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01-02-2006, 07:25 AM
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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FBCB: Northwestern St. (Tie in with FBB dynasty)
I've been coaching the Northwestern St. Demons for 7 successful season so far. Before I took over the team in 2003-04 I auto-simmed from 1939-40 to generate some history, and imported all the draft classes through to FBB (See my FBB Atlanta Hawks dynasty). My house rules for this dynasty is that I'm not allowed to accept any other coaching offers and I have to at least try and recruit a player from our home state (LA) each season. I normally make that player the LA Mr. Basketball, unless he happens to be too highly ranked to bother with.
Here's a look at our team's performance since I took over the reigns: Code:
The team had been to the NCAAs only once in the 25 years before I arrived on campus, so I've managed to turn things around somewhat, and the Sweet Sixteen appearance marks the furthest I've ever gotten in this game with any team.
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce Last edited by Groundhog : 04-03-2006 at 07:47 PM. |
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01-02-2006, 07:35 AM
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#2 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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2010 Coaching Staff
Here we are... only newcomer this season is our recruiting coordinator:
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce |
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01-02-2006, 08:43 AM
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#3 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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2010 Recruiting
Targets:
I have two seniors graduating this year; SG Kevin McGlone, who will get a chance to start this season, and C William Davis, purely a spot minute backup for the front court. I'm going to be targetting a SF/SG and a C/PF to fill in their positions. July Recruiting: July is the initial month of recruiting, where you add players to your scouting list, reveal their scouted attributes, etc. The good news for us is that Louisiana has some talent available this year, with 3 top 50 recruits! We go after the two lowest ranked of the trio, evaluating PF Pawel Elgin (#29 overall, 10.9PPG, 6.7RPG, 1.3BPG, Low interest) & Ronnie Brown (#65 overall, 15.4PPG, 5.7RPG, 2.7SPG, Average interest), along with a 14 other in-state and Southeastern region talents. It's really all just guess work until you get some ratings to look at next month. August Recruiting: We narrowed our list down to 4 players, none of them the top 100 players we looked at. The first guy is 6'10 230lbs C Bryant Valentine out of Mississippi, #117 in the country. He's got a scorer's mentality, can hit the boards and defend, but he is yet to qualify academically, so we are taking a risk with him. His interest level is high. Second guy is 6'9 266lbs PF Michael Henderson out of Lousiana, #162 in the country. Henderson isn't much of a scorer but is a gifted defender and shot blocker. His interest level is average. Third guy is 6'8 217lbs PF Antwan Coleman out of North Carolina, #188 in the country. Coleman is another scorer, but isn't a great rebounder at this stage of his career. His interest level is average. Last guy is 6'8 212lbs SF David Isaac out of Virginia, #153. Isaac can fill the scoreboard but needs work on his D. September Recruiting: Hrm, not good. Bryan Valentine interest level raises to Very High, but he still hasn't qualified. His GPA is 2.38, and his SAT is sitting at 800. I don't know the rules behind this GPA/SAT stuff, but I imagine his SAT needs to be at around 900ish with a GPA of 2.38. My other 3 recruits are all still sitting at average interest, and there are some big schools looking at them. If none of them improve after this month I am going to cut them lose and look elsewhere. October Recruiting: Valentine is still very interested, but he is still yet to qualify... not good. The others are all still just average interest, but PF Antwan Coleman has us ranked #2 behind Michigan St., who have not offered him a scholarship, so we are in with a chance. The other 2 guys we let go, and I start looking at other swingmen. November Recruiting: We make a big decision to rescind the scholarship offer to Antwan Coleman and instead give it to 6'9 238lbs SF Ralph Fagan, out of Virginia. Fagan hasn't had any scholarship offers and is ranked #172 in the nation. He is a strong shooter and defender and fits the mould of the kind of players I like at SF. His interest in us is very high, and we are #1 on his list. Valentine still hasn't qualified.
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce |
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01-02-2006, 09:06 AM
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#4 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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2010 Season Preview
2010 Athletic Director Notes:
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My Comments: I can understand the high expectations, given that we are coming off a Sweet 16 appearance, but we lost 3 starters who also happened to be our top 3 scorers, and this is our youngest roster ever. A repeat of last year's performance is incredibly unlikely, but I should at the very least compete for the conference championship. 2010 Roster Code:
2010 Starting Line-up: Code:
Strategy: Last season we pressed and trapped all game, every game, and were deadly from the perimeter, but also had enough scoring inside to take over when our shooting was off. We don't have nearly the depth this year, nor do we have the ball-hawks on roster to press for the steals. Despite this, we will still full-court press and play a man-to-man defense. Our pace is set to 5, our motion bumped up a notch to 6 due to the lack of great individual scorers, and our 3pt usage is taken down to 6. Final Coach Comments: I'm worried that my 20-wins a season streak may break this year. This roster is young and lacks dominant scorers, so someone is going to have to step up. At this early stage I'm hoping it will be SG Kevin McGlone who performed well as 6th man last year. PG is probably my biggest concern however. I've been spoilt in that I've never had a 'bad' PG start for me yet at Northwestern St., and while Freshman Darryl Washington is hardly 'bad', he's not close to being the kind of player I like handling the ball for big minutes. I believe he is going to be the key to our success this year.
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce |
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01-02-2006, 09:11 AM
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#5 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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2010 Schedule
2010 Schedule:
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My Comments: Probably about the normal strength of schedule I take, with maybe one less top tier team than usual. Still, this is far from a pushover, with the Utah, Mississippi St. and Hawaii games in particular being anything but cupcakes. I'm not too concerned with our out of conference play this year. We may currently be ranked #25 in the pre-season poll, but that is way unrealistic with such a roster, and I'm expecting my fair share of losses. By the time conference play starts I should have a decent amount of time to make adjustments and have this team winning ballgames... I hope.
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce |
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01-04-2006, 01:13 AM
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#6 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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2010 Pre-Season Polls
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__________________
Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce |
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01-04-2006, 03:10 AM
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#7 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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November 14, Northwestern St. Demons @ Oral Roberts Golden Eagles
For our first game of the 2010 season we head out to Oklahoma to take on the Golden Eagles. The Golden Eagles are coming off a 9-21 season, and haven't had a winning season since 1980... 29 years! Looking at their roster, I think it's a safe bet to say that it will increase to 30. Their post players have height and are above average rebounders and defenders, but lack scoring ability. Their backcourt players aren't exactly score-board fillers either, though SG Columbus Simmons is capable and has range out to three. Result: L, 71-78. That's what I get for underestimating the Golden Eagles. Their SG, Columbus Simmons, exploded on us. He had 16 points in the first half alone, finishing with 26, including some huge 3s in the last 5 mins of the game that kept us from clawing back. Outside of Simmons' shooting, the other guards on their roster also just wouldn't miss from long range, and they were 11-20 from 3 for the game. This hurt us a lot, but not as much as our poor rebounding and shooting did. Outside of Adam Howell, who had a career best 20 points and 8 rebounds, nobody looked a real threat to score, and there is no excuse for us to get smashed on the glass like we did when we have 3 very good rebounders in our starting 5. I give our game ball to Adam Howell for a very nice game, but an honourable mention goes to our two freshman guards, Darryl Washington and Ezra Burnett. Darryl handled his first start extremely well, with just 2 turnovers, while Ezra showed he can do more than just rain 3s; collecting 7 rebounds (at 5'11, no less!). We need to bounce back quickly because Utah St. are up next, and they are a much better team than Oral Roberts. Code:
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce Last edited by Groundhog : 01-05-2006 at 10:27 AM. |
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01-05-2006, 10:24 AM
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#8 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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November 19, Northwestern St. Demons (0-1) vs Utah St. Aggies (0-0)
In practice we went over film from the Oral Roberts game and pinpointed what we needed to improve; rebounds and our movement on offense. Oral Roberts may have been shooting the lights out, but that just makes it even more important to grab every miss. Utah St. return 3 starters from last year, but their returning starter at PG, a defensive specialist, is playing a 6th man role behind a freshman PG from Austraila who handles the ball like it's glued to his hand, but lacks a scoring touch. The main player for the Aggies is junior PF Scott Scanlan who averaged 10.8ppg last season. Scanlan can score from inside-out and also hits the offensive boards with reckless abandon. Howell will be charged with containing him and trying to keep him off the glass. This will be the key matchup for us. Also of note is their starting SG, sophomore Matt Glidewell, a dangerous shooter who also has the bulk to take it inside and battle for the boards, and their starting SF, sophomore Erick Bolling, who loves to take it to the rack and can outmuscle smaller SFs. As I said above, the key to getting a win here is to contain Scanlan, hit the boards and move the ball around on offence. If we do these three things, this game is ours for the taking. Result: W, 85-45. When you're hot, you're hot, and for the first 20 minutes of this game we were on fire. Howell was absolutely unstoppable early on, scoring, rebounding & blocking shots. Scanlan got in to early foul trouble and Howell exploited his backup just about every time down the court in the first 5 minutes, before McGlone took over, raining trey after trey while all Utah St. could do was look on in disbelief... I can sympathise, as this is how I felt against Oral Roberts 4 nights ago. We entered halftime up 56-23 and with a massive advantage on the boards; 29 to 12! We cooled off a little in the second half, but it was never a competition after about the 10 minute mark of the first half. Game ball goes to Adam Howell, though the CPU chose McGlone, which is fair enough as he had a blinder as well. Howell finished up with another career nights 21 points and 16 rebounds, while McGlone had 20 points and was 5-9 from beyond the arc. I had no real complaints about anyone's performance tonight, except maybe that Darryl Washington was a little invisible at PG for most of the night before fouling out. Howell's 7 turnovers weren't too fantastic either, but I'm willing to overlook it this once  Some bad news however; starting C Seve Marin, our rebound king, broke his wrist 15 seconds in to the game and is expected to miss a little over a month. We have a little depth here however and William Davis, a seldom used reserve, will be looked at to fill his shoes as the anchor in the middle. Davis had 10 points, a career high, in what was likely his most minutes ever. Him and freshman Al Johnson, along with walk-on freshman David Mitchell who played surprisingly well today, will need to keep it up for the next 30-odd days or we will be in trouble when facing better teams. Code:
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce |
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01-08-2006, 10:28 PM
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#9 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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November 24, Northwestern St. Demons (1-1) @ Hawaii Warriors (1-1)
After a couple of days rest we fly out to sunny Hawaii, but this trip will be anything but a holiday. The Warriors are coming off a hard-fought 65-61 home loss against Houston a few days ago, after absolutely decimating Holy Cross 92-37 back on the season opener. This team's strength is in their backcourt and wings. SF David Roebuck is the team's leading scorer at 18.5ppg and our SF Brad Cole will be charged with trying to slow him down. At SG they have Charles Dearborn, an excellent mid-range spot up shooter (11.0ppg) and at PG they have senior point man Hubert Zhao (11.0ppg, 4.5spg), who is a play maker and a big time ball thief. 6th man is another PG, Fabian Alexander, who has been huge in the first two games for the Warriors, averaging 15.0ppg. The frontcourt players are basically just rebounders, though they have shot the ball pretty well thus far. They are not big time defenders or shot blockers. The key to this game are keeping their big guys off the glass, having our SF Brad Cole contain David Roebuck, and to pressure their guards in to turnovers. The only exceptional ball handler they have is 6th man Alexander, so we will bring out the full-court press and trap once again this season. It was the defense I ran exclusively the past few seasons, but I've ended up abandoning it the last couple of games as we don't have the right personnel for it and it was getting us in to foul trouble. This is a weak spot for Hawaii though, so we will try and take advantage of it. Key matchup of the game may wind up being at PG, where our freshman starter Darryl Washington is going to have his hands full protecting the ball against Hawaii's starting PG Zhao. We can win this game, no question about it, but we really need Darryl to hold his own and get the ball up the court and in to our scorers hands. Result: L, 57-65. We deserve a lot of credit for keeping this game competitive right up until the final minutes, especially with regards to our defense. No one without the surname of McGlone could hit the broad side of a barn on our team, but thankfully we pressured their shooters and hit the boards, meaning that this game was up for grabs right until abou the 2 minute mark, when a few stupid turnovers and fouls put it out of reach. The battle of the PG became a wash very early. Our starter picked up 2 fouls in two minutes, and then his backup, fellow freshman Ezra Burnett, picked up a foul immediately and then got a technical for arguing... Thankfully Darryl stayed with us the whole 2nd half without fouling out, but it was not a positive start. Without Darryl on the court in the first half we just couldn't hang on to the ball, ending up with 13 turnovers at the half to Hawaii's 6. Howell alone had 5 of those, when combined with his 3 fouls and 0 points, it was a coming-back-to-earth party for him in the first half. He performed better in the second, however. Overall, it was turnovers and, most of all, fouls that killed us. Hawaii shot 35 FTs compared to our 16. Still, I can take a lot of positives away from this game, despite it meaning that we are below .500 for the first time in a LONG time. Our defense and hustle remained at a high level throughout the game, no matter how poorly we shot or how big Hawaii's lead grew. Game ball goes to McGlone who, with his three point shooting, brought us back in to the game on more than one occassion. He was the only Demon who looked like a real threat to make a basket. Code:
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce Last edited by Groundhog : 01-08-2006 at 10:29 PM. |
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01-09-2006, 09:53 PM
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#10 |
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n00b
Join Date: Mar 2002
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Nice post game write-ups
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01-12-2006, 02:35 AM
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#11 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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November 29, Northwestern St. Demons (1-2) @ Troy State Trojans (1-1)
This week we travel out to Alabama to take on the Trojans, who are fresh off a 31 point victory over Morris Brown, after dropping their first game of the season against Coastal Carolina. The Trojans are coming off a 21 win season, including a n NCAA tourney appearance, and have been one of the better teams in the Atlantic Sun conference three years running. The Trojan's strongest player so far has been PG Tom Duran, a true freshman who scored 30 points against Morris Brown and is averaging 23.5ppg. He likes to attack the basket and can hit the three, but doesn't have a midrange game. Joining him in the backcourt is another true freshman, SG Douglas Sanders, who isn't the most athletic guy in the country but has a deadly shooting touch out to the 3pt line. He's averaging 14.0ppg over the first 2 games. At SF they have senior swingman Gayle Galicia, who can hit the three and the midrange jumper, and is averaging 12.0ppg. In the post they have two players who don't score a lot of points but are both big time rebounders. The key to this game is to keep their bigmen off the boards, as they are outrebounding opponents by 6.5 boards, and to slow down their PG Duran without giving their SG and SF open looks from long range. We may throw a double team at Duran if he comes out firing, and our freshman PG Darryl Washington will get the first stab at guarding him, but we may switch McGlone over if he can't stop him. If we can do these things, we can take this game. We need McGlone and Howell to both bring some scoring to the table and hopefully we have a better shooting game than we had against Hawaii. Result: W, 66-56. We jumped out to an early 7 point lead despite shooting woefully and never really looked back. Troy State managed to stay in the game for the first half, but every time they got close McGlone or Washington would nail a three to push the lead back out again. As far as our goals went, we managed to contain their PG, beat them on the boards, and got another big night from McGlone. Our shooting as a whole wasn't much to write home about at just .344, but continued to fight and hit the boards; always working hard for our points while the boys hit the occassional three. We also made 10 more FTs than they did, which just happens to be the margin of victory. For the negatives, well, as I said above, we shot the ball poorly. McGlone was his usual fine self and Washington had a great game at PG (aside from his 5 turnovers) shooting wise, but we need the others to step up. Howell was just 2-6 from the floor, and Cole, who has always had a very inconsistent shot, was just 2-9. We need these two guys to carry some of the scoring load, because if McGlone isn't firing hot like he was tonight and the past few games we are in real trouble. Game ball goes to McGlone for another fine performance, with an honourable mention to both Washington and Davis, who got a career high 13 rebounds and is really helping us deal with the loss of our starting C, who averaged 10+ boards last season. Code:
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce Last edited by Groundhog : 01-12-2006 at 03:38 AM. |
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01-12-2006, 06:05 AM
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#12 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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2010 Recruiting - December
December brings us our first commitment; Ralph Fagan, out of Virginia. Fagan isn't the typical, versatile SF I recruit at Northwestern St., but he's highly ranked, can shoot, and is a scrappy defender with OK athleticism. I don't like his ball handling (or lack-there-of), and he's not a great on the ball defender or rebounder (in fact, his rebounding is horrid for a player of his height), but he could turn in to a special player after a few seasons, and should be able to step in and provide bench depth straight away.
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Outside of Fagan, our highly coveted C Bryant Valentine has still not qualified, and I'm not hopefull either. We continue to pursue him, but we are looking at alternatives. Local Louisiana boy Michael Henderson, who we pursued earlier, pops back up on my radar and we give him another call. He's got a pro body and has the potential to be a disruptive defender in the post with his muscle and shot block ability. We send out some feelers to a few other post players as well, incase both Valentine and Henderson fall through.
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce |
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01-12-2006, 06:52 AM
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#13 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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2010 December Update
Top 25:
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Kevin McGlone has been our anchor and, outside of a shaky first game against Oral Roberts, he's been the only guy we've been able to turn to for consistent scoring. He's had three great games in a row for us, and we will need him to keep it up, because we aren't seeing consistent contributions from anybody else. Adam Howell gave us two strong games to start the season, but has struggled with foul trouble in the two games since. His rebounding and defense are both top notch, but we need him to stay out of foul trouble and stay involved in the offense. Brad Cole has struggled with consistency for his entire career at Northwestern St., and continues to do so this year. He is taking more shots (9.25 this year versus 6.3 last season) and so far his shooting has suffered as a result. We need more out of Cole, who shot .512 from the floor and .417 from long range last season. He has stepped up his rebounding and overall defense however. Freshman PG Darryl Washington, who was my biggest concern entering the season, has been up and down but overall I'm happy with his play. He had a great game vs Troy State and he looks like he's going to be a solid contributor for us in the coming seasons. Prior to his last game against Troy State he was only getting 1 turnover a game. Our bench has been promising yet very inconsistent. Big man William Davis, who was expected to provide only spot minutes off the bench, has stepped in for our injured C Seve Marin and performed. He's hitting the boards, blocking shots, stealing the ball and doing all the blue-collar stuff that Marin brought to the court. The rest of the contributors are all young and incosistent, but I've been pretty happy with them. Ezra Burnett is a dynamic combo-guard with a scorer's mentalitiy and a surprising rebounder at 5'11. His minutes haven't been great, but he's performed. Al Johnson has seen big minutes off the bench and has struggled with his shot, but it will come to him in time. Tony Fiscus has spelled Cole for 13.3 mpg, and again has struggled with his shot but should improve as the season wears on.
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce |
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01-27-2006, 06:05 AM
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#14 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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December 3, Northwestern St. Demons (2-2) vs Santa Clara Broncos (2-2)
Today we square off against the Broncos on our home turf, where we are 1-0 after our drubbing of Utah State. The Broncos first 2 games of the season were both losses to good teams, USC & Stanford, and they were close games too, both decided by 7 points. Their other two wins were over much poorer competition - UC Irvine & Columbia - and were again close games. Santa Clara's strength is their offense. They share the ball around, rarely take bad shots, and all 5 starters are threats to put points on the board. Their team defense has been lacking, but individually they are strong defenders, with their backcourt duo in particular being 'lock-down D' types. The key to this game is to not let any one Santa Clara player explode on us. I am most concerned about their PF Jarrett Matthews, who is coming off two big performances (18 & 19 points) and we may throw a double team at him. The Broncos also turn the ball over an AWFUL lot, and even though we don't have the ability to press like we have had the past few seasons, we will need to try and take advantage of that weakness. Offensively we will once again look to McGlone, but I'm hoping to see more out of Cole and for Howell to regain the form he had during the first two games of the season. We can win this game, but it won't be easy. Result: L, 79-84. This game was a lot closer than it deserved to be. We got off to a very poor start, with McGlone picking up his 2nd foul just 4 minutes in, only to then pick-up a tech foul for arguing the call. With him on the bench we sputtered but hung in there, largely thanks to Cole who finally found his stroke. We entered the half down 42-48, with neither team looking able to stop the other from scoring. What was killing us, and ultimately led to our defeat, were our turnovers. Washington's 8 in particular really killed us, and when I benched him in favour of Burnett with about 6 mins left we started to turn it around and catch up, but every time we clawed our way back they would hit a three to put it out of reach. Turnovers aside I was relatively happy with the way we played in the final 10 minutes. We decided to slow our offense down and look for our individual scorers to try to create something (ie. decreased motion & pace) and it seemed to have a positive effect, especially with Howell who really picked it up in the 2nd half and finished with 18 points and 15 rebounds. As for our goals, we managed to limit Matthews to 13 points, but their SF Eberle killed us, and hit 5 of 6 from long range. We forced 16 turnovers but created 24 of our own, and McGlone missed the majority of the 1st half in foul trouble and wasn't terribly effective in the 2nd half outside of some 3s. This was a game we really threw away with our inability to hang on to the ball. Game ball goes to Ezra Burnett for giving us a real spark and getting us back in the game. Code:
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce Last edited by Groundhog : 01-28-2006 at 04:34 AM. |
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01-28-2006, 05:25 AM
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#15 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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December 7, Northwestern St. Demons (2-3) vs Princeton Tigers (2-1)
The Tigers are a defensive team, and after dropping their first game to East Carolina 61-51 they have not allowed their two opponents to score more than 57... and all this with 3 walk-ons in their starting 5! Outside of their strong defense the Tigers are experienced (4 seniors and a junior in their starting 5) and protect the ball, turning it over just 13.7 times a game (#23 in the nation). Their most dangerous player is senior SF Charles Whisenant (16.7ppg, 6.0rpg), one of the best players in the Ivy League. He can get off his shot against anyone and is no slouch on the other end of the court either. Tigers PG Daniel Williams (13.7ppg, 2.7spg), a walk-on, is another trouble spot for us. His stealing ability will torment Washington who is coming off an 8 turnover game. The keys to this game are containing Whisenant, who will see a double team all game long, hitting the boards (and the Tigers have been out-rebounded every game so far), and finding some scoring outside of McGlone. Cole & Washington in particular need to show me that they can put points up on a consistent basis. I will be dissapointed if we lose this game, but the Tigers D is pretty tough and I don't know if we have the scorers to counter it. Result: W, 61-46. Princeton forced us to play their brand of ball tonight, but we handled it well and got stops when we needed them, and completely owned the rebounds once again. Turnovers were again a problem, this time Howell lead the pack with 7, but at least we managed to force the Tigers to cough it up as many times as we did. Our main goal was to slow Whisenant and this we did, limiting him to 5-15 shooting. With his shot not falling the Tigers struggled to find other options, and Cole and Fiscus deserve a lot of credit here. Game ball goes to McGlone had a huge all-round 1st half; rebounding, passing and scoring, and in the second half he hit a couple of threes help us pull away with about 5 minutes left. Fiscus deserves a mention here too, as he filled in excellently with Cole in foul trouble. This guy is going to be a very good starter for us down the road. Darryl Washington, who has really struggled lately, has a massive target on his back right now, especially with the energy combo guard Ezra Burnett has been bringing to the team. If Washington doesn't get it together Burnett will earn himself a start. Code:
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce Last edited by Groundhog : 01-28-2006 at 06:53 AM. |
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01-29-2006, 07:58 AM
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#16 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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December 11, Northwestern St. Demons (3-3) @ #1 Utah Utes (6-1)
Woah boy is this going to be a tough one. Utah may fall from the #1 spot when the next polls come out due to a loss to unranked Cincinnatti (who should be a top-25 team IMO) a few days ago but are still incredibly dangerous and easily one of the best teams in the nation. The Utes strength is their backcourt, led by one of the best PGs in the nation in 6'4 senior Timmy Husley (12.9ppg, 4.9rpg, 6.3apg, 3.3stp). On the wings they have two super scorers, both juniors, in SG Lacy Bartz & SF Waldo Bean, averaging 18.9ppg and 18.1ppg respectively. Their frontcourt players are both blue-collar types who aren't asked to provide a lot of scoring. There is no way we can beat this team but I will be satisfied if we end up not getting blown out. Husley, Bartz and Bean are all superb at pressuring the ball and with the kind of turnover problems we've been having this is a huge danger. If we want to make this game competitive we have to protect the ball, contain their backcourt and find some scoring of our own. I'm doubtful we'll manage any of these three things. Result: L, 79-92. This was actually a close game until the last 5 minutes or so. If it weren't for our 27 turnovers (compared to Utah's 6!) we probably would have won this one. Utah are a team that relies on their scoring, rather than defense, to win games, and this was a good example of that. We shot the ball a quite spectacular 56% from the floor and outrebounded them, but their ball thiefs and big 3 came through for them when they needed it most. McGlone dominated the first half, scoring 19 points at the break, and finished with a career high despite scoring just 5 in the 2nd half. Also VERY impressive was the play of freshman Al Johnson. He was aggressive on offense and made up for a poor performance from Howell, who was just outclassed. I was pretty happy with this game really. 27 turnovers is an awful lot, but Utah are the #2 team in the country in turnovers forced, so I can live with that. The fact is that we showed that we are capable of keeping up with the big boys, much like we have been the past few seasons. What we need above all else is consistency. On the negative side Darryl faltered again at PG. I'm willing to give him another chance or two to prove himself, but Burnett is outplaying him by a long shot. The Utah pressure really affected Washington, where as Burnett handled it much better, even beating the press a few times for easy baskets. Game ball goes to McGlone for a career high against quality opposition, though an honourable mention goes to Al Johnson. Code:
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce Last edited by Groundhog : 01-30-2006 at 07:09 AM. |
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01-31-2006, 03:51 AM
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#17 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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December 15, Northwestern St. Demons (3-4) vs Wisconsin-Milwaukee Panthers (4-1)
We have a few days of practice after returning from Utah and it's spent watching tape of the Panthers. They are a strong team that lost their first game of the season to Cincinatti before blowing out 4 teams in a row, with no one getting closer than 21 points. Their offense is based around senior C Rex Younts, who is having an amazing year so far (22.4ppg, 10.4rpg, 3.0bpg) and will be doubled all game long. Outside of Younts they have a solid PG in junior Gary Spears (10.8ppg, 5.2rpg, 5.6apg, 3.0spg), who may not be the best shooter in the world but gets the job done. At SF they have highly touted freshman Danny Thiele (10.2ppg, 3.0rpg) who can kill you with the outside shot and has the potential to be a stopper on the wing. Their SG is another freshman, Huey Smith (7.8ppg, .444 3pt%), is a PG by trade and is primarily a defensive presence, much like their PF, senior John Ardoin (7.6ppg, 9.0rpg, 2.6bpg), who would be a bigger scorer if not teamed with Younts. A capable bench is led by bigman Leroy Dale (7.0ppg in 10.0mpg). The keys to this game are slowing Younts, who will be double teamed, protecting the ball (a real weakness for us), and once again finding some scorers. Younts and Ardoin have made this the best shot blocking squad in the country but we need to get shots inside, especially from Howell. Washington needs to hold his own against the Panthers backcourt and not cough it up every time they apply pressure. This is going to be a tough game. The only real weakness the Panthers have is that they are a poor perimeter shooting team, but if Younts tears it up from inside that won't be a major factor for them. This is a game we can win, but we will need to play at the same level we did vs Utah, minus the turnovers. Result: W, 61-60. What a game! It was a real grindfest in the 1st half, but we were keeping up with them, despite our usual turnover problems (we had 17 turnovers at the half to their 2) but we were doing a great job of drawing fouls and pressuring their scorers, and we went in tot he half time break with the scores level. Howell was outplaying Younts by and large, and despite a rusty opening 20 minutes from McGlone we were confident. The second half saw us continously build up 6 point leads only to have the Panthers claw back. Then foul trouble hit and we lost Howell and Washington, both of whom were playing well, with about 6 minutes remaining and things began to look a little dim as Younts had also begun to heat up. With the scores level with 1:36 left Cole drained a HUGE 3, only to have the Panthers reply with a 3 of their own 15 seconds later. We bring the ball up the court and Cole launches another 3 but it clangs off the iron and is brought down by our backup PG Burnett who then draws the foul! Sadly Burnett, a poor FT shooter, misses both and the Panthers get it back with 45 seconds left. The Panthers don't call time and feed it straight inside to Younts who puts up a shot with 32 seconds left only to have it REJECTED BY DAVIS, who then snatches the board. We also decide to forgoe the timeout and move it upcourt. Burnett catches a pass, is wide open, and hits the J with 17 seconds left to put us up by 2. The Panthers then inbound the ball, move it up court, get it to their freshman SG who penetrates, puts up the shot, misses and is FOULED!!! With a few seconds left the 56% FT shooter goes to the line, nails the first and... MISSES the 2nd!! McGlone rebounds it and it's a Northwestern St. victory!! Phew! Our game ball goes to Davis for his game saving block and rebound against Younts. He may have shot the ball only twice, but his rebounding, 3 blocks and a couple of assists were all big for us. Outside of our turnovers (this time McGlone led the way with 6...) we played a good game of basketball, forcing the high-octane Panther offense to a crawl as they struggled to score on our man-2-man D. Washington redeemed himself a little in my eyes as he was solid if unspectacular. Cole was clutch, Burnett, outside of some FT misses that could have cost us the game, was solid from the bench and Al Johnson continues to impress. This was a game we really needed to win and the boys did me proud! Code:
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce Last edited by Groundhog : 01-31-2006 at 05:35 AM. |
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02-13-2006, 03:53 AM
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#18 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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December 19, Northwestern St. Demons (4-4) @ UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (4-3)
When I scheduled this game I was expecting a cupcake victory, but we fly out to California to take on the surprising Gauchos. This is a very dangerous scoring-oriented team that has had some nice victories, including a win over Santa Clara two days ago... the same Santa Clara that defeated us earlier in the season. Couple that with the fact that all their 3 losses were to Pac-10 teams (California, USC and Arizona St.) and you can see why this team has us nervous. The key to their scoring is the some-what one-dimensional play of senior C Andrew Moose (19.9ppg, 5.1rpg). Moose is a big time scorer, but we will be looking to exploit his lack of defensive ability. Coupling with Moose in the frontcourt is senior PF Ed Castro (15.0ppg, 7.1rpg, 1.3bpg) who may not score like Moose but he does everything else that Moose doesn't. At SF they have junior Marcus Vick (11.0ppg, .375 3p%) who is a versatile and athletic forward and probably their best defender. Their backcourt consists of senior SG Renato Soler (8.3ppg, 6.1rpg, .474 3p%) and walk-on freshman PG Larry Parrott (3.7ppg, 4.0apg, 1.3spg) and this is a weakness area for them that we need to take advantage of. The keys to this game are keep Moose to within 19-25 points while not letting Castro or Vick also pour in the points. This is a team that turns the ball over a lot, shoots poor from the FT line and gives up a lot of points (#302 in the nation in points allowed). We have the capability to take advantage of all these points, but we must get good PG play and limit our own turnovers while forcing theirs. McGlone and Howell will both need to bring some scoring to the table, and Washington can't be invisible for us. Result: L, 80-81. Man, we had this one in the bag. It was a rough first half, with both teams not hitting a lot of shots. Howell managed to get Castro in foul trouble early on, but then picked up his 2nd as well with about 16 mins to go in the first. McGlone though was on fire from long range and thanks to his 11 points in 11 minutes we were up 19-13 with 9:00 remaining in the first. We end up entering the break up by a score of 33-25, and McGlone has 17 of those 33. The second half finds us trying to pull away, but Mack starts to heat up and puts a few consecutive scores on the board to make it a 4 point game with 3 minutes left. Enter Castro. We keep getting leads but Castro is hitting the boards, making shots and keeping his team in the game. With 1:35 left in the game Moose, who has been very quite thus far, hits a shot from in close to tie it up at 66, the first time we haven't been up in a long time. We trade baskets before getting it back tied at 68 with 24 seconds left. McGlone hits William Davis with the pass who unbelievably decides to shoot the J from the corner, and even more unbelievably MAKES IT! 70-68 lead, 3 seconds left. Santa Barbara inbound it to their PG Larry Parrott who races it up court, launches the 3 and... FOULED BY WASHINGTON!!! And the trey is good... Parrott misses the extra FT, but time has expired and they win, 70-71. Man, what a letdown and a stupid foul by Washington, but the shot went in, so perhaps it's no big deal. Still, we let this game slide away. A large reason was the fact that their frontcourt 3, Moose, Castro & Mack, had all been real quiet all game but began to heat up toward the end of the second and we just couldn't hold them off. McGlone was huge for us, scoring a career high, but he just got no support offensively. Howell was invisible and completely outplayed by Castro, and our bench just didn't provide what we needed from them, with the exception of Al Johnson who logged another solid game. Gameball goes to McGlone for shooting the lights out. Honourable mention to Darryl Washington for his 0 turnovers. Code:
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce Last edited by Groundhog : 02-15-2006 at 05:08 AM. |
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03-09-2006, 03:17 AM
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#19 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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December 23, Northwestern State Demons (4-5) @ La Salle Explorers (6-4)
We get a few days to recover from our heart-breaking loss to UC Santa Barbara, and then we're on a flight out to Philadelphia to take on the La Salle Explorers. Joining on us however is our starting C Seve Marin, back from a broken wrist after missing our last 7 games! La Salle are having a decent season, with most of their losses coming to good teams (Texas Tech (8-3) & Georgetown (5-2) in particular). This is a team that wins games with their defense, as the Explorers love to slow the game right down to take advantage of their lack of firepower, and then pressure the ball on defense and force turnovers. All of their starters are solid on the ball defenders and as a team they work to make life tough on the other team. On the other end of the court though the Explorers are much weaker. They have just two players averaging in double figures in points, freshman SG Shagari Gregor (12.6ppg, .392 3p%) and senior PG Richard Craddock (10.8ppg, 4.3apg, 2.3spg). Both players are dangerous scorers, with Craddock able to take his man off the dribble or nail the long trey, while Craddock is more of a spot up shooter. Their frontcourt consists of senior SF Brian Inman (6.5ppg, 1.3spg), a do-it-all kind of player who is off to a slow start, junior PF Charles Stewart (7.5ppg, 6.4rpg, 1.3bpg), a rebounder and defensive presence, and senior C Richard Sloan (4.9rpg, 8.3rpg), another rebounder and defensive presence. Their bench is largely underwhelming, with the standouts being their true freshman PF duo of David Lewis (3.2ppg, 3.3rpg) and Vicente Miramontes (4.0ppg, 2.6rpg). The keys to this game are: 1) Putting points on the board. La Salle hold teams to 64.1ppg and this is how they win games. We need McGlone, Howell and Cole to all put up good shots and stay aggressive. 2) Stopping their backcourt. They may not be a great shooting team but their backcourt are dangerous and capable of posting big games. We will be looking to Cole to slow down Gregor, with Washington having a stab at Craddock. I'd rather make the rest of the team beat me than these two. 3) Turnovers turnovers turnovers! This has been a problem for us this whole season. The bad news is that the Explorers like to force turnovers, so we will need to play nice, safe basketball. This means Howell not turning it over 7 times... Result: L, 75-78. Our boys came out firing, with McGlone and Washington finding the bottom of the net at an impressive rate, and before I realise it we are up 30-12 with 10 minutes remaining in the 1st half. Not to be outdone, the Explorers turn around and start pouring in some 3s of their own, with backup combo-guard Lionel Lacey, Inman and Gregor all lighting up. I look up at the scoreboard and we are now only up by 5 at the half - 52-47! So much for a low scoring game... McGlone has 14pts at the half, and Washington has 11pts and 4asts, and more impressively 0 turnovers. The second half sees us come out VERY sloppy... turning it over, missing our shots, and the Explorers begin to pull away. We continue to fight, stopping them pulling away with a big lead, but everytime we put together a few plays in a row they nail a big 3 to quiet us down again. Finally, with 3:48 left in the game Howell tips in an offensive rebound to put us up 72-71, though it's short lived as they score again next trip down the court. With 15 seconds left in the game, down by 2, Al Johnson pulls down a board and we take it up the court. We work it around, Cole looks to get it to McGlone.. STOLEN by Gregor!! We foul him, but the buzzer has gone... we lose, 75-78  A bad loss this one. We came out HOT as an oven, but couldn't maintain that intensity, and let them right back in the game. Then in the 2nd half we crumbled and made mistakes and were lucky for it to have been as close as it was. We also weren't able to stop their backcourt, with Gregor torching us for 22, while their backup guard Lacy had a very frustrating 17. Everytime we caught a break Lacy would reply. Game ball goes to Washington for his best game yet, even if his 1st half was MUCH better than his 2nd half. McGlone was his usual solid self, but again I would have liked him to step it up another couple of notches and maybe lock down on Gregor more than he did. Al Johnson and Fiscus both played great off the bench, and Johnson may have just stolen a starting spot from the inconsistent, turnover prone and horrid FT shooter Adam Howell. Also nice to have Marin back in the starting 5, even if he was pretty quiet today. This marks our first streak of any kind for the season - 2 losses... Code:
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce Last edited by Groundhog : 03-09-2006 at 03:29 AM. |
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03-09-2006, 06:06 AM
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#20 | |
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Pro Starter
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Willow Glen, CA
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Quote:
Never underestimate the Gauchos. Good luck the rest of the way though 
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Every time a Dodger scores a run, an angel has its wings ripped off by a demon, and is forced to tearfully beg the demon to cauterize the wounds.The demon will refuse, and the sobbing angel will lie in a puddle of angel blood and feathers for eternity, wondering why the Dodgers are allowed to score runs.That’s not me talking: that’s science. McCoveyChronicles.com. |
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03-19-2006, 05:53 AM
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#21 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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December 28, Northwestern St. Demons (4-6) vs Baylor Bears (7-2)
After a couple of heart-breaking losses on the road we return back home to Louisiana to take on the Baylor Bears, who are off to a great start to the season. It is worth noting however that the Bears are yet to beat any opponent with a win % over .500, but their two losses have come to other teams performing well; New Orleans (6-3) & TCU (9-3). The Bears have won games largely thanks to their defense this year, and the play of senior SG Jerald Swan. Swan, averaging 17.8ppg 4.4rpg 1.9spg, is their only player averaging double figures and he will see a double team tonight. He can create his own shot, is blessed with a great mid-range jumper, and is quick enough to find his way to the basket. His range does not quite extend to the arc however. Inside they have sophomore David Baldwin (9.6ppg, 7.8rpg) at C and freshman Alvin Diaz (8.8ppg, 5.7rpg) at PF. Both players can hit from inside, with Baldwin able to step back and shoot with range. Sophomore swingman Thomas Harty (9.3ppg, 4.3rpg) is off to a slow start, but is very versatile on offense and is a strong defender. Junior PG Bernie Andrews (4.8ppg, 5.2apg) is quiet but finds the open man and plays the passing lanes well. The Bears best option off the bench is 6'4 combo-guard Garland Simmons (9.7ppg, 2.4apg, .400 3p%). Simmons is built like a linebacker, but has great speed and attacks the hoop with ferocity. Senior forward Milton Swindell (4.3ppg, 2.2rpg) is another versatile option for the Bears. He is capable at everything, but great at nothing. Keys to winning this ball game: 1) We need to contain Swan. He is capable of having huge games, and Cole will be charged primarily with guarding him, with a double-team coming his way every time he gets the ball. 2) We can't let the others beat us. Their C, PF and SF are all good players, and even though Swan has been the big point scorer thus far, they are all capable of putting up big games. With the double we are applying to Swan we need to be very careful not to give up easy shots for the others. 3) We need scoring. This has been a problem all year for us, with McGlone being the only consistent player for us. We have shuffled Howell back to the bench in favour of freshman Al Johnson, who has shown a much better knack for putting it in the basket. Result: W, 82-78. Another thriller! We need to stop making these games so close or else I'm going to have a heart attack! We came out strongly in the first half, making our shots and hitting the boards, but turnovers were preventing us from getting a lead together. Then Swan starts to come alive, making three 3s in a row, as we lose the lead. Our shots aren't falling for us and we continue to give up possession. We enter the half down 36-43, with our rebounding being the only thing keeping us in the game (we have 22 to their 10). We have turned it over 14 times, Washington with 6 of those, while Baylor have coughed it up just 6 times. Swan already has 22, while McGlone has 11, Marin 9 and Howell 9 points in his first game off the bench. In the second half we come out scrapping, and every time they start to pull away Marin comes through for us and makes a big play. A few careless possessions however and we are down by 10 with 7:44 remaining. All of a sudden Marin catching on fire as we start to force turnovers and get him the ball. He nails some jumpers, draws a few fouls, and next thing we know it's just 62-63 with 5:54 left. Both teams trade baskets, yet whenever we get a nice basket we put up a stupid foul and send them to the line as both teams are in the penalty. With 2:15 left Howell, who is having a great night, nails two FTs to give us our first lead since the opening 10 minutes, 68-66. We extend it to 4, but Washington fouls out and send their PG to the line again to reduce it to 74-72. Howell makes another basket, they make 2 more FTs, Marin sinks another, they make a basket and it's now 80-78 with 19 seconds left, our ball from the baseline. Burnett takes the inbound pass, feels the pressure and hits McGlone who moves over the halfway line before the Bears can foul, with just 8 seconds left! McGlone goes to the line looking to seal it with both FTs... which he does! 82-78. Baylor call time, then inbound to Swan who misses a three, and it's a win!!! What a game! Marin, finally fully recovered from the injury that forced him to miss 7 games, had a career night with 29 points and 15 boards - easily beating his previous career high scoring total of 16! He singlehandedly kept us in this game and down the stretch we just fed him the ball and let him do his thing. He got both their bigs in foul trouble and then abused their replacements. This is the kind of scoring ability from the blocks that we've missed greatly while he's been out. Howell also responded well to his benching and came up big for us in the first half to stop the Bears pulling away. McGlone had a solid first half, but was all too quiet in the second half before nailing those two FTs to seal the victory. Other notes - Washington had a very poor first half, with 6 turnovers, but he was great in the second. He turned it over just once and it was him more than anyone else who kept finding Marin in the post. Cole was playing terribly - rebounding aside - as far as offence is concerned until the last 5 minutes or so, when he actually started to make some shots. Defensively, he was torched in the first half, but kept Swan to just 8 points in the second half. Al Johnson faultered in his first start, but had one nice tip-in of a missed three throw late in the second half. This was a huge win for us - especially considering how we'd performed in our last 3 games... all of which found us in a similar situation to this one. Marin had his coming out party and while we don't expect this from him every game, I'd like him to reach double figure scoring most nights. He has the inside scoring touch to be a real threat in our conference. Overall we played about 12 minutes of bad basketball this game and it almost cost us, but late in the second half we were unstoppable. We made some stupid fouls to give them easy FTs and keep them in the game, but I'm very happy with the end result, and the play of our big guys. Game ball goes to Marin, obviously! Objectives summary: 1) Swan burnt us in the first half for 22 points, but we contained him in the second. If he had kept up his scoring rampage in the second half there is no way we win this game, so a lot of credit goes to Cole for clamping down on him. 2) Symons wasn't much of a factor with just 2-9 shooting, and Baldwin and Diaz were effective but we managed to get them in foul trouble, and Harty had a solid game, but I feel we achieved this goal. My biggest fear was having someone like Diaz or Harty go off for 20 on us, and we were able to prevent this. 3) Well, we got scoring alright. Marin and Howell both showed up for us today. Code:
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce Last edited by Groundhog : 03-19-2006 at 07:17 AM. |
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03-20-2006, 06:02 AM
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#22 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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2010 Recruiting - January
Well, it was just as we feared - Bryant Valentine failed to qualify academically and is headed to JuCo for two years. This is a major blow as he would have been an impact player for us. We will keep an eye for him in two years time.
Here's his card: Code:
We turn our full attention - and scholarship offer - to local boy Michael Henderson, a 6'9 266lbs PF/C out of Oberlin High School. Henderson is averaging 12.0ppg 8.3rpg 4.0bpg and will likely be a blue-collar type at the NCAA level. We currently rank behind Oklahoma State on his Top 5 schools, but they are yet to offer him a scholarship. Also on our radar is Tremaine Williams, a 6'8 234lbs PF out of Alabama. Williams is averaging 11.9ppg 9.4rpg 3.5bpg for Elmore County High School and has a much better touch around the basket. He favours Kentucky over us, and they haven't offered him a scholarship yet either. I'll be happy with either guy. Williams is probably the better player, but in keeping with the "Recruit in LA when possible" rule, I'll go after Henderson.
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce |
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03-22-2006, 04:11 AM
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#23 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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2010 January Update
Top 25:
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Team Stats: Code:
December is the worst month I've ever had at Northwestern State, but with a little luck it might have been a very different story. Our last 4 games have been decided by 4 points or less; two of those games being heart-breaking losses. The problem with this team has been inconsistency on offence and turnovers. McGlone shows up most nights, but the trio of Cole/Washington/Howell are hot and cold, and we really struggle when McGlone is the only guy looking like a threat. Marin missed most of the month with injury, was quiet on his first game back (though he was only about 80% recovered) and then exploded for a career night. We don't expect this every night, but he may prove to be the consistent 2nd option we've lacked. I said at the start of the season that our PG position was going to be a crucial deciding factor in how well we performed, and I think that's proven true so far. Washington has had more downs than ups, but I'm still convinced he's our PG of the future. I'd like to see him take a few more shots though, and this is something I'm going to look at. We've got one more non-conference game, against a strong Mississippi State squad, and then conference play starts and we can put this below average start to the season behind us and concentrate on taking out our conference crown and hopefully working our way back towards the NCAA tournament.
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce |
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03-22-2006, 04:18 AM
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#24 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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2010 January Academic Suspensions
We receive some bad news today - two Northwestern State players will be forced to sit out a minimum of a month due to academics. These two players are senior backup PF/C William Davis (averaging 4.3ppg, 8.3rpg, .487 FG%) and junior backup PG/SG Michael Sarabia (averaging 1.5ppg, 1.0apg in 8 games).
The loss of Davis really hurts our depth. He filled in nicely at starter while Marin was out and, though he struggles to find minutes with Marin back in the lineup, it was a luxury knowing I could slot him in when needed. His loss means that should Marin, Howell or Johnson get in to foul trouble we will need to look to walk-on David Mitchell... Mitchell isn't horrible, but he's no Davis. Sarabia on the other hand hasn't seen nearly as much time as I thought he would. He's probably the best ball handler and passer on the team and if it wasn't for his poor defensive ability he'd be starting ahead of Washington. Both players have the month to try and get their grades in shape, while we try and make-do without them.
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce |
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03-28-2006, 04:23 AM
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#25 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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January 1, Northwestern State Demons (5-6) vs Mississippi State Bulldogs (5-5)
Mississippi State have played some good teams this year, and most of their 5 losses have been to decent teams, such as UAB (8-3), SW-Missouri St. (9-3) & Oklahoma (9-2). The problem for them has been beating teams over .500; a feat they are yet to accomplish. The Bulldogs play a tough brand of team defense, and a lot of credit has to go their coach as these are not individually great defenders. Senior JuCo SF David West (14.8ppg, 2.9rpg, 1.8spg) and senior SG Callum Leyburn (12.6ppg, 5.4rpg, 1.6sp) both lead the team in scoring and do a great job on guarding the wings. Joining them in the backcourt is senior point Charles Dugas (7.1ppg, 2.6apg), who is off to a slow start, but can hit the long trey and is an above average ball handler. He's not a playmaker though, and his defense is attrocious. On the blocks they have 6'10 junior C Nick Bailey (7.6ppg, 10.9rpg, .545 fg%), a guy who hits the offensive boards hard and has a decent touch around the basket, and 6'8 true freshman Jerry Samson (7.0ppg, 5.7rpg, .500 fg%), who is automatic from in close but is clueless on defense. The Bulldogs bench is above average, with Aussie bigman Josh Croft (5.6ppg, 4.3rpg, 1.5bpg) and 6'10 freshman SF Henry Hoyos (5.5ppg, 2.4rpg, .400 3p%) leading the pack. Keys to this game: 1) Slow David West and Callum Leyburn. These two are the only guys getting over 10ppg for the Bulldogs. West is the most dangerous of the two as he is a nice athlete who can find his shot off the dribble, while Leyburn is more of a threat from long range, but he can take it inside as well. We really can't double either of them, so it's up to Cole and McGlone to contain these two. 2) Darryl Washington needs to show up. Bulldogs PG Charles Dugas is probably the poorest defender Washington has faced up to yet, so we need him to be a little more aggressive. He has the ability to dominate Dugas and if he can take advantage of this it will make things much easier for us. 3) Free Throws. The Bulldogs commit a ton of fouls, so we need to get to the line and make our FTs count. Result: W, 86-82. Wow, our first winning streak of the season! This was a very crazy game. We came out hot, with Washington hitting a couple of big shots to open the game, and we were soon up 10-2 with 17:53 left. We then began to stutter somewhat with McGlone getting in to early foul trouble and all our guys missing shots and turning it over. Next thing we know we are down. We don't let them pull away however and walk in to the locker room at half time down 38-40. A major part of this is our turnovers. We have turned it over 14 times to their 7, with Howell alone having 6 first half turnovers. Thankfully our rebounding and the stellar play of Washington, who has 14 1st half points. The second half is real scrappy. The Bulldogs extend their lead out to 6 or 8 points, we fight back and get it to 1 or 2 points, then turn it over and let Mississippi State pull away again. With 5:02 left we finally catch a break as Cole is fouled and sent to the line, knocks them both down and we are up 66-65. We get some stops, McGlone hits a FT and a three pointer and it's 70-65 with 4:20 left. We trade baskets for a long while, before we catch on fire and make some big shots to give ourselves a nice lead, before McGlone makes some FTs and it's 81-73 with 1:50 left, and it's looking like a win! We straight away send Bulldog PF Samson to the line on a foul, he misses them both, McGlone boards and gives it to Howell, who gets another charging foul for turnover number 8... The Bulldogs then bring it up court, get it to their SG Leyburn who hits the 3, 81-76 with 0:55 left. We bring in our best FT shooters in anticipation of their fouling. Al Johnson is fouled off the inbound pass, makes 1 of 2; 83-76 with 0:46 left. Bulldogs rush it up court, get it to SF West who hits the 3! 83-79... We get it back, Johnson is fouled again, makes 1 of 2 again - 84-79 with 0:23 left. Bulldogs then get the ball and McGlone, who has been clutch for us the last 10 minutes, makes a stupid stupid stupid mistake that could have cost us the game... he fouls out and sends Leyburn to the line, but also picks up a technical foul!!! The Bulldogs make all 1 of the 2 technical foul FTs, and then Leyburn hits both of his... 84-82 Northwestern State, 0:17 left... Washington gets the inbound pass, is fouled and calmly knocks em both down. Bulldogs then miss a three, and it's a victory! Turnovers nearly killed us this game but we defended well, hit the boards and played OK defense for the most part. Still, with the way we shot the ball, at over 50%, this should have been an easier game, but Howell, Marin and co. just couldn't hang on to the ball to save their lives. Still, I'm happy with this game, and we now own a .500 record heading in to conference play! Game ball goes to Washington for a stellar game. McGlone was in the running until that last stupid technical foul that could have cost us the game. Objectives Summary: 1) West was just 3-11 from the floor for 9 points, while Leyburn had 17 points, but on 5-13 shooting. Objective accomplished. 2) Washington absolutely destroyed Dugas. It was not even close. I hope this is a preview of things to come for Washington. 3) We were every bit as foul prone as the Bulldogs were, so this was a non-issue unfortunately. Code:
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce Last edited by Groundhog : 03-28-2006 at 06:41 AM. |
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04-02-2006, 07:39 AM
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#26 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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January 5, Northwestern St. Demons (6-6, 0-0) vs East Tennessee St. Buccaneers (3-8, 1-0)
Fresh off a victory, and with our record back at .500, we kick off conference play against the Buccaneers. The Buccaneers kicked off conference play with a nice win over UNC Greensboro, and perhaps the one thing that they have shown is that they are capable of putting points on the board. They do this with a very balanced attack, led by senior SF Sean Webb (11.8ppg, 5.5rpg), an agressive player on both ends of the court who likes to take it to the hoop, junior swingman Robert Parmer (11.8ppg, 3.1rpg), a scorer who is first off the bench, senior PG Shawn Cain (11.5ppg, 4.8apg), a steady floor general who can hit the trey, and walkon senior SG Alfredo Krause (9.9ppg, .318 3p%), a decent spot up shooter. The Buccaneers are also blessed with some height down low. Measuring in at 7'0 tall is sophomore PF Andreas Nelson (8.8ppg, 4.1rpg), a potentially lethal shot blocker with a soft touch around the hoop but not very strong and a weak rebounder, and 6'10 senior C Chris Evers (6.5ppg, 9.0rpg), who is a better rebounder but doesn't get very involved in the offense. As far as the rest of their bench goes, the Buccaneers only go about 9 deep, and outside of Parmer who I mentioned above they have 6'8 sophomore bigman Robert Ledford (6.5ppg, 7.8rpg in 26.3mpg) and freshman guard Erick Pappas (3.3ppg, 0.7rpg) & junior PG Gerald Livengood (1.8ppg, 1.4rpg). What the Bucs don't do a lot of is play defense. They are among the worst in the nation at points allowed. Keys to the game: 1) Put points on the board. Sounds obvious enough, but this is a team that is capable of scoring big, and we can't afford to come out cold. We don't have the firepower to go digging ourselves out of a hole early on. 2) Contain their backcourt. Most of their scoring power comes from the backcourt and we can't let these guys burn us with their balanced attack. We won't be double teaming, so I hope our M2M coverage is sufficent for the job tonight. 3) Protect the ball. The Bucs like to pressure the ball and looks for steals, and with our inability to protect the ball most games this could hurt us. Result: The Bucs came out with a 2-3 zone, but applied a heavy full-court press on us every time we inbounded the ball. Thankfully Washington was able to deal with this, and even broke through it several times. The zone was giving us plenty of opportunities at threes, but we just couldn't make them stick. McGlone and Cole threw up a number of them but outside of the ocassionaly make we were clanging off the iron. We were, as is the norm, hitting the glass however and Marin in particular was pulling down the offensive boards and scoring from in close. We manage to get a bit of a lead before Washington and Burnett nail back-to-back threes to push our lead out and we enter half-time up 43-28 and it's beginning to look like a blow out. Neither team is shooting well, but our rebounding edge (31 to their 15) is proving the difference. To start off the second we rest Washington, our PG, and bring in Burnett and straight away the Bucs start with the full court pressure. Two possessions in a row they trap Burnett and Bucs SF Webb comes away with it for two uncontested layups. We turn it over, miss shots, and let the Bucs right back in to the game. With our outside shots not falling we bring in Howell to try and get something going from inside, and three possessions in a row he gets it in close but can't convert, and we are beginning to look like we may be in a bit of trouble. Thankfully we are still playing defense however, and it pays off when McGlone and Cole make back to back threes to push the lead out to 57-49 with 9:19 left. The Bucs refuse to die however and keep clawing back, but we always have an answer with either Cole or McGlone knocking down a shot. Finally Howell starts to heat up with 5 minutes remaining and looks unstoppable in the post, and this turns in to a blow out. We are over .500 for the first time this season! W, 83-68 Keys to the Game: 1) Put points on the board. Achieved. Our 3rd highest scoring game of the season. 2) Contain their backcourt. Achieved. No one player had a big night for the Bucs. 3) Protect the ball. Achieved. Apart from a couple of turnovers to start the 2nd half, we did quite OK for the most part. Washington had just 1 in 35 minutes. Code:
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce Last edited by Groundhog : 04-02-2006 at 08:46 AM. |
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06-25-2006, 01:59 AM
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#27 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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January 8, Northwestern St. Demons (7-6, 1-0) @ The Citadel Bulldogs (3-8, 1-1)
We've won 3 games in a row after a shaky start, and today we travel out to South Carolina to take on the Bulldogs, and hoping to extend that streak out to 4. The Bulldogs are one of the worst offensive teams in the country. They average just 60.7 PPG (#300), while shooting an abysmal .376 FG% (#325). The one thing they are OK at is blocking shots. They have no individual great shot blockers, but 4 of their 5 starters swat away about a shot every second night. Scoring wise they are led by their sophomore PG Darrel Ingham's 12.6ppg. Ingham isn't much of a shooter (.342), but loves to take it inside and draw fouls. He is developing as a playmaker, but will never be a top-tier floor general - even by my conference standards. No one else averages double digits scoring, but freshman C Orville Lester (8.6ppg, 4.3rpg), sophomore SF Silas Pierce (9.0ppg, 4.6rpg) & senior SG Andrew Olivares (8.7ppg, 0.9spg, .404 3p%) come close. None of these guys are great shooters though - with the exception of Olivares from behind the arc - and all prefer to take it inside. Senior PF Robert Scot is a capable rebounder (9.4 rpg) and above average defender, but a horrible shooter and is averaging just 3.5ppg. An above average bench is led by senior SG Albert Jewett, who is probably the teams best scoring option, but he has been strapped to the bench because he can't play D. Keys to the game: 1) Score. The Bulldogs are horrible shooters, and if we can rack up enough points they shouldn't be able to keep up with us. They don't have many top-flight defenders either, so our perimeter guys should get some looks. 2) Rebound. With all the misses that the Bulldogs figure to throw up, we need to hit those boards. Marin might be up for a big rebounding night. Result: The Bulldog's fullcourt man-to-man defense gives us some trouble in the early minutes of the game, leading to two steals from Bulldogs SG Olivares that are converted to baskets. We are performing well until the Bulldogs bring on super-sub Jewett, who proceeds to score at will on us. Jewett hits a 3 for his 14th point of the game to give the Bulldogs a 31-21 lead with 5:57 left in the first half. The Bulldog's starters then come back on and we manage to claw back, entering the half down 33-36. The second half starts ugly with neither team able to convert. Marin hits a J from the baseline to tie it up at 38-38 with 16:11, which then turns in to a 10-nothing run for us, and we take the lead out to 44-38 with 12:38 left. As soon as we get the lead, the Bulldogs collapse. They are turning it over every 2nd play, and we force them in to 6 24-second violations in 5 minutes! Jewett comes back in and converts a few times to threaten the lead, but we hold on to take the game. W, 59-48 Keys to the game: 1) Score. Failed. We shot the ball well, but we turned it over way too much, especially in the first half. Our perimeter game just never got it going, and McGlone was very quiet. 2) Rebound. Failed. We started the game well, but as soon as the Bulldogs brought on their subs we stopped hitting the boards. This is what led to it being such a close game. There is no way this team should outrebound us by such a margin considering our talent. Code:
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce |
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07-02-2006, 11:40 PM
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#28 | |
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Pro Starter
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Baltimore MD
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Quote:
agreed... looks good groundhog. Like reading it. Good luck the rest of the way MUNS |
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07-11-2006, 08:16 AM
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#29 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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January 12, Northwestern St. Demons (8-6, 1-0) vs Wofford Terriers (9-4, 1-1)
Wofford have been one of the strongest teams in the conference over the past 3 seasons, and even made an NCAA tourney appearance last season. A large factor in this success has been their scoring ability, which rings true again this season. The Terriers are 33rd in the nation in PPG, and as a team hit at a .464 clip (#35 nationally). It should be noted that only two of their wins have come against teams over .500 however. The Terriers get most of their scoring from their wings, with senior SG Brian Jenkins, 13.8ppg, and sophomore SF Mike Dunford, 13.3ppg. Jenkins scoring has dropped a little this year, but he still packs a deadly mid-range game and is blessed with great athleticism. His range does not quite extend to the 3-point line however. Dunford isn't quite the athlete or shooter, but excels with the ball in his hands. He can get his shot off against most defenders, and gets to the line. Senior PG Gerald Seda has started every game since he's been at Wofford, and provides them with one of the steadiest floor generals in the conference. He's not really a big time scorer, though still gets 10.5ppg, and will surprise with the occassional three-pointer when you least expect it. His ball handling and defense are his strong suits, however, and in these categories he has no peer in our conference. The Terrier frontcourt is manned by 6'8 senior center Chris Boone, who likes to take it inside, but can also stick the trey ala Sam Perkins, hitting them at a .267 clip this year. Boone is also a strong rebounder and a decent defender, but he is not a focal point of the offense as his 7.9ppg shows. At PF is 6'11 junior Maurice Allen. Allen has a good mid-range game, and is a shut-down defender and shot blocker. He's not a big rebounder though at just 5.9 a game, and tends to defer the scoring duties to the perimeter guys, much like Boone. A strong bench is led by super-soph PF Coy Hastings. Hastings is getting 10.9ppg off the bench, and is unstoppable when he gets it in close. Not a great rebounder, but he has the makings of a star in the near future. Senior combo-guard Reggie Eady also picks up 6.8ppg off the bench, and has a very versatile, all-round game - decent at everything, great at nothing. This is going to be a VERY tough match... Keys to the game: 1) D-FENSE! These guys are stacked with scorers, and we need to slow them down. If it turns in to a shoot-out we will lose and lose badly. 2) Turnovers. Always a problem. The Terriers just don't turn it over much at all, yet are #30 in the nation in steals per game. This could be ugly. Result: The Terriers come out in a 3-2 zone, and have obviously been watching game tape of us, as it neutralizes our long range game, with McGlone and Cole both trying and failing to hit from long range. This forces us to take it inside, with Marin and Johnson doing the damage early on. Both teams are cold however, and we have a 6-3 lead with 13:33 left. On comes the Terriers bench, led by Hastings and Eady, and they make a run as we start to turn the ball over. Howell steps on the court and draws two quick fouls on Hastings while making the shot, though misses all his FTs. He draws another foul, makes 1 of 2, to be 1-6 for the game. We just can't get any rhythm going however, and the Terriers start to pull away. Up by 9, thanks largely to a couple of big baskets by SG Brian Jenkins, the Terriers then foul our backup combo-guard Burnett while he is shooting a 3. He makes them all, and we enter the half down 26-33. We have raised our FG% to .400 to their .438, but our inability to get anything out of our backcourt is hurting us. McGlone has 0 points on 0-5 shooting. The second half continues to be ugly. We slowly etch away at their lead thanks to some bad Terrier fouls and turnovers, but we just can't get anything to go down. We continue to grind it out, with the Terriers continuing to turn it over and miss, before McGlone knocks down 1 of 2 FTs for his first points of the game, and it's 41-44 Wofford with 4:38 left. More ugly basketball follows until Al Johnson gets to the line for the 1 plus penalty, misses, Marin tips in the miss, and it's 43-44 with 2:36 left! The Terriers try to respond but can't get anything going, and get a shot clock violation for turnover number 22 of the game - not bad, considering they average 10 a night coming in! McGlone is fouled shortly after, makes 1 of 2, and it's now a tie game at 44 with 1:46 left... The Terriers rush it up court and Eady misses a J from the corner, boards his own miss, gets it to Jenkins at the FT line, who then attempts to drive but is whistled for the travel! With 1:05 left we call time-out, then inbound it to McGlone who is fouled and goes to the line for two, makes them both, and we are up 46-44 for our first lead in a long time! The Terriers call time, then get the ball in the post to Hastings. He spots Jenkins streaking to the hoop and tries to get the ball to him, but he throws ahead of him and it goes out of bounds with 25 seconds left. We inbound it to Washington, who is fouled immediately and makes 1 of 2, 47-44 with 22 seconds left. The Terriers get it to Jenkins who is fouled with 8 seconds left by McGlone. He Makes them both, and it's 47-46 and I'm starting to really sweat now. We quickly inbound to Washington, who races to the sideline and passes it off to McGlone before the foul can get to him, who also evades the foul and gets it to Marin, who is fouled just as the buzzer sounds! He makes 1 of 2, and we win the game! W, 48-46 Well, it was an ugly, ugly game of basketball, but we'll take it. We forced one of the least mistake prone and best scoring teams in the nation to turn it over and score under 50 points... Impressive! Especially with McGlone having perhaps his worst game ever. Howell and Johnson were the ones keeping us in this with their scoring, while Marin grabbed every board that came his way. This was a GREAT win for us. Keys to the game: 1) Defend. Wow. Much better than expected. Cole made Dunford dissapear, and Jenkins couldn't pick up the slack. Not to mention 24 turnovers forced! 2) Turnovers. Well, we had 19, but they had 24! That's 14 more than they've averaged over the season! Code:
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce Last edited by Groundhog : 07-11-2006 at 08:18 AM. |
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07-13-2006, 09:31 AM
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#30 |
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Pro Starter
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: Baltimore MD
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Now that was a hell of a game. Your first key to the game was dead on. Good call there
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07-16-2006, 07:20 AM
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#31 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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January 15, Northwestern St. Demons (9-6, 3-0) vs Chattanooga Mocs (4-9, 2-0)
After a rocky start to the season, we've managed to win our last 5, including our first 3 conference games. Today we're looking to extend that to 6 against Chattanooga. The Mocs won their first game before dropping 7 in a row. They look to be on the road to recovery however, winning 3 of their last 5, including a 76-72 win over Clemson from the ACC conference. The Mocs play a slow-down brand of basketball, largely due to the fact that they don't have a lot of consistent scoring options outside of senior PG Tim Kaplan. Kaplan is literally the be-all and end-all of this team's offense, and with his 16.7ppg is the only Moc to average double figures. He is very quick and has no trouble creating his own shot, and is also a major threat from long range as his .380 3p% shows. He doesn't defend nearly as well as he scores however, and he is most definately a scorer first and playmaker second. Joining Kaplan in the backcourt is sophomore SG Angel Gatling. Gatling has a nice mid-range game and notches 9.9ppg, but he is extremely unathletic for his position, which hurts defensively. On the other wing is junior SF Sharif Crank, another decent mid-range player, and a strong rebounder to boot. He's averaging 9.7ppg for the season. A very average frontcourt is "lead" by senior C Chet Grabowski, who can defend and hit the boards, but is not much of a threat to score. Junior PF Benedict Morgan is the other starter and is maybe a little better around the basket, but he is a very poor rebounder for his position. Defensively he is probably one of the best in the conference however, and makes up for only above-average strength with his athleticism and footwork. First off the bench is senior Noah Martel, capable of playing either forward spot. He's getting 7.8ppg for the season, and is a threat from long range. The rest of the bench doesn't really warrant much of a write-up - lets just say that depth is a real concern for the Mocs. Keys to the game: 1) Limit Kaplan. If we can Keep Kaplan to his season average, we should have this game in the bag. The Mocs are awful at putting the ball in the hoop. McGlone will be charged with guarding him, but will have help from a double team. 2) Scoring from our backcourt. Defensively the Mocs guards are pretty attrocious. McGlone needs to bounce back from a couple of poor showings and take advantage of this, and Washington and Cole also have little excuse not to make some noise tonight. Result: We instruct Seve Marin to slack off from his defensive assignment, Mocs C Grabowski, in order to watch for Kaplan's attempts to penetrate, but this leads to some easy baskets for Grabowski to start the game. The Mocs then string off 6 FGs in a row, and we are playing catchup. McGlone draws foul #2 on Kaplan with 15:36 left thankfully, and he heads to the bench. Still, we can't buy a basket... Mocs' super-sub Noah Martel picks up foul #2 also with 10:45 left, and we are down 11-20. We give Marin a rest and the Mocs abuse us on the offensive boards, making for some easy baskets. A couple of threes from McGlone helps, but we are really struggling to score while everyone is stepping up for the Mocs. They go on another run behind some bench players, and we enter the half down 26-36, despite Kaplan having scored just 3 points. Gatling has been doing most of the damage with 9 points, while McGlone has 8 for us, an Marin and Cole have 7 - though Cole is playing awful and is just 2-11 from the floor. The second half begins much as the first half finished, as the Mocs score the first 8 points of the half, and soon we are down 26-44 with 17:33 left, and we are in real trouble. The only signs of life are coming from Marin who blocks and boards a couple of shots and makes some baskets, but the Mocs refuse to miss and are hurting us from all positions. No matter what I try and which lineup I throw on the court, we end up humilated and lose this game to the Mocs on our homecourt as our young guys play out the last few minutes of garbage time. L, 55-67 A terrible, terrible game. Just a few nights ago we had no problems dropping 80 points on a team, yet we can't even crack 60 against this Mocs squad. Terrible. Keys to the game: 1) Limit Kaplan. Kaplan was ineffective for most of the game after his early foul trouble, and scored most of his 13 points when the game was already decided. Still, we passed this goal. 2) Scoring from our backcourt. Failed. Cole and McGlone were woeful once again, and Washington was invisible. This is just unacceptable against a team like this. Code:
