CH2k8 - Rise of the Phoenix

[Radii]

Yeah, leave it to me to come up with the corniest dynasty name ever.

I'll be taking over the Elon Phoenix in the Southern Conference. Not an easy task, as I'll be competing against up and coming Davidson, UNC Greensboro, and from the football world, giant killer Appalachain State.

I don't really care about accurate rosters, I'm going to be playing with a bottom of the barrel team anyway. I'll adjust sliders throughout the legacy as needed, just adjusting the major stuff early on and will try to latch on to a good operation sports(or EaglesFan27) slider set at some point.

The Coach

Coach Richard Dixon, age 31, comes into the league very average. I get 5 points to start building myself up:

Offense: C
Defense: C
Teaching: C
Scouting: C-
Charisma: C+
Discipline: C-

getting an early edge in recruiting is always important to me, so I give Charisma a little extra attention.


The Assistants

There isn't much to choose from early on. I always like one guy that is a decent scout, and I find him in A. Yeager:

Ovr: C-
Off: C+
Def: F
Tea: D
Sco: C+
Cha: C-
Dis: D
Amb: B+

To go along with him, I pick up a little defensive ability in W. Holcomb:

Ovr: C
Off: C
Def: B-
Tea: F
Sco: C-
Cha: C-
Dis: C-
Amb: C-


2007/08 Schedule

I leave the schedule alone this year. The non conference schedule is one that isn't going to lead to many wins:

Nov 9: at Virginia Tech
Nov 17: vs Georgia State
Nov 20: at Georgia
Nov 24: at VCU
Dec 20: at Penn
Dec 22: at Virginia


With that, lets jump into the season and go!

[Radii]

Settings

Gameplay:

Difficulty: Starter
Half Length: 14 minutes
Simulated Half Length: 20 minutes

everything other thna half length is at the defaults



Rules:

Charging Fouls: 100
all other Fouls: 75

Everything else in the rules section is left at the defaults


Sliders:

Offensive Rebounding: 45
Block: 35
Steal: 55


For now everything else is set at the defaults. This is all highly subject to change, I won't likely do any adjusting after just a single game, but I may play 3-4 games in a month and re-visit this. And of course, will change things up if i see a slider set on OS that I like.


I plan on playing approximately 1 out of every 3 games early on. I may skip match ups that are seriously lopsided, and in seasons where I'm especially excited about my team may play more games.

[Radii]

The Roster

Well, its not good. Not good at all.

Elon is led by Senior PG Ben Merritt, a guard with an overall rating of 70, a very average player who has some ball handling ability(Hand rating: 83).

Our backup PG is also a senior, so point guard will clearly be a major early recruiting focus.

We have one potential up and comer, Freshman SG Damond Evenstar. Evenstar looks to be our best shooter, a 77 mid-range jumper and 82 3 point rating. We simply don't have a lot of strong shooters.

Inside we have a bit of potential as well:

Stephen Frey, 7' Freshman center with an 84 close range shot, and

Leighton Poole, 6'8 Junior PF with an 84 close range shot.

Both are only average defenders.

Overall, we have a very average roster with lots of similar players rated in the low 60s and upper 50s overall. Lots of guys with one above average skill and nothing else. It looks like our best bet is to recruit the best local players we can find regardless of position. I like the stereotypical good players at each position. I love good post players, good ball handlers, and I like having a good jump shooter at the 2 guard spot.

[Izulde]

I'll be watching this, as this is one of my favorite console sports franchises and every year I get tempted to buy the NBA counterpart because of it.

[Radii]

As I bring in my own players, I'll get more in depth with the roster and depth chart, for now, we'll see who stands out when I start playing games really.

the main reason for the brief roster review was to get to the preseason recruiting, the ABL.

I know that I need to recruit locally, and initially I just find the top 11 2* players in North Carolina sorted by interest, and 4 3* players that have interest near 50% as well, and throw them on my target list.

Next up we go throuh the ABL schedule and pick which games to watch each day. There are 16 days of games and I make sure that there is someone from my target list playing in every game that I watch. I spend some time scheduling the games I want to watch and quick sim through it all. Apparently you can get bonus recruiting points for playing out ABL games, but I'm not really that interested, I'd rather just use it for scouting and get to the season.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Izulde

I'll be watching this, as this is one of my favorite console sports franchises and every year I get tempted to buy the NBA counterpart because of it.

no kidding, seeing some of the NBA 2k8 chatter has me seriously considering getting both.

[Eaglesfan27]

NBA is an excellent game, but in my very brief time with Colllege Hoops, College Hoops seems to be a much better game.

[Radii]

After simming through the ABL we get into the regular season. The presentation has changed for sure, and I think I like it. We have two main screens, "Home" and "Sim Central" that have good info on them.

Both screens have heading information that show my team unity, record, conference and attendance averages(Elon averages 1,077 people per game, about 68% filling of our little stadium it appears).

The Home Screen shows the schedule, a Roster overview, a Recruiting overview(how many scholrships, recruiting points, and points per week we have), and "Development" windo that shows how many drills we have available per week. You can navigate to any of these overview sections and press A and it'll pop up a menu specific to that section, I really, really like the layout here.


The Sim Central screen has navigation areas for Games, Standings, Stat Leaders, and Injuries. Selecting any of them brings up relevant additional info, taking you directly to your conference standings in full, or team/league leaders, or the injury page. Yeah, I am a huge fan of this layout.


The Development section allows you to do two bonus drills per week, where you specificlaly pick a drill and a player to try to improve a specific area. There are 13 different drills avaliable.

The drlils appear to be mostly the same ones in the All America Challenge set of mini games. I take an underclassman PG and work on passing and C and work on inside shooting. It looks like if you succeed in a drill it can still take multiple weeks to earn a single skill point, so itsa slow progression(as expected I think)


There is a very detailed Player Progression page that shows how close each player is to advancing in each of his skills. Its extremely in depth and I'll have to decide after a season or two if I want to customize training based on progression or if I just stick with my usual CPU managed training plans. There is a LOT of stuff here, on the level of TCY micromanagement if you wanted it really.

Recruiting

I head into the recruiting panel and there is some info there from my ABL scouting. There are two guards who look to be decent shooters who have decent interest in me. I go ahead and pursue them pretty hard, and I pick on a couple big men as well that I got some scouting time with. The ABL makes this a bit interesting. Where usually in the first couple weeks I would spend a lot of time just scouting everyone i could, it seems with my limited number of recruiting poitns I may need to just attack players who seemed favorable in the ABL scouting.

The 3* players seem a waste of time so far. They all have 10-15 teams showing interest already. There are some local guys who look on par with what I have now that I go after first.

[Radii]

October 22, 2007 - Season Kickoff Scrimmage

You can pick the lineups you want for the midnight madness scrimmage, I just leave them at the defaults, and I am going to play the home team, or starting team. I usually skip through this but I want to go through this fairly slowly the first time around, I didn't play much in legacy last year because of game freezing issues, so I want to make sure I don't miss anything important.

