College Hoops 2k8: A New Challenge [Archive] - Front Office Football Central

Eaglesfan27

12-01-2007, 07:24 PM

For those that haven't read the other thread, I was just fired from Princeton in my first College Hoops 2k8 dynasty. Now, I'm starting a 2nd attempt and hopefully with what I've learned, I'll be more successful this time around. I'll be simming the first season, but will probably start playing every other game in the 2nd season. This will really get going after the Missouri-Oklahoma game tonight, but here is a quick look at the settings as copied from the other dynasty. One advantage of having to restart is that I'm going to be able to use the 3rd version of the OS rosters which have named more (all?) of the coaches and also have re-rated some players who are off to great starts.

Play Mode: Simulation
Difficulty: Starter (default)
Half Length: 20
Simmed Half: 20
Game Speed: 40
Player Speed: 40
FT Difficulty: 50
Real FT %: On
Fatigue: On
Injuries: On
Team Unity: On
Sixth Man: On
Clutch Factor: On

All of the rules are at default. Fouls are as follows (may need to be toned down, because I set them with a perimeter based offense.)

Charging: 100
Blocking: 85
Reaching: 85
Shooting: 85
Loose Ball: 100

Shooting Sliders (All sliders are same for User and CPU except for the tendencies which are only for the CPU):

Inside Success: 48
Mid Range: 48
3 point: 48 (contemplating knocking this down to 45)
Dunk success and layup success are at default 50.
Close Shot Tendency: 50
Midrange shot tendency: 45
3pt shot tendency: 45
Drive tendency: 50

Attributes (again these adjustments are for both human and CPU):

All at default except for:

Ball Handling: 35 (I'm thinking about taking it down to 30 to generate more spontaneous turnovers. Not enough turnovers in this version in most games.)

Offensive rebounding: 45

Block: 45 (might take it down to 40 at some point.)

Gameplay adjustments (same for both sides):

Team Unity is at default of 100, but I've considered lowering it to 50.

All others are default except for:

Steal Success at 60

Help Defense and Help recovery both at 55.

Fitness (same for both sides):

I've debated at setting energy fatigue to 52, but I think I like it better at default of 50. Guys with 99 stamina can play a whole game, but will get very tired and play best when they only play 30-35 minutes.

Energy Recovery at default 50.

Injury Frequency and Injury Effects at 60.

As far as my coach, I'm going to be a recruiting genius to start. C- in all of my coaches attributes except for Charisma which will start at B+ and will hopefully help us attract some good recruits for our level. I'm starting at Nicholls State. I hire one coach who is a decent teacher and one who is going to be my primary scouter. Our non-conference schedule is rough, but I'm not going to change it for our first season.

The good thing is that we have a few good outside shooters on this team which should make getting some wins a bit easier. I'm going to sim our non-conference schedule, but if we aren't winning, I'll try to actually play some of the conference schedule to help protect my job this 1st year. I'll look at the roster during halftime of the football game.

Eaglesfan27

12-01-2007, 09:28 PM

A look at the roster (in order of best rated to worse rated):

SG Adonis Gray: 6'4 200 pound senior who is a rated 67 overall. He is from Shreveport, LA. A mediocre shooter but he an athletic slasher who is a good passer and a decent defender.

SF Ryan Bathie: 6'6 205 pound junior who is rated 64 overall. He is from Australia. An excellent 3 point shooter who is the best shooter overall on the tam. He is a mediocre defender.

SG Gil Verner: 6'1 180 pound junior who is rated 63 overall. He is also from Shreveport, LA. Another excellent 3 point shooter who is also a good mid range shooter. A decent passer and our best perimeter defender. He is quick and should be able to penetrate.

PG Justin Payne: 5'10 170 junior from New Orleans, LA. He is rated 61 overall. He is a very good passer who is very quick for this level of play. He is a solid defender and is the best hustle guy on the team. His speed should create problems for the opposition. He is a poor shooter which is his biggest weakness.

PF Joshua Johnson: 6'6 195 pounds from El Paso, TX. He is a freshman who is rated 61 overall. He is a decent scorer inside for his size. He is a good dunker if he has an open lane and is suprisingly decent at blocking and playing defense in the post. Very good speed for a PF but his size will be a limitation.

SG Michael Czepil: 6'2 180 pound redshirt sophomore from Australia. He is rated 60 overall. He is a good 3 point shooter and jump shooter. He is a great FT shooter. Good athleticism. Mediocre defensively.

SG Reggie Shanks: 6'4 205 pounds. He is a sophomore from Austin, TX. He is rated 58 overall. Mediocre shooter, but a good defender.

PG Bakari Lewis: 6'0 180 pounds. He is a freshman from Columbus, OH. He is rated 58 overall. Mediocre shooter but the best handle on the team. Decent passer. Good speed and quickness, ok defender.

SG Ben Martin: 6'3 170 pounds. He is a freshman from New Orleans, LA. He is rated 56 overall. A decent defender who is weak at everything else.

SG Anatoly Bose: 6'6 200 pound freshman SG from Australia(why does the team have so many players from Australia?) He is rated 56 overall. A decent defender who is also a decent ball handler. Not a good shooter, yet.

PF Dominic Friend: 6'7 250 pound redshirt sophomore from Australia. He is rated 55 overall. He is a decent inside scorer. He is a very poor ball handler. He is a poor defender. He is a mediocre rebounder. He has poor hustle as well. I just checked ESPN and all of these guys really are from Australia - odd.

C Mitch Boyce: 6'10 250 pound sophomore from Australia. He is rated 54 overall. He is a surprisingly good mid range shooter for a big man and is one of the better 3 point shooters on our team as well! A poor dunker for a big guy, he is a terrible ball handler. He is a poor defender. He is a bad rebounder. He is slow as well. He has horrible hustle.

C Chris Paige: 6'9 210 pound sophomore is rated 51 overall. He is from San Antonio, TX. He is a more physical player down low. He is also quicker. He is a mediocre defender.

With this roster, I plan on using a quick attacking motion offense that will fast break quite a bit. We'll shoot quickly if we get an open shot. We'll play M2M defense against most opponents.

With that roster, we only have 1 scholarship to offer this year. We have so many guards and outside shooters that I decide I'm going to focus on adding a big man inside. One player I will consider and scout more is Ronni Killingsworth, a 7'0 235 pound C from Irving, TX who is a 1 star player. He'll be our fall back option.

We also pursue our dream recruit - Jarrad Warzynski a 6'10 220 pound C from New Orleans LA who is a 3 star player who is ranked 15th among centers this year in the country. He put up 11 boards per game in the ABL and 12 points per game. I doubt we'll get him as he is actively being recruited by LSU. Our only hope is that they'll decide to go a different direction..

Eaglesfan27

12-01-2007, 10:54 PM

Our Starting 5:

PG Justin Payne
SG Adonis Gray
SF Ryan Bathie
PF Joshua Johnson
C Mitch Boyce (works better for our motion offense.)

SG Gil Verner will be the #1 option off the bench.
SG Czepil will also be a big option off the bench.
Paige will get some minutes as will Lewis.

Nov 9, 2007 -

We lose at Florida State 80-73. Gray had 24 points on 8 of 14 shooting. Boyce had 15 points on 6 of 9 shooting. Payne had 10 assists.

Nov 16 -

We lose at Tulane 90-70. Bathie led the team with 18 points. Boyce had 15 and Verner had 12.

Nov 19 -

We win at Cal in a nice upset! We won 77-65. Bathie had 15 points on 5 of 10 shooting, 4 of 9 behind the arc. Verner had 13 points. Payne, Gray, and Johnson each had 9 points.

Nov 21 -

We win at UC Davis 91-79. Johnson led us with 16 points and 11 boards. Boyce scored 14, Verner scored 13, Bathie scored 11, and Payne scored 9.

Nov 24 -

We win at Saint Mary's 61-58 but we lose Gray for 2 weeks due to an abdominal injury. Payne led the team with 13 points and 3 assists.

Nov 28 -

We lose at LSU 66-62. Johnson led the team with 15 points and 7 boards.

LSU has stopped recruiting Jarrad Warzynski but Tulane and UNO are serious competitors for him and we are a long shot to get him.

We are the only team interested in Ronni Killingsworth at this point.

Galaxy

12-01-2007, 11:07 PM

Eaglesfan27

12-01-2007, 11:12 PM

December 1, 2007 -

We lose at UNO 66-60. McCalebb their star SG had 14 points on 3 of 10 shooting, but 8 of 12 from the line.

Johnson led our team with 16 points and 10 boards. Boyce had 10 points.

Dec 8, 2007 -

We play at 6-0 Alabama. We lose 82-75. Bathie had 19 points and Verner had 17 to keep us in it.

Dec 11 -

We host ULM and beat them 75-72. Johnson had 16 points and 10 boards to lead the way. Bathie had 12 and Verner had 10.

Gray is healed and returns to his role as starter.

Dec 15 -

We lose at Lipscomb 64-54. Johnson led the way with 12 points and 11 boards. Gray had 6 points and 11 boards in his first game back as a starter.

Dec 19 -

We lose to UNC 99-62. Also we lose Gray to a strained Achilles. He'll miss about a month. Ellington had 29 points against us and Hansbrough had 22.

Bathie led our team in scoring with 15 points on 5 of 9 shooting, 2 of 5, and 3 of 3.

Dec 28 -

We lay at 7-1 Minnesota and lose 93-63. Friend had 11 points and 5 boards.

Dec 29 -

We win at UNLV 95-74! Every starter was in double digits and Czepil and Lewis off the bench as well. Payne led the way with 15 points and 10 assists. Johnson had 14 points and 10 boards. The speedy freshman small PF is thriving in our quick attacking offense.

Dec 30 -

We lose at home to Kennesaw State, 52-47. Johnson had 0 points on 0 of 8 shooting this game. Verner was the only player to hit double figures and he shot 2 of 11 but was 5 of 5 from the line. He had 11 points.

We are 5-9 heading into conference play.

Eaglesfan27

12-01-2007, 11:20 PM

Any conference info (best player, best pro prospect, ect.) and conference prestige?

Looking forward to the season. Four Australian players? Talk about a big recruiting budget.

Actually, looks like the current head coach used to play basketball in Australia. Guess he is tapping into that pipeline.

http://media.www.dailyorange.com/media/storage/paper522/news/2005/12/06/Sports/Battle.Nicholls.State.Went.The.Extra.Mile.And.Then.Some.10000.More.To.Ink.This-1121798.shtml

Thanks for the link. I figured it was something like that.

Our conference doesn't have a rank yet, which is apparently based on last year's total performance. However, it is a small conference.

UT-Arlingotn is the leading scoring team averaging 76 ppg.

Sam Houston is the best rebounding team at 32.4 per game. They are also the best assist team at 15.4 per game.

The best player is center Chris Daniels at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi who is a 7'0 265 pound center who is rated 80 overall.

They also have the best freshman in PF Demond Watt who is rated 63 overall.

Northwestern State has the best shooter in PG Keithan Hancock. He is averaging 10.5 ppg.

Lamar has the best playmaker in junior PG Brandon McThay who is rated 67 overall.

Daniels is the best pro prospect. his current pro buzz is "dark horse." He is averaging just under 20 ppg.

Ryan Bright of Sam Houston State is the best defender. The senior PF is 6'6 210 pounds and is rated 78 overall.

Sam Houston State has the highest rated roster in the conference. We have the worst.

Galaxy

12-01-2007, 11:22 PM

Just call it the "Kangaroo Club". Crickey!

Eaglesfan27

12-01-2007, 11:35 PM

Stephen F. Austin has the 2nd most talent in the conference and start conference play with a game at home against them on Jan 10th, 2008. We beat them 80-56! Verner led the way with 18 points on 8 of 8 shooting. Bathie had 14. Czepil had 18 points off the bench.

Jan 12, 2008 -

We travel to play Sam Houston State. We win 86-58! Czepil had 21 points off the bench on 7 of 11 shooting, 5 of 7 behind the arc, 2 of 2 from the line. Verner and Bathie each had 12.

Jan 17 -

We lose at UT-Arlington 77-74. Worse, Bathie hurts his knee and will miss about a month. Verner led the team with 21 points on 7 of 11 shooting and 6 of 10 behind the arc.

Jan 19 -

We win at Texas State 78-67. Johnson led our team with 16 points and 11 boards. Verner had 14 points. Payne was 3 of 16 but had 8 points and 8 assists.

It has become clear that we have no chance at Jarrad Warzynski. He is going to sign with Tulane or UNO, mostly likely Tulane. I decide to rescind my scholarship offer to him and go after Andrew Ike. He doesn't offer size, but the #50 PF in the nation is a terrific shooter. He is 6'6 195 and is one of the top shooting PF's in the nation. He averaged 12 ppg and 9 rpg in the ABL. TXST is our main competitor for him and he is responding much better to my recruiting visits. He is also a 3 star player.

Jan 26 -

We host SE Louisiana, the team with the worst record in the conferece. We win 68-62. Gray had 14 points on 6 of 12 shooting and Verner had 11 points.

We are now 9-10 overall going into Feb. More importantly, we are tied with Sam Houston State for the best conference record. If we can maintain this spot, we could get the 1st round bye in the conference tourney.

Jan 31 -

One last game in January as we host Northwestern State. They are 6-10. We beat them 94-89! Verner and Johnson each had 20 points for us. Gray had 13 as did Czepil. We are now 10-10 heading into Feb.

Eaglesfan27

12-01-2007, 11:51 PM

Feb 2, 2008 -

We host Central Arkansas who are 4-12. We beat them 65-57. Gray had 16 points and 9 boards to lead us. Johnson had 11 points and 10 boards. Boyce is fouling out too quickly to be a factor in most games. His lack of speed is hurting him in our M2M defense, but we go small when he leaves and it seems to be working.

Feb 7 -

We host Lamar. They are one of the most talented teams in the conference and they are 9-6 overall. We beat them 80-74! Czepil had 18 off the bench to lead us. Paige had 10 points as Boyce fouled out again. Gray and Verner each had 13.

Feb 9 -

We lost at McNeese State 88-55. Gray was 1 of 10, Verner was 2 of 7, and Johnson was 2 of 10 Boye led our team with 13 points on 6 of 11 shooting, but he didn't have enough help.

We are still 2nd in the conference standings.

Feb 14 -

We host Texas A&M - Corpus Christi. They beat us 78-58. Gray was 0 of 8. Verner was 5 of 15 and led us with 15 points.

Feb 16 -

We host UTSA. They are 11-6 and are 3rd in the conference. They beat us 71-68. Verner had 16 points but Payne and Gray were each 1 of 6.

Bathie is healed and will return to the starting lineup.

Feb 23 -

We play at 3-17 SE Louisiana. We win 77-62. Verner led the way with 23 points on 8 of 14 shooting, 5 of 10 behind the arc, 2 of 5 from the line. Bathie had 5 points in his first game back but only shot 4 times. Boyce had 11 and was the 2nd leading scorer.

Feb 28 -

We win at home against Northwestern State 94-76. Payne had 21 points and 7 assists to lead the way. Gray had 19 points off the bench. Verner had 15 points as he was 8 of 9 from the line.

We are now 14-13. Much better than I expected in our first season. We have 3 games left. I'll sim those and then I'll play the conference tourney.

RPI-Fan

12-01-2007, 11:59 PM

Which school are you???

Eaglesfan27

12-02-2007, 12:01 AM

March 1, 2008 -

We win at Central Arkansas 65-48. They drop to 6-18. We get our 15th win! Johnson led the way with 16 points and 21 boards! He might win freshman of the year in the conference :)

He is averaging 8.9 ppg and 8.6 rpg. Not bad for a small PF. That makes me feel better about going after Andrew Ike although he is leaning slightly towards TXST. However, we came to him late, so maybe we can make up the last bit of the difference in the offseason.

Mar 6, 2008 -

We lose to the tough Lamar squad at their place 82-76. Payne had a great game and finished with 21 points and 8 assists. However, Verner was 4 of 11, Bathie was 3 of 12 and Boyce was 0 of 7.

March 8 -

We finish the regular season with a 82-75 win over McNeese State. Payne had 16 points and 7 assists. Bathie had 13 points on 5 of 9 shooting. Boyce had 10 points and Gray had 12 off the bench.

We finish 4th in the conference in the regular season and don't get a bye.. never mind, apparently, I was mistaken. There is no bye in this tourney. The #1 seed plays McNeese the #7 seed. The #2 Lamar team is playing the #8 seed Stephen F. Austin.

The Southland Standings:

1. Sam Houston State: 17-8 overall (14-2 conference)
2. Lamar 16-9 (11-5)
3. UTSA 15-9 (11-5)
4. Nicholls St. 16-14 (11-5)
5. UT-Arlington 15-10 (10-6)
6. Northwestern 10-16 (8-8)
7. McNeese 13-13 (7-9)
8. Stephen F. Austin 13-12 (7-9)
9. TXAM-CC 12-17 (6-10)
10. Central Arkansas 7-18 (6-10)
11. Texas State 8-18 (4-12)
12. SE Louisiana 3-22 (1-15)

Our first conference game will be against UT-Arlington. Ill play that tomorrow.

Eaglesfan27

12-02-2007, 12:01 AM

Which school are you???

I'm Nicholls State - otherwise known as the Australian Junior Olympic team apparently :)

Edit to add: This is the team that I started my dynasty with last year in which I left this team for Drexel before going to Duke. I don't recall realizing I had all of this international talent when I played the dynasty last year on the previous version.

Galaxy

12-02-2007, 10:36 AM

With one scholarship this year, will you work to "even" out the classes/scholarships?

BTW, what is your school nickname?

Eaglesfan27

12-02-2007, 10:42 AM

With one scholarship this year, will you work to "even" out the classes/scholarships?

BTW, what is your school nickname?

I'm not going to take any special steps to even it out, but if it makes sense, I'll redshirt guys to try to make it a bit more even. If I don't get this 3 star PF that I've switched to, I'm thinking about going for a transfer player which should make things even more interesting.

I'm in the middle of the game (up early in the 2nd half - pausing the game because one of the cats wants some attention and isn't going to wait for the game to be over :)) so I can't check, but I think we are the Colonials.

Eaglesfan27

12-02-2007, 11:12 AM

UT-Arlington has a very good PF in Vereen and they seem to have the crowd at Reliant stadium on their side, but we have some great shooters. I'm expecting a high scoring game today.

It is really nice to have so many weapons. We are up 38-34 today thanks to 6 of 12 shooting behind the arc. Bathie leads the team with 13. Gray has 9.

We are up 65-61 with 2:44 to go but they get to the line. Guignard their PG hits both FT's.

After exchanging missed baskets, Payne drives into the lane and draws a foul! He hits both FT's to put us up by 4 with 1:20 to go!

It remains 67-63 as we both miss baskets. With 17 seconds left, we get a board after they miss and they start intentionally fouling. Payne hits 1 of 2, but steals the ball after they rebound it. They foul him again. This time he hits both FT's! 70-63 with 13 seconds left. They miss a 3 and Payne gets the board! He is fouled but this game is over. They miss a last 3.

We win 72-63!

Payne was the player of the game with 15 points, 12 assists, 2 steals, and 2 boards. He shot 2 of 5, and 11 of 12 from the line as his speed allows him to penetrate at will against M2M and draw contact.

Bathie had 18 points on 7 of 21 shooting including 4 of 11 behind the arc. Gray had 13 points on 4 of 6 shooting, 1 of 1 behind the arc, and 4 of 5 from the line. Boyce had 9 points and 11 boards. Johnson was 2 of 8 and had 4 points, 3 boards, 1 assist, and 1 steal.

Darn. The game froze before I could save it in the legacy home screen. I think I had one freeze in this screen before. I have to remember not to go to it...

Just checked and the team nickname is the Colonels. Also, I found a conference rank now. We are 28th.

I'll replay this game later.

Eaglesfan27

12-02-2007, 10:12 PM

This time we couldn't stop their junior star PF Anthony Vereen who had 25 points and 12 boards. They win 81-68. Verner led our team wit 17 points and Bathie had 14 points and 10 boards. We end the season at 16-15. Not a bad first year to build on.

Eaglesfan27

12-02-2007, 10:26 PM

The 4 #1 seeds: UCLA, Memphis, Kansas, and Duke.

The Final 4: #5 Arizona vs #4 UNC and #1 Kansas vs #2 Auburn.

Kansas beats Auburn 103-71 thanks to 33 points from PF Darrell Arthur.

UNC beats Arizona 104-73 thanks to 39 points from Hansbrough.

Kansas wins the National Championship 85-73. Hansbrough had 36 points and 14 boards, but Kansas got 27 from Arthur and 21 from SF Brandon Rush. Hansbrough didn't have enough support from his teammates as no one else hit double figures.

Tyler Hansbrough wins Player of the Year. He averaged 26.4 ppg and 7.1 rpg.

Bo McCalebb of UNO won mid major player of the year with 24.9 ppg and 7.4 rpg.

Anthony King of Miami won Defensive Player of the Year. He averaged 2.7 bpg.

Hansbrough won Big Man of the Year.

Michael Beasley of Kansas State won Freshman of the Year. He averaged 19.2 ppg, 8 rpg, 2.9 apg, 1.5 spg, and 1.5 bpg.

The All-American First Team:

PG Sean Singletary, Virginia 21 ppg and 7 apg.
SG Chris Lofton, Tenn 23.7 ppg
SF Martin Zeno, Texas Tech 17.1 ppg, 5.3 rpg, 4.5 apg.
PF Tyler Hansbrough
C Luke Neville, Utah 24.4 ppg 8.5 rpg.

Interesting Second Team:

PG A.J Abrams, Tex 19 ppg 4.4 apg.
SG Bo McCaleeb, UNO
SF Charron Fisher, Niag 22.3 ppg 9.3 rpg
PF Jason Thompson, Rider 25 ppg 12 rpg.
C Frank Elegar, Drexel, 23.4 ppg 9.8 rpg.

Freshman All American Team:

PG OJ Mayo, USC 14.5 ppg, 5.4 apg. He is projected to go in the lottery. It will be interesting to see if he stays around for a 2nd year this time around..

SG Eric Gordon, Ind 13.5 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 3.0 apg.
SF Bill Walker, Kansas State 14.2ppg 3.9 rpg.
PF Michael Beasley, Kansas State
C Deandre Jordon, Texas A&M 10.8 ppg, 5.8 rpg.

Sam Houston State ended up winning the conference tourney.

Northwestern's Coach was the coach of the year in the conference.

Ryan Bright, a SR SF from Sam Houston State was the player of the year with a 12.2 ppg 8.8 rpg.

Joshua Johnson from Nicholls State won Freshman of the Year in the conference! He averaged 8.6 ppg and 8.2 rpg.

First Team All-Conference:

Shamir McDaniel, SR PG from Sam Houston 11.9 ppg 5 apg.
Matthew Barrow, SR SG from Lamar. He averaged 12.6 ppg and 2.0 apg.
Ryan Bright, SR SF from Sam Houston State
Matt Kingsley, JR PF from Stephen F Austin. He averaged 16.8 ppg and 8 rpg.
Chris Daniels from Texas A&M - Corpus Christi. He averaged 16.5 ppg and 7.0 rpg along with 2 bpg.

Joshua Johnson was the only player to win awards from our team.

Eaglesfan27

12-02-2007, 10:30 PM

The 16-15 record has the AD pleased. My job security is good.

Adonis Gray is the only player to graduate. He was an important starter, but we have guys ready to step up.

I gained 4 attribute points. I bump Charisma up to A-, scouting up to a C+, and Discipline up to a C.

Interesting jobs opening up as Texas Tech and UConn's coaches retire.

I'm not in the running for any jobs yet.

Connecticut hires Nevada's Head Coach.

Texas Tech hires Davidson's Coach.

I decide to retain my 2 assistant coaches for now.

We don't get any transfers. Maybe I should have get an open scholarship offer... oh well. Hopefully, I'll get this 3 star PF I'm pursuing.

Actually, no good players transferred. The best player is a 58 rated PF named Ronnie Thomas who left Wright State from Princeton.

Eaglesfan27

12-02-2007, 10:34 PM

Darn, Andrew Ike, the 3 star PF I was pursuing chose to sign with Texas State.

As I expected, Jarrad Warynski signed with Tulane.

The 1 star C who is 7'0 235 is now being pursued by 2 additional schools, but I have a huge lead if I decide to offer him a scholarship.

However, their is a 3 star PF who I've been following who now has no other schools pursuing him except for us! He averaged 11.1 ppg and 8.4 rpg. He is ranked 407th overall and 74th among PF's Michal Lloyd is from Waco, TX and he is 6'9 222 pounds. He averaged 1.9 bpg in the ABL. Our scouts think his potential is only a C, but they think he is an athletic player with good rebonding skills and good intelligence who is a superior defender. We make him our top target as I fly out, visit with him, and offer him a scholarship on the spot.

Eaglesfan27

12-02-2007, 10:38 PM

After my visit Michal is close to signing with us. However, now Florida, FSU, Tulane, and ULM are all pursuing him :( I need to wrap him up before they steal him. We are his #1 choice by a wide margin, but I expect that won't last if I don't seal the deal within the next week or so...

I fly out to visit him again. I call him and email him.

Yes, a week later he signs with us!! A closer look at Michal's rating based on our scouts at this point:

Shot: C+
Skills: C
Defense: B+
Athleticism: B
Rebounding: B
Intelligence; B
Potential: C
Size: A-

With the small class complete, we start working on making contacts with some current juniors.

Groundhog

12-02-2007, 10:40 PM

(why does the team have so many players from Australia?)

Thanks to guys like Bogut and the success of Australia in the junior international basketball ranks teams have started to dig recruiting pipelines downunder lately. There are a number of high profile Aussies in the college ranks (Nevill at Utah, Ogilvy at Vanderbilt, Aaron Bruce at Baylor, and Pat Mills at St. Mary's), but Nicholls State and St. Mary's have really outdone themselves. The two teams met for a two weeks ago (I think) with 9 Aussies in uniform between them.

Galaxy

12-02-2007, 10:51 PM

I take it the 360 is ok after the cat scare?

Galaxy

12-02-2007, 10:55 PM

Eaglesfan27

12-02-2007, 11:14 PM

The top recruiting classes:

Arizona, Maryland, Florida, Duke, and UCLA.

I decide to customize my schedule to be easy. We aren't getting in on RPI anyway, we need to win our tourney. I'd rather try for a strong record against some relatively weak teams.

I decide to attend the ABL and scout out the talent. I'll be playing every other game this year.

I decide to watch a game of a SF that I like to see if he could be a contributor on our team. I won't watch the whole thing but will watch part of it.

I watch a few minutes before simming to the end. Braxton is a good looking SF for a 2 star player. He finished with 11 points and 8 boards on 4 of 12 shooting.

The ABL is interesting, but it will be more interesting I think when I'm at a bigger school. I decide to sim it after all.

We have 3 scholarships to fill this year as Bathie, Verner, and Justin Payne are all seniors. We'll need to get some good outside shooters to replace them or we'll fall off.

A look at our roster:

PF Michal Lloyd comes into the season as our best player! He is rated 67 overall and has grown to 6'10 231 pounds. He is a better inside offensive player than I would have expected and is now our best inside scorer. He is a poor mid range shooter and terrible from the arc. He is a poor ball handler. He is by far our best post defender. He is a very good shot blocker already as well. He is a good rebounder but Johnson despite being smaller might be better. He has decent spped for his size. His potential is worse than we thought as it is now a D. However, he is good enough already to be a main force for us on the inside. He'll start despite Johnson's great year last year.

SR SF Ryan Bathie is now rated 65 overall. The best 3 point shooter on our team.

SG Gil Verner is also a senior. He is rated 65 overall, too. He is the next best 3 point shooter on the team.

Michael Czepil is a junior who is rated 62 overall. A good outside shooter but not of the same caliber as Verner or Bathie.

PG Justin Payne is rated 62 overall and his best asset remains his terrific speed.

PF Joshua Johnson is rated 62 overl.. He is now 6'7 205. He has surprising speed for his size that rivals some guards. He is a good rebounder despite his size. He is an explosive dunker. He'll get a lot of time off the bench.

Reggie Shanks is a junior who is now rated 60 overall. He is becoming a bit better at outside shooting.

Ben Martin is now rated 59 overall and has shown the most growth on our team. He has become a decent jump shooter.

PG Bakari Lewis is rated 59 overall and is a very sound ball handler.

SG Anatoly Bose is rated 58 overall and is showing signs of growth as he enters his sophomore year. I decide to redshirt him and see if he can develop into a good player by his Senior year.

C Mitch Boyce is now 6'10 265 and is still improving. He is rated 56 overall and remains a surprisingly good shooter for a big man. He may be the 3rd best shooter from outside the arc on the team.

PF Dominic Friend is 6'7 260 and is rated 56 overall now. He has really developed his offensive post game and is proficient at it now.

Chris Paige is 6'9 216 and is developing slowly. He is rated 53 overall.

Scooter Mallory is a walkon JR PF who is rated 50 overall. I don't expect him to get any PT.

Oliver Minyem is a walkon center who is rated 48 overall. He is 6'9 220 but I don't expect him to get any PT.

Adama Markham is a walkon freshman SF who is rated 48 overall. I doubt he'll ever play for us.

Eaglesfan27

12-02-2007, 11:15 PM

I take it the 360 is ok after the cat scare?

No, it is dead. I went out today and bought one of the newer ones. It is much quieter than the old one was, I think even when it was new.

I'll offer the old one to a friend who might pay to get it fixed.

Eaglesfan27

12-02-2007, 11:16 PM

Sounds like the skill ratings and potential don't match up.

Hopefully UConn and Texas Tech got good coaches.

I think the skill ratings are a measure of where he is currently. They are often off, but now that I've gotten a look at this kid, I think they were fairly on base with him :)

Except for his potential, which is worse than we thought.

Eaglesfan27

12-02-2007, 11:26 PM

A look at the Pre-Season top 10:

1. Duke
2. UNC
3. Memphis
4. Texas
5. Michigan State
6. Tennessee
7. Arizona
8. UCLA
9. Providence
10. Syracuse

USC is 15th.

Texas Tech looks like they got a good coach from Davidson.

Connecticut also made a good hire it appears.

The Pre-Season All-Americans

PG D.J. Augustin, Texas
SG Josh Shipp, UCLA
SF Tasmin Mitchell, LSU
PF Darrell Arthur, Kansas
C Kevin Love, UCLA

Eaglesfan27

12-02-2007, 11:33 PM

The Early recruiting is going very good as I've focused on a 2 star SF that I liked from McAllen, TX. Dante Newton is one of the best shooting players outside of the 4 and 5 star players. At first he was leaning towards UTPA or Texas A&M Corpus-Christi, but two visits later and an early scholarship offer have him moving us to #1 on his list. I think I might get him to sign during the early signing period in a few weeks. My high rating in Charisma is definitely making a difference in recruiting. The only bad thing is this kid is reluctant to shoot at times, but in 14 mpg in the ABL he averaged 6 ppg on 43% shooting.

I'm also heavily pursuing Van Plavich, a 2 star SF from New Orleans who is a good shooter. ALST and UNO are my top competition for him.

Our first game is on November 7th at Stony Brook. I swapped out a lot of games but will still be playing a lot of road games in non-conference play. Stony Brook is 0-2. Stony Brook is equal in talent to our team which has improved it teams talent rating to a 70. Our offense is better than theirs while our defense is slightly worse. Our team unity is better. We'll play this later this week.

Galaxy

12-03-2007, 11:41 AM

How many scholarships do you have to offer this year?

Eaglesfan27

12-03-2007, 11:53 AM

How many scholarships do you have to offer this year?

3 - as the starting PG, SG, and SF are all graduating after this year. I'm focusing on getting two good outside scorers at SF/SG first and then I'll start focusing on trying to get the PG that I've been scouting. I'm looking for another speedy playmaker if I can find one.

korme

12-03-2007, 01:27 PM

Eaglesfan27

12-03-2007, 01:45 PM

I don't know how you feel about this, people might consider it a cheap tactic, but if you target a World recruit, say a **** one, that's even 30% interested in you by the start of the season, and continually phone him until offseason recruiting if no one else is interested, I'll almost guarantee you can sign him.

Just sayin'.

I actually looked at several world recruits considering our current roster of Australians. There are only about a dozen world recruits in this year's class and except for one who is a 1 star player, they are all being recruited by multiple big schools. I'm pursuing one in case the big names drop off. He is a PG from Australia which seemed appropriate with the heavy Australian presence on the team.

Bee

12-04-2007, 10:09 AM

It seems to me your recruits are better this time around. Are you just going after better players or do you think it's just the luck of the draw?

Eaglesfan27

12-04-2007, 03:24 PM

It seems to me your recruits are better this time around. Are you just going after better players or do you think it's just the luck of the draw?

I think maxing out charisma helped quite a bit. Also, I think I got lucky that the 3 star PF slipped through the interest of other teams until it was too late for them.

Eaglesfan27

12-05-2007, 07:30 PM

So, I just confirmed that the standing dunk bug is causing problems in my career. My young star PF has a standing dunk of 0 as do all recruits once they get on teams. Oh well, I'm going to continue this career despite that, but I'm now much less anxious to finish this season in a hurry as I'd like to minimize the number of draft classes that are effected and hopefully a patch will be out by the time that I get through this season.

The first game of the season is against Stony Brook.

rjolley

12-05-2007, 07:53 PM

Has a patch been confirmed, or is it just an assumption?

Eaglesfan27

12-05-2007, 08:03 PM

Has a patch been confirmed, or is it just an assumption?

It's been mentioned by people "in the know" at OS, so I'm sure it will happen. Especially with 2ksports' track record of patching games in recent years.

rjolley

12-05-2007, 08:21 PM

Ok, so CH2K8 and NBA2K8 are definitely on my purchase list. Kool.

Hope there's a sale on them in the next few weeks.

Eaglesfan27

12-05-2007, 08:52 PM

Down 44-38 at the half. We are shooting 40% while allowing them to shoot 51%. Bathie leads our team with 10 points but he is shooting under 30%. We need to play much better defense. Our PG, Payne, is in foul trouble at the half with 3.

Payne picks up his 4th foul early in the 2nd half. I decide to try to let him play through it... he fouls out 2 minutes later with 16 minutes to go :(

We go with Czepil at the point.

With 3 minutes to go, Bathie hits a 3 to tie it at 76.

With 2:11 to go, Johnson gets an open lane and gets fouled on a dunk attempt. He hits 1 of 2 FT's to tie it at 77.

Their center Pitt hits a 2, and Bathie misses a 3 at the other end for us. They draw a foul and hit both FT's to take a 81-77 lead with 1:18 to go.

Bakari Lewis gets a basket on a nice drive down the middle of the lane. We get a stop with 44 seconds left. With 12 seconds left, Bathie drives the lane but has his shot blocked. They get it back and we have to foul.

They drill both FT's to make it a 4 point lead :(

Bathie hits a 3 with 3 seconds to go to make it 83-82. We foul immediately. They miss the first FT, but they get an offensive board! They miss the putback, but we get it as time is expired :(

We lose 83-82.

Their PG, Nick Carter, was the player of the game with 14 points and 10 assists. He shot 3 of 9, 3 of 5, and 5 of 7. He was faster than our PG and got us into a lot of foul trouble. Michael Tyree their SG had 19 points on 7 of 14 shooting including 3 of 5 behind the arc.

Bathie led us with 18 points, 6 boards, and 2 assists. He shot 5 of 17 including 4 of 11 behind the arc. Boyce had 17 points and 8 boards as he shot 7 of 10. Freshman Michal Lloyd had 9 points, 9 boards, and 3 assists in his debut as he shot 3 of 6 and 3 of 4 from the line. Payne had 2 points and 5 assists in his 18 minuts of PT before he fouled out and Verner added in 14 points.

Nov 14, 2008 -

We play at 1-0 Belmont. We beat them 101-71! We had 4 starters in double figures and 6 overall. Payne had 14 points and 7 assists. Verner had 16 points and 3 assists. Bathie only had 4 on 1 of 10 shooting. Lloyd had 10 points and 5 boards in his 2nd game. Boyce had 11 points. Johnson had 12 points and 8 boards off the bench and Czepil had 16 points in 16 minutes off the bench!

Our next game is a very winnable game at Savannah State.

Eaglesfan27

12-06-2007, 03:08 PM

Has a patch been confirmed, or is it just an assumption?

2ksports developers periodically post on OS and here is the latest post from one on the College Hoops team that officially confirms a patch is in the works. This post was in a thread about the Ivy League Bug:

Hey guys,

We have looked into this issue and a fix is on the way. The Ivy League bug where the same team makes it to the tournament is resolved in the upcoming patch.

Galaxy

12-06-2007, 08:45 PM

I wonder when it will be released.

Galaxy

12-06-2007, 09:52 PM

I actually looked at several world recruits considering our current roster of Australians. There are only about a dozen world recruits in this year's class and except for one who is a 1 star player, they are all being recruited by multiple big schools. I'm pursuing one in case the big names drop off. He is a PG from Australia which seemed appropriate with the heavy Australian presence on the team.

Does the game develop state/country pipelines?

Eaglesfan27

12-06-2007, 10:05 PM

I wonder when it will be released.

Does the game develop state/country pipelines?

I posted this in the general forum College Hoops class, but there is a thread that has been posted in by a developer on OS and they said the patch is "coming soon."

I'm not sure. I think there are pipelines, but I'm not sure. I'll check tomorrow night.

Blade6119

12-06-2007, 10:55 PM

Thanks to guys like Bogut and the success of Australia in the junior international basketball ranks teams have started to dig recruiting pipelines downunder lately. There are a number of high profile Aussies in the college ranks (Nevill at Utah, Ogilvy at Vanderbilt, Aaron Bruce at Baylor, and Pat Mills at St. Mary's), but Nicholls State and St. Mary's have really outdone themselves. The two teams met for a two weeks ago (I think) with 9 Aussies in uniform between them.

Interestingly enough, the top article on the SI NCCA mens BB page is about the St. Mary's Aussie Pipeline...didnt see a mention of Nicholls, but it thought it was related none the less.

Eaglesfan27

12-07-2007, 07:30 PM

From reading the boards at OS, I think I may have made a mistake on lowering the gamespeed and player speed to 40. I thought that would slow down all of the action and both sides would do less each possession keeping scores down even with 20 minute halves. However, multiple people on OS have pointed out that the game speed slider affects the speed of the game clock slowing it down and I see that in the help file as well. So, I'm raising that back up to 50 along with player speed.

Also, lots of the slider makers are turning up defensive awareness and I do think this is a good idea. Most are going with 70 or 80, but I'm going to start with a boost to 60 for both sides.

Now for our game at Savannah State. They are 1-3. They are a weaker team talent wise and team unity wise. Their offense is poor and their defense isn't any better. We should beat them without too much trouble.

Eaglesfan27

12-07-2007, 08:37 PM

We are up 33-27 at the half. We shot 39% for the half while they shot 32%. Czepil leads our team with 13 points off the bench as he is 4 of 4 from the field, 3 of 3 from the arc, and 2 of 4 from the line. Bathie has 9 as our other main scorer. He is 3 of 6 from the fiel, 3 of 5 from the arc.

I definitely like the feel of the quicker game and shot totals seem good. They have shot 25 times at the half while we have shot 23 times.

We end up taking control early in the 2nd half and never give it up. A solid road win as we beat them 68-44!

We held them to 29% shooting for the game while we shot 44%. We were 11 of 24 from the arc. They were 5 of 23. We were 9 of 16 from the line while they were 13 of 17. We had 50 shots while they had 51. We each had 14 assists and 5 turnovers (I might turn up steal success some more.)

We had 3 blocks to their 1.

Bathie was the player of the game. He finished with 20 points, 6 boards, and 2 assists. He shot 6 of 12, 6 of 10, and 2 of 2. Czepil finished with 15 points, 1 board, and 1 assist. He shot 5 of 7. Lloyd, our freshman PF, finished with 16 points, 10 boards, 2 assists, and a block. He shot 6 of 7, 1 of 2 behind the arc, and 3 of 5 from the line. Boyce and Payne each had 6 points and Verner had 3.

Eaglesfan27

12-07-2007, 08:44 PM

Nov 19, 2008 -

We lose our simulated game at CS Northridge 86-74. Worse, we lose Joshua Johnson to a toe injury. He'll be out 3-4 weeks. Verner led our team with 14 points. Lloyd had 7 points and 11 boards.

Our next game is at 1-2 Portland.

Eaglesfan27

12-08-2007, 01:42 PM

Portland is a slightly more talented team than we are but their team unity is the worst I've ever seen. Hopefully, that will help us get the road win. Their best player is PG Marin Jackette who is a terrific freshman PG who we need to slow down.

Eaglesfan27

12-08-2007, 02:47 PM

An exciting first half in which we led by 8 at one point ends with a run for Portland that gives them a 5 point lead. We are each shooting 47% as both teams are better offensively than defensively. We are down 37-32. Bathie and Verner are our main scorers. Bathie has 14 and Verner has 11.

In the 2nd half, Bather and Verner both cool off from outside and their 7'0 center takes over the boards and that helps them control the game. They win 71-61.

Nik Raivio led them with 18 points on 6 of 15 shooting including 2 of 4 behind the arc. Their 7'0 center had 8 points, 10 boards, and 2 blocks.

Verner led us with 24 points on 6 of 13 shooting. He shot 3 of 4 behind arc and 9 of 9 from the line. Bathie had 21 points and 4 boards. He shot 9 of 18, 3 of 10 behind the arc. Boyce had 6 points and 10 boards. Lloyd had 6 points and 6 boards.

They shot 43% as a team while we shot 38%. They outrebounded us 37-32 including 12 offensive boards to our 5.

Eaglesfan27

12-08-2007, 02:52 PM

November 26 -

We win at Louisiana Tech to advance to 3-3. They drop to 1-3. We won 81-61. 4 guys with at least 15 points: Verner had 15, Bathie had 17, Boyce had 16, and Czepil had 19 off the bench. Payne had 8 points and 9 assists on 2 of 10 shooting. Our next game is on the 29th at Florida Atlantic. They are 2-1.

Eaglesfan27

12-09-2007, 12:05 AM

Florida Atlantic is a much more talented team than I expected them to be and they will be a tough matchup. I wouldn't be surprised if I end up getting blown out, particularly since we are at their place. Their PF Carlos Monroe is very good and should be a tough player to guard for us.

We hung tough in the 1st half, but had to gamble and trap some to do it. We are down 37-30. We are shooting 33% while they are shooting 41%.

Bathie and Payne each lead our team with 7.

We were just overmatched. We pressed, but they broke it. We tried man up defense and they were too good. We tried zones and they busted them. They win 80-70.

They shot 47% to our 45%. They outrebounded us 36-31. They had 12 fast break points to our 2.

Paul Graham, III was the player of the game. He had 17 points and 2 boards for them. Monroe, their star PF had 11 points, 7 boards, 6 assists, and 2 blocks.

Verner had 16 for us on 6 of 13 shooting. Payne had 14 points and 4 assists thanks to 7 of 8 from the line along with 3 of 6 from the floor. Bathie had 13 points on 5 of 15 shooting.

Eaglesfan27

12-09-2007, 12:11 AM

Dec 1, 2008 -

The first day possible, Dante Newton signs with us. He is a 6'5 193 pound SF from McAllen, TX. He is rated 708th overall and 156th among SF's. I wanted him because he is a good outside shooterHe also is a decent defender and has decent mobilty. He has poor potential and probably won't get much better, but I expect him to be a good enough shooter to either start at SG/SF or at least give some big minutes off the bench.

Dec 6, 2008 -

We play at 2-6 NJIT. As expected, we win 77-62. Bathie led the team with 14 points and 7 boards. Verner had 13 and Lloyd added 10 points, 6 boards, and 2 blocks.

Dec 8 -

The early signing period is over. We almost got another SF, but we couldn't quite wrap him up. Still, we are his leading school.

We are now 4-4. Our next game is hosting 5-2 Middle Tennessee.

vex

12-19-2007, 09:35 AM

No more?

Eaglesfan27

12-19-2007, 01:01 PM

No more?

Just been sidetracked by NCAA Football. I'll still be updating this, although I'm trying to wait for the patch before I get into next season. However, with 5 days off (and only visiting family on one of them) this upcoming weekend, this will certainly be getting updated along with my NCAA Football dynasty.

rjolley

12-19-2007, 01:09 PM

Has the patch been confirmed? I haven't seen it on Operation Sports yet.

Eaglesfan27

12-19-2007, 05:19 PM

Has the patch been confirmed? I haven't seen it on Operation Sports yet.

A developer on OS has said one is "coming soon" but that was about 2 weeks ago. I'm guessing it will be out within the next 2-4 weeks. The only bug they have specifically said it will fix is the Ivy League Glitch, but from past 2ksports patches, I would guess it will fix many things. I'm hopeful it will lead to the CPU reaching in more to attempt to steal.

Eaglesfan27

12-20-2007, 08:18 PM

Dola -

The developer on OS said today that the patch should be out in 10 days max as long as there are no unforseen troubles.

rjolley

12-20-2007, 09:53 PM

Thanks EF27, just read the thread. Now to wait for the fix list....

