We dip down a prestige point to 4. Three scholarships this year, but bad news as the only person who's really into us is a grossly undersized center. We fall in love with
PG Lamar Dickman right away and offer him even before Malcom goes to scout.
C Randy Peterson becomes our second target,
SF Rich Demello our third.
Recruiting quickly turns into a nightmare and we're striking out on every single one of our targets, so we pull out on all of them but
Randy Peterson and offer
PG Rocco Mitchum and
C Andrew Robertson as replacements.
PG Rocco Mitchum signs with Hofstra and
C Andrew Robertson goes with DePaul in the early signing period. There's no chance on
Randy Peterson, so we pull the plug on him, too
C Rod Jones and
PG Mack Rasmussen are new offers along with
PG Grady Chong, already a 2* prospect. That's how bad things are this year.
Once again nobody's willing to redshirt, the fools.
Bryant Bulldogs 2015-16 Starting Lineup
PG Hershel Gaughan (Jr)*
Just barely beats out true freshman
Craig Smith for the starting spot. Terrible shooter, but we need his floor generalship for now. I still don't have that ideal floor general I'm looking for.
SG Junior Dillard (Sr)
Half-time starter last year, our best jumpshooter and my first ever recruit finally becomes a full-time starter in his senior year. Played well last season, but he'll also have to replace
Andrew Hinshaw, which is a tough gig. I think he can do it, though.
SF Blair Isley (Sr)*
My first ever All-Conference recruit, an All-Northeast 2nd Team last season. I don't have anything in the pipeline to replace him, and the one SF prospect I targeted quickly spurned us. We'll have to run with a three guard set next year and that's going to suck. Here's to hoping he can have a great final year.
PF Lance Tully (So)*
Took over as the starter halfway through the season last year and he simply outplayed
David Lilly. Mr. Basketball Rhode Island showed flashes of greatness his first year; now let's see if he can put it all together.
C Joaqin Bravo (Fr)
Quite simply, I believe in the Spainard as the future, so I'm going to ride with him over
Lester Henning. We'll see just how well that works out.
This is the first year where I've had all my own recruits, so the pressure is really on.
Scholarship Players by State
Massachusetts: 1
Maryland: 1
Michigan: 1
North Carolina: 3
New York: 2
Rhode Island: 2
Canada: 1
Spain: 1
Interesting. I seem to be building something of a pipeline to North Carolina, and all three of the players (Isley, Smith,
Craig Curtiss are either starters, future starters, or have been starters.
Our annual Ivy League setup begins with a frustrating 85-81 loss at home to Yale of all teams. 19 points from
Blair Isley, 11 from
Junior Dillard. I fear for our future if it's only our seniors who are going to step up this year.
We zip past NJIT 82-76 for our first win of the year.
Junior Dillard scores 17,
Blair Isley adds 12,
Hershel Gaughan 11, and
Lester Henning pops off the bench for 10 points.
Our first road game is a balanced 81-68 win over Howard.
Blair Isley leads the way with 16 points and 2 steals and he's joined by
Junior Dillard's 13 points and 10 points each from
Hershel Gaughan and
Lance Tully.
Out in California, we destroy CSU-Bakersfield 87-53 on 24 points a piece from
Blair Isley and
Napoleon "Dynamite Flash" Gordon, who goes gangbusters off the bench.
A triumphant return home sees a 94-81 scorefest over UMBC, keyed by
Blair Isley's 28 points on 11/12 shooting. He's joined by
Napoleon "Dynamite Flash" Gordon's 12 bench points and 10 points each from
Lester Henning,
Junior Dillard, and
Joaquin Bravo in the freshman's first double-digit scoring game.
4-1 at the end of November. What a fantastic start to the year! Our only loss was a close one, too. Granted, we've been playing fellow bottom-feeder teams, but after one month,
we already have almost half as many victories as we had all last season.
We revoke our offer to
Rod Jones at the end of the month as he's clearly not interested.
SF Gregory Tucker goes on the list as a possible Isley replacement. We're currently in the lead on
Grady Chong and
Mack Rasmussen, thanks largely to our scholarship offers.
December kicks off with an 89-61 rout of Loyola-Marymount on the road.
Blair Isley scores 20 and steals 3, while
Lance Tully scores 14 and
David Lilly and
Craig Smith each chip in 10 bench points. The win's not without cost, though, as
Lester Henning stress fractures his way to a little over a month out. I hope this doesn't kick off a rash of injuries now.
I walk the grounds of Princeton University with heartache. Not because of the game, which we won 84-73 on
Blair Isley's 32 points and
Junior Dillard and
Chris Curtiss's 13 and 10 points, but because this still remains the one school I love more than any other in the entire world. I don't linger too long, because Cortez sees me getting depressed and hustles me on to the team bus, distracting me with a lurid tale of coke and whores in the Bahamas.
