Fast Break Basketball: UC Riverside

[Vince]

Woo-hoo for a special exemption

Congrats on powering through the Conference Tourney last season...hopefully this one turns out as well.

[Godzilla Blitz]

November 2013

As we come out of training camp, C Jason Hamilton informs us that he will be declaring for the draft next year, and will be leaving the team at the end of the season. Aaargh! That gives us another scholarship to fill, and will put us over the 8/5 rule next year. Damn that NBA.

UC Riverside  Roster

 #   Name                  Pos  Cl   Ht     Wt   Hometown
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1   Jason Hamilton        C    Jr   6' 8"  256  Lodi, CA
 23  Irwin Spicer          C    So   6'11"  266  Belgrade, MT (redshirt)
 13  Armel Lameran         C    Fr   6' 9"  209  Fabregues, France
 30  Winfred Garcia        PF   Jr   6' 9"  229  Compton, CA
 34  Bernard Harrison      PF   So   6' 7"  227  Manhattan Beach, CA
 15  Andrew Hartnett       PF   Fr   6'10"  253  Honolulu, HI (redshirt)
 44  Richard Hand          SF   Sr   6' 7"  227  Kendall, NY
 50  Deangelo Perez        SF   Jr   6' 8"  222  Monroeville, PA
 24  Kyle Kappe            SF   So   6' 7"  222  Rifle, CO
 42  Tyson Mestas          SG   Sr   6' 3"  179  Elko, NV
 10  Clement Hagar         SG   So   6' 6"  189  Escondido, CA
 5   Loren Muir            SG   Fr   6' 6"  202  John Day, OR
 2   Chris Hernandez       PG   Sr   6' 0"  176  Bellflower, CA
 54  Thomas Welch          PG   Sr   5' 6"  186  Lovelock, NV
 45  Albert Goodwin        PG   Fr   6' 3"  184  Bowmanville, Canada 

Roster Evaluation
Hamilton is a no-brainer at center: he is a force on the boards and brings a powerful inside game. Harrison will start the year at power forward, as he appears slightly better than Kappe and Garcia. Garcia and Kappe will see a lot of action in backup roles at both center and power forward. Hagar will start out of position at small forward; he played fantastically there for us at the end of last season, and is able to give us an overwhelming inside game. Hernandez and Welch return at guards. Hernandez is a phenomenal shooter; Welch will run the offense. Mestas, Muir, and Goodwin give us some strong backups here.

Individually, we look good. How well we gel as a team remains to be seen, but I’d like to think we can win this conference this year. It better be this year, because we’re losing 9 players over the next two seasons: this is clearly our window of opportunity. It’s now or never.

On to the season we go…

[Vince]

Wow, didn't realize that Thomas Welch was a Boykins clone (5'6")

[Godzilla Blitz]

Vince: Oh, oh. Unknown basketball reference...scrambles to google...got it! Yes, Welch might be a bit like that, but I suspect Boykins scores more and passes less, and I would guess that Boykins might have a better shot. Welch can't shoot, but he's a slashing guard with phenomenal handling and passing skills. Last year he averaged nearly 5 assists a game.

[Godzilla Blitz]

In the spotlight

We featured Center Jason Hamilton and Guard Chris Hernandez last year, and both of them are back this season.

Hamilton, who will go pro at the end of the season, is a dominant inside player. He holds the single-game points record for UC Riverside, and his 422 points last year is fourth-best all-time for us. His rebounding skills are also strong: his 271 rebounds last year is second-best, and with a healthy 2013 season, he has a chance to break the record.

Hernandez is our entire outside game, but he is the best pure shooter we’ve ever had. Last season he racked up 518 points, second-best on our record sheet for points in a season. A good 2013 campaign could place him second all-time for UC Riverside career points, behind only Gustavo Ortega.

Kappe, the local fan favorite, makes some solid improvement over the off-season. Depending on how things unfold, he could break into the starting lineup this year. He still can’t defend the outside, and doesn’t have enough power on the boards to make him a strong candidate for an inside position. In any event, he’ll get a chance to play significant time this year, and we’ll give him a chance should someone in front of him falter.

Here’s his current card:

  PLAYER DETAILS

 #24 SF Kyle Kappe - UC Riverside - Sophomore
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Height:       6' 7"
 Weight:       222
 High School:  Rifle High School
 Hometown:     Rifle, CO
 
 Attributes:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Type       INS JPS FTS 3PS HND PAS ORB DRB PSD PRD STL BLK PFS QKN STR JMP STA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Current:    48  51  38  61  51  31  22  37  47   4  32  38  48  42  61  50  56
 Potential:   B   B   C   C   B   C   D   C   B   F   C   C                    

 Health:      Good                                           
 Scholarship: Yes
 Status:      Active Roster                                  
 Academics:   51
 
 Stat Averages:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Season   G  GS  MIN  PTS  ORE  REB  AST   TO   A/T  STL  BLK   PF
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   2012  32   3 15.9  4.1  0.8  2.8  1.4  0.6  2.37  0.7  0.2  1.7
 Career  32   3 15.9  4.1  0.8  2.8  1.4  0.6  2.37  0.7  0.2  1.7

 Shooting Averages:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Season  FGM  FGA   FG%  FTM  FTA   FT%  3PM  3PA   3P%  PPS   +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   2012  1.6  3.7  .432  0.6  0.9  .655  0.3  1.4  .239 1.12  1.72
   2013  0.0  3.0  .000  0.0  0.0  .000  0.0  2.0  .000 0.00 -5.00
 Career  1.5  3.7  .421  0.6  0.9  .655  0.3  1.5  .229 1.09  1.52
 
 Stat Totals:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Season   G  GS  MIN  PTS OREB  REB  AST   TO  STL  BLK   PF
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   2012  32   3  510  132   26   88   45   19   21    5   54
 Career  32   3  510  132   26   88   45   19   21    5   54

 Shooting Totals
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Season  FGM  FGA  FTM  FTA  3PM  3PA  +/-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   2012   51  118   19   29   11   46   55
 Career   51  118   19   29   11   46   55
 
 Career Highs:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Type      Pts OReb  Reb  Ast  Stl  Blk   TO  FGM  FGA  FTM  FTA  3PM  3PA
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Career      8    3    8    5    3    2    2    4    9    3    5    2    2
 
 Awards & Acheivements:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Season   Award
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 2010     High School: Rated *** and #228 overall by the FBCB scouting service.
 2010     High School: All-State (Colorado)
 2012     Freshman All-Conference (Ohio Valley Conference)

[Godzilla Blitz]

November 2013

Results

UC Riverside  2013 Season Schedule

  Date      Opponent                           Result         Record        
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  11/17/13  Liberty                            W 64-56        1-0           
  11/21/13  Navy                               W 73-67        2-0           
  11/25/13  at UC Santa Barbara                L 82-69        2-1           
  11/29/13  at Arkansas                        L 92-89        2-2           
 

In our opener, we play solid except for our 34% shooting from the floor. Fortunately, Liberty shoots no better and we put together a quick second-half run that ices the game. The Hollmt Classic IV is a tough, close game that goes to the wire, but PG Loren Muir hits a big 3-pointer to finish off Navy and give us our second win. The Vince Classic V is no contest: Hamilton gets into early foul trouble, and UC Santa Barbara’s strong inside game overwhelms us, as we are bowled over for our first defeat. Against a tough Arkansas, we blow a 14-point lead, come back from a 10-point deficit, and then end up losing in the last seconds. Great game; tough loss.

