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Izulde · 03-15-2023, 04:11 PM

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2014 Big West Conference Standings

 TEAM                             CW  CL   Pct  W  L   Pct  RPI  Prestige
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 UC Santa Barbara Gauchos          0   0  .000  9  1  .900  292        49
 UC Riverside Highlanders          0   0  .000  6  4  .600  105        47
 UC Davis Aggies                   0   0  .000  6  3  .667  294        38
 UC Irvine Anteaters               0   0  .000  5  6  .455  110        16
 Cal State Northridge Matadors     0   0  .000  5  6  .455  280         5
 Cal Poly Mustangs                 0   0  .000  3  7  .300  180        34
 Pacific Tigers                    0   0  .000  3  7  .300  211        12
 Long Beach State 49ers            0   0  .000  3  6  .333  232        16
 Hawaii Rainbow Warriors           0   0  .000  2  8  .200  171        18
 Cal State Fullerton Titans        0   0  .000  1  9  .100  296        15

Don't let that shoddy RPI fool you - the Gauchos are still very much the class of the conference. Senior Jamaal Eddings is the Big West's lone Blue player and junior Lamar Huntley is a tough-nosed rebounder and post defender at PF. Their entire lineup is Orange or better current, which only the Highlanders can match (though the Mustangs come close at 4 out of 5).

Deepest team is UC-Riverside, as the Highlanders brought in three 3 star freshmen, all of whom validated their ranking (being Orange/Green). Not all of them can start, but the stage is set for UC-R to become a dominant team and surpass the Gauchos, who only had Larry Sherlock as matching his ranking. Definitely worthy of a borderline Top 50 class for sure.

Projected Top 3 Finish
1. UC-Santa Barbara
2. UC-Riverside
3. Cal Poly

Our Achilles heel - Rickie Burns is actually a walk-on freshman as our starting point guard. That's on me for not recruiting the position as intensely as I should have last season.

vs Long Beach State (3-6)
The 49ers were a surprise Top 3 in conference last season, earning Damian Coffman Big West Coach of the Year honors. This year, they're relying heavily on promising freshman Isidro Lopez and his classmate Dominique Larsen, the latter of whom at Yellow/Green is the most prepared freshman coming into the conference. Daniel Utter and Scott Hager are also in the lineup, meaning LBSU is starting four freshmen and junior Sherwood Ransom, who is a incredibly gifted rebounder and the perfect Robin Hood name.

We'll go Man here, as I don't like the spread of 3 point shooters they have. I think this team is actually way better than their record indicates, and Coffman has coaching chops.

My assessment is accurate as they jump out to an 8-0 lead, but neither team can hit the broad side of a barn (33%/35% at half). Still, we've fought our way back and scraped to a 22-18 halftime lead - due largely to Rickie Burns' 8 points.

We continue to frustrate them in the second half, leading the rest of the way and ping-ponging between 6 and 9 points before the buzzer sounds on a 57-46 Matadors victory. Angel Moore shot all 11 recorded attempts from 3 point range and hit on 5 of them. Add in a perfect 6/6 at the charity stripe and you're looking at his second straight 20+ point Player of the Game performance: 21 points and 6 rebounds in just 26 minutes due to fouls.

Rickie Burns scores a surprising 10 - most of it at the free throw line himself - while Rabbithead has a solid 10 point, 5 rebound, 1 steal debut. Richard Bonin nets 10 with a steal.

Isidro Lopez had a fun fight with Moore, but finished with 17 points and a block. Scott Hager was Bonin-esque in going 4/4 for 10 points, 5 rebounds, and a block. Dominique Larsen didn't shoot well thanks to 1-7 in triple tries, but still had 10 points, a block, and a steal. Sherwood Ransom literally did nothing but rebound - 0 points, 13 boards.

And just like that, we're 6-6 (1-0).

vs Hawaii: 2-9 (0-1)
The Rainbow Warriors finished just below us last season, but they picked up a 3 point scorer in German Dietrich Hirschmann who is their leading point-getter at 9.6 a game. But that's all he does. Hawaii is without their second-leading scorer David Chen, who is out a month and a half. Good news for us, because Chen is a stealing god, and we're turnover prone.

Three freshmen start here - including a Canadian, so in some ways they mirror us.

Henri Maton, said Northerner, reminds me a lot of the Fish Knight - solid rebounder, defender, shotblocker, and Thomas Murphy is a decent all-around post for this level. Neither one particularly frighten me, though.

What does is that Hawaii packs three decent 3 point shooters with Chen, who can't shoot, out, so we'll stick with Man. RS Junior John Schenk is a defensive stopper at PG, which is something to keep an eye on. We *should* win this, though.

It's almost 4 minutes before the ball goes in the basket, but we emerge 28-24 leaders at the break on Angel Moore's 10 points. The Rainbow Warriors have balanced scoring, but are shooting 36.8%. I have to love how our defense is doing.

