MBB: USA South Conference

[narch]

OK, one hour and counting.  Anyone want to guess how long it will take narch to research the entire world wide web to find every single instance of CNU being in a scenario where we came up short in my "championship" criteria above?

no need...we simply disagree - you admit that there is some gray here, so maybe it's not so much drivel as it is opinion (i call it fact since the conference lists mc as regular season champs 3 straight years, albeit co-champs in one of those years) - don't make the mistake of confusing TOURNAMENT champions and REGULAR SEASON champions - i don't know of a conference in the country that considers the tourny champ to be the conference champ...that right belongs to the team(s) that earned it over the course of of the regular season...officially there is no tiebreaker in the usasac, so you can't just make one up, j

but let me ask a question:

if there is a $300 million lottery pot, and you have one of 2 winning tickets...did you win the lottery?

[cnufan]

You sat POE TAY TOE i say POE TAH TOE.

[cnufan]

daniel-
    Elaborate when the kids go to sleep please.

[cnufan]

First half killed the Captains. VWC went up 21-0 before CNU gotta bucket with 1324 remaining. Turnovers killed them, thats for sure. Second half was a different story, still were careless with the ball but shot much better. I thought the line up of Dont'a, Davon, Coleman, Riley and Blasingame worked well as did Dont'a, Purdham, Davon, Riley and Coleman/Blasingame. I thought Blasingame played much better than he did against So. Virginia, I thought Dont'a stepped it up. Korey and Romeo were a non-factor. Can someone tell Korey to try a pump fake once in a while and stop fading away?? The kid's 6-5 or 6-6 and plays like he's 6-1 or 6-2!! Show some intestinal fortitude!! And Mike Witham, well, thats just another story in its self there. Edward Riley has the makings of something special and I hope he continues to play the way he has played in first two games for the rest of the season.

[narch]

bsquared (isoar) - what are you doing now - did i hear grad school? if so where and what degree?

re: your ft shooting...it wasn't pretty , BUT hairston is a pg, you were a pf/c - the pg HAS to shoot a higher % if he's going to get the rock late in close games, otherwise he'll just be marching to the line in any late game situation

daniel - i'm interested in hearing this, as well - the way i see it, there are plenty of schools w/ difficult academics (cow, lvc, f&m, hsc, rmc, etc., etc. and the obvious choices like williams come to mind) that don't seem to have those problems - what exactly do you mean by "the academics are too hard"?

[cnufan]

I think I know where your going with that narch and I couldnt agree more with you (wow, did I really say that?). I dont think there is such a thing as too hard a school. You just have to know where and how to recruit that type of kid. Smart, athletic cornfed white boys and quick smart players seem to be the way the HSC's and RMCs are going and have been going for quite sometime and they continue to have success day in and day out. Why cant CNU get that type of athlete. More of the private school players than public might be another direction to go in.

[narch]

I think I know where your going with that narch and I couldnt agree more with you (wow, did I really say that?). I dont think there is such a thing as too hard a school. You just have to know where and how to recruit that type of kid. Smart, athletic cornfed white boys and quick smart players seem to be the way the HSC's and RMCs are going and have been going for quite sometime and they continue to have success day in and day out. Why cant CNU get that type of athlete. More of the private school players than public might be another direction to go in.

skin color plays NO PART in my equation, but smarts do...last year 9 or 10 of mc's players were academic scholarship recipients...eugene grant is probably one of the brightest kids at mc - you don't have to be a "cornfed white boy" to stay in school for 4 years...so kindly, NO, you apparently DON'T know where i was going with that

[cnufan]

I was going to respond and I had something here but decided against it . Dont feel like getting into a pissing contest with you over something you didnt understand.

[cnufan]

Hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving Holiday.  Be back for the cake fest that is the CNU Invitational Friday.

[cnu85]

too hard of a school? where'd that come from? I don't think it's the academics that are making the kids leave before the 4 years is up. just ask:

Jordan Short - still a CNU student - not playing
Tim Collins - going to Radford (nice to see Tim at tonight's game!) Don't read any transfers into that - he's just in town watching a buddy play hoops.
Mark Hoeppner - West Virginia U

all for different reasons and none that I know of, are using the excuse CNU is too hard. I honestly think the reason some of these kids leave is that they and their families have issues with the coaching philosophy of the program. Plus, the dropping and restructuring of the academic programs made such that the kids realized they had to transfer to continue the academic path they initial chose. Face it, these kids aren't dumb and they realize the NBA is a far reach.