We end the month a mediocre 2-2, but we’re playing much tougher opposition this year.

Recruiting
Damn it. We have four scholarship offers out there, but no one is moving. Towards the end of the month, we offered a scholarship to SF Yuma Shuttleworth, and he is highly interested in our program. Some of the bigger programs are showing interest in our targets, and their interest is waning. Nevertheless, we pour on the gas and visit all our recruits. This is not looking good. We badly need bodies, and we’re not getting any movement. We may have aimed too high.

[Godzilla Blitz]

December 2013

Crap. PF Winfred Garcia--who was playing a strong game for us so far this season--gets suspended for being a moron. He’ll be out for at least a month.

Results

UC Riverside  2013 Season Schedule

  Date      Opponent                           Result         Record        
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  12/03/13  at Towson                          L 63-62        2-3           
  12/07/13  Lafayette                          L 74-73        2-4           
  12/09/13  UC Irvine                          W 90-80        3-4           
  12/11/13  at Morris Brown                    W 63-55        4-4           
  12/15/13  La Salle                           L 82-68        4-5           
  12/18/13  Long Beach State                   W 84-76        5-5           
  12/22/13  at Idaho State                     L 83-75        5-6           
  12/31/13  at Southeastern Louisiana          W 101-77       6-6           

We start out the month with another painful, last-second loss to a weak Towson team; we play horribly, going 0-14 from the 3-point line and 12-27 from the free-throw line. We also get a double whammy, as starting PF Bernard Harrison tears a quad and will be lost for nearly two months. Ye gads, this season is spinning in the wrong direction.

We’re so thin at power forward and center that I have to take the redshirt off C Irwin Spicer, and start him at power forward. In our next game, against Lafeyette, we play another see-saw game, and once again we lose in the last minute, and once again it’s by one friggin’ point. Aaargh!

We finally get back on track with a solid win over UC Irvine, as Hernandez leads us with 23 points. We follow that with an easy win over Morris Brown. La Salle destroys us in our next game, but Hamilton gets a double-double and 23 points to lead us to a tough win over 0-8 Long Beach State a couple of days later.

Against a tough Idaho State team, we fight back from big deficits to take a one-point lead with 2 minutes to go, but Idaho gets a five-point possession in the last minute to send us to defeat. We end the month on a big 101-77 win over Southern Louisiana, as both Hamilton and Hernandez score 23 points for us.

We finish the month at 6-6. Despite the frustrating record, there is cause for optimism, as we are playing some much better teams this year, and in many cases losing to them by only a few points.

Kyle Kappe Update
Kyle Kappe is getting about 15 minutes a game, with most of it coming at power forward. He has not played well. Across the board, his stats are worse than last year, and his plus-minus rating sits at -0.08. We may consider moving him back to small forward to see what happens, as we should get both our power forwards back in the upcoming month.

Recruiting
Yikes. We land #157-ranked PG Teddy Harrison for our second recruit, but get two big rejections elsewhere. We’ve got three scholarships yet to fill, and the talent that is still out there does not seem very interested in coming to UC Riverside. We scour the country for some fresh talent, but this could be a thin year for us recruiting.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Just a quick note. I've had a blast with this game, and look forward to seeing if I can take this team to the next level, but I'm going to take a break from this dynasty for a while. I intend to come back to it and right now it's in an easy spot to resume from in the future, but I want to get the X-COM dynasty up and running again, and doing two dynasties at the same time is a bit difficult given the limited free time I've got.

I hope people have enjoyed the read so far. Thanks to everyone who's followed along and offered comments, etc.

[corbes]

I'm hanging on the recruitment of Yuma Shuttleworth, possessor of one of the great names of all time, not to mention the signature two-handed set shot.

Enjoyed it all so far -- especially since you started the dynasty not knowing the position names, and now you're mixing and matching defenses. I love games that TEACH!!!

(for example, all I know about the Carribean is derived from Pirates!)

[JAG]

Sniff. Looking forward to you coming back to the dynasty GB, thanks for the great reads.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Now that the X-COM dynasty is finished, I thought I would get back to this no-frills FBCB dynasty trying to build the UC Riverside program.

I’m going to keep the same format as before, but I have decided to stop doing the detailed player coverage, which was taking time and starting to bog the dynasty down in details. The idea is to present the information as efficiently as possible and keep the sim moving.

After a brief recap, I’ll get back to business.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Recap
I’m am now in my eleventh season as head coach of the UC Riverside program. We started off in 2003 with a disappointing relegation out of the Big West Conference and into the cesspool that is the Mid-Continent Conference. We spent the next six years in that conference, finally gaining promotion in 2010 to the Ohio Valley Conference, which is where we currently sit at the midway point of the 2013 season.

Presently, our talented team stands at an uninspired 6-6 overall as we head into conference play, but many of our losses have come against strong opponents. I’m hoping we can get on a roll to make a run for the conference title.

A dark cloud looms over our future however, as we have five players leaving our team after this season, and will have at least two more leaving next year. Compounding our misfortunes is our lackluster recruiting performance so far this season. Only two of five scholarships have been dolled out, and there is little talent left in the recruiting pool.

In short, this season could be our best chance for promotion in quite a while, and with the athletic board’s goals for me rising every couple of years, I’ve got to be a little concerned with the downward trend in team talent that looms on the horizon.

I’ll pick up the action with January 2014.

[Godzilla Blitz]

January 2014

We get PF Winfred Garcia back from academic suspension, but lose backup SF Deangelo Perez to the same thing. Fortunately, Perez is a loss we can handle, and we need Garcia badly.

Results

UC Riverside  2013 Season Schedule

  Date      Opponent                              Result         Record        
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  01/04/14  Savannah State (11-9)                 W 94-85        7-6 (1-0)     
  01/09/14  at Illinois-Chicago (5-12)            W 78-68        8-6 (2-0)     
  01/11/14  at Savannah State (11-9)              L 78-66        8-7 (2-1)     
  01/18/14  Sam Houston (8-12)                    L 67-60        8-8 (2-2)     
  01/23/14  at Oral Roberts (6-11)                L 79-70        8-9 (2-3)     
  01/25/14  Southeast Missouri State (10-9)       W 88-73        9-9 (3-3)     
  01/30/14  Illinois-Chicago (5-12)               W 72-62        10-9 (4-3)    
 

League play starts, and with Garcia back in the lineup we run to comfortable wins over Savannah State and Illinois-Chicago. Things inexplicably spiral the wrong way as we lose our next three games: Savannah State runs over us in a rematch on the road; we fall apart to blow a ten-point lead in the second half against Sam Houston; and we shoot horribly against Oral Roberts in a big loss.

With the season in need of a turnaround, we get starting PF Bernard Harrison back from injury and blow away a tough Southeast Missouri State team behind PG Chris Hernandez’ 21 points, then battle to another strong victory over Illinois-Chicago.

We end the month at 10-9 overall and 4-3 in the conference, two games back of a redhot Austin Peay. If we can keep playing the way we ended the month, we’ve got a chance.

