Insider: Checkin’ in from the Lou

Posted on January 13, 2009 by wallis

Happy New Year to everyone from St. Louis! Yesterday was the first day of classes in the spring semester. While you’d think most students dread going back to class, the first day of class is the best. Most professors only hand out a syllabus and give a brief introduction to the course–all typically followed by letting everyone out early!! Yesterday both my Advanced Accounting Problems and Israeli Politics courses got out early so I’m in a good mood heading to practice.

A lot has happened since I last checked in. We topped Fontbonne, who was then undefeated and playing well, and then beat another SLIAC team in Eureka. We took on Elmhurst in the championship of their tournament and lost our first game of the season. They played a great game and did everything they needed to do to win. We did a great job limiting Brent Ruch inside, but just his presence opened up the perimeter for their shooters. It was a pick your poison type day as they shot 50% from three and escaped with a close victory. I know they’ve lost two close games in the CCIW already, but I’m sure they’re not an easy match-up for anyone they’ll play.

While we took the loss on the chin, I’d be looking forward to get another crack at them in March. Pretty crazy we were 3-1 against Illinois Wesleyan, Augustana, Elmhurst & North Park—four of the teams I figured would be near the top of the conference—but they are a combined 2-8 in conference play so far—I guess it’s a long season.

We got a nice week-long winter break and went back to campus December 29, two full weeks before regular students got back. Being alone on campus is actually really fun and relaxing. We do a lot of lounging and TV watching. This year a few of us started watching Sopranos from season one on DVD, while others caught up on the last Entourage season they missed. We tried to find different ways of keeping ourselves entertained—including mastering Super Smash Brothers on N64 (Pikachu is my character), dressing up classy for a New Years Eve Party with the women’s basketball team, and growing out intriguing facial fair (see picture of Zach Kelly at bottom of blog).

We got back in action with a win at Webster to start off 2009 on a good note. This past weekend we traveled through the snow to Chicago for our conference opener. Talking to Matt Corning, their go-to-guy, before the game I realized how frustrating it must be to go through what they’ve been through the past few months. Coming off a UAA title and only losing a few pieces, I figured they’d be a little down from last year—but the coaches still picked them to finish SECOND in the conference. Moral of the story: they are the most talented 0-12 team in NCAA History, any division, any gender—seriously. Am I saying they should be 10-2? No. But how they’ve escaped the W column I’m at a loss for words. Anyway, they kept it close for the first half but we slowly pulled away with some good execution in the second half.

Overall, things are going great for us. We’re first in the country as a team in assist-to- turnover ratio and second in assists per game (which is practically first since it is behind GRINELL!!!). I don’t think it is a coincidence either—our offense puts us in great positions to have everyone be successful. I think the special thing about our team is that we really “get it”. We know what we need on certain possessions and know who is capable of doing what. We have a lot of depth off the bench and are two-deep at almost every spot without losing much. Most importantly: we’re 11-1 and haven’t played our best basketball yet.

Looking forward to more conference play in the next few weeks!

Take care,
Sean

P.S. BASKETBALL TRIVIA QUESTION: I don’t know the right answer but was hoping this would be the place to get it–so please respond with your thoughts–It may take a referee to answer it. One of our players bounced in a ball from half court in a shoot around and we had a good 15-minute debate:

Wash U is down two with a second left and a Wash U player catches the ball off a Chicago FT miss at one end of the court and fires a one handed baseball pass high in the air the full length of the court. While the ball is in the air, the buzzer for the end of the game goes off. The ball then bounces inside the three-point line (untouched by anyone else since the full court throw) and then into the basket.

1) Would the basket count since the ball hit the ground after the buzzer went off but was shot before the buzzer went off?
2) If it counts (or even if it didn’t), would it be considered a three-pointer since the player’s feet were clearly behind the line when it was thrown, or would it be a two- pointer since it bounced inside the three point line before it went in?

Zach's really cool facial hair.

Insider: BVU takes streak to Dubuque

Posted on January 13, 2009 by bvuhoops

It has been a while since my last blog. A lot has happened with the Buena Vista basketball program since that time. The conference season is in full swing and we are coming off a very intense, one point, overtime, victory over the Central Dutch last night. No matter how skilled the teams are, when Buena Vista and Central play, it is always a battle. The Dutch did a great job and it was one of those games that could have gone either way.

Our program, now 12-1 (4-0 IIAC) took a trip to California over Christmas break. We all had about nine days off from basketball before Christmas. On Christmas night we all came back to Storm Lake, had practice and we were off to Omaha bright and early the next morning. We visited Hollywood Blvd., Universal Studios, and even had a chance to catch a Clippers game in the first two days we were there. I couldn’t tell who was even playing, because we were about 10 rows away from the very last row, but it was a great time. Later on in the week I experienced my first ocean. I had never been to the ocean before so the team took a trip one morning to a beach by Malibu. It doesn’t take much to excite me, but I really enjoyed it.

