I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[CoachC]

Larry: Well, Coach. After an impressive win in the season opener, we now go for two in a row against Duquesne. What can you tell us about the Dukes.

Gary: They're trying to rebuild after a horrible 5-22 season last year, and still appear to have quite a ways to go. We don't want to be a stepladder for them. You have to give proper respect to anyone playing in the Atlantic 10 though. That's a tough basketball conference. We can't afford to look past these guys.

Larry: Never. You start looking past an opponent you can find yourself looking at a happy team on the other side of the court after the game. What will they try to do against us?

Gary: They like to run, so hopefully that works in our favor. Offensively they look to try to pound the ball into the posts, but in their home opening loss to Arkansas St. they weren't very successful at it. We need to try to make sure that holds true tonight as well. Their starting guards are a handful though and capable of opening things up from the perimeter. They each scored 19 points in that game, so our defense has to be solid all around.

Larry: Any other concerns?

Gary: Defensive rebounding, Larry. I know I keep harping on it, but it's our biggest weakness at the moment. The Dukes don't appear to be a very good rebounding team, and we need to not make them look like one. The other concern is keeping the guards out of foul trouble, something Fetts and Jeffers both struggled with in our opener. We need those guys on the floor. They both have pretty good defensive skill sets, but they've got to knock it off with the reach-in fouls. We have to remember this is their first season each playing Division I basketball, and they need to get the confidence in knowing they can play at this level, because they can, so we might have to be patient with them. That's what Coach Culuko keeps telling me anyway! (laughs)

Larry: Any changes to the starting line-up tonight?

Gary: We'll start Feeley tonight at the point, and Jeffers at the 2 guard. It doesn't really matter much who starts, because all those guys are going to get significant playing time for us if they stay out of foul trouble, but we thought we'd give those 2 a shot at the start in this one.

Larry: Thanks, Coach. Good luck!

We find out later that their starting point guard is injured and is doubtful for the game.

In the first half, they did a great job denying the ball to 'Zilla who had just 3 shots in the half. They paid the price though, as we had plenty of offense from others and shot 56% for the half. Defensively we played pretty well until their back-up point started drilling some mid-range jumpers late in the half and opened things up for them a bit inside. The Amoeba Zone was quite effective again when we threw it at them, turning them over 12 times on 7 steals that helped us to a 17-6 margin on fast break points. Rebounding was poor again, and against a team that doesn't rebound well, that is very discouraging. O'Conner was taking his lack of offensive opportunites get to him and neglected to go to the boards. I tell him at intermission, that we can't be having him fall into his old habits. There are nights when points are going to be hard to come from for him, simply because he's such a marked man. But he needs to continue to contribute on the boards at both ends, and can get points that way on putbacks too, if he's hitting the boards.

at the half we lead 45-33, but they were able to narrow the gap from a 23 point lead in the last 7 minutes or so of the half. We need to put the accelerator down in the 2nd half and put these guys away.

People are going to get sick of hearing the "R" word, and I know the team is. I keep telling them we are going to keep increasing the number of rebound drills we do in practice until they get it right. What can I say? With this team giving me nothing else to gripe about, I have to stay on them about the rebounding, because it WILL cost us games eventually.

We did rebound BETTER in the 2nd half, but better isn't good enough (30-34,10-12 for the game against a weak rebounding opponent).

Now for the good stuff. With them suffocating O'Conner with ball denial we proved that we have more offensive weapons this season than we've had in the past. GOOD offensive weapons. All four of our primary guards were in double figures for the game and combined for 60 pts between them. wow.
We shoot 52.1% for the game and hit a respectable 8-18 from 3. Defensively we did get out on their guards better in the 2nd half and they shoot just 41% for the game. The a/to rates were impressive on both sides of the coin(20/9, 14/20) as the Amoeba was very effective again, garnering us 9 steals and leading to a 34-15 advantage on break points despite the relative lack of defensive rebounding. We led 38-24 in points in the paint, and surprisingly 16-12 on second chance points. We did hit the accelerator in the 2nd half and pushed the lead to 30 before I finally emptied the bench once and for all.

Feeley had 13 pts, 5 ast, 4 rebs, a stl and 1 blk with just 2 turnovers in 17 minutes.

