Fast Break Basketball: UC Riverside

[Vince]

Great job GB! Good luck next year, even if it is the Big West again.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Final 2008 Mid-Continent Conference Standings

                                CW  CL   Pct   W   L   Pct
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 UC Riverside                    8   6  .571  22  10  .688
 Oakland                         8   6  .571  19  12  .613
 Tennessee State                 8   6  .571  17  14  .548
 Western Illinois                8   6  .571  14  15  .483
 Loyola-Chicago                  8   6  .571  13  17  .433
 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi        7   7  .500  11  18  .379
 Chicago State                   5   9  .357  12  17  .414
 Morehead State                  4  10  .286  10  19  .345 

[Godzilla Blitz]

Final Stats 2008/09

Here’s the numbers on the team:

 
UC Riverside  Player Averages

Name                Pos   G GS  Min  Pts OReb  Reb  Ast  Stl  Blk   TO   Fl
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Gustavo Ortega      PG   32 32 25.0 12.0  0.3  3.0  2.9  1.0  0.0  1.7  2.0
 David Hart          C    32 32 29.3 10.9  1.8  8.5  1.4  0.4  1.8  2.2  2.6
 Roland Payne        PF   32  0 18.4  9.7  2.0  4.9  1.2  0.3  0.0  1.3  2.5
 Erasmo Pellegrino   PG   32 28 23.1  9.5  1.1  3.8  2.0  0.6  0.1  1.3  1.8
 Jospeh Weidner      SF   32 32 22.5  7.8  1.5  3.9  1.2  0.6  0.1  1.2  2.5
 Floyd Wilkerson     SF   23  0 16.1  6.6  0.8  1.4  1.0  0.6  0.0  1.0  1.6
 Alphonse Huckaby    SG   32  4 21.8  6.3  1.5  3.3  1.8  1.6  0.4  1.4  1.8
 Andrew Moss         PF   32 32 20.1  4.6  1.9  4.7  1.0  0.4  0.1  0.8  2.3
 Steven Macomber     PG   32  0  9.4  3.4  0.3  1.4  0.9  0.5  0.0  0.8  0.7
 Joseph Breault      SG   31  0  9.6  3.0  0.6  1.7  0.7  0.4  0.1  0.6  0.5
 Sonny Putnam        C    32  0 10.2  1.8  0.5  2.7  0.4  0.2  0.0  0.4  1.2
 Lazaro McCoy        C    24  0  1.7  0.5  0.0  0.5  0.1  0.0  0.0  0.3  0.3
 Harrison Augustin   PF   26  0  3.1  0.2  0.2  0.8  0.2  0.0  0.3  0.2  0.2
 Adam Maier          SG    0  0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0
 Eldridge Whittle    C     0  0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0

UC Riverside Player Shooting Stats

Name                  Pos   FGM  FGA   FG%  FTM  FTA   FT%  3PM  3PA   3P%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Gustavo Ortega        PG    124  261  .475   75  114  .658   60  120  .500
 David Hart            C     123  278  .442   71  132  .538   32   76  .421
 Roland Payne          PF    117  269  .435   77  132  .583    0    1  .000
 Erasmo Pellegrino     PG    106  268  .396   55   78  .705   36  126  .286
 Jospeh Weidner        SF     83  207  .401   64   84  .762   18   70  .257
 Floyd Wilkerson       SF     48   84  .571   32   40  .800   23   46  .500
 Alphonse Huckaby      SG     66  141  .468   46   74  .622   24   67  .358
 Andrew Moss           PF     58  118  .492   32   48  .667    0    0  .000
 Steven Macomber       PG     38   88  .432   19   36  .528   14   40  .350
 Joseph Breault        SG     33  110  .300   14   19  .737   13   53  .245
 Sonny Putnam          C      23   57  .404   12   29  .414    0    1  .000
 Lazaro McCoy          C       5    6  .833    2    3  .667    0    0  .000
 Harrison Augustin     PF      1    9  .111    2    6  .333    0    0  .000
 Adam Maier            SG      0    0  .000    0    0  .000    0    0  .000
 Eldridge Whittle      C       0    0  .000    0    0  .000    0    0  .000 

[Godzilla Blitz]

April 2009

Aaargh! We’re still stuck here in the Mid-Continent Conference! We get passed over for promotion! I guess the routine that decides who moves up when there is a tie is not necessarily based on who wins the conference? Maybe it goes by overall rank? Who knows. All I know is that we’re still stuck in the shitpile of the NCAA, while Loyola-Chicago has moved on to bigger and better things. Damn them. Damn us for losing that last game to Western Illinois. Damn this friggin’ crappy gym we play in.

On another down note, we learn that our school still has no money to upgrade our facilities. I am turned down again. Cheap bastards. This is the thanks I get for taking the team to the tournament? For winning the conference? For winning the conference tournament? For the first time, I consider jumping ship, and will look at the “job offers” screen. If there is something out there, I actually might consider it.

On a more positive note, I learn that I have advanced in personal rank! I am now a level 1 (of 15) coach! Wow! I get 20 bonus points to spend anyway I’d like. I end up like this:

My New & Improved Skill Set
Recruiting: 35 (+8)
Scouting: 23
Offense: 30 (+5)
Defense: 32 (+7)

I also am declared the Mid-Continent Conference Coach of the Year. This is my second such award. I got one way back in 2004 for coming into the conference and going 15-14. Little fish, little pond.

On another positive note, our prestige jumps six big points! We’re moving and shaking!

UC Riverside
Prestige: 17 (+6)
2009/2010 Goal: Compete for the Conference Championship

Whoa! Just look at this! They won’t give us any better facilities, but they want us to compete for the conference championship? At least they tell me they are delighted with my performance. Big deal. Pay up, guys.

