Awesome. The announcers highlight Hannan as the player to watch this game. Of course with two freshman in the lineup, our team unity has taken another dive...

First play of the game, Everett finds Hannan in the corner.. he fakes the 3, his man jumps.. he drives past his man and pulls up for a 12 footer which he drills! 2-0.

Second play - after a defensive stop, we push it up the court, Hannan is alone for the fast break.. slam dunk! 4-0.

After a Graves basket, Everett finds Hannan in the corner.. This time he takes and makes the 3! 9-2.

Hannan misses his next 3, but I'm already having visions of dominance for this kid and he's going to make Graves so much better.

Hannan hits his next 3 and he already has 10.

Hannan sets up Everett for a 3 and then another 3. At the 15 minute mark, we are up 20-10!

Our shooting cools off for a bit, but Graves drives into the lane for a foul to end their 6-0 run.

Hannan is tired at the 11 minute mark. We lead 26-16, but I love offense. I decide to put Bowers in at SF and see if I'm wrong about his foot speed, especially since I'm sticking with our zone defense.

Bowers misses his first 3, but drills his 2nd.

Cornette hits an open 16 footer, followed by another Bowers 3. Everett's assist totals are going to skyrocket this year...

With 6 minutes to go in the half, we go to all backups as Waters sees his first court action. We are up 40-26.

Hannan may not have great speed, but he has a great first step. He's blown by his man twice with crossover dribbles! This kid is playing better than our staff thought he'd be able to at this point..

Hannan backs down his man, hits a fadeaway and gets the foul!

This is an inferior team, but I feel like Hannan plus my backups are going to be a good combo for the stretches where I need to rest my starters. We maintain our lead.

Halftime: 53-40, we lead.

Hannan is the player of the half. He has 24 points, 4 boards, 1 assist, and a steal at the half.

Everett has 9 points and 7 assists at the half.

Graves has 6 points, 2 boards, and an assist.

Simon has 9 boards already.

Bowers has 6 points on 2 of 4 shooting.



With 17 minutes to go, Cornette gets a 4th foul. We put Adams into the game at PF.

We are up 68-57 at the 12 minute mark. Hannan needs some rest. I decide to give Collins a few minutes of PT.

He buries a 3 on his first touch. Maybe his range is improving. :)

With 9:30 to go, we go to all bench players except for Simon. We are up 73-63.

We are only up by 11 with 6 minutes to go, so Hannan comes back into the game.

First touch he drills a 3!

Cornette is consistently hitting open 12-16 footers, particularly around FT line. That is a welcome change from my PF.

They pull within 8 with 2 minutes to go, and then Hannan just blows by his man and lays it in and gets the foul.

With 44 seconds to go, they hit a 3 and pull within 6. 89-83. We get it to Hannan who they intentionally foul. He nails both FT's. 91-83.

We wrap it up with an Everett FT. 92-83 win. The defense was a bit of a letdown, but that offense was fun to run.

Hannan is the player of the game: 37 points, 5 boards, 5 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block. Nice debut for the Frosh. He only turned it over 1 time. He shot 12 of 22, 5 of 11 from the arc, and 8 of 12 from the line.

Everett finished with 16 points, 8 assists, 2 steals, and a board. He shot 5 of 15.

Graves had 10 points, 5 boards, and 4 assists. He shot 4 of 10.

Cornette had 8 points, 8 boards, 2 assists, and a steal. Every point came on a midrange jumper.

Simon had 4 points, 19 boards, 1 assist, and 2 blocks.

Ortiz had 6 points. Bowers had 6 points on 2 of 4 from the arc.

Waters had 4 assists, 2 steals, and a board in 15 minutes. He shot 0 of 3.

Snow was 0 of 5. He didn't have any points, boards, or assists.


Nice first game for this squad. Our next game should be much more challenging. We play against ND in the NIT Preseason Tourney. However, we matchup well with ND whose overall talent rating is only 3 points higher at 83. I'll play that Tuesday.

Edit: Wife and Mother-In-Law just decided to start watching 2nd chick flick. I'll play ND tonight as I want to see what Hannan can do against that defense and I'm not tired yet.

This time the announcers highlight Everett.

First play of the game, Everett passes to Hannan who fakes right, dribbles to his left and slashes to the rim on a spin move for a nice layup. He may not throw down big dunks, but he can finish around the rim.

Hannan has his 2nd shot blocked.

Their defense is quick and they block Graves shot as well. We are up 8-7 at the 15 minute mark. Hannan has 4 points.

This team is good.. no nerves at the Carrier dome. Cornette is the one stepping up with both interior and perimenter scoring early..

At the 12 minute mark: We are up 22-15.

At the 10 minute mark: We are up 24-17 and Hannan needs some rest.

They go on a 9-0 run before Cornette scors for us.

We are down 34-31 at the 5 minute mark, but a rested Hannan is about to come back into the game.

Ortiz with 2 3's in a row to give us a 37-34 lead.

Hannan with 6 straight points before he misses a jumper on the fast break but a trailing Simon slams it home. 43-34.

We go into halftime up 45-38. Unlike last game where we were chucking up the 3's, we've only shot 6 this game.

Cornette is the player of the half. He has 11 points, 4 boards, 1 steal, and 1 block.

Hannan has 10 points, 2 boards, 3 assists, and a steal.

Simon has 8 points, 7 boards, and 2 blocks.

Ortiz is moving ahead of Collins as the primary backup SG/SF.

12 minute mark: Up 61-54. Everett, Graves, and Hannan are all tired.

At the 10 minute mark: We are up 66-55 after a nice alley-oop slam on the fast break from Waters to Ortiz.

A minute later, Cornette gets a fast break slam.

A quick burst of turnovers and scoring gets them back within 6. 7 minutes left. 73-67, we lead. I get Hannan, Graves, and Everett back into the game.

Hannan goes on a personal 10-0 scoring run.

Then, he sets up Graves for 2 easy 3's in a row.

We cruise to the 93-76 win over ND.


Hannan is the player of the game. 23 points, 6 assists, 3 boards, 1 block, and 1 steal. He shot 9 of 16, 1 of 4, and 4 of 6.

I wonder - I might post this in the general thread, but I wonder if guys with high potential (Hannan's is an A) play above their "current ratings" sort of like FOF? In any case, Hannan is playing great early and he reminds me of Andres in his ability to score almost at will if he is rested.

Everett had 6 points and 6 assists.

Graves had 18 points, 2 boards, and 2 steals. He shot 6 of 11, 5 of 7, and 1 of 2.

Cornette finished with 15 points, 6 boards, 1 assist, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. He shot 5 of 11 and 5 of 6 from the line.

Simon finished with 10 points, 20 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks.

Ortiz had 12 points.

Bowers had 9 points, 5 boards, 1 assist, and 2 steals. He shot 3 of 5 all from the arc.

Snow was 0 of 2 in just 5 minutes.


Our next game in the pre-season tourney is against George Washington. They are rated 82 in overall talent but unlike ND, they have a very high shooting rating of 89. Then again, so do we at 85. ;)

Picked up this game Saturday thanks to your thread. Pretty damn addicting game. Some questions if you have the time:

1) What half length are you using?
2) What are your sliders like (don't need details, just general info -- which things are bumped way up or way down) -- especially for fouls?
3) More details if you can please on this one -- what's your recruiting strategy? I'm pretty lost and sucking in my first season of recruiting with Northern Colorado (closed legacy). Got a couple bigs that I should win but they're not very good at all. What's your strategy for the ABL and then afterward? I'm clueless in this regard...

I'm playing 20 minute halves and I just posted a detailed slider set in the main game thread yesterday or the day before when Todd asked for some sliders.

3. First of all, I maxed out Charisma as soon as possible as I got attribute gains. Maybe this makes the game a bit too easy, but after getting fired in my first dynasty I wasn't taking any chances. For the starter school at a small conference, I wouldn't target anyone higher than 2 stars unless they were in the same city and had being close to home as a priority.

Once you get to a mid-major team you can start going for 3 star guys and the occasional 4 star player (although you'll probably lose them all.)

I'll start recruiting promising local and regional guys in their freshman year of H.S. You can't do much until their junior year, but I think they respond slightly to just being contacted. I generally stay local for at least half of my recruits and try to go after guys who want to be close to home.

If a player isn't up to at least 60% interest by his senior year and preferably 70 or higher, I give up pursuit of them. The only exception to that general guideline is if no schools are pursuing the player and I think they'll fill a role for me (usually just at my initial school) or they are being pursued by a bunch of schools that I think I compare favorably to and they are low interest in ALL of the other schools as well. For example, Hannan was only at about 55% when I started recruiting him, but he had low interest in all of the schools pursuing him and we were his #1 school for most of the early process.

The fact is that first year or two at the first school in a closed legacy with your coach who has baseline crappy attributes, you aren't going to get many good players, but I just looked for role players and guys with size.


Now, my attributes are much better so I can get much better players. I'll post my coach's attribute ratings the next time I get to play which might be in a bit as my mother-in-law and wife look like they might be settling in to watch a Barbara Streisand movie *shudder*.

I don't know if you consider it a cheat or not, but you can pretty much get *** foreigners from the first team you take. The catch there is that you can't scout them very well and more often that stateboys is that they come out worse than advertised.

Yeah, personally, I'm avoiding recruiting foreigners until I become a well known coach with the exception of Canada since it makes sense for Niagara to recruit that region.

A look at my coach's attributes and record:

Overall: B
Offense: B-
Defense: C
Teaching: B-
Scouting: B
Charisma: A+
Discipline: B-

My record is 130-86.

Goals that might be obtainable in the near future:

- Assemble a Top 20 class.
- Sign a 5 star player (very unlikely, but you never know.)
- Coach a Player of the Year Award (Hannan might have a shot in a year or two)
- Coach a 2k sports Award Winner
- Have a player drafted into the NBA
- Win a Non-conference Tournament (this Preseason NIT looks possible)
- Coach a team into the top 25.
- Accumulate 200 career wins (I should hit that in 4-6 years.)

Ok, all of those probably are a few years away, but some are even further away like signing the #1 overall recruit or having the best class in the nation.


However, I love our chances to win a non-conference tourney. Our next game is at the Carrier Dome against George Washington in the Pre-Season NIT A Tournament. George Washington is a good team that is slightly more talented than we are, but our starting 5 are overflowing with confidence right now.

I'm probably going to disappoint you when I tell you this, but I don't think you can win player of the year at your school's size. I had a player at Wright State put up 33 & 14 - ungodly numbers for a college student, and all he won as mid-major player of the year, though he led the nation in ppg, rpg, and bpg.

Again the announcers highlight Hannan as the player to watch. :)

Hannan's shot isn't falling early, but Everett's is. Also, Simon has 4 inches and 70 pounds on his man and he is completely dominating the boards early.

Up 8-4 at the 15 minute mark.

With 13 minutes to go, Hannan and Graves need a quick breather. We are tied at 10.

We are down 18-17 at the 10 minute mark.

We are up 26-24 with 6:13 left when I get Graves and Hannan back into the game.

After shooting poorly most of the half, both teams heat up from outside the arc in the last 5 minutes.

Included in that barrage is 2 3's by Hannan.

We are up 46-40 at the half.

Hannan is the player of the half. 12 points, 3 boards, 3 assists, and a block.

Everett and Graves each added 9. Simon has 10 boards already including 4 offensive boards.


1st play of the 2nd half, Simon ignites the break with a board and quick outlet pass to Everett who finds Graves.. Graves and Hannan with a 2 on 1 break.. Graves to Hannan for an Alley-oop!

An explosive first 5 minutes of the 2nd half. Everyone is drilling 3's including Cornette. We are up 59-53 at the 15 minute mark.

With 13 minutes to go, Hannan gets a breather. We are up 62-53.

With 11 minutes to go, they take the lead 63-62. They take a 66-62 lead on yet another 3 before Collins hits a 3 to end the run.

A few plays later, Simon with a long pass to a breaking Waters who shows some huge ups with a slam dunk! 69-68 lead on that play.

With 6 minutes left, we have a 74-71 lead and we are getting Graves and Hannan fully rested back into the game.

Hannan drills his first shot, a little 14 footer.

With 4:21 and a 76-75 lead, we get Everett and Cornette back into the game and will finish it out with our starters..

Graves drills a 3 to stretch the lead back to 4.

Everett with a steal.. he finds Hannan on the wing, he spins past his man and lays it into the basket. 81-75. 3:31 left.

We exchange baskets to make it 83-77. After a defensive stop, Everett passes to Hannan in the block.. he draws a double team... he kicks it out to Cornette at the FT line who nails the shot! 85-77. 2 minutes left.

They make a basket. We work it down to 10.. pass to Hannan on the wing.. he draws a double team and throws a beautiful pass to Graves who drills a 3 before they can rotate to him! 88-79.

We defend their next 2 shots and that is the final margin. 88-79 win.


Hannan is the player of the game. 21 points, 5 boards, 5 assists, and a block. He started off 0 of 4, but he really picked it up after that. He shot 8 of 14, 3 of 9, and 2 of 3.

Everett had 9 points, 6 assists, and 2 steals along with 2 turnovers. He shot 3 of 10.

Graves had 19 points, 4 boards, 4 assists, and a block. He played great defense on their SG who had 21 points but was 8 of 22.

Cornette had 13 points, 7 boards, and an assist. He shot 6 of 8 and 1 of 1 from the arc.

Simon had 6 points, 22 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks.

Waters had 5 points and 2 assists in 10 minutes.

Collins had 6 points that were key as they broke a run. He shot 2 of 3 all from the arc.

Bowers had 6 points as well as he shot 2 of 5 from the arc.


Ahh, I forgot how the pre-season NIT works. We did just win the Region A Final, not the final of the tournament. We'll play Washington in the Final 4 of the tournament next week. They are a daunting team. They are 6th in the media poll and 8th in the coaches poll. They are 2-0. They beat Wyoming 90-62 in their regional final. They are rated 92 in overall talent with no weaknesses.

However, before we play them we have another tough opponent: Arizona is our next preason opponent as somehow our AD convinced them to come to our school. They are 3-0 and 4th in both polls. They are rated 91 in overall talent, but aren't particularly good at rebounding or inside play in general. However, they have 5 terrific guards on their team including superstar Hilton Gennie. He is a 6'7 240 pound SG who is rated 89 overall. He isn't a very good shooter but he is a physically dominating player who is incredibly fast for his size. I'll play that Arizona game tomorrow.

That is disappointing but not surprising. I remember people complaining in past versions that too many mid-major players won awards, so they may have adjusted it to be much harder or even impossible for them to win the big awards. I guess I'll find out.

I know it's only 3 games, but here are Hannan's stats so far and how they stack up vs everyone:

- 27.3 ppg is good for 5th. USC's PG Spencer Acker leads the nation with 30 per game. Spencer is the best 3 point shooter I've seen in this game with a 98 rating!

- 4.0 rebounds per game isn't even in the top 100.

- 5.3 assists per game is just outside the top 50.

Simon leads the NCAA in rebounding at 20.3 per game right now. A 7 foot center from Northeastern is 2nd with 18.3 per game.

Compared to the MAAC:

Hannan leads the league in scoring. 2nd best so far is 24.0 ppg from Manhattan's center. He is 5th in assists. Everett is 2nd in assists at 6 per game.

Are the top scorers still mostly PFs and Cs?

I'll take a closer look tomorrow as I just shut down the 360, however, in most years of this dynasty the top 10 scorers have been mostly big men with a few guards sprinkled in. At this very early part of the season, the top 10 was mostly guards if I am remembering correctly. USC's guard should continue to score huge points this year I'd imagine. Besides a 98 in 3 point shooting, he had a 93 in midrange shooting which makes him the best shooter I've ever seen in this game by a fair margin. Only thing working against him is he is only 5'10".

Yes, it wouldn't have been a big deal if it was just a dominant performer on an average team, but I had taken them (despite their "mid-major" label" to something like 30-2 and nationally ranked in the top 5 and a final four. Under those circumstances, the game should be able to figure out that a PotY canidate is valid.

We start off slowly against Arizona and they jump out to a 7-0 lead, but 2 3's by Everett quickly get us back into it. It's clear that their SF can physically matchup with Hannan and this is the first time he's faced a player who can do that.

