MBB: USA South Conference

[hasanova]

Quakers host a doubleheader tournament tonight in Ragan-Brown:

Averett vs Emory at 6 pm
Guilford vs McMurry at 8 pm

I look forward to seeing our Quaker Club members tonight at the halftime reception.  If any posters from the other three schools will be there, look me up!

[D-BAT]

SU opened up the other night against #3 ranked EMU, for the most part this game looked like the first game of the season from both teams.  SU came out with a lot of intensity to start the game, but committed 19 turnovers in the first half and another 11 in the second half.  EMU used these turnovers to get 34 points.  I don't care if you are playing a high school team, you can't win with 30 turnovers.  In the past SU has had some strong guard play from the PG but not right now.  With no true PG or one that wants the responsibility to handle the rock in pressure spots the Hornets could be in for a long season.  Mitch Dudley did a nice job on preseason All American Todd Phillips, from my observation he will not be on that first team ballot come March.  He is a good player, but in order to be on that list you are great and I did see this in him.  Kevin Kline and Brandon Bryan need to assert themselves more for the Hornets on the offensive end.  Coach Rob Harris should sit down newbie Dominic Chappell and remind him that almost double-doubles are a good thing if it is 10 pts and 10 assists.  But to have 9 pts and 9 turnovers defeats the purpose of production on the floor.  Hope the players and staff get this figured out soon because it does not get any easier.  The Hornets have another tough test on Friday night in Gettysburg against #2 Randolph Macon.  I guess you can say somewhat "Welcome to the ODAC!!"

Go Hornets!!

IMHO, it will only get more difficult for SU's football and basketball.  The ODAC is legit for those two sports.

[CNUHoops2010]

Coach Krikorian gets his first CNU win with a 108-100 double OT thriller.  CNU could have easily phoned this one in early after falling behind 9-0 on some silly turnovers and missed layups.  The Captains fought all game finally catching Lynchburg in the 2nd half. 

Freshman Tra Benefield hit a big 3 pointer from the deep corner with 8 seconds left in regulation to push the game into OT.  Michael Wims from Lynchburg hit a 40 footer with 1 second left in OT to force a second OT.

Conley had 31 points to lead CNU and really took charge late in the game.  Green (16 pts, 6 rebs) and Clarkson (16pts, 11 rebs, 5 offensive boards) worked hard underneath against a bigger Lynchburg front line.  Capin hit a couple of key 3 pointers and finished with 11 points, 6 rebounds.

This team is a work in progress as Coach K substituted frequently looking for the right combination of guys to gel.  I think injuries and illness have impacted practice time.  The young guys played a big role and Hermann is still out so the big guys had to play a lot of minutes.

CNU plays St. John Fischer tonight.

[CNU85]

what's up with Hermann?

[CaptJ]

Great start for the Coack K era of CNU basketball.  Tonight the Captains took their record to 2-0 with a tough win against a quality opponent, St. John Fischer.  Next on the clock... the Marlins of Va. Wesleyan.  Man, I hate those guys.  I hope the Captains have a good weekend of practice and use their well-deserved confidence to come up with a good game plan for the fish. 

GO CAPTAINS!

[CNUHoops2010]

Much better defensive effort (10 steals, 29 turnovers) from the Captains against SJF versus what we saw in the Lynchburg game.  It looked like the guys were more comfortable with the traps and the jump switches.  Preston, Clarkson and Granger all drew multiple charges as they rotated on the help defense.  Still plenty of work to be done but I really like this defensive philosophy.

Coach again started 4 guards and went with many 3 and 4 guard sets which showed negatively in the rebound totals (30 v 41 total, 6 v 9 offensive).  Good defense and better shooting made up the difference but CNU will need rebounds and more diverse scoring on offense in order to win consistently this year.

The annual track meet against Virginia Wesleyan on Tuesday should be fun to watch.

85 - Hermann broke his foot a few weeks ago.  He was out of the boot last night but not in uniform which means he's probably still multiple weeks away.

[CaptJ]

CNU's Conley Taylor should be nominated for Team of the Week. 

