Career Coaching Legacy of Logan Martinez (CH2K8)

[HarkTheSound]

Hey everyone,

Some of you might remember me from dynasties gone by, and while I have been away from OS for a while I still have a love for College Hoops 2K8.

The last dynasty I ran was this one.

After playing through that season with VCU and moving on to the next year, I found myself regretting the decision to leave Texas Southern. All these real life years later, I decided to fire up the file again -- Luckily, I saved a file before my coaching move so I can pick right back up with Texas Southern for Season 3.

I made that choice because I just felt like I ascended too quickly and I wanted to slug it out for a tournament bid in a 1-bid league for a coupe more years. Not to mention, I just really became attached to some of the guys on the team and I have enjoyed playing with the recruits I got. I have already played 4 games in Season 3 so I will catch up with posting soon.

In the meantime, I will make a couple of posts as placeholders then start copying/pasting some of those old posts so you guys can catch up to where I left off.

You'll notice how old this file is when you see it was started when Kyrie Irving was a freshman at Duke. Hah!

I'm really excited about kicking this dynasty off again. Hope you all will enjoy!

[HarkTheSound]

Head Coach Logan Martinez's Records, Coach Awards, and Career Accomplishments:

2007:

Spoiler

Texas Southern: 19-13 (13-5)

2008:

Spoiler

Texas Southern: 25-8 (14-4)

• Regular Season/Conference Tournament Champs
• SWAC Coach of the Year
• #12 Seed; 2nd Round of the NCAA Tournament

[HarkTheSound]

Player Award Winners (Coached by Logan Martinez)

2007:

Spoiler

• SG Lawrence Danner-Johnson (Conference Freshman of the Year, First-Team All-Conference; 11.0 PPG, 1.8 RPG, 5.1 APG, 1.2 SPG)

• PF Travele Jones (First-Team All-Conference; 15.8 PPG, 7.4 RPG, 2.4 APG, 1.0 SPG, 1.0 BPG)

2008:

Spoiler

• SG Lawrence Danner-Johnson (Conference Player of the Year, First-Team All-Conference; 16.9 PPG, 1.8 RPG, 3.0 APG, 1.1 SPG)

• C Laurence Garza (First-Team All-Conference, Conference Freshman of the Year, Freshman All-Conference; 10.2 PPG, 9.2 RPG, 1.8 APG, 1.5 BPG)

• PF Keithtrick Denson (First-Team All-Conference; 10.1 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 2.5 APG, 1.4 SPG)

• PG Austen Mitchell (Freshman All-Conference; 4.0 PPG, 1.7 RPG, 6.6 APG, 1.3 SPG)

[HarkTheSound]

Placeholder for something.

[HarkTheSound]

Season 1 Recap

The Texas Southern Tigers began a new era last season as they brought in rookie head coach Logan Martinez, age 25, to lead the program. Martinez brought with him a fast-paced attack (though not at the pace of the UNC's or VMI's of the world) that emphasized rebounding and passing the ball, as evident in the assist numbers the Tigers racked up by seasons end.

The Tigers' program has never earned a birth to the NCAA Tournament in it's history, and Martinez's first goal that he set for the team was for them to get to 20 wins and make it to the Big Dance.

The season got off to a rough 2-5 start, including a 28-point debacle to Houston and a 30-point loss to Kentucky. Martinez found go-to players in the early stages of the season however, as Senior PF Travele Jones (15.8 PPG) and Freshman SG Lawrence Danner-Johnson (11 PPG) led the team in scoring, and it would continue that way for the rest of the year.

The biggest win of the year for the Tigers came on the road against Purdue. The Boilermakers had a lackluster season (15-19 final record), but the Tigers went toe-to-toe with stars Etwaun Moore and eventual First-Team All-American JaJuan Johnson and made some cluch shots down the stretch to earn the 77-74 win. This would give the Tigers a huge confidence boost as they entered conference play hovering around a .500 record.

The Tigers would go on to win 10 of 11 games in the Southwestern Athletic Conference at one point and they took command of the SWAC for much of the regular season. However, they hit a bump in the road down the stretch as they lost four of seven games, including two to nemesis Mississippi Valley State. The Tigers finished with a 13-5 conference record, tied with Jackson State and MVST. MVST won the tie-breaker however and would clinch the SWAC's NIT berth.

The Tigers faced off with the Arkansas Pine-Bluff Golden Lions in the First Round of the SWAC tournament, a team they easily knocked off in both of their regular season meetings. However, the defense played horrible and was killed by the consistant driving ability of the Golden Lions' PG as he scored 24 points and notched 10 assists, leading his team to a 82-77 upset win over the Tigers.

Recruiting Recap

The Tigers suffered a bitter end to an otherwise stellar first season under Coach Martinez as the team finished 19-13. Martinez hauled in a very good first recruiting class for the Tigers as they finished #48 overall in the final rankings.

