Hang Your Hat On Stetson! (NCAA 2K8)

[Izulde]

So here I am again with CH2K8, this time taking the Stetson Hatters. Who knows if I'll actually like, you know, stick with it or even stick with Stetson, as I may try and work my way up to Arkansas.

Post Midnight Madness Notes
Starters 42 Reserves 37

A close-victory for the starting five, but still a win. PF Garland Farrell (Sr) was the hero for the Starters with 10 points and 9 rebounds. Much-lauded (70 rating) SF Percy Brooks (Jr) was a major disappointment with just 4 points on 1-4 shooting, though he did gather 7 boards. SG Vince Sanchez (Jr) started off hot with the game's first 5 points, but turned to ice after that, his 10 points accumulated on the weight of 2-10 shooting.

For the reserves, SF Brady Stapley (Jr) showed surprising scoring touch with 12 points (5/11 shooting). C Adam Kickert (Jr), our resident Kiwi, showed enough to win the starting C spot, though admittedly the fact that he's one of only two true Cs and the only decent one plays heavily into that. SG Ethan Kohn (So) will never see the floor again if I can help it. His 1-13 shooting was ghastly.

As Farrell is our lone senior, we have just one scholarship available. Luckily, there's a 3* PF right in our municipal area, PF Chuck Shiloh, who's open and looking to stay local. After one week of recruiting, we jump from #6 all the way to #2.

I ruthlessly cut Kohn on roster finalization day, even though he's technically one of our better guards and young. It's bastardly of me to do, but I don't care.

We leapfrog to the frontrunners for Shiloh after we offer him a scholarship. Savannah State were the original leaders for him, but then we surged, as did The Citadel and we were deadlocked with Citadel for him until the scholly offer.

Game #1: vs. North Dakota State (0-2, 67, 69, 64, 33)

All signs point to a close contest against the Bison. Let's hope we get it done.

We win the opening tip but can't do anything with it and the Bison go up 2-0 and I'm thinking it's going to be a long, long game. Percy Brooks steps up right then though and scores 5 straight points and what follows is a battle of defenses.

Our hard-fought 2-point lead vanishes at the half when they sink a buzzer beater to tie it all up going into the locker room.

North Dakota State 17 Stetson 17 - Halftime

The Bison are shooting 38%, we're shooting 37%. So yeah, not much scoring action going on at all.

They get the ball to open the half and naturally open up with a 5 point run to take a lead that looks perilously commanding. Fortunately our defense steps up and we start driving the lane hard, drawing fouls for some precious freebies . An emphatic lay-in by Percy Brooks, his first points of the second half, put us up 27-25 with 6:06 left in the game.

Vince Sanchez lands a 3 pointer shortly after, but they answer right back and are in danger of taking the lead as the score's 30-29, but Sanchez scores again a few mutually botched possessions later and we're up 32-29 with 4:28 left.

Sanchez strikes again with a steal immediately after the timeout and we convert! The run continues and just before North Dakota State's next timeout, Sanchez is wide-open for an easy layup to make the score 38-31 with 2:58 left.

There's a small note of concern, though. Adam Kickert has been hampered by foul problems all game and has 4. He's a key part of our interior defense and we're a lot softer up the middle without him.

Of course, this being what it is, the Bison go on a run and just like that, they're within 1. I'm sweating and on the verge of swearing, but then they start intentionally fouling and Percy Brooks converts two oh so damn clutch free throws to make the score 40-37 with 26.1 seconds remaining.

All we have to do is stop the 3.

They hit it.

Fuck!

21.3 seconds left, so we just pass it around, playing for the last shot... and then the ball's poked loose! Florentino Wilson, our sophomore starting PG snatches it up and launches the desperation shot out of the scrum with the last second ticking off...

IT'S GOOD!

HATTERS WIN!!! HATTERS WIN!!!!

North Dakota State 40 Stetson 42

SF Percy Brooks (Jr) wins Player of the Game with 9 points on 3/8 shooting, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal and a turnover.

