FEDORA

[PointGuard]

Coach Frederick Aura:

The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. Yes, I know that quote has been attributed to Mark Twain. But now it applies to me as well.

Five other marchers besides myself were hit by the car that sped through the marchers. All were rushed to the nearest hospital. I was the last to arrive by ambulance. Upon arrival, the ER was overburdened. My head injuries, while they appeared terrible and bled profusely, were considered non-life threatening, so to avoid further stress on the hospital’s ER capabilities, I was taken to the next available hospital. But somehow in all the resulting confusion, the identification information from my wallet was mistakenly applied to the hospital’s records for another tall, slender black man who had much more severe injuries.

When Adrian and Dominick arrived at the first hospital, they had no idea that I had been transferred to the other hospital. But the mistaken identification had not yet been resolved by the hospital. And the hospital orderly who was communicating with Adrian and Dominick relayed the information he could gain about patient “Frederick Aura” who eventually succumbed to his extensive injuries. It was several hours before things were cleared up and the Dominick and Adrian learned that I not only was alive but that I had been released from the hospital in battered by good condition. And I even got the fedora back that I wearing that day since Adrian picked it up from the street.

I feel terrible about the angst that Adrian and Dominick had to endure on Sunday.

The driver of the car was stopped and arrested after he got out of Washington, DC. He’s being held on vehicular manslaughter and homicide charges and the case is being investigated as a hate crime. Authorities are checking out his social networking, cell phone texts and calls, and internet usage as well as any organization with which he has been affiliated.

[My computer has been repaired and since only the RAM needed replacement, all my files and programs were amazingly INTACT! Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than wise. I pondered whether to just let this dynasty go or to continue it. Since there are a few things I still want to pursue with it, Coach Fed has been resurrected from his supposed death bed.]

[PointGuard]

Jan. 4, 2023: Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens (4-7, 0-0) @ Towson Tigers (8-3, 0-0)

Ahmad Nooram, Towson fan

I’m excited by how good the Tigers are this season. Our starting lineup is just so sound. I want them to whip up on Delaware tonight and make a real statement with a big win. I have a friend at work who went to Delaware, so a blowout win by Towson would make for some great smack talk this week. Coach Aura has really done a great job with the Tigers, but I wish he’d play the starters more and run up so impressive wins so they’d be ranked in the polls. My favorite player is Deon Penn but he’s been taking a back-seat to Donny Flint this season. Together they’re a formidable interior duo and should be tough for most CAA teams to handle this season. If a team tries stopping one, the other is going to kick their butts.

Delaware doesn’t appear to be that good this year. They’ve lost 6 of the 7 road games they have played thus far.

I hear that Coach Aura got injured some way so he won’t be coaching tonight’s game. Leading the Tigers in his place will be 1st Assistant Coach Kenyon Haynes.

After 5-1/2 minutes of play, the Tigers were on top 15-3. At the midpoint of the first half, their lead had grown to 21-6. Towson continued to expand their lead and by the end of the half were ahead 43-24. C Donny Flint had a huge half, scoring 14 and grabbing 9 rebounds.

Rather than pouring it on in the 2nd half, Towson simply held Delaware off and finished with an easy 80-67 win. Great that we won, but another opportunity squandered to DOMINATE and WIN BIG. The pollsters don’t see our games, all they see is the final score and instead of a 25-30 point win, we settle for a 13 point win that’s not going to impress any of the pollsters.

Top players for the Tigers included: C Donny Flint with 18 points and 17 rebounds; PF Deon Penn with 19 points and 7 boards; and PG Shaun White with 15 points.

[PointGuard]

Jan. 7, 2023: Towson Tigers (9-3, 1-0) @ Charleston Cougars (8-6, 0-1)

Coach Fedora:

I hated missing our CAA opener, but my docs. AD Perry Winkle, and Janeka, my wife all told me to step back, take a few days rest, and that my guys could handle things. But I’m raring to go now and am back on the bench.