Recruiting
We lose out to two more big prospects, and only manage to land #530-ranked, C Wesley Willet. This is the lowest ranked player we’ve given a scholarship to in decades, and with two scholarships still on the board, things don’t look good for the remainder of the recruiting season. In short, our future looks ugly.

Nevertheless, we aggressively go after the best recruits we can find, despite their lack of interest in our program.

[henry296]

GB,

Save the scholarships for next year.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Henry: Thanks for the help. The guys I'm going after now are good recruits, but they have little to no current interest in our program. I'd be happy to get them, but I really don't think we have a chance to land them given our prestige. Once they're gone, I'll will definitely follow your advice and eat the scholarships until next year rather than take a crappy player.

Willet looks to be decent at center, where we'll badly need a warm body. If we weren't going to be that thin at center, I don't think I would have gone after him. The guys I'm going after now are much higher ranked.

[JAG]

Glad to see this dynasty back GB.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally Posted by JAG

Glad to see this dynasty back GB.

Thanks! Glad to be back. This is a fun game, and doing the posts takes so little time thanks to the nifty print function.

Now, if I can just have a bit more success in moving UC Riverside up in the basketball world, I'll be happy. I feel like we're on the verge of going in the wrong direction.

[Godzilla Blitz]

February 2014

We get DeAngelo Perez back from academic suspension and head into the month with our team at full strength.

Results

  Date      Opponent                              Result         Record        
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  02/01/14  Austin Peay (28-5)                    L 96-56        10-10 (4-4)   
  02/06/14  at Sam Houston (14-17)                L 62-50        10-11 (4-5)   
  02/08/14  Alabama A&M (16-15)                   L 70-50        10-12 (4-6)   
  02/11/14  at Southeast Missouri State (12-17)   W 76-61        11-12 (5-6)   
  02/13/14  Tennessee-Martin (11-18)              W 79-60        12-12 (6-6)   
  02/15/14  at Tennessee-Martin (11-18)           L 77-48        12-13 (6-7)   
  02/22/14  at Alabama A&M (16-15)                L 87-73        12-14 (6-8)   
  02/27/14  Oral Roberts (12-17)                  W 73-66        13-14 (7-8)   
  03/01/14  at Austin Peay (28-5)                 L 88-70        13-15 (7-9)   
  

First-place Austin Peay comes to town and pastes us with a devastating 40-point home loss in which we lose starting SF Clement Hagar for the season with a torn quad. Crap. So much for being at full strength. The loss puts us three games back with nine to play, and combined with the injury to Hagar, puts us in a big hole.

Our season continues to disintegrate, as we lose to Sam Houston on the road, then get blown away at home by Alabama A&M to fall to 4-6 in the conference. Austin Peay continues their hot play, and we are all but mathematically eliminated from winning the conference championship by this point in the season.

Playing for pride, we finally find the right balance and get back on track against Southeast Missouri State and Tennessee-Martin for a pair of wins, then go on the road and get blown-out in losses to Tennessee-Martin and Alabama A&M. Back at home, we pull away for a victory against Oral Roberts, but first-place juggernaut Austin Peay finishes off our regular season with a yet another big defeat. Our leading scorer, PG Chris Hernandez, breaks his cheekbone in the defeat and will be lost to us for the conference tournament.

We end the regular season a disappointing 13-15 overall, and 7-9 in the conference.

We draw 12-17 Oral Roberts for the first round of the conference tourney, but will need to pick up our game if we expect to beat them on the road with two of our best players out.

Recruiting
Nobody likes us. We get rejections all around, and are left with two scholarships to fill as we head into March. At this point, I’m not sure there is anything out there we can really use. We do manage to find one guard that looks promising, and shower him with attention. Still, I think we’ll be carrying over two unused scholarships to next season.

What a totally crappy month.

[The_herd]

It's back!!!!

Nice, looking forward to this dynasty starting up again.

[Godzilla Blitz]

The Herd: Thanks! I'm going to try and play and post a little bit each day. I hope I can keep it going for a while.

[Godzilla Blitz]

March 2014

Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Results

Round 1 vs. Oral Roberts

With two of our best players out, we make some drastic roster moves. We’ll start our best inside players and try to overwhelm what looks to be a mediocre ability to defend the paint on Oral Roberts’ part. Our entire team’s outside shooting ability lies in the now injured Chris Hernandez, and I don’t think we can win from the outside anyway. On defense, Oral Roberts has only one good inside scorer and one good outside scorer; we’ll try to double them every chance we get.

As an aside, Oral Roberts has been our nemesis since our days in the Mid-Continent Conference. We stand a lifetime 3-9 against them.

The game starts off well enough, as we run out to a nine-point lead and force Oral Roberts’ centers into early foul trouble. But our scoring goes cold once we are forced into our thin bench, and Oral Roberts eats away at our lead and then sneaks in front by six at the half. We hang tough in the second half, as we stay within five points for most of the way, but fatigue finally finishes us off; Oral Roberts makes a late surge to pull away for a clean victory to end our extremely disappointing season.

Recruiting
Jackpot! Wow! What a lucky finish!

First, we land SG Lambert Mutz, the 350th ranked player in the pool. Lambert hails from Germany, and is a nice last minute acquisition.

But in even bigger news, junior Center Jason Hamilton decides to stay in school for his senior year! His overall drafting position didn’t project high enough, so he’ll be back for us next season. This is simply outstanding news, as it turns a thin position for us into one of strength.

Here’s a look at our final recruiting class:

2013/14 Recruiting Summary

POS Player Name                 Star         National Rank
 PG Teddy Harrison               ***         157
 PG Alvin Tyler                  ***         180
 SG Lambert Mutz                 ***         350
  C Wesley Willet                 **         530
 

[Godzilla Blitz]

2013/14 Wrap Up

Considering expectations, this was a disastrous season. Last year we almost won the conference. This year, with basically the same team, we finish below .500. Simply inexcusable. For some reason, I just couldn’t get this team to gel. I hope it’s because I’ve gotten rusty from not playing for so long.

However, we have to be upbeat about our future. Landing that German guard in March and Hamilton’s decision to come back next year sure make the outlook for next season much better than I had expected it to be given where we were a month ago. If I can figure out how to play this game again and if our incoming guards look decent, I think we might have a chance to compete for the conference championship. Judging by the athletic board expectations, I better be.

