02-10-2009, 11:27 PM | #101 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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I simmed to the end of the NCAA tournament again this year so some of this is going to occur out of order heh.
Coaching Carousel Some major conference jobs opened up this year. Mark Few going to Arizona is really the only notable thing that happened though. There were a LOT of changes this year and after 20 or so my name started popping up. My team will be the best its ever been next year so I have no intention of leaving, but I do go through it slowly to see who might be interested in me. UT-Arlington, High Point, E. Washington, Chicago State, Centenary, New Hampshire all offer me jobs in conferences a notable step up from ours. The MEAC has been ranked 30th out of 32 conferences the last two years. The A-Sun or Southern Conference would both be a step up. But as I said, I think better things are to come for me here. Last edited by Radii : 02-10-2009 at 11:27 PM. |
02-10-2009, 11:30 PM | #102 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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Assistant Coach Hiring
I fire my assistant that was average everywhere and bring on a guy who is a scout and a teacher: Kueth Dupre (Kueth, not Kieth, yup) - C- Offense, F defense, but B teaching and C+ Scouting. The teaching will help me with development which I need pretty badly. I keep my other coach, Eryk Newton, who is primarily a secondary recruit(B- Charisma). |
02-10-2009, 11:40 PM | #103 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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Coaching Skill Upgrades
I did not meet any goals this year and thus earn no additional points to improve my coaching abilities. Postseason Play Hampton beat Howard to win the MEAC Tournament, they earned the 14 seed in the South, to face 3 seed Alabama. 1 seeds were: Gonzaga, Memphis, Illinois, and Stanford. The final four consisted of 3 1 seeds, and a 7 seed. Gonzaga beat Stanford 87-82 in one semifinal. Illinois beat 7 seed Louisville in the other semifinal. In the national title game, Illinois beat Gonzaga 67-60. Awards Notre Dame's Luke Harangody was the player of the year, averaging 27.7 ppg. Gonzaga's Josh Heytvelt was the mid-major player of the year. Illinois' Bruce Weber won coach of the year. First Team All Americans: PG Eugene Harvey - Seton Hall SG Stephen Curry - Davidson SF Jonathan Rodriguez - Campbell PF Josh Heytvelt - Gonzaga C Luke Harangody - Notre Dame MEAC Awards Howard's SF Eugene Myatt was the player of the year, averaging 20.3 ppg. SF Spanky Schmidt of winston salem State was the freshman of the year, 7.8 ppg/6.7 rpg. First Team All MEAC: PG Joe Ballard - Florida A&M - 7.3 ppg/5.4 apg SG Austin Ewing - NC A&T - 16.3 ppg SF Eugene Myatt - Howard - 20.3 ppg PF Michael Freeman - Hampton - 14.7 ppg/7.8 rpg C Scott Hayes - NC A&T - 13.0 ppg/7.9 rpg Second Team All MEAC PG Joey Woods - Bethune-Cookman - 13.0 ppg SG Ed Tyson - MD-Eastern Shore - 15.5 ppg SF #10 (no name) - Florida A&M - 10.9 ppg PF Thomas Coleman - NC A&T - 9.1 ppg/9.8 rpg C Joseph Dorsett-Jeffreys - Norfolk State - 8.5 ppg/4.8 rpg We did pretty well in the conference award arena. |
02-10-2009, 11:43 PM | #104 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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2008-09 NC A&T Team Stats(players in bold graduating)
SG Austin Ewing - 16.3 ppg/2.8 apg C Scott Hayes - 13.0 ppg/7.9 rpg PG Tavarus Alston - 10.8 ppg/4.2 apg PF Thomas Coleman - 9.1 ppg/9.8 rpg PF Kam Shepherd - 6.7 ppg/4.2 rpg C Cato Cruz - 6.1 ppg/3.8 rpg SF Ed Jones - 5.8 ppg/3.7 rpg SF Robert Johnson - 2.9 ppg SF Nicholas Wilson - 2.5 ppg SG Angelo Hernandez - 2.4 ppg Jones was a starter, and Hernandez was my backup PG, so those losses will have some effect, but on the whole, we're returning the heart of our team and expect to be very good next year. |
02-10-2009, 11:58 PM | #105 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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Offseason Recruiting
As we get back into recruiting, we've landed 1 scholarship player already. We have 3 more open offers: PG Leandro Works - #611 OVR - Charlotte,NC - We have works at 100%. Wofford does also but we are the only school to have made an offer to him. I hope to land him immediately. SG Rodney Irvin - NR -Richmond, VA - Longwood has him at 100% and we only have him at 95%. We suspect he'll sign with Longwood right away, but we can make a play for himi if he doesn't for some reason. PG Boomer Shiloh - #536 OVR - Charlotte, NC - We only have him at 88% or so, but no one else has offered him. Campbell and Wofford are far behind us on his list, if one of them gives him a scholarship offer perhaps we lose, but we hope to still have a legit shot here. Past those 3 scholarship offers we have a couple other seniors we've been working on but we don't exactly have extra points to spend every week, so we probably will be looking at filler players the rest of the way. Recruiting Week 1 The expected happens in both places that I'd listed above. We sign PG Leandro Works on day 1! SG Rodney Irvin ends up at Longwood. Recruiting Week 2 The fallback guys I was working on sign elsewhere. I go after a 2* World recruit, entirely for the coaching point. A bit hokey perhaps but I cannot resist. Recruiting Week 3 PG Boomer Shilogh signs with NC A&T! Ranked #536 OVR, we scout him as a B shooter, so we're pretty excited about him. Our World Recruit never signs, we got him up to 95% but never 100%. Oh well. Incoming Recruiting class PG Boomer Shilogh - 6'1 - Charlotte, NC - #536 OVR - B Shooting, B+ Skills, B defense, B+ Athleticism. C+ Potential. PG Bracey Tafo - 6'0" - Winston Salem, NC - #662 OVR - C+ shooting, B Skills, B- Defense, B Athleticism, B- Potential PG Leandro Works - 6'1" - Charlotte, NC - #611 OVR - C+ Shooting, B Skills, C+ Defense, B Athleticism, B+ Intelligence, C+ Potential We'll see how they look after the season flip. |
02-11-2009, 12:02 AM | #106 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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Recruiting Class Rankings
1. Stanford 2. Pittsburgh 3. Duke 4. UConn 5. Texas Tech 6. Michigan State 7. UCLA 8. North Carolina 9. Marquette 10. Washington State Florida A&M has the best MEAC class, around #150, with 1 3* player and 2 2* players. NC A&T has the #2 MEAC Class, in the 165 range, with our 3 3* players. Bethune-Cookman is about 30 spots below us. |
02-11-2009, 12:09 AM | #107 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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Scheduling
Neato, since I get this random november conference game, the game won't let me add additional non-conference games in December. "You cannot have more than 2 non-conference games once your conference schedule begins" ... I've been playing 25-27 games while some teams play 30-32 in the regular season. I wanted to add a couple. I am playing in the "Deep Dish Challenge" this year which will hopefully add a game or two. I have tried to schedule fairly easy for the most part, but I also added some of the in-state teams that are a step or three above me. We're playing UNC-wilmington, UNC, and Duke this year. |
02-11-2009, 12:26 AM | #108 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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2009/10 North Carolina A&T Roster
