College Hoops 2k8: 2009 Edition

[Radii]

MEAC Ratings

A quick look at the overall league picture.

1. Winston-Salem State - 70 OVR
2. Florida A&M - 68 OVR
3. Hampton - 68 OVR
4. Morgan State - 67 OVR
5. North Carolina A&T - 67 OVR
6. S. Carolina State - 67 OVR
7. Bethune-Cookman - 66 OVR
8. Coppin State - 66 OVR
9. Delaware State - 66 OVR
10. Howard - 65 OVR
11. Norfolk State - 64 OVR
12. MD-Eastern Shore - 62 OVR


There is not a single player in the entire league rated above 70, so our dropoff in talent from losing Rush and Willis is pretty much what everyone else has too.

Some notes:

Winston-Salem State is probably a bigger favorite than the ratings would indicate. They have good talent at every single position, no superstars, but no weak spots.

3 teams - Norfolk State, South Carolina State, and Hampton - Start 3 seniors and two juniors(SC State actually starts 4 seniors) and will have a huge head start in team unity over the rest of the league.

[Radii]

Season Schedule Notes

i didn't work as hard to play so many teams in the state of north carolina this year. Probably because it was late last night when I did the schedule and wanted to see my recruits and then go to bed

I have a pretty balanced schedule though, almost all my games are against teams that are rated around my level. Matchups obviously dictate a lot in this game but we're only going to play a few teams rated 70+ this year. I think given my stick skill improvements during the last season, and the dominance our inside game should have against some smaller teams, we have a reasonable shot at a winning season this year.

[Radii]

Recruiting Notes

We have 4 scholarships this year. Our needs are primarily in the back court. Between Hayes, Coleman and Shepherd we have 3 sophomores inside that I really like.

We have 5 underclassmen targets that we worked on some last year. Since I had 4 scholarships open deep into the recruiting season i didn't get to focus on them as much as i'd hoped. I do have a local PG up over 70%, and 3 other guys over 60%. I really hope to see much better results this year with my maxxed out Charisma.


I add a full target list worth of PGs and SGs, a few I've already scouted out as B- shooters, which is about the best I'm seeing in the 2* arena. A few 3* guys have 60%+ interest in me but they are all virtually locked up elsewhere.

At the top of my target list are a local and municipal pair of PGs, one with B shooting, one with C+. After that are a group of SG's all with B- shooting, but they're regional and will take more points to go after.

With my limited number of points each week i have a really hard time deciding how to handle my visits. The two local guys at the top of my list have me listed 5th or 6th but have another local team higher up where it seems like if that team wants them I have no chance. The regional guys all like me a lot(top 3 or 4 with no one significantly higher in interest) but will take a lot out of me to go recruit.

[Radii]

November 8th, 2008

Maine (1-0) at NC A&T (0-0)

Maine looks almost identical to us as far as overall rating goes. They're 67 OVR jsut like us. 70 on offense, we're 69, 64 on defense, we're 63. 70 shooting, we're 73.

By the way, rebounding was our worst rated skill last year at 61, we're rated 71 in rebounding now, and its our second highest skill behind shooting. we're still considered a very good shooting team which makes me happy.

Ouch. What doesn't make me happy is seeing our initial Team Unity rating is at 22. We return 3 starters from last year, though 2 of them played different positions, and of course our big man is getting his first ever action with us.


Hahah, we go to the opening tipoff and I failed to even look at Maine's starters sizes, but Hayes looks to be about 6 inches taller than the guy he's jumping against... hilarious.

Maine is SMALL. Their center is 6'8, PF is 6'7.

14:45 1st - Well we get off to a slow start, falling behind 7-0 almost immediately. I start to get a rhythm though around the 16 minute mark. Ewing drives to the bucket once and gets fouled, getting a trip to the line. After that Hayes has scored 8 straight points just laying the ball up over his man, and we trail 16-10.

14:30 1st - Hayes picks up foul #2 and sits. coleman has 1.


12:50 1st - We trail 24-13 as our reserves come in. We're playing awful on defense, giving up lots of easy buckets to men cutting to the basket.

10:15 1st - We're down 28-13 and Maine is in the bonus. I'm having a hard time getting points out of my reserves.

6:15 1st - We're down 20, 41-21 as our starters get back out onto the floor. Ouch.


Well, its 53-35 Maine at the half. We're just getting KILLED on defense. They're shooting 68% from the floor, cutting to the basket for easy layups over and over. But if I sag in to try to stop that they're not missing from 3 either.

We've got a 13-8 edge on the boards which would be great if there were more missed shots to go get. Hayes has 8 in only 5 minutes(foul trouble). Ewing and Alston both have 6.


19:00 2nd - Hayes gets foul #3, heh.

14:30 2nd - Its 62-49 as our backups come in. We're fighting hard and have it back down to 12, but I'm not hopeful about continuing to come back with our reserves off the floor.


11:00 2nd - Its 76-62 as we start to rotate some of our starters back in, trying to keep scoring options on the floor at all times. I'm just so unhappy with our defense here.

6:25 2nd - We trail 88-73 and Hayes picks up foul #4.


We cut the deficit to the lowest we're able to get in the final minute:

Main 99
NC A&T 88


Now, I like taking my first good shot, and I like using Alston and Ewing to try to blow by their men at times after breaking the press. I scored 70 ppg last year when most teams in the league scored 55-58, and I like that. But this is a bit ridiculous.


For the game, Maine shot 61%. They hit 6 3 pointers and were 15/21 from the line.

There was some good here though. We put up 60 points in the paint. We did indeed score at will inside at times.

The problem though?

Maine SF Troy Barnies: 9-11 FG, 2-3 3pt, 2-3 FT - 22 points.

9 for 11... They had 4 different guys make 3 pointers, which is why I never tried to change my defense to prevent their inside scoring. They were not missing open 3 pointers.

On our end:

Hayes: 18 points, 8-10 FG, 2-2 FT. 19 minutes played due to foul trouble.
Ewing: 18 points
Alston: 12 points
Coleman: 11 points
Shepherd: 10 points
Cruz: 7 points

Cruz missed some easy baskets and shows why he's a walkon, but he has a lot of size over Maine's reserves.

[Radii]

Some notes on my play style and how it might change this season.

-- No more full court press. With Alston, Rush and Ewing on the floor last year we forced a lot of turnovers. This year I want to conserve my starter's energy, plus Jones at SF is a liability in the press. As is Hayes potential foul trouble if they beat the press and go to the hoop.

-- Hayes is goingn to be a BEAST if I can keep him out of foul trouble. He was just laying the ball in like no one was there all game.

-- Despite the size, I may need to run more 2-3 zone and less man to man this season. Alston, Ewing and Jones have defensive ratings in the low-mid 70s. Coleman and Hayes are in the low 60s. I might need to clog the lane even against teams that have a 3 point shooter. Ewing and Alston are fast and will just have to close down on the jump shooters.

I really like where this team can go with the inside game. If Rush hadn't graduated, a lineup of Alston, Rush, Ewing, Coleman and Hayes would win this conference *easily*. And if I can recruit a couple scoring threats this year I might be able to put something similar out there before the rest of these guys graduate.

[Radii]

November 11th, 2008

NC A&T (0-1) at Utah Valley State (2-1)

Another game that looks to be fairly evenly matched. Utah Valley State does have a slight edge in all spots though and has a great coach, rated 84.

Both teams have terrible team unity, 27 for them, 25 for us.

They have a SG rated 77 OVR, one of the best shooters I'll see at this level, 89 medium/87 from 3 point land. This guy is going to kill us.

14:45 1st - Well this is a nice contrast to our last game. Its 6-6, Toolson(their star SG) isn't hurting us yet. We have a size edge but not nearly as drastic as the last game.

11:30 1st - Our backups come in, we trail 12-8.

8:30 1st - Down 19-10 now as our backups are once again struggling mightly to score.

6:45 1st - My big men starters come back in as i am *really* struggling with Cruz today. He has gotten the ball in great position 3 or 4 times now and not been able to get the ball in the hole. 21-14 now.

4:30 1st - We trail 25-15 as the rest of our starters come bcak in. The lack of a jump shooter on the floor is hurting me a bit. Coleman has missed a couple inside shots and someone needs to heat up here.


Man, what a half, a total contrast to our last game, though the result is pretty much the same. Its 32-20 Utah Valley State.

We're shooting 21% from the floor. End of Story.

Coleman is 0-4, Hayes 2-7, Shepherd 0-2, Cruz 1-4, and Ewing 2-10 on the outside. Just nasty.

14:00 2nd - Toolson is starting to heat up for them, and we're still struggling to make even point blank shots. 43-31 Utah Valley State.

12:00 2nd - 47-35 as our reserves are all in now.

8;45 2nd - Cruz gets going a little bit with 6 points in this stretch out on the court, helping us cut the lead below 10, 52-43.


6:15 2nd - A couple good shots by us, a few bad posessions for Utah Valley and we've made it a game... 54-50.

6:00 2nd - As Utah Valley St calls a time out we get our starters back in for the duration.

4:00 2nd - UGH. We cut the lead to 1 on a 3 point play by Alston. The next 3 possessions in a row we fail to score, and they make open 3 point shots... its VERY quickly 63-53, 10 point game.

3:15 2nd - We finally score but this has gotten out of hand. 66-55.


What an embarrassing ending. They finish the game on a 23-4 run and crush us 77-57.

Utah Valley State 77
NC A&T 57

Utah Valley State was 5/22 from 3 point land in the game. All 5 of those came in the final 6 minutes. We were 2/15 ourselves.

Ewing scored 13 but it was on a ridiculous 6-21 shooting. Hayes scored 9 and got 8 rebounds but it was on 4-12 shooting. Coleman scored 4 on 2-7 shooting.

We simply could not put the ball in the basket all game. We improved to 33% from the floor.

Despite all that, we were only down 1 in the final 6 minutes. Sure they pulled away and made it look bad, but I'm pretty happy with the way we hung in there despite the poor shooting.

[Radii]

Recruiting Update

We're still 2 weeks away from the early signing period, but we do already have one player up to 100% interest. PG Bracey Tafo has us #1 on his list. High Point and Winston-Salem State have a shot at him if they come in and offer scholarships in the next week but I'm hopeful we'll snag him in the early period. He's a 6'0 PG, C+ shooting/B skills/B- defense, B Athleticism, B- potential. He's the worst shooter of the guys we're hoping for but we'd love to land a guard early nonetheless.

SG Boomer Shiloh, a 6'1" PG from Charlotte, is the best shooter we're looking at, scouted at a B in shooting. We're the only one who has offered so far, but we only have him up to 86%. We've already visited all 3 times, so it seems unlikely we'll snag him early.

The other two guys we've offered are likely to go elsewhere. Dominic Hipsher has very high interest in.. RMU(Randolph Macon? Er is that a division 1 college?). We're #2 but a long ways back.

SG Rodney Irvin from Virginia looks likely to attend Longwood over us, but its not a done deal by any stretch.


If I could land two guys in the early signing period I'd have a huge leg up this year. One does seem the most likely outcome though.

[rjolley]

RMU may be Robert Morris University out of Pennsylvania.

Good luck. I'm thinking about starting a new dynasty. With EF27's tweaks to the sliders and the custom playbooks, the CPU actually plays very well now. I've even put in a couple of my favorite plays from college and they work well.

