The Price of Winning

[Sven Draconian]

Chapter 1:
It Begins

This is one of the strangest sites in the world. Five grown men are sitting in a coaching office that wasn't built for anymore than three people. Three of these men are sweating and wearing sweat pants and all are huddled around a 19 inch TV.

This type of excitement is typically reserved for 13 year olds watching Hannah Montana concert date announcements, not for fully grown men.

The strangest part of all is they are watching a 18 year old boy playing a basketball game for a Junior College in New Haven Connecticut. These adults are fawning over somebody barely old enough to buy a lotter ticket dunking on some poor Community College student who just happened to be the tallest kid on campus who wasn't stollen by the schools football team.

"Are we positive he's comming"
"He faxed in his letter of intent this morning", Coach Stevens produced the document from the top drawer in his desk.
"And we are sure he will be admitted"
"It was tough, but luckily he was only a freshman, plenty of time for him to graduate".

And with that the two older gentleman left the room, leaving just the three coach's.

"Look at that touch, just a beautiful put-back...you can't teach that"
"He's so fluid, he gets the ball and puts it up in one motion. No hitch's, no hesitation. You just can't stop that"
"Watch him work this kid. That kid has great position, but he twists him just enough and he knows exactly when he has him. Then its right over him."
"I like how he uses the board. A lot of players try and go over his hand for the pretty net-shot. He just kiss's it in, hardly any effort but an easy basket. Or here, he has his back to the net, but doesn't turn completely, just a little twist and off the glass."

The object of the praise is 18-year-old Junior College Center Torris Hinrich. A 6-9, 228 pound player who has spent the last year transforming himself from skinny 195 pound-to-small-for-college-ball player into a lean force in the post.

Hinrich has spent a year transforming himself from 1-star after thought that didn't have the strength to play inside or the feat to play to forward into the leading scorer on the JC circuit.

And now he will be all he can be.

To be Continued

[chestnutz6]

Re: The Price of Winning

Looks good, I'll be reading. What game is this, though?

[Sven Draconian]

Re: The Price of Winning

Looks good, I'll be reading. What game is this, though?

CH 2k7.

Same disclaimer as before. Don't see me, Im making up everything (names, events ect...). Any similarities to real events are a coincidence. I still don't have anything worth sueing for.

[Sven Draconian]

Re: The Price of Winning

Chapter 1:
It Begins

The excitement surrounding the singings of Torris Hinrich comes at a strange time. The Army Black Knights had started the season 3-1, but had quickly fallen to 3-4. Most recently the 'Knights were held to 35 points in an embarrasing loss to the Virgnia Millitary Institute and beeing outscored 23-5 in Overtime against Brown, a game in which Army had a double digit lead in the 2nd half.

Compounding the on-court blues was the news that Dedrick Sanderson signed with Monmouth the same day Hinrich signed with Army. Sanderson was a "3-star" PG from Hempsted New York who the staff felt pretty confident about signing. A duo of secondary targets also signed during the NCAAs 1 week "In-Season" signing period.

Still, the atmosphere was positive inside the Black Knights coaching office. Torris Hinrich was the staffs #1 target from the day they took over the job and he was enrolling at West Point next semester.

"Getting an offensive Center is on a different level than getting a guard. Hell, at this level getting any player who can score at an "A" level is outstanding, but a Center is different. This level of College Hoops doesn't get those low post scoring threats, even big schools can't always get that type of player. Their rare. Most centers in these small conferences are strictly rebounding guys that can contest some shots. Nobody in our league has an offensive player like this at center"-Coach Kyle Stevens

In reality, nobody in the Patriot league has an abundance of offense anywhere on the court. As its put at a leading recruiting website, "Small conference kids normally have either size or speed or their just smart and scrappy. Nobody in their [Army] conference pulls a true scorer. They all go to power conferences so they can be one and done and into the NBA. Its unbelievable this kid slipped through the cracks."

In the words of Coach Brad Ma "We arn't losing any defense or rebounding with Hinrich. He's a hair short at 6'9 and but otherwise is sound on the glass and a sound rebounder. He's well rounded....and he might lead the conference in scoring next season."

