheville fans hate us. I still find it rather humorous that we get to play in their new home before they do!

Gilchrist is still in excruciating pain and won't dress.

In the opening minute, Woods was fouled by Rod Jones who is almost certain to be conference player of the year. He's driven to the goal every possession since in the first 4 minutes trying to get that 2nd foul that would sit Jones down (smart boy). High Point has done a great job rotating and helping though. Defensively they are daunting.

At the 12 minute mark, Woods is still driving and they are still rotating over to stop the drive. He's been making good decisions though, either getting fouled by one of their big men, or passing out of the double team. We
ve been doing an equally good job on Jones with the help defense. Thus far we are hanging in there with them down 14-16. At 11:32 Woods finally draws the 2nd personal on Jones with a pass fake, but I think the less athletic Jones was ready for a breather anyway. Even Woodsie is looking a bit gassed. Both players have been working their tails off. WIth Jones sitting down, we'll try to get Woods a breather too, and give Myers some time with Lemeke at the 2. Lemeke drawing inspiration from Woods quickly draws 2 fouls on Jones back-up. So I give him a breather, and bring Porter back in to play the 2 against their number 3. Hopefully he's been taking notes. 5 seconds later he drives on the guy and gets a basket and 1. I like the way this game plan is working! 45 seconds later Porter drives again and draws another foul! Now they are at the deep end of their bench at the 2. We've breached the wall, now we've gotta storm into it. Myers thinks it looks like fun so he draws a foul on their back up point guard and shoots the 1 and 1 for our first lead. At the 7:57 mark we are still hanging in, now with a 2 point lead. Jones is still sitting so we bring back a rested Lemeke and Woods to go to work on their backups. At 3:27 Lemeke draws a 3rd personal on their starting point guard, Taylor. We are still hanging in down 3. We are shooting the ball very well, but so are they and they are killing us on the boards. Jones is back with 2 fouls. It would be great to see him get his 3rd before halftime. Myers picks up a 2nd foul on their backup point guard, Reid. How many guards do these guys have? They sit Jones back down in the final minute, and we sit Woods back down to avoid him getting a 2nd foul. Porter charges for his 2nd so he sits down too.

We shoot 63% for the half, and get to the line 21 times, and STILL have just a 5 point lead at the half. Damn these guys are good. We need to foul them all out. We really need to get to the defensive glass better in the second half. THey've shot the ball well too, 53% but the boards are where they have been hurting us with 6 second chance points and an 8-0 margin on fast break points.

Woods has 13 points in the first half, and Lemeke, Porter, and Myers have 7 each beating up on their guards.

At half-time we lead 47-42. Even some of the Asheville fans who are regretting buying their tickets early are starting to pull for us. At 16:59 Woods draws a blocking foul on Jones along the baseline, his 3rd! The High Point bench is starting to look very concerned. He immediately pumpfakes Jones backup Knox for HIS 3rd! 1st media time out doesn't come until 13:38. We are still hanging in, but it's now tied. We just can't get any seperation on these guys. They gamble and bring back Jones. Woods is gassed, so it'll be up to Porter to work on him. West charges for his 3rd so I'm forced to bring Woods back to move Porter to the 3. At 11:31 and the 2nd media timeout we are still hanging in, up 3. Just before the timeout it looked like Woods had just drawn the 4th on Jones, but no call was made. Evans is back, so we'll try again to get Woods a short breather. We take a timeout at 10:59 to get a now rested Lemeke and Woods back in the game. At 7:35 and the 3rd media timeout we are still hanging in, up 5 68-63.

