FEDORA

[PointGuard]

Huzzah!

2nd Assistant Coach Matt Barnes

This week we received some exciting news. PG Joe Spann verbally committed to accept a scholarship to play for us next season. Spann is a 6’0” high school senior from Buckingham, Virginia who has a 4.0 GPA. Last season he averaged 15.3 ppg, 4.1 apg, 4.2 rpg,1.8 bpg and 2.7 spg. Joe has a sweet outside shot and obviously is a very good scorer. He’s a solid ball handler and passer. While he was ranked higher earlier this season, he presently is the #266 ranked recruit in the nation. But his high school coach has told us that he’s a great leader on and off the court, has been injury free. When he attended this year’s Big Apple Showcase he was ranked within the top 25 of all recruits who attended that camp. We anticipate Spann will be a key player for us for 4 years.

We still have one scholarship offer that has been made but not yet accepted and one additional scholarship yet to offer.

[PointGuard]

Perry Winkle (Athletic Director) and Frederick Aura (Head Coach) go to lunch at the Pine Cone Café:

“Frederick, we just put out the press release about Donny Flint’s selection as the Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Week. 20 points and 19 rebounds…helluva game.”

“That’s good to hear. He deserves the accolades. We knew what he’d done as a freshman at Butler and that he really could work the boards. But I think we’re just getting a glimpse of how good he can be. He’s not only leading the team in rebounding but also scoring. And he actually shot poorly in 2/3 of our games. If he starts shooting as well as I think he can and continues to attack the boards like he can, the only limiting factor will be his tendency to get into early foul trouble.”

“Now if they’d just start taking us seriously for the polls. Hell, our RPI is now 18th best in the country and we still are getting no respect in the polls. Your team beats Wake Forest, BC, North Carolina State, Seton Hall, Washington State, Virginia Tech…teams from big time conferences…and now a 7 game win streak. Should be showing up in the polls.”

“I wouldn’t put too much faith in RPI at this point, Perry. While some of our opponents have well-known names and are from power conferences, none of them are the cream of the crop right now in those conferences. We’ve got a big test coming up this week since we’ll be playing another road game, this time against a ranked team, #23 UNLV. And even if we’re lucky enough to get by the Runnin’ Rebels, we then travel to St. Johns for our final pre-conference game. But I’m hearing the same thing at home from Janeka. She’s livid about our not being ranked. Like I tell her though, Perry…just give it time. A team in the CAA has to just continue winning to get the votes necessary to be ranked.”

“This schedule should be setting you up for a good run when conference play begins.”

“Yeah, I agree. But James Madison and Charleston have been doing well in pre-conference play also. Plus I think we have a big target painted on our back after winning the conference tourney and going to the NCAA tournament last year. Other teams are gonna want to knock us off. I can already tell that since we’ve been playing quite a few of our road games near enough other conference teams that they can repeatedly scout us rather than just doing a one-game scouting job. I know that’s the case since I’ve seen their assistant coaches in the stands for multiple games. So I don’t think our conference schedule will be a walk in the park.”

“Maybe. Charleston had a great start this season but they’ve run into a wall in their last few games. And James Madison may have the same 8-1 record as us, but when I look at their opposition thus far, I don’t think it’s been as tough as ours. And they have to play a ranked team this week also, #24 ranked Oklahoma State. Let’s see how they do against the Cowboys. I think they’ll get crushed.”

“I’m just hoping WE don’t get crushed. Hey, food’s here. I’ve been dreaming of crab cakes all week and I hear this place has the best ones in the area. Let’s chow down.”

[PointGuard]

Dec. 21, 2022: Towson Tigers (8-1) @ #23 UNLV Runnin’ Rebels (9-1)

Dwayne McClinton, 3rd Assistant (Practice) Coach

We have a 7 game win streak and UNLV has an 8 game win streak so something has to give tonight…let’s make it UNLV’s streak that ends. We hope to hold down the Runnin’ Rebels Carlton Gilchrist who is averaging 16.1 ppg and 11.4 rpg. But Donny Flint needs to do it without getting into foul trouble. We worked on it in practice but putting that into effect on a player with Gilchrist’s talent is tough. If Gilchrist breaks out, then we need to put the clamps on the other UNLV players who are on the court. The Runnin’ Rebels defense is tough. They’ve held 6 of their 10 opponents to under 60 points.

Both teams came out firing bullets. The entire 20 minutes of the first half was a back-and-forth battle with 14 lead changes and 13 ties. Neither team was ahead by more than 4 points. The half ended with the score knotted at 38-38. The Runnin’ Rebels outshot us 50% to 47% and hit 6 of 12 from 3-point distance whereas we hit a woeful 1 of 9. But we held an 11-6 turnover advantage. SG Dominick Collins tossed in 15 points and C Donny Flint had 10 points and 4 rebounds. Flint also held Gilchrist to just 6 points. Our attempt to get Gilchrist into foul trouble by working the ball inside failed as he only picked up a single foul, but we were able to pick up a lot of points in the paint.