15 minute mark: We are down 11-9.

10 minute mark: All of our starters are starting to heat up. Simon has 3 inches and 40 pounds on his man and he has been huge with 7 points on putbacks. We are up 22-15. The home crowd is sustaining us on this run.

Thanks to the crowd and adrenaline, my starters played until the 4 minute run and they had a 16-0 run. We are up 36-24 when they finally leave for a breather. The only one who will stay in for the whole first half is Simon who is amazingly conditioned for a big man.

Our zone defense has been attacking their outside shooters well today.

Bowers hits a few 3's to keep our lead somewhat intact. We go into halftime up 42-34.

Everett was the star of the half. He had 14 points (4 of 5 on 3's attempted), 4 assists, and a steal.

Hannan had 8 points, 1 board, and 1 steal.

Graves had 7 points, 3 boards, and 2 assists.

Cornette had 6 points and 2 assists. He is 0 of 4 from the floor.

Simon has 7 points, 6 boards, 3 assists, and a steal.


We've held Gennie to 1 of 7 shooting and 4 points and 3 assists. However, Hanson another of their super SG's has 14 points on 5 of 5 shooting including 4 of 4 from the arc.


First two plays of the 2nd half us for are a 14 footer by Hannan and an NBA 3 by Hannan. He's heating up.

Another 2 and then another 3 by him. He's got 18 and he's starting to draw a double team. He finds Everett for an open 3 and then Cornette for an open 2. They are hitting some 3's and keeping within striking range. 15 minute mark. We are up 59-45.

12 minute mark: They've cooled Hannan off with double teams but he has 3 assists because of it. Now he is tired, so he'll get a breather as we get Bowers' 3 point shooting in the game. Simon will also get a short breather. We are up 62-50.

With 9 minutes to go, they close to 64-59. Everett has been our primary scorer the last few minutes but he needs a break. Waters, Ortiz, and Snow come into the game. Hannan is almost ready to come back.

Gennie has been heating up and he hits his 2nd 3 in a row to make it 64-62.

We get Snow another decent look but he misses it. Gennie hits a 2 to tie it. We call timeout and get Hannan and Simon back into the game. 7:28 to go.

Hannan gets a screen from Bowers and he drills a 3!

After a defensive board by Simon he throws a long pass to Ortiz who throws it to Hannan who beats everyone down the court and he slams it home! 23 points and the lead is extended to 5 again.

After they make a quick jumper, we come down the other end.. Hannan off a double screen.. he hits the 14 footer. 71-66.

Gennie with 2 baskets over taller defenders. He suddenly has 17. 73-70. 4 minutes to go.

We get our starters all back into the game.

Hannan misses his next 2 shots and they close within 1. 73-72. 2:30 left.

Hannan gets it on the block.. backs down his man.. and hits a fadeaway jumper. 75-72.

With 53 seconds left, Gennie hits another 14 footer. 75-74. Gennie now has 21.

With 24 seconds left, Hannan is doubled.. he passes to Graves who has an open look.. he shooters from the corner... and misses.

With 5 seconds left, Faust, one of their plethora of guards, hits a 3. 77-75 they lead.

We call our last timeout to setup a play.

Everett off a screen gets an open look at a 3.. he misses it.


We lose 77-75.




Gennie is the player of the game. 21 points, 6 assists, 4 boards, and 2 steals. He shot 8 of 15, 2 of 5, and 3 of 4.


They had 3 other guards with 14 points each.

Hannan led our team with 27 points, 4 assists, 2 boards, and a steal. He shot 11 of 20, 5 of 10, and 0 of 0.

Everett had 21 points, 5 assists, 1 board, and 1 steal. He turned it over 3 times. He shot 8 of 11 and 5 of 7 from the arc.

Graves had 10 points, 5 boards and 3 assists. He shot 4 of 10.

Cornette had 2 points, 9 boards, and 3 assists.

Simon had 7 points, 11 boards, 5 assists, 3 steals, and a block.

Bowers had 6 points. He was 2 of 6 from the arc.

Waters had 2 points and an assist in just 9 minutes.



A tough loss at home, but I'm happy with how my team played against such a good opponent. Of course, we won't have the home crowd to help us in our next game against Washington which should be equally tough.



Hannan didn't get player of the week :( Kilgore from Dartmouth did.



3 recruits want to come to the campus this weekend. I think that is a record for the most that wanted to come at one time for me.








Washington should be a tougher opponent than Arizona was. They have a better overall rating and they are a more balanced team with stars at every position:

PG WC Elder is 6'4 200 pounds and rated 84 overall. He is a 3 point specialist with great speed.

SG Hall Ruffin who probably will come off the bench is arated 86 overall. He is 6'5 205 pounds and is well balanced.

SF Isaac Richardson is 6'5 220 pounds and rated 88 overall. He is an incredibly dynamic dunker. Hopefully, our 1-3-1 can keep him out of the middle. He is a great defender as well. I think he'll start at SG. He also has a very solid mid range jumper.

SF Lennox Myers is 6'7 230 and is rated 90 overall. He is a senior who is a excellent in multiple areas: dunking, defense, shooting from any range, passing, and rebounding. I'd imagine he'll start at SF.

PF Rashod Leadbitter is 6'8 250 pounds and is rated 83 overall. He is a dominant shot blocker with a 92 rating in that area. Also a very solid rebounder and a very athletic player. Interestingly, it looks like they are going small quite a bit as he is only averaging 16 mpg.

C Daon Blue is 6'10 240. He is rated 84 overall. He is a good rebounder who is a very effective post scorer. Excellent passer for a big man who doesn't have many weaknesses. I do think Simon should be able to outmuscle him.

It'll be interesting to see how much they go to their "backup" center who is "only" rated 78 but is much bigger at 7'0 275.

They also have a backup PF who is 6'11 265 and rated 76. In fact their entire bench is rated 75 or better in overall rating.

I'll play that game tomorrow.

I can imagine how annoying that was for you and how annoying it will be for me if it happens. I really think that is how this team is going to play out. I doubt any of our conference opponents are going to beat us. As far as our out of conference schedule, the only other tough games we have after Washington are George Washington who was on our schedule outside of this tourney,


Here is a look at our schedule with overall team rating as of this moment:

Nov 19th Washington 92
Nov 23rd AT Princeton 72
Nov 29th New Hampshire 65
Dec 5th AT Siena 81 (1st of 2 conference games)
Dec 7th Marist 81
Dec 20th Bucknell 75
Dec 26th GW 82
Dec 29th Columbia 78
Jan 1st AT UCSB 79
Jan 4th Rider 79 (start of the rest of conference schedule)
Jan 6th Siena 81
Jan 9th at Loyola 80
Jan 11th at Saint Peter's 79
Jan 15th Manhattan 76
Jan 19th Saint Peter's 79
Jan 22nd at Canisus 76
Jan 25th at Marist 81
Jan 31st Iona 76
Feb 2nd Fairfield 81
Feb 6th at Fairfield 81
Feb 8th at Iona 76
Feb 14th Canisus 76
Feb 16 at Manhattan 76

I'll be disappointed if this team goes into the tourney with more than 5 losses. I expect us to finish with a record around 24-3 at the end of the regular season before the conference tourney and hopefully be ranked somewhere in the top 25. This team has played too well these first 3 games to expect anything less now :)

Obviously it's early, but here are the top 10 scorers 3 or 4 games into it:

USC G Spencer Acker who is now up to 31 ppg.
SCU PF Jean Al-Sayyad who is averaging 27.3 ppg.
Niagara SF T.J. Hannan with 27 ppg
SMU SG Marques McKnight with 27 ppg
GWU Center Donnell Gastel with 26.3 ppg
La Salle C Derrick Amerson with 26 ppg
Georgia Tech C Jon Paul Timba with 26 ppg
Texas Tech SG Andry Teague with 25.7 ppg
Northeastern SG Seth Gansey with 25 ppg
Baylor PG Mose Andrews with 24.7 ppg

3 centers, 1 PF, 1 SF, 5 guards. Not too bad of a split. Certainly better than previous versions.

I'm expecting Washington to blow us out. Besides their insane talent level, they have a 76 team unity!

First play of the game, Hannan draws a foul on their star SF. A minute later Hannan hits an NBA 3.

However, they score the next 10 points including stripping Hannan once and Everett once.

At the 15 minute mark: We are down 10-5.

Right after that, Hannan with a steal and a breakaway slam dunk. 10-7.

Hannan is starting to dunk more! He dunks again 2 possessions later on another breakaway. They respond with a 6-0 run.

12 minute mark: 19-13, they lead.

With 11 minutes to go, Hannan hurts his knee trying to block a shot :(


Down 24-16 with 10 minutes to go.


A few minutes our doctors clear Hannan to return to the game.. whew! :)

With 6 minutes to go, they have a 34-22 lead. Hannan still isn't quite ready to return and all of my starters are on the bench except for Simon.

With 5 minutes to go, we get all of our starters back into the game.

Hannan is moving noticably slower with the sore knee. He misses his first 2 3's.

Myers is also hitting even more shots as we are slower to get to him.

Hannan picks up his 2nd foul and hasn't scored at all in the last 4 minutes or made any positive plays since coming back into the game.

Finally in the last minute of the half, Hannan pulls off an explosive move off a screen and draws a foul. He misses both FT's.


We go into halftime down 54-33.

Myers is the player of the half with 20 points, 3 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, and a block.

Hannan was doing well before his injury. All of these stats were in his first 9 minutes before the injury: 9 points, 3 boards, 2 steals, and an assist. He was 4 of 9 before the injury. Now, he is 4 of 13 and 1 of 8 from the arc and 0 of 2 from the line. Still, he leads our team in scoring.

I'll see if he can get it going for a few minutes in the 2nd half, but otherwise we'll go to non-injured players to see if they can do better.


We are failing to make any progress on this lead as they continue to score at an impressive clip. 74-51 with 12 minutes to go and I'm taking my starters out possibly for good.

Due to fatigue among my reserves, I put my starters (except for Hannan) back in with 4 minutes to go. We are down 89-66.


We lose the game 95-76.

Meyers was the player of the game. 26 points, 8 boards, 5 assists, 2 blocks, and 2 steals.


Everett led us with 14 points, 7 assists, 1 board, and 0 turnovers. He shot 5 of 10, 2 of 5, and 2 of 2.

Graves had 14 points, 2 assists, and a steal. hE shot 5 of 12.

Hannan had 11 points, 3 boards, 2 assists, and 2 steals. He shot 5 of 16, 1 of 10, and 0 of 2.

Cornette had 2 points and 5 boards.

Simon had 12 points, 6 boards, and a block.

Collins had 9 points off the bench on 3 of 3 shooting, 1 of 1 from the arc, and 2 of 2 from the line.


Now, we have to play a consolation game against Youngstown State which was the other final 4 team. Why couldn't we have drawn them and made it to the final? They are rated 67 overall in team talent and should be easy to blowout.

Hannan has a mildly sprained knee. He'll be able to play but he'll be less than 100% for 1-2 weeks. Fortunately, I don't think this game has exacerabation of existing injuries.

I probably won't play that game until Friday.

Thanks for the info. Definitely better than previous version. Usually, my SG or SF would be the only non-big in the Top 15.

We are expected to blow out the Youngstown State Penguins today. Today, we'll be trying out our 3-2 defense that we have been working on the last few weeks.

A slow start early and we are down 4-2 in the first 3 minutes.

At the 15 minute mark, we are down 9-6.

Up 15-14 at the 10 minute mark.

Down 25-21 at the 5 minute mark!

Down 33-31 at the half. They are shooting the 3 ball remarkably well, at least their SG is.

We are 0 of 9 from the arc as a team.

Feeney, their SG, is the player of the half with 12 points all on 3's. He is 4 of 8 from the arc.

Cornette leads our team in scoring with 7. Simon has 12 boards at the half.



Tied at 40 with 15 minutes to go. So much for our blowout.

Down 49-47 with 10 minutes to go.

We tie it at 52 with 7:20 to go, but Freeney hits a 3. A minute later we tie it at 55.

With 6:20 to go, a rested but hobbled Hannan and a rested Graves come back into the game to try to finish this off. They will play with our subs.

After a Hannan rebound, Waters comes off a pick and roll drives into the lane and finds an open Bogans for a 12 foot jumper which he makes! 57-55.

They score an interior basket, and then Graves responds with a driving layup. 59-57. Feeney with a 16 footer to tie it. A few misses. Tied at 59 with 2:40 to go and we get our starters back into the game.

After a miss by Graves, Feeney hits a 3 at the other end. 62-59. 2 minutes left.

Simon with a miss of an easy dunk and they get a layup at the other end.

Hannan has it stolen, but we steal it back and Graves hits a quick 3 in the corner. 64-62. 56 seconds left.

Feeney shoots a quick 3 and swishes it. 67-62.

Graves misses a 3. We have to foul.

They hit their 1st, miss the 2nd, but get the offensive board. They make the next 2 FT's to make it 70-62.

Everett misses a 3 and we foul, but I know it is over. Very disappointing loss.

We lose 71-62.


Feeney is the player of the game with 30 points, 6 boards, 2 assists, and 2 steals. The 6'5 sophomore guard was highlighted as a player to watch, but he was a 63 overall and I didn't think he could do that kind of damage. He is a good 3 point shooter with a 75 rating and he killed us outside the arc tonight. He was 8 of 13 from the arc and 10 of 15 overall.

Graves led us with 17 points, 2 boards, and 1 steal. He felt the pressure of being the main scorer and only shot 6 of 18, 3 of 8, and 2 of 2.

Everett had 6 points, 5 assists, and 3 steals. He shot 2 of 8.

Hannan had 4 points, 6 boards, and 2 assists. He turned it over 3 times. He isn't the same player without his explosive first step and speed.

Cornette had 12 points, 10 boards, and 1 steal.

Simon had 3 points on 1 of 9 shooting. He also had 15 boards, 4 assists, and 2 blocks.


Our next game is at Princeton in what should be an easy win, but after this game, I'm not so sure. We are going to go back to a M2M defense and see if that works for mostly inferior opponents the rest of the way. Princeton is 1-2. I'll play that tomorrow.

We are thriving playing M2M defense against this slower, smaller team. 12-4 at the 15 minute mark.

Hannan is struggling, but Everett and Graves are playing great. Up 20-10 at the 10 minute mark.

During the first 3 minutes our subs are out there, they go on a 9-0 run to make it 20-19.

Bowers with a breakaway layup to end the run.

Up 25-21 at the 5 minute mark.


We enter halftime up 31-29. Apparently, our offense needs a healthy Hannan to really click, or our offense was a fluke those first few games...


We are shooting 35% so far.

Everett is the player of the half. He has 11 points, 2 assists, 1 board, 1 steal. He is shooting 4 of 6, 2 of 4 from the arc. Graves has 8 on 3 of 11 shooting.


Simon picks up an early 3rd foul.

3 minutes into the 2nd half, Simon picks up a 4th. We'll bring in Adams for a few minutes at least.


Up 43-37 at the 15 minute mark.

An 18-0 run ends with us having a 57-39 lead.

We are up 60-45 with 5 minutes to go.

We get Simon back into the game to try to end the run they are on.

3:20 left, they close within 60-49, we get our other starters back into the game.



A quick scoring burst finishes it off. 73-53, we win.




Graves is the player of the game.

29 points, 3 assists, 2 boards, 2 steals. He shot 11 of 21, 5 of 11, and 2 of 3.

Everett had 19 points, 5 assists, 2 boards, and a steal. He had 1 turnover. He shot 7 of 12, 4 of 9, and 1 of 2.

Hannan had 5 points, 7 assists, and 1 board. He shot 2 of 12 including 1 of 7 from the arc. No lift on his shots right now and no explosion. At least he should be healthy in a week or so.

Cornette with 6 points, 7 boards, and 3 steals.

Simon with 2 points, 16 boards, and 2 assists in just 25 minutes.

Adams with 5 points and 5 boards in his 17 minutes off the bench.

Bowers was 0 of 4 from the arc and 1 of 6 overall. He had 2 points.





