The Coaching career of Brandon Crawford(CH 2K7 360)

[Brandon 2006]

I'm starting a new dynasty that I hope to continue for many in-game seasons. I have not played CH in a long time, so my sliders will begin easier and I will make it more difficult as I go along.

Sliders: My own(Changing to how well I do)
Half Length: 15 minutes
Player Names: Game generated

[Brandon 2006]

So, I'm sitting in my house watching some of my old high school basketball tapes. I used to be a star small forward in high school and all of the top universities were looking at me. I was told by almost every program that a NBA career was in my future. Canadians have never had much success in the NBA, besides Steve Nash and Rick Fox to an extent. So this was a huge deal to my community. But, that future is sure as heck gone now. I had broken my right ankle in the regional championship game in my senoir year. The doctors had said that I would play again, but for a strange reason the ankle never fully healed. I was bitter for 10 years, but now I have accepted the fact. Now, I am a coach of the Ottawa high school Spartans. The Provincial champion for 5 years, all 5 of those titles were won with me coaching.

Recently I have been getting calls from athletic directors from top NCAA division 2 schools and a few of the lower level division 1 schools. I would feel bad leaving my school and my players. I have help some kids develop since they were in their first year of middle school and now they start for my team. Leaving my championships behind for a losing record, empty stadiums and a completely different style of basketball.

My phone is ringing, I should pick it up...

"Hello?"
"Hello, Mr. Crawford? This is Dwight Datcher, the athletic director of Howard University."
"Hello, Mr. Datcher, what could I do for you tonight?"
Well, Mr. Crawford last year was a bad year for Howard in basketball and we are looking for something to shake our team up."
"Are you suggesting that you want me to help out your coach?"
"Well, not exactly, Mr Crawford. We want you to be the new head coach of the Bison."
"That is certainly something I am looking into. I have been getting calls from some other athletic directors in division 1. "
"Well, Brandon, we think you could really help us post a better record and develop our players. We have seen what you have done at OHS and you could bring your own assistant coaches with you."
"Mr. Datcher, I accept your offer. I hope to help your school become a force in your conference and develop your players the best I can."
"Thank you, Brandon, I will have a flight booked for you by noon tommorow to visit our campus."
"Thank You sir, see you soon"

Wow, I am moving away from my team, my past and my titles. A world of new opportunities has just opened up to me. I need to start packing for my trip tommorow.

[Brandon 2006]

After spending my first day at the Howard campus, I must say I am pleased. They have a nice but small basketball court, they can only fit 2,700 people but I'm sure it gets pretty loud. I got to look at the roster for the season and it looks promising. 4 seniors, 3 are starting and 5 freshmen, 1 starting. We have no juniors, and only 1 true center. They haven't made the tournament since 92' so there is a lot of pressure to get back into it and the athletic director wants me to be there within 3-5 years. Mr. Datcher also told me that I can start recruiting after my tour of the campus. He took me to the current assistant coaches and we did not get along, Mr. Datcher did say I do get my choice of assistants though and I'm sure these two will be gone. After meeting the assistants I told the AD I want my assistants from OHS to coach with me. After looking at the pre-season rankings Howard is ranked 6th in the MEAC and there is a lot of good competion. This program is close to Ontario and it gives me a lot of freshmen to work with and develop. I am going to the AD's office to sign a contract and tommorow I will head home and put my house up for sale and begin packing for my immigration to the United States.

[superjames1992]

This looks pretty cool. College Hoops career legacies always add a compeling story.

[Brandon 2006]

It has been a few weeks and I have moved into Washington DC and am officially working for Howard University. My house sold for $260,000 and that gives me a good sum of money to begin life in Washington. I have now met all the players and I am beginning to practice. We have just started conditioning and having meetings talking about on court play. We have our season opening scrimmage this coming Monday, the 23rd of October. I'll type up my rosters just so I can get who I am working with in my head.

C: J.P. Avery 6'9" 205 LBS Freshman
PF: Elmore Wentt 6'7" 215 LBS Senior
PF: Julio Chapman 6'9" 210 LBS Freshman
PF: Freddie Grove 6'8" 210 LBS Freshman
SF: Regis Barker 6'4" 190 LBS Senior
SF: Charles Garrity 6'4" 190 LBS Sophmore
SF: James Diener 6'5" 220 LBS Senior
SF: Quincy Dilligard 6'5" 190 LBS Junoir(RS)
SG: Kurt Smith 6'2" 175 LBS Senior
SG: Ilian Munir 6'0" 170 LBS Senior
SG: Darrall Wilkins 6'4" 175 LBS Freshman
PG: Marcel Doellman 6'0" 175 LBS Freshman
PG: Taquan Barnhill 6'0" 170 LBS Sophmore

Elmore Wentt and Regis Barker are the on-court leaders of the team. they are friends with all of the players, they have a love for the sport and have the skill to back up what they tell the freshmen. I am going to Red shirt Kurt Smith, I think he can develop better in practice before I throw him into game situations.