Torris Hinrich is only rated as a "3-star" player. He isn't going to be an All-American, he wasn't a Mr. Basketball and no "Power"conference teams were after him. Howevr, Torris Hinrich might just completely change the fortunes of the Army Black Knights.

[billmatic]

Re: The Price of Winning

Good luck with this, hopefully the AD at Army is a bit more patient than the one at Chicago St.

[Sven Draconian]

Re: The Price of Winning

Chapter 2:
The Task at Hand

For a coach college basketball is a strange blend of the present and the future. As a competitor he wants to win every game, but as the man responsible for an entire basketball program, the next season (and the one after that) can't be far from his thoughts.

This is especially true at a rebuilding project, such as Army. Nearly any coach feels a loyalty to a senior, whether he recruited them or not, knowing the struggles they likely went through waiting for their chance to play. This thought process is juxtaposed by the desire to get the young players ready for the future.

Coach Kyle Stevens of the Army Black Knights can point to a pretty clear situation to highlight this, and his name is Francisco Guang.

Francisco Guang is a 6'2 freshman guard that has the speed, moves and hops to drive the lane and the length and quickness to man up virtually any PG he faces in the Patriot league.

What Guang doesn't have is 4-years of college experience and a fully developed jumpshot, the attributes of senor PG LeRoy Ray.

Coach Chase Hinrich "With Guang we have the pure athlete and the future of Army. He's a guy that can go 20/8 his senior year with lock-down defense. The problem is, 12/4 is a stretch this seaosn. Ray can give us a solid 15/5 this year, but that means Guang may struggle for 12/4 next season."

In essence, LeRoy Ray may win an extra game or two this season, but that may cost you a game or two next.

Coach Kyle Stevens "The problem is where you draw the line. Coming into this season I wanted double digit wins. 10 wins is the goal. Starting LeRoy Ray will get us closer to that goal, but starting Fransisco Guang may help us reach our main goal of conference champions with a tourny bid his senior season. So, wheres the tradeoff occur".

To be continued.

[Sven Draconian]

Re: The Price of Winning

Good luck with this, hopefully the AD at Army is a bit more patient than the one at Chicago St.

I made a couple big mistakes a Chicago St. For starters, I screwed the pooch with my first recruiting class. I wasn't entirely sure what I was doing so I really had to scramble to get guys during the off-season.

My big "prize" I went after was Bradley Boyette, who I cut after I redshirted him because he blew. I really need to get a Center and a PF who could play right away because I had giant holes at Center and the 2nd big off the bench. Milone Juan Barea was a stop gap at best and I never ended up getting that 2nd big for that season.

That cost me 3 or 4 games in year two. I finished that year 9-19, but should have won atleast 12 games if I had any production out of the C/PF spot. That was just crappy recruiting.

I also let a pair of young kids transfer that I should have kept. I looked at them (rated 52 and 55 ovr) and decided I wanted the scholarships instead. This screwed me depth wise in Year 3 when those kids would have been #2 and #3 off the bench most likely. Again, lost a game or two there.

Thirdly, CSU was a bad spot. I graduated 8 of my top 9 after season 2. Its impossible to replace that in one year, especially when you have a terrible 1st recruiting class. Year 3 was going to be a down year no matter what. The problem is.

In short, I let two kid walk I needed to keep and I failed to deliver in my first recruiting class. This screwed me year 2 (when I only won 9 games). The magic record to keep my job after year 3 was 13-16, I finishd 11-18.

If I win 12 games in year 2 (Like I would have with a better PF/C group, back to the recruiting woes) 11-18 likely would have been good enough. With the better recruits and those transfer kids I might make 13 wins in year 3 anyway.


With all that said, I still shouldn't have been fired. I nabbed a great recruiting class after Year 2 (far and away the conferences best with 3-three star recruits and 3-two star recruits) and had another pair of three-stars ready to sign in the off-season. No way a real AD fires me after those recruiting class's.

