The Coaching Legacy of Clifton Blackwood (CH 2K8)

[BetterRankings2019]

Winston-Salem State Hires Clifton Blackwood as New Head Coach

WINSTON-SALEM, NC - Winston-Salem State has fired head coach Bobby Collins after just one year in the job. The Rams stumbled to a staggering 4-20 record in Collins’ only year in the job. While firing a coach after just one year is unusual, apparently the product on the court was just too horrendous for the athletic department to bear, and Collins is out.

Replacing him will be 27-year-old Clifton Blackwood, a man with no collegiate coaching experience. Blackwood was a club basketball player and student assistant at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ from 1997-2000. From there, he went on to take over a small group I New Jersey high school, shocking the state by leading them to three consecutive group I state championships from the 2004-2006 seasons. Now, he is getting his shot at Division I coaching, albeit at newly starting Division I program Winston-Salem State. Blackwood will have his work cut out for him rebounding from last year’s 4-20 campaign.

When asked how he planned to compete at Winston-Salem St, Blackwood had this to offer: “Look, getting started as a Division I program is going to be hard work, no doubt about it, and while this school has had plenty of success at the Division II level, Division I is another ballgame entirely. Our focus is going to be on recruiting, recruiting, recruiting.”

“That being said, we have a great group of players here already and we expect to compete immediately. These are guys who were not necessarily recruited to play division I basketball. Even so, they are still amazing basketball players and we are going to win some games this year.”

When asked about style of play, Coach Blackwood said he expected to play a similar style to last year. “These kids have gotten used to playing an uptempo, fast break running, full court press style of ball. That isn’t necessarily the style I used in high school, but I think it fits this team. We are going to come out of the gates strong and shock some other squads that are looking past their game with us.”

[BetterRankings2019]

About This Legacy

Every effort is going to be made to make this legacy both very challenging for me, the player, and very realistic. I will be playing every game. The difficulty will be on MOP with some slider tweaks for additional challenge. What this means is that there is some chance I will not be able to perform well enough with my first team and will end up being fired. If that happens, so be it. That possibility makes the game fun for me. It also means that you should definitely not expect to see a ton of success in the first couple years.

I will be using default rosters with randomly generated names as 2K share is no longer available for getting named rosters. However, I have renamed all of the Winston-Salem State players with their real names.

Updates could be slow at times, but I hope to keep this going for a long time until my coach retires or (God willing) we get a new college hoops game.

[BetterRankings2019]

About Winston-Salem State

Winston-Salem State University (WSSU), a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina, is a historically black public research university located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It is a member-school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. WSSU is an accredited university offering baccalaureate and graduate programs to a diverse student population.

The Winston-Salem State Rams men's basketball team is the men's basketball team that represents Winston-Salem State University. Winston-Salem is competing in its second season as a Division I basketball program in the MEAC. Among its notable coaches was Clarence "Big House" Gaines (1923-2005): during his 47-year tenure at WSSU as coach, professor and athletic director, his men's basketball team compiled a record of 828-447. Gaines was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982. Noted players under Gaines' era were Earl Monroe, Cleo Hill and sports commentator and columnist Stephen A. Smith.

[BetterRankings2019]

Winston-Salem State 2007-2008 Men's Basketball Schedule
Nov 9 - Cyclone Challenge
Nov 12 - at Duquesne
Nov 23 - at Wake Forest
Nov 27 - vs Fresno State
Dec 1 - vs South Carolina State
Dec 8 - vs Georgia State
Dec 17 - vs Alabama A&M
Dec 22 - at Kansas State
Dec 29 - at South Florida
Jan 12 - vs Maryland-Eastern Shore
Jan 14 - vs Delaware State
Jan 19 - vs Howard
Jan 21 - vs Hampton
Jan 26 - at NC A&T
Jan 28 - at Norfolk State
Feb 2 - vs Florida A&M
Feb 4 - vs Bethune-Cookman
Feb 9 - at Morgan State
Feb 11 - at Coppin State
Feb 16 - at Howard
Feb 18 - at Hampton
Feb 23 - vs NC A&T
Feb 25 - vs Norfolk State
Mar 1 - at Florida A&M
Mar 3 - at Bethune-Cookman
Mar 5 - at South Carolina State

Purple denotes tournament
Red denotes MEAC conference game

2007-2008 Winston Salem Rams
#	NAME	POS	HT	WT	CLASS	HOMETOWN
32	Roy Peake	G	5'11"	170	RS SR	Charlotte, NC
3	Brian Fisher	G	6'2"	178	SO	Albany, GA
20	Darrell Wonge	F	6'6"	210	SR	Bronx, NY
25	Greg Lewis	F	6'7"	255	SR	Jersey City, NJ
21	Jamal Durham	F	6'6"	215	JR	Concord, NC
23	Darius Floyd	G	6'1"	185	SO	Winston-Salem, NC
2	Vaudrey Funderburke	G	6'3"	180	SO	Jacksonville, NC
11	Michael Puckett	G	6'4"	180	JR	Norfolk, VA
5	Isiah Tucker	G	6'1"	180	FR	Rocky Mount, NC
44	Corey Morris	C	6'10"	255	FR	Charlotte, NC
24	Paul Davis	F	6'9"	195	FR	Charleston, SC
50	Julian Murphy-Long	F	6'9"	215	JR	High Point, NC
42	McIntoche Alcius	F	6'8"	230	FR	Concord, NC

[jpfine]

Love it. I'm hooked. Love the Rutgers tie-in btw, any chance of playing them in upcoming years?

