I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[CoachC]

11/5

Our 2nd exhibition against DII UC San Diego. In this one I'll be on the bench (in the first exhibition I just sat behind the bench and observed and let my assistants run the show with Kevin in charge). We'll be trying different combinations out, and doing our best to try to work out a rotation. The guys are making it tough because there are a lot of guys vying for spots.

Despite the low level of competition, this game certainly left me feeling optimistic about the coming season.

It didn't sort a whole lot out about our rotation, mainly because everyone vying for spots played so well. What it did tell me is this is likely a much deeper team we've had in the past, which will make playing uptempo more effective, and will make the Amoeba zone more effective (although we still have a ways to go with that).

Porter was limited to 15 minutes in this one, since we had a lot of other guys we needed to take a closer look at, and we aren't the least bit worried about Gregg's role on this team. Woods was in mid-season form with 19 pts, 2 asts, 4 rebs, 2 sts, and 2 blks in 25 minutes, and could have easily played 35. All of our point guards played well, as did Kerr, Evans, and Nielsen vying for time at the 3. Certainly though the biggest sensation once again, however was Godzilla who had 17 pts, 2asts, 6 rebs, and a steal in 21 minutes. The thing that is impressive about Josh is not that he can back down defenders in the post with his size and strength, but that he is so amazingly agile and has the ability to catch and shoot pretty much anywhere inside of 12 feet. Furthermore, with us now able to give Sheals, and especially Brown time now at the four, we can expect to have an inside presence to our offense that was missing last year. Bobby Henry was just 1/6 in this one, but still impressed with his shot selection and willingness to take the open shot. He is also a good passer, and is going to likely get some opportunities to play even as a walk-on.

Again the score didn't really matter, but we won 83-61 and it was never a game. Most of the question marks I have will revolve around defense, since it is difficult to draw any conclusions considering the opposition. Against this team at least, all i can say is that the man-to-man and Amoeba Zone both looked adequate if not sensational, and our 1-3-1 when we went to it as an occasional different look for them was adequate as well.

[CoachC]

11/6

After some intense discussion with my staff, and a talk with Derrick Bradley, we've made the difficult decision to red-shirt him this year. Bradley has a big upside, and we hate to waste a year of his eligibility at the end of the bench. A year of learning the sets and getting acclimated to college life should help him a lot moving forward.

We also struggled with the decision about moving Porter into the starting lineup. Not that he doesn't belong there, he certainly does, but having someone with his offensive skills available to come in as the league's best 6th man is a nice thing to have. In the end we decided he will start, as will O'Connor, moving Brown to the 4

Our starting line-up initially will be:

6'1 Sr guard Robert Myers
6'2 Sr guard Rob Woods
6'3 Sr guard Gregg Porter
6'9 So f/c Josh Brown
6'10 Fr center Josh "Godzilla" O'Connor

The rotation off the bench is still very much a work in progress. All I can say is everyone on the team has a chance to be a part of the rotation, based on what they show us in practice and in the games.

[CoachC]

Our season opener on the road. The Aztecs dropped their home opener to Missouri St. by 6.

12 turnovers combined with some less than mediocre officiating puts us behind at the half 34-45. A little better effort at both ends of the floor along with chloroforming the zebras and we can get back into this one.

Turnovers turnovers turnovers. 19 of them, combined with a -13 in freethrows made made it impossible to ever make a run in this one, despite outplaying them in most every other way.

Woods was phenomenal with a career high 34 pts, 2 asts, 5 rebs, 2stls
Myers was very good at the point before fouling out (7 pts, 7 asts)
O'Connor had a decent enough debut with 10 pts.

Feeney and Gilchrist were both horrible with Myers in foul trouble, and Porter had a rough game offensively with just 6 pts and 4 turnovers, although he did grab 6 rebounds

We could have used another perimeter shooter to help pick up the slack, but none rose to the occasion.

Still, fewer turnovers and better referees could have turned this into a victory.

Final G-W 69 SDSt. 83

[CoachC]

The Cougars shoot a lot of outside shots....poorly, although their 2 losses have been to Wyoming and Nebraska on the road. Still if we can play decent basketball at both ends of the court, we should be able to walk out of here with a victory.

Despite a poor shooting first half, our defense and rebounding were good enough to take a 36-29 lead into the locker room at half. After being shaky with the ball again in the first 10 minutes we finally settled down.

Despite a poor shooting performance (just 38.7 for the game) we did everything else well enough to hold off the cougars and never relinquished the lead in the 2nd half. Our rebounding was solid, and our ball-handling while not good was better and the defense was very good throughout.

