As I reported earlier we were going to play Maroussi Basketball Club. As I was told, it was going to be a tough game and we were going to play against some really talented players. As we walked into the gym, we saw a couple of 6'9" and 6'10" guys. I wasn't suprised because I knew they were good. A couple of those guys included former Pitt player Levon Kendall, former St. Joseph's player Pat Calathes, former Virginia Tech player Jamon Gordon, and former Iowa State player Jared Homan.
We talked to all of those guys and had a real good conversation with Levon Kendall. I brought up to him about being at West Virginia for a few years and the conversation started. He was a real good guy and really gave us an insight of how European basketball works. He said that the Greek league is notorious for not paying their players on time. He said he has gotten paid on-time only three out of the ten months he has been here. Each one of the guys gets a car and a house on top of their salary. Each one of the players plans on going to another club next year because Maroussi has been having a lot of finanacial problems.
After talking with these guys for a while, we were told that we were playing their junior team and not the one with the guys that we were talking to. We also found out that a couple of the players we were playing practiced with the senior team and played sparingly for them if games were out of hand. These two players got paid a little but were still considered professionals.
The game started and we were clearly the better team. We got off to great start and really were giving it to them with an eleven point lead midway through the 2nd quarter. Maroussi made a run with a slew of pick and rolls. They actually took the lead for a little bit before we started to play like we were capable of. I thought we were going to have "sea legs" for the rest of the game with the way we were playing.
As we got going, Brandon Rieg led the charge with his defensive pressure and great play at the point guard spot. Both Victor Easter and Levi Wenrich were in foul trouble and "B" played really well. Though, his numbers don't show up in the box score but he led us on a huge run that got our lead up to 20. Final score was 85-64 in our favor. Carl Hipp led us with 32 and a ton of rebounds. Jordan Schmidt rounded out the double figure scoring with 17. Charlie Choiniere rounded out our major scoring with 9.
Next up tomorrow, we are going to check out a couple of monuments to go along with our game at 6pm Greek time. We are playing Ilissiakos Basketball Club and I am making my head coaching debut. Coach Whitmore is playing the assistant coach for a game. It should be interesting for both of us and I am really looking forward to it.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Greek Cruise
After we played at Kalamata we went on a cruise which included several Greek islands along with a stop in Turkey. The islands were just beautiful and it was quite impressed. For most of us it was our first cruise experience and we weren't ready for the tiny rooms and tiny bathrooms. I'd never been in a shower that I was able to touch the shower curtain as well as the shower wall. It definitely took a little bit to get use to.
Our first stop was the island of Mykonos. I didn't go on the island and decided to relax on the ship and hang out with our AD, Bob Beeman. I can't really tell you much about the island other than it looked really cool from the boat. The next stop was Kusadasi in Turkey. I was told that the "bizarre" there was just great and that I would really like it. I was told wrong. It was a really nice island with some interesting stuff but the bizarre wasn't much of anything. The shops that I've been to in Tijuana, Mexico were much better and more entertaining than the ones they had in Kusadasi.
After Kusadasi we headed back to Greece and the island of Patmos. Patmos was our first stop to be able to swim on their "white sandy beaches." We went into port and headed to the beach. It was a quite a site. We were told that the beaches were white and sandy. The shells and rocks were a little bit brighter but it wasn't exactly Jamaica. I don't want to place a terrible picture of the places that we went because they were great but it wasn't exactly what we expected. Carl Hipp, Noah Aguirre, and myself all swam out the buoy near our boat for a little workout after being on the boat for a couple of days. It was pretty tiring but a good workout. There was a great hotel there though, it was called Chris Hotel. I took a couple of picture but of course I didn't have the cord to transfer them to my computer.
Our next stop was the island of Crete. We got off to an early morning start and took a tour with our guide, Yanni. We walked around quite a bit and checked a Greek Orthodox mass which was thirty minutes in to a three and a half hour service. Quite impressive. We also got to see the most famous water fountain in Crete. It had four lion heads around it. After drifting around the rest of the city Dan Andersen and myself checked out the castle and pier that was the entrance to the island. The castle had wasn't huge but it was quite interesting. Tons of stray dogs surrounded it and just hung out all over the place. Dan and myself walked about a mile of the pier before headed back to catch the cruise boat. Some of the views from the pier were just awesome and it like many of the sites are once in a lifetime opportunity.