I screwed up and forgot to check that PF Garland Farrell was starting. The idiot AI wasn't starting him and had him buried on the bench. Meanwhile, the tool the AI -did- make the starter, PF Ryan Okallo (Jr), a 6'5" shrimp from Senegal, who couldn't shoot a damn in Midnight Madness, blew it this game too and damn near cost us the win, as most of his 0 of 5 attempts occurred during the 38-31 to 38-37 gap narrowing.

You bet your ass Farrell's starting next game and every other game of the season. If we didn't need 12 players, I'd have cut Okallo too.

But the important thing is, we won!

[Izulde]

After my euphoria I realize two things

1) I had the halves set for 10 minutes, not 20. Oops.
2) Some idiot has us scheduled for 3 straight games. Not cool.

Our first of 3 games in 3 days is against Florida Atlantic. The Owls are 1-1 and boast a 75, 77, 68, 29 line. Talentwise, they kill us. Chemistrywise, we hold a very, very slight edge.

We stun the Owls' faithful and me myself by going on a 20-4 run to open the game and quickly take control of the contest. Garland Farrell is cleaning up on the boards and Vince Sanchez makes his presence felt on offense with a 3 pointer and some nice drives to the basket.

Florida Atlantic won't go down without a fight however and they start getting on fire as our reserves can't handle them defensively and struggle on offense. By the time the 10:00 mark rolls around, they've closed to within 27-20 and I'm starting to get a bit paranoid.

No problem as two 3-point shots, including one by Vince Sanchez, who already is in double digits, along with some other sensational shooting has us up 38-24 7:34 left in the half.

It's a lead that holds and extends as we just hammer them hard.

Halftime: Stetson 54 Florida Atlantic 37

Turnovers are a huge problem for them, as they have 10 already. Vince Sanchez leads all scorers with 14 points at halftime, Florentino Wilson throwing in 11 himself. Gerald Farell has 9 points and 7 rebounds, though most of the scoring is due to 5-5 FT shooting, as he's just 2/7 from the field.

All in all, we're playing fantastically right now. Percy Brooks is arguably our most complete halftime player, with 9 points, 4 rebounds, an assist and 4 steals. Clearly our star player, for sure.

Five minutes into the second half, Gerald Farrell has hit his shot on our first three straight posession and Vince Sanchez breaks 20 points on a pair of free throws. We're up 69-46 and the only question is if we'll manage to break 100 points.

88-57 at the 10 minute mark and we're pretty much guaranteed of hitting triple digits, maybe even getting some kind of record.

Our 100th point comes with just over four minutes left, fittingly enough on a FT by Vince Sanchez.

Final Score: Stetson 116 Florida Atlantic 87

Out and out dominance here. Florentino Wilson with 13 points, 4 assists and 4 steals as his highlights, Vince Sanchez with 22 points, Percy Brooks invisible in the second half, but still finishing with 11 points and 4 steals. Gerald Farell just missed a double-double with 15 points and 9 rebounds.

From the bench, G Orlando Gillingham (So) scored a sizzling 18 points and Ryan Okallo surprised with 13. C Damian Boyce (Fr) got 11 boards, though most of them came when the Owls weren't even trying to get offensive rebounds. Still, maybe there's some potential lurking in him after all.

Great, great win. We shot 51.2% from the floor, 67% (6/9) from 3-point range. 50 rebounds versus 32. Just fantastic.

Game #3 @ Rhode Island (3-0, 79, 83, 72, 67

We should have our asses handed to us by the Rams, who look like a really quality outfit.

Things are holding close, but we can't stop their 3 point game and they keep finding holes in our defense. It doesn't help that Vince Sanchez picks up two very quick fouls and has to sit.

As of the 10 minute mark, we're down 34-23 and showing no signs of being able to stop them, no matter what kind of defensive adjustments we make.

Halftime: Stetson 39 Rhode Island 57

I'm thinking I'm going to have to cut down the minutes per half. It's a little too high-scoring for college basketball these last few games. Maybe 17 per half?