Eaglesfan27

12-24-2007, 11:34 AM

Middle Tennessee has quite a bit more talent, but we are at home and have better team unity so I think we have a shot. Their PG, Kevin Kanaskie, will be our toughest challenge to slow down.

Lloyd played well for the first few minutes, but with 14 minutes to go in the first half, he picks up his 2nd foul and I go to Friend off the bench.

We are down 36-29 at Kanaskie is hurting us from outside. They are shooting 54% as a team, but we are forcing turnovers and getting some rebounds to keep us in it.

Kanaskie has 11 points at the half. Bathie leads us with 8 but he is 2 of 7 from the floor.

They took control early in the 2nd half and never gave it back. 81-61 win. Kanaskie was the player of the game with 18 points, 5 assists, and 3 boards. He shot 6 of 11 from the floor, 4 of 7 behind the arc, and 2 of 3 from the line. Demetrius Green, their SG chipped in 16 points on 6 of 11 shooting and Josh Sain their SF had 14 points on 6 of 9 shooting. We did well inside, but those 3 were too much.

Bathie disappointed as he was 4 of 18 from the floor. He finished with 12 points, 2 boards, and 2 assists. Lloyd had 13 points and 9 boards including 5 offensive boards which he mostly put back in. He shot 4 of 6 from the floor and 5 of 10 from the line. Boyce added 11 points and 5 boards. Verner and Payne each had 6 points. Paige was our leading scorer off the bench with 7.

Eaglesfan27

12-24-2007, 11:44 AM

Dec 13, 2008 -

Our simulated game is at 3-10 Utah Valley State. We win 71-52 as Verner led the way with 19 points, 5 boards, and 4 steals. He shot 7 of 16 and 5 of 9 from the arc. Bathie chipped in 16. Lloyd had 6 points, 7 boards, and 2 blocks.

We are now 5-5. Our next game is at 5-4 North Carolina State which is a much better team than we are. As a result, I'm going to sim that one, too. After this game, we will get Johnson back which will greatly aid our bench depth.

As expected, we get blown out 105-70. Ben McCauley led them with 23 points and 12 boards. Verner led us with 15 points and 2 boards. Dominic Friend broke his wrist during the game and will miss 4-6 weeks.

Our next game is hosting a 3-7 Princeton squad. We are slightly more talented, but we have better team unity and we are at home. I expect a comfortable win, particularly since we have Johnson available off the bench again. He'll play some 3, 4, and 5 for us this game.

Eaglesfan27

12-24-2007, 12:47 PM

I expected a comfortable win, but I certainly didn't expect to jump to a 20-3 lead. Verner came out on fire and I fed him the ball. Meanwhile, Strittmater seems to be their only consistent outside shooter in the starting lineup.

That type of dominance didn't last, but the early burst kept us comfortably in the lead throughout the 1st half. 43-27 at the half. Johnson has 13 points and is the player of the half. He is dominating their 2nd string. He played mostly SF and PF during 10 minutes off the bench. He shot 4 of 5 and 4 of 4 from the line. Verner cooled off after the hot start and is now 3 of 9 from the floor. He has 9 points at the half and Bathie has 8.

An easy win, 84-54.

Verner was the player of the game. He finished with 20 points, 4 boards, 4 assists, and a steal. He shot 6 of 14, 6 of 10, and 2 of 2.

Joshua Johnson had 18 points, 3 boards, and 2 steals off the bench. He shot 6 of 11, 1 of 1, and 5 of 6. Bathie added 13, Boyce 11, and Lloyd 8. Lloyd also had 4 boards, 2 assists, and 3 steals for one of his more well rounded games. If we can keep our starting 5, Johnson, and Czepil healthy, I think this team can do some damage in conference play.

Eaglesfan27

12-24-2007, 12:51 PM

Our next game is hosting a 6-8 CSU Bakersfield team that is slightly more talented than we our. We beat them 67-65. Bathie had 15 points. Joshua Johnson had 7 points and 13 boards off the bench. Boyce fouled out in 8 minutes which led to Johnson and Lloyd sharing a lot of the duties at C when Paige wasn't playing there. Paige finished with 7 ponts, 3 boards, and 2 blocks in 21 minutes.

Our next game is against 4-7 Stetson which I'll play later this week.

Galaxy

12-24-2007, 02:44 PM

vex

12-24-2007, 02:46 PM

Nope, no patch out yet.

Galaxy

12-24-2007, 02:47 PM

Nope, no patch out yet.

Any word when it will come out?

Eaglesfan27

12-24-2007, 02:49 PM

Any word when it will come out?

On December 20th, the developers said it should be out within 10 days unless an unforseen problem comes up. I'm guessing this Thursday.

Eaglesfan27

12-24-2007, 02:54 PM

Sounds like your a year or two away.

Is the patch out? I hope to pick up the game after the new year (yes, I got the 360 along with two games, one Marvel game (which I'll trade in) and Forza Motorsports 2. Another blow to Missouri B-ball fan. :)

I think next year we'll probably drop off with Bathie and Verner's shooting being gone from the team and Payne's speed and penetration missing. None of the 3 guys I'm recruiting are likely to be good shooters off the bat, I'm just hoping they can develop into good shooter. Now, in 2 years with a fully mature Lloyd and Johnson down low, I like our chances if we can surround them with some shooters.

rjolley

12-24-2007, 05:14 PM

Speaking of developing players, how hard is it to do?

I know in NBA, I could draft a solid player, then train him to become the player I wanted/needed. If I needed a shooter, draft a decent shooter, then train him like crazy and he'd become a very good one by the end of the first season. After he got too expensive and I needed to cut salary, trade for a high draft pick, wash, rinse, repeat.

Have you imported a class into NBA yet? Did they fix the bug where the colleges didn't import correctly, or was that just on the XBox in 2K7?

Eaglesfan27

12-24-2007, 05:20 PM

I haven't imported any classes yet, but from Ironhead's work which I respect, I'm sure that the import process still has flaws.

College Hoops has the hardest drill training system that I've seen. With the exception of the passing drill and the rebounding drill, I can't complete hardly any of them with my guys. I imagine it might be easier if I had a stud, but the higher a guy's rating is in a category, the less of an improvement he gets from completing a drill. For example, my 61 passer gets 3/10's of a passing point if he completes the passing drill but my 80 rated passer only gets 1/10 or something like that. The shooting drills are very hard to complete as you need to be nearly perfect to get them done in time and with a high enough score. It's gotten to the point where I don't even try them often. However, the new scheme for dictating what each guy practices seems to be effective. The guards that I have told to focus on shooting seem to be doing nicely at improving their outside shots.

Radii

12-24-2007, 06:59 PM

rjolley

12-24-2007, 07:47 PM

What import flaws have you heard about? Something minor like hairstyle and college attended (annoying, but still minor), or something major like ratings glitches?

Eaglesfan27

12-24-2007, 08:24 PM

You're at exactly the same point I am with the drills. I haven't messed with them at all this season. I took my best 3 point shooter(rated 80) and ran the 3 point shooting drill about 20 times in my first season and a half, and completed it maybe 3 times.

I haven't messed with the practice scheme though, I'll have to check that out next time I play. do you see any negatives from it when you tell a guy to neglect one area in favor of another?

I haven't looked at it in depth, but it appears that other areas improve more slowly if you focus on one area, however, it isn't drastic. With low quality guys, which is what I mostly have, they'll gain about 2-3 points in the areas I tell them to focus on while the guys that I have stick to a general plan will gain about a point in all areas. Maybe, I'll notice a more drastic difference when I get higher quality players.

What import flaws have you heard about? Something minor like hairstyle and college attended (annoying, but still minor), or something major like ratings glitches?

If I recall correctly, players were importing with low ratings (like the created players in NBA 2k8) with things such as quickness and speed being too low for guards, dunking too low for some players, etc. Also, in latter years, any created players in College Hoops who went into an NBA 2k8 career wouldn't have any shooting tendencies. This wasn't a problem with the original athletes that ship with the game. I'm hoping the patch might address some of these things, but I'm not counting on it.

vex

12-25-2007, 08:50 PM

The only drills that I can complete are the attack basket, passing,stealing, and rebounding. I would have no problem completing the shooting drills if it wasn't for the stupid time limit. I just don't see why there should be a time limit.

Eaglesfan27

12-29-2007, 01:17 PM

Stetson is slightly less talented than we our, but they have better team unity. Being at home, I expect us to pull out a win here. We have to stop their SG Kris thomas who is a talented senior.

It was a sedate first half until about 9 minutes left when they started pressing and running. As a result, we both jacked up our offensive tempo and it became a high scoring half. Verner and Czepil took over down the stretch of the 1st half and pushed us to a 45-41 lead.

Czepil is the player of the half. He has 13 points on 4 of 4 shooting, 3 of 3 behind the arc, and 2 of 2 from the line. Verner and Bathie each have 8.

A crazy ending to this game. We were up 80-76 with 55 seconds to go, but a careless pass led to a turnover and a quick 3 with 42 seconds left.

We worked the ball around the court until 2 seconds left on our next possession, but Bathie missed a 3. That gave them the ball with 7 seconds and they raced down the court, threw a cross court pass into the right corner and their star SG drilled the 3 for the win as the buzzer expired. 82-80 loss :(

Thomas hit the game winner and was the player of the game. He finished with 25 points as he was only 3 of 9 from the arc but 10 of 19 overall. He was aided by PG Brandon Williams who had 16 points, 5 assists, and 2 steals.

We wasted a masterful performance by Czepil off the bench who had 27 points, 3 boards, and 2 assists on 9 of 12 shooting including 7 of 8 behind the arc in just 22 minutes.

Verner had 15, Bathie 10, and Johnson 7 to round out our top scorers.

That loss drops us to 7-7.

Eaglesfan27

12-29-2007, 01:22 PM

The top 10 in the media poll heading into the 2009:

1. Duke 13-1
2. Providence 13-0
3. Texas 12-1
4. Michigan State 13-2
5. UNC 9-2
6. Louisville 13-1
7. UCLA 11-2
8. Auburn 13-1
9. Memphis 7-2
10. Stanford 12-2

Jan 8, 2009 -

We open our Conference play with a game at home against 3-6 McNeese State. We blow them out 98-67. Verner had 20 points, Boyce had 19, Johnson had 15, and Lloyd added 8 points and 10 boards.

Our next game is at 4-6 Northwestern State. I'll play that later tonight or tomorrow.

Eaglesfan27

12-30-2007, 04:31 PM

Northwestern State is slightly more talented than we are, but they have horrible team chemistry. Their freshman center, Darren Admundson is a 6'10 290 pound beast who is talented and should be dominant in this conference including against us.

A hard fought 1st half has us down 35-29. They have held us to 24% shooting while shooting 40%. We are getting to the FT line a large amount which is keeping us in it. Lloyd is our leading scorer with 7 points including 3 of 3 from the line. Bathie and Verner each have 5. Their SF Chris Clark has 13 points, 5 boards, 2 assists, and a steal. We got Admundson into foul trouble early and he only played 5 minutes in the first half during which he had 2 points and 2 boards.

It became very ugly in the 2nd half, as we stopped drawing fouls and they started getting clean blocks. They cruised to a 78-57 win.

We shot 27% while they shot 43%. C.J. Clark led them with 17 points, 8 boards, 2 assists, and 2 steals.

Verner was our leading scorer with 14 points. Lloyd had 9 points, 8 boards, and 2 blocks.

I've heard people raving about this slider set on OS and despite getting my butt handed to me on Starter, I'm going to give Heelfans's sliders a shot with a few slight modifications that I believe will allow them to work well with full 20 minute halves like I like. I'm also continuing my downward tweak to ball handling and blocking which he leaves at default.

Eaglesfan27

12-30-2007, 04:37 PM

Jan 15, 2009 -

We win at Texas State 90-76 but suffer a costly injury as Mitch Boyce will miss 4-6 weeks with a broken wrist. His shooting touch from the outside was a big part of our offense, but we'll go to a more traditional look with Paige moving into the starting lineup.

Verner was our leading scorer with 17 points while Czepil had 15.

Our next game s at Central Arkansas. They are 7-6. They are about equal in talent with a worse offense than us but a better defense. Their SF Mitch Rueter is one of their best players but he isn't as good as most of the top players we've faced lately.

Radii

12-30-2007, 05:45 PM

I've heard people raving about this slider set on OS and despite getting my butt handed to me on Starter, I'm going to give Heelfans's sliders a shot with a few slight modifications that I believe will allow them to work well with full 20 minute halves like I like. I'm also continuing my downward tweak to ball handling and blocking which he leaves at default.

I'd be curious to see what else you've modified in addition to his sliders. I saw your post on operationsports, I've been ranting a bit on team defense in my dynasty, it sounds like this might be a good change to make.

Eaglesfan27

12-30-2007, 05:46 PM

Well I've enjoyed the first half of this game much more than I have lately. We actually played defense with these sliders. Up 34-18 at the half as Bathie and Verner have both been on fire. Also with these sliders, the CPU is actually getting some steals, although it is mostly (entirely?) from playing the passing lanes. Still, definitely more enjoyable. Also, they are working it into their center more. The last team didn't use their star center enough. Their center is their leading scorer with 8 points and 5 boards.

Bathie leads us with 11 points on 4 of 7 shooting. Verner has 8 points on 4 of 6 shooting. We've held them to 30% shooting while shooting just under 50% ourselves.

They play better in the 2nd half as their defense toughens up, but Bathie kept drilling shots and led us to the 56-44 victory.

Their center, who is their 2nd best player, had 10 points and 10 boards to lead their team.

Bathie was the player of the game. He finished with 26 points, 4 boards, and 3 assists. He shot 10 of 19 including 6 of 14 behind the arc.

Verner and Czepil each had 12. Lloyd finished with 2 points, 8 boards, and a block.

That win raised our record to 10-8. We are currently listd as 1st in the Southland, although we are 2nd in conference record.

1. Nicholls St. 3-1/10-8
2. Northwestern State 3-0/6-6
3. Texas State 2-2/7-5
4. TXAM-CC 2-0/7-8
5. SE Louisiana 2-1/5-6
6. Central Arkansas 2-2/7-7
7. Sam Houston State 2-1/4-8
8. UT-Arlington 1-3/2-12
9. McNeese State 1-2/4-8
10. Lamar 1-1/5-6
11. Stephen F. Austin 0-4/3-10
12. UTSA 0-2/2-10

Jan 19, 2009 -

Dominic Friend is back from his injury and adds some needed depth with Boyce out.

We beat a weaker Stephen F. Austin team 93-61. Johnson led the way with 20 points and 10 boards off the bench. Verner and Czepil each added 15 points. Payne had 11 points and 9 assists.

Our next game is at UT-Arlington who have dropped to 3-13. I'll play that later tonight if the Colts ends up being non-competitive.

Eaglesfan27

12-30-2007, 05:57 PM

I'd be curious to see what else you've modified in addition to his sliders. I saw your post on operationsports, I've been ranting a bit on team defense in my dynasty, it sounds like this might be a good change to make.

Only one game but here is what I used and really enjoyed. It only has a few mods from his:

Skill: All-Conference
Half Length: 20 (he has it at 16)
Simmed: 20
Game speed put at 50 as opposed to his which had it at 60 (to allow 20 minute halves not to give highly inflated stats)

Player Speed dropped to 40 (he has it at 50) to keep roughly the ratio he has. This allows for more fast breaks I think as the ball moves faster in relation to the players than default settings. It also leads to lower scores since players can't race down the court as fast.

He has fouls lower, but I think there aren't enough even with what I have now:

Charging 100
Blocking: 70
Reaching: 60
Shooting: 60
Loose Ball: 100

Everything else is at default except as noted below:

Human Defensive Awareness at 70. This is the key to his sliders I think. It's amazing how much better my guys play defense now. Of course, the CPU shooting sliders that he has helps too.

Human Dunk at 55.

I turned ball handling down to 35 for both sides in my set and I like that. It leads to a few more turnovers even if they are sometimes due to the stupid fall down animation.

I upped rebounding to 55 for the human, both offensive and defensive, as I think the CPU gives a bit of a boost at AC level.

I lowered block to 40 for both sides as default has too many blocks.

Human Steal at 55 as in his.

I upped Human Speed to 51 and dropped CPU speed to 49 as I've read and noticed that on AC it is harder to get fast breaks. That helps compensate for the slight delay I have when I steal the ball.

I lowered Team Unity to 50 as he does for both sides.

Everything he did is the same on this screen:

Steal Success, Help Defense, and Help Recovery to 55 for both sides.

From my previous sliders, I kept Injury Frequency and Effects at 60 for both sides. Injuries are still rare and usually not serious (many more when I sim games.)

I used his shooting sliders exactly:

Inside Success, Mid Range, and 3 pointer lowered to 45 for the CPU. Mid Range Tendency at 55 for the CPU, 3 point tendency at 45 for the CPU. Everything at default for the human.

I've only played 1 game, but it felt more fun and a bit easier than my previous sliders as my guys actually defended. Lots of guys over there have praised them, so I'm going to stick with this slightly modded version of them for the rest of this season unless the patch makes it necessary to modify them.

Eaglesfan27

12-30-2007, 11:16 PM

Time to get the UT-Arlington game in. Anthony Vereen, their SR PF, will be a tough machup for Lloyd. Their outside shooters don't worry me too much.

They play tough defense in the first half and we end up playing very even. We are both shooting 36% after the first half. We are up 28-27. Verner is the player of the half with 10 points. He is shooting 4 of 7 and 1 of 3 behind the arc.

With 4:03 to go, Bathie drills an open 3 to tie it at 59 in an exciting 2nd half. After we get a stop, Bathie hits another 3 on our next possession! Their SG misses a shot at the buzzer and we get on the break which Lloyd finishes with a monstrous dunk! 64-59! We get another stop as their SG misses a 3 and Czepil hits a 18 footer to make it a 7 point lead. He is now 2 of 10 for the game, but a big shot there. We exchange missed shots and they have to start intentionally fouling with 45 seconds left. We get it to Verner for the FT's. He misses the FT but gets a steal after they rebound it. They make a basket after we miss the Ft to make it a 5 point game. Payne hits both FT's to put it away.

Final score: 70-61, we win.

Bthie won player of the game with 20 points, 1 board, and 1 steal. He shot 7 of 17 and 6 of 12 behind the arc.

We held them to 39% shooting while shooting 45% ourselves. We were 10 of 25 behind the arc. They were 4 of 18. We each had 34 boards. We each had 6 turnovers. They had 8 fast break points to our 4.

Verner was our 2nd leading scorer with 18 points on 7 of 14 shooting, 3 of 6 behind the arc. He also had 2 boards and an assist. Payne had 3 points and 3 assists. Lloyd finished with 10 points, 9 boards, and 2 blocks. Paige had 8 points, 7 boards, 4 assists, and a block. Johnson had 6 points and 8 boards off the bench. Czepil had 5 points, 4 boards, and 2 assists.

Jan 31 -

We host Sam Houston State and lose a heartbreaker 64-63. Verner had 15 points, 5 boards, 3 assista, and 4 steals. He shot 4 of 10 including 4 of 9 behind the arc. Lloyd and Paige each had 10 points. Czepil had 14 points but shot 3 of 15.

Our next game is hosting Lamar who are now 8-7.

Eaglesfan27

12-31-2007, 02:38 PM

Lamar has a slightly better offense and slightly better defense, but their team unity is much worse and we are at home. Lawrence Nwevo, their senior PF, is a tough player who should be a good matchup for Lloyd. They also have good shooting guards.

They played a very high temp first half and it didn't work well early as we were up by 16 at one point, but our best 7 tired late in the half and they caught up a bit. 46-37, we lead at the half.

Bathie is the player of the half with 17 points, 2 boards, and 1 assist. He is 7 of 10 from the floor and 3 of 4 behind the arc. Verner and Czepil each have 8 points scored.

They tied it up at 64 with 8 minutes to go, but then our rested starters came back in and led us on a 13-0 run for the next 5 minutes. We used that momentum from the crowd to cruise to an easy victory in the last 3 minutes. 82-71 win.

Bathie was the player of the game with 22 points, 4 boards, and 4 assists. He shot 9 of 17, 3 of 6 from the arc, and 1 of 2.

Czepil added 21 points off the bench on 8 of 12 shooting including 5 of 9 behind the arc. Verner chipped in 15 points, 6 assists, 3 boards, and 2 steals as he shot 6 of 7. Payne had 5 points and 5 assists.

We shot 56% as a team today and held them to 39%.

Feb 7, 2009 -

We lose a game to 3-14 (now 4-14) UTSA 73-70 :(. Bathie had 21 points on 7 of 13 shooting, 6 of 10 behind the arc. However, Verner was 3 of 15 and only had 8 points. Paige fouled out in just 14 minutes.

Our next game is on the 12th against TXAM-CC.

Radii

12-31-2007, 10:05 PM

Human Defensive Awareness at 70. This is the key to his sliders I think. It's amazing how much better my guys play defense now. Of course, the CPU shooting sliders that he has helps too.

Does this mean that CPU Defensive awareness is at 50 at this level? I had it at 60 for both sides on starter difficulty.

Eaglesfan27

01-01-2008, 01:43 AM

Yes, he kept it at 50. I've won my first few games but we have a lot of good shooters. If I start beating teams that I don't think we should, I might bump the CPU Defensive Awareness to 60.

Galaxy

01-02-2008, 08:11 PM

So, what exactly is the change in your settings/sliders from the first post?

Eaglesfan27

01-03-2008, 07:21 AM

So, what exactly is the change in your settings/sliders from the first post?

Most of them are different. I'll post a clean set of what I'm using the next time I play (possibly this weekend - depending upon what my wife has planned for my birthday.)

Eaglesfan27

01-12-2008, 12:46 PM

Ok, I tweaked the OS sliders just slightly more (by raising CPU shooting 1 and decreasing human shooting 1 as well raising CPU Defensive Awareness by 5) to reduce the human advantage as I was winning some games a bit too comfortably. Here is the most recent set:

All-Conference Difficulty
Simulation
Game Speed: 50
Player Speed: 40
FT Difficulty: 55
Real Player FT%: On

Fouls:

Charging at 100
Blocking at 70
Reaching at 60
Shooting at 60
Loose Ball at 100

Human/CPU

Inside Shooting: 47/45
Mid Range Shooting: 49/46
3 point range shooting: 49/46

Midrange Tendency: 50/55
3 point tendency: 50/45

All others on that screen at default.

Attributes:

Offensive Awareness: 50/50
Def Awareness: 70/55
Dunk: 55/50
Ball Handling: 35/35
Offensive Rebounding: 45/45
Defensive Rebounding: 50/50
Block: 40/40
Steal: 50/50
Speed: 51/49

Gameplay:

Steal Success, Help Defense, and Help Recovery at 55 for both. All else default.

Fitness:

Injury Frequency and Injury Effects at 60 for both. All else at default.

Now, onto TXAM-CC which is a more talented team but we are home and they have struggled on the road.

Eaglesfan27

01-12-2008, 01:40 PM

Lloyd gets into early foul trouble with 2 in the first 3 minutes. We put Johnson in at PF.

Balanced offense from us as Lloyd came back strong in the last 10 minutes with 10 points on 5 of 5 shooting while our outside shooters are shooting reasonably well. Up 35-24 at the half.

We've held them to 37% shooting while shooting 40% ourselves and we are outrebounding them 19-12.

We win 63-54 as Verner and Bathie hit big shots down the stretch.

Verner ends up winning player of the game with 17 points, 5 boards, and a steal. He shot 5 of 10 including 5 of 8 from the arc. He was 2 of 2 from the line.

Bathie had 13 points, Lloyd finished with 15 points, 10 boards, and 1 block. Czepil added 8 off the bench.

We each shot 37%.

Eaglesfan27

01-12-2008, 01:46 PM

Feb 14, 2009 -

We win our simualted game 82-76 aainst a 8-9 SE Louisina Squad. However, Chris Paige breaks his wrist and we are now down our starting and backup center. Johnson is an explosive player but is undersized to play Center. We'll move Lloyd to center and Johnson will go into the starting lineup as a small PF. However, we now are hurting for big man depth. Fortunately, Boyce will be back in 5 days and our next game isn't for a week. So, forget that. Boyce will start at C, Lloyd at PF and Johnson will provide high energy off the bench.

In the game against SE Louisiana, Verner led the way with 15 points and 4 steals. Lloyd had 9 points, 11 boards, and 5 blocks!

We are now 15-10. Our next game is at 6-14 Stephen F. Austin. I'll play that later tonight or tomorrow. Once the patch is out, I'm planning on playing much more. I just don't want to finish this season until the patch is out.

Eaglesfan27

01-13-2008, 10:45 AM

Stephen F. Austin matches up closely talent wise, but they don't have the outside shooters that we do. Jason Rogers, their SG, is their only dangerous outside shooter.

We started off with a 11-0 run as we held them scoreless for the first 7 minutes, but then they started trapping and pressing and it got them right back into the game as we turned it over several times. 30-26, we lead at the half. Verner leads our team with 9 points.

Lloyd with a huge second half as he was on fire down low and started drawing double teams and kicking it out for my perimeter guys. Thanks to their shooting and his play, we cruise to a relatively easy victory. 71-62 win.

Verner was the player of the game with 20 points, 4 boards, and 2 assists. He shot 8 of 11, 3 of 3, and 1 of 1. He also held their star SG to just 11 points on 4 of 10 shooting, 3 of 6 behind the arc.

Lloyd had 14 points, 11 boads, 4 assists, and a block. He shot 7 of 10 (despite me lowering our inside shooting slider to 45.) Bathie chipped in 13 points and 7 boards. Johnson had 6 points and 13 boards off the bench while Boyce had 10 points and 5 boards in his first start back from his injury.

Feb 26, 2009 -

We lose our simulated game at UT-Arlington 74-65 as their star PF Anthony Vereen put on a clinic against Lloyd. He had 20 points,10 boards, and 3 blocks as he shot 8 of 17. Lloyd finished with 9 points, 6 boars, 3 assists, and a block. Verner led our tema with 16 points on 6 of 10 shooting, but everyone else shot poorly including Bathie who was 1 of 13.

We are now 16-11. Our next game is at 10-13 Sam Houston State on the 28th. They are a team with poor shooting that we should be able to beat.

Eaglesfan27

01-20-2008, 01:57 PM

I really wanted to wait for the patch, but I'm jonesing to play after watching college basketball all day yesterday. So, now we face Sam Houston State. They are slightly more talented than we are, but their team unity is worse. However, they are dangerous at their arena. Lebron Ruffin is a talented SF that we will have to guard carefully.

In my perpetual tweaking of sliders, I bumped defensive awareness down a bit for both sides as we were actually defending too well since we are a very poor defensive team ratings wise.

A high tempo first half has us down 42-41. We are shooting 60% while they are shooting 48%. Verner is leading the way for us with 12 points. Ruffin has 13 for them.

Verner with a 3 with 1:03 left to cut it to 5. Then, after forcing a quick turnover, Verner with a strong drive into the lane hits the shot and the foul! He hits the foul to pull us within 2 with 44 seconds to go!

Their center hits a little 4 foot turnaround jumper in the lane to make it a 4 point lead with 24 seconds to go. Verner with a bad play in which he steps on the line to turn it over. We intentionally foul, but they hit their FT's. Verner misses a 3 and the game is over, but we foul anyway.

74-68 loss.

Ruffin wins player of the game with 11 points, 8 boards, an 2 assists. He shot 4 of 11, 2 of 6, an 1 of 2. They outrebounded us 35-29 which was the difference in this game. We shot 45% to their 43%.

Verner led our team with 18 points on 5 of 11 shooting, 1 of 4 from the arc, 7 of 7 from the line. Bathie had 16 points on 5 of 10 shooting, 1 of 6 from the arc, 5 of 6 from the line. Lloyd had 6 points and 7 boards. Czepil had 11 points off the bench.

Eaglesfan27

01-22-2008, 01:22 PM

I'm going to play the next game rather than sim it as I'm anxious to see how it plays post-patch. Today, we play at Lamar, a team that is slightly more talented. They are small at the guard positions though and I'm hoping we can take advantage.

A strong first half in which our guards shot very well while providing solid defense. Bathie and Verner are leading the way as we are shooting 60% as a team. We are up 41-29 at the half.

On a side note, it is great to see the CPU players reaching in and trying to steal the ball. It makes the game more realistic playing.

We cruised through the 2nd half as Bathie was torrid in this game. Verner was very good as well. We played subs most of the last 6 minutes as it was well within hand. 85-70 win.

Bathie was the player of the game with 32 points on 13 of 19 shooting including 6 of 8 behind the arc.

We shot 60% for the game while holding them to 45%. We had 22 assists to their 20. We each had 4 steals (I'll probably turn the steal success slider up now that the CPU will attempt them. Before it felt like cheating as only I would attempt them.)

Verner added 16 points on 6 of 10 shooting. Boyce had 9 points an 11 boards. Payne had 6 points and 7 assists as his driving into the lane was much more effective post patch.

Our next game is the last game of the regular season before the conference tourney. That is against 8-17 UTSA.

Eaglesfan27

01-22-2008, 02:32 PM

Against UTSA, well be facing a strong PF in Antoine Dade who is 6'8 241 and is a crafty senior which should be a good matchup for Lloyd. Everywhere else, we outmatch them.

We were playing very well, but a very cold last 5 minutes of the half allows them to go on a 14-2 run that leads to being down 47-35 at the end of the half. Boyce is in foul trouble with 3 at the half.

Our cold streak continued early in the 2nd half and we ended up getting into a hole we could never climb out of. Very disappointing as we enter into the conference tourney. 86-69 loss. They had 11 steals to our 3 this game which was a big factor as well as the shooting.

Bathie was our only consistent scorer. He had 26 points on 8 of 15 shooting, 3 of 6 from the arc, 7 of 9 from the line. Verner only had 8 points. Lloyd ha 7 points and 6 boars but he shot 2 of 9.

We end the regular season at 17-13.

We face TXAM-CC in the 1st rond of the Conference Tourney. We beat them 63-54 back on Feb 12th.

Eaglesfan27

01-22-2008, 03:34 PM

A tense first 10 minutes with Justin Payne getting into early foul trouble. Bakari Lewis might be our starter next year, and he is going to get the chance to step up big here tonight.

A hard fought first half with both team having guys in foul trouble. We are down 31-28.

Bathie is leading our team with 9 points on 3 of 10 shooting. Verner has 7 points and 3 assists. He is shooting 2 of 4.

They start off the half with a 8-0 run, but after a timeout we respond with a 11-0 run led by Verner and Bathie. During the run, Payne got his 4th foul but Bakari Lewis is playing well.

Unfortunately, they get another mini-run and are up 56-53 with 10 minutes to go as Bathie has to leave the game due to fatigue. He was our main scorer during that run, so hopefully we can keep up.

With 6 minutes to go, we are down 65-62. Czepil misses a basket and Verner misses one while they get a slam and a basket to make it 69-62. Czepil finally draws a foul but misses the first FT. He hits the 2nd, but we have to get Bathie back in. Verner is getting tired so he might not make it through the stretch run..

Bathie misses a 3 and then we have an errant pass on a fast break slam... we are throwing this game away :(

Bathie misses another good looking 3 and they get a good drive for a layup to make it a 10 point lead with 2:40 to go...

I use another timeout to calm the guys down, but it is doing no good. The team is unnerved and we are falling apart. We can't hit a shot for anything. This talented team is going to fail to go the dance. With 1:27 Bathie finally hits a 3, but it is too late. We are still down by 11.

We lose 79-69 :(

Bathie finished with 30 points on 11 of 26 sooting including 8 of 19 from the arc. Verner had 13 points and 6 assists. He shot 4 of 14 including 3 of 6 from the arc.

Eaglesfan27

01-22-2008, 03:42 PM

The 4 #1 seeds are UCLA, Duke, Providence, and Texas. TXAM-CC ended up winning our conference. At least, I lost to the eventual champs I guess.

The Final 4 are:

#3 UConn which beat UCLA 67-57. #2 Washington which beat #5 UNLV 79-75. #3 Villanova which beat #5 Oklahoma State 73-71. Finally, #3 Michigan State which beat #8 Georgia 83-79.

Washington beats Georgia 85-72 to win the National Championship Game.

Ryan Bathie won Southland First Team All-Conference with an average of 14.5 ppg, 3.2 rpg, and 1.5 apg. Verner was 2nd team all conference with an average of 14.6 ppg and 3.4 rpg. Lloyd was on the Freshman All-Conference Team with an average of 7.5 ppg and 7.2 rpg.

Eaglesfan27

01-22-2008, 03:49 PM

Off Season:

Justin Payne, Gil Verner, an Ryan Bathie all graduated. Reggie Shanks a junior guard who I planned on starting this year quit the team due to lack of PT.

My job security is igh right now as we finished the year 17-14 and my career record here is 33-29.

Belmont offers me their head coaching job, but that seems like a lateral move at this point although they do have a very talented team for a small conference. Still, I pass. I'll leave, but only when it is to go to a bigger conference. I get offered multiple other jobs at small schools and pass them all up including Chattanooga and Boston University.

Now, it's time to recruit. The good news is that with Shanks leaving, I have an extra scholarship. I want to try to get a difference maker at C as far as size goes or a truly big SF to play some shut down defense.

Eaglesfan27

01-22-2008, 04:06 PM

The first day recruits can sign, we get our second recruit to sign.

Van Plavich signs. He is a 6'5 211 pound SF from New Orleans, LA. He is a 2 star SF. He is a decent shooter who has good athleticism according to our scouts. Post patch this could be better than I expected as driving is much more viable. Still, he is nothing to write home about and will hopefully only be a starter for a year or so until I can get a better player in to replace him as a starter. Next year, we'll be setting our aim higher. He is ranked 699th overall and 150th among SF's in the nation.

A reminder of the early recruit we got to sign:

Dante Newton is a 6'5 193 pound SF from McAllen, TX. He is ranked 708th overall and 156th among SF's. He is a 2 star player. Our staff believes he is a good shooter particularly from midrange.

After a week of recruiting, we get the other player we've been working on all year. PG Ted Swoger is ranked 616th overall and 142nd among PG's. He is a 2 star player from Houston, TX. He is a decent shooter with good ball handling skills and decent defensive skills according to our staff.

As I expected, the talented C from Austin TX that I was pursuing chose to sign with LSU. So, I decide to go after a C with some size with that extra scholarship rather than focusing on the most talented player. Damarcus Weatherspoon is a 7'0 250 pound C from Overland Park, KS who is a 1 star Center who is unranked. Only WIU is pursuing him and they haven't offered a scholarship.

In the 2nd to last week of recruiting, we get Damarcus to sign with us.
Our staff thinks he is slow, can't shoot, doesn't play defense well, but he can rebound, block the ball decently, and he can dunk it decently.

Eaglesfan27

01-22-2008, 04:25 PM

A look at the roster in the new year:

SO PF Michael Lloyd - Rated 68 overall and our undisputed star of the team with the graduation of our outside shooters. We are going to have to be a grind it out team and Lloyd will be a big part of that. He is now 6'11 236 pounds and we'll pound it inside to him. He has the ability to be a 16-10 guy this year at least.

JR PF Joshua Johnson - Rated 65 overall. I'm tempted to play him as an athletic big SF. He has the quickness to pull it off despite being listed as a PF. However, that would really weaken our bench as he is explosive as a quick PF that most PF's can't guard. He'll likely stay as our main guy off the bench playing both PF and SF, but if our other guys fail to step up, he'll slide into the starting lineup.

SR SG Michael Czepil - Rated 64 overall. He isn't the shooter that either Bathie or Verner was, however, he is a streaky player and when hot he can be dangerous. He is also a better passer than Bathie which helps, but doesn't have either of their size at just 6'2 189. Still, he'll get a chance to be our starting SG and will likely do so for the year.

JR PG Bakari Lewis - Rated 61 overall. He will be the starting PG by default. The true freshman, Swoger isn't ready and may never be ready to start. Bakari is the best option on te team but he isn't anything special.

RS SO SG Anatoly Bose - Rated 60 overall. He might get a chance to be the starting SF due to his long frame. He is 6'7 206 pounds. He doesn't have very good athleticism at SG but would have good athleticism at SF. He isn't a very good shooter and would be more of a slasher.

JR SG Ben Martin - Rated 60 overall. 6'4 177 and he doesn't do anything particularly well. Ok shooter.

FR SF Dante Newton - Rated 58 overall. As expected, the freshman SF is a good mid range shooter. He doesnt do much else well, but he can drill the mid range jumper. In fact, he might be the best on the team at it. Therefore, I'm considering making him the starter at SF. It's between him and Bose. One factor working against him is that our staff doesn't believe he is going to blossom much more..

RS SR C Mitch Boyce - The center is rated 57 now and has gotten bigger and is now 6'10 276. He is still a very good mid range shooter and with the departure of Verner and Bathie, he'll become a primary scoring option. I'm expecting him to put up at least 14 points a night. He'll definitely start at C this year.

RS SR PF Dominic Friend - The PF is rated 57 now and is 6'7 265. He is a good mid range shooter and I wish I had used him more last year. With the lack of stars this year, he'll get more time this year.

Van Plavich - Rated 54 overall. I'll redshirt him this year to see if he can develop some.

SR C Chris Paige - Rated 54 overall. He was hurt during the tourney and I think we missed him. 6'9 220 and he is another decent inside presence for us.

FR PG Ted Swoger - 6'0 176 pounds. Rated 54 overall. He'll be our backup PG this year. He is an ok passer and is about what I expected, except maybe not as good of a shooter as I thought he would be.

FR C Damarcus Weatherspoon - Now 7'1 260 pounds! He is rated 48 overall. We'll redshirt him this year since we have Paige, Boyce, and Friend to man the inside. I might as well give him some time to develop and see if he can become a useful player next year.

Eaglesfan27

01-22-2008, 04:45 PM

The season is underway and we are aggressively pursuing 4 3-star players. If we get 2 of them, it should be the start of a successful recruiting class.

Meawhile, we kept a slightly tougher out of conference schedule this year. I'll be playing 1, simming 1 again. Our first game is against Jackson State which is 0-1. We are hosting them and they are equal in talent to us which should enable us to win at home.

I've decided to give Dante Newton the start at SF. Two reasons. I want to have a freshman of the year in the conference and with him being one of our few outside shooters, he could do it. Secondly, I want Bose's versatility off the bench.

rjolley

01-22-2008, 04:56 PM

What's your feel on the game with the patch?

Do you control your subs or let the computer handle that? Is there a way to set your sub rotation if the computer handles it?

Groundhog

01-22-2008, 05:53 PM

Is there a way to set your sub rotation if the computer handles it?

You can assign minutes to your starters and your bench, and the CPU will attempt to stick to this rotation when auto subbing. It does keep the hot hand in the game (and vice versa), and even if you set your rotation to 9 deep, that pesky 10th guy tends to find a way on to the court, but overall it does a decent job.

Eaglesfan27

01-22-2008, 06:14 PM

The team struggled to score early, but really came alive when Bose came into the game. His size creates defensive mismatches and he traps better than any player I've had yet. Still, as he tires and leaves the ame, we are down by 6. Martin had some easy baskets in transition thanks to Bose creating fast breaks.

A very bad run at the end of the half as we get VERY sloppy with the ball and give up 5 turnovers late. We've had 14 turnovers at the half!?! Wow. I've never seen that many in a game! We are down 46-35 thanks to their fastbreak opportunities off turnovers.

Bose is showing me that he is a defensive difference maker. He may not start, but he will play a lot. I'm regretting redshirting him last year and not using him when he could have made him a difference in my tourney run. Oh well. He helped us overcome a 6 point deficit in the last 2 minutes and we are tied at 68 with the ball with 30 seconds left...

I wanted to get the ball to Lloyd down low, but they denied that well. Instead, Czepil takes a 3 which he misses. We go to overtime.

Bakari Lewis fouled in OT and Swoger was intentionally fouled down the stretch and hit 1 of 2 both times. Fortunately, our defense held and we win 81-76! Bose played some great defense and Lloyd just played all around great including 2 monster dunks!

Lloyd was the player of the game with 18 points, 10 boards, 3 assists, and a block. He shot 8 of 18, 0 of 0 from the arc, and 2 of 4 from the line.

Boyce was our 2nd leading scorer with 13 points. He also had 8 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block. Martin, Bose, and Johnson each had 9 points. Czepil and Newton each had 8. The freshman also had 3 assists and 2 boards in a solid start in which he played 20 minutes.

In 26 minutes, Bose had a spectacular game including this stat line: 9 points, 8 boards, 5 steals (love his long arms), 1 assists, 2 blocks, and 1 turnover. He shot 2 of 4 and 5 of 6 from the line. Darn, I wish I had used him more last year.

Oh well. 1-0.

Our simulated game is on Nov 14, 2009 at Pacific. They are currently 0-2. We beat them 79-67. Lloyd fouled out in just 10 minutes :( However, Bose stepped up to be the star of the game with 14 points, 8 boards, 2 assists, and 2 steals. He shot 3 of 5 and 8 of 10 from the line. Johnson who played most of Lloyd's minutes also had 14 points. Booce had 13 points. Newton had 6 points in 18 minutes.

Our next game is on the 18th at North Texas.

Eaglesfan27

01-22-2008, 06:19 PM

What's your feel on the game with the patch?

Do you control your subs or let the computer handle that? Is there a way to set your sub rotation if the computer handles it?

What Groundhog said about your last 2 questions. As far as the feel. It's not perfect, but I love it. It fixed my biggest issues with the game: Progression (it will take a few years to fix this dynasty, but it will be a few years until I'm playing with the big boys anyway), the CPU failing to attempt to steal, and the standing dunk issue. For me, those were by far the 3 biggest problems and they appear to be fixed well. Also, they tweaked the blocking inside and the defensive footwork so that guards can actually slash again. I was starting to get turned off by the game's problems and was even contemplating going back to 07, but now this game is undeniably better than 07 IMHO. It's not perfect, but it's going to be my favorite basketball console game and if there are no more versions, it will get playing time from me for years.

I can't wait until this weekend when I can play some more.

Eaglesfan27

01-23-2008, 02:22 PM

An unexpected chance to get in a game or two this afternoon.

Now, we host North Texas. They are significantly better than we are on defense. Our offenses is equal to theirs. Their team unity is horrible and at our place, I'm hoping we can take advantage of that. It should be a battle and this will be an upset if we can win. Our freshman will start at SF, but Bose will get plenty of PT.

Adham Feist, their freshman SG is rated 76 overall and is much better than any other player on the floor.

Bose was in foul trouble early in the first half as his gambling style of defense didn't work and they scored big on us. We are down 45-32 at the half. We need to get it into the post more. They are shooting 51% from the floor. Feist is leading them with 13 points and he also has 6 boards.

Johnson is our leading scorer with 6 so far. Lloyd has 5 points but we've only gotten him 2 shots. We need to get him the ball much more this half.

Thanks in large part to Bose, we managed to close within 4, but once he fouled out, our defense went down the drain and they pulled away again. 88-78 win for them.

Feist was the player of the game for them with 27 points.

Lloyd led us with 15 points, 7 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. He shot 4 of 7 and 7 of 9 from the line. Bose had 14 points, 2 boards, 1 assist, 3 steals, 2 blocks, and 2 turnovers. He shot 5 of 7 and 4 of 6 from the line. Newton the freshman, shot 2 of 11 and only ha 6 points along with 3 boards. Czepil shot 2 of 9 an had 6 points as well. Our lack of outside shooting is going to be our achilles heel all year long I suspect.

Nov 21, 2009 -

Our simulated game is at Bowling Green. We win a high scoring affair 92-90! Czepil finally breaks out of his shooting slump with 21 points on 8 of 17 shooting including 5 of 9 behin the arc. Lloy aded 14 points an 10 boars. Bose ha 12 points and 4 boards. Johnson ha 11 points and 3 boards. Newton ha 7 points, 4 boards, and 4 assists in 26 minutes.

We are now 3-1. Unfortunately, we aren't the top choice of any of the 3 star recruits we are pursuing. The one that we have the best chance of getting is JC Center Bill Ramos who is from Springfield MO. He is also considering UCA. The player I REALLY want is Bradley Keita from Nashville, TN. He averaged over 30 ppg in HS and is a deadly shooter. He has us 3rd on his list and looks like he is about to sign with Vanderbilt :(

Our next game is against Jackson State as I somehow messed up and scheduled them twice in my out of conference schedule. As a result, I'm going to go ahead and sim this one. I beat them when I played it out, 81-76. They are now 1-6. This time, we barely win 80-79. Czepil led the way with 21 points. Boyce ha 16. Bose only ha 3 and Lloyd only had 4.

As I feared, the first day of signing, all of our recruits except for 1 signed elsewhere. Bradley signed with Vanderbilt. Bill Ramos signed with UCA. I'm still going to work on trying to get some good 3 star players.

Our next game is hosting 1-7 UT-Pan American. They are much worse than us and I expect a comfortable win.