At 3:06 and the final media timeout we are still hanging in and have pushed the lead to 9 79-70 thanks to some explosive offense by Gregg Porter in the last few minutes while Woods caught his breath for the stretch drive. Myers picks up his 4th, but he's done his job, and we turn the guard duties back to Lemeke and Woods and Porter moves back to the 3. We trade a couple of baskets (Porter is on FIRE!) and after Woods splits a pair of freethrows at 2:15, we are still up 8. After Jones misses the 2nd of two freethrows at 1:07 they get the rebound for a backdoor 3 and the lead is down to 3 with :52 when I call time out to regroup. We run Woods off a pick and roll and he misses, but Sheals (who has been fantastic in the 2nd half) gets the rebound goal for a 5 point lead with :41. The place is a madhouse! They miss in the ensuing possession and foul Lemeke with :23. He hits both for a 3 possession lead! I'm hoarse on the bench, my coaching staff is hoarse. Gilchrist has been cheering so loud for his teammates in street clothes that re-injures his abdomen but refuses to leave the bench. Jones misses a 3, Williams grabs the rebound and quickly outlets the ball upcourt. They foul Lemeke with :07 and the bench starts celebrating. The game is stopped for about 5 minutes while they clean up the debris the High Point fans have thrown and continue to throw on the floor. Lemeke hits both free throws, and 7 seconds and a desperation 3 later, pandemonium breaks out! WE DID IT! The High Point players are broken-hearted that their NCAA dream has ended so soon. Their coach congratulates me and says "I can't believe you guys struggled so much. Nobody in this conference played us tougher. You need to make these guys believe they can and WILL win this tournament" I thank him and wish him the best of luck in the NIT. I hug their star Rod Jones and let him know he's gettng MY vote for player of the year. Then it's off to the locker room where I try to remind the guys this isn't over yet, and we still have a lot of work to do. Who can blame them for being happy though?

Our guards were totally amazing in this game: Woods 17 pts, 6 rebs and blocked 2 of Jones' shots when he tried to drive on him, Lemeke 16 pts, 5 asts and just 2 TO, Porter who was absolutely not going to let us lose down the stretch scored 20 pts on 8 of 9 shooting, and I think at least half of those came in the last 5 minutes of the game, and Myers who 2 days ago was a benchwarmer gave us 15 solid minutes and scored 7 pts. Meanwhile as a group they held the conference's leading scorer and best player to 12 points and never gave him room to breathe. We didn't get a lot out of our 4s this game, but Brown and Sheals were stellar, especially with the head-hunting screens they were setting. Sheals in particular was getting his mitts on every lose rebound at our end of the court in the 2nd half and sticking them back in. He wound up with 12 pts and 7 rebs.

The final happy score: GW 88 High Point 79

[PointGuard]

Hey, if Radford can beat High Point, Gardner-Webb certainly can!

Nice win in the opener, Coach...congrats on getting win #10.

Re "Jekyll and Hyde"...i absolutely KNOW the feeling!

[CoachC]

In the other quarter finals, Presbyterian handles Winthrop 81-65. Radford continues to be an upstart knockng off Liberty 87 -77, and our next opponent Charleston Southern blows out Campbell 84-57 (GOOD! I didn't want to see that damned Camel mascot again)

[CoachC]

Thx, PG. As you can see we came, we saw, we conquered!

[Wayne23]

FANTASTIC win, Coach. keep it going!

[PointGuard]

WOW! Your posted that win against High Point while I was typing up my previous post! COOL!

[CoachC]

After an emotional win last night, and just a short morning practice session to prepare for this afternoons game, it was difficult getting our guys focused. They are still pumped up, which is good, but I am worried about a "victory hangover". I try to impress upon them 3 things: A) We've not won 3 in a row all season, and a loss now ends it. An RPI of 321 isn't going to have the alphabet tournaments knocking at our door. B) The last time we played these guys in South Carolina 2 1/2 weeks ago, we played our worst game of the season by far. We couldn't have beaten a high school girls junior varsity team that night.
C) In blowing out Campbell last night they were able to get some rest for their regulars. We weren't able to do that.

I've been told that after our upset win last night, about 100 more tickets were sold to our fans willing to come the 20 miles to see us. A lot of the High Point fans that bother to come to today's sessions will no doubt be cheering loudly for the Buccaneers, but many of them will be rooting for us (what smart basketball fan wants to see the team that eliminates you get eliminated by someone else? It makes your team look worse.). With close to 200 of our own fans in attendance and very few making the 200+ mile trip from Charleston, and lot of the Radford and Presbyterian fans rooting for the underdog, the crowd should be in our favor. Definitely a better atmosphere for us than it was playing against 600 rowdy Buccaneer fans in a shoebox. Coming out of the higher bracket we even get to wear our home uniforms in this one.

I think our effort will be there, but fatigue may be a factor. Once again I tell our kids, win or lose, be proud of yourselves when you walk off the court this afternoon, but just in case, win anyway!