Last night we pulled into the beautiful island of Santorini. This island is most famous for being the place where they filmed the movie "Mamma Mia." It certainly didn't disappoint. As soon as we got there, we had three choices to the city from the port. 1) Take the cable car, time was about 2 minutes and it cost five euros each way. 2) Take a donkey up the zig zag trail, takes about 30 minutes and cost 4 euros each way. Being the cheap and competitive guy that I am, I took the third option. The third option consisted of walking or running up a total of 582 steps and it was free. On top of that, you had to avoid the donkeys on the way up as well as their feces (it was everywhere). All but one of the guys went this way (Charlie went with his dad on the cable car). It was quite the workout.
Once we got to the top, the view was picturesque. Having never seen the movie, I didn't know what to expect. The view was more than breathtaking. All the buildings were white and it was just fantastic. We got to go around the shops a little bit and took some great pictures. I hope to take some of those pictures will hopefully be hanging up in my house sometime soon. Noah and myself decided that we want to the take the "donkey" trail again on the way down and it took about 30 minutes and was much harder than I expected. Not exactly the best thing for my knees.
After leaving Santorini, we headed back to port in Athens. We got into port before 5am, just before the seaman strike that would've held us out to sea for at least two days. We got into Athens and on the bus by 8am and immediately went to the 1896 Olympic Stadium. It was quite impressive for being build in 1896. It sat 67,000 people and was used for the marathon in the Athens Games of 2008. After heading to Olympic Stadium we headed to the Acropolis. What a site that was. They are doing a lot of renovation to the grounds. I really wanted to see everything in it's own form but with the renovation they did a lot of restoring to these old pieces. It certainly mixed a lot of the old and the new. On top of the Acropolis was one of the best sites I've seen in a while. You could see vast amounts of land just jam packed with buildings. When they say that Minneapolis or St. Paul are big cities then you need to see Athens. It is just flat out jam packed with buildings. Not a lot of open spaces at all. It was quite a site.
Tonight we play Maroussi Basketball Club. This should be a really great test for us. As fas as I know this team is getting promoted to Division A in the Greek League. Next year they will play Olympiakos and Panathinkous (I know I spelled these wrong ). We also found that Vassilis Spoonoulis (again spelling) played for Maroussi before he was signed by the Houston Rockets. We are expected a very talented basketball team. Hopefully, our guys will be ready to go.
That's it for now. I am stealing the internet right now so I don't know if I'll be able to update after tonight's game. Hopefully, I can get something out tomorrow.
Our first stop was the island of Mykonos. I didn't go on the island and decided to relax on the ship and hang out with our AD, Bob Beeman. I can't really tell you much about the island other than it looked really cool from the boat. The next stop was Kusadasi in Turkey. I was told that the "bizarre" there was just great and that I would really like it. I was told wrong. It was a really nice island with some interesting stuff but the bizarre wasn't much of anything. The shops that I've been to in Tijuana, Mexico were much better and more entertaining than the ones they had in Kusadasi.
After Kusadasi we headed back to Greece and the island of Patmos. Patmos was our first stop to be able to swim on their "white sandy beaches." We went into port and headed to the beach. It was a quite a site. We were told that the beaches were white and sandy. The shells and rocks were a little bit brighter but it wasn't exactly Jamaica. I don't want to place a terrible picture of the places that we went because they were great but it wasn't exactly what we expected. Carl Hipp, Noah Aguirre, and myself all swam out the buoy near our boat for a little workout after being on the boat for a couple of days. It was pretty tiring but a good workout. There was a great hotel there though, it was called Chris Hotel. I took a couple of picture but of course I didn't have the cord to transfer them to my computer.
Our next stop was the island of Crete. We got off to an early morning start and took a tour with our guide, Yanni. We walked around quite a bit and checked a Greek Orthodox mass which was thirty minutes in to a three and a half hour service. Quite impressive. We also got to see the most famous water fountain in Crete. It had four lion heads around it. After drifting around the rest of the city Dan Andersen and myself checked out the castle and pier that was the entrance to the island. The castle had wasn't huge but it was quite interesting. Tons of stray dogs surrounded it and just hung out all over the place. Dan and myself walked about a mile of the pier before headed back to catch the cruise boat. Some of the views from the pier were just awesome and it like many of the sites are once in a lifetime opportunity.