Woods had a rather ho-hum night by his standards but still had 19 pts, 2 asts, 6 rebs, and 2 sts.
Porter added 10 pts, 3 asts, 4 rebs, 2 stls and a block
Myers had another solid game at the point (8 pts, 6 asts, 4 rebs, 1st, just 1 TO in 28 minutes)
Sheals, Brown, and O'Connor all went to the boards hard and contributed some offense, and Gilchrist and Evans both played well off the bench.

We have to shoot better than this, but tonight the effort was good enough to hold off a bad team

Final; G-W 67 Chi. St. 60

[CoachC]

11/20 We return home to find the signed LOIs of Giesen, Felts, and Jeffers. Moore will probably hold off until spring and he gets his test scores. Felts has moved up to 54th overall in the November ratings by the scouting service, Moore is 57th, Jeffers 74th.

Rob Woods is named Big South Player of the Week, probably not for the last time.

[Wayne23]

Looking good, Coach. I predict there will be a lot more upside this season.

[CoachC]

I think so too, Wayne. This team is miles ahead of where they were defensively at the beginning of last season. Undoubtedly I'll have to make some adjustments. The offense should be pretty good eventually. Right now they aren't shooting well, and turning the ball over too much.

[CoachC]

We hold our home opener against another Valley team (Chicago St. moved to the Valley at the beginning of this season). The Sycamores are an inside/outside team, looking to get drop downs from the high post to one of their big men, and using their perimeter game to open up the paint. Their losses have been on the road to St. Bonaventure and Rhode Island. Good post defense and rebounding could mean another win.

In the first half our defense was a bit porous at times, but we had 8 steals in turning them over 13 times, which helped us to a 18-8 margin in fast break points. We went to the boards, and on the halfcourt they were unable to contain O'Connor who was having his way with them in the low post.

We need to play a bit better defense in the 2nd half, and need more offense from Woods and Porter to nail this one down.

At the half we lead 47-35

What a difference a year makes. Last year, if we knew Woods and Porter were both going to have off games, we could chalk it up in the loss column. Tonight they both had off games and we won easily.

The Amoeba zone tonight worked beautifully as we turned them over 18 times on 12 steals.

We still didn't shoot well (41.4) but we rebounded hard and got out in transition.

Porter was limited to just 15 minutes with foul trouble and had just 4 pts, but did have 5 rebounds. Woods had just 11 points in this one, but did everything else he usually does 3 asts, 4 rebs, 3sts and a block.

O'Connor had a terrific game, however with a career high 19 pts and 8 rebs.
Myers also had a career high of 19 with 5/7 from downtown.

Evans had 7 pts and 4 steals off the bench, and Feeley added 8 off the bench as well.

Final score G-W 83 Ind St. 66 and it wasn't that close. We led by as much as 26 before emptying the bench.

For the first time since I came here, we find ourselves above .500.

[Wayne23]

Progress!!!

[CoachC]

The Spiders are another inside/outside team and are probably the best team we've played so far, despite losing on the road to a not very good DII team in their season opener (UC San Diego, the same team we played in our second exhibition). Since then they've beaten Alabama St. at home, and had a 7 point loss on the road to 16th ranked Texas Tech proving that they can play. They also play primarily 2-3 zone which is a concern for us because we haven't been shooting well from the perimeter other than Myers. We need to find a way to break down the zone and get out on the fast break.

We've decided to move Porter back to the bench to try to get him going. Evans will go back into the starting line-up where he was most of last season.

As expected we struggled from the perimeter against their zone and were unable to get the ball inside. Only Woods was able to penetrate the seams, and yet we lead at the half 35-31.

We shot better in the second half as we found some bench help from the perimeter. They really clogged the middle on us denying the ball in the post. O'Connor managed just 3 shots in the game.

This game, however, was won once again largely on traps from the Amoeba Zone and we had 12 steals for the game.

Woods had an average game for him 19 pts, 3 asts, 5 rebs, and 3 sts. Fortunately an average night for Rob is a pretty damned good night for anyone else. Brown added 10 largely as the recipient of slams on the fast break. We had contributions from a lot of other players in this one though, most notably Feeney hit a pair of 3s in the middle of the 2nd half that forced them to spread their zone. Myers had a couple of 3s for 6 and 7 asts. Late in the game Brett Nielsen came in and hit a couple of very pretty intermediate jumpers in the seams of the zone that helped us put it away. Donald Moore was a dynamo on the defensive end with a career high 10 rebs ( 9 defensive) and 3 steals, and was a big part of this win.

It was a good team effort, but we've yet to hit our full stride where we are hitting on all cylinders. At the moment we are doing enough to win though, and we did a terrific job of putting the game away late after they pulled within 2.

Final: G-W 76 Richmond 64