Jeffers waved a big hello to DI with 21 pts in 28 minutes. He looked comfortable at the 3, and at the 2 looked to post up their smaller guards. Now we just have to convince him he needs to help out on the boards.

Fetts had better results this time out with 11 points in 21 minutes, and was 3/4 from 3 point land.

Battle was impressive too with 15 pts, 4 asts, 4 stls, and only 1 turnover in 21 minutes. All 3 of our juco transfer guards have got to get it into their heads though they have to get after rebounds.

O'Conner was suffocated all night and was only able to get 4 shots off for 4 points. He did listen to me though at the half and was a much better presence on the glass and on defense in the 2nd half.

Moore and Kerr did their usual role player thing and did a lot of stuff that doesn't show up on the scoresheet. They each pulled down 5 rebounds though and right now those are important numbers for us.

Brown added 9 points, and Sheals was more active offensively in this one with 4 points and 3 stls in 13 minutes, but like most everyone on the team, needs to get his mitts on the caroms!

we win a laugher

final:

G-W 85 Duqesne 59

[CoachC]

Dec 20: Signed LOIs arrived in the last couple of days from all 4 of our recruits who earlier gave us verbal commitments. It still remains to be seen if Bobby White is going to meet eligibilty requirements. We already will be looking for a SF in the spring, and if Bobby can't meet the SAT scores needed, we'll be in the unfortunate position of having to try to nail down 2 of them.

[CoachC]

Larry: Congrats again, on another impressive win in your last outing, Coach. The Baylor Bears are in tonight out of the Big Twelve. I think this is the first power conference team you've scheduled in your time here, if I'm not mistaken.

Gary: Yes, Larry. Other than UCLA in the tournament last year, I think this is the first team from one of those big football conferences we've played. Baylor is a rebuilding team, winning just 7 games last year and 9 the year before, and we felt they'd be a good challenge for us, but a team we could still be competitive with.

Larry: What can you tell us about them? I know they defeated Northwestern in their season opener.

Gary: Yes they did, Larry, and then lost to Central Florida at home in their 2nd game. They play a lot of motion offense, running guys off a jillion screens looking for good shots. They play it well and shoot very well because of it. We will have to be very smart on defense about rotating over off of screens and not letting them break us down. If necessary we may play a bit more zone tonight than usual to try to disrupt their offense which is very good.

Larry: Their big guy Willis looks tough.

Gary: Yes, he is. He'll be the guy they want to have the ball down in the low posts. He reminds me a bit of Crider from Presbyterian, so Godzilla is going to have to play smart, and the team is going to have to play smart with help defense. Willis scored 25 against Northwestern, so he's the real deal. He's not their only weapon though. Out of their motion, anyone in their starting lineup that gets free can score. Their 3 Fay is especially dangerous and had 19 against Northwestern.

Larry: Defensively from them what can we expect?

Gary: They play man the majority of the time and it doesn't to appear to be all that good. They give up a lot of good shots. They do however force a lot of turnovers, so we need to take good care of the ball again tonight.

Larry: Before you can say it coach...rebounding..

Gary: (laughs) Willis will go for the boards, we know, but the rest of their team doesn't rebound all that well. Unfortunately, rebounding not all that well is still better than we've been doing. The real key for us is to get the guards more involved in going after the loose balls. I'd like to see 12-15 rebounds every night from our guard corps. They've been getting outhustled to balls in the corners and on tip outs and the like, and that needs to change.

Larry: Thanks, Coach. Go get em!

They zoned us a bit more than expected early in the half, but Fetts and Jeffers eventually shot them out of it and we shot 50% of the half.

Defensively we did a good job on Willis, but as I feared they were getting to many good shots for other people out of their motion. Eventually we went to zone and it disrupted them significantly. They shot 44% for the half, which isn't bad against a team that shoots pretty well. And, I'm almost afraid to say it, but we went to the boards well and outrebounded them 18-15,4-2. All in all a satisfactory half. we lead at the intermission 43-34.