STARTERS PG Tavarus Alston - SR - 57 OVR - Speed, Quickness, and ball handling is what we get out of Alston. Good stamina too. He is an average shooter who gets 90% of his points from the free throw line or in transition. SG Austin Ewing - SR - 66 OVR - Our best midrange and 3 point shooter, he can also handle the ball and is very quick. Average defender. SF Robert Johnson - SR - 56 OVR - I may end up going with a 3 guard lineup at some point but for now Johnson is my man here. He does nothing of note well, average defender, below average mid-range jumper, poor passer, average speed... yeah. PF Thomas Coleman - JR - 63 OVR - A beast on the boards, I'd like to elevate him to double/double averages on the season. Good inside, but not a great defender. C Scott Hayes - JR - 67 OVR - Our best close range shooter, a poor defender and only an average rebounder, he is 7'1" and eats up space with the best of them. Bench PG Leandro Works - FR - 60 OVR - I'm thrilled by the rating, but he doesn't look like a guy who will do a lot for me. He is an average defender so that will help the 2nd string quite a bit, and he is a better passer than everyone but alston, not as good a ball handler though. He is FAST. 92 SPD/83 QCK (alston/ewing are in the 83-85 SPD range). PG Boomer Shiloh - FR - 63 OVR - A better shooter than Works, but not a good shooter. He is the best defender on the team(DEF 81, most of our guys are in the low-mid 70s). His defense MIGHT make us a case for Alston/Shiloh/Ewing starting if I can handle going that small. He is also very fast and a decent ball handler. SG Johnny Colter - FR (RS) - 53 OVR - An above average defender and a fast player, also he's 6'5" which is the only non-post player with any notable size in our reserves, so he seems to be my SF by default. A very poor shooter though. PF Kam Shepherd - JR - 60 OVR - Shepherd is a better post defender than Coleman but is not a guy that looks like he can score a ton. Of course we've seen him be a spark off the bench many times before and hope he can continue to do that for us. C Cato Cruz - SO - 53 OVR - Another guy with bad ratings but he's a warm body inside. He can give us an edge over smaller teams and he eats up some space. Other players of note that we will have to deal with: PG Bracey Tafo - 51 OVR - FR - My 3rd recruit this year in addition to Shiloh and Works. This guy is a dud. Redshirting this year. Poor speed, he is an average defender and will probably come off the bench since we're losing Alston/Ewing after this season. SF Luicious Gooding - 52 OVR - FR - Gooding was in my recruiting class last year and redshirted. I usually stick with a 10 man rotation and cannot imagine Gooding seeing a lot of time on the floor. He can't shoot, can't defend and can't handle the ball. I like my recruiting class this year quite a bit compared to last season's where we really only got Hayes and 2 duds. This year we got two guys that are going to contribute immediately. We won't have a 3 point threat when Ewing leaves but we'll have some speedy guards to take over at least. |
02-11-2009, 12:44 AM | #109 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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2009/10 Recruiting Overview
We've got 5 scholarships to fill but are really only looking to sign 3 guys. I don't think we have enough recruiting points to go after 5 guys honestly. I have 4 guys I had been going after as underclassmen who all have more than 60% interest in me. Only one is at 70% though. I go through and add about 8 guys that I will try to guage early interest in before I offer scholarships. I also add a few juniors to my list this year to try to work on for next season. I end up targeting two 3* SG's, hopefully not going too big here, but these guys are the two targets I'm dumping everything I can into until I see reason not to. I get both over 80% very quickly. 3 weeks from the early signing period, SG Edmund Axton, a 3* SG from Annapolis, MD (ranked #144 OVR) has already visited campus and we've got him up to 91%. I've got one more visit I can use, and no one else has offered him yet. We're making a huge push here. SG Romeo Fitzgerald, #337 overall from Baltimore, MD is a bit more of a long shot. We have him at 84% and no one has offered him either, but it feels more likely that we won't be able to get him where we need to to land him. We offer our other 3 scholarships as well to 2* guys but we don't have enough time to put into them before the early signing period to have a chance. |
02-11-2009, 12:49 AM | #110 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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2009/10 MEAC Preview
Based on overall rating: 1. Hampton 70 OVR 2. Winston-Salem State 70 OVR 3. Howard 67 OVR 4. Morgan State 67 OVR 5. NC A&T 67 OVR 6. SC State 67 OVR 7. Coppin State 67 OVR 8. Bethune-Cookman 66 OVR 9. Delaware State 65 OVR 10. Florida A&M 63 OVR 11. MD-Eastern Shore 62 OVR 12. Norfolk State 62 OVR Some of the teams at the bottom are starting to fall and, while there's no giant separation at the top, Hampton and Winston-Salem State seem the teams to beat still. |
02-11-2009, 02:00 AM | #111 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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Kennesaw State (1-1) at NC A&T(0-0) I'll go ahead and knock out my first game tonight. Kennesaw State is rated 70 OVR. Hey, senior leadership! Our team unity starts the year at 39. K-State is at 31. It took me into January to get team unity that high last year. They have decent talent all over, including a SG who can shoot 3's pretty well.
Ewing was unconscious from 3 in the final 2 minutes, helping to cut a 12 point lead down to 3 but we didn't really have a chance to win. The final 3 came with 3 seconds left. Kennesaw State 101 NC A&T 98 This is one of the toughest opponents i've ever played. They had as much speed as me, 4 different guys who could hit the 3, and they rebounded really well. They were 10/24 from 3, had 12 offensive rebounds and 19 second chance points. The fact that we kept it closer than 10 is really impressive to me. On their side, Baldwin scored 25 total, only 8 in the second half, so maybe Shiloh's defense helped. On our side: Alston: 12 points/6 assists Ewing: 30 points/4 assists Shiloh: 11 points Coleman: 9 points/9 rebounds Hayes: 13 points/9 rebounds Shepherd had 8 and Cruz 7. |
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02-11-2009, 02:13 AM | #112 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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I really like the speed and extra defensive ability I have on the court with Shiloh starting:
PG Alston SG Ewing SG Shiloh PF Coleman C Hayes --------- PG Works SG Colter SF Johnson PF Shepherd C Cruz Works and Colter at the guard spots give our backups a lot more flexibility than I had last year, while having a defensive stopper(at least for this level...) for the first time should really help me out against teams that have one sharpshooter or one hot scorer that if I can slow down, I win. |
02-11-2009, 08:45 AM | #113 |
College Starter
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Roseville, CA
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If you don't get the guys you want, think about leaving a scholarship open for a transfer. I've started a new career and had 6 scholarships open. I left one open, partially for the transfer and partially because it was hard to fill that many spots. I ended up getting a good SG as a transfer. Looking forward to having him on the court next season. On the downside, there was a 4* player who must've had offers fall through and was interested in coming to Grambling. Unfortunately, I'd already filled my scholarships by the time I saw him.
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02-11-2009, 12:01 PM | #114 | |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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Quote:
Ahh, good tip, transfers happen immediately after the season, correct? So I'd need to have one that wasn't offered by the end of the NCAA tournament? |
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02-11-2009, 12:31 PM | #115 |
College Starter
Join Date: Dec 2000
Location: Roseville, CA
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02-11-2009, 02:51 PM | #116 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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November 17, 2009
Savannah State (0-4) at NC A&T (0-1) Savannah State is rated 70 OVR, a bit higher than us. They have two 6'11” big men starting, both freshmen, and both look pretty decent. Their PG, Monty Brodermann looks to be the only 3 point threat. SG Rod Mitchell is their leading scorer though, so we stick Shiloh on him. He's only averaging 10 ppg though, this doesn't appear to be a team with a big scoring threat anywhere.
Coleman had what I'm pretty sure is a career high today, as we finish off Savannah State and slow it down at the end. NC A&T 92 Savannah State 77 Solid game today all around. We outrebounded them 41-28 and got 62 of our 92 points in the paint. Alston: 15 points/3 assists Ewing: 15 points/5 assists Shiloh: 2 points/3 rebounds Coleman: 22 points/12 rebounds Hayes: 11 points/8 rebounds Cruz: 12 points Shepherd: 10 points |
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02-11-2009, 06:35 PM | #117 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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November 20, 2009
Jacksonville State (0-3) vs NC A&T (1-1) We're rated the same. They have a PG with 94 speed and a good close range shot, a very dangerous guy. SG JJ Wesley is a good 3 point shooter averaging 15 ppg. They have good speed at their first 4 positions and we're going to worry about them on the break. We have a size edge that we'll be trying to use against them. This is the first round of the 4-team “Deep Dish Challenge” at Depaul's Allstate Arena. The other two teams are Hofstra and Longwood.