Eaglesfan27

01-23-2008, 03:29 PM

I can really tell that my team has the talent advantage. This game has been so much easier than any other game I've played this yar. We are cruising to a 39-22 lead. Lloyd is dominating inside and has two monsterous dunks. He has 11 points and 5 boards at the half.

A revelation in the 2nd half: Bose can drill the 3! He drilled quite a few of them as he was in the zone! He has started the 2nd half the last few games. With a 60-33 lead, I sit my starters with 8 minutes to go. Bose sits with 19 points which leas the team. He is 8 of 11 including 3 of 5 behind the arc!

We cruise to the easy win 67-46.

Bose wins player of the game. He finishes with 19 points, 4 boards, and 2 assists. More importantly, he played shut down defense even though he didn't have any blocks. The players he guarded went a combined 3 of 18 from the floor! I really wish I had used this lanky defender last year :(

Lloyd added 13 points, 8 boards, 1 assist, and 1 block. Boyce had 12 points and 8 boards as well. Bakari Lewis finished with 8 points and 7 assists. Newton had 7 points and 4 steals.

Eaglesfan27

01-23-2008, 05:10 PM

Dec 5, 2009 -

Two tough losses. We lose at Colorado 67-53. Also, we lose Mitch Boyce to a back strain. He'll miss about 3 weeks. Johnson was our leading scorer this game with 12 points. Bose was second with 9 points, 7 boards, 2 steals, and 2 assists.

Our next game is at 3-8 Portland. They have a very talented offense and a good defense. They should be a tough challenge for us. In particular, B.J. Porter, their SG is a very athletic SG.

Eaglesfan27

01-23-2008, 06:14 PM

A quick 15-0 run in which we couldn't hit anything and which they were drilling 3 after 3 was the difference in the first half. Down 43-28 at the half.

They are shooting 57% from the floor including 8 of 11 from the arc!

Bose and LLoyd are getting us back into the game early in the 2nd half. Bose with all around play and Lloyd with powerful inside scoring. They get us within 3, before Bose has to sit with 11:30 to go due to fatigue.

With 10:24 to go, Newton ties it at 54.

Back and forth scoring for the next 8 minutes with neither side pulling ahead by much. Newton misses 2 FT's to put us ahead with 3:36 to go.

With 1:12 to go, Bose steals it and throws it ahead to Johnson for a powerful dunk to put us ahead 80-77!

Lloyd was money in the 2nd half including hitting a shot with 16 seconds left to give us another 3 point lead. He then got the rebound when they missed a 3. Then, he drilled both FT's when they intentionally fouled him. After one more set of intentional fouls, we win by a final score of 86-79!

We were led to victory by Lloyd and Bose.

Lloyd was the player of the game. He finished with a career high 30 points. He also had 10 boards, 1 assist, and 1 block. The big guy was 12 of 13 from te field and 6 of 6 from the line. He played 31 minutes.

Bose also had a huge game with 12 points, 6 boards, 6 assists, 2 steals, and a block. He shot 4 of 9, 0 of 3, and 4 of 5. Johnson added 13 on 6 of 6 shooting (4 dunks on fast breaks) and Czepil added 10. Bakari Lewis had 0 points but 5 assists. Newton had 7 points in 14 minutes off the bench.

Edit:

Dec 26, 2009 -

We lose our simmed game to Southern Miss 103-58 which was no surprise. That was the one really good team we kept on our out of conference schedule and they showed us they are good. They advance to 8-1. Bose was our leading scorer with 13 and cemented his place as a full time starter. Lloyd had 10 points and 11 boards.

Our next game will be the start of conference play against UT-Arlington. I'll probably play that Friday night.

Eaglesfan27

01-26-2008, 12:48 PM

Today, we play at UT-Arlington. They are 8-6 and slightly more talented than we are. Their offense is slightly worse than ours and they don't have great outside shooters except for SG Marquez Haynes, but their defense is slightly better than ours. They have much better team unity and should be a tough matchup at their place.

Wow. Everything went right for us in the first half as our offense really clicked and their offense didn't. It didn't hurt that their best inside scorers both got into foul trouble within the first 4 minutes as Lloyd drew early fouls. It did come at a price as he also got into foul trouble, but Czepil, Newton, and Boyce all stepped up.

We are up 39-22 at the half. Haynes is their leading scorer with 8. Czepil is our leading scorer with 9. Lloyd has 9. Newton has 9 and Boyce has 6. They are 2 of 12 behind the arc with Haynes hitting their only 2 3's. He is 2 of 4 behind the arc.

Everything goes right in the 2nd half too as Czepil is on fire. We bench our starters with a 30 point lead and 5 minutes to go. Czepil has 31 points.

A surprising 88-53 win that was triggered by Lloyd's dominance inside and his getting their inside players into foul trouble.

Still Czepil gets the glory and the player of the game. He scored 31 points on 11 of 13 shooting including 6 of 7 behind the arc (most of those on assists that were directly or indirectly related to double teams on Lloyd down low) and he was 3 of 4 from the line. He also had 3 assists, 1 steals, and 1 board.

Bose had another solid game with 8 points (on 2 of 6 shooting), 8 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, and suffocating defense. Lloyd finished with 15 points, 6 boards, 6 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block. He shot 7 of 10. Newton had 10 points off the bench. Boyce had 11 points in his first game back in the starting lineup.

Jan 8, 2010 -

Today we play at 2-8 Lamar. We win 78-57, but we lose Bose to a back strain. He'll be out 2-3 weeks. Czepil lead the team with 19 points on 5 of 11 shooting including 4 of 8 behind the arc. Johnson had 11 points and 10 points off the bench. Newton had 8 points with the increased playing time.

We are now 8-3.

Our next game is hosting 5-5 Central Arkansas. They are very close to us in talent level with no real difference in overall team talent. Their only dangerous player from outside the arc is PG MArcus Pillow. He is their best midrange shooter as well. Chris Brown, their PF, is a good inside scorer, but he is small and Lloyd should be able to defend him.

Eaglesfan27

01-26-2008, 01:57 PM

A very good 1st half in which Lloyd dominated down low, Czepil shot well from the outside, and Newton had his finest shooting half of his career. We are up 43-28 as a result. Newton is the player of the half with 12 points on 5 of 8 shooting including 2 of 3 from behind the arc. Czepil has 8 as does Lloyd.

That margin carried us through the 2nd half as our 3 stars from the first half played big in the 2nd half. We won 75-63. Newton won player of the game! The freshman finished with 23 points, 3 boards, 2 assists, and 1 steal. He shot 9 of 19, 3 of 8, and 2 of 2.

Lloyd added 18 points, 8 boards, 1 assist, and 1 block. He shot 8 of 11. Czepil had 12 points on 4 of 9 shooting. Bakari Lewis had 6 points and 7 assists while Boyce had 9 points and 8 boards.

Jan 16, 2010 -

We host 3-9 McNeese State and beat them 61-57. Newton with a bad game as he has 0 points and 6 boards. He shot 0 of 6. Czepil was our leading scorer with 12 points on 4 of 10 shooting. Lloyd ha 10 points and 7 boards.

We are now 10-3.

Our next game is at 5-8 Texas State. They are a weak defensive team, but they have a good shooting team. They are also tough interiorly with good rebounding compared to ours.

Eaglesfan27

01-26-2008, 03:05 PM

A high paced back and forth first half that ends tied 40-40. We are each shooting 50%. Newton and Lloyd are leading us with 9.

At halftime, I realize why they are running so much. Their PG has a 92 quickness and 91 speed. The guy is much faster than Bakari Lewis and it shows. He has 9 points and 5 assists at the half. He also has forced 2 fouls on Bakari.

We come back from a 6 point deficit thanks to a few big shots from Newton with about 6 minutes left. Back and forth down the stretch until with a minute left, Lloyd hits a 4 footer with time expiring to tie it at 76. After they hit a 2, Czepil draws a foul out behind the arc! He hits all 3 of his FT's to give us the lead with 22 seconds left. Down by 1, they get off a good shot with 2 seconds left, but it clanks off the rim. Boyce rebounds it and they immediately foul. He drills both FT's and they miss the desperation 3! We win the game 81-78.

Ryan White, their speedy PG finished with 17 points and 8 assists. Their SG, John Rybak finished with 23 points and 3 assists.

However, Lloyd won player of the game as he finished with 16 points, 9 boards, 3 asssists, 2 steals, and a block. He shot 8 of 11. Bakari Lewis had a nice game with 13 points and 5 assists. Czepil had 9 points, Newton had 13 points, and Boyce had 14 points.

This team is scoring better than I expected.

Jan 27 -

We lose a simulated game hosting Northwestern State 93-79. Czepil led the team with 18 points and Johnson had 13 but no one else broke double digits. Lloyd only had 4 points as did Newton.

Northwestern State is now 9-8. Our next ame is at SE Louisiana. They are 10-5.

Radii

01-30-2008, 10:35 PM

have you made any slider adjustments since the patch? I've been out of town for a week and am just setting up my PC to get the patch tonight, so i'm a bit behind the times.

Eaglesfan27

01-31-2008, 07:30 AM

have you made any slider adjustments since the patch? I've been out of town for a week and am just setting up my PC to get the patch tonight, so i'm a bit behind the times.

Yeah, I have been tweaking sliders a fair bit, and haven't settled on a set yet. I think they have raised shooting percentages a bit with the patch. Once I settle on a set, I'll be glad to post it.

Balldog

01-31-2008, 06:39 PM

I've been using Heelfan's sliders with J-Units shooting sliders and I have been getting very good results with 20 minute halves. Fouls need boosted though.

Eaglesfan27

02-02-2008, 10:03 AM

Bose is back from his injury for this game. However, we have 4 players with minor injuries that will reduce their effectiveness: Johnson, Mallory (bench player who will never see the court anyway), Lloyd, and Bakari Lewis are all hurt.

SE Louisiana has more talent and this will be an uphill challenge. In particular, their defense can be suffocating. Daryl Arnold, their SF is a great shooter and we'll be getting Bose in early if he starts lighting it up.

A terrible first half for us. We couldn't box out and it killed us as they destroyed us 34-18 on the boards. That combined with poor shooting led to a 47-26 first half. Czepil is our leading scorer with 8 points on 3 of 6 shooting. No one else is shooting 50%.

We did better on the boards in the 2nd half, but we were just out matched. They had 3 hot shooters and they buried us. 81-51 win for them.

Their PG Chris Colvin finished with 20 points and 5 assists. He is rated 72 overall. Daryl Arnold who is also rated 72 overall had 17 points and 6 assists as Bose couldn't shut him down as Arnold is almost as tall as Bose an is much more talented.

Czepil was our only double digit scorer with 17 points on 6 of 15 shooting.

That loss drops us to 11-5.

Feb 3, 2010 -

We win our simulated game at UTSA 64-62. Boyce leads the tam with 10 points and 7 boards. Newton had 8 points and 8 boards. Lloyd wo is still hurt was 1 of 8 and only had 2 points and 1 board. Our next game is against 4-11 Sam Houston State.

We are at home, but they are a slightly more talented team despite the record. Tey are another team that can be suffocating defensively, particularly dangerous as I think I now have realistic sliders that make the midrange game more realistic to college basketball. Therefore Boyce and Czepil are my only really reliable options from midrange, although Newton has the potential to become a very good midrange shooter.

Their most dangerous player is their freshman T.J. Morrison, a SF who is rated 72 overall and can do many different things. He'll be a very tough player for us to stop.

Eaglesfan27

02-02-2008, 10:05 AM

I've been using Heelfan's sliders with J-Units shooting sliders and I have been getting very good results with 20 minute halves. Fouls need boosted though.

That is almost what I'm using for the last few games with fouls boosted. I've only made slight tweaks from that.

Eaglesfan27

02-02-2008, 11:22 AM

A back and forth first half with Czepil hitting 2 big 3's early to get us going. 29-29 at the half. Czepil and Bose each have 8 to lead our team.

A close game down the stretch in which they take a 2 point lead with 2:48 to go. 65-63. Lloyd gets stripped down low, but gets a stop at the other end. After they get a defensive stop, Morrison gets a fastbreak dunk. 67-63, 1:40 to go.

Czepil draws a foul outside the arc after coming off a great screen by Lloyd! He hits all 3 FT's. 67-66. 1:11 to go.

Bakari Lewis gets us the steal! We try to fastbreak but they get back. Bakari gets an open lane and tries to drive and lay it in but he misses it. They get the board nad we have to foul.

They hit 1 of 2. We are down by 2 with 30 seconds to go. They foul Lloyd down low and we are in the bonus so he goes to the line. He hits the first FT. He makes the 2nd pressure FT!!! Tied at 68 with 17 seconds to go.

With 9 seconds to go, their PF draws a foul on Lloyd. Lloyd fouls out and they go to the line as they are in the double bonus :(

We get the ball up the floor quickly, we get Czepil an ok look behind the arc. He misses the 3 with 3 seconds to go. We immediately foul as they get the board. Their center misses the 1st but makes the 2nd. We are now down by 3.

We get Czepil a look but his foot was on the line, it doesn't matter as he misses the shot. We lose 71-68. :(

Josten Crow, their junior SG was the player of the game with 16 points, 3 assists, 3 boards, and 2 steals. He shot 6 of 11 and 1 of 4 from the arc. He was 3 of 7 from the line.

Bose led us with 18 points on 6 of 12 shooting, 2 of 4 from the arc, and 4 of 4 from the line. He also had 3 assists, 1 board, and a steal. Czepil had 16 points and 5 assists He shot 5 of 13 including 3 of 9 behind the arc. Lloyd had 8 points and 8 boards on 2 of 7 shooting.

Feb 11, 2010 -

In no surprise, we lose our simulated game to TXAM-CC 71-48. They are the class of the league and are now 15-4. Chester Toppert, their center is rated 82 and is a beast in this league. He put up 16 points and 9 boards against us as well as 2 blocks.

Our next game is at 7-13 Stephen F. Austin. We need to win that one.

Eaglesfan27

02-02-2008, 01:27 PM

A very well played first half in which we dif everything well except for rebounding where we were beat. Still, we are up 38-29 thanks to excellent offensive execution.

Czepil is the player of the half with 10 points, 2 assists, 2 steals. He is 2 of 7 from the floor but is 5 of 6 from the line. Lloyd has an efficient 7 points. Bose has chipped in with 6.

Another close game as we are tied at 61 with 4:06 to go.

Poor offense on both sides, but we get it back with 50 seconds to go. We are down 66-64. Czepil with a good drive gets a 5th foul on one of their stars, their center, and gets to the line for 2 FT's!

He hits both FT's to tie it at 66.

We get the board on a miss and Bakari Lewis gets their backup center on the perimeter, he fakes him out dribbles into the lane and draws a foul. He hits both FT's to put us up by 2 with 10 seconds to go!

A good ball fake gets Bose and gets them a good shot in the lane and they hit with 2 seconds to go. Tied at 68. We miss the buzzer beater and we are going into OT.

Both teams missing shots, but we each make a few to make it 72-72 with 1:34 to go.

I don't believe it! What a finish! With 31 seconds left, they went up 74-73 thanks to their PF making two free throws (after Boyce only hit 1 of 2 for us on a previous possession.) With 4.5 seconds left, Czepil tried a 3 but he missed it. Lloyd grabbed the board but was surrounded. He threw it out to a wide open Bose behind the arc who swished the 3 as the buzzer was sounding! What a win! What a Win! I freaked out at first because the game did an odd little hitch as it recorded the achievement of a buzzer beater ;)

We win 76-74.

We each shot 38%. We were outrebounded 41-39. They had 13 steals to our 11. We had 4 blocks to their 0.

Czepil wins player of the game, but I think Bose should have gotten it for drilling that shot Czepil finished with 16 points, 3 steals, 2 assists, 1 board. He shot 4 of 15, 1 of 10 from the arc, and 7 of 8 from the line.

Bose also had 16 points and really should have been player of the game. He also had 6 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals. He shot 6 of 10, 3 of 6 from the arc, and 1 of 1 from the line.

Lloyd added 15 points and 13 boards. No one else hit double digits.

Feb 18 -

We are surprised by Texas State who beat us 83-73. Czepil had 18 points and Bose had 10, but no oe else hit double digits. Texas State is now 6-15 and we drop to 13-8. We need some more outside shooters desperately.

Our next game is at 15-8 Northwestern State. I'll play that later tonight or tomorrow.

Bose's shot at the end was the Pontiac Game Changing Performance.

Eaglesfan27

02-02-2008, 11:05 PM

Northwestern State is one of the better rated teams in the conference and will be a tough matchup on the road. They are the 2nd best offense in the conference and they have a solid defense.

Jarryd Broermann, their SO SG is a highly rated player (at least for this conference,) and will be a tough guard for Czepil.

A very defensive first 5 minutes with it being 2-2 5 minutes in. However, it opened up a bit after that. 26-25, we are down at the half. Czepil is our leading scorer with 7. Our defense is being very tenacious, particularly on their star SG who is a good 3 point shooter and has drilled the 3 both times we've left him open.

With 2:05 to go, Newton with a 16 footer to put us up 60-59! A defensive stop leads to a fast break. Czepil is fouled on the fast break and hurts his knee :(

Swoger comes in to take the FT's and he misses them both :( But, we get the offensive board and Bakari Lewis hits a little jumper in the lane. 62-59.

Their center gets baskets down low on their next 2 possessions to give them a 1 point lead with 35 seconds to go. Bose misses the shot with 4 seconds to go. They get the board. We foul but time runs out before we can get off a shot.

63-62 loss.

We each shot 34% this game. We outrebounded them 44-31 but it wasn't enough.

Czepil led our team with 17 points on 5 of 14 shooting, 2 of 10 from the arc.

Boyce had 13 points. Lloyd had 8 points and 17 boards along with 4 blocks. He also had 5 turnovers.

The news is good. Czepil just sprained his knee and will be DtD for 3-7 days. He'll play in our remaining games.

Feb 27, we host 14-9 SE Louisiana that blew us out by 30 a few weeks ago. This time they beat us 62-55. Czepil had 22 points and 8 boards. However, no one else had more than 6 points.

In-season recruiting just ended and it looks very bleak. There is a HUGE amount of competition for the 3 star players I'm going after and there is quite a bit for even the 2 star player I'm pursuing :(

Our next game is against 12-15 UTSA. I'll play that tomorrow and most likely finish the season tomorrow, unless this team does better in the tourney than I expect. Next year, unless we get 1 or 2 good shooters in the offseason, we are going to have to be a grind it out defensive oriented team that relies on size. I don't think we have the shooting or size to do either well enough to make noise this year.

Eaglesfan27

02-03-2008, 12:05 PM

UTSA is one of the weaker teams we've faced this year, but they are still slightly more talented than we are. However, with the home crowd, we should win this one. With our current record of 13-10, I expect and want us to hit at least 15 wins this year.

Mitch Boyce will have a tough time against their center, Ismael Fellows. Their 6'11 260 pound center is a decent big man.

In the first half, we weren't hitting enough shots as Czepil was our only somewhat reliable shooter while they were on fire. They shot 58% in the first half as we shot 26%. Our rebounding was sound which kept us from getting blown out, but we are down 39-25.

Clark, their SF has 16 points as he has been scoring from all over the court. He is 7 of 11 from the floor and neither Bose nor Newton can slow the big kid down.

Czepil is our leading scorer with 10. He is 3 of 8 from the floor. No one else has more than 4 points.

Czepil has had an explosive 2nd half so far, but with 10 minutes to go he is exhausted. He has brought us to within 9. Now, to see if the rest of our team can respond while he rests. 57-48.

Martin comes in off the bench and he is on fire! He hits a few mid range jumpers and then 2 3's! We are within 2!

However, Martin misses his next 2 and Bose misses 2 and they are back up by 10 quickly after that.

By the time, we get Czepil back in, we are down by 12 again. 74-62 - 5 minutes to go.

We just couldn't get enough defensive stops and that was the difference. 81-72 loss.

Clarke was the player of the game as their SF had 22 points, 4 boards, and 3 assists.

Czepil with a career high 33 points this game. He also had 2 assists and 2 boards. He shot 9 of 20, 6 of 15, and 9 of 10. Pretty impressive with these more demanding sliders which have exposed my more mediocre shooters. Martin had 11 points off the bench. Boyce had 9 points and 8 boards. Bose had 7 points and 6 asssists. Lloyd had 6 points and 7 boards.

There went our best chance at 15 wins. Now, I'm just hoping we can stay at above .500. To do that, we need to win this last regular season game of the year which is a simmed game against 8-14 Sam Houston State at their place.

Unfortunately, we lose that 85-75. Czepil led the team with 17 points. Johnson had 9 points and 6 boards. Lloyd only had 5 points and 5 boards.

We are 13-12 and entering the conference tourney as the #8 seed which means we get to face #1 seed TXAM-CC who are 21-4. This won't be pretty. They are rated 12 points better than us overall which is by far the best team we've faced this year. They have starters rated 70 or higher at every position. They should crush us. If it is a bad blowout, I'll probably sim to the end of this game.

Eaglesfan27

02-03-2008, 01:11 PM

The scary thing is none of their starters are seniors.

Shocking first half as hang in there. We play slow down basketball and our 3 point shooters are shooting decently. Meanwhile, we are playing very hard on defense and holding them to a reasonable 39% shooting. We are down 32-28 at the half. Watt is the player of the half. Their agile PF has 7 points and 6 boards. Martin leads us with 10 points off the bench! Czepil has 8 points.

I thought that Bose might take over the SG spot next year, but Martin is at least making a statement that he might be the guy for the spot with his production these last few games.

Their defense just became suffocating in the 2nd half and Czepil was the only guy hitting shots. We tried to keep it slow paced as they were more athletic and would have killed us in the a running game, but it didn't matter. They won 64-49.

Demond Watt won player of the game with 13 points, 15 boards, 2 assists, 2 blocks, and 1 steal.

Czepil led our team in scoring with 17 points. He shot 7 of 17 and 3 of 10 from the arc. Not a bad last year for the senior.

He averaged 14.7 ppg this year along with 2.8 rpg, 1.7 apg, 0.9 spg, and 0.2 bpg.

We finish the year 13-13 as I'm sure that we won't make any tourneys.

Eaglesfan27

02-03-2008, 01:23 PM

A look at our other stats this year:

Lloyd was our 2nd leading scorer with 9.4 ppg. He also had 7.1 rpg, 1.7 apg, 1.3 bpg.

Bose finished with 9.3 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 1.7 apg, 1.0 spg, and 0.3 bpg.

Boyce finished wth 8.1 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 1.0 apg, and 0.8 spg.

Johnson finsiehd with 6.8 ppg, 3.9 rpg, and 0.7 apg in 20 mpg off the bench.

Newton in his Freshman year had 6.2, 2.7 rpg, and 1.2 apg. He averaged 21 mpg.

Bakari Lewis averaged 4.7 ppg and 3.5 apg.

Around the Nation the Leading Scorers:

1. JR C Kevin Love, UCLA 27 ppg
2. SR SG Stephen Curry, Davidson 26.9 ppg
3. SR SF Jonathan Rodriguez, Campbell 26.8 ppg
4. SR SG Jeremy Wise, Southern Miss 26.5 ppg
5. SR PG Joshua Mack, Coastal Carolina 25.3 ppg
6. SR PG James Florence, Mercer 24.3 ppg
7. SR PF Nick Aldridge Western Carolina 24.2 ppg
8. JR SF Bill Walker, Kansas State 24 ppg
9. JR PF Gani Lawal, Georgia Tech 23.7 ppg
10. SR C Deon Thompson, UNC 23.4 ppg

Leading Rebounds:

1. Georgy Keller, AF 10.2
2. Thomas Coleman, NCAT 10
3. Herb Pope, NMSU 9.8
4. Calvin Williams, SEMO 9.4
5. Ousmane Cisse, EIU 9.3

Leading Assists:

1. Devan Downey, SCAR 8.1
2. Johnny Wolf, UNCW 8.0
3. Ronald Moore, SIE 7.9
4. Ishmael Smith, Wake 7.2
5. Jerome Randle, Cal 7.2

Leading Steals:

1. Devan Downey, SCAR 2.7 (kid also averaged 15 ppg)
2. Jerome Goode, MSM 2.6
3. Frank Davis, TNTC 2.4
4. Chris Kramer, Pur 2.2
5. D.J. Rivera, JOES 2.2

Leading Blocks:

1. Trevor Booker, Clem 3.4
2. John Garcia, Hall 2.9
3. Matthew-Bryan Amaning, Wash 2.7
4. Hasheem Thabeet, Conn 2.5
5. Shane Guinn, Oregon 2.5

Eaglesfan27

02-03-2008, 01:28 PM

The #1 seeds:

Texas, Seton Hall, Duke, and Florida.

What Happens to the #1 Seeds:

Florida loses to 5 seed Dayton in the Sweet 16 82-78. Dayton then loses to #3 LaSalle which goes to the Final 4.

#1 Duke cruises through every game and goes to the Final 4 to face LaSalle.

#1 Texas struggles with #4 Alabama 72-69 and #3 Georgetown 74-69, but they make it to the Final 4.

#1 Seton Hall loses in the 2nd round to #8 Arizona State. Arizona State doesn't get tested much until they face USC in the Elite 8. That game is an offensive battle but Arizona State win 91-89. Arizona State will face Texas in the Final Four.

Eaglesfan27

02-03-2008, 01:46 PM

The Final 4:

Texas destroys Arizona State 89-61. PF Damian James was the player of the game with 31 points and 12 boards. Texas had 4 starters in double figures.

Duke also easily disposes of LaSalle. Zoubek had 20 points and 9 boards. PF Lance Thomas had 29 points and and 3 boards. Kyle Singler had a relatively quiet night with 12 points and 8 boards.

Duke wins the Championship in a game they controlled from start to finish and finishes 35-4. Kyle Singler scored 29 points and Zoubek had 26 points to lead Duke in the 88-64 win.

Kevin Love wins the Player of the Year Award. Too bad for UCLA that he was injured during the tourney or they might have advanced further then the Sweet 16.

Stephen Curry wins the Mid Major Player of the Year.

Coach K wins Coach of the Year.

Vernon Goodridge, LaSalle wins Defensive Player of the Year. He averaged 1.3 spg and 2.4 bpg along with 8.3 rpg.

Love wins the Big Man of the Year Award.

Maury Gomez of George Washington wins Freshman of the Year. He is rated 78 overall and averaged 7.3 ppg and 7.4 rpg.

The All-American Team:

PG Deonta Vaughn, Cin 19.3 ppg 5.0 apg
SG Jeremy Wise, USM 26.5 ppg, 3.9 rpg
SF Bill Walker, KSU 24 ppg, 6.6 rpg
PF Gani Lawal, GT 23.7 ppg, 7.1 rpg
C Kevin Love, UCLA 26.9 ppg, 8 rpg.

Freshman All-American Team:

PG Bienvenu Stehly, Texas 5.3 ppg 5.6 apg
SG Randall Ryan, Lsu 8.4 ppg 4.9 apg.
SF Harvey Delfico, Ariz 7.3 ppg, 4.9 rpg
PF Jair Admundson, Joes 9.0 ppg, 6.0 rpg
C Maury Gomez, GW, 7.3 ppg 7.5 rpg

In the Southland, interestigly, UTA's coach won Coach of the Year despite TXAM-CC winning the conference.

Demond Watt, TXAM-CC won player of the year in the conference.

Erwin Wente, a PF for Southeastern Louisiana from Jackson, MS won Conference Freshman of the Year. He averaged 6.5 ppg and 5.3 rpg. He is rated 68 overall.

TXAM-CC had 4 guys on the First Team All Conference Team. UCA ad the other, their PG.

Czepil did make second team all conference.

Good news! The school is very happy with my performance. They just offered me a 5 year extension!

Now, to the bad news: 2 of our leading offensive options just graduated. 5 players in total graduated:

Czepil, Boyce, Friend, Paige, and Mallory are graduating. We will really miss Boyce's ability to spread the floor and Czepil's 3 point shooting ability. Right now, we have no one who can shoot the 3 even somewhat reliably.

UC-Irvine has offered me their head coach job. Its tempting. California is beautiful. They have a VERY talented sophomore center as well as a good freshman PF and a good SF. There is no doubt I'd be going to a team with more talent. However, I really wanted my first job that I jump for to be in a mid-major conference.. I'll probably kick myself for this, but I turn the job down. I want to get to USC in 3 steps or less and this is too much of a lateral move.

Eaglesfan27

02-03-2008, 02:08 PM

3 of the guys I offered scholarships signed with other schools and I'm already regretting not going to UC-Irvine. Dokun Ellis, a PG who could have started right away went to Alcorn State which is closer to his home town. Wayne Isham, a PF who could have contributed chose Louisiana Lafayette over us. Worst of all, the PG I've really been working on from Texas chose to stay in his home state and will go to UTA.

We MUST steal Konrad Pritchard from UNO where he is leaning. the kid is from New Orleans and he is leaning there over us, but he could be an immediate starter for us. I must make him see that. According to our film, he is a good shooter and tremendous defender.

Darn, after two weeks of heavy recruiting, Konrad chooses UNO. Wasted time and now I might lose out on other guys.

In the 3rd week of recruiting, we finally get 2 recruits:

SF Dwon Grochowalski is a 6'7 235 pound SF from Baton Rouge, LA who I primarily recruited for his size since I want to try to grind it out. However, after recruiting him for a bit, my staff thinks the kid is a good shooter. If so, this will be a very pleasant surprise and the kid coul be an important contributor. He is a 2 star player who is ranked 780th overall and 155th at his position. He averaged 7 ppg in the ABL on 42% shooting including 18% from behind the arc.

SF Jeff Spencer was the only 2 star player that we recruited all year long and it paid off as we got him. He is ranked 461st overall and 101st among SF's. He is from San Antonio, TX. He is a 6'6 210 pound SF and our staff believes he is a very solid outside shooter. He everaged 10.5 ppg in the ABL on 41% shooting including 36% behind the arc.

In the 2nd to last week of recruiting, we get another player that I'm not particularly enthused about, but he should add some depth:

PG Vinnie O'Brien is a 6'0 178 PG from New Orleans, LA. He is ranked 632 overall and 164 among PG's. He doesn't thrive in any area but is ok in most. He didn't play in the ABL. We wouldn't have signed him if we could have gotten Konrad, but we'll see what this kid can do.

With our last scholarship, we are trying to get a player from Lithuania that I've been recruiting all year, but it is looking like he'll just play ball in Europe. Unless he changes his mind in this final week:

Yep, he chose ball in Europe. Too bad, he looked like a terrific shooter. Still, I think I may have gotten at least one good outside shooter. If not, I got two guys with size which is a plus for my plan to play big this year and be a defensive minded grinding team.

Eaglesfan27

02-03-2008, 02:30 PM

Top 5 classes:

1. Louisville
2. Texas
3. W. Virginia
4. Michigan State
5. USC

A look at our roster as the season approaches:

PF Michal Lloyd - He has grown into a 7'0 240 pound player. With the more realistic sliders his average inside game means he is just a decent scorer inside and nothing special. However, he is a great inside defender and is a blocking machine. Obvious starter and one of the stars of the team as he is rated 69 overall.

SF Jeff Spencer - A major surprise particularly post patch with lower rated recruits. 6'6 220 now and rated 66 overall. A good perimeter defender. A decent 3 point shooter, best on our team sadly. A fast player for his position. Worst problem is questionable durability. There is no doubt that he will win the starting position.

SF/PF Joshua Johnson - 6'7 222. In our new scheme he'll get more time at SF possibly. Either way, the explosive dunker will get to see the court off the bench. He is also one of our best mid range shooters which still is a sad statement. We are a very poor shooting team. He also is one of our best 3 point shooters and is our best dunker. Will see plenty of PT off the bench. Rated 66 overall.

PG Bakari Lewis - 6'0 193. Rated 63 overall. Best attribute is his speed. When he can blow by his man, he is a good PG, but too many PG's can match him in that department. He doesn't excel in any area.

SG Ben Martin - 6'4 182 pounds and surprisingly good 3 point shooter at times, better than his rating would suggest. Ratings suggest he shouldn't do much well. Still, he'll get more looks from this year, but I've decided not as a starter, but as an energy guy off the bench.

SG Anatoly Bose - 6'7 215. Lanky defender doesn't excel in any area but his size creates problems for most opposing SG's. He can be a suffocating defender with his length. He has the speed to stick with most 2's. Decent outside shooter. Rated 61 overall. He'll start at SG in our big lineup.

SF Dante Newton - 6'5 201. Good midrange shooter who can't create his own shot due to poor athleticism and had trouble last year with creating space for himself. Still, as our best midrange shooter, he should get some time off the bench.

PG Vinnie O'Brien - 6'0 180. The Freshman PG looks better than Swoger who never clicked with me or the team. He'll be the primary option off the bench the point despite not thriving in any area. Rated 56 overall.

SF Dwon Grochowalski - 6'8 236. I'm considering redshirting this freshman, but I doubt I'll be at this school for too many years more and this kids size will work with my gameplan. He doesn't thrive in any area and he looks like he'll be a mediocre shooter this year, but with his size he'll get some PT this year in games where we are leading and want more defense off the bench. Rated 56 overall.

Van Plavich - RS FR is rated 55 overall and probably won't see the court.

Ted Swoger - SO PG is rated 54 and I don't like how he plays. Won't see the court unless either of the PG's in front of him is injured.

Nathan Lhota - Walkon SF with size (6'8 220) won't see the court unless a lot of injuries. Rated 49 overall.

DaMarcus Weatherspoon - 7'2 270 but very limited. Very little offensive game except for dunking. Poor passing and handling. Ok post defender. decent shot block instincts that should be better due to his size. Has good strength. Poor stamina. Lloyd will slide to center when he is tired and Johnson will get in at PF at those times. Rated 48 overall

Oliver Minyem - Walkon Center who is 6'9 240 and probably will never see the court. Rated 48 oveall.

Eaglesfan27

02-03-2008, 04:03 PM

I didn't adjust our schedule too much this year except to remove a few big time programs. Our first game is against a tougher opponent as we'll be traveling to play Cal Poly. They are rated 76 overall while we are down 1 point from last year at 68. However, our defense is up from last year while our offense is down. Both teams have terrible team unity right now.

I kept referring to this team as a defensive grind it out team, and that probably wans't quite right. We are going to be a defensive oriented risk taking team. We have size on most teams and we are trapping a fair bit. As a result, we should have some high scoring games. We are giving up some easy baskets and also getting some turnovers. Although, we are only trapping for a few minutes this first half so it's not too high. 38-37, we lead at the half.

Thoughts from the first half:

O'Brien has won the backup PG job. He did something I can't remember Swoger doing all year - drill a 3. Also, he is quicker and a better penetrator. Weatherspoon despite his rating actually made one little jump hook shot. The big man hasn't done much and hasn't blocked any shots. He is too slow to be very effective. Still, he has 5 points, 2 boards, and 2 assists. We are going to up the search on a more athletic big center.

Newton is our leading scorer with 7 points off the bench in just 8 minutes. Martin has 6 points off the bench. Of course, we started trapping and running more then were in the game and our opposition was tired.

We lose 89-68 and Weatherspoon manages to play himself out of the starting spot. He didn't play terribly, but he lacks the footspeed to play effectively in the system we want to run. He'll become a bench player that will get a few minutes a game and we'll go with a more athletic lineup with Lloyd starting at center and Johnson finally getting the well earned start at PF.

Weatherspoons's stats in 28 minutes: 7 points, 3 boards (terrible for such a big man) and 3 assists. 0 blocks.

Johnson in 22 minutes had 12 points and 5 boards. His 12 points led the team. Lloyd had 9 points, 12 boards, and 2 blocks in 29 minutes.

Spencer in his first start had 6 points in 20 minutes. Bose had 5 points in 2 minutes as his man outclassed him today. Bakari Lewis had 6 points and 3 assists. In a surprise, O'Brien had 7 points off the bench as he was 2 of 2 behind the arc.

Our next game is the following night as our west coast trip continues with a game at UCSB on the 7th.

We lose that game 84-72 as their PF has 42 points! He shot 18 of 28!

Ryan Crumbley just dominated us.

He helped foul out Johnson, Lloyd, and Weatherspoon quite quickly as none of them played more than 14 minutes.

Bakari Lewis led the team with 18 points and 6 assists. Bose had 11 points and 5 boars. Spencer had a nice game with 13 points and 7 boards. At 0-2 our road trip continues with a 3rd game in 3 nights as we travel to play Penn. I'll play that later tonight most likely.

Eaglesfan27

02-04-2008, 12:01 AM

Actually, our 3rd game of the year is back at home against Penn. They are rated 74 overall in talent while our talent rating has increased to 70 with the lineup changes I've made.

Tyler Bernardini, a senior SF is a skilled player who we will have to guard carefully. Spencer will have the main responsibility to start out.

Not the type of defense I'd like, but our offense has been surprisingly effective. We are down 40-34 at the half. We are shooting 38% and rebounding the ball well. Lloyd is very effective at center as he has too much speed for his man to guard at times.

Zamore their SG is the player of the half with 9 points. Their PG and SF each have 8.

We are led by our front court players. Spencer has 10 points as the Freshman has been making some nice drives and has hit some pull up jumpers. Lloyd has 9 points and 5 boards. We'll need a big second half from Lloyd and will be looking for him frequently.

We continue to struggle to score unless we gamble on defense and generate points that way. But, we give up more than we genetrate. This game we lost 87-77.

Thoughts:

The big center, Weatherspoon, looked good in a much more limited role in which he could go full bore hustling constantly instead of conserving energy.

- If Spencer can develop a consistent outside shot, he could be a star for us. As it is, he is a great slasher, a good perimeter defender (when I'm not asking him to trap and other play gambling defense), and an ok shooter.) As it was, he was our leading scorer with 20 points, 2 boards, 2 steals. He shot 7 of 17 including 1 of 6. He was so cold behind the arc they were daring him to shoot backing off of him (probably because he was burning guys off the dribble), but he couldn't make them pay. If he develops that consistent outside shot, he'll be great.

Lloyd is really thriving in the center role. We MUST get him an outside shooter this year in recruiting so that his senior year next year isn't wasted. I know that we could do great things in the conference with him in the middle if he had just a bit more help. As it is, he had a solid game with 13 points, 11 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, and a block.

Bose is struggling to be that impact player at SG this year. Perhaps, his speed was better suited for SF and he just isn't fast enough to be an impact player at SG. As it is, he had 6 points, 4 boards, 3 assists, and 3 steals. The player he was guarding shot 5 of 10 and had 15 points this game. However, I did ask Bose to gamble a lot, too.

Nov 10, 2010 -

We lose a game hosting Florida Atlantic. We lose 68-61. Johnson led us with 13 points and 9 boards. Lloyd had 10 points and 6 boards. Spencer had 7 points and 2 boards.

We are now 0-4, but our next game is against another 0-4 team, the Southeast Missouri State Redhawks. They are rated 67 in overall team talent while we are at a 70. Our first advantage of the year. I'm off the next 3 days, so I'll play that tomorrow.

Eaglesfan27

02-04-2008, 10:56 AM

We have every advantage today against the Redhawks. We are at home. Our offense and defense are both more talented and we have better team unity. However, they do have a good PF/C in Augustine Munir who should give Lloyd a challenge.

We are up 29-27 at the end of the half.

Thoughts on the half:

We are struggling to put them away due to the lack of proven perimeter scorers. Spencer is scoring when he drives, but his outside shot is no where to be found. Bose can't hit a basket tonight. The only guy scoring tonight with consistency is Johnson who even hit a 3 and we'll turn to him more in the 2nd half. We aren't gambling this half and our defense is doing much better as we've held them to 30%. However, with the lack of turnover driven generated fastbreaks we are shooting 24%!?!

Johnson is the player of the half. He has 15 points on 4 of 8 shooting, 1 of 1 from the arc, and 6 of 6 from the line. He also has 4 boards and a block at the half. Spencer has 7 points. Lloyd has 3 points and 5 boards.

Up 55-52 with 1:15 to go, Bakari Lewis manages to get into the lane to draw two FT's. He hits both critical FT's in this scoring challenged game. Our next possession, Bose hits what might have been our 1st 3 of the game to make it 60-52 to put it away.

No, it was our 2nd 3 of the game. We are 2 of 16 from behind the arc.

Spencer gets the board after they miss a 3 and they intentionally foul him. He misses both FT's but Johnson gets the offensive board. When it's all done, we get our first win of the year 61-52.

Joshua Johnson wins player of the game. He finished with 20 points, 13 boards, 1 steal, and 1 block. He shot 6 of 13, 1 of 1, and 7 of 7.

Lloyd added 12 points and 10 boards. Spencer had 10 points and 5 boards. Bose had 12 points and 6 boards. Bakari Lewis had 5 points, 5 boards, and 4 assists.

We shot 30% tonight while they shot 28%.

Nov 23 -

We get our 2nd win of the year against 4-1 IPFW as we beat them 83-78. Spencer finally finds his shooting touch and his 3 of 4 3 pointers as he leads the team with 15 points. Bakari Lewis scored 12 and Lloyd ha 9 as did Johnson. Bose finished with 8. Newton and Martin each had 8 off the bench.

Eaglesfan27

02-04-2008, 11:09 AM

The first week of early recruiting we get crushed as lose out on 3 kids that were pursuing. All of them were great outside shooters. The only player that it looks like we are going to get is a 7'1 240 JC FR Center from New Orleans who looks more athletic than our current behemoth.

We fail to get Dexter Grafs, the center, to sign during the early period. Hopefully, no one steals him from us later in the season. Hopefully, we can get anyone to shoot the ball. Our best prospect is a Erwin Perry, a 6'2 175 pound SG from Knoxville, TN but he is a bit of a long shot and more likely to go to Chatanooga.

Our other long shot is PG Salim Ballard from Houston TX. He is favoring Tulane right now, but we are 3rd on his list.

Our final recruit we are pursuing is an international player. Dramane Pekkola is a 6'5 215 pound SG from Finland who is reportedly a good outside shooter.

Eaglesfan27

02-04-2008, 12:25 PM

Today we play 3-5 Princeton. We match up very closely with them as we are both rated 70 overall in team talent.

They are a higher rated shooting team and are rated better offensively. We are rated higher defensively and in rebounding. We also have better team unity.

In the first half, Jeff Spencer has come alive! He's finishing on the fast break with nasty dunks and he has hit 3 of 4 3's! If he can shoot the outside shot like that, he could turn our season around. He is the player of the half with 13 points and 2 boards. We are up 29-26.

Crap. Poor attention to detail might cost me as Lloyd fouls out with 12 minutes to go!

With 2 minutes to go, we were up 54-51. We missed 2 3's but got offensive boards by our big men. However, we finally missed again and they got the ball back and scored to make it 54-53 with 33 seconds left.

They intentionally foul Bakari who misses the FT. Weatherspoon gets the offensive board and is immediately fouled. The big man is a surprisingly good FT shooter, but he misses it. They get a 3 point attempt which they miss and Weatherspoon gets the board and is fouled again. This time he hits the first FT but misses the 2nd. 3 seconds left, we are up by 2.

They miss the desperation 3 and we win 55-53. Bakari Lewis with good defense on that last second shot.

Spencer with a much cooler second half shooting, but he wins player of the game. He finishes with 16 points and 3 boards. He shot 6 of 13 and 4 of 9 from the arc. Bakari Lewis had 10 pints as did Martin. Johnson had 10 boards. Lloyd had 7 points and 7 boards before he fouled out.

Weatherspoon in his first extended action did ok. In 18 minutes he had 1 point, 9 boards, and 1 block. Bose continues to struggle as a SG. He had 2 points, 1 board, and 2 assists, althoug he did hold his man to 2 of 7 shooting. Speaking of good defense, Spencer's man was 3 of 14 from the floor.

That win makes us 3-4 and the improved outside shooting (I have Spencer, Lewis, Bose, and Martin only working on shooting) have me hoping that this season might be salvaged yet.

Dec 15 -

We pull off a bit of an upset win at Louisiana Tech, 75-74. We did it with balanced scoring. Lloyd had 14 points, 6 boards and 3 blocks. Johnson had 12 points and 6 boards. Bose had 11 points. O'Brien had 10 points off th ebench as he hit 2 of 3 3 pointers. Spencer had 4 points and 10 boards.

We are now 4-4.

Next up, we host a team we should blow out. Longwood Lancers are 2-12 and they are only rated 63 oveall. They are a terrible shooting team. They are rated 63 defensively. They are bad at everythng except rebounding which they are rated 77, the same as us.

Eaglesfan27

02-04-2008, 01:41 PM

A back and forth first half with each team scoring 35 points. We are each shooting 41% as well. Finally, our outside shooting is starting to come together as Spencer, Martin, and O'Brien have each hit at least 1 3.

Spencer is the leading scorer with 10 points. He is showing great athleticism around the rim. He is 3 of 5 from the floor, 1 of 2 from the arc, and 3 of 3 from the line. Lloyd had 7 points on 3 of 7 shooting as he is finally coming out of his early season shooting slump and starting to find some ways to score.

The only concern is that Johnson is in foul trouble with 3 and Spencer has 2.