I end up losing to the reserve squad 60-55, after trailing 33-26 at halftime. I overuse Evenstar in the first half(even though he's the 6th man) and try to get a feel for his jump shot. I like his midrange jumper but so far I'm really bad at 3 pointers. My two post starters, Poole and Konloch, both seem to do really well if I can feed them the ball in a good position.

Konloch leads us with 17 points, adding 6 boards and 3 assists(the occasional pretty inside/outside passing). Evenstar is 4-13 for 9 points, while Poole leads us with 10 boards.

As far as the overall numbers, the reserve team shot 50% overall to my 44%.

3 point shooting was way up there, they shot 24 3s, I shot 18, that's not realy good.

They had 4 blocks, I had 0.

Good enough to get me a decent feel for my team going into the regular season. 14 minute halves does feel pretty good.

The only slider comment I think is that reaching in may be a bit high. I do have a habit of pounding the steal button, but wow I got out of that fast. The first 3 times I touched the steal button I got called for a foul, and my starting PG fouled out.

[Groundhog]

Originally Posted by Radii

The only slider comment I think is that reaching in may be a bit high. I do have a habit of pounding the steal button, but wow I got out of that fast. The first 3 times I touched the steal button I got called for a foul, and my starting PG fouled out.

It's the same with the NBA title, and it's a bit of a trade off. Steals and fouls are too low by default. You bump up all the foul sliders to increase fouls, and bump up the steals too. However, If you increase steals and actually TRY and steal, you get called for reaching fouls 4 times outta 5. Most steals IRL do tend to come from errant passes I guess rather than 1-on-1 ball swipes, so maybe it's not such a major issue.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

It's the same with the NBA title, and it's a bit of a trade off. Steals and fouls are too low by default. You bump up all the foul sliders to increase fouls, and bump up the steals too. However, If you increase steals and actually TRY and steal, you get called for reaching fouls 4 times outta 5. Most steals IRL do tend to come from errant passes I guess rather than 1-on-1 ball swipes, so maybe it's not such a major issue.

Yeah,that all makes sense. In past versions, I've used the fact that I can steal a little more one on one, to offset the fact that I make a few too many stupid passes(or unintentionally bad passes because I can't see the entire floor), but I'm not itching to change it any more just yet or anything.

[Radii]

Oct 29-Nov 4, 2007

In the second week of recruiting I hit the same 4 guys that it looks like I might have a prayer at. I have a bad feeling about this, I'm recruiting more like I would in FBCB than in previous college hoops versions.


Redshirts

I redshirt my two best looking freshmen. SG Evenstar(who I mentioned as a potential 6th man above) and C Frey who would be my 2nd or 3rd big man off the bench. This tema just isn't that great and we have time to prepare these guys for the future.


I get Evenstar a 3 point drill and Frey a post offense drill and fail them both.

[Radii]

Nov 5-11, 2007

Recruiting

I offer out both my scholarships. The first goes to a Center named LaMarquis Bates. Bates doesn't look great, he is a terrible shooter but average defender and rebounder in the post. He's 6'8" 216 pounds.

The second goes to a PG, Steve Carpenter. Carpenter is scouted to be a decent scorer and ball handler.

Both of these guys have me as their top school right now, though Bates is at a much higher interest level.

Training: Evenstar completes the 3 point challenge this time, getting 15% of a point towards 83. With Frey I'm just horrid at post offense. This will take some practice.


Elon at Virginia Tech

Va Tech isn't too great, 78 overall with 35(awful) team unity. We're rated 69 overall with 34 team unity, clearly worse. I do hope we can at least play them reasonably close. My plan is to run a lot of plays to look for open mid-range jump shots, and to feed the ball into the post a lot. I clearly want a slow game.

And well, that was just bad.

After jumping out to a 20-6 lead, Virginia Tech leads 40-34 at the half and goes on to win 70-52. I quick simmed the last 7 minutes or so after falling behind by 20.

The opponents 3 point shooting might need a tweak. Early on it seems every open 3 is good, *every* open 3 taken by the CPU. I struggled a ton to beat the press here as well. Once I did I got a lot of good looks, but just way too many turnovers against their press.

Kinloch goes for 14 points and 5 boards, while starting center Poole put up 9 and 7. The inside/post play was fairly solid, but I had trouble getting open looks and just cannot drain a 3 to save my life(of course I dont' have a lot of good 3 point shooters either, sometimes its just the only shot I can get).

[Balldog]

I'll be reading!

If you ever play on XBL let me know, I wouldn't mind playing some games.

[Radii]

Oop, I didn't take the time today to pack up the 360 for the trek home, so no College Hoops til Sunday night.

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by Radii

Oop, I didn't take the time today to pack up the 360 for the trek home, so no College Hoops til Sunday night.

Weak shit.

[Radii]

Alright, back on track. I've updated my sliders and settings to match those that EF27 and DetoxRox are using in their dynasties.

[Radii]

11/17/2007 - Elon 55, Georgia State 52 in a simmed game. Backup PF Kinloch seems to be my best overall scorer, putting up 14 in this game.


11/20 - (18) Georgia 67, Elon 53 - Kinloch again leads us in scoring with a total of 9 points. SG Page puts up 9, and its an overall craptastic mix of bad numbers as we trail UGA 44-29 at the half in this simmed game.


My Next played game:

11/24: Elon(1-2) at VCU(2-2)

VCU beat Duke last year so they can't be all bad. They have a pretty big edge on us in every rating so we don't expect much but the experience. I'll try to keep the game going slow, drive to the basket and pound it in the post and try to get to the FT line.

During warmups we learn that VCU has an 84 rated PG and we are likely in trouble. We hang for a bit, leading 7-6 after 5 minutes. An 8-0 VCU run stifles us a bit and we trail 14-7 7 minutes in. The foul situation is going opposite that I hoped. VCU is in the penalty at the 10:10 mark of the 1st half with a 23-13 lead. One big problem is that I dont' have good 3 point shooters, which really hurts me if I can't generate a good shot running a play.

The big problem is 3 point shooting, even with help D increased and 3 point shooting down. VCU is 5/7 from 3 at the half and shooting 65% overall, as we trail 46-34 at the half.

The second half opens with 3 fouls on Elon in the first 90 seconds, 3 turnovers and 8 straight VCU points, ugh. I work on play execution and defense for most of the 2nd half and improve some, but we're purely outclassed here.

I'm not particularly pleased with the stats. We lost 96-76, they shot 60%, we shot 55%. Both teams got way too many layups aftre beating the press i think. Their PG outclassed us big time with 13 points, 11 assists and 4 steals. He was the most talented player on the floor and every starter of thiers was more talented than anyone on Elon, so the loss is to be expected.

SF Faye scores 15, PG Merritt 11, C pool 10 points(and 7 boards). Most of our points came on easy baskets after beating their press, or after successful shot fakes and drives. I need to get better and finding (and making) mid range jumpers during my play execution, probably the #1 thing for me to work on.