After we get back up by 11, we never let them cut the lead below 9 again and pretty much coast to victory. NC A&T 80 Jacksonville State 71 Rebounding is again today a massive edge for us, 36-20. They went 8-16 from 3 which helped them close the gap after we'd gone up by so much in the first half. Alston: 16 points/7 assists Ewing: 11 points Shiloh: 5 points Coleman: 15 points/11 boards Hayes: 18 points/9 boards Shepherd: 9 points/5 boards |
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02-12-2009, 01:08 AM | #118 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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November 21, 2009
NC A&T (2-1) vs Hofstra (3-1) This is the finals of the Deep Dish Challenge. I don't expect to win, but it would be huge if we could pull the upset, as winning a non-conference tournament is worth a coaching skill point. Hofstra is rated 78 overall, they have an outstanding offense and are a great shooting team. They only have a team unity of 23, while ours is 43, which will hopefully help us out some in our quest to pull off the upset. They're a small team, their two big men are 6'7” each, giving us some hope of using our size over them. PG Darren Neverett – a true freshman rated 76 OVR, very fast, a great ball handler, and a good shooter. SG Daron Penigar – 77 OVR, an above average defender(probably average for the CAA but better than we're used to seeing) and a very good 3 point shooter, averaging 15 ppg so far. SF Billy Lamkin – a SG playing the 3 spot, a good shooer, great inside and in traffic, also with very very good speed. Their big men are rated 70 and 66 OVR.
We finally get a stop, and sink 2 free throws and put the game away! NC A&T 84 Hofstra 78 We've blown out inferior opponents before and played some close games against teams in our conference, but I think this is probably the best game I've ever played. It's certainly the first time I've beaten a team rated so far above me. The main thing that I like about this game is that we weren't just taking advantage of a slower team for tons of fast break points, which has earned us more than our fair share of wins. Once Hofstra came back late... in the final 7 minutes or so, we weren't out on the break at all. We were matching them basket for basket in the half court set and finding different ways each possession to get good looks. It also comes in the final of a tournament. An early season tournament that doesn't have any marquee names, sure. But for a team that has been a middle of the pack team in one of the worst conferences in the nation, its a big win. Their two stars come up big for them. Penigar has 23 and Lamkin has 21. They were a combined 5-15 from 3 though. Alston: 13 points Ewing: 15 points/6 assists Shiloh: 7 points/4 assists Coleman: 21 points/9 boards (17 second half points) Hayes: 16 points/7 boards |
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02-12-2009, 01:23 AM | #119 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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I'm pretty anxious to see how the early signing period goes, so i'm going to sim my next two non-conference games. I've got my random november conference game this week though, against Winston-Salem State, one of the favorites in the league, and I'm not about to sim that.
November 23rd: Montana State 68 NC A&T 64 We get 17 points out of Hayes and 15 from Ewing. Only 5 from Coleman, but 10 boards. Montana State has a 6'11" center who put up 20 and 12 in the game. |
02-12-2009, 02:31 AM | #120 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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November 28, 2009
Winston-Salem State(1-5) at NC A&T(3-2) WS State finished 1 game out of first place last year, and had the best recruiting class in the league by far 2 years ago, so its no suprise that their roster strength is at the top of the league. Scouting PG Brian Fisher – Scored 10ppg last year, averaging about 9 this year so far. A very good 3 point shooter. Only an average ball handler and below average passer for a point guard. SG Darius Floyd – 70 OVR rating, which will be one of the best in the league. 86 rated 3 point shooter, which may be the best in the league. He leads the league in scoring at 19 ppg so far. SF Spanky Schmidt – 72 OVR, last year's freshman of the year in the league. Good defender, good scorer, good size and speed for a 3. 7.5 ppg/7.0 rpg. PF Clayton Tsagarakis – only 6'5 so undersized at the 4 spot, hopefully setting Coleman up for another big day. A good inside scorer, but a very poor post defender. C Corey Morris – 62 OVR – not rated very highly, but he's 6'11” and takes up space. Hayes is a better player but the size will help them.
We get a stop and a bucket, they turn it over and we get another bucket and this one is ours! NC A&T 83 Winston-Salem State 73 I'd rather not be giving up big leads in the 2nd half, but once they went on their run, we played great ball down the stretch to secure the win. Another monster game from Coleman, this one even bigger than the last two. Their star, Floyd, finished with 25 points, but we held him to 3-11 from 3. Alston: 11 points/7 assists Ewing: 14 points/4 assists Shiloh: 14 points/3 boards Coleman: 27 points/18 rebounds (8... EIGHT! Offensive boards) Hayes: 8 points/3 boards We're 1-0 in conference play, a solid home win against one of the favorites to win the MEAC. |
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02-12-2009, 02:47 AM | #121 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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Early Signing Period
YES!!! We had spotted a highly ranked 3* SG interested in us and gone hard after him, getting him to 100% interest a couple weeks ago. it was just a wait to see if anyone else was going to make him an offer, and when they didn't, to see if he'd sign with us early. We got him, and now we wait til next year to see if he's a huge bust for some reason. SG Edmund Axton 6'3" 184 lbs Baltimore, MD OVERALL: #144 POSITION: #40 Scouting Grades: Shooting: B+ Skills: B+ Defense: B+ Athleticism: B+ Rebounding: B- Intelligence: B- Potential: B Size: B- And now you see why I was in a rush to quick sim the Montana State game and would have simmed out my next game were it not a conference game. With the discussion in the College Hoops 2k8 thread, I'm worried that there's going to be something terribly wrong with Axton since we seemed to land him so easily. But I guess we shall see. I lose a 2* SF to Longwood during the early signing week, and that's the only other action. My other offers: 3* SG Romeo Fitzgerald - #337 in the nation, also from Baltimore. I forget if there's pipeline's here... two 3* SG's from Maryland that seem to like me an awful lot. We had him over 90% interest, it dropped some when Axton signed, but he's at 87%. We'll easily get him to 100% by the end of the season, its just a question of if that's enough. He scouts as a B Shooter but C- from 3. I am worried that I'm not going to have a single good long range jump shooter anywhere in sight. 2* SF Ted Montgomery - #718 OVR, a decent shooter with good athleticism and size for the SF position(he's 6'8"). 2* PF Dominic Whitehead - This guy is a bit suspect. He's only 6'7", he's not a ranked recruit and all his skills are average. I really need to bring in some big men, given than Coleman, Hayes and Shepherd are all Juniors. This guy is probably not what I'm lookin for. And my 5th and final scholarship is being left open for a transfer. I have 5 juniors that I'm working on, including a 3* PG who is scouted as an A- shooter, and a couple other 3* guys. They may be long shots but I do believe I'll be able to get them all up over 70% by the time the next season starts. Last edited by Radii : 02-12-2009 at 02:58 AM. |
02-12-2009, 02:51 AM | #122 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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I had a game on the Saturday before the signing period ended and simmed it out:
December 5th, 2009 NC A&T 78 Gardner-Webb 72 Wow, overtime. Ewing scored 22. Coleman had 16 points/11 boards, and Alston scored 11. Hayes put up 8 points/7 boards. We're currently 5-2, though that will drop a bit before conference play gets in full swing. We have 5 games left, and two of them are at UNC and at Duke. Both are top 5 in the nation so far. the other 3 are hopefully winnable... or at least games we can compete in. |
02-13-2009, 05:31 PM | #123 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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December 7, 2009
NC A&T (5-2) at #4 North Carolina(8-0) I don't expect to play even the entire first half here but we'll see how it goes. They're rated 88 OVR.
Well, we tried, but we never got it below 9 the rest of the way. North Carolina 96 NC A&T 84 I'm not sure what to make of this game. I'm obviously thrilled to have hung with UNC for much of the game, but it also makes me wonder if I need to be adjusting any sliders, it seems like I shouldn't be able to hang with a team rated so much higher. Eh, we'll see down the road. Their star, Hoyer, scored 33, going 7-11 from 3. He didn't need much room to get up a good shot and we just couldn't close down fast enough on him. Alston: 11 points Ewing: 11 points Shiloh: 1 point Coleman: 12 points/8 boards Hayes: 16 points/11 boards Cruz: 15 points. |
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02-13-2009, 06:29 PM | #124 |
Pro Rookie
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Macomb, MI
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Congrats on getting Axton!
