I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[CoachC]

11/27 Still very early in the season, but I note that our 9.8 st/g is good enough for 5th in the country.

[CoachC]

A team with a very similar style to Richmond. They'll play deliberately on offense, looking for drop down passes from the high post. On defense they'll also play 2-3 zone just as the Spiders did. The Bears probably aren't as talented as Richmond, but they do appear to be a better rebounding team, so we'll still have our work cut out for us.

We struggled mightily against the zone in the first half, unable to get the ball inside, or to penetrate, and our perimeter shooting was pretty shoddy. We also were getting outrebounded soundly. Most of our offense again came in transition, which, thanks to 9 first half steals was enough to go into intermission tied 30-30. In the second half we have to get to the boards better, and find some way to get some offense on the halfcourt if we want to win this thing.

This one went down to the wire, with Myers finding O'Connor rolling to the goal with 8 seconds left for a 1 point lead. They missed a buzzer beater at the other end.

We did a better job against the zone in the 2nd half, with Myers finding some room to penetrate, and a few guys, notably Tyler Bonney, and Godzilla getting the ball in the seams for some intermediate jumpers. A few 3s by Myers at the start of the half helped soften it up a bit. We also did a better job on the offensive boards in the 2nd half with Donald Moore and O'Connor getting several putbacks. Our defensive rebounding was still not particularly good though and we let them shoot 50%. Once again, this game was won primarily on offense generated out of the Amoeba zone, turning them over 21 times on 11 steals. We've got to start doing some other things better though.

Unable to penetrate, Woods was held to just 13 points on 6/16 shooting. Myers and O'Connor again provided most of the half-court offense with 17 and 12 points respectively. Porter continues to be struggling and was scoreless in just 9 minutes. Moore was again a big factor with 7 rebs and 3 steals, and Tyler Bonney gave us some very positive minutes off the bench with 6 pts, 3 asts, 4 rebs and 2 steals. Freeley played well too backing up Myers.

We aren't too worried about Woods, but we are going to have to have some gamefilm sessions with Porter to see if we can get to the bottom of things. He seems to have no confidence in his shot at the moment, and he's letting it follow him to the defensive end.

Our 4th straight win was a little too close for comfort

Final: G-W 70 UCA 69

[Wayne23]

It still counts!

[CoachC]

Our 4th straight home game, before going on the road. Crowds have started picking up.. a few wins will do that.. but Porter Arena is still less than half full. It's a start at any rate.

The Catamounts have played a fairly difficult schedule. One of their losses was by 2 on the road to Arizona St. Their wins have come at home against American and UAB.

3 minutes into the game I pick up a T. The officiating has been horrible thus far. The phantom whistles continue, and at 12:36 we are forced to go zone.

Despite their parade to the free-throw line, we manage a 43-35 halftime lead shooting over 59% from the field. Woods has 18 first half points, and Porter comes out of his funk to add 11. We are faced with some foul trouble though as all 3 of our point guards have 2 fouls. Sheals also has 2, and Brown has 3. We were forced to play Myers at the point at the end of the half which is something we have been trying to avoid doing this season.

We'll be force to continue playing 1-3-1 along with the occasional Amoeba in the second half, but so far it's been effective.

In the 2nd half the referees discover some sanity, and they are never able to cut into our lead. We had 9 steals again forcing 16 turnovers, and shot an incredible 60.4 % from the field. We did get outrebounded but not by a lot, and we allowed the opposition to shoot 50% from the field again, in large part because having to play so much zone. Clicking on all cylinders offensively for once though we are able to pull away in the last 5 minutes for an easy win.

Woods had 24 pts 3 asts, Porter for the first time this season LOOKED like Gregg Porter with 16 pts, 3asts , and 2 stls in 21 minutes. Down the stretch Godzilla was scoring at will, and would up with 14 pts, 5 rebs as his solid freshman year continues. He's offense is still ahead of his defense and rebounding at this point of his career, but he'll improve. His opposite number had 20 pts in this one, although most of those came in the zone, so Josh wasn't entirely to blame. Evans and Moore continue to perform consistently as role players (Evans 7 pts, 3 asts, 2 stls, Moore 5 pts, 2 asts, 6 rebs) and Finney is much more productive this year as well, with 8 pts, 2 asts in 14 minutes off the bench. Myers was limited to 8 pts, 2 asts in just 17 minutes because of foul trouble, but adds a dimension to our offense that was missing last year. He is deadly from 3, and if the defense leaves him alone he's not afraid to torch them from beyond the arc. We may need to coax him to drive a bit more, because he is a terrific passer as well. We have a lot more weapons this year, and it's translating into Ws. A nice sweep of the 4 game homestand and our 5th in a row overall.

Final G-W 88 WC 73

[Wayne23]

Keep rolling, Coach. It's so nice when the wins finally start to come.

[CoachC]

This will be a real test for us. The Mountaineers have a home win over Clemson, and are returning home after a 3-1 road trip. They are very athletic and love to run so this should be a high scoring game. Defensively we have to get control over their talented point guard who averages 17.2/g and can penetrate and dish. Rebounding at both ends could be a key to this game.

Once again our point guards are in early foul trouble, and we have to go zone, which could be fatal against this team

We shoot poorly in the first half, and they don't shoot much better leading to a surprisingly low scoring game thus far. Woods has 16 and O'Connor has 6, but there hasn't been much offense otherwise for us. O'Connor has drawn 3 fouls on each of their centers in the first half though and we need to try to take advantage of that in the 2nd frame.

At half we trail 32-26.

With no one other than Woods and O'Connor ever showing any signs of offense in this one, we were never able to cut into the lead.

