I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[CoachC]

Yes, it certainly was!

[CoachC]

Larry: It's nice to be back in Paul Porter Arena finally for a 5 game home stand taking us all the way into the start of the conference season.

Gary: Sure is, Larry, made more sweet by finally getting a win on the road last time out.

Larry: This game must be pretty special for you, Coach. How does it feel to be taking on your Alma Mater tonight?

Gary: I'll be honest with you Larry, I'm more nervous tonight than I was going up against UCLA in the tournament last year. When I first was hired here as head coach, my former coach, friend, and mentor Coach Kerr was the first to call me up with congratulations. At that time he suggested we work on getting a game on the schedule between our schools. This year when we finally had a date available, Coach Kerr graciously agreed to bring his team here to give us a game. We may be catching them at the wrong time though!

Larry: The Aggies have been a pretty good DI program over the years, but have been rebuilding the last couple of years, but this season they have a lot of veterans and appear to be headed on their way back.

Gary: Definitely! They could be a serious contender in the WAC this year. Their 4-4 record isn't fooling us. They've played a tough, tough road schedule this season. 2 of their losses were against 9th ranked Maryland and Wake Forest on the road, and of course they had that big big upset of 6th ranked Michigan St. on the road as well during a 6 game road trip to start the season. I'm happy for Coach Kerr because he's been under fire the last couple of years, and I'm glad things are finally looking up again for him. So, at any rate, they are definitely road warriors and won't be intimidated playing here. I'm hoping our players aren't picking up on my nerves, because we have a tough assignment tonight already. The Aggies rebound really well too at both ends which always concerns us.

Larry: What's the game plan tonight?

Gary: With our bench so short, we will start out in zone again, to try to avoid foul trouble, unfortunately. It's not our preference of course, and we may get forced out of it but we'll give it our best shot and hope their talented 2 guard Ross isn't on a 3pt tear tonight.

We got off to another good start, holding them scoreless for the first 4:30 minutes on the way to an 11-2 lead at the outset. They struggled against our zone, shooting just 25% for the half and turning the ball over 15 times. Meanwhile we shot a respectable 46% and stayed even with them on the boards. At half-time we lead by 21 37-16.

They were able to make a comeback in the 2nd half, partly because they solved our zone and we finally had to go man in the last 6 minutes or so of the game, partly because we turned the ball over about 10 times in the 2nd half, and partly because the refs went insane, and I picked up a T...I could have sworn this was supposed to be a home game. The Aggies were able to cut the lead to 4 eventually, but I give our guys credit. They were able to pad the lead again and bring it home.

After the game Coach Kerr embraced me and said, "fine looking team you've got there Coach. I knew I was pointing them in the right direction when I recommended you for the job. You owe me a rematch at our place, though! You had a lot of nerve beating me! I don't much like that student over-taking the master crap!"

I told him to raise some hell in the WAC, and we'd do our best to schedule that return game if I was still here after this season.

We outshot them for the game (49.1 - 45.1), we turned them over 23 times (but our own 15 tos was once again too many, but again I think fatigue had a lot to do with it), and our rebounding continues to improve as we out rebounded a good rebounding team (30-25,7-3) and never trailed.


Jeffers had 23, Felts 21, Battle 12 with 5 asts and 4 rebs. O'Conner struggled offensively in this one as they caged him often going just 1 for 4 from the field but he did have 3 asts and 7 rebounds. Brown and Moore did the things they usually do grabbing rebounds and playing defense. Brown also chipped in 8 points. Bradley had just 1 rebound in 11 minutes as our designated cadaver in this one, so next game someone else gets a chance to try to do nothing as the 8th man.

Final:

G-W 72 Aggies 63

[CoachC]

Dec 11: After High Point knocked off #21 Minnesota in OT earlier in the week, Presbyterian upset #19 BYU last night as well. Scary!

At the moment, Ike Jeffers is 2nd in the league in scoring, Feeley is 2nd in assists, Moore and Godzilla are 1-2 in the league in rebounding, and Moore is 5th in steals.

[CoachC]

Larry: What can you tell us about the Golden Eagles out of Conference USA coach?

Gary: This is a very good offensive team. Despite their record they have wins over Northwestern and UConn on the road. They go to the boards hard, especially on the offensive end. They also move the ball around a lot on offense and look to find the open man off of screens. In other words this is a team that can exploit some of our weaknesses if we let them. They also have enough perimeter shooting to give us problems in the 1-3-1, but once again, because of our lack of depth, we'll be opening in the zone for as long as we can.

We really struggled offensively in the first half, as no one other than Jeffers could get a shot to drop. We turned them over 10 times, however, which kept us even. At the half we are tied 24-24

Not a pretty game as both teams struggled to score. In the end, it was the turnover differential (a/10 16/6 us , 12/16 them) that made the difference. Although outrebounded as expected, we did a decent enough job to hang in.