Our next team is a 1-5 New Hampshire squad that has an overall team talent level of 65. I expect a blowout, especially at home, but I've been surprised recently..

Hannan is almost 100% and maybe it is helping his offense, or maybe it's just dumb luck, but he is finally making some shots. Or maybe, it is the home crowd and that is helping his confidence..


We are up 14-8 at the 12 minute mark. Graves, Hannan, and Cornette are all tired and leave the game.

Collins drills his first 3 off the bench.. I think it is the home crowd. Collins with a steal and powerful breakaway slam dunk.

Bowers who was ice cold the last few games, drills his first 3.

Up 31-13 with 5:30 to go in the game.

We are up 44-21 at the half.

The entire team is shooting much better at home.

Hannan is the player of the half. 11 points, 3 boards, and 2 assists despite his injury which makes me wonder if he is going to be bad on the road once he is healthy. He is shooting 4 of 8, 2 of 4 from the arc.

Simon with 10 points and 7 boards! That is his best shooting percentage ever. I've been telling him to work on his inside scoring and if he could develop any kind of touch around the basket, he'd be incredible.

Incredible defense to start the 2nd half. We hold them scoreless for the first 10 minutes with our starters in the game. 60-21 at the 10 minute mark. I pull my starters at that point.

They score immediately against my bench players.

We win the game 80-36.

Graves is the player of the game. 16 points and 5 boards. He shot 5 of 13, 2 of 6, and 4 of 4.

Everett with 2 points, 6 assists, and 2 steals. He shot 1 of 2.

Hannan finished with 11 points, 4 boards, 3 assists, and 2 steals. He shot 4 of 12, 2 of 6, and 1 of 2.

Cornette with 2 points, 7 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, and a block.

Simon with 14 points, 18 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, and a block. He shot 7 of 10.

Waters with 11 points and 4 assists in 16 minutes.

Collins with 12 points in 19 minutes. He shot 5 of 10.

Bowers with 10 points and 4 boards. He shot 4 of 6, 2 of 4 from the arc. He played 17 minutes.


The early signing period has started and apparently I aimed too high. I went after a local 4 star SF from Ithaca NY. However, he has signed with Pitt. I also went after a 4 star SG from Niagara Falls who I thought we had a legitimate shot at. However, he signed with Arkansas.


Worse, my 3rd target who was abackup from Toronto, a very good shooting 3 star SG signed with Virginia Tech.


My best lead is a guy I was pursuing as long shot - Lee Lidzius is a 4 star PG from Connecticut who is a Mr. Basketball for the state. Recruiting a Mr. Basketball from a state is a goal that I didn't list because I didn't think it was possible anytime soon, however, we are 1st on his list right now! 2nd is Villanova. Maryland and Duke are also on his list but far behind us at the moment. We immediately offer him a scholarship and a visit to the campus...


Our next game is at Siena, in our first of those 2 early conference games. They are 3-4. They are rated 81 in overall talent and should be a good challenge on the road. Still, with Hannan healthy, I like our chances.

Hannan has his explosion back! He easily beats his man with a spin move on his first touch and drives to the hole for a foul. He hasn't done that since the injury.

Up 15-11 at the 10 minute mark. Hannan has 8. Graves, Hannan, and Cornette need a break. We go to Ortiz, Collins, and Bowers.

We are down 31-27 at the half.

Hannan is our only player who is consistently scoring. Hannan has 12, 2 boards, 2 assists, and a steal. I can tell he is back. His shot just looks better.

However, Graves is 0 of 4. Everett is 0 of 3. Cornette is 1 of 6. Simon is 2 of 4 and we'll go to him more in the 2nd half.


Larson, their SF, is the player of the half. He has 9 points, 2 boards, and an assist.


Down 41-40 with 12 minutes to go. All of my starters except Simon need a break.

Down 51-46 with 6:40 left. I get all of my starters except for Hannan back into the game. He is still a bit tired and Collins is on fire from the arc right now..

Collins with another 3 to make it 51-49. Collins has 12 points.

After they hit a 2, Collins with another 3! 53-52.

With 3:37 left, Collins is tired and has missed his last 2 3's. We bring Hannan back into the game. We are up 59-55 thanks to a Graves' 3.

Hannan comes in and drills a 3! 62-57.

A 3 by Graves and then a steal and layup by Everett gives us a 67-57 lead.

We exchange baskets and we are up 69-59 with 1:30 left.

With us leading 72-64, they start intentionally fouling.

We end up winning 78-69. Nice road victory.


Hannan was the player of the game. 21 points, 4 boards, 4 assists, and 2 steals. He shot 8 of 10, 4 of 6, and 1 of 2. I guess it was the injury holding him back as he just had his best shooting game of his career on the road :)

Everett had 8 points, 5 assists, and 2 steals.

Graves had 18 points, 3 boards, 3 asssits, and a steal. He shot 5 of 10, 2 of 5, and 6 of 6.

Cornette had 2 points, 8 boards, 2 assists, and a blocks.

Simon had 7 points, 14 boards, 4 assists. He shot 3 of 8.

Collins had 17 points off the bench. He shot 5 of 9 from the arc. He also hit 2 of 2 free throws.

Our next game is at home against the strongest team in the conference ratings wise. Marist is rated 82 in overall talent. They are 7-1 and shooting an impressive 42% as a team behind the arc. Their overall shooting ability is rated at a 90!

I'll play that later tonight if I'm not too tired after the Final 4 or tomorrow.

An update on the statistical leaders on our team:

That long spell of injury plagued low scoring brought Hannan's scoring average down to 17.8 which is now not even in the top 50 overall. It's 2nd in the MAAC behind Mark Hazel of Manhattan. The center is scoring 19.4 per game.

Graves is 5th in the MAAC at 16.8 per game.

Simon is 1st in the MAAC in rebounding by a huge margin at 15.7 per game. That is also good for 1st in the NCAA. 2nd is SIU's center who is averaging 13.2 per game.

Everett is 4th in assists in the MAAC at 5.4 per game.

Manhattan's Zack Holman is 1st at 6.5.

Simon's 1.4 blocks per game is 5th in the MAAC.

Simon's 32.3 mpg is 2nd in the MAAC.

Collins is 9th in the MAAC in 3 point percentage at 41%.

We are 6-3 and we host 7-1 Marist. In what should be a very good matchup, their star is their SF Glenn Christian. He is 6'6 and only 212 so Hannan will have some size on him. However, Glenn is a highly skilled player with an 80 overall rating. He is very fast and is a good defender who should be able to keep in front of Hannan. However, will he be able to match his strength? He is very fast and is a tremendous dunker and finisher. He is also a very good shooter.

They also have a PG with elite speed that will be a tough matchup in Jacob Shavies. Shavies is a senior who I will be glad to not have to face in the future. Besides being incredibly fast, he is a great passer and a good shooter.

Freshman PF Dustin Sweeney is undersized at 6'8 200 pounds but he is a good shooter who can scorer inside or out. However, Cornette and Simon should push him around inside. Their center is undersized at 6'9 220 and I expect Simon to take advantage of that.

Up 12-9 at the 15 minute mark. Graves has been providing almost all of our early scoring.

13:29 and Graves is exhausted. He has scored 10 already. Ortiz comes in for him.

Hannan hits our next 3 shots in a row - all 3's.

Hannan is double teamed, he sets up Cornette for a 3. Hannan with another 3 off a screen. However, they are keeping pace. 32-26.

Hannan is on fire. He is tired, but he is hitting every shot, so we keep him in the game..


We are up 42-36 with 5 minutes left in the half.


We enter halftime up 48-44.

Hannan is the player of the half with 21 points and 1 assist. He is 7 of 11, 5 of 7, and 2 of 3 so far.

Graves has 11, Cornette and Simon each have 6.




Everett gets an early 3rd foul on Shavies.


Tied at 56 at the 15 minute mark. Hannan is resting already after playing the entire 1st half. Graves is leading our scoring while Hannan is resting.

At the 12 minute mark, we are up 70-59 after a 12-0 run. Hannan comes back into the game well rested.

Up 77-68 with 6 minutes to go. My starters except for Hannan get a breather.

They close within 6, but then Hannan hits a 3 with 4 minutes left to make the lead 80-71.

Graves and Hannan were both scoring on every possession down the stretch. They took turns with Everett setting them both up.



We win 94-77.




Hannan was the player of the game. 35 points, 2 boards, 2 assists, and 2 stealls. He shot 12 of 19, 8 of 12, and 3 of 5.

Graves had 26 points, 5 boards, and 2 steals. He shot 10 of 19, 5 of 10, and 1 of 2.

Everett had 4 points, 3 boards, 10 assists, and 3 steals. He did turn it over 6 times. He shot 1 of 5 including 1 of 4 from the arc.

Cornette had 10 points, 10 boards, 5 assists, 3 steals, and a block. He shot 2 of 6, 2 of 4 from the arc, and 4 of 4 from the line.

Simon had 8 points, 15 boards, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 3 turnovers. He shot 4 of 6.

Collins had 7 points on 3 of 5 shooting.




We are now 7-3.


The early signing period is over. We aren't even close to getting Lee Lidzius to signing with us, but we are his favorite school right now. Maryland is his 2nd school, Syracuse is 3rd, and Duke is 4th. We are the only school to offer a scholarship so far.


A week later and Syracuse and Maryland have both offered him a scholarship.. it will be tough to hold them off. I doubt I will remain his #1 choice all year long.



Our next game is against 5-3 Bucknell. They are close to us in talent, but at home I think we should win comfortably. I'll play that tomorrow.

Hannan is again the highlighted player to watch by the announcers.

Simon has 5 inches and 60 pounds on Bucknell's starting center.


We are tied at 8 at the 15 minute mark, but we are getting them into early foul trouble, particularly Simon.

At the 13 minute mark, Hannan gets a 2nd foul on their star SF.

At 11 minute mark, we are up 18-12. Hannan, Everett, and Cornette need a few minutes of rest. We put in Collins, Waters, and Bowers.

For the next 6 minutes, that group continues our long great defensive run. We have them on a 14-0 run. 27-12.

At 5:45 Graves leaves and the rest of the starters come back into the game.

With 4:39 to go, they end the run. 27-14.


At the half, we are up 36-23.

Hannan is the player of the half with 11 points, 1 rebound, and 1 stea. He has shot 3 of 6, 0 of 3, and 5 of 7.


Up 45-31 at the 15 minute mark.


12 minutes left: Graves, Hannan, and Simon all need a break. We bring in Collins, Bowers, and Adams. We are up 55-39.

We are up 64-49 with 5 minutes to go.


We are getting sloppy... 3:36 to go and they have closed within 10, 66-56.

Graves comes off a double screen and makes a strong drive to the hoop.. he gets crushed by their center and he is hurt!

Hannan takes care of it by scoring a few baskets down the stretch and we win 74-61.


Hannan is the player of the game. 21 points, 3 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 3 turnovers. He shot 7 of 13, 0 of 5, and 7 of 10.

Everett had 13 points, 7 assists, 2 steals, and 2 turnovers. He shot 5 of 8.

Graves had 11 points, 2 boards, and an assist. He shot 4 of 12.

Cornette had 4 points and 3 boards. He shot 2 of 8.

Simon had 6 points, 22 boards, and a block.

Snow had 4 points.

Collins had 5 points and 2 assiss.

Bowers had 7 points and 3 boards. He shot 3 of 6 and 1 of 3 from the arc.


After the game, we get the news on Graves, he has suffered a pulled Quad, but he can continue to play. He'll be less than 100% for about 2-3 weeks.



We aren't even in the Mid-Major Poll, yet.


Time to look at some leader's in the NCAA now that we are about a 1/3 of the way through the season:

Scoring Leaders:

1. C Henry Jefferson, SMU 28.1 ppg
2. SG Andry Teague, Texas Tech 25.9 ppg
3. PG Spencer Acker, USC 25.8 ppg
4. C Chip Carbaugh, Columbia (who we play soon) 25.6 ppg
5. C Ted Vega, Iowa 25.1 ppg
6. C Trent Redick, CCSU 24 ppg
7. C Laforest Ali, Texas 23.6 ppg
8. C Jonas Minoff, Cleveland State 23.4 ppg
9. C Derrick Amerson, La Salle 23.3 ppg
10. SF Chris Haywood, Cal 22.9 ppg

Looks like the centers are starting to dominate the top 10. Also, most of the next 10 are centers with only 2 SG's thrown in.

Hannan is 32nd in the nation at 19.6 ppg.



Rebounders:

1. C Deshaun Simon 16.2
2. SF Cordero Havens, Tenn Tech 13.8
3. PF Bud Burnett, SIU 11.2
4. C Aaron Bradley, Illinois State 11
5. PF Neil Prillman, Western Carolina 10.9

Assists:

1. Acie Poole, Idaho 7.2
2. Nehemiah Krager, Cal 6.9
3. Gus Schneider, Florida A&M 6.7
4. Brice Lewis, Oregon 6.5
5. 5 tied at 6.4


Everett is 18th at 6 even.


Steals:

1. PG Dwyane Swain, Okst 2.9
2. PG Jacques Batte, Ind 2.7
3. PG Hilton Bouldin, CofC 2.6
4. SG Ervin Perry, Chat 2.5
5. 5 tied at 2.4 including a player from Nicholls State

Blocks:

1. SG Reynold Hull, USC 3.1 (former #1 overall H.S. player is 6'8 and has 85 rating in blocks) Probably won't stay past this year which is his sophomore year.
2. C Darrian Owen, Western Kentucky 2.9
3. C Henry Jefferson, SMU 2.9
4. PF W.B. Barrett 2.8
5. 5 Tied at 2.7


Our next opponent is George Washington at home. They have fallen to 5-4. We beat them in the Pre-Season NIT but that was when we were at full strength. I think they will be tough with a hobbled Graves. Everyone else will have to step up. Graves will start despite the injury, but I'll pull him early if he is ineffective.

Snow is really upset about his PT. Graves is ineffective without his speed or his lift on his shot. We are up 9-7 at the 15 minute mark thanks to Hannan but Graves is giving us nothing. I bring in Snow for him.

It was close until Hannan and Cornette combined on a few effective traps from our full court press to create 3 turnovers in a row which each led to Hannan dunks.

12 minute mark: 21-11.

Hannan needs a break 9 minutes into the game. He's played brilliantly though and we have a 23-13 lead.

Up 38-25 with 6 minutes to go. Everett has been our main scorer but he needs a break now. Hannan is ready to come back though.


At the half, we are up 49-40.

Hannan is the player of the half with 19 points, 2 boards, and a steal.

Cornette has 3 steals with Hannan's help on those traps.

Everett has 13 points at the half along with 3 assists.


Graves has only played 6 minutes and is 0 of 5. I think that he'll sit most of the 2nd half and probably won't play in any further games until he is healed. Without his speed and explosiveness, he isn't a very effective player and we have so much depth at the position that I'll probably start Collins and use Snow more off the bench.



No! Hannan hurts his knee in a collision within the 1st minute of the 2nd half :(

Whew. 5 minutes later, he is cleared. Just a minor injury.

We are up 54-42 at the 14 minute mark, when he comes back. Let's see if he can still be effective. Graves was in when Hannan was out and Graves missed every shot..

Hannan's shot is off now, but he still seems to have good speed.

Up 59-49 at the 10 minute mark. We bring in our subs as our starters need a breather.

They cut the lead to 2 with a 8-0 run before Snow hits a 3.

When they cut it back to 3, Bowers drills a 3.

We are up 66-61 with 5 minutes left. With a 68-61 lead, and 4 minutes to go, we get our starters back into the game.

With 1:28 to go, they hit a 3 to make it 69-66, we lead.


They steal a pass into the post and come down to the other end and hit another 3 to tie it.

Everett comes off a quick screen and drives into the lane and gets fouled. He hits both FT's. 71-69. 50 seconds left.


Simon fouls their PF down in the post. He makes both FT's to tie it.


We run our play that calls for Hannan to get it in the post.. they double him and he kicks it out to Everett who hits a 3 before his man can get to him. 74-71. 25 seconds left.

Simon steals an interior pass. They foul him. He isn't a good FT shooter, but he makes the 1st.. and misses the 2nd. Hannan steals their pass!

