I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[CoachC]

Winthrop picked last in the conference pre-season is trying to avoid that fate. Their RPI of 177 is mostly on strength of schedule..a reward for getting blown out at Temple and 14th ranked Oklahoma. They are 2-8 on the road.

Brown's wrist is beginning to heal, but it still causes him pain to catch the ball or rebound, so if he plays at all tonight, it'll probably be limited minutes. Hopefully he'll be ready to go in the next.

We'll go small and start Kerr at the 4 in this one, and Evans at the 3.

A mediocre first half vs a mediocre team gave us a mediocre 30-25 lead at the half. I wasn't happy that we weren't able to get a shot off in our final possession though.

Not a great performance, but good enough to beat a rag-tag team. Overall we played pretty well in the 2nd half and shot 49% for the game. We dominated the boards 38-28, 10-9 with most all of their offensive boards coming in two possessions near the end of the game. We had 9 steals and forced 16 turnovers. Not a lot to complain about but we weren't at our best, either.

Godzilla had 19 pts, 8 rebs and could have scored a lot more if he could make his freethrows. They had no answer for him.

Woods had 18 pts despite taking just 10 shots in the game. He also had 2 asts, 5 rebs and 4 stls. We'll give him a partial pass on his 7 tos since several of them occurred in a 2 minute span of the first half when we asked him to play point. Woods tries, but he's just not comfortable at the point and never has been.

Myers had a solid game with 11 pts, 6 asts, 6 rebs, a steal and just one TO in 28 minutes

A big pat on the back goes to Bobby Henry, who acquitted himself well playing primarily at the 3 as we went small and played a 3 guard offense much of the game. Bobby had 11 pts, 5 rebs, a steal and a block in 29 minutes and held their much bigger 3 to 2 pts. He also had an impressive dunk in transition in the closing moments of the game that brought oohs and aahs from the crowd.

Brandon Kerr (and i'm almost afraid to say this) is starting to give us consistent minutes and played largely out of position at the 4 in this one. His 9 pts and 6 rebs will keep getting him minutes.

We managed to get Brown in for about 6 minutes in the game, but he wasn't able to do much other than play some defense and set a few screens. Hopefully his wrist will be healed enough to let him go full tilt in our next one.

Final score: G-W 74 Winthrop 53

[CoachC]

Jan 15 Our two wins last week boosts our RPI into the top 100 at 96. Presbyterian proved that we aren't the only schizoid team in the conference as they dropped a decision at home to VMI. We are in a 3 way tie for 3rd a game behind VMI and Radford of all people. Presbyterian's loss drops their RPI to 62. They had been 44th. VMI and Radford are both knocking at the door of the top 100. The conference is definitely much more competitive this year and it could be an interesting race the rest of the way.

Josh O'Connor wins Big South freshman of the week for the 2nd time.

[CoachC]

The Buccaneers were picked 7th preseason and have an RPI of 249. They had a couple of really nice wins in the non-conference season. An 11 pt win over St. Joe's and a 16 point upset of #16 Memphis, both at home. They are just 1-5 on the road however.

Brown still has his wrist tightly wrapped but suffered little pain the last couple days in practice and appears to be good to go. He'll be back in the starting line-up tonight along with O'Connor, Kerr, Woods, and Myers which I believe is how we started the season. And so it comes full-circle.

I pick up a T 3 minutes into the half as we pick up our 5th foul only one of which was legit. Been a while since we were assigned a crew of near-sighted monkeys but it looks like we've got one tonight.

They finally get called for their first foul 14 minutes into the game and the crowd lets out a derisive roar.

Woods struggled in the first half going just 1/7 from the field for 5 pts. Of course since they were mostly immune from the referees he had 2 or 3 people smacking him in the face every time he put the ball up. Only some incredibly inspired play from Tyler Bonney who came out of hibernation in the first half kept it reasonably close. Bonney had 8 pts, 8 rebs, a steal, and 3 monstrous blocks in the first half that forced a couple of timeouts.

At the half we trail 29-34. We;ve got to get the crowd into it in the 2nd half.