Jeffers had quite a game : 26 pts, 1 a , 9 rebs, 1 st, 2 bks
Felts was able to hit a few shots in the 2nd half and added 12.
Feeley had 6 pts, 8 asts, and only 1 turnover.
Moore had 9 rebounds

it was Gilchrist's turn to disappoint with 11 empty minutes 1 ast, 1 to , missed his only shot. nobody wants to step up and be an 8th man in this rotation. Somebody else gets a chance next time.

Ugly game, but a win

Final: G-W 63 So. Miss 57

[CoachC]

Dec 16: For the second time this week Jeffers and Arena have been getting into it after practice. I bring them both into my office to talk it out, and they say it's just their competetive natures coming out and they don't really have a problem with each other. I hope that's true. At any rate they both apologize to me, and later to the team.

[CoachC]

Larry: Another win last time out in a defensive battle. The guys refused to quit battling. You've been able to get some good mileage out of the 1-3-1 early in games.

Gary: Yes, and that's fortunate. With a 7 man rotation, we have very little margin for error, but it still remains a big concern. I keep waiting for someone else to grab the ring and start being a viable option off the bench, but so far no one has come close to stepping up for us.

Larry: Tonight's opponent the Toledo Rockets come in with a lofty 25 RPI.

Gary: Yes. It's still a little early to put much stock in RPIs but they have played a very tough schedule. They've had an overtime win over #25 Notre Dame and a very competetive quality loss on the road to #4 Maryland. They've also had road games with Louisville and Boston College, so they've been very much road-tested. They are VERY deliberate on offense and will be looking to break down our zone. On defense they will be throwing a 2-3 zone at us, and we are going to have to show some patience too. So far this year, zone defenses have had a tendency to trip us up a little, and make us a little impatient. This will be a big test for us. They are also a very very good rebounding team. They send everyone to the boards and it's the kind of team effort we've been emphasizing to our guys in practice.

Larry: Our rebounding has been a lot better lately, though.

Gary: Yes, it has been, Larry, but it still can be better. We've also got to get Godzilla going again. The last few games he's had more opportunities to score with so much attention being given to Jeffers and Fetts, but he's been hesitant... either passing up shots or going to the rim too softly. Against the 2-3 tonight, his opportunities may be much more limited again, but that's why we need to have him get on the offensive glass and power in some misses.

Our defense in the first half wasn't all that good, and I wasn't very happy with the officiating. but we shot passably well against the zone (46%), and the 1 to 7 differential in turnovers allow us to take a 38-35 lead into the locker room. I am concerned about the 2nd half, however, because we've been letting down too much after halftime, in part due to fatigue. Jeffers was magnificent again, but we need someone else to help out on offense to take all the pressure off of Ike. We started off rebounding really well, but tailed off towards the end of the half. We have to start hitting the boards again.

19:17 O'Conner picks up his 3rd, and that's trouble. Not sure how long I'll be able to sit him.

8:58 O'Conner back in the game picks up his 4th.

With Godzilla in foul trouble throughout the game, we spent much of it playing with a very small line-up. Given that our rebounding (27-34,5-10) was understandable in this one and could have been much worse. The unfortunate thing was that O'Conner was going to the boards hard early in the game and doing what I asked. If he was overaggressive in this one, I have to take the blame for it.

Our defense was very good, however, and unlike recent games was even better in the 2nd half holding them to 36.8% from the field and turning them over 16 times with 8 steals. We shot adequately against the 2-3 zone (44.4%), but once again it was Ike Jeffers carrying most of the offensive burden. Fortunately he was up to the task once again.

Our A/to was terrific (20/7) and Feeley had a career high 12 asts with 4 turnovers.
Ike Jeffers led us again with 26 points. he also had 2 asts, 4 rebs, 2 stls and a block and is doing everything we can ask of him playing mostly out of position at the 3.

Battle added 10 pts, and Felts 12 with 3 asts and 3 stls.

Moore did what Moore usually does: 8 pts, 8 rebs and rock-solid defense. If he doesn't make the all-defensive team this season something is wrong.

Team captain Tony Evans was given the opportunity to audition for the 8 spot in the rotation, and gave us a lift with 4 pts, an ast, 4 rebs and a steal. Those numbers might not sound like much but because of the foul situation with Godzilla he was playing most of his minutes as a very undersized 4 and gave us 21 minutes. We need his leadership on the floor, so he definitely will be given another chance to prove he belongs in our rotation. If it works out maybe we can start looking for someone to fit into the 9 spot, because we definitely need another big man we can go to for at least a few productive minutes.

A good team effort from the 8 guys who played.