Tell me again why they didn't make a sequel to this...

[Radii]

there you go, robert morris for sure.

You should start up a new dynasty, more for me to read and learn from, I'm still not very good at this yet

[Radii]

November 18, 2008

Eastern Illinois (1-1) at NC A&T (0-2)

E. Illinois is rated 71 OVR, they look to be a very good shooting team and a decent defensive team.

Yea this team looks way better than us. They have a 7 foot center and a star SG that we may struggle to stop.


12:45 1st - We get out to an 18-12 lead, and are playing pretty darn well. Alston has 8 points early thanks to a couple fast break buckets and couple drives to the basket. Our backups come in and I am hoping Cruz and Shepherd can keep us going.

6:15 1st - After some solid play by our reserves, the starters head back out onto the floor with a 29-20 lead.

3:15 1st - A 10-2 run and we're pulling away, we now lead 39-22. They're crashing the offensive glass with 4 guys, and their PG back in defense is nowhere near as fast as either Ewing or Alston, we're burning them for layups on a number of their missed jump shots.


10:00 2nd - A lack of updates here as i was chatting w/ my sister while playing. We led by 18 or so for awhile. Eastern Illinois has gone on a run and cut the lead to 10. Our backups just came in and we lead 64-54.

8:00 2nd - E. Illinois' run continues an we now only lead 66-59.


4:45 2nd - We really come alive in the last couple minutes here and take a 76-64 lead. Cruz is huge, getting a couple offensive boards and putbacks, and allowing us to work the clock for awhile. All of our starters but Alston are back into the game, Alston gets another minute on the bench to rest.

3:30 2nd - A quick 5 points from E. illinois, including a complete bullshit goaltending call on Hayes, and its 76-69. Alston is back on the floor so our entire starting 5 is back.

2:00 2nd - We lead 80-73, Alston has gotten ahead for two dunks and now has 20 points, almost certainly a career high.

1:22 2nd - We can't score, and E. Illinois gets a bucket, 80-75.

0:40 2nd - Ewing misses a 3, E. Illinois rebounds.

0:20 2nd - E. Illinois misses a 3, gets the board, but misses another one and alston pulls down the board.

We make a couple free throws which ices the game.

NC A&T 82
Eastern Illinois 78

I love looking at the stats and seeing that we have a +7 rebound margin.

Alston had the game of his career, 8-10 from the floor, 6-6 from the line for 22 points. Hayes had 16 points/7 boards. Ewing had 13 points, and Cruz(backup C) had 10 points/5 boards off the bench.

Its nice to get our first win of the year.

[Radii]

I've got time to get in a game before UNC/NC State today, and I'm really itching to get to the early signing period to see how I do.


November 24th, 2008

NC A&T(1-2) at Alcorn State (0-3)

Alcorn State is possibly the worst team on our schedule this year, rated 57 OVR, far worse than us in all categories. In 3 games this year Alcorn State is averaging 44 points per game and is shooting 28% from the floor, 52% from the line, and 12% from 3.

Our team unity has risen from 22 to 29 in only 3 games so far, probably a factor of having most of our guys returning players and just integrating Hayes into the starting lineup?

Alcorn State starts 6'8 men at center and power forward. Teehee.

19:30 1st - Hayes picks up his first foul :P

18:00 1st - Hayes picks up foul #2. We lead 7-2.

16:30 1st - Hayes picks up foul #3 and is done for awhile. Looks like I'm going to need to figure out how to protect him vs smaller teams.

15:30 1st - Alcorn State takes a time out as we lead 11-3.

10;30 1st - We lead 21-14 as our backups come in. They've got 2 fouls on our backup center Cruz so the 3rd stringer is in.

4:30 1st - With Cruz out of the game at center, and no other viable scoring options on our 2nd string squad, the previous 6 minutes became the Kam Shepherd show, and what a show it was. Shepherd makes his first 6 field goals including two monster dunks, and adds a free throw for 13 points. We lead 36-24 as our starters return.

We let Alcorn State get within 5 before closing the half strong to lead 47-37.

13 points from Shepherd leads all scorers, while we've also gotten 10 from Alston and 8 from Ewing.


13:00 2nd - After allowing Alcorn State to cut the lead back to 5 again, Ewing and Cruz take the game over, pushing us out to a 68-50 lead as our reserves start to rotate into the game.


We get a 20 point lead with 6 minutes to go and go totally into the tank. We let them end the game on a 15-2 run but 6 of those were in the final minute, it was never in question.

NC A&T 80
Alcorn State 73

Cruz, Alston, and Ewing all 3 lead us with 14 points today. Shepherd doesn't score in the 2nd half and finishes with 13. Hayes gets 6 points in 13 minutes, would have liked to see him playing more without fouls in the first half.

[Radii]

November 29th, 2008

MD-Eastern Shore (1-3, 0-0 MEAC) at NC A&T(2-2, 0-0 MEAC)

This is our random "WTF conference game in November???" game this year. It should be a good start for us, MD-Eastern Shore is the weakest team in the conference.

Our team unity rises to 31, which I'm thinking is a good sign, it seems to be going up faster this year than it did last year.


Again we've got a huge height advantage here, lets see if I can keep Hayes out of foul trouble. I decide to try out the 1-3-1 that balldog suggested, and to make the 2-3 my 2nd defense.

11:30 1st - Its 15-15 as our reserves are all brought out onto the court. The 1-3-1 is working fairly well, if they can make open 3's we'll have to get out of it. But Hayes doesn't have any fouls. We struggle some on offense and had a pretty cold stretch, I think we're in good shape here.

5:45 1st - We trail 27-25 as our starters get back in there. We're missing a lot of inside shots that seem like shots we usually make.

HALFTIME: We lead 42-40. One little problem though... the 1-3-1 protected Hayes but I was totally not paying attention to anyone else's fouls. Coleman had 3 fouls with 3 minutes left, I noticed it, went to sub him out, but didn't call a timeout to get him out of there, and he picked up foul #4 before the next dead ball. Whoops. We'll be seeing lots of Shepherd in the 2nd half.

Hayes has 12 points... on 6-13 shooting. As I'd mentioned, lots of easy shots missed. He also has 9 boards, almost a double double already. Coleman has 8, Jones 6, Ewing 6.

15:00 2nd - We lead 51-47 as we start to rotate in some bench players.

12:30 2nd - We build the lead up into double digits, MD-Eastern Shore burns a timeout as we lead 63-51 now mainly on the heels of Alston and Ewing fast break chances following missed baskets.

7:30 2nd - I had brought Coleman back in, and he fouls out with 7:30 to go. We're playing real well and winning 78-65 though.

We cruise the rest of the way, leading by 13 with 2:30 to go we sit on the clock.

NC A&T 88
MD-Eastern Shore 77


Hayes shows us today what he can do vs smaller teams if he stays out of foul trouble: 25 points, 15 boards.

Alston assisted on many of Hayes buckets: 6 points, 11 assists. I am 99% sure that is a career high for Alston on assists.

Ewing scored 17, and the other post guys contributed as well, Coleman and Shepherd both had 8 points, Cruz had 7.

A solid win to put us above .500 for the first time in my coaching career, and also making us 1-0 in conference play which always helps.

[Radii]

Recruiting - Early Signing Period

Pretty much as expected. SG Bracey Tafo signs with us. He's rated #662 in the country overall, out of Winston Salem, NC. We show him as a C+ shooter, with B skills and Athleticism, B- Offense and Potential. For a 2* guy wiling to sign early with us, that seems pretty good.

We lost one of our scholarship targets as Dominic Hipsher signs with RMU, which is indeed Robert Morris.


A look at our other 3 scholarship offers:

PG Boomer Shiloh - #536 overall, out of charlotte. B shooting, B+ skills, B defense, b+ Athleticism. We are his only offer so far and we've gotten him up to 86% interest.

SG Rooney Irvin - unranked, out of Richmond. He has an offer from Longwood and from us. We scout him as a B- shooter. He's got slightly better interest in longwood but we've got him at 85% and haven't used all our visits yet.

PG Leandro Works - #611 overall, a kid out of Charlotte. We just offered him this week, replacing the scholarship that opened up when Hipshir signed with Robert Morris. We've got him up to 78% and are his only offer so far.


Outside of these guys we have a couple other targets we're continuing to call every week. I'm also working a little harder on the Juniors this year, hoping to get more interest in some guys that I want going into next season.

[Radii]

December 8, 2008

NC A&T (3-2) at Central Connecticut State(1-5)

Similarly rated teams here, one worry though is that Central Conn State is a great shooting team, at 78, higher than anyone I've played.

Cent Conn State runs a... 5 guard offense? Nah I guess 3 guards, but their two forwards are both 6'6". Their only serious 3 point threat is a backup PG, but they do have 2 guys that can hit it if left open.

We're going to start in man to man here but we're willing to give up the 3 and go to a zone to protect Hayes if we have to.

18:30 1st - Hayes picks up foul #1 and I immediately go zone

14:00 1st - Hayes and Coleman are 1-7 combined. We trail 13-4.

10:30 1st - We trail 24-17 in what looks like is going to be a very high scoring game early. Our subs are in though and we usually slow it down here.

8:30 1st - slowdown what? After allowing a 3 and falling behind 27-17, we go on an 8-0 run with two Hernandez dunks in transition and two quick looks to Cruz cutting towards the basket.

7:00 1st - I'm pretty sure the Cent Conn State crowd is booing, I'm not 100% sure on that and i'm not sure if i've ever heard that before haha. We're on a 12-0 run now and lead 29-27.

5:00 1st - Our starters are back in, 33-33 tie game.


3:45 1st - A Central Conn. run has them up by 5, 42-37, as we call a time out.


We cut it to 45-42 and then another Cent Conn State run gives them a strong lead at the half.

53-42.

Our problem is pretty much what I expected. I can't seem to defend the 3 point line and protect my big men at the same time. They're 7-16 from 3 which is killing us. They have two guards in double figures with 14 and 13 points.

Ewing has 11 for us but no one else has more thna 6. Hayes is 2-9 from the floor, almost certainly the difference between us winning and losing at this point.

13:30 2nd - We'd cut it to 8 or 9 a couple times but they'd always drain a big 3 on us whenever we got momentum... finally a small run and the score is 64-59.

11:30 2nd - Ugh, another run on their end, 71-59 now as our backups are in.


7:00 2nd - We get our starters back in early as we're on the verge of gettig blown out. We're down 83-67, primarily due to an inability to play defense.

2:00 2nd - After falling down by as much as 18, we've scored 8 in a row and trail 92-82.


We get the lead down to 8 and have the ball with 45 seconds left to try to cut it even closer. We go cold here though and cannot complete the comeback.

Central Connecticut State 98
NC A&T 88


We like to run so I'm fine with a game in the upper 80s, but we allowed way too many 3 pointers in this one. They hit 11 of them, were even in the rebound battle(unacceptable for a small team) and our big men were not as dominant as they need to be vs a team like this.

We end up with 23 from Ewing but that's on 8-20 shooting. Hayes scores 13 on 5-15 shooting, and Alston scores 13. Shepherd and Coleman had 8 and 7.

[Radii]

December 11, 2008

NC A&T(3-3) at Campbell (2-4)

They're rated a little better than us overall, and their big edge is defense. They appear to be one of the very few teams we'll see this year in lower level play that like to run as much as we do... they average 75 points per game(we, by comparison, average 80). As a team they're shooting 40% from 3, so we are up against another team that can kill us from deep.