As the teams were heading to the locker room, Gunther Hasenkopf yelled at Dietrich Hirschmann in German. Unfortunately for Rabbithead, I know some German, and what he said was, "Lick me, shithead." I naturally inquired what the hell he was doing once we were in the locker room, to which Gunther replied that Hirschmann had insulted his intelligence in pre-game warmups and referred to the recently completed suspension.

Well, Hirschmann came out fired up, and by extension, the whole Hawaii team. They suddenly were red-hot. Angel Moore calmly responded by catching fire himself. A fierce battle ensued, and it wasn't until the last minute that we were able to break the game open:

I would be remiss if I didn't also point out the Fish Knight's clutch heroics again. On the possession after this, he grabbed the defensive board, was fouled, and hit both free throws to make 61-54 and all but put the game out of reach. Indeed, it was a 62-57 victory.

Angel Moore was 7/15, 5/8 from downtown for 23 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals - his third straight 20+ point Player of the Game outing. The Fish Knight? 10 points, 8 rebounds, a game-high 4 assists, and a block. Richard Bonin had his usually quietly effective 10 points and a block.

Dietrich Hirschmann finished with 20 points of his own, and sophomore Weldon Smith scored a career-high 13, but in the end we were just a tiny bit better at the FT line and behind the arc to eke out a victory, even though we were outshot 48.8% to 44.4%.

No question, though - this is Angel Moore's team. 7-6 (2-0), riding a 3 game winning streak.

@ Cal State-Fullerton (2-10, 1-1)
The Titans finished at the bottom of the Big West last year, and while Dexter Coon has promise, he hasn't delivered on it yet, as he's an undersized 4. Joe Newman, his classmate, is their leading scorer at 10.2 points a game. Third freshman Stanton Perez has a solid jump shot and is a pretty good perimeter defender for this level. Nothing about this team especially frightens me offensively, so we'll keep rolling with Man defense, since that's our greatest proficiency (78 as opposed to 68 for the 2-3 zone that my assistants want me to run).

Fullerton did beat P5 team Washington State and upset Cal Poly on the Mustangs' court, but the latter was a 45-43 fluke, and the Cougars are without question the worst Pac-12 team - on the level of a mid-tier Big West squad. The one worrying note: they're pretty darn good defensively.

We can't buy a bucket in the early going and they're leading, but we finally take over towards the very end of the first half and hold a 26-19 lead. 38.1% from the floor, but the Titans have been truly terrible at 26.1%. Only their 25% from 3 point range to our 12.5% has kept them in it once we started warming up our shooting stroke.

And then the nightmare ensues. Until a late barrage, we score just 4 points in the first 15 minutes of the second half. It's a hard-luck 38-47 loss. Stanton Perez scores 17 with 4 boards and a steal to be PotG. What an absolute horror show. Rickie Burns scores 11, but like everyone on the court not named Perez, he throws a lot of bricks. Both teams shoot 26.2% and under.

Turning the page...

@ UC-Irvine 6-8 (1-2)
At 144, the Anteaters have the second-best RPI in the conference. Even with that, they were 6-12 in conference last season and nobody on this squad likes to be the one to shoot the ball. Still, they're good enough defensively to cause concern, and they also beat Washington State.

We jump out to an 8-0 lead but fritter it away and need a key late 3 pointer by backup center Rolland Younts to tie at 19. The home cooking is offensively generous - we've been whistled for 12 fouls to UCI's 3. The shooting is garbage as usual, with us at 31% and them at 26%, though Angel Moore has 11 points when time expires in the first.

Come out mad at the foul discrepancies and we get our 8 point lead back again, only to lose it again, but then we get it back and the refs finally decide to start whistling the home team for some fouls after swallowing it all game. We emerge 54-44 victors as the Anteaters can't find the right shots (at 39.6% we got close to the 40 line, while UCI improved to 33%).

One of the big reasons we kept losing our early lead? The Fish Knight got hurt just over 6 minutes in, and he's out 24 days with a severely sprained ankle. Thing looked like a damn grapefruit it was so blown up.

So how did we overcome this crushing loss and a 32-9 FTA disadvantage? If you said Angel Moore, pick up your prize. 18 points and a steal on 7/16 shooting (40% behind the arc) for his fourth Player of the Game award. Also contributing: 10 points and a steal by Richard Bonin, and though he went an unsightly 4-13 (including 2/9 from 3), Rabbithead's 11 points, 5 rebounds, a block, and 5 steals - the latter instrumental in our +7 turnover differential (12 to 19).

8-7 (3-1) to officially better last year's mark. But Phyrric victory indeed. Now to figure out how we'll compensate for the loss of the Fish Knight and determine at what percentage health Marlin Chevalier should be put back in. Because my sense is that it gets awfully ugly in terms of our poor post depth.