@7:22 of the first half playing very well, disaster strikes. Out of our worst nightmare, Woods gets fouled hard, and is laying prone on the floor. After the trainer is with him for about 2 minutes, he is helped off the floor and to the locker room. (ooc: geez, I wish the game would tell you what the in-game injuries were in-game.) If he's not able to come back, EVERYONE is really going to have to buckle down and play the games of their lives. No one player on our team can make up what Woodsie gives us, it'll have to be a team effort. With Myers already with 2 fouls, and Gilchrist not dressed, Feeney in particular needs to play like he is capable of. He saw very little action last night, with Myers having stepped up in this tournament, so he should be chomping at the bit to contribute. I tell the student manager to run back to the locker room, stay until he can give me some kind of prelimary report on Woods, and return with my blanket and antacid tablets, because I'm damn sure gonna need them!

I plead my case with the Refs for an intentional foul, but they are unanimous about it being incidental contact, and I have to agree they are probably right.After the media timeout which also was due at the time of the foul Porter, in for Woods, sinks both freethrows. and play resumes. At 4:58 Porter picks up his 2nd, and only 4 guards left dressed and available our bench is really looking thin. I may have to go zone in the last 4 minutes to try to protect Myers or Porter, because I'm not going to have the luxury of sitting both down. Fortunately the student manager comes back just then with my blanket, antacids, and preliminary report on Woodsie. It's not good... it's not likely he'll be coming back for the 2nd half. I ask Tony Evans who is next to me on the bench if he's ever played 2 guard before, but he tells me at 6-3, he was the tallest guy on his high school team and mostly played Center. He was recruited because he could handle the ball reasonably well and had some outside range, and my predecessor was confident he could make a small forward out of him. Evans is a smart kid though and tells me he knows our sets well enough to give it a try. I tell him to be ready then, because after the media timeout he's going in at the 2.

We played very well in the first half, and even in the last 8 minutes without Woods we continued to play reasonably well, but our lead has been slashed to 3 at halftime. We outshot them (48% - 36%), and out rebounded them (19-13, but 3-5 on the offensive boards). We turned the ball over 7 times, but five of those were in the first 10 minutes. We need to improve 2 things in the 2nd half... offensive rebounding (they were 7-2 on second chance points, although granted they had more missed shots to rebound), and praying harder, because without Woods in the 2nd half, we have a monumental task ahead of us. Not only is he far and away our leading scorer, he's also second on this team in rebounding and assists. We also need Porter to avoid picking up his 3rd foul. We will start the 2nd half in zone, but if it's not going well, we'll have to get out of it in a hurry.

at the half we lead 33-30.

Porter is doing a great job filling Wood's shoes at the start of the 2nd half, now we need someone to fill Porter's shoes. Also Porter doesn't have nearly the amount of stamina of Rob and is going to need more frequent breathers. At the first media timeout, while I'm debating what to do, Woods comes out of the locker room and says "Coach, put me in!" (ooc: at haltime, his end rating went back to 100 meaning the injury is minor, but it will go down fast and regenerate slowly, so he probably won't be able to give a lot of minutes. I also worry that sometimes playing an injured player, seems to cause another injury, but since it's now or never for this team anyway, I'll take that chance). When Woods returns to the floor after the media timeout there is a HUGE roar from the crowd. Not sure how much he'll be able to give us, but just seeing him back on the floor will give the rest of the team some confidence.)

By the 12 minute media timeout we've managed to push our lead up to 9. They are struggling against the zone, and i'm not going to leave it as long as it's working. It's amazing how much better our 1-3-1 zone defense has been in the 2nd half of the season. That gives me hope for next year when we will again try to make the Amoeba Zone an integral part of our game plan. Woods isn't himself obviously, and i'll only be able to use him sparingly to give Porter some rest (OOC: End dropped 15 points in 3 minutes, and will probably take at least 6 to 8 minutes to refill based on my experience with injured players).

At 6:54 and the 3rd media timeout we still lead by 7, and the zone is still working. As I had hoped, other players, especially Williams have stepped up to help take up the slack in our offense with Woods only semi-available. Our biggest concern right now is taking better care of the ball. We've had a few too many turnovers so far in the 2nd half.

At 3:31 we've expanded the lead still further to 14 and lead 63-49! The crowd is loud and excited... for US! not something we've had much of this season, and the players are responding to it. Now time to bring it home.

at 1:26 as Brown drives and scores the lead goes back to 14 and we go back to man in anticipation of a flurry of 3s. Before they can get an open shot, West intercepts a pass and when they start to run in transition, I yell at them to use clock, and Lemeke pulls it back out. We don't need points, we need patience. Their leading scorer Parker who has been frustrated all game, misses a 3 at :48 and they know it's dire straits for them. Lemeke hits 2 freethrows :45 to push the lead to 16. After they score a 2 at the other end of the court, they know it's over and call off the dogs. Williams picks off another pass and scores in transition for the final score and the celebration starts, but much less exuberant this time. They know we've got one more big hurdle to jump, and they are also worried about Woods.