WOW. They have a SF, Jon Rodriguez, rated 81 OVR. Great from medium range and inside, and athletic as all hell... we're going to seriously struggle with him.

15:00 1st - Its a very hectic start. Their PG is *FAST*, 86 speed/88 quickness or something like that, he's blown by alston twice for easy layups already. Hayes picks up foul #2 and has to sit. He's fine in half court D but a couple times they pushed the ball up the court and we didn't get set in time and their athletic SF took it right at Hayes. We trail 16-11.

11:00 1st - Wow this is crazy. We trail 26-19 as our reserves come in. Their stud, SF Rodriguez, has 16 points already. We drop back into a zone to try to force Rodriguez to beat us from the outside. We can't keep him away from the basket in a man defense.

8:15 1st - There's the run our backups seem uncanny at making lately. Its 30-27 as Campbell burns a timeout.

5:45 1st - Ugh, we get 3 straight decent looks, miss them all and Rodriguez scores on their end all 3 times... he might singlehandedly outscore us. Its 37-29 as the starters are back.


Heh wow. Campbell leads 54-39 at the half. We've got 10 turnovers to their 2, and they've got Jon Rodriguez. Pretty much end of story right there. Rodriguez has an incredible 26 points at the half... We've got 11 from Ewing, 7 from Alston and 7 from Coleman. I may quick sim some of the 2nd half if we can't close this lead down. This team is much, much stronger than us.


Campbell scores on their first 6 possessions in a row in the 2nd half and I quick sim it out.

Campbell 104
NC A&T 72

This campbell team was not rated much higher than us as a team, but had one unstoppable superstar and 3 point shooters off the bench and speed at PG that created nightmares for us.

Rodriguez ends up with 35 points for them.

Ewing leads us with 22 points, Coleman scores 13.

[Radii]

December 16, 2008

Stetson (5-3) at NC A&T (3-4)

Stetson is a team that can shoot. We're matched up ok with them but they have 3 3-point shooters. It should definitely be our inside game vs their outside game. Their SF, Blair, is rated 75 OVR and is someone that can hurt us.

12:15 1st - Its been close so far, we lead 20-19 as our backups come into the game.

7:15 1st - We trail 28-25, our backups struggling to get it going today. Alston is back out on the court, no other starters yet though.

4:50 1st - We score 7 straight and lead 32-28 as the starters come back in.


Stetson hits a last second 3 but we still hold on to a 42-37 lead.

Rebounding! We have a massive 24-13 edge on the boards. Alston has 8 first half assists and is having a great game, while Hayes has 11 points, Coleman 9, and Shepherd 8. Truly inside dominance today. Ewing has 8 as well.

14:00 2nd - Not much defense being played in the 2nd half so far. We still lead by 5, 57-52. Hayes already has 10 second half points, for 21 total.

12:15 2nd - A quick 6-0 stetson run and they lead 58-57. Our reserves come in.

6:00 2nd - The game has remained incredibly close. We trail 67-65 as our starters come back out onto the floor. We're looking for Hayes to get us the win here.

4:00 2nd - Two free throws by Ewing tie the game up at 69 apiece.

3:15 2nd - We trail 72-71 now, its Stetson's ball. They've used two timeouts in the last minute which makes me happy as it rests my starters who are wearing a bit.

1:51 2nd - They take a 76-73 lead and get a steal on the press... they go up 78-73 after that steal and we're ina bit of trouble.

0:36 2nd - following a dagger by Stetson, a 3 to give them an 81-73 lead, we get a quick 2 by Hayes, a stop on defense, and a 3 by Ewing. We now trail 81-78, stetson has the ball.

0:23 2nd - We foul, they miss the front end, and we get the ball downcourt to an open Ed Jones in the lane for 2. Its now 81-80 Stetson.

We are unable to score on our next possession and that pretty much finishes us off.

Stetson 86
NC A&T 82

I'm happy with our play today, they had one small run in the final two minutes that really killed us.


Hayes was a beast today. 29 points, 8 boards on 13-18 shooting. Our other big men were all solid too. 11 from Shepherd, 9 from Coleman and 6 from Cruz. Ewing was our second leading scorer with 18 points including a solid 4-9 from 3. Alston was great with the rock, 12 assists to 2 turnovers.

[Radii]

So I'm a big North Carolina fan. I didn't specifically intend to try to play like North Carolina does, but that's really what has happened so far this season. After my opponent scores I push the ball as fast as I can. After most defensive rebounds I go for the deep outlet to either Alston or Ewing, whichever one has taken off on the break. If I don't' score in the first 5 seconds I'm either looking to get Ewing and open 3, or Coleman/Hayes a close look, and I'll take that shot as soon as I have it.

Sadly, this team isn't exactly loaded with Ty Lawson's and Tyler Hansbrough's, and I'm not Roy Williams, so I find myself falling behind early a lot against teams with equal talent.

New thing to remember whenever I have the ball on offense:

Try to get the bucket within 5 seconds, but if Alston/Ewing can't get that easy layup or an immediate pass into Hayes for an easy look, pull it out and cool off and run some offense and stop pushing.

I'm definitely running the type of offense I want to run with this team, but I'm going to try to refine it a bit and be a bit more efficient when the easy look isn't there.

[Radii]

I decide to sim my last two non-conference games to get moving with the conference season:

December 20, 2008:

NC A&T 59
Drake 54

Jones - 11 points
Coleman 10 points/7 boards



December 27, 2008:

New Orleans 82
NC A&T 67

Shepherd - 21 points/9 boards
Jones - 12 points



Two weeks off, one game on a saturday, then two games a week the rest of the season.

[Radii]

January 10th, 2009

Florida A&M (1-11, 0-1 MEAC) at NC A&T (4-6, 1-0 MEAC)


There's one big glaring problem going into this game. Austin Ewing got hurt in my first CPU simmed game for 27 days. He's still got 6 more days before he can return, so he'll miss two conference games for us.

Florida A&M has much better team unity than us, espicially given Ewing being out, and is rated 67 overall, not really as bad as a 1-11 record looks. They are one of the teams I highlighted in the season preview as a team that starts 5 seniors. All of them look ok, but no standout superstars.


13:00 1st - What starts as a very slow, methodical game on both ends picks up a bit. We trailed 11-8 at the 15 minute mark but ran off 8 fairly quick points before giving up a basket. We lead 16-13. Alston has 8 already and is picking up some of the slack left by Ewing's abscence.


12:00 1st - We still lead 16-13 as the reserves come in.

4:30 1st - Our reserves push the lead up to 6, its 28-22 as the starters return for the rest of the half.


We lead 32-30 at the half.

So what does our offense look like without Ewing on the floor?

We are 0-2 from 3 point land. One of those attempts was an accident, I was trying to just pump fake and the guy went up for the shot. The other one I honestly don't even remember.

Alston has 8 points/3 assists. Coleman 6 points/2 boards. Hayes is only shooting 2-7 and I need him to get going to extend this lead.


12:30 2nd - Our offense is playing better, Alston has been able to find Hayes and/or Coleman inside a number of times, but we also got bit by the turnover bug a little. End result is that the game remains incredibly close, its 47-47 as the backups come in.

9:30 2nd - We trail 53-51. Our backups are having a really hard time getting anything going. They have switched to a 1-3-1 defense and we seem to not be getting very many good looks against it.

6:00 2nd - We trail 61-57 as the starters get back into the game for the duration. The backups put together one good stretch to keep this from getting away, but I really need alston/Coleman/Hayes to win this for me.


3:30 2nd - We've cut the lead to 1, its 63-62. We get Hernandez in at SG since we don't need him to back up Alston at PG anymore and get a little more athletic.

2:45 2nd - They score and we fail to, giving them the ball with a 65-62 lead.


2:00 2nd - We cut it to 1 after a steal, and have a chance to take the lead after a missed basket, but Alston forces the drive and cannot hit a tough shot in the lane. A&M's ball, leading 65-64.


1:45 2nd - Another miss by A&M and we again force it up with Alston, but this time he puts it in the basket! 66-65 Aggies.


UGGGGGGGGh. We get a stop but turn the ball over feeding it into the paint. With about 45 seconds left A&M gets a bucket to take a 1 point lead. We get a decent look inside to Coleman but his bank shot rolls off the rim. We start fouling with 25 seconds left to put them on the line.


We get what we wanted... they only make the front end. We rebound after they miss the 2nd and can try to tie the game. We get what seemed like a good pass inside to Hayes. I go up for a shot as soon as Hayes catches the ball and his defender swats at it and doesn't even let him start into his shooting motion. It's a steal and they make their FTs this time.

Florida A&M 73
NC A&T 66


We fought hard but without Ewing in the lineup we are *very* one dimensional.

Alston scored 15 and did a good job on the break by himself. He also had 7 assists.

Hayes had a double-double, 13 points/10 boards. 12 for Coleman, 10 for Shepherd. All solid games and if we had the threat that Ewing can provide we surely win this.

[Radii]

I go ahead and sim our last game without Ewing:

Coppin State 73
NC A&T 59

10 from Jones, 9 from Coleman, 9 from Hernandez, 7 from Alston and Hayes each. Bleh!

[Radii]

January 17th, 2009

NC A&T (4-8, 1-2 MEAC) at Norfolk State (2-13, 1-2 MEAC)

One of the lower rated teams, this is a team with some senior leadership but not a whole lot of talent.


13:30 1st - We lead 14-12, feels like we should be ahead more but you know about our lack of defense at times.

11:15 1st - We lead 15-12 as our backups come in. We'd be up more if Hayes could make a damn free throw.

5:45 1st - Norfolk State takes a time out as we go up by 5 and are exerting some dominance inside with Cruz and Shepherd.

4:15 1st - 26-22 NC A&T as all our starters are back out now.


We finish the half very strong and extend our lead to 10 points, 40-30.

Coleman, Ewing and Cruz all score 9 in the first half. Norfolk State's PF is a very poor defender so I'm trying to focus a bit more on Coleman specifically when I can.

Both teams ended up in the double bonus by the end of the half, but we have the edge as far as foul problems as almost all their fouls were big men as we drove inside or got them out of position with Coleman/Hayes. They have 5 guys with 2 fouls each, I believe all fowards and centers.

In fact we made it to the line an incredible 22 times in the first half. We missed 9, which I alluded to earlier. Hayes is 2-6 from the line so far.

15:30 2nd - We're hanging on to a 10 point lead and have gotten foul #3 on two fo their guys. Hayes picked up his 3rd as well.

15:15 2nd - Heh, I shouldn't have mentioned it. HAyes picks up foul #4. The annoying thing is that 2 of them have been shitty reaching in fouls nowhere near the basket. Cruz is in for awhile.

10:00 2nd - We get our backups in, leading 59-50. ewing got hot and is up to 23 points now and I tried to ride that streak for as long as possible. I called a timeout and got the starters out of there as soon as he missed a couple shots.

4:15 2nd - We're looking really good here, up 70-57 as our starters come back.

We get a couple stops and its enough for us to feel ok just burning clock.

NC A&T 73
Norfolk State 61


That's 3 games in a row where the winner scored 73.

Ewing was great in his return from injury. 23 points and 5 assists.

Coleman put up a double double, 10 points and 13 boards, while Cruz had 13 points and 9 boards.