They foul him immediately. Hannan is also a poor FT shooter and he misses them both.

They quickly pass it up the court.. shoot a quick 3 which they miss. Cornette with the board. He dribbles past a man and runs out the last few seconds. We win 75-71!


Hannan is the player of the game, but I would have given it to Everett for that last shot as well as his overall game.

Hannan finished with 22 points, 2 boards, 2 assists, and 3 steals. He shot 8 of 22, 0 of 8, and 6 of 11 with the majority of his misses coming post injury. Do I try to rest him like I want to rest Graves?

Everett had 20 points, 5 assists, 2 boards, 2 steals, and 1 turnover. Everett was 6 of 8, 4 of 5 from the arc, and 4 of 5 from the line.

Graves has 0 points, 0 boards, and 1 steal. He was 0 of 7.

Cornette had 6 points, 9 boards, 4 assists, 4 steals, and 2 blocks.

Simon had 5 points, 14 boards, 2 assist, 1 steal, and 1 block.

Snow finished with 12 points on 4 of 9 shooting, all from behind the arc.

Waters had 3 assists.

Colins had 7 points.

Adams had 5 boards and a block.

Bowers had 3 points and 3 boards. He was 1 of 4.



After the game, the doctors give me excellent news! Hannan's injury is really just a mild bruise! He should be 100% within 2 days which is before our next game!

Graves will miss about 7-10 days more with his pulled quad and we have 3 games next week that I'll have him sit on the bench and will only play him if other guys get injured or are completely ineffective..


We are now 9-3. Our next opponent is 6-6 Columbia. They have become the class of the Ivy league and have an overall talent level that is equal to ours. Their strength is their forwards and center. Chip Carbaugh is a senior 6'11 250 pound center who is rated 81 overall who should be a big challenge for Simon. He is averaging 25.4 ppg and he can score with a variety of post moves.

Felipe Bernard is their next best player. The 6'7 225 pound SF will be a good matchup for Hannan as he is also fast and strong. He is rated 78 overall. He is a weak defender though, so I expect Hannan to have a big game.

PF Ike Holt is rated 76 overall and he is their main 3 point threat. He is 6'9 230 and he can shoot the 3 as well as anyone on my team outside of Snow.

Their guards are weak, slow, and can't shoot, so we should have a huge advantage at those positions. I'll play this game a bit later today.

Can't believe I didn't follow this all along. Great read. I just wish the controls in CH were the same as NBA.

We are up 9-5 at the 15 minute mark. Hannan has 7 of our points on a 3 and 2 midrange jump shots. Carbaugh has all of their points.

Tied at 11 at the 10 minute mark. Collins and Hannan need a break. Snow and Bowers will come in for them.


I accidently put Graves in with 2:30 to go in the half.. he makes a basket on fastbreak and has a rebound in the limited PT so I might use him a bit more in the 2nd half.

We are up 29-27 at the half.


Hannan is the player of the half. He has 13 points, 1 board, 1 steal, and 1 turnover. He is shooting 5 of 13, 2 of 4, and 1 of 2.

A 14-0 run from the 12 minute to 8 minute mark gives them a 52-43 lead before Snow hits a 2 to end it. 52-45 with 7:45 to go.

They pounded it inside to Carbaugh during that run.

Down 56-47 with 6:15 to go, I get Hannan back into the game.

First touch he draws a foul and goes to the line. Unfortunately, he misses the first but hits the second.

They hit 2 3's to stretch the lead further. Hannan misses a 3 as does Bower.

With 3:11 to go, Bowers with a 2 to cut it to 61-52.

After a Bowers block, Everett sets Snow up for a clean shot.. unfortunately his foot was on the line. 61-54.

Everett with a steal and the home crowd is going wild, but he passes to Snow who has shot blocked..

After they hit a quick 2. We come down the other end.. Hannan with a quick 3.. which is blocked! First time someone has blocked one of his shots this year.

Hannan comes off a screen our next possession to get a layup. 63-56. We intentionally foul their center who misses both FT's.

Collins misses a good open 3. They get the rebound and we have to foul. They make them both.

Hannan hits a quick 3. 65-59. 38 seconds left. We foul immediately.

Hannan misses a 3 and it is over. An unexpected and disappointing loss.

They end up winning 72-59.


Carbaugh their star center was the player of the game. He had 24 points, 15 boards, 3 assists, and 3 blocks. He shot 7 of 17, 1 of 1, and 9 of 10.

Bernard, their star SF, wasn't slowed down by Hannan. He had 24 points, 2 boards, 2 assists, and a block. Bernard was 9 of 14 and 6 of 8 from the arc.



Hannan led us with 26 points, 2 boards, 2 assists, and 2 steals. He shot 10 of 25, 3 of 11, and 3 of 7.

Everett had 3 points and 3 assists.

Collins had 2 points and 3 boards as he seemed to struggle in the starting role..

Cornette had 2 points, 3 boards, and 3 assists. He was 1 of 6.

Simon had 8 points, 18 boards, and 1 block.

Snow had 14 points off the bench.




Our next game is against a banged up UCSB who has their best 2 players dinged up a bit. They are a guard heavy team with great speed. They will be one of the more athletic teams that we will face all year long and one of the few that can run with us. I'll play that later this week.

Thanks. There is an alternate control scheme for College Hoops that makes the control scheme very similar to NBA 2k8. However, I agree that I'd prefer the default controls be similar as I never used the maximum passing and I prefer the NBA control scheme.

UCSB jumps to a big lead. 14-7 at the 15 minute mark.

21-7 at the 12 minute mark as they are on a 12-0 run.

We get in our subs. I also tell our guys to slow down our pace on both ends.. try to play much more deliberate. They run too well to play this uptempo pace.

Bowers hits 2 3's to end their run and then we begin pounding it inside to Simon. Better defense on their 3 point shooters, and we are working our way back into it..

They are up 28-24 with 6:45 to go.


From the 5 minute mark to the 3 minute mark, Hannan with a personal 6-0 run to tie it at 33.


We go into halftime down 40-39.


Ramlow, their SG, is the player of the half with 12 points, all on 3's.

Simon leads us with 11. Hannan has 10.



Hannan comes out on fire in the 2nd half. He hits a 3.. and another. He hits a 2, he blocks a shot, he has a breakaway dunk. He builds a 10 point lead. They start doubling him and he cools off, but we continue to have the 10 point lead throughout the 2nd half.

10 minutes left. We lead 62-52. Our starters all get a breather.

With 6:04 to go, they tie it at 65. Our starters are still a bit tired, particularly Hannan, but we get them back in.

Everett with a blocked shot that starts a Hannan breakaway.. he is fouled but still muscles it in! He converts the FT for 3.

Hannan off a screen draws a foul on a 15 foot fadeaway jumper.. this doesn't go in, but he gets 2 FT's. He makes them both.

They make the next 2 baskets to make it 70-69.

We go down inside to Cornette who draws a foul in the post. He hits 1 of 2. They get an interior basket to tie it at 71.

Everett is fouled on the perimenter and he goes to the line for 2. He makes them both.

Hannan fouls their SF on a 3 point attempt :( Fortunately, he misses 1 of 3. Tied at 73. 2 minutes left.


Everett finds Hannan alone in the corner after he comes off a screen.. Hannan drills the 3! 76-73.

A Simon block sets up the fast break.. Collins and Hannan with a 2 on 1 fast break.. Collins to Hannan for a dunk!

They come down and get a quick 2. 78-75. 53 seconds left.

Collins misses the shot with 2 seconds left on the shot clock, but Cornette with an offensive board. He quickly passes it to Hannan who is fouled.

Hannan makes both FT's to make it 80-75 with 14 seconds left.



They miss a 3, they foul the rebounder, Hannan, who makes 1 more FT, and we win it 81-75.



Hannan is the player of the game with 37 points, 3 boards, 3 assists, and a block. He shot 11 of 19, 6 of 11, and 9 of 10.


Everett had 6 points, 3 assists, and 3 steals. He also had 4 turnovers. He shot 2 of 7.

Collins had 15 points and an assist.

Cornette had 3 points, 6 boards, 3 assists, and 3 steals.

Simon had 11 points, 6 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks.

Bowers had 9 points on 3 of 4 shooting from the arc.



Our next game is hosting 8-5 Rider who is an even match for us without Graves. This will be our last game before Graves should be 100%. They are a defensively oriented team now with skill inside. I'll play that later this week.

Rider's best player over the last few weeks has been their PF and he is the highlighted player. Bennet Nicholas 6'10 245 and skilled. He'll be a tough matchup for Cornette.


Not a good start as their SF hits 2 3's and they start off the game 8-0.

However, we slowly chip away at the lead. Hannan, Everett, and Simon help us close the gap. At the 12 minute mark, we are down 16-15.


Down 29-23 at the 5 minute mark as they had a 9-0 run.

We enter halftime down 35-27. A bad last 7 minutes.

Lawrence, their SF, is the player of the half with 10 points.


Hannan leads our team with 7 points and 2 boards. He needs to be much more active in the 2nd half.


With 11:56 to go, Hannan hits 2 FT's to tie the game at 41. A big run by our team, but now our starters are tiring.

Hannan will get a breather while the rest of the starters try to keep this surge going, we are on a 8-0 run right now.

Our next possession, Cornette with a jump hook in the post to give us the lead!

Our next possession, Everett has it knocked away from him with 4 seconds left.. he recovers with 2 seconds left and heaves a desperation 3 from way outside the arc that rattles in! 46-41!

With 7:22 to go, they score a basket to end our run and on their next possession a 3 ties it at 46.

I get Everett a quick rest and bring Hannan back into the game.


Hannan misses his first layup, but he hits his next two. We are tied at 50 with 3 minutes to go. I get Everett back into the game and bring in Snow for some spot up 3 point shooting..

Hannan with a ball fake and he spins into the lane and hits a little 6 footer. 52-50.

Hannan with good defense on their SF who misses a 3.

Everett with a 3 off a screen. 55-50.

They miss a 3 from their SG.

Hannan down in the post.. he passes to Cornette who passes it to Everett in the corner.. Everett drills the 3! 58-50.

They hit a 3. Everett to Hannan for a 12 footer. 60-53. 1 minute left.

They miss a quick 3. Now, they are intentionally fouling. Everett hits both FT's. They miss a 3. They let the clock run out.


We win 62-53.

Hannan is the player of the game. 21 points, 3 boards, and 1 assist. 9 of 17, 1 of 3, and 2 of 5 shooting.

Everett finished with 18 points, 4 assists, 1 board, and 1 steal. He shot 6 of 13, 4 of 10, and 2 of 2.

Collins had 5 points and 4 boards. He was 1 of 6.

Cornette had 6 points, 11 boards, and 2 assists.

After a slow first half, Simon finished with 6 points, 16 boards, and a block.

Waters, Adams, and Bowers each had 2 points.




After the game, Jerome Adams (who is getting about 12 minutes per game) and Reyshawn Ortiz (5-10 minutes per game) tell me they are unhappy with their lack of PT. Snow is also unhappy :(


Graves is completely healthy and will immediately return to the starting lineup.

Our next opponent is Siena. They are 6-7, but they are a talented team with an overall rating of 81 now that they have guys back healthy.

I'll play that game tomorrow.

The announcers highlight Everett as the player to watch this game. I expect a big game with all of his weapons back to pass the ball to.

We are up 10-6 at the 15 minute mark. Graves has come back on FIRE! 8 points so far.

At the 11 minute mark, we are up 16-12. Graves and Hannan need a quick rest. We get Collins and Bowers into the game.

At the 9 minute mark, Simon picks up his 3rd foul of the game. He'll sit the rest of the 1st half as we'll turn to Adams.

With 7:20 to go, and against all of my subs, they hit a 3 that gives them a 22-20 lead.

With 6 minutes to go, we get Hannan back into the game. We are down 24-20.

Hannan misses a dunk and then his man comes down and hits a 3.

Their 18-0 run continues as they go up 32-20. We get all of our starters except for Simon back into the game.. 3 minutes left in the half.

After a missed basket, Hannan sets up Graves in the corner for a 3. 34-23.

We go into halftime down 41-31.

Kennedy gets named player of the half since their team is leading. The backup SF, has 10 points, 2 boards, and 2 assists. He is 3 of 3 from the arc.

Graves leads our team with 19 points and 1 offensive board which was a putback dunk. He is 7 of 9 from the field and 5 of 5 from the arc.. he needs a huge 2nd half to help pull us back into this..

Hannan is off today.. he is 1 of 8 and has 2 points, 2 assists, and 2 steals.




Simon gets an early 4th foul. We put in Adams.

They start building a huge lead by pounding us inside. It gets to 15. I put Simon back into the game with 16 minutes to go.


With 13 minutes to go, Simon fouls out :(

We are down 58-47.


Graves is ice cold now. Everett, Graves, and Hannan are all exhausted. 10 minutes to go and we are bringing in our subs to try to pull off a comeback.. down 61-49.

Ortiz proves to me why he should be getting more PT, and Snow also provides a few big baskets and they close the gap to 69-65 with 3 minutes to go, but it is time to get our starters back into the game...

Graves misses a wide open 14 footer and I wonder if I should have left Ortiz in the game.

They also put their starters back into the game and they are playing much better. They steal it from Hannan and get a breakaway dunk.

They block an Everett shot and get a breakaway dunk.

Everett misses an open 3 and they get a basket at the other end. With a minute left, we start scoring quickly, but I think it is too late. Still, we foul down the stretch..


We lose 79-70.


Larson, their SF, was player of the game with 19 points, 6 boards, and 3 assists.


Graves went completely cold and had 0 2nd half points. He finished with 19 points, 2 boards, and 4 steals. He shot 7 of 19, 5 of 10 from the arc.

Everett had 11 points, 6 assists, and 5 turnovers.

Hannan had 10 points, 3 boards, 3 assists, and 4 steals. He shot 3 of 12, 1 of 4, and 3 of 3.

Cornette had 5 points and 10 boards.

Simon who only played 13 minutes before fouling out had 2 points, 2 boards, and 1 assist.

Ortiz had 8 points, 3 boards, and 1 assist in just 12 minutes.

Bowers had 6 points and 2 boards in 14 minutes.

Snow had 6 points in 7 minutes.


That loss drops us to 11-5.

Our next game is at 4-9 Loyola (MD.) They are rated 81 in overall talent as well. They are a great 3 point shooting team.

The announcers highlight Hannan as the player to watch and I want him to re-assert himself.

I doubt it is programmed into the game, but my team seems to be fired up after that unexpected home loss.. we are blocking more shots, playing better defense, shooting better, executing better in every phase of the game. In particular, Simon seems to be playing his best ball game ever - almost like he is making up for fouling out early. I know it's just my imagination, but that is cool that this game can realistically immerse me.

We are up 17-2 at the 12 minute mark. Simon already has 6 points, 9 boards, and a block. He also dived for a loose ball.

Up 26-17 at the 5 minue mark as once they ended the run they started scoring prolifically on 3 pointers mostly.


At the half, we are up 36-26.


Simon is the player of the half. 9 points, 14 boards, and a block.

Graves and Hannan also each have 9 points.


With 11:23 to go, we are up 62-48. Everett and Hannan will get a 3-5 minute break depending upon how well we are holding onto our lead.

With 6 minutes to go, we get Everett and Hannan back into the game. We are up 68-54.

40 seconds later, Simon fouls out, but he has had a monster game this time and is a huge reason we have a 16 point lead.


We are able to sustain that lead as Hannan is scoring well down the stretch. 84-69 win.



Hannan is the player of the game: 29 points, 2 assists, 2 steals, and a block. He shot 13 of 19, 3 of 6, and 0 of 0.

Everett had 10 points, 4 assists, and a steal. He shot 4 of 7.

Graves had 15 points, 5 assists, 3 boards, and a block. He shot 6 of 11, 3 of 5, and 0 of 0.

Cornette had 2 points, 5 boards, and an assist.

Simon had 13 points, 21 boards, 1 assist, and 1 block. He shot 6 of 11 and 1 of 3 from the line.

Waters had 1 point and 3 assists.

Adamas had 3 points and 3 boards.

