CH2K8: Indiana Hills Norsemen

[Groundhog]

I've had an itch to try Coach Mode in CH2K8 for a while now, but I didn't want to interrupt with my current Rutgers dynasty. So I decided to try out another feature that I was yet to play around with, Create-a-School. I set my school in Indiana, which should make the game a little more challenging as a general house rule I have is to target recruits in my own state above all else, and only look elsewhere when I can't land the locals. For this reason playing as a Texas/California/NY school is a little bit easy.

So, the fictional Indiana Hills Norsemen make their way to Division 1 basketball! We replace Southern Utah in the Summit Conference, play in a small arena, our colours are light blue/black/white (original!), and our initial roster is made up of 10 players from another terrible school, with new randomly generated names and appearances.

I plan on playing an open legacy as I like to tweak the 5-star recruits' tendancies to make them stronger out of the gate, as well as my own players appearance so I don't get half a roster with massive afros, and starting a new school will allow me to create myself as coach with a blank coaching record.

My general house-rules are:

1. Recruit in-state when possible.
2. Only one 3-star or higher foreign player on the roster at any one time, with a possible exception for Australian generated players.
3. No in-season training drills.
4. 'Balanced' playbook for the CPU teams (may also mix it up a little with "all plays" sometimes).

In the past I've lost interest in coaching small-time schools because I've found it's relatively easy to nab a couple of 3-star recruits and ride them to dominance over the other teams in your conference. I'm hoping that Coach Mode will offer a new challenge for me.

[Groundhog]

Season 1

My roster is woeful, so I'm going to sim through this season and begin next season with hopefully a couple of freshmen who can contribute. I'll just give a quick run-down on my team and the season.

Basically we have one good player, a senior SF name Orlando Willis. He's rated a 71 and can shoot the ball OK from deep, but is fairly mediocre outside of that. On this roster, that makes him a superstar. Outside of Willis we have a senior C rated 66 who can score a little bit inside and rebound relatively well, and a senior PG rated 62 who is terrible everywhere except his passing attribute, which is merely below-average.

We finish the season with just 7 wins, 5 of them conference wins, which is too few to make the conference tournament.

Willis leads our team with 15.4 points per game. Not a whole lot else worth reporting on stats wise. This team really is quite woeful. I'm surprised we won 7 games.

Recruiting

We had 5 scholarships to offer this season, which was a damn good thing considering how badly we need talent. My priority was more just to get talent than to target any particular positions, but we do have a real need for PGs with just one non-senior on the roster at that position, and a swingman who doesn't suck ass would be a nice find too.

I had two main targets from week one of recruiting onwards. One was a 3-star SF (rated in the 300s overall, IIRC) who had high interest in us, and the other was a 3-star freshman JuCo PG who looked like a potential steal if my scouts were correct (which they probably weren't). He had zero interest from anyone at the beginning of recruiting, so it looked promising.

Outside of that we targetted a couple of 2-star JuCo 6'11 bigmen, a 3-star 6'11 bigman from Lithuania, and some Indiana boys - a 3-star PF rated in the 400s, two 3-star PGs rated in the 300s, and a 3-star SG rated in the 300s. We also scouted a bunch of 2-star guys, looking for steals, but basically they all looked like warm bodies more than Div. 1 basketballers.

We quickly jump ahead to a big lead on the 3-star SF, and surprisingly we are able to get him to commit in the early-signing period. He's undersized for a SF at 6'4 but that shouldn't be a big problem at this level, and he'll hopefully grow an inch or two over his college years. According to my scouts he has a pretty balanced overall game and a C+ potential.

For the rest of the regular season recruiting period we have big leads on the JuCo PG and both of the JuCo bigmen, but have basically lost out on all other prospects besides the Lithuanian big, who we have no competition for at all. As the season progresses and the losses pile up however, we find our leads on the JuCo PG and one of the JuCo bigmen shrinking as the losses we continue to stockpile are affecting recruit interest.