We went 2-0 in our two games in California. We found ourselves down 7 with about 45 seconds to go in the first game and somehow managed to get the game tied and won it in overtime. Senior Matt Cleveland had the best game of his career as he had 29 points and 12 rebounds. The second game was a battle all the way through. We managed to take a lead late and make free throws to hold on to a 3 point “W.” Andre Wagner was awarded all tournament team. His ability to create his own shot off of the dribble is amazing. I sometimes catch myself just standing there watching him. Matt Cleveland was named MVP of the tournament which was well deserved. He was hands down the best player on the court in both games. His ability to shoot outside as well as down low makes him very hard to guard.

As proven last night every game in the Iowa Conference is going to be a battle. We all know that every team is going to come out and play their best against us. We head to Dubuque on Wednesday to play a very solid Dubuque team. They are having one of their best seasons since I have been around and it is going to be a lot of fun!

Insider: Baruch on a roll

Posted on January 1, 2009 by baruchhoops

The fall semester is over, class and finals are done (Thank God), but our season is in full swing.

A lot has changed since the last time I wrote to you. During the last blog, we were 3-2, coming off a heart-breaking loss to Farmingdale State in which we blew a 24-point lead. Well, we have played six games since and guess what; we have won all six highlighted by beating the then 14th-ranked St Mary’s of Maryland Seahawks.

It’s been a great run so far but it all comes back to the Farmingdale loss, which in my opinion has been the most important game we played all season. Now you might think I’m crazy saying a demoralizing loss is the most important game we played but hear me out. That game changed our mentality as a team, after that loss, we had a great week of practice and the focus changed. We knew we were a good team but hey, we were only 2-2, we needed to start showing it.

Practice was brutal the next couple days, we had to get back to the basics (Every player knows when your coach says we need to get back to the basics; practice is not going to be fun). In the game versus Farmingdale, they just wanted it more than us, out working us, getting to all the loose balls, all the hustle plays that are crucial to winning close games.

So at practice that week, Coach Ray Rankis pulled out all the stops, every loose ball drill, every box-out drill, taking charges, you name it, we did it.

Needless to say, everyone had bruises and floor burns covering their legs and arms. As much as practice was a grind, it worked. Since that game, we have won seven in a row, highlighted by wins against Stevens Tech, Rutgers-Newark, York, and St Mary’s (Md.). Because of that game, we take nothing for granted anymore, no matter how much we are up or down, we keep the pedal to the metal and keep our focus.

This couldn’t be more evident then in our win versus Rutgers-Newark. This was the exact opposite of the Farmingdale game, where we were down 17-2 to start the game and things were not looking good to say the least. We came out flat and Rutgers-Newark played extremely hard on defense getting plenty of steals and had a couple of big dunks that had us rattled.

Rutgers got comfortable and took their foot off our throats and we crawled back into the game, and we only trailed by three at the half. The second half was a battle with several lead changes and great plays back-and-forth. Our point guard Lionel Hilaire hit two huge shots to secure the road victory.

So we are now 9-2 and 2-0 in the conference and feeling real good about ourselves. We head to Florida to play Wisconsin Lutheran in the Emory Riddle Tournament. It’s always fun to travel with teammates and play new teams. I’m especially excited because as I write this blog, it is snowing and 25 degrees outside, the forecast for Daytona Beach, Florida is mid-70’s!

In my opinion, this is the best time of year for a college basketball player as class and finals are done, and all we have to worry about is basketball. Practice, lift and play a game…it doesn’t get any better than that. We are like professional basketball players for a month.

Just to tell you something about Baruch that I think a lot of you will enjoy and be envious are that due to our location in Manhattan, when many NBA team come to New York City to play either the Knicks or Nets, they need to practice, so various teams come to Baruch to use our gyms.

About two weeks ago, the Dallas Mavericks practiced at our gym for their game against the Nets. It was really cool watching Dirk and Jason Kidd practice. Dirk not only makes every shot he takes, they rarely hit the rim!

Sorry for the delay on this second post with finals and the holidays I didn’t have much time to write but the posts will be more frequent now that I have a lot more free time.

If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at Michael.Dietz@baruchmail.cuny.edu or visit BaruchAthletics.com. Also, check You Tube for highlight videos where our manager has posted various games (the ones we win!).

Have a Safe and Happy Holiday Season!

– Mike Dietz

Insider: Back on track by Christmas

Posted on December 17, 2008 by Megan Scheele

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.

Insider: Winnin’ & Havin’ Fun

Posted on December 9, 2008 by wallis

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.