Bowers had 6 points and 2 boards in 12 minutes.

Ortiz had 3 points and 3 boards in 12 minutes.

Collins had 2 points and 2 boards in 12 minutes.



Our next game is at 9-4 Saint Peter's. They are rated 79 in overall talent. I'll play that later today.

I just accidently deleted a long post summarizing my game against Saint Peter's.

We lost 69-63 as Hannan and Graves were both very cold down the stretch. We went 4 minutes without scoring and I think that I should have kept in backup Collins who had 13 points during a stretch that helped keep us in the game.

Cornette led our team in scoring with 15 points, 5 boards, 3 assists, and a block. He shot 6 of 12, 2 of 3, and 1 of 2.

Everett had 6 points, 5 assists, and 3 steals.

Graves had 9 points, 2 boards, and 2 assists. He shot 2 of 12.

Hannan had 9 points, 2 boards, 2 assists, and 2 steals, and a block. He shot 4 of 13, 1 of 5, and 0 of 0.

Simon scored 6 points, 17 boards, 3 assists, and a block.

Collins had 13 points in 16 minutes.

Adams had 4 points and 2 boards in 8 minutes.

Ortiz had 0 points and 1 assist in 14 minutes.



So much for this team racking up 25 wins and dominating conference play. Maybe with a year or two more of seasoning, when all of these kids should be dominant..


We are now 12-6. Our next opponent is at home against 9-7 Manhattan. They are rated 76 overall and should be an easier matchup. I'll play that tomorrow.

Quick pace to start the game against Manhattan, but both sides are missing most of their shots. We are up 7-5 at the 15 minute mark.

We are up 12-11 at the 10 minute mark.

We just aren't hititng shots. We are up 15-14 at the 5 minute mark.


We go into halftime up 19-18. I think this is the worst offensive half I've ever been involved in.. or the best defensive half...


Hannan is the player of the half. He has 9 points, 3 boards, 1 assist, and 1 block. He is shooting 4 of 9, 1 of 3.



The 2nd half, Graves and Hannan are heating up, but so are their shooters.

15 minute mark: 28-26, we lead.

Hannan and Graves are both on fire now! They have the crowd roaring which is feeding back energy to them. We are up 44-36 at the 10 minute mark.

They both finally tire and go cold. Manhattan with a 5-0 run to close within 3, before I get subs in there. Bowers comes off the bench and drills a 3 to make it 47-41. 6 minutes left.


With 4 minutes left and a 47-43 lead, I get my starters back into the game.

Hannan with a spin move into the lane to draw the foul. He hits both FT's to make it 49-45. 2:53 to go.

With 51-47 lead, Cornette hits his first basket of the game, a shot from just inside the arc from the corner. 53-47.

Hannan with a steal. 1:30 left. We miss our shot, but we worked the clock down to 3 seconds.

They miss their shots and we hit our FT's. We win 56-47.


Hannan is the player of the game. 24 points, 7 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, and a block. He shot 8 of 16, 4 of 7 from the arc, and 4 of 4 from the line.

Graves had 21 points, 4 boards, and 1 assist. He shot 7 of 11, 5 of 8, and 2 of 4.

Everett had 5 points, 7 assists, and 4 steals.

Cornette had 2 points, 3 boards, and 2 steals.

Simon had 0 points (0 of 5 shooting), 16 boards, and 2 blocks.


Bowers had 3 points in 8 minutes.

Waters had 1 point and 1 assist in 8 minutes.


Our next game is a rematch with Saint Peter's, this time on our home court.

Graves is highlighted as the player to watch this game.


A strong opening 5 minutes. Graves is leading the way. We are up 13-7.


Simon picks up a 2nd foul at the 13 minute mark. They are on a 6-0 run and it is tied at 13.

Tied at 20 at the 10 minute mark.

Tied at 30 at the 5 minute mark.

We ar up 40-38 at the half. The last 10 minutes was our best offense all year. Very balanced contributions.


Everett is the player of the half. 10 points, 3 assists, and 2 steals. He shot 4 of 4 including 1 of 1 from the arc.

Graves also has 10, Hannan and Simon each have 7.


The fast pace continues in the second half. All of my starters except Simon are very tired with 10 minutes to go. We are tied at 64.

Snow. Bowers, and Simon keep our team scoring while the starters rest. With 6 minutes to go, we are tied at 75 and the home crowd is urging us on..

I get my starters back into the game as they are ready with the crowd pumping them up.

With 5 minutes to go, we are up 81-79.

After good defense forces a miss, Everett with a breakaway forcing a foul. He hits both FT's.

The defensive intensity vastly improves in the last 5 minutes..

With 3 minutes left, Everett hits a 3 despite a defender rushing towards him. 86-79.

With 1:26 to go, they hit a 3 to make it 86-82. Very good defense otherwise from both sides the last 5 minutes.

After Graves misses a decent look, we force a turnover. 53 seconds left.

With 31 seconds left, they steal it from Hannan and get a breakaway dunk.

They intentionally foul, but we got it to Graves out best FT shooter..

He makes them both to make it 88-84.

They make a quick 2, and we get it to Graves again who they foul.

He hits them both. Our trap enables Cornette to get a steal. He quickly passes to Everett who is fouled and misses 1 of 2 FT's.

They get another quick 2. 91-88, we lead.

We barely get it to Graves before a 5 second call. He hits both FT's.


They set up a quick 3 and make it. 93-91. 5 seconds left now.

We run Graves off a screen to get him the inbounds. He hits both FT's. 95-91. 3 seconds left.


We win 95-91.


Graves is the player of the game.

24 points, 2 boards, 1 assist, and 1 steal. He shot 6 of 10, 3 of 6, and 9 of 9.

Balanced scoring:

Everett had 18 points, 5 assists, and 2 steals. He shot 6 of 9, 2 of 4 from the arc, 4 of 6 from the line.

Hannan only had 11 points. He also had 5 boards, 1 assist, and 4 steals. He shot 4 of 13, 1 of 7, and 2 of 3.

Cornette with 14 points, 4 boards, and 3 steals.

Simon with 13 points, 6 boards, 3 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks.


Waters had 5 points and 2 assists in 11 minutes.

Bowers had 5 points on 2 of 3 shooting in 5 minutes.

Bad news on the recruiting front, but not unexpected news. We have lost our favorite status on Lee Lidzius list. I didn't think I'd be able to get the Mr. Basketball from Connecticut. He has been ofered a scholarship from Duke and they are now his #1 choice with Maryland #2. We are #3 just slightly ahead of Syracuse. Still, I've seen crazy things happen, so I'll continue to pursue him. If he doesn't sign, I might just keep 1 of our 2 scholarships open in hopes of getting a great transfer to come play with our kids when they are all juniors and seniors.


We are now 14-6. Our next game is at 6-13 Canisus. They are rated 76 in overall talent. Their defense is very weak and I expect a big game from our stars. They are undersized and lack talent. Their top player is a 70 rated SG. They do have a good 3 point shooter or two, but I expect a blowout even on their floor. I'll play that a bit later.

I've had something similar happen, and I agree it helps the immersion factor immensely. It doesn't happen after every loss, but clearly your team can come out on fire at times.

Time to get that game against Canisus in after watching over 10 hours of Basketball today.

Graves is the highlighted player before the game.

DeShaun has over 90 pounds and 7 inches on their starting center.

With 13 minutes to go, Hannan picks up a 2nd foul. We've been dominating so far. We are up 18-7.

At the 10 minute mark, we are up 22-10.

A scoring burst by them against our scrubs has it at 29-21 at the 5 minute mark. We get our starters in. First minute back, Hannan picks up a 3rd foul. He'll sit again :(

A near perfect last 5 minutes after that. We are up 43-24 at the half.


Graves is the player of the half. He has 12 points, 3 assists, and 2 boards.


With 15 minutes to go, we are up 49-29.


With 12 minutes to go, Hannan picks up his 4th foul, but we are up 57-34 and are contemplating when to pull our starters for good.

We end up pulling our starters for good with a 28 point lead and 6 minutes to go. 70-42.


We win the game 76-49 win.



Hannan was the player of the game. 19 points, 5 boards, 2 ssists, and a steal. He shot 7 of 12, 0 of 3, and 5 of 5.

Graves had 18 points, 5 assists, 2 boards, and a steal. He shot 8 of 15, 2 of 7, and 0 of 0.

Everett had 9 points, 5 assists, and 2 steals. He didn't turn it over any times.

Cornette had 4 points, 5 boards, and 4 assists.

Simon had 10 points, 10 boards, and 3 blocks.

Collins had 5 points and 3 boards in 15 minutes.

Bowers had 6 points on 2 of 4 shooting from the arc in 9 minutes (all garbage time.)



We are now 15-6. Our next game is at 15-6 Marist. They are banged up with their top two stars having minor injuries that won't stop them from playing but should slow them up. Their top freshman is completely out of the game with his injury. I'll probably play that game tomorrow.

At the 12 minute mark, we are up 16-13. Our starters, except for Simon, are all tired.

We are up 24-20 at the 6 minute mark when we get our starters back in.

A fast paced last 6 minutes ends with us going into halftime up 37-26.


Hannan is the player of the half. He has 10 points, 3 boards, 2 assists, and 2 steals. He has shot 4 of 8, 2 of 6.



At the 13 minute mark, we are up 50-35. Graves has been diving all over and is tired, so Collins comes in for him.


We are up 65-51 with just under 6 minutes to go.


We finish it out and win 81-63.


Graves is the player of the game. 25 points, 4 boards, 4 steals, and 3 assists. He also had 2 turnovers. He shot 10 of 22, 5 of 12 from the arc, and 0 of 0 from the line.

Hannan had 23 points, 5 boards, 4 stels, and 2 assists. He also had 2 turnovers. He shot 9 of 17, 5 of 12, and 0 of 0.

Everett had 9 points, 6 assists, and 1 turnover. He shot 3 of 6 all from the arc.

Cornette had 4 points, 12 boards, and a block.

Simon had 14 points, 11 boards, and 4 assists. He was 6 of 8 from the field.


Our next game is hosting 8-12 Iona who we should beat easily.

I'll play that later this week or next weekend.

So I'm finally starting to get into the rhythm of this game (in my fourth season). Got myself a nasty power forward (unfortunately he only really dominates when I play the games because he has very low shot tendencies) and some other role players that have improved the team.

Questions:

1) Do shot tendencies change over time?
2) Do you do anything with training?
3) Do you do anything with the ABL?
4) How do you decide which recruits to go after?
5) How many recruits do you recruit at one time?
6) How do you run your offense? Do you call plays or just move the ball via passes?
7) What kind of defense do you run? I have massive problems forcing turnovers.
8) Any tips on offensive rebounding?
9) Any tips on defending in the post without fouling?

That's all I can think of for now. Any answers (doesn't have to be all of them!) would be greatly appreciated!

1. I'm not sure. I think they do, but I haven't payed very close attention. I do know that players tend to shoot more as they gain overall ratings and maybe as they get to be upper classmen. However, that is part of why I started playing out every game.

2. For some players I do. For example, Bowers is a 3 point specialist who is decent at rebounding and poor at everything else. I could try to round him out, but instead I've decided to emphasize his strengths. I've altered his training to focus on 3 point shooting and a bit of rebounding. He's improved a fair bit on his 3 point shot. For someone like Graves who excels in every area, I keep it all balanced, although most of my SG's I have set to focus on the outside shot.

3. I don't. I'm just not patient enough to watch a lot of games. Actually, I do a very little bit with the ABL, I might watch a few minutes of 1 or 2 games of a few recruits to see if I like their shot motion. That is mainly started since I got Snow whose shot motion hurts his production.

4. For me, it depends upon what the team needs obviously. In my early years, I was just looking for anyone who had a shred of talent. Now, that I'm starting to build a program I can be a bit more selective.

I think for my center, size is a must. Look at how such Simon is dominating the boards. Of course, I LUCKED out on him as his rebounding is up to 90 in each category! For, my PF, I'm looking for a player with decent size who can hopefully shoot a bit, play good post defense (at least a B rating in the category) and if they can rebound that is a plus.

For SF, I was looking for a good overall player with size.

For SG, I wanted a really athletic player who could run since Hodari Chatman really did well in that role for me when I first took over the team. Graves 91 speed and 90 quickness might be the best 10 in the nation. His shooting touch coming around is a big bonus. I just wish he could dunk better, but he usually makes his layups.

For PG, I'll want size when I get to a bigger program, but for now, I just want speed, passing, and outside shooting. I lucked out with Everett being from Niagara and having all 3 of those.

Other than that, I want size as much as possible in my guys, and versatility. Santos and Andres could play the 2, 3 or 4, and while I don't have that with this team, I'm looking for guys who could do it.


5. I always fill my target list of 15, but I usually only really focus on 5 or so with the heavy focus being on whoever I offered scholarships to. I offer early. Usually by the middle of October or whenever they allow you to first offer. If I have a lot of scholarships, I might save one until November to offer at that point. I scout as soon as possible and try to get my list narrowed quickly. I may change that strategy when I get to a big school.

6. I call plays. I usually alternate about 4-6 set plays per game that I call and I also use a few quick plays per game, but I limit myself to only calling them to 2-3 times per game. Sometimes, usually when I get a big lead, I turn autoplaycalling on, and just run whatever it calls for me. I have the floor diagrams on.

7. I switch it up frequently. However, after experimenting with the 1-3-1 which generated a high number of turnovers, but gave up too many 3's, I'm back to playing M2M primarily with some 3-2 mixed in. I full court trap after every made basket and that generates the vast majority of my steals. We have some length and speed and usually that creates some steals if they try to pass it over the trap.

8. None, except try to get some guys with high ratings. We were horrible at it until I got Simon. His 7'1 height and 90 rating in offensive rebounding usually gets him 3-5 offensive boards a game.

9. Don't jump! Every time I jump in the post I get a foul. Instead, I use the lockdown defense button and the defender will try to stay in front of his man and will even smartly try to block on his own depending upon his defensive awareness rating.


One thing that I haven't posted in this thread, I don't think. I got this idea from a guy on OS.. to make the game more interesting and challenging, I don't switch on defense. Whoever shoots the ball (or turns it over) is who I control throughout the next defensive possession. It makes me play more realistic defense and really be careful about when I gamble for the steal.

Thanks for the help!! Your recruiting strategy is pretty much what I've been doing. I'm getting at least 1 good (70+) player per year and my supporting players seem to be better each year so I guess I'm on the right track.

Which button is the lockdown button???

I kind of do what that guy says on defense. I pick one guy and stay with them for a while. I like to pick guys that I don't mind fouling with. With that said I don't switch off of them to steal etc. I like picking bigs because I seem to have a decent knack for rebounding.

Sounds like I'm doing a lot of the same things as you in general. My team isn't good enough to full court press. I run the high pick-and-roll (quick play) a LOT but I think that's Ok because while sometimes it works great it frequently ends up in a turnover. So I have to use it selectively (when I can get a good matchup, or when I have good hands guys in).

Do you know if you can use created plays in legacy mode? I couldn't figure out how to load my set.

Hmmm. I just hit the buttons without thinking about, but I think the lockdown defense button is the left trigger.

You can use created plays in legacy mode, but I forget how you do so. Maybe someone else can answer that one, or I'll try to remember how I set it up after the playoffs are done today. I have some plays that I created for Andres that I now use for Hannan.

I do get burnt occasionally with the full court press, but as long as Simon get back, it is usually worth it.

Thanks for all the advice! I'm finally getting the hang of things, I think. Played out my previous 3 games and won all 3, the last two by double-digits. Not even doing it with my dominating PF, either, as he really doesn't like to get into position to take shots. Still puts up 20-8 type numbers, but when he's getting into position he gets 30-12 and makes it look easy. Averaging 3 guys in double-figures which is awesome.

Now that my whole team is almost all guys that I recruited (save for 2 of them) it's a lot easier to get attached to the game. Even the scrubs that come off the bench have certain things that they do well.

