A Dual Career Coaching Legacy

[Roggie]

Sorry, guys. Been busy lately. I'll try to get my stuff up sometime today before work.

[Roggie]

Longwood Lancers (0-0) @ UC Davis (0-0)

Farmville, Virginia - In the opening game of the season for both teams, the Longwood Lancers were looking to start off the season with an upset of a retooled UC Davis Aggies squad.

In his second season at the helm of UC Davis, coach Rogoff decided to schedule a lesser opponent first, and the Lancers came calling. With no starters returning as starters, Rogoff didn't want to aim for an upset before his team had a chance to play together.

Early on in the game, the Aggies held control. The duo of PF Stacey McNamara and SF Jimmy Murphy, both highly regarded recruits, both seemed shaken by the pressure and expectations on them. C Manourou Gakou, however, decided to use this game to prove that bigger schools overlooked him.

With the Aggies taking a 42-24 lead into half, the team was confident. Coach Rogoff tried to keep the team from getting complacent, but it seemed impossible to prevent a second half letdown.

Coming back onto the court, Gakou and his reserve, Mike Kurtz, continued to lead the charge. The offensive intensity never wavered, but the Aggies' defense was nonexistent. The Lancers just shredded UC Davis the entire half, trying to close the gap.

But, the offense that the Lancers found never was enough to come back from the hole that they dug the first half. With Gakou going for 17 and 15, Kurtz netting 13 and hitting all six field goals, and Murphy scoring 21 on 8-17 shooting, the offensive prowess of the Aggies was too much for the Lancers to overcome.

Longwood 71 - UC Davis 81

Box Score

Longwood -

FG: 29-70
3FG: 6-21
FT: 7-11
TO: 7

PG Eddie Gee III - 16 points
SG Clement Mackinson - 13 points
PF Jeff Havenstein - 11 points, 7 rebounds

UC Davis -

FG: 29-63
3FG: 8-26
FT: 17-20
TO: 9

SF Jimmy Murphy: 21 points
C Manourou Gakou: 17 points, 15 rebounds
C Mike Kurtz: 13 points, 6 rebounds

[Roggie]

UC Davis Aggies (1-0) @ Portland Pilots (1-1)

Portland, Oregon - The UC Davis Aggies looked to start off the season with back to back wins and their first road win. The Portland Pirates prepared to get a winning record back.

A team with 4 players new to the team in the starting lineup, along with the 6th man, will have their ups and downs. Players are all learning a new system and adjusting to new roles. Sometimes, players are overwhelmed and can't handle the pressure initially.

That's what happened to the Aggies in their game against the Pilots. No starters shot 50% from the field. SF Jimmy Murphy did have 31 points, but in a very non-efficient manner. The only players on the team shooting better than 50% were Harrison Dupont and Eddie Miller, who were 4-6 and 1-1, respectively.

Although the Pilots only won by 9, the game should have been won by UC Davis. If not for horrible shooting woes and the inability to knock down the open three, this game would have been a 20 point victory for the Aggies.

Instead, UC Davis suffered their first loss of the season.

Afterward, coach Rogoff spoke to the press.

"I knew we'd have games like this early in the season, but it doesn't help me out at all in the moment. We're a 3 point shooting team, and when we can't hit those shots, we aren't going to win. 35% just isn't good enough for us until our post players acclimate themselves to our system, which isn't easy for them to adjust to initially.

We have to give credit to the Pilots and their coaching staff for their defensive gameplan. They took Jimmy completely out of his rhythm, and he wasn't able to overcome it in crunch time. I have all the faith in the world in Jimmy, and I expect him to learn from this and become an outstanding player.

We have a tough game coming up against an underrated Chicago St. team. We can't afford to go 29-63 against any team, no matter who. Hopefully this game motivates our guys and they can come out strong."

UC Davis 78 - Portland 87

Box Score

UC Davis -

FG: 26-69
3FG: 14-40
FT: 12-14
TO: 10

SG Ryan Sypkens: 12 points 3-9 shooting
SF Jimmy Murphy: 31 points 11-26 shooting
SF Harrison DuPont: 15 points 3-4 3FG

Portland -

FG: 25-60
3FG: 5-16
FT: 32-38
TO: 11

PG Eric Waterford: 17 points 10 assists
SG Nemanja Mitrovic: 31 points
PF LaForest Foye: 11 points 13 rebounds

[HarkTheSound]

Texas Southern (1-1)vs UNLV (3-1)
November 16, 2008

Las Vegas, Nevada - After a steller effort in their previous game against the Texas Longhorns, the Texas Southern Tigers came into the contest with a lot of confidence. They would need it against a very talented UNLV squad, who brought in 3 Rivals' Five-Star recruits in their previous recruiting class: #14 overall Rylan Powlack (PF), #16 overall Curtis Crove (PG) and #20 overall Fred Dumbliauskas (SF).