Charleston began the season by winning their first 4 games and 6 of their first 7…against some impressive competition. But then starting C Ed Jenkins broke his wrist. That was followed a week later by sub PF/C Corey Harris breaking his foot a week later. The Cougars have won just 2 of their last 7 games. Freshman Brian Black has been filling in as a starter, but has been inconsistent. C Gale Thorne has been the Cougars’ strongest player, averaging 12.1 ppg and 8.6 rpg.

We’re at full strength, but PF Deon Penn is nursing a sore arm. He’ll start and should be able to play as much as usual though.

I’m hoping Dominick Collins plays well tonight. He had an off-game in the game following my suspected death so I think the ordeal affected him. Adrian Brown also has been quieter in his graduate assistant coaching role. I think he feels responsible since he was an event organizer and Dominick and I went to the event because of him. I’ve talked with both of them, so hopefully things get back to normal soon.

1st Half:

We came out and played aggressive defense early, turning several turnovers into breakaway layups to go ahead 16-8 with 15:12 remaining. We continued to play well and expanded our lead to 14 points. But Charleston began hitting 3’s and with 6 minutes left in the half, they took a 34-33 lead. We came back late in the half to take a 48-35 advantage to the locker room. We had six players scoring 6 or more points, led by SF Wayne Burrough with 9 points. I got on the guys during the intermission about how they slacked off defensively in the last 10 minutes of the first half. We let Charleston hit 57% of their shots during the entire half after holding their shooting below 40% during the first 10 minutes.

2nd Half:

We played better defensively but so did the Cougars. The score remained close but Charleston held a small lead more often that did we. With 1:49 remaining we trailed 75-73. We called a time out. The play I drew up didn’t was unsuccessful, but the ball was tipped out of bounds by the Cougars. So we got a second chance and Wayne Burrough dropped in a nice 16 foot jumper that tied the game. Charleston’s Gale Thorne scored inside even though we double teamed him and we again were behind by 2 with a minute to go. We missed two shots and Charleston’s Thorne again scored inside. We blew another chance and went down to a disappointing 81-75 defeat.

We were outshot 50% to 39% which was enough to overcome our 46-30 rebounding advantage. We just got out-defensed in the 2nd half.
C Donny Flint had another double-double with 17 points and 10 boards. SF Wayne Burrough scored 13 and grabbed 9 rebounds, C Jason Miner hit for 11 points and PG Matt Faust added 10 points. Charleston’s reserve SG Grant Hopkins hit 7 of 8 from the field including 2 of 3 from beyond the arc to score 16 points in 15 minutes of court time.

[Wayne23]

The zombie coach lives... more or less

Coach Frederick Aura:

The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated. Yes, I know that quote has been attributed to Mark Twain. But now it applies to me as well.

Five other marchers besides myself were hit by the car that sped through the marchers. All were rushed to the nearest hospital. I was the last to arrive by ambulance. Upon arrival, the ER was overburdened. My head injuries, while they appeared terrible and bled profusely, were considered non-life threatening, so to avoid further stress on the hospital’s ER capabilities, I was taken to the next available hospital. But somehow in all the resulting confusion, the identification information from my wallet was mistakenly applied to the hospital’s records for another tall, slender black man who had much more severe injuries.

When Adrian and Dominick arrived at the first hospital, they had no idea that I had been transferred to the other hospital. But the mistaken identification had not yet been resolved by the hospital. And the hospital orderly who was communicating with Adrian and Dominick relayed the information he could gain about patient “Frederick Aura” who eventually succumbed to his extensive injuries. It was several hours before things were cleared up and the Dominick and Adrian learned that I not only was alive but that I had been released from the hospital in battered by good condition. And I even got the fedora back that I wearing that day since Adrian picked it up from the street.

I feel terrible about the angst that Adrian and Dominick had to endure on Sunday.

The driver of the car was stopped and arrested after he got out of Washington, DC. He’s being held on vehicular manslaughter and homicide charges and the case is being investigated as a hate crime. Authorities are checking out his social networking, cell phone texts and calls, and internet usage as well as any organization with which he has been affiliated.