And a little look at our short history:

UC Riverside  Historical Performances

Season    W   L  CW  CL Rank  RPI  Prs  Result
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2008     22  10   8   6  104  106   17  Loss in NCAA Tourney Round 1
2007     16  14   8   6  215  256   11  No Postseason
2006      9  20   4  10  324  324    8  No Postseason
2005     15  14   7   7  249  293    8  No Postseason
2004     15  14   4  10  242  280    4  No Postseason
2003      4  24   1  17  327  327    3  No Postseason 

UC Riverside  Trophy Case

Season   Trophy                                                           
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2008     Mid-Continent Conference Champion                                
2008     Mid-Continent Conference Tourney Champion                        

Lastly, our recruiting class last year earned us a #112 ranking.

Well, the stakes are higher now, as our board is putting a bit of pressure on us to win the conference. We’ve lost two good seniors this year, and are extremely thin at forward. I don’t think we’ll be able to take first place again, but I’d like to think we can make things difficult for whoever does win it all.

[Godzilla Blitz]

May 2009

Well, no one wants to hire me, so I guess we’ll stick with UC Riverside.

It appears that our staff has all jumped up a level in talent as well. Ordinarily, this would be a good thing, but at this level of the basketball world all it means is that they are ripe pickings for the teams above us. Within two weeks, we lose our recruiter and our assistant coach. We replace them with the best we can find at the bottom end of the pay scale, but we’ll have taken a slight hit in talent.

2009/10 Staff
Recruiter: Kerri Davie (34 years old) Skill: 40 (same as last year)
Scout: Solomon Porch (37 years old) Skill: 35 (+6 from last year)
Asst. Coach: Chauncey Zendejas (48 years old) Offense: 41 Defense: 35 (-6 total from last year)

Zendejas is a step down from last year, but overall we should be ok with these guys.

[Godzilla Blitz]

June 2009

Well, we move up a rung and schedule more games against slightly better opponents. This will be our “away” year, where we schedule quite a few home/home series where we start out as the away team.

Also on the schedule this year is the Calis Classic I: UC Riverside vs. New Hampshire, and the Vince Classic I: UC Riverside vs. UC Santa Barbara. I'd schedule an RPI Classic I, but Wichita State would slaughter us.

Here’s the whole thing:

UC Riverside  2009 Season Schedule

  Date      Opponent                           Result         Record        
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  11/15/09  at Nicholls State                                               
  11/19/09  at New Hampshire                                                
  11/23/09  at Morgan State                                                 
  11/27/09  St. Peter's                                                     
  12/01/09  at Stephen F. Austin                                            
  12/04/09  at Norfolk State                                                
  12/08/09  Coastal Carolina                                                
  12/11/09  UC Santa Barbara                                                
  12/15/09  North Carolina A&T                                              
  12/20/09  Bethune-Cookman                                                 
  12/24/09  at Mount St. Mary's                                             
  12/29/09  at Manhattan                                                    
  01/02/10  Florida A&M                                                     
  01/07/10  Chicago State                                                   
  01/09/10  at Western Illinois                                             
  01/14/10  Morehead State                                                  
  01/21/10  Oakland                                                         
  01/23/10  Western Illinois                                                
  01/28/10  at Tennessee State                                              
  01/30/10  at Chicago State                                                
  02/04/10  Northern Arizona                                                
  02/06/10  at Morehead State                                               
  02/13/10  Tennessee State                                                 
  02/18/10  at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi                                     
  02/20/10  at Northern Arizona                                             
  02/25/10  at Oakland                                                      
  02/27/10  Texas A&M-Corpus Christi                                        
  03/02/10  VMI                                                             

[CrashDavisSports]

You may be thin at forward and think you can't compete, but how many players did the other teams in the conference lose?

Loving your posts, keep up the good work.

[hollmt]

im hurt...no hollmt Classic???

[RPI-Fan]

Hey! I'm at GTech now.

[Godzilla Blitz]

JAG, Calis: I was amazed we stuck with Oklahoma as long as we did. I never expected we'd be down only 2 points with three minutes to go, or tied with six minutes to go. Yikes. Just a bit more luck, and we could have had a huge upset.

Calis: Yeah, Hart is finally gone. Whittle and Putman look to be pretty good though, and I'll try to add another center this year.

Vince: The Big West wouldn't have me! I just checked, too, and UC Santa Barbara is still there. No promotion/demotion for them yet.

Crash: Thanks! Is there an easy way to tell what teams lost what players? We really only lost two good players, but they were big ones. Our biggest problem is backup power forward, where we suck. I'll redshirt Putman this year, too, so that will leave us thin at center. If we play exceptionally well, I may think about taking the redshirt off of Putman to give us more depth.

hollmt: I thought you were following a bunch of recruits through college, but just noticed that you've changed gears and have taken over Navy. I'll try to start a Hollmt Classic I next year!

RPI: Yikes! Just caught up with your dynasty (I didn't see your latest posts). GTech would crush us! I'll have to run that one by the administration next year, but we might have to wait a few years for an RPI Classic I.

[Vince]

Sweet, the Vince Classic

Good luck in the conference this season. I have to say, your posts are awesome. You give enough information to keep people abreast of what is going on, and yet it's simple enough to skim within five minutes and be completely up to date even if you've missed a bunch of updates at a time. You're really making me want this game

[hollmt]

hollmt: I thought you were following a bunch of recruits through college, but just noticed that you've changed gears and have taken over Navy. I'll try to start a Hollmt Classic I next year!

oh im doing both...gotta keep things fresh so as not to get stale with one thing however, i am a bit more "in to" my Navy dynasty as i have more to actually do with it.

[Godzilla Blitz]

July 2009 – October 2009

Preseason Recruiting

We have guards up the ying yang, but we desperately need forwards and a center. We’ve got four scholarships to give out, and we absolutely must land at least one decent power forward and one decent small forward. In a perfect world, we’ll land a good center and a second small forward to fill out our class.