Last night we pulled into the beautiful island of Santorini. This island is most famous for being the place where they filmed the movie "Mamma Mia." It certainly didn't disappoint. As soon as we got there, we had three choices to the city from the port. 1) Take the cable car, time was about 2 minutes and it cost five euros each way. 2) Take a donkey up the zig zag trail, takes about 30 minutes and cost 4 euros each way. Being the cheap and competitive guy that I am, I took the third option. The third option consisted of walking or running up a total of 582 steps and it was free. On top of that, you had to avoid the donkeys on the way up as well as their feces (it was everywhere). All but one of the guys went this way (Charlie went with his dad on the cable car). It was quite the workout.
Once we got to the top, the view was picturesque. Having never seen the movie, I didn't know what to expect. The view was more than breathtaking. All the buildings were white and it was just fantastic. We got to go around the shops a little bit and took some great pictures. I hope to take some of those pictures will hopefully be hanging up in my house sometime soon. Noah and myself decided that we want to the take the "donkey" trail again on the way down and it took about 30 minutes and was much harder than I expected. Not exactly the best thing for my knees.
After leaving Santorini, we headed back to port in Athens. We got into port before 5am, just before the seaman strike that would've held us out to sea for at least two days. We got into Athens and on the bus by 8am and immediately went to the 1896 Olympic Stadium. It was quite impressive for being build in 1896. It sat 67,000 people and was used for the marathon in the Athens Games of 2008. After heading to Olympic Stadium we headed to the Acropolis. What a site that was. They are doing a lot of renovation to the grounds. I really wanted to see everything in it's own form but with the renovation they did a lot of restoring to these old pieces. It certainly mixed a lot of the old and the new. On top of the Acropolis was one of the best sites I've seen in a while. You could see vast amounts of land just jam packed with buildings. When they say that Minneapolis or St. Paul are big cities then you need to see Athens. It is just flat out jam packed with buildings. Not a lot of open spaces at all. It was quite a site.
Tonight we play Maroussi Basketball Club. This should be a really great test for us. As fas as I know this team is getting promoted to Division A in the Greek League. Next year they will play Olympiakos and Panathinkous (I know I spelled these wrong ). We also found that Vassilis Spoonoulis (again spelling) played for Maroussi before he was signed by the Houston Rockets. We are expected a very talented basketball team. Hopefully, our guys will be ready to go.
That's it for now. I am stealing the internet right now so I don't know if I'll be able to update after tonight's game. Hopefully, I can get something out tomorrow.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Greece Trip Day 3
Today was a long day for us as a team as we went to the original Olympic ruins in Olympia. It was about a two and a half hour drive to get there so it was going to be tough for our guys to have their legs for our game.
The ruins were quite the site for us. We had a tour which was somewhat informative but we got to see all the sites. Most of the sites were ruined because of the floods, wars, and the start of Christianity. The pictures were very impressive though I won't have them uploaded for at least a week. The original Olympic stadium wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be. They did say that 45,000 people would sit and watch the games which consisted of naked men running (that's basically how our guys remembered it as).
As for our game, we played the Kalamata Basketball Club. We were very flat to start the game. We were clearly more talented than the other team but we played down to their level for the most part. We ended up with 74 turnovers in part because of the basketball that we played with. At least that is what our guys would say. It was ugly but we ended up winning 71-52. Andy Voigt led us with 15, while Noah Aguirre and Carl Hipp both finished with 13.
Tomorrow we will head to Delphi in central Greece. Half there we will be able to swim and then eat some lunch. It should be another long day on the bus. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be the two toughest days of the tour for that. We are looking forward to the cruise that is starting on Saturday. During that trip we will head to several of the Greek islands as well as the bizarre in Turkey.
I have three videos of today's game and unfortunately it is taking forever to upload the game. Hopefully as some point we can have a better internet connection to get these videos on the youtube and this blog. I'll keep you updated.
On a lighter note, Noah Aguirre is mad at our tour guide Yanni because there were a couple of girls that asked about him and Yanni told the ladies Noah didn't have Facebook. Noah was very disappointed and is looking forward to our cruise.
The ruins were quite the site for us. We had a tour which was somewhat informative but we got to see all the sites. Most of the sites were ruined because of the floods, wars, and the start of Christianity. The pictures were very impressive though I won't have them uploaded for at least a week. The original Olympic stadium wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be. They did say that 45,000 people would sit and watch the games which consisted of naked men running (that's basically how our guys remembered it as).
As for our game, we played the Kalamata Basketball Club. We were very flat to start the game. We were clearly more talented than the other team but we played down to their level for the most part. We ended up with 74 turnovers in part because of the basketball that we played with. At least that is what our guys would say. It was ugly but we ended up winning 71-52. Andy Voigt led us with 15, while Noah Aguirre and Carl Hipp both finished with 13.