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02-13-2009, 08:52 PM | #125 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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thanks! I was almost certainly going to jump ship this year since my starting backcourt is graduating. I still might if I accomplish a good number of coaching goals and can improve myself a bit. But having such a highly ranked recruit come in, plus the fact that I have two speedy young guards(not as talented as the two that are leaving but still solid), plus the fact that Hayes and Coleman will be seniors next year and I could get monster years out of both of them... deciding to stay or go after this year at least isn't going to be a super easy decision.
I don't know how they did it, but in looking through the league leaders, Bethune-Cookman landed a 3* SF last season who was ranked in the top 150 overall, he came in as a true freshman rated 76 OVR and is the highest rated player in the conference. The possibility that I might have landed an SG who could show up like that is damn tempting. |
02-14-2009, 12:56 AM | #126 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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December 12, 2009
NC A&T (5-3) at UNC-Wilmington (1-5) UNC-Wilmington is rated 75 OVR, about 7 points higher than us. They are not really any better on offense than we are but are better on defense and rebounding according to the team ratings. They have a 6'8” PF and a 7'3” center(!!). The center, Clement Schultz, is rated very highly, is a good defender and is their leading scorer. Hopefully Hayes can hold his own against Schultz. Our other big concern is their SG, Montez Downey, a highly rated 3 point shooter, only averaging 7 points per game but we tend to do poorly against guys like this.
Ewing misses a mid-range 2 pointer our next time down, they make their free throws and we can't complete the comeback. UNC-Wilmington 89 NC A&T 82 They outrebounded us today, one of the few times that will happen this season. They scored more points in the paint, again we don't expect that to happen often, and they got 9 offensive boards and we only got 2. They also ended up with 9 blocked shots. Just a very strong performance inside by UNC-W. On our end, Ewing and Hayes tried to win it for us but just were too far off in the 1st half, Ewing espicially. Alston: 11 points/5 assists Ewing: 29 points Shiloh: 4 points Coleman: 11 points/5 boards Hayes: 20 points/7 boards 7 points from our bench today, one of the worst performances you'll ever see from my backups. |
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02-14-2009, 02:39 AM | #127 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Join Date: Jul 2001
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One of my goals this year, in a year when I'm trying to rack up as many coaching points as possible, is to get through the season with no unhappy players. I've used 4 pep talks so far and they seem to work really well since my Charisma is A+. All of my players but one have a confidence of above 50% for now. I just used 3 on guys that were hovering near 30%. I've been trying to rotate my 11th and 12th man into the games a little bit more often lately to keep them happy, and that just leaves my 4 inactive guys. I'm hoping I can keep them all happy without too much trouble. December 18, 2009 NC A&T (5-4) at Binghamton (3-6) Binghamton is rated a little lower than us and we hope for a good road win here. Our team unity is flying high at 48, about where it has been at the end of the last two seasons. We've got a big edge there as theirs is 31. Binghamton has a 7'1” center that we will have to worry about. Their PG, Darshan Trammel is rated 69 OVR and is a pretty good scorer. He's not excessively fast or a particularly good defender, so I am not real worried about him. Their SG is a very good defender for this level, again not super fast so we can hopefully get out on the break a bit. He's not a big 3 point threat either, and only averages 8 ppg. The rest of their guys look fairly terrible. The 7'1” C is rated 56 OVR and is a terrible defender. Their 6'7” PF isn't much better. I am going to be looking for Coleman to have a monster game here.
We fall apart in the final two minutes. No chance. Binghamton 91 NC A&T 77 Seriously looking at the rosters I would have predicted that we would win this game by 20. They just didn't miss,and they defended inside a lot better than I anticipated. They shot 56%,hit 9 3's(despite only having one player I would have deemed capable of being a good 3 point shooter), and outreboundedus 34-29. Just terrible. Alston:19 points Ewing: 12points/4 assists (3-14shooting... awful) Shiloh: 1 point Coleman: 23 points/9 boards Hayes: 15 points/9 boards Alston was awesome when he was able to get out on the break. He abused his man and scored every time he got the ball. 8-8 from the field. But there was no secondary break on those long rebounds and Ewing was ice cold, forcing us to score inside every time we were in the half court set. |
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02-14-2009, 02:56 AM | #128 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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I sim out my last two non-conference games, as I expect to lose them both:
Campbell 101 NC A&T 77 Campbell's Jonathan Rodriguez was an all american last year and he's back for one last year. He's averaging 31 points and 10 boards so far this year. He scored 44 on us. 19 from Coleman, 19 from Hayes, 17 from Ewing. Duke 82 NC A&T 55 22 from Ewing. Coleman scored 1 point. That makes us 5-7 entering conference play. Not as good as I'd hoped for. Our last 5 games have all been tough ones, with 3 pretty much guarenteed losses, but I was hoping to have a shot vs UNC-W or Binghamton. Looking ahead as my main goal this year has been to earn as many coaching points as possible, here are the ones I had set my sights on this season that we have yet to accomplish: 1) Win a non-conference tournament(completed already, hooray!) 2) Sign a world recruit - I will probably make a stronger effort to do this during the offseason 3) Go an entire season with no unhappy players - Should happen as long as I don't forget like last year. 4) Coach a conference player of the year - Ewing and Coleman are both potential candidates. I don't want to risk playing poorly to get them the ball more often than I normally would... but both have a shot. 5) Coach a team to a winning record - We'd need to go 11-7 or better in conference play. 6) Coach a team to 20 wins - We need 15 more. 12-6 + winning the conference tournament, or obviously better than 12-6 in conference play, would get us there. 7) Coach a team to a conference championship - I believe we have the best team in the league this year. 8) Coach a team to an NCAA Tournament bid - If wehave the best team we should be legit contenders to win our conference tourney. Now, I don't truly expect to make all 8 goals, but I have already earned one and really expect that earning 4 or 5 is not unreasonable. I fully expect this team to go undefeated at home in conference play, and there are some bad teams at the bottom that I expect us to beat, which should allow us to have a winning record and win 20 games, in addition to having no unhappy players and winning the preseason tourney. |
02-14-2009, 11:51 PM | #129 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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NC A&T (5-7, 1-0 MEAC) at Bethune-Cookman (5-5, 0-1 MEAC) Scouting They're rated a little below us, play poor defense and don't shoot quite as well as we do. We have a nice team unity edge as they start a couple young guys and have no seniors on the team. PG Joey Woods – JR – 63 OVR – Adequate shooter, above average defender, decent speed. 11Ppg, one of their leaders. SG Churchill Horner – SO – 55 OVR – terrrible 3 point shooter, slow, above average defender. - 6 ppg SF Horace Trayborn – FR – 58 OVR – Looks to be a weak spot on the team all the way around. 5.5 ppg PF Henry Walcott – FR – 78 OVR – This is the best player in the league, a 3* recruit Bethune Cookman brought in last year. Solid defender, very good scorer inside, the one good thing is that he's only 6'7” so hopefully that negates his edge a bit. 11.7 ppg/11.3 rpg C Kyle Cook – JR – 64 OVR – Only 6'7” so they're a bit small, I need to take advantage of that. Decent scorer averaging 7.8 ppg.