Offensively we were too much for them in the 2nd half. They kept trying to go zone, Felts and Jeffers kept riddling it, and eventually enough paint opened up for O'Conner he was able to get a few shots as well. We shot 54% for the game, held them to 44.9. We actually out rebounded an opponent for the first time this season..barely..28-6,8-6 and had 22/8 a/to ratio. We were only able to turn them over 13 times on 6 steals but they are a good ball-handling team. We were also 10 of 18 from 3, a dimension we've never really had in our game before.

We are able to run away with it in the 2nd half, leading by as much as 28 before I pulled the plug and emptied the bench.

Felts was relentless with a career high 27 pts, along with 3 asts and 2 stls and was 4/5 from 3.

Jeffers added 21 and had 5 rebounds for us. I'm glad someone is listening.

O'Conner had 15 pts, 5 rebs. We still need to figure out how to get more shots for the big guy though.

Battle and Feeley combined for 8 points, 9 asts, and zero turnovers in 31 minutes. where are my rebounds though, guys?

With Feeley in foul trouble most of the game, Gilchrist helped too with 3 points, 4 asts in 11 minutes.

Donald Moore was Donald Moore and that's good enough for me. He missed his only shot but had 1 ast, 8 rebs, and 2 sts in 24 minutes and was terrific on the defensive end as usual.

Brown and Sheals were disappointing. Sheals had 6 pts, but the 2 of them combine for just 2 stinking rebounds in 27 minutes. Totally unsatisfactory.

Kerr was a no-show in this one.

Good game over all, but despite edging them on the boards for the game, rebounding was still our most obvious weakness once again. I'm starting to get tired of saying it myself. We'll be spending the entire practice tomorrow morning on rebound drills.

final

G-W 85 Baylor 65

[CoachC]

Larry: First road game of the season, coach. I road the team bus over to Greensboro with the team and they seem to be very confident and have a good team chemistry going.

Gary: Yeah, they do, Larry. And they deserve to be confident. They've been doing everything very well except for....

Larry: ...Rebounding.

Gary: Yeah. How'd you know I was gonna say that?

Larry: The Aggies are coming off of a miserable 3-27 season. What do they look like this year?

Gary: Improving. They aren't ready for the Final Four, but they should have a much better season. Offensively they like to move the ball around a lot and find someone to glide to the basket. They've been pretty successful at that and have been getting to the line a LOT. That concerns us, and we may play more zone again tonight. They don't shoot the ball well, and it's unlikely they can beat us from the perimeter, but we can't be letting them drive to the hoop every time down. Defensively, they struggle, and I'd like to see us start getting to the line more ourselves. That means finding our post people more shots, especially O'Conner, and Kerr and the guards need to drive a bit more than they have been. They are not a good rebounding team either, so we have a chance to not get killed on the boards. If we can contain their drives to the basket and avoid serious foul trouble, and take care of things offensively we should be fine. It's never easy on the road though, no matter who you play.

Not a good half for us defensively as we were letting find open shots on the blocks way too often. 1-3-1 didn't help because they kept finding the seams. Offensively we were okay other than turning over the ball 7 times, which is high for us. And we are getting slightly rebounded once again. We need to play much post defense in the 2nd half.

At intermission we trail 33-41

Disappointing game on the defensive end. Down 10 with about 11 minutes to go we finally started playing better and actually took the lead 62-61 with about 2 minutes to go but couldn't hold them off. We were out rebounded by a large margin 29-19, although in this game the problem was more on the offensive end. We actually did a decent job on the defensive boards for once. We turned them over 17 times with 7 steals, but that wasn't enough to overcome our poor post defense in the first 29 minutes of the game.

One of our biggest problems right now is that Kerr is in a huge funk and we are getting very little production from Sheals and Brown off the bench. We are going to have to shorten the bench and let the starters play more minutes until someone steps up.

Jeffers had 25 points in this one, Battle added 10, and Moore did his usual job on the boards and on defense, but there wasn't enough support from anyone else.

we suffer our first loss of the season to a team we should have been able to beat on the road:

Final

G-W 65 NCA&T 69

[CoachC]

Larry: Second game of a tough 4 game road trip. How are the guys taking the loss from the other night?

Gary: They are taking it hard, because they know the game was there for the taking in the final minutes and they failed to get the job done. We had our toughest practice of the year the next day, because you never want a team to get comfortable with losing, and you want to stamp that first loss into their brains.