Tomorrow we will head to Delphi in central Greece. Half there we will be able to swim and then eat some lunch. It should be another long day on the bus. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be the two toughest days of the tour for that. We are looking forward to the cruise that is starting on Saturday. During that trip we will head to several of the Greek islands as well as the bizarre in Turkey.
I have three videos of today's game and unfortunately it is taking forever to upload the game. Hopefully as some point we can have a better internet connection to get these videos on the youtube and this blog. I'll keep you updated.
On a lighter note, Noah Aguirre is mad at our tour guide Yanni because there were a couple of girls that asked about him and Yanni told the ladies Noah didn't have Facebook. Noah was very disappointed and is looking forward to our cruise.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Greece Trip Day 1 and 2
Day one started with us getting stuck behind a band from Luther College at the MSP airport. There must have been 75 to 90 students making the trip. It seemed like we waited forever just to get to the terminal. We got through security and everything with about an hour and a half to spare. Then our adventure began…
We got on a flight headed to Amsterdam, Netherlands. We got on a bigger plane that was set up 2-4-2 with passengers. Of course, I was in the stuck right in the middle with a barrier beneath my seat that wouldn’t let me spread out my legs. We each had our own tv screen and we able to choose from about 15 different movies. My first choice in movies was the ultimate guys’ movie in Hangover. Always a classic. I noticed Avatar was on the list and I figured I would watch that next and I was extremely disappointed. Yes, the technology was great but the movie just didn’t do it for me. I know I was watching on a very small screen but I wasn’t impressed at all.
We arrived in Amsterdam around 6am Dutch time. It was the first time for most of us being outside the continental US (or North America for that matter). After we arrived, a lot of guys exchanged some money and went to McDonald’s for some food. Many were surprised by the smaller serving size. I knew that was coming considering Europeans generally consider us Americans to be fat.
After a three hour wait for our flight to Athens to were almost ready to leave. We headed through Customs and got our first stamp on our passports. We thought we had everyone through but there was no Victor Easter. I thought he went with his mom and her fiancé but I was wrong. We couldn’t call him over the loud speaker until 15 minutes before the flight was to depart. We can thank the Panathinakos Football Club (I found out later, this was not their main team but their Junior team) for delaying our flight. We were finally able to track down Victor after getting called twice over the airport’s voice system. He apparently fell asleep where we were eating and just woke up five minutes before his name was called. Not exactly mine or his finest moment. He made it and we got on our flight and left with about a 25 minute delay.
We made it to the Athens airport a little late and then headed to baggage claim. I was surprised to see a smoking station as soon as we arrived at the airport. It smelled awful but hopefully not a sign to come. We waited for a long time for our luggage and then meet up with several others in our traveling party for our bus trip to Kalamata, Greece. Kalamata is in the northern part of the country and it’s beautiful. We are right on the Mediterranean Sea.
After we arrived at our “hotel,” we were able to get a little practice in. The practice was basically to get the guys legs loose so we can be a little ready for our first game tomorrow. There is an outside court on the hotel grounds. It’s a beautiful setting with a huge mountain range right behind us. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring the cords for my camera to load on the computer, so they will have to come later.
It’s approximately, 6am Greece time right now and we (Dan Andersen, Victor Easter, and I) are watching the Suns-Lakers playoff game on tv. We are rooming together in a “villa.” The villa consists of a loft, a little living area, and a bathroom. Not exactly huge, but it works for what is necessary.
Today, we are headed to the original Olympic Stadium and going to do some sight seeing. We will head back to Kalamata for our game at 6pm Greek time. We are part of a double header with a semifinal playoff game to follow us immediately after our game. We were told that the Kalamata Basketball Club that we are playing isn’t that good but it should be nice to see some other competition. Hopefully, I was will have updated after the game today and possibly have some video to upload to see some footage of the game.
We got on a flight headed to Amsterdam, Netherlands. We got on a bigger plane that was set up 2-4-2 with passengers. Of course, I was in the stuck right in the middle with a barrier beneath my seat that wouldn’t let me spread out my legs. We each had our own tv screen and we able to choose from about 15 different movies. My first choice in movies was the ultimate guys’ movie in Hangover. Always a classic. I noticed Avatar was on the list and I figured I would watch that next and I was extremely disappointed. Yes, the technology was great but the movie just didn’t do it for me. I know I was watching on a very small screen but I wasn’t impressed at all.