In the final recruiting period of the season we lose both the JuCo PG and the more promising of the JuCo bigmen very early, but we have zero competition on the other JuCo big (with good reason perhaps). Our only other realistic option outside of a few flyers we take on some uncommited 3-star players is the big Lithuanian. A few teams show late interest, but we have a big lead. The concern is getting him to 100% interest as there is no gaurantee he'll sign without it. On the very final day of recruiting he signs however, along with the JuCo bigman.

We wind up with:

3-star 6'4 SF - C+ potential, all-rounder
3-star 6'11 Lithuanian bigman - don't know a lot about him, other than that he has the kind of size that can make a big difference at this level.
2-star 6'11 freshman JuCo bigman - C potential, looks mediocre across the board. Signs are that he'll be a warm body and 5 fouls, but I'm hoping for the best.

We left 2 scholarships unfilled and didn't get the PG we really needed, which may well prove a problem considering our only PG going in to next season is a 54 rated freshman who, to put it kindly, rather sucks.

[Balldog]

Looking forward to reading, are you using any sliders for coach mode? For some reason I've not been able to come up with sliders I really like for coach mode in 2k8.

edit: You can edit create-a-team colors this year???

[Groundhog]

Really not sure about sliders yet. I've tweaked my normal sliders a little, but we'll see how they play out.

And yeah, you can change your colours but the uniform is VERY generic.

[Groundhog]

2008-09 Season

Roster Overview:

Point Guards:

Torvoris Jolliff (senior 5'10 173lbs, 58 ovr) is our leading returning scorer at 9.0ppg last season, but he is a SG, not a PG. We have no choice but to play him here (I changed his position too, and he lost 3 ovr) due to lack of any other options. His ball handling is OK and he has a little range on his jumper, but is poor just about everywhere else. Darion Mucole (junior 5'11 17lbs, 55 ovr) is the only other PG on the roster, and we will be forced to play him for that reason. His ball handling skills are on par with Jolliff but he's a slightly better passer. He is terrible everywhere else.

Shooting Guards:

Marcelle Nellems (junior 6'5 201lbs, 58 ovr) will be the other starter in our weak backcourt. Nellems is actually a fairly fine 3pt shooter - compared to the rest of our roster, at least - but is horribly slow and a poor defender. Walkon J.R. Werch (junior 6'2 187lbs, 46 ovr) is the only other SG on roster and will be cut before the season starts. He adds nothing at all, as his overall rating suggests.

Small Forwards:

Prized freshman recruit Borislav Frisby (freshman 6'5 203lbs, 69 ovr) is going to be one of the guys that anchors this team for the next 4 seasons. He is a bit of an all-rounder and doesn't really stand out in any one area, and his D potential means he likely won't ever be a superstar, but he's bounds ahead of most of our roster. Marier Daley (junior 6'8 229lbs, 55 ovr) is the best of the other SFs on the roster, which isn't saying much. He can shoot the ball OK with range, but s terrible everywhere else and, despite his size, not really able to play down low with his skillset. Dior Hundley (junior 6'8 210lbs, 51 ovr) will hopefully never play.

PFs:

Temitope Pantlino (soph 6'6 225lbs, 62 ovr) was a SF, but gained +2 ovr when I moved his position to PF. He's undersized, but pretty strong and one of our best rebounders. The rest of his game is pretty average. Galen Sam (junior 6'7 220lbs, 62 ovr) is also a touch undersized, but has more of a midrange game offensively, and a stroke that extends out to three. Doesn't do a lot else, but is an OK post defender. Walkon Ryan Alen (freshman 6'8 214lbs, 52 ovr) is average across the board, but appears a little better than his overall rating suggests. Unlikely to see much court time however.