Larry: Did we overlook the Aggies a bit, maybe?

Gary: I don't think so, Larry. I give them credit for running their offense very efficiently in that game, and we just didn't adjust well until the last 10 minutes of the game. One of biggest problems right now along with rebounding, and in fact a big part of the reason we AREN'T rebounding is lack of production off the bench from just about everybody other than Battle and Jeffers. So we are going to make a few changes.

Larry: Will we be seeing a different line-up, then?

Gary: Felts will get the start ahead of Kerr, who is in a real funk. Hopefully the move to the bench will get him motivated a bit. We'll also be shortening the bench. We'll move Jeffers to the 3. Look for the starters, along with Battle to be playing a lot more minutes tonight.

Larry: What can you tell us about the Rams?

Gary: Like so many on our schedule, another team going through a difficult rebuilding process. We don't want to be a stepladder for them. Like I said about Duquesne, though, anyone that plays in the A-10 has to be respected. They've not been playing well though, and we need to keep it that way. Offensively, they look to try to get shots for their perimeter guys, so we need to get out on them.

Larry: Good luck, coach. Let's get that first road win.

We do a good job at both ends of the court in the first hald, and yes, on the boards and lead at the half 41-33.

Another game with a lead late where we couldn't get the job done.

our offense was mediocre, as we took some crazy shots when they went to zone on us in the 2nd half, our defense was mediocre, and our rebounding was just okay.

A mediocre perfomance usually gets you a loss on the road and that's what we did.

Jeffers had 28 points.
O'Conner had a double double with 14 pts, 11 rebs but I almost grabbed him by his big neck in once sequence when he fired up not 1 but 2 3 pt attempts in the same offensive possession.
Brown had some decent minutes for us off the bench this time with 6 pts, 6 rebs in 16 minutes
Moore filled the stat sheet with 5 pts, 4 asts, 10 rebs, 1 stl, 1 blk in 28 minutes.

Unfortunately, there wasn't enough offensive production from other people tonight.

we lose our second road game in a row:

Final

G-Web 72 RI 73

[Tim Moungey]

Those close losses would have me throwing things.

[CoachC]

It's a good thing Winston isn't Bobby Knight's son.

[CoachC]

Larry: Third road game in a row after a couple of tough losses where we led late but couldn't hold on. What's the mindset of the team like, coach?

Gary: They are feeling a bit frustrated, Larry. They know they could have won both of those games. It wasn't necessarily the best thing that could have happened for us to win those first 3 games so easily. When you are winning like that you start to feel that nothing can go wrong. But the last couple of losses have unveiled a couple of weaknesses we have to correct.

Larry: We've talked about rebounding all though it was much better in the last one. What else are you concerned with going forward?

Gary: Lack of contributions off the bench is a big one. It's hard to win when you are only about 7 players deep, which is where we are at the moment. No one else wants to step up and demand minutes. Also we've gotten a bit perplexed on offense when the opposition throws a zone at us in the middle of the game. Its not that we can't shoot against the zone, we just seem to lose our patience. When you've got Godzilla taking shots from 23 feet, you know you've got problems.

Larry: That was pretty puzzling, I must say. My radio partner and I kind of looked at each other and scratched our heads. What about tonight's matchup? The Braves have a good program and have been in the post season the last couple of years.

Gary: Yes. They are rebuilding a bit after last years NIT team, but they still have plenty of fire power. Their shooting guard, Lofton is averaging 21 points per game, but he's not their only weapon. They look to go inside/outside and are very good offensively. It's on the defensive end that they've struggled. We need play some smarter defense tonight than we did the last couple of games, and regain our patience on offense. Last time out we seemed to be waiting for Jeffers to do something. We have to have better balance in scoring than that. This will be a much bigger crowd tonight than we are used to seeing. We've got to try to keep the crowd out of it.

In the first half we had little offense, no defense. Turned the ball over 7 times and only turned them over 3. And we outrebounded them by a wide margin (20-12,8-1). It's like somebody took a photo negative of our team from our homestand, and it's not a pretty one.

At halftime we are getting our heads handed to us 32-49.