With 3 minutes to go, Johnso fouls out of the game and we are down 58-50. So much for my blowout victory. Everyone has been cold for the last 5-7 minutes and they have turned out 5 point lead into a 13-0 run.

That run cost us as we lose 71-62.

Thoughts: We are finally getting some outside shooting from Spencer, but I miss the days of having multiple outside options so that when one went cold we could start feeding the others. Spencer went cold midway through the 2nd and it was the reason we lost as no one else could get it going.

Still, Spencer had a good game with 19 points, 2 boards, and an assist. He shot 6 of 11, 4 of 8, and 3 of 6. Bose had 13 points. Johnson had 4 points and 10 boards. Lloyd had 8 points and 8 boards along with 2 blocks. Bakari Lewis had 2 points and 3 assists. In just 10 minutes, Weatherspoon had 8 points and 6 boards as the big guy is starting to find his place in the rotation.

Dec 27 -

We host 4-9 Utah Valley State and lose to them 80-62 as our starters all shoot poorly. Johnson was our leaing scorer with 13 points on 4 of 14 shooting. He also had 8 boards and 3 blocks. Lloyd fouled out in 15 minutes and had 0 points and 3 boards. Newton had 12 points and 8 boards in 28 minutes off the bench.

With a 4-6 record, we enter Conference play with a game against Sam Houston State. They are rated 76 overall talent and will be a tough challenge. They are 6-2 this year. They are a strong shooting team with very good rebounding and better defense than us. I'll play that either later tonight or tomorrow.

Eaglesfan27

02-05-2008, 11:21 AM

Sam Houston State's best player is their SG Nick Sidorakis who can hit just about any shot on the court. He is rated 78 overall due to his deep shooting range. He is only a junior so we'll have to battle him for another year after this.

My goal is to run plays for Bose and try to draw fouls on Nick early. We play suffocating defense for the first 5 minutes, but 5 minutes in Lloyd picks up his 2nd foul. Weatherspoon comes in to man the middle.

One of our best defensive efforts of the year. Just great non-gambling defense in which we manned up. Yet, we are down 30-29 at the half. We held them to 33%. We shot 34%. We have 7 turnovers. They have only turned it over 2 times. I'm particularly proud of Bose's defense on Nick who is a truly great shooter. The kid has 5 bars all over the court but Bose has kept him under control.

Nick has 5 points on 2 of 7 shooting.

Joshua Johnson is our player of the half with 5 points and 7 boards in 17 minutes.

Bakari Lewis had 3 fouls at the half and Lloyd has 2, but both will start the 2nd half.

They come out with a full court trap to start the 2nd half. This leads to higher tempo from both sides as we get some easy baskets but they get some off turnovers as well.

With 11 minutes to go, Lloyd picks up his 4th foul and it will be up to Weatherspoon to see if he can help us hang in this game. Right now we are down 49-44.

They were starting to pull away until with 8:44 left, Martin hit a corner 3 in which he was fouled and made it a 4 point play. That cut it a 4 point lead again.

The next possession Weatherspoon gets a put back dunk and the foul to cut it to 3!

After a defensive stop, O'Brien fakes the 3, drives into the lane and gets the foul! He hits both FT's! Then, Martin blocks a 3 point attempt by Nick and takes it the length of the court for the slam dunk! We are up 60-59 and the crowd is going wild!

We just keep making plays as the crowd has us energized, a defensive stop, a steal, Johnson with a 14 foot jumper. We have a 5 point lead now and they take their 3rd timeout of this run.

Darn, off the timeout, Crow, their SF hits a 3 and it is 64-62, our lead. Johnson responds with a turnaround jumper in the post! After a miss by Johnson they close within 1 on a foul. 66-65 with 3:08 to go.

The momentum seems to be gone, so I get my starters back in.

With 1:48 to go, Spencer drives into the lane and draws a foul. He gets LeBron Ruffin, their star SF to foul out! He also hits both FT's to make it a 68-65 lead.

Lloyd steals a pass inside, throws it Bakari who gets it to Spencer. He is fouled on the break. No T on that one, but he will get the 2 FT's. He misses the 1st, but makes the 2nd.

Bose with good defense forces a miss. Lloyd with the board. With 3 seconds left, Lloyd is down low and getting double teamed, he throws it out to the open Bose who drills a 3. 72-65 and under a minute left!

After the intentional fouls, we end up with a 75-65 win.

Joshua Johnson was the player of the game with 15 points, 10 boards, 1 assist, and 1 steal. He also converted a vicious alley oop from Bakari Lewis that was part of getting the crowd energized in the 2nd half. He shot 5 of 9, 0 of 1, and 5 of 6.

As a team, we shot 42% while they shot 38.5%. We outrebounded them 39-30. We also got to the line more and hit 77% of our FT's while they hit 60% of theirs. Huge upset victory to start conference play.

Martin led our team with 16 points and 2 assists. He also had a steal and a block. He shot 5 of 8, 3 of 4, and 3 of 3. The kid is becoming a major contributor off the bench.

Weatherspoon had 6 points, 7 boards, and a block in 21 minutes. Not bad for the big fella.

Lloyd despite only playing 19 minutes had 9 points, 9 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal, and 1 block. He shot 3 of 5 and 3 of 5 from the line.

Spencer had a horrible shooting night as he went 0 of 9 including 0 of 4 behind the arc. He still had 5 points, 6 boards, 2 assists and played good defense. Their star SF only had 10 points of 5 of 13 shooting and he fouled out of the game.

Bose played great defense and held their star SG to 11 points on 5 of 11 shooting. Bose also added 7 points, 2 board, 2 steals, a block. He shot 2 of 5, 1 of 1, and 2 of 2.

Bakari Lewis had 7 points, 2 assists, and 2 steals.

O'Brien continues to impress me as the backup PG. The kid can shoot a bit and will definitely take over the job next year when Bakari graduates unless we can get a good recruit this year.

Eaglesfan27

02-05-2008, 12:53 PM

Jan 6, 2011 -

We play 3-7 UTSA which is slightly more talented than we are. They beat us 77-65. Their sophomore PG, Steven Keller, had 20 points and 4 assists off the bench to key the victory. Johnson led our team with 15 points, 7 boards, and 2 blocks. Spencer had 10 points, 6 boards, and a block. Lloyd had 7 points and 7 boards. Martin had 15 points off the bench. We fall to 5-7.

Next up we play 4-10 McNeese State. They are rated 68 overall Their offense is only rated 68 and their defense is rated 66. We should be able to beat them in every phase of the game as long as we hustle and play to our potential. However, the game is at their place.

Caron Sherman, their PG, is their one dangerous player. Rated 71 overall, the PG can pass and shoot well. Fortunately, Bakari should be up to guarding him.

Lloyd with 2 fouls in the first 3 minutes and Weatherspoon has to come in early :( We had kept them scoreless up to that point as well.

Two very bad stretches in the first half have us down 34-23 at the half. We played good for 10 minutes and horrible for 10 minutes including the last 4 minutes of the half. Unbelievable how sloppy we are being with the ball.

Spencer is our leading scorer with 8 points on 4 of 6 shooting. We are going to lean on him in the 2nd half. Newton has 6. Bose is 0 of 7 and I'm going to start Martin at SG in the 2nd half as Bose is playing very sloppy SG.

With good fundamental basketball including solid defense and turnover free basketball we finally tie at 43 with 11 minutes to go. Bose is doing well at SF off the bench. Now to see if Newton can play SG off the bench, if so, this might become a normal part of our rotation with Martin starting.

Actually, Spencer is back at full energy before I need to bring Newton in. So I slide Bose back to SG and bring Spencer in as we build on our lead with 9 minutes to go.

They respond with a run of their own to tie it up at 56 with 6 minutes to go and now they have the crowd behind them. It's a back and forth game as we are trading baskets.

With 3 minutes to go, they tie it at 67.

Bose responds with a 18 foot jumper. After exchanging defensive stops, Joshua Johnson gets an offensive board which gets us a reset, we work it around to get Spencer an open look in the corner and he burries the 3 to make it 72-67 with 1:18 to go!

Martin, their SG hits a quick 3. He has 23 points this game and has been lighting up Bose. He's quicker than Bose and it's been showing badly.

Up by 2, we go to Spencer again who fakes the 3 and drives to the hole for the foul. Spencer is a poor FT shooter.... but he makes the 1st and misses the 2nd. 3 point game.

Martin misses the quick 3 and Johnson gets us the board. They foul him. He hits 1 of 2. Lloyd gets the board on a 3 point attempt and hits his FT's to end 1 of 2 to end all hope. Although, Martin does hit a buzzer beating 3 to make it close. 75-73 victory for us.

Lloyd was the player of the game with 19 points, 5 boards, 1 steal, and 1 block. He shot 8 of 11 and 3 of 6 from the line.

Spencer had 17 points, 2 boards, an assist, and a steal.

Bose had 10 points, 4 boards, 2 assists. However, his man had 26 points against him on 5 of 6 shooting from the arc.

Johnson ha 5 points, 12 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, and a block. Bakari Lewis had 8 points, 1 assist, 1 steal, and a board.

Martin had 7 points, 2 boards, 2 assists off the bench.

Thoughts: Very sloppy play in the 1st half almost cost us the win, but the team played smart solid basketball in the 2nd half for a good comeback victory. Martin continues to impress as does O'Brien. However, this team is going to be really hurting when Lloyd leaves unless I can land some surprise recruits.

Jan 15 -

We play at 2-8 Central Arkansas. They are the 2nd weakest team in the conference and I expect a win. We win easily 79-56. Lloyd had 21 points, 4 boards, and 2 blocks. Johnson had 12 points. Martin had 10 as did Bose. Spencer had 7 points and 7 boards. Bakari Lewis had 3 points and 7 assists.

We are now 7-7. Our next game is on the 19th against the weakest team in the conference - UT-Arlington. They've lost all of their talented players and they are struggling. Their overall talent rating is now a 65 and they are 1-12 as they can't defend well at all and they are a terrible team on the glass. I'll play that later today or tomorrow.

rjolley

02-05-2008, 02:35 PM

EF27, do you find that teams work for quick shots when down late? In 2K7, the computer would play the last 20 seconds like the other 39:40, even if they're tied or down 1 or 2.

Eaglesfan27

02-05-2008, 02:46 PM

Sometimes they do. This game they did with Martin firing really quick 3's as the game got late. Othertimes, they seem to be overly patient.

Eaglesfan27

02-08-2008, 08:15 PM

Now, onto our game against UTA. Their best player is Cleveland Michaud who is a mediocre PF that Joshua Johnson should be able to manage. I will be very disappointed if we don't win this game comfortably.

In the first half, Bakari Lewis was our only consistent scorer and it cost us as we couldn't pull away. We are tied at 26 at the half. Bakari Lewis leads the team with 11 points thanks to 3 3's.

Lloyd can dominate his man. We need to get him the ball more this second half.

With 5:10 to go, Spencer misses 2 FT's and they draw a foul and hit 1 of their FT's to take a 1 point lead. We've failed to do the little things this game to have the huge lead we should have. We are down 53-52.

They foul Spencer and he misses 1 of 2 FT's :( He is becoming a FT liability. Still, it is tied at 53.

Lloyd with an offensive putback to tie at 60 with 1:54 to go. We shouldn't be struggling this badly, but at least we still have a chance to win this one..

Bose with a defensive stop and we throw it into to Lloyd who splits a double team for a dunk! 62-60! They come back with a 16 foot jumper to tie it. We go right back to Lloyd who hits a jump hook. 64-62 with 35 seconds to go.

Bose ends up stealing a pass with 10 seconds to go!!! They foul him before he can start a breakaway. He hits only the first of two FT's. They get the board and quickly move it up the court....

The 3 by their PG is short. Johnson with the board. They foul him but he hits the first FT to ice it.

66-62 win. :)

Lloyd is the player of the game with 19 points, 11 boards, and a block. He shot 8 of 9, and 3 of 4 from the line. He had 4 inches and 40 pounds on his guy and I probably should have gone to him more to make it an easier win.

Bakari Lewis had 17 points and 3 assists. Bose ha 13 points, 4 boards, and 2 steals. Spencer had 6 points, 4 boards, and 3 assists. Johnson had a surprisingly lackluster game with 1 point, 6 boards, and 2 assists. Also, the bench gave us nothing tonight with Martin being the only scorer with 5 points. Newton went 0 for 5. O'Brien went 0 of 4.

Jan 22 -

We host TXAM-CC, the best team in the conference. As expected, they blow us out, 100-65. Lloyd led us with 14 points, 7 boards, and a block. No one else broke double digits.

We are now 8-8 and I realize we have almost zero chance of beating them in the conference tourney :(

Our next game is against Lamar. They are 7-12 (2-3) and are evenly matched with us in talent.

Eaglesfan27

02-08-2008, 09:35 PM

A competitive first half in which each team had a run ends with a 33-32 lead for Lamar. Bose is our leading scorer with 10. Lloyd had 6 points and 5 boards. Harper, their PG, has 9 to lead them.

A great 14-0 run for us midway through the 2nd half built us a lead that we never relinquished. They cut it as low as 6 several times including the end of the game where they fouled us and we missed quite a few FT's. By the way, Rjolley, this team was shooting very quick 3's (sometimes to their detriment as they weren't all great looks) with the time running low.

We win 74-67 as I never really felt threatened after that run. We shot 53% as a team this game including 10 of 22 from the arc. During the 14-0 run we hit 3 3's in a row at one point.

Lloyd was the player of the game. He finished with 17 points, 11 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, and a block. He shot 6 of 7 and 5 of 9 from the line. Bose had 18 points on 7 of 12 shooting including 2 of 4 from the arc. He also had 5 boards, 3 assists, and a steal. Spencer had 16 points and 3 boards. He shot 7 of 15 including 2 of 6 behind the arc. Johnson had 8 points and 9 boards. Bakari Lewis had 7 points and 7 assists with the hot shooting team around him. One of our best games of the year and I wonder if we can build on it.

I have to think that Spencer is in the running for Conference Freshman of the Year. He is averaging 10.4 ppg, 3.8 rpg, and 0.8 spg. The next best statistical freshman in the conference is Rodolfo Benjamin a 6'5 200 pound SF for Texas State who is averaging 7 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 1.5 apg, and 1.3 bpg.

Jan 29 -

We play 5-10 Northwestern State at their place. They are more talented than we are, but they are struggling as they don't have a lot of outside shooting either. We win 82-69. Joshua Johnson had a HUGE game with 22 points, 14 boards, 5 steals, 3 assists, and 2 blocks. He shot 7 of 15, 1 of 3 from the arc, and 7 of 9 from the line. Martin had 16 off the bench and Spencer was our third leading scorer with 12 points, 7 boards, and 1 steal.

We are now 10-8. Our next game is at Texas State. They are 8-9. They are ranked 73 in team talent. Their offense is rated 76 and their shooting is 81 compared to ours which is 76. Our rebounding is 77 compared to theirs at 73. I'll play that game tomorrow.

Eaglesfan27

02-09-2008, 10:50 AM

Andrew Ike will be a tough guard for Johnson. The athletic PF is a skilled shooter and is very similar to Johnson.

Just like the last time we played them, they are running, trapping, and getting us into early foul trouble. They get 2 quick ones on Lloyd, but I'm going to leave him in for now...

He avoids the foul but 10 minutes into the game they are up 23-14.

The next 4 minutes mostly against their subs, Bose hustles and cuts the lead to 27-23 with multiple dynamic plays.

Right after returning to the game, their star PG goes down with a knee injury. He is the one player that really kills us with the steals and penetration so that will be a difference maker...

With 4:49 left they get a 3rd foul on Lloyd. I leave him in anyway.

Apparently, White, their PG just sprained his knee and he will come back into the game.

They have a little run as soon as White comes back and stretch their lead back to 6. 39-33 at the half.

White, their PG, leads them with 8.

Spencer leads us with 8 as he is 4 of 6 from the line. Bose has 6 points, 2 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block as he did it all during that run that closed the gap when playing against their backup SG. Lloyd has 6 and 4 despite playing in foul trouble.

In the 1st minute of the 2nd half, Lloyd picks up his 4th foul :( I'm going to keep him out there for a few anyway.

With 13 minutes to go, we are down by 5 and I go to subs for guys who in foul trouble: Bakari, Bose, and Lloyd.

Those 3 subs help us get our first lead of the game as Weatherspoon had 2 blocks in a row, Martin hit a big 3, and O'Brien faked out his man drove into the lane and hit a jumper and the foul! 55-54 is our first lead of the game.

After a defensive stop, Martin with a fast break that draws a foul to extend the lead to 3.

Our subs got us a 6 point lead and it is holding as our starters are controlling the tempo in the 2nd half. 75-69 with 3:47 to go.

I shouldn't have spoken so quickly. They go on a 7-0 run and now it is 76-75 with 2:14 to go.

Bakari Lewis with another drive into the lane and a foul to break the run an foul out Ike. He hits the 1st FT, misses the 2nd. Lloyd gets the board but misses the putback. They get the rebound.

Bakari Lewis with a steal, Johnson on the break he is fouled before he can throw down the dunk. He misses the first but makes the 2nd to give us a lead.

We get a stop. They block Spencer's buzzer beater on our possession. Spencer makes up for it by getting a steal! 35 seconds left. We call timeout to talk it over.

We get it to Bakari a good FT shooter but he misses the first of 2 when they intentionally foul. He hits the 2nd to make it a 78-76 lead.

White tried a crossover on Bakari and Bakari stole it from him! Bakari hits 1 of 2 FT's. 3 seconds left. They miss the desperation 3 and we win it.

79-76 win.

Bakari Lewis is the player of the game. 14 points, 3 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals. He shot 3 of 5 and 8 of 12 from the line.

Despite the knee injury, White, had 18 points, 5 assists, and 3 steals for them. I'm glad he is a senior.

Spencer had 14 points on 4 of 11 shooting. He also had 3 boards and 2 assists.

Lloyd ha 14 points and 7 boards on 6 of 12 shooting. Martin had 12 points off the bench. Johnson had 8 points and 8 boards. Bose had 8 points, 7 boards, 4 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks.

In 21 minutes, Weatherspoon had 6 points, 9 boards, and 3 blocks in his best game for us. O'Brien had 4 points and 2 assists off the bench.

Feb 9 -

We play at 9-9 (6-3) Stephen F. Austin. They are rated 75 in overall team talent and should be able to beat us at their place. However, we pull off the upset 83-77! Bakari Lewis led the team with 16 points and 7 assists. He shot 5 of 10, 3 of 4, and 3 of 4.

Martin had 16 off the bench. Spencer had 13 points, 6 boards, 3 assists, and 3 steals. Johnson and Bose each added 10 points. Lloyd fouled out in 15 minutes and had a quiet night.

Our next game is at home against 9-10 (6-4) SE Louisiana. They are rated 75 in overall team talent. They are one of the best rebounding teams in the conference with an 82 in that category. They are well coached as well with a 75 which is one of the highest ratings in that category.

Eaglesfan27

02-09-2008, 11:33 AM

Well, it was 32-28 with 2:20 to go in the half. However, due to a very rare glitch that I've never seen before I had to quick sim the rest of the game. The opposition wouldn't send out enough guys for the FT and therefore the ref wouldn't give me the ball to shoot it. I waited 2 minutes and nothing happened, so I quicksimmed the game and we lost 74-64. We were in trouble anyway and probably would have lost as Lewis and Lloyd were in foul trouble and they were building their lead with a run.

Lloyd led the team with 12 points and 9 boards. Johnson had 12 points and Lewis had 11 points and 3 assists along with 5 turnovers. Spencer and Bose each had 9 points.

David Ndoumba their star PF (rated 75 overall) had 17 points and 17 boards along with 3 blocks.

After the game, Dante Newton meets with me to tell me that he is unhappy with his lack of PT and that he is considering transferring. I meet with him but he has been a disappointing shooter despite his reported good mid range jump shot, so I'm not going to play him a ton more as Spencer has lived up to his hype.

Feb 17 -

We play 2-18 UTA. In our simmed game, we get the blowout that I expected when I played them. 90-69 win. All 5 starters in double digits: Bose with 17, Lloyd with 15, Bakari with 14, Johnson with 11, and Spencer with 10. Johnson had 14 boards and 5 blocks in a dynamic performance. Spencer had 8 boards as the freshman SF continues to show an all around game.

Newton had 7 points off the bench but broke his hand and will miss the rest of the season.

Our next game is against the might TXAM-CC. I'm going to sim that as well. If I play them, I want it to be in the conference tourney. I don't want to try to grind it out twice against them in played out games

In a complete shocker, we upset them, 77-57! Their stars all had off nights. Watt their star PF shot 2 of 10. Their star SG went 2 of 11. Meanwhile Spencer led the team with 15 points, 10 boards, and 4 steals! Bakari Lewis had 15 points and 7 assists. Bose had 13 points and 7 boards off the bench (with Newton out, he became my number 1 bench guy with Martin starting at SG and Bose playing backup SG/SF) Johnson had 13 points and 14 boards!

We are now 14-9. Our next game is hosting Lamar who are now dropped own to 9-17. We beat them a few weeks ago 74-67.

Hopefully, I won't get any glitches this game.

Eaglesfan27

02-09-2008, 12:46 PM

A horrid start to the game as we dig ourselves a 20-7 hole 8 minutes into the game.

Then Bose comes in at SF and it all turns around. 6 minutes later, we are down 26-23. I have to accept, he is a difference maker at SF, at least off the bench. At SG, he is just a decent player as his speed isn't as impressive against SG's.

Bose is exhausted after 10 minutes or so, but we are within 3, as it is 34-31.

At the half, we are down 39-35.

Bose is our leading scorer with 12 points. Rand is the player of the half and their leading scorer with 10 points. Rand, their SG, is shooting 5 of 9 for them but 0 of 3 from behind the arc.

With about to 14 minutes to go in the game, Johnson injures his ankle on a dunk attempt. Weatherspoon comes in and Lloyd slides to PF.

A few minutes later, Johnson is cleared to return. It is a mild strain.

With 10 minutes to go, we tie it at 53 which is our first tie since the beginning of the game.

A minute later, Martin hits a 3 to give us a 56-55 lead.

A disappointing loss as we fell apart down the stretch allowing a 8-0 run with 5 minutes to go that spelled our doom as we never could close that gap.

77-67 loss.

Rand was the player of the game. He finished with 19 points on 8 of 17 shooting, 1 of 8 behind the arc.

We had all 5 starters in double figures and also Bose off the bench:

Lewis, Johnson, and Bose each had 12.

Spencer had 11, Martin and Lloyd both had 10. Our other bench players scored 0 points. Lloyd led us with 6 boards as we got crushed on the offensive boards. Lloyd also had 2 blocks as did Weatherspoon in just 15 minutes.

Feb 26 -

As expected we lose to Northwestern State at their place, 79-72. Martin led us with 16 points and Bose had 10 points and 8 boards off the bench. Spencer had a very bad game with 0 points and 4 boards as he fouled out in 15 minutes.

We are now 14-11 with our last regular season game of the year being against Texas State who barely beat on the road a few weeks ago 79-76. If we can beat them, I'll be happy that we'll at least have 15 wins. More importantly, we will keep our rank as 2nd place team in the conference and shouldn't have to face TXAM-CC until at least the final of the Conference Tourney. Maybe, we'll get lucky and someone will knock them out. I think we at least have a decent chance against any other team in the conference.

I'll play the game against Texas State either later tonight or tomorrow.

Eaglesfan27

02-09-2008, 05:59 PM

Due to a mistake on my part in which I forgot to reset my lineups after an injury, I now don't have Weatherspoon for this game against Texas State. As a result, I'll go small and try to run more when Lloyd has to rest and maybe even when Lloyd is on the floor.

As a result, we have one of our most fast paced first halves this season. 45-36 at the half. We are shooting 62% with plenty of fast break points. Lloyd leads the team with 9 points and 6 boards. Spencer and Johnson each have 7. Martin and Bose each have 6.

Down the stretch, they eliminate a 7 point lead that I had with a variety of plays including an incredible dunk on a breakaway by their SF. However, their SF a jumper although we foul him. He misses both FT's and Spencer gets the board. O'Brien gets into the lane and gets the foul. He makes both pressure FT's with under a minute to go to put us back up by 2. 80-78.

Their PG, White, is so fast and he burns O'Brien to make a floater in the lane to tie it up. After a steal they get a 18 footer which they miss. With 6 seconds left, Bose gets to the FT line as he is fouled on a 14 foot jumper. He misses the first.... but nails the second!

They move it up quickly and get off the 3, but they miss it! We win 81-80. 15 wins which I think might be tied with our best year :)

Lloyd was the player of the game with 17 points, 11 boards, 3 assists, 2 blocks. He shot 8 of 13, and 1 of 3 from the line.

Spencer had 16 points and 5 boards. Johnson had 13 points and 11 boards. Martin had 13 points. Bakari had 8 points and 8 assists. Bose had 9 points and 4 boards.

Eaglesfan27

02-09-2008, 06:05 PM

Our 11-5 Conference Record is good for 2nd in the conference. We'll face #7 Texas State. We'll it's been two close games, but we've won both times. Hopefully, we can make it 3 :)

The 15-11 Record is not our best. I went 17-14 two years ago. So, we need 3 wins in the tourney, which would mean that we won the tourney and were going to the NCAA Tourney.

TXAM-CC will play UTSA first and then either Stephen F. Austin or Central Arkansas. If we beat Texas State, we'll play the winner of SE Louisiana and Northwestern. I'll play out the Conference Tournament tomorrow.

Interesting stat: Spencer has become the leading scorer on our team ahead of Lloyd as he scores better in simmed games than Lloyd does. Spencer's season average now: 10.9 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 0.7 apg, 0.9 spg, and 23.5 mpg. I think he has the Conference Freshman of the Year wrapped up.

Eaglesfan27

02-10-2008, 10:59 AM

A very physical battle turns ugly as they slam Bose to the ground with 2:30 to go in the first half. He injures his ankle and has to leave the game :(

We are up 31-28 at that point.

At the end of the half, we are up 36-31 in a game in which we have avoided turnovers despite their high tempo press and we are generally playing well.

Lloyd is our player of the half with 11 points, 6 boards, and a block. He also played all 20 minutes.

13:30 into the 2nd half and with our lead slipping away, we have Bose try to go with a twisted ankle.

Bose is needing help guarding his man and won't give us many minutes...

In fact, with him being ineffective with the injury, 3 minutes later
go to Plavich. With 10:37 to go, we are down 50-48. As soon as he comes into the game, Plavich gets a fast break basket to tie it up!

Next possession, Lloyd gets the basket and the foul down low! After they tie it with a 3, Plavich responds with a fast break dunk!

We are down by 4 with 3:35 to go, 59-55. Lloyd is tired and will get a 1 minute breather.

After a steal, a breakaway pass from Bakari to Martin makes it just a 2 point lead with 1:20 to go!

We foul Bennett their PF and he misses the first of 2!

With the 3 point lead, they guard very well and maybe I should have gone for the inside shot, but we didn't. I went for a 3 with Bakari and he misses it. Johnson gets the board but has it stolen. We have to foul.

23 seconds left.

Johnson, their star SF, makes both FT's :(

Martin hits a quick 3! 13 seconds left!

White, hits only the 1st FT!!! Lloyd gets the board! Now, we have to hit the 3.... 11 seconds left...

Bakari Lewis drills it with a man on him! He swished it!

Their long heave doesn't go, we are going to OT!!

Our starters are all energized by the crowd.

With 1:35 to go in OT, Martin drives into the lane to get the foul. He hits both FT's to keep our lead. 76-73.

With 46 seconds left, Martin hits a corner 3 to make it a 79-75 lead!

We end up winning 81-77 in OT :)

Martin is the player of the game. 23 points, 2 assists, 1 board. 8 of 16 shooting, 3 of 6 from the arc, 4 of 5 from the line.

However, all of my starters were huge.

Lloyd played 44 minutes and had 16 points, 16 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks.

Johnson played 44 minutes and had 13 points, 15 boards, 2 steals, and a block.

Spencer played 37 minutes and had 12 points, 7 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, and a block.

Lewis played 37 minutes and had 7 points, 5 assists, 2 boards, and 2 steals. The game tying 3 was his only 3 of the night. He was 1 of 4 from the arc and 2 of 7 overall.

Off the bench, Plavich surprised with 4 points and Grochowalski had 5.

Eaglesfan27

02-10-2008, 11:04 AM

YES! UTSA shocked TXAM-CC 87-86 to knock them out of the conference tourney! UTSA and Stephen F-Austin will play in the other game while we'll play SE Louisiana who beat Northwestern State 92-87. SE was led by their star PG Chris Colvin who had 21 points and 6 assists. They also have a great SF in Daryl Arnold who had 20 points and 8 boards. They'll be tough, but I'm just glad to see TXAM-CC is out of it.

We lost in our only game to SE Louisiana this year 82-70.

Eaglesfan27

02-10-2008, 12:18 PM

A nearly flawless 1st half in which Spencer was on fire early and late in the 1st half. We are up 33-25 and Spencer is our leading scorer with 15 points. He also has 3 steals and a block as he is playing great basketball.

They come out with a 10-0 run to make it 35-33 before Spencer responds with a 3.

Spencer has been incredible and has more than half of our points with 26 points as we are up 50-46 with 9:30 to go, yet he is tired now. I bring in Bose who I hope can move a bit better with his ankle starting to heal..

Bose gives us 4 points and we go on a nice little run to build a 61-50 lead before I get Spencer back in there with 5 minutes to go.

We never are threatened again as we coast down the stretch. 68-56 win!

Spencer is the player of the game as his incredible shooting propelled us to our early lead at the beginning of the game and he was our consistent source of offense throughout the game.

Spencer finishes with 26 points on 9 of 15 shooting, 5 of 6 from the arc, 3 of 4 from the line. He also ha 5 boards, 3 steals, 2 assists, and a block. The freshman is a true building block for our team and he is already becoming special. He just needs to be more consistent.

Martin was our second leading scorer with 11 points on 3 of 11 shooting.

Lloyd added 8 points and 10 boards along with 2 blocks.

Johnson had 6 points, 11 boards, 2 assists, and a block.

Bakari had 8 points and 6 assists.

Let's see who our opponent will be in the Conference Tourney Final!

Eaglesfan27

02-10-2008, 12:34 PM

UTSA beat Stephen F. Austin 88-74. They were led by their center Russ Permenter who ha 33 points and 13 boards. Russ is a good center but Lloyd is his equal. Lavardicus Clarke, their SF, was hurt in the game and only had 2 points. It is unclear if he will play in the final, but obviously would be a big loss if he doesn't.

UTSA is rated 76 in overall team talent. They finished the year at 13-15(8-8.) Let's break it down position by position before the game starts:

PG Devin Gibson is rated 74 overall. He is 6'0 185 pounds. He is a senior. He is a devastingly good finisher around the rim. He has a terrific handle and is a good passer. Good speed and quickness. Advantage: UTSA

SG Dwayne Lathan is rated 75 overall. He is 6'4 201 pounds. He is a junior. He is a decent jump shooter with a great handle and good slashing ability. Very good athleticism overall. Also, a good defender. Advantage: UTSA

SF: Lavardicus Clarke is playing but he is hurt. Normally he is athletic and is a good defener. However, with his leg injury, I'm hoping he is slowed down. He is 6'8 240. At full speed this would be advantage UTSA but if he is slowed, this could be advantage Spencer.

PF Brennan Eppenhimer Rated 68 overall. He is a sophomore who is rated 68 overall. He is a good jump shooter for a PF. He is a good blocker and a good defender. Advantage: Push

C Russ Permenter: Rated 71 overall. 6'10 240. I'm glad he is a senior. Good jump shooter. Very good offensive game inside, better than I thought. Good passer for a big man. Good defensively. Still, he isn't much better than Lloyd and Lloyd has size on him. Push, maybe slight advantage to Lloyd.

Bench:

Steven Keller is a 69 rated PG who is lightning quick. I have no one like that on my bench.

Johnmark Ludwick is a 6'8 240 pound PF who can shoot the 3 a bit and is a good jump shooter. Rated 63 overall.

Majak Long is a 68 rated SG who is better than Martin perhaps. Advantage UTSA on the bench.

This will be a very tough game, but we'll slow it down like we did our last game and hope for some hot shooting from Spencer or Martin.

Eaglesfan27

02-10-2008, 01:39 PM

Our starters played them evenly, but their bench killed us and open up a 10 point lead. We are down 32-24 at the half and we are only shooting 29% as Spencer has been ice cold and Martin has been just ok.

Lathan and Permenter each have 8 to lead their team in scoring.

Martin leads our team with 6. Spencer is 1 of 8 shooting and only has 2 points. We are going to have go the ball to Lloyd much more in the 2nd half who is 2 of 4 so far.

Lloyd played well, but he didn't have enough outside shooting help today. We lose 67-58 as their bench outplayed us and we could never cut into that lead that their bench kept building.

Lathan was the player of the game as Martin couldn't cotrol him. He had 22 points on 8 of 15 shooting, 1 of 5 from the arc, and 5 of 6 from the FT line. He also had 4 boards, 3 assists, and 3 steals. Permenter had 12 points and 12 boards for them. Eppehlmer had 10 and 6 for them. Clarke had 6 points and 8 boards for them but he shut Spencer down. Gibson was shut dow by Bakari and only had 6 points and 4 assists.

Lloyd led our team with a superhuman effort. He played 34 minutes and had 20 points, 19 boards, 3 assists, and 3 blocks. He shot 9 of 18 and 2 of 2 from the line.

Spencer had 4 points on 2 of 14 shooting. Marti had 13 points on 3 of 10 shooting and 5 of 6 from the line. Bakari had 9 points and 3 assists in his final college game. Johnson had 3 points and 6 boards in his final game.

We are losing 3 starters and I wonder how much we are going to fall back next year as recruiting isn't going well so far...

Eaglesfan27

02-10-2008, 01:52 PM

The 4 #1 seeds:

Michigan State, Maryland, Florida, and Syracuse.

How they fared:

Syracuse beat #2 Alabama 94-82 to advace to the Final 4.

#1 Florida lost to #6 Texas 81-63 in the Elite 8.

#1 Maryland lost to #10 Ohio State 73-61 in the Elite 8.

#1 Michigan State lost to #5 Cicinnati 78-66 in the Sweet 16. Cincinnati then beat #3 Arizona 67-66 to advance to the Final 4.

In the Final 4:

Ohio State beat Cincinati 91-81 due in part to 28 points by senior center Kosta Koufos.

Syracuse crushed Texas 108-79 behind 41 points by SR SG Scoop Jardine.

With a balanced effort in which every starter hit double digits, Syracuse beats Ohio State 79-76 to win the National Championship.

SR PG Jeff Teague, Wake Forest, wins Player of the Year. He averaged 26.9 ppg, 5.7 apg, 4.9 rpg, and 1.7 spg.

Herb Pope, New Mexico State, won Mid Major Player of the Year. The 6'10 260 pound SR PF averaged 23.5 ppg and 8.4 rpg.

Syracuse's coach won coach of the year.

SR C Festus Ezeli of Vanderbilt won defensive player of the year. He averaged 3.3 bpg alog with 14.1 ppg, 8.3 rpg, ad 0.7 spg.

SR PF Elgin Bailey of Mississippi State won Big Man of the Year. He averaged 24.6 ppg and 6.2 rpg.

Doug English of Louisville, a 6'5 200 pound SG, won Freshman of the year. He averaged 14 ppg and 3.8 rpg.

All-American Team:

PG Jeff Teague, Wake

SG Blake Hoffarber, Minn 25.9 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 2.3 apg.

SF Jamelle Horne, Ariz 16.8 ppg, 6.5 rpg

PF Elgin Bailey, MSST

C J.J. Jickson, NCST 23.6 ppg, 7.4 rpg.

Jeff Spencer won Southland Freshman of the Year! He finished the year with a 11.2 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 1.0 spg, and 0.9 apg.

Damarcus Weatherspoon also made the All-Freshman conference team at C. He averaged 2.8 ppg and 3.9 rpg alog with 0.6 bpg.

Eaglesfan27

02-10-2008, 01:58 PM

We lose Bakari Lewis, Ben Martin, and Joshua Johnson to graduation. Ted Swoger leaves the team due to lack of PT.

My 17-12 record this year ties my highest win total and is my best win% yet. The school administration is thrilled with the job I'm doing. Even though Spencer is a thrilling player, with the struggle to get recruits here, I'm hoping for a mid-major job to open now...

Early word is that I'm the favorite for a few Mid-Major jobs!

However, I get passed over for the best one as North Texas hires S. Zacackas from HP.

I get offered the job at Niagara. I'm a bit worried that the location might be a hinderance and the team was a dreadful 6-24 last year, but it is a mid-major conference - The Metro Atlantic and it is a clear step up. Furthermore, the team has some good shooters including Willie Andres a sophomore SF who is rated 76 overall. In fact, they have all 5 starters returning which is nice. I decide to take the plunge even though I will miss watching Lloyd senior's year as well as the development of Spencer.

They offer me a 2 year deal.. I wish it was a bit longer, but still I'm confident that I'll turn this team around and get an extension.

Eaglesfan27

02-10-2008, 02:24 PM

My old school does good for themselves as they get a Duke assistant to take their head coach job. I'll be interested in seeing how Keith Randle does with my old team.

My new team already has their only scholarship given out to a 2 star SF from Toronto Canada. I thought the city location might be bad for recruiting, but this team has a lot of interesting kids from Canada, so this could work out really well. Our one committed recruit, W.B. Meeking is a 2 star SF from Toronto who is 6'5 190 pounds and is reportedly a good shooter as well as a very athletic player. If that is true, I wonder why he is only 2 stars. He is ranked 501st overall and 112 among SF's.

With the lone scholarship handed out, let's look at the roster as I decide what positions to start recruiting among the current H.S. juniors/soon to be seniors.

SF Willie Andres 6'8 211 pounds. Going to be a JR. Scored 10 ppg and 5.9 rpg last year. Former 4 star player from Detroit Michigan who should be scoring much more than that. He is too unselfish. I'll have to try to work on that. The kid is a good shooter with athleticism. Ok defender. Rated 76 overall.

SF Channing Santos. 6'8 220. Averaged 11.4 ppg and 5.0 rpg last year. Career high 32 ppg. He is from Erie PA. Former 3 star player. He is going to be a junior as well. He is a good shoter. Not as athletic. Very good defender. Rated 73 overall.

SG Hodari Chatman. 6'4 178 pounds. Averaged 8.6 ppg, 3.5 rpg, and 3.5 apg. Former 3 star player. He is from Toronto. Good slasher with excellent speed for the position. Mediocre shooter. Good passer. Ok defender. Rated 71 overall. Has high potential. Also, going to be a junior.

C Jean Pait. 6'10 225 pounds. Averaged 7.8 ppg and 4.7 rpg. Former 2 star player. Good passer for a big man. Ok in most areas, doesn't excel at much. Good dunker. Will be a junior. He is also from Toronto. Rated 67 overall.

PG Solomon Chatman. 6'2 195. 7.3 ppg 3.6 apg. 3 star player. From Chicago, Ill. Not a great handle. Good passer, good 3 point shooter. Ok defender. Great hustle player. Good potential. Going to be a senior. Rated 67 overall.

PF Sergio Owensworth. 6'7 220. 5.2 ppg 4.8 rpg. 2 star player. From Detroit. Doesn't excel in any area. Good FT shooter. Decent shot blocker. Rated 65 overall. Going to be a sophomore. Poor potential.

SG Ike Hendriks. 6'2 200. 3.5 ppg. 2 star player. From Toronto. Rated 59 overall. Mediocre player who the staff thinks has potential to become good. Will be a sophomore.

SG Steve Brady 6'5 185. 2.7 ppg. 2 star player. Rated 56 overall and doesn't have much potential. Will be a senior.

C Jeremee Belser 7'1 255. 1.3 ppg, 1.3 rpg. Rated 55 overall. Only played 5-10 mpg. 2 star player who can dunk well and is a passable rebounder. Doesn't do much else well but with his size he should get some time in our rotation. He will be a senior.

PG Casey Shaw 6'3 188. 2.4 ppg 1 apg. Rated 54 overall. 2 star player. Rated 54 overall. Poor handle for a PG. Not much potential. Will be a junior. From Cleveland.

SG Douglas Peciukas. 6'3 190. 2.4 ppg. 2 star player. Rated 53 overall. Will be a sophomore. Doesn't do much well. Won't play much if at all. He is from Toronto.

PG J.B. Bridgewater. 6'1 175. Rated 46 overall. Former 2 star player from Buffalo NY isn't cut out from college basketball. I won't cut him yet, but next year he probably won't make the team if he doesn't leave on his own..

Eaglesfan27

02-10-2008, 03:40 PM

Looking through the roster, PG seems to be a huge need, so I start looking at PG's and I see the team has already been heavily recruiting a 3 star junior PG from Niagra Falls, NY who is practically ready to commit to the team! If the book on the kid is right, he is a smooth shooter too! Excellent!

I also immediately start working on a 4 star SG from Toronto who is a lights out shooter. I'm probably overreaching with him, but we won't need many players next year, so why not reach a bit... word is that the SG doesn't care about playing at a big program so maybe we have a shot...

My old school immediately seals the deal on Dexter Grafs a 7'1 240 pound JC Center that I had been recruiting mainly because none of the shooters were interested in coming to play for me and we needed more help inside.

After a week of recruiting, Everett Huffman, the PG from Niagara Falls just told me his #1 priority is staying close to home! We are #1 on his list of schools, and I think we'll be able to get him to sign as an early committ. Buffalo is our biggest competition. This 3 star PG is only a junior right now and therefore isn't ranked, but he is a smooth shooter on tape. I'm thinking about going to the pre-season camps to watch him play.

Buffalo is being very aggressive and the kid is wavering. He is going to be a tough one to lock down. It's going to be a battle to get this PG.

The top 10 recruiting classes of 2010-11:

Cal: 2 5-star players and 2 4-star players.
Louisville: 2 5 stars and 1 3 star.
Michigan State: 2-5's and a 3.
Duke: 2 5's and a 3.
Kansas: 2 5's.
USC: 1 5 star, 1 4 star, and 2 3 star.
Santa Clara: 1 5 Star, 1 3 star, 1 2 star.
Temple: 1 5 star, 1 4 star, and 1 3 star.
UCLA: 1 5 star, 1 4 star, and 1 star.
Texas: 1 5 star, 1 4 star, and a 2 star.

Huffman isn't in the ABL which is a shame since I wanted to see how he played. It's also odd as he is the 213th ranked player and 78th among PG's. He also has skyrocketed up several team's boards now that he is a senior and there is now plenty of competition for his services :(

He and my other big target aren't participating in the ABL, so I skip it and jump right to the start of the season.

The good news is that Buffalo is down on his list but now we are too as several schools are battling it out for Everett Huffman.

After a few weeks of heavy recruiting during the offseason, Everett has told me he ix 99% sure that he is coming to Niagara!

Even more exciting, early in the recruiting process, Donte Snow, a 6'4 220 pound 4 star SG from Toronto is showing heavy interest in us despite being recruited by Michigan. However, they haven't offered him a scholarship yet and we have... still if we can get him to sign before they offer, we might just steal a great recruit.. He didn't participate in the ABL, but on tape he looks like he would be the best 3 point shooter that I've ever coached at least coming out of H.S.

I didn't plan on playing any more games today, but I think I have to get at least 1 game in with the new team..

I purposefully scheduled an easy one for our first game. We'll play against Chicago State, but at their place. They are ranked 62 in overall team talent while we are at 76. The strengths of our team are shooting (80) and rebounding (82.) Defense is also good at 76.

Eaglesfan27

02-10-2008, 04:50 PM

Our Starting 5:

PG Chatman
SG Chatman
SF Andres
SF Santos (will be outsized sometimes)
C Pait

They get Santos into early foul trouble and I bring in Owensworth off the bench.

A great first half in which Andres showed that he can be a dominant scorer at least against a weak defener. 38-21. Andres with 17 points on 7 of 12 shooting as he hit shots from all over the court. He also played solid defense and had 5 boards.

Inside, outside, Andres can't be stopped. He has 25 and he is playing great defense (and is being identified with the hand icon) as we build a 30 point lead, 55-25. 14 minutes to go...

I'll pull my starters soon, but the flaw with this team from looking over the roster and from my experience (admittedly against a cupcake) is the lack of a legitimate bench.

With a 64-34 lead and 10 minutes to go, I pull my starters hopefully for the rest of the game.

We end up winning 78-41. For the first time, one of my teams gets 50 boards in game! We were the heavily favored team but it was still nice to get the blowout. This team lacks depth which means I'll need to be creative in my rotations, but I like the starting pieces. The point guard is a great outside shooter. Both SF's can drill the 3. Andres can hit it from anywhere and is a nasty player around the rim and a good defender to boot. Pait didnt really impress, but he wasn't bad.

78-41 win.

Andres was the clear player of the game: 30 points, 6 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals. He shot 13 of 20, 4 of 8 from the arc. He did all of that in only 24 minutes.