We allow Woods an easy layup on the next possession and Alston commits a pretty terrible turnover and we have to start fouling. We get it as close as 3 again, 77-74, but never get a chance to go for a game tying shot. Tough road loss. Bethune-Cookman 78 NC A&T 74 Their PG, Joey Woods, just got incredibly hot and we couldn't slow him down. He drained 2 threes with hands right in his face and when we tighten up to stop that he gets to the basket for layups. Woods had 26 points. Their rooke stud walcott had 11 points/10 boards/5 assists, quite a fine day. We had a balanced attack: Alston: 11 points/5 assists Ewing: 12 points Shiloh: 0 points Coleman: 14 points/13 boards Hayes: 13 points/7 boards Off the bench Cruz scored 8, and Shepherd scored 6 with 6 boards. Not the start we wanted to conference play after all those goals we talked about before the game. |
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02-15-2009, 01:11 AM | #130 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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January 11, 2010
NC A&T (5-8, 1-1 MEAC) at Delaware State (6-4, 2-0 MEAC) Scouting Another team rated a little below us. They also play pretty poor defense, their offense isn't very good either, but they are an outstanding rebounding team. PG Darrell Mosley – SR – 61 OVR – Below average shooter, average passer, good speed,good defense. 7.4 ppg this year. SG Marcus Neal – SR – 58 OVR – Below average shooter, really kinda poor all the way around. Obviously this means he is going to torch us. 4.2 ppg SF Kyle White – SR – 66 OVR – A good inside shooter and decent in traffic. Not a great ball handler or defender. 7 ppg, he's got a nagging injury as well. PF Robin Boxler – SO – 71 OVR – I remember this guy from last year, which is not a good sign. Very good inside scorer, great post offense, just average defense inside. Good rebounder. 10.3 ppg/8.4 rpg. He's 6'11”. C Roy Bright – JR – 60 OVR – not anywhere close to the player Boxler is, but he's also 6'11” and a good rebounder. 6.5 ppg/4.6 rpg. I seem to get burned by even very poor shooters in a zone, so we'll see how this works... I'm going to play a 2-3 zone against these guys at least to start.
We can't score again, and they don't miss. Delaware State 70 NC A&T 62 We're in a pretty rough patch here after starting out 5-2. We need a win to get us out of this funk, badly. Their PF Boxler was great for them on defense, and good enough on offense. 18 points, 17 rebounds and he just hurt us badly. 2 blocks and 2 steals too. Our defense did what it was supposed to. They were 6-25 from 3 on the game, and they committed 13 turnovers, many of them on bad passes into the middle of our zone. We just couldnt' quite capitalize enough. Alston: 10 points Ewing: 11 points (5/18 shooting, 1-12 from 3, the first 8 of them wideopen. I'm really struggling with him. Shiloh: 0points Coleman: 11 points/17 boards Hayes: 10 points/3 boards Cruz: 8 points/9 boards. |
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02-15-2009, 02:25 AM | #131 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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January 16, 2010
Maryland-Eastern Shore(6-7, 1-2 MEAC) at NC A&T (5-9, 1-2 MEAC) Scouting This is the game we need to get out of this slump, in theory. A home game against the worst rated team in the league. UMES is rated 62 overall and is not better than us in any facet of the game, even defense. PG Marc Davis – 61 OVR – JR - good speed and handling, not a huge scoring threat unless he gets hot, but he is averaging 11 points per game. SG Roland Dunston – 57 OVR – JR – Like Davis but a bit slower and a bit worse of a shooter. 4 ppg SF Kerwin Sato – 54 OVR – SO – A pretty awful shooter, but he tends towards shooting the 3, which should be great for us. 7 ppg. PF Ishmawiyl McFadden – 61 OVR – JR – Yes,that is how they spell is name in game. Good from close range, good strength and rebounding. Decent post defender. 12 ppg/9 rpg. C Gordon Del Rosario – 56 OVR – C – An ok close range shooter. Awful in the post. Hayes needs to destroy this guy. 5.6 ppg/7.0 rebounds. 6'8” We may try a zone against these guys too as Davis and Dunston both heavily lean towards driving to the hoop over shooting from outside. Their SF is interesting, as he's 6'10”. Since he seems such a poor player, I'm going to see if our zone can keep him from scoring, while on offense Shiloh can use his speed to get by him.
Really no reason to waste time in the 2nd half. NC A&T 81 Delaware State 49 They shot 27% from the field for the game. Not much else that can be said about that. Alston: 17 points Ewing: 16 points Shiloh: 5 points Coleman: 10 points/16 rebounds Hayes: 12 points/15 rebounds We needed that to end our 7 game losing streak. Back on track hopefully! |
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02-15-2009, 03:21 AM | #132 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Sep 2004
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Rough start given the amount of talent you put on the team. Hopefully you can pick it up further down the conference slate.
__________________
2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) |
02-15-2009, 07:11 PM | #133 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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January 16, 2010
Morgan State (5-9, 3-1 MEAC) at NC A&T (6-9, 2-2 MEAC) Scouting Another home game which is good. Morgan State opened the season with a win over Missouri before losing 9 straight. They finished non-conference play with a win at Baylor and now have 3 wins in a row in conference play. Their conference loss is a 62-26 embarrassment at MD-Eastern Shore. PG Dalron Nance – SR – 56 OVR – actually a SG, and a very poor ball handler, even for a SG. Poor shooter, looks mainly to be a threat to drive. Very slow. Alston may have a field day if he can get out on the break vs Nance. 3.6 ppg, 1.4 apg SG Reggie Holmes – SR – 69 OVR – 85 rated 3 point shooter, ie deadly at this level. Looks to be the big scoring threat. I think he had a big game against us last year, I remember his name. He's only averaging 9.8 ppg this year, down from 14.5 last season. SF Ameer Ali – JR – 70 OVR – good ball handler for a 6'6 forward, with great driving ability and the ability to score in traffic. Averaging 9.4 ppg. PF Kevin Thompson – JR – 64 OVR – 6'8”, decent inside prescence, good leaper and strong. Coleman should beat him out on the boards though. 7.5 ppg/6.0 rpg. C Rodney Stokes – JR – 61 OVR – 6'10”, looks like a better rebounder than Thompson(and Hayes unfortunately). Good inside shot and a good post defender. 5.4 ppg/5.0 rpg Scouting reports suggest that we crowd the lane against this team, but I am sure if I run a zone that Holmes will score 40.
They press, but we're able to get the ball to Ewing down court for a last second shot. He shoots a jumper long off the rim and we fall by 1. Morgan State 81 NC A&T 80 I cannot believe that Ewing committed that reach in foul for no reason at all with 5 seconds left in the game. Also, I did learn a valuable lesson here. Even if a team has a 3 point threat, the 2-3 zone can be worthwhile. Sure they hit some 3's on us but in the first half they were getting to the basket over and over. I think if I had gone to a zone, like our scouting report suggested, we would have won. Ah well, I'll know better next time. They got 23 from Ali and 22 from Holmes, but they only shot 6-24 from 3. Alston: 27 points Ewing: 14 points Shiloh: 3 points Coleman: 11 points/18 rebounds Hayes: 3 points/7 boards. Extremely disappointing loss, and one that could have been avoided. |
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02-15-2009, 07:14 PM | #134 | |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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Quote:
Yeah, we're definitely suffering from the fact that the only thing I can do as a coach is recruit. That's why I feel like this is such an important year to earn some coaching improvements so that I can start developing my players. Last edited by Radii : 02-15-2009 at 07:14 PM. |
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02-15-2009, 10:31 PM | #135 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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January 23, 2010
NC A&T (6-10, 2-3 MEAC) at Florida A&M (1-14, 1-3 MEAC) Scouting A&M is rated very poorly, 63 OVR, this looks a lot like our recent Delaware State game. The scouting report is a bit conflicted here. 41% of their shots are from 3 point range, only 30 inside and 30 midrange. Yet our scout tells us that they like to dribble-drive and we should play a zone to keep them out of the lane. PG Jarrid Perkins – FR – 70 OVR – Extrodinarily good speed, good quickness, great defense and a decent ball handler. Good inside but only average shooting the 3. I can see why they like to drive now. 8.5 ppg/5.5 rpg SG Nathan Harper -JR – 65 OVR – Average shooter, good speed and pretty good defense, doesn't look like a great scorer but a decent overall threat. 7.4 ppg/8.3 rpg (8.3 rebounds??) SF Abraham Songcaucy – SO – 54 OVR Average defender and that's really it. 4.8 ppg PF DJ Pettway – SO – 55 OVR – Looks like a pretty bad player. Ok shooter in traffic. That's pretty much it. 7.2 ppg/6.8 rpg C Jonpaul Bowens – SO – 53 OVR – Pretty good post defense and a decent inside shot. Foul rating of 99, the worst possible. Given our tendency to draw a lot of fouls if this guy plays more than 10 minutes with that foul rating I'll be shocked. 6.8 ppg/4 rpg. I see why the scouts say to zone it up against these guys, and I've learned my lesson about playing man against my scouts recommendation. Zone it is. Team Unity edge is massive here. 51-30 in our favor.