A good win to get us back to .500 in conference play. The goal this year obviously is to finish better than last season, and really we're looking for better than .500 in conference.

[hoopsguy]

How is your job security looking - is this going to be a concern if you do not win 50% of your conference games?

[Radii]

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

How is your job security looking - is this going to be a concern if you do not win 50% of your conference games?

It looks to be in the 25-35% range, which is higher than it was when I was 3-10 and struggling like hell early last year, and about the same as it was at the end of last season. Hopefully a winning record in conference play would make it go up?

Also, I actually don't know how likely that means I am to get fired. Does the bar have to empty completely or does it remaining low mean there is a random chance at the end of the year?

[Radii]

January 19th, 2009

NC A&T (5-8, 2-2 MEAC) at Delaware State (6-12, 3-1 MEAC)

We've got a lot of games like this one ahead. We're rated the same, few discernable differences, but we are on the road. They're only averaging 50 points a game and shooting 38% from the floor so if we can force an up tempo game effectively I like our chances.

14:45 1st - Wow, I don't know if I've ever struggled this much to score... we trail 8-2 heh. So much for pushing the tempo early.

11:15 1st - We get our second field goal of the game. Seriously. Its 12-6, and 2 of our points came at the line. Our backups come in the game after a Delaware St timeout.


7:30 1st - This is ridiculous. We're missingopen layups, cuts to the basket where i have a guy with 4 inches of height on his man just donking the ball into the rim, etc. Its 23-8... We're shooting 2/18 from the floor, we've only taken 2 3-pointers, these are all shots I don't really hate that much at worst, and 100% expect ot make at best.

6:45 1st - We get our 10th point. Seriously, Shepherd got a good look cutting to the basket and missed. Wilson got the rebound, put it up and missed. Finally Cruz auto-tips it in... this is unbelievable.

4:30 1st - We hit an open 3 pointer and later get a 3 point play opportunity. We miss the free throw and they're scoring omre now too so it doesn't help any... we're down 30-15 as our starters try to end the half on a positive note.

2:30 1st - We're able to manage a 6-0 run to give us a little bit of life. Its 30-21.

We're able to shave 1 more point off the lead and the first half doesn't look that bad by the time its done. Delaware State leads 36-28. We're up to shooting 31% as a team.

Alston has 8, Coleman 6, and Hayes 5. Coleman and Hayes are combined 5-14 from the floor.

12:30 2nd - Trading baskets, never closer than 6 or further behind than 10... its 48-40 as we bring our reserves in.

7:00 2nd - Same old story, we trail 55-47 as the starters get back out on the floor. Its either all offense or all defense, we can't seem to get stops and score.

5:50 2nd - Finally some luck/defense. We score to make it 55-49. Ewing misses an open 3 that would have cut the lead to 3 after a stop. We commit a foul on the other end but they miss both free throws. Ewing is able to get to the line on our end where he makes 1, misses the other, Hayes gets a rebound and a putback, and the lead is down to 3, 55-52.

3:15 2nd After 4 straight by delaware state, we're now cycling between a 5 and 7 point lead... right now its 61-56 and its their ball after a timeout.

1:00 2nd - Same thing happening here... now its 66-60 and their ball, we just need one run.

DAMMIT. they make 1 FT, but a turnover on our end all but ends the game.


Winning on the road, especially when down late, is damn hard.

Delaware State 73
NC A&T 63

We end up getting 15 from Alston, 15 from Hayes and 10 from Coleman. 9 boards for Coleman and 7 from Hayes help too. We just got so far behind early and shot so horrendously early on that we were clawing the entire way.

[Radii]

January 24, 2009

Howard (8-11, 2-3 MEAC) at NC A&T (5-9, 2-3 MEAC)

Howard was the worst team in the league last year, they look quite improved. They're a fairly small team, with a talented SF in Eugene Myatt, he's scoring 19.5 ppg this year so far, and he's definitely the guy we have to worry about.

He's not much of a 3 point shooter though so we're going to start out in a zone to try to keep him from driving on us.


11:30 1st - Ugh, its a very fast paced game with little defense, we hang tight til its 18-17 Howard then they go on a tear and score 9 straight. our backups come in facing a 9 point deficit. Myatt scored the first 7 points for Howard, then as we went out of our way to shut him down, others have been left open and aren't missing much.

6:15 1st - We cut the lead down to 5, 32-27, then they explode for 9 straight... 41-27 as some of our starters are ready to come back.

haha, defense? no, no defense. This is easily the highest scoring half I've ever played.

Howard 59, NC A&T 50.

And here's the problem:

Howard: 70% FG shooting

70%!! Myatt has 17 points, 3 assists, 2 steals and a block in the first half.

Ewing, Coleman and Alston are all in double figures, with Hayes and Shepherd at 8 points each. We're shooting 57% ourselves, just a fast paced half with very little defense.


15:00 2nd - Howard is forced to call a timeout after an Alston 3 point play makes the score 65-62. We've been rotating some players around due to fatigue(Ewing) and foul trouble(Hayes) and will probably have an odd rotation going most of the half.

10:00 2nd - We've been hanging around with a 3 point deficit for awhile now, finally a break as a Hayes bucket cuts the lead to 1, we get a rebound on defense and a kickout on our next possession gives Ewing an open 3 which he drains! We lead 73-71.

7:50 2nd - We lead 75-74, I put all my backups in and will bring all 5 starters back out for the final 5 or 6 minutes or so...

6:15 2nd - Ugh, That didn't work well. It's 80-75 Howard as Alston and Coleman come back in. The rest of the starters need another minute.

5:00 2nd - We trail 85-81 as our starters come back in.

1:30 2nd - DAMMIT. Trailling 88-85, we play great defense and force a bad shot... but they get the rebound and work it around for a 3 pointer which goes in. REBOUND PEOPLE. 91-85.

We miss another shot and they go up 8 and we completely blow it in the clutch once again.

Howard 93
NC A&T 90

We obviously have two huge flow issues here. We keep falling behind early, and we keep losing close games late.

ewing kept us in it today, he scored 26 and was huge for us. Alston scored 15, Coleman 13(with 10 boards) and Hayes had 12. Just a very disappointing home loss.

[Radii]

I started my next game, a home game vs Bethune-Cookman, and was winning 31-20 with about 4 minutes left in the first half. i got interrupted and just simulated to the end and kept the result, a 64-57 win. I was running my offense pretty well in this game and hopefully that's something I'll continue doing.


Alston scored 13, Coleman 12, Ewing 9, and Hayes 7 in this game. 14 boards for Coleman and 11 from Hayes. Onwards and hopefully upwards.

[Radii]

January 31, 2009

Morgan State (4-12, 2-3 MEAC) at NC A&T(6-10, 3-4 MEAC)

Another evenly matched game on paper, and we must win these games, especially at home. Morgan State has one player that we have to try to stop. SG Reggie Holmes is a great 3 point shooter and scorer, averaging 15.5 points a game for a team only averaging 60 total.


13:15 1st - We lead 13-9 as I am settling in a bit more than in recent games and running through an offense. Also they're missing their shots but seemingly have 17 offensive rebounds by now to extend some possessions FOREVER(I think they have 5 offensive rebounds, but it seems like 17). Anyway, some backups coming in.

8:45 1st - This game is excruciating. Its 16-16 and I think that some of my defenders are literally taking naps out on the court when Morgan State has the ball. They're holding it til the final 5 seconds of the shot clock almost every possession. They're also running a 2-3 zone which, with no shooters at all on the court, is making our offense very difficult.

5:45 2nd - We lead 18-16 as our starters get back out onto the floor for the rest of the half. That's right, our backups only managed 5 points in 8 minutes... and we're winning.


3:45 2nd - We've scored 4 more and lead 22-16. Morgan State hasn't scored at all for 5 minutes now. Easily the best defensive stretch I've had all season.

2:48 2nd - Morgan State scores, and its now 24-18. That was a damn long drought on their end.


We lead at the half 26-21. We're on pace to barely score 50. This must be what it feels like to be in the Big 10.

Ewing has 8, 2 3 pointers. Alston has 6, all 6 of them fast break points after rebounds. No one else has more than 3. Coleman has 6 boards. The big first half success, and big second half concern, is that their scoring star, Holmes, is 0-7 from 3 and 2-11 from the field overall. If we can hold him down in the second half he wins. If he starts making his shots we're in trouble.

Also, 17 offensive rebounds was only a minor exaggeration. They have 9 at the half.

17:15 2nd - We've already scored 7 points in the second half! But even better news than that... Holmes is 0-4 in the first 3 minutes and Morgan State has scored 0. We lead 33-21.

15:25 2nd - Morgan State burns its first 2nd half timeout. We've built up a 40-25 lead and things are looking pretty good.


9:15 2nd - It takes forever for the next clock stoppage, and since everything is going our way I'm happy to let my starters get a bit tired out there. We lead 53-36 as our subs come out for the first time in the half.


We only score 6 more points but that's because we pretty much drained the clock the rest of the way. The margin was only 8 but again we were killing clock for the final 9 minutes and they only cut it under 10 in the final 30 seconds.

NC A&T 59
Morgan State 51

Ewing with a monster day, espicially given the lower score. He had 20 points including 4-8 from 3. Alston put in 12, Hayes 8, and Coleman 6. Coleman also pulled down 12 boards.

A solid win and once again we are .500 in conference play.

[Radii]

February 2, 2009

SC State (11-9, 4-3 MEAC) at NC A&T (7-10, 4-4 MEAC)

Another game where we appear evenly matched and need to grab the win at home. One difference between this and the last couple games is that SC State looks to be a pretty good shooting team.

They've got two big threats. SG Carrio Bennett is a great outside shooter and averaging 13.3 points per game. SF Everett Spencer is a great athlete, ball handler and defender, averaging a bit less at 10.8 ppg, but we're more worried about him going in. They're small and their PF and C have little ability.

9:30 1st - We've gotten out to a really great start, slowing things down just a little on offense seems to have really gotten me into a groove. We're up 21-10 and all our backups are in the game.

2:45 1st - A pretty slow run for our backups and we lead 25-17 as our starters get out for one last run before the half.


We finish strong and lead 30-19 at the break. And for once I said before the game that we have a huge size edge inside and we actually use it. Hayes has 12 points/5 boards at the half and is easily our leading scorer. No one else has more than 5.

15:00 2nd - We get off to a great start to the 2nd half, leading 42-23 as SC State burns a timeout.

12:00 2nd - Its 50-25 as our 2nd string comes in. They can't make a shot at all it seems.


5:00 2nd - 61-31!


NC A&T 76
SC State 48

3 big home wins in a row for us now.

Hayes ended up with 18 points/10 boards. Ewing scored 15(and had 6 assists), and Alston scored 13. We got 8 points/7 boards out of SF Jones, and 7 points/8 boards out of Coleman. Just a great game from everyone really.

Their "star" SF Spencer only took 2 shots, and I don't really understand why, he seems so much more talented than anyone else that they have. he didn't score. Their other threat, SG Bennett, scored 17 but 6 of those were in the final 2 minutes, and we held him to 7-20 from the field/3-13 from 3. We'll take that out of the opponent's best player any game.

[Radii]

Much like last year there is a giant bunch up from about 3rd to 10th in the conference where a ton of teams have 3, 4, or 5 conference losses and all matchup pretty evenly.