[Radii]

Nov 27, 2007 - Elon 74, Western Carolina 55

PF Fitzwater puts up 22 points, and SG page puts up 15. The backup post man, Kinloch, that I pay a lot of attention to, gets 6 points/7 boards in 19 minutes. Its nice to see Elon score 75 in a CPU controlled game. We dominate the 2nd half, outscoring WCU 30-19.


Dec 1, 2007 - Elon 67, Furman 47

Another win, and again we dominate the 2nd half of this one, after a close start, we roll 32-15 in the 2nd half on the way to the 20 point win.PF Fitzwater and SG Page are the stars again, with 19 and 12 points each. backup big man Kinloch puts up 11 in 17 minutes. These are the guys i'm most comfortable playing with when I play out the games so this is good.

I haven't done big introductions to the team b/c I want to spend more time on that once I get my own recruits in. Perhaps I should sim through the first couple seasons a bit faster, but I need to get a lot better so I can actuall ydo things with my recruits I think.


Early Signing Period

We land our top target, 2* Center LaMarques Bates. Bates has C+ potential, looks like a total dud offensively, but has C defense and block ratings. I'm really unsure if I'm aiming too low here but i'm glad to get a top early target since its very very difficult to even go after 2 recruits hard with as few points as Elon has.

My other scholarship target, PG Steve Carpenter is still deciding between Elon and the Citadel. The Citadel is leading by a small amount though. He looks like a much better talent than Bates, a much better shooter and scorer, lots of C's instead of D's in offensive categories. I decide to stay on him because it is close between The Citadel and Elon and I hope I can do something to push it over the top.

I do have a solid backup target in SG Andy Whittington. He has interest from Elon, NC A&T, and Campbell, but no scholarship offers yet, and he has the most interest in me. I'm hoping it will stay that way and if I have to fall off of Carpenter I can easily pick up Whittington. Whittington is a big step down talent-wise, a good defender but terrible offensively. I'd really like to bring in an offensive threat, because I know how badly I'll struggle without one.

The recruiting period ends without either of the two guys above signing. I get a campus tour out to Carpenter, and close the gap between us and the Citadel, we'll just have to keep plugging away and see what happens. I have used up most of my visits and scouting efforts on these guys, so I'll have some extra time during the rest of the season to pick up some other secondary targets and see if I can't find a diamond in the rough.


With that, its time to play my next game:

12/15/2007 - Wofford (0-5) at Elon (3-3)

At home vs a bad team, this will be a decent test of my stick skills to see if I'm hurting us and need more practice. Wofford is rated 71 overall to our 69, 75 on offense to our 71, and worse than us on defense, 64/67.

One thing I'm noticing is that we just simply have ZERO good players. Our best player, Ben Merritt is rated 73, no one else is above 66. Wofford's PG is rated 77 and two other players are rated in the low 70s. The individual matchups worry me a lot.

Halftime score: Wofford 37, Elon 33. We play a fairly solid first half. There is a HUGE difference between this game and the others I've played... NO PRESS. Wofford didn't press but once or twice and it made the pace of the game totally different. I did a good job of getting my man in the air on a pump fake and driving, drawing 10 fouls in the first half, including 2 on three different Wofford starters. Page has 7 points, Fitzwater 5, and another backup big man, Wilkerson has 6. Kinloch got into foul trouble and I wasn't able to get Merritt(my highest rated player, starting PG) open very much.

We start the second half off poorly, committing 3 fouls in the first 18 seconds, but Wofford is ice cold, 1-2 from the line and they miss their first four field goals. We take advantage and take a 39-38 lead with 18 minutes to go in the game! This is the first second half lead I've had in a game I've played, so I'm anxious to hold on to it.

At the 9 minute mark we trail 49-47, never having led by more than 1, and falling behind by 4 after a recent 3 pointer. We're stlil in good shape and playing well though.

UGH. 6:57 left, I'm down 53-47. My last 3 possessions I've drawn fouls, and am now 0 for my last 6 free throws. That really is the death knell for us as missed free throws allow Wofford to take a 9 point lead. We get a 3 but wofford comes back down and immediately gets a 3 point play. We fall behind by doulbe digits and it gets worse as we rush shots trying to make a desparate comeback.

Wofford 79
Elon 58

Page is my leading scorer with 11 points, Fitzwater has 9, but we really got owned on the boards, at the FT line, and the second half was just a collapse. I'm disappointed because I was in the game, but we just shot terribly. In the end, we were 19/31 from the FT line, while Wofford was 18/21. I felt like I did a great job of getting to the line, and that stretch in the middle with a lot of missed FTs left me playing catch up late.

[Radii]

December 16th - I keep pushing after my top targtes that seem somewhat interested. I also begin going through all the other 2 and 3* recruits in the state of North Carolina that have not yet been offered scholarships, hoping to find a good skill somewhere that would help me(a 3 point specialist or something).

December 17th - Elon(3-4) at Chattanooga(2-6)

This is my next game, but Chattanooga is pretty evenly matched, so I owe 2 extra CPU games(of course I can do whatever the hell i want, but I do generally want to sim through games where i'm severely overmatched). My next scheduled play game would have been a ranked Virginia squad. Screw that, I'm playing Chattanooga!

The one edge we have over Chattanooga is a 44-23 edge in Team Unity. The rest of the attributes are slightly in Chattanooga's favor... very slightly.

10 minutes into the game its 26-15 Chattanooga, and the story is offensive rebounding. Chattanooga is CRUSHING us on the boards. 8 second chance points, and they've already taken 9 more shots than us. Once it gets to 28-17, we go on a great run, scoring 8 in a row and making a game of it. We tie it up on a 3 pointer with 2 minutes left in the half, but Chattanooga answers with a 3 and we can't gain the lead. Merritt has 13 points in the first half and he really kept it from getting out of control early with some hot shooting. No one else has more than 5. If we can control the boards a bit better I believe we can win this one. We're being outrebounded 19-12, and they have 9(NINE) offensive rebounds. Luckily they are ice cold from 3, 1-11, or else we'd be in huge trouble.

The second half game plan is to keep the game slow, try to find good post up opportunities, and try to keep drawing fouls(we got to the line 16 times in the first half).

Heh, the first play of the second half, Chattanooga misses a 3, gets an offensive board, kicks it out for another 3 and drains it. Not what we want to see. After that, we basically keep it a 5-7 point game for quite awhile, trading misses and trading baskets. With 5 minutes left its 66-61 Chattanooga, we had just blown a chance to cut it to 3. With 1:01 to go in the game Page gets a steal and is fouled on the ensuing fast break. He hits both FTs and we trail by 2, 75-73. Chattanooga misses a shot, we get the board and run a play with a chance to tie. PF Wilkerson is fouled shooting and has two FTs with 28 seconds left. He sinks them both! 75-75 tie with 28 seconds left. Page commits a foul going for a steal agressively, and then Chattanooga misses an open 20 footer, we get the rebound and call a time out with 2.5 seconds left. Page gets an open look from 3 after the inbounds pass but its off the rim. OVERTIME.