We lead by 24, 81-67 with 5 minutes left. I quick sim to the end. NC A&T 94 Florida A&M 64 Hooray for road wins! A&M was a ridiculous 6/40 from 3. Alston: 19 points Ewing: 11 points Shiloh: 1 points/5 boards Coleman: 16 points/13 rebounds Hayes: 11 points/8 boards. Cruz gets 14 points off the bench. Incidentally, in reviewing FAMU's roster, they have two transfer's sitting out a year. One is rated 71, and the other 65 OVR. Given that they start 5 underclassmen and have two transfers that would be 2 of the best 3 players on the team, this is a team that will be much better in seasons to come. Last edited by Radii : 02-15-2009 at 10:34 PM. |
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02-15-2009, 11:12 PM | #136 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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January 25, 2010
NC A&T (7-10, 3-3 MEAC) at Norfolk State (6-12, 3-2 MEAC) Scouting Norfolk State is rated worse than our last opponent, just 62 OVR, and based on the ratings, their starters look pretty bad. They are3-2 in conference play though. PG Antoine Perry – SR- 60 OVR – Average. Average speed for a PG. Average ball handling, average defender, average shooter. 12.4 ppg, leading the team. SG Jeremy Banks – JR – 57 OVR – A little worse than Perry in every way. 6.4 ppg. SF Cassiano Shropshire – FR – 54 OVR – bad at everything. Too bad I don't make good use of my own SF or this would be my mismatch guy. PF Brandon Monroe – SR – 56 OVR – 5.4 ppg/6.0 rpg. 6'7”, a pretty good rebounder, average defender. I think Coleman can do well against him. Not an offensive threat at all. C Joseph Dorsett-Jeffreys – SR – 61 OVR – 6'11” 331 lbs, big dude. 9.4 ppg/5.9 rpg. Good from close range and a pretty good post defender. Extremely strong and a good rebounder. More 2-3 zone to come.
I obviously sim out the 2nd half. NC A&T 99 Norfolk State 55 We shoot 60%, they shoot 31% Alston: 14 points/9 assists Ewing: 15 points Shiloh: 7 points/8 assists Coleman: 19 points/13 rebounds Hayes: 18points/8 boards. That was fun. Unlike FAMU, this is a team that will just getworse. They do have a transfer coming in that will help, but this is an upper classmen led team. A lot of these guys are graduating with nothing ready to come up behind them. |
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02-16-2009, 12:59 AM | #137 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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January 30, 2010
South Carolina State (9-10, 7-0 MEAC) at NC A&T (8-10, 4-3 MEAC) Scouting This is obviously a huge game. At home vs the team leading the conference early on. SC State has either been very lucky, or very clutch. They have 4 conference wins by 1 or 2 points. PG Roland Patton – SO – 56 OVR – terrible quickness, terrible defense, terrible ball handling for a PG. Good sign for Alston. 5.4 ppg/2.7 apg SG Carrio Bennett- JR – 66 OVR – A leading candidate for player of the year. Great 3 point shooter who likes to take a lot of them. He's 40.5% from 3 and has taken 153 of them already this season. Averaging over 17 points per game. SF Jason Flagler - SR – 60 OVR – 5.7 ppg/6.1 rpg. Good speed at SF,decend defender, but not a great scorer. Great leaping ability and decent on the drive. PF Max Bain – FR – 72 OVR- 6'6”, which hopefully will negate him some. Very good low post defender, very good rebounder. 5.4 ppg/7.0 rpg C Perry Michaud – FR – 55 OVR - 7'2” so he has some good size. Average in the post, good inside shot, but a poor rebounder. 4.7 ppg/2.2 rpg. We'll start in a zone but we have to be careful of Bennett in this one. Our team unity is up to 53, theirs is 42.
Great win over a previously undefeated team in MEAC play. NC A&T 100 South Carolina State 82 THOMAS COLEMAN, BITCHES. They made 15 threes but it just didn't matter. We ran them off the court, 66 points in the paint, 15 free throws. Bennett had a monster game for them with 32 points on 8-16 three pointers, but our guy was better. See below. Alston: 15 points/8 assists Ewing: 11 points/7 assists Shiloh: 2 points Coleman: 35 points/15 boards Hayes: 18 points/10 boards Cruz has 9 points/9 boards off the bench. Coleman's performance was just over the top good. 15-22 from the field, 5-8 from the line. |
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02-16-2009, 05:22 PM | #138 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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February 1, 2010
Howard (9-14, 5-3 MEAC) at NC A&T (9-10, 5-3 MEAC) Scouting Here's a chance to get back to .500 overall. PG Julius Hearn – SR – 61 OVR – 9.1 ppg – terrible shooter, but good speed and ball handling abilities, we'll look to stop him from driving. SG Torrance Timothy – JR – 64 OVR – 11.4 ppg, an average 3 point shooter, average defender, average speed and driving ability. Quite average everywhere heh. SF Curtis White – SR – 61 OVR – 9.7 ppg – White is their best 3 point shooter. PF Emanuel Anderson – FR – 66 OVR – Good low post defender, decent offensive skills and pretty good rebounder. 8.1 ppg/7.9 rpg. 6'7” so he gives up a good bit to Coleman. C Adam Walker – JR – 60 OVR – Good inside, good rebounder, not as good a defender as Anderson.6 ppg/4.4rpg. Only 6'8” so we've got a good height edge. We seem to be dominating in the 2-3 zone so yeah, easy choice against a team with just one shooter.
We got the lead down to 3, 85-82 and Ewing had a 3 to tie with about 45 seconds left, but he missed and they made their free throws. Howard 89 NC A&T 82 Tough loss at home coming off a few wins in a row. They had two shooters that were huting us, we switched to man to man for a bit in the second half and they just get the ball inside too easily then, so we ended up just taking our chances with their shooters, who came up big when it counted. Alston: 17 points/6 assists Ewing: 9 points Shiloh: 2 points Coleman: 13 points/11 boards Hayes: 15 points/6 boards Cruz: 12 points Shepherd: 8 points A bit lacking in the game description here, as I found out after I started the game that I needed to be ready to go out at 6:30 and had to rush to get this one done in time. |
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02-16-2009, 11:11 PM | #139 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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February 6, 2010
Coppin State(7-16, 4-5 MEAC) at NC A&T (9-11, 5-4 MEAC) Scouting We have to stop losing home games! PG Luke Snipes – SO – 66 OVR – Average jump shooter, good speed but poor quickness. Great defender and good driving ability. We'll let him shoot 3's all day. 6.0 ppg. SG Walt Killingsworth – SO – 66 OVR Pretty good driving ability but justan average shooter. 6 ppg. SF Ethan Kennedy – SR – 59 OVR - Best 3point shooter on the team by a lot. That's about all he's good for. 4.6 ppg. PF Eddie Hayden – JR – 57 OVR – 6'7”, 5.5 ppg/5.1 rpg. Not very good at all. C Ceslovas Kucinskas – JR – 60 OVR – Only 6'8” Poor post defence, slightly above average rebounding. Good inside shot and good strength. 9.6 ppg/8.0 rpg They pretty much have no depth inside so we hope to run them over with Hayes and Coleman and Cruz and Shepherd. We'll play a zone and hope it works better than it did vs Howard.