Last year we were in the bottom two or three of that group all year. This win puts us a little closer to the top than we ever were last year

(conference record only)

1. Hampton 8-0
2. Winston Salem State 6-4
3. Howard 6-4
4. NC A&T 5-4
5. SC STate 5-4
6. Delaware State 5-5
7. Morgan State 4-5
8. Bethune-Cookman 4-6
9. Coppin State 4-6
10. MD-Eastern Shore 4-6
11. Florida A&M 3-7
12. Norfolk State 3-7


Problem #1 for us: Our next two games are road games vs the two top teams in the conference, Hampton and Winston Salem State.

Problem #2 for us: 7 of our final 9 games are on the road, including our final 5 in a row.

If we can snag some road wins though, there is some potential here. We have an outside shot at a .500 overall record, and a totally reasonable shot at a record greater than .500 in conference play.

[Radii]

February 7, 2009

NC A&T (8-10, 5-4 MEAC) at Hampton (15-4, 8-0 MEAC)

Hampton is rated a little higher than us in most areas, but I think it is worse than it looks. Their only weakness might be at SF and that's not really a place where I shine. Their guards are way faster than ours and they have a very talented power forward.


12:15 1st - We're trailing 20-19, this is going to be interesting. I'm completely unable to stop them, but our offense is working really well. I'm trying to work Ed Jones a bit, he is much more athletic than his defender. But I'm really worried that i can't keep up with them for long. Speaking of keeping up with them... my backups just came in.

5:00 1st - They lead 27-24. A perfectly acceptable result as our backups only gave up 2 more points than they scored over 7 minutes. Starters are back out for the duration.

3:00 1st - Alston picks up foul #3 and sits.


GREAT half. 36-36 tie game. We had 3 shots in the final 30 seconds to go into the locker room with the lead and couldn't finish, but we'll take the tie.


So one disturbing piece of info is that we've held Hampton to 39% shooting, are shooting 53% ourselves and are still tied. Their SG, Simpson, is kILLING us. He's scored half of their points... 18, on 7-11 shooting(3-4 from 3). Everyone else on their team is ice cold.

We've got 9 points from Jones, 8 from Hayes and Ewing. Jones has gotten by his man a couple times and hit a couple midrange jumpers, I'm very happy with his play obviously.


16:00 2nd - Its tied at 42 as I start rotating some players around. I started Hernandez at PG to keep Alston from picking up foul 4 too fast and now I have a rotation where either Alston or Ewing are always out there so i have some speed.


14:30 2nd - Its alston and 4 backups as we give up 5 straight points after a couple bad turnovers... 48-43 hampton.


11:10 2nd - We're really struggling to keep this close at all. It's 58-50 Hampton.


10:30 2nd - Alston picks up foul #4. Ugh.

8:15 2nd - dammit. I had a chance to cut the lead to 4 and blew it, I thought Ewing was by his man on a drive but his shot is blocked. Then Hampton gets incredibly lucky with a couple bounces that could have been turnovers for us but end up in the hands of one of their guys for a basket instead. We trail 64-54. I bring in 4 backups and Ed Jones, its just how the rotation is set right now. So I've got good inside play but no guard play. I'm hoping I can getAlston and Ewing out there for the last 5minutes.


4:30 2nd- We trail 73-62 as our starters come back out for the duration. It seems a long shot, we are simply not as talented as these guys.

4:15 2nd - It definitely helps that right out of the timeout we get Ewing an open 3 that he drains. 73-65.

2:05 2nd - It's taken a lot more work than that first 3 pointer, but we're now on a 7-0 run. It's 73-69, Hampton ball.

We trade 2 for 1 the wrong way... they get a FG, we go 1 for 2 from the line, and we blow our next possession and cannot get any closer. Some fouls/free throws at the end push the margin up slightly.

Hampton 79
NC A&T 71

This was a tough road game, and I'm really happy that we were able to stay in it most of the way, but this team is now 9-0 in conference play, so we have nothing to be ashamed of here.


Ewing scores 15, Hayes 12 points/11 boards, and Jones puts up 12. Alston's 4 fouls hurt us quite a bit, he was on the court about 7 minutes less than most of our starters.

[Radii]

February 9th, 2009

NC A&T (8-11, 5-5 MEAC) at Winston-Salem State (11-9, 6-4 MEAC)


Trying a bit more scouting pre-game to spice things up a bit here and make sure i'm reviewing the other team enough pre-game.

Scouting

PG Brian Fisher - 70 OVR - 10.6 ppg, a good 3 point shooter, is as fast as Alston. Above average defender.

SG Darius Floyd - 68 OVR - Even better from 3 than Fisher. Even faster than Fisher. A slightly worse defender, seems a bigger offensive threat for sure. Averaging 12 ppg. Shooting 41% from 3 on the year.

SF Spanky Schmidt - 70 OVR - huh-huh, spanky. Good speed for a bigger guy, decent hands for a bigger guy, not an outside shooting threat but athletic. 8ppg. Freshman - 3 star recruit - no big deal now but will haunt the league 3 years down the road.

PF Clayton Tsagarakis - Great inside, only 6'5" so really a SF. Other than his close range shot he doesn't really worry us much. 6.9 ppg.

C Jamal Durham - weak link. 6'6", 62 OVR, poor defense, poor post defense, not a scorer, not fast or a good ball handler. He is averaging 8.9 ppg anyway, presumably from being the only inside threat.

Its our inside game vs their outside game.

15:45 1st - They open in a 2-3 zone and we get it inside to Hayes on our first possession. Then we stop scoring entirely... its a slow game so far, we trail 5-2. They're letting ewing take open 3's so far, and he's missing them. Hayes is having more trouble than expected dropping the ball in teh basket over a guy 7 inches shoter than him :P

12:45 1st - After a stupid 3 point play, we trail 15-8, some backups start to come in. Ewing is ice cold but Hayes now has 6 points and is starting to score a bit more.

8:50 1st - We had the lead down to 3, but trail 25-19 now as all our backups are finally in the game.. Alston and Coleman hadn't sat at all yet and are a bit gassed. Cruz and Shepherd are fine inside if my guards can keep them from going crazy.

6:55 1st - Our defense is holding up quite well... and their top shooters are resting too. We've got the lead back down to 3, 25-22. Ewing and Hayes are going to come back in the next time there is a stoppage in play.

6:15 1st - Ewing drains a 3 his first play back in and we're tied up at 25 each.

5:30 1st - Fisher, their PG, sinks a 3 over Hernandez to make it 28-25. Ewing makes his 2nd straight 3 on our next possession and its 28-28!


5:15 1st - Our starters are all back out there

HALFTIME: Winston-Salem State 40, NC A&T 37

Every time we got the lead down to 1 or 2 they would hit a 3 pointer. They hit lots of 3 pointers.

Their two big guns at the guard spots are 5-9 from 3, and as a team they're 8-15. That's really hurting us and we're playing their guards tight with Ewing and Alston so we can't really improve upon that, just need them to go cold.

On our end, it turns out our biggest weapon isn't our big men, its Ewing and Alston destroying their crappy full court press. Ewing has 16 points on 6-10 shooting. Hayes does have 6 points/5 boards and Cruz has 6 points as well. We continue going inside in the half court set but their press is just not that good and I keep getting Ewing in one on one situations.

16:30 2nd - Well, we cut the lead to one and they failed to score on 4 straight possessions. Unfortunatley, so did we... no lead for us. We now trail 44-41.


15:00 2nd - FINALLY. 45-44 NC A&T! Defense is playing great, and they're finally missing their 3's(ok, more likley they're just going cold than great defense...). Nice two hand jam by Hayes to give us the lead with authority.

14:00 2nd - 47-44 as we bring in our backups. Perhaps I shouldn't bring my guys off the court in the midst of a 5-0 run like this but they're pretty tired still after playing more minutes than usual in the 1st half.

9:45 2nd - We trail 54-53 but feel a bit out of control. Our backups had worked it up to a 51-44 lead and then WS State came roaring back and are now on a 10-2 run themselves. I bring Alston back in to settle things down.

6:50 2nd - We trail 57-55 and bring all our starters back in, but Alston sits for a minute or two to rest back up for the stretch run.

5:57 2nd - Alston is back in now, still 57-55.

5:39 2nd - Ewing misses a wide open 3 after his man fell down on a screen. Coleman gets the offensive board and is fouled oging back up. Both free throws are good and its 57-57.

3:30 2nd - We miss 4 shots that could have broken the tie over 3 possessions. They finally go 1 for 2 from the FT line to break the tie after we foul them on a fast break... 58-57 WS State.

2:59 2nd - Their crowd is really into it and i need a play to calm things down... I get it as Hayes makes a nice little interior pass to Coleman who sinks a 5 footer. 59-58 A&T leads.

2:28 2nd - Floyd drains a huge 3 for them with Ewing a step behind after a cut through the lane... 61-59 WS State. I call a timeout to calm the crowd and give our guys a short break. Oh yeah, and to get them out of their press.

1:59 2nd - We miss a 3 and they get a basket to go up 63-59. We get an outstanding athletic play by Jones who makes a running shot about 10 feet out while getting fouled. He hits the FT and we trail 63-62.

1:05 2nd - They use the entire shot clock before taking a bad shot... they miss and we rebound. We get the ball inside to Coleman who misses a little shot a few feet from the basket... their ball.

0:45 2nd - We allow their PG to get into the lane and he makes a layup. Ewing draws a foul on our end but can only make 1 of 2 free throws. We trail 65-63 with 45 seconds left.

0:25 2nd - I intended to intentionally foul the second a foward touched the ball. I jumped the gun a bit and fouled their sharpshooting SG, Floyd. Still, we get lucky and he misses the front end of a 1 and 1! We have the ball, down 2, shot clock off.

0:05 2nd - I get the shot I want, running a play to get Coleman a good shot, but he misses

We foul them immediately, they make 1 of 2, and Ewing misses a 3 at the buzzer that could have tied it.

Another close loss, but again we played pretty well on the road. Hopefully playing the best teams in the conference so well is a good indicator that we can beat the lower ranked teams on the road to finish our season.

Winston-Salem State 66
NC A&T 63


Their two guards did indeed lead them. Floyd with 19, Fisher with 15 for them, 7-18 from 3 between the 2. As a team they went 12-29 from 3.

On our end:

Alston - 4 points
Ewing - 21 points, only 2-10 from 3, most of them wide open in the flow of our offense(a couple ill-advised ones, still open but no rebounders available)
Jones - 5 points/5 boards
Coleman - 9 points/14 boards
Hayes - 10 points/9 boards

Cruz and Wilson both had 7 off the bench.

This is a tough loss, a win here would have put us in outstanding shape to finish .500 overall down the stretch, after this loss that is nearly impossible and we need to play wellon the road in some upcoming games to get back over .500 in conference play.

[Radii]

February 14, 2009

Norfolk State (4-19, 3-9 MEAC) at NC A&T(8-12, 5-6 MEAC)

This is the first team that we're playing for a second time this year. We beat Norfolk State solidly 73-61 at their place earlier in the year, getting huge games from Ewing, Coleman and Cruz. Sounds like a good recipe to repeat at home.


14:00 1st - we ran out to a 12-4 lead but let them right back in it, mainly through stupid turnovers. We lead 17-14 as our backups come in.

11:30 1st - so yeah, we're playing like complete shit. 20-17 Norfolk State.

10:45 1st - Trailing 24-17, we bring all our starters back out, rested or no.