I’ll post the final numbers and move on to next year…

[Godzilla Blitz]

2013/2014 Final Ohio Valley Conference Standings

                                CW  CL   Pct   W   L   Pct
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Austin Peay                    14   2  .875  28   5  .848
 Alabama A&M                    10   6  .625  16  15  .516
 Oral Roberts                   10   6  .625  12  17  .414
 Sam Houston                     8   8  .500  14  17  .452
 Savannah State                  7   9  .438  15  16  .484
 UC Riverside                    7   9  .438  13  16  .448
 Southeast Missouri State        7   9  .438  12  17  .414
 Tennessee-Martin                6  10  .375  11  18  .379
 Illinois-Chicago                3  13  .188   7  21  .250 

[Godzilla Blitz]

Final Stats 2013/14

 
UC Riverside  Player Averages

 Name                Pos   G GS  Min  Pts OReb  Reb  Ast  Stl  Blk   TO   Fl
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Jason Hamilton      C    29 29 25.1 12.6  2.4  8.4  1.2  0.3  0.2  1.9  2.7
 Irwin Spicer        C    24  7 18.9  7.5  1.2  4.0  0.7  0.5  0.1  1.3  2.4
 Armel Lameran       C    26  0  5.4  0.4  0.3  1.5  0.3  0.1  0.0  0.4  0.7
 Winfred Garcia      PF   21  5 16.3  3.2  1.0  3.7  1.0  0.3  0.1  1.2  2.0
 Bernard Harrison    PF   17 17 23.4  5.6  1.5  4.4  1.0  0.5  0.4  1.2  2.3
 Andrew Hartnett     PF    0  0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0
 Richard Hand        SF   29  3 15.0  5.6  0.3  3.4  0.6  0.4  0.3  1.4  1.7
 Deangelo Perez      SF   18  0  3.4  1.4  0.1  0.9  0.2  0.1  0.1  0.8  0.4
 Kyle Kappe          SF   29  6 13.3  3.0  0.8  2.9  0.8  0.5  0.1  0.7  1.1
 Tyson Mestas        SG   29  1  9.9  3.7  0.5  1.4  0.5  0.8  0.0  0.5  0.9
 Clement Hagar       SG   20 15 23.6  9.4  1.0  3.9  2.1  0.8  0.2  1.5  2.1
 Loren Muir          SG   28  5 11.0  5.4  0.6  2.1  1.0  0.3  0.0  1.4  1.4
 Chris Hernandez     PG   28 28 28.3 15.3  1.0  2.1  2.6  1.2  0.2  2.3  2.3
 Thomas Welch        PG   29 29 27.8  5.5  0.8  2.8  5.2  1.1  0.0  1.8  2.5
 Albert Goodwin      PG   29  0  6.7  1.5  0.1  0.8  0.9  0.0  0.0  0.5  0.6

UC Riverside  Player Shooting Stats

 Name                  Pos   FGM  FGA   FG%  FTM  FTA   FT%  3PM  3PA   3P%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Jason Hamilton        C     134  261  .513   98  175  .560    0    2  .000
 Irwin Spicer          C      56  116  .483   67   84  .798    0    1  .000
 Armel Lameran         C       3   13  .231    4   10  .400    0    0  .000
 Winfred Garcia        PF     28   53  .528   12   23  .522    0    3  .000
 Bernard Harrison      PF     38   85  .447   20   37  .541    0    1  .000
 Andrew Hartnett       PF      0    0  .000    0    0  .000    0    0  .000
 Richard Hand          SF     59  143  .413   36   59  .610    7   32  .219
 Deangelo Perez        SF     10   16  .625    2    2 1.000    4    9  .444
 Kyle Kappe            SF     34   93  .366   12   28  .429    8   38  .211
 Tyson Mestas          SG     39   93  .419   20   33  .606   10   40  .250
 Clement Hagar         SG     70  185  .378   27   41  .659   21   57  .368
 Loren Muir            SG     52  105  .495   23   32  .719   24   53  .453
 Chris Hernandez       PG    145  332  .437   71   96  .740   67  171  .392
 Thomas Welch          PG     62  160  .388   28   64  .438    8   46  .174
 Albert Goodwin        PG     14   48  .292    6   11  .545    9   27  .333 

Player Awards

Understandably, we don’t get any significant player awards this season.

[Godzilla Blitz]

April 2014

Usually the new year opens with a slew of emails, but this year starts unusually quiet. We get notice that our recruiting class ranked #56 in the nation, which is probably more a reflection on the number of recruits than anything else.

A quick walk around campus shows that our facilities have taken a jump up in quality. We’ve got new paint on the gym floor, expanded seating, and nice lights overhead. The facilities grade out at a 23, significantly higher than anything we are used to. I’m hoping this will help us take our game to the next level.

Also, we are both surprised and pleased to see our prestige jump up by eight points in the off season, our biggest gain ever! Perhaps the more difficult schedule helped us out there. We’re now sitting fat and happy.

UC Riverside
Prestige: 41 (+8)
2014/15 Goal: Compete for the Conference Championship

On a negative note, the board is no longer delighted with my performance. We’ll want to pick up the pace this year, or we could be facing the unemployment line in a couple of years.

A little look at our history:

UC Riverside  Historical Performances

Season    W   L  CW  CL Rank  RPI  Prs  Result
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2013     13  16   7   9  226  224   41  No Postseason
2012     22  10   9   7   77   80   33  Loss in NCAA Tourney Round 1
2011     13  16   6  10  237  231   29  No Postseason
2010     21  11  11   5   85   95   28  Loss in FBIT Preliminary Round
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 

We’re losing our momentum here. We’ve now finished below .500 in two of the last three years, after six of the previous seven seasons over .500. Time to cowboy up.

Over the course of the month we get a slew of mediocre level 3 conference job offers, but we’re happy with our new lighting and paint, so I’m not going anywhere. Interestingly, Austin Peay, who kicked our butts and won the conference last year, offers me their head coaching position. In the end, though, I turn everyone down.

[Godzilla Blitz]

May 2014

Surprisingly, none of our staff gets stolen away. We give Ronald Ansley a $1,000 raise, but otherwise stay with the same situation we had last year.

2014/15 Staff
Recruiter: Albert Gonzalez (47 years old) Skill: 40
Scout: Solomon Porch (42 years old) Skill: 41
Asst. Coach: Ronald Ansley (34 years old) Offense: 46 Defense: 56

This staff should be adequate.

[Godzilla Blitz]

June 2014

We piece together our schedule. This year we aim for an equal mix of easy games and challenging games. I think we might have been a touch too hard last year. There doesn’t appear to be any other FBCB dynasties active, so I’ll just go with the Vince Classic VI against UC Santa Barbara.

UC Riverside  2014 Season Schedule

  Date      Opponent                              Result         Record        
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  11/21/14  Elon (0-0)                                                         
  11/26/14  Harvard (0-0)                                                      
  12/02/14  Army (0-0)                                                         
  12/04/14  at San Diego State (0-0)                                           
  12/07/14  Providence (0-0)                                                   
  12/12/14  Appalachian State (0-0)                                            
  12/17/14  Southeastern Louisiana (0-0)                                       
  12/23/14  Idaho State (0-0)                                                  
  01/01/15  Towson (0-0)                                                       
  01/03/15  Sam Houston (0-0)                                                  
  01/08/15  at Western Carolina (0-0)                                          
  01/10/15  at Alabama A&M (0-0)                                               
  01/16/15  Gardner Webb (0-0)                                                 
  01/22/15  Western Carolina (0-0)                                             
  01/24/15  at Savannah State (0-0)                                            
  01/27/15  at Eastern Illinois (0-0)                                          
  01/29/15  Tennessee-Martin (0-0)                                             
  01/31/15  at Oral Roberts (0-0)                                              
  02/05/15  Eastern Illinois (0-0)                                             
  02/07/15  at Sam Houston (0-0)                                               
  02/10/15  Oral Roberts (0-0)                                                 
  02/12/15  Southeast Missouri State (0-0)                                     
  02/14/15  at Southeast Missouri State (0-0)                                  
  02/18/15  Morris Brown (0-0)                                                 
  02/21/15  at Tennessee-Martin (0-0)                                          
  02/26/15  Savannah State (0-0)                                               
  02/28/15  Alabama A&M (0-0)                                                  
  03/02/15  UC Santa Barbara (0-0) (Vince Classic VI)                          

[Godzilla Blitz]

July 2014 – October 2014

Preseason Recruiting

We have two scholarships available this year. We badly need one, if not two, small forwards. Most likely I’ll aim to get one good one, then look for other targets of high ability that we might be able to land. With only two scholarships to hand out, I think I can be aggressive at the start.