Santos had 10 points and 9 boards. Hodari had 9 points mostly on slashing moves to the hoop but he did hit 1 three pointer. Solomon had 11 points and 5 assists. He is a terrific 3 point shooter who could light it up if Andres is having an off night. Pait is limited offensively but he had 4 points and 11 boards

Off the bench, Owensworth had 10 boards. Hendriks had 8 points and 2 assists. Belser had 4 points and 5 boards. Solomon Chatman is our only senior who is going to be a major contributor so that if we can get Everett, I can see this team doing huge things next year. Then again, I haven't seen how good the conference is yet. For all I know, we are going to get crushed in this conference...

Still, I'm impressed with how good Andres, Solomon, and Santos can shoot after having had to work with some guys that couldn't shoot anywhere near this well. I love Andres pure stroke and elevation as well.

Eaglesfan27

02-10-2008, 04:57 PM

Everett is telling me that he is 99.9% a "Purple Eagle!" I like our team nickname and uniforms as well. Despite his assurances, I continue to recruit him hard as Buffalo, Colorado, SBU, and others continue to pursue him.

Even more exciting, Donte Snow is telling me that he is leaning heavily towards becoming a Purple Eagle! If we can get him locked away early, I will have won a huge recruiting coup in my first year here. Michigan is pursuing him hard, but I have a lead on them. Ohio State and George Washington are also coming up on him. I need to get him locked up early before he hears more from them. However, we are still 3 weeks away from the early recruiting signing period.

November 8, 2011 -

We host Lehigh a team with an overall rating of 74 that should be much more challenging for us.. I have told the coaches to keep our bench very short and to rely on our starters...

We win 61-51. Pait led the team with 13 points. Santos had 12 and Andres had 11. Surprisingly Solomon fouled out in 14 minutes and had 0 points. Hendriks had 7 points in big minutes off the bench.

At 2-0, our next game is 2 nights later against an Army team that is also 2-0. They are rated 71 in overall talent with a weak defense of only 69. Their strength is shooting which is rated 75. I'll play that later this week.

Tellistto

02-13-2008, 05:21 PM

Good luck with the new team and with the recruiting as well. Been following along for awhile now, thought I'd let you know.

Tell

Eaglesfan27

02-13-2008, 05:30 PM

Good luck with the new team and with the recruiting as well. Been following along for awhile now, thought I'd let you know.

Tell

Thanks. I'm looking forward to playing more this weekend.

Eaglesfan27

02-16-2008, 11:33 AM

We have a slight-moderate talent advantage at every position, so I'm expecting a comfortable win but Army jumps out to a 5-0 lead thanks to 2 jumpers by Kelly Towe, their SF. Meanwhile Andres misses 2 of our first 3 shots and Santos misses the other.

They start off with a 14-2 run that has the home crowd going insane forcing me to call a timeout.

Over the next 5 minutes after that timeout, we cut the lead to 18-14. Santos and Solomon are our main scorers and everyone is stepping up on defense.

With 5 minutes to go, Andres hits a jumper to tie it at 29 for our first tie of the game since the opening tip.

However, they respond with a nice run and end up leading at the half 43-36.

They are shooting 53% for the game and they really don't have good shooters, but the crowd has them pumped.

I'm going to push the defensive pressure way up in the 2nd half.

Both our PG and SG lead our team with 9 at the half. Andres is a very uncharacteristic 2 of 11 at the half, but we'll tell him to keep shooting early in the 2nd to see if he can get it going.

Andres has caught on fire in the 2nd half. A 3 by him ties it at 51 with 14 minutes to go in the game.

Andres with a 3 to cut their lead to 79-76 with 1:34 to go, but we just haven't been able to take the lead yet. Andres misses his next 3 that would have cut it a 2 point lead after we failed to get a stop. It all goes downhill after that...

We have our first loss of the year to a team that we should have beat, although their homecourt advantage was the difference. 86-78 loss.

Their PG Sargent was the player of the game with 18 points, 8 assists, and 3 steals.

Andres led our team with 28 points, 4 boards, 2 assists, and 2 steals. He shot 9 of 23, 5 of 12, and 5 of 6.

Hodari had 16 points and 2 boards. He shot 5 of 10. Solomon had 12 points and 3 assists. He shot 3 of 8. Santos had 8 points and 3 boards along with 3 assists. He shot 2 of 7. Pait had 2 points, 5 boards, and 2 blocks. He shot 1 of 3.

Owensworth was our main player off the bench today. He had 4 points, 7 boards, 2 assists, and 2 steals in 20 minutes.

Nov 13, 2011 -

We host St. Francis (PA) who are 1-3 and who we should blowout. Instead, we win 58-46. Pait leads out team with 18 points, 9 boards, and 3 blocks. No one else hit double figures which is surprising. Andres was 1 of 9.

On the recruiting front:

PG Everett Huffman continues to tell me that he is 100% Niagara.

Heh. Between his JR and SR year, Donte Snow was downgraded from a 4 star to a 3 star player. I still want him and my staff thinks the 6'4 SG is still a lights out shooter. He tells us today that while Michigan is heavily pursuing him, he is a Purple Eagle.

Nov 19 -

Today we play at 3-0 Columbia. They are rated 72 in overall talent and are a solid team that could surprise us as Army did if we don't play smart basketball. They have a star player in PG J.S. Katelynas who is rated 80 overall and is their leading scorer with 21 ppg and 5.0 apg. He is a burner with a great midrange jump shot as well as an excellent defender.

Eaglesfan27

02-16-2008, 12:41 PM

Balanced offense and good team defense in the first half has us with a 36-28 lead at the half.

Hodari leads the team with 13 points, 6 of them on fast break dunks. Andres has 10 points. Solomon has 6 and has held Katelynas to 6 points and 1 assist in the half.

Our worst fear of this team just happened - one of the big 4 goes down as Solomon hurts his ankle driving into the lane with 9:40 to go. We are up 58-48 and 3 of the big 4 including Solomon were scoring well.

With 7 minutes to go, Santos becomes the 4th of the big 4 to hit double digits in scoring.

With 2:20 to go, Solomon is cleared to come back into the game. His ankle has a slight sprain but he can play on it. We are up by 7 and I just want his ball handling and shooting out there now.

They try shooting 3's immediately in the shot clock, but they can't come back as we hit enough FT's down the stretch to maintain our lead.

We win 72-66.

Hodari Chatman is the player of the game with 22 points, 2 boards, 2 assists, and a steal. He shot 8 of 11, 2 of 3, and 4 of 4.

We shot 49% as a team today while holding them to 44%.

Andres had 19 points, 5 boards, 4 assists, and a steal in a great all around performance. He shot 7 of 16, 4 of 8, and 1 of 3.

Solomon had 16 points and 5 assists. He shot 6 of 12 and 2 of 5 from the arc.

Santos had 10 points, 6 boards, 5 assists, 3 steals, a block. He shot 5 of 9.

Pait had 2 points, 6 boards, an a steal. He shot 1 of 1.

Owensworth was the biggest contributor off the bench with 2 points and 8 boards in 21 minutes. Belser had 5 boards in 14 minutes.

Eaglesfan27

02-16-2008, 12:46 PM

Nov 23 -

We host Yale who is rated 71 in overall team talent at our place. As expected, we beat them 64-60. Solomon was a bit off his game on his bad ankle as he went 0 for 7 but he did have 7 assists as Andres had his first great game in a simulated game - 21 points, 14 boards, 3 steals, and 4 blocks. Pait had 10 points as did Hodari in the win. Santos fouled out early and didn't do much.

Nov 26 -

Today we host UT-Pan American who are 3-5. They are ranked 70 in team talent and we should beat them without too much trouble. The exciting news is that after this game, the early signing period starts and I'm expecting both Donte and Everett to sign immediately!

Eaglesfan27

02-16-2008, 02:06 PM

A first half in which we played relatively uninspired basketball but were good enough to keep the lead. 36-35 at the half, we lead.

Hodari Chatman leads the team with 11 points as is doing it on the break and has also hit a 3 and a few mid range jumpers. Andres has 10 and Solomon has 5.

A very sloppy second half as we turn it over too many times on bad passes and steals gives them a 8 point lead that we never eliminate and they hold on down the stretch.

86-77 disappointing loss at home.

Hunt, their SF had 30 points as I just couldn't shut him down even with Andres going to tight coverage on him.

Andres lead our team with 21 points on 8 of 18 shooting including 3 of 7 behind the arc.

Hodari had 19 points on 7 of 13 shooting, 3 of 5, an 2 of 4. Solomon had 11 points and 2 assists. Santos had 14 points, 6 boards, and 4 assists. All of the big 4 scored well, but we played poor defense. I'm going to get my guys to concentrate on defense more. Andres is rated very good on defense and he should be doing better at that part of his game.

That loss drops us to 5-2.

However, it doesn't stop us Everett or Donte from officially signing their LOI with Niagara and becoming Purple Dragons!!!

Here is the official report on both players as of this point:

Everett Huffman is a 5'8 175 pound enior from Niagara Falls NY. He is ranked 213 overall and 79th among PG's. He is a 3 star player. He is rated A- in shooting, A- in athleticism, B+ in skills, B in IQ, B in Def, B in potential, C in rebounding, and a D for size by our staff. If they are correct, he should be a huge contributor for us. Our scouts believe his speciality is shooting off the dribble. If the tape/staff is correct, he'll be our starting PG next year.

Donte Snow is a 6'4 217 pound SR from Toronto Canada who was being pursued by Michigan. He was a 4 star player who dropped to a 3 star player this year. Still, he is ranked 189th overall and 42 among SG's. He has an A for shooting, a B+ for defense, B+ for athleticism, B+ for potential, B for skill, B- for size, B- for IQ, and a C+ for rebounding. His speciality is posting up where he is very good offensively as well as shooting the 3 where he is the best HS player I've ever managed to land. He is also is a good shot blocker for a SG. If the tape is right, he will add immediate depth to our bench next year and be a key contributor every night and get 20-30 minutes.

The last recruit I'm pursuing who I'm hoping to wrap up in this early signing period is a 6'8 220 pound JC C who is a 3 star unranked player. He is a good passing big man who does everything ok and is a good shot blocker for his size. We need interior toughness and I think Jerel Bogans from Erie,
PA can add it. We are his leading school, and I think we have a good chance of wrapping him up this week which would be the last of our scholarships.

Nov 29 -

We play 66 rated Brown and beat them 76-50. Pait led the team with 26 points on 10 of 11 shooting and 5 of 10 from the FT. Hodari had 13 points, 9 boards, and 5 assists. Solomon had 8 points and 9 assists. Andres only had 5 points and 5 boards.

We are now 6-2 and our next game is at Saint Peter's. They are rated 76 overall and should be an even matchup. I'll play that later today or tomorrow.

Eaglesfan27

02-16-2008, 11:14 PM

St. Peter's is 2-4 and without their best player due to injury which drops their overall team talent to 74. We are going to play a very aggressive defense in which we play the passing lanes more and play tight M2M defense. Their best (non-injured) player is their SF Winston Winkfield who is 6'6 200 pounds and is rated 73 overall and is a very good shooter. Andres will have to use his size and play extremely closely on him.

Edit: I just realized that the St. Peters game was the start of my conference schedule! However, I have 2 more non-conference games after this one.

Eaglesfan27

02-17-2008, 12:23 AM

I'm not sure if without their star they just lacked good shooters or our defense was just outstanding, but either way we held them to 26% shooting in the 1st half and built a 33-19 lead.

Santos leads our team at the half with 14 points as he is playing well both defensively and offensively. Andres is focusing on defense, but still has 5 points. Hodari has 9 points.

With 6 minutes to go, we maintain our lead 53-39.

With 3 minutes to go, they cut it to a 53-46 lead, so we get our rested starters back into the game.

They come in and put it away with a 11-0 run. When our starters were in this game, our defense was stifling.

64-46 win.

I think Santos played better defensively because we got him involed offensively early and he won player of the game. Santos finished with 22 points, 6 boards, 1 assist, 1 block, and a steal. He had 2 nice slam dunks on fast breaks. He shot 10 of 12, 0 of 1, and 2 of 3.

Hodari had 17 points, 5 boards, and 3 assists. He shot 7 of 11.

Andres shot 5 of 11 and had 11 points, 5 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block as well as playing great defense. Winkfield, their best shooter and Andres main assignment went 1 of 15 from the field and 0 of 6 from the arc!

Hodari who is a good defender did well as his man went 3 of 14 from the field.

Solomon had a poor game as he was 1 of 8 from the field. He had 3 points and an assist. Pait had 9 boards, 3 assists, and a block. Owensworth led us off the bench with 5 points and 7 boards.

That win raises our record to 7-2.

The early signing period ends and while Jerel Bogans is 99% committed to us we don't get him to sign early. Well hope that no one steals him later in the year. Right now, we are firmly at the top of his list. Other schools that are recruiting him include Marshall, Duquenne, and Wright State among 4 others.

Dec 16 -

We play our 2nd to last Non-Conference game against a slightly better foe, Charlotte. They are 5-3 and rated 79 in team talent. We lose at home 79-71. Also, Moran, a backup PG, is hurt for 2-3 weeks with a sore shoulder. Andres led the team with 12 points, 6 boards, 2 steals. He shot 3 of 15. Hodari had 10 points, 7 boards, and 6 assists. He shot 4 of 7.

Our last non-conference game is against my old team, Nicholls State because I wanted to see how they were doing. They are currently 3-8 and their overall talent rating is 66. Their shooting is very poor and they are only shooting 35% as a team. Bose is leading them with 11.5 ppg and Lloyd is 2nd with 11 ppg but he is injured and is questionable for this game.

I'll play it out tomorrow.

Eaglesfan27

02-17-2008, 12:39 AM

A preview of the Metro Atlantic Conference in 2012:

Loyola College - Rated 82 overall. The most balanced team in the conference with the best shooting in the conference. They are 8-3 coming into conference play and one of their losses is a 88-84 loss to Maryland.

Siena - Rated 81 overall. A team without any weaknesses but no obvious strengths. They are 6-4 coming into conference play.

Rider - Rated 80 overall. Third best shootng teams in the conference. They are 8-2 coming into conference play so far.

Manhattan - Rated 79 overall. A decent shooting team that has great size inside and is a tough rebounding team. One of the best rebounding teams in the conference. They are 6-6 coming into conference play.

Iona - Rated 79 overall. The 2nd best shooting team in the conference. They are 8-4 coming into the conference. Very dangerous from outside of the arc.

Niagara - We are rated 77 in overall team talent, but our shooting is one of the better ratings in the conference at 81. We should be 8-3 going into conference play unless we have a colossal upset to Nicholls State.

Fairfield - Rated 77 overall in team talent but with worse shooting than us. Their strength is their inside play and team defense. They are 4-5 coming into conference play at this point.

Saint Peter's - Rated 75 overall and one of the few teams below us in overall team talent. Stregnth is their rebounding. They are 3-6 coming into conference play.

Canisius - Another team expected to finish below us that is rated 75 in overall talent. They are 5-5 coming into conference play. A poor shooting team but a decent defensive team.

Marist - Rated 72 overall which makes them the weakest team in the conference. Despite this, they are a decent shooting team, but their defense is horrid. They are 2-10 coming into conference play.

Eaglesfan27

02-17-2008, 10:51 AM

Lloyd is out injured and they are using new recruits Grafs at center. Newton is starting PF which is an interesting choice. They have a very small lineup that I expect to dominate. Spencer is at SF. O'Brien is starting at PG and Pekkola at SG.

Spencer has given them their first 7 points and they are up 7-4 early.

Spencer and Bose keep the lead for them until 10:43 when we take a 19-18 lead on a Hodari slam and the foul.

However, the next play Spencer gets them the lead again!

Spencer was huge in keeping them in the game. I almost wish I was still there to see how many games that kid could win for us. He had 16 in the half to keep them within 6. We are up 39-33 in large part due to an Andres triggered run at the end that started with a block of a Spencer shot followed by him taking it to the other end and doing a pump fake windmill jam that was one of the best I've ever seen from any of my players.

He leads my team with 12 points and 2 boards. He is 4 of 5 from the field. Otherwise our scoring is very balancd with Santos, Pait, Meeking, Hendriks, and Hodari each having at least 4 points. Hodari is 2nd on the team with 6. Solomon hasn't taken any shots yet, but he already has 5 assists. I want our defense to step up in the 2nd half.

First play of the 2nd half, after forcing a Spencer miss, Andres races down the court and does a huge tomahawk dunk after a great pass from Solomon!

Sheesh with 8:36 to go, Spencer hits another 3 to give them a 1 point lead, 56-55. Andres is resting so it was Santos on him. Spencer has 23 at this point.

Solomon responds with 2 3 pointers and then a drive into the lane which opens up a pass to Santos who gets the layup and the foul!

However, Spencer, Bose, and O'Brien are keeping them right there with me.
63-62 with 6 minutes to go, we lead. Then, we bring in a rested Andres.

With 2:40 to go, we go up 69-65 on a 2 by Andres from 12 feet out.

However, Spencer continues to either drive into the lane or hit outside shots and he now has brought it back within 3 thanks to a FT.

Solomon responds by blowing by O'Brien and getting 2 FT's. Unfortunately, he misses the first but makes the 2nd. 70-66 with 1:42 to go.

Spencer with an offensive board and put back to make it 70-68. Spencer now has 31. Sheesh. Andres just can't contain this kid.

O'Brien with a steal.. he passes it to Spencer on the break.. he hits the 16 footer. Tied game. 55 seconds left.

Pait with an offensive board and the putback after an Andres miss! 72-70. 17 seconds left.

Spencer shoots a 3 with Andres on him.. he misses! Solomon gets the long board! They foul immediately. Solomon hits the first but misses the second. 4 seconds left, we lead by 3.

Pekkola gets a desperation 3, but he misses it.

We avoid a very embarassing loss.

Spencer should have gotten player of the game, but since we won Andres gets it.

Andres had 18 points, 5 boards, 1 assist, and 1 block. He shot 6 of 10, 0 of 1, and 6 of 8.

Santos had 13 points, 7 boards, 1 assist, and 1 block.

Solomon had 10 points, 7 assists, 3 boards, and 2 steals. He shot 2 of 5, 2 of 4, and 4 of 6.

Hodari had 9 points and 3 boards. Pait had 8 points and 8 boards.

Meeking led the team off the bench with 6 points.

Eaglesfan27

02-17-2008, 10:58 AM

Dec 23, 2011 -

As expected, we lose our game at Rider 88-70. Rider got 24 points and 10 boards from tehir star center Isaac Pompey. Nik Samabaly, their young FR PG who is already highly rated, had 15 points and 6 assists.

Pait led us with 16 points. Andres had 12 points and 6 boards. Solomon had 11 points and 4 assists and Santos had 11 points and 2 boards.

Our next game is at 6-7 Manhattan. We are evenly matached against them and this should be a good game. The key for us will be to stop their impressive inside game and their rebounding.

Eaglesfan27

02-17-2008, 12:12 PM

Thanks to a 10-0 run at the end of the half, we are up 40-33 at the half. Very crisp execution from our offense which is helping negate their rebounding edge which is significant at plus 7.

Santos and Andres are our two main scorers. Santos has 15 points on 6 of 7 shooting and Andres had 9 on 4 of 9 shooting.

In the first minute of the 2nd half, Solomon twists his knee driving into the lane :(

3 minutes later after having his knee wrapped, Solomon returns, it is just a minor sprain.

Andres and Santos were both efficient in their offense in the 2nd half and we maintained a comfortable lead throughout the 2nd half.

We win 73-62 as we shot 50% to their 41%. They outrebounded us 34-29.

Santos was the player of the game. He had 22 points, 6 boards, 2 assists, and 1 steal. He shot 7 of 12, 1 of 4, and 7 of 7.

Andres had 20 points, 3 boards, and 3 assists. He shot 9 of 16, 2 of 7, and 0 of 1

Hodari had 10 points, 4 steals, 3 boards, and 3 assists.

Solomon had 5 points, 4 assists, and 2 steals.

Pait had 7 points and 7 boards.

Owensworth had 4 points and 7 boards.

Jan 3, 2012 -

We win at St. Peter's 53-51. Andres led the team with 14 points and 6 boards. He shot 4 of 14, 2 of 5, and 4 of 8. Santos had 12 and Hodari had 8. This time, Winkfield had 14 points on 5 of 15 shooting as he was their only starter to hit double digits.

We are now 10-4 and have an outside shot at my goal of hitting 20 wins which I thought we wouldn't do until next year.

Our next game is hosting the Manhattan squad that I just beat. I'll play that later today or more likely later this week.

Groundhog

02-17-2008, 06:54 PM

The strength of the MAC is interesting, out of the top teams at least. I'm in the Atlantic 10 and Loyola would, on strength of Overall rating, be the equal 2nd best team in my Atlantic 10.

Eaglesfan27

02-17-2008, 07:27 PM

The strength of the MAC is interesting, out of the top teams at least. I'm in the Atlantic 10 and Loyola would, on strength of Overall rating, be the equal 2nd best team in my Atlantic 10.

Remember that this dynasty is "tainted" because I started it pre-patch. All team strengths should come down a few points in a couple of years. I'm not sure if yours was started pre-patch or not, but if so, it is hard to compare the two. Also, I love how I keep discovering new things in this game. Today, I just discovered the report card screen where you can get in season grades on how your team is doing offensively and defensively as well as their averages in a huge number of areas and how it compares to the in-game NCAA average. That is awesome. Best dynasty mode of any console sports game.

Eaglesfan27

02-22-2008, 07:46 PM

Today, we host Manhattan. Since we just beat them, I'm expecting a win at home.

A perfectly executed offense the first 5 minutes. 11-11 with Andres and Solomon being our two primary weapons.

At the 10 minute mark, we are down 24-17 as Andres has been resting the last 3 minutes and they have gone on a 6-0 run.

Hodari with a drive and a layup to break that run.

With 6 minutes to go, we are down 34-23 and I get Andres back in.

The next 3 minutes he leads us on a 8-0 run, but they respond with their own mini-run after that.

Still, mostly playing with backups he cuts the lead to 6 before we get our starters back in.

If we weren't missing so many FT's, it'd be even closer. However, our FT woes continue as Hodari misses 2 with 1:19 to go. But, we get a basket from Andres on our next possession. They get the ball for last possession but Andres steals it and throws it ahead to Santos who slams it home just before the buzzer goes off to cut the lead to 3!

39-36 at the half.

We are 6 of 12 from the line so far :(

Andres leads our team with 16 points, 2 boards, 2 assists, and a steal at the half.

Solomon has 8 points and 4 assists. Everyone else has been quiet except Belser who gave us 6 big points and 3 boards off the bench during the run at the end of the half when Andres was leading the backups.

With 17 minutes to go, Solomon hits 2 FT's to tie the game up at 43.

With 16 minutes to go, Santos picks up his 4th foul.. I'm going to let him stay on the court..

The next 6 minutes is a terrible cold streak for us which they build up a 10 point lead. Finally Hodari ends it with a drive and layup.

With 7:20 to go, a rested Andres and the bench take the court... we are down by 7, 65-58.

With 3 minutes to go, Andres misses 2 FT's that would have brought it within 4 :(

He does force a miss but misses the layup on the opposite end. We get in our starters who are at least somewhat rested.

Down by 6 with 2:20 to go. Santos with a steal and dunk!!

We force a bad pass on their next possession - turnover!

However, Andres blows the opportunity with a missed open 16 footer.

After we get a stop, Solomon with a 3! 78-77 with 55 seconds to go!

We get a defensive stop... With 5 seconds left, Andres passes up a semi-open shot and passes it an open Hodari for a 18 footer.. he misses it! They get the board. We foul with 1.4 seconds left.

Christie, their star SF, hits both FT's.

We set up a play off the timeout to get Chapman a look at a long 3, but Solomon misses it. We lose 80-77.

Christie was the player of the game with 17 points, 4 boards, and 4 assists.

Andres led our team with 24 points, 3 boards, 3 assists, and 1 steal. He shot 6 of 16, 2 of 4, and 10 of 17.

Solomon had 16 points and 5 assists. Hodari had 17 points and 3 boards. He shot 6 of 10 and 1 of 5 from the arc. Santos had 8 pints on 3 of 8 shooting. Pait had 2 points and 14 boards. He shot 0 of 1. Belser led our bench scoring with 8 points and 5 boards.

For the game, we were 20 of 35 from the line.

Eaglesfan27

02-22-2008, 07:55 PM

Jan 8, 2012 -

We play at Marist who is 2-15. We are expected to win against them and we do, 83-67. Pait led the team with 15 points. Andres only had 8 points on 2 of 6 shooting. I'm thinking about playing out all of my games during Andres' senior year. He is one of my favorite players that I've ever coached in any version of this game, and I'll miss him when he is gone. However, for this year, we'll continue the play 1, sim 1 pattern until the conference tourney.

Our next game is against Iona at their place. They are averaging just over 70 ppg as are we. They are playing tight defense and are 12-6. Their 3 point shooters are very dangerous and we'll have to pay special attention to them as they are shooting almost 40% as a team behind the arc.

Eaglesfan27

02-22-2008, 09:13 PM

Iona comes out with an 8-0 lead on 2 3's and a dunk. They have also blocked 2 of my shots and are playing excellent defense.

4 minutes into the game, Andres with a drive into the lane draws a foul and hits both FT's.

We end up working the rest of the half to recover from that early deficit. We do a decent job of chipping at the lead. 34-28 at the half, they lead.

Collier, their SG, has 12 points and is the player of the half.

Andres leads our team with 15 points. Solomon has 8 and no one else on my team has more than 3. My goal for the 2nd half is to get Hodari and Santos more involved offensively.

With 5:26 to go, we close the gap to 4 points, but all of our starters are exhausted except for Andres who is a little tired. He comes back from the bench and they all rest. 59-55.

With 2:54 to go and down by 2, we get 2 starters back in with Hodari and Santos coming back tired but not exhausted.

With 2 minutes to go, Solomon comes back in as well. Down 63-61.

After Hodari helps force a stop, Andres drives into the lane and gets the foul! He hits the first, but misses the second. 63-62.

After they hit a layup on a nice drive, Solomon responds with a 3 to tie it up! 65 all.

A BS goaltending call on Belser in which I thought he blocked it cleanly gives them the lead again.

With 5 seconds left, Andres strokes a 12 foot jumper! Tied at 67. Good defense forces a missed 3! We are going to OT!

After 2 minutes of no scoring, Solomon with a drive into the lane gets a collapsing defense and kicks it out to an open Andres for a 3! 70-67! Andres now has 30 in the game.

Both teams with tired players and both teams are missing shots. Still, they get into the lane and draw a foul with 1:23 to go.

Fortunately, Stokes misses the first FT. We are up 70-68.

Belser who I kept in for his size gets the unexpected basket on a great play which frees him up for the easy dunk! Santos with the nice assist. 72-68 with 42 seconds left.

They respond with a quick basket and then intentionally foul Andres. Despite being tired, he drills both FT's!!! 74-70.

Solomon blocks their 3 point attempt! He misses both of his FT attempts after they intentionally foul him but Belser gets the board and the slam dunk! 76-70. 22 seconds left.

They miss their 3's down the stretch and we hit our FT's. 79-70 win in a nice road upset that balances out the unexpected home loss earlier :)

Corey Stokes is their best 3 point shooter. Andres and Santos held the SF to 13 points on 4 of 15 shooting!

Prosper Collier, their star SG, was held to 19 points on 8 of 20 shooting!

Andres was the player of the game with 32 points, 5 boards, 4 assists, and 1 block. He shot 12 of 21, 2 of 2, and 6 of 7.

Solomon had 17 points, 4 boards, 3 assists, and 3 steals.

Hodari had 13 points, 3 boards, 2 assists, and 2 steals.

Santos had 9 points, 3 boards, 3 assists, and a steal. He shot 2 of 8 but was 1 of 1 from the arc.

Pait had 0 points and 6 boards in 29 minutes. Belser who I played all of OT and down the stretch had 5 points, 5 boards, 1 assist, and 1 TO in just 16 minutes. The 7'1 261 pound senior is showing me that he deserves a bit more PT.

Eaglesfan27

02-22-2008, 09:17 PM

Jan 16 -

As expected, we lose on the road to Rider, 84-80. Andres led the team with 14 points, 5 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. Pait and Solomon each had 13 points. Santos had 11. Belser had 4 points and 4 boards in very limited time.

Our next game is against 6-11 Canisius who we should beat. I'll play that tomorrow.

Eaglesfan27

02-23-2008, 09:05 AM

After the first 10 minutes, we are down 13-12 as Solomon is our only consistent early scorer.

A 7-0 run puts us down 28-21 with 5 minutes to go. I get Andres back in and sit our tired starters.

Down 36-30 at the half.

I decide to come out in the 2nd half with more full court trapping. We have the more athletic team and it is time to put pressure on them.

They are shooting 50% from the field and 44% from the arc.

McCollum their SG has 11 points.

Solomon leads our team with 9 points. Hodari has 7 and Andres has 5 points along with 3 assists. Andres is 0 of 5 from the floor but is 5 of 6 from the line.

After forcing a miss, Pait with an outlet pass to Solomon who gets it ahead to Hodari for a slam and the foul! He makes the FT to convert the 3 point play. 36-33.

5 minutes to the half, we get out home court rocking with some easy baskets off the full court trap. Santos with one huge dunk in particular. 44-42, we lead.

That triggered our best basketball of the year. The crowd was the loudest I've heard it in our home arena all year and our guys completely fed off of it. For the next 14 minutes, they played high energy defense, high energy offense, and efficient execution. I finally pull my starters who didn't need any rest as the crowd was keeping them pumped with 2:20 to go and a 77-57 lead.

At least at home, we'll be going to the full court press against teams that we can match up with athletically more often now. Even though, we didn't generate many baskets off the press, but the higher tempo just seemed to energize the crowd and our team.

We win the game, 79-66.

Solomon was the player of the game. He thrived in the high tempo offense. 24 points, 6 assists, 2 boards, and 2 steals. He shot 10 of 13, 3 of 4, and 1 of 2. He also had 4 turnovers.

Andres had 16 points, 5 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals. He shot 5 of 11, 0 of 2, and 6 of 9.

Santos had 16 points, 4 boards, 4 assists, an 2 steals. He shot 7 of 11, 1 of 1, and 1 of 2.

Hodari had 14 points, 2 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block. He shot 5 of 6, 0 of 1, and 4 of 5.

Pait had 1 point and 13 boards.

Belser had 6 points and 2 boards in 11 minutes off the bench.

Jan 22 -

An unexpected loss to Fairfield at home as we lose 64-54. Pait was our leading scorer with 17 points. Andres was 2 of 10 from the floor. Hodari was 0 of 8 and Solomon was 2 of 6. Santos had 8 points and 10 boards but fouled out in 24 minutes. Solomon fouled out in 28 minutes and Andres only played 26 minutes due to foul trouble.

We are now 13-7 and don't have much of a chance at 20 wins that I was hoping for this season.

In good news, Jerel Bogans, the JC Freshman C from Erie PA has told me that he is 100% sure that he wants to come to Niagara and as soon as he can sign he will do so. The 6'8 218 pound center should be a very good rebounder for his size and rebounding is one of the biggest things we'll need to add to our bench's frontcourt with the graduation of Belser.

Our next two games are against Canisus and Fairfield. I'm going to sim the first and play the second so that I don't play Canisus again just to mix things up.

Jan 27 -

We beat Canisus again, this time 79-62. We had balanced scoring: Hodari with 16, Andres with 16, Pait with 13, Santos with 12, and Solomon with 6. Solomon also had 8 assists.

We are now 14-7 and our next game is on the 29th at 9-11 Fairfield. Fairfield is struggling to score and they don't have the outside shooters that most of the teams in the conference do. However, they are strong on the interior. This will be a tough matchup for Pait and Santos.

Eaglesfan27

02-23-2008, 10:22 AM

They quickly get 2 fouls on Pait who is overmatched by their center's size. I put in Belser.

My team has speed, quickness, and length (but not bulk except for Belser.) Going to the trap is working again even on the road. We aren't getting the crowd into it, but we are generating some turnovers and are building a lead late in the first half. With 7 minutes to go and our starters tiring, it is 28-19.

We go into the half up 38-29. We are shooting 48% while holding them to 33%. They are only outrebounding us by 5. Andres lead our team with 18 points and 4 boards. He is 7 of 13 from the floor so far. Solomon has 8 points and 3 assists at the half. Santos has 5 points and 4 assists at the half.

Up 61-48 at the 10 minute mark, I rest Andres.

We are up 69-58 with 5:20 to go as I bring Andres in but give the rest of my starters a brief rest.

We were comfortably up throughout most of the game until they closed within 4 at the 2:20 mark. At that point, I brought in all of my starters. It stayed within 4 until Solomon hit a 3 off a really nice Andres dish to make it a 7 point lead with 50 seconds to go.

They never threatened again. 79-71 win.

Andres was the player of the game. 24 points, 11 boards, 4 assists, 3 steals, and 1 incredible dunk on a fast break alley-oop from Santos. He shot 9 of 19, 3 of 5, and 3 of 5.

Santos also had a great game: 23 points, 5 boards, 6 assists, 1 steal, and 2 blocks. He shot 9 of 19, 1 of 4, and 4 of 5.

Solomon had 12 points, 4 assists, 2 boards, and a steal.

Hodari had 12 points, 2 boards, 2 assists, and 2 steals.

Pait had 2 points, 3 boards, and 2 blocks.

They outrebounded us 46-30. However, we shot 48%. Thanks in part to 24 fast break points! They shot 37%. We'll be going to this uptempo game much more this year I suspect.

Our next game will be at Loyola College. They are 14-8 and should be very challenging with their excellent outside shooting. Still, I'm going to try to run against them as well as it seems to be working well for this team. I'll play that later today.

Eaglesfan27

02-23-2008, 01:23 PM

Lester Guasco is a tremendously talented SF that Andres will have to slow down for us to win today.

They start off with a 9-0 run before Hodari hits a 8 footer.

We pulled within 1 but then they go on another 8-0 run and they are up 23-14 when I rest Andres with 9:40 to go.

A strong run led by Andres closes the gap at the end of the half. 38-36, we are down.

Andres has 14 points, 4 boards, 1 assist, and 1 steal at the half.

Oglesby, their SG, has 15 points at the half. He's been driving almost at will into the lane and if we lay off him, he drills 3's.

A fastbreak layup by Solomon gives us a 48-46 lead with 15 minutes to go in the game.

With 6:25 to go, we are down 66-65, but Andres is coming back into the game fully rested.

After missing a shot, Andres pressures the PG coming up the court, steals it from him, and takes it to the hoop for a powerful windmill dunk! 67-66.

Down 70-69 with the ball with 2:53 to go.

We fail to score, but after a defensive stop, Andres with a board and quick pass to Solomon who throws it up the court to Hodari for a breakaway dunk! 71-70. 1:52 to go.

After getting an offensive board, Belser fouls their center. Their center hits the 2nd of 2 to tie it at 71.

Solomon with a drive into the lane off a screen and he takes it to the hoop for a basket. Our trap creates a steal by Andres!

Andres dribbles into the lane with 5 seconds left, they collapse on him.. he kicks it out to Santos who misses the open 3.

Guasco on the other end beats everyone and gets an easy dunk to tie it at 73. 6 seconds left. We call a timeout to set up one final play...

Off the inbound, Andres comes off a screen running into the right corner.. Solomon finds him.. Andres shoots.. it's good!!! 76-73 win!!!

Andres was the player of the game. 24 points, 6 boards, 1 assist, 3 steals. He shot 10 of 21, 2 of 6, and 2 of 2.

Santos had 18 points, 5 boards, 1 assist, an 1 block. He shot 8 of 19, 2 of 5, and 0 of 0.

Solomon had 17 points, 4 assists, and 1 steal. He shot 6 of 9, 2 of 3, and 3 of 4.

Hodari had 10 points, 1 board, 3 assists, and 1 block. He shot 4 of 8, 0 of 2, and 2 of 4.

Pait had 0 points, 5 boards, 3 assists, and 2 blocks.

Belser led our bench with 2 points, 2 boards, and a block in 12 minutes.

Great upset win for us that makes 20 wins a more realistic goal again.

Next up is Iona on Feb 5th -

Our new scheme (I've made the changes to my coaching scheme so that it should affect simmed games as well) works in this game as we win 79-77!

The new running, trapping attack seems to favor our SF's who finally become our leading scorers. Santos led the team with 17 points and 6 boards. Andres had 12 points and 6 boards but led the team with shots as he went 5 of 17.

Pait was just 1 of 4 as he fouled out in 14 minutes. Belser had 9 points in 12 minutes off the bench. Chatman finished with 10 points and 6 assists. Hodari had 8 points and 6 assists.

We are now 17-7 with 4 games left on the regular season schedule:

11th at home vs Siena - Winnable but will be a challenge.

13th at home vs Marist - 4-22, we definitely should win.

24th at home vs Loyola - We just barely scraped by, but we'll be at home and it's winnable since we won at their place.

26th at Siena - Winnable but will be a challenge.

As of this moment, we are 1st in the Metro Atlantic! Or conference record of 10-4 is tied with Rider and Siena. Loyola and Manhattan are 9-5.

Our conference RPI Rank is 12th right now.

Our team RPI Rank right now is 77.

Siena has no weaknesses in their lineup and I'm hoping that we can get the home crowd going early and rattle their young PG, otherwise, this will be a very tough game.

Eaglesfan27

02-23-2008, 02:54 PM

5 minutes into the game, their center is hurt after Hodari collides with him on a layup attempt.

Not much defense in this one. 42-42 at the half.

Hodari Chatman is player of the half. He has 12 points, 2 boards, and an assist. Andres has been ice cold going 3 of 12 in the first half.

We've had the crowd going most of the 2nd half, but have been unable to get a big lead until about 6 minutes to go when we get a 10-0 run with Andres on the bench. Andres has had a poor game today, but Hodari and Santos have picked it up.

Still, with 4 minutes to go, I get Andres back into the game. We are up 73-62 and he is rested now.

We hold on down the stretch and win 78-68.

Hodari Chatman wins player of the game. 26 points, 5 boards, 3 steals, and 1 assist. He shot 7 of 16, 4 of 9 (very surprising although they were all open looks) and 8 of 8 (also surprising for him.)

Santos had 17 points, 6 boards, 3 steals, and an assist. He shot 3 of 10, 2 of 4, and 9 of 10.

Andres had 10 points, 7 boards, 4 assists, 3 steals. He shot 4 of 18, 0 of 5, 2 of 3. He did hold their star SF to 3 of 14 shooting.

Pait had 6 points and 14 boards. Solomon had 9 points, 3 assists, and 3 steals. He shot 4 of 8 and 1 of 3 from the arc.

Feb 13 -

As expected, we beat 4-23 Marist. In fact, we blow them out 81-48. Again with the new offensive and defensive tempo, our SF's dominated the action. Andres was our leading scorer with 16 points, 9 boards, 3 steals, 2 blocks, and an assist. He shot 5 of 11, 2 of 5, and 4 of 8. Santos had 11 points, 4 boards, 3 steals, 2 blocks, and an assist. He shot 2 of 9 but 7 of 10 from the line.

Solomon Chatman had 10 points and 5 assists. Hodari had 7 points, 4 boards, and 4 assists. Pait had 9 points and 4 boards in 30 minutes. Meeking was our best player off the bench with 9 points and 2 boards.

We are now 19-7. The conference standings for the top 5 are now:

Niagara 12-4
Siena 11-5
Rider 10-6
Loyola (MD) 10-6
Manhattan 10-6
Iona 10-6

Watching the National College Hoops Show, I see that we haven't made the list of the top 10 Mid-Major teams yet.

Other interesting tidbits from the show:

South Carolina's coach is on the hotseat. Of course, I can't change jobs since I just arrived here (not sure that I really want to until Andres leaves anyway.)

Next up for us is Loyola at home and then Siena on the road. I'll play the Loyola game tomorrow and finish out the regular season and start the conference tourney.

Balldog

02-23-2008, 07:09 PM

South Carolina's coach is on the hotseat. Of course, I can't change jobs since I just arrived here (not sure that I really want to until Andres leaves anyway.)

If the coaching progression system is the same as last year you are a job or two away from a big conference job. Last year you had to go from small to mid major to major to big. It's kind of dumb, every year I'd be the #2 coach on everyone's list when I was at CMU. The only jobs ever offered with Majors, like WAC and C-USA.

Eaglesfan27

02-23-2008, 07:15 PM

If the coaching progression system is the same as last year you are a job or two away from a big conference job. Last year you had to go from small to mid major to major to big. It's kind of dumb, every year I'd be the #2 coach on everyone's list when I was at CMU. The only jobs ever offered with Majors, like WAC and C-USA.

You are probably right. Once Andres and the current class leaves, I'll be looking for a major conference job preferably something closer to the west coast since I eventually want to coach USC (the real USC.) ;)

Eaglesfan27

02-24-2008, 10:52 AM

Time to play Loyola at home. They are the better of the two teams left on my schedule but with the home crowd, I like our changes better in this game. I want to get 20 wins during the regular season, but of course will have a 2nd chance to get 20 wins during the conference tourney.

Loyola is very talented and this will be a tough game. Again, we must slow down Guasco, their SF, for a chance to win.

An incredibly fast tempo leads to Andres needing to rest after 7 minutes. We are up 16-11.

A back and forth first half ends with an Andres 3 at the buzzer to give us a 40-39 lead. Very high tempo by both sides.

Oglesby leads them with 9. Andres is the player of the half. He leads us with 13 points, 4 assists, 2 boards, and a block. He is shooting 4 of 11, 3 of 5, and 2 of 5.

Hodari has added 9 and Santos has 8.

Early in the 2nd half, Andres draws a 3rd foul on Guasco, but Andres is already sucking air and will have to come probably by the 15 minute mark...

He might have to leave soon, but it is not before he blocks a shot of one of their guards and then takes it all the way for a huge dunk that gets the crowd ignited!

The crowd boost does give him a bit of energy but he has to leave with 14 minutes to go, but only after he went on a personal 9 point scoring run.

Once he leaves, everyone else steps up and we continue the nice run. With 10 minutes to go, we are up 63-53 and the crowd is rocking the arena.

At about the 9 minute mark, they go on a 5-0 run that cuts the lead to 5, but after I call a timeout, Santos hits 3 baskets including 2 3's to rebuild the lead to 12.

Now with 6 minutes to go, we start slowing things down and milking the clock. We also get a fully rested Andres back into the game.

With 3:29 to go, Solomon fouls out. I go with Owensworth off the bench looking to go big for defense since we are already up by 15. Andres will be our primary ballhandler in this lineup.

We win 87-70.

Santos wins player of the game. 25 points, 10 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal. He shot 8 of 14, 4 of 5, and 5 of 5. He was huge in the run that built the lead when Andres went out, although Andres got the crowd going right before that run started.

Nice way to get our 20th win with a convincing display against one of the best teams in the conference :)

We shot 48% while holding them to 46%. We had 14 fast break points to their 6. We went 15 of 28 from the arc which is our best of the year.

Andres finished with 23 points, 5 assists, 2 boards, 2 blocks, and 1 steal. He shot 8 of 16, 4 of 7, and 3 of 7.

Solomon had 14 points, 4 assists, 3 boards, and 1 steal. He also had 5 turnovers, mostly from trying to force some alley-oops on the fast break. He was 6 of 10 from and 2 of 5 from the arc.

Hodari had 12 points, 3 boards, 3 steals, and an assist. He shot 4 of 10 and 4 of 6 from the arc which was a pleasant surprise. Again, all of his shots were wide open 3's usually off feeds from Solomon or Andres.

Pait finished with 2 points, 2 boards, and 2 assists in one of his more disappointing games.

Belser had 2 points and 2 boards in just 6 minutes.

Owensworth played 22 minutes off the bench and had 7 points and 7 boards including a 3 which he can occasionally hit. He shot 2 of 6 and 1 of 3 from the arc.

Andres got Guasco in foul trouble and he only played 15 minutes this game. In those 15 minutes, he was 4 of 9 from the field for 11 poiints. He also had 3 boards and 2 assists. Their star, Oglesby led them with 15 points on 3 of 12 shooting as Hodari did well against him.

Eaglesfan27

02-24-2008, 11:03 AM

A horrific blow in our final game. Solomon Chatman broke his ankle :( He will miss 6-8 weeks which means his season is over :( We don't have the depth to cover his absence in the tourney I fear. Still, we won the game at Siena very convincingly, 84-54.

Solomon only played 16 minutes before he getting hurt.

Andres led our team with 23 points, 8 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 2 blocks. He shot 8 of 10, 3 of 5, and 4 of 4.

Hodari had 18 points, 7 assists, 4 boards, 2 blocks, and a steal. He shot 5 of 9 and 4 of 6 from the arc.

Santos had 17 points and 3 boards along with 2 blocks. He shot 6 of 10.

Pait had 6 points an 7 boards.

Owensworth had 9 points and 9 boards.

With the loss of Solomon, we have a few choices: Go big with Hodari guarding their PG, Andres on their SG, and Santos on their SG and Owensworth on their PF. That gives us no bench depth at PF. Hodari is a very good passer and Owensworth is my best bench player...