Cs:

Aleksandar Kavaliauskas (freshman 6'11 210lbs, 69 ovr) was the the Lithuanian bigman we chased all last season. Thankfully he winds up a pretty nice player. He has an OK touch around the hoop, can block shots, and is solid in the post on both ends of the court. I'm hoping Frisby and Kava form the core of my squad for the next 4 seasons, and Kava's C potential means he might develop in to a 71/72 rated player. Ronni Brickley (soph 6'9 240lbs, 56 ovr) will probably be the first big off the bench. He's our best rebounder, but won't give us much else out there. JuCo recruit Virgil Dunn (soph 6'10 229lbs, 56 ovr) was about as bad as I feared he might be, given the lack of competition for him. He is an OK rebounder and has some skills on the blocks, but F potential means he is what he is - a bit contributor.

Opening Night Lineup (last season's stats in brackets)

PG - Torvoris Jolliff (9.0ppg 1.4rpg 1.3apg)
SG - Marcelle Nellems (5.4ppg 0.9rpg 0.4apg)
SF - Borislav Frisby (3* recruit, #383 ovr and #81 pos)
PF - Temitope Pantlino (6.7ppg 4.9rpg 1.0apg)
C - Aleksandar Kavaliauskas (3*, unrated)
----
6th - PF/C Ronni Brickley

I've gone with a custom playbook that includes a selection of plays focusing on Frisby and Kava. I'm going to only call the first play of the possession and the inbounds - ie. not after offensive rebounds. I'll let the AI call the play in other situations.

[Groundhog]

Recruiting update:

With 3 scholarships available, we go after a bunch of PGs and SGs - mostly 3 star players at this early stage, but also looking at a few 2 star guys as backup plans.

We are in the hunt with everyone we are looking at, but it's too early to tell how close we are to snapping up any of these kids.

[Groundhog]

Nov 10, 2008: Indiana Hills Norsemen (0-0) @ SE Missouri State Redhawks (0-1)

For our first game of the season we head out to Missouri to take on the Redhawks. As a team they are rated just one point higher than us at 69 vs 68, but out rank us in every category except defense (a tie at 65) and rebounding (we have a 71-68 edge).

The Redhawks are coming off a 60-97 loss to Houston, a game where their super combo-guard Kenard Moore (snr 6-0 172lbs, 67 ovr) had nearly half the team's points with 27. He's a lights-out shooter and decent athlete, and will be a big problem for us, no doubt - though surprisingly he is starting at SF for the Redhawks, due to injury! He came off the bench last game. Jaycen Herring (snr 6'5 192lbs, 67 ovr) starts at SG, and is coming off a very rough start to the season that saw him shoot 0-8. He's much better than that, with a sweet shooting touch out to three. Roderick Pearson (jnr 6'2 199lbs, 64 ovr) is the Redhawks' PG, and is a pesky defender, but won't score a lot of points.

JaJuan Maxwell (jnr 6'6 214lbs, 62 ovr) is a SF, but slides down to PF for tonight's game due to an injury to the team's starting PF. He's pretty mediocre overall, but has some range on his shot.

Will Bogan (soph 6'10 315lbs, 64 ovr) is the starter at C. He's a big boy with a good touch around the hoop, a solid post defender, and hits the glass. Kava is going to have his hands full with this guy.

This is going to be a tough start to the season - especially on the road. Hopefully we can keep it close, but I suspect a win would be asking a little too much.

[Groundhog]

We win the tip and Jolliff hits Kellems for a wide open three to open our season!

Both teams missing early on, but Kava gets a missmatch in the post and scores to make it 5-0, before Maxwell responds in close for the Redhawks, 5-2 with 17:30 remaining.

The Redhawks are pressing us fullcourt which is causing some turnovers, but when they slip back in to the 2-3 zone they are playing Kellems is finding himself wide open, and just 5 minutes in Kellems has knocked down 3 threes! We lead 12-6 with 15:37 in the half.

Scoring begins to slow down for both teams as we go to our benches, before Redhawks PG Herring goes to work. He is killing us on the break with his speed, and we aren't able to respond as Frisby is ice cold, missing open jumpers on several possessions in a row. 20-23 Redhawks, 9:32 remaining.