We take our first lead with 2 1/2 minutes left in OT, and after some FT trouble for Chattanooga, we lead 81-78 with 1:30 left. Chattanooga gets a huge 3 pointer with 1:00 to go and ties it 81-81. We run a play, but I struggle and take a bad shot which doesn't go in. Chattanooga gets the ball and after an offensive rebound, hits another 3 poitner with 11 seconds left to go up 84-81. I get Merritt an open look but it doesn't drop. We end up falling:

Chattanooga 85
Elon 81
OT

Argh! So close. But, a tight game vs an evenly matched team is something I'm glad to see. Merritt and Page both score 16 for us in this one. Merritt was an awesome 7 for 8 from the field.



Dec 20: Penn 71, Elon 51

Dec 22: Virginia 69, Elon 65


We're 3-7 and not much good, but I suspect I can pull off a couple conference wins and will be picking out the more evenly matched games the rest of the season. We have a couple weeks off before an early January game vs The Citadel(1-6). I'll be getting to that tomorrow.

[Izulde]

Think beating Citadel will give you a leg up on nabbing Carpenter?

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Think beating Citadel will give you a leg up on nabbing Carpenter?

dear god if that is the case this is the best game i've ever played. The thought certainly did cross my mind when I saw the upcoming schedule.

Carpenter really isn't that great(as scouted) and I'm really, really hoping to stumble upon a great 3 point shooter or a 7 footer that no one wants or something. I'm losing my two best backcourt players this year, I am redshirting two guys that I think will make an impact next season, but i am concerned about landing a couple classes of mediocre 2* guys and hurting myself. Next year I'll have to think about making a stronger play for some of the low end 3* guys I think.

[Radii]

We have the last full week of December off, I hti the recruiting trail and get game tapes on a few out of state 3* guys that don't yet have scholarship offers. Training continues though I fail about 75% of the drills I do.

Jan 3, 2008 - Elon (3-7) at Citadel (1-7)

Our first conference game, and the first time I'm playing a team rated lower than the Phoenix. We're rated 69 overall, 71 O/67 D/45 Unity, they are 63/64/58/23. A 1-0 conference start would be pretty sweet.

The first 5 minutes or so are even, its 10-10 at the 10 minute mark. At this point Kinloch gets in the game and I make sure I that every play I'm running I pay attention to his post up position. I break out of 3 plays to feed him in the post and he hits 3 shots in a row. The defense picks up, and we go on a 12-1 run, leading 22-11 at the 9 minute mark. We lead by as much as 16, but Citadel keeps it a bit closer than that, cutting it to 9, before we score at the halftime buzzer to go up 11, 39-28. Merritt got 2 fouls early and was ineffective. Backup SG Essengue has 9 points, while Kinloch got 8 on 4-4 shooting and 3 boards in only 5 minutes. He also picked up two fouls.

The second half is awesome. We roll out to a 23 point lead with about 12 minutes left. Citadel goes on a run and gets it as low as 15. We push it back up to 20 and the backups all come in with 3 minutes to go.

Elon 75, Citadel 57

We shoot 58% from the floor to their 40%, and actually go 4/8 from 3. The rebounding edge is big, 32-19, and we did a great job of pushing it inside, scoring 42 poitns in the paint. That's something I haven't focused on enough against better teams perhaps. Or maybe its just that much easier vs a bad team.

Kinloch scores 14(7-10 FG) and has 7 boards
Poole (center) scores 12 and grabs 9 boards.
Essengue (backup SG) 12 poitns including 2 3s.


I was really pleased personally with my own play running the offense. PG Page scored only 6 poitns, but had 4 boards and 8 assists running the point for most of the game.

We go up to 4-7.


Jan 5, 2008: Elon 81, College of Charleston 77 (simmed)


That makes us 5-7. I don't see an immediate impact on Carpenter's recruiting interst, Citadel still has a small lead over him.


I hadn't even paid attention to conference games to this point. Four of our earlier games were also conference games. W. Carolina, Furman, Wofford, and Chattanooga. We are 4-2 in conference play!

Conference Standings

UNC Greensboro 4-0 (12-1)
Elon 4-2 (5-7)
#18 Davidson 3-1 (8-2)
Chattanoga 3-2 (4-9)
App State 2-2 (7-6)
W. Carolina 2-2 (3-7)
Wofford 2-1 (4-7)
College of Charleston 2-2 (5-8)
Georiga Southern 2-2 (5-8)
Citadel 0-5 (1-10)
Furman 0-5 (1-13)


We play Davidson next and don't expect to finish that high, but its nice to see we shouldn't be last. Since I played 3 games in a row I am due to sim through a bunch, which I'll be doing tomorrow.

[Radii]

I spend a couple weeks getting game tapes on 3* players in the eastern half of the US that have not had a scholarship offer yet. I find a JC Sophomore with some solid scouted ratings(for Elon at laest). He's from Philadelphia though and costs most of my recruiting budget to talk to. I decide to take a chance and try to get a feel for him and dump some poitns into him for a few weeks. Most of his skills scout as a C, including 3 point shooting. I'm not offering him or anything, just seeing if I can build up some interest leading to a decision on whether to drop my offer on the 2* guy for him.


Jan 9 - 18 Davidson 93, Elon 61 - Not unexpected, but ouch.


Jan 12 - Elon 62, Furman 49


Jan 17 - Georgia Southern 79, Elon 72
-- Backup guard Daniel Essengue is hurt and will miss a month. Not a huge loss if I keep my main guys out of foul trouble.


Jan 19 - Elon 76, UNC Greensboro 65
-- PFs Kinloch and Wilkerson are both injured in this game. Kinloch for 18 days and Wilkeson for 17 days. This will hurt, a lot. Both of them have had a number of productive games and it seriously hurts my front court depth.


The injuries leave me with a 9 man rotation for the next 3 weeks, and ZERO big men coming off the bench. SF Mitchell Thornton will be seeing a major increase in minutes and will be stuck playig in the paint. I'm playing my next game(at Western Carolina) and will be slowing the game down as much as possible.

[Radii]

Elon at Western Carolina


Our team unity is really becoming a strength, its up to 51, starting all upperclassmen.

The first half is solid espicially given our depth issues inside. We fall behind 8-0 but make a great recovery, scoring 6 in a row and keeping it close the whole way after that. We lead 38-35 at the half, doing a good job of getting it into the post against their rather terrible post defense. I'm trying out a couple new plays this game too that I'm just learning. Of the original four I put on hotkeys, two of them I have a good feel and good success with, the other two I've dumped in favor of two more.

At the half, PF Fitzwater has 10 points, Center Poole has 8, backup "big man" Thornton has 6, we've really, really done well getting the ball inside. The one adjustment I've consciously made really is that I'm playing a bit looser on D with my guards. I really don't want to allow their guards to drive by me and draw any fouls inside. So far its worked, and we've had a relatively uneventful first half.