Oh, how it hurts.
The road trek continues out to pretty Pepperdine, where the Waves crash our six game win streak 99-70. 14 points from
Junior Dillard, with a team high 15 points from
David Lilly.
Chris Curtiss and
Napoleon "Dynamite Flash" Gordon each score 12,
but Blair Isley was held to 0 of 8 shooting, easily his worst outing of the year.
All these road games are exhausting, and we come out flat two nights later against Maine, losing 82-68.
Joaquin Bravo goes down with a 3 week stress fracture of his own. Suiting up at center in his place is
Chris Curtiss, who has had a very good season off the bench thus far.
That injury offstrides us and we fall 70-61 to Columbia in our first home game in a long time. Can't blame
Chris Curtiss, who put up 18 points and 10 rebounds, or
David Lilly, who had 11 bench points.
Back out on the road and a 73-60 loss to Northern Arizona. All the great gains we made have gone, and, outside of
Blair Isley's 11 points, we play like shit.
And just like that, we're back at .500 overall, losing 90-82 at home in the Northeast opener to Mount St. Mary's. I'm so disgusted I don't have the heart to record notable statistics.
Code:
2015 Northeast Conference Standings
TEAM CW CL Pct W L Pct RPI Prestige
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
St. Francis-PA 1 0 1.000 7 4 .636 61 9
Mount St. Mary's 1 0 1.000 4 7 .364 302 23
Robert Morris 1 0 1.000 4 7 .364 329 32
Wagner 1 0 1.000 3 7 .300 328 29
Sacred Heart 1 0 1.000 3 9 .250 284 22
Fairleigh Dickinson 1 0 1.000 2 10 .167 213 19
Bryant University 0 1 .000 6 6 .500 324 4
Monmouth 0 1 .000 5 6 .455 70 20
St. Francis-NY 0 1 .000 4 7 .364 185 20
Quinnipiac 0 1 .000 2 9 .182 282 30
Long Island 0 1 .000 2 10 .167 223 11
Central Connecticut State 0 1 .000 1 10 .091 293 20
St. Francis (PA) looks like the early favorites, but otherwise it feels very wide open this year.
On the plus side, we get commits from
SF Gregory Tucker out of Plymouth South High School in Plymouth, MA and
PG Grady Chong from Hagerstown High in Hagerstown, IN. True, they're 2* prospects, but considering how bad recruiting started, I'll take it.
Loss #6 in a row, 84-69 @ Qunnipiac, nevermind
Junior Dillard's 20 points or
David Lilly's 10 bench points.
Joaquin Bravo finally returns and we snap the streak, 87-79 over Robert Morris.
Napoleon "Dynamite Flash" Gordon zips and zags for 22 bench points,
David Lilly adds 10 bench points, and
Blair Isley and
Hershel Gaughan highlight the starters with 17 and 13 points respectively.
We're at .500 in Northeast play following a 67-56 win over Central Connecticut State.
Napoleon "Dynamite Flash" Gordon and
Lance Tully carry us with 13 and 10 points.
Lester Henning returns but Wagner crushes us 95-58 at their place in our ugliest game of the year. So ugly, I get drunk immediately after and forgot it ever happened.
We come back home and win 81-60 over Long Island
to already equal our win total from last year. It's
Blair Isley with 22 points and
Napoleon "Dynamite Flash" Gordon with 11 bench points, but the big story is
Hershel Gaughan with 11 points and 11 assists, which I believe is the first double-double by a PG since I've been here.
67 points is good enough to knock off Sacred Heart on the road, who had 53.
Blair Isley is again lead scorer with 15 points, but
Junior Dillard's 11 points and
Joaquin Bravo's 10 points certainly don't hurt.
We win 87-81 in St. Francis (PA) on
Napoleon "Dynamite Flash" Gordon's 19 bench points,
Junior Dillard's 17 points, and
Blair Isley's 13 points. Great to see.
An 83-74 home win over Monmouth is engineered by
Lester Henning's 16 points and 7 rebounds off the bench, fellow second teamer
David Lilly's 12 bench points,
Blair Isley's 11 points, and
Joaquin Bravo's 9 point, 8 rebound, block and steal all-around great outing. The students are really starting to get excited about this year's team now.
Lester Henning is again fantastic off the bench, this time for 20 points and 8 rebounds.
Junior Dillard and
Blair Isley each score 17,
Joaquin Bravo 10, as we lacerate Long Island 91-69 on their court.
As if that wasn't enough, we lock up a 3* recruit for the year in Pennsylvania All-State
PG Mack Rasmussen from Frazier High in Perryopolis.
