I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[CoachC]

Dec 23: most of our guys live close enough to school that getting home for the holidays isn't much of a problem. Only Battle and Giesen have no way to get home. It's a crying shame that NCAA rules forbid us to buy them a plane ticket. Tony Evans comes through though and takes both of them home with him to Fayetteville.

[CoachC]

Dec 25: as we head into the conference season, here are the current RPIs of conferfence teams:

Presbyterian
51
VMI 56
Longwood 80
Gardner-Webb 93
Liberty 117
High Point 161
Radford 297
NC-Asheville 313
Coastal Car, 315
Winthrop 322
Campbell 330
Char-Sou 351

With 3 teams ranked in the top hundred and 5 in the top 50% of DI the conference appears to be gaining some ground. There is however a big disparity between upper division and lower division.

[CoachC]

Dec 25:

Individually headed into conference play:

Scoring
Ike Fetters 2nd at 20.2
Jermaine Fetts 8th at 14.1

Assists
Reggie Feeley 1st at 5.6 (7th nationally)
Chris Battle 10th at 3.0

Rebounds
Donald Moore and Josh O'Conner tied for 1st at 6.9

Blocks
Josh O'Conner 4th .. 0.9

Steals
Donald Moore and Jermaine Felts tied for 6th 1.3

FG%
Jeffers 5th
Felts 6th

FT%
Jeffers 2nd 93.1

Team stats:

Points 3rd
Assists 2nd (11th nationally)
Rebounds 7th
Blocks 10th
Steals 7th
FG% 4th
3p % 6th
FT % 2nd
TO 1st (1st nationally with 9.5)
Points allowed 1st
Rebs allowed 7th
Def FG% 7th
Def 3P% 8th
Turnovers forced 1st (16th nationally)

[CoachC]

Dec 26: The guys arrive back on campus and appear to be rejuvenated. Let's hope so. With finals behind them and a couple of weeks off from school, I feel no guilt about amping up practice.

[CoachC]

Larry: Conference season opener against the Flames of Liberty. Picked 6th in the pre-season polls this is an experienced team that finished strong last year, and is looking to try to contend this year and post a winning record.

Gary: Yes, their experience does make them dangerous and we can't overlook them. If we go out and do the things we have been doing though in the last 5 games of the non-conference schedule we should be okay. The dangerous thing about Liberty is the same thing that made them dangerous the last two seasons. Nothing jumps out at you. You watch their tapes and you say.. "ehh..how are they winning?". And yet they always compete. We need to set the tone for the conference season in this one, and take care of business tonight.

Larry: One of the things, maybe the main thing that has been helping our team have the success it has had thus far is the nationally ranked turnover differential, even though we are getting fewer steals than we did a year ago. How do you account for that?

Gary: Part of it has certainly been better ball-handling, and smarter play defensively. But another part of it came about by accident. Since we've had to play so much 1-3-1 zone defense lately and it's been working well, there was an unexpected benefit to it.

Larry: Which is?

Gary: When we get back downcourt quickly and are able to set up defensively, the 1-3-1 and the Amoeba bear a strong resemblance to each other initially. And we've tried to confuse the offense further by varying who we play in the middle of the 1-3-1. The opposition isn't really sure which they are about to face as they come over the timeline, which makes the traps from the Amoeba that much more effective.

Jeffers, our latest marked man is swarmed in the first half and goes just 1/4 for 2 points. We also turn the ball over a very un-bulldog-like 8 times in the first half. But because of a great defensive effort, a tremendous effort on the boards(20-14, 8-3) and balanced scoring from everyone else we take a 32-20 lead into the locker room. At halftime I tell them we lead by 12 despite not playing Bulldog basketball on the offensive end. Let's do it right in the 2nd half and stretch the lead. Most significant stat in the first half: Bulldogs 14-2 on fast break points.

For the seconds straight game, Jeffers is stymied offensively(just 2 pts on 1/5 shooting) and for the 2nd straight game we pull away in the 2nd half and empty out the bench in the final minutes. We are finally proving what we knew from the start of the season when everyone was boxing O'Conner..you can't just shut one guy down on this team and expect to win. Our a/to ratio and turnover advantage weren't quite what we are used to in this game but still positive(13/12. 10/17). We did however suffocate them defensively (they shot only 33.3% for the game) and for the first time this season we totally dominated a team on the boards (42-30, 17-6)

Jeffers offensive struggles didn't keep him from contributing in other areas of the game: 5 ast, 6 rebs, 2 stls.

