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

Well — we did it! What a roller-coaster season for our program, our team and myself. The 2008 NCAA Division III men’s basketball national champions are the Washington University in St. Louis Bears — now that’s got a nice ring to it.

The weekend in Salem was a very memorable one. It was a little different the second time around (after having been there a year ago) because we were a little more immune to the media, the large arena and the atmosphere. Last year we may have been a little in awe of the entire situation before having even played our games. This year it seemed as if the team had a much more businesslike attitude and was able to turn on the focus when we needed to turn it on.

The people of Salem, the NCAA, and the ODAC really run a great show out there. After arriving Wednesday, each team does some community service on Thursday before practices. We visited a V.A. hospital, which was very neat. Immediately following that we went to a luncheon to honor Troy Ruths for his Jostens Award acceptance. It was SO special for our entire team to be at the presentation. Following that we had a few hours of downtime at the hotel before heading back to the Civic Center for practice. We practiced, and then stayed at the Civic Center for the annual banquet that night with all the teams.

The banquet is an opening ceremonies-esque dinner and reception for all the student-athletes. It features a coach and player speaking representing each team in addition to a pretty neat highlight video about each team’s road to the final four — which definitely gets the players ready to compete. The ODAC commissioner, Brad Bankston, gave my blog a nice mention during his speech — so thanks Brad, and thanks for helping put together such a great experience in Salem.

Friday features a little more relaxation and prep for Friday night’s games. After a morning shoot-around, most of us relaxed around the hotel while watching the Division I games. In the hotel they have a “Student-Athlete Lounge” featuring a couple of big screen TVs, unlimited water, Gatorades and snacks, and PS3’s for all the athletes to use during the day. It’s a very nice touch that all the players greatly appreciate.

After all the hoopla, it was finally time to play some basketball. Hope was a very talented team and we knew that coming into the game. Having played them last year, we had a good feel for their style and it definitely benefited us. The first half was pretty back and forth, but in the second half our team put on one of the better shows I’ve ever seen. Scoring 57 points in a half against a very good defensive team was borderline ridiculous. It was the start to our nearly flawless three halves of basketball. Aaron Thompson took over for a big stretch and following his jabs, Troy had three-point play after three-point play to deliver the knockout punch.

Now had I been playing in the semifinal, bed time would’ve been in the immediate future following the game, however, I was a coach, and lucky for me — I was assigned Amherst on the Monday of the prior week as my team to scout going into the weekend, while one of our other assistant coaches took Ursinus. I had watched three of Amherst’s games on DVD in addition to their semifinal game picking up on their sets and play-calls, offensive and defensive tendencies, all in addition to some individual personnel scouting. So instead of going to sleep, I was up until after 2 a.m. in Coach Whittle’s room with my “scouting cap” on.

It was pretty neat that Amherst was the first scouting report I’ve been the one to actually hand-write the plays. It meant a lot the coaches trusted me to carry that load for the national championship game. I now know how truly frustrating it is for a coach to be calling out a play from the bench during a game while yelling and yelling to a player on the floor that a back-door is coming, but he still gets burned for a layup.

Anyway, Saturday night we played by far our best game of the season. We frustrated them with our defense and we hit shot after shot on offense. People can say maybe we got lucky shooting so well in the National Championship game — but the bottom line is we were taking GREAT shots, and that’s all you can ask for. As the final buzzer went off it was complete chaos and as I ran out to center court to celebrate and jump with my teammates my leg definitely did not feel hurt!

I can’t count how many friends, player’s parents, professors, etc., have come up to me and expressed congratulations but carried on to say how “bittersweet” it had to have been for me watching from the bench as opposed to being on the court.

The championship wasn’t bittersweet. It was really sweet.

This championship was the first for the program here and wasn’t won just by the six guys that played more than 10 minutes in Saturday night’s 22-point win. It was won by each one of the players that have been here during Coach Edwards’ 27 years. It was won by every fan that has ever come out to support the program. It was won by all the coaches that have ever put time in to making the program better. It was won by each player’s parents that have trusted to send their kid to the University. It was won by every sports information director we’ve ever had here, from people like Mike Wolf, the school’s first, that left his job at Northwestern for the weekend to come to Salem, to our current SID Chris Mitchell. It was won by people like Justin Carroll, the Dean of Students, Mark Wrighton, the chancellor here at Washington University, and our athletic director John Schael, for all the support they’ve given the program over the years. It was won by the three fan buses of students that traveled 24 hours on the weekend to get to Salem to get to the games.

Maybe I didn’t play minutes in the final game, but I still won that championship — and celebrating that wasn’t bittersweet, it was really sweet.

The after-party was fantastic at the hotel. I enjoyed talking with D3hoops.com posters Walzy31 and Marty Peretz about future business plans. I had a blast talking smack about the green-weenies to Titan Q and talking with Pat Coleman and D-Mac. We got to mingle with a few Ursinus parents and Amherst players and coaches, which added to the experience. But most of all it was just great to sit back with the coaches, my teammates and their families and enjoy what had just happened.

The entire experience was a ton of motivation for next year — to get back there and do it again. My first day freshman year at Wash U we had convocation, a welcoming with everyone in the class of 2009 and their families, in our Fieldhouse. Looking up at the four women’s basketball and eight women’s volleyball national championships, Tyler Nading, who I had known for less than 24 hours, and I made a pact that we’d hang our program’s first banner before we graduated. Well Tyler, we did it… Now let’s make it the first of many.

Take care,
Sean

P.S. Thank you to Pat for giving me the opportunity to blog this season. It has been both therapeutic and enjoyable. As for doing it again next season — a contract extension is still in the works and I’m not allowed to talk about it without my agent’s permission.

Unfortunately I was unable to make the UAA trip this past weekend. The good news is my roommate Tyler Nading did and is making a guest entry for my blog this week. Congrats to Ty who became the 17th member of the 1,000 point club at Wash U in yesterday’s game at Emory.

Greetings from the Atlanta airport!

On the back end of a long four-day road trip, the Washington University men’s and women’s teams just want to get home! But the weather has another plan and our delay here should keep us out of St. Louis until well after midnight, which will make it really tough to wake up for 11:00 class tomorrow morning.

Sure, traveling is great, and it’s fun (and sometimes a relief) to get away from campus life for a weekend, but road weekends in the UAA can take a toll on a team. My weekend started out Thursday night taking a test in coach’s room in Cleveland (Case Western Reserve) with two other guys after trying to study all day on the plane and bus. We missed a full two days of class to travel, and at WU it isn’t easy to be MIA so often and still make the grades. Our guys usually spend a considerable amount of time studying on the road and can be seen weighed down with class books walking through the airport. It really isn’t just all basketball in the UAA, although the success of the conference may lead you to believe otherwise.

But don’t get me wrong, we still do have our fair share of fun running through the streets of New York (NYU), Boston (Brandeis), and Chicago (U of C). When we travel to these schools, we stay right in the heart of the cities and are able to walk around downtown, find a place to eat, and putz around for a while before curfew. For a lot of our guys it is their first time visiting these cities so flying over the skyline of New York can get pretty exciting.

This weekend was a good weekend for WU as we stole three out of four games between our two teams (two for the men and a tough loss for our girls today at Emory keeping us away from a clean sweep). I say “stole” because it really is tough to go onto another team’s court and walk away with a victory. On Friday night, we faced a fired up Case Western Reserve team in the first game of their annual “throwback weekend,” where they donned their old maroon Western jerseys and we played in the retired field house gym.

Case was in control for most all of the game, including a nine-point halftime lead behind strong guard play and outside shooting from Steve Young and Colin Mullholland. We stayed within striking distance though and got some miraculous play down the stretch from Troy Ruths (if you didn’t already know his last name you should spend more time on D3hoops), including 4-4 FT and a crucial steal with the game on the line, in order to escape with the win.

7:30 a.m. wake-up call to join our girls on the bus to Akron and 10:00 flight to Atlanta was tough on Saturday morning as most of us were still sore from the previous night. Coach Tim Whittle and freshman Spencer Gay didn’t mind though as it gave them a chance to show us around their hometown and spend time with family after 4:00 practice. Later, a bunch of us gathered in the hotel lobby to watch the slam dunk contest and other all-star weekend festivities. There is always some down time for us, so it’s no wonder how close our team gets by the end of the season. Lights were out by 11:30 to try to get some rest before our Sunday morning showdown with Emory. (I feel like I need to mention here how amazing the beds at the Marriott are. In all seriousness, sleeping becomes something to look forward to, especially after so much travel and basketball.)