The last two games the team I played had one dominating player and nobody else scoring in double-figures so I decided to tight double them always and simply take them out of the game. It was awesome how it works, but the CPU still was finding the open man. Fortunately my strategy went just as planned and those scrubs missed their open shots (and we cleaned up on the glass). One thing that has made a big difference for me this year is having a SF (listed as a PF, but only 6'-5") that can rebound (he doesn't dominate the glass, but gets to all the ones that he is supposed to). Also love having a couple 6'-10"+ bigs that regularly fill in off the bench to just bang down low.

Can't wait until next season when my best recruit ever comes in (a 6'-4", 200lb dribble-drive point guard... should be a man amongst boys in my weak Big Sky conference) and my whole team has more experience. But, we're 3-1 in the conference this year and I want to see if I can't make a run at things so plan on playing out the rest of the games.

I like how recruiting works in this game. You're given few enough points that you can't just "max" everybody out. Also, you can't come out of nowhere to steal a guy. On the other hand, if you work them hard for a long time you can get someone out of your league. But you do it at the expense of some of your other non-reach players. Good balance, it seems (with a slant toward allowing the user to get good players... nothing wrong with that IMO, especially for closed legacy). Also like how in my small Big Sky conference the teams are very regionally-based (with some notable exceptions).

What's the best method, that you've found, for driving to the basket? (it seems like that is what Hannan's game is built around?)

Hannan is an interesting guy. Right now, he is either a 3 point shooter or a drive to the hoops guy. He doesn't have good 3 point ratings, but he seems to get very hot at times and drill the open 3.

As far as my method for driving, I tend to use the triple threat and explode out of it in either direction. More rarely, I can beat someone with a jab step, hesitation move. Hannan has a high quickness rating, that really seems to allow him to explode out the triple threat.. same for Graves. Other than that, I come off screens to drive into the hole, but I find they usually close and I play a lot of drive and kick it out which is how the majority of my 3's come about with Everett doing most of the driving.


I agree that the recruiting is very well done. I love the balance for a closed legacy. I've found that inside guys can dominate a bit too easy on the default settings (I don't remember if you have posted what sliders you are using or not) but I love dominating with an inside guy when I've earned it. I have inside success at 43 for the user, and I feel like I really earn my points on the inside when I get them. It is nice to see Simon starting to score and develop an inside game despite these settings. :)

Hmmm... That is a great idea. I've found that I either control the PG or PF, but the problem with doing that is that either my PG picks up no fouls, or my PF gets most the rebounds because I'm more aggressive with boxing out than the AI. But this is a great suggestion - I'll be giving this a shot tonight.

How does the "triple threat" work? The only moves I really know are the behind-the-back, spin move, and basic crossover. I feel like I'm missing some other major feature?

Not sure what my inside success is, though I do use adjusted sliders. I just looked at the ones I downloaded from OS and it was set to 45 for humans, and I'm pretty sure I didn't tweak that, so it looks like that's what I'm at. It seems just about right, to me.

My star PF is so confusing. He is PERFECT PF size (6'-9", 250lb) but really has a confusing offensive game. He has a very good 3 point shot (and has a FAST release -- do you have anyone with that wicked quick release?), but doesn't like to try to get open behind the 3-point line. That's why I was asking about the play-designer being used in legacy mode. Any info you find on that would be greatly appreciated. But while he's a great 3-pt shooter he's open so little that he usually only hits a couple a game (and can't get on a hot streak because he doesn't take enough of them). He doesn't move that well so I can't just give him the ball on the outside and let him drive. I have to either set him up for the jumper or lay it off deep in the post area; nothing in between. It's a nice challenge though. I think when I get the big, strong PG for next year who can get into the lane my PF will really explode. He is awesome on the defensive glass despite relatively modest height.

What kind of ratings bumps do you typically see over guys' careers? I get the sense that at my Northern Colorado (closed legacy) team guys with C or better potential are really valuable. Is that the case or am I too optimistic?

I appreciate all the info, let me know at any time if I'm asking too many questions!

What year are you in in your dynasty?

You can. It's a bit of a hassle. What you need to do is load the playbook prior to loading your legacy and put it in either slot 1 or 2. Then when you go to play your game and are at the screen where you assign your controller to either team you go in to the option screen (I believe it's the triangle button on the PS3, on the 360 It's probably the top most button on the front face of the controller - can't recall which symbol that uses). There you can change the playbook for either team, so scroll through your own playbook until you get to custom 1 or whatever it's called.

You have to do this prior to every game, because you can't assign the custom playbook to your coach settings.

Yeah, that is where I appreciate it the most. I have guys get into foul trouble and since I stick to this rule, I can't protect them. If this Celtics game turns into too much more of a blowout, I might get in a game tonight. Talking about the game has given me the urge to play another game :)

45 isn't bad for inside success. A touch high for my taste, but much better than default of 50. As far as the triple threat move, I think there quickness and handle rating are a big factor on how successful it is, but if you release it just right, they can really explode in whatever direction they dribble in. That is the main thing I do.

I've found the Motion offense was really good at getting my PF some decent 3 point looks if you don't want to do custom plays. That is what I used and Santos got quite a few looks. I also like some plays in the high post offense to get the PF some 3 point looks. Cornette is too inconsistent to run those plays much.

I know what you mean about that quick release - Andres had it! I loved his release. Hannan's is similar, but just a bit longer. However, Hannan has such great elevation on his shot that it looks perfect.

The scouting error makes it hard to predict how guys will develop. Hannan and his A potential has gained very slowly this year while Graves has picked up 2 overall points. A few of my other guys have picked up 1 overall points. I expect most guys to gain between 1 and 2 overall points in the course of a year, post-patch (it was much higher pre-patch.)

Now, once I get better coaches with higher teaching abilities and I raise my own teaching ability higher, I'll expect that to go up. I'll also expect that to go up when I get true A potential guys which I'm starting to suspect Hannan isn't really.


While I've typed this, the Hawks have come back, but I still want to get in a game. I'll watch the 2nd and 3rd quarter quickly on DVR and catch up on the 4th quarter after I play our next opponent.

I've found that with C/C+ guys you can probably expect 1 to 2 points per season. B and A potential guys sometimes only improve 1 to 2, but sometimes they jump by more than that. It seems to me that the higher the potential the greater the "boom" chances are, but yeah, maybe scouting error plays a hand in that too. Bonus drills help of course. You can usually add at least 1 additional rating if you work on the same two guys every week for the length of the season, depending on the rating you target. I usually devote these soley to my freshmen for that year, redshirts especially.

Thanks for all the answers!! Still confused on the "triple threat" -- not even sure how to "activate" it?

Before your player has dribbled (or after he's picked up his dribble - but it wouldn't do you much good then ;) ) hold down the RT & LT. Now pushing towards the basket with the left analog stick will make your guy jab step forward, pushing away will make him hold the ball away from the defender.

Heh. Simon was the featured player before this game against Iona. He has 3 inches and 60 pounds on his guy.


We are up 10-6 at the 15 minute mark.

At the 14 minute mark, Everett picks up his 2nd foul on a cheap reach in.

A minute later, he picks up a 3rd, and I bring in Waters for him. :(

At the 10 minute mark, we are up 18-12.

With 8 minutes to go, we are up 21-15. All of our starters are out of he game to get a rest.

Our bench had built a 10 point lead, but they tire. 28-23 with 3:40 to go when I get my starters back into the game including Everett with his 3 fouls.


At the half, we are up 32-24.


Hannan is the player of the half. 8 points, 2 boards, and a steal. He is finishing on the break which has been the source of all of his points.


With 15 minutes to go in the game, Hannan gets his 3rd foul.


A 8-0 run by them to close it to 44-40 is ended by a Hannan drive to the hoop that draws a foul. He makes 1 of 2 FT's.

45-40 with 11 minutes to go.

With 8 minutes to go, Simon gets his 4th foul.

49-44 as he sits. All of my other starters were already resting.

Our bench with a huge run including 2 3's by Collins. We get a 58-44 lead, before they hit a 3 to end the run.

Snow also with some big points down the stretch. I have so many bench players who can do different things that he has become a forgotten man, and he doesn't like that. I need to keep him happy as he can be a dangerous scorer at times..

61-47 with 4:40 left when I get my starters back into the game to finish it off.

With 2:12 to go, Simon fouls out, but we have the game in hand as Hannan is playing great down the stretch.


We win 79-56.


Hannan is the player of the game. He finishes with 28 points, 3 boards, 2 assists, 2 steals, and 3 turnovers. He shot 11 of 15, 2 of 5, and 4 of 8.

Everett had 0 points (0 of 6 shooting), 5 assists, 2 steals, and 2 turnovers.

Graves had 13 points, 4 assists, 4 steals, and 1 turnover. He shot 5 of 14.

Cornette had 9 points, 17 boards, 1 assist, and a steal. He shot 4 of 8.

Simon had 6 points, 13 boards, and a block. He shot 1 of 8 and 4 of 7 from the line.

Collins had 8 points in 12 minutes.

Snow had 9 points in 12 minutes.

Waters had 6 points and 3 assists in 15 minutes.

Adams had 4 boards in 14 minutes at center.



We are now 17-6. Our next opponent is 10-13 Faifield. Our RPI thanks to that early pre-season tourney is 21. We are 3rd in the Mid-Major Poll behind #1 Cal Poly who are 18-2 and #2 Boise State who are 15-6.

Now that we are 2/3 of the way through the season, time to look at some stats leaders among our team:

Hannan is averaging 20.7 ppg. This is 1st in the MAAC. It's 25th in the NCAA.

Simon is averaging 14.2 rpg which is 1st in the nation.

Everett is averaging 4.9 apg which is 3rd in the MAAC and is outside of the top 50 in the NCAA.

Everett leads our team with 1.7 spg which is 4th in the MAAC.

Simon's 1.5 bpg is tied for 7th in the MAAC.



Non-leader's on my team, but notable:

Graves is 5th in the MAAC at 15.9 ppg.

Hannan is 14th in the MAAC in assists at 2.5 per game.

Hannan is 6th in the MAAC in steals at 1.6 per game.

Cornette is tied with him.

Simon leads the conference in MPG at 31.5.

A new Mid Major Poll just came out this week and we are now #1 in the Mid Major Poll.

Speaking of player development, here are the players who have gained the most in development this year so far:

Snow, Graves, Simon, Ortiz, Meeking, Bogans, and Robinson have each gained 1 point. JR Walkon SG Laurie Beachem has gained 2 points, but is still a long way from playing.

Done playing for the night (and with my schedule this week... probably done for the week). Finally got my settings where I can be comfortable, I think. Inside/Mid/3pt at 43/45/45 seemed pretty solid. Got a couple of plays for my awesome PF and now that I know how to use them in legacy can make them whenever I want so that's all good. All I have to do now is play the games. :-)

This game is awesome!

Wow. That 3 point setting is going to be tough. I have mine at 48. I do have midrange at 45 which I think is perfect. Glad that you have them where you like them :)

I agree, it is an awesome game. I'm going to be playing this for years assuming that the series doesn't somehow get resurrected.

My next game probably won't be until next weekend either.

Ok I'll adjust to 48 for 3pter. It's so hard to get these right, because it takes so long ot get a meaningful sample size. Also a bit weird how sensitve they are (that 45 is substantially diff than 48)

Yeah, I love that sensitivity though. Unlike games such as NCAA Football, you can tell that these sliders really do something :)


As far as the sample size, I agree that it is tough. I've been tempted to go back up to 49 at times or even 50. You'll have really cold spells and some really hot spells, but I definitely wouldn't go lower than 48 unless you want frustratingly low 3 point percentages. Although, I do have CPU defensive awareness tweaked up to provide a good defensive challenge. I also have the human defensive awareness tweaked up.

"3. I don't. I'm just not patient enough to watch a lot of games. Actually, I do a very little bit with the ABL, I might watch a few minutes of 1 or 2 games of a few recruits to see if I like their shot motion. That is mainly started since I got Snow whose shot motion hurts his production."



Just curious but what is Snow's shot motion number? I'm still new to the game and haven't really seen any real unorthodox styles.

I have mine at 46, but I have a backcourt with an 85 and an 86 3pt shooter, and I was knocking down an insane amount when I had it at 48 and it became too easy, especially against the zone. With 46 I have cold spells (esp. on the road), but I also have games where I shoot 11/17, and had one guy hit 9/11 on his own in a freakish display. They both shoot in the high 30s or low 40s on about 5 or 6 attempts a game, so that slider seems OK for my style of play, but if my best shooter was in the 70s it'd probably frustrate the hell out of me. :)

I've never even watched or played a single ABL game. I just sim straight through it. Maybe I'll check it out at some point, but I'm always too keen to get on with the regular season.

If you edit a player and look at the various shot types, there are a lot of weird shot types, especially under the generic(or basic?) types. It can be frustrating when you get a big guy who can shoot because I find their standard shot animations sometimes make it tough to get off a shot because they don't leave the ground. I usually randomly pick out one of the generic shot types to make it look a little more realistic than having a 6'10 guy with a wussy little hop step slingshot style shot when he is rated in the high 70s for mid-range jumpers.

He barely elevates and he has a slightly delayed ideal release. It is very easy to block. He is a 88 3 point shooter, but as a result of that shot motion, I either have to release early and miss as a result of it not being his ideal release point, or I risk getting a lot of his shots blocked (which happens quite more with him than my other players combined when he was playing regularly.)

I take this back. I thought I had it at 46, but it is indeed 48.

Next up is Fairfiled at home.


The announcers highlight Hannan as the player to watch and I'm counting on a big game from him. Raymond Macura is a good SF that will be matching up against him. I've been reading some things on OS, and am going to shorten my times on the floor before I sub out slightly..


We are up 6-5 at the 15 minute mark.

At the 14 minute mark, Hannan comes out to get a short rest.

We quickly work each of our bench players in and out of the game. With 9 minutes to go, Hannan is the first to come back. At that point, we are up 21-14.

All of my starters are on their 3rd rotation into the game with 4 minutes left and they are all refreshed. We are tied at 30.


We are tied at 36 at the half.


Both star SF's have 15 points and 2 boards.


Graves is the player of the half. He has 16 points, 2 boards, and a turnover. He is shooting 6 of 9.


In the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half, we build up a 10 point lead. 54-44 with 10 minutes to go.

With 3:12 to go, Cornette fouls out, but we have the game in hand. We are up 72-57.


We win the game 75-66.


Graves is the player of the game with 29 points, 3 boards, 1 assist, and 1 steal. He shot 8 of 15, 4 of 10, and 9 of 9.


Hannan had 25 points, 2 boards, and 2 turnovers. He shot 11 of 20, 2 of 9, and 1 of 2.

Everett had 2 points, 9 assists, and a board. He had 0 turnovers. He shot 1 of 6.

Cornette had 2 points, 10 boards, and a block.

Simon had 10 points, 18 boards, 1 assist and a block. He shot 4 of 10 and 2 of 2 from the line.

Collins led the bench with 5 points.


We are now 18-6. Our next opponent is on the road against this Fairfield team which is now 10-14. I'll play that tomorrow.

I recruited two dribble-drive guards and now I am seeing what a difference it can make to have a guy that can get to the rim (and consequently the line) almost at will. I have my shooting fouls setting a lot lower than yours (mine is like 55) so my penetrating guards might not be quite as effective as your's. However, I like the way the game gets called on this setting -- if there is a lot of contact it almost always gets called, but gets let go every so often. Most of the ticky-tack stuff isn't called, which I like.

So my lineup is basically: dribble-drive backcourt (who can also hit threes, but not great at them), a good-defending SF, a physically-imposing 3-point shooting PF, and a banger down low (nowhere near the dominance of Simon though). Plus I bring a couple bangers off the bench, and a SF/PF who moves really well.

By far the best team I've had in my tenure, hoping to finally break the .500 mark! I'm going to play every game this year, I think; only simming when down by 20+ in the second half. It is nice being somewhat confident in every guy on the floor. In the past I've never had it to where I could be content with any of the 5 players on the floor. Now, even with some subs in, I like my entire lineup.

The only thing I found about the ABL games, is if you watch them out, you get bonus recruiting points. 40 per game I think. But you have to watch the whole game.

In our rematch against Fairfield, we come out strong quickly with Hannan hitting 3 quick shots.

We are up 11-7 at the 15 minute mark.

