It gets really ugly in the paint with the
Fish Knight out. My assistants want to start 6'5
Rolland Yount, which, no. I refuse to start a center that short. Instead,
Richard Bonin moves down to CE and I start
Gary Garner at PF, who is the least bad of our awful options.
Upon the recommendation of my staff, we increase the press and trap a little to overcome our loss of rebounding and defense (now at 3 each). I smell bloodbaths coming.
vs UC-Riverside 8-5 (2-1)
There's never a good time to go up against one of the Big West's two elite teams, but having to go against All-Conference 1st Team CE
Jesus Dragon and elite rebounder [b]Lance Hernandez[/b ] without
Chevalier is not a good feeling. I can't think of a single advantage we have - maybe at the wing spots, where
Angel Moore and
Rabbithead can go toe-to-toe and best
George Calabrese and
Bradley Kropp, but we're so out-classed everywhere else, and the Highlanders are only starting one of their four freshmen... I just don't see how we even keep it close.
Imagine my shock when we go out there and blow the doors off them in the first half, shooting 53.8% to their 30% in taking a commanding 38-25 halftime lead.
Jesus Dragon is indeed beasting with 10 points and 7 boards, but
Gunther Hasenkopf is determined to make good for his faux pas last game and is scorching UCR for 15 points at the break.
I don't expect it to hold and that feeling grows as
Gunther Hasenkopf gets into quick foul trouble in the second half and is out early, finishing with 15 points and 6 rebounds in 27 minutes. But
Rickie Burns the walk-on frosh defies expectations, shooting well for 14 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, and a steal, and wins Player of the Game in a shocking 65-54 upset win!
Angel Moore is 4/4 from 2 point range, 0-6 from 3, and finishes with 10 points, 5 rebounds, and a steal.
Aldo Tucker steps up big when
Rabbithead (who was 3-6 from downtown), with 10 points and 6 boards. And that's with wasting our FTs, where we shot just 48.3% to the Highlanders' 74.2%.
Jesus Dragon dominated as expected with 18 points and 8 rebounds, and
Lance Hernadez (11 points, 13 rebounds, 1 block) does indeed make mincemeat of
Richard Bonin. In counterpoint, my hunch about our wing advantage was correct:
Bradley Kropp fouled out after just 17 minutes of court time, and
George Calabrese scored just 8 points on 1/4 shots (6 of 8 from the charity stripe), though he did have a game-high 5 assists, a block, and a steal.
Rabbithead flat-out torched Kropp, and
Moore played slightly better than
Calabrese
Even give all that, how did we win - by double digits no less? Three factors: 1. We were 46.8% from the floor to their 34.9%. 2. We made 7 treys, they made 1 of 12. 3. The aforementioned perimeter play advantage we enjoyed.
Jesse Calabrese is a true freshman as well, but he scored exactly 0 points, and got thoroughly... well... burned by the walk-on
Burns.
What a fabulous, monumental victory.
vs UC-Santa Barbara 12-2 (3-1)
So, funny story.
CSU-Fullerton and us are tied for the Big West lead at 4-1. We both play grinding, low-tempo basketball, only the Titans have the defensive chops to make it work in this league. The Gauchos are still the class of the league. They were upset 63-66 in a fluke home loss to Cal Poly, but recall that I had the Mustangs as a Top 3 team anyway.
Jamaal Eddings,
Charles Hubbard, and
Lee Chadwick are all in double-digit scoring per game, so we have to hope that we're able to assert a low tempo game again if we want to pull off our second straight upset.
Doesn't happen. We make it look respectable for a while in the first half, and there's very entertaining guard play - 22 points and 2 steals for
Angel Moore, 15 points and 2 steals for
Rickie Burns vs 17 and 15 with a steal each for
Ronald Maurice and
Jamaal Eddings. But that's about it. We actually held Eddings to just 21 minutes because of fouls. Yet, there was no chance when
Charles Hubbard abuses
Bonin for 23 points and a block. And
Gunter Hasenkopf just could not get anything to fall tonight as we fall 75-59.
@ Cal Poly 6-10 (3-2)
The Mustangs are way better than this. But starting point guard and #2 scorer
Ward Parker is out with injury, and they're having to play a converted SF as his replacement because they have the same lack of bench options that we do at center. But they have balanced scoring and really good players at the wing spots in
Mark Crowder and freshman
David Montes. And freshman big man
Chris Perry should crush
Bonin. If the
Fish Knight was active, I'd give us a fighting chance, but he's still out. So I think it's going to be like against the Gauchos - we'll have a couple players go off, but center will be the difference. I'll switch to the zone and see if
Montes blows up on us.
The zone is doing its work as we lead most of the first half, until we collapse in the last couple of minutes and go down 23-28 at the break.
Chris Perry is asserting his will with 14 points and 6 rebounds, while both teams are embarrassing at the charity stripe (33%!)
They hit everything and we hit nothing in the second half, losing by 20. Disgusting.
Chris Perry is PotG with 19 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 steals, while
Gary Garner puts up 10 points, 8 rebounds, a block, and 2 steals, as he's the only one who came ready to play.
@ UC-Davis 9-7 (3-3)
The Aggies have a stud in
Ernie Keesee (Green/Green), and
Thomas Rowland is having an excellent sophomore season, scoring 11 on great efficiency. I actually think he's way better than the scouts paint him as in the color scale. Solid defenders up and down the lineup. Back to Man on this one. It's another tough ask.
Lively back and forth in the early going until they go up by 9. But we claw back and
Rickie Burns hits a buzzer layup to put us down by only one 28-29. But we've been hot and they've been cold outside of
Keesee, who already has 14 points, so I'm not willing to bet on our keeping it close - much less get on top.
Imagine my shock when we stay hot and they stay cold. We seize the lead and never lose it, winning handily, 60-48.
Rabbithead and
Angel Moore combined to shoot 60% (6-10) from long-range, both finishing with 16 points.
Hasenkopf is PotG as he also picks up 7 rebounds and 2 steals, while plucky
Rickie Burns has 10 points and a steal.
We outshot them massively from the field (54% to 34%), the line (84% to 53%) and behind the arc (57% to 28.6%).
Keesee was held to 0 second half points and Rowland was 0 for 8, with 2 points on FTs. It was absolute domination (Side note: Because I have the AI coach games, a lot of times it's Rabbithead at SG, Moore at SF because that's what the AI likes even though I try to force the opposite).
Just beautiful. 10-9 (5-3) as we officially have equaled last year's Big West wins just under halfway through the conference season.
vs Pacific 4-15 (1-7)
Now I have to answer the question: Is 86% of the
Fish Knight better than what we've been putting out there? And do I want to risk it at home against the Tigers, who I had slated as the absolute worst team in the conference, and they've lived up to that billing? I don't know the answer to the first, but the second is no. So I hold him out, and because there's zero 3 point shooters on this terrible opponent, we flip back to the zone.
I'm looking smart when we're up by 10 and they don't score until 6 minutes in. And it's 8 minutes to go in the half before the Tigers even have 10 points. But then they got hot and it's just 28-25 after they get two free FTs at the buzzer on
Frank Ullrich's boneheaded foul. I'm FUMING and rip into the boys in the locker room.
Excuse me. I'm going to go throw shit. Like a chair.
Code:
Pacific 52, Cal State Northridge 50
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Pacific (5-15, 2-7):
Player Pos Min Fgm-a Ftm-a Off Reb Ast PF Pts
Dorian Cahoon C 34 6-11 1-2 3 7 1 3 13
Toby Shiver PF 33 3-6 0-0 1 4 2 4 6
Rickie Williams SF 22 2-6 2-3 2 6 1 4 6
Scott Benfield SG 18 1-7 0-0 2 5 2 4 2
Andrew Jensen PG 32 4-5 0-0 1 1 3 1 8
Norman Jorge C 7 1-3 1-2 2 3 0 1 3
Isaiah Hyder SG 17 2-3 2-4 1 2 0 1 6
Adan Warren PG 7 0-0 0-0 0 1 0 0 0
Kevin Aldrich SF 17 1-3 2-2 2 3 0 2 4
Nicolás Diaz SG 12 2-5 0-0 0 3 3 1 4
Jerry Quinlan SG 1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0
Turnovers: 14 (D.Cahoon 1, T.Shiver 3, R.Williams 1,
S.Benfield 2, A.Jensen 3, K.Aldrich 2, N.Diaz 1,
J.Quinlan 1)
Blocked Shots: 3 (T.Shiver 2, I.Hyder 1)
Steals: 5 (T.Shiver 1, S.Benfield 2, A.Jensen 1,
I.Hyder 1)
3P FGs: 0-1 (N.Diaz 0-1)
Cal State Northridge (10-10, 5-4):
Player Pos Min Fgm-a Ftm-a Off Reb Ast PF Pts
Richard Bonin C 32 3-6 1-3 2 7 2 2 7
Gary Garner PF 28 2-2 4-4 2 3 1 4 8
Gunther Hasenkopf SF 25 2-8 0-0 1 2 2 3 4
Angel Moore SG 32 3-13 7-8 3 7 0 2 15
Rickie Burns PG 36 2-6 0-0 2 4 1 1 5
Aldo Tucker SF 21 2-5 2-5 1 3 0 1 6
Rolland Younts C 12 1-3 1-1 0 0 0 2 3
Bryan Cruz PG 3 0-0 2-4 0 1 0 1 2
Frank Ullrich SG 3 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0
Gary Waldo PF 4 0-0 0-0 1 3 0 0 0
Emerson Kane C 4 0-0 0-2 0 0 0 0 0
Turnovers: 11 (R.Bonin 2, G.Hasenkopf 4, A.Moore 1,
R.Burns 1, A.Tucker 2, B.Cruz 1)
Blocked Shots: 0
Steals: 4 (R.Bonin 2, G.Hasenkopf 1, G.Waldo 1)
3P FGs: 3-17 (G.Hasenkopf 0-2, A.Moore 2-8, R.Burns
1-4, A.Tucker 0-2, R.Younts 0-1)
Still no decision on our last recruit. Here's the conference standings heading into March:
Code:
2014 Big West Conference Standings
TEAM CW CL Pct W L Pct RPI Prestige
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UC Santa Barbara Gauchos 8 1 .889 17 2 .895 154 49
Cal Poly Mustangs 7 2 .778 10 10 .500 116 34
UC Riverside Highlanders 6 3 .667 12 7 .632 111 47
Cal State Northridge Matadors 5 4 .556 10 10 .500 246 5
UC Davis Aggies 5 4 .556 11 8 .579 284 38
UC Irvine Anteaters 5 4 .556 10 10 .500 155 16
Cal State Fullerton Titans 5 4 .556 6 14 .300 258 15
Pacific Tigers 2 7 .222 5 15 .250 287 12
Hawaii Rainbow Warriors 1 8 .111 3 17 .150 322 18
Long Beach State 49ers 1 8 .111 5 14 .263 262 16
We could be up there with the Highlanders, but no, we had to suffer a bullroar fluke loss to freaking PACIFIC of all teams to be best of the rest. Ugh. Really, really angry right now. At least the
Fish Knight is definitely back next game.