We bring in Daley off the bench and he connects on back-to-back threes to give us the lead, 26-23. It's short lived though as the Redhawks - bigman Bogan in particular - start drawing fouls. Kava comes alive with a block and a few baskets - picking up the 2nd foul on Bogan to send him to the bench - but we just aren't able to keep up with these speedy Redhawks guards, and their fullcourt press is giving us problems.

The Redhawks run off a mini run due in part to Jolliff passing up numerous open looks and Pantlino taking some poorly timed and contested jumpers, and we go in to the half down 38-45.

Nellems has 11 for us, Kava with 10 and 3 boards. Frisby is 0-6 and 0-4 from 3pt land.

We start the 2nd half as we finished the first, with Pantlino and Frisby both taking tons of bad shots, and even though we are doing better defensively we just aren’t scoring and are giving up too many fastbreak opportunity that are leading to fouls. 43-58 15:17 left.

Kava really starts to come alive for us now, with a couple of very nice rebounds and baskets, and he even nearly takes a steal 3/4ths of the court for the open dunk, but is fouled before he can throw it down, but Redhawks guard Moore is undoing all that work with a couple of 3s, and we continue to jack up bad shots. 51-70, with 10:39 left.

The next 5 minutes is just a disaster. We give Kava a rest, and with him on the bench Frisby, Daley and Pantlind continue to take some woeful shots, leading to too many rebounds that are giving the Redhawks transition points. Even in the halfcourt they are getting good looks and knocking them down, and to top it off they are getting far too many 2nd chance points off the offensive glass. 61-87 with 5:00 remaining.

The final 5 minutes we get some cheapies, with a few 3s and a few very nice passes from Kava to open players for baskets, and we make the final score seem closer than it really was, as we lose 74-94.

Player of the game was guard Kenard Moore, who finished with 18 on 7-15 shooting, while Maxwell and Drew had 14 for the Redhawks. Big Bogan had 10 points and 12 boards.

Nellems was top scorer with us and the only guy who looked like he could consistently knock down a jump shot. He finished with 19 points on 7-12 shooting 5-9 from 3pt. Kava was our player of the game however. The Freshman big from Lithuania had 17 points and 10 rebounds, to go with 5 assists, a block, and 7-11 shooting.

The guys who killed us were Frisby – 8 points on 3-15 shooting and 1-10 3pt, Pantlind – 6 points on 2-12 shooting and 0-4 3pt, and Daley – 4-14 shooting for 11 points. I also wasn’t happy with Jolliff passing up about 4 open looks this game, but with the way we were shooting it, maybe that’s a good thing.
Having to rely on your player’s shot tendancies is an interesting new challenge in coach mode. I’ve never had to yank a guy (Pantlind, in this case) because he was killing us with bad shots before. I also have to add some variety to this playbook – far too many plays designed around getting Frisby a shot, while neglecting my other players on the court.

We took an unbelievable 39 threes this game, making 10 of them and .338 of our shots overall. The Redhawks played a 2-3 zone most of the game, so this was a large reason for that, but that’s just far too many. Outside of that we gave up just 8 fast break points, but that’s deceiving as we fouled a ton of times after the Redhawks rebounded our miss.

A tough loss, but I feel like I’ve definitely learnt a few things from my first attempt at coaching in CH 2K8. Still, could be a long season.

[Groundhog]

Recruiting Update:

A few weeks in to recruiting now, and we have a lead on the #1 guy we want, 6'3 PG Doug Dalida, a 3-star #244 overall recruit, #71 PG, and a hometown boy to boot. We have him at 100% interest, though Indiana State is closing in on us and has also offered a scholarship. Our scouts think he is an average player across the board (a lot of C/C+ ratings) with B potential, but this guy looks like exactly what we need in the backcourt.