6:10 1st - We're on an 8-0 run with our starters but our starters have been out there way too long now. Its 25-24 NC A&T, our backups have instructions not to screw up like last time.

2:30 1st - All our starters are back. We lead 36-34, we just had a 34-27 lead but blew it a bit...


We lead 40-37 at the half. i'm happy to be ahead but we really are much better than these guys and should be winning by more. We've allowed them to shoot 53% while we're only managing 37%, so yeah, nice to be ahead! We drew 14 fouls in the ahlf and went to the line 20 times and hit a crazy 16-20 from the line.

We have 8 from Jones, 6 from Hayes and Ewing.

12:30 2nd - We slowly push the lead back up to 7 and then in the last minute run off 6 straight and are starting to put this one away. It's 59-46, our backups are in again.

6:30 2nd - A great stretch by our 2nd string... we lead 69-55 as our starters comein to finish things.

I may have piled on a little at the end... Norfolk State will be out to get me next year for sure. Oops

NC A&T 94
Norfolk State 61

Alston - 10 points, 10 assists - double double!
Ewing - 16 points, 5 rebounds - 3-8 from 3
Jones - 16 points, 5 rebounds
Coleman - 8 points, 14 rebounds
Hayes - 17 points, 12 rebounds

Shepherd had 9 off the bench.

back up to .500 in conference play with 6 games to go. The next one is a huge must win at home, because the final 5 are all on the road.

[Radii]

I'm getting close enough to the end of the season that I'm getting the urge to knock out the rest of these games and see how I look going into next year.

February 16, 2009

Delaware State (9-18, 6-6 MEAC) at NC A&T (9-12, 6-6 MEAC)

I remember my first game against these guys. They score in the 50s and I wanted to try to outscore them. It took me 13 minutes to score my first 10 points. Ewing went 0-14 on the game. And yet we only lost 73-63 in the end. I expect Ewing to make a jump shot this game, and that should be enough to get us the win at home :P


16:15 1st - So much for this being any different than the last game. We just scored our first points. We trail 5-2. We're 1-5 from the field.

15:50 1st - oh yeah, its raining points now! We score again, less than 30 seconds after our first bucket 5-4 Delaware State.

14:00 1st - Delaware State calls a timeout as we're on a 9-0 run and lead 9-5.

12:25 1st - We now lead 11-7 as our backups come in.

7:30 1st - All our starters come back... its tied at 17.

3:50 1st - We get out to the biggest lead either team has had today. It's 29-21.

We end up going into the locker room up 33-26. We played a good half but we missed a few chances towards the end of the half to stretch the lead out to 12+ and couldn't.

Alston has 8, Ewing 7 and Hayes 7 at the half. Coleman is turning into a true monster on the boards, he has 10 rebounds and its only halftime.

15:00 2nd - We went up by 9, 41-32, but Delaware State is on a 9-0 run and has tied the game up as our backups come in.

10:45 2nd - WOW, we are cold. 50-41 Delaware State. This is now an 18-0 run for them.

10:30 2nd - Jones gets to the FT line and hits 2, making it 50-43 and ending our long scoreless streak. Still its been a long time since we've hit a FG.

8;15 2nd - Starters back out on the floor. 60-45 Delaware state lead. 29-4 run. I'm pretty pissed.

7:30 2nd - Delaware State gets THREE offensive rebounds in one possession before scoring. They press and force a turnover in the backcourt. Frustration setting in as Alston hammers the guy that stole the ball from him(ok he tried to just steal it back repeatedly til a foul was called, but in my mind he levelled the guy )

7:10 2nd - We force them to miss and Ewing gets a 3 point play out on the break. After the FT we're down 62-48.

6:30 2nd - BOOM. After a steal Alston gets a layup. After a missed shot we run a quick play that sets up Ewing for an open 3 which he hits. Its 62-53. We're down 9.

6:10 2nd - Erm. Their PF hits a 3. 65-53, yeah...

1:25 2nd - It's been a 10ish point lead the rest of the way so far, but we just got two fairly quick buckets in a row to make the score 72-66, so perhaps we have a shot yet.

And we give up a shot and miss on our end, no way this happens.

Delaware State 78
NC A&T 72

Just a horrible, horrible run in the 2nd half where they went on a ridiculous 29-4 run. VERY frustrating home loss against a team that I feel I'm better than.

This makes us 6-7 in conference play with 5 straight road games to end the year. This was a critical game and we couldn't win it.


Alston - 14 points/5 assists
Ewing - 25 points
Jones - 9 points
Coleman - 5 points/15 rebounds
Hayes - 11 points/9 boards.

I'm really loving Coleman's rebounding. He's putting up a lot of double digit rebound games lately.

[Radii]

Ugh, I screwed up one of my coaching goals, to not have an unhappy player all season. I'd used up some of my pep talks trying to make sure I didn't get a warning about an unhappy player, as I could definitely use the extra coaching skill early on, but after my last game I got a warning about my 3rd string center. Whoops.

[Radii]

February 21, 2009

NC A&T(9-13, 6-7 MEAC) at Howard(15-12, 9-4 MEAC)

Our home game vs Howard is one of our big regrets, a 94-90 loss at home. They the likely conference player of the year in SF Eugene Myatt, only rated 66 OVR but an outstanding athlete and outstanding scorer. Myatt is averaging 20.1 ppg this year and scored 17 in the first half against us last time.

Slowing them down on defense is the key, we allowed them to shoot 70% in the first half last time through.

15:00 1st - We get out to an early 8-2 lead in the first 3 minutes and continue to lead, 12-6 now. Hayes has 8. Myatt has 4 for them.

12:00 1st - Tied at 12 now, Myatt also has 8. And all our backups are now in the game.

10:15 1st - Down 18-12, they're on a 10-0 run, ugh.

9:35 1st - We finally score again and now trail 21-14.

8:15 1st - We now trail 25-14 and burn another time out. They are getting easy layups every play and we cannot make a damn thing. These runs we're allowing are getting frustrating.

7:1st 1st - Our starters come back in. Still down 25-14.

6:00 1st - Ewing drains a 3 and we've finally scored again... 29-17 though.

Damn. After leading 12-6, we let them go on a 31-9 run. This is almost as bad as the bullshit we pulled in the Delaware State game. We trail 37-22 at the half, shooting 35% while they shoot 55%, and we only got to the line 6 times, and missed 3 of those 6...

Hayes has 11, Ewing 5, and that's pretty much all our points. Myatt has 10 for them.

16:30 2nd - We trail 41-29 as some subs start to rotate in(starters played a lot in the 1st half)

14:30 2nd - 44-31 as all our backups are in. This one is feeling pretty hopeless.

10:15 2nd - 55-42 as our starters are back out there. We'd fallen behind by 17 again and got Hayes on the court at the 13 minute mark where he scored 6 straight points for us.

8:30 2nd - Down 59-46, Coleman now has 4 fouls and Howard is in the bonus, shooting FT's on every foul.

6:45 2nd - Ewing's 3rd 3 pointer of the night makes it 61-51, the closest we've been all half. I pull my starters for one final breather before the stretch run. They'll be on the floor again at the 5 minute mark at the latest.

4:45 2nd - 3 straight stops by the backups and we did manage one score. It's 61-53 Howard as our starters come back into the game. We have the ball.

4:30 2nd - Hayes puts back his own miss and we trail 61-55.

2:30 2nd - After giving up a 3 to fall back down by 9, we trade 2 pointers a couple times, and finally at the 2:30 mark get a stop and a bucket. Its 66-61, we trail by 5 now.

2:03 2nd - Myatt drains an open 18 footer on their end. Ewing drains an open 3 pointer on our end. 68-64.

0:50 2nd - We get a turnover and have a chance to cut the lead to 2. Instead a bad pass inside to Hayes results in a fast break. A quick shot by Ewing is missed leading to another quick 2 for them. Luckily we're able to follow it up with an equally quick 4-0 run on our part. We now trail 72-68 with 45 seconds left.

We begin to foul. They go 4-6 from the line over the next 3 trips, and we score 2 point buckets or free throws on all three possessions. With 17 seconds left we trail 76-74.

We foul one last time, and once again they only make 1 of 2 free throws. 15 seconds left, 77-74 Howard.

We run a play that runs Ewing off a screen for a 3 pointer. He's got a step on his man but not wide open. But he comes up CLUTCH and drains the 3 pointer!!! With 4 seconds left Howard gets the ball to half court, calls a time out and ends up with a 30 foot 3 pointer as time expires. It rolls all the way around the rim but spins out.

OVERTIME!!!!

Their PG has 4 fouls and their center has fouled out. Perhaps we have a small edge as a result in the OT. On our end Coleman has 4 fouls and a ton of guys have 1 or 2.


Unfortunately our guys are exhausted. I don't know if this is a good idea or not but I bring in my backups and attempt to make it a 2 minute game after a bit of a rest.

4:30 OT - Before the backups come in(I had the starters in for the jump ball and first possessioin) Coleman gets an offensive board and gets fouled, making both free throws. 79-77 NC A&T.

4:10 OT - Myatt misses an open jumper early in the shot clock for them. We rebound.

3:40 OT - We hold the ball for awhile and call for Cruz and Shepherd to post up. We find Cruz for a little lay in! 81-77.

3:00 OT - They burn the entire shot clock and end up taking a bad 3.

We burn the shot clock but cannot score. howard takes a fairly quick shot and misses again.

2:10 OT - We lead 81-77, use our last time out, and get the starters back into the game to finish this off.

1:45 OT - Ewing misses a 3, Hayes comes up with the rebound and is fouled on the putback. Hayes is injured on the putback and subbed out. Coleman goes to the line instead. Coleman makes one, misses the 2nd but Shepherd gets the board!!!

1:00 OT - Jones misses a jumper and they come down and score pretty quickly. We lead 82-79 with the ball.

0:25 OT - Shepherd misses a shot inside, they rebound.

0:11 OT - They miss a 2 point jumper, Shepherd rebounds and is fouled. He makes 1 of 2 and we lead 83-79.


Howard makes a 3 with 0.1 left, but it doesn't matter.

NC A&T 83
Howard 82

1 OT


WOW. On the road, falling behind by as many as 17, we come back, hit clutch shots repeatedly in the final minute including a 3 by Ewing with a man close by to tie it with 4 seconds left. Just not something we're used to seeing at all, espicially on the road.

Hayes had the best game of his career, and other than 1 rebound it was all in regulation:

Alston - 4 points/5 assists
Ewing - 21 points (5/13 from 3)
Jones - 0 points/4 boards (0/7, missed a lot of 15-18 foot jumpers)
Coleman - 13 points/11 rebounds
Hayes - 31 points/8 boards

Just a monster game from Hayes. He really kept us in it when we looked like we were about to get blown out with about 12 minutes left in regulation.


For their end, SG Timothy had 22 points and SF Myatt had 20. They killed us in the first game too.

[Radii]

With 4 games remaining we're now 7-7 in conference play. This is currently good for a tie for 4th/5th with Delaware State/ Howard has a 2 game lead on us for 3rd so that seems unlikely, but I really want to finish strong and earn the 4 seed in the conference tournament.

Our final 4 games are all against teams in the 5-8 or 6-8 range, which happens to be pretty much everyone behind us. Everyone in the league has at least 5 conference wins. In theory we could still finish as one of the worst2 or 3 teams if we were to lose out.