Our shooting went ice cold early in the 2nd half and we tried forcing things that caused us to make a series of turnovers that UNLV turned into driving layups. With 12:21 to play we trailed 60-46. We tried to come back but were thwarted by the outside shooting of the Runnin’ Rebels. When the buzzer sounded we were on the short end of a 79-68 score. After playing a solid first half, we were run off the court by a stronger UNLV team in the 2nd half.

Topping our scoring was SG Dominick Collins with 17 points followed by C Donny Flint’s 15 points and PG Shaun White with 14 points. For UNLV Gilchrist caught fire in the 2nd half to finish with 19 points. The Runnin’ Rebels hit 12 of 25 from beyond the arc.

[PointGuard]

Coach Frederick Aura

A year ago while during the middle of a road trip for one of our basketball games, Adrian Brown (who was our starting PG the past two seasons and is now our Graduate Assistant Coach) was the victim of racial profiling by the police. After the hiring of an excellent civil rights attorney, he was advised that his complaint was hopelessly roadblocked since members of that police department banded together to establish reports and provide testimony that would be extremely difficult to prove that had been fabricated. Adrian decided to forego further fruitless effort with respect to that case. Instead early last summer he got actively involved with Achievement Mentoring Program (AMP) in their efforts to work with minority students in high school to improve self-worth and positive attitudes for academic success and preparation for college. Adrian has now become a leader in the local AMP group. He has recruited several of our players as well as other Towson students to be involved with the mentoring program. He's also gotten me involved in working with small groups of minority youth. I'm pleased that even in some small way I'm able to support Adrian's efforts.  Janeka, my wife, has also been able to get a couple on-going medical support internships established at the hospital where she works.

I’m really proud of Adrian’s efforts and how he is helping minority youth through what often are difficult years for them. I can see the positive results he has already helped create with high school students with whom he has worked. His leadership within the program has resulted in the local AMP program becoming much more successful and being able to help a larger group of high school students. It’s exciting that he took a negative occurrence in his life and turned it into positive activities that are helping others.

[PointGuard]

Dec. 28, 2022: Towson Tigers (8-2) @ St. Johns Red Storm (3-7)

Kenyon Haynes, 1st Assistant Coach

St. Johns has had an anemic offense this season, but they beat William & Mary from our conference last week. So we can’t take them lightly.

We fell behind 13-4 since our basket seemed to have a lid on it. We closed the gap to a single point at a glacial pace since our shooting continued to be abysmal. St. Johns pulled away again to an 8 point lead. The half ended with us trailing 27-22 after hitting just 27% of our shots. C Donny Flint scored 8 points but had little additional offensive support. Coach Aura blasted us at halftime.

After 5 minutes of play in the 2nd half, we finally gained the lead at 37-35 when PG Shaun White sunk a 3. The lead shifted back and forth for several minutes. But then then roof caved in as we seemed to run out of gas. Horrible shot selection followed and the Red Storm ran away to post a 76-57 drubbing on us.

When you only hit 29% of your shots and let your opponent drop in 56% of theirs, there is nothing good to say about the game.

C Donny Flint with 15 points and SF Wayne Burrough with 12 points were the only ones to score in double figures for us.

[PointGuard]

Colonial Athletic Association Team W-L Records going into conference play:

[PointGuard]

Nate Culuko, 3rd Assistant Coach (Practice)

James Madison had as good a record as us during pre-conference play, but I think we played tougher competition. Charleston started out great with 6 wins in their first 7 games (with wins against some top-flight competition) but then won just 2 of 6 against less-talented opponents. After a slow start Drexel won 4 of their final 5 pre-conference games.

I think we’re ready for Colonial Athletic Association play. 8 of our 11 games were on the road and we still came away with an 8-3 record, winning all 3 of our home games and 5 of 8 on road while playing a more competitive schedule that in previous seasons. Our RPI ranking (#21) is a bit high It likely will slide lower as the season progresses due to the CAA’s fairly low prestige level.

Leading scorers: C Donny Flint-13.6 ppg, SG Dominick Collins-10.9 ppg, SF Wayne Burrough-10.3 ppg, PG Shaun White-10.2 ppg, PF Deon Penn-9.9 ppg.
Leading rebounders: C Donny Flint-9.2 rpg, PF Deon Penn-6.1 rpg, SF Wayne Burrough-6.0 rpg.
Assist Leaders: PG Shaun White-4.7 apg, SG Dominick Collins-2.8 apg, C Donny Flint-2.2 apg.

Shaun White is performing much better in all aspects of the game than Matt Faust at PG.

Dominick Collins and Ryan Taylor are performing pretty equally at SG.

So we’re going to start and play White at PG, start Collins at SG but move him over to PG as much as possible when we have to give White a breather, and increase Taylor’s minutes at SG. Faust and Copley Dwiggins (who has done pretty well in the limited minutes he’s gotten thus far) will get a few minutes at PG and SG, respectively.

At SF Wayne Burrough is significantly outplaying sub Ross Davis (Davis is hitting a high percentage of his shots but has backed off putting up the ball, instead feeding it to others so getting quite a few assists). We want to continue to give Davis minutes in hopes he picks up his offensive productivity.