I have also started my recruiting process of the year. I started calling some of the HS kids I know from Canada as they already know me and have talked to me about wanting to play for me. I called a friend of mines son, E.J. Blake a 6'7" power forward. I've done rec league coaching for him and he dominated those leagues. While ranked 468 in the world he has size and from what his father has told me is still growing. I then gave another player I know personally a call. This time a 6'9" center from Hamilton that is an unranked prospect and is named, Brandon Matera. After Getting 2 Canadian boys, I searched around DC for some good prospects and they are not incredibly interested in playing for me. I found another unranked player, Shane Oliphant and 5'11" PG . While not being incredibly skilled, he has heart and I like developing players with lesser skills. I than found 2 shooting guards from New York, 1 from the Bronx and the other from queens. Devonne Gakou is 6'2" and from the Bronx, while Rodney Michaud is also 6'2" but is from Queens. I called 5 guys today and I have 6 scholarships to give out. I am not concentrating at the most skilled of players, but players that fill the voids or players that I can get to know. I'm not going to waste my time on the top prospects, simply because they want to go to the power schools, not a small school in the MEAC. This has been quite the month for me with a new job, new recruiting responsibilities and managing a team that is not all walk-ons.

[Brandon 2006]

We had our team scrimmage last night, the white versus the blue. I split up the two captains, Wentt was on the white team while Barker was on the blue. Both put up less than 10 points and both played few minutes. The blue team's leading scorer was James Diener my back-up small forward with 18 points. He shot .666 from the 3 point line and had a number in every stat column except blocks, fouls and O-rebounds. The white leading scorer was Kurt Smith, my starting shooting guard. He had 33 points and made 9 3's he spent a lot of time on the court though, only having 2 minutes on the bench. J.P. Avery the freshman that I'm planning on redshirting is still going to be red shirted, but he is one of the better paleyrs on the team. He grabbed 8 boards, had 3 steals and knocked in 14 points. He has a good future ahead of him at this program. The discipline of the players on court worries me, the white team had 25 fouls, most of them shooting fouls. The game had a lot of good team play but the good passing plays were not finished because of missed shots. The blue team had 55 total rebounds, 38 defensive. The blue team came away with the victory 85-76 even though the white team had a 19 point lead at one point. The blue team won the game at the free throw line by making 31 shots from there, only missing 6, without those points they would have lost by 20. My practices are going to focus on blocking, because that is where almost all of our fouls came from, missed blocks that hit forearms and hands instead of the ball. Kurt Smith is going to be my go-to guy all year when the team needs points and when my actual starting line-up gets playing time together it should be great. The team can hit 3's, rebound and knock down free throws. We have a great make up and I see no reason why we can not win the MEAC championship.

[Brandon 2006]

It has been a week since the scrimmage, my rosters are final and Avery was dissapointed to hear he was red shirted, but he seemed to like that I told him he was going to be the man at this school by his junior year. My lineup for game 1:

PG: Marcel Doellman
SG: Kurt Smith
SF: Regis Baker
PF: Julio Chapman
C: Elmore Wentt
Bench: SF Charles Garrity
Bench: SG Ilian Munir
Bench: SG Darrall Wilkins
Bench: PF Freddie Grove
Bench: SF James Diener
Bench: PG Taquan Barnhill
Bench: SF Quincy Dilligard

I also got a chance to call some of my recruits. Shane Oliphant the hometown boy seems very interested, but he is also interested in Morgantown which is problematic for us. The recruit from Queens, Rodney Michaud is being heavily recruited by Brown and Devonne Gakou is looking at Delaware more than Howard. E.J. Blake the kid from Montreal has UVM and Dartmouth recruiting him and turning him away from me but my Hamilton boy, Brandon Matera has told me other schools are not that interested in him so Howard is still his top priority. I also got on the phone and called a kid from Toronto and another from Montreal, both are unranked and not being recruited so they are only being recruited if my other top priority recruits sign elsewhere. I have a lot of scholarships to offer and my focus is hometown kids and Canadians. I am also looking at international players, but only for their size. I found a 6'10" center from Nigeria that is possibly still growing and would do wonders on the glass. I phoned him and he said he was top scorer and rebounder in his highschool division and that he can not speak english well. The college recruiting process is tough, but it needs to be done to fill my team with quality player, not walk ons.

[Brandon 2006]

It is the Moday before my first NCAA game ever. We play 3 straight games from Friday to Sunday. We start at home against Tennessee-Martin, and the next night we host Cincinnati of the Big East and on Sunday we have our first road game against High Point. This will be a tough week in practice for my boys and I hope they are prepared for Cincinnati, they are a very strong team from a strong conference. If we can get a close game with them than we can be proud. High Point and T-M can really go either way because we are evenly matched but I'm hoping for a win to impress the AD.

My recruiting for this week is more organized. I have created a small target list of 9 players that are interested and that I have a chance of signing. I will add more players to the list as the season goes on and as players on my list are signed by other teams. I have not offered a scholarship yet and I do not plan to, until the signing period begins. If there are players that do not sign even if I offered them I will resign the offer and hold on to the scholarship until the next signing period. The list has 4 Canadians, 4 players from Washington and 1 from Nigeria. I'm hoping that I can get 3 Canadians, 2 from Washington and the Nigerian player. While he would have some trouble with communication the Nigerian player, Atila Robinson, would be a beast on the glass. If he grows any more, we will have a seven footer and they are incredibly valuable.