[Sven Draconian]

Chapter 2:
The Task At Hand

The 35-point outing against VMI an obvious cause of concern among the staff, and quickly a cause for action. The Black Knights dropped to 3-4 on a 14-62 shooting game, and changes were quickly made.

The first was the insertion of Francisco Guang into the starting lineup, and giving less minutes to senior SG Edmund Bathe, a "student of the game" with a tremendous basketball IQ but a weak shot. This put two freshman in at starters (Vadim Knight-PF..Francisco Guang-PG).

The change in the starting lineup was obvious from the tipoff against The Citadel (0-6). Francisco Guang went for 18pts and 3 assists in a 66-64 win to get the team back to .500 at 4-4.

Coach Stevens made a few others moves as well. He depened the bench, giving a few "value" minutes to another pair of freshman, SF Earnest Acasio and PF Lucian Herman.

The benefit was obvious with a dominating 64-47 win over the New Jersey Institute of Technology. Army had 10 scorers in the game (Including Guang going for 12 pts and 3ast) and the increased rotation at forward netted a 37-22 victory on the glass.

To be continued....

[Sven Draconian]

Re: The Price of Winning

PG-Francisco Guang (Fr-52)
---LeRoy Ray (Sr-60), Jaison Olavia (Sr-54)
SG-Edmund Bathe (Sr-66)
---LeRoy Ray (Sr-60), Yuri Coulter (JR-53)
SF-Ronald Cantrell (Jr-63)
---Earnest Acasio (Fr-52), Yuri Coulter (Jr-53)
PF-Vadim Knight (Fr-64)
---Lucian Herman (Fr-48), Mavery Webb (Jr-57), Eanest Acasio (Fr-52)
C-Ovarus Homan (Sr-57)
---Lucian Herman (Fr-48), Earnest Acasio (Fr-52)

Photocopy of Depth Chart before game against Notre Dame
* (Class-Coach's Score)

[Sven Draconian]

Re: The Price of Winning

Chapter 2:
The Task At Hand

For many, the lure of athletic compeition is the constant demand to win. The more games you win the more damaging the loss. The more you lose, the less rewarding the win. A player may go 13-14 shooting, but he will remember the one miss better than any of the 13 he made. True satisfaction is very rare.

The Army Black Knights are a season removed from a 5-22 season with only one conference win. This season, they had jumped out to a 5 win, 4 loss start to the season including an upset over a power-conference squad in Missouri.

The Black Knights had beat their win total from the previous season before hitting conference play, yet 6-7 was a disapointment. Army followed up a dominating win against NJIT by being blownout against #12 Notre Dame. They came up just short in an upset bid against #10 Michigan (57-56) to dip below .500.

The boys of West Point rebounded with a great defensive performance and won an abolute nail bitter against Holy Cross by a score of 56-55 (with Francisco Guang scoring 18 points and nabbing 4 steals).

Then came Dartmouth. The Black Knights entered the game a very respectable 6-6. Dartmouth traveled to West Point with a solid 6-5 mark, and blew the cadets off the court. Dartmouth went 10 deep with contributors and simply ran Army ragged en-route to a dominating 60-37 victory that wasn't qutie as close as the score indicated.

For Army the loss was devastating. The mental difference between being a winning team (at 7-6) and a losing team (at 6-7) can't be underestimated. The team goal of double-digit wins became tougher, needing to win 4 games in-conference when a season ago they only managed one. The Black Knights could have went into conference playing on a two game win streak and almsot upsetting #10 Michigan, but instead will open up @ Colgate following a blowout loss.

And now the home stretch begins.

[Sven Draconian]

Chapter 3:
Kids

The head coach of any college athletics program has two roles every season. The desire to win as many games as possile, and the responsibility to look forward and ensures his programs future success. This balance of responsibility can be hard to balance. Winning in the future means giving young players minutes now, skipping game film to hit the recruiting trail and spending more time teaching the young kids in practice than expanding on the knowledge of the older kids.