We scan the recruiting pool. Things look grim. There is only one small forward, a two-star recruit, that has good interest in our program. Yikes. Fortunately, we have a touch over $9,000 a month to work with now for recruiting, so we can examine a larger pool of players. We evaluate as many three-star recruits at forward and center as we can find. A couple of months in and things start to look better, as we have found a three-star recruit at center, small forward, and power forward for whom the evaluation sparked strong interest in our program. We immediately make scholarship offers to all three, and start bombing them with visits.

Just as training camp starts, we land PF Winfred Garcia, the #340 player in the nation. That takes care of our most critical need for next year, and we breathe a huge sigh of relief. The other two recruits—C Jason Hamilton and SF Richard Hand—still have us at #1 on their lists, so I’m hopeful we’ll land both of these guys soon as well. That would leave us to work on the one remaining small forward spot as we work through the season.

[Godzilla Blitz]

November 2009

Here’s our team for this season:

 #   Name                  Pos  Cl   Ht     Wt   Hometown
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 14  Lazaro McCoy          C    Sr   6'11"  261  Ganado, AZ
 35  Eldridge Whittle      C    So   6' 9"  239  Las Vegas, NV
 0   Sonny Putnam          C    So   6' 8"  226  Las Vegas, NV (redshirt)
 23  Andrew Moss           PF   Sr   6'11"  246  Fullerton, CA
 15  Harrison Augustin     PF   Jr   6'10"  260  Pelham, NY
 31  Ronald Presnell       PF   Fr   6' 9"  258  Birmingham, AL
 12  Floyd Wilkerson       SF   Sr   6' 6"  243  Abernathy, TX
 34  Jospeh Weidner        SF   Jr   6' 8"  237  Long Beach, CA
 41  Alphonse Huckaby      SG   So   6' 4"  219  San Diego, CA
 11  Adam Maier            SG   So   6' 6"  185  Clearfield, UT
 42  Tyson Mestas          SG   Fr   6' 3"  175  Elko, NV (redshirt)
 20  Erasmo Pellegrino     PG   Sr   6' 0"  180  San Diego, CA
 24  Gustavo Ortega        PG   Jr   6' 4"  214  Riverside, CA
 2   Chris Hernandez       PG   Fr   6' 0"  175  Bellflower, CA (redshirt)
 54  Thomas Welch          PG   Fr   5' 6"  168  Lovelock, NV 

Roster Evaluation
Overall, we’re extremely talented at guard, solid at center, extremely thin at power forward, and respectable at small forward.

At center, I’m going to try to get by with Whittle and McCoy, and let Putnam redshirt for a year. I’m hoping Whittle, who is a solid player, can eat up a lot of minutes and give us some solid play. Moss is strong defensively, and owns the power forward position; with two walkons behind him, he’ll get as many minutes as his body can take. Both Weidner and Wilkerson are top notch small forwards; each will see equal time there. There are so many possible guard combinations, but Pellegrino and Ortega will share the duties to start the season. Huckaby is talented as well, so he’ll see a lot of minutes at both positions. I’ll redshirt two of our freshmen guards, but Welch, who has outstanding handling and passing skills, will see playing time this year.

Overall, we can put a good front five on the court. My biggest concern is our lack of depth at PF, where we really drop off when Moss isn’t on the court. I’d be happy if we are above .500 on the year, and above .500 in the conference would be nice as well.

On to the season we go…

[JAG]

But Welch can back up Moss...his 5'6" frame will really let him bang with some of the bigger forwards in the conference (read: all of them).

He's short, but he's wiry!

[RPI-Fan]

Uh-oh, started at 4:00 in the afternoon. The addiction is setting in.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Vince: I can't say enough good things about this game. There is enough depth so that the game is challenging, and yet not so much depth that you feel like you're lost in all the details, or that you have to micromanage anything. It's got a perect mix of complexity and simplicity, and is variable enough to let you dig in more (coach your own games) or less (hit "recommend" for any of the stuff you don't like doing), depending on your preferences. If you like text-sims, I highly recommend trying the demo.

Thanks for the kind words, too! One of the things that I find difficult when writing dynasties is balancing the details. Too much is overwhelming and no one cares anyway; too little and no one has any idea what's going on. I'm glad the balance in this one works for you.

I do have to add, though, that the print feature in this game rocks. You hit "print" and it instantly opens a notepad file with the text right in it. I don't know why more text-sims don't do this. It makes doing dynasty reports a breeze and is so much faster than "print to file".

holmmt: I'll go hunt down that other dynasty of yours!

JAG: Humm, that's a thought. His inside game is good (58), too. He sucks at rebounding (29 off, 19 def), though, and his inside defense (16) is weak as well. What do you think? (EDIT: Oh, wait. You were joking, weren't you.)

RPI: I'm busted! Um, I just took a "quick break". Really! Only 30 minutes. I'm not addicted. *twitch, twitch*

Actually, to be honest, I wrote the previous two posts last night. I did manage to play the first half dozen games of the season in a 30-minute break just now, but I'll have to write those up and post them tonight.

[JAG]

LOL Hey, that's a pretty good inside game for a 5'6" guy. I can just see the headlines now though..."Loyola-Chicago sets NCAA record for blocked shots in victory over UC Riverside"

[Calis]

Dang, that's weird you didn't get promoted.

Heh, the Calis Classic, I dig it!

In my UNH career, I've played Riverside every single year, and the 2008 season was the only time I actually WON. They've got my number. Usually they're winless until playing me.

You putting Gustavo at the point? Or moving him to SG because of the size?

Man, you're making me hate my dynasty, excellent posts man, as usual.

[RPI-Fan]

Ortega has really become a pretty solidly-built guy, while Pellegrino is still small. Gustavo came in at 6-3, 200, but grew an inch and gained 14 pounds (FWIW, I've had guys gain 20+ pounds). Erasmo never really worked on his conditioning, it seemed... I always love looking at little details like that...