Outside of Dalida, we have a sizable lead on another 3-star recruit, SG Trace O'Bannon, the #388 overall recruit and #113 SG out of Kansas. Trace also has a lot of C/C+ ratings according to our scouts, but would be miles ahead of what we have at his position right now. B- potential. Oregon have looked at Dalida, but we are the only school to offer him a scholarship, but with interest at 83% and only a few weeks before the early signing period, we really need to get this guy to 100% ASAP so we don't lose him. We offer him a campus visit to hopefully pump that up.

Outside of these guys we don't have a whole lot else going for us recruiting wise. We have been giving some attention to a 3-star sophomore PF that might pan out for us in a few years time, and have been showing some interest to an Aussie PG and some other 3-star players that we have next to no shot at.

If we land Dalida and O'Bannon I'll be ecstatic, but either one of them would be a very nice start.

[Groundhog]

November 18, Indiana Hills Norsemen (0-1) vs Samford Bulldogs (1-0)

We'll be hoping our first home game goes a little better! We are both ranked 68 overall, but defense is the only category we outscore them in. In reality, they are the better side. Their coach in particular is rated 75 to my 63, which makes a big difference.

The Bulldogs play a slower, more halfcourt game than the Redhawks did, but also deploy almost exclusively a zone defense - both the 2-3 and 3-2. Gulp.

Josh Bedwell (soph 6'1 175lbs, 62 ovr) runs the point for Samford, despite being a natural SG. Bedwell has an amazing stroke well out to beyond the arc, and dropped 20 in Samford's last game. We'll need to key on this guy. Joining him in the backcourt is Trey Montgomery (jnr 6'4 187 lbs, 67 ovr), a jack of all trades but master of none.

The Friday brothers man the forward spots for Samford, with SF Bryan Friday (jnr 6'6 216lbs, 64 ovr) the more talented of the two. Bryan can score the ball, but is a poor defender, while PF Matthew Friday (soph 6'9 231lbs, 62 ovr) has size and good touch out to midrange.

The middle is manned by Dommanic Frey (freshman 6'10 229lbs, 64 ovr), who was a 2-star recruit and looks like a steal. He can score, rebound, and is fairly sound in the post on both ends.

Their bench is not a strength, and we expect them to rely largely on their starters.

Another very tough game. We'll need to keep a hand in Bedwell's face and hope the home crowd is enough to push us over the line.

[Groundhog]

5 minutes in, and Frisby already has 4 three pointer attempts (1 make), Pantlind has 1 bad 3 attempt, and Nellems has hit 1. Our first 5 shots were 3 attempts. I quickly go in and knock our 3pt shooting tendancies down by 10 as it’s driving me nuts. Both teams are trading baskets but a couple of 3s by Samford give them an early 6-12 with 14:58 remaining. They are killing us on the offensive glass.

We just aren’t able to get quality shots off because Frisby and Pantlind continue to jack up shots early in the shot clock. I am very close to yanking Pantlind. I don’t even run plays for the guy yet he still shoots it every time he touches it! Thankfully Frisby is knocking down some shots, but Samford always have an answer, and we are down 12-22 with 9:57 left. I call a timeout and yank Pantlind, who should make himself comfortable on that pinewood bench. He might be there for awhile yet.

With Kava on the court and Pantlind off it, we play like a much better team. Kava is going wild on the offensive boards, and has 6 so far, including a very nice two-handed putback slam. He misses a few gimmes around the basket, but along with some threes by Daley off the bench, is all that is keeping us in this one, as Samford are really working us on the offensive end, running backdoor cut after backdoor cut on us. We stupidly foul their PF as he was shooting a contested 3 as the shot clock expired as well, which didn’t help our cause. 25-35 with 4:57 remaining in the half.

We both take turns taking mini-runs, but my player’s lack of defensive ability is on display far too frequently, as Samford abuse us on that end of the court. Frisby knocks down a mid-range jumper and Mucole gives us more than we expect from him off the bench by knockng down two threes, and we enter the half only down by 8, 34-42. Could have been much worse.