Code:
#21 PG Mack Rasmussen
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Height: 6-5
Weight: 196
High School: Frazier High School
Hometown: Perryopolis, PA
GPA: 2.38
Test Score: 990
Rating: ***
Attributes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Type INS JPS FTS 3PS HND PAS ORB DRB PSD PRD STL BLK QKN STR JMP STA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Current: 42 23 61 59 61 44 41 40 5 13 52 43 93 22 91 17
Potential: C C B C B B B A F F A C
Season Stats:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PTS OREB REB AST TOS A/T STL BLK PFS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.3 1.7 10.8 4.7 2.4 1.94 3.6 1.3 2.5
Shooting Averages:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FGM FGA FG% FTM FTA FT% 3PM 3PA 3P%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.4 18.1 .463 1.9 2.7 .698 1.7 5.3 .324
Recruiting Notes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Qualified: Yes
Committed to Bryant University
Rankings: East Region #48 Overall, East Region #9 PG
High School Awards: All-State
Top 5 Schools: *Bryant University, Drake, Maryland, Syracuse, Boston College
He also breaks the Bryant school record for highest ever recruit ranking at #361! As you can see, he has the size to be able to play anywhere 1-3 and it'll be interesting to see where he ultimately ends up playing for us.
But wait, there's more!
Code:
2015 Northeast Conference Standings
TEAM CW CL Pct W L Pct RPI Prestige
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bryant University 7 3 .700 13 8 .619 266 4
Fairleigh Dickinson 6 4 .600 7 14 .333 239 19
St. Francis-PA 6 4 .600 12 8 .600 174 9
Mount St. Mary's 6 4 .600 9 11 .450 308 23
Quinnipiac 6 4 .600 8 12 .400 275 30
Central Connecticut State 5 5 .500 6 14 .300 320 20
St. Francis-NY 5 5 .500 9 11 .450 272 20
Robert Morris 5 5 .500 8 12 .400 318 32
Monmouth 4 6 .400 9 11 .450 228 20
Sacred Heart 4 6 .400 6 15 .286 322 22
Wagner 3 7 .300 5 14 .263 344 29
Long Island 3 7 .300 5 16 .238 317 11
That's right. Bryant University is currently on top of the Northeast Conference. Absolutely no one, including me, saw that coming. While there was still a whole month of games to be played, we'd never been first in the conference at any point in my time here, or before that, especially not this late in the season.
Other Notes:
-We were 1 win away from tying the school record under me
-We were 3 wins away from a winning conference record, which also would have been a first.
That tie came with a 101-79 road destruction of Mt. Saint Mary's.
Hershel Gaughan was terrific with 17 points, 6 assists,and 3 steals.
Napoleon "Dynamite Flash" Gordon led us in scoring with 18 points.
Blair Isley chipped in 15 points,
Chris Curtiss 13 bench points. It was a huge win, especially since the Mount was one of the cluster of teams directly underneath us.
The biggest home crowd of my tenure groaned as our six game losing streak came to an end, 86-82 against Wagner. They just match up really well against us. 18, 16, 12 points from
Junior Dillard,
Blair Isley, and Napoleon "Dynamite Flash" Gordon[/b], as we stayed in it despite shooting a terrible 37.5%.
Our next home game was much happier, a 71-65 victory over St. Francis (PA) that a) broke my season wins record and b) guaranteed at least a .500 finish in Northeast play, which would tie my best season.
Blair Isley scored 16, but
Lester Henning's team-high 18 points and 6 rebounds off the bench is what really won us that important game.
We sewed up a winning Northeast record by beating Quinnipiac 89-74 at our place.
David Lilly captained a balanced attack with 14 points and a whole host of 10 point players:
Blair Isley,
Joaquin Bravo,
Lester Henning, and
Chris Curtiss.
St. Francis (NY) handed our asses to us 86-67 to ruin our guarantee of a winning homestand.
David Lilly was great with 15 bench points and
Hershel Gaughan was efficient with his 12 points, but we sucked for the most part.
Robert Morris took us out 91-84 in the biggest game of my career on our turf. I was so mad I didn't make note of anything or take to anyone afterwards. Winning that game would have all but guaranteed at least a 2 seed in the Northeast conference tournament. Now we'd have to dig deep to get it, and the title was slipping out of our grasp.
Nerves got to us in an 86-55 road loss to Central Connecticut State and we flamed out 107-89 at Fairleigh-Dickinson to end the regular season on a four game losing skid. Shades of our first two months...
Code:
2015 Northeast Conference Standings
TEAM CW CL Pct W L Pct RPI Prestige
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fairleigh Dickinson 13 5 .722 14 15 .483 164 19
St. Francis-NY 11 7 .611 15 13 .536 234 20
Bryant University 10 8 .556 16 13 .552 292 4
Robert Morris 10 8 .556 13 15 .464 257 32
Sacred Heart 10 8 .556 12 17 .414 300 22
Mount St. Mary's 9 9 .500 12 16 .429 270 23
Monmouth 9 9 .500 14 14 .500 245 20
Quinnipiac 8 10 .444 10 18 .357 299 30
St. Francis-PA 8 10 .444 14 14 .500 228 9
Central Connecticut State 8 10 .444 9 19 .321 317 20
Wagner 6 12 .333 8 19 .296 342 29
Long Island 6 12 .333 8 21 .276 322 11
Still, I couldn't be totally upset.