[My computer has been repaired and since only the RAM needed replacement, all my files and programs were amazingly INTACT! Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than wise. I pondered whether to just let this dynasty go or to continue it. Since there are a few things I still want to pursue with it, Coach Fed has been resurrected from his supposed death bed.]

[PointGuard]

Baltimore Sun

TOWSON'S FLINT GAINS AWARD

After scoring 35 points and pulling down 27 rebounds as well as getting 5 blocks and 3 steals in Towson’s two games last week, C Donny Flint gained his 2nd Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Week award. Flint is now averaging 14.2 ppg and 9.8 rpg this season for the Tigers. Flint who is a Sophomore, transferred to Towson after playing for Butler as a freshman where he was the Big East Conference’s Freshman of the Year and was named to the Big East All-Conference 1st Team.

“Donny’s really coming into his own as the season progresses,” said Coach Frederick Aura. “He scored in double figures in 10 of our last 11 games and had 10-19 rebounds in 7 of those games. He’s also playing some solid defense.”

[PointGuard]

Jan. 11, 2023: Elon Phoenix (5-8, 0-2) @ Towson Tigers (9-4, 1-1)

Perry Winkle, Athletic Director

Glad the scare about Coach Aura has passed. I heard about it after it was all over and resolved, but he really could easily have sustained far greater injuries. Human bodies are designed to fair well when being hit by an automobile.

I’m hosting a bunch of the university’s big donors tonight. So I’m hoping our guys do extremely well to keep this group in a very good mood. We’re going to the university president’s house after the game and I know he wants them in a good mood so they will be in a “giving” mood. With the exception of reserve PG Matt Faust (strained hamstring), everyone on the team is healthy for tonight’s game.

We started out well. After the first 4 minutes we led by 6 and after the first 8 minutes we were on top 19-11. Elon was shooting well, but already had 8 turnovers. Our guys shot well and continued to steadily pull away from the Phoenix and were ahead 30-17 with 6 minutes left in the half. Elon cut our lead to 10 but then we went on a tear toward the end of the half to build a 42-23 halftime advantage. We hit 48% of our shots (and 56% from beyond the arc) while holding Elon’s shooting to just 39%. We also sported an 11-4 turnover advantage. SG Dominick Collins was on fire, hitting 7 of 10 from the field and connecting on both of his 3-point shots and scoring 19 points in the half. The donors I had brought to the game were eating it up.

The Tigers’ lead ranged between 17 and 22 points throughout the entire 2nd half as both teams just seemed to be marking off the final 20 minutes and get the game concluded. The final score was Towson-72, Elon-54.

SG Dominick Collins finished with 26 points (a career best) while C Donny Flint had yet another double-double with 13 points and 14 boards.

Only a few of the donors remained for the entire game. Most left early in the 2nd half to get to the university president’s house for early cocktails. I’m guessing the extra alcohol will result in additional donations.

[PointGuard]

Jan. 14, 2023: Towson Tigers (10-4, 2-1) @ Northeastern Huskies (6-9, 1-2)

1st Assistant Coach Kenyon Haynes

Northeastern’s 6-9 record is not necessarily a reflection of how good the Huskies are. Three of their losses have been against Top 25 teams and their two CAA losses have been to the two teams presently atop the conference standings with 3-0 records. We will need to play our best to have a chance against Northeastern on its home court. So I’m happy that Coach Aura is back directing the team rather than me. The Huskies are led offensively by two freshmen (SG Marcus Cook, 14.2 ppg) and SF Steve Leath(11.7 ppg) and a senior (C David Dawson, 11.9 ppg), but senior PG Lee Puckett is a good floor general, averaging 7.1 ppg and 6.9 apg.