[Radii]

February 23, 2009

NC A&T(10-13, 7-7 MEAC) at Bethune-Cookman(10-13, 6-8 MEAC)

We were beating these guys easily at home but had to sim the second half the first time we played. We endedup winning 64-57, I was winning by 11 in the 1st half when simming it out though. It looks like they have 3 or 4 guys that do their scoring but none seem espicially deadly.

Hayes is day to day with an ankle injury, we're starting him and we'll see if he suffers any. Its a short term injury, he'll be fully healthy by our next game.

14:15 1st - Heh, quick start. We lead 22-11. They have 3 3-pointers. We have 6 dunks and 22 points in the paint. We're destroying them on the break after defensive rebounds.

10:00 1st - We lead 36-20 as our backups come in. All our points are in the paint or at the FT line. We just got the "10 dunks in one game" credit reward, so we have as many points on dunks as they do in total. I'm planning on slowing things down with the reserves.

4:30 1st - We lead 44-27 as the starters come back on to finish things off.


One of our best halves ever. We lead 58-34 at the half, shooting 63% to their 33%.

They seem willing to shoot 3's every possession despite not having good 3 point shooters. They are 4-20 from 3 and 14-42 overall.

We have gotten to the line 17 times which is what happens when you're scoring from 5 feet away every time down, a lot of fouls for them. Hayes has 12, Coleman has 12, Alston has 11.

We have 58 total points. 46 in the paint, 12 from the FT line.

16:15 2nd - Ewing makes a 3 pointer. Our first field goal in the game not in the paint(he's 1-4 from 3 now, so its not like i wasn't taking any jump shots).


With a 72-41 lead and about 12 minutes left I simulate the rest of the game out.

NC A&T 95
Bethune-Cookman 68

Hayes has his second straight monster game for us. Coleman with a career high rebound total.

Alston - 11 points/10 assists
Ewing - 11 points
Jones - 12 points/8 rebounds
Coleman - 14 points/17 rebounds
Hayes - 27 points/13 rebounds

[Radii]

A lot changes in the MEAC this week. The worst we can possibly do now is a 7th place finish. Even better, Howard has now lost 3 games in a row. We're 8-7 in conference play and they are only 9-7(they were 9-4 when we beat them).

Our last 3 games, while all road challenges, are very winnable. In fact, all 3 are against teams that we have already beaten at home.

[Radii]

I should also point out that I won 10 games last year, going 10-17 overall. So 11 wins is my new record, whee!

February 28th, 2009

NC A&T(11-13, 8-7 MEAC at Morgan State(8-18, 6-9 MEAC)

We beat these guys 59-51 in the first game. They slow it down BIG TIME and we had trouble getting open shots in the first half vs them last time. It was a very slow paced game. In the end I got 20 points out of Ewing and put them away early in the 2nd half. Their star is SG Reggie Holmes, averaging 15 points per game. We held him to 8 points on 3-20 shooting in the first meeting.

16:00 1st - After Morgan State scores first, we run off 11 straight points. Its now 13-5 as Jones hurts his ankle going up for a layup. He's subbed out.

13:00 1st - After going up 18-8, Morgan State rolls off 9 straight points and we lead by 1.

11:15 - After falling behind 19-18, we get 6 quick points, a 3 pointer from Ewing(his 3rd, he's playing well today) and a 3 point play from Coleman. Our backups come in after coleman's FT makes it 24-19 Aggies. Jones is fine and comes back in at full strength with the backups.

7:30 1st - Our backups are doing well, we've extended the lead to 8 points, 29-21, as Morgan State takes a timeout.

5:30 1st - We lead 31-23 as our starters come back out.

We finish the half strong and lead by 11 at the break. Its 42-31.

Just like at home, we're holding their star, Holmes down quite a bit. He's only 3-10 from the field for 7 points. Their SF Ali has 10.

Ewing has been on fire today, 6-8 from the field including 3-3 from 3. He has 15 points. Alston has 7 more. Hayes, after two dominant inside games, has no points at the half.

16:30 2nd - I pull Ewing as he's a bit more tired than everyone else. We're leading 51-39.

12:45 2nd - The rest of our backups come in as we now lead by 13, 56-43.

9:55 2nd - A Shepherd layin ends a 5-0 run from Morgan State. we're up 58-48 now, ewing comes back in.

7:00 2nd - After a 2 point basket, Morgan State makes 3 pointers on 3 straight possessions. Ewing has hit one three for us in that stretch and we got a couple other buckets but they've cut into the lead big time. Its now 65-59.

6:15 2nd - Another 3 from ewing on our end, and he's having a monster game with 26 points. We get a stop on defense and call a time out. I bring the rest of my starters back, and sit Ewing for a short break. He'll be back at the 4:30 mark or so to finish out the game as well. Our lead is back up to 9, 68-59.

4:15 2nd - We struggle to score without Ewing out there, not even getting any good looks from our big men. They're not catching up real fast either though, and its 68-62 as Ewing gets back on the floor for the duration.

4:03 2nd - Teehee. Nothing more fun than a 3 point shooter who just isn't missing any open shots. We run Ewing off a screen, he gives a pump fake and takes a step to the side before draining his 29th point of the game. 71-62 Aggies.

3:40 2nd - After a missed shot by Morgan State we get Alston a dunk in transition, its 73-62.

1:30 2nd - After trading baskets we get another fast break dunk out of Alston. That gives us a 77-64 lead and pretty much puts the game away.

NC A&T 79
Morgan State 65

three road wins in a row! Not at all what I expected to see, I'm pretty thrilled here.

Alston - 13 points
Ewing - 31 points (7-9 from 3!)
Jones - 5 points
Coleman - 11 points/15 rebounds
Hayes - 2 points/7 boards

Ewing just couldn't miss, an outstanding performance. Hayes only took 5 shots, Morgan State has a 6'11" center who shadowed Hayes well most of the game, so when I got it inside it was to coleman.

[hoopsguy]

Looks like you are closing strong for the second straight season, this time working against an unfavorable schedule.

Do you think that you are playing better in the games, that your team is improving over the course of the season relative to the competition, or that some other factor is at work here?

[Radii]

Originally Posted by hoopsguy

Looks like you are closing strong for the second straight season, this time working against an unfavorable schedule.

Do you think that you are playing better in the games, that your team is improving over the course of the season relative to the competition, or that some other factor is at work here?

I think the fact that I'm playing better is the #1 explanation. It was 10 games in before I really settled down and got in a groove. I was trying way too hard to push the ball in marginal situations, leading to some of the scores in the upper 80s and 90s earlier in the season. I'm still running whenever possible but have gotten better at recognizing when to slow down. I know in my last couple games I had a number of situations where Alston couldn't beat his man one on one and instead of taking a bad shot, i was either pulling the ball out or hitting someone coming down on the secondary break.

Short answer: I think I'm playing a much more sound game of basketball now than I was when I started this dynasty, and when I started this season.


I'm hoping to win a game in my conference tournament this year. Now that I've played everyone i don't think there's a team I can't beat in the conference, but it would take quite a run to win the tournament. Next year will be big though, as I'm returning 4 starters, and Ewing and Alston will be seniors. Unless my recruits this year come in as superstars, I'm going to need to accomplish some things next year so that I can improve my coach and start developing players.

[Radii]

March 2, 2009

NC A&T(12-13, 9-7 MEAC) at South Carolina State(13-16, 6-10 MEAC)

We beat these guys easily at home about a month ago. We crushed them and had some big time dominance inside over them. They have a good scorer in SG Carrio Bennett. He put up 17 on us in the first game and will be our main focus here as well.

This is the first team in awhile to have a noticible team unity edge over us, still not huge but they are at 56, we're up to 47 now.

15:45 1st - We felt pretty out of sorts on our first couple offensive sets, falling behind 4-0, but we get it together and score the next 8. SC State takes a timeout trailing 8-4. We've found Coleman inside twice and Alston and Ewing both have fast break buckets.

11:00 1st - We lead 14-9 as our backups come in. We seem to have a good edge on the boards, and Coleman has 6 points to lead us.

7:20 1st - Hello Kam Shepherd. Our backup PF has 9 points and we have a 23-12 lead.

5:00 1st - we lead 27-15 as our starters come back out. We got 11 from Shepherd and 2 from Cruz in that stretch. Awesome play out of my backups.

We go ahead by 20, 35-15, but SC State ends the half on a 9-2 run and closes the gap a bit. 37-24 halftime.

Their star scorer, Bennett, has 12 and scored 5 in that final run to end the half. We want to keep him from going off for 25+ if we can.

On our end, its all about the PF position. Coleman has 11 points/6 boards, and Shepherd has 11 points. We have 5 blocked shots on the day, 3 from Hayes, he's doing great inside on defense.

18:00 2nd - Bennett hits a 3 for them to open the half, but we answer with the next 5 points, including Ewing's first 3 of the game.

16:30 2nd - Bennett goes ice cold for them, missing 3 straight shots. We get out on the break a bit and are on an 11-1 run since their first 3 pointer. It's 48-28 and this is playing out almost exactly like the first time we played these guys.

12:30 2nd - We lead 56-30 now as our defense is just stifling(or they can't shoot for crap today). Our backups are in.

This is the second game that we've gotten to sim out to the end recently. We pushed the lead up to 30 points, 60-30 and simmed to the end.


NC A&T 72
SC State 40

Defense and rebounding today... they shot 26% from the floor for the game, and we had a 40-28 edge on the boards as a result. Bennett ended up scoring only 16 points for SC State on 5-17 shooting.

On our end, Coleman is the player of the game, and Shepherd was awesome off the bench:

Alston - 15 points/3 assists
Ewing - 10 points/3 assists
Jones - 1 point/3 boards
Coleman - 19 points/14 boards
Hayes - 6 points/9 boards

Shepherd - 13 points/6 boards.

We've now guarenteed ourselves a winning record in conference play!! If we can win our final regular season game we can actually finish with a winning record.

[Radii]

Two good storylines going into the last day of the regular season:

Winston-Salem State and Hampton are tied at 13-4 in conference play. They play each other today, at Winston-Salem State I believe. Winner wins the regular season title in the MEAC.


Our final game is at MD-Eastern Shore. Here is how 3/4/5 currently look:

3: North Carolina A&T - 10-7
4: Howard 10-8
5: MD-Eastern Shore - 9-8

If we win our final game we're the 3 seed in the conference tournament. If we lose there's a 3-way tie for 3rd, and I have no idea where we end up.

[Radii]

March 5th, 2009

NC A&T(13-13, 10-7 MEAC) at MD-Eastern Shore(10-15, 9-8 MEAC)

We beat these guys 88-77 last time we played. It was a tight contest for about 25 minutes before we pulled away a little bit. It was also a breakout game for Hayes, he scored 26 and pulled in 15 boards in the first meeting. They're a balanced team and don't have any major individual threats.

16:00 1st - Ewing is cold and our offense is a bit out of sync. We trail 7-4 early on a jumper by jones and a shot by Coleman

11:30 1st - We're tied up at 13. Ewing is COLD. 1-5 from 3. He's getting completely wide open looks so I keep taking them. We've gotten Hayes and Coleman a couple buckets and Ewing has 5. Backups are in and will be keeping this game moving at a slow pace. We're not having much luck getting out in transition.