Down 8 at 7:58, the crowd has been trying to get into it, but every time we get a little momentum going, the refs botch another call. Do we have another comeback in us?

Woods pulls us withing 3 at 3:20 then strips Roy at mid-court but then turns it over himself at 3:02. One of their guards misses at the other end and Feeley rebounds but then throws a bad pass at the other end and they get a run out dunk to go back up by 5. We use our full timeout at 2:19. Out of the TO O'Connor hits along the baseline to cut it back to 3. They miss and Kerr rebounds. Myers is fouled at 1:37 and misses the front end of a 1 and 1, but O'Connor puts it in from the 3 spot to cut it to 1. Bonney picks up his 4th foul at the other end and they sink both freethrows. We take another timeout at 1:08 to set up a 3 for Woods, he hits it to tie the game. All the way back! Woods blocks a shot at the other end but they get the loose ball. Myers fouls at :36 and they shoot 2 and make both. Woods misses a 3, Kerr rebounds and misses, O'Connor rebounds and is fouled at :17.. not the guy we want at the line, but any port in a storm. He hits the first but misses the 2nd. We foul at :12. They make both and length of the floor to go. They apply pressure, and Myers sticks a 3 from the top of the circle at :01! Overtime!

Neither team scores in their first 2 possessions after we get the tip. O'Connor finally draws first blood on a post-up move at 3:14 for our first lead since very early in the game. They answer at the other end. Bonney posts and scores.. he's had one whale of a game. They answer again. We just can't get a stop. O'Connor takes an Ill-advised shot outside his range on the extended L left. Bonney to the rescue again picks of a pass at the other end. O'Connor travels in the post. AARGH! Game still tied at 1:38. They score at 1:21. Myers misses a 3 out of the time out. They hit a dagger 3 at :57 to go up 5. Woods misses at the other end and we have to foul. We foul.. They miss the front end of the 1 and 1 but we don't box out on the rebound! We foul again at :37. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Again we foul the right guy, but this time he hits both and we are in deep deep trouble. We take our last timeout at :31. Myers misses the 3 and it's all but over. They sink 2 freethrows. Woods misses and they return to the line at :05. They sink 2 more and Myers hits a meaningless 3 at the buzzer.

Shoddy defense throughout cost us this game. We made a good comeback at the end of regulation, but shouldnt' have had to. Our inability to stop their guards throughout the game kept us from ever gathering any real momentum. Their starting guards combine for 45 pts and to be honest, they aren't THAT good. The officiating , especially in the first half caused us to be tentative on defense, but that's not an excuse.

Myers has a double double with 17 pts, 10 asts and 2 stls, but was afraid to guard his man.

Woods had 19 pts, 2 asts, 6 rebs a steal and 2 blks, and although he wasn't afraid to guard his man, we failed to rotate over following one of their many illegal screens that weren't called.

O'Connor had 19 pts, but just 4 rebounds, all offensive. The young man is talented and is going to have quite a career for us, but he must learn the game is played at both ends.

Tyler Bonney had a career game, giving everything he had at both ends of the court. He had 11 points, 13 rebounds(7 offensive, 6 defensive), 3 stls, 3 blks and his game was even better than that stat line. The few times we were able to get stops when we needed them, Bonney was usually directly involved.

You can't afford to lose home games in conference play, so I tell them they owe me two on the road we aren't supposed to get.

Final in OT: CS 87 G-W 80

[CoachC]

Jan 18: Radford romps over UNCA at home to move into sole possession of first place. We fall to a 3 way tie for 4th 2 games out.

Myers is having some pretty painful back spasms this morning after the extended minutes in last night's game. He won't be able to practice the next couple of days and is day to day. If he's unable to go in our next we could be in trouble, because Feeley and Gilchrist refuse to step up at the point and we have no other options. We may give Porter a chance to get out of the doghouse and get some minutes at point. We know at least he can pass the ball and might get some assists if we ignore all the turnovers. Porter's work ethic this season hasn't been any better than that of Feeley or Gilchrist though, so who knows?

