I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[CoachC]

Oh boy. Our final non-conference test is more like a spinal tap. The Wildcats are 25th in RPI. Their marquis win was a road victory over then #11 Indiana. They have extremely balanced scoring. They pound the boards hard. Oh, and did I mention they play almost exclusively 2-3 zone? Seems like all we've done is play zone offense for the last 2 months. We've spent so much time playing zone and practicing zone, that I'm not sure our guys will remember our offensive sets if we ever see man to man again. We'll start out in 1-3-1 zone ourselves tonight, along with the occasional Amoeba, of course. We've also made some more changes to the starting line-up. Feeley will start again at the point. Kerr will get the start at the 3 and Sheals will get a start in place of O'Connor. If we can find 2 or 3 guys that can play well at the same time, they may stay in the game til their lungs fall out.

We started off shooting very well against the zone, and then went colder than liquid nitrogen towards the end and got stuck on a number. Woods once again struggled mightily against the zone and had just 3 first half points on 1-9 shooting. Our defense wasn't bad but we got killed on the boards (14-24, 4-6). After leading for most of the half we trail at halftime 32-29.

Moore and Brown attacked the boards in the 2nd half. Midway through the period Myers and Woods suddenly got hot from downtown which in turn fired up the defense forcing several turnovers and we were able to pull away, leading by as much as 17. They were able to cut it back to 6 in the waning moments, but were not to be headed.

The rebounds actually wound up in our favor overall ( 34-35, 12-7) and we turned them over 19 times with 8 steals. Our offense ran hot and cold, but so did theirs.

Porter played a sound 28 minutes at both ends of the floor and for the moment seems to have remembered where he left his mojo. for the game he had 17 pts 4asts and 4stls. Woods had 16 pts 6 rebs mostly in the 2nd half, and Myers had 15 pts 3 asts and 2 blocks, although he did turn the ball over 4 times. Moore had his first career double double with 10 pts, 10 rebs, and Brown had 5 pts and 12 boards.

We still have no idea who is gonna show up to play on any given night, but enough of them did tonight to give us a nice quality win against a very good basketball team going into the conference season.

Final: G-W 69 Dav 61

[CoachC]

Dec 25 The win over Davidson pushes our RPI up to 103. Only Presbyterian has a higher RPI of 94. The conference appears to be much stronger overall than a year ago and posted a 64-58 record in non-conference competition.

Headed into conference play Rob Woods is 3rd in the conference in scoring at 18.8 and second in steals at 1.8, Myers is 4th in assists at 4.3, and 7th in 3p% at .438. Evans, Porter, and Moore are all in the top 10 in steals along with Woods. As a team we are 1st in steals (4th in the nation at 9.2/g), 2nd in assists and fewest turnovers, 3rd in 3pt shooting. Defensively we are 1st in turnovers forced.

[CoachC]

We begin the conference season as we ended it: against defending champion Presbyterian. The Blue Hose are 6-0 at home with Wins over Nebraska, Kent St.,Baylor, Long Beach St. and a blowout of Hawaii. They also have a quality road loss to Minnesota. Their 94 RPI looks entirely legit. They have a great inside/outside game with balanced scoring, and 1st team all-conference center Jody Crider who gave us fits last season. They were picked 3rd in the conference pre-season, but I think they have other ideas. They have a near sellout tonight.

We'll start with the same lineup we had against Davidson. It's anybody's guess who will be on the floor at the end. We'll open in 1-3-1 trying to disrupt their formidable offense (averaging 77.0/g - 3rd in the nation in scoring).

We had a terrific half offensively and were able to match them point for point. They riddled our 1-3-1 zone but it kept us out of foul trouble. Late in the half we went to man and had more success. We are going to just have to be a little better in the 2nd half.. force more turnovers, grab more rebounds, whatever it takes. At halftime we've got a great basketball game:

we trail by one at the half 42-43. Woods had 17, Potter added 10, Sheals 7.
Crider leads them with 14

At 10:21 our offense has cooled down some. Crider is killing us inside and fouls are mounting up on our big guys so for the moment we've gone back to zone..not sure how long we'll be able to stick with it, it hasn't been very effective. We're still hanging with them though, down by 4. at 6:33 they've bombed our zone and we've fallen behind by 12. Back to man, and we need to start scoring in a hurry.