- Or I could promote Ike Hendriks to starting PG. I've used him as my bench player at the position all year. He is far from a natural PG but Andres has been the ball handler when he has been in there. The kid can't pass that good, but he is a good spot up shooter and he is a good slasher with speed. He's also played a lot because the staff feels he has potential to become a good starter..

- Or I coul start Casey Shaw who has been griping for playing time. Casey is a true PG who is an ok player. He is a solid passer with decent speed. He is a definite downgrade from Solomon and he can't bury the 3 with any reliability like Solomon could. However, he is 6'3 195 so he at least has some size and he is a decent defender. If I had played him more this year, I'd like this plan the best. As it is, I decide to give him a pep talk and throw him into the starting lineup and keep my fingers crossed...

The good news is that we are the regular season Conference Champions!

Eaglesfan27

02-24-2008, 11:16 AM

Our RPI is now 54th and the National College Hoops show said we are officially on the Bubble for the Big Dance!

We need to get at least a few tourney wins, but we don't necessarily have to win it all to get an invite.

We get a 1st round buy in the Metro Atlantic Tourney for being one of the top teams. Fairfield beats Canisus 68-60 and we'll play Fairfield in the 2nd round. If we win, we'll play the winner of Manhattan and Iona.

Fairfield is missing their star SF who tore his ACL.

However, they still have a talented team:

SR Center Mack Jeffries is rated 74 and is a talented inside scorer.

JR PF Tommy Paulding is a smallish player who is rated 73 who is a good mid range jump shoooter. Santos should be a good matchup for him.

PG Teddy Surratt is a 69 rated PG who is incredibly fast and is a great passer. He would have been a tough guard for Solomon. I fear he'll be a very difficult guard for Casey and I might even have to switch from my normal M2M to a zone defense. We'll start off with Casey sagging off him as he isn't that good of a jump shooter.

The rest of the squad is mediocre. I like our chances as long as we can contain their PG.

Eaglesfan27

02-24-2008, 12:29 PM

Andres with a spectacular 360 dunk in warmups that gets the home crowd going.. I like that.

First play of the game we force a miss, get out running, Pait fires it to Casey who finds Andres running on the wing who slams it home. The crowd is rocking!

Andres with a steal at midcourt... Santos with a 3!

Andres with another steal! He drives to the hoop and is fouled. After that they settle down, but our building is rocking.

A few minutes later, we get another steal that leads to an Andres breakaway an he does the 360 dunk and gets the foul! 3 point play!!!

A frenetic first 10 minutes as we are tied at 21.

With 8 minutes to go, Andres is exhausted after 12 of the most brilliant minutes of basketball that he has ever played, except for the fact that his outside shot was gone today.

For the next 4 minutes, it was a close game. Then, Andres came back in and the whole team was fired up again. Santos and Andres are playing out of their mind. We are up 42-30 at the half.

Santos is the player of the half. 17 points and 9 boards. He is shooting 7 of 12 and 3 of 5 from the arc.

Andres has 13 points, 3 steals, 2 boards, a block, and an assist. He is shooting 4 of 11, 0 of 4, and 5 of 6. Most of his points have been dunks on fast breaks.

Casey is 0 of 2 from floor but has 3 assists all on fast break dunks by Andres.

Most importantly, he has contained Surratt who only has 6 points and 1 assist.

Around the 14 minute mark, Andres with 2 more dunks off quick steals that gets the crowd going once again. It also extends our lead to 19.

With 11 minutes to go, Andres gets a 4th foul on Jeffries as he dunks on the big man!

With 6 minutes to go, we are up 66-46. I rest all of my starters except for Santos who is currently on fire.

I sit Santos for the final 3 minutes.

We cruise to a comfortable 78-56 win.

Santos is the player of the game. He finishes with 26 points, 14 boards, 3 assists, and 1 steal. He shot 9 of 18, 4 of 6, and 4 of 4.

Andres had 23 points, 4 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. He shot 8 of 19, 1 of 5, and 6 of 7.

Casey finished with 0 points on 0 of 4 shooting, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 1 turnover.

He held Surratt to 14 points and 2 assists.

Hodari had 11 points, 4 boards, and 2 assists.

Hendriks led our bench with 10 points and 2 assists. He shot 3 of 5 and 2 of 4 from the arc.

Our next game will be against Iona who we barely beat twice when at full strength. Their PG is D2D with a strained Patellar but will probably play in this game. Their backup SF is also D2D with a bruised hip.

Corey Stokes is their best player. He is rated 86 overall and is an incredible shooter. However, Andres has done a great job against him twice. Stokes is 3 inches shorter than Andres, but Andres can match his speed for the most part. Their PG Alejandro Martinez better be slowed down by that sprained knee or he also will be blowing by our PG's. This will be a definite challenge and we'll need huge games from Santos and Andres.

CamEdwards

02-24-2008, 01:21 PM

This is a great dynasty EF. Almost makes me want to take the time to write up what I'm doing with George Mason in my game.

Eaglesfan27

02-24-2008, 01:44 PM

It was a close ball game, until we got a run that was started with a Santos block and subsequent dunk. That gave us a 18-11 lead at the 10 minute mark. However, Pait is already in foul trouble with 3.

However, they call a timeout, settle down, and respond with a 8-0 run of their own before we get a fast break layup by Shaw to end it.

Once our starters got tired, their bench worked our bench. 42-29 at the half :(

Collier, their SG, has 18 points at the half.

Santos has 10. They are playing very good transition defense and we aren't getting many easy fast break points this game. Andres still is struggling a bit with his outside shot. He is 1 of 6 in the first half with 2 points, 2 boards, and 1 assist. He also has 5 turnovers. He has held Stokes to 1 of 9 shooting. However, Martinez is crushing Casey. Martinez has 8 points and 4 assists at the half.

Santos is our leading player at the half with 10 points, 3 boards, 2 assists, and 2 steals.

We start off the 2nd half with a slashing drive by Hodari followed by a steal that allows Andres to draw a foul in the lane.

The first 6 minutes we play terrific defense and we work our way back into it. 46-43 at the 14 minute mark.

Down 52-49 at the 10 minute mark. The amazing thing is that this is mostly Santos and Hodari. Andres is having a poor game. In fact, since he isn't doing much, I sit him before he is really tired to let him get a breather and get to full strength for when he the starters will need to sit in 2 or 3 minutes.

A run for them makes it 60-53 until Santos responds in a HUGE way. First he hits a 3 as time is expiring. Then he steals the ball on our full court press and dunks it! 60-58 with 5:22 to go.

With 3:48 to go, after a few nice driving layups by Hendriks, Santos hits a 3 to give us our first lead in a long time. 65-63 with 3:44 to go!

The crowd is fired up and I've never had to rest our starters as they are riding the energy of the crowd. I get Andres back in and we are set to finish this one off..

Hendriks will remain our PG down the stretch of this game.

After missing a layup, Santos gets a huge block of a layup at the other end.

Andres hits a 3! 68-63 with 2:34 to go.

Stokes draws a foul and hits both FT's to make it a 3 point game again.

Andres is wide open for a 3 and he drills it!

Stokes with a quick 2 to make it a 71-67 lead.

We miss our shot but use the entire shot clock. 34 seconds left.

They shoot an immediate 2 and make it. 71-69. They foul immediately.

Hendriks makes them both. 73-69 with 29 seconds to go.

A careless pass by their inbounder leads to a turnover!

However, Hendriks misses the FT and they get a quick 2 to make it 73-71. 16 seconds left.

Andres hits only the 1st of 2 FT's. 74-71. They get a good look for Collier who has been drilling 3's all night although Santos might have gotten just enough pressure on him as he misses it! 4 seconds left. Pait rebounds it and is fouled. Pait hits the 2nd FT to finish the game off.

Hendriks steals an errant inbound pass and they foul him. He misses them both, but it doesn't matter. 75-71 win! :)

Santos is the player of the game. 27 points, 7 boards, 3 assists, 2 blocks, and 4 steals. He shot 10 of 20, 2 of 4, and 5 of 6.

Andres had 12 points, 5 boards, 3 assists, and 5 turnovers. He shot 4 of 12, 2 of 5, and 2 of 4.

Hodari had 11 points, 2 boards, 1 assist, 3 steals, and 2 turnovers. He shot 5 of 11, 0 of 2, and 1 of 2. Shaw finished with 4 points, 4 assists, and 2 steals. He only turned it over 1 time. He shot 2 of 5. Pait with 10 points and 10 boards in one of his best games for me.

Hendriks was the best player off the bench as he had 8 points.

Eaglesfan27

02-24-2008, 01:45 PM

This is a great dynasty EF. Almost makes me want to take the time to write up what I'm doing with George Mason in my game.

Thanks. I'm enjoying writing it and playing it :)

Eaglesfan27

02-24-2008, 01:51 PM

Siena beat Loyola (MD) 75-66 in the other Semi-Final game. I'm glad as I'd rather face Siena.

Siena is missing one of their top options off the bench as PF Mario Buboltz is out with a strained abdominal muscle.

However, they have tremendous interior players:

C Johnny Lampley is 7'0 240 pounds and is rated 79. He is a shot blocking specialist who is decent at rebounding and is ok offensively.

C/PF Timir Owen is 6'11 240 pounds and is rated 74. He is also a good shot blocker and is a decent rebounder. He is also a good jump shooter for a big man.

SG Demetrik Acasio is a 6'4 205 pound SG who is rated 75 overall and is a slasher. Will be a tough guard for Hodari as he is a bit more physical.

Joe Ross Keeler is a 6'6 200 pound SF who is rated 73 overall who is a good defender.

Ira Starkey, their PG is rated 73 overall and worries me. He is too fast for Casey and he can shoot the 3 well...

This will be a tough Metro Atlantic Final.

The good news is that are our RPI is 53 and most of the bracketology experts believe we are in. However, we are still listed as on the bubble.

Time to see if we can pull off this one last big upset.

Eaglesfan27

02-24-2008, 02:57 PM

Starkey is KILLING us despite trying Hodari and Andres on him. We are down 20-12 at the 12 minute mark.

For a team that is supposed to be bad from the outside, they are on fire for the next 5-7 minutes and they build a big lead. 34-17 with 6 minutes to go in the half.

Andres comes back into the game and he is playing very well. The team seems re-energized and we go on a run that cuts the lead to 37-24.

Once Starkey came back into the game, I couldn't stop their offense, not even with a zone.

Down at the half, 54-36.

Starkey leads them with 8 points and 8 assists although 3 guys have 10 points.

At the 14 minute mark, we cut the lead to 10, 65-55. This has been due to Andres making some steals, dunks, 3's as well as getting some points from teammates.

We close within 10 several times, but we never get closer. I can't help but think Solomon would have made the difference. Oh well, gotta go with what you have.

We lose 99-87.

Andres with 36 points, 5 boars, 3 assists, 2 steals. He shot 12 of 25, 4 of 7, and 8 of 10.

Santos had 18 points, 6 boars, 2 assists, 1 steal, and 4 turnovers. He shot 5 of 12, 0 of 1, and 8 of 9.

Pait had 12 points and 8 boards. I'm starting to see he can hit the little 8-10 foot jumpers if he is open. He was 5 of 10.

Hodari was shut down. 1 of 8. 3 points, 5 boards, 3 assists, 3 steals.

Casey had 6 points, 1 assist.

Their PG Starkey was the player of the game with 16 points and 14 assists.

Owen had 19 points and 12 boards on the inside.

Now to see if we get into the tourney anyway...

Eaglesfan27

02-24-2008, 03:13 PM

Our RPI is 53. We are listed as on the bubble still, but most experts are predicting us to be in. Our record is 23-8.

Other Teams on the bubble include Texas Tech, Purdue, and Kent State among others.

#1 Seeds:

Louisville (30-3), Tennessee (26-4), UNLV (32-1), and Michigan State(30-3).

The East is being announced. So far, we haven't been announced. UCLA is surprising at #4. I thought they would be a 3 seed at worst as they won the Pac-10. USC is the 7 seed in the East. Purdue made it in from the bubble and are the 10 seed facing USC. That gives me some hope...

We aren't in the East.

Onto the South:

Notable South Teams:

Duke is a 5th seed with a 22-10 record and will face Princeton who won the Ivy League.

Kent State made it in as a 10 seed. This also gives me some hope... They will face #7 Western Kentucky.

Alabama is the #2 seed. They are 27-4. They get Wagner in the first round at 18-13.

Onto the Midwest:

Notable teams in the Midwest:

Siena is the 12 Seed facing Florida in the first round.

Drexel is a 4 seed! They get San Francisco in the 1st round. Drexel is 27-3.

Texas Tech made it as a 10 seed in this bracket. All of the bubble teams seem to be getting in as 10 seeds.. I hope I'm a 10 seed in the last bracket...

Our last chance, onto the West:

Notable West Teams:

#4 Temple finished 26-5. They will face Illinois-Chicago in the first round.

Stanford got a 3 seed beating out UCLA which is surprising. Providence got the 10th seed. They were also a bubble team :(

North Carolina is a 2 seed with a 24-5 record.

We didn't make the tourney :(

2 teams from the Metro Atlantic made it, but we didn't!?!

Did I miss our announcement? 2 teams from the CAA, Sun Belt, WCC, MWC as well. Big East and the ACC had 6 each. Most of the other power conferences had 5. We definitely are out as the bubble summary tells us.

We did make it into the NIT and we have a cupcake matchup against Mount St. Mary's as our first game. I'll play that next weekend.

Eaglesfan27

02-25-2008, 10:40 AM

I'm home sick today and don't want to stay in bed any longer. So time to get in a game or 3:

First up we have an easy game against Mount St. Mary's. They are rated 68 in overall team talent. They finished the year 16-13. Their RPI is 224 and they shouldn't give us any problems. If we beat them, we have two great teams that we be facing - either Virginia Tech who finished 17-13 with an RPI of 48 or Wyoming who finished 18-12 with an RPI of 61. Both are very talented teams with overall ratings of 87.

Eaglesfan27

02-25-2008, 11:55 AM

Our team comes out flat and they start off with a 7-0 run. Their PG is rated 77 and he is burning us early..

We remain very flat throughout the first half until we turn it on with 5 minutes to go... we end the half with a 17-0 run! We lead 35-30 at the half.

Andres is the player of the half with 14 points and 4 boards. Hodari has 11 and Santos has 10.

However, they won't give up. They take the lead back with 12 minutes to go with a 3 to put them ahead 52-50.

Hodari responds with 3 big baskets in a row to give us a 60-54 lead.

Owensworth also hits 2 3's during the next few minutes to help extend our lead.

That triggers a 19-0 run! We are suddenly up 72-56 with 5:48 to go.

We cruise to an 80-67 win after that run.

Hodari is the player of the game. 27 points, 5 boards, 4 assists, 3 steals. He shot 9 of 18, 5 of 9, and 4 of 6.

Andres had 21 points, 5 boards, and 4 turnovers.

Santos had 20 points, 5 boards, 5 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block.

Pait had 0 points, 7 boards, and 1 block.

Saw had 2 points and 5 assists.

Owensworth had 10 points, 7 boards, 3 assists, and 3 steals in 17 minutes. He shot 3 of 5, 2 of 2, and 2 of 2.

Wyoming beat VT 78-71 and will be our next opponent.

Wyoming's roster is intimidating:

C James Starkey is 6'10 270 and is rated 82 overall. He is an excellent shot blocker and a decent inside scorer.

PF Lacedrick Barber is 6'10 250 and is rated 78 overall. He is a very good shot blocker who is a good inside scorer.

SG Joel Fulton is a sophomore 3 point gunner who is rated 77 overall. He is also a good defender. He is 6'4 200 pounds.

SF Cheyenne Johnson is 6'6 265 pounds and is rated 76 overall. He is a very good defender and is a good jump shooter.

PG Percy Sorenson is 6'1 201 pounds and is the fastest, quickest PG we've faced all year long. He isn't the best passer but he has great moves. He isn't a great outside shooter, so we'll try sagging way off him.

They also have a very deep bench with 5 players on the bench rated 74 higher including 2 SG's, a PG, a SF, and a PF. This will be a very tough matchup. We are big time underdogs.

Eaglesfan27

02-25-2008, 01:04 PM

We come out with a fire that I didn't see last game. We get two early steals, 3 big 3's and we quickly start the game with a 15-0 run!!

However, Starkey scores the next 5 points as they pound us inside. We are living on the 3 early, and we'll need our hot shooting to continue.

Starkey draws a quick 2nd foul on Pait, and I sub him out at the 14 minute mark. It's now 15-7.

After that, we respond with another 12-0 run before they have a 6-0 run. 27-13 with 8 minutes to go. Our defense has been brilliant particularly Santos who has been intimidating their outside shooters.

A few things I did this half:

- Sagged way off of their PG. Fortunately, he couldn't hit much of anything going 2 of 11.

- Played very tight on their SG and SF who are good shooters.

- Doubled their big guys whenever they touched it.

- Only tried to fast break if there was a clear opportunity. Otherwise, we slowed it way down going to 5 seconds or less in the shot clock most times.

- Mostly shot 3's, to stay away from their shot blockers in the middle.

It all worked. I thought we had no chance, but we are up 39-19 at the half!

They are shooting 28%. We are shooting 51%.

The only question is I played my starters almost the entire first half. Will we have enough left in the tank to get us through the 2nd half? I'll be going to my bench fairly early in the 2nd half, probably by the 15 minute mark to get my starters a breather.

Andres is the player of the half. We has 13 points, 3 boards, 3 assists, and a steal. He has shot 4 of 8, 3 of 6, and 2 of 2.

Hodari also has 13 points and 3 boards. He has shot 4 of 6, 3 of 4, and 2 of 2.

Santos had 8 points, 4 boards, 2 assists, and a block. He has also intimidated many other shots.

Andres and Pait are the only starters who didn't play 20.

With Belser out of the lineup to start the 2nd half, Starkey immediately starts dominating down low again. He also gets a quick 3rd on Pait. I'll leave Pait in for a few more minutes.

With 13 minutes to go, Pait gets his 4th foul and I bring Belser back into the game. All of our starters except Andres are resting. We are up 49-25.

With a 30 point lead, I get all of my bench guys in there. 55-25 with 7:30 to go.

Wow. I never expected this kind of result. The most talented team we faced all year and we blow them out with our best defensive effort of the year. Of course, I did avoid their strength, the interior shot blocking, by shooting mostly 3's. We win 63-37.

We held them to 29% shooting for the game. We shot 39% from the arc, going 9 of 23. We shot 47% overall going 22 of 47. We had 18 assists to their 12. We outrebounded them 33 to 25 which is also surprising.

Andres was the player of the game, although Santos also could have gotten it. Andres finished with 18 points, 7 boards, 3 assists, 3 steals. He shot 6 of 12, 3 of 7, 3 of 4.

Santos had 18 points, 7 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, and 2 blocks. He shot 8 of 14, 2 of 4.

Hodari had 13 points, 3 boards, 1 assist, and 1 steal. He shot 4 of 6, 3 of 4, and 2 of 4.

Shaw had 3 points and 4 assists.

Pait had 0 points and 5 boards.

Belser had 6 boards in 22 minutes.

In just 13 minutes of garbage time, Brady a SG, had 9 points on 3 of 5 shooting including 1 of 3 from the arc.

Eaglesfan27

02-25-2008, 01:13 PM

Our next opponent is UAB who beat Baylor 80-78. UAB is ranked 85 in overall talent. Unlike our last opponent, they are a great shooting team that is star heavy at the guard position:

Stevin Sola is a 81 rated PG who is 6'1 with blazing speed. He is now the fastest guard we will have faced. On top of that he is a good mid range shooter and a fair 3 point shooter. Still, I see no choice but to sag off him or play zone or both.

PG Ray Foust is also rated 81. He is 6'0 with great speed as well. He is the better passer between the two but isn't as good of a shooter.

SF Mitchell Bogans is 6'6 240 pounds and is ratd 81 overall. He is a good 3 point shooter and a good defender. Still with the height advantage, I like Andres chances against him.

SG Chester Marsh is 6'7 230 pounds with speed, strength, athleticism, and great defensive instincts. Very quick hands that leads to a lot of steals. He isn't a good shooter but he is a good finisher when he gets into the lane. He is rated 78 overall.

SF Omar Guinn is 6'8 240 pounds. He is a bit slow and isn't good defensively but he is a pure shooter. Excellent from mid range or the arc. He is rated 76 overall.

PF Gerry Bernard is 6'9 240 pounds and is a tough interior defender and good rebounder. Rated 75 overall.

They have 4 more players rated between 70-74.

It will be a tough matchup. I'll play it later.

SFL Cat

02-25-2008, 06:42 PM

Great read so far!

I gave up on the NBA long ago, and have slowly been losing interest in college hoops, but this is really cool, especially those exciting close games. Makes me want to fire up the tube and watch a game or two. :)

Keep up the good work.

Eaglesfan27

02-25-2008, 06:47 PM

Thanks. I'm looking forward to finishing this season later this week. I can't wait to get the new recruits on campus. Hopefully, Everett can fill Solomon's shoes.

Eaglesfan27

02-26-2008, 05:17 PM

My wife is hooked on Puzzle Quest for the DS which I got her for Valentines so I get to play a game of this after work:

Time to see if we can upset UAB. I'm going with a similar strategy as last game:

- Milk the clock unless a clear fast break opportunity is there.

- Rely on the 3. We need our shooter to hit those to keep us in it.

- High pressure defense on their SG/SF. Sag off the PG and hope he doesn't kill us with 3's.

We start off with an Andres 3 from the corner. Then, Santos steals it. After that, with 4 seconds left, Andres shoots the 18 footer on which he is fouled and still hits the 2, but misses the FT.

They respond with a basket down low that turns into a 3 point play.

After that, we get 2 more quick baskets off turnovers. They get a quick inside basket, but 2 more turnovers as Andres has 2 quick steals in the game. We are up 14-5 at the 14 minute mark!

Andres and Santos are causing massive disruptions with their speed and length.

I find myself double checking to make sure I haven't accidently messed up the difficulty levels, but I haven't. My team is just having another great start.

Andres with another huge 3 to give us a 19-7 lead with 13 minutes to go. Andres already has 10.

A minute later, Santos hits a 15 footer while being fouled and converts the FT!

Unbelievable. Santos and Andres are playing incredible defense. They are either generating steals are playing suffocating defense, forcing missed shots. 23-7 lead with 10 minutes to go in the half.

To be fair, Pait is doing a great job inside defensively as well. Most importantly their PG is missing the somewhat open 3's that we are giving him.

We end a 16-0 run when they finally score with 6:54 to go. We are now 30-9.

At that point, I rest some of my starters as well.

They are just missing some open shots. Even with our scrubs not playing great defense, they aren't hitting a ton of shots that I thought they would. Of course, I'm not complaining.

We are up 37-17 at the half in another game that I thought we'd struggle to keep respectable. I hope we can play like this next year.

Interesting, my halftime coaches all say that I'm playing too tight of defense for a team that has poor 3 range shooters. I thought their outside shooters were well rated (mid to high 70's) Shrug. In any case, I'm sticking to what I've been doing - sagging off the PG and covering the SG and SF tight. Also, we'll continue to run our full court trap after made baskets. We've forced 10 turnovers and we've had 7 steals which have led to 12 fast break points so far.

Andres is the player of the half. He has 15 points, 1 board, 1 assist, and 3 steals. He has shot 5 of 7, 3 of 4, and 2 of 3.

Santos has 12 points, 3 boards, 3 assists, and 2 steals. He has shot 5 of 8, 1 of 1, and 1 of 2.

UAB is showing more fight in the 2nd half and has a nice run before we respond with a short burst ourselves. 44-24 at the 15 minute mark.

Marsh is heating up from the arc and has hit 2 3's in a row for them and now has 10 points.

Worse, Faust, the PG, is also hitting some 3's now. 44-30. We call a timeout. We don't want to let them back into this one..

After an offensive board by Santos, Andres drives to the rim for a slam dunk to end the run. 46-30. 12:25 left in the game.

With 10 minutes to go, they have cut it 46-34. They are the ones generating turnovers off the press and trap now.

Where both sides were shooting tight, Hodari opened it up with 2 quick layups on fast breaks. 50-34 with 8 minutes to go.

Andres with a fast break dunk a minute later to make it 52-36.

Here they come again.. 52-42 after they hit another 3. 5:22 to go.

Their PG is heating up, so I put Andres on him and he forces 2 misses on the next 2 shots. Meanwhile, Pait of all people gets us the next basket with an open 10 footer. They respond with a fastbreak dunk. 54-44 with 3:34 to go.

They never get closer than 9 and we win 59-47. Another very unexpected win, but I'll gladly take it. We are going to the NIT Final 4. That has to count for something, right?

Andres was the player of the game with 22 points, 4 boards, 4 assists, 3 steals, and 2 turnovers. He shot 8 of 13, 4 of 7, and 2 of 3.

Santos had 16 points, 8 boards, 4 assists, 4 steals, and 3 turnovers. He shot 7 of 15, 1 of 1, and 1 of 2.

Hodari had 11 points, 4 boards, 4 assists, and 1 steal. He shot 1 of 6 from the arc and 4 of 11 overall but made some nice drives when it mattered.

Casey had 0 points, 1 board, and 4 assists.

Pait had 4 points, 8 boards, 4 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block.

We get to rest up a few days before our next opponent, another very tough team, Pitt. They are rated 87 overall and they have the best shooting rating I've seen - 92. I doubt we'll be holding them to under 50, but who knows. They finished the year 24-12 and 9-9 in the Big East and barely missed the tourney. Their RPI was 41 and they were 8th in the Big East. They were behind Louisville, West Virginia, Georgetown, ND, Providence, Villanova, and DePaul. However, they are still a powerhouse team:

SR SG Bucky Hughes is 6'6 233 pounds and he is rated 88 overall and is the star of the team. He is a fast player who can drive to the hoop as well as shoot the pull up jumper. He is also a goo defender and a good passer.

JR PF Rwehabura Jordan is 6'10 215 pounds and is rated 83 overall. He is an excellent inside scorer, a good mid range scorer, and a good shot blocker but can be pushed around on the post.

JR PF Antwan Mulligan is a 6'9 270 PF who is as good at shooting the 3 as anyone on my team! He is their 2nd leading scorer behind Bucky and he can shoot from anywhere on the court. He is rated 83.

SG Grant Lee is 6'2 195 pounds and he is a pure shooter who can shoot from anywhere. He is also very quick and is a good defender if a bit undersized. He is rated 83.

PG is their one weakness as Vandrell Cruz is a freshman who is only rated 71 overall. He isn't that fast and he isn't that goo of a shooter. Casey should be able to guard him ok.

However, their backup PG who is rated 68 is much faster and could give us problems. We'll sag off both of them.

They have 3 guys on the bench who are rated in the mid 60's but who can all shoot the 3 well.

I'll play that later this week.

Eaglesfan27

02-27-2008, 05:34 PM

Pitt has Jackette on Andres. Jackette is 6'10 240 and mobile. This will be a challenge for Andres. They have Jordan on Santos which should also be a tough matchup.

We are down 8-5 at the 15 minute mark. Their defense is making us miss most of our shots.

They are forcing a faster tempo refusing to let me slow it down. Still, we are hanging around. 17-13, we are down at the 10 minute mark.

However, Andres has to rest at this point.

Everything falls apart during the next 5 minutes. Their bench kills our tired starters and bench. Down 29-15 when Andres comes back in with 5 minutes to go.

Right after he comes back, we go on a 8-0 run but they respond with a 6-0 run of their own.

Down 43-30 at the half. They have run and we have fallen into the trap of playing uptempo as well. I think our best chance is to slow it down in the 2nd half and hope we can shoot better and only fast break when there is a clear opportunity.

Lee who is playing PG for them in their big lineup is the player of the half with 10 points on 3 of 6 shooting, 2 of 3 from the arc. He also had 2 assists. Huges also had 10 points for them and Jackett has 8.

Andres continues to produce for me despite the big man on him. He has 16 points as we continue to run plays that seem to get him open. He is 6 of 8 from the floor, 2 of 2 from the arc, and 2 of 2 from the line.

Santos on the other hand has been shut down He has 3 points and is 1 of 8.

With 14 minutes left, Andres with a steal, dunk and the foul for a 3 poiint play. He cuts it to a 51-46 lead.

Down 57-51 with 11 minutes to go when Andres has to leave due to exhaustion..

We pull within 5 several times, but a 6-0 run makes it a 11 point lead when I get Andres back in with 5:48 to go. We are down 69-58.

Andres isn't fully rested, but Santos is exhausted and I can't wait any longer to get Andres back in..

They block Andres' first two shots as he is being guarded extremely closely.

We've pulled within 5 a few times, but with 2:39 to go, we are down 71-62 when Andres misses 2 FT's. I get my starters back in the game.

Andres with a tip-in putback to make it 71-64 with a little over 2 minutes to go. He now has 31 points.

Andres misses a 3 that would have made it a 4 point game, but a minute later Hodari hits a 3 to make it a 5 point game. 52 seconds left.

After we get a steal, Andres is fouled on a dunk attempt. He missed both FT's :(

They hit their FT's when we intentionally foul and our NIT run comes to an end. 77-67 loss.

They had a very balanced performance. Their PF won player of the game. Jordan had 14 points, 13 boards, and 2 blocks. He shot 6 of 8 from the floor and 2 of 2 from the line.

Every starter was in double figits and they all shot at or above 50%.

Lee had 16, Hughes had 12, Jackette had 15, Mulligan had 12.

For us, Andres led the team with 31 points on 11 of 18 shooting. He was 3 of 5 from the arc. He was 6 of 10 from the arc. Santos finished with 9 points, 5 boards, 3 assists, and a steal. he shot 3 of 12, 1 of 6, and 2 of 2.

Hodari had 15 points and 2 assists. Our season ends with a record of 26-9. Not bad for my first year at Niagara.

Now to take a look at the NCAA Tourney.

Eaglesfan27

02-27-2008, 05:52 PM

As far as the NIT, Texas A&M bat Pitt in the NIT Final 75-72. Hopefully, I can appear in the more relevant Final 4 in the near future.

The NCAA Final 4 is shaping up to be:

#2 Kansas who beat #1 Louisville 88-60 to get into the Final 4.

They will play #1 Tennessee who cruised through every opponent. Tennessee played #7 Maryland and beat them 108-66 in the Elite 8.

In the other bracket, #3 Indiana played #5 Duke (who had just beat #1 Michigan State) and Indiana won 88-74 to advance to the Final 4.

#1 UNLV proved they aren't a paper dragon by crushing every opponent They beat #7 Georgia Tech 100-82 in their Elite 8 game.

In the Final 4:

Kansas beat Tennessee 109-72 thanks to 39 points and 8 assists from JR PG Sergio Klatsky. Sophomore PF Herb Temple pitched in 24 points and 12 boards.

#3 Indiana beat #1 UNLV 102-60 thanks to double digit scoring from all 5 starters and their top 3 bench players. No one had more than 16 but 3 players had at least 5 assists.

Indiana wins the National Championship 75-60. SR SF Phillip Jacobs was the main offensive threat this game. He finished with 16 points, 9 boards, 1 assist, and 1 steal. They end the year with a 34-6 record.

SR PF Will Carrington of WV was the National Player of the Year. He averaged 26.5 ppg and 6 rpg.

SR PF Rubeen Forchion of Pepperdine was the Mid Major Player of the Year. He averaged 23.4 ppg and 6.5 rpg.

Indiana's coach won coach of the year.

SR C Lavoy Allen of Temple won defensive player of the year. He averaged 19.5 ppg, 10.1 rpg, and 3 bpg.

Will Carrington won Big Man of the Year.

PG Lodrick Lindeman of Arizona won Freshman of the Year. He averaged 10 ppg, 4 apg, and 2 spg.

Corey Stokes of Iona from our conference made the National First Team All American Team at SF! He averaged 22.3 ppg, 6.8 rpg, and 2.7 apg. My goal is to have Andres make that team next year..

The rest of the team:

PG Romeo Stephens, MD 19.1 ppg, 4.2 apg
SG Lamar Momplaisir, UVA 20.7 ppg, 3.5 rpg, 3.0 apg.
PF Will Carrington, WVU
C Kelly Mascoll, LSU 23.2 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 1.2 apg, 1.8 bpg.

I was named the Conference Coach of the Year for the Metro Atlantic.

Hodari Chatman was named to the Metro Atlantic First Team for 11.5 ppg, 3.5 rpg, and 2.8 apg.

Solomon made 2nd team.

Andres and Santos were snubbed as Stokes was 1st team (and the conference player of the year - good thing he is a senior) and Guasco (also a senior) was 2nd team at SF.

We lose 3 players this year to graduation:

Solomon Chatman - Our starting PG and a key contributor. Hopefully, Everett is as good as advertised. He should start from day 1.

C Jeremee Belser - Hurts as he was our only size off the bench. We now have no choice but to play small ball.

SG Steve Brady - Became a 3 point contributor late in the year, but too much of a liability to play more than a few minutes.

Eaglesfan27

02-27-2008, 05:59 PM

The first day that any recruit can sign, Jerel Bogans signs with us. The 6'8 216 pound JC Freshman Center is a 3 star player and is our 3rd 3 star player to sign with us this year. He is from Erie, PA. Our staff feels that he will be a good shot blocker and a good passer for a big man. Now, I'll spend the rest of the recruiting period (which I'll probably sim tomorrow night as dinner is almost ready) working on soon to be seniors for next year and also in trying to convince one mediocre big man to walk on at our school to give us some size.

Tellistto

02-28-2008, 02:32 PM

Looking forward to seeing how the team shapes up for next season, and how well the frosh blend with the team. Good stuff all around, keep up the great work!

Tell

Eaglesfan27

02-28-2008, 04:11 PM

Looking forward to seeing how the team shapes up for next season, and how well the frosh blend with the team. Good stuff all around, keep up the great work!

Tell

My wife isn't feeling well (and is a tad annoyed that I gave her my cold but I did offer to sleep in the guest room.) Anyway, the upshot is that I'll very likely finish recruiting tonight as she is 99% going to bed "right after American Idol" and I'll probably start the new season tonight. Thanks for the positive feedback. I appreciate it. :)

rjolley

02-28-2008, 05:39 PM

Still following along as well. And still haven't started playing 2K8. If it's as addictive as 2K7 has proven to be, I'll be ok if EA buys Take Two then takes a year off to get CH2K10 out (because we all agree March Madness should just disappear).

Eaglesfan27

02-28-2008, 08:37 PM

Before I move onto the next season: A quick look at my old team:

Nicholls State finished 10-21.

Spencer led them in scoring with 11.7 ppg, Lloyd was 2nd with 11.3 ppg and Bose was 3rd with 11.2 ppg. No one else hit double digits. Lloyd led the team with 7.2 rpg. Spencer was their only 3 point threat. He shot 34% from the arc. Bose shot 44% from the field which lead their team. Pekkola lead the team in assists with 5 per game.

Back to our recruiting:

I think I have convinced Mani Shannon to walk on at our school. He is 6'9 250 pounds and he is a 2 star center. He is from Parma, Ohio. He averaged 7 ppg and 7.1 rpg at the summer camps. He is ranked 64th in the nation among centers and we are his top choice. He is a very fast big man who specializes in stealing the ball. He doesn't currently have any scholarship offers and the other considerations are Richmond, CCU, and LW. Unfortunately, Richmond offers him a scholarship in the last week and he goes there.

Florida had the top class with 3 5 star players, 1 4 star player, and 1 3 star player.

Other strong classes: Maryland, Xavier, Pittsburgh, Wisconsin, Louisville, Arizona, UNLV, Syracuse, Washington, and VT.

I decide to attend at least part of the ABL to go after Donny Grove. He is a 6'5 201 pound SG from Westland, Michigan who is a 4 star player. I have very little shot at him, but the kid is an incredible shooter who is interested in our program and I feel compelled to pursue him.

Grove puts up 26 in his first game and I only watched 5 minutes. I saw everything I needed to see. This kid is going to be a huge star, and I probably have zero shot at him. I'll continue to pursue, but he is being pursued by Kentucky, Michigan, and Illinois among others.

Next up is a look at the roster.

Eaglesfan27

02-28-2008, 09:03 PM

PG's:

Freshman Everett Huffman is everything I could hope for! Solomon was rated 69 overall when he graduated. Everett is rated 68 on day 1 and he is only going to get better. The only knock is his size at 5'9 180. However, our scouts think he has the potential to gain a few inches and the potential to become a much better player. As it is, he is MUCH faster than Solomon ever was. In fact, he will match up with speed for any player we faced this year! I didn't expect that at all! He doesn't have the best first step, but it's not bad. He is a very good defender already. He is a decent passer, not great, but decent. He is a good 3 point shooter and ok from other ranges. He is also a surprisingly good rebounder for his size. Basically, he'll fit the role I want him to play perfectly. He's our day 1 starter and should be a 4 year starter, more than likely.

Senior Casey Shaw played last year once Solomon went down. Rated 56 overall he'll play only a few minutes in garbage unless we have injuries. Does have decent size at 6'3 200.

Senior Walk-on Bobby Moran is 6'1 185. Rated 56 overall. No strengths. Shouldn't play much at all.

Junior Walk-on J.B. Bridgewater. 6'1 180. Rated 48 overall and will never see the court.

SG's:

Senior Hodari Chatman is one of my big 3 seniors. Rated 75 overall. He has improved his speed and is the quickest, most athletic guy on the team. Excellent finisher around the hoop. He has become a very good 3 point shooter this past year. He also is a great passer for a 2 guard. Terrific defender as well. He can also rebound and post well for a 2 guard. 6'5 190.

Freshman Donte Snow is everything I hoped for and more! He is rated 72 overall off the bat! He has tremendous potential. He is an INCREDIBLE 3 point shooter. Way better than Andres, Santos, or anyone I have. Futhermore, he is a great finisher around the rim as well. Unfortunately, he lacks the speed or quickness to generate his own shot. He is a solid defender and a good passer but not very athletic. He'll start next year and will be our #1 option off the bench with liberal use this year. Instant offense if we can get him open shots. This guy is going to be a tremendous shooter. 6'5 218 now.

JR Ike Hendriks is getting replaced as a top bench option for the guard spot. He is 6'2 207. He is rated 63 overall. He has worked on his leg strength and is becoming quite fast for a SG. Nice combo type guard with some 3 point shooting ability. Limited passer though. I don't think he is ever going to live up to his "potential." Still, he'll get some minutes off the bench.

Douglas Peciukas is 6'4 200 pound Junior. As the 2nd fastest man on the team behind Hodari, I might get him some PT this year unlike last year. Unfortunately, he doesn't do much else well. He is a mediocre defender, mediocre dribbler, poor finisher, and poor shooter.. so maybe no minutes for him. Rated 57 overall.

Jave Gates is a 6'6 211 pounds SR Walk-on. He is a fairly decent 3 point shooter but can't do much else. Rated 56 overall.

RS FS Walk-on Laurie Beachem is 6'5 205 pounds. He is rated 53 overall. He won't see the court this year unless there are multiple injuries.

SF's:

Willie Andres is the undisputed star of the team. 6'8 224 pounds and now a senior. He is very fast for a SF and could easily play SG. He is a good defender, he is good at stealing the ball, he is a good shot blocker. He is a very good shooter. He is a good passer. His biggest weakness is the lack of stamina at times. This year, I want him to score 20 plus and contend for major awards. Rated 80 overall now.

Channing Santos is a natural SF who played PF for us last year very well and will do so again because he is too good to remain on the bench. He is 6'8 223 pounds. He is also a senior. He is the best shot blocker on our team. He is almost as good at Andres at everything else but not quite as good at any of it. Still, he is a very capable 2nd option and his defense is superb at times. Rated 75 overall.

W.B. Meeking is 6'6 196 pounds and is rated 65 overall. He is a sophomore and I'm not sure he is the answer for when the 2 big men graduate. He is ok at most things but doesn't excel in any area. He is a sophomore.

PF's:

Sergio Owensworth is a junior who is rated 67 overall. He is 6'8 229. His lack of size is another reason I've felt good about starting Santos. Ownesworth is a decent 3 point shooter for a 4. He doesn't do anything really well though. Not much potential for improvement either. Still, he'll provide minutes off the bench as the #1 interior option this year. He is the only "true" PF on the roster.

C:

Jean Pait is 6'10 226 pounds and he is my 4th senior starter. He is rated 69 overall. He doesn't thrive offensively, but I'm starting to see his benefit in the offense. He can hit the open 8-10 foot jumper. He also is a decent rebounder and a fair interior defensive presence. Also, a good passer for a big man. Finally, he runs well for a big man.

Sophomore Jerel Bogans is the third newcomer to the team this year. He also looks quite good. He is rated 64 overall which is better than expected. He is 6'8 220 now. He is a good shot blocker who can pass and shot the mid range jumper. He also is a good rebounder for his size. He'll get valuable minutes off the bench and might even surplant Owensworth as the #1 option off the bench for the interior.

Eaglesfan27

02-28-2008, 09:19 PM

With all of those seniors graduating, we have 5 scholarships to offer. I'll report on who I'm offering to as we get closer. I'm aiming VERY high so far. We'll see how it goes.

I didn't change the schedule that the AD recommended at all, except to remove Duke from it and to add a cupcake in place of Duke. Otherwise, it is exactly as the AD recommended.

Our talent rating as a team has risen from last year. We are now rated 79 in overall talent with the biggest jump in shooting which is up to 83. Our first game is against Colgate at home. They are 1-0. They are rated 75 and hence we are favored. They aren't particularly good at shooting and their team strength is rebounding.

Eaglesfan27

02-28-2008, 10:34 PM

Our first basket comes on an Everett steal in which he takes it the length of the court for a layup and the foul... he converts the 3 point play!

While he might get victimized if they post him up, Everett's speed is exciting. He is among the fastest 20 PG's (maybe the fastest 10) in the NCAA I'd guess.

Everett with a 3 on our next possession!

With 12:38 to go, Andres rests. Snow comes in to play some SF and shoot the 3. We are up 16-10.

Oh crud. I never saw Snow perform at the ABL since he chose not to.. the guy's release is extremely slow. I'm going to need to get him some wide open looks as he is going to be easy to block.

As it is, he missed his first shot, but Pait had a putback jam! 21-10. Everett has 3 assists already as he is penetrating and kicking out for open jumpers.

After missing 2 jumpers, Snow gets a breakaway jam off a long rebound and pass from Pait.

We are up 29-12 with 8:45 to go. Huffman is looking incredible. Snow is having trouble blending in so far.

A 19-0 run has us up 35-12 before they score again.

Snow does hit 2 3's during the run despite his awkward shooting style.

A big run by them in the last 4 minutes to cut the lead drastically.

37-26, we lead at the half.

Once Huffman left the game, they started scoring at will. Interesting.

Everett Huffman is the player of the half! He has 9 points and 6 assists both of which lead the team. He also has 2 boards and 2 steals. He only has 1 turnover. He is 3 of 5, 2 of 4, and 1 of 1.

Andres only had 2 points!?! He shot 1 of 8 and 0 of 6 from the arc.

Santos had 8 points. Snow had 8 points on 3 of 10 shooting, 2 of 7 from the arc. Hodari had 6 points and Pait had 2.

In very limited time, Berel was great on the boards. He definitely earned more PT.

Hodari Chatman hurts his knee early in the 2nd half :(

About 5 minutes later, Hodari comes back into the game.

With 12 minutes to go, we are up 52-44.

We are up 59-50 with 6 minutes to go, and I'm resting my starters for a few.

Snow with a blocked shot!

Snow's shot may be the most frustrating shot I've ever seen. The release point is extremely odd. It's frustrating because I know he has the potential to be a great shooter, but that shot release might prevent him from ever being one.

They make it close late, but we hold onto to win.

64-58 victory.

Santos wins player of the game. 18 points, 11 boards, 3 steals, 2 assists, 1 block. He shot 7 of 11, 3 of 6, and 1 of 2.

However, Huffman was great too. He played very good defense and he had the best stat line I've ever seen from any of my PG's: 17 points, 8 assists, 2 boards, 2 steals, 1 block, and 2 turnovers. He shot 5 of 11, 4 of 9, and 3 of 3.

Andres finished with 7 points, 2 boards, and 1 steal. He shot 3 of 16 and 1 of 8 from the arc.

Hodari finished with 10 points, 3 boards, and 3 assists. He shot 3 of 10 and 2 of 8 from the arc.

Pait had 2 points and 12 boards along with 2 blocks.

Snow finsihed with 8 points, 2 assists, and a block. he shot 3 of 12 and 2 of 10 from the arc.

Bogans had 2 points and 5 boards in just 11 minutes including 2 offensive boards.

I'm going to have to work with Snow and his release point.

Eaglesfan27

02-29-2008, 07:10 PM

We ran a long practice today mostly focused on ironing out Snow's shot. His release actually isn't slower than most players, but he gets almost zero elevation on his jump shot and it is hard to judge where the release point is. Now, I think I have a better grasp on it so that he should perform more to his abilities.

