We arrive at the venue, and upon entering the locker room we see that Kevin has posted a USA today article from 2007.. a couple of years before any of our seniors ever set foot on campus.
The headline reads, "Lowly Gardner-Webb shocks #18 Kentucky in Lexington 84-68." At the bottom he has handwritten in big block letters BELIEVE!
I ask him, "Is this for real?" He says, "Yep. The biggest win in Bulldog history before today. That team? Finished 15-16 and had far less talent than we do."
I'll Be a Son of a Shark
Mar 16: RD 1 NCAA Tourney (15)Gardner-Webb(19-11)v(2)#6UCLA(24-8)
by CoachC » Thu Mar 28, 2013 5:52 pm
The Bruins play with a style we are very familiar with from our games with Presbyterian... effective inside/outside, but on steroids. Their Center Gerald Taylor,pre-season first team all-american and a top contender for national player of the year averages 17.8 ppg, 12.3 rpg along with almost 2 blocks and steals per contest. Their 2 guard Nick Singletary averages over 18 ppg. They get plenty of production from everyone else as well. They began their season 11-0 and won the prestigious Alaskan Shootout. The ONLY thing we can find in their record that is at all encouraging, is that they lost on the road to mid-major Kent St. team by 6 in their last non-conference matchup. They stormed through a loaded Pac 12 schedule losing mostly to ranked teams and coasted easily to the tournament crown.
We will start man-to-man god help us and double both Taylor and Singletary.
Before heading out to the court for pre-game warm-ups, I tell them the same thing I said to our team last year before our final game in the conference championship.."Win or Lose, leave this game with your heads held high. Leave your hearts and souls on the floor knowing you did the best anyone could have expected from you."
19:26 Taylor has a thunderous block and almost makes Godzilla swallow the basketball. I yell at Josh to keep taking it to him. He gives me a look that says,"are you serious?"
At 15:00 we are hanging with them 5-8
at 11:09 Woods picks up his 2nd but we are still only down 12-14. Woods gets a breather here, but I won't hold him out for long. We are doing a good job on the boards, but I ask them, "why only 2 steals? get in their jerseys!"
Singletary sits after the media timeout and we take a chance at playing zone.
7:48 still hanging with them 17-17.. Singletary is back, Woods is back. He'll guard their 3 trying to avoid his 3rd foul.
6:49 Porter still has his finger in a splint, but ask him if he can play some defense. He nods.
2:58 still only down 3. Sit Woods down for the rest of the half. I bark at them, "you still only have gotten me 3 steals and you are shooting the ball like a bunch of sissypants. is that all you've got for me? should we go start loading the bus now?"
With :13 on the clock in the first half, we gamble and put Woods back in for the offensive possession.
At the half we trail by 1. 26-25. Inside I'm elated. Our defense in the first half was superb. But I refuse to let the team see it in the locker room. "Only 3 steals!", I yell. "And only a 9-2 advantage on the break points! Did you guys come here to get blown out, or are you going to get after it? 33% from the field? are you kidding me? haven't any of you ever seen a basket before? It's that big round thing with the string hanging from it."
17:23 Taylor picks up his 3rd foul. They lead by 3, the biggest lead they've had all game. Now we can focus on Singletary for a few minutes and hope that he at least is almost human.
15:23 they have their biggest lead of 7 after we turn the ball over several times. I scream, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? The ball is a GOOD thing.. grab it and hang on to it, dammit!"
11:45 Taylor picks up his 4th, but we are now down 14, with nothing going on offensively other than turnovers. I say, "you know what you gotta do.. now go out and do it!" I take Woods aside as the horn sounds, and tell him, "put us on your back. it's the last chance you'll ever have to do it."
at :22 down 15 we call our last timeout to empty the bench.
A lot of tears and disappointment in the eyes of our guys after the game, especially Myers and Woods. I tell them, "you stayed with them for 25 minutes. About 24 minutes longer than anyone gave us. If there is anything else you could have done to bring Goliath to his knees, then mope. If you know you left it all on the floor, then celebrate, because I'm proud of every last one of you. The way you battled to get here, the way you battled this team for as long as you did. I won't forget it, and neither should you."
Our defense for the game was pretty good.. much better than I ever thought, I must say. Offensively in the second half though they gave us not an inch of breathing room. We turned them over 14 times on 7 steals.. about half of each that I said we'd need to win, and that prediction probably was accurate. We badly needed some transition opportunities to get going offensively, but to have done more in this game would have taken a bigger miracle than I had in my pocket.
We never led in the game, although we had a couple of opportunities in the final minute of the first half to do so. Would it have made any difference if we had? I don't think so. Taking a half-time lead into intermission would have just given them a story to tell their grandchildren.
In his final game for us, Woods has 16 pts, 6 rebs, a steal and two blocks, and did a nice job defensively on Singletary. We will miss him most surely. A great player, and a great kid.
Myers ended his career with 11 pts, 4 asts.
O'Conner finished his solid freshman season with 8 rebounds and did everything he could defensively, but was humbled by a guy who may well be national player of the year. It was undoubtedly a valuable lesson under fire for the young man.