In the Captain's two opening wins he scored 57 points, 11 rebounds, 8 steals, 9 assists, and was the team's clutch player in the closing minutes of each game.  Amazing performance.

[GuyFormerlyPSBBG]

After a long absence, during the football season, I am back. I really do want to be more active, it was tough the last few months, the company I work for was in the midst of move, I was doing the job of 3 people.  Luckily, now it is 2 people doing the job of 3.

Anyway, I've been generally impressed with the play of the USASouth.  I really think conference is wide open this year.  I think there will be about 4 teams looking to get the title this year, with Ferrum as the front runner.

Quickly, on the Women's side, I think the play of Greensboro and CNU in recent years is starting to pay off for the conference.  GC and CNU are in the mix along with AU, MU, and FC. Meredith and Shenandoah could make a good push.

There are a good core group of coaches in this conference.  I am very excited for the future within the conference.

[CaptJ]

PSBBG -

I agree with you that it SEEMS like a good start for the USASAC teams but if you look at our record as a conference you will see that we're .500 collectively.  Compare that to the ODAC where they are 24-11 (.686) collectively.  That is the kind of strength that I wish we had as a conference.  Is it going to happen before the USASAC goes through massive changes?  I don't think so.

[CaptJ]

There goes the .500 record for the conference.  There is no question that the USASAC is vastly inferior to the ODAC right now.  Will it change?  Maybe... there have been periods when the opposite were true.  I'm not sure what is going to have to happen to make it change though.  You can't win just because you want to.

OUCH!  Va. Wesleyan 79 - CNU 57.  It is really getting old losing to these guys every year.  We were totally dominated by the Marlins.  We never challenged the entire game.  As usual we were killed on the boards.

Patience, CaptJ.  Patience.

GO CAPTAINS!

[CNUHoops2010]

Wow!  I'm not sure how to describe this game.  VWC toyed with the Captains for about 8 mins then turned on the jets.  That 21-5 run in the first half put CNU away and the rest was damage control.  18 turnovers certainly didn't help the cause.

I am now an officially frustrated fan.  43-27 on the boards won't work.  I carped often last season about the need for rebounds.  I'm no Bobby Knight with the X's and O's but the team that controls the boards controls the game.  It's been that way since Neismith put up the peach basket. 

I was hopeful that this season would be different.  Although Lynchburg was close, we've now been outrounded in all 3 games with the last two by double digits.  VWC rebounded almost as many of their own shots as we did (18 offensive for Wesleyan v 23 defensive for CNU).  You can't run 4 guards and an undersized forward on the floor at this level and expect them to dominate the glass.  It won't work.  VWC wasn't even a particularly large team but they did seem to be about 2" bigger than us at every position.

I've been watching this new system now for three games and am a little confused.  It seems like Conley is the only guy playing his natural position.  Mike Green is not a true center.  Capin, Granger and Conley all look like classic shooting guards to me.  Nobody looks like a PG who can push the ball up the court and break down a defense.  Tra seems like a wing and not a post player.  The bigs were mostly planted on the bench.

Ok, I'm done now.  I've now had my one rant for the season and promise to be better from now on.  Let's hope for a strong rebound weekend.

Your Still Loyal CNU Fan

[GuyFormerlyPSBBG]

A few thoughts.

D3hoops, love the redesign.  Good Job.

USASouth, on the surface the redesign looks good.  How can you not compile the stats together to include some important team stats, (rebounding margin, asst/to, etc.)  The old stat system was better.  I didn't really care if it took a week to get the stats updated, but I could at least compare everything.

As for the ODAC vs the USASouth, no argument that from top to bottom ODAC is stronger, but the top 3 teams the USASouth are 6-2 (.750) against the ODAC.  Honestly, though ODAC may have done well early on, but they haven't had a very strong schedule.  (Some of the games have been with SU and MU, but they are expected to compete for the title in the USASouth)

[CaptJ]

Wow!  I'm not sure how to describe this game.  VWC toyed with the Captains for about 8 mins then turned on the jets.  That 21-5 run in the first half put CNU away and the rest was damage control.  18 turnovers certainly didn't help the cause.