We push the lead back up to 19 with 5 minutes left and sim it out to the end. NC A&T 107 Coppin State 92 Heh, we just outran them today. They hit 15 3 pointers but that was out of 45 total and we did a good job running and getting them in foul trouble so that we could manhandle them on the offensive end. Alston: 12 points/7 assists Ewing: 25 points (5-9 from 3) Shiloh: 4 points Coleman: 21 points/12 boards Hayes: 18 points/15 boards |
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02-16-2009, 11:25 PM | #140 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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We've just passed the halfway point of the conference season. Here's how things look right now:
1. SC State 8-2 2. Hampton 8-2 3. Delaware State 8-3 4. Howard 7-3 5. Morgan State 6-4 6. NC A&T 6-4 7. Norfolk State 4-5 8. Coppin State 4-6 9. Bethune-Cookman 3-7 10. Florida A&M 2-7 11. Winston Salem-State 2-8 12. MD-Eastern Shore 2-9 We're 10-11 overall. I still have a lot of confidence as we've finished very strong each of the last two seasons. We play Hampton next and then our final 7 games are against teams we've already played. Since I don't think any of them really have talent advantages over us, I hope I've learned enough to take advantage of my strengths in any rematches. Also, I'd run through a rather lofty list of goals for the season. Lets see how we feel about them halfway through the conference schedule: 1) Win a non-conference tournament(completed already, hooray!) 2) Sign a world recruit - No change, depends on recruiting. 3) Go an entire season with no unhappy players - Still doing fine here but we are down to 3 pep talks left. I 4) Coach a conference player of the year - I'm unsure here. Bennett for SC State is putting up 19 points a game and Floyd of Winston-Salem State has 17.7 points per game. Ewing is 4th in the league with 16. Coleman is 5th with 15.8 ppg, and he's also leading the league in rebounds with 11.7 rebounds/game. So it seems like its going to come down to higher raw scoring output, or whether the large number of rebounds + good scoring is enough. 5) Coach a team to a winning record - If we finish 5-3 we'd finish the regular season 15-14. Assuming tournament play counts towards that record/goal, we either need to go 5-3 and win a tournament game, or go 6-2 in the regular season. 6) Coach a team to 20 wins - Highly unlikely as we only have 10 wins with 8 games left. 7-1 finish + winning the conference tournament would do it. 7) Coach a team to a conference championship - I am actually unsure if this is regular season or tournament. I still think we have a decent shot at winning the tournament, despite the fact that we match up poorly against a couple teams. 8) Coach a team to an NCAA Tournament bid - See #7 So really not a lot has changed with these goals, except that the 20 win goal seems pretty damn unlikely. |
02-17-2009, 01:10 AM | #141 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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February 8, 2010
Hampton (10-9, 8-2 MEAC) at NC A&T (10-11, 6-4 MEAC) Scouting Hampton has won the MEAC regular season title each of the last two years and won the conference tournament last year. Hampton has the #2 offense in the league behind us, but they also have the #3 defense, where our defense is one of the worst. PG Brandon Tunnell – JR – 65 OVR – Classic point guard. Good speed, handling and passing, average scoring ability. 9.9 ppg/4.4 apg SG Vincent Simpson – SR – 64 OVR- I remember this name from last year which is always a bad sign. Not a great shooter but good speed and quickness, good defense and good in transition. 11.8 ppg SF John Ntoko – SR – 60 OVR – Not someone to worry about in any way. 3.2 ppg. PF Michael Freeman – SR – 73 OVR – 6'9” - Great low post offense and inside ability. Good rebounder. Will be a tough challenge for Coleman obviously. 15.7ppg/7.8 rpg. Two time 1st team all-conference performer. C Milade Lola-Charles – JR – 62 OVR – very strong defensive rebounder and low post defender. Only 4.4 ppg/5.5 rpg, virtually no offensive ability. This is the first team I've looked at in conference play and said “I think they're better than us.” they like to press and run, and how we handle their press and run with them(we're clearly not going to try to slow it down, if they can outrun us, they win) will dictate the game. My big edge this year that I have never had before is speed out of my backups. This is a team that my starters can hang with but the backups get destroyed. The speed and ball handling I have out of Works and Colter, and Shiloh if I need to drop him to 2nd string, should be huge. Oh yea their team unity is awesome. 62, and again we are much better off there than ever before, we're at 55.
I'm unable to get Ewing open, he takes a heavily contested shot that is off the front rim. Hampton 79 NC A&T 76 I'm not sure we can play better against these guys. Simpson absolutely destroyed our zone, but, most of the time we played man defense, they got layups. We're simply an average at best defensive team that plays better in a zone I think. Simpson scored 33 for them, 6-13 from 3 and 12-25 overall. Alston: 13 points/6 assists Ewing: 15 points/7 assists Shiloh: 0 points Coleman: 14 points/14 rebounds Hayes: 10 points/9 rebounds Cruz: 11 points/5 rebounds Hayes being hurt and ineffective in the final 10 minutes really hurt us. Coleman and Hayes both had 10 points early in the second half and were not able to do much more after Hayes went down. We're 10-12 with 7 games left now. We need a 5-2 finish to the season. Our next two games are critical, at MD-Eastern Shore and at Morgan State. 5 of our final 7 are on the road, but I think they are all winnable. |
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02-17-2009, 08:36 PM | #142 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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February 13, 2010
NC A&T (10-12, 6-5 MEAC) at MD-Eastern Shore (7-14, 2-9 MEAC) We only played the first half against these guys at home. We had a 55-23 lead and simmed out the rest of the game. Here's hoping for similar results. I do make one lineup change today. I had been starting Shiloh at SF most of the season, hoping that having 3 speedy guards would help my transition game, and hoping Shiloh could be a defensive stopper with a 81 defense rating. He's crashing the boards so he doesn't help in transition,and his defensive awareness is awful so his defense doesn't seem to help as much as I'd like, espicially now that I've switched to a 2-3 zone. So I move 6'6” Robert Johnson into the starting lineup at SF. He won't do much either but he's a better rebounder and gives me more size in the back of that zone. Shiloh is my backup SG now.
They make a 2 pointer to make it 80-76. We've only got one great free throw shooter, and its Ewing, so I keep the ball in his hands the rest of the way. NC A&T 86 MD-Eastern Shore 78 We shot 41 free throws in this game. Ewing shot 17 of them. 8 of those were in the final minute but still... Ewing had a career day today with 36 points. 5-13 from 3 and 15-17 from the free throw line. Alston: 13 points/4 assists Ewing: 36 points Johnson: 1 point/4 boards Coleman: 13 points/12 boards Hayes: 11 points/10 boards Shepherd: 7 points/5 boards |
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02-17-2009, 10:52 PM | #143 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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February 15, 2010
NC A&T (11-12, 7-5 MEAC) at Morgan State(8-14, 6-6 MEAC) Our first game against Morgan State was an absolute heartbreaker. We trailed by 15 at half, came charging back in the 2nd half and took a 1 point lead with 15 seconds to go. Just needing to play good defense for 15seconds, Ewing committed a reach in foul against their best player, who made two free throws with 5 seconds left. We lost 81-80. These guys have two good scorers. SF Ameer Ali scored 22,and SG Reggie Holmes scored 23. Holmes is a big time 3 point threat. We got a lot of points in transition and hope to do the same thing here.