In any case, Orlando Gillingham has 11 points at the half, but [b]Percy Brooks[/b[ is our only other player of note with 9 points and 3 steals. I'm at a loss as to how to stop this Rams team.

Percy Brooks goes on a bigtime scoring streak to open up the second half, to like NBA-jam style on-fire levels and we fight our way back to a 10 point deficit, but then Rhode Island's shooters get hot again from downtown and nothing we can do can stop them.

Worse yet, just inside the 10 minute mark, we're not only down 85-68, but Adam Kickert gets hurt and has to leave the game.

Fortunately it's a minor injury and he's cleared to return. We draw to 85-75 before another Ram run, but then we counter with a run of our own, so that with 3:03 left, we're finally at single-digits, 99-90. Oh yeah, I'm so reducing the minutes per half.

Miracle time?

No.

Final: Stetson 100 Rhode Island 110

SG Vandrell Henry (Jr) torched us for 36 points, SG Dwight Killingworth the second assassin with 22. But it was PF Nekemiah Luna (Jr) who was the real Hatter stomper, with 19 points, 20 rebounds and 3 assists.

Percy Brooks led us with 26 points, C Adam Kickert fighting through his injury for the first double-double of 11 points and 10 rebounds. Vince Sanchez and Orlando Gillingham both scored 13, while Damian Boyce had 11 rebounds.

2-1 is still damn good, though, and we played the superior Rams really tough.

Third game in a row I'll do later.

[Izulde]

Had my last fraternity meeting as an undergrad and tonight and it's hitting home pretty hard right now. Course, it's been hitting hard since my US Multicultural Lit class the morning when I looked across the room at this hot girl and I was like, "Oh my god! I'm never going to see this hot chick ever again!" and then I started freaking out a bit to myself, because I've been in college 10 years and to finally be getting my undergrad is a scary, scary feeling.

Thankfully there's still grad school at Arkansas to look forward to!

But enough about me rambling about me. You're reading this to read about Stetson.

Our third game in as many days is an away matchup at Georgia Southern, who is 2-1 on the year, same as us, with a 72, 73, 70, 36 line. They're slightly better than us in talent and equal to us in team chemistry. Should be a close game.

Oh yeah, this is also the start of 17 minute halves.

Changing the minutes means the starting lineup gets screwed up at PF, but it works as Garland Ferrell (who I've been misspelling as Gerald) comes off the bench to provide a sparkplug 4 points and take us from a 6-2 deficit to a tie game.

We go ahead following a Vince Sanchez FG and look to have very quickly turned around an ice-cold shooting slump, while still playing extremely solid defense.

But then our defense goes south as we keep allowing 3 pointers and we get down to 22-19 at the 7:30 mark. Bleh! Bleh I say!

We get to within 1 twice, but the fucking whores are hitting god damned everything and nail a fucking buzzer beater at the half!

Halftime: Stetson 33 Georgia Southern 40

The Eagles quickly fly out to a double-digit lead behind a SG named Slater who has 20 effing points like a minute after the thing starts. We cut to within 5 BUT THEN THE FUCKING ASSFARMERS FUCKING GO APESHIT

GOD I FUCKING HATE THIS FUCKING GAME!!!

By the time we're down 78-58 with 7:00 minutes left in the game I say fuck it, throw my controller and shut the console off.

I SUCK AT THIS GAME.

I can't even frigging win at WALK-ON LEVEL!

THIS IS HOW BAD I SUCK!

[Cap Ologist]

The gods have spoken, return to the right dynasty and appease them.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Cap Ologist

The gods have spoken, return to the right dynasty and appease them.

Not till later this week when things stop being so paper-filled.

The Knicks dynasty is one I don't have to think at all about when I write it.

There should be an update come Tuesday or Wednesday in the dynasty you're waiting to have updated, but it'll be the only update this week. There's just tooo much other stuff to do.