[Godzilla Blitz]

November 2009

Results

  Date      Opponent                           Result         Record        
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  11/15/09  at Nicholls State                  W 70-64        1-0           
  11/19/09  at New Hampshire                   W 87-68        2-0           
  11/23/09  at Morgan State                    W 81-74        3-0           
  11/27/09  St. Peter's                        L 71-66        3-1           

Freshman PG Thomas Welch gets 15 points in 17 minutes of playing time to lead us in a solid win over Nicholls State to start our season. The Calis Classic I doesn’t live up to its name: SG Huckaby gets 16, PG Ortega gets 15, and PG Pellegrino get 14, as our guards rain the threes in a one-sided victory. Later in the week, Ortega gets 21 points as we pull away from Morgan State late in the second half to win our third in a row. We come home, go cold from the floor, and lose a squeaker to St. Peter’s for our first loss of the year.

We finish the month 3-1, but play much better than I expected. We’re working an outside game to let our guards shoot, and so far it’s been effective. It looks like any game where we shoot well, we’re likely to win, but if we shoot poorly, we don’t have the inside game to compensate. Our season will rest in our accuracy.

Recruiting
Neither one of our two targets commits, despite us blowing over $6,000 on a campus visit for SF Richard Hand, who hails from New York. Ungrateful bastard. We keep after them, as we still look to be #1 on both their lists.

[Godzilla Blitz]

JAG: Yeah, Welch is a bit on the wee side for forward. But he would probably be better than the two guys behind Moss.

Calis: I don't know what happened with the promotion, but I remember reading something over at HR's forums that the computer uses a formula to determine the most deserving team to advance when there are more teams to advance than openings ahead of them. I know how USC feels.

Ortega can't pass as well as Pellegrino, so Ortega gets shooting guard.

RPI: Do you know if size matters? Wait, that didn't come out right. Well, you get what I mean?

[Godzilla Blitz]

December 2009

Results

  Date      Opponent                           Result         Record        
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  12/01/09  at Stephen F. Austin               W 74-61        4-1           
  12/04/09  at Norfolk State                   W 60-50        5-1           
  12/08/09  Coastal Carolina                   W 79-70        6-1           
  12/11/09  UC Santa Barbara                   L 74-61        6-2           
  12/15/09  North Carolina A&T                 L 66-49        6-3           
  12/20/09  Bethune-Cookman                    L 73-67        6-4           
  12/24/09  at Mount St. Mary's                W 71-59        7-4           
  12/29/09  at Manhattan                       W 73-69        8-4           

PG Gustavo Ortega continues his hot hand as he leads the team in scoring in three straight wins over Stephen F. Austin, Norfolk State, and Coastal Carolina to start the month. However, UC Santa Barbara comes to town for the Vince Classic I and outshoots us by a wide margin to end our short streak. Next, we open a 25-9 lead against North Carolina A&T, but go stone cold from the floor after that to lose again, and then follow that with another horrible shooting performance to lose to Bethune-Cookman and drop our third in a row.

We tweak our lineup a bit to give Ortega more playing time, and he responds with 20 points in a strong win over Mt. Saint Mary’s, then 25 points in a hard-fought win over a pesky Manhattan.

We end the month at 8-4, good enough for a half-game lead in the conference. Interestingly, we have yet to lose a road game, but are only 1-4 in our crappy gym.

Recruiting
Bingo! Both SF Richard Hand and C Jason Hamilton commit to UC Riverside! Both are three-star recruits, and we will need their help up front next year. I offer our last scholarship to PF Carmelo Alexander, a three-star recruit with a cool name. I have good luck with the cool names.

[tucker342]

hmmmm, I wonder if Carmelo Alexander will be like they other Carmelo we all know and love

[Vince]

**Busy being torn about GB's squad losing to UCSB**

[RPI-Fan]

GB:

HR told me that it does have an effect. I didn't really ask in much detail exactly how much.

[Godzilla Blitz]

January 2010

Results

  Date      Opponent                           Result         Record        
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  01/02/10  Florida A&M                        W 89-80        9-4           
  01/07/10  Chicago State                      W 65-54        10-4 (1-0)    
  01/09/10  at Western Illinois                L 80-72        10-5 (1-1)    
  01/14/10  Morehead State                     W 69-58        11-5 (2-1)    
  01/21/10  Oakland                            W 88-58        12-5 (3-1)    
  01/23/10  Western Illinois                   W 80-59        13-5 (4-1)    
  01/28/10  at Tennessee State                 L 93-83        13-6 (4-2)    
  01/30/10  at Chicago State                   W 69-65        14-6 (5-2)    

Ortega continues to impress, as he gets 21 points in a home win against Florida A&M, then scores 15 points in the first 6 minutes of the second half to bury Chicago State in our conference opener. 4-9 Western Illinois--who cost us a clean conference championship last year--is up next, and once again they have our number: they hold Ortega to a mere four points in a frustrating loss. We get hot after that: C Eldridge Whittle gets a double-double to get us back on track in a solid win over a weak Morehead State team; Ortega leads us with 21 points in a rout over Oakland; and Whittle gets another double-double in a payback demolishing of Western Illinois at home. Our run stops against first-place Tennessee, though, where we fall behind, fight back, then fade at the end and lose. In our last game of the month, we get a huge lead against Chicago State, then fight off a furious rally to edge out the win.

We end the month at 14-6 overall and a solid 5-2 in the conference. Both Tennessee State and Texas A&M Corpus Christi lie a half game in front of us at 6-2. Once again it looks like a dogfight for the title!

Recruiting
So much for the luck with the cool names: PF Carmelo Alexander blows us off for Stanford. However, a chance assistant-coach visit to a three-star British small forward by the name of SF Raji Schaffer pays off: his interest in our program rockets. I make the trip to England to personally offer him our last scholarship of the year.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Tucker: Unfortunately, we'll never know about Carmelo.

Vince: It's ok. I understand. You can be happy. We'll line 'em up again next year. They shot very well from the floor, by the way.

RPI: Thanks!

[RPI-Fan]

You lost to Tennessee State?!?!

The same TSU team that lost 94-53 to Georgia Tech (real-life) on Saturday?! Man, you guys suck.

Seriously, great job GB. Keep fightin' for the title.

[GoldenEagle]

Must stop reading the report....its talking me into buying it...when must spend money on girlfriend for christmas...

AHHHH!!!

[Godzilla Blitz]

February 2010

Results

  Date      Opponent                           Result         Record        
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  02/04/10  Northern Arizona                   W 84-83        15-6 (6-2)    
  02/06/10  at Morehead State                  L 66-57        15-7 (6-3)    
  02/13/10  Tennessee State                    L 81-76        15-8 (6-4)    
  02/18/10  at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi        W 64-57        16-8 (7-4)    
  02/20/10  at Northern Arizona                W 81-74        17-8 (8-4)    
  02/25/10  at Oakland                         W 69-63        18-8 (9-4)    
  02/27/10  Texas A&M-Corpus Christi           W 85-75        19-8 (10-4)   
  03/02/10  VMI                                W 71-60        20-8          
  03/07/10  vs. Chicago State                                               

Down by 10 points to Northern Arizona with 5 minutes to go, Gustavo Ortega goes on a unforgettable tear, as he scores 13 points in a 14-3 end-of-game run that gives us a thrilling one-point victory! Wow! The joy is short-lived though, as in our next game, last-place Morehead state goes on an incredible 26-0 run early in the first half to put us in a hole we can never climb out of. Tennessee State nearly extinguishes our title hopes by outplaying us at home and sending us to yet another loss.

Things look grim: we’re now in third place, 2.5 games back of Texas A&M Corpus-Christi and 1.5 games back of Tennessee State, with only 4 conference games to go. Yikes. The fates would shine upon us though, as we beat Texas A&M Corpus-Christi, Northern Arizona, and Oakland all on the road, while Tennessee State and Texas A&M Corpus Christi falter against the bottom half of the conference. With one game left, we find ourselves at 9-4 in the conference and locked in a three-way tie for first.

In our last conference game, Floyd Wilkerson scores 24 points, as we jump out to a double-digit lead at home against Texas A&M Corpus-Christi, then hold steady to win! Amazingly, Western Illinois, our nemesis, helps us out by pulling off a three-point, upset win over Tennessee State! Our win and the losses by both Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Tennessee State leave us in sole possession of first place! We did it! We run the table in our last four conference games to come back and win the title outright! WOW! It’s anti-climactic, but in a meaningless end-of-season non-conference game, Eldrige Whittle gets a double-double to lead us in a solid win over VMI.

We end the month at 20-8 overall and 10-4 in the conference. We’ll have the first seed in the upcoming conference tournament, where we’ll host last place Chicago State. We’ll be looking for our second trip to the dance!

Recruiting
In disappointing news, SF Raji Schaffer spurns us for Wisconsin. Crap. There really isn’t much left in the recruiting pool that works for us. Rather than recruit at a position of little need, or recruit garbage, we take some risks on the best recruits on the board at small forward and power forward. We offer a scholarship to SF Jimmie Hobson, but I highly doubt the talented boy will turn down Hofstra and Deleware to come play for us. No biggie, though, as I’m willing to eat the scholarship until next year.

[Godzilla Blitz]

RPI: Hey, Tennessee State has had seven years to improve over the present. They're not bad in 2010!

GE: Kill two birds with one stone: buy your girlfriend the game.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Oh, poopy.

I think I made a biiiiiig mistake.

I needed to restart my computer. I had this game running in the background. I hit restart computer. The game popped up and asked if I wanted to save, I said "yes", and then my computer shut down.

Now, when I open FBCB, the saved game doesn't show up on the saved game list. Looking in the game's folder, the "league" file is missing. Somehow this doesn't seem like a good thing.

I have a backup file, but it's at the beginning of the this season.

EDIT: HR has just sent word that the file is toast.

What to do? Bang my head repeatedly on my desk, then go back to the beginning of the year? Or bang my head repeatedly on my desk, then start over with a new team? Such decisions.

If I start the year over, I just know Ortega will get hurt and we'll tank.

[Calis]

Ouch, that sucks.

/makes mental note to never do that.

Hmm, have you had an urge to start over with a different squad? That's tough. Man, you were having a killer season also.

Not sure what I'd do, but I'd say if you ever had an urge to start over, this is a perfect opportunity.

Don't know what I'd do.

[Godzilla Blitz]

March 2010

Mid-Continent Tournament Results

In the opening round, we shoot stone cold through thirty minutes of play against bottom-seeded Chicago State, and with 12 minutes to go in the game, we trail by 18 points. Our comeback starts there, but with two and a half minutes to go in the game, we’re still down by 9 points. Amazingly, we finish with a flare and manage to send the game into overtime, where we win by one point, 83-82. Gustavo Ortega scores a league- and team-record 35 points in the......................

I'm being violently shaken. I hear a loud voice. "Hey, you, bum, wake up. Your hooker paid your bail. You can leave now."

Huh? Oh, damn. What? I open my eyes. They struggle to focus in the dim light, but I am staring up at a large black man. He's wearing a police uniform. I'm inside somewhere. On a floor. There are bars behind him. My pants are wet with something. I've been lying in a puddle. The floor is cold. Oh shit.

"Let's go! I said you can leave now. You stay in that puddle of piss any longer and I'm going start charging you rent. Get your ass in gear."

I struggle up from the floor, but my head feels like a watermelon, and after I get off my knees, I stumble forward towards the policeman, who sidesteps me. My head clangs off the bars behind him, and I fall back onto my butt into the puddle again. What the hell happened?

"Jesus H. Christ. You alcholics are useless. I ain't got all day. Out we go." Huge arms reach under my shoulders from behind and pull my butt off the floor, turn me around, and then start dragging me backwards out of the cell. The policeman is a bit the impatient type. While he's dragging me down the corridor of the jail, my ringing head tries to piece things together...

I remember having a frozen chicken dinner in my Riverside apartment for Thanksgiving, then going to the gym to coach us against, um, St. Peter's, that's right, St. Peter's. We had three wins and no losses, but we couldn't hit a thing and St. Peter's dropped us to our first loss. We're three-and-one now.

After the game, I started the 15-minute walk back to my apartment, but stopped at River Rick's, the little dive just off the UC campus. I had a beer or two while I watched some ESPN, and...

...that's it. That's all I remember until now. Well, all except the dream, that felt so real that I could taste it. Damn. We didn't land those two recruits. No undisputed title. No comeback victory in the first round of the conference tourney. Damn. It's all vapor. But how the hell did I get here? I vaguely remember talking to someone at the bar, but I can't put a face on anything.

Anyway, one thing is clear. It's somewhere around the end of November, 2009, and I most likely still have a job to do: lead the UC Riverside basketball team out of this pit that is the Mid-Continent Conference.

(The crash wiped out everything from December 2009 on. I'll pick up the story from there, playing through everything again and taking whatever happens. I'll also be backing up stuff more often. )

Here we go again...

[Godzilla Blitz]

December 2009

Results

  Date      Opponent                           Result         Record        
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  12/01/09  at Stephen F. Austin               W 88-61        4-1           
  12/04/09  at Norfolk State                   L 70-65        4-2           
  12/08/09  Coastal Carolina                   L 65-51        4-3           
  12/11/09  UC Santa Barbara                   W 77-68        5-3           
  12/15/09  North Carolina A&T                 W 88-78        6-3           
  12/20/09  Bethune-Cookman                    W 88-66        7-3           
  12/24/09  at Mount St. Mary's                L 71-56        7-4           
  12/29/09  at Manhattan                       W 81-75        8-4           

PG Pellegrino gets 17 to lead us to an easy win over Steven F. Austin, but we go cold and falter against Norfolk State and Coastal Carolina later in the week. UC Santa Barbara comes in for the Vince Classic I, and we get back on track with a huge 19-point, 17-rebound performance from C Eldridge Whittle that carries us to a big win. Whittle stays hot in our next two games as well, as he gets 22 points and 12 rebounds to help us pull away at the end of tight game against North Carolina A&T and then racks up his third consecutive double-double as we blow away Bethune-Cookman. I tweak our lineup for our game against Mount St. Mary’s; we promptly get blown off the court. I untweak our lineup for the final game of the month; Ortega gets 17-points and Whittle gets another double-double to lead us to a comeback win over Manhattan.

We end the month at 8-4, an identical record to that of my “dream season”, although the route to get there was quite a bit different.

Recruiting
Bingo! Both SF Richard Hand and C Jason Hamilton commit to UC Riverside! Both are three-star recruits, and we will need their help up front next year. I offer our last scholarship to PF Carmelo Alexander, a three-star recruit with a cool name. I have good luck with the cool names.

Funny, I have a strange sense of déjà vu here.

[Vince]

Heh, nice recovery. Congrats on beating UCSB...Whittle's line is insane!

[JAG]

LOL I like the dream sequence. Glad you decided to continue with Riverside.

[Chief Rum]

GB stole the dream-sequence-to-save-a-crash from my old Kettering CM4 dynasty!

Good move, GB.

Good read. Keep up the good work.

CR

[corbes]

Hey, Godzilla, glad you picked it back up.

[Godzilla Blitz]

January 2010

Results

UC Riverside  2009 Season Schedule

  Date      Opponent                           Result         Record        
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  01/02/10  Florida A&M                        W 78-48        9-4           
  01/07/10  Chicago State                      W 93-70        10-4 (1-0)    
  01/09/10  at Western Illinois                W 66-60        11-4 (2-0)    
  01/14/10  Morehead State                     W 74-54        12-4 (3-0)    
  01/21/10  Oakland                            W 79-54        13-4 (4-0)    
  01/23/10  Western Illinois                   W 72-61        14-4 (5-0)    
  01/28/10  at Tennessee State                 W 75-59        15-4 (6-0)    
  01/30/10  at Chicago State                   W 88-71        16-4 (7-0)    

Wow! We open the month by roaring out to a big lead against Florida A&M and then coasting to a lopsided victory. We stay hot as our conference season starts: Center Whittle racks up a double-double to lead us in a rout of Chicago State; two days later Ortega scores 15 in a comfortable win over pesky Western Illinois; and later in the week Ortega scores 17 in a blowout of Morehead State. Things continue hot as we drive into the middle of the month: PF Andrew Moss leads us with 15 points in an easy win over Oakland; Whittle and Ortega each score 17 in a solid win over Western Illinois; and Ortega racks up 17 again in a smooth win over Tennessee State. We end our first ever perfect month with yet another easy win: this time Ortega gets 20 points as we bury Oakland.

It is here, however, that we get our first piece of bad news: power forward Andrew Moss fractures a hip and will be lost to us for a good chunk of February. The injury comes at our thinnest position, and the drop in talent from Moss to our next player is huge. I highly doubt February will be as easy a month as January was.

Nevertheless, we end the month at 16-4, with a perfect 7-0 record in the conference. Our current nine-game winning streak is our longest ever. We currently hold a two-game lead over Morehead State in the standings, and everything is clicking. At this point, I’m wondering if it wasn’t good luck that the game crashed!

Recruiting
Well, Carmelo blows us off (for the second time), so we redirect our efforts on SF Raji Schaffer of the United Kingdom. This is a long shot, but he’s the only good player left that doesn’t have a scholarship offer on the table. If we’re lucky, we can sneak him into UC Riverside before anyone else gets to him.

[Blade6119]

im glad to see our favorite nazi and spanish conquistador are doing well for you...too bad on carmelo twice...heres to not another repeat on raji.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Vince: Thanks! Yeah, Whittle is amazing on the defensive boards. He's averaging over 10 rebounds a game at the moment.

corbes, JAG: Thanks! It took a while to get motivated to redo the season, especially after everything turned out so well the first time.

Chief: Whoops! Sorrya about that. Didn't realize you had done the same thing. It was the easiest thing to do to get back on track, I figured.

Blade: I'm happy we got Hand and Hamilton again, though, as they were the most important guys. We should be ok next year with the three we've got so far.

[Godzilla Blitz]

February 2010

Results

UC Riverside  2009 Season Schedule

  Date      Opponent                           Result         Record        
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  02/04/10  Northern Arizona                   W 77-65        17-4 (8-0)    
  02/06/10  at Morehead State                  L 91-74        17-5 (8-1)    
  02/13/10  Tennessee State                    W 69-62        18-5 (9-1)    
  02/18/10  at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi        L 79-59        18-6 (9-2)    
  02/20/10  at Northern Arizona                L 76-68        18-7 (9-3)    
  02/25/10  at Oakland                         W 88-72        19-7 (10-3)   
  02/27/10  Texas A&M-Corpus Christi           W 86-67*       20-7 (11-3)   
  03/02/10  VMI                                W 64-56        21-7          
  03/07/10  vs. Western Illinois

  *Win clinches conference title                                            

Despite Moss’ absence from the lineup and early foul trouble by both Whittle and Ortega, SG Adam Maier scores 12 points off the bench as we defeat Northern Arizona to open the month. The magical run ends at Morehead State, though, as they rain threes on our parade and send us to a crushing defeat. SG Gustavo Ortega takes charge against Tennessee State, as he scores a team-record 29 points to carry us to a badly needed win. However, our offense collapses against Texas A&M Corpus Christi, and we blow a 15-point lead to third-place Northern Arizona to lose two in a row. Suddenly, we find ourselves in a critical situation: with two games to go, we’ve got a slim one-game lead over both Northern Arizona and Morehead State. We need some big wins.

We get PF Andrew Moss back in the lineup against Oakland, put six players in double figures, and blow their doors off. Two days later, we get five players in double figures in another blowout victory over Texas A&M Corpus Christi. The two wins end the conference season with authority, and give us our first undisputed conference crown! Yes! We defeat VMI in a meaningless non-conference game to end our regular season, but lose our backup center, Lazaro McCoy, for the season with a broken arm.

We end the month at 21-7, and win the conference with a sound 11-3 record. We’ll host last place Western Illinois in the opening round of the Mid-Continent Conference Tournament.

Recruiting
Raji Shaffer rejects us (again, as well), choosing instead to go to Princeton. We throw all our remaining efforts into an extreme longshot: four-star PF Jonas Borges. Our chances of landing him are next to nothing, as we are competing against some big schools. However, he is one of two remaining players that we would want, and I’d rather eat the scholarship than take on a marginal player for four years.

[Calis]

Grats on winning the conference! Great season, glad things didn't turn sour after the restart.

Here's hoping you don't get shafted on promotion this year!

C'mon Erasmo, show me something!

[Godzilla Blitz]

March 2010

Mid-Continent Conference Tournament Results

Western Illinois comes to town as the last seed in the tournament, but they start off the game red hot, and we find ourselves chasing them the entire first half. Towards the end of the half, they cool a bit, and we end up pulling to within two points. In the second half, they hit everything from the three-point line, and we are down by nine points with ten minutes to go. We storm back to tie with 3 minutes to go, then grab a three-point lead with two minutes left. However, it was not to be our day: they hit a three, get a two, and pick up another one on a foul in the last couple of minutes to knock us out of the tournament, 76-73. Crap. We lose to the #8 seed. Our season ends here.

Recruiting

Interestingly, PF Jonas Borges doesn’t commit anywhere. We’ve still got one chance to get him, and he is at least listening to our offers. We spend everything we’ve got on him, and hope for the best. I guess we’ll find out what happens at the beginning of the next season.

As it stands now, this is our final recruiting:

2009/10 Recruiting Summary

POS Player Name                 Star         National Rank
PF  Winfred Garcia              ***          340
SF  Richard Hand                ***          351
C   Jason Hamilton              ***          334

2009/10 Wrap Up

Well, the tournament loss was sure a disappointing way to end an otherwise fine season. Still, I am extremely happy with how the season turned out. By winning the conference outright, I am nearly certain we will get moved up a conference next year. Our recruiting went reasonably well, and we can look forward to three three-star recruits next year. We’re also a reasonably young team. Although we’ll miss PG Pellegrino and PF Moss, we’re deep at point guard, and have a new recruit to look forward to at power forward. Things are looking up. I’d like to think we can compete at the next level up.

I’ll wrap up with our final informational posts, and then head on to next year.