BLEH. We completely implode in the 2nd half, allowing W Carolina to score the first 10 points of the half and eventually to run up a 65-47 lead. We cut into it some but the second half is just awful.

W Carolina 71
Elon 61


Our big scorers in the first half went completely cold. For a bit I wasn't getting them the ball enough, and eventually they just missed everything. 5 players for Elon scored 10... including Fitzwater who had 10 in the first half.

[Radii]

I make the same game speed and defensive awareness changes that EF27 used.


I'm glossing over the simmed games/week because this is the 4th time I've done it now

Jan 28 - App State 70, Elon 59


Feb 2 - Elon 82, UNC Greensboro 75


Feb 6 - Elon 80, Davidson 77

-- That last one is pretty shocking.



So, I mentioned elsewhere that I had manually adjusted the rotations and minutes for my team when a couple of my big men got injured. The game is now freezing any time I try to re-enter that menu, so hopefully the CPU will get those guys back into the lineup or I'm going to be more than a little annoyed.



Feb 9 - Elon (9-11) at Wofford (10-11)

They crushed us at our place earlier in the year, hopefully we've improved.

It seems a fairly evenly matched game, ratings are all within 3-4 points for each team.


Well, I like the increased game speed, it feels more natural. I remember why Wofford beat us so badly last time, they crush us on the boards, and have a superstar PG named cooperwood who just tears us apart.

Its 42-29 Wofford with a fwe minutes left in the 1st half when the game gets stuck on a free throw. I give it about 5 minutes because I've seen little positioning glitches work themselves out, then simulate to the end of the game. How frustrating! But the result is the expected one.

Wofford 85, Elon 70.

[Radii]

The Citadel at Elon

I go ahead and play out my next game to make sure I can get another human controlled win here w/ the increased game speed. Espicially after seeing EF27's quick firing at Princeton, i'm not above cherry picking a bit and taking on games i can win/evenly contested games for a bit.


Wow we just look HORRIBLE early. We're allowing open 3s, not hitting anything, its just terrible so far. At the 11:22 mark of the 1st half its 20-10 Citadel. Fitzwater has gotten set up perfectly in the post 4 times and bricked 4 little 5 footers, he isn't getting the ball anymore no matter how open he looks.

Trailing 32-21, our center Poole gets a 3 point play and we cut it to 8. That triggers a huge run on our part , as we end the half on a 15-2 run, getting a number of steals and getting Poole(11 points) going inside. Its 36-34 Elon at the half. They're shooting 54% from the field, but we have been to the line 15 times, making 9, while limiting their FT attempts.


This whole rotation thing is really pissing me off. My starting lineup isn't back out there to open the 2nd half, and my starting PG has been on the bench since about the 11 minute mark. My starting PF, Fitzwater, is playing SG right now and I have 3 other big men out there. I really want to just set the rotation and minutes and let the CPU do this. Manual substitutions are annoying, espicially since once you do it once, the CPU stops doing it the rest of the way.

Hell, maybe the CPU knows what its doing. Ok, that's probably saying a bit much, but, we do keep the pressure on, Pool and Wilkerson at C and PF are taking this game over. With 15:55 left its 46-36 Phoenix.

Merritt, the starting PG, makes his entry into the game at the 11 minute mark of the 2nd half. I get him the ball right away for an easy bucket and we're running away with things a bit, 58-42.

At the 10 minute mark I start eating up more of the shot clock and at the 8 minute mark its time to sim it out.


Elon 80, Citadel 59

The Citadel ended up taking 23 3 pointers, after making 4 of their first 5, they only made 1 of the next 18. We ended up with a nice even distribution, 14 points from Mouton and Faye, 13 from Poole and 11 from Wilkerson.



Feb 14 - Elon 71, Appalachain State 56


Feb 16 - Georgia Southern 56, Elon 47



We are 10-8 in the Southern Conference, and 11-13 overall. We're currently 3rd in conference play but its a big jumble, we could finish as high as 2nd or as low as 6th, with two games remaining to determine things before the conference tournament.

[Radii]

I haven't given an update on recruiting in a few weeks, basically I have the same targets, the scholarship offered to 2* PG Steve Carpenter, in a dogfight with the Citadel for. I am also focusing weekly on a 3* JC SG named Donoyan Robins. i'm 3rd on his list but have build up some good interest and no one has offered a scholarship yet. If I don't land Carpenter i will try to land Robins. If I don't get either of them most likely i am going to be stuck either taking a player who by all scouting appears horrible, or leaving a scholarship open and pray for a transfer.



Feb 20 - College of Charleston(11-14) at Elon (11-13)


College of Charleston has an edge in ratings by just a little eveyrwhere but team unity. Elon's uinty is up to 56, which is a strength for us vs most of our opponents by now. Overall ratings really dont worry me a lot though, it really comes down to whether an opponent has a superstar player(relative to everyone else on the court) that determines whether I feel like i can compete.

After starting out fairly even and having the score 20-20, Charleston goes on a 17-4 run and leads 37-24 at the half. I'm making some simple mistakes and giving up some fast break points by making terrible interior passes that just aren't there.

We score the first 4 points of the second half and its straight downhill from there. We get crushed and I quick sim most of the second half.

College of Charleston 79
Elon 52


As a bonus, Leighton Poole, our starting center, gets hurt and will miss 25 days of action. I have good big man depth though so its not the end of the world.



One more game in the regular season vs Chattanooga, which I want to play out, then we'll see what we can do in the conference tourney.

[Radii]

March 1 - Chattanooga (11-16) at Elon (11-14)


We're in a 3 way tie for 6th in the Southern Conference with Georgia Southern and Chattanooga. A win here woudl be key to get us into the upper half of the conference.

They clearly have more talent, but not a massive amount, and we'll try to slow the game down and get them in foul trouble.

Well, we play a fairly solid first half, but allow Chattanooga to go on a big run at the end of the half, scoring 12 of the last 15 points. Its 42-32 we trail. A serious problem is that we are 7-16 from the FT line. We hit 3 3 pointers, but allowed multiple 3 point plays on fouls inside that cancelled them out quickly. Each team has 3 starters with 2 fouls so we'll see how that impacts us as well.

And we never get it under 10 in the 2nd half. It gets up to about 15 with 10 minutes left, a 3 makes it 18, and I quick sim it out. I am struggling mightily vs 2-3 zones with weak jump shooters.

Chattanooga 81, Elon 57



Southern Conference Standings

UNC-Greensboro 18-2
Davidson 13-7
Wofford 12-8
Chattanooga 11-9
Col. Charleston 11-9
W. Carolina 11-9
Elon 10-10
Ga. Southern 10-10
Appalachain St. 9-11
Furman 3-17
Citadel 2-18


UNC-G is 26-3 overall, Davidson is 18-8. no one else in the league is above .500 overall.

We'll be playing Appalachain State in the opening round of the Southern Conference Tourney.

[Radii]

Alright, time to play App State and then get on to next season! Err, i mean, win the Conferece Tourney? Yeha, move on to next season seems a bit more realistic.