We scan the recruiting pool, and notice that we seem to be generating better interest from a higher level of recruit now. Perhaps it is the impact of higher prestige, but there are quite a few three-star recruits with average interest in us, and some of them are highly ranked.

Focusing on SF/PF and taking a closer look at high school stats than we have in the past, we identify two small forwards, SF Thomas Nolasco and SF Richard Stearns, who are showing interest in our program and look to have good skills. We aggressively go after them through the early fall, and land Stearns as training camp starts. He is ranked #276 overall, but is averaging over 21 points a game in high school on 51% shooting. Our scout thinks he has a perfect jump shot. If he lives up to his hype, he could add a terrific outside scoring punch to our program.

We head into training camp with our other scholarship on the table to Nolasco, but keep searching for safety players should he fall through.

[Godzilla Blitz]

November 2014

Roster

UC Riverside  Roster

 #   Name                  Pos  Cl   Ht     Wt   Hometown
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1   Jason Hamilton        C    Sr   6' 8"  256  Lodi, CA
 23  Irwin Spicer          C    Jr   6'11"  266  Belgrade, MT
 13  Armel Lameran         C    So   6' 9"  209  Fabregues, France
 21  Wesley Willett        C    Fr   6'10"  223  Thornton, UK
 30  Winfred Garcia        PF   Sr   6' 9"  229  Compton, CA
 34  Bernard Harrison      PF   Jr   6' 7"  227  Manhattan Beach, CA
 15  Andrew Hartnett       PF   Fr   6'10"  253  Honolulu, HI
 50  Deangelo Perez        SF   Sr   6' 8"  222  Monroeville, PA
 24  Kyle Kappe            SF   Jr   6' 7"  222  Rifle, CO
 10  Clement Hagar         SG   Jr   6' 6"  189  Escondido, CA
 5   Loren Muir            SG   So   6' 6"  202  John Day, OR
 4   Lambert Mutz          SG   Fr   6' 3"  191  Berlin, Germany
 45  Albert Goodwin        PG   So   6' 4"  184  Bowmanville, Canada
 41  Teddy Harrison        PG   Fr   6' 2"  171  Colusa, CA
 43  Alvin Tyler           PG   Fr   6' 2"  185  Westminster, CO 

Roster Evaluation
Star C Jason Hamilton’s return to the starting lineup gives us four centers on the roster and allows us to redshirt C Spicer. Garcia and B Harrison should split duty at PF, while up and coming PF Andrew Hartnett will see time both at PF and Center. SG Clement Hagar will get the nod at SF, but Kyle Kappe—who has started to come into his own—will see lots of time too. SG Muir will get the initial nod over SG Mutz, but Mutz will get a shot as well. Goodwin will start at point guard, with T Harrison as a decent backup. PG Tyler has good potential, but isn’t ready yet; he’ll redshirt.

Overall, we could be a strong team this year, as we developed fairly well in training camp. Our weakness last year was an inability to shoot from outside, but Mutz, T Harrison, Kappe and Muir give us a respectable outside game. Inside, we’re strong, with Hamilton, Hagar, and B Harrison leading the charge. Defensively, we should be able to hold our own: Garcia and Goodwin are phenomenal defenders, and there are no real weakspots elsewhere. Also, we have a deep team that is in great condition (Hagar = 96 conditioning; Muir = 100; Goodwin = 100), so we should be able to play a high pace game to wear other teams down.

Overall, I’d like to think we can be in the hunt for the conference title late in the season.

Onward…

[Godzilla Blitz]

November 2014

Results

  Date      Opponent                              Result         Record        
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  11/21/14  Elon (3-1)                            W 59-45        1-0           
  11/26/14  Harvard (1-2)                         W 114-57       2-0           

SG Clement Hagar leads us with 19 points in a solid win over Eton to open our season. We follow that with an incredible 114-57 destruction of Harvard. SG Hagar, C Hamilton, and SG Muir all had more than 20 points as we set a team record for points in a game. Standing out in the performance: we shot 68% from the 3-point line, and had a 33-0 run in the first half to put the game away.

We end the month at 2-0, but the huge win is a tremendous confidence builder.

Recruiting
Bingo! We land #164-ranked SF Thomas Nolasco, an all-around player with a strong inside game and outstanding shot-blocking skills. With that, our recruiting is over for this season.

Here’s a brief look at our players:

2014/15 Recruiting Summary

POS Player Name                 Star         National Rank
SF  Thomas Nolasco              ***          164
SF  Richard Stearns             ***          276

[Godzilla Blitz]

December 2014

PF Garcia gets suspended for a month for crappy grades, so we make some changes to our lineup to adjust. SF Kyle Kappe, who has developed into more of a power forward than a small forward, will see a lot of time at both PF and SF to fill in.

Results

  12/02/14  Army (6-4)                            W 68-42        3-0           
  12/04/14  at San Diego State (5-5)              L 73-66        3-1           
  12/07/14  Providence (4-8)                      W 70-69        4-1           
  12/12/14  Appalachian State (7-4)               W 78-64        5-1           
  12/17/14  Southeastern Louisiana (3-7)          W 72-58        6-1           
  12/23/14  Idaho State (9-5)                     W 86-81        7-1           

SG Muir and C Hamilton get double-doubles as we start the month by leveling previously undefeated Army in yet another rout.

We then go on the road to face San Diego State, a level-4-conference team. We lead most of the way, but midway through the second half San Diego pulls away and we don’t have enough to catch up. Still, a good road game against a tough opponent.

We get hot after that: PG Albert Goodwin leads us with 20 points and keys a late comeback as we stage a dramatic one-point upset over a strong level-3 Providence team; SG Muir and C Hamilton team up for double-doubles again as we rout a weak Appalachia State; and SG Muir gets 17 more as we roll over an abysmal Southeastern Louisiana (prestige = 0).

Level-4 Idaho State (7-4) comes to Riverside next, and we quickly fall behind by 13 points. Before the half we storm back to tie and manage to get them in foul trouble as well. Idaho State surges in the second half, but with Riverside Arena rocking, we put on a late run in the last two minutes to get the upset and earn our first ever win against a top-50 ranked team! Wow!

We end the month 7-1. Even more impressive is the fact that we are ranked #20 in the nation! Our win against Providence got us some votes, and the Idaho State upset shot us into the rankings for the first time ever.

Oh yeah, baby. We are in the happy place now.

[Godzilla Blitz]

January 2015

We get PF Garcia back in the lineup this month. His suspension is over.