A flurry of long range bombs by Woods and Myers in the final 4 minutes pulled us within 1, but there just wasn't enough time.

There is no faulting our effort in this one. We gave them everything we had. We just had no answer for Crider defensively who led them with 33. Kevin Lyles had 18 for them bombing our zone to force us out of it. They are a terrific team with an offensive game plan that works.

Woods had 32 , Porter 14, Myers 12 (4/4 from 3pt range in the final 2 minutes after playing just 4 minutes in the first 36). Sheals had 9pts 7 rebs as our only inside presence. O'Conner was totally mismatched defensively against Crider and fouled out in 13 minutes... Crider schooled the freshman. We went to the offensive glass with abandon in the 2nd half and shot very well for the game. In the end they were only able to hold us off by hitting all their freethrows down the stretch.

A loss I can live with

final: Presbyterian 91 G-W 90

[CoachC]

12/31 Had to second guess myself last night about not playing Myers more. Fact is both Feeley and Gilchrist were having good games for once, and Myers looked lost the first time he came in. Other than Woods I can't count on consistency from anyone right now, so I'm having to go with the hot hands on any given night. I'd love for a regular rotation to form but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. Any one of our 14 guys is capable of having a good night, but only Rob is able to do it consistently.

[CoachC]

The Flames were picked 10th in the conference pre-season and have an RPI of 221. They have an anemic offense and don't rebound well. Their marquis win was a 7 point decision over Northwestern at home just before Thanksgiving. Their first conference game was a home win over Winthrop. If we play at all well in this one, there is no reason we shouldn't be able to win at home.

We came out a bit flat in this one, but a brilliant couple of minutes by reserve Bobby Henry seemed to get the ignition started. We also were able to get Godzilla going a bit as well to regain his confidence which he seemed to have lost in the last few games. By halftime we've forged a 38-20 lead.

We didn't really put the foot down on the accelerator in the 2nd half as I had hoped, but we were never in any danger of losing control of the game either. They never got closer than 13. We played well in all aspects of the game.

Woods had 22, Porter 13 pts 3stls, Bobby Henry gave us 10 pts in 12 minutes. Myers had 5 pts, 6 asts and 0 turnovers in 18 minutes. Everyone else gave us a little something.

We coast to the win

Final:
G-W 76 Liberty 58

[CoachC]

Jan 4: Presbyterian sent out a message last night to the league by beating preseason favorite Campbell on the road. The Blue Hose certainly look like the team to beat at this point.

Josh Brown sprained his wrist in last nights game and will probably be out a week to ten days and will almost certainly miss our game with Asheville.

[CoachC]

Returning to Kimmel Arena almost seems like a homecoming to us after our inspired tournament play here last year. Playing Asheville here for the first time, the Bulldogs look to emphasize that it is in fact THEIR building. We've got a fair number of our own fans to travel the 20 miles to Asheville though, and I hope they are loud and we give a reason to the Asheville fans to sit on their hands.
The Bulldogs have a balanced offense with their point guard Jovan Havens being the key to keeping them under control. The dogs have a an RPI of 235, but have won their first two conference home games. Their best win of the season was here against Creighton.

With Brown sitting this one out, O'Connor is back in the starting line-up along with Myers. We need both to play like they are capable of doing. Moore will also start to keep Sheals fresh behind O'Connor. With Brown injured our depth up front is compromised. We are going to need Bonney to come off the bench and provide some quality minutes as well.

We are totally listless in the first half. We have just one steal, not executing well on offense and have been atrocious on the boards. Only Brandon Kerr has been going after the loose balls. This team isn't that good. It wouldn't take much to get back into this game, but somebody has to start playing, and somebody other than Kerr has to start rebounding. I chew them out royally at halftime for the lack of effort from everyone else. Woods has 12 points at halftime but hasn't played particularly well. We trail at the half 43-34.

At 11:12 there is still no effort from anyone other than Kerr, and we've tried everyone trying to find a spark. I'm out of ideas and we've fallen behind by 17.

We did finally get a few people to give us a bit of effort in the last 10 minutes but we had dug too big a hole for ourselves to ever get back into it.

We only get 4 steals for the game, and 3 of those were from Kerr. We get killed on the boards (32-43, 10-19). With an even average effort this was a game we could have and should have won. Instead only 4 guys out of 14 gave us anything at all.

16-36 in the paint
6-23 second chance points
11-24 fast break points

those numbers say it all.
Finney had a decent game at point with 10 pts, 6 asts in 22 minutes
Woods had 19 pts, 7 rebs
O'Connor went to work near the end finally and had 9 pts 7 rebs
and Kerr had 12 pts, 2 asts, 7 rebs, and 3 steals.

No one else gave us a damn thing.

On the ride back home, I have the bus driver stop every five minutes, and I make everyone get out and run for a mile alongside the bus. If you aren't going to give me any effort on the court, then you damned sure are gonna give me some effort getting home.

Disappointing final score:

UNCA 67 G-W 58

[CoachC]

Picked 4th ahead of us pre-season and with an RPI of 209 the Panthers clearly aren't as daunting as they were a year ago when they romped to the regular season title. They do still have conference player of the year Rod Jones though, and if you let him get away from you, you can have a long night. They had some good games against strong opponents pre-season, blowing out St. Mary's at home, losing in OT at Gonzaga, and losing by just 6 at 13th ranked UTEP. They are 6-1 at home and won't be easy to beat here.

Brown will miss this game as well, and perhaps the next as the wrist is slow to heal. Going into the game I find myself wondering who is going to tank it tonight, who if anyone is going to step up, and how much time I'm going to have to waste figuring out which is which. Bonney is going to get a start tonight and a chance to earn more minutes going forward.

Woods did a decent job guarding Jones in the first half, but apparently everyone else thought defense was something you talked over in de backyard as we allowed them to shoot 64% for the half. Apparently too, our guys thought the ball was a bad thing to have as we turned it over 10 times as well. As a result we are on the verge of getting buried again at the half down 29-43.

at 11:48 Jones picks up his 4th foul. Their starting point guard Reid also has 4. but we've buried ourselves deep down 19, it may be too late to matter.

By 3:24 we've managed to cut the lead to 6 when Jones and Reid return. I'm not sure if we have enough gas left. At 2:45 Myers hits a 3 to cut the lead to 3. Woods steals the ball and gets a layup in transition at 2:36. down 1. Jones answers with a 3 at their end. Myers hits another 3 at 2:13, back to a 1 point game. Evans gets a steal for a runout! We take our first lead of the game at 1:54! It's been a helluva comeback.. do we still have something left? They throw the ball away at 1:36. 1 point lead and the ball....Woods misses a 3 but gets back in transition for another steal and hits Sheals on the break for a slam! 3 point lead with 1:16 to go. They take time out. Woods fouls at :49. Just our 5th.. one to give.. it could be a factor. They drive to goal and miss a bunny! Woods rebounds with 43 seconds. Woods drives and scores for a 5 point lead at :34! They take their last time out. Hampton hits a 3 at :19. We call time out to get our freethrow shooters in. Reid fouls out at :13. Gilchrist hits both freethrows for a 78-74 lead.. we use token pressure... we have a foul to give but I'm not going to risk it. They hit a 3 at :04 to cut it to one. Gilchrist quickly gets rid of the inbounds pass.. GAME!!! Roy Thompson shakes my hand after the game and says, "you know, we are starting to hate you guys!", but he says it with a sad smile on his face. Roy's a good guy.

In the locker room I'm not sure to congratulate the guys on a wildly improbably comeback, or to berate them for giving the Panthers a 30 minute headstart before they started playing. I have to opt for the former and hope this is the start of something good.

Woods has 16 pts, 5 asts, 4 rebs, 6 stls and 2 blocks, and was unbelievable at the defensive end during the comeback. Kerr added 12 points, 3 asts. 4 rebs, and 2 stls. Sheals and O'connor combined for 24 pts, and O'connor had 7 rebs. Myers had 9 points, 3asts, 1 to and hit 2 huge 3s in the final minutes. Evans and Henry combined for 14 points off the bench during the comeback in the final 10 minutes, and of course Gilchrist hit the 2 big freethrows at the end to seal it. Porter, Bonney and Moore were all no-shows and were a big part of the 19 point deficit, but sat on the bench during the comeback.

Final:
The running multiple-personaity disorders 78 HP 77

[Tim Moungey]

I fear for your team without Woods next year.

[CoachC]

me too Tim! We do have 2 talented scoring guards coming in next season, but you never know for sure what you are gonna get.