The Tigers came out of the gates firing on all cylinders as they drilled shot after shot, contested and uncontested. The main scorer was SG Lawrence Danner-Johnson, who put on a ridiculous showing in the first half. He scored 21 points on 8-10 shooting, inlcuding 5-5 from beyond the arc.

The Tigers went on top 27-12 early, but the Runnin' Rebels stormed back with torrent shooting of their own. At the half, the Tigers went into the locker room up 55-47 after shooting 23-31 (6-6 from three, 3-3 from the foul line) while the Rebels shot 19-31 (7-10 from three, 3-3 from the charity stripe). Although the Rebels were down by 8 at the break, the crowd roared in approval as the teams left the court due to the exciting and fast play they witnessed.

The teams who showcase much better defense in the second half as both coaches changed up their defensive approach and encouraged slowing the pace down. The Rebels would eventually erase the deficit completely and take the lead, but the Tigers didn't let up and the teams traded baskets and defensive stops the rest of the night.

Finding themselves down 85-84 with 9 seconds left, the Tigers fouled UNLV SG Anthony Marshall and put him at the line. He tallied 20 points up to this point and was on fire the entire game. He made the first free throw, then missed the second one; the Tigers grabbed the board, ran to half-court and called timeout. The drew up a play to get the ball to SG Danner-Johnson, who caught the ball on the wing and put up a three point shot with 4 seconds left. However, SF Fred Dumbliasukas, one of the former Five-Star recruits, was right in his face and swatted the ball straight into the air, where he caught it as time expired. It was Danner-Johnson's only missed three-pointer of the night. UNLV escaped with a two-point victory, and once again the Tigers came up just short in an upset bid.

UNLV 86 Texas Southern 84

UNLV:

FG: 35-60
3 pt FG: 9-15
FT: 7-10

PG Curtis Crove - 15 points, 5 assists
SG Anthony Marshall - 21 points, 4 assists
SF Fred Dumbliauskas - 13 points, 6 rebounds
SF Chase Stanback - 12 points

Tigers:

FG: 34-58
3 pt FG: 7-10
FT: 9-13

SG Lawrence Danner-Johnson - 28 points, 3 assists (11-15 shooting, 6-7 from 3)

Four players with 9 points, one with 8.

[HarkTheSound]

Kind of silly that we're on a hiatus already since we just started this; we'll be back though. By the way, I forgot to upload the season preview show for everyone so I'll do that now.

[HarkTheSound]

More updates coming shortly. We've played a few games and now we have to catch up on the recaps.

I think from now on we'll post weekly recaps instead of game-by-game recaps to save some time.

I'll be posting a video in the next day or two that focuses on Signing Week and also a report on a huge injury that could affect the entire landscape of college basketball this season (and next year).

[HarkTheSound]

Week of November 17-23

No games on the schedule; focus is on recruiting this week. The Tigers have 5 available scholarships; Coach Martinez has currently offered 3 of them:

SF Seamus Burns, 6’7’’ 228 pounds; OVR: #101, POS: #16
PG Chauncey Trammell, 6’0’’ 171 pounds; OVR: #170 POS: #52
C Stanley Melvin, 7’0”” 255 pounds; OVR: #316 POS: #21

[HarkTheSound]

Ohio State’s Sullinger Out for Season





PF Jared Sullinger suffered a broken patella on November 20^th, 2008, in a game versus Seton Hall. The stud sophomore returned to the Buckeyes after an outstanding freshman year in which he averaged 20.6 PPG and 11.8 RPG, to go along with 1.0 SPG and 1.7 BPG. He was selected as the Freshman of the Year and also was a Second-Team All-American.

Sullinger would’ve been a lock to go in the Lottery if he had decided to head to the NBA last season, but he returned to the Buckeyes for another year to pursue a National Championship after the team had a rather lackluster season despite his outstanding numbers.

Sullinger suffered the injury in Ohio State’s fourth game of the season, perhaps ending his career as a Buckeye. Expectations were extremely high for Sullinger and the Buckeyes heading into the season as he was the face of a young team with a lot of talent and an incoming recruiting class that was outstanding. Sullinger also grew 2 inches in the off-season, making him a formidable 6’11’’, 275 pound beast. He was already off to a strong start as he averaged 24.3 PPG and 7 RPG in his first 3 ½ games. Ohio State coach Thad Matta has come out and said they plan to medically red-shirt him, but Sullinger is unsure whether he will return for another season as a Buckeye or head straight to the NBA despite this gruesome injury.