Results

  Date      Opponent                              Result         Record        
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  01/01/15  Towson (6-12)                         W 78-73        8-1           
  01/03/15  Sam Houston (6-12)                    W 74-63        9-1 (1-0)     
  01/08/15  at Western Carolina (8-12)            W 76-71        10-1 (2-0)    
  01/10/15  at Alabama A&M (7-13)                 W 87-66        11-1 (3-0)    
  01/16/15  Gardner Webb (8-14)                   W 87-68        12-1          
  01/22/15  Western Carolina (8-12)               W 54-42        13-1 (4-0)    
  01/24/15  at Savannah State (9-12)              W 71-64        14-1 (5-0)    
  01/27/15  at Eastern Illinois (10-8)            L 103-94       14-2 (5-1)    
  01/29/15  Tennessee-Martin (4-16)               W 76-63        15-2 (6-1)    
  01/31/15  at Oral Roberts (7-13)                W 76-62        16-2 (7-1)    
  

The beat goes on. We open up a 20-point lead in the second half against Towson, but have to hang for the win in the face of a furious rally that saw them close to within 3 points. We follow that nailbiter with a much more comfortable victory over Sam Houston to start conference play.

We stay hot after that and win our next five games: Muir gets 23 and Hagar gets 22 to lead us in a wild overtime victory over Western Carolina; Muir scores 27 and Kappe gets 19 in a comfortable win over Alabama A&M; Hagar and Muir score 21 each and we use a strong second half to cruise to victory against Gardner Webb; we hold Western Carolina to only 7 points over the last 11 minutes of the game to pull away from a tie score and get another win; and Savannah State commits 20 turnovers as we get a gift victory on the road. Our ranking rises to #15.

The magic ends at Eastern Illinois, as they shoot lights out and we fall to our second defeat. The loss drops us off the table as far as national rankings go.

We nearly lose two in a row, but in a tie game with 2 seconds to go, Tennessee-Martin misses two free throws to send the game into overtime. We respond by burying them for the win.

At this point, despite our 6-1 conference record, we are tied with Oral Roberts for second place. Southeast Missouri State (7-0) remains undefeated in the conference.

In our last game of the month against Oral Roberts—our nemesis—we pull away late to get a big win and get to within one-half game of Southeast Missouri State.

We finish the month at 16-2 overall. Next month should be a dogfight for the conference title.

[Godzilla Blitz]

February 2015

Results

  Date      Opponent                              Result         Record        
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  02/05/15  Eastern Illinois (12-16)              W 87-60        17-2 (8-1)    
  02/07/15  at Sam Houston (11-17)                W 57-55        18-2 (9-1)    
  02/10/15  Oral Roberts (12-17)                  W 72-68        19-2 (10-1)   
  02/12/15  Southeast Missouri State (20-8)       W 79-75        20-2 (11-1)   
  02/14/15  at Southeast Missouri State (20-8)    L 87-72        20-3 (11-2)   
  02/18/15  Morris Brown (10-16)                  W 79-69        21-3          
  02/21/15  at Tennessee-Martin (4-24)            W 94-55        22-3 (12-2)   
  02/26/15  Savannah State (15-14)                L 79-63        22-4 (12-3)   
  02/28/15  Alabama A&M (12-16)                   W 80-72        23-4 (13-3)   
  03/02/15  UC Santa Barbara (20-7)               W 62-52        24-4          
  03/03/15  vs. Western Carolina (11-17) 

We start out the month with a revenge drubbing of Eastern Illinois, as all of our starters get double-figure scoring. Muir then leads us with 21 points in a clutch road win over Sam Houston. Unfortunately, starting SF Clement Hagar suffers a bruised hip that will keep him out of action for a week.

Three huge games follow against the top of the conference: we hold off Oral Roberts in a squeaker in the first game; Kyle Kappe scores three of his 23 points with 14 seconds to go and us down by one against Southern Missouri State to lead us to a dramatic comeback victory in the second; but Southern Missouri State completely outplays us on their court.

At this point we lead the conference by a game and a half over Southern Missouri State with three conference games to go.

Just as we get Hagar back in the lineup, disaster strikes against non-conference Morris Brown. We win the thrilling game in overtime but lose our three best players to injury in the process: C Hamilton (fractured jaw/12 days); SF Hagar (bruised jaw/8 days); and SG Muir (sprained wrist/day-to-day). Yikes. How do you spell Pyrrhic victory?

With three starters out and the conference title on the line, we juggle our lineup and strategy against weak Tennessee-Martin, and it pays off. Kyle Kappe racks up 20 points as we run away to an easy win.

We get Muir back for our next game, but with Hamilton and Hagar still out, Savannah State crushes us at home and drops us into a tie with Southeast Missouri State with one league game left.

Hagar and a gimpy Hamilton come back in action with everything on the line. We fight a tough Alabama A&M all the way, but manage to hang on for the victory to lock up a tie for the conference title, as Southeast Missouri runs the table to stay even with us in the standings. However, our RPI is much higher than them and our overall record is better, so I believe we stand a good chance of getting promoted.

In a final non-conference game, we get some revenge for last year’s loss, as we roll over a solid UC Santa Barbara in the Vince Classic VI.

With that, our regular season comes to a close. We finish at 24-4, our highest win total ever. Looking ahead, we’ll head to the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament as the #1 seed, and will host Western Carolina in the first round.

Also, our RPI puts us at #34 in the nation, which looks to be good enough to qualify for the NCAA tournament regardless of what happens in the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament. Not sure on this one, though, as this is new territory for us. I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but still want to sweep the conference tournament to make sure we get there.

[JAG]

Nice going! Kick some butt in the tournament(s)! Looks like the future is quite bright with your team's youth at many positions as well. I wonder if the improved facilities accounted for the better conditioning and development you noted.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally Posted by JAG

Nice going! Kick some butt in the tournament(s)!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by JAG

I wonder if the improved facilities accounted for the better conditioning and development you noted.

Aha! Lightbulb goes on! What a dummy I am! Good point! I hadn't thought about facilities having an impact on player development, but that would make a lot of sense. For some reason, I just assumed facilities only impacted how the team played on its own court.

[Godzilla Blitz]

March 2015

Ohio Valley Conference Tournament

Round 1 vs. Western Carolina

On paper we are a better, deeper team, but our two games against Western Carolina during the regular season were hard fought victories, so we have to be a bit careful here. Fortunately, three of their starters are banged up for this matchup. We adjust our game only slightly: usually we try to get the ball inside, but Western Carolina’s defense in there is tough, so we switch to a more balanced attack. Otherwise, we’ll play our game and try to let our superior talent and depth do the job.

Neither team does much offensively early, and at the midway point in the half we’re up by a measly 11-10 score. We wake up first though, and start landing shots to surge ahead. By the half, we lead by a comfortable 40-19 score. Western Carolina does slightly better scoring in the second half, but we get their better players in foul trouble and keep hitting shots. We win in a rout, 80-47.

Savannah State comes to UC Riverside next. They are the only team to beat us at home this year. We’ll need to be ready.

[Godzilla Blitz]

March 2015

Ohio Valley Conference Tournament

Semi-Final vs. Savannah State


Savannah State played a sloppy game in our first match-up, which we won easily. However, they played a strong game at UC Riverside to be the only team to beat us at home this year. We’ll play a straight up game against them, as on paper we look to be the better team.