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce |
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08-02-2006, 08:38 AM
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#32 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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January 17, Northwestern St. Demons (9-7, 3-1) @ Chattanooga Mocs (5-9, 3-0)
Well, we don't have to wait very long for revenge, as two days later we head out to Chattanoga to take on the Mocs on their home court. What beat us was our inability to score most of all, and McGlone was the worst offender. McGlone has averaged just 8.7ppg over the past 3 games on .267 FG%. This is a major problem for us as he is supposed to be our primary scoring option, and with Cole, Washington, Marin, and Howell being completely unreliable in this department we really look to him to get around 15-20 a night. Against a team that is as poor on the defensive end of the court as the Mocs are, this shouldn't be a problem. Again, Kaplan will be the Moc to watch and will see a double-team all game, but we will need to do a better job of limiting SG Angel Gatling. We allowed them 67 points last game, which should be enough for us to revenge our loss if we can just get some scoring. Keys to the game: 1) Limit Kaplan. We managed it last time, and hopefully we can do it again. 2) Scoring from our backcourt. McGlone and co. were woeful last game. They really need to step it up and get something going for us. Result: Marin comes out strong, drawing a foul, making a FT, then hitting a J from the baseline to put us up 3-0, and then we heat up from the perimeter. McGlone finally finds some form and makes a 3, followed by Al Johnson with his 2nd career 3, then McGlone with 2 more, and we have a 22-9 lead with 14:09 remaining! McGlone's hot streak continues as he nails another two 3s for 15 points, and we are up 34-15 with 6:57 left in the half. With Marin on the bench (who has 8pts and 6rebs already), we falter. We miss a bunch of shots - including a wide-open dunk by McGlone - and the Mocs start to catch up. On comes Marin, who gets the ball inside after a nice pass by Washington, and he sticks the shot. Mocs SG Gatling nails a 3, Cole responds with a 3 for us, and we take a 41-26 lead in to the half. Kaplan has just 5 points for the Mocs, while Angel Gatling has 9. Leading us is McGlone with 15pts (5-8 from 3pt), and Cole with 9pts. We trade baskets to start the 2nd half, but Burnett - who is giving Washington a breather - is struggling. He misses some shots, gets another blocked, then loses it in the backcourt to Angel Gatling who takes it all the way for a layup, and it's 43-32 with 17:34 left. Cole begins to come alive again, hitting a J from in close and drawing the foul, then knocking down another from just behind the FT line. McGlone hits a 3 soon after for his first points of the half and it's 58-43 with 10:23. The Mocs call time, but Cole nails back to back 3s to break his previous career high of 18 points, and the game turns in to a blowout. W, 79-64 A much better performance today. A few nights ago we couldn't buy a basket, but tonight McGlone gave his best performance in a while, with 15 first half points to put us ahead, and Cole finished them off in the second half with his best ever game for Northwestern State, and a well deserved player of the game award for his 24 points and 13 rebounds. Marin and Al Johnson were solid inside, as was Washington handling the ball, though he was a little passive with just two FGAs. On the negative side, our young bench players faltered a little, and it's lucky the starters were making their shots. Fiscus was invisible in his 15 minutes, Burnett was erratic, and Howell had 6 turnovers. Keys tot he game: 1) Limit Kaplan. Kaplan shot just 3-13 against our double-team, and turned it over 7 times. Sharif Crank picked up a bit of the slack for the Mocs, but most of it came late in the game when it had already been long decided. Passed. 2) Scoring from our backcourt. We were on fire tonight. McGlone cooled in the 2nd, but Cole stepped right on in. This is the kind of performance from Cole that I've been waiting for for a long time. He's capable of it, but his shot is just too inconsistent. Code:
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce |
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08-07-2006, 06:30 AM
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#33 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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January 19, Northwestern St. Demons (10-7, 4-1) vs VMI Keydets (10-3, 4-0)
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Team Info: The Keydets have had a very solid start to their season, and have racked up some impressive victories, including a 73-62 victory over Duquesne, who are 11-3 on the season. The Keydets are among the best defensive teams in the nation, which is the key factor behind their success so far. They have been giving up just 61.5 points per game; though they only manage to put 67.5 points on the board themselves. The Keydets run a 2-1-2 defense primarily; a set that we have not gone up against much this season. VMI haven't had a winning season since 2004-05, and are currently well and truly in the race for the prized NCAA Tourney appearance. Backcourt: True freshman combo-guard Steve Lindsay has been a hit for the Keydets, thanks largely to his long range shooting. He is hitting at an impressive .514 clip from long range, and is the only Keydet averaging double-digit scoring figures. He has much work to do on the other end of the court however. Handling the PG duties is senior Les Stapleton, an unspectacular yet steady floor general. He doesn't have much range on his jumper, but is a solid passer and defender. Diminutive sophomore Levi Sullivan gives them a shooter off the bench as well as a solid defender, and fellow sophomore reserve Gary Sandstrom gives them much of the same at either spot, but with a little more height. Frontcourt: Efren Prickett has started every game in the middle for the Keydets, and has shown improvement each year. As a freshman all he contributed was height, but he's improved to the point where he can be relied upon to hit the boards, make a few baskets, and block the odd shot. Senior walk-on PF Dwight Grimm on the other hand is similar to a young Prickett, and does not offer much more than height and a few boards. He lacks the body strength to be a better rebounder, and his offensive game is very raw. Sophomore Tony Fish starts on the wing and gives the Keydets a versatile option that can play on the wings or down in the blocks. He is athlete who uses his strength to muscle his opponent and work for rebounds, but currently lacks the shooting touch to make a major impact on the score sheet. Sophomore Charles Hughes is the first big off the bench, and has a well developed scoring game with a jumper that extends to the perimeter. 6'11 sophomore David Kantor gives them yet another big option off the bench who can play big minutes if required. Keys to the Game 1) Score. The Keydets win by forcing the game to be played at their own, slow pace. We must come out firing and force the Keydets to shoot the ball. 2) Contain Lindsay. Lindsay is by far the most dangerous player the Keydets have, and if we can limit him to his season average it's doubtful that they have the scoring depth to outscore us. Result: It's a slow start from both teams, with just two baskets in the first 2:30, but we are rebounding wel. Washington and Cole hit threes on back-to-back possessions to put us up 8-4, and we are looking OK. McGlone, who is yet to take a shot, picks up foul #2 trying to guard Lindsay, and is sent to the bench just 4 minutes in. Burnett comes on in his place, and instantly attacks the basket, misses, board his miss, misses again, boards it again, yet we still can't hit. Marin soon also picks up his 2nd with 12:54 left, and we already have 7 team fouls. With our boys up 16-12, Burnett races in to tip-jam an offensive rebound, for his 5th point and 4th rebound, and it's 18-12 with 12:28 left. Both teams continue to miss, though our rebounding is saving the day for us, until Burnett also picks up his 2nd foul - and then a technical for arguing! Argh! The remainder of the half sees both teams continue to miss, but we are flat out dominating the boards, and Cole and Marin help us get the lead out to 10 with 4:25 left, 30-20. A few turnovers and misses later, and it's 30-24 heading in to the half time break. Cole leads us with 8 points and 6 rebounds, while McGlone has 0 points in 14 minutes and has taken just 1 shot as the Keydets have really been focusing on him. We are dominating the boards 30-13, though shooting just .324 to the Keydet's .360. We start the second half poorly, with Marin picking up two straight turnovers, and a basket from Keydets forward Charles Hughes makes it 30-26 with 19:25 remaining. Our continued dominance of the rebounds combined with Howell's scoring prevents the Keydets from taking the lead, even with our string of turnovers. With 16:13 left and the lead at 41-34, McGlone slips and breaks his wrist! He hadn't scored yet, but this is a terrible setback for us... The Keydets can't seem to stop fouling however, which puts them in penalty with 14:34 left. Fiscus steals the ball after a successfull trap and takes it all the way to give us a 10 point lead, 47-37 with 14:06 left. Marin picks up foul #4, and the Keydets go on a bit of a run, but COle, Howell and Burnett have an answer every time, and they just can't catchup. Marin checks back in the game, picks up an illegal screen call seconds later and is done for the night with 5 fouls, but this game is turning in to a blowout. W, 79-62 When you can out-rebound a team by 30 you are going to win basketball games, and that was the difference tonight. Marin, Johnson, Cole, Howell and 5'11 Burnett all nearly had 10 boards a piece, and really helped make up for the poor shooting performance we were putting up for most of the game, until finally with about 10 minutes left we heated up and didn't look back. The loss came at a massive price however; McGlone, our leading scorer, is gone for over a month with a broken wrist. Today was one of his worst showings thanks to some intense D from the Keydets, but we are majorly thin in the backcourt thanks to suspensions and redshirts, so we may have to look at taking one of our freshman guards off his redshirt and give him some time straight away. Game ball went to Cole for his second straight dominant game - hopefully a sign of things to come. Al Johnson was also solid, and Burnett and Howell had excellent games off the bench. It had been awhile since either really showed their potential, and it could not have come at a better time with McGlone out of action. Keys to the Game: 1) Score. We put up 79 points despite 0 points from our leading scorer. Passed. 3) Contain Lindsay. Well, he had 19 points, but they were a quiet 19. He really didn't dominate at all, and he made about 5 of those points when the game was no longer a contest. Passed. Code:
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce Last edited by Groundhog : 08-07-2006 at 07:52 AM. |
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08-07-2006, 08:33 AM
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#34 |
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Coordinator
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Sydney, Australia
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Northwestern State Demons announce they are revoking redshirt status for one of their true freshmen
With McGlone's injury we are seriously thin at guard, and decide we have to cancel one of our true freshman's redshirt status in order to help us straight away. We do have junior combo-guard Michael Sarabia hopefully returning to us at the end of this month after his suspension, but he's pretty much just a ball handler and plays attrocious defense, so we feel that we have little choice. I hate to do this after 18 games have already been played, however. We had 3 options available to us, SF Joseph Lyes who is pretty average across the board, SG Michael Doak who has a nice jumpshot but is turnover prone, and PG Sam Davis who has a nice handle and at 6'4 can play either guard spot, though he is not a scorer. We decide that we are going to start Fiscus at SG, despite Burnett's hot performance last game. Burnett is probably the better player, but he is just 5'11, and Fiscus plays stronger D. With this in mind, we need someone who can backup both Fiscus and Cole on the wings, so we decide to cancel Joseph Lyes' redshirt. He was probably the best option anyway, as this former Mr. Basketball out of our homestate of Louisiana has the least potential of the 3 freshman, and thus should be hurt the least overall in his development. Code:
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Politics, n. Strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. --Ambrose Bierce |
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