We arrived in Amsterdam around 6am Dutch time. It was the first time for most of us being outside the continental US (or North America for that matter). After we arrived, a lot of guys exchanged some money and went to McDonald’s for some food. Many were surprised by the smaller serving size. I knew that was coming considering Europeans generally consider us Americans to be fat.
After a three hour wait for our flight to Athens to were almost ready to leave. We headed through Customs and got our first stamp on our passports. We thought we had everyone through but there was no Victor Easter. I thought he went with his mom and her fiancé but I was wrong. We couldn’t call him over the loud speaker until 15 minutes before the flight was to depart. We can thank the Panathinakos Football Club (I found out later, this was not their main team but their Junior team) for delaying our flight. We were finally able to track down Victor after getting called twice over the airport’s voice system. He apparently fell asleep where we were eating and just woke up five minutes before his name was called. Not exactly mine or his finest moment. He made it and we got on our flight and left with about a 25 minute delay.
We made it to the Athens airport a little late and then headed to baggage claim. I was surprised to see a smoking station as soon as we arrived at the airport. It smelled awful but hopefully not a sign to come. We waited for a long time for our luggage and then meet up with several others in our traveling party for our bus trip to Kalamata, Greece. Kalamata is in the northern part of the country and it’s beautiful. We are right on the Mediterranean Sea.
After we arrived at our “hotel,” we were able to get a little practice in. The practice was basically to get the guys legs loose so we can be a little ready for our first game tomorrow. There is an outside court on the hotel grounds. It’s a beautiful setting with a huge mountain range right behind us. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring the cords for my camera to load on the computer, so they will have to come later.
It’s approximately, 6am Greece time right now and we (Dan Andersen, Victor Easter, and I) are watching the Suns-Lakers playoff game on tv. We are rooming together in a “villa.” The villa consists of a loft, a little living area, and a bathroom. Not exactly huge, but it works for what is necessary.
Today, we are headed to the original Olympic Stadium and going to do some sight seeing. We will head back to Kalamata for our game at 6pm Greek time. We are part of a double header with a semifinal playoff game to follow us immediately after our game. We were told that the Kalamata Basketball Club that we are playing isn’t that good but it should be nice to see some other competition. Hopefully, I was will have updated after the game today and possibly have some video to upload to see some footage of the game.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Here We Come...
Just getting the final touches ready for Greece. Can't wait to get over there. We will be arriving in Greece tomorrow at 1:45pm after a connecting flight through Amsterdam. We should have the internet at the first hotel we are at but I'm not sure about the others. I'll try to keep everything updated as much as I can with the blog, pictures, and videos.
Here is our game schedule when we are over there.
May 26th - vs. Kalamata Basketball Club
May 31st - vs. Maroussi Basketball Club
June 1st - vs.Ilissiakos Academies Basketball Club
June 2nd - vs. Argonaut Basketball Club
Should be a great time.
Here is our game schedule when we are over there.
May 26th - vs. Kalamata Basketball Club
May 31st - vs. Maroussi Basketball Club
June 1st - vs.Ilissiakos Academies Basketball Club
June 2nd - vs. Argonaut Basketball Club
Should be a great time.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Practices 5-6
I'd like to thank my loyal followers, your support has been tremendous in keeping this blog afloat in these tough economic times, all six of you.
Now onto Allen Iverson's favorite piece of basketball, practice. We had our fifth practice on Sunday right before our guys had their finals. It didn't exactly go the way we would've liked but at the same time half of our guys were sitting around on Saturday and Sunday helping out with a basketball tournament that we were hosting. We went for about an hour and a half just to get their legs going and make sure they were prepared for the main reason they actually came to college, school. It certainly is tough this time of the year to practice. It's really nice outside, finals are about to happen, and in the famous words of Noah Aguirre, "I like girls in sundresses."
Yesterday's practice was much better. Our guys were able to focus a little longer after being done with finals. Now it's just basketball. We went through a lot of stuff yesterday. At this point, we are nitpicking a lot with what we want. We have to be able to focus and make the right decisions and learn from our mistakes. Just a little thing like securing a loose ball instead of reaching for it or creating a little better angle to a make a post pass. Those little things could and have a made a difference in winning or losing a game. Ask Butler's guard about slowing up on a breakaway and getting blocked instead of two points. They ended up losing by two. That's life and basketball.