03-15-2023, 04:11 PM	#8
Izulde Head Coach Join Date: Sep 2004	Code: 2014 Big West Conference Standings TEAM CW CL Pct W L Pct RPI Prestige -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UC Santa Barbara Gauchos 0 0 .000 9 1 .900 292 49 UC Riverside Highlanders 0 0 .000 6 4 .600 105 47 UC Davis Aggies 0 0 .000 6 3 .667 294 38 UC Irvine Anteaters 0 0 .000 5 6 .455 110 16 Cal State Northridge Matadors 0 0 .000 5 6 .455 280 5 Cal Poly Mustangs 0 0 .000 3 7 .300 180 34 Pacific Tigers 0 0 .000 3 7 .300 211 12 Long Beach State 49ers 0 0 .000 3 6 .333 232 16 Hawaii Rainbow Warriors 0 0 .000 2 8 .200 171 18 Cal State Fullerton Titans 0 0 .000 1 9 .100 296 15 Don't let that shoddy RPI fool you - the Gauchos are still very much the class of the conference. Senior Jamaal Eddings is the Big West's lone Blue player and junior Lamar Huntley is a tough-nosed rebounder and post defender at PF. Their entire lineup is Orange or better current, which only the Highlanders can match (though the Mustangs come close at 4 out of 5). Deepest team is UC-Riverside, as the Highlanders brought in three 3 star freshmen, all of whom validated their ranking (being Orange/Green). Not all of them can start, but the stage is set for UC-R to become a dominant team and surpass the Gauchos, who only had Larry Sherlock as matching his ranking. Definitely worthy of a borderline Top 50 class for sure. Projected Top 3 Finish 1. UC-Santa Barbara 2. UC-Riverside 3. Cal Poly Our Achilles heel - Rickie Burns is actually a walk-on freshman as our starting point guard. That's on me for not recruiting the position as intensely as I should have last season. vs Long Beach State (3-6) The 49ers were a surprise Top 3 in conference last season, earning Damian Coffman Big West Coach of the Year honors. This year, they're relying heavily on promising freshman Isidro Lopez and his classmate Dominique Larsen, the latter of whom at Yellow/Green is the most prepared freshman coming into the conference. Daniel Utter and Scott Hager are also in the lineup, meaning LBSU is starting four freshmen and junior Sherwood Ransom, who is a incredibly gifted rebounder and the perfect Robin Hood name. We'll go Man here, as I don't like the spread of 3 point shooters they have. I think this team is actually way better than their record indicates, and Coffman has coaching chops. My assessment is accurate as they jump out to an 8-0 lead, but neither team can hit the broad side of a barn (33%/35% at half). Still, we've fought our way back and scraped to a 22-18 halftime lead - due largely to Rickie Burns' 8 points. We continue to frustrate them in the second half, leading the rest of the way and ping-ponging between 6 and 9 points before the buzzer sounds on a 57-46 Matadors victory. Angel Moore shot all 11 recorded attempts from 3 point range and hit on 5 of them. Add in a perfect 6/6 at the charity stripe and you're looking at his second straight 20+ point Player of the Game performance: 21 points and 6 rebounds in just 26 minutes due to fouls. Rickie Burns scores a surprising 10 - most of it at the free throw line himself - while Rabbithead has a solid 10 point, 5 rebound, 1 steal debut. Richard Bonin nets 10 with a steal. Isidro Lopez had a fun fight with Moore, but finished with 17 points and a block. Scott Hager was Bonin-esque in going 4/4 for 10 points, 5 rebounds, and a block. Dominique Larsen didn't shoot well thanks to 1-7 in triple tries, but still had 10 points, a block, and a steal. Sherwood Ransom literally did nothing but rebound - 0 points, 13 boards. And just like that, we're 6-6 (1-0). vs Hawaii: 2-9 (0-1) The Rainbow Warriors finished just below us last season, but they picked up a 3 point scorer in German Dietrich Hirschmann who is their leading point-getter at 9.6 a game. But that's all he does. Hawaii is without their second-leading scorer David Chen, who is out a month and a half. Good news for us, because Chen is a stealing god, and we're turnover prone. Three freshmen start here - including a Canadian, so in some ways they mirror us. Henri Maton, said Northerner, reminds me a lot of the Fish Knight - solid rebounder, defender, shotblocker, and Thomas Murphy is a decent all-around post for this level. Neither one particularly frighten me, though. What does is that Hawaii packs three decent 3 point shooters with Chen, who can't shoot, out, so we'll stick with Man. RS Junior John Schenk is a defensive stopper at PG, which is something to keep an eye on. We should win this, though. It's almost 4 minutes before the ball goes in the basket, but we emerge 28-24 leaders at the break on Angel Moore's 10 points. The Rainbow Warriors have balanced scoring, but are shooting 36.8%. I have to love how our defense is doing. As the teams were heading to the locker room, Gunther Hasenkopf yelled at Dietrich Hirschmann in German. Unfortunately for Rabbithead, I know some German, and what he said was, "Lick me, shithead." I naturally inquired what the hell he was doing once we were in