[CoachC]

The season is not going quite the way the Camels had hoped. Pre-season favorite, they are currently in a 3 way tie for last. With only 3 games separating first and last though, there is still plenty of time for them ... and us... to turn it around. They've lost 4 in a row, the last 3 on the road and are happy to be home. Home hasn't been particularly kind to them however as they've gone just 4-3 at Pope Center on the season. They started their season off with a bang with a road win at Providence, and a home win over Oregon St.in their first 2 contests but things have been going downhill ever since. They also have a couple of injuries to their starting lineup. Their starting center is in street clothes and won't play. Their starting 4 Josh Harris who is a pretty good player, is dressed and will play, but is having back problems of his own, so will probably see limited minutes. That leaves them short-handed inside and we need to take advantage of it. We'll feel sorry for them AFTER we win.

Their offense of course revolves around the conference's 2nd leading scorer Kent Augustine, and we'd better do a better of job of providing help defense than the last time out. He's too much for Woodsie to handle all by himself. We need to contain him and make someone else beat us.

There's no way for Myers to be able to go in this one, so he'll be sleeping off the muscle relaxers on the bench in street clothes. We've had Porter practicing at point the last couple of days with the A team in scrimmages. After 3 DNPs in a row, you'd think a senior might find a way to get himself motivated. In any event, Feeley will start.

Campbell fans still booing me from last year as we come out of the tunnel and Gaylord the Camel mocks giving me a "T" and ejecting me from the game. I tell him he's the ugliest dog I've ever seen.

On with the game.

Feeley throws the ball away twice in the first 2 minutes then commits a stupid foul. I've had it already. In comes Porter. Please let this work.

Because of a couple of steals and runouts for easy baskets, Porter only has to handle the ball twice on the halfcourt before the first time out, and drills a shot from 3. So far so good.

Neither team playing much defense in the first 14 minutes of the game, but we are getting the worst of it, since absolutely nobody is rotating over to help out on Augustine who has been scoring at will. We'll try going zone.

We stop shooting, they keep scoring, and it's getting out of hand. They are 17-21 from the field at the 4:24 mark of the first half, and that is just ludicrous. Even with Augustine on the bench they are getting easy shots every time down court.

The only person who played any defense for us in the first half was Robert Myers in street clothes who tripped the damned camel once as he ran by our bench after a time-out. To make matters worse we've turned the ball over 10 times, and no, Porter wasn't the fault. And, of course, as we know from experience, the officials never call anything on Augustine who has done everything but hit Woods over the head with a monkey wrench. I may wind up getting ejected again.

At halftime we are getting buried 28-46. We'll try putting Porter's bigger body on Augustine in the second half, but whatever we do we'd better do it in a hurry. I remind the guys at halftime that this is one of the 2 games they already owe me. Since Gilchrist played not totally like an ape in the first half, he'll start the 2nd half at point, and we'll use Porter at the 3 where we've been getting no production out of anyone. Almost immediately Augustine charges and Porter picks up his 3rd personal and I get T'd...one more to go.

At 2:14 I get ejected. The crowd goes crazy. The camel mocks me as I get my moneys worth and trips over his own costume then gets up and glares at my bench (Kevin told me about it later, laughing.)

Not much to say about this fiasco. Woods somehow manages to get decent numbers. After I was ejected, they finally called Augustine for a foul when he poked Rob in the eye. Kevin almost got ejected as well. Woods' line for the game 18 pts 5 asts, 4 rebs, 3stls and 2 bks. Not enough of anything from anyone else to make a difference. With most of their big men on crutches, Brown, O'Conner, Sheals, and Bonney combine for just 23 pts and 12 rebounds. Unacceptable.

I hate Campbell, and I hate that damned camel. I'll be getting another fine I'm sure, maybe even a suspension after the press conference.

Final disgusting score:

Soup Cans 89 G-W 63

[CoachC]

Jan 21: Radford loses, VMI and Presbyterian win to create a 3 way tie on top of the conference. We are in a 7 way tie for 5th. Tight race. AD glumly tells me to be in his office Monday morning.