Appalachain State has a lot more talent than us and we don't really expect to win this one.

The 6th man meters for both teams in the tournaments are a very nice touch.

An exciting, fast paced first half sees Appalachain State ahead 42-38. They hit too many 3s and that's our top priority. We used some speed and beat their press and got some easy shots, and our big men consistantly got open and we did a good job getting to the FT line.

WOW, the last 10 minutes are a disaster. We take the lead early in the 2nd half and lead by 2-4 most of the half. With about 8 minutes to go it just becomes turnover city. Every pass gets deflected, a couple passes sail out of bounds, when I try to push the action(as was succeeding in the 1st half) we make mistakes, and once I fell behind I started pressing harder to make things happen, which just made it worse. It was a good effort for about 35 minutes.

Appalachain State 76
Elon 66

Kinloch had a greta game with 10 points and 11 boards for us. Fitzwater had 10, Wilkerson 9 and the inside play was responsible for well over half our points. Merrit had 9 and Page 6 in their last college games.

[Radii]

UNC Greensboro is an 8 seed in the West after winning the Big South.

1 seeds are Louisville, Tennessee, UAB(???), and Kansas.

North Carolina wins the tournament and are national champs.

I fastforwarded a little too far I thikn and can't see the rest of the final four.

There are no Elon players on any awards lists anywhere. Only Merritt and Page graduate. They're both important players but hopefully Mouton and Essengue and my redshirt guard can fill in nicely next year.


Coaching Skill

I get credit for coaching a team to 10 wins, and for not having any unhappy players this season, good for 2 upgrades which both go in Charisma to hopefully help on the recruiting trail next year:

Overall: C
Offense: C
Defense: C
Teaching: C
Scouting: C-
Charisma: C
Disclipline: C-


Team Stats

It was a very nondescript season. No one averaged in double figures.

PF Fitzwater led the team with 9.3 boards and 4.4 rebounds per game.
PG Page 8.8 ppg/4.0 assists
SF Faye 8.0 ppg
PG Merritt 8.0 ppg

[Radii]

Offseason Recruiting

I lose Carpenter to the Citadel in the first week.

That makes things simple for me. I offer a scholarship to 3* JC SG Robins. After week 2 I am the only team to have offered him a Scholarship. He really doesn't scout all that well heh. But I have awful scouts.

After the 3rd week SG Donovan Robins signs with Elon!

Robins is big for a guard at 6'5. I scout him C+ shooting, C Skills, C+ Defense, B Athleticism, so hopefully that's solid enough for a place like the bottom half of the Southern Conference.

Time to see what we've got for next season.

[Radii]

As far as talent goes, season #2 looks about the same, maybe a little worse, than season 1.

Incoming Recruits

Well, its just not good.

SG Robins rates 56 overall and simply can't shoot. His potential shows up as an F, not the C we scouted. His medium and 3 point shots are in the low 60s, he's simply awful. He is a bit of a defender, defense rated 66. I guess we redshirt him.

C Bates is worse, close range he's a 72, and he needs to not shoot outside 5 feet. I don't see the rebounding ability that we scouted. I don't see much of anything worth playing at all. He'll also redshirt.


We'll get to a roster review tomorrow and spend most of this next year trying to recruit better and hoping I don't get fired

[Izulde]

Brutal... but maybe you can turn it around

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Brutal... but maybe you can turn it around

I've learned a lot if I don't/can't and have to start over. My move begins next Thursday and ends Sunday, so I may not get much in this week, but the pace should pick up significantly after the move

[Radii]

Roster Review

Starting Lineup

Robert Mouton - JR PG - 60 overall - average shooter, above average(slightly) driving, and above average speed. Averaged 4.6 ppg off the bench last year.

Darmetreis Essengue - JR SG - 63 overall - average/slightly below average shooter, decent ball handling and speed. 5.4 ppg last year

Alfred Faye - SR SF - 67 overall - average shooter, strong and great hustle. 8.0 ppg last year(mostly in CPU games, i did not get him heavily involved. I rarely get my SF's involved in these games, lots of guard/post play usually).

John Kinloch - JR PF - 58 overall - 82 close range, post play in the upper 60s, above average rebounder. 6.1 ppg/4.8 apg off the bench last year. I enjoyed using this guy in human run games, felt natural in the post.

Leighton Poole - SR PF - 61 overall - 85 in close, low post offense about the same as kinloch, but a better post defender and rebounder. 6.5 ppg/6.8 rpg as the starting center last year


Off the bench:

Jason Fitzwater - SR SF - 65 overall - a better shooter than Faye, espicially mid-range and from 3. I don't know why he started at PF last year. 9.3 ppg/4.4 rpg last season.

Damond Evenstar - FR SG - 61 overall - slightly above average shooter, 82 3 point shooting is much higher than anyone I had last year. average defender, below average speed.

Bernell Burnstein - SO PG - 60 overall - average/slightly above average shooter, 77 3 point shooting. decent ball handler, decent speed, passing and defense. Averaged 2.5 ppg last year as the 8th or 9th man. This year I expect Evenstar and Burnstein to both get 15 mpg or so.

Mitchell Thornton - JR SF - 59 overall - average shooter, poor ball handling and slow. 6 ppg/3.7 rpg last year. I'm not sure how.

Stephen Frey - FR C - 57 overall - average close range, average low post offense and defense. Frey is 7 feet tall(I redshirted him and Evenstar last year). I'm comfortable with Pool and Kinloch already so I'm probably going to be content to let Frey come off the bench for now. If his size matters as much as i've seen people say, i may change that.

Harlna Wilkerson - JR PF - Harlna? Marlena? Honestly some of the text is painfully small on my 25" TV but this is just embarrassing. Pretty poor low post player comapred to the other big men above him. Can eat up some minutes though. 4.3 ppg last year.

[Radii]

We have 4 scholarships this year. I aim a bit higher in trying to scout out 3* players and hope to find a couple that i have a shot at early on. I certainly don't expect to be able to land four solid recruits on my budget, though getting something in the early period would be huge.


I get super agressive with a few 3* targets. There is one 2* guy who doesn't look too terrible that I think i can land extremely easy that I toss a scholarship at. The other 3 scholarships I throw at the top 3 3* players sorted by interest. All look decent and none have bigger school offers.


11/10/2008 - Maryland 83, Elon 75 - Essengue, Kinloch, Faye and Fitzwater break double digits, 13/12/11/10 points in that order. Kinloch gives us 14 boards as we hang w/ the ACC school for most of the game it appears. Evenstar scores 8 in his first game. 7 foot Frey doesn't even play.



2* Scott Lovelace seems an easy draw to Elon. 2* guy, he looks fairly average and probably ends up like Bates that i brought in last year but I can't pass up a guy who doesn't scout as "completely sucking" who has this much interest.


11/14/2008 - Illinois-Chicago 71, Elon 49 - Poole gets 12 today, our only double digit scorer. Mouton and Essengue both put up 8 points.