Rock solid defense allowed us to jump ahead 14-3 after 8 minutes of play. Northeastern got their offense in gear at that point and cut our lead to 6 points. We then pulled away again and finished the half ahead 40-27. We outshot the Huskies 50% to 36% and held an 18-14 rebounding advantage and a 12-6 turnover advantage. We spread our scoring pretty evenly among 7 players with C Donny Flint scoring 8 while picking off 7 rebounds. During halftime, Coach Aura warned the players that the Huskies had the ability to strike back and that we needed to play hard for another 20 minutes and to work at resurrecting the tenacious defense we started the game with.

But we let Northeastern score the first 7 points of the 2nd half. We reestablished a double digit lead quickly. Then neither team was able to gain momentum. With 11 minutes left, we led 49-40. From that point on we combined a solid defense with a dynamic offense to achieve a 79-57 blowout victory.

For the entire game we only hit 42% of our shots, but we limited Northeastern’s shooting to 34%. We dominated the boards 42-32 and made only 9 turnovers while we forced the Huskies to turn the ball over 19 times. Overall a very good effort by our team that lifted us into a 4-way tie for first place.

PF Deon Penn scored 21 while grabbing 9 rebounds. C Donny Flint scored 14 points and was a monster on the boards with 17 rebounds. PF/SF Jason Vickers added 12 points in 14 minutes of play. For Northeastern, SG Marqus Cook hit for 20 points.

[PointGuard]

Jan. 18, 2023: Hofstra Pride (7-8, 2-2) @ Towson Tigers (11-4, 3-1)

TIGER BLOG

Last night Towson hosted the Hofstra Pride in a game the Tigers were heavily favored to win. A win was necessary to keep them in a tie for 1st place in the Colonial Athletic Association.

Towson fell behind 6-0. Led by C Donny Flint together with a 3 by PF Deon Penn, the Tigers took their first lead at 10-8 after 6 minutes of play. But Towson’s poor shooting kept the Pride in the game for the first 12 minutes. The Tigers then scored 9 unanswered points in the next 75 seconds to pull ahead 24-15. The Tigers continued to shoot well and finished the half ahead 38-27. Towson was led by Donny Flint’s 11 points in the first half.

Hofstra came out on fire in the 2nd half and knotted the score at 40-40 just 3 minutes into the half. The Pride continued their dominance and led by 5 with 11 minutes to go in the game. Following a fiery shellacking of the team by Coach Aura during a time out, the Tigers tied the game and then PG Shaun White nailed two consecutive 3’s to put them on top 65-59 with 8:15 on the clock. Two-and-a half minutes later, Towson was ahead 74-59 to conclude a 20-0 run. The Tigers then cruised to a 90-71 victory.

Towson hit 49% of their FG attempts and 44% of their 3’s while achieving a 23-15 turnover advantage.

C Donny Flint scored 19 and picked off 8 rebounds, SF Wayne Burrough hit for 17 points, PF Deon Penn had 14 points and 8 boards, and PG Shaun White scored 12 points. 12 of the 13 players Coach Aura put on the floor scored.

The win keeps the Tigers tied with James Madison, Drexel, and Charleston for 1st place in the conference with 4-1 records.

“We woke up when Coach Fed lit into us during that 2nd half time out. Hofstra had been crushing us, but we then hit just about every shot and took the wind completely out of the Pride’s sails,” said Shaun White. He added, “The 5 of 6 minutes following that time out was maybe the best we’ve played all season.”

[PointGuard]

Jan. 21, 2023: Towson Tigers (12-4, 4-1) @ NC-Wilmington Seahawks (7-9, 2-3)

Adrian Brown, Graduate Assistant Coach

I’ve yet to get my life and my coaching back to normal since the day Coach Fed was hit by the car in the demonstration that I had organized. The event keeps flowing through my mind and there’s a level of guilt that I am having a tough time eliminating. Coach has been good about letting me slowly regain my composure and focus.