Woods had 25, O'COnnor had 17 pts, 11 rebs. In foul trouble again Myers had 5 asts but only 2 points in 20 minutes. Evans had 4 stls, but just 2 pts. The only semblance of offense we got from anyone off the bench in this game was Brandon Kerr's 5 pts in 10 minutes. We had too many empty minutes from too many people in this one.

a disappointing loss

Final: App. St. 67 G-W 58

[CoachC]

Back home for one with a chance to get things back in the win column. We'll be facing zone again, this time 3-2. Their 2 guard averages 21.7 a game, but they have no one else in double figures but get good balance. The Colonels 5 wins include a home win over Ohio St. and a road win over Miami of Florida so we have to take these guys seriously. They shoot well, and have been forcing over 16 turnovers a game. We need to solve their zone and click on all cylinders.

Their star guard Stallworth sustains an injury less than 4 minutes into the game. Tough break for them, but a good one for us because we aren't playing very well in the opening minutes. In fact we are horrible in about every phase of the game for the first 13 minutes before we figure out how to drop down the ball to O'connor about 6 times in a row. We are fortunate to only be down by 11 at the half, 29-40

After falling behind by 19 early in the 2nd half, we were never able to pull any closer than the final margin of 9. Other than 12 steals, defensively we stunk the place up allowing them to shoot 61% for the game. Offensively we stunk for about 30 minutes.

Woods had 19 but was just 6/18 from the field. Myers had 11 pts but turned the ball over 6 times. O'Connor had 15 on 5 of 8 shooting and Brown added 8 but we couldnt get them the ball often enough. The only other bright spot was Bobby Henry who provided a spark with 8 points in 8 minutes. He'll be getting more playing time, as Porter continues to struggle (didn't take a shot and committed 4 fouls in 8 minutes.

This was a good team, but we shouldn't have been this bad at home, nor should we struggle so much against zone defenses.

Final EK 78 G-W 69

[CoachC]

12/11 Godzilla wins conference freshman of the week and deservedly so. The initial RPI rankings have us at 161. Winthrop is at 44 (! they are getting way too much credit for strength of schedule), Presbyterian 66, Campbell 128. Way too early for the RPIs to mean much, but the conference as a whole is doing much better than a year ago.

[CoachC]

After a pair of disappointing losses, I now have to get our team up for playing on the road against the best team we've scheduled in my two seasons here. The Thundering Herd already have home wins over Tennessee and Villanova, and a road win over Missouri St. We'd better pull it together again... fast.

We let them get to the offensive boards too much in the first half, but we shoot well enough and play defense well enough to take a 2 point lead at the half 28-26. Once again Myers and Feeney can't stay out of foul trouble, and Gilchrist gives us nothing so we finish the half with Woods at the point.

With 43 seconds to go we have the ball in a tie game. Our point guards have been horrible in this game, but everyone else has played well enough to keep us in the game. We had as much as a 5 point lead at one point, but our defense has faltered down the stretch. Myers turns the ball over with 2 seconds difference between the shot clock and the game clock and they get a runout for a slam dunk. We call timeout with :24 and put Woods at the point. Out of the time out, Woods throws it away for another runout. We take our last timeout. Feeley misses a 3 and we choke at the end of a winnable game.

Myers play in this one was horrible, GIlchrist was bad, and Feeley was mediocre. We can't win with our point guards playing as badly as they have during this 3 game losing streak.

They did a good job defending Woods in this one and he is held to 14 pts. O'Connor added 14. Bobby Henry continues to insist on playing time as he added 10 in 16 minutes. Kerr, Brown and Evans all gave us positive minutes as well. Porter got a DNP and is going to have to fight his way back into the rotation.

This WAS a good team we played, and a 4 point loss on the road isn't something we should feel ashamed about. The problem is, the game was there for the taking and we choked repeatedly at both ends at the court down the stretch instead of putting it away. It's getting hard to remember how we won 5 games, and unfortunately the players can't remember either.

final
Marshall 71 G-W 67

[CoachC]

We play our final 2 non-conference games at home, and we need to right the ship before conference play begins.

First up are the Toledo Rockets. They haven't played much of a schedule but did upend Kansas St. at home in their last outing.

Feeley is starting in place of Myers. Maybe with Myers on the bench with Porter they can help each other pull their heads out of their butts. Maybe Gilchrist can help too. It'd be the first assist he's had in several games.

They're in a zone, of course. Until we figure out how to crack one we're probably going to be seeing a lot of zone this year.

Porter responded to his DNP by scoring 11 in the first half. Kerr added 8. Unfortunately it was everyone else's turn to struggle against the zone. Woods had just 3 points in the first half and picked up his 2nd foul. O'Connor and Brown were both scoreless. We were killed on the boards (16-27, 3-7). We were called for 10 fouls in the half. The Rockets were called for 1. We shot 32%. They shot 35%. And yet somehow we go into the locker room with a lead. 30-27 after being down 10 early. Don't ask me how.

We win this one by buckling down hard on defense in the 2nd half holding them to 31.8% shooting and turning them over 16 times with 9 steals. Offensively we managed to find just enough guys playing well together at once to pull away in the last 10 minutes.

Gregg "Mr. Hyde" Porter led us with 19 points. Robert "Schizoid" Myers had 12 pts and 7 asts. Woods finally managed to get to double figures late with 13. Brendan Kerr added 14. Billy Sheals had 6 pts and 10 rebs. O'Connor however went scoreless in his worst game of the year, and Brown had just 2 points.

I was very pleased with our defensive effort in this one, especially in the 2nd half. Our individual inconsistencies on offense are driving me crazy, however. We have no semblance of a rotation right now. We just keep going down the bench with substitutions until somebody decides to do something.

Final G-W 72 Toledo 50