the locker room, to which Gunther replied that Hirschmann had insulted his intelligence in pre-game warmups and referred to the recently completed suspension. Well, Hirschmann came out fired up, and by extension, the whole Hawaii team. They suddenly were red-hot. Angel Moore calmly responded by catching fire himself. A fierce battle ensued, and it wasn't until the last minute that we were able to break the game open: I would be remiss if I didn't also point out the Fish Knight's clutch heroics again. On the possession after this, he grabbed the defensive board, was fouled, and hit both free throws to make 61-54 and all but put the game out of reach. Indeed, it was a 62-57 victory. Angel Moore was 7/15, 5/8 from downtown for 23 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 steals - his third straight 20+ point Player of the Game outing. The Fish Knight? 10 points, 8 rebounds, a game-high 4 assists, and a block. Richard Bonin had his usually quietly effective 10 points and a block. Dietrich Hirschmann finished with 20 points of his own, and sophomore Weldon Smith scored a career-high 13, but in the end we were just a tiny bit better at the FT line and behind the arc to eke out a victory, even though we were outshot 48.8% to 44.4%. No question, though - this is Angel Moore's team. 7-6 (2-0), riding a 3 game winning streak. @ Cal State-Fullerton (2-10, 1-1) The Titans finished at the bottom of the Big West last year, and while Dexter Coon has promise, he hasn't delivered on it yet, as he's an undersized 4. Joe Newman, his classmate, is their leading scorer at 10.2 points a game. Third freshman Stanton Perez has a solid jump shot and is a pretty good perimeter defender for this level. Nothing about this team especially frightens me offensively, so we'll keep rolling with Man defense, since that's our greatest proficiency (78 as opposed to 68 for the 2-3 zone that my assistants want me to run). Fullerton did beat P5 team Washington State and upset Cal Poly on the Mustangs' court, but the latter was a 45-43 fluke, and the Cougars are without question the worst Pac-12 team - on the level of a mid-tier Big West squad. The one worrying note: they're pretty darn good defensively. We can't buy a bucket in the early going and they're leading, but we finally take over towards the very end of the first half and hold a 26-19 lead. 38.1% from the floor, but the Titans have been truly terrible at 26.1%. Only their 25% from 3 point range to our 12.5% has kept them in it once we started warming up our shooting stroke. And then the nightmare ensues. Until a late barrage, we score just 4 points in the first 15 minutes of the second half. It's a hard-luck 38-47 loss. Stanton Perez scores 17 with 4 boards and a steal to be PotG. What an absolute horror show. Rickie Burns scores 11, but like everyone on the court not named Perez, he throws a lot of bricks. Both teams shoot 26.2% and under. Turning the page... @ UC-Irvine 6-8 (1-2) At 144, the Anteaters have the second-best RPI in the conference. Even with that, they were 6-12 in conference last season and nobody on this squad likes to be the one to shoot the ball. Still, they're good enough defensively to cause concern, and they also beat Washington State. We jump out to an 8-0 lead but fritter it away and need a key late 3 pointer by backup center Rolland Younts to tie at 19. The home cooking is offensively generous - we've been whistled for 12 fouls to UCI's 3. The shooting is garbage as usual, with us at 31% and them at 26%, though Angel Moore has 11 points when time expires in the first. Come out mad at the foul discrepancies and we get our 8 point lead back again, only to lose it again, but then we get it back and the refs finally decide to start whistling the home team for some fouls after swallowing it all game. We emerge 54-44 victors as the Anteaters can't find the right shots (at 39.6% we got close to the 40 line, while UCI improved to 33%). One of the big reasons we kept losing our early lead? The Fish Knight got hurt just over 6 minutes in, and he's out 24 days with a severely sprained ankle. Thing looked like a damn grapefruit it was so blown up. So how did we overcome this crushing loss and a 32-9 FTA disadvantage? If you said Angel Moore, pick up your prize. 18 points and a steal on 7/16 shooting (40% behind the arc) for his fourth Player of the Game award. Also contributing: 10 points and a steal by Richard Bonin, and though he went an unsightly 4-13 (including 2/9 from 3), Rabbithead's 11 points, 5 rebounds, a block, and 5 steals - the latter instrumental in our +7 turnover differential (12 to 19). 8-7 (3-1) to officially better last year's mark. But Phyrric victory indeed. Now to figure out how we'll compensate for the loss of the Fish Knight and determine at what percentage health Marlin Chevalier should be put back in. Because my sense is that it gets awfully ugly in terms of our poor post depth. __________________ 2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty)