Monthly Archives: December 2008

D-III vs. D-II

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ST. PAUL, Minn. — I went to the St. Thomas men’s game at Concordia-St. Paul tonight and I didn’t see anything that immediately stood out as one team being on a higher level than the other.

Concordia was a little more athletic, but not huge. They did shoot better from three but they got killed on the boards. Their gym was nice but not spectacular. They certainly didn’t take better care of the ball.

The Golden Bears fell to a deceiving 6-5 tonight — I use the adjective because two of their losses are to Bowling Green and Georgia State. Obviously it’s far too early to know where they might end up, and with three games against ranked D-II teams to go, Concordia-St. Paul could end up anywhere.

My exposure to Division II is limited. In fact, I intentionally avoid games against D-II and NAIA schools because I would rather see two teams I cover rather than just one. So this was my first time seeing a D-III team playing a D-II team on the road.

And I wasn’t blown away.

Insider: Back on track by Christmas

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2008 is almost over, our season is underway, and Edgewood College is in full gear going into the New Year.  The team has gone through many obstacles and adversities to get here and have finally found ourselves and have been working well together.  We started off with the season with three non-conference games.           

 

Our first tournament was eye opening for most of the team, since many of them haven’t played basketball at the college level before.  I could tell they were nervous, I was totally nervous before my first college game and expected them to be also.  We played well at the tournament, the team got the first two games under their belts and found out what it was like to play at this level, and we found the things we need to work on to become a better team.  We lost both games, but found out how each other played and looked to using that in our upcoming game.

 

Our next game was against the No. 1 team in the nation, UW-Whitewater.  I know for the returners we wanted to redeem ourselves from the last time we played them; I do believe they scored a hundred points on us and so we weren’t going to let that happen again.  We knew it was going to be a challenge for us, but we love challenges and we had nothing to lose going in, this game could only make us better.  Whitewater was a tough team and had a well rounded one at that, but at half time we were only down by nine points.  The game went on and we continued to battle with them, but in the end they got the best of us and we lost by 19 points.  As a team we talked about what we could do to beat the number one team in the nation; we needed to shoot better and come up with more stops on defense and we would be right in the game.

 

At the end of November we finally played our first home game and our first conference game.  The team was looking forward to this and to playing Concordia Wisconsin.  They are one of our rivals and we didn’t lose to them by more than three points last year and did finally beat them for the first time in my career last year. Concordia beat us and it definitely wasn’t how we wanted to start off conference play.  This was a tough time for our team, we were 0-4, had two players out with knee injuries for the rest of the season, and now only have nine players active on our roster.  This wasn’t exactly how we wanted to start off our season and it was really hard to stay positive and keep everyone going.  But we made a commitment with each other that we would do this together and we can just keep working hard and it will get better.

 

I didn’t really want to talk about this, but Dave, our sports information director said I had to.  I’m on pace to break Edgewood College’s all-time scoring record.  I haven’t really thought much about it, because I just want to make sure the team keeps playing better, but I suppose it will be really cool if it happens. As long as we keep winning games, that’s all I’m concerned about. [SID note: Megan has 1,700 career points and needs 155 more to break the record.]

 

That Concordia game was our wake up call on how to work and play together as a team.  We knew we had to come together and get things done as a team.  That’s exactly what happened; we are on a three-game winning streak and know that we can work together and win as a team.  To me the first win is the hardest, but after we got that under our belts we continued on that path and have continued to win.  Our next game is on Monday against Lakeland.  We can’t wait to get back on the court and continue our winning streak on our home court.

Hoopsville Podcast: December 14th

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A somewhat shortened version of Hoopsville this week that was still jammed packed with interviews and reports from around the country. We talked everything from who will be the new number one team in women’s basketball along with great battles in the Midwest along with what is going on in many regions, including the Northeast, Atlantic, East, South, Midwest, and Great Lakes.

Guests included:
– Carnegie Mellon Coach Tony Wingen
– Texas-Dallas Coach Terry Butterfield
– Roanoke Coach Page Moir

And regional reports from across the country and other hot topics.

Hoopsville: Dec. 14, 2008

Insider: Winnin’ & Havin’ Fun

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It’s been a while since my last entry so here’s a run through of our recent games.

Last time I checked-in we were 2-0 and heading to Augustana for a #1 vs. #2 showdown. The game was a blast—playing in front of 2,000+ fans, most of which were yelling obscene things at me (side note: what does it mean to be called a dirty Serbian? I’m not even Serbian and I don’t think womens tennis pro Ana Ivanovic, who is Serbian, is dirty), brought me back to my days in high school.

Augie is a great team and they play incredible defense. Over the past three years we’ve developed a really great rivalry with them and had four games decided by just a few points. As much as I love seeing my AAU teammate Alex Washington and a few of the other guys from Augie, I’d have to say I wouldn’t mind if I don’t see them again this year on the court. We won a great game in overtime which made getting back from Rock Island, Illinois at 4 AM all worth it!

The next weekend we traveled to Anderson, Indiana, for our thanksgiving tournament. Cameron Smith is from Noblesville, which isn’t too far from there, so we ate thanksgiving dinner with his family. We took on Aurora in our opener and pulled away in overtime. They had some fantastic individual performances and didn’t play like a winless team. While they struggled at the beginning of this season, they’re going to compete for their conference championship and I’d expect them to get better as the season goes on.

In the championship game we played Anderson, a veteran team that had only lost to UW-Platteville by a few points a couple days earlier. We got into some serious foul trouble but were able to fight through the adversity to get a W.

This past weekend we were at home (FINALLY!!!) as we hosted the 25th annual Lopata Classic. Friday night we took on an undefeated Hamilton team in front of a pretty hostile crowd at the WU Field House. We played extremely well and I believe they’re a much better team than the final score indicated.

The next afternoon we took on a young, but talented Illinois Wesleyan team. The hardest part wasn’t physically being able to turn around and play a game the next day (because we were relatively rested from the night before) but having to prepare for them in such short period of time. They ran a ton of ball screen motion, which we were extremely unsure how to play against the entire first half. We’re a team that uses preparation and our coach’s scouting report really well. Normally we’ll use defensive drills in practice to prepare for what a team likes to do—but we weren’t able to simulate or really get a feel for their motion. At halftime we made some great adjustments and were able to contain what they did a little better. We were just able to get a few more stops in the second half, which was the only difference in the game.

I’d have to say because of sitting on the sidelines and my injury last year, I really have been looking at things in a different way this year. If a few years ago I had a game where I had eight turnovers (like @ Augustana) or didn’t make a field goal (like against Aurora), I would beat myself up over it. I would think about it a lot, it would get me down and I’d even have it in my head the following game. But this year is different for me—I can honestly say it isn’t about stats, getting double-digit assists or being the leading scorer on my team—I just want my team to keep winning. I want to contribute and be a key part of one of the best teams in the country—and through seven games I think I’ve been able to do that, even coming off a pretty brutal injury. If that means I need to be getting AT shots or put Ty in positions to score– then that’s great by me as long as that’s what will be great for our team.

We play against undefeated Fontbonne on Saturday which is always a good test. Then we head up to the Chicago area for a tournament at Elmhurst. If we can win our first game against Eureka, we will most likely take on Elmhurst in a battle of top-five teams. Sure hasn’t been an easy schedule—but I know we wouldn’t want it any other way!

I’ll check back before the holidays. Shoot me an e-mail at walliss@wustl.edu if there’s anything you want me to touch on in my next entry. Good luck on finals to all.

Take care,
Sean