Sunday morning proved to be just as tough as we thought it would be as the lead seemed to change several times in the first half. It’s always difficult to wake up and get energized for these Sunday games as they are so early and there are usually few, if any, fans in the crowd. This was the case today until a bunch of rowdy, shirtless Emory students stormed in midway through the first half with WASHUSUCKS! scribbled across their chests, which proved to be pretty entertaining. They proceeded to heckle us with information that they had found out about us from Facebook; “Ser-en-dip-ity” while I was shooting FTs, “Ross likes Fergie” while our PG Ross Kelley was bringing the ball up, and “Han-nah In-gram”, Cam Smith’s girlfriend’s name, while he had the ball. Both teams fed off this intensity and fought hard through regulation and into overtime. When all was said and done, we had pulled away after a key three-pointer by Aaron Thompson and some FTs down the stretch. After the game, I think we all just wanted to collapse in the locker room. Two games in 40 hours with a lot of travel in the middle had taken just about everything out of us. After a quick 15-minute dip in the cold ice bath, we hustled out to root our girls on in the second game of the double-header.

One thing that I wanted to make sure and talk about is the relationship that we develop with our women’s team. On all of these trips we share planes and buses, stay in the same hotels, eat at the same places, and are the other team’s only form of support in some gyms. It’s a nice opportunity to get to know these girls and share our experiences on the road in the UAA.

So next time you’re wondering how or why something wacky happens in the UAA, especially on Sunday afternoons, just remember that it is a long weekend for both teams and games can often come down to a simple test of mental toughness. Congrats to all of the teams in the UAA thus far and good luck. We’re rooting for you!

Take care,
Tyler

Thanks, Tyler. And I can’t tell you all how pumped I am to have first-row seats for Friday night’s heavy-weight fight for the D3 Championship BeltTM. –Sean Wallis

In my Dec. 6 blog, I responded to the poll on D3hoops and numerous message board posters debating how good Wash U would be with me sidelined. As most seemed to write us off after a loss to No. 5 Augustana and numerous close wins, I said that no one would truly be able to tell for another 3-4 weeks how good this team actually is and how good we can be come March. People needed to adjust to different roles and learn to do some different things before anyone could really evaluate. After this past weekend and the new No. 1 ranking- it’s pretty apparent that there doesn’t seem to be much of a debate of whether this WU Bears team is for real.

Maybe we lost 13 points and 7 assists a game, some intangibles and floor leadership among other things when I went down—but my injury didn’t take away what made this team so special last year and is still embedded in us this year: the never die attitude. I’ve been lucky enough to be on a ton of talented teams (including the 2005 Illinois State Championship team with Jon Scheyer and current teammate Zach Kelly) and I can honestly say that I’ve never been around a team that has had something so indescribable that believes no matter the situation we will win the game. I don’t know if it’s that we have such a high level of competitiveness but there comes a point that teams could throw the towel in, give themselves a pat on the back for competing and pack it up, but this team just doesn’t do that.

Trailing 69-62 with 1:37 left at Brandeis and reeling off the last nine points in a flurry to win 71-69 may seem completely ridiculous, insane and unheard of at first glance… but in retrospect, over the past two years we’ve had some eerily close games like that:

In Salem in the Final Four last year we trailed Virginia Wesleyan by nine points with just under five minutes left … in kicks the never die attitude … we went on a run to take a two- point lead with 2:45 left on the clock eventually falling.

Earlier in the year we were down 14 at Calvin with three minutes left, a point at which many teams throw the towel in… in kicks the never die attitude… we cut the lead to four with 59 seconds left before eventually falling.

After I got hurt we were down 11 with 3:58 to play against Augustana … in kicks the never die attitude … we cut close the gap to just two points with 40 seconds left before losing.

The difference was at Brandeis we actually came all the way back to win so everyone noticed! I think the moral of my story is that while yes, me being hurt may have taken away a lot of things our team did at the beginning of the year, we didn’t lose the never die attitude. Add that to the fact that we have people (Ross Kelley, Danny O’Boyle and Moss Schermerhorn) playing their roles to perfection and our stifling team defense and we have a tough squad with or without me.

Are we the most talented team in the country right now? Probably not. Will we be ranked first in the country at the end of the year? Maybe. Will we be ranked first after we go on the road to #3 Rochester and Carnegie Mellon this weekend? I don’t know. But is this team going to listen to people telling them they’re not talented enough to win games when it counts on the road in the UAA and in March? I wouldn’t bet against us and our never die attitude.

On a personal note, today was my first day walking without crutches—which is very exciting. I’d like to send a good luck out to Jamie McFarlin of our women’s basketball team who is having surgery on her ACL this weekend. Also, check back next week my roommate Tyler Nading is going to write an entry about the experience of a road trip in the UAA.

Peace, love, and jumpshot,

Sean Wallis