I ask the guys at halftime if they want to forfeit, since they didn't seem to have any interest in playing basketball tonight.

We played marginally better on offense in the 2nd half, but the defense was horrible throughout, and we were never able to get closer than 12

Felts had 19, Jeffers 17, Moore 8 pts and 10 rebs. O'Conner's minutes were limited to 19 because of foul trouble. Kerr gave us a little something off the bench tonight but nothing to write home to mama about.

Final:

G-W 64 Brad 83

[CoachC]

Larry: Our fourth straight and final road game of the non-conference season. Are the guys getting a little road weary?

Gary: A few of them maybe. The rest of them haven't done anything, so I don't know what they could be weary of.

Larry: Sounds like the Coach may be getting a little road weary.

Gary: It will be nice to stop having to pack my bags every couple of days, but right now I think it's safe to say I'm getting a little team weary. Winning is fun, losing is frustrating.

Larry: We've had some problems getting quality minutes off the bench. What can you do to get someone motivated to step up?

Gary: At this point, Larry, words are falling on deaf ears. The only way to motivate at this point is to let them watch games from the bench. We may have to just accept that we are only about 7 deep and let those 7 play til they drop. Everyone else has had opportunities and haven't done anything with them. If we get anyone in foul trouble, they may just have to play with it.

Larry: At least we are a little closer to home, tonight. The 49'ers are a very good program out of the Atlantic 10.

Gary: Yes, they are, Larry. They have the kind of program that we hope we can build ours into. They've had a lot of success for a long time in getting to the postseason. We are fortunate to be catching them in a rebuilding year of sorts. They have a ton of freshman this year after getting to the quarterfinals of the NIT last season. They still have quite a bit of talent however.

Larry: What kind of style are they playing?

Gary: They aren't quite what you would say deliberate on offense, but they have patience and look for an open shot. They don't really have a go to guy, but everyone in their starting lineup is averaging between 8 and 11 pts per game. In other words, the sort of team we've been struggling against. Our defense tends to break down too easily because of lack of communication against these sort of teams. We'll probably try starting in zone tonight to see where that gets us. Hopefully it will at least keep us out of significant foul trouble with such a limited bench. And they've been getting to the line quite a bit. They do turn over the ball quite a bit, so hopefully they'll be susceptible to the Amoeba when we throw it at them.

Larry: Let's get that first road win tonight, Coach and get back over .500.

Gary: From your lips, Larry!

Finally some life from our team! Playing with a much shortened bench we held them to 33% shooting in the first half, and turn them over 13 times. Charlotte didn't score until over 7 minutes into the game.

Offensively we shot over 50% for most of the half and wound up shooting 46%. We also out rebounded them soundly 19-11,7-3. The only negative was that we turned the ball over 10 times ourselves.

at intermission we lead 33-17

Our defense wasn't as good in the 2nd half as they began making inroads against our zone, but we continued to shoot well enough and pound the boards hard enough (31-25,12-6) that they never were able to get back in the game. We turned them over 20 times, but we turned ourselves over 15 which was too many.

Still, it was nice to finally get one in the win column again and we never trailed in this one after getting out to an 11-0 start.

Our top 7 players played between 23 and 34 minutes. Kerr played 11 and nobody else got off the pines. First one to whine about it gets 20 laps running stairs.

With our bench shorted so much, some fatigue obviously set in, which is probably one of the reasons we weren't as effective on the defensive end in the 2nd half, and may have had a lot to do with our 15 turnovers as well. But it is what it is. Everyone else has been giving us nothing but empty minutes, or even negative minutes, so these are the guys we are going to have to play.

Jeffers had 20, Felts had 17 and 5 rebs, Battle added 14 but turned the ball over 5 times, O'Conner had 10 pts, 10 rebs, and Feeley had 8 asts and just 2 turnovers. Brown and Moore made their usual solid contributions as role players. Kerr didn't give us much in his 11 minutes.. just 1 of 2 from the field and no rebounds or anything else. It'll be somebody else's turn next game to be the 8th man who gives a couple minutes rest to one of the regular rotation next time. Maybe by season's end one of them will decide to do something.

Final:

G-W 73 Charlotte 55

[Wayne23]

Much needed win, no doubt!