Now - on to tonight's game - down 21-0 to start. That was tough. CNU gets as close as 12 with a 30-12 run in the second half. At first I was wondering why VWC had their starters in when they were up by 30. I figured it was a message or return favor to CJ for something in the past. But maybe it was watching the film of the SoVa game when CNU came back a few times when down by 9 to win in OT.

Good - the kids don't give up. Coleman is going to be good. When he came in he shut down #50 for VWC. Riley is going to something to watch. Blasingame played much better, didn't seem lost. He just needs some more playing time. Barton shows flashes of a solid game, then has to let me know he's a freshman and makes a dumb play.

Not so good - the 21-0 start. Romeo and Lewis were playing like it was their first game of the year ( oh yeah - it was). Hint to the big men inside......do not dribble the ball once, not move, and expect to retain the ball!! I coached that to my 10 yr old team a few years back.

I made a comment to Tim Collin's dad that this is the first year in which I have season tickets that I have no expectatins from the team this year. This is truly a year of making adjustments and improvements to make noise in future years. I could be wrong. After all, I predicted CNU would lose by more than 20 tonight - and they only lost by 19!!

CJ said he hoped that VWC will be the toughest team all year. I hope so too.

[cnu85]

Goose - I have to agree with Narch...I cringed when you said corn fed white boys....I cringed just as bad after 9/11 when Bush opened his mouth on the white house lawn and said we are on a "crusade" when talking about Islamic fundamentalists.....talk about the wrong word to use.

Oh - I think the guys I used in my example below...Short, Collins, Hoeppner - all ate corn!

[cnu85]

For those travelling tomorrow for the holidays...be safe and have a great weekend. I'm done for the night......there's someone upstairs who is much nicer looking than you ugly people.

[hasanova]

Just got home from the Greensboro/Guilford doubleheader at the Greensboro Coliseum.  The Pride women came back from an 11-point halftime deficit to win 68-52 and the Quaker men put a thumping on Greensboro.  The men's final was 82-67, but Guilford was up 43-27 at the half and 60-35 before rotating almost everyone in and out of the game.  Ben Strong looked good as did Quaker freshman George Neville.  Not sure of the final stats, but it looked like the Quakers had a good shooting night behind the arc.

Both men's teams are now 2-1.

[captj]

What a game tonight!  Spotting a top-20 team a 21 point lead to start the game is a recipe for disaster.

Random thoughts –

Six minutes into the game the scoreboard read 21-0.  VWC had the ball and I'm thinking to myself, "Oh, no.  They're going to score another touchdown and we'll be down by 28.

According to the radio broadcast we actually had MORE rebounds?!  It seemed like every time VWC missed a shot they got the board and a second chance.

Romeo and Lewis combine for 5?  These are the guys I picked for All-Conference honors?  I agree with Goose; Lewis needs to realize that he's a really big dude, and then play like one.

I wish that I could easily compile data about how CNU starts games.  It seems to me that we typically start very, very slowly and then have to fight to come from behind.  Aren't we prepared at the beginning?  Having the ability to adapt is admirable, but so is being prepared from the beginning.

Once again, we demonstrated huge heart coming back in the second half, but read my comment directly above once again.  We were out of this game before we had a chance.

Selden is a great 2 guard, a mediocre or poor 1 guard.

Even though VWC played their starters for the entire game, including during the 30-12 run we put on them, I'm concerned that they had lost interest a little bit by that time and that our comeback wasn't so impressive after all.

I was really disappointed by Adair.  I was hoping to see All-American-level play tonight, but he seemed like just one of a whole bunch of really good players.  

CNU NEVER went to the free throw line!!!!  Read that again; CNU NEVER went to the free throw line!!!

Way too many turnovers.  Barton is going to be very, very good, but he was really tested tonight.  I still like his game a lot.  EVERYONE passed the rock like they couldn't wait to get rid of it.  

And finally; it was nice to meet you, Goose.

[captj]

Danny – patience, please.  Don't let one loss against a good team cause you to lose faith in the entire program.  Yes, we are having growing pains, or evolution pains, or whatever else you want to call it, but do you think that 18-8 is that bad?  Are you only going to be a fan if the Captains win the conference and make it to the Elite Eight every year?  I'll be a fan if we finish 8-18.  But you know what?  We're not going to go 8-18.  We're going to compete every year and we will definitely represent the conference in the NCAA's (and often).