I'll Be a Son of a Shark

[Wayne23]

Congrats on da NIT finel fowa. I will be happy ta treet ya ta dinnah or prehaps lunch whilst youse is in town.

Your frien' Sammy the Shot

[PointGuard]

Just make sure Sammy doesn't introduce you to Nathan.

[Wayne23]

I will be soitin' dat my frien's is outta da pitcher when we meet, Coach. Whilst I love dem all like brudders dey definatley have a way a tryin' ta take avantij.

[CoachC]

I thank you, Sammy.

[CoachC]

yep, airforce was ranked 9th believe it or not. had a 4 seed in the tourney

[PointGuard]

Wow, Air Force has turned into some high flyers!

[CoachC]

3/27 We got into New York last night. We spent the day sightseeing. I felt at this point it was more important to keep the team loose than to spend time in the gym. Tomorrow morning we'll go at it hard, but for today I just wanted them to stay relaxed and have fun. They weren't going to let Godzilla on the Staten Island ferry at first because they were afraid he'd put them over the weight limit. When Josh Brown suggested that 'Zilla could be used as an emergency lifeboat though they acquiesced.

[CoachC]

I have to say it is an exciting thrill to walk into the sports mecca of the free world. I can't imagine how many venues have been built and torn down since MSG first opened. I'm sure it's memory all of our seniors will carry with them the rest of their lives.

Wagner was the number 1 seed in the west knocking off their conference rival, Monmouth, the team that beat VMI in the second round, in the regional final. Their RPI is one behind ours at 39. We played a tougher preconference schedule overall than the Seahawks, but they did have a close quality loss to then #7 Marquette, a blowout loss to then top ranked Arizona, and a victory over Wake Forest. They were the regular season champions of the Northeast Athletic Conference, and like us had some hopes of an at large berth at the dance, but lost in the first round of their conference tournament so here we are.

They are a fairly deliberate team that shoots reasonably well. They play a tough 1-3-1 zone, and they also led their conference in forced turnovers, so our passes are going to have to be crisp and our shooters are gonna have to shoot tonight. Rebound and turnover differential could well be the keys to this game. I've decided to open in a 1-3-1 ourselves tonight and see how it goes.

Our decision to keep the guys loose seems to have paid off at least in the first half. It's been a long time since we've seen this team come out so relaxed and focused. We shot an incredible 61% against their zone in the first half, despite the fact that Jermaine Felts never took a shot. Meanwhile we held them to 29% shooting, and had a +6 advantage in turnover differential. Our big guys all played very well and we also hold a slight 14-13 advantage on the boards. It all adds up to an impressive 23 point advantage at the half.

Halftime we lead 39-16. The Seahawks aren't a team used to having to score a ton of points in a hurry, so we just need to continue to do everything as well we did in the first frame and we should be fine.

Not surprisingly our shooting cooled off in the 2nd half, but we continued to play hard-nosed defense and get to the boards well. We opened the lead up to as much as 31, and they were never closer than 21 until we emptied the bench at the end. The final score was certainly no indicator of how well we dominated in this game. It was also nice to to give all 15 players on our roster the memory of playing in the Garden, and good bench play throughout the game let us keep all our starters well below their normal minutes.

Chris Battle took their zone as a personal challenge and shot 6 of 7 from the field for 17 points along with 3 asts a steal, and just 2 turnovers.

Felts struggle to get a shot off against the zone and was just 2/10 from the field all in the 2nd half. His defense was terrific though, and he added 2 asts, 5 rebs and a steal.

Ike shot well, but because we were getting good production elsewhere he unselfishly only took 13 shots in this one and scored 15 points.

Moore was his usual self, doing all the things that don't show up in the stats sheet... playing great post defense, setting good screens and finding the open man (4asts).

Godzilla came out ready to play and he was tons better than his line of 8 pts, 2 asts, and 7 rebs might appear.

As I said the bench gave us solid play led by Brown (6 pts, 2 asts, 6 rebs, 1 stl), Sanders (4 pts, 3 asts, 3 rebs, 1 stl). White, Geisen, and Madison all did positive things too in their minutes.

I'm very proud and happy with our performance tonight against a very good basketball team. And now they have a chance to play for a national championship.

Final:

G-W 66 Wagner 57 (and it was never remotely that close a ballgame)

[CoachC]

3/28: In the other semi Seton Hall defeated Loyola Marymount 69-55 and we'll play the Pirates for all the marbles.

[CoachC]

3/29: Appalachian St. defeated Florida Atlantic tonight in the CIT championship 72-69, giving the south one championship. 2 more to go! Well, one more anyway, unless we want to count Houston in the NCAA tournament as the south.