Final

G-W 68 Toledo 58

[CoachC]

Dec 18: Ike Jeffers finally gets a much deserved conference player of the week.

We currently are ranked 3rd in the nation in fewest turnovers with only 9.9/game. our 16.8 assists rank 10th giving us a fablulous team a/to ratio. Meanwhile our opponents have a negative ratio (13.7a/16.7to). Those numbers are definitely our team identity and have been the keys to most of our wins. We aren't getting as many steals for runouts as last year, but our .458 fg percentage is much better than what we've done in the past.

[CoachC]

Dec 21: Jeffers and Arenas going at it again. I'm starting to believe the problem is mostly Arenas. He doesn't seem to understand that being a walk-on with this team is a privilege, and one I'll have no problem taking away if it's going to mess with team chemistry. He gave me a bit of attitude this time when I brought both of them into the office, and I laid it out for him. Jeffers was again apologetic, but he's a good kid and gets along with everyone else fine. He seemed a bit embarrassed about being called into the office again about this, but I really don't think he's the instigator.

[CoachC]

Larry: Our final non-conference tune-up before our New Year's eve conference premier with Liberty. A 5 game winning streak headed into conference play would give us some nice momentum. Thoughts?

Gary: It certainly would Larry. But we'll have to play well again. This team like so many others we've played this year is an experienced team coming out of a couple of rebuilding years looking to make some noise again. They have an EXTREMELY balanced offense with 4 starters averaging double digits. They've been getting to the line a lot as well, which is something we haven't been able to do. They also take care of the ball well. They have a couple of road wins over mid-majors Drake and Murray st. and had a very competitive quality loss at #8 LSU. With so much balance in their scoring, our defense in the zone will have to be very intelligent. This is not a team that is likely to turn the ball over 15 or 16 times either, so our rebounding and shooting are going to have to be very good. In particular we need someone other than Jeffers looking to score and we are going to have to stay out of foul trouble.

Larry: Let's hope the crowd helps. With finals finally over there is a big student contingent here before the dorms close tomorrow for break. 3300 is our biggest turnout of the season. Go get 'em, Coach!

Gary: Thanks, Larry!

I get T'd with 9;30 to go in the first half. down 0-5 on fouls called while playing zone to their man-to-man is ridiculous. Feeley picked up his 2nd on a tic tac call, and I'd had enough.

7:07 the referee circus continues and Feeley picks up his third. Looks like Felts is going to have to play some point in this one. Game is delayed as the slightly inebriated student section begins throwing debris on the floor. The grade-school quality refs tell the PA announcer that a crowd T will be called if it continues.

3:03 Huge derisive roar from the crowd as the Mocs are finally called for their first foul. Tony Evans, on the floor, implores them to settle down and not get us T'd again. Fortunately, they listen.

in the first half, not allowed to play defense, the Mocs shoot 48% from the field. Meanwhile we struggle on offense at 37.5. Jeffers hits an overdue clunker in the first half (in no small part because of referees looking the other way on his drives) and is just 1/8 from the field with 2 points. Felts, O'Conner and Battle pick up the slack though, and with an 11-1 advantage on turnovers and some timely offensive rebounding we take an unlikely 6 point lead into intermission 35-29. Felts did a decent job in the few minutes he was forced to play point...he'll have to play some more in the 2nd half.

The 2nd half may well have been our best 20 minutes of basketball all season.

Riddle me this...for the game they outshoot us 44% to 42%. They out rebound us 36-31. Ike Jeffers is held to a season low 6 points. But not only do we pull away in the 2nd half, we are able to empty the bench in the final 4 minutes. How, you might ask?

Well, the short answer is this: against a team that came into this game with a decent track record of ball handling the a/to line looks like this (14/5, 9/22)

The much longer answer involves the following: Godzilla found his mojo again, and was a monster on the offensive boards in the 2nd half and finished with 14 pts, 13 rebs. Jermaine Felts rediscovered HIS mojo and picked up Jeffers by scoring 20. Battle had 16 pts, 4 asts. Feeley in 15 foul plagued minutes still managed 8 pts, 5 asts, and no turnovers. Brown and Moore did the things they usually do... great defense, grab some rebounds. And Tony Evans stat line once again did no justice to what he truly brought to the game. His 23 minutes on the floor added leadership, stability,defense and confidence to everyone else. And Jeffers, even though he had an ugly game offensively still played solid defense. Oh, and last but not least, a vocal and supportive crowd intimidated the refs into actually calling a fair game in the 2nd half.

A nice finish to the non-conference portion of the schedule.


Final:

G-W 76 Chatanooga 56

[CoachC]

Dec 22: We'll practice this morning and this afternoon before giving the guys 3 days off for the holidays. On the afternoon of the 26th it'll be back to business.