Our next opponent that the AD scheduled is at Lafayette of the Patriot League. They are currently 3-1. However, they are only rated 68 in overall team talent so I expect a blowout or at least a very comfortable win.

Their best player is SG Taliek Adkins who is a senior who is quick and skilled and is rated 73 overall. Most other positions, we have a huge talent advantage, particularly at PG where I expect Everett to be able to dominate. Also, at SF where I expect Andres to bounce back from his subpar game.

Eaglesfan27

02-29-2008, 08:32 PM

I'm not sure what is wrong early, but we are down 10-5 at the 15 minute mark.

Down 10-8 with 12 minutes to go in the half, we bring in some subs including Snow.

We continue to struggle to find our rhythym. Down 24-15 with 5 minutes to go in the half.

Andres comes back into the game rested, and it's time for him to take over like he used to. No more trying to blend everyone in...

He can't get his outside shot going.

We are down 36-23 at the half. We are shooting 26% as a team. We are 2 of 10 from the arc.

Adkins their SG has 16 points on 4 of 5 shooting, 2 of 3, and 6 of 6.

Hodari leads our team with 8 points. He has our only 3's.

We pulled within 4 but then they went on a 8-0 run. As it is, we are down 49-38 with 12 minutes to go and I need to rest most of my starters.

Our starters come back in with 6 minutes to go, we are down 66-55 as I tried playing pressing the tempo at breakneck speed.

Our starters trigger a 11-0 run which includes 2 FT's by Everett to tie the game at 66 with 2:20 left! That is our first tie since the game began.

They hit a 3 to end our run. 69-66 with just over 2 minutes to go.

Andres has it stolen from him and they hit a jumper to extend the lead to 5.

A charge on Andres gets them the ball back :(

They hit a jumper to extend the lead to 7, but Andres with a quick 3 makes it a 4 point game with just under a minute left.

We have to start intentionally fouling. Unfortunately, they are making their FT's.

Andres with a turnover as he steps on the line. That probably puts the nail in this one. Down 77-71 with 28 seconds to go.

No, Andres forces a steal to get us the ball right back!

Andres with a 2, his foot was on the line. We still have a chance with 20 seconds left.

A very disappointing loss. 81-73. Going to be hard to get to our goal of 20 wins and the Big Dance with losses like these.

Taliek Adkins, their one star, was the player of the game, he had 26 points on 8 of 12 shooting, 2 of 5, and 8 of 8.

Erroyl McClurkin, their 69 rated Freshman PF, had 21 points and 9 boards as the 6'10 250 pound player pushed Santos around.

Andres led us with 21 points, 5 boards, 1 assist, 3 steals, and 3 turnovers. He shot 6 of 15, 2 of 7, and 7 of 12.

Hodari had 18 points and 2 boards. He shot 5 of 9, 2 of 3, and 6 of 8.

Santos had 3 points, 5 boards, 1 assist, and 1 block. He shot 1 of 7.

Everett finished with 11 points and 5 assists. He 3 of 7, 0 of 4, and 5 of 10.

Snow had 8 points off the bench on 2 of 4 shooting, 0 of 2, and 4 of 6 from the line.

Bogans had 4 points and 8 boards in 17 minutes.

Our next opponent is at Sacred Heart. They are 0-2. Their overall rating is 63. They are rated 66 in shooting and a terrible offensive team. We better not lose to them. Their only good rated player is their senior center who is rated 72. Well double team him if he starts scoring reliably.

Eaglesfan27

02-29-2008, 09:40 PM

Within the first 2 minutes, Everett has Wong, their center, in foul trouble.

This is more like it. Up 13-5 at the 15 minute mark. Everett is dominating the game, I'm not sure why he didn't do this last game.

From there, we just cruise through the 1st half.

We are up 49-24 at the half. We are shooting 56% as a team.

Andres is the player of the half as he is finally clicking on offense. He has 13 points, 3 boards, 1 assist, and 1 steal. He is shooting 5 of 8, 2 of 4, and 1 of 2.

Everett has 10 points and 4 assists at the half. He is shooting 2 of 3, 1 of 1, and 5 of 6.

Hodari has 5 points, 4 assist, and 2 boards.

Santos has 7 points and 5 boards.

Even Pait is scoring. He has 5 points, 3 boards, and 2 blocks.

Off the bnech, Snow has 7 points, 3 assists, 2 boards, and a steal in 12 minutes. He is 2 of 6, 2 of 5, and 1 of 2.

With 14 minutes to go in the game, Everett takes a board, runs to half court and lobs a beautiful alley-oop which Andres slams home with great power. That is Everett's 7th assist of the game. We are now up 63-32.

With 12 minutes to go and up 70-35, I sit Everett likely for the rest of the game.

With 10 minutes to go, I pull the rest of my staters. Up 73-40.

I'm counting on Snow to provide scoring to keep our lead. If they get within 20, I may go back to our starters depending upon how much time is left.

Snow does an incredible job of doing just that as he proves he is over his freshman jitters.

We win 96-64.

Snow wins player of the game for his garbage time scoring.

He finishes with a game high 29 points, 3 boards, 3 assists, and 3 steals. He shot 10 of 19, 6 of 13, and 3 of 5. He played 25 minutes.

Andres finished with 25 points, 5 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal. He shot 8 of 13, 2 of 4, and 7 of 9. He played just 23 minutes.

Everett had 14 points, 7 assists, 2 steals, and 1 board in just 21 minutes. He shot 4 of 6, 1 of 1, and 5 of 6.

Hodari had 9 points, 5 assists, 2 boards, and 2 steals in 22 minutes. He shot 4 of 5 and 1 of 1 from the arc.

Santos had 10 points, 6 boards, 2 assists, and 2 steals. He shot 4 of 9, 1 of 2, and 1 of 2.

Pait finished with 6 points, 7 boards, 1 assist, 2 steals, and 2 blocks.

Eaglesfan27

02-29-2008, 09:54 PM

Time to talk about recruiting:

We have 5 slots to fill. Unfortunately, their aren't any great 6'8 SF's to recruit like Andres and Santos. However, Reyshawn Ortiz is a good 6'5 185 pound SF that I'm recruiting. He is a 3 star player from Fort Wayne, Indiana. He is ranked 367 overall and 73rd among SF's. He averaged 8.1 ppg and 6 rpg in the ABL. He isn't very good in any area, but he is average in every area right now and our staff believes he has the potential to become very good in many areas. His best attribute right now is his defense. Anyway, he told me that he is 75% sure that he will be committing to us on the 1st possible day at the end of this week. Marshall is the other school that has offered him a scholarship and is a serious competitor for him.

Another recruit we are pursuing hard is Jerome Adams. He is a 6'9 229 pound center who I plan on playing at PF most likely. He is ranked 404th overall and 21st among centers. He is a 3 star athlete from Brooklyn, NY. He is a good mid range jump shooter and is a good low post defender. Our staff believes he has the potental to become exceptional in many areas. He has told us that he is 50% to commit this upcoming weekend. Fordham is our primary competitor for him.

Those are the only 2 I think I have a realistic shot at getting to sign early.

Others I'm pursuing with scholarship offers:

Fredrick Souchu is a 6'5 205 SF from Porsmouth, VA. He is a 3 star player who is ranked 152 overall and 26th among SF's. He is one of the very good shooters in this class. NCST is a big competitor and they have the inside track.

My big reach player is PF Woody Atchinson. He is a 4 star player. He is 6'8 225 pounds. He is ranked 88th overall and 16th among PF's. He is from Charleston, SC. He is being recruited by Florida, UNC, Florida State, and Georgia. Unless they all drop out, I have almost no chance, but we'll keep pursuing. This kid is a PF who can shoot the 3 as well as most SG's and can block shots, rebound, and run the floor.

Finally, I offered a scholarship to Deshaun Simon. He is a 7'0 277 pound center from Winston-Salem, NC. He is a 2 star player who is ranked 486 overall and 27th among centers. Charleston is our main competition and I haven't focused on this kid yet and they are gaining ground as a result.

Our next game is against 0-5 Toledo. They are ranked 67 in overall talent and 68 in shooting. This should be an easy win for us like last game. I'll play that tomorrow.

Eaglesfan27

03-01-2008, 10:07 AM

Everett is making it look effortless as he drives into the lane time after time and kicks it out for open jumpers and everyone is burying them. Between his orchestrating of the offense and great team defense, we go on a 13-0 run and are up 23-8 with 11 minutes to go.

He is the first to rest at that point as he has been constant energy running at full speed. He already has 7 assists! I try my new experiment, sliding Hodari over to PG and bringing Snow into to SG to play with our starters a bit.

We continue to crush them through the 1st half. 52-21. We are 17 of 29 from the FT line as Everett is driving into the lane at will.

Andres and Santos are really clicking from the outside and Snow has been great off the bench.

Andres is the player of the half, but I think Everett deserved it.

Andres has 18 points, 4 boards, 2 steals. He shot 6 of 9, 1 of 3, and 5 of 8.

Everett has 2 points, 12 assists, and 1 steal in 16 minutes. He only turned it over 1 time.

Santos has 14 points, 2 boards, and 2 steals. He shot 6 of 7, 1 of 2, and 1 of 1.

Snow has 8 points in 11 minutes.

With a 76-27 lead and 12 minutes to go, I sit all of my starters.

We win the game 100-47 as our bench played well.

Andres is the player of the game. 31 points, 5 boards, and 3 steals. He shot 11 of 15, 3 of 5, and 6 of 9. He played just 24 minutes.

Everett finished with 2 points, 2 boards, 18 assists, 1 steal, and 2 turnovers. He shot 0 of 1, 0 of 1, and 2 of 5. He did all of that in 24 minutes.

Santos had 21 points, 4 boards, and 3 steals in 24 minutes. He shot 9 of 10, 1 of 2, and 2 of 2.

Hodari had 10 points, 3 assists, 1 board, and 1 steal. He played 21 minutes.

Pait had 11 boards and a block in 22 minutes.

Bogans had 12 boards 3 points and a block in 18 minutes.

Snow had 19 points, 2 boards, and an assist in 22 minutes. He shot 4 of 9, 2 of 7, and 9 of 18. He is drawing more perimeter fouls than any of my players as guys attempt to guard him much more tightly than any of my players and they rush out to get him whenever he is open.

This next opponent should be more challenging. We play at Duquesne. They are 3-2. They are rated 76 and are a very good rebounding team with some good outside shooters. They have 2 very fast PG's although Everett is a bit faster than either of them. They have a 7'1 260 pound PF who is a very skilled shot blocker as well as a decent inside scorer, however, he is out this game with a broken toe. Their top PG is out with a strained achilles, as well.

rjolley

03-01-2008, 10:36 AM

Great win. Started playing 2K8 today after winning another championship with my Lions in 2K7. All I can say is wow, what a difference. It'll take me a bit to get used to the controls (I like having the X for double team and the Isomotion stick), but it's a great game. Played Penn State vs Pitt and Tenn vs Memphis. Both were a lot of fun. Looking forward to digging into a Legacy and watching these guys go to the pros.

Eaglesfan27

03-01-2008, 11:28 AM

Down 10-8 at the 15 minute mark. Their PG is doing a good job on Everett and Santos isn't knocking down the open jumpers when he does get them.

14 minute mark: Pait gets his 3rd foul. Bogans will come in early. Pait already has 2 blocks so he was making a difference and this will probably hurt a bit.

17-17 with 11 minutes to go when Everett and Andres need their first break.

At the end of the half, we are up 34-31.

Andres is the player of the half with 9 points, 3 boards, 2 assists, and 2 steals. He has shot 3 of 8, 0 of 3, and 3 of 4.

Everett only has 4 points and 1 assist so far as their PG has done a good job on him.

After getting down by 8 early in the 2nd half, we tie it at 46 with 14 minutes to go on an Everett breakaway layup.

Tied at 57 with 6 minutes to go, Santos comes off a pick and slams it home and gets the foul but misses the FT.

A 3 gives them the lead, but Snow responds with a 3 of his own. 62-60.

They tie it up at 62 with 5 minutes to go.

With 4 minutes to go, they take a 66-64 lead as we are both running. Andres come back into the game well rested while Santos leaves it. Everett also comes back in well rested.

Snow misses a 3 and they hit a quick 3 to make it 69-64.

Everett drives into the lane and gets the foul. He only hits 1 of 2.

After we get a stop, Everett gets into the lane and draws another foul. This time he hits them both to make it 69-67. 2 minutes to go.

We end up fouling their center who hits 1 of 2. Hodari on a fastbreak makes the layup. 70-69 with just over 1:40 to go.

Andres with a steal. We get all of our starters back into the game.

After the Timeout, Everett finds Andres in the corner for a 3! 72-70.

Their PG draws a foul on Everett. They hit the 1st but miss the 2nd. They get the offensive board. They try a 3. They miss, but get the board again.. Everett steals a pass.. quick pass to Andres. They foul Andres.

24 seconds left. Andres hits both FT's to make it 74-71.

Dumont, their SG, who has torched us all night hits a 3 with 12 seconds left to tie it at 74.

Santos misses the 3 with 4 seconds left, but Everett gets the long rebound.. shoots the quick 12 footer and buries the buzzer beater!!!!

76-74 win!

Andres was the player of the game. He finishes with 17 points, 7 boards, 6 steals, and 3 assists. He shot 5 of 14, 1 of 6, and 6 of 8. I wish my team would get their 3 point shooting straightened out.

Everett finished with 16 points, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 1 board. He also had 1 turnover. He shot 4 of 7, 0 of 1, and 8 of 11.

Hodari had 7 points and 4 assists.

Santos had 13 points, 5 boards, and 2 assists. He shot 6 of 14, 1 of 4, and 0 of 1.

Snow had 15 points and 2 boards. He shot 6 of 15, 2 of 9, and 1 of 3.

Pait had 6 points, 6 boards, and 2 blocks.

Bogans had 2 points and 6 boards in 17 minutes.

Now, we should get word on possible early signings.

Eaglesfan27

03-01-2008, 11:30 AM

Eaglesfan27

03-01-2008, 11:48 AM

Good news and bad news on the recruiting front:

First the bad news, we lost Souchu to NCST.

The good news is that we got our 2 early signings!

Jerome Adams will be our center or PF next year most likely. The 6'9 228 pound kid is full of potential if our staff is right.

Reyshawn Ortiz is a good shooter who will have a good shot at our SF position next year particularly if he grows this year a bit.

With these 2 kids locked up, we are unlikely to get any other early recruits, but we should be able to get at least 2 and hopefully 3 quality players for our 3 other scholarship slots this year.

Our next game is at home vs 4-4 Rider in our first conference game even though we have 3 non-conference games left as well. With their starting PG out, I expect Everett to have a huge game.

Since, we are about to start conference play, here is the conference preview:

Siena is rated 82 overall. No weaknesses in the starting 5 and a deep bench. They are the best shooting team in the conference. They are the best rebounding team in the conference. They are the team to beat and are expected to win the conference again.

Loyola College is rated 80 overall. They are one of the top 3 shooting teams in the conference. Bob Engle, their senior SG, is one of the top 5 players in the conference. Donald Burton, their senior center is another of the top players in the conference. Expected to contend for the championship.

Niagara is rated 79 overall. Our center is relatively weak, but otherwise our starting 5 is very solid. After winning the conference regular season last year, we are expected to contend again. We are one of the top 2 shooting teams in the conference, although we haven't showed it yet.

Saint Peter's is rated 78 overall and has shown improvement from last year. They have a very solid front court. Their freshman PF Felix Fields is one of the best freshman in the conference and one of the top 15 players in the conference already. He's going to be scary good in a year or two. They are 6-1 and are a darkhorse to win the conference.

Iona is rated 78. Their strength is rebounding but they are a solid shooting team as well. They are expected to finish in the middle of the conference. They are 5-2 right now.

Marist is rated 77 overall. No weaknesses and they are a good shooting team from the outside. They have a very talented Freshman SF who will be a terror in a year or two. SG is a weakness, but otherwise this team has a good starting 5. Bench depth is weak. Still, could surprise some teams.

Fairfield is rated 76 overall. They are a solid rebounding team with no glaring weaknesses however, no other real strengths either. They should be near the middle of the conference.

Rider is rated 75 overall. They are starting a poor PG due to injuries that will keep their regular PG out for most of the year. As a result, they are expected to be at the bottom of the conference.

Manhattan is rated 74. They have a talented freshman center and a talented senior point guard, but are weak at the other positions. Expected to finish in the bottom half of the conference.

Canisus is rated 74. They have a very talented center in Darren Bauer but not much help around him. They should be near the bottom of the conference again.

Eaglesfan27

03-01-2008, 12:52 PM

At the 10 minute mark, we are up 24-11 as Andres is hitting his 3's this game! We sub in Snow and Owensworth for Everett and Andres who are tired.

We hold onto our lead throughout the 1st half. Up 34-22 at the half.

Andres is the player of the half. He has 11 points, 2 boards, 1 steal, and 1 assist. He shot 4 of 10, 3 of 7, and 0 of 0.

Everett has 2 points and 6 assists at the half as he is working their young inexperienced PG.

Up 52-33 with 10 minutes left. Our defense has been great, particularly Pait who now has 4 blocks. Andres and Everett are tired and will get some rest.

We win the game 70-52.

Andres was the player of the game. He finished with 20 points, 4 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal, and 3 turnovers. He shot 8 of 16, 4 of 9, and 0 of 0.

Everett had 5 points, 3 boards, 10 assists, 1 steal, and 2 turnovers. He shot 2 of 5, 1 of 4, and 0 of 0.

Hodari had 14 points, 4 boars, 2 assists, and 1 turnover. He shot 4 of 11, 1 of 3, and 5 of 8.

Santos finished with 14 points, 5 boards, 1 assist, 3 steals. He shot 6 of 8 and 2 of 3 from the arc.

Pait had 7 boards and 4 blocks along with 2 steals.

Snow had 14 points, 1 assist, 1 steal, and 2 turnovers. He shot 6 of 11 and 2 of 6 from the arc.

Bogans had 3 points and 6 boards in just 14 minutes.

We are now 5-1. Our next game is a home conference game against 5-2 Marist. I'll play that later today.

Eaglesfan27

03-01-2008, 06:21 PM

We are up 12-9 at the 10 minute mark in a very physical defensive oriented game. All of my starters are tired and I go with our entire bench for the first time all year. I'm counting on Snow to provide enough offense to maintain our lead.

With just under 4:45 to go, we get our starters back in. We are down 25-22.

We go into halftime down 31-28.

Shavies their PG has 8 points and 3 assists and is the player of the half as he has been overpowering Everett a bit this first half.

Andres has 8 points, 1 board, 1 assist, and 1 block. He is shooting 3 of 8, 2 of 5.

Everett had 3 points and 3 assists.

Santos is 1 of 6 and has 4 points.

The first 10 minutes of the game had me wondering if either team would break 50. However, with 11:24 to go as I pull out Andres and Everett for a breather, they are up 51-45 as it has become a wide open game.

Bogans fouls out with 6:20 to go. We are down 56-54.

We get Andres, Santos, and Everett back in.

With 4:45 to go, Andres is fouled on a 3 point attempt. He makes all 3 FT's to tie at 60!

With 3:53 to go, we force a turnover with our full court press. They foul Andres before he can breakaway. He makes both FT's to give us a 64-62 lead!

After a defensive stop, we go into a quick offensive set where Andres finds Snow for a wide open 14 footer which Snow buries. 66-62.

They get 1 point on a FT after Everett fouls their PG but Snow with a nice feed to Santos for a 12 footer to make it 68-63 with 2 minutes to go.

They get a slam dunk off a nice backdoor cut but we respond with a play that gets us a last second 3 on a shot by Andres and the assist by Santos. 71-65.

They attempt a quick 3 which they miss. Santos quickly passes it down the court to Everett who holds up and is intentionally fouled. He hits both FT's.

This game had me worried until about the 3 minute mark, but we hit our FT's down the stretch and get a few more stops.

We win 75-66.

Andres wins player of the game. 19 points, 4 boards, 3 assists, 1 block, and 2 turnovers. He shot 5 of 13, 3 of 8, and 6 of 6.

Everett had 12 points, 5 assists, and 1 turnover. He shot 2 of 7, 2 of 5, and 6 of 6.

Hodari had 15 points, 2 boards, and 1 assist. He shot 4 of 6, 2 of 2, and 5 of 6.

Santos had 12 points, 6 boards, and 2 assists. He shot 5 of 13, 0 of 2, and 2 of 2.

Pait had 9 boards, 1 assist, and 3 blocks.

In 17 minutes, Snow had 8 points, 2 boards, and 4 assists. He shot 3 of 7, 0 of 4, and 2 of 2.

Eaglesfan27

03-01-2008, 06:29 PM

Bad recruiting news, UNC decided to offer Woody Atchinson a scholarship this week. He accepted immediately. We also lost out on a promising SF we were pursuing who chose Georgia.

We switch our attentions to Jasper Robertson. He is 6'8 215 pounds and is a PF. He is a 3 star player who is ranked 316th overall and 58th among PF's. He is a fast big man who can shoot the 3 well but isn't very physical. He is a good passer though. George Washington is very high on his list and will be a tough competitor for him.

Also, we offer a scholarship to Friedrich Collins. He is a 6'4 220 pound SF from Toronto. He is a 3 star player who is ranked 340th overall and 64th among SF's. He is a superb midrange shooter according to our scouts as well as possessing PG type speed. St. Joes is our biggest competitor and I feel like even though I'm late recruiting him, I can get this kid.

I just realized that for some reason the big schools have dropped out of the hunt for Donny Grove. I'm not sure why, but I need to step up my pursuit of him since that has happened. We are 3rd on his list and Xavier and Michigan State are the only 2 on his list now. Of course Michigan State is his home state school, but I feel like I should at least make a run at him.. That would mean pulling an offer from someone else that I just made though if I want to make a really strong run. I'll think about it.

Our next game is a non-conference game at home against UNC-Asheville. They are the weakest team we've faced all year with a rating of 59. Their offense is terrible and they are struggling to break 50 ppg. They are 0-6. I'll play that tomorrow.

Eaglesfan27

03-02-2008, 11:04 AM

As expected, we come out dominating them. Up 10-3 at the 15 minute mark. Andres is scoring most of our points, set up by Everett assists.

Up 22-12 with 10 minutes to go, but we went to the bench with 12 minutes to go. When we went to the bench, we were up 18-6.

We are up 34-25 at the half. I feel like I took the foot off the petal too quickly in the first half. We'll try to get a big lead going in the 2nd half again.

Andres is the player of the half with 14 points, 8 boards, and a steal. He shot 5 of 6, 2 of 3, and 2 of 2.

Everett has 3 points and 4 assists at the half.

With 11:28 to go, Pait fouls out. We are up 48-32.

With 4 minutes to go, we have a 33 point lead. I pull my starters. We are up 72-39.

We win the game 76-44.

Andres is the player of the game. 26 points, 9 boards, 3 steals. He shot 9 of 12, 4 of 5, and 4 of 4.

Everett finishes with 7 points, 2 boards, 6 assists, and 5 turnovers as he tried making too many fancy passes. He shot 2 of 5, 0 of 2, and 3 of 8.

Hodari had 7 points, 3 boards, and 2 assists. He shot 2 of 7.

Santos had 12 points, 9 boards, and 2 assists. He shot 5 of 7.

Pait had 3 points, 6 board2, 2 assists, and a steal.

Snow had 12 points and 2 assists. He shot 4 of 7, 2 of 3, and 2 of 2.

Bogan in 18 minutes off the bench had 8 points, 8 boards, and an assist.

On the recruiting front, I decide to not revoke any of my scholarship offers. I'm unlikely to steal Grove from Michigan State. I'll continue to pursue him but I've got a good shot at getting these other 3 kids who could all be big contributors and I won't throw away that shot for a long shot like Grove even though he would be a huge scorer for us.

Our next game is at Central Connecticut as our AD has given us an easy schedule. They are 3-7. They are ranked 70 in overall talent and their offense is very poor. We should beat them easily.

Eaglesfan27

03-02-2008, 12:25 PM

We are tied at 12 with 11:30 to go when Andres and Everett take a breather.

Up 35-23 at the half.

Andres is the player of the half. He has 14 points, 2 boards, 2 assists, and 2 steals.

With 11:33 to go, we go to our bench except for Santos who remains. We are up 45-38.

Snow has his 2nd shot of the game blocked. His release makes him so suspectible to having his shot blocked.

After that play, Santos takes over and reels off 10 straight points to power a 11-0 run.

With 6:20 to go, Santos rests but the other starters all return. We are up 59-49.

Bogans stays on the floor for Santos as he has shown a real ability to hit the 14-16 foot jumpers if he is open.

First play, Everett finds him at the top of the key open and Bogans drills it.

We then pull away and win the game easily. 81-59.

Andres is the player of the game. 22 points, 6 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals. He shot 7 of 14, 6 of 11, and 2 of 2.

Santos had 19 points, 6 boards, 2 assists, and a steal. He shot 6 of 14, 2 of 8, and 5 of 7.

Everett finishes with 13 points, 10 assists, 2 steals, and 2 turnovers. He shot 3 of 10, 2 of 6, and 5 of 6.

Hodari had 8 points, 2 boards, and an assist.

Pait had 6 boards and a steal.

Snow had 9 points, an assist, and a steal. He shot 3 of 6, 1 of 4, and 2 of 4.

Bogans had 8 points, 8 boards, 1 assist, 1 steal, and 1 block in 20 minutes. He shot 3 of 4 including 2 of 3 from the arc.

Eaglesfan27

03-07-2008, 07:19 PM

Our next game is hosting 1-13 Longwood which should be our final blowout Non-conference game. They are rated 57 in overall talent and are a horrid team both offensively and defensively. They have terrible team unity and if we don't win by at least 20, I'll be disappointed.

About 5 minutes into the game, Pait pulls a muscle in his leg. Hopefully, it isn't serious. So far, we haven't pulled away as they've hit a few 3's. 10-8, we are up.

Early word is that Pait seriously injured his ankle :( He is definitely done for this game. At least, the team seems fired up and we are pulling away in this one. Owensworth is being asked to play some center for the moment although we'll probably go to Bogans soon.

We are up 24-17 at the 10 minute mark. They are shooting 3's much better than I expected. I tell my defenders to start claming down on their guards and SF.

Our bench is dominating theirs over the next 5 minutes. At the 5 minute mark, we are up 40-21 thanks in part to an 18-0 run.

With them playing so well, I leave most of my subs in the game for the next 5 minutes. We end the half with a lead of 24. 56-32.

Snow leads the team with 12 points. Andres has 11 points, 2 boards, and 2 assists.

The bad news is that it appears Pait broke his ankle. Worse yet, there may be ligament damage as well :(

We are never threatened in the 2nd half, and we rest our starters the last 10 minutes.

We win 89-59.

Hodari Chatman is the player of the game. He finished with 23 points and 2 assists. He shot 8 of 11, 6 of 8, and 1 of 1.

Snow had 19 points, 2 boards, 1 assist, and 1 steal. He shot 8 of 12, 3 of 6.

Andres had 17 points, 2 boards, and 2 assists. He shot 7 of 16 but 3 of 11 from the arc.

Santos had 15 points, 8 boards, and 3 steals.

Bogans who played 31 minutes due to Pait's injury had 1 point, 10 boars, 2 assists, 2 steals. He didn't block any shots and I think we are going to miss Pait's shot blocking presence.

We'll find out tomorrow how bad the injury is..

We are now 9-1.

Eaglesfan27

03-07-2008, 07:28 PM

Good news! Pait didn't tear any ligaments as we initially feared! However, his ankle is broken and he will miss 6-8 weeks, but the Senior should be back in time for the end of our regular season and our tourney run when we will need him.

In the meantime, we are going to go small with Bogans at center. He will give us a bit more offense from the position but not as much defense. It's a wash on the rebounding despite Bogans being smaller. Where this will really hurt is our bench depth.

Without the ability to bring Bogans off the bench, we are going to have to go small for a longer period each game and play Santos at PF throughout every game and not move him to SF at times when Andres is resting like I have done in the past. We'll have to use Owensworth at backup center which he is ill-suited for as well as the backup PF.

Our next game is our last non-conference game and it is at home against 4-7 Stony Brook. They are a more challenging team for us as they are ranked 72 in overall talent with a strength in rebounding that outranks us of 81 now that we are without Pait. Still, I expect a comfortable win. I'll play that and a few more games tomorrow.

Eaglesfan27

03-08-2008, 11:36 AM

Stony Brook has a 6'11 250 pound center who is going to be very challenging for Bogans. Everywhere else, we outclass them. However, they are playing a 6'11 280 pound PF at SF! Andres is going to have to use his speed to get him into foul trouble...

While our defense is suffering without Pait, our offense is even more high flying with Bogan's ability to hit the outside jumper more reliably..

Up 20-12 with 12 minutes to go in the 1st half.

However, they get a 3rd foul on Bogans with 11 minutes to go in the half and I have to go to Owensworth.

However, Owensworth does a decent job defensively and the rest of our offense picks it up. We are up 49-25 at the half. I make sure that Santos or Andres is always on the floor and Snow is on the floor for 10 minutes in the first half as a very good 2nd option.

Santos it the player of the half. He has 11 points, 2 boards, 2 assists, and a block. He has shot 4 of 5.

Andres has 6 points and 6 boards. Everett has 6, Hodari has 6, and Snow has 8.

We were never threatened in the 2nd half. 72-50 win.

Santos is the player of the game.

20 points, 8 boards, 2 assists, 1 block, 1 steal. He shot 8 of 10, 2 of 2, and 2 of 2.

Andres had 13 points, 9 boards, 2 assist, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. He also had 3 turnovers. He shot 5 of 11, 1 of 5, and 2 of 2.

Everett had 6 points and 7 assists. He shot 2 of 2 both behind the arc.

Hodari had 5 points, 2 boards, and 2 assists. He was 2 of 9 for the game and 1 of 6 from the arc.

Bogans had 9 points, 5 boards, and 2 blocks! He shot 3 of 4 and 2 of 3 from the line. He played 24 minutes.

Owensworth had 5 points and 4 boards all at center in 16 minutes.

Eaglesfan27

03-08-2008, 11:45 AM

Bad news on the recruiting front:

Jasper Robertson, the smooth shooting PF that I have been recruiting has told me that he really likes our school but that if GW offers him a scholarship, he is going there. There is a small chance he may walk-on there as opposed to taking our scholarship.. This makes me think that maybe I should pull his scholarship and try going after Grove after all, but I'd have a lot of ground to make up...

Still, if he is talking about walking on with them (I have him at 100% interest, but he still lists them #1 on his list despite no scholarship offer), then I think I should consider making the move...

I decide to wait a week as I can't have anyone visit this week due to our schedule anyway.

Our next game is 7-5 Fairfield. They are rated 74 in overall talent but their shooting is especially poor. They are struggling to score. However, at their place, I expect a tough game particularly due to their interior presence.

Eaglesfan27

03-08-2008, 01:05 PM

Andres is on fire early. 11-3 at the 15 minute mark.

A 14-0 run ends with a 22-3 lead at the 11:45 mark.

Andres already has 15 points in this game as he has been doing it inside and outside.

However, he is tired, so we rest him with 11 minutes to go and a 22-4 lead.

However, they come back in the last 10 minutes of the 2nd half at least partially.

We lead 37-24 at the half.

Andres is the player of the half. He has 15 points, 2 assists, 2 steals, and a board. He is shooting 6 of 8.

We had a 23 point lead at one point, but a 17-0 run cuts it to 50-44 with 7:34 to go in the game. Then, Santos finds Snow in the corner for a 3 to end the run. 53-44.

After that shot, we never let them get closer than 9. We cruise to a 69-53 win.

Andres is the player of the game. 25 points, 3 boards, 3 assists, and 3 steals. He shot 9 of 15, 3 of 6, and 4 of 4.

Everett had 3 points and 7 assists.

Hodari had 16 points, 3 boards, 3 assists, and 2 steals. He shot 5 of 12 and 1 of 7 from the arc.

Santos finished with 6 points, 10 boards, 1 assist, 3 steals, and a block. He shot 3 of 7.

Bogans finished with 0 points, 6 boards, and 1 block.

Snow led the bench with 14 points, 4 boards, and 1 assist. He shot 3 of 10 all from behind the arc. He was also 5 of 7 from the line.

Our next opponent is our 3rd this week. Marist is 6-6 and the best team we've faced this week. They are rated 77 in overall team talent and are a solid shooting team with no real weaknesses. We are playing at their place and they definitely could push us.

Eaglesfan27

03-08-2008, 02:29 PM

Back and forth frenetic first 10 minutes. Plenty of lead changes. We are tied at 19 at the 10 minute mark.

They have a run with about 3 minutes to go in the half that gives them the first big lead of the half. They lead at the half, 45-36.

Carrington, their SG, is the player of the half. He has 14 points.

Andres leads our team with 9. Everett and Santos each have 7.

Although they had a 10 point lead most of the 2nd half, we get a run going and close to within 1. 62-61 with 9:44 to go.

With 7:10 to go, Andres with a breakaway that is stopped when they foul him. He hits both FT's to give us the lead. 67-66.

They get a few steals and breakaways to push the lead back up, 72-67. We get some more starters back in, including Santos and Everett. 5:40 to go.

Santos picks up his 4th foul 30 seconds later..

A minute later, we break their trap and Santos has a monster dunk and the foul! He hits the FT to make it 74-72, their lead.

Very high temp game. Back and forth. They are up 83-82 with 2:25 to go after Santos hits a 6 foot jump hook.

Everett fouls their PG and he hits both FT's.

Everett has been getting worked over on the defensive end by Shavies, their PG, but he scores on our next two possessions to give us the lead! 86-85, we lead with 1:28 to go.

Santos with a nice partial block of their shot and we get the ball. We work the clock. With 4 seconds left, Hodari shoots, leans into the defender, draws the foul. He misses the 17 footer and misses the first of 2, but hits the 2nd to make it a 2 point lead. 87-85 with 40 seconds left.

Santos helps force a miss with a hand in their shooters face! Bogans with the board and they immediately foul him. He hits the first, but misses the 2nd. However, Santos gets the offensive board and is immediately fouled. Santos hits both FT's to give us a 5 point lead :)

We end up winning 92-87. Nice comeback for our team.

Santos was the player of the game. 31 points, 6 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, and a block. He shot 8 of 13, 0 of 1, and 15 of 15 from the FT line!

Everett gave up a lot to Shavies, but he also had 19 points, 3 assists, 1 board, and only 1 turnover. He shot 5 of 8, 2 of 4, and 7 of 10.

Hodari had 11 points and 5 assists.

Andres finished with 15 points, 5 boards, 1 assist, and 1 turnover. He shot 5 of 8, 1 of 1, and 4 of 6.

Bogans had 5 points and 6 boards.

Snow only had 2 points this game and only shot 1 of 2 times. Surprising in such a high scoring game.

Hendriks had 5 points and 3 assists in 12 minutes. Meeking had 4 points as my bench played well today.

Eaglesfan27

03-08-2008, 02:35 PM

Jasper seems determined to go to GW. I decide to pull my scholarship offer to him and make a play for Grove after all. I can't believe more teams aren't going after this kid, and I really can't believe he has no scholarship offers. I have a lot of work to do to catch Michigan State, but he isn't close to 100% with either school, so, I'll offer him a scholarship and see if I can wow him.

We are now 12-1. Our next opponent is 8-6 Iona. They are ranked 78 in overall talent with a strength in rebounding. We are going to have to work hard to keep them from completely dominating us on the boards.

I'll play that game either later tonight or tomorrow.

Eaglesfan27

03-08-2008, 11:20 PM

Watching the UNC-Duke game has me fired up to play another game of this dynasty. Iona will be a challenge with our lack of interior size with Pait out. R.J. Schaen, their SF, is one of their best scorers.

About 3 minutes into the game, Everett hurts his ankle in a collision with their center :(

We are slowed down as a result, but get good news as he is cleared to return a few minutes later. With 13 minutes to go, we are down 8-7 when Everett comes back into the game with a slightly sprained ankle.

It's a back and forth game with Everett really struggling out there with his lack of burst due to the sore ankle. We are up 31-28 thanks mainly to a Hodari led run at the end of the half.

Hodari is the player of the half and he has 14 points so far.

We've played a very slow paced game this time with Everett slowed down a bit. We've also played good solid defense. We are up 55-47 with 3:40 to go.

We never let them get closer than 8. We win 64-51.

Hodari wins player of the game. He finished with 22 points, 4 boards, 3 steals, 2 assists, and 3 turnovers. He shot 6 of 14, 1 of 5, and 9 of 11. He repeatedly beat his man off the dribble and drove into the lane where he drew contact.

Everett despite the bum ankle had a decent game, at least defensively, 6 points, 3 assists, and 5 steals. He shot 1 of 6, 0 of 3, and 4 of 7.

Andres had 12 points, 3 boards, and 2 assists.

Santos had 9 points, 9 boards, 1 assist, and 3 steals.

Bogans finished with 2 points, 10 boards, and 1 assist.

Snow had 11 points, 3 assists, and 2 steals. He shot 4 of 8 and 3 of 7 from the arc.

We are now 13-1. We aren't in the major polls, but we are #2 in the Mid Major Poll! :)

Drexel at 10-4 is #1

We are 2nd at 13-1.

3. Louisiana Tech 12-4.
4. North Texas 13-4
5. Troy 12-6
6. W. Kentucky 9-4
7. Nevada 9-4
8. Hofstra 11-4
9. Middle Tennessee 12-4
10. UL Lafayette 9-4

Willie Andres is averaging 19.3 ppg which is 28th in the NCAA right now. His scoring average is 3rd in the Metro Atlantic behind 22.3 from senior center Darren Bauer of Canisus and 19.8 of Junior center Chuck Reese of Rider.

Everett's 7.3 assists per game leads the conference right now by an assist per game. Ira Starkey of Siena is seocnd with 6.2 per game.

Willie Andres 1.9 steals per game leads the conference. Iona's PG Alejandro Martinez is 2nd with 1.7.

Everett is 6th in the conference with 1.4 steals per game.

Our next game is at home vs Canisus. They are 6-9 and are a bad team with the exception of their exceptional center who is leading the conference in scoring. We'll double team him in the paint and hope their perimeter players don't make us pay. I'll play that tomorrow.

Eaglesfan27

03-09-2008, 12:14 PM

We've been effectively double teaming Bauer and we've gotten two early fouls on him which have limited him to 5 minutes of the first 10. We are up 16-10 at the 10 minute mark.

With just over 5 minutes to go, Hodari gets a 3rd foul on Bauer. We are up 26-23 at the time.

With 3 minutes to go, they get a 3rd foul on Santos. They have 3 very good PF's/C's.

Despite that, we go on a little run to end the half. 37-29 lead at halftime.

Santos is the player of the half with 13 points, 5 boards, 2 assists.

Andres has 10 points, 4 boards, and 1 assist.

If Santos fouls out, I think we'll be in deep trouble, but I can't afford to sit him either.

We are up 54-44 with 10 minutes to go and our starters tiring. I rest Everett and Andres.

We are up 57-48 with 6 minutes to go when I put Everett and Andres back in and rest my other starters.

With 5:16 to go, Everett gets a 4th foul on Bauer.

From the 4:30 mark to the 2:30 mark they go on a 8-0 run to cut a 60-48 lead to 60-56. The run includes 2 3's by their SG. I get Hodari back in to guard him as Snow isn't doing a good job of it. I also get the rest of my starters back into the game

They bring Bauer and the rest of their starters back into the game.

After a defensive stop and a defensive rebound, Santos fires an outlet pass to Everett who finds Hodari beating everyone down the court.. slam dunk! 62-56.

Bauer with a hook and the foul for a 3 point play. 1:30 to go.

We run one of our favorite plays, Everett gives it Andres on the wing, he fakes the baseline (which he sometime takes), cuts back towards the middle using a pick from Bogans, collapses the defense as he drives the lane, kicks it out to Santos who hits an open 18 footer! 64-59.

We immediately double team Bauer in the post when he gets the ball, Santos steals it.. quick pass from Santos down the length of the court to Hodari who is breaking away.. he beats everyone.. slam dunk! 66-59.

They miss a quick 3 and have to start intentionally fouling. Andres makes both FT's and after a quick missed 3, they don't even bother fouling with 25 seconds left and us having a 9 point lead.

We win 68-59.

Hodari was the player of the game. 19 points, 2 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal. He shot 8 of 13, 1 of 2, and 2 of 2.

Everett with 2 points, 4 assists, and 1 steal. He should be completely healed from his ankle injury by our next game, but he was still slowed today. He shot 1 of 7.

Andres with 17 points, 6 boards, 4 assists, and 2 turnovers. He shot 7 of 17, 1 of 4, and 2 of 2.

Santos with 17 points, 8 boards, 3 assists, and 1 turnover. He shot 4 of 8, 0 of 1, and 9 of 10 from the line.

Bogans with 4 points, 12 boards, and 2 assists.

Snow had 9 points and an assist. He shot 3 of 6, 0 of 3, and 3 of 7. He had 2 3 point attempts blocked.

We held Bauer to 11 points, 4 boards, and 2 blocks. He shot shot 4 of 11 and 3 of 5 from the line. Due to foul trouble he only played 19 minutes.

Our next opponent is 8-7 Siena but they are the most talented team we've faced all year. However, they have several injuries. SF Jalen Cobb is out with a lower back strain. PF Mario Buboltz is probable as he recovers from a dislocated finger. Big star center Jonny Lampley is probable with a bruised sternum. Athletic PF Tarik Sanders is probable with a pulled hamstring that should slow down his speed.

Siena has a ton of talent with SG Demetris Acasio and PG Ira Starkey being tremendous 3 point shooters. They lost some of their talent from last year, but their front 5 matches up favorably to ours at every position except SF where Andres has the advantage. However, Everett is completely healed from his injury and I think he has the speed to give Starkey a good challenge.

Eaglesfan27

03-09-2008, 01:48 PM

We started off with a 8-0 run, but they quickly worked their way back into it. Tied at 12 with 11 minutes to go in the half.

A very tight game throughout the first half as we have frequent lead changes. We go into the half, up 34-33.

Andres is the player of the half. He has 12 points, 2 boards, 3 assists, and 2 steals.

After getting down by 6, we go on a 9-0 run and are leading 47-44 with 12:44 to go. They call a timeout and get Starkey back into the game to try to end the run.

They do end the run and they take a 49-48 lead by the time I have to rest Andres with 10 minutes to go.

With 9 minutes to go, Bogans picks up his 4th foul on a good move by Buboltz.

With 5 minutes to go, Santos picks up his 4th foul. We are up 62-61, but I rest him for a few minutes anyway as Andres comes back into the game.

An Acasio jumper gives them the lead and after missed baskets by both sides, Lampley hits a 10 foot jumper to make it a 65-62 lead.

Snow fakes a 3 and drives in for a layup to pull us back within 1.

With 3:20 to go, we put Santos and Bogans back into the game as well as Hodari.

After missed baskets by both sides, Buboltz hits a 14 footer to make it a 3 point game again.

After Andres has a driving layup blocked, Santos gets the carom and kicks it out to a wide open Everett. He drills the 3! Tied at 67 with 1:44 to go.

Buboltz with a 6 footer for 2. Everett with a quick drive into the lane draws the foul and the free throws. The freshman drills them both!

They fast break off that basket and Lampley gets a slam dunk. He has 14 for them. 71-69.

We work the clock down, finally with 5 seconds left, Everett passes to Andres in the corner.. it's long. Hodari despite being surrounded by two much taller players get the offensive board. He kicks it out to Santos who swings it to Everett who passes to Andres in the corner.. he launches the 3... it's good!!! 72-71. 28 seconds left.

With 5 seconds left, Hodari fouls Acasio. We are in the bonus. Acasio makes both FT's to give them a 1 point lead.

We get it across halfcourt and call timeout with 3.4 seconds left.

Santos inbounds it to Andres, he runs off a quick screen and shoots the 3 from the top of the key.. it's good!!! 75-73 win :)

Andres is the player of the game. He scored 23 points, 3 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals. He shot 8 of 14, 3 of 7, and 4 of 5.

Everett had 12 points and 5 assists. He shot 2 of 10, 1 of 5, and 7 of 8.

Hodari had 10 points, 4 boards, and 3 assists.

Santos had 9 points, 6 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, and a block.

Bodans had 6 boards and a block.

Snow had 14 points and 3 steals. He shot 4 of 8, 2 of 4, and 4 of 6 in just 18 minutes.

I was just looking at Andres' "card" and I never realized that he was so highly regarded as a H.S. player. This isn't some diamond in the rough. Somehow Niagara got this 4 star player out of H.S. He was ranked 81st overall in his H.S. class and 16th among SF's.

Our next game is at Canisus which is now 6-11. I probably won't play that until later this week.

CamEdwards

03-13-2008, 05:59 PM

Wow, what an incredible run you're on.

I think I'm about to start a new closed legacy. My open legacy is starting to bore me, but playing with a smaller school is really sounding good right now.

Eaglesfan27

03-13-2008, 06:40 PM

Wow, what an incredible run you're on.

I think I'm about to start a new closed legacy. My open legacy is starting to bore me, but playing with a smaller school is really sounding good right now.

I'm having a blast with Niagara, but I'm ready to jump ship when these 4 seniors graduate if there is a major conference job open, particularly if it is on the west coast.

However, I really think that if our starters can stay healthy, this team is set up to make a deep tourney run. I love our versatility right now with Santos or Andres being able to guard the 2, 3, or 4 spot and score. Everson can break down almost any PG although bigger guards can score against him. Hodari is a good complimentary player. Snow is a much needed scoring option off the bench. Even our deeper bench players are becoming somewhat productive, particularly Hendriks and Meeking. Bogans has stepped up nicely as well.

Edit: If I don't jump ship, I expect next year to be very different. I'm not recruiting versatile 6'8 guys like Andres and Santos (because none seem interested right now) and I expect we'll be more conventional and it will be a year or two until we can re-load after this season.

Tellistto

03-13-2008, 07:51 PM

Still here, enjoying the read immesely. Looking forward to the weekend updates, too. Good luck in the next games, this run the team is on is pretty impressive.

Tell

Eaglesfan27

03-14-2008, 08:11 PM

Up 10-8 in the first 5 minutes, but Bauer has drawn 2 fouls on Bogans and I have to go to Owensworth early.

With 8:25 to go, Snow with a nice drive gets a 2nd foul on Bauer. This is crucial as he has been killing us inside and they are up 17-14.

A play later, Snow is fouled behind the arc and hits all 3 FT's to tie it up.

Andres with a few nice plays starts a little run that has up 25-19 with 4 minutes to go in the half but Bauer comes back and gets them 2 more baskets to close the lead.

Everett has missed too many FT's this half, including 4 down the stretch.

They hit a 3 at the buzzer and go into the half up 29-25.

Bauer is the player of the half with 10 points, 5 boards, and 2 blocks.

Andres has 8 points and 4 boards. He is shooting 2 of 8 from the floor. Santos has 8 points on 4 of 5 shooting. Hodari has 7 points.

1 minute into the 2nd half, Santos draws a 3rd foul on Bauer!

A minute later, he draws a 3rd foul on Wiezrba, their backup center and a very good player :)

With 12 minutes to go, I'm surprised to find we are down by 6. Our shooters aren't hitting their shots and their defense has been tenacious. 41-35, they lead.

With about 5 minutes to go, Santos hits a 3 to pull it within 2. 51-49.

We get a stop, but Hendriks misses a breakaway layup and they get a basket on the other end to make it 53-49.

With about 3 minutes to go, we get moderately tired starters back in. We are down 53-50. An errant pass on the inbounds gives us the ball back!

Hodari draws a foul and hits the first of 2. They try to fastbreak, but Hodari blocks the layup attempt! He initiates the fastbreak which is finished with a Santos slam dunk! Tied at 53!

After missed baskets by both sides and then another missed basket by them, we get an open look for Andres who drills a 3! 56-53. 1:34 to go.

Everett with a steal throws a pass to Santos who gets ahead of the pack.. he windmills it home! 23 points for Santos who was key in our come back tonight. 58-53.

A quick 3 by Strong, their SG, keeps them in it.

With a minute left, we work the clock down. Finally, Everett feeds it to Andres in the post. He draws a double team.. kicks it out to an open Santos who misses the 17 footer.

The come back the other way. They work it down to 10 seconds left and pound it inside. They have had too much size all night inside. Easy basket. Tied at 58. 7 seconds left.

We quickly get it across midcourt and use a timeout. 3.5 seconds left.

We inbound it to Andres... they double team him. He shoots anyway from the wing and misses it.

We are going to OT.

First possession, Hodari drives into the lane and gets a 4th foul on Bauer.

Andres is exhausted, so we rest him for a minute.

Santos draws a 5th foul on Wierzba with 3:20 to go in OT.

A minute later, he draws a 5th one on Bauer! He hits both FT's to pull us back within 2 (we were down 4 thanks to a 3 point play by Bauer.)

Despite that, they hit the next 2 inside baskets. Their inside depth is insane. Meanwhile, they are playing good defense or our guys are just missing their shots.

Down 70-64 with 1 minute to go.

We miss a 3 by Andres. We get the offensive board.. Santos gets a good look and misses it. They get the board and we have to foul.

It was a road game, but this 6-11, now 7-11 team isn't the team that I expected our winning streak to come to an end to but it has.

We lose 74-66.

Bauer was the player of the game with 20 points, 8 boards, and 2 blocks. He shot 8 of 13 from the field and 4 of 4 from the line. The 7'0 260 pound center is rated 95 for close shooting and it shows. I'll be glad when the senior goes. He did all of that in only 20 minutes.

Their inside depth is crazy. Wierzba had 10 points and 10 boards in 28 minutes and Leadbetter had 10 points and 10 boards in 23 minutes.

They outrebounded us 51-34. We were 18 of 36 from the FT line and it cost us this game. They were 15 of 21 from the line.

Santos led us with 29 points, 6 boards, 2 assists, and a block. He shot 11 of 16, 1 of 4, and 6 of 10.

Everett had 3 points, 1 assist, and 3 steals. He shot 0 of 6. He also had 3 turnovers.

Hodari had 14 points and 4 assists. He shot 5 of 11.

Andres had 11 points, 9 boards, and 1 assist. He shot 3 of 13.

Bogans had 2 points, 9 boards, and an assist.

Snow had only 5 points in 15 minutes.

Our next game is at Saint Peter's. They are 11-7 and will be a challenge with a good interior presence as well (but not as good as Bauer.)

Eaglesfan27

03-14-2008, 09:17 PM

The game started fine, but a 12-0 run has us down 24-10 with 10 minutes to go. I rest all of our staters except Santos to try to get some fresh energy in to stop the run.

That worked briefly, but they responded with another run after we cut their lead to 7. Down 41-26 at the half.

Fields, their PF, has 8 points and 8 boards at the half. Channing their center has 8 piints and 8 boards at the half as well as we are getting on the inside again. Both players are big and skilled and we can't match up with them...

An ugly game. We were down by as much as 28. They put backups in late and we closed within 15, but we lose 77-59.

They were well balanced with 2 great interior players and 2 very solid guards.

They outrebounded us 38-25.

They also had 15 steals to our 6 and 42 points in the paint to our 24.

Fields, their PF, was the player of the game with 16 points, 9 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, and a block. Channing, their center, had 12 points and 10 boards. Their SF had 12 points and 5 boards.

Santos led us with 18 points, 6 boars, 3 assists, and 3 steals. He also had 8 turnovers! He shot 8 of 15, 1 of 1, and 1 of 1.

Andres had 7 points, 2 boards, 1 assist, and 3 turnovers. He shot 3 of 14 including 0 of 4 from the arc.

Hodari had 6 points. Everett had 6 points and 2 assists. He shot 3 of 6.

Snow had 11 points off the bench.

Hopefully, Andres snaps out of this shooting slump soon.

We are now 15-3. Our next game is at Rider which should be very winnable. They are 10-11. I'll play that tomorrow.

Eaglesfan27

03-15-2008, 10:24 AM

The first 12-14 minutes with Rider was close, but once we got our starters back in with 6 minutes to go, they came out like a different team. We ran off a 16-0 run that helped build a 49-29 lead at the half.

Andres is back and is the player of the half. He has 13 points, 1 board, 2 assists, and 1 turnover. He shot 5 of 9 in the half.

Everett also had a big half with 11 points and 2 assists.

With 11 minutes to go and a 67-44 lead, I rest most of my starters. I'm hoping my bench can keep the lead going so that I don't have to put my starters back into the game.

They close within 15 with 5 minutes to go, so I put my starters back into the game.

Our starters finish it out easily. We win 84-66.

Everett is the player of the game. 17 points, 5 assists, 4 steals. He shot 4 of 6, 0 of 1, and 9 of 11. He also had 1 turnover.

Andres had 21 points, 3 assists, 1 board, 1 block, and 2 turnovers. He shot 8 of 15, 3 of 5, and 2 of 2.

Hodari had 11 points, 5 boards, 1 assist, and 2 steals.

Santos had 12 points, 6 boards, and 1 assist.

Bogans had 5 points, 11 boards, and a block.

Snow had 10 points, an assist, and a steal.

Our next game is hosting Saint Peter's who is now 13-8. After they embarassed us last week, I want to embarass them at our place.

Eaglesfan27

03-15-2008, 11:40 AM

This is the best effort I've seen from my team in weeks. High tempo offense, fast pressuring offense. We are making some mistakes, but they are a talented team so that is unavoidable. Still, we are up 20-10 at the 12 minute mark with everyone in my starting 5 contributing. The crowd loves our fast tempo.

They gradually work their way back into the game as our starters tire, but we go into the half with a 38-31 lead. One concern is that Santos has 3 fouls which led to him sitting the last 4 minutes of the half which is when they chipped the lead away.

Andres is the player of the half. He has 14 points, 4 boards, 2 steals, 1 assist, and 1 block.

They close within 1 with 7 minutes left, but Snow responds with a 3. 53-49. They've done a good job of slowing down the offensive pace of both teams in the 2nd half and using their inside presence to pound us and work the lead down.

Up by 5, with 3:20 to go, Andres comes flying across the lane to block a layup attempt and we get a fastbreak basket by Hendriks to extend the lead to 7.

Andres with good defense the next time down the floor and they miss the 3. He drives into the lane and draws the foul. He hits both FT's to make it a 9 point lead with 2:45 to go.

After they make a 2 pointer, Andres with a 16 footer to extend the lead back to 9. 1:45 to go. 67-58.

We each miss baskets before they hit a 3 to make it 67-61. 37 seconds left. They intentionally foul Everett. He misses the 1st FT of a back and back, but Bogans gets the board and slams it home!

Santos blocks their 3 point attempt and they have to foul.

We finish it out. 72-63 win for us.

Andres is the player of the game. 24 points, 5 boards, 2 assists, 2 blocks, and 2 steals. He shot 8 of 16, 1 of 2, and 7 of 7.

Everett had 5 points, 2 boards, and 5 assists. He shot 2 of 4.

Hodari had 10 points, 4 boards, and 1 assist.

Santos had 15 points, 4 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. He shot 6 of 11.

Bogans had 4 points, 9 boards, and a steal.

Snow had 12 points and 2 steals in 19 minutes.

Pait should be ready to come back for either our next game or the game after that :)

Our next opponent is 11-12 Manhattan. They are rated 72 in overall talent and I expect a sound victory, particularly at home. We have a recruit visiting during this game as well.

Eaglesfan27

03-15-2008, 01:06 PM

Before the game started, our staff told us that Pait's ankle is taking longer to heal than expected. He'll need at least another week (that is a very cool feature I think)

Andres personally scores 13 in a 13-0 run for us to start the game.

We are up 43-22.

Andres is the player of the half with 24 points, 3 boards, 2 steals, and 1 assist. He has shot 8 of 16, 2 of 8, and 6 of 8 in the half.

Santos has 10 on an efficient 3 of 3 shooting and 3 of 4 from the line.

Andres' career high is 36. I think he might break that this game if we don't blow them out too quickly.

Andres starts the half with a powerful dunk off a spin move in the post. Then, he gets a steal and fast break dunk. After a good defensive stop, Everett finds Andres for a 3. Then, after another stop, Andres leaks out on the fast break for a dunk attempt that is disrupted by a foul. He hits both FT's and is up to 33 points scored with 18 minutes left in the game.

After a missed 3 by Andres, we get a good defensive board by Bogans who passes it to Everett who passes it to Andres who leaked ahead of everyone. Fast break dunk!

After they hit a 3, Everett passes to Andres in the post who puts a double move on his man. He misses the shot but is fouled. He makes both FT's and now has 37. :)

Andres is tired, so I rest him with 15 minutes to go. He might get back in if we don't turn it into a complete blowout these next few minutes. It's 58-31 now.

Santos takes over the scoring with Andres out. We are up 74-48 with 8 minutes to go. Even though I shouldn't, I put Andres in along with my scrubs. He'll get his chance at 40.

He gets his 40 on his first 2 shots and I get him out of there with 41 points. We are up by 33 with 6 minutes to go.

We cruise to the win. 90-59. Good to see that the little bump in the road is past us for the moment.

Andres is the player of the game. 41 points, 3 boards, 2 assists, 1 block, and 5 steals. He shot 14 of 24, 3 of 9, and 10 of 12.

Santos had 20 points, 2 boards, 1 assist, 3 steals, and a turnover. He sot 7 of 8, 2 of 2, and 4 of 5.

Everett had 2 points, 7 assists, and a steal.

Hodari had 5 points, 2 boards, and 3 steals.

Bogans had 0 points, 12 boards, 2 assists, and a stea.

Snow had 5 points, 2 boards, an assist, and 4 steals.

I guess I mis-read the injury report, because the training staff now tells me that Pait is 100% :)

DeShaun Simon greatly enjoyed this game and his entire trip to our campus. He tells us that he is almost positive that he will sign with us. DeShaun is the 7'0 277 pound senior center from Winston-Salem, NC. He is a 2 star player who is ranked 486 overall and 27th among centers. Our biggest competition for him now is Elon. He is a solid rebounder, shot blocker, and dunker. He also has good mobility for a big man and decent hands for a big man. He is very strong.

We are now 18-3. Our next game is at the other powerhouse team of our conference. Loyola (MD) is 19-5. Their overall talent base wouldn't predict that type of record, but they are a well balanced team.

However, their best player, center Donald Burton, is out for this game with a busted nose. Burton is a terrific inside scorer and great shot blocker who is averaging 18 ppg for them, so he will be missed. As a result, I think we should have a big advantage over them. Their other weapons are:

SG Bob Engle - 6'3 225 pounds and a great 3 point shooter. Scoring 17 ppg. Shooting 44% from the arc.

SG/PG Charlie Walsh is from Vineland, NJ. He is 6'1 205 and is a fast slasher who can shoot the 3. Not a great passer who can turn it over quite a bit.

SG/SF Ralfeal Carson is 6'5 230 and very athletic. Great speed but Andres should shoot right over him if they start him.

Romain Gunn is a 6'9 220 pound SF who is a good defender but is a bad shooter and very limited offensively.

Everyone else on their team is backup quality compared to our team.

I'll play that game later today or possibly tomorrow.

Eaglesfan27

03-15-2008, 10:12 PM

We start out with a defensively oriented game. We are up 6-4 5 minutes into the game. However, Andres then goes off on a 6-0 run and at the 10 minute mark, we are up 15-6.

Pait has played well so far, but he and Andres are tired. I get Snow and Bogans in off the bench.

We had a big lead of 25-15 with 6 minutes to go, but they put together a run to end the half and we go into halftime only up by 2. 28-26.

Andres is the player of the half. He has 11 points, 2 boards, and 2 turnovers. He has shot 5 of 8.

I paused this game for a long time at halftime to watch the Georgia-Miss State game (which was very entertaining once I realized it was on a TV station that I could get.)

Now onto the second half.

With 11 minutes to go, I have to rest Andres, Everett, and Pait. I use Hendriks, Snow, and Bogans. We are down 41-36.

Down 52-44 with 5 minutes to go. Everett has a shot blocked in the lane.

They get a fastbreak basket on the other end. We respond with a 3 by Snow to cut the lead to 7. Our next possession Hodari hits a 3 to cut it to 4! 2:24 to go. 54-50.

We force a missed 3, but they get an offensive board and the putback. 56-50.

Andres misses a jumper and they come down the floor and get a quick basket inside. 58-50 with under a minute left now.

Andres misses a 3. We intentionally foul and they hit both of them. Santos misses a 3. Game over. 60-50 loss.

Gunn did a good job defensively on Andres in the 2nd half. Boyden,a player I overlooked in my preview, did a very good job offensively and was the player of the game with 18 points. Their center, Appleby had 12 points and 10 boards as well.

Andres led us with 17 points and had 6 boards along with 3 turnovers. He shot 6 of 18, 1 of 4, and 4 of 7.

Santos had 8 points, 8 boards, and 3 assists.

Everett had 5 points and 5 assists.

Hodari had 6 points and 5 boards.

Pait had 4 points, 6 boards, and a block.

Bogans had 2 points and 7 boards off the bench.

Snow had 8 points and 2 boards in 19 minutes.

Our next opponent is Iona who is evenly matched with us. That game is also on the road. They are 13-10. They have been hit hard by injuries, but everyone is able to play in this game, although 2 of their guards are a bit dinged up.

SF R.J. Schaen is their main star who can do it all. He is averaging 17 ppg and 7 rpg. SG Prosper Collier is always a tough player to guard as he is very quick and he can hit the 3. PG Alejandro Martinez is one of the few players who can match Everett's speed in this conference, but he is banged up. I'll play that tomorrow.

Eaglesfan27

03-16-2008, 11:20 AM

They are up 9-8 at the 15 minute mark. Andres hasn't scored yet. Schaen with good defense on him.

At the 10 minute mark, they are up 14-12. I've rested Andres for the last 3 minutes and he is about to come back at near full strength. My other starters are tiring and will rest.

Andres is struggling to score, but other guys are stepping up and the defense has been solid. Down 20-18 at the 5 minute mark.

Andres gets it going a bit in the last 5 minutes, but we can never take the lead. Down 26-24 at the half.

Schaen is the player of the half. He had 2 big dunks which got their crowd fired up and a midrange jumper. He has 6 points and 2 steals at the half.

Andres has 10 points, 2 assists, 1 board, and 2 turnovers. He has shot 5 of 8.

Covering Schaen is exhausting Andres, he leaves the game to rest with 16 minutes left..

At the 15 minute mark, we are tied at 34. Everett is starting to beat his man with some regularity.

At the 10 minute mark, we are up 45-39 thanks to a nice run that Everett got us going on. He is breaking into the lane frequently. However, he is now exhausted and will sit for a few.

We are up 50-45 with 7 mintues to go when I get Andres back into the game. His first touch they foul him on a 3 point attempt. He makes all 3 of the FT's.

Next possession, Andres gets a 4th foul on Schaen who leaves the game.

We had a 57-47 lead with 4:30 to go, but they hit 2 3's to get their crowd into it and get us nervous. However, Andres quiets the crowd down some by spinning off his man and driving to the hoop and finishing with a double pump jam. 59-53. Just under 3 minutes left.

Andres with a partial block of their next 3 point attempt :)

Everett drives into the lane and draws a foul. He hits the first but misses the 2nd.. Andres with the offensive board and he puts it up and in! 62-53.

Defense is the key the last 2 minutes. We win 62-56.

Andres is the player of the game. 21 points, 4 boards, 2 assists, a block, and 2 turnovers. He shot 9 of 17, 0 of 4, and 3 of 3.

Everett had 15 points, 4 assists, 3 steals. and 1 turnover.

Hodari had 8 points, 2 boards, and 2 assists.

Santos had 7 points, 5 boards, 1 assist, and 1 steal.

Pait had 2 points, 13 boards, 1 assist, and 2 steals.

Snow had 11 points and 2 boards.

Andres also held their star, Schaen, to 4 of 14 shooting for 8 points as he did a much better job on him in the 2nd half.

Next up is Fairfield. They are 11-13 and their overall talent is 77. They have a big freshman center, Varney Aladi, who is talented and is a good inside scorer already, although he is only scoring 6 ppg. Other than that, they don't have any worrisome matchups for us. Their PG is slow. Their shooters aren't that good. We should be able to beat them comfortably, particularly at home.

We beat them at their place earlier this year, 69-53.

Eaglesfan27

03-16-2008, 12:26 PM

Despite their reliance on a zone, Everett gets 2 quick fouls on their PG.

We play a fast tempo offense, but we are sloppy on defense and they are keeping pace. 20-19, we lead at the 10 minute mark. Everett and Andres sit down for a bit.

Up 34-31 at the 5 minute mark with Everett and Andres coming back. Santos and Hodari are going to the bench to rest.

First play in, off a rebound by Bogans, quick outlet to Everett who is running a fastbreak with Andres on the wing.. he throws it Andres who spins past the lone defender and slams it home after a hesitation pump! The crowd is going crazy.

That starts a 14-0 run which ends with an Andres dunk just before the halftime buzzer. 44-31 at the half.

Andres is the player of the half with 17 points, 6 boards, and 1 assist. He is shooting 7 of 11 and 3 of 6 from the arc.

Everett has 7 assists at the half as he picks apart their zone.

With 10 minutes to go, we are up 67-54. Everett continue to dissect their defenses. He has 14 assists. Andres is hitting from all over the court tonight. However, both now need to rest. Pait also takes a breather.

Although I wanted to get them back into the game, I couldn't justify it as we went on another big run and built a 80-56 lead. I pull my starters with 5 minutes to go.

We win the game 90-67.

Andres is the player of the game with 31 points, 8 boards, 1 assist, and 1 turnover. He shot 12 of 20, 7 of 11 from the arc. He only played 25 minutes due to the huge win.

Everett also only played 25 minutes. He finished with 3 points, 14 assists, 2 steals, and 3 turnovers.

Hodari had 13 points, 2 boards, and 2 assists.

Santos had 13 points, 7 boards, 1 assist, and 4 steals.

Pait had 1 point and 2 boards in 23 minutes.

Bogans had 0 points and 6 boards in 17 minutes.

Snow as the main scorer for the 2nd team, he had 24 points on 9 of 12 shooting, 5 of 7 from the arc, and 1 of 1 from the line.

Hendriks had 5 points and 4 assists as the backup PG.

Next up we have Loyola (MD) now at our place. They are 20-7. They beat us 60-50 at their place 2 weeks ago. They are tied with us for 1st in the conference standings.

They are still missing their center Donald Burton and I'll be very surprised if they beat us again, particularly at our place. After this game, we only have 2 more regular season games which I probably won't play until next weekend. Now, to beat Loyola.

Right before the game, the doctors announce that Donald Burton is able to play in this game. This is the first day that he is 100% healed from his broken wrist. That will make them considerably more challenging. We'll have to consider double teaming him if he starts dominating too much down low.

Eaglesfan27

03-16-2008, 01:47 PM

Down 10-4 at the 15 minute mark. Their guards are beating ours right now.

At the 12 minute mark, we are down 14-7 and Andres and Everett are both tired. Andres has all of my points, but he has to rest.

We tie it at 24 with 5 minutes to go mainly thanks to Snow who has been hitting his shots.

Down 37-35 at the half. We have to cut down our turnovers. They have generated too many steals and that has been our biggest issue. Also, Engle is killing us behind the arc. He has 14 points and is the player of the half.

Snow is our leading scorer with 12 at the half. Andres has 5 and Santos has 6.

Andres was absolutely crushed on a dunk attempt.. He goes down hard, but gets right back up. We are on the start of a run having scored the last 5 points.

We are up 43-41 at the 15 minute mark. That hard hit on Andres ended our scoring run and they responded with their own brief run to close the gap.

Up 66-61 with 5 minutes to go. Snow has been making big shots while Andres has been resting the last few minutes.

They get a 2 and the foul down low to pull within 2. 68-66 with 3 minutes to go.

Santos with a basket in the post on a fadeaway jumper and then the steal!

They block Santos shot attempt. They miss their shot and Andres with the board. 1:30 to go.

We exchange missed shots, before Andres gets a good screen and goes baseline for the reverse jam! 72-66 with 54 seconds to go.

A quick basket inside makes it 72-68. They intentionally foul Everett who hits both FT's.

A missed 3 and they foul Pait when he rebounds it. He hits both FT's. A quick 3 keeps them barely in it. Everett hits all of his FT's down the stretch and we win it.

We win 80-73.

Despite Snow leading the team in scoring, Santos wins player of the game. He had 14 points, 4 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals, 1 block, and 3 turnovers. He shot 4 of 12, and 6 of 6 from the line.

Everett had 14 points, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 2 turnovers. He shot 2 of 8 and 10 of 10 from the line.

Hodari had 7 points, 1 board, and 1 steal.

Andres had 13 points, 7 boards, and 3 steals. He shot 3 of 9, 1 of 3, and 6 of 6.

Pait had 4 points, 7 boards, and 3 blocks.

Snow had 22 points and 1 assist. He shot 9 of 13, 3 of 4, and 1 of 1.

In recruiting news, it looks like we are coming after Grove too late. He has told us he is most likely going to Michigan State. Still, since they haven't offered him a scholarship, I keep pursuing him.

In better news, DeShaun Simon has told us that he is 99% certain he will sign with us as soon as possible. The other good news is that SG/SF Friedrich Collins who is an excellent midrange shooter has told us that we have moved ahead of Buffalo and St. Joes on his list to his #1 school. He'd like to come to the campus for our final regular season game and check it out. Of course, we agree. (note this is RP. In actuality, it just finally became a recruiting option for the first time as I got his interest high enough.)

Our next game is at Manhattan. We beat them 90-59 at home a few weeks ago. Our final game is at Sienna which played us tightly at our place. We are currently 21-4 and have a great chance to finish at least 22-5 (14-4). If we do so, we should win the conference regular season title and be the #1 seed in the tourney.

We are now the #6 team in the Mid Major Poll.

#1 Miami (OH) 19-5
2. Norht Texas 25-5
3. Nevada 18-5
4. UL Lafayette 19-6
5. Jacksonville 23-4

Now to catch up with the UNC-Clemson game on the DVR. I'll finish out the regular season on Friday (I'm off) if I don't get a chance sooner.

Eaglesfan27

03-21-2008, 10:40 AM

Kragel, Manhatten's massive center gets 4 early points, but by the 16 minute mark, we have 2 fouls on him and he leaves the game.

Once he leaves, they have a bit of a hole in the middle and we have a huge athletic advantage, so we start running heavily.

Up 25-16 at the 10 minute mark.

We enter halftime with a 44-32 lead. Hodari and Andres are thriving in our uptempo offense today.

Hodari gets chosen as player of the half, but I would have chosen Andres.

Hodari has had more dunks. He has 11 points, 2 assists, and 1 board. He has shot 5 of 7.

Andres has 11 points, 5 boards, and 1 steal. He has shot 4 of 5.

Everett has 5 points and 6 assists at the half.

With 5 minutes to go, we are up 67-61.

Everett with a pick and roll with Bogans, gives it to Bogans who hits a 16 foot open jumper! 69-61. Their big center has shut down the middle and slowed the game down, but he didn't defend that play well.

They hit a 3 with 1:15 left to cut the lead to 5. Andres misses his shot, but we defend their 3 point attempt. They foul Andres who got the board. He misses his FT, but Bogans gets the offensive tip in for 2.

They hit a quick 2. They foul Everett. He misses his FT. Kragel, their big center gets the board. A quick 3.. they hit it! 75-73 with 14 seconds left.

They foul Everett with 12 seconds left. This time he hits his first FT... and the 2nd! 77-73.

A quick 3.. no a 2.. his foot was on the line! They foul Everett with 5 seconds left. Everett hits both FT's to make it 79-75.

We win the game 79-77. Closer than I expected, but a win is a win.

Andres is the player of the game. 20 points, 7 boards, 2 steals. He shot 8 of 15, 2 of 6, and 2 of 2.

Everett had 9 points, 10 assists, 1 board, 1 steal, and 3 turnovers. He shot 2 of 5, 1 of 2, and 4 of 6.

Hodari had 13 points, 3 assists, and 2 boards.

Santos had 15 points, 2 boards, and an assist.

Pait had 9 points and 4 boards.

Now, we finish the regular season with a game at 16-10 Siena. We are 22-4. If we win this game, we definitely win the regular season conference championship. If we lose, we coul tie with Loyola (MD).

Siena will be very tough at their place.

Tellistto

03-21-2008, 10:48 AM

Good luck! Hopefully the conference tourney goes your way this season too, better to have that automatic bid into the big dance.

Tell

Eaglesfan27

03-21-2008, 12:06 PM

Since we are on the road against a good team, we are slowing it down to try to at least keep the crowd out of it. We are up 14-12 at the 10 minute mark.

We are down 31-29 at the half. They are shooting 55% while we are shooting 41%, but we are outrebounding them, we are stealing it more, and we are taking better care of the ball in general.

Starkey, their PG, is the player of the half. He has 9 points and 4 assists as Everett is still having trouble containing him.

Andres leads us with 10 points but he is 3 of 11 from the floor.

We are up 50-44 with 8 minutes to go when I get a rested Andres back into the game.

They go on a 6-0 run to tie it at 50 before Hodari draws a foul outside the arc while shooting. He hits 2 of 3. They hit a 3 to take the lead and their crowd is going wild. 53-52. 4:50 left.

After missed baskets by both sides, Everett and Andres on the break.. Everett with a perfect lob to Andres for an alley-oop! 54-53.

Our next possession, Andres draws a foul in the post. He hits the first but misses the 2nd, but Bogans gets the board and puts it back in! 57-53 and the crowd is quieting down.

Lampley, their center, draws a foul down low. He hits 1 of 2 FT's.

Andres on the other end, spins off his defender drives to the hole and gets fouled by Lampley. He misses both FT's, but Santos gets the board and is fouled. Santos makes both FT's. 59-54.

Watkins, their SF makes a 16 footer. 59-56. 2:10 left.

With 5 seconds left, Andres draws a foul in the post. He hits both FT's. 61-56.

Good defense by Andres as he is in the face of their star SF who misses a 3. They get the offensive board. Quick shot by their SG.. he misses it. Andres with the board. We work the clock to 8 seconds, Andres shoots and misses. They come down quickly and hit a quick 2. 61-58 with 23 seconds left.

They foul Everett. He makes both FT's. They attempt a quick 3 and miss. Bogans with the board, passes it quickly to Andres who is fouled. Andres hits both FT's.

We finish it out. 67-60 win!

Andres is the player of the game. 23 points, 6 boards, and 1 assist. He shot 7 of 20, 2 of 11, and 7 of 10.

Everett finished with 11 points, 2 assists, and a steal. He also played decently on Starkey in the 2nd half. Starkey finished with 13 points and 7 assists.

Hodari had 8 points, 2 boards, and 2 assists.

Santos had 12 points, 7 boards, 4 assists, and a steal.

Pait had 4 points and 4 boards.

Snow only had 4 points in 14 minutes on 1 of 5 shooting.

We finish the regular season 23-4 and as Metro Atlantic Regular Season Champions :)

As a result, we are the #1 seed in the Metro Atlantic Tourney and we get a bye into the 2nd round where we end up getting matched up with Fairfield who beat Canisus 82-60. Fairfield should be an easy matchup for us at home. Despite our lofty record, our RPI is only 51, so we need this win and a few more to guarantee our spot in the Big Dance.

Edit: The Conference Tourney is at a neutral site not at our home. Actually, it looks like Siena's court.

Eaglesfan27

03-21-2008, 01:51 PM

We are up 8-4 at the 15 minute mark. Andres with 5 early.

Up 12-6 at the 10 minute mark, then Snow came into the game....

Snow hits 4 3's in a row including 2 within 10 seconds after he steals it and jacks up a quick 3! Snow is on fire. 24-6 at the 8 minute mark.

They start covering him much better and he cools off, but the team is rolling.

We enter the half leading 41-17.

We've held them to 24% from the field and 1 of 15 from the arc.

Andres is the player of the half. He has 12 points and 4 boards. Snow also has 12 points.

With a 61-30 lead and 8 minutes to play, I rest my starters.

We win the game 68-38.

Andres wins player of the game. 22 points, 6 boards, and an assist. He shot 8 of 11, 3 of 5, and 3 of 3.

Everett finished with 7 points and 7 assists.

Hodari had 9 points, 3 boards, nad 2 assists.

Santos had 7 points, 7 boards, 1 assist, and 2 steals.

Pait had 8 boards and a block.

Snow had 19 points as he shot 5 of 9 from the arc and 7 of 13 overall.

Watching the CBS Show, we are projected as a "definite in" team for the tourney and are currently projected to be a 9th seed in the Charlotte regional.

Still I want the automatic bid. Next up is Iona. We last beat them at their place 62-56. They beat Rider 91-66 to advance to play us. If we beat them, we'll play either Siena or Marist in the Metro Atlantic Championship Game. Marist barely beat Loyola (MD) 75-74 and Siena crushed Saint Peter's 108-64.

Eaglesfan27

03-21-2008, 03:15 PM

At the 12 minute mark, Everett needs to rest. We are up 11-9.

They tie it at 19 with 6 minutes to go.

We are down 31-26 at the half as they started drilling 3's towards the end of the half. They are shooting 46% from the field while we are shooting 39%.

Schaen, their SF, is the player of the half. He has 7 points, 2 boards, and 2 blocks.

Everett leads our team with 9 points and 2 assists.

Andres has 4 points and is being shut down by Schaen. He also has turned it over 4 times.

Everett to a cutting Andres for a slam dunk to start the 2nd half!

Andres is scoring more in the 2nd half. We are down 40-39 with 12 minutes to go after an Andres 12 footer.

With 9:42 to go, Snow hits a 3 to give us a 44-43 lead.

We are up 50-45 with 5 minutes to go when I get rested starters back into the game.

We've had a 5 point lead down the stretch. We have a 58-53 lead with a minute left. With Snow and Andres providing most of the scoring down the stretch.

Everett with a steal and they have to foul him. He hits 1 of 2 FT's.

We win the game 61-53.

Everett is the player of the game. 14 points, 4 asists, 2 steals, 1 board, and 1 turnover. He shot 4 of 9, 1 of 3, and 5 of 6.

Hodari had 8 points and 2 assists.

Andres had 13 points, 3 boards, and 3 steals.

Santos had 8 points and 8 boards.

Pait had 4 points, 9 boards, and 2 assists.

Snow had 14 points and an assist on 5 of 13 shooting, 2 of 8 from the arc.

Siena beat Marist 92-68 to advance to face us in the Tourney Final.

We are now 25-4 and all but assured of advancing to the Big Dance. Siena has little shot to advance unless they beat us. But, I still want to win our first conference championship and will be pushing the guys hard.

I'll play the championship either later tonight or tomorrow.

Eaglesfan27

03-21-2008, 07:47 PM

We are tied with Siena at 17 with 10 minutes to go in the 1st half. Buboltz has 5 points to lead them. Andres leads us with 5.

Up 28-21 at the 5 minute mark thanks to a scoring burst by Snow.

We enter the half up 35-28. We are ahead in every major area.

Andres is the player of the half. He has 8 points and 3 boards. Everett has 7 points and Santos has 6. Also, Snow has 6 at the half.

2 minutes into the 2nd half, Everett gets a 3rd foul on their center, Lampley. A minute later, he sets Santos up for a 3. Santos makes it despite getting fouled. 4 point play!

With 11:42 to go, Santos gets a defensive board, throws it down the court to Andres who leaked ahead.. he is all alone, windmill slam dunk! 52-41.

With 8:24 to go, our starters need a rest. We are leading 52-45.

An unexpected hero! Meeking hits 3 3's during the next 4 minutes. Sure, they were all open looks generated by passes from Santos (our only starter on the court) or Snow, but he doesn't usually knock those down. Tonight he was 3 of 3 on them and helped build our lead while our starters rested.

65-51 with 3 minutes to go when I finally get my rested starters back into the game.

Andres with a few big baskets down the stretch and we finish it off! 75-61 win :)

Andres is the player of the game: 21 points, 4 boards, 2 assists, and a turnover. He shot 7 of 12, 4 of 7, and 3 of 3.

Everett had 9 points and 7 assists.

Hodari had 7 points and 3 boards.

Santos had 14 points, 2 boards, 3 assists, and 3 steals.

Pait had 2 points, 10 boards, and 2 blocks.

Snow had 11 points and an assist.

Meeking had 9 points on 3 of 3 shooting, all from behind the arc.

My first conference championship :)

We are now 26-4. Now, we just have to watch the selection show and see which bracket we are in and what seed we get.

rjolley

03-21-2008, 08:06 PM

W00H00!!! Congrats!!!

Eaglesfan27

03-21-2008, 08:09 PM

First the 4 #1 seeds are announced:

Michigan State (32-2) in the East, Syracuse (28-4) in the South, UNLV (31-1) in the Midwest, and North Carolina (25-5) in the West. Interesting locations..

Interesting Matchups in the East in the 1st round:

Georgetown is the #2 seed in the East.

#8 Arizona (23-10) vs #9 Mississippi State (22-12)
#5 USC (24-8) vs #12 Cal Poly (21-8)
#6 Duke (19-10) vs #11 Detroit (25-6)

We aren't in the East.

Interesting Matchups in the South:

Tennessee is the #2 seed in the South

#5 W. Virginia (23-10) vs #12 Troy (23-11)
#6 Oregon (22-9) vs #11 BYU (21-10)

We aren't in the South.

Interesting Midwest Matchups:

We are an 8 seed! We will face #9 Indiana (22-10)
#4 Pittsburgh (23-9) vs #13 Temple (21-12)

Crud. I just realized as the #8 seed that if we win, we face UNLV in the 2nd round. That will make my goal of reaching the Sweet 16 very difficult. :(

Kansas is the #2 seed in the Midwest.

Interesting Matchups in the West:

LSU is the 2nd seed in the West.

#6 Maryland (24-8) vs #11 Northwestern (20-11)
#7 UCLA (22-12) vs #10 UConn (18-13)

Eaglesfan27

03-21-2008, 08:17 PM

A look at Indiana's Roster:

They are missing their star PG (rated 90 overall!) due to a broken bone in his foot. He will be out for this game.

They still have a very talented starting 5:

SF Deshaun Mutombo is 6'8 210 pounds and is rated 89 overall. He is the best defender Andres has ever faced as well as being the most athletic player he has ever faced. He is also a very good midrange shooter and an ok 3 point shooter. Besides that, he is a great ball handler with point guard type skills.

Treg Ebong is the backup PG but he has starting talent with an overall rating of 86. He is 6'1 190 pounds. He is a very fast player who is quicker than Everett on film. He is a tremendous passer, tremendous ball handling skills, a great shooter, a smothering defender, and his only weakness is his poor stamina.

PF Blake Phillips is 6'9 225 pounds. He is rated 86 overall. He is a good inside scorer. He is a tremendous finisher on the break. He is an excellent post defender. He is a shot blocker with all around excellent athleticism.

SG Justin Souchu is 6'6 240 pounds. He isn't very athletic, but he is a great shooter who can drill the 3 from anywhere on the court. He is also an excellent passer and is a decent defender. He is rated 81 overall.

They don't have a true center, but will probably start Najeeb Mascoll there. He is 6'8 220 and is rated 68 overall. That will be our only position of advantage.

A very difficult challenge for us. They are rated 88 in overall talent even without their star PG. I'll play this game after the current set of games are done on TV.

Eaglesfan27

03-21-2008, 09:58 PM

Andres hits his first 3 of the game after Everett gets him the ball.

Mutombo steals it from Andres the next time he gets it and runs down the court and strokes a perfect 3.

They are up 11-3 at the 15 minute mark and Mutombo already has 7 points and is playing great defense.

We were starting to get blown out 19-9, but Snow came in with 10:40 to go and ignited a run that got us back into it. Down 26-20 with 6 minutes to go.

We go into the half down 37-29. Their outside shooting is VERY good. They are shooting 57% from the floor so far.

Mutombo is the player of the half. He is playing very well on defense and he has 9 points, 3 boards, and 2 assists.

I'm surprised to see that Andres has 10, I thought he had less. He is 3 of 9 from the floor, 1 of 3 from the arc, 3 of 4 from the line. He'll need a big second half to get us back into it. No one else is shooting well, except for Everett who has 5 points and 3 assists.

Snow also has 9 points on 3 of 6 shooting.

Andres gets 2 quick fouls on Mutombo to start the 2nd half and he leaves the game with 3!!!

Despite that, Indiana is creating turnovers, getting alley-oops, 3's and other plays that has the crowd going crazy. 45-31 with 16 minutes to go. I call timeout.

They build a 16 point lead, but Everett starts drilling some 3's and pulls us back within 8. 52-44. 13 minutes left.

Everett and Andres are exhausted and we start trailing off again before I rest them. Down 57-47 with 10 minutes to go when I pull them. It's going to be up to Chatman, Snow, and Santos mainly for the next few minutes..

Santos with a block that starts a fastbreak that ends with a Hodari slam. A few minutes later we close the gap to 6. 59-53. 7 minutes to go. However, 2 3's by them quickly widens the gap to double digits again.

A steal and dunk by Santos brings us back within 7 after we had a basket on a previous possession.

64-59 with 5:40 to go when we get a stop and fast break. Hodari is fouled on the break. He hits both FT's! 64-61.

Santos with a steal and we get a fast break going! Hendriks is fouled on the break. He hits 1 of 2. They get Ebong back into the game as their backup backup PG is not a good ball handler.

Ebong drills a 3 to make it 67-62.

Hodari breaks Souchu down and draws a foul. He hits both FT's. 67-64 with 4 minutes to go.

Santos tipped a pass and Hodari gets the steal. We pass it to Santos in the post.. they double him.. he kicks it out.. work it around to Snow in the corner.. he hits the 3! Tied at 67!

Mutombo with a 16 foot jumper to give them the lead.

Santos responds with 12 foot open shot. Tied at 69.

Hodari steals it from Souchu! He starts the fast break.. Snow is fouled!

Snow hits both FT's. We lead 71-69 with 2:44 to go.

Phillips draws a foul in the post. He makes both FT's. Tied at 71.

We work the clock, no good shots, Everett gets a screen, drives into the lane, kicks it to an open Hodari.. he drills the 3!!! 74-71. We trap as usual after the basket and Andres gets a steal!!!

Hodari misses a 3 point attempt this time, Santos gets the board, but they steal his kickout pass. Fast break.. Everett fouls Shumate, their backup SG. He hits both FT's. 74-73. 1:17 to go.

We run our favorite play: Everett passes to Andres on the right wing.. he has the opportunity to shoot, but since that is covered, he runs off a screen and into the lane, they collapse on him and he kicks it out to Santos for a 15 footer! 76-73. Under a minute left.

Souchu misses a 3 with Hodari guarding him! Santos with the board. 44 seconds left.. we'll work the clock.

Santos misses a 3 at the buzzer. They move it up court.. Mutombo shoots a 3 over Andres.. he misses it.. Phillips get the board.. kicks it out to Ebong.. he shoots the 3.. misses it.. they get the board.. time expires!!

We win! We win!!! 76-73!

Hodari was the player of the game: 22 points, 5 steals, 2 boards, and 1 assist. He shot 5 of 8, 4 of 5, and 8 of 8.

Everett had 10 points and 5 assists. He shot 3 of 6, 2 of 3, and 2 of 2.

Andres had 14 points, 4 boards, 4 assists, and 3 steals. He shot 5 of 16, 1 of 5, and 3 of 4.

Santos had 13 points, 4 boards, 3 assists, 5 steals, and a block. He shot 6 of 11, 0 of 1, and 1 of 1.

Snow had 16 points off the bench on 4 of 8 shooting, 4 of 6, and 4 of 6.

Our next opponent is.....

#1 UNLV who crushed #16 Hartford 103-53.

UNLV is now 32-1. Their overall team talent is 95. Their shooting is 98.

Here is a look at their top 10:

SF Edmund Billings is a senior with overall rating of 89. He is 6'8 240. He is a very good defender (not as good as Mutombo) who is an excellent shooter, excellent passer, and great athlete.

SG Edward Fox is senior who is rated 88 overall. He is 6'5 220. He is an athletic player who can dunk with the best of them, but also can shoot the 3 from anywhere. One of the best 3 point shooters in the country. He is also is an excellent midrange shooter. He averaged 20.8 ppg this season.

SR PF Edgar Sykres is rated 87 overall. He is 6'7 210 pounds. He is a dynamic rebounder, a scoring machine inside with a variety of post moves, wo is a great post defender, and a good passer. Surprisingly strong for his size.

SR SF Ernie Waller is rated 86 overall. He is 6'8 238 pounds. He is a fast, athletic dunker who can also shoot and play decent defense. Has amazing stamina.

Sophomore SF Francis Ravello is 6'5 215 pounds and he is great 3 point shooter. He is rated 84 overall and it's mainly because he can shoot so well.

SR PG Grant Sanders is 5'11 185 and is one of the fastest players in the country (faster than Everett), he has incredible moves (much better than Everett), he is a good defender, and he is a very good 3 point shooter, and is a great finisher in the lane. Rated 84 overall.

JR PG W.M Farrell is 6'5 205 pounds. He is almost as fast as Grant, almost as good of a passer, and he is a much better shooter. Rated 83 overall.

SR C Tristan Acker is 6'10 280 pounds and he is rated 81 overall. He is one of the best shot blockers in the contry. He is a great post defender, a terrific rebounder, and a good post scorer who can also hit a midrange jumper.

JR SG Lodrick Sandoval is 6'4 195 and is rated 81 overall. He is a defensive specialist.

FR SG Aron Cage is rated 80 already and he is a 3 point specialist. He is 6'5 210.

FR PG Sollie Howel is already rated 79 and he is also a 3 point specialist who is as good of a ball handler as Everett.

They have insane shooting talent and depth on this team. Getting them into foul trouble like we did against Indiana isn't going to work too well.

I'll play that game tomorrow.