The Town Crier

[PointGuard]

Game #9: UC-Riverside Highlanders (1-9) at Colorado Buffaloes (7-1)

We scored the first 10 points in the game even though we shot horribly. With 7-1/2 minutes left in the half we led 25-2 and still were only hitting 30% of our shots. We substituted freely but still held a commanding 37-19 lead at the break as we controlled the boards 26-11 and held a 12-5 turnover advantage. SG Kenton Dunn scored 11 points and C Ryan Erickson scored 6 plus had 10 rebounds.

We played everyone on our bench in the 2nd half and coasted to a 73-51 thrashing of the Highlanders. Our final rebounding advantage was 42-23.
SG Kenton Dunn hit for 15, PG Chris Smith had 10, and C Ryan Erickson scored 10 while gathering in 13 rebounds.

I would have liked to have had a tougher opponent, but we were able to give all of our reserves extended play time so hopefully that pays dividends later this season.

We finished pre-conference play with an 8-1 record, but now will take on much tougher competition as conference play begins next week. Our RPI is 21st best in the country, but that just means the computer isn’t adequately taking into account the quality of our opponents. Next season we need to upgrade the competitive level in our pre-conference schedule.

[PointGuard]

Player Stats:

PPG: SF Rick Coffey-12.3, SG Kenton Dunn-11.8, C Ryan Erickson-10.7, PG Matt Conley-8.4, PG Chris Smith-6.3, PF Vefa Kurtbek-6.2, SF Charles Maors-6.1, SG Camah Griffin-3.9, PF Mat Hunter-2.9, PF Jacob Anderson-2.4, SG Steve Jackson-1.7, PF Primoz Pohek-0.9, C Nathan Hampton-0.7, PF Shawn Owes-0.7, C R.J. Reis-0.0
RPG: C Ryan Erickson-9.1, PF Vefa Kurtbek-4.1, SF Rick Coffey-4.1, SF Charles Maors-3.6, PF Jacob Anderson-2.9, PG Matt Conley-2.8, SG Kenton Dunn-2.3, C Nathan Hampton-2.0, PG Chris Smith-1.9, SG Camah Griffin-1.8, PF Mat Hunter-1.8, PF Primoz Pohek-1.6, PF Shawn Owes-0.3, SG Steve Jackson-0.0, C R.J. Reis-0.0 (Erickson is tied for 5th best in the Pac 12)
APG: PG Matt Conley-4.7, PG Chris Smith-3.3, SG Kenton Dunn-2.3, C Ryan Erickson-1.8, SF Rick Coffey-1.7, PF Vefa Kurtbek-1.4, SF Charles Maors-1.0, SG Camah Griffin-1.0, PF Primoz Pohek-0.4, PF Mat Hunter-0.3, SG Steve Jackson-0.3, C Nathan Hampton-0.2, PF Jacob Anderson-0.1, PF Shawn Owes-0.0, C R.J. Reis-0.0 (Conley is 5th best in the Pac 12)
BPG: PG Matt Conley-1.2, SG Kenton Dunn-0.9, SF Rick Coffey-0.8, PG Chris Smith-0.7, C Ryan Erickson-0.6, PF Mat Hunter-0.6, PF Vefa Kurtbek-0.4, SF Rick Coffey-0.4, PF Jacob Anderson-0.3, SF Charles Maors-0.2, SG Steve Jackson-0.0, PF Primoz Pohek-0.0, PF Shawn Owes-0.0, C R.J. Reis-0.0
SPG: C Ryan Erickson-1.2, SG Kenton Dunn-1.0, SF Charles Maors-0.7, PF Vefa Kurtbek-0.7, PG Matt Conley-0.6, SF Rick Coffey-0.4, PF Jacob Anderson-0.4, SG Camah Griffin-0.3, PG Chris Smith-0.3, PF Primoz Pohek-0.3, C Nathan Hampton-0.2, SG Steve Jackson-0.1, PF Shawn Owes-0.0, PF Mat Hunter-0.0, C R.J. Reis-0.0

