by Wayne23 » Sat Feb 11, 2017 6:52 am
3/9: #6 seed USC, 16-12, 9-9, won their play in. We play them first. Lost by 17 there, then won by 21 here.
Tim Wags is back from the broken leg.
3/10: 65-63. We got lucky. We were down 1 with 1.3 left with the ball all the way at the opposite end. We had Lal Herr inbound it. He threw it to Mu Mont at half court. Mont turned and threw up a 47 footer, and it went in. I’ll take it. 18, 7 for Lyn, 16, 6 for Mont, 14, 10, 4, 4 for Herr. +10 RBs.
We play #2 seed, #9 ranked Arizona, 22-6, in the semifinals. They beat us by 24 there, and 11 here. On paper we’re in big trouble.
3/11: 74-87. We kept in close for more than 30 minutes, but in the end they were too good, and too deep. Their bench had 32, ours had 17. Lyn and Mont both fouled out and the subs just weren’t up to the task.
22-9, 11-7. We’re hoping for a #6 seed but a #7 is probably more likely.
3/12: #7 South. We play #10 New Mexico, 21-9.
3/17: 72-50. We never trailed. 19, 4, 7, 4 for Herr, 12 each for Jupp and Mont.
#2 seed, #8 ranked Syracuse, 25-9, in the 2nd round. Tough team.
3/19: And we came to play! 67-60. We led for the last 38 minutes, by as many as 17. 22, 14, 4 for Lal Herr, 17, 5 for Mu Mont. We shot 44.9% and held them to 32.8%. Great win, and the Sweet Sixteen is farther than Arizona ST has ever gotten. I got to the Elite Eight once at Central FL.
#14 seed Delaware ST, 23-9, upset first #3 and then #6, so we play them next. This is a team we should beat, but they are red hot right now.
3/24: 61-54. We jumped out to a 17-4 lead. They got as close as 5 three times, and 4 once. Great D did it for us again tonight, as we held them to 34.2% shooting. We got balanced scoring with 6 players having between 6 and 11.
We’re in the Elite Eight! We play #4 seed, #15 ranked Memphis, 27-6. This is a tough matchup, but not as tough as Syracuse. We need to be on our game though.
3/26: The city of Tempe, Arizona is going crazy as the Arizona ST Sun Devils beat Memphis 73-53 to go to the FINAL FOUR!!! For the third straight game our D was terrific. Tonight we held Memphis to 30.5% shooting, 18.9% on threes. Lal Herr led us with 20, 7, 4, Jay Daws had 12 and 5, and Mont and Bow had 10 each. +10 RBs.
This is a hell of a feeling!
Two of the Final Four are from the PAC 12 as #1 ranked Oregon got there as well. They will play unranked, #10 seed Seton Hall while we play #1 seed, #3 ranked Georgetown, 34-2. This is a very tough matchup for us. Except for Oregon, Georgetown is easily the best team we’ve played all year.
4/1: Georgetown stormed out to a huge lead, 23-7. My second time out calmed the troops and we slowly chipped away at the lead. At the half we were down 1. The second half was back and forth for 40 minutes with 18 lead changes and 9 ties- in the half. With a minute left they led 71-70 with the ball. Marc Lyn tipped a pass in the paint. Mu Mont grabbed it and tossed it to a breaking Lal Herr who took it all the way for a layup to make it 72-71. They missed a shot and fouled Marc Lyn who made both to get it to 74-71. They came down, missed a three, got the RB and put it in- 74-73, with 6.1 left. They quickly fouled Mu Mont with 4.9 left. He hit both to bring it to 76-73. They had plenty of time to set up a three but our man to man kept their outside shooters covered. They took a contested three that went off the front rim and we’re in the title game!
Mont had 12 and 14, Lyn 12 and 7, Herr had 14, sub Tim Garn had 13, 6, and our #3 guard Cam Bow had 11, 3, 6. +11 RBs, and we held them to 36.5%, the highest pct. Any team has shot against us in this tournament.
And it comes down to #1 in the nation Oregon, 35-2, 18-0. They won by 20 there. Their PF had 42 and 11 that night and that was the difference. We can’t let that happen again. Their Center, who is probably their 2nd best player, is out with a broken toe. That helps, and I think if we can contain their PF we have a shot.
4/3: 70-83. We gave it all we had but it wasn’t enough. 18, 9, 4 for Mont, 16 for Herr, but the D that got us to the title game wasn’t there tonight; they shot 50%.
Bottom line? What a fantastic season!
4/4: Awards: Lal Herr and Marc Lyn, both sophs, made PAC 12 2nd team, and I got conf. COY.
Everyone is back except Jay Daws so it would take a really good offer to get me to move.
4/9: We’re staying here. Unfortunately, because we did so well in the tourney the expectations for next season are to match that, which will be very difficult to achieve.
4/16: And I can’t hire decent assistants. I finally get some very mediocre guys for #2 and #3.
4/23: We need a budget increase. Denied. What does it take? We got to the title game!
What a terrific post season we had. We wound up at 27-10, 11-7. Overall, I’m 196-89, .688.
Looking forward to next season.