11/15/2008 - Marshall 72, Elon 53 - Evenstar shines in this one, making 4 3 pointers and leading the team with 12 points. Faye has 11, Kinloch 10 points/5 boards.



11/16/2008 - Kennesaw State (1-2) at Elon (0-3)

Not sure why we're playing 3 days in a row here... but whatever, this is the first game i'm playing out. The team ratings are about the same as last year, team overall 68(was 69), offense 70, defense 64. Unity starts low again, just 33. Kennessaw State is a near exact even matchup, with 65 D instead of our 64, and a bit less unity(27 to our 33).

Kennessaw State is just lights out for the first 7 minutes or so, they rush out to a 19-3 lead as their best player, SF Kanter, makes 3 3 pointers and scores 10 total. We slowly cut into the lead and get a 6-0 run with about 5 minutes left in the half to make it respectable. Its 39-33 Owls at halftime. Fitzwater has 8 to lead the Phoenix.

The second half was a very good one. We start out on a big run ourselves and build up a 7 point lead. Kennessaw State cuts into it, and we go cold, definitely a streaky game, for awhile I was getting layups and open looks all the time, everything I thought I saw was there, the tight passes when I thought there was a lane to the basket all worked perfectly. They stopped working and the Owls caught up, tying the game at 68 with 45 seconds to go. I was able to get Mouton open and drive to the basket where he gets fouled and makes 2 free throws. One defensive stop and Kennesaw State has to foul the rest of the way, we hit out FTs and win.

Elon 78
Kennessaw State 68

Mouton is the star with 18 points and 5 boards, mostly in the second half. He was just in the zone for awhile for me. Faye scores 13, Fitzwater 10, Essengue 10, and Poole had 8 points and 13 boards.

[Radii]

The whole 3* Recruiting thing doesn't seem to be going so well. Maybe its best to wait til after the early signing period for that? I'm not really sure.

11/21/2008 - Georgia Southern 74, Elon 47


11/24/2008 - E Tennessee State 81, Elon 73


11/29/2008 - UNC Greensboro 72, Elon 52



The early signing period passes with a few of the 3* guys going elsewhere and not much happening for Elon. I'm pretty worried here, I didn't even land the 2* guy that loves me, and have 4 scholarships open with limited points available. I put together a plan pretty quickly though. Two guys I have a solid lead on and really seem to have no choice but to go after. One is a 2* SF, Scott Lovelace, he's an all around C- guy and probably fairly average but I still need to easy target I think. Additionally JC Soph Jaycen McNamara, a 6'10" PF with C+ potential and C+ inside scoring and C post play has so far been left alone. I'll go after him until/unless someone passes me.

The final target i'm really not sure about. 6'9" Center Chip Staten only has two teams interested. Me, and Wake Forest. But Wake hasn't offered a scholarship. Do I play for him and hope he comes to Elon if Wake Forest doesn't grab him? The disparity in interest is great.

I've removed any targets that look unreachable and will be scouting big men and guards to try to get secondary targets who maybe excel in one thing to go after b/c I am really worried about a complete bomb in recruiting leading to a quick firing.

[Radii]

Our only game for 3 weeks is South Carolina, which I don't care to play and get killed in.

12/13/2008 - South Carolina 94, Elon 36 - holy christ.


12/30/2008 - Elon (1-7) at Texas A&M Corpus Christi (1-8)

Yeah we need this one heh, 1-7 is just terrible. I used a couple pep talks before the game, Mouton and Fitzwater are getting a little down.

We start out hot and jump out to a 10 point lead but the Islanders close it and actually lead by 1 at the half, 41-40. My 7 footer, Frey, is the worst shooter in the world. I get him in great post position a number of times, get him cutting to the basket, get him on the offensive boards, and he is 0-5 from the field. Evenstar has 7 points off the bench in fast break situations(he is really agile and good driving) but I'm also forcing a couple 3s, he is 0-3 from 3 point range.

Well, there were two big runs in the second half. Texas A&M CC went up by 15, and we cut it back all the way down. We trailed by 4 with 1 minute to go, and scored to cut it to 2, but an errant pass when we had a chance to tie(wrong button variety) and the Islanders making just enough free throws put this one away.

Texas A&M Corpus Christi 87
Elon 78

Much closer than 9 points, just the fouls at the end.

Essengue leads us with 11 poitns, while Kinloch gets 10 points and 9 boards. A balanced scoring effort but no one stepped up at all, I never really ever felt like I had a go to guy, where sometimes it seems like someone heats up for me. Not tonight.

[Radii]

12/27/2008 - Elon 68, Ohio 63 - winning a CPU game feels good.

12/28/2008 - LaSalle 65, Elon 48


1/1/2009 - Elon (2-9) at College of Charleston (1-7)

Wow college of charleston is waaay more talented than us, they must have a tough schedule. They are rated 77 to our 69.. we'll see what we can do but if it hits 20 its time to move on.


Well, that was disappointing. We held tight for most of the first half, and actually led 30-29, but we just cannot stop runs once other teams get rolling, and let up 16 in a row to trail 45-30 at the half. It didn't hit 20 for awhile, I quick simmed to the end at 64-44.

College of Charleston 89
Elon 67

Essengue put up 14, Poole 13, Fitzwater 10. Essengue and Poole were my big time go to guys when we were playing well in the first half. Both of them had 10 at halftime and fizzled out.


1/3/2009 - Appalachain State 74, Elon 71

[Radii]

1/8/2009 - Chattanooga 56, Elon 54

We're 2-12 now and winless in conference play. Poole is my only Senior starter so we do stand the chance to improve if I get another year here. My job security isn't great though


1/10/2009 - Elon (2-12) at Wofford (x-x)

Well, Wofford is the only other winless team in the Southern Conference. Our talent levels are similar, we're actually the better defensive team so hopefully we can do something here.

The first half is close, with neither team ever leading by more than 3, and its 37-37 at the half. We go ahead early in the second half, and while we never run away with it, Wofford never seriously threatens, Elon holds a 6-8 point lead for almost the entire second half.

Elon 71, Wofford 62

Kinloch is the star today, 7-10 from the field with 3 more from the line for 17 poitns. Mouton adds 15 and Poole has 10 points in the conference win.

[Radii]

WOOHOO, done moving! I still have unpacking to do, and lots of other shit going on, but I'm hoping to get this going with more consistency now, I figure right when I get really attached to my team I'll get fired But now I'll have the free time to restart and start progressing again faster.

[Radii]

1/15/2008 - Elon 94, Western Carolina 77

6 players score in double figures as we dominate the second half in a simmed game to get this win. Poole and Faye lead the team with 14 points each.

1/17/2008 - UNC Greensboro 66, Elon 51

Poole puts up 13 points, Kinloch has 9 points/10 boards in a poor performance overall here.


1/22/2008 - Citadel (6-9) at Elon (4-13)

This was a good matchup for us last year so I'm hoping for the same today. We do seem to have a huge edge, their overall talent level is a 64, to elon's 69. I'm hoping we can rout them and move up a little further away from the basement in the Southern Conference.