Team Stats:

PPG: 73.2 (115th in nation)
APG: 18.3 (32nd in nation)
RPG: 36.3 (22nd in nation)
BPG: 6.0 (57th in nation)
SPG: 6.0 (243rd in nation)
TOPG: 9.1 (1st in nation)
Opponents PPG: 61.9 (22nd in nation)

Pac-12




Pac-12 teams in Top 25: Arizona (1), California (6), UCLA (10), Oregon (11), USC (21). Utah was in the Top 25 until this last week when they lost in the 2nd round of the Hoops for Troops Tourney to unranked Georgia.

Comparison based upon pre-conference opponents that we also had:

Washington beat Southern Miss 65-52, Stanford beat Southern Miss 66-56, and we beat the Golden Eagles 75-59.
Arizona State beat George Mason 87-71 and we beat the Patriots 67-65.
Arizona State lost to LSU 76-42, Stanford lost to LSU 88-81, UCLA beat LSU 79-69, and we lost to the Tigers 68-58.
Arizona beat Tulane 97-54 and we beat the Green Wave 79-74.

The media has picked us to finish 8th in the Pac-12 this season.

Youngstown State Update:

Oh yeah… my old team, Youngstown State, finished pre-conference play with a 5-4 record with SG Doylan Anderson averaging 18 ppg. They’re expected to finish somewhere in the middle of the Summit League standings this season.

[Ddevore65]

You did what I was hoping with the non-conference schedule to get to those 18 wins. Now you got to play 500 through the conference and get a 1st round win in the conference tourney, easy right?

[PointGuard]

You did what I was hoping with the non-conference schedule to get to those 18 wins. Now you got to play 500 through the conference and get a 1st round win in the conference tourney, easy right?

Sure...if it weren't for.........................

Arizona, Cal, Oregon, UCLA, USC, Utah, Washington, Stanford, Oregon State, Arizona State, and Washington State.

[PointGuard]

Game #10: Colorado Buffaloes (8-1, 0-0) at Oregon State Beavers (6-3, 0-0)

The Beavers won 6 of their first 7 games (all at home) before losing to Marshall in a tournament game and #2 ranked North Carolina on the road. C Rudy Barker has been hot and cold, but when he’s hot, he can be devastating meaning we need to keep him in check.

Twice during the first half it seemed as though we might pull away but each time Oregon State reeled us back in and by the end of the half the Beavers were ahead 36-32. We turned the ball over too much (11 turnovers). SG Kenton Dunn led our scoring with 7 points. SF Ike Archie had 9 points for Oregon State.

After shooting well in the first half, we were undone in the 2nd half by poor shooting and more turnovers. With 8 minutes to play we trailed by 10. We cut into the lead and were down by just 4 when Mat Hunter was charged with a technical with 3:19 to go. The Beavers made one of the two free throws and then sunk a 3 on the possession they were awarded to put us down by 8. Oregon State then went on a 3 point binge but we cut their lead to 5 with 47seconds remaining and intentionally fouled their worst foul shooter. He made us pay by sinking both free throw shots. We called a time out to set up a 3 but the shot didn’t go down and we were forced to foul again. Two more successful foul shots put us down by 9. Another 3 point attempt wouldn’t fall for us. We tipped in a put-back but it was all too late and we lost 77-70.

PG Matt Conley and SG Kenton Dunn both scored 11 points and C Ryan Erickson had 9 points and 8 rebounds for us. Oregon State’s SF Ike Archie topped all scorers with 16 points.

All Pac-12 home teams won their conference openers. The highlight was a 95-94 overtime victory by #6 ranked California over #11 ranked Oregon.

Following the game SG Steve Jackson mouthed off about his not playing enough and my favoring Kenton Dunn. He’d done something similar earlier this season, so I chewed him out and that I know he has a of talent, but he’s not been displaying it thus far this season so when he does he will play more. He apologized and said he’s try harder. We’ll see how it goes.