The game starts out horribly. It is a nightmare. Savannah State can’t miss, we keep turning the ball over, and our better players are racking up fouls. Before we can blink, we’re down by 15 points. Things don’t get much better during the rest of the first half, as Savannah State keeps hitting shot after shot. We simply cannot stop them on defense. By halftime, we’re down by 20 points. We surge back in the second half to get within ten points, but once again Savannah State responds with big shots to bury our comeback. We are never in this game: Savannah State crushes us, 105-91. They shot 59% from the floor, but for most of the game were up over 70%. Yikes.

If there is any consolation, it is that Oral Roberts upset Southeast Missouri State as well. Tying the conference title but having SMS win the conference tourney would give them strong bragging rights.

We wait for seeding day to see if our 25-5 record is good enough to get us in the tournament…

#8 seed in the East! We’re going to the dance! And our opponent is none other than 28-8 UC Santa Barbara! We beat them handily about two weeks ago, so we have to think this is our first real chance to get out of the first round of the tournament. Wow! Our third trip to NCAA Tournament!

[Godzilla Blitz]

March 2015

NCAA Tournament

Round 1 vs. UC Santa Barbara

UC Santa Barbara has one phenomenal inside scorer and one phenomenal outside shooter. The rest of their offensive punch is mediocre. We held them to 52 points the first time we played them by consistently double-teaming their two stars. Following the strategy of making a team beat your winning strategy before you change it, we’ll use the same defensive strategy this time. At the other end of the court, Santa Barbara is better at stopping the inside game, so we’ll use a balanced attack against them.

We start out smothering the Santa Barbara attack and our high pace attack gets them into early foul trouble. We jump out to an early lead and keep adding to it. By halftime UC Santa Barbara has committed 21 fouls, and we hold a solid 14-point lead. We hit our first three shots of the second half and run our lead out to more than 20 points. From there we put it on cruise control and coast to our first ever NCAA Tournament Victory, 78-62!

We’re going to round two, where we’ll meet…

Ugh. #1 seed Maryland (29-5). They are ranked #3 in the nation. I’m guessing, but I think they’ll be a bit tougher to beat than UC Santa Barbara.

[JAG]

Congrats on the win GB! Give those Terps all they can handle.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally Posted by JAG

Congrats on the win GB! Give those Terps all they can handle.

Thanks, JAG. Didn't quite work out that way...

March 2015

NCAA Tournament

Round 2 vs. Maryland

Humm. Very interesting. Maryland’s top scorer, PG Booker Davis, is out with a torn hamstring. Their top rebounder, C Carl Greenberg, is out with a broken skull. Their starting power forward is playing with a sprained ankle. Unfortunately, even with the inuries, they are much better team then us. Their outside shooting game is incredible, and they have talent to burn. Offensively, we’ll try to go inside, as the loss of their star center leaves them more vulnerable there than on the outside, where they have a plethora of good defenders. Defensively, we’ll need to slow down their fantastic shooting. We’ll run 1-3-1 and a 3-2 schemes, and keep our outside defenders in the game as much as possible. I think we have little chance here, of course, but I’d like to think we can make this a game.

Our strategy starts out hot, as we break through inside for some quick baskets and get enough hands in their faces on defense that they can’t get into any rhythm. By midway through the first half, we’re holding a 6-point lead and matching them basket for basket. Toward the end of the first half, we start having trouble scoring, and they drop a couple of quick threes to tie the score. We head to the locker room tied at 33-33. In the second half, they start landing more threes and we can’t seem to buy a three if our life depended on it. We shoot an abysmal 2 of 15 from the three-point line, while Maryland hits 11 of their 26, most of them in the second half. We just can’t keep up, and fall slowly into a hole from which there is no escape. We lose, respectably, 75-61.

And with that, our season comes to a close. I’ll be back with a wrap-up shortly.

[Godzilla Blitz]

2014/15 Wrap Up

Clearly, this was our best season yet: 26-6 overall, ranked as high as #15, conference champs, and a NCAA Tournament victory. Nothing but good things to say about this year. It seemed like we were always in the middle of a big game in the back half of the season, and we managed to win a majority of them. A very satisfying campaign.

Because of our success, I have to think we’ll get a promotion, see our prestige make another upward jump, and see me gain some coaching skill.

Looking to the future, we still should have a good team next year. We’ll lose two starters, but I like the guys we’re bringing in, and overall we should remain a strong team. I’d like to think we can hang tough with any new competition we meet in level-3 land.

I’ll post our stats for the year and then we’ll move forward…

[Godzilla Blitz]

2014/2015 Final Conference Standings

Ohio Valley Conference

                                CW  CL   Pct   W   L   Pct
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 UC Riverside                   13   3  .813  26   6  .813
 Southeast Missouri State       13   3  .813  21  10  .677
 Oral Roberts                   11   5  .688  14  18  .438
 Savannah State                 10   6  .625  18  15  .545
 Alabama A&M                     9   7  .563  12  17  .414
 Eastern Illinois                6  10  .375  12  17  .414
 Sam Houston                     6  10  .375  11  18  .379
 Western Carolina                4  12  .250  11  18  .379
 Tennessee-Martin                0  16  .000   4  24  .143 

[Godzilla Blitz]

Final Stats 2014/15

Here’s the numbers on the team:

 
UC Riverside  Player Averages

 Name                Pos   G GS  Min  Pts OReb  Reb  Ast  Stl  Blk   TO   Fl
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Jason Hamilton      C    30 30 23.3 10.7  2.2  7.4  1.3  0.6  0.1  1.9  3.3
 Irwin Spicer        C     0  0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0  0.0
 Armel Lameran       C    15  0  4.1  0.6  0.2  0.7  0.1  0.1  0.0  0.5  0.9
 Wesley Willett      C    11  0  4.1  0.9  0.2  0.8  0.6  0.5  0.0  0.1  0.5
 Winfred Garcia      PF   26 26 23.0  3.7  1.6  5.3  1.2  0.5  0.2  0.9  2.0
 Bernard Harrison    PF   32  6 17.3  5.0  1.0  3.4  0.9  0.5  0.4  1.0  2.0
 Andrew Hartnett     PF   32  2 17.6  4.1  1.0  4.1  0.9  0.6  1.1  0.6  1.6
 Deangelo Perez      SF   27  0  5.3  2.1  0.2  0.7  0.2  0.2  0.1  0.4  0.4
 Kyle Kappe          SF   32  5 14.5  6.9  0.7  2.7  1.0  0.5  0.1  0.7  1.5
 Clement Hagar       SG   29 27 26.4 13.1  1.2  3.9  2.0  0.8  0.2  1.3  2.9
 Loren Muir          SG   31 31 29.5 15.2  1.5  5.0  2.5  1.3  0.1  3.3  2.6
 Lambert Mutz        SG   32  1 11.1  4.4  0.8  1.5  0.7  0.4  0.1  0.8  0.9
 Albert Goodwin      PG   32 32 29.3 10.3  0.9  3.6  3.7  1.0  0.1  2.1  2.3
 Teddy Harrison      PG   32  0 11.7  3.6  0.3  1.2  1.5  0.5  0.0  1.5  1.1
 Alvin Tyler         PG    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%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Jason Hamilton        C     115  248  .464   90  152  .592    0    2  .000
 Irwin Spicer          C       0    0  .000    0    0  .000    0    0  .000
 Armel Lameran         C       4    7  .571    1    1 1.000    0    0  .000
 Wesley Willett        C       5    8  .625    0    3  .000    0    0  .000
 Winfred Garcia        PF     37   94  .394   22   50  .440    1    8  .125
 Bernard Harrison      PF     56  115  .487   48   85  .565    0    0  .000
 Andrew Hartnett       PF     43   90  .478   42   64  .656    3   16  .188
 Deangelo Perez        SF     21   38  .553    5   12  .417   10   18  .556
 Kyle Kappe            SF     80  193  .415   33   53  .623   27   75  .360
 Clement Hagar         SG    141  338  .417   60   95  .632   37  107  .346
 Loren Muir            SG    151  330  .458  100  131  .763   70  165  .424
 Lambert Mutz          SG     40   83  .482   44   48  .917   16   40  .400
 Albert Goodwin        PG    113  277  .408   56   99  .566   48  137  .350
 Teddy Harrison        PG     41  101  .406   19   31  .613   15   44  .341
 Alvin Tyler           PG      0    0  .000    0    0  .000    0    0  .000 