Deon Penn and Jason Vickers are both playing well at PF with Penn the much better rebounder and Vickers the better shooter. Penn will continue to start with Vickers coming off the bench to fill in at PF (and also at SF).

Donny Flint is dominant at C. Jason Miner is doing well on the boards but his shooting eye has been off. So we’ll continue to play Flint at much as he can with Miner coming in when Flint’s fatigued or gets into foul trouble. Deon Penn can shift over to C if necessary also.

[PointGuard]

Dominick Collins, SG:

Sunday broke sunny and cold. We left early so we could arrive in DC early. As one of the organizers, Adrian Brown (Towson’s previous PG and present graduate assistant coach) needed to help make sure the event would kick off right. Thousands would be depending upon him.

I have to admit I was nervous. I’d never been involved in anything like this. But Coach Fed’s decision to participate gave me the courage to be a part of it. Actually Coach Fed had discouraged me, saying he thought it better for me to attend our regular Sunday practice and prepare for our upcoming game. But he finally relented when he realized what this meant to me.

We arrived at Franklin Square and Adrian met with his co-organizers. With time on our hands before things began, Coach Fed and I decided to get an early lunch at Five Guys at 14th & I Streets NW, kitty-corner from the Square.

After guzzling down the free peanuts as well as the double cheeseburger, fries and milk shake that Coach Fed bought for me, we moseyed back. By that time the Square was filled with participants who were listening as the organizers pumped up the crowd and laid out the guidelines for the Black Men’s March.

Adrian had told us that getting the route for the march approved had been a real challenge. The city had denied allowing marchers to go from Franklin Square to the Lincoln Memorial past the White House. Instead they required the march to proceed west on L Street and then south on 19th Street NW to the Mall and then to the Lincoln Memorial where the big shots (mainly politicians and entertainers) would address the crowd about steps needed to be taken for racial justice.

There was no way for me to determine how many were involved in the march. All I could tell was that it was a huge number. I was glad that Coach Fed wore his customary fedora since that made it easier to find him when we occasionally were separated.

As the march was beginning, Adrian got Coach Fed and me up towards the front and we stepped out with the crowd which was chanting and singing. We picked up the participants who had overflowed into McPherson Square a couple blocks along our route. The march went well and we turned left from L Street to 19th Street. But at that point we encountered counter-protesters who were haranguing us from both sides of the street. We continued but soon heard a commotion behind us. There had been a confrontation and a small melee had begun.

Adrian began hurriedly pushing his way through the crowd back toward the melee in attempt to try to defuse things. When he saw Adrian heading back, Coach Fed told me to stay right where I was and remain clear of the fracas. But he said he was going to make sure Adrian didn’t get into trouble and headed back with him.

Soon the crowd noise grew much louder and erupted into a much higher pitch, and I heard the squeal of tires on pavement. Later I was to find out that even though the police had blocked off the streets of the march, a few cars had been able to evade the blockade and had gotten onto 19th Street. The marchers had begun pounding on the sides of those cars. One driver had stepped on the gas and had struck some of the march participants and peeled around the next corner to speed away.

Not knowing any of this at the time, I wanted to go see what was happening but stayed where Coach Fed had told me to remain. So all I could do was to look at the crowd as I tried to spot the recognizable fedora. Finally Adrian approached with a distressed look on his face. He told me that one of those struck by the car was Coach Fed. I asked if he was OK. Adrian said, “He got thrown to the pavement. All I could see was blood on his head before they put him into an ambulance.” That’s when I noticed Adrian had Coach Fed’s fedora clutched in his hand. He’d picked it up from the pavement after the ambulance left.

Adrian pulled me along with him back to our car so we could go to the hospital. We got there but had a helluva hard time convincing anyone to talk with us since we weren’t related to Coach Fed. Eventually a hospital orderly who was familiar with Towson basketball said “Hey, ain’t you Adrian Brown! I liked the way you played the point.” He then began to keep us in the loop. After our pacing around the waiting room for what seemed like days, even though it was only a few hours, the orderly came back and pulled us aside. “I’d lose my job if anyone at the hospital found out I was telling you guys anything. The docs worked hard on your coach. His head apparently hit the curb. They did everything they could. The injuries were really severe. I’m really sorry to tell you that he didn’t make it.” Adrian and I looked at each other in disbelief. Unable to speak, it felt as though our worlds had collapsed around us.

Thus ended Towson Tigers basketball coached by Frederick Aura. RIP Coach Fed.

{This ending necessitated by the demise of my computer on which all of this dynasty’s saves resided.

*@)*&$)(*&#)**&^*&@#!

Even though it will be repaired under warranty, the files will be deleted in that process. Moral of the story: Be SURE to backup regularly.}

[drummerJ99]

Dang..that sucks about the saves. I use steam for almost all my games and most steam gmaes have cloud backup saves, but the game has to allow it. Really wish the management sims like DDS and OOTP would allow those. I've started to backup to the cloud but it's still something I forget alot.

[Wayne23]

OUCH! That truly sucks! Great and very timely back story ending though. I shudder to think what may happen in the days ahead in the "real world."