[Ddevore65]

Tough loss I was hoping the OSU game would be one of the victories even if on the road.

[PointGuard]

Me too! Oh well.

[PointGuard]

Pictures in the Mail

I received an envelope in the mail that only contained pictures. The pictures were of Jacky and her boss, Tom Braswell, at restaurants and other public places with mutually adoring faces and hands all over each other. There was no letter or note and no return address, but the envelope was postmarked from Youngstown.

I guess I should say I was shocked and devastated and probably pissed as well, but for some reason I merely looked through them and pushed them into a drawer in my desk. And then I experienced a feeling of freedom and relief. It’s not something I’d ever express to anyone since when I ran that through my head it seemed wrong to feel that way. But I slept better that night that I had for a long time.

[PointGuard]

Game #11: Colorado Buffaloes (8-2, 0-1) at #6 ranked California Golden Bears (12-1, 1-0)

Are the Golden Bears good? Hell yes they are! Cal has beaten #19 ranked Georgia Tech, #11 ranked Oregon and has twice beaten #3 ranked Maryland, and their only loss was to #2 ranked North Carolina. They have 4 players averaging in double figures led by SG Matt Landram’s 20.8 ppg. PG Mario Burleston scored 30 points against Oregon earlier this week. We’re huge underdogs against Cal.

We took a 7-0 lead and held a lead over the Golden Bears throughout the first half until just 35 seconds were left when they took a 35-34 lead. But we hit the final bucket of the half and went back on top 36-35 when the buzzer sounded. It was surprising since we had 10 turnovers in the first half and because of that Cal scored 16 fast break points, but our guys played gutsy ball. Our leading scorer was SG Kenton Dunn with 10 points. For the Golden Bears, PG Mario Burleston also had 10 points.

California scored the first 4 points in the second half. But we came back and tied the game at 42-42 and neither team could gain an advantage through the first 10 minutes, but then Cal hit back-to-back 3’s that put them ahead 53-47. The Golden Bears caught fire offensively late in the half and we fell behind by 8 but then cut the lead to 4 when PF Vee Kurtbek grabbed and offensive rebound and put the ball back up and in with 2:22 remaining. Then with 1:50 on the clock Kurtbek put in a baseline jumper to get us within 2 points. Cal hit a 3 but we came down and worked the ball around before SF Rick Coffey dropped in a long 3 with 1:23 to go to make it 71-69 in favor of the Golden Bears. Cal shot from the key missed and we rebounded. We called a time out and set up a screen but Kenton Dunn’s shot was off the rim and Cal pulled down the rebound. But the Golden Bears missed a 12 footer and we got control of the ball with 35 seconds left. Another time out for us only led to an errant pass that Cal picked off. We intentionally fouled with 21 seconds on the clock. Cal’s worst foul shooter, made the first of a one-and one but missed the 2nd. We rebounded and called a time out to set up a 3 point attempt. Rick Coffey’s shot hit the back rim and Cal controlled the ball and ran out the clock. A valiant effort on our part, but we lost 72-69. The only team stat that was significantly in Cal’s favor was turnovers where we had 15 turnovers to the Golden Bears’ 8.

PF Vee Kurtbek scored 15 points and had 7 rebounds. SF Rick Coffey and SG Kenton Dunn both hit for 12 and C Ryan Erickson hit for 11 plus had 7 boards. SG Mario Burleston poured in 20 points for Cal.

I gave our team a big pat-on-the-back, but the loss made us 0-2 in conference play, but both losses were on the road.

In other Pac-12 games, Washington State upset #10 ranked UCLA 71-64, Washington topped #11 ranked Oregon 89-85, and surprisingly Oregon State went to 2-0 in conference play after knocking off Stanford 75-64.

[Wayne23]

Tough loss.