Feeley had one of his worst games of the year ..4pts, 2 asts, 4 to

But Felts had 12 pts, 4 rebs

O'Conner is once again proclaiming that this is HIS house: 16 pts, 3 asts, 9 rebs, 2stls

Brown and Moore did what they always do.. give some points, get some rebounds, play outstanding defense.

Battle only had 1 asts, but added 7 points and 4 rebs. We'll take it.

Tony Evans dissapointed in this game, doing not much of anything in 13 minutes, but we gave Billy Sheals a chance to redeem himself and get back in the rotation and he responded with 2 pts, 3 rebs in 8 minutes which was encouraging.

Pretty much everyone on the floor did an incredible job at the defensive end, until we emptied the bench at the end leading by 22.

Final:

G-W 54 Liberty 40 and it was never that close.

[CoachC]

Our RPI up to 64th now.

[CoachC]

Larry: Back on the road again with a 6 game winning streak on the line. Hopefully we'll be able to keep it going tonight.

Gary: Let's hope so, Larry. The Buccaneers have been really struggling, but now they are back home for the first time in over a month. It's always tough on the road, and I was happy to miss having to come to this shoebox last year. It feels like we are playing in someone's living room. Small crowd tonight, but it doesn't take many people in this place for them to sound loud. Hopefully we are ready to start the new year out right and leave here with a road win.

We shoot over 59% in the first half, and hold them 37%. The only negative is that we turned the ball over 8 times.

At the half we lead 36-24

I'm not sure why we suddenly were so sloppy with the ball tonight, but 16 mostly unforced turnovers was too many. Our defense wasn't very good in the 2nd half either, and we allowed them to stay in contact and cut the lead to 3 in the closing minutes. We shot 55.8% for the game though and outrebounded them 29-21, 9-7 and fortunately it was enough.

Felts had 18
Jeffers had 17 4 rebs but turned the ball over 7 times.
Battle had 9 pts, 7 asts
Finley had 4 pts, 4 asts, but was limited to just 15 minutes in this one with foul trouble.
The trio of Moore,Brown and O'Conner combined for 22pts, 19 rebs.

Final:

G-W 72 CS 65

[CoachC]

Larry: We'll be trying to keep the winning streak alive tonight at home against the Panthers. We know all Rod Jones. What else can you tell us about High Point, coach?

Gary: Picked 4th in the conference pre-season, they've been up and down this year. Of course, their biggest win was the upset of #21 Minnesota. Rod Jones is a concern for us, once again leading the league in scoring, and I have the utmost respect for him. If he gets going from the perimeter tonight, we may be forced to abandon the zone early. The Panthers are 2nd in the league in scoring being very efficient with their motion offense, and lead the league in rebounds and the rebounding of course is another source of concern for us. We'll have to play well to win. We still are basically only 7 deep, and with that short of a bench there is very little margin for error. Most nights in conference will be a test for us.

We didn't shoot well as a team in the first half (40.6), but our defense was adequate and we forced 11 turnovers. Ike Jeffers was on fire in the first half, but we need to get someone else going.

At the half we have the slimmest of leads 36-35

Despite a dismal shooting night for us (38.6) our defense was solid in the second half, especially after going man about half way through the period and Rod Jones was contained for just 16 pts, well below his average. We also had a poor showing on the defensive boards, but went to the offensive glass hard. The Amoeba zone was very effective when we used it in this game and that was what allowed us to gain some separation in the 2nd half (A/TO 16/11, 12/22) with 13 steals and 20-9 edge in fast break points.

Ike Jeffers had a career high 30 with 2 asts, 7 rebs, and 3 stls
Felts added 11 pts, 4 rebs
Battle and Feeley combined for 9 pts, 6 asts, and just 2 turnovers at the point.
We had good minutes from all the big men, including Billy Sheals in 13 minutes.

Final
G-W 72 HP 64

[Wayne23]

Great run, Coach.

[CoachC]

Jan 8: With Radford's loss to Longwood last night, we remain the only team undefeated in conference play.