The halftime score is 35-26 in favor of the Citadel. We're shooting a terrible 28%, only in the game because we've been very agressive and have gone to the FT line 15 times, making 10. Kinloch leads us with 7 points,a couple other guys have 4.

WOW: We trail 58-44 after playing better on offense but really dying on D and giving up tons of open looks. This is with 11 minutes left in the game. We take our time scoring but hold Citadel scoreless for about 6 minutes, cutting it to 58-53. Its 66-61 with 1:15 left. We score the last 5 points in regulation, get the ball with the last posession and run a play for mouton but he misses the runner as time expires. OVERTIME. In OT we run out to a 5 point lead but this time let The Citadel catch up. 73-73, once again we have the ball with the chance to end it, Poole misses a jumper, DOUBLE OVERTIME. Double Ot is close too, but we never trail, and when a Citadel 3 is missed with 30 seconds to go, and Mouton sinks 2 free throws to make it 81-77, we have it wrapped up. Citadel gets a bucket near the end but its meaningless.

Elon 81, Citadel 79, 2 OT

Kinloch is the star today, 18 points, 16 boards. Mouton, after only scoring 1 point in the first half, ends the game with 14. Poole has 13 points/11 boards, and faye has 11. We only shot 35% for the game, and were 3/15 from 3(20%), but our agression paid off big time, 24/33 from the FT line is the difference.


This win brings us to 3-6 in conference play, still likely to be one of the 3 or 4 bottom teams, but at least now unlikely to be the very worst.

[Radii]

1/24/2009 - Georgia Southern 50, Elon 48


1/26/2009 - Elon 76, Furman 62


1/29/2009 - Davidson 60, Elon 58


2/1/2009 - Elon(6-15) at Appalachain State(8-11)

We're slightly outclassed here but do have a Team Unity advantage that hopefully can help us.

This is the best game i've played yet. Kinloch and Poole dominate inside, we rebound extremely well, shoot well, don't turn the ball over, its just great all the way around. We jump out to a 14 point lead in the first half, allow App State to cut it to 54-50 with about 13 minutes left in the game, before running the lead back up over 10. We lead by 12 with 6 minutes to go, 66-54, and start holding the ball and put it away easily.

Elon 72
Appalachain State 60

Kinloch scores 13 and grabs 8 boards for player of the game honors, Poole has 10 points and 11 boards, and even Frey comes up big today with 11 points and 9 boards. It was all about the big men in this one.

We're now 5-8 and in a little better shape in conference play, with games against Furman and Wofford coming up its actually not inconceivable for us to win 4 out of 5 here.

[Radii]

2/5/2009 - Furman 58, Elon 47

Just a terrible game, Fitzwater gives us 7, Essengue 6, yup, to lead the team.

2/7/2009 - Davidson 77, Elon 67

We only trail 40-39 at the half but can't pull it out. Fitzwater puts up 16 points/10 boards, Evenstar has 10 points in the loss as well.


2/12/2009 - Elon 75, The Citadel 40

That's more like it. Mouton, Burnstein, and Frey put up double figures. Faye has 7 assists from his SF position. This one was 39-15 at the half.


With 4 games left on the schedule, we're 6-10 in conference play. A miracle 4-0 run could get us up to .500, but its a lot more likely that we go 1-3, and realy I'm hoping we can steal one and finish with 7 wins here.



2/14/2009 - Western Carolina at Elon

They have the edge everywhere. Their offense is excellent for the Southern Conference(79), and their team unity(70) crushes our 51. We won our last game over a more talented Appalachain State team by working the ball inside consistantly and that's likely what we'll try to do here.

well... we suck. This one gets quick simmed when its 39-19 with 8 minutes to go in the first half. At that point WCU had missed 2 shots maybe? We couldn't break their press reliably, they had 4 3 point plays inside, and 4 3 pointers by the time I simmed to the end. Essengue, Faye, Evenstar, and Kinloch all get into double figures in this one.

Western Carolina 97
Elon 81

[Radii]

Time to sim through to the conference tourney and see how recruiting plays out:

2/18/2009 - Wofford 67, Elon 53

Poole gives us 14 points/7 boards in a home loss against the only weak team left on the schedule.


2/26/2009 - Chattanooga 63, Elon 58

Poole has 16 points/9 boards, Faye 10 points in another loss, this one a close one on the road.

2/28/2009 - Elon 68, College of charleston 57

We end the season on a high note, upsetting the superior College of Charleston team. Poole is again the star with 18 points.




We end up in a 3 way tie for 8th with Georgia Southern and Appalachain State at 7-13 in conference play. It looks like we get the 9 seed and open up vs 8 see Appalachain State in the conference tournament. The winner will almost certainly be taking an asskicking at the hands of Davidson, who went 17-3 in conference play.


Southern Conference First Round - (8 ) Appalachain State vs (9) Elon

We did beat these guys the last time we played, fairly handily. They have more talent than us though and we will need a big game from Kinloch and Poole to carry us.


Its probably the wildest half I've ever played of video game basketball. App State leads 58-48. We're shooting 65% but Appalachain State is shooting 55% overall, has been to the line 16 times(to our 4) and has made 7 3 pointers. It was tied at 42 before Appalachain State went on a big run to end the half.

And the second half is a struggle, we fall down by 14, but do make a run at it. Its 92-90 with 45 seconds to go when Appalachain State's star SG sinks a 3 and makes it a 2 posession game. We miss a 3, and foul too much to make it look a little worse than it was at the end.

Appalachain State 103
Elon 93

Our season is over.

[Izulde]

Ouch! Major step back in the second season. Hope recruiting is going a little better.

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Ouch! Major step back in the second season. Hope recruiting is going a little better.

I haven't posted much on it since I just picked out targets and hit them hard the rest of the year. I have the lead on two solid looking 2* guys and a 3* guy, but they're all shaky(better teams are on the interest list but havne't offered scholarships). The 3* guy looks very good, and only has two schools on his list, Wake Forest and Elon. Wake FOrest hasn't offered a scholarship, so if I can land him, it might be the big win that I need.


Also, if i'm given another year, I'm graduating Poole and Faye, but the backcourt and Kinloch will still be around, the 7 footer Frey will be a soph, SG Evenstar(the 3 poitn shooter) will be a soph and is becoming a better shooter, so I would expect to be better next year.

[Radii]

2009 NCAA Tournament

1 seeds:

Syracuse
Memphis
Michigan State
North Carolina


No 1 seeds made the final four:

5: Villanova
3: UConn
8: Georgia Tech
3: Duke

UConn beat Duke to win the national title

[Radii]

Graduating:

Alfred Faye - 8.3 ppg/2 rpg

Leighton Poole - 9.4 ppg/7.4 rpg

Jason Fitzwater - 7.2 ppg/3.9 rpg


Faye and Poole were starters, while Fitzwater started as a Junior but lost his starting spot as a senior to Kinloch. The CPU liked Fitzwater a ton more than I did.