They brought in two *** big men to replace the two bigs who graduated. They also brought in a *** PG so SG Danner-Johnson can move to the two guard, his natural position. Also, the Lions nabbed a *** Juco SG to come off the bench as a sixth-man next year...

3* #314 PG Austen Mitchell 6'2'' 190; Mr. Basketball from Alaska
3* PF Damien Allen 6'9'' 235; New Zealand
3* #414 C Laurence Garza 7' 263; Florida
3* Juco Frosh SG Micah Flowers 6'4'' 207; California

[HarkTheSound]

Some highlights from Season 1 across the nation

The Final Four

(1) West Virginia: 81 vs (4) Marquette): 86

(2) Duke: 80 vs (3) Arizona State: 54

National Championship

vs

Duke wins the 2007 National Championship 93-77...Boooooooo

Player of the Year:

PG Jimmer Fredette BYU



Coach of the Year

Coach K



Big Man of the Year:

PF Derrick Williams



Freshman of the Year:

PF Jared Sullinger




1st Team All-America

PG Jimmer Fredette BYU
SG John Jenkins Vanderbilt
SF Harrison Barnes UNC
PF Derrick Williams Arizona
C JaJuan Johnson Purdue

[HarkTheSound]

TEXAS SOUTHERN SEASON 2 PREVIEW

Coach Martinez begins his second year as head coach with much higher expectations from the local media. The Tigers came one win away from 20 last season in Martinez's first year on the job, and the fan base and local journalists are eagarly anticipating that illusive first NCAA Tournament birth this season.

The Tigers graduated three players from their starting lineup last year, including leading scorer and rebounder PF Travele Jones. Jones was really the only inside presense the Tigers had last season, as he consistanly battled in the paint despite being a bit undersized (6'9'').

This year, the Tigers will likely be a more guard oriented team, as second leading scorer Lawrence Danner-Johnson returns from a good, but sometimes inconsistant freshman campaign. The Shooting guard averaged 11 points and a little over 5 assists per games last season playing at the point guard spot, but he will move back to his natual position at the two-guard with freshman PG Austen Mitchell coming in. He was Mr. Basketball from the state of Alaska (ranked #314 overall). Mitchell is not much of a scorer, but is a solid passer and will likely average between 5-7 assists per game in Martinez's pass-oriented offense.

Small Forward Adrian Clayborn will return for his junior season after scoring a little over 8 points per game last season. Clayborn is a good mid-range shooter, is decent from behind the arc, and also makes the occassional block.

Power forward will be manned by Freshman New Zealand import PF Damien Allen, who is a sturdy 6'9'' 247. Martinez's offense revolves around bigs who can rebound and make effort plays, and Allen should fit that role nicely. At center will be Freshman (ranked #414 overall) Laurence Garza, who stands a massive 7'1'' 274. He is very similar in ability to Allen in that he doesn't have much of an offensive game, but he is a big body who can help control the boards underneath so the guards will have more shot opportunites.

Coach Martinez has stated that the goal for his team is to reach 20 wins this year, but it will be difficult as he scheduled some tough non-conference games this year for the young Tigers. Some of the noteable games include:

@ Texas

@ UNLV (They signed THREE Five-stars in the off-season)

@ UCF (with Marcus Jordan)


TEAM ROSTER

Bold denotes incoming recruits:

(FR) PG #5 Austen Mitchell 6'2'' 192 (65 Overall)
(SO) SG #11 Lawrence Danner-Johnson 6'5'' 189 (69 Overall)
(JR) SF #32 Adrian Clayborn 6'7'' 224 (66 Overall)
(FR) PF #31 Damien Allen 6'9'' 247 (64 Overall)
(FR) C #53 Laurence Garza 7'1'' 274 (65 Overall)

(SO) SG #14 Micah Flowers 6'5'' 207 (67)
(SR) PF #23 Keithtrick Denson 6'7'' 232 (60)
(SO) SG #2 Nico Norris 6'5'' 194 (58)
(SR) PG #34 Justin Ray 5'7'' 163 (58)
(SR) C #41 TeAllen Price 6'9'' 265 (55)
(FR: Walk-On) C #50 Mitchell Collum 7'2'' 258 (56)
(SO) SF #30 Mitchell Scott 6'6'' 209 (57)

Coach Card: Head Coach Logan Martinez

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

C+ Overall

[HarkTheSound]

Season Preview Show

PRE-SEASON TOP 25

1. Duke
2. UNC
3. Kansas
4. Michigan State
5. Memphis
6. Pittsburgh
7. Maryland
8. Florida
9. Louisville
10. Gonzaga
11. Vanderbilt
12. Kentucky
13. Arizona
14. UConn
15. Florida State
16. Georgia Tech
17. UCLA
18. Missouri
19. West Virginia
20. Ohio State
21. Minnesota
22. Marquette
23. Indiana
24. Arizona State
25. Mississippi State