What can I say? We beat the spread by a wide margin. We must have made someone in Las Vegas happy.
Final: UCLA 64 G-W 49
We will start man-to-man god help us and double both Taylor and Singletary.
Before heading out to the court for pre-game warm-ups, I tell them the same thing I said to our team last year before our final game in the conference championship.."Win or Lose, leave this game with your heads held high. Leave your hearts and souls on the floor knowing you did the best anyone could have expected from you."
19:26 Taylor has a thunderous block and almost makes Godzilla swallow the basketball. I yell at Josh to keep taking it to him. He gives me a look that says,"are you serious?"
At 15:00 we are hanging with them 5-8
at 11:09 Woods picks up his 2nd but we are still only down 12-14. Woods gets a breather here, but I won't hold him out for long. We are doing a good job on the boards, but I ask them, "why only 2 steals? get in their jerseys!"
Singletary sits after the media timeout and we take a chance at playing zone.
7:48 still hanging with them 17-17.. Singletary is back, Woods is back. He'll guard their 3 trying to avoid his 3rd foul.
6:49 Porter still has his finger in a splint, but ask him if he can play some defense. He nods.
2:58 still only down 3. Sit Woods down for the rest of the half. I bark at them, "you still only have gotten me 3 steals and you are shooting the ball like a bunch of sissypants. is that all you've got for me? should we go start loading the bus now?"
With :13 on the clock in the first half, we gamble and put Woods back in for the offensive possession.
At the half we trail by 1. 26-25. Inside I'm elated. Our defense in the first half was superb. But I refuse to let the team see it in the locker room. "Only 3 steals!", I yell. "And only a 9-2 advantage on the break points! Did you guys come here to get blown out, or are you going to get after it? 33% from the field? are you kidding me? haven't any of you ever seen a basket before? It's that big round thing with the string hanging from it."
17:23 Taylor picks up his 3rd foul. They lead by 3, the biggest lead they've had all game. Now we can focus on Singletary for a few minutes and hope that he at least is almost human.
15:23 they have their biggest lead of 7 after we turn the ball over several times. I scream, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? The ball is a GOOD thing.. grab it and hang on to it, dammit!"
11:45 Taylor picks up his 4th, but we are now down 14, with nothing going on offensively other than turnovers. I say, "you know what you gotta do.. now go out and do it!" I take Woods aside as the horn sounds, and tell him, "put us on your back. it's the last chance you'll ever have to do it."
at :22 down 15 we call our last timeout to empty the bench.
A lot of tears and disappointment in the eyes of our guys after the game, especially Myers and Woods. I tell them, "you stayed with them for 25 minutes. About 24 minutes longer than anyone gave us. If there is anything else you could have done to bring Goliath to his knees, then mope. If you know you left it all on the floor, then celebrate, because I'm proud of every last one of you. The way you battled to get here, the way you battled this team for as long as you did. I won't forget it, and neither should you."
Our defense for the game was pretty good.. much better than I ever thought, I must say. Offensively in the second half though they gave us not an inch of breathing room. We turned them over 14 times on 7 steals.. about half of each that I said we'd need to win, and that prediction probably was accurate. We badly needed some transition opportunities to get going offensively, but to have done more in this game would have taken a bigger miracle than I had in my pocket.
We never led in the game, although we had a couple of opportunities in the final minute of the first half to do so. Would it have made any difference if we had? I don't think so. Taking a half-time lead into intermission would have just given them a story to tell their grandchildren.
In his final game for us, Woods has 16 pts, 6 rebs, a steal and two blocks, and did a nice job defensively on Singletary. We will miss him most surely. A great player, and a great kid.
Myers ended his career with 11 pts, 4 asts.
O'Conner finished his solid freshman season with 8 rebounds and did everything he could defensively, but was humbled by a guy who may well be national player of the year. It was undoubtedly a valuable lesson under fire for the young man.
What can I say? We beat the spread by a wide margin. We must have made someone in Las Vegas happy.
Final: UCLA 64 G-W 49
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CoachC - DDS:CB Support Squad
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- Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2008 6:07 pm
by CoachC » Thu Mar 28, 2013 6:30 pm
Mar 23: Kevin tells me via phone that Nielsen and Bradley going at it again, instigated by Nielsen. Nielsen seems to be the instigator, and I don't need a senior who is never going to play again for me disrupting practice. I tell Kevin to bar him from practice and tell him to try and graduate so he's not spending the rest of his life flipping burgers.
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CoachC - DDS:CB Support Squad
- Posts: 4192
- Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2008 6:07 pm
by CoachC » Thu Mar 28, 2013 6:38 pm
Mar 27: Home visits went well. Hopefully I'll have something good to report on the recruiting front soon.
Final Four is set
Kansas the only remaining number 1 seed, along with the 2 seeds from the other regionals: UCLA, Marquette, and Texas. Go Bruins!
Final Four is set
Kansas the only remaining number 1 seed, along with the 2 seeds from the other regionals: UCLA, Marquette, and Texas. Go Bruins!
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CoachC - DDS:CB Support Squad
- Posts: 4192
- Joined: Sun Feb 10, 2008 6:07 pm
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