5:30 1st - Both teams are playing a pretty slow offense but we're scoring every possession. It's 26-24 MD-Eastern Shore. We've got 4 from shepherd, a 3 point play from backup SF Johnson helping our scoring out. Starters are back in.


Our starters really don't play very well, Jones takes 3 bad shots in a row as I have trouble getting good open shots in my offense. They drain a couple 3's and lead by 7 at one point. We close back down before the half though.

We only trail 34-32 at halftime. Theyr SG, Tyson, has 13, including 3-5 from 3. Alston has 8, Hayes 7 for us. Ewing is 1-9 from the floor and has 4 points. Coleman is scoreless.

15:45 2nd - We remain cold. Ewing cannot make anything, and they've drained a couple 3's on us. We trail 46-38.

15:00 2nd - Down 49-39 now as Tyson amkes another 3 for them. He has 19 and is really hurting us. We take a time out. I rest Ewing even though he's not really tired yet. Maybe he'll figure out why he can't make any shots before he comes back in.

12:30 2nd - the rest of our backups are in. Our timeout seemed to slow their shooting down a bit and we were able to get out on the break for a couple easy buckets. Alston also sank a 3 which was probably ill-advised, but it went in so its all good. 53-46 as our backups come in.

11:15 2nd - 1-2 from the line, and a layup the next time down and cruz has 3 points in a row and has helped cut the lead back down to 4. 53-49 as UMES burns a timeout.

8:45 2nd - 5 straight points for Tyson(who has 26 now) and we trail 60-51. We call a timeout and get our starters back into the game.

8:30 2nd - I give Ewing another try from 3(they're pretty much leaving him open every time he touches the ball), and he sinks his 2nd 3. 60-54.

8:00 2nd - Following a miss on the other end, Alston and Jones get out on the break, and Jones jams the ball home and draws a foul, his 3 point play makes it 60-57.

5:00 2nd - UGH. Tyson tyson tyson. A 3, two fast break buckets for Tyson and a 3 by their PG b/c I went crazy trying to guard Tyson so he wouldn't get another open 3 and its 72-59. Tyson has 34 i think. he's killing me.

4:00 2nd - Dunks by Jones and Hayes and a layup by alston all in transition have UMES burning a time out. We trail 72-65 now.

1:40 2nd - A Tyson 3 makes it 75-65. We then get a couple stops on defense and are able to manage 6 straight points... 75-71 we trail.

0:45 2nd - They burn the entire shot clock and Tyson sinks a 15 foot jumper. On our end Ewing misses another wide open 3. We start fouling.

0:40 2nd - They throw away an inbounds pass and we get a quick layup by Hayes off our own inbounds play. 77-73.

They make 1 of 2, and we get a 2 on 2 fast break on the other end. How badly did Ewing play today? He falls down making a move around his man and we turn it over. That never happens to him.

MD-Eastern Shore 85
NC A&T 72

There's little doubt about why this game ended up like it did:

SG Ed Tyson: 15-24 FG, 8-12 3 pointer - 39 points

SG Austin Ewing: 3-21 FG, 2-13 3 pointer, 3-4 FT - 11 points.

Wehn their star makes 8 3's and ours shoots 16%, we just can't win.


Alston: 17 points/6 assists
Ewing: 11 points
Jones: 9 points/5 boards
Coleman: 2 points/10 boards (1-8 shooting, way off today too)
Hayes: 18 points/8 boards

[Radii]

Final Regular Season MEAC Standings

1. Hampton 14-4 (20-8 OVR)
2. Winston-Salem State 13-5 (18-10)
3. Howard 10-8 (18-10)
4. NC A&T 10-8 (13-14)
5. MD-Eastern Shore 10-8 (11-15)
6. Delaware State 8-10 (11-22)
7. Coppin State 8-10 (10-20)
8. Florida A&M 8-10 (9-20)
9. SC State 7-11 (14-17)
10. Bethune-Cookman 7-11 (11-16)
11. Norfolk State 7-11 (8-22)
12. Morgan State 6-12 (8-21)



Some of those seeds for all the tied teams may be off, the main standings page doesn't list them all correctly. 4 and 5 are right for sure though. After allowing Ed Tyson to score 39 points on us, we get a rematch with MD-Eastern Shore 5 days later.

The winner of our game almost certainly faces the #1 seed Hampton.

[Radii]

MEAC First Round Games

8. Florida A&M 63
9. SC State 56

6. Coppin State 66
11. Norfolk State 56

10. Bethune-Cookman 67
7. Delaware State 51


MEAC Quarterfinals

1. Hampton
8. Florida A&M

4. MD-Eastern Shore
5. NC A&T

3. Howard
6. Coppin State

2. Winston-Salem State
10. Bethune-Cookman

[Radii]

I failed to notice this last year... the MEAC has 12 teams, but only 11 make the conference tournament. Normally the 5 seed would play the 12 seed and the 4 seed gets a bye. But Morgan State is not in the tournament at all and the 4/5 game was locked in before the tourney started.

That's quite odd.

[Radii]

March 10, 2009 - MEAC Quarterfinals

NC A&T(13-14, 10-8 MEAC) at MD-Eastern Shore(11-15, 10-8 MEAC)

It says its a road game but in reality we're at the RBC Center in Raleigh, NC State's home arena, for the conference tournament.

So we pretty much have one goal for tonight. Stop Ed Tyson.

16:45 1st - We pull out to an early 9-3 lead, it could be more but they have played some good transition defense. Tyson has 2 points. ewing has 5, he's 1-1 from 3.


12:30 1st - Our backups come in, we're leading 15-11. Hayes is having a strong game inside with 8 points already.

6:30 1st - We lead 25-20 as our starters come back in. 5 points from Shepherd led our backups.

3:30 1st - We lead 29-28 now as Tyson has scored 4 quick points for UMES. He has 10. Our points both came on second chance shots from Coleman.

We go up 32-28 but then give up the final 5 points of the half and trail 33-32.

The first half looks pretty similar to our first half last week. The big difference and the reason I'm not real worried right now is that Ewing is making some shots. He's not shooting lights out or anything but when he's cold I feel like I have zero outside shooting and it totally changes my game.

Tyson scored those final 5 points... so he has 15 int he first half for them and that's a bit disconcerting.

Ewing has 7, Hayes 8, Coleman already has 10 boards.

15:30 2nd - Back and fort we go, a 3 point play from Alston gives us a 43-40 lead. Tyson is doing most of their scoring stil and he has 20 now.

13:15 2nd - A 9-1 run by MD-Eastern Shore has us trailing 49-44 all of a sudden. A couple fast break baskets for them, mostly inside stuff, while we've turned it over twice.

11:05 2nd - Ugh, 56-46 UMES now. Our backups come in as we burn another time out. They're getting out on the break against us way too often now, after turnovers and missed shots, we're just not getting back fast enough.

6:45 2nd - We fall behind 60-47 and are worried about getting blown out. We get 6 points from the FT line though and start to get some of their guys in foul trouble. Then a 3 point play opportunity from Hernandez, and then we steal an ill advised baseball pass on an inbounds play and come down and score... Our backup SG, Wilson who is only an average shooter, will occasionally take a wide open 3, and I let him do it here and he drains it. We're on a 13-2 run with our backups. 62-60 UMES.

6:15 2nd - Our starters get back into the game.

4:45 2nd - We trail 66-64 after a basket by Hayes and another by Coleman.

4:20 2nd - Alston gets his man in the air at the top of the key and slashes to the basket for a layup! 66-66.

3:00 2nd - After trading baskets we force a bad shot on their end, and Ewing and Alston run the break to perfection, Ewing finds Alston for a dunk and we lead 70-68.

1:09 2nd - They burn some clock, miss a shot, get the rebound and miss another jump shot. We come down and Ewing misses a wide open 3. Coleman gets the board and misses the putback. They get their SF, Sato, out on the break and he pulls up for 3 in transition, which is no good. I end up getting an open 17 foot jumper for Alston which he drains! Alston rarely takes jump shots but I like his mid-range jumper if I can get him open. 72-68 A&T.

0:45 2nd - Tyson takes a contested 3 in the conrer and misses. Hayes rebounds and gets fouled. He makes 1 of 2.

They get a layup from Tyson but we make our free throws and they're unable to make it a 1 possession game again.


NC A&T 78
MD-Eastern Shore 70

They got a great game from Tyson but nothing like our last meeting. Ewing couldn't do anything in the 2nd half but Alston came up big and our big men were good. Tyson scored 24 for them.

Alston: 17 points
Ewing: 9 points/4 assists
Jones: 4 points
Coleman: 5 points/17 rebounds
Hayes: 19 points/12 rebounds

Shepherd: 9 points

Coleman is just a monster rebounder, 17!!

[Radii]

MEAC Quarterfinal Results

1. Hampton 91
8. Florida A&M 69

4. MD-Eastern Shore 70
5. NC A&T 78

3. Howard 77
6. Coppin State 69

2. Winston-Salem State 52
10. Bethune-Cookman 54


MEAC Semifinals

1. Hampton
5. NC A&T

3. Howard
10. Bethune-Cookman


Hampton is 21-8 and the best team in the conference. We played hard against them in the first meeting, but they have 2 solid guards that we couldn't keep up with and we lost 80-71.

[Radii]

Trying a new format here, let me know if this makes it more readable, better to follow for those that are reading. Also I don't use the WYSIWYG editor often so I'm not sure if this will show up cleanly/the same for everyone


March 13, 2009 – MEAC Semifinals


NC A&T (14-14, 10-8 MEAC) vs Hampton (21-8, 14-4 MEAC)


Hampton is unquestionably the best team in the conference. They don't have any superstars but they have decent players at all 5 positions. Their starting SF is their weak spot defensively. Hampton has a big team unity edge, 60 for them, 49 for us.

Half	Time	NC A&T	HAM	Notes
1	13:45	7	17	They start out 8-0, we score 7 straight, now they've scored 9 straight... time for our next run IMO
1	11:50	9	23	Ugh, another time out for us. This is getting out of hand. They're fast and get out on the break very well. We're struggling to get open shots and not making them when we do.
1	10:50	11	25	Backups are in
1	7:15	17	33	Cruz and Shepherd have managed some points, but no defense. Shepherd just went out with an injury.
1	5:50	19	33	Starters are back in. Cruz scored 6 in that stretch for us. We need to get some production from Hayes and Coleman too.
	HALF	28	41	The lead stayed between 10-15 the rest of the way. We're shooting 37%, they are at 52% Coleman, Cruz and Alston all have 6 for me. Ewing is still struggling, he has 2, 1-8 from the field. Their PG, Tunnell, has 12, mostly on the break.
2	18:30	32	43	With aggressive play we've drawn 3 fouls on them in the first 1:30. Unfortunately, we're 2-6 from the FT line and its not helping a damn bit.
2	13:30	38	54	Our biggest deficit. We're shooting horridly. Cannot seem to make anything at all. They've made 3 pointers their last two times down to extend the lead out. Our backups come in and we need a spark from somewhere. None of our starters are giving us anything.
2	8:00	42	64	Ugh. Not getting better. Our starters are back in and we need to go on an incredible run pretty quickly if we have any hope at all.

They score the next 5 points in a row and I go ahead and decide that its time to get to the offseason already.


Hampton 83
NC A&T 54


We shoot 35% on the game.


Ewing and Coleman score 10. Alston and Hayes score 8. Coleman has 9 boards. Season over. On to recruiting!