Frisby leads us with 11 points and 2 boards, but is just 4-14 and 2-8 from deep. Nellems has just 3 points on 1-4 shooting, all from deep, and Kava has 4 points and 9 boards. Neither Pantilind or Jolliff – who hasn’t taken a shot – have scored.

Samford have gotten an even contribution, but their frontcourt of PF Friday and Frey lead them with 8 points a piece.

We are shooting just .300 to their .500, but our 7-23 3pt shooting (!!!) accounts for much of that. Pretty even everywhere else, but the game has a combined 1 turnover.

Nellens with a 3 to open the half, and Kava follows it up a minute later with a MASSIVE block on Frey inside, knocking it in to the stands. Samford always have a response but both Nellens and Frisby continue to gun and, surprisingly, make the three, as Frisby has 3 and Nellens 2 in the first 5 minutes of the quarter, and we level it at 51 apiece with 14:47 remaining in the 2nd half.

Sam gets a wideopen look under the basket due to a defensive lapse by Samford, and we are in the lead! We force another stop and Mucole, who is playing out of his mind, drains a three with a hand in his face to put us up by 5! We maintain the lead for the next couple of minutes, giving us a 60-55 lead with 9:57 remaining. The last 10 minutes has without a doubt been the best we’ve played so far this season.

We rest Frisby and get Kava back on the court and he rewards us by extending the lead out to 7 after grabbing Daley’s missed 3 and putting it back in, and the follows up his own miss moments later to extend it out to 9. Mucole caps off the streak nicely by hitting a 3 with a man in his face to put the lead in to double digits. Things get crazy now as we are both draining three after three, with Montgomery and Bedwell doing the damage for Samford, while Daley is knocking down everything for us. We lead 75-67 with 4:55 as we bring on a lineup of Mucole-Nellens-Frisby-Brickley-Kava to hopefully close out this game.

And close it out we do, cruising to a 91-79 victory, after some more ridiculous shooting from both teams.

Frisby was player of the game, ending up with 27 points on 9-24 shooting (6-17 3s!), 5 boards and 2 assists. Mucole had 19 off the bench on 6-11 (5-10 3pt) sooting, Daley had 16 points in 12 minutes off the bench on 6-10/4-8 shooting, while Nellems had 15 on 5-10 shooting – all from behind the arc. Jolliff didn’t take a single shot but ended the game with 9 assists, while Kava had 10 points and 16 boards to go with a block and 2 assists on 5-10 shooting.

Badwell led Samford with 18 on 6-16/4-8 shooting, and all starters scored double figures. PF Friday had a double-double with 10-10 and 5 assists.

This was just a stupidly crazy game and I’ve never seen anything like it in CH 2K8 before. Our guys shot 20/47 from long distance, while Samford was “only” 8/21. We outrebounded them by 9, had 39 bench points to their 11, and 15 offensive boards for 15 second chance points, compared to 7 and 10 for them. We also had just 3 turnovers to their 4.

Defensively we are such a poor team that I fear we’ll need to be lights out like we were in this game to pick up victories this season, and we just aren’t going to get the numerous open looks that we did today against man-to-man Ds. I’m actually looking forward to playing against some man-to-man, as the endless wave of 3s – despite me lowering the 3pt tendancies of my guys by 15 points – is growing tiring!

[Groundhog]

November 23, Indiana Hills Norsemen (1-1) vs Nebraska Cornhuskers (2-1)

Nebraska is a few tiers above us at this stage. If we keep this game within 10-15 I'll be very happy, but I expect a big loss.

The Cornhuskers are led by SF Ryan Anderson (jnr 6'5 197lbs, 77 ovr), who is a solid scorer and rebounder, and the guy who will probably do the most damage tonight. Outside of Anderson the Cornhuskers have SG Ade Dagunduro (snr 6'5 199lbs, 75 ovr) and diminutive PG Cookie Miller (soph 57
168lbs, 76 ovr) to give them added firepower, but get a fairly even contribution from most of their rotation. They lack much height, but that shouldn't be a major issue for them against us.

They prefer the half-court game, run a m2m defense primarily, and press on occasion.