[Godzilla Blitz]

2009/10 Mid-Continent Conference Final Standings

                                CW  CL   Pct   W   L   Pct
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 UC Riverside                   11   3  .786  21   8  .724
 Northern Arizona                9   5  .643  16  17  .485
 Oakland                         8   6  .571  17  13  .567
 Morehead State                  8   6  .571  17  15  .531
 Tennessee State                 7   7  .500  12  17  .414
 Texas A&M-Corpus Christi        5   9  .357  13  16  .448
 Chicago State                   5   9  .357   8  21  .276
 Western Illinois                3  11  .214   8  22  .267 

[Godzilla Blitz]

Final Stats 2009/10

Here’s the numbers on the team:

 
2009/10 UC Riverside  Player Averages

 Name                Pos   G GS  Min  Pts OReb  Reb  Ast  Stl  Blk   TO   Fl
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Gustavo Ortega      PG   29 29 27.3 14.8  1.1  4.7  2.3  1.0  0.0  1.2  2.3
 Eldridge Whittle    C    29 29 29.1 10.1  1.1  8.9  1.1  0.9  0.1  1.9  3.0
 Erasmo Pellegrino   PG   29 29 23.5  9.9  0.8  2.9  4.0  0.8  0.1  1.7  1.8
 Jospeh Weidner      SF   29 25 22.2  8.6  1.6  4.1  1.4  0.5  0.2  0.9  2.1
 Andrew Moss         PF   24 23 26.7  7.6  2.3  6.0  1.4  0.9  0.1  1.2  2.5
 Floyd Wilkerson     SF   29  4 14.9  6.9  0.7  1.4  1.3  0.3  0.1  0.9  1.1
 Thomas Welch        PG   29  0 15.7  5.2  0.5  1.3  2.2  0.3  0.0  1.6  1.6
 Alphonse Huckaby    SG   29  0  9.8  4.8  0.6  1.7  0.7  0.7  0.1  0.3  1.1
 Harrison Augustin   PF   29  0  9.4  2.6  0.8  2.1  0.4  0.4  0.7  1.1  1.0
 Adam Maier          SG   29  0  6.7  2.4  0.2  1.1  0.4  0.4  0.0  0.5  0.7
 Ronald Presnell     PF   29  6 12.9  2.2  0.6  2.1  0.6  0.4  0.8  0.6  1.3
 Lazaro McCoy        C    28  0  6.6  1.4  0.4  2.4  0.5  0.1  0.0  0.4  0.6
 Sonny Putnam        C     0  0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0
 Chris Hernandez     PG    0  0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0
 Tyson Mestas        SG    0  0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0

2009/10 UC Riverside Player Shooting Stats

 Name                  Pos   FGM  FGA   FG%  FTM  FTA   FT%  3PM  3PA   3P%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Gustavo Ortega        PG    144  307  .469   80  111  .721   60  155  .387
 Eldridge Whittle      C     109  212  .514   74  119  .622    0    3  .000
 Erasmo Pellegrino     PG     95  254  .374   63   99  .636   35  115  .304
 Jospeh Weidner        SF     85  196  .434   52   56  .929   27   80  .338
 Andrew Moss           PF     75  136  .551   33   57  .579    0    0  .000
 Floyd Wilkerson       SF     69  160  .431   27   44  .614   35   92  .380
 Thomas Welch          PG     55  138  .399   29   44  .659   13   62  .210
 Alphonse Huckaby      SG     48   95  .505   22   28  .786   22   50  .440
 Harrison Augustin     PF     29   54  .537   17   29  .586    0    0  .000
 Adam Maier            SG     25   51  .490   11   12  .917    8   19  .421
 Ronald Presnell       PF     24   56  .429   17   24  .708    0    0  .000
 Lazaro McCoy          C      15   34  .441   10   20  .500    0    0  .000
 Sonny Putnam          C       0    0  .000    0    0  .000    0    0  .000
 Chris Hernandez       PG      0    0  .000    0    0  .000    0    0  .000
 Tyson Mestas          SG      0    0  .000    0    0  .000    0    0  .000 

Player Awards

For the first time, we get some player awards of note! We picked up the following:

  
  Jr. SG Gustavo Ortega     First Team All Conference
Soph.  C Eldrige Whittle    First Team All Conference

This is the first time our players win anything other than a spot on the all-conference freshmen team. Looking forward to having both of these players back next year.

[Godzilla Blitz]

April 2010

Party time at UC Riverside! We get promoted to the Ohio Valley Conference! After five years away from a level 2 conference, we make our way back to the level we started at. Let’s hope we can do better this year than we did seven years ago, where we went 4-24 and got dropped to level 1.

And the good news doesn’t stop there. For the third time, I am named the Mid-Continent Conference Coach of the Year!

And even more good news! Our prestige rises a stunning six points!

UC Riverside
Prestige: 23 (+6)
2010/11 Goal: Finish with at least a .500 conference record.

The board is still delighted with our performance, but they have adjusted our goals down to match the tougher competition we’re likely to face here at level 2.

Here’s a look at our history:

UC Riverside  Historical Performances

Season    W   L  CW  CL Rank  RPI  Prs  Result
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2009     21   8  11   3   95   85   23  No Postseason
2008     22  10   8   6  104  106   17  Loss in NCAA Tourney Round 1
2007     16  14   8   6  215  256   11  No Postseason
2006      9  20   4  10  324  324    8  No Postseason
2005     15  14   7   7  249  293    8  No Postseason
2004     15  14   4  10  242  280    4  No Postseason
2003      4  24   1  17  327  327    3  No Postseason 

UC Riverside Trophy Case

Season   Trophy                                                           
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2009     Mid-Continent Conference Champion                                
2008     Mid-Continent Conference Champion                                
2008     Mid-Continent Conference Tourney Champion                        

We get even more good news! I gained another level! I’m now a level 2 coach (out of 15). I get 20 more bonus points to spend on my abilities. I do this:

My New & Improved Skill Set
Recruiting: 43 (+8)
Scouting: 23
Offense: 36 (+6)
Defense: 38 (+6)

In minor news, our recruiting class was ranked #121 in the nation last year.

In the only piece of bad--or rather “non” news--we lose track of our last scholarship offer. He vanishes. Not sure where he went, but since he’s not on our roster, I can assume he didn’t make it to UC Riverside.

Well, I’m now 29 years old, and we’ve finally taken our first step towards the goal of winning a national championship. We’re playing in a little bigger pond now, and the competition is sure to be a bit stiffer. Let’s hope we can step it up to meet the challenge.

[JAG]

Very nice GB. Out of curiosity, what level are the coaches in your new conference for comparison's sake? (if you can see this information)