For Army this juxtaposition was right in the open. A pair of seniors, LeRoy Ray and Edmund Bathe had began the season as starters dominating the minutes. By the start of conference play, Edmund Bathe found himself on the bench more than the court while Freshman Francisco Guang started at PG and Earnest Acasio was the first off the bench and Junior Juri Coulter had found a niche as a quick scoring threat.

LeRoy Ray had bounced from bench into the spot at SG, but even he found himself with more minutes on the bench while the younger players started to take more minutes. Starting center Ovarus Homan found himself in a similar situation as freshman PF Lucian Herman was getting longer shifts while he 'took a blow'.

Coach Kyle Stevens "When we hit conference play, it all became about the future. Recruiting became focus #1 as we honed in on a couple targets."

More meetings were being held about recruiting than about the games. Discussion became more about the performance of players than the results of the game. A loss to Colgate was celebrated because freshman PF Vadim Knight had his best game of the season with 9 points, 5 rebounds and 3 steals and freshman PG Francisco Guang had 13points, 4 ast and 6 rebounds.

The staff had a similar upbeat mood despite losing a game to Holy Cross. The loss dropped Army to 6-9 on the season and 0-2 in conference, but Vadim Knight went for 15pt/5reb against a well respected opponent.

To be continued.

[Sven Draconian]

Chapter 3:
Kids

"Does anybody in this room want to sign another 4 kids of this group?"
No hands went up. This early morning meeting was focusing on just one topic, the 2007 recruiting class.
"Who wants three more?"
About two of the 5 hands people raised their hands.
"Two more?"
The other three hands went up.

The "group" was the "targets" for the class of '07. Behind Stevens stood a large board with the names Byron Couisnard, J.B. Soroye, Marcellus Quadri, Alton Dukes, Tevah Phaller and Halston Mombollet.

From these 6 names, the Army Black Knights were hoping to land two players. The coaching staff had started with over 300 names and now, they had settled on six players they wanted to bring in.

"Does anybody in this room now want to bring in a second center?"
The only coach to object was Brad Maa, "I just don't think we need one. I mean whats Soroye going to give us that we can't grab next year. Its not like he's going to get into the rotation"

Soroye refers to J.B. Soroye. A Rivals.com 3-star rated center from Portland, Oregon. Soroye is listed at 7'0 , and according to the official scouting report, "Can score a little, post a little and makes a few pass's, will get a few blocks and isn't slow. Does everything blah, but nothing well."

"Maa,You don't think the kid is better than Webb. He's 8 inch's taller, that helps a bit you know." Coach Chris Hinirch had been Soroye's biggest supporter since his tape was sent to Army. "Webb is 6 foot freakin 4 and plays PF. Soroye can get more rebounds and blocks in 10 minutes than that kid will give us in a game."

Apparently, Coach Hinrich isn't a fan of small power forwards.

GA Paul Gespot is also a fan of Soroye, "He'll get points than Homan and play the same D. We need the kid for depth". Octavus Homan has been held scoreless in nearly half the games since the Black Knights began conference play, a sore spot with Brad Maa who works with the "Bigs" during practice.

Seeing the debate going back to a familiar, uselss, Stevens interjected "The kid hasn't shown more than passing interest in any school, who do we want at guard? Hows Couisnard coming Chris?"

Byron Couisnard is an 18-year old Shooting Guard from Senegal who has shown interest in coming to the states before, but seems to be shying away as signing day comes closer.

"His English sucks and Im not sure what he means when he's on the phone. Nobody other than 'Ole Miss has looked at him and he doesn't seem to eager to go to the South....or join the Army. No different than when we first brought him up.

But, Mombollet might just slip into West Point."

"Is anybody else even looking at him? I know he had some interest as a junior but his shoulder problems took him off the map this year"
"Is that shoulder even alright?"
"Its just a bruise, but he missed a lot of the season. Chicagoland has enough talent that if you start missing games, and your not a blue-chip, they just look at your teammates."

Mombollet is another SG, from Peioria Illinois. The staff likes his pure shooting and thinks he may be a nice energy guy to bring off the bench for a few 3's when the offense sags. Much in the same vein as current SG Yuri Coulter.

..to be continued...