These ten practices have been great for me. I am starting to get a better grasp of our players and what each is capable of in a half court setting. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some "head coaching" experience in one game out in Greece. It would be extremely beneficial for me. We'll see how everything transpires out there. We finally got our opponents and I'll try to update everyone with who and when we are playing within the next couple of days.
Now onto Allen Iverson's favorite piece of basketball, practice. We had our fifth practice on Sunday right before our guys had their finals. It didn't exactly go the way we would've liked but at the same time half of our guys were sitting around on Saturday and Sunday helping out with a basketball tournament that we were hosting. We went for about an hour and a half just to get their legs going and make sure they were prepared for the main reason they actually came to college, school. It certainly is tough this time of the year to practice. It's really nice outside, finals are about to happen, and in the famous words of Noah Aguirre, "I like girls in sundresses."
Yesterday's practice was much better. Our guys were able to focus a little longer after being done with finals. Now it's just basketball. We went through a lot of stuff yesterday. At this point, we are nitpicking a lot with what we want. We have to be able to focus and make the right decisions and learn from our mistakes. Just a little thing like securing a loose ball instead of reaching for it or creating a little better angle to a make a post pass. Those little things could and have a made a difference in winning or losing a game. Ask Butler's guard about slowing up on a breakaway and getting blocked instead of two points. They ended up losing by two. That's life and basketball.
These ten practices have been great for me. I am starting to get a better grasp of our players and what each is capable of in a half court setting. Hopefully, I'll be able to get some "head coaching" experience in one game out in Greece. It would be extremely beneficial for me. We'll see how everything transpires out there. We finally got our opponents and I'll try to update everyone with who and when we are playing within the next couple of days.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Greece Trip Practices 1-4
Right now we are preparing for our upcoming trip to Greece. We are leaving May 24th and we get to play four games there and most importantly are given ten practices by the NCAA beforehand to get the guys in shape and formulate what we want to do. These practices are huge for our guys development for next year. We have ten guys returning and all of them have made significant changes to their body since the season ended.
We started practicing last Friday and needless to say it was sloppy. The NCAA handcuffs division 3 coaches by not letting us work out the guys like they do in d1 and d2. D3 guys are considered "true" student-athletes but those two hours we want to work them out is them playing video games and doing other things college students do. We were on the floor for a little over two hours and got a lot of things done. We changed our defense a little bit due to our personnel. We aren't going to get out the passing lanes like we have in the past. We want to take away penetration and then get back to shooters as much as can.
The talent level comparably speaking to my first year is night and day. We led the conference in scoring with just under 74 points a game. That is still not where we want to be but it's a start. We were second in the conference in field goal percentage defense at around 42%. Hopefully, as this group gets older and stronger our scoring will go up and our defense will get better.
Next year should be interesting because we will be extremely young going against a lot of senior laden teams in our conference. We will have one senior, Carl Hipp. Three juniors, Levi Wenrich, Brandon Rieg, and Matt Farb. We will have all of our freshmen class returning including All Freshmen Team members Noah Aguirre and Jordan Schmidt back. Other members of the rising sophomore class are Andy Voigt, Christian Taber, Victor Easter, and Charlie Choiniere.
As of right now we have six incoming freshmen coming in. Four local guys and two out of state players. We are still waiting to hear from a couple of others. We will wait and see.
We started practicing last Friday and needless to say it was sloppy. The NCAA handcuffs division 3 coaches by not letting us work out the guys like they do in d1 and d2. D3 guys are considered "true" student-athletes but those two hours we want to work them out is them playing video games and doing other things college students do. We were on the floor for a little over two hours and got a lot of things done. We changed our defense a little bit due to our personnel. We aren't going to get out the passing lanes like we have in the past. We want to take away penetration and then get back to shooters as much as can.
The talent level comparably speaking to my first year is night and day. We led the conference in scoring with just under 74 points a game. That is still not where we want to be but it's a start. We were second in the conference in field goal percentage defense at around 42%. Hopefully, as this group gets older and stronger our scoring will go up and our defense will get better.
Next year should be interesting because we will be extremely young going against a lot of senior laden teams in our conference. We will have one senior, Carl Hipp. Three juniors, Levi Wenrich, Brandon Rieg, and Matt Farb. We will have all of our freshmen class returning including All Freshmen Team members Noah Aguirre and Jordan Schmidt back. Other members of the rising sophomore class are Andy Voigt, Christian Taber, Victor Easter, and Charlie Choiniere.
As of right now we have six incoming freshmen coming in. Four local guys and two out of state players. We are still waiting to hear from a couple of others. We will wait and see.
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