One change for us tonight as Pantlind has lost his starting PF spot tonight to rebounding machine Ronni Brickley. Though far from the only culprit the past 2 games, Pantlind's shot selection leaves MUCH to be desired.

[Groundhog]

It was a very impressive half of basketball from us. Defensively we were very solid and, when we avoided mistakes and forced the Cornhuskers in to the half-court game, we gave them very few open looks and made them work for everything.

Offensively we were running a pick-and-pop with Joliff and Daley that was money, and the Kava just absolutely dominated the final 5 minutes of the half, scoring on three consecutive trips down the court. Then a stupid foul from the Cornhuskers PF against Frisby while he was shooting a desperation three just before the half ended saw us enter half time with a VERY surprising 35-28 lead!

Kava leads us with 11 points and 7 rebounds, while Frisby has 8 and 4.

Dagunduro leads Nebraska with 9 points, but is just 3-9 from the floor. We have held Anderson to just 2 points on 1-5 shooting, and Nebraska as a team is shooting just .310 to our .438.

A three by Frisby gives us a 10 point lead, 19 left.

We pushed it out to a 10 point lead early in the second, but the next 10 minutes or so saw Nebraska chip the lead back down to 4 points or so, before we'd get it back out to 10. More worrying was that Anderson was starting to knock down his open looks.

With 5 minutes remaining the Cornhuskers go on a run as we go ice cold, and they get it down to three points, before Frisby responds with a massive three to make it 63-57 with 1:32 remaining.

Dagunduro responds with a three of his own to make it a three point game again, before Kava replies with a fade away jumper in the key to push it back out to 5 with 56 seconds left, and Nebraska calls time.

A backdoor cut from Anderson cuts it to 4, and the Cornhuskers begin to foul. We go 4-6 from the line and the Cornhuskers hit a big 3, but Brickley makes another 2 FTs - making him an unlikely 4-4 in the final 20 seconds.

Stupidly Frisby fouls Dagundoro as he is shooting a three and he makes it, and connects on the FT to make it a 2 point game with less than a second left. Brickley misses both FTs, but there's no time left, and we walk away with a 71-69 upset!

Frisby was player of the game with 19 points and 4 rebounds on 6-13 shooting and 4-9 from 3pt, but it should have gone to Kava who finished with 19 points, 10 rebounds, and 2 blocks (should have been 3). Fatigue got to Kava in the second half, but he had two massive blocks, and a big fade away jumper in the final minute, and hell, he even hit a 3pt shot!

Nellems had 12 points and 6 boards on 4-11 3-9 shooting, Jolliff had 6 points and 8 assists, Brickley had 8 points 6 rebounds 4 assists in his first start. We only went 8 deep tonight, and Pantlind went 0-7 off the bench with a few of those being characteristicly horrible shots, while Daley had 6 points on 3-7 shooting, and Mucole finished with just 1 point.

Dagunduro led the Cornhuskers with 19 points, while Anderson had 15 thanks to a big second half.

What a win! A Big 12 team and on the road, to boot! Amazing! Our defense in the first half in particular was very impressive. The last 5 minutes of the game when Nebraska began their comeback was all due to us missing shots and giving the Cornhuskers the opportunity to run. In the halfcourt we played them very well, and that's what got us the win.

[Groundhog]

November 26, Indiana Hills Norsemen (2-1) vs NJIT Highlanders (0-3)

We return to our homecourt tonight to take on the Highlanders, an Independent team who we, through a scheduling quirk, actually place AGAIN next week on the road. Whoops.

As you'd expect from an Independent team, the Highlands aren't particularly good, but then neither are we. We are rated 4 points higher than them overall at 68 vs 64, and beat them in all categories except coaching.

What prodution the Highlanders do get come largely from PF Nesho Milosevic (snr 6'8 217lbs, 58 ovr) out of Germany. Nesho is a strong rebounder and is averaging 13.0rpg to go with 10.7ppg so far this season. He doesn't do an awful lot else however.