The pace slows down after that, at the 10 minute mark, we are up 16-13.

At the 5 minute mark, we are down 24-22.

A strong last 5 minutes by Hannan particularly. We are up 35-29 at the half.


Hannan is the player of the half. He has 14 points. He is 6 of 10 from the floor, 1 of 3 from the arc. He is getting to the hoop with some regularity this game.



Tied at 41 at the 15 minute mark. We've come out cold and they are shooting well to start the 2nd half. Their home crowd is fired up.


Simon with a few big baskets. We are up 50-46 with 10 minutes to go.


With 5 minutes left, we have a 8 point lead, 62-54.

With 3 minutes left, they have closed within 6 to make it 67-61.

Macura with a rare block of a Hannan shot and he takes it to the end end for a slam dunk. 67-63.


They get a 3 second call on Simon in the post.

Bogans who is in for Cornette with a block.. he starts the fast break.. Everett to Hannan who is fouled.

He makes the 2nd after missing the first. 68-63.


They hit a quick 12 footer. 68-65. 1:39 left.


We work it down to about 15 seconds until a play frees Graves at the FT line, he spins away from his defender and slams it home left handed! 70-65.

An offensive putback by their PF makes it 70-67. 55 seconds left.

With 33 seconds left, Macura reaches in on Hannan. He hits both FT's.

They attempt a very quick 3 which they miss. Simon gets the board and is fouled. He hits both FT's.

We hit 7 of 10 FT's down the stretch and win the game, 77-72.


Hannan is the player of the game. He had 24 points, 2 boards, and an assist. He shot 8 of 16, 1 of 5, and 7 of 10.

Everett had 7 points, 4 assists, and 4 steals. He also had 3 turnovers. He shot 2 of 8.

Graves had 9 points, 2 assists, and a board. He shot 3 of 9.

Cornette had 4 points, 10 boards, and an assist.

Simon had 13 points, 13 boards, and an assist. He shot 4 of 5 and 5 of 6 from the line.

Snow led the bench with 9 points, Waters had 7 points and 2 assists.



Our next game is at Iona. They are 8-14. We beat them last week at home 79-54. I expect another win this week.

I like playing the ABL games. Just this past offseason, I played the games with some of my recruits and found a C that fits perfectly in my system. Good inside player, rebounds well, and good potential. If it wasn't for the ABL, I wouldn't have found him.

Also, it helps to play with a recruit a bit to see if I feel they'd be successful with me. Sometimes, the rankings look good, but actually controlling them doesn't have the right feel.

Basically, I use the ABL the same way that I used the camps in CH2k7 when playing 3 on 2, 2 on 1: play with recruits and see who can shoot, who is quick and fast, and see who doesn't live up to the hype.

Tough defense early. We are up 6-2 at the 15 minute mark.

At the 12 minute mark, Simon hurts his ankle :( :(


Adams comes in for Simon and starts dominating like he has never done before! First a slam off a pick and roll. Then a 12 footer, then a hook in the post. Before, I know it, he has 9 points. We are up 21-13 at the 8 minute mark.

With 6 minutes to go, Simon has been cleared to return as his ankle isjust slightly twisted and Adams is tiring. Our other starters return as well.

5 minute mark: We are up 26-18.


We enter halftime up 36-25.

Balanced scoring this game for us. Simon, Adams, Hannan, and Graves each have at least 7 points.

Simon is the player of the half. He has 7 points and 6 boards.


Up 44-30 at the 15 minute mark. Hannan's midrange game is heating up.


We are up 48-38 at the 10 minute mark.

With 6 minutes to go, they have closed the lead to 53-49. We get all of ou starters back into the game.


With 4:30 to go, they hit a 3 to take a 54-53 lead.

Hannan hits a 3 to end the run.

Simon with a block that starts a fastbreak that ends with a Hannan dunk!

They get a quick layup, but Hannan nails a 14 footer. 60-56.

Graves with a steal, passes to Everett who throws a perfect alley-oop to Hannan! 62-56.

Everett with a steal, throws it ahead to Graves who beats everyone down the court for a slamdunk.

With 1:30 left, they make it 64-58. We miss our next shot but they miss a 3. They have to start fouling.


We miss half our FT's, but they miss all of their 3's. We win 67-58.


Hannan is the player of the game. 24 points, 4 boards, 2 steals, and 1 turnover. He shot 8 of 17, 3 of 8, and 5 of 6.

Everett had 0 points, 5 assists, and 4 steals. He had 0 turnovers. He shot 0 of 3.

Graves had 10 points, 2 boards, 2 assists, and 2 steals. He shot 4 of 10.

Cornette had 3 points and 9 boards.

Simon had 11 points, 11 boards, 2 assists, and a block. He shot 4 of 9.


Adams led the bench with 9 points.


That win cracks the 20 win mark! :)


We are now 20-6. We have 4 more regular season games left. Depending upon how interesting the draft is, I might get in our next game later today. We play Canisus at our place next. They are 7-18. We beat them 76-50 at their place a few weeks ago and I expect an easy win.

I agree that it is very useful for that. I'm just not as patient for it as I should be.. I'm too anxious to see my most recent recruits play. :)

We start out down 9-8 at the 15 minute mark.


Down 18-16 at the 10 minute mark.

Down 28-26 with 5 minutes to go. Hannan and Graves have been our main scorers and they are now returning with good energy.


We go into the half, down 42-37.

Luber, their center, is the player of the half. He has 9 points, 5 boards, and 4 assists.

Hannan leads our team with 19 points, 2 boards, and 2 assists at the half.


We are down 55-50 with 10 minutes to go in the game. All of my starters are now needing to rest.


Down 65-56 with 5 minutes to go. This could be our most shocking loss of the year...

Everett, Graves, and Hannan are coming back onto the floor but Simon needs some rest.

I tried everything on defense, but we just couldn't stop their 3 point shooters.

They win the game 78-68.


Carter, their SG, is the player of the game with 21 points. He shot 3 of 8 from the arc and 8 of 15 overall.

Hannan was our leading scorer with 29 points, 2 boards, 2 assists, and 1 steal. He shot 10 of 16, 1 of 4, and 8 of 12.

Everett had 0 points and 4 assists.

Graves had 12 points, 3 assists, and 3 boards. He shot 4 of 14.

Cornette had 4 points, 10 boards, and 4 steals.

A hobbled Simon had 8 points, 8 boards, and an assist. He shot 4 of 10.


Collins led our bench with 6 points.


Our next game is at Manhattan who we beat at home earlier in the year, 56-47. They are now 13-12.

I'll play that tomorrow.

This game against Manhattan starts out very fast paced, we are up 14-12 at the 15 minute mark. Graves is on fire early, but their 3 point shooters are doing well.

At the 10 minute mark, we are up 24-18. Graves has 12 points already, but needs a rest. He has been on fire and I don't want to take him out.

At the 5 minute mark, we are up 33-21. Bowers came off the bench and hit 2 big 3's. Snow also hit a 3 during the stretch.


We enter halftime up 44-29.


Graves is the player of the half. He has 15 points, 1 board, and 1 steal.



At the 15 minute mark, we are up 54-39. Graves is still shooting very well. Hannan is having one of his worst games shooting, so we are relying on Graves.

At the 12 minute mark, Graves is exhausted. We turn to Snow off the bench. He hits his first 3 shots when we get him some open looks.

At the 10 minute mark, we are up 65-52.


At the 5 minute mark, we are up 80-64. Bowers hit 2 more 3's and Snow hit another 3.

We cruise to the victory 90-76.


Graves was the player of the game. 30 points, 3 boards, 2 steals. He had 3 turnovers. He sjpt 11 of 17, 6 of 10, and 2 of 3.

Everett had 3 points and 3 assists. He shot 1 of 1 from the arc.

Hannan had 9 points, 4 assists, 2 boards, and 2 turnovers. He shot 3 of 14, 1 of 5, and 2 of 4.

Cornette had 0 points, 3 boards, and 3 assists.

Simon had 9 points, 6 boards, and 1 block. He should be recovered from his ankle injury by our next game which is next week.


Snow led the bench with 14. Bowers had 12 all on 3's.


Our next game is hosting a dangerous Loyola team which has a strong overall talent level despite being 11-14.

Cornette is the highlighted player before the game. I have so many talented players in my starting 5 right now :)


We are tied at 10 at the 15 minute mark.

At the 13 minute mark, Graves twists his ankle. Hopefully, it isn't serious :(

At the 12 minute mark, Hannan hurts his knee!

We are down 21-16 at the 10 minute mark.


With 7 minutes to go, Graves is cleared to return. It is a minor injury.

With 5:15 to go, Hannan is cleared to return. His is also a minor injury. :)


We are up 26-25 with 5 minutes left in the half.


Hannan's injury is not slowing him down much as he is having an explosive outburst in the last 5 minutes.. first a 3, then a dunk, then a steal and a dunk, then a 12 foot jumper.



We enter the half up 41-28.


Simon is the player of the half with 11 points and 7 boards.


We are up 47-30 at the 15 minute mark. Our defense has been suffocating them. :)

We are up 55-35 at the 10 minute mark.

With 5 minutes to go, we are up 63-43.


Once the injuries occurred, Simon took over the game. We win 76-55.

Simon is the player of the game with 23 points, 19 boards, 2 assists, 1 stela, and 2 blocks. He also had 4turnovers. The 23 points is a new career high. He shot 9 of 14 and 5 of 6 from the line.

Everett had 9 points, 5 assists, 3 steals and 0 turnovers. He shot 3 of 4.

Graves had 2 points, 6 boards, and 2 steals. He shot 1 of 11.

Hannan had 16 points, 4 boards, 2 assists, and a steal. He shot 7 of 18, 1 of 5, and 1 of 5.

Cornette had 6 points, 13 boards, 4 assists, and a block. He shot 2 of 3.


Collins had 7 points off the bench. Bowers had 6.



We are now 22-7. Our next game is our final regular season, a game at Rider. They are 16-10. We beat them 62-53 at home earlier in the year.

Hannan and Graves are both starting off cold. Maybe their minor injuries are effecting them more now. We are tied at 6 at the 15 minute mark with Simon scoring all 6 of our points (4 on putbacks and 2 on a designed play.)


With 10 minutes left, we are up 16-15.


We are down 25-24 with 5 minutes to go in the half. We get all of our starters back into the game with 4:55 to go.


At the half, we are up 36-32.


Simon is the player of the half with 10 points and 8 boards.


Tied at 40 with 15 minutes to go .

They work our backups during the 12-10 minute mark. We are down 53-47 with 10 minutes to go.

Down 55-49 with 7 minutes left, I get Graves and Hannan back into the game.

We are down 62-56 with 5 minutes to go when I get the rest of my starters back into the game.


Everything goes wrong in the last 5 minutes: Simon can't hit his shots. He gets an offensive interference for a putback slam. Graves seems to be missings shots due to his injury. He has another bad game. Hannan looks slow with his injury and he is missing his shots.

We lose 70-58 as they finish us off with a 16-2 run.


Barnett, their SG, was the player of the game. He had 23 points, 3 boards, 3 assists, and 3 steals. He shot 8 of 16.


Simon led us with 12 points, 11 boards, and 2 steals. He shot 6 of 13.

Graves and Hannan each had 11 points. Graves was 4 of 16, Hannan was 4 of 12.

Everett had 5 points, 5 assists, and 3 steals.

Cornette had 6 points, 7 boards, and 2 assists.


Collins had 6 points and Ortiz had 5 to lead the bench.



We end the regular season 22-8 and the MAAC regular season champions!

Time for a look at the stat leaders.

MAAC PPG Leaders:

1. Hannan 20.4 ppg
2. C P. Channing, Saint Peter's 17.8
3. C J. Melvin, Ion 17.4
4. C Mark Hazel, Manhattan 17.3
5. C Maury Kragel, Manhattan 17.2

I guess centers still are dominating scoring. Let's look nationally.

National Scoring Leaders:

1. C Quinton McDaniel, Davidson 24.6 ppg
2. C Henry Jefferson, Southern Methodist 24.5 ppg
3. C Andy Diagne, West Virginia 24.3 ppg
4. PF Orien Varem, Northwestern 23.5
5. PF Attarrius Fontenet, Sacred Heart 23.4

14 of the top 15 are PF's or Center with 1 SG in there. :( Oh well, it is still a great game.

Hannan's 20.4 ranks him 21st in the nation.

USC's guard that started off the year strong dropped down to 18.9 ppg.


National Rebounds per game:

1. Simon 13.6
2. PF Dameon Zamore, Gardner-Webb 10.8
3. C Francis Bozovic, Austin Peay 10.1
4. C Daron Marsh, Monmouth 10. (also has great scoring numbers.. I wonder if he'll take the Mid Major award away from Hannan)
5. C Phil Lawson, Oakland 10


Assists:

1. Zack Holman, Manhattan (nice to see another MAAC player doing well nationally) 7.3
2. Ahmet Morgan, Memphis 6
3. Fabrice Alford, Arkansas 6
4. Nic Moody, Cleveland State 6
5. 5 tied at 5.9


Team Starter's Complete Stats:

Everett finishes the year with an average of 8.6 ppg (his lowest year yet), 4.7 apg (up 1.1 from last year, but down 1.3 from when he had Andres and Santos), 1.8 spg (a career high), and 0.8 rpg.

Graves finished the regular season averaging 15.6 ppg (up 2.4 ppg from last year), 2.4 rpg, 1.6 apg, and 1.3 spg.

Hannan finishes the regular season averaging 20.4 ppg, 2.8 rpg, 2.3 apg, and 1.4, and 0.4 bpg in 27.2 mpg.

Cornette finishes the regular season averaging 5.7 ppg, 7.7 rpg, 1.8 apg, 1.8 spg, and 0.9 bpg.

Simon finishes the year averaging 8.6 ppg, 13.6 rpg, 2.2 apg, 0.9 spg, and 1.4 bpg.


Collins led the bench with 6 ppg, 1.1 rpg, 0.5 apg, and 0.5 spg. He played the most minutes off the bench averaging just under 14 mpg.

Our first MAAC Tourney opponent is Fairfield. We beat them 75-66 and 77-72 earlier in the year. They beat Canisus 62-61 to advance to play us after we got our 1st round bye. If we beat them, we'll play either Marist or Saint Peter's. We have Graves completely healthy for this game, but Hannan's knee is still bothering him.

I'll play the game either later today or next weekend.

Mrs. E has a headache, so I have the time to get a game in tonight now that the playoff games that I want to see are over.

Time to play Fairfield in the 2nd round of the MAAC Tourney.

We are likely getting into the Big Dance no matter what we do in the MAAC, but our team is taking nothing for granted. Despite Hannan's injury, we play our best basketball in the first 5 minutes that we have played all year.

At the 15 minute mark, we are up 11-0 with Everett, Graves, and Hannan leading the way offensively.


10:51 left, we are up 18-8 and all of my starters are getting a breather.


Our subs play SO well that they get to stay in until there are only 4 minutes left. We are now up 39-16! Collins had 15 points during the 7 minutes.


We enter halftime with a 47-20 lead! :)

We are doing everything well.


Collins is the player of the half. He has 15 points, 2 boards, and a steal in just 7 minutes. He shot 5 of 7, 2 of 5, and 3 of 3 in the first half.

Hannan has 13, Graves and Everett each have 7. Everett also has 5 assists in the 1st half.


In the 2nd half, our defense is much less intense and the team is making careless mistakes, but the offense is still hitting shots. We are up 70-45 with 10 minutes to go. I pull all of my starters except for Simon. If our bench does well again, the starters won't come back into the game.


Our offense has gone ice cold and they are getting too close for comfort. 72-56 with 4 minutes to go, so I get our starters back into the game.

Hannan hits a 15 footer to end their 8-0 run. After a defensive stop, he hit a 12 footer to extend the lead back to 20.


We win the game 79-59.

Hannan is the player of the game. 27 points, 5 boards, 2 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block. He shot 10 of 15, 4 of 6, and 3 of 7.


Everett had 12 points, 10 assists, 3 steals, 1 board, and 2 turnovers. He shot 5 of 8.

Graves had 17 points, 4 boards, 2 assists, and a turnover. He shot 6 of 14, 5 of 12, and 0 of 0.