I believe we definitely are the better team in tonight’s game. But I played enough road games to know that being better doesn’t ensure a win when playing on another team’s home court in front of their fans. Our past record playing in Trask Coliseum in Wilmington hasn’t been good. So our statistical advantages and higher talent level will be offset unless our guys are able to focus their efforts to gain and maintain control. We believe our front line can control the boards. But the Seahawks have hit a higher percentage of their shots than have we. So I’ve been working with our guards to prepare them to apply defensive pressure that will keep the NC-Wilmington team off-balance and result in turnovers. I’m hoping that doesn’t result in our guys getting into early foul trouble. We’ll see if my efforts were successful.

Game notes:

The stands are full and the crowd seems amped up to help the Seahawks get past us. Neither team could gain control throughout the entire first half and there never was more than a 4 point difference. When the buzzer sounded we held a slim 40-38 lead. C Donny Flint got into foul trouble and had to sit out much of the half. But PG Shaun White hit for 11 points. Overall we kept the Seahawks in check with the exception of the two players we thought would be most difficult…SG Mike Clay pumped in 14 points and C Byron Humphries tossed in 12.

Our planned defense took hold in the 2nd half. NC-Wilmington shot poorly and we got a number of turnovers. But our shooting wasn’t much better and C Donny Flint fouled out, so the best we could do was to very gradually build and add to a small lead. That was enough though to give us a satisfying 78-69 road win.

Both teams hit under 40% of their FG attempts but we held a 41-37 rebounding advantage and had just 12 turnovers compared to 17 by the Seahawks.

Four of our starters scored in double figures (PG Shaun White-18 points and also 8 assists, SF Wayne Burrough-15 points, SG Dominick Collins-13 points, and C Donny Flint-11 points and also 9 rebounds). PF Deon Penn had 8 points but pulled down 12 boards and had 2 steals and 2 blocks. NC-Wilmington’s SG Mike Clay scored 20 points.

After the game Coach Fed gave me a big pat on the back for helping prepare the team for this win. He wants me to continue working more closely with our guards and said he’s going to involve me more in pre-game planning sessions with his 3 primary assistant coaches.

We also found out after the game that the other 3 teams that had been tied with us lost. So we’re now alone in 1st place. That really got our team excited.

[PointGuard]

Jan. 25, 2023: William & Mary Tribe (6-11, 3-3) @ Towson Tigers (13-4, 5-1)

Byron Vickers, father of PF Jason Vickers

I try to get to most all the Tigers home games to root them on and watch Jason play. I’d sure like to see Coach Aura give Jason more playing time. Jason has done a good job coming off the bench and scoring and rebounding well at both PF and SF.

SG Kueth Johnson is the Tribe’s leading scorer averaging 14.4 ppg. He’s had two big games in which he scored 36 and 28 points. But typically he’s not an efficient scorer, having to put up a lot of shots to score in double figures. So the Tigers need to keep him from getting loose for easy shots so that he doesn’t score too many points and instead fires up a lot of misses trying to be his team’s top scorer.

The Tigers got off to a strong start jumping ahead to sport a 13-4 lead at the first media timeout. He refs put C Donny Flint on the bench with 2 fouls just 6 minutes into the game. Towson continued to take it to the Tribe and with 9 minutes to go were ahead 31-10. The rout continued and halftime came with the score 47-24 in favor of Towson. Jason got to play 12 minutes and scored 4 points plus had 3 assists. Another substitute, SG Ryan Taylor and starting PG Shaun White led all scorers with 9 points apiece.

Even though Flint and PF Deon Penn picked up their 3rd fouls early in the 2nd half, the Tigers continued to roll, extending their lead to 71-29 with 10 minutes remaining. The Tigers stomped William & Mary by a final score of 93-45. Towson hit 54% of the FG attempts while the Tribe only made 27% of theirs. The Tigers also totally dominated the boards 45-23.

I was really proud of Jason. He had a big game, scoring 14 points, grabbing 5 rebounds, and handing out 4 assists. C Donny Flint and PF Deon Penn each scored 13 points with Flint also pulling down 12 rebounds in just 17 minutes of play. C Jason Miner scored 12 and PG Shaun White added 11. The Tigers held William & Mary’s Kueth Johnson to just 6 points as he hit just 2 of 10 shots.