PG Bingo Kampman (fr 6'3 210lbs, 64 ovr) is the only other double digit scorer for NJIT, also netting 10.7 ppg. He was a 3-star signing, but is more of a defensively orientated player than a scorer. SG Jheryl Wilson (soph 6'2 194lbs, 57 ovr) joins him in the backcourt, and is an OK shooter, averaging 9.0ppg.

Combo-guard Tyler Epps (soph 6'0 185lbs, 58 ovr) gives them a scoring option off the bench and is the best shooter on the team, but depth dies off very quickly after him.

The Highlanders ran an even-paced offense, play a m2m defense primarily, and will press on occasion.

Given that we are coming off a road win to the Cornhuskers, I'm expecting us to take it to the Highlanders.

[Groundhog]

We open the game on a 9-0 run thanks mostly to a quick 5 points from Nellems, but our strategy to back-off Kampman fails as he drains a three. We trade a couple of baskets, but lead 15-5 with 15:00 left in the first half.

We are shooting the ball well and push it out to 22-9, but Kampman now has three threes, so we up the pressure on him, and it's 22-12 with 10:00 left.

NJIT start to show us an awful lot of 2-3 zone, and my guys keep settling for outside looks. We are knocking them down, but NJIT - Kampman in particular - are replying. We build up 10 point leads, NJIT chip them away, and that's how it continues for the rest of the half, and we enter the break up 43-34.

Nellems leads us with 15 pts and 2 rebs on 6-8 3-5 shooting, and Frisby has 10 on 3-7 3-5 shooting. Kava has just 4 points and 2 boards on 2-2 shooting, and hasn't been getting a lot of ball.

Kampman has 14 points and 3 assists on 5-7 4-6 shooting, and isn't even supposed to be a scorer. He's knocked down every good look he's had, and had a beautiful drive to the basket on one play, too. No one else is in double figures, but Wilson has 7 on 3-3 1-1 shooting.

It's more of the same in the second half, until Frisby picks up his 4th foul with 15:19 left and goes to the bench. I make a bit of a mistake here by having Frisby, Kava, and Nellems all on the bench at once, and we really struggle to score while NJIT catches up.

We try to get it inside but NJIT are covering Kava very well, and we are having to go for jumpers, while Kampman is killing us on the other end. NJIT take the lead with 7:30 left.

Frisby makes a few baskets, and then Jolliff comes down with a big offensive rebound and foul with 2:30 remaining, but he's injured on the play. We make both FTs and it's a 67-63 lead.

Unfortunately Nellems gets a little trigger-happy now and on three consecutive possessions he fires up a missed three attempt early in the shotclock.

Kampman with a big three, and we are up 2 with 50 seconds left. A missed shot is rebounded by NJIT, and Kampman hits Epps who knocks down a big three with Frisby in his face to give the Highlanders are 1 point lead with 6 seconds remaining.

We call time and Frisby gets the final shot, but it rattles out and we lose 67--68.

Nellems led us with 22 points and 5 boards on 9-16 4-10 shooting, but went cold at the worst possible time with some stupid shots. Frisby had 13 pts 3 rebs on 4-11 4-8 shooting, Jolliff had 5 pts 4 rebs 7 asts on 1-4 1-4 shooting.

Brickley had 4 pts 8 rebs, and Kava had a quiet game with 6 pts 7 rebs 1 blk on 3-6 shooting. Daley had 10 off the bench on 4-12 2-8 shooting, and Mucole had 7 pts 7 rebs 4 asts.

Kampman led NJIT and was player of the game with 21 points and 8 asts on 8-15 5-11 shooting, while Epps had 16 on 6-11 4-6, mostly in the second half. No one else hit double digits, though Stonkus, their C, had 13 boards (many of which were offensive), and we held Milosevic to 6 points 8 rebs on 3-11 shooting.

A very dissapointing game that we should have won. Poor shot selection, and poor substitution patterns did us in.