[BetterRankings2019]

Quote: Originally Posted by jpfine

Love it. I'm hooked. Love the Rutgers tie-in btw, any chance of playing them in upcoming years?

Thanks man, glad you're here. Yeah, I definitely think both schools would be willing so we'll have to see if we can get a game going the next few years.

[BetterRankings2019]

Preseason Top 25

NCAA Hoops Rankings - AP Top 25 - Updated: Oct 21, 2007
RK	TEAM (VOTES)	RECORD
1	Kansas	0-0
2	North Carolina	0-0
3	Memphis	0-0
4	Michigan State	0-0
5	Louisville	0-0
6	Georgetown	0-0
7	UCLA	0-0
8	Tennessee	0-0
9	Duke	0-0
10	Marquette	0-0
11	Wisconsin	0-0
12	Kentucky	0-0
13	Arizona	0-0
14	Pittsburgh	0-0
15	Oregon	0-0
16	Texas A&M	0-0
17	Arkansas	0-0
18	Texas	0-0
19	Florida State	0-0
20	Indiana	0-0
21	Illinois	0-0
22	Clemson	0-0
23	Ohio State	0-0
24	Syracuse	0-0
25	Georgia Tech	0-0

MEAC Preseason Coaches Poll

Mid-Eastern Conference Standings - Updated: Oct 22, 2007
TEAM	REC	PCT	CONF	GB
Hampton	0-0	--	0-0	--
Morgan State	0-0	--	0-0	--
Winston-Salem State	0-0	--	0-0	--
North Carolina A&T	0-0	--	0-0	--
Florida A&M	0-0	--	0-0	--
Coppin State	0-0	--	0-0	--
South Carolina State	0-0	--	0-0	--
Norfolk State	0-0	--	0-0	--
Delaware State	0-0	--	0-0	--
Bethune-Cookman	0-0	--	0-0	--
Howard	0-0	--	0-0	--
Maryland-Eastern Shore	0-0	--	0-0	--

[BetterRankings2019]

@

Hit By a Cyclone

AMES, IA -- The Iowa State Cyclones (1-0) proved too much for the Winston-Salem State Rams (0-1) in Clifton Blackwood's career coaching debut. The Rams actually stuck with the Cyclones for a while, leading for much of the first half and going into halftime down 44-36. They kept it to single digits for a bit in the second half, but eventually the Cyclones wore them down and the floodgates opened up. Iowa State would eventually score 60 points in the second period, winning the game by a score of 104-74. Freshman guard Cassiano Jegdic led the Cyclones with 23 points on 7-17 shooting (5-10 3PT, 4-5 FT). For the Rams, the biggest bright spot in this game was the sensational play of sophomore guard Brian Fisher. He put up a game high 37 points.

"I'm really happy with how we played for much of this game, really the first 30 minutes of it," said coach Blackwood, "I am especially encouraged by how Brian played. That was amazing. He is going to light some teams up in games we actually win this year."

The Rams will take on Centenary (0-1) tomorrow in the consolation game of the Cyclone Challenge. Centenary fell 76-67 to Lipscomb in the first round.

Winston-Salem State Rams at Iowa State Cyclones
Nov 9, 2007	1ST	2ND	SCORE
Winston-Salem State (0-1)	36	38	74
Iowa State (1-0)	44	60	104

Winston-Salem State Rams
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
R. Peake	37	1-1	0-0	1-2	0	13	2	0	0	3
B. Fisher	34	14-35	7-22	2-3	3	3	0	0	0	37
D. Wonge	33	4-16	3-12	1-2	5	2	0	0	1	12
G. Lewis	25	0-1	0-0	0-0	7	2	1	0	0	0
J. Durham	21	3-7	0-0	0-0	5	1	0	0	0	6
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
D. Floyd	17	4-10	3-8	0-0	2	0	0	0	0	11
I. Tucker	3	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	1	0	0	0	0
C. Morris	14	2-4	0-0	1-4	7	0	0	0	0	5
P. Davis	14	0-0	0-0	0-0	2	1	0	0	0	0
J. Murphy-Long	2	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	0
V. Funderburke	-- DID NOT PLAY --
M. Puckett	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		28-74	13-42	5-11	31	23	3	0	1	74

Iowa State Cyclones
STARTERS	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
K. Elder	31	2-4	0-2	0-0	1	13	0	0	2	4
C. Jegdic	27	7-17	5-10	4-5	2	3	1	0	1	23
A. Grace	31	4-6	0-0	2-2	5	3	0	0	0	10
R. Lucas	26	8-12	0-0	3-4	12	0	0	0	0	19
F. Zoric	27	10-16	0-1	1-2	16	1	0	0	0	21
BENCH	MIN	FGM-A	3PM-A	FTM-A	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PTS
T. Outlaw	17	2-6	0-0	0-0	8	2	0	2	0	4
L. Domercant	14	5-6	1-1	1-1	4	0	0	0	0	12
A. McClinton	6	0-1	0-0	0-0	3	1	0	0	0	0
G. Admundson	9	2-3	1-2	0-0	0	2	0	0	0	5
M. Houston	9	2-4	2-3	0-0	0	0	0	0	0	6
V. Shimonovic	2	0-0	0-0	0-0	0	1	0	0	0	0
V. Carroto	-- DID NOT PLAY --
TEAM TOTALS		42-75	9-19	11-14	51	26	1	2	3	104