It was the first guaranteed winning overall season in school history, or at least my history and we'd finished in a 3 way tie for third place.
And indeed, we won the #3 seed in the Northeast tournament, only the second time we'd made the conference tournament and the first time as an upper seed.
We played #6 seed Mt. Saint Mary's in the first round
and we won 75-65 for my first career postseason victory. There was no way
SF Blair Isley was going to let his college ball end there, scoring 21 points.
David Lilly played great off the bench with 11 points and 8 rebounds and
Napoleon "Dynamite Flash" Gordon matched those 11 points.
Lester Henning added 10 points of his own.
Next up was 5 seed Sacred Heart, who'd pulled off a minor upset of Robert Morris. Biggest upset though was Monmouth taking out 2 seed St. Francis (NY).
We routed Sacred Heart 91-70 to advance to the Northeast final!! Again
Blair Isley rose to the occassion, scoring 26. Fellow senior
Junior Dillard chimed in with 16 points and
Napoleon "Dynamite Flash" Gordon, as he had so many times in this miracle season, led the reserves with 11 points.
7 seed Monmouth stunned 1 seed Fairleigh-Dickinson for the other half of the final. And so we would be playing the one school whose gymnasium I remembered most when I was a kid.
This was it. The Big Time. A nationally televised game on ESPN2. All my friends, in Las Vegas, on FOFC, all across the country and the world, whether on TV or online feed, watching me, Izulde Jestor, lead my Bryant Bulldogs in the Northeast Conference Championship Final. My parents, too, still in Wisconsin, watching, and all my relatives.
The Bryant campus was abuzz with excitement and frenzy in the days marching up to the championship game. A victory over the Hawks, and we'd be go dancing for the first time in school history.
Shortly before gametime, Schwarzy came in the locker room with a box and a big smile, "I have a present for you guys."
We all turned and looked at him.
He opened the box with a grand flourish and announced, "Congratulations. You all get jerseys with your names on the back of them. Pretty hard for people to tell who is who without names, after all."
The players and coaches laughed, the former queueing up for their jerseys from John while I go over to Schwarzy, "I really appreciate this, but why now?"
"Because you've lived up to your end of the bargain and then some," he said, watching the happy players pull on their new uniforms. "Besides, I thought you guys could use the moment of levity."
I nodded my thanks and after everyone settled down, took a deep breath. Only the most important speech of my coaching career, right?
"I want you guys to know that we can win today. But don't take Monmouth lightly. Remember, this is a team that just knocked off the #2 and #1 seeds in the conference and they did it by pretty damn good margins. Let's just do the good things we've done all year and especially in the last two games. Everything else will take care of itself."
The roar from the sellout crowd as we headed out for the announcement of the starting lineups was stupendous. Even with my bad hearing, I definitely got the lustful energy of the onlookers loud and clear.
Hershel Gaughan. Junior Dillard. Blair Isley. Lance Tully. Joaquin Bravo. Napoleon "Dynamite Flash" Gordon. David Lilly. Lester Henning. And all the rest. All my guys that I, Cortez, and Malcolm scouted and recruited, and that I and John had trained and built up to this moment.
The opening tipoff commenced, and everything else washed away.
What followed was the greatest defensive game we played all year. We held Monmouth to 35.2% shooting, including 2 of 12 from behind the arc. 53 points for the Hawks, but would it be enough?
Lance Tully just missed the double-double with 10 points and 9 rebounds and
Junior Dillard scored 15 points.
But Blair Isley got shut down, scoring just 2 points all night as Monmouth gameplanned around him.
And then, coming off the bench,
Chris Curtiss, the senior I'd started three straight seasons over John's objections, and who had filled in admirably in four starts this year.
He hit all 5 of his shots finishing with 12 points and earning Player of the Game
as we won 67-53 and the automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Everybody was crying happy tears on our bench and the players rushed me, lifting me on their collective shoulders as they carried me out on the court to cut down one of the nets.
I've had a lot of beautiful moments in my life, but few can match the joy I felt as I reached out with scissors and snipped away that gleaming, new net.
Bryant Bulldogs. Northeast Conference Tournament Champions. NCAA Tournament team.
Wonderful.
A few moments later, over on the other side, the three scholarship seniors, Blair, Chris, and Junior, simultaneously cut the other net and hugged each other.
My first recruiting class was going out knowing the thrill of March Madness.
For a small liberal arts college that few have heard of, I could not imagine a sweeter ending.