This was another outstanding team effort, especially considering the adversity we were up against at halftime, but they not only met the challenge, they DEVOURED it!

For the game we shoot unbelievably well in the 2nd half and wind up Shooting 55.1% for the game. Playing almost exclusively zone in the 2nd half we hold them to 37.3 % for the game, as they never did manage to quite solve it. We outrebound them for the game 34-26 although they still had a 9-4 advantage on the offensive glass but only had 2 second chance points in the second frame. Our 16 turnovers for the game were too many, but we turned them over repeatedly in the 2nd half and 15 for the game, so they really didnt get any advantage there. They did have 13-10 advantage on fast break points, mainly because they rebounded really well at the defensive end. (17-4 at our end, and 9-30 at their end means we really were effectively out-rebounded in this game, but not by a lot. Total rebound numbers are a worthless stat.) We were 28-16 in points in the point, and without Woods available for half the game to drive to the goal as much as he usually does, i am VERY pleased with that number.

Woods had 12 points, all in the first half in about 9 minutes or so. In the 5 minutes or so he was able to give us in the 2nd half he wasn't able to do a lot and the only shot he took was blocked in the lane, but just HAVING him available as a body for those 5 minutes was huge, as it gave us just enough time to keep Lemeke and Porter fresh.

Porter had 12 points and 5 rebounds
Lemeke 10 pts, 5 rebounds. (only 2 assists but he was playing the 2 much of the this one after Woods was injured)
Team Captain Larry Williams did what a team captain is supposed to do in adverse situations and came up big for us in the 2nd half with 9 pts, 3 asts, and 6 rebs, and was magnificent in the zone.
Brown also was a big factor in the second half scoring all of his 8 points after halftime.
Every one else contributed as well. Myers continues his fine finish to the season with 4asts, 1 st, and just 1 TO in 11 minutes, and Feeley was terrific too with 4 points in 6 minutes. He deserved more playing time in this one, and depending on the situation with Woods we'll need him in the championship game.

We win 3 in a row for the first time all season, and all in the tournament. Who knew I had a team full of Reggie Jacksons?

This team is excited and I don't even think it's hit them yet that they are only 40 minutes away from a shot at school history. No Gardner-Webb team has ever been in a post-season tournament of any kind since going DI. Wouldn't it be a strange tale if we are the first? And not just any tournament....the Big Dance!

During the VERY long press conference with a billion questions about Woods injury, and just how in the world the world I managed to get this team to suddenly play so well , my answer to most of the questions is the same: "I have no freakin' idea! But if you do, please tell me!" Actually, I do have one idea about why we are playing so well and his name is Larry Williams. He's taking his role as team captain very seriously, and suddenly does NOT want his senior year to end just yet. Whether it's practice, or in game, on the bench or on the floor, whether he's having a good game or bad, he's been very vocal with his teammates and is doing a wonderful job doing what I've struggled so much to do myself for so much of this season. He's keeping them focused. I insist that he join me at the press conference. His great sense of humor keeps them laughing throughout his Q&A session. His personality may find him in a broadcast booth somewhere once his playing career is over.

I'm far too wound up after the press conference to go back to the hotel with the players after the game, so I send my 2nd assistant, Jonathan Grays back to the hotel with them, and Keven and I join David King to watch the rest of the Presbyterian-Radford game and toss around ideas.

Final score: GW 71 CS 56

[CoachC]

After leading by just 4 at half time, Presbyterian totally dismantles the out-manned Radford boys in the 2nd half as they went inside over and over to their big man Crider and win easily 80-57. For the 3rd straight game we'll be playing a team more rested than we are. The next morning, after examination by the team doctor, we are told Woods has suffered a hamstring strain, and our warned that trying to use him tonight in the championship game could risk a tear or worse and are strongly advised not to attempt it. So that settles it. We can't risk such a talent player's career for a game, not even a championship game. Woodsie, of course, is very disappointed with the news but understands and agrees. He'll be on the bench in street clothes with his buddy and room-mate Lawrence Gilchrist cheering like crazy.