I am now an officially frustrated fan.  43-27 on the boards won't work.  I carped often last season about the need for rebounds.  I'm no Bobby Knight with the X's and O's but the team that controls the boards controls the game.  It's been that way since Neismith put up the peach basket. 

I was hopeful that this season would be different.  Although Lynchburg was close, we've now been outrounded in all 3 games with the last two by double digits.  VWC rebounded almost as many of their own shots as we did (18 offensive for Wesleyan v 23 defensive for CNU).  You can't run 4 guards and an undersized forward on the floor at this level and expect them to dominate the glass.  It won't work.  VWC wasn't even a particularly large team but they did seem to be about 2" bigger than us at every position.

I've been watching this new system now for three games and am a little confused.  It seems like Conley is the only guy playing his natural position.  Mike Green is not a true center.  Capin, Granger and Conley all look like classic shooting guards to me.  Nobody looks like a PG who can push the ball up the court and break down a defense.  Tra seems like a wing and not a post player.  The bigs were mostly planted on the bench.

Ok, I'm done now.  I've now had my one rant for the season and promise to be better from now on.  Let's hope for a strong rebound weekend.

Your Still Loyal CNU Fan

I'm also frustrated but I'm still very optimistic.  I think the fish are simply a much better team than the Captains are right now and there was NOTHING that Coach K could do to change that.  Sometimes the weaker team can figure out a way to make it close but sometimes they can't.  When that happens the result is a blowout like we just saw.  I'm definitely NOT going to get impatient with Coach K and his new system and coaching style.  He has been successful everywhere he's gone.  We're 2-1.  When I first saw the schedule I was hopeful that we would be 1-2 out of the blocks.

Hoops2010; you seem a bit sympathetic to the plight of the big guys on the roster.  It's just something that I've detected in your posts.  Who are you?  Are you on the team?  Do you have friends on the team?  You seem to have an alliance with them that is becoming obvious.  There is nothing wrong with that.  If I was best buds with the worst player on the team I would be lobbying for him to get more PT.  I'm just wondering what your motivation is.

GO CAPTAINS!

[CNUHoops2010]

CaptJ -  I'm a little surprised to see that you are calling me out personally.  I thought this string was about USA South basketball teams.  Doesn't anyone with an opinion have an inherent bias?  I vaguely remember someone calling for CJ's ouster twice a week all last season.  Ring any bells?

For the record, I am a small business owner with business interests at the University.  I have relationships on campus and in the Freeman Center.  I donate to CNU although Tribble has not decided yet to put my name on a campus building.  Maybe next year.  I am an avid college sports fan and began following CNU teams a few years back.  This year alone, I've seen football, baseball, basketball and soccer games.  I even attended a volleyball match to stay well rounded.  I love the winning traditions CJ has established at the school.  Winning 70% of the games across all sports year after year is an incredible accomplishment especially given the fact that everyone one of these kids is a volunteer athlete.

My views are formed from a combination of experience, game observations and studies of the stat sheets.  I am a former athlete and post player so I have an admitted appreciation for the benefits derived from a big and strong front line.  I freely admit that. 

As I have said before, teams that play tough defense and rebound well control the tempo of the game.  I hated to see it but what Mitchell and Sanborn did to the Captains last year was impressive.  It's demoralizing to see the big guys reroute shots and snap down 18 rebounds.  Coach K's 24-5 team averaged 5 more rebounds per game last year than the opponents and was +95 on the offensive glass while giving up only 58ppg.  I know he worries about CNU's totals in these areas.  I just happen to think that this small ball stuff where guards play almost 70% of the minutes is better practiced here locally in the Peninsula District but that's just one reporter's opinion.

At the end of the day, nothing I say or write is really all that important.  I just enjoy venting a little and this is a great forum.  My life will go on next week despite whether Preston or Farris see any time at the 5 this weekend.  Coach K is very smart and will play who he feels gives him the best chance to win.  He is the only guy I know that is held accountable for the team's W/L record.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving.

[CaptJ]

I am a former athlete and post player so I have an admitted appreciation for the benefits derived from a big and strong front line. 

That's all you had to say, dude.  I didn't call you out personally.  Relax and enjoy your turkey.