Cornette had 0 points and 5 boards.

Simon had 2 points, 15 boards, and 2 blocks.


Collins had 15 points. He ended up shooting 5 of 13.

Waters had 5 points and 4 assists in 13 minutes off the bench.



Saint Peter's beat Marist 82-63 to advance to the Conference Semi-Final.

Rider and Loyola will be playing in the other semi-final.


Before the game, Donte Snow, Reyshawn Ortiz, and Bogans come into my office to tell me they are unhappy with their lack of PT. Talk about poor timing. I've had to give Snow 5 pep talks this year as he really hates not getting more PT. I have a feeling he is going to transfer after the season.


I'll play Saint Peter's later this week (assuming I can tear myself away from GTA IV for a bit. I think I can, but only because I enjoy this game so much ;))

Player Development Update:

I'm not sure if it is the tourney, or if it was just time, but a bunch of guys have improved their game. Overall improvement:

Everett is now plus 1 and at 73 overall.

Graves is now plus 2 (was plus 1) and a 78 overall.

Hannan finally gained a plus 1.. I wonder if he will hit that potential. He went up in a whole bunch of areas including a point in 3 point shooting. He is now a 71 overall.

Simon has gained plus 1 and is now a 72 overall.

Snow is a plus 1 and is now a 77 overall.

Waters is a plus 1 and is now a 72 overall.

Ortiz is a plus 1 and is now a 70 overall.

Adams is now a plus 1 and is 70 overall.

Bogans is plus 1 and 68 overall.

Boiwers is plus and 67 overall.

Meeking is plus 2 and 69 overall.

Beachem is plus 2 and 57 overall.

Graves is the featured player against Saint Peter's according to the announcers.

Despite this, it is Chatman, their SG, that scores the first 7 points of the game.

We respond with 4 points before they go on another 8-0 run. They have a much higher team unity, and I can't help but wonder if it is helping them right now.


We are down 18-9 at the 10 minute mark.


Our subs are doing a great job of getting us into the game. 25-22 at the 5 mintue mark, all powered by our subs.


With 1:23 to go, Everett to Hannan in the lane for 2 and the foul for a chance to tie it at 33, but Hannan misses the FT.


We are down 38-32 at the half.


Channing, their SF, is the player of the half. He has 11 points, 3 steals, 1 assist, and 1 board.


Hannan leads our team with 6 points and 6 boards.

Snow and Huffman each have 5.


Our offense starts the 2nd half ice cold as our 2 big stars just aren't making shots :(


We are down 54-38 at the 10 minute mark.


Down 60-46 with 5 minutes to go. My starters are coming back to try to pull off the big comeback.

We can't close the gap. We lose 66-52.


A disappointing loss. I think we should make the tourney, but now we need to sweat it out.

Everett had 7 points and 2 assists. He shot 3 of 8.

Graves had 5 points and 2 boards. He shot 2 of 14.

Hannan had 8 points and 8 boards. He shot 4 of 14.

Cornette had 1 point and 4 boards. He shot 1 of 6.

Simon had 6 points, 13 boards, and a block. He shot 3 of 10.


Collins led the bench with 8. Snow had 5.

Time for Selection Sunday:


We are listed as being on the bubble during the listing of the top 10 bubble teams :(


Other bubble teams:

Nebraska (22-11)
Niagara (23-9)
Missouri (19-12)

Among a few other big names.


The #1's


Florida (30-4), Temple (30-2), Oklahoma State (26-6), and Georgetown (28-6).


East Regional Interesting Matchups:


#8 Xavier (24-8) vs #9 Stanford (21-10)
#6 Pitt (21-11) vs #11 Cal Poly (23-7)
#7 Memphis (22-9) vs #10 Nebraska (22-11)


Interesting South Matchups:

#8 Rutgers (20-10) vs #9 Texas Tech (20-10)
#5 LSU (22-11) vs #12 George Mason (21-13)
#4 Louisville (25-10) vs #13 Ball State (25-6)
#7 Oregon (20-11) vs #10 Missouri (19-12)


Interesting Midwest Matchups:

#8 Duke (20-10) vs #9 Virginia (19-11)
#5 USC (22-9) vs BYU (19-13)

WE ARE IN!!! We play #7 Seton Hall (20-11) as we got a 10 seed!


Interesting West Matchups:

#8 Miami (20-11) vs #9 Utah (23-10)
#5 Mississippi State (24-10) vs #12 Rider (21-10)
#6 Tennessee (21-10) vs #11 Arizona State (19-15)
#7 Michigan (22-9) vs #10 Saint Louis (22-9)



I'll play our game vs Seton Hall later today.

Hannan is now completely healthy which should help us against Seton Hall. In fact, our entire roster is healthy.


Seton Hall has a talented team lead by star SG Louis Erickson. The 6'5 215 pound player is a dynamic slasher who can also reliably hit the 3 or midrange jumper. Hugh Santos, a 6'8 210 pound SF, is their other primary star. He is an all-around player who excels at defense. Arnold Byerson is a very good PF, and Rudolph Dearmon is an exceedingly fast PG who can outrace Everett. Their only weakness is at center where we have a clear advantage. Besides having the talent advantage at 4 out of 5 starting positions, they have insane chemistry. Their team unity is a 96 (highest I've ever seen.)

Tied at 10 at the 15 minute mark.


At the 10:18 mark, Hannan draws a 2nd foul on Byrson.


Down 20-17 at the 10 minute mark. My starters need a rest.


While my subs are in, they take a huge lead. Their bench is much better than ours is. 38-25 with 4 minutes left when I finally get the starters back into the game.


Turnovers are killing us today as their length and quickness is generating a ton of steals.

Hannan with a dunk and the foul to end the half. We are down 48-35.


Hannan is the only player scoring consistently for us. He has 18 points. No one else has more than 5. Santos leads them with 14.


We've turned it over 10 times at the half. They have only turned it over 4 times.

10 minute mark, they are up 76-54. They are just shooting too well.

They are red hot in the 2nd half, and we just cannot keep up. They win 96-72.

Dearmon had 12 points and 10 assists for them. Erickson had 21 points, Santos finished with 22 points, and Amous off the bench had 14.

Hannan led us with 21 points, 5 boards, and a block. He shot 5 of 13, 2 of 4, and 9 of 11.

Everett had 14 points, 4 assists.

Graves had 4 points, 3 boards, and 3 assists. He was 1 of 12. Bad time for him to go into a shooting slump.

Cornette had 10 points and 10 boards as did Simon.

Sweet 16 Matchups:

East:

#1 Florida vs #5 Iowa State
#3 Ohio State vs #7 Memphis

West:

#8 Miami vs #12 Rider (go MAAC!)
#6 Tenn vs #2 Washington

South:

#1 Temple vs #4 Louisville
#2 Marlyand vs #3 UNLV


Midwest:

#1 Oklahoma State vs #4 Florida State
#2 Arizona vs #3 Michigan State

After beating us, Seton Hall lost to Arizona 100-82 in the 2nd game.

Florida beat Iowa State 90-64.
Memphis beat Ohio State 84-78.

#1 Florida beat Memphis 68-64 to advance to the Final Four.


Miami beat Rider 80-57.
Tennessee beat Washington 100-96.

#8 Miami beat Tennessee 78-77 to advance to the Final Four.


Louisville beat Temple 82-80.
Maryland beat UNLV 82-72.

#2 Maryland beat Louisville 84-69 to advance to the Final Four.


Oklahoma State beat Florida State 76-66.
Michigan State beat Arizona 68-64.

#1 Oklahoma State beat Michigan State 85-73 to advance to the Final Four.



In the Final Four:

Florida beat Miami 99-73.
Maryland beat Oklahoma State 71-67.

In the National Championship Game:

#1 Florida beat #2 Maryland 95-76. Florida was led by 32 points from their junior star PF. They also got 20 from their SG and 18 from their SF.

Andy Diagne, A Center for WVU, won the Player of the Year. He is rated 90 overall. He averaged 25.4 ppg and 7.2 rpg along with 1.7 bpg.

Jean Al-Sayyad from Santa Clara took the Mid-Major Player Award from Hannan :( He averaged 22.1 ppg and 5.7 rpg.

WOW! In a shock to me, DeShaun Simon is named the national defensive player of the year. I guess the formula heavily factors defensive boards into the equation. His averages were 8.3 ppg, 13.5 rpg, 0.9 spg, and 1.4 bpg.

T.J. Hannan was named the National Freshman of the Year!!! He finished with an average of 20.3 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 2.2 apg, and 1.4 spg.

He was on the All-American Freshman Team.


Hannan was also named the MAAC Player of the Year and Freshman of the Year.

Hannan and Simon were 1st team all-MAAC.

Graves was 2nd team all-MAAC.

Hannan and Cornette were both All-Freshman MAAC team.

Now onto departures:

Snow has left the team via transfer :(

I expected Snow to do so. Much worse is the unexpected departure as C Jerome Adams has also chosen to leave the team via transfer :(

Bogans has graduated and this leaves my depth at center and inside precariously thin again :(

Meeking has also graduated.




As far as job openings:


North Carolina is available as they have fired their coach! However, I'm not even on their short list. They hire the coach from Ohio State.


The best job I get offered is San Diego which is in the WCC. Even with the departures, there is too much talent on this team to leave for essentially a lateral move. I pass it up.


Despite having scholarships available, no one wants to transfer to our team :(

Snow chose to transfer to SD State.

Adams went to the CAA and Delaware.




We do get some good news as Gilson Willis has chosen to sign with Niagara! Gilson is a 6'7 207 pound PF (who will probably play SF for us) who is ranked 106 overall and 12th among PF's. He is a 3 star player from Toledo, OH. He is reportedly a good shooter with some athleticism. He reportedly has excellent potential.

In week 2 of offseason recruiting, Mr. Basketball in Maryland signs with Maryland. Not surprising that we lost him. I'm now pursuing a JC C to provide some depth down low as well as a SG that might fit in better as a backup shooter.


In week 3, we sign a reach player who I'm hoping we get lucky on since we didn't get any transfer players...

Vitor Ziri is a 6'8 234 pound JC PF with some athleticism who can rebound. He is from Philly. He is a 3 star unranked player.


I miss out on on the 2 SG's I wanted as a replacement for Snow, so we turn very far away.. to China. I'm scouting a 6'3 SG from China now and trying to convince him to come to Niagara. This is a risky move as well, but if he doesn't pan out, we have more than enough depth to not play him.


In week 4 of offseason recruiting, we get Mamery Clifford from Chicago to sign with Niagara. He is a 6'10 250 pound (quite a bit bigger than Adams) JC FR C who is a 3 star player. His strengths are his post defense and shot blocking.


In the last week of recruiting, we get Chen Li from China to sign with us. We don't know a lot about him. I can't wait to get him on campus and see what he can do. The scouting report we have compiled so far from the limited video tape suggests that he is athletic and a skilled offensive player. He is 6'3 192 pounds.

That completes our recruiting class which was 2 players bigger than expected due to those transfers.

Top 10 recruiting classes:

1. Maryland
2. Duke
3. Florida
4. Oregon
5. USC (Darn, I need them to eventually have a fall if I'm going to get the job.)
6. Arizona
7. Florida State
8. Stanford
9. Auburn
10. California

A brief roster summary after the offseason:

PG Everett Huffman is now a senior. He gained another point during the offseason and is now rated 74 overall. Should be a reliable 3 point shooter. He is now 5'10 200 pounds but still very quick.

PG Gus Waters didn't gain at all during the summer, but he did gain some size. He is now 5'10 160. He is rated 72 overall.

SG Nate Graves didn't improve at all during the offseason. However, he is the best player overall on the team with an overall of 78. A streaky shooter with poor consistency who is more of a slasher.

SG Chen Li isn't as good as I hoped upon arriving, but he isn't terrible. He is rated 66 overall. He is afair 3 point shooter and a good passer for an offguard, but is a mess defensively. I'll probably redshirt him.

SG Laurie Beachem is now rated 58 overall. Won't play this year.

SF Friedrich Collins is interesting. He put on another 12 pounds and is now 6'5 247. Despite that weight, he is a quick player with a good midrange shot. Streaky from outside the arc. Fair defender. Gained another point of overall and is now rated 75 overall.

Hannan remained the same size, but he gained 2 points of overall talent and improved every part of his game. In particular, he focused on his defense which has really improved. He is now rated 73 overall.

Reyshawn Ortiz is now 6'5 188 and he gained a point of overall talent. The junior becomes the #1 backup option at SG with Snow gone.

Stephen Robinson - Walkon Senior who won't play. Rated 58 overall.


Whitney Cornette has gained some height and worked on his game. The sophomore is now 6'10 225. He has gained 2 points of overall talent. His 3 point shooting in particular has improved as has shot blocking and rebounding.

True Freshman Gilson Willis is a solid player who should contribute some right away with Bogans having graduated, he will be the #1 option at backup PF. Willis is rated 70 overall. He is now 6'8 215. His 3 point shooting and rebounding are both better than expected according to our staff. He also is an accomplished dunker.

Alfonso Bowers is now 6'8 245. He gained a point of overall and is now 68 overall. His strength remains his 3 point shooting. Will mostly play SF unless foul trouble pushes him into the PF spot.

Vitor Ziri is 6'8 240 and is rated 67 overall. His rebounding is much weaker than expected, but his shooting, particularly his 3 point shooting is better than expected. He is also a great dunker.


Deshaun Simon is now a junior and he continues to pack on the weight. He has gained 15 more pounds! He is now 7'1 306 pounds! He also gained a point of overall talent. His rebounding is off the charts, particularly his offensive board wr. His shot blocking improved the most during the offseason.

Mamery Clifford is now 6'11 259 pounds. He'll be the #1 backup center. The sophomore is a better offensive inside scorer than Simon so that may get him some minutes when we are struggling to score. He is also a VERY good shot blocker according to our staff as well as an above average rebounder! :) He is rated 68 overall with his weaknesses behind that he can't shoot outside of 4 feet, he tends to foul out quickly, and he has poor stamina, and speed.


Everett Huffman and 2 walkons are the only seniors, so I only have 1 scholarship available to recruit with this year.

Our first game is at James Madison of the CAA. We are favored against them even on the road. I'll probably play that later tonight. If not, I'll play it tomorrow.

During the early recruiting, I'm focusing on a 5 star SG (who I think could play the PG position as well) who I know we probably have no chance at all, but he is a considered to be a very local kid as he lives in Toronto, so I'm taking a chance on him. He is the 17th overall rated player and 5th among SG's. He is 6'6 210 pounds with great ball handlings skills and a terrific shot. Kurt Songcuacy has us as his #1 school right now, but I just doubt that will last...

Other schools competing for him include: Maryland, WVU, UConn, Pitt, and UVA. His top 3 priorities: Feeling wanted, playing at a big program :(, and getting good coaching.

Thoughts as we enter the first game:

- Team unity took a small hit with those defections, but should be getting high by the end of the year. It's starting much higher than it did last year.

- I think Adams leaving is a blessing in disguise. This backup center is a shot blocker unlike any I've ever had at Niagara. He looks great at sending it back in practice.

- Hannan looks more dangerous than ever in practice. He seems to be even faster and his shot is falling more consistently. I expect him to up last year's numbers.

- I need to keep my bench players more happy. Our bench guys are good. They'll get a few more minutes on average each game this year - particularly if we are winning easily. I guess they might drive down Hannan's numbers a bit.

We should easily beat James Madison whose best player is their power forward. I'm expecting Cornette to play well against him.

What do you have your defensive & offensive awareness #'s at for CPU and human? Most of my settings seem pretty similar to your's, now, but I tried going 60/60 and 50/50 (human/CPU) for defensive awareness & offensive awareness and jsut coudln't handle it. I'm at 70/50 and 50/50 now and it seems a lot better, but I wonder if that's "cheating"?

I don't think it's "cheating." Everyone has to find what works for them. I have offensive awareness at 50 for both sides and for the past season or so, I've gone with 70 for human defensive awareness and 60 for CPU defensive awareness. I find that I have to be really carefully around ballhawks (that is a big part of what killed me early against Seton Hall.)