The final 1:20 is a bit nerve wracking. We get Ewing a really good mid-range look that he misses, a 18 footer he almost never misses when open. They take their time and get Holmes a midrange look, but Hayes is out helping and blocks it. We get the ball with 45 seconds to go. I run a play out of the motion offense that takes a good bit of time to develop. With 5 seconds left on the shot clock, Hayes gets the ball inside, covered but he's got to shoot... its blocked. Coleman picks it up and puts it up with 2 seconds left on the shot clock. It's blocked as well. They grab the ball before the shot clock expires and push it up court with ~10 seconds left. Alston is tight on Nance, their PG, and Ewing is on Holmes. Nance holds the ball until the 4 second mark, he passes to Holmes, who goes up with Ewing right in his face for a 3 pointer. The shot hits the front iron and is NO GOOD! Time expires before any sort of rebound. NC A&T 84 Morgan State 82 Our two games with Morgan State have both been decided on the final possession, each team with a shot at the buzzer to win the game. 81-80 and 84-82. I think its safe to say that I do NOT want to see this team in the MEAC tournament. We end up with a big edge on the boards, 40-29. They only got 2 offensive boards in the 2nd half. For Morgan State, Ali has 27, Holmes has 20. They are a combined 6-16 from 3, 20-45 overall. Alston: 18 points/4 assists Ewing: 30 points/6 assists Johnson: 6 points/7 boards Coleman: 15 points/9 boards Hayes: 7 points/11 boards Only 8 points total from the bench. WHEW. |
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02-17-2009, 10:58 PM | #144 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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Quick standings update:
1. Hampton 11-2 2. SC State10-3 3. Delaware State 9-4 4. Howard 9-4 5. NC A&T 8-5 6. Morgan State 6-7 7. Coppin State 6-7 8. Bethune-Cookman 5-8 9. Winston-Salem State 5-8 10. Norfolk State 4-8 11. Florida A&M 2-10 12. MD-Eastern Shore 2-11 Our next two games are vs Florida A&M, who is 2-21 overall, and at Norfolk State. We won both easily the first time we played. First step is obviously to come through and win these two games we're supposed to win. If we do,then we will have 10 conference wins and a couple games with two of the other top teams in the league, SC State and Howard, with a chance to get up pretty close to the top of the standings. We don't play Hampton again and probably can't catch them. But it would be really nice to earn the 2 or 3 seed in the conference tournament so that we don't have to play Hampton til the finals. |
02-18-2009, 12:13 AM | #145 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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February 20, 2010
Florida A&M (2-21, 2-10 MEAC) at NC A&T (12-12, 8-5 MEAC) We crushed these guys at their place, simming it out with a 25 point lead with 10 minutes to go. Our overall roster strength has gone up to 68. Also, our team unity is 61, theirs is 35.
We kept the lead at around 10-13 until it was 63-53. Then we completely took over the game. I had backups ready to come in at the 13 minute mark, and the clock just never stopped. I don't know why they didn't call a timeout until the 9:50 mark but it was just miss, fast break dunk, miss, fast breaklayup, miss, secondary break dunk for coleman... over and over and over. I quick sim it with 9:50 to go in the game and an 87-58 lead. NC A&T 116 Florida A&M 82 Apparently the CPU when simming shows no mercy and kept piling on. Alston: 27 points/8 assists Ewing: 25 points/3 assists Johnson: 4 points/6 boards Coleman: 24 points/14 boards Hayes: 4 points/6 boards (foul problems) We complete the rather easy season sweep of Florida A&M, and we now have a winning record overall for the first time since we were 5-4. Last edited by Radii : 02-18-2009 at 12:20 AM. |
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02-18-2009, 01:10 AM | #146 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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February 22, 2010
Norfolk State(7-19, 4-9 MEAC) at NC A&T (13-12, 9-5 MEAC) We beat Norfolk State by 44 on the road after leading 64-26 at halftime and simming the game out.
The lead is still 25 with about 9 minutes left. I go ahead and sim it out. NC A&T 108 Norfolk State 75 Alston: 25 points/8 assists Ewing: 11 points/4 assists Johnson: 3 points/5 boards Coleman: 6 points/11 boards Hayes: 35 points/12 boards |
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02-18-2009, 01:16 AM | #147 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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Update with 1 week left in the season:
1. Hampton 12-3 2. SC State 11-4 3. Howard 11-4 4. NC A&T 10-5 5. Delaware State 9-6 6. Coppin State 8-7 7. Winston-Salem State 7-8 8. Morgan State 7-8 9. Bethune-Cookman 6-9 10. Norfolk State 4-10 11. Florida A&M 2-12 12. MD-Eastern Shore 2-13 Our final 3 games: at SC State at Howard at Winston-Salem State We beat SC State and Winston Salem State both at home. Howard led pretty much the entire game against us and beat us by 7. We are 14-12 overall now, so we need to win 1 more game to finish the regular season with a winning record. If we could win 2 of them then we finish with a winning record regardless of the postseason. And, shoot for the stars, if we win all 3 and win the conference tournament, we could still get to 20 wins. Heh, but really, these 3 teams on the road, if we can win 2 I'll be really really happy. |
02-18-2009, 10:15 AM | #148 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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Looks like I've come down with the flu or something like it, which is bad for me but great for my odds of finishing up the 09/10 season today :P
February 25, 2010 NC A&T (14-12, 10-5 MEAC) at SC State (13-14, 11-4 MEAC) We beat these guys 100-82 at home in a crazy fast paced game... crazy fast paced even for us. They have the likely MEAC player of the year in SG Carrio Bennett, a sharpshooting junior who hit 8 3's and scored 32 against us in the first game. But they had no answer for our transition game and Thomas Coleman had a career 35 point/15 board day. One of our big advantages is that we got them into foul trouble early. They have a good starting group but absolutely no depth. I'm a bit worried about trying to outgun this team in their house, but I don't think we really have any other options. Our team unity is now up to 61. Theirs is 46.
So this isn't the final you would expect to see in one of my games. But they just stayed cold and on the road I just saw no reason to force the issue late. We ended up outscoring them 7-4 in the final 13 minutes. NC A&T 59 South Carolina State 45 We shot 38% but held them to a dismal 26%, including 6/40 from 3. They had 6 3's at the half. Bennett ended up with 24. The final second half tally was NC A&T 17, SC State 12. Alston: 12 points/2 assists Ewing: 17 points/3 assists Johnson: 0 points/9 boards Coleman: 2 points/8 boards Hayes: 19 points/19 boards So close to 20/20 from Hayes. We've now guaranteed ourselves a winning record in the regular season! If we can pull out one of these last two we guarantee a winning record no matter what happens in the postseason. |
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02-18-2009, 10:18 AM | #149 |
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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We play at Howard next. Top of the standings:
1. Hampton 13-3 2. SC State 12-5 3. Howard 12-4 4. NC A&T 11-5 5. Delaware State 10-6 Depending on how tiebreakers work we could still finish anywhere in the top 5, though first seems extremely unlikely. If we beat Howard then we create a 3 way tie for 2nd with one game to go in the season. |
02-18-2009, 07:36 PM | #150 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head Coach
Join Date: Jul 2001
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February 27, 2010
NC A&T (15-12, 11-5 MEAC) at Howard(16-15, 12-4 MEAC) Huge late season game here. They have two guys that hurt us last time we played. SG Torrance Timothy is rated 64 OVR and is a average shooter all around. Unfortunately against our defense, average is enough. He scored 21 on us. The big threat though is SF Curtis White. He went 5-10 from 3 and 13-20 from the field and scored 31 on us. They have talented, but small big men. We got them in foul trouble last time we played but it wasn't enough.
NC A&T 114 Howard 113 Double Overtime WHEW. I'm exhausted after that game. After Ewing missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with the chance to put the game away in regulation, I thought we were toast. They made 18 3 pointers on the game, but we shot 55% from the floor on the game and shot 14 more free throws than them(31 vs 17). They were led by two shooters: Timothy: 45 points – 10/21 from 3, 17-33 from the field. Riley: 37 points – 6/15 from 3, 15-27 from the field. I hadn't even mentioned Riley pregame. He was injured in our first contest, White comes in off the bench for him, so white was a non-factor while Riley tore us up today. Alston: 26 points/9 assists Ewing: 20 points/4 assists Johnson: 11 points/10 boards Coleman: 20 points/10 boards Hayes: 6 points/9 boards Cruz: 14 points/12 boards Not only was that a really, really exciting game for us, it guarantees that we will finish the year with a winning record, no matter what happens in the MEAC tournament. |
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