Player Awards

We get a few player awards as the season wraps up. Harnett and Mutz get named to the conference all-freshmen squad, and our two guards get the following bigger awards:

 
Soph. SG Loren Muir         First Team All Conference
Soph. PG Albert Goodwin     Second Team All Conference

[Godzilla Blitz]

April 2015

Lots of good news to start the new year. Most significantly, we get promoted! Yes! We’re going to the Mid-American Conference, West Division. We’re halfway to the top.

I also gain some skill as a coach:

My New & Improved Skill Set
Recruiting: 63 (+12)
Scouting: 23
Offense: 44 (+4)
Defense: 49 (+4)

Once again we receive word that the board has decided to upgrade our facilities! We’re now at a 23, and they have promised me that we’ll have better stuff next year. Maybe we get female masseuses?

In minor news, our recruiting class ranked #105 in the nation, for what that is worth. Also, two of our assistants are asking for raises.

Our prestige nudges upward a bit. I think we’ll need to play a tougher non-conference schedule this year if we want to see more dramatic improvement.

UC Riverside
Prestige: 46 (+5)
2015/16 Goal: Win the Conference

The only dark cloud here is that the board is only satisfied with my performance. Humm. We get our first NCAA tournament victory and win the conference, and they are only satisfied with me? Picky, picky, picky. Also, they aren’t giving us much time to adjust to our new level of competition: they expect us to win the conference this year. Greedy bastards.

Here’s our history to date:

UC Riverside  Historical Performances

Season    W   L  CW  CL Rank  RPI  Prs  Result
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2014     26   6  13   3   31   29   46  Loss in NCAA Tourney Round 2
2013     13  16   7   9  226  224   41  No Postseason
2012     22  10   9   7   77   80   33  Loss in NCAA Tourney Round 1
2011     13  16   6  10  237  231   29  No Postseason
2010     21  11  11   5   85   95   28  Loss in FBIT Preliminary Round
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 

Going to be tough to match last year’s performance.

Surprisingly, we don’t get the Ohio Valley Conference Coach of the Year Award. No clue why. Who could have done better that we did last year?

As the month comes to a close, we get more than a dozen job offers, about half of which come from level-4 teams. We pass on all of them.

[JAG]

First year at your new level and they expect to win the conference?! No wonder they were only 'satisfied' with your performance, they thought you'd be here by now!

[Godzilla Blitz]

Sorry, got sidetracked there for a bit...

May 2015

Well, things get back to normal with our staff volatility. We give our assistant coach the raise he asks for only to see him bolt to Wisconsin. Another leaves when we don’t give him the raise he asks for, and we fire our recruiter to save some cash. When all is said and done, we end up with this completely new staff:

2015/16 Staff
Recruiter: Dustin Sands ($35,000) Skill: 40 (no change from last year)
Scout: Quentin Bender ($30,000) Skill: 33 (-8 from last year)
Asst. Coach: Frank Moncrief ($93,000) Offense: 46 Defense: 56 (+16 from last year)

We seem to have a bigger budget now, and we blow the cash on Frank Moncrief; only those of you with no lives out there will remember that he was our assistant coach three years ago. We hired him for one year when we had no recruits to get, and then had to fire him right after that because of his high salary. He hasn’t worked since we fired him, but we’re happy to have him back.

[Godzilla Blitz]

June 2015

We bump our schedule up a level this year. No more easy games. I expect we’ll take our lumps. I’m finally getting games against schools whose names I recognize.

  Date      Opponent                              Result         Record        
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  11/15/15  Lafayette (0-0)                                                    
  11/19/15  New Hampshire (0-0)                                                
  11/23/15  Siena (0-0)                                                        
  11/27/15  at Saint Joseph's (0-0)                                            
  12/03/15  at West Virginia (0-0)                                             
  12/09/15  Delaware (0-0)                                                     
  12/12/15  Tennessee Tech (0-0)                                               
  12/17/15  at Gonzaga (0-0)                                                   
  12/23/15  Western Michigan (0-0)                                             
  12/26/15  Yale (0-0)                                                         
  12/31/15  UC Santa Barbara (0-0)(Vince Classic VI)                           
  01/06/16  Central Michigan (0-0)                                             
  01/09/16  Nebraska (0-0)                                                     
  01/13/16  at Penn State (0-0)                                                
  01/16/16  Pennsylvania (0-0)                                                 
  01/20/16  Texas A&M (0-0)                                                    
  01/23/16  at Central Michigan (0-0)                                          
  01/27/16  at Ohio (0-0)                                                      
  01/30/16  Penn State (0-0)                                                   
  02/01/16  at Delaware (0-0)                                                  
  02/03/16  UTEP (0-0)                                                         
  02/06/16  at Yale (0-0)                                                      
  02/10/16  at Western Michigan (0-0)                                          
  02/15/16  at Southern Illinois (0-0)                                         
  02/20/16  at Pennsylvania (0-0)                                              
  02/24/16  San Diego State (0-0)                                              
  02/27/16  at Bucknell (0-0)                                                  
  03/02/16  at UTEP (0-0)                                                      

[Godzilla Blitz]

Originally Posted by JAG

First year at your new level and they expect to win the conference?! No wonder they were only 'satisfied' with your performance, they thought you'd be here by now!

I'm guessing they look at our NCAA tournament win and figure we're ready for the big time?

I don't feel like we're at all ready for the big time.

I'm not sure I feel like we're ready for Level 3.

[The_herd]

Originally Posted by Godzilla Blitz

only those of you with no lives out there will remember that he was our assistant coach three years ago.

[Godzilla Blitz]

Herd: Sorry, I was just joking. It was so long ago (six months or more, and even I forgot until I looked it up) that I figured there was no way anyone would ever remember, so I attempted a little bit of humor. I apologize.

And in other news...

I've been meaning to come back to this but just keep putting it off and off. It finally dawned on me today that I am just not quite in the basketball mood at the moment. Maybe it's the summer weather and stuff, but I just can't seem to get into the team like I did last winter.

I apologize for doing this, but I think I'm going to put this one on indefinite hold until the urge comes back. I really do want to see how this team does, and have every intention of playing on, just not right now.

Thanks again for everyone that has followed along so far. I do intend to come back at some point and finish.