by Wayne23 » Thu Nov 25, 2021 12:11 pm
3/7: The post season is such a special time. Yes, there's a lot of pressure but there's also a lot of excitement. Before the start of the game today we can play as many as 9 or as few as 2 games. For the first time ever I'm coaching a ranked team- highly ranked, and for the first time ever I feel like we could make a little noise in the Big Dance. But you never know how it's going to turn out.
Slow start for both teams. They go on a run. We're down 10 after 10. Big comeback. Down 1 at the break. This one's a battle. It shouldn't be and I'm not happy. Up 6 with 10 left after a mini-run.
78-77 after they hit a buzzer beating three. But it was close all the way. I maxed out the D and put a full court press on during the last 2 minutes. We got 2 TOs and that made the difference, along with hitting our last 4 from the line.
Interestingly enough we beat them by this exact score at their place and we scored 77 in our 10 point home win against them.
20, 3 for Brad, 17, 2, 2, 3 steals for Gaut Wall. Gaut is the only frosh who plays much and he didn't let the pressure get to him. Against a tough opponent. 20, 3, 6 with 3 steals for Mill. 6th man Rich Cora had 12.
Their bench had 34, 10, 6 to our 24, 10, 8, so the edge was to them.
We both shot about the same % but we took 10 more shots and that won it for us-barely, given that they hit 12 threes to our 6.
We were -8 on the boards but +16 in the paint. 12 TOs to their 20.
Post Game Press Conference (Excerpts):
Reporter: Coach, you can't be happy about how things went tonight.
Coach Clark: I'm extremely happy! We get to play tomorrow! While it's true that I'm not delighted with the way we played, in the post season it's "survive and advance." We barely did that, but we did it. You know, all season long it's about playing well, getting better, learning things... In the post season we still want to do all of those things but what it's really about is winning. You win or you go home. We're not going home and the other guys are.
Reporter: Talk about your freshman, Gautier Wall.
Coach: Gaut has had a terrific rookie season. He's been consistently good on both ends of the court and he rebounds for us. On top of all that he's a terrific kid and a good
student. He had a huge transition to make coming here from Western France, and he's made it really well. I can't say enough about Gaut.
Reporter: It's 19-11, 12-8, 4th seed No. KY, in the semis. What's the plan?
Coach: Well, the coaches and I will begin forming the plan as soon as this press conference ends but I can tell you a couple of things. We won by about a dozen at our place, then 2 weeks ago they kicked our butts at their place. They beat us with threes and turned us over too many times. We need to take care of the ball, turn them over, and play good outside D, really, good D all over the court. We can't let them hit 12 threes.
Reporter: Thanks Coach.
The rock is heading directly toward us. Hard to say what it is, rogue planet? Just a big rock? It seems like a completely dead rock. No sign of any volcanic activity on the side we can see, and no sign of anything else. But it is HUGE, as we've said, and we're redirecting to be sure to be out of its gravity well when it passes. Our navigators are confident that we can make that happen but they're taking every precaution.
The card game, pitch, has caught on. It is threatening to become the newest craze on board the ship. The first tournament starts in a week.