[CoachC]

Jan 22: the back to back losses send our RPI plummeting to 143. Presbyterian is up to 60th, and VMI now 85th.
Josh O'Connor wins freshman of the week for 2nd week in a row. All the other freshmen in the conference must have been sleeping last week. Pr

[CoachC]

Jan 23: As expected, the AD glumly tells me I've been levied a hefty fine for Saturday night's game. The university has also decided to give me a one game suspension as a censure. Myers still only able to practice lightly. I tell Kevin to use his best judgment if he should play in the game tomorrow night against VMI, and suggested he go with Gilchrist if Myers can't go.

[CoachC]

The redhot Keydets were picked 7th preseason. Shows you what polls are worth. They have extremely balanced scoring and go to the boards well. I suggest to Kevin he might want to go with 1-3-1 in this one, but he's the defensive maven so it's his choice. Their best non-conference win of the season was an overtime victory at St. Mary's but they are obviously doing something right. They also have a winning record on the road.

I tell our guys before the game, that if they lose this one, they'll almost have to win out to make up for all the games they'll owe me.

Myers is still questionable.

Banished from the bench for this one, the game is being televised on the Big South network, so I'll watch from the locker room and chew on my blanket. (sigh, turning off control of the team on the matchup screen doesn't actually turn off control of the team, and I want to watch, not sim. Best I can do is turn on auto-sub in game and see if THAT works).

Kevin gets them off to a good start and at 12:31 we lead 14-6 playing good defense. Myers WAS able to start, and looks okay. Our trainer Spuds Whitney has him riding an exercise bike behind the bench when not in the game to keep his back from stiffening up.

at 7:59 the lead is 20-10. Kevin has the defense playing terrific and we've turned them over 7 times already.

at 3:25 we've been stuck on a number for a while but still lead 22-16.

The offense sputtered a bit towards the end of the half and we coughed the ball up to much, but the defense remained pretty good and we take a 3 point lead into intermission 30-27. Brown with 11 and Woods with 10 provided most of our offense. O'Connor went scoreless and only took one shot. Myers played 12 minutes and wasn't able to be real effective, but since it was 12 minutes we didn't have to play Feeley, it was still a positive contribution. Unfortunately with Myers playing hurt, we only had 5 assists in the half. There was way too much one on one play, but it is what it is.
When they come into the locker room, Kevin looks at me questioningly. "See if you can light a fire under Godzilla, Kev. But otherwise, it's your show. They seem to be listening to you and I don't want to confuse them by having them pretend to listen to me."

By the 2nd media timeout things are falling apart, as we are stuggling at both ends and our down 4. I chew a hole in the blanket.

At 3:39 we are down 10. Sheals has been carrying us offensively down the stretch but the defense has been horrible and we can't get a stop... ever.

And so it goes. When the team comes to the locker room, Kevin says, "sorry coach." I shrug and say, "well at least I know they won't play defense for more than 15 minutes for you either. I don't feel so useless now."

After a strong first 15 minutes, they let the Keydets shoot the lights out the rest of the way and 55.6 % for the game. We turned them over 16 times, but turn it over 15 ourselves. We get outrebounded 30-20.

Robert Myers manages to play 25 minutes in pain, and does a credible job with 6 pts 3 asts a steal and only 1 turnover. Gilchrist played the rest of the minutes and had 4 asts and only one turnover but only took one shot.
Woods had 19 points, but it wasn't one of his better games going just 8/21 from the field.
Kerr had 11 mostly in the 2nd half, and Sheals added 7 all in the 2nd half.
Brown had 11 in the first half but did almost nothing in the 2nd half. O'Connor was a no-show at both ends of the court just taking one shot for the entire game and grabbing just 4 rebounds in 26 minutes. I tell him, "when I said you need to stop playing only one end of the court I didn't mean for you to stop playing at that end too!"

I tell the team they now owe me 4 games and they owe Kevin 2 as well so they'd better win out the rest of the way.

[CoachC]

Jan 25: Sheals pulled an abdominal muscle in last nights game and looks to be out as much as a couple of weeks. When it rains it pours.
We are now in a 3 way tie for 7th 3 games behind the leaders. Woods is getting frustrated, and I'm told he called a team meeting without coaches before practice tomorrow. Good for him. As senior team captain, the mounting losses are really getting to him. I hope he is able to get somewhere with these guys that I've not been able to.