Another away game on the road for the Pipers yesterday. We stayed in Madison, WI before heading to Whitewater for our game. We got there a little early and were able to check out some of the facilities that Whitewater had to offer. It was a great facility with a massive field house, gym, and swimming pool. The main attraction was the display of the national championship trophies. They had won two in men's basketball as well as a couple in football. I need one of those, BADLY.
We got off to a pretty good start and actually made some 3's for the first time in a while. We still were going a lot of standing around on offense which I can't stand. Whenever we got into the paint good things happened. I don't understand how our guys don't get that, ever. We might have one or two straight quality possessions and then we got back to standing around and hoping someone else will make a play. I can't stand that. We finished off 6-16 from 3 in the first half, meaning more than half of our shots were 3's. Not exactly how we planned it but we were getting decent looks. We executed two "end of game plays" at the end of the first half and got a 3 from Tyler Pannell to push our lead to 12 at the half. Our guys were excited, as was the staff.
Second half started with quite a bit of back and forth play (surprise, surprise). We got their most explosive player, Antone Byrd, in foul trouble including a "T" and that helped us get our lead back up to 12, and it seems like we were in control. Carl then got two quick fouls on and 1's. It seems like anyone we put in after Carl couldn't get it done defensively on their big guy. It literally seemed like every time we made a sub, he scored. Unacceptable to say the least.
As the second half rolled on, we just made mistake after mistake and let them back in the game. Guys were playing like Cameron from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. We had several chances to put them away and just couldn't. Now, they are an extremely talented team but there is no excuse for how we played. We survived until overtime and then all hell broke loose. We had too many opportunities that we didn't take advantage of. We didn't play physically or mentally tough. As a staff, we have to find toughness somewhere. We'll see what happens.
We ended up losing by 11. It might have been the highest scoring overtime in history as Whitewater scored 27 and we scored 16. To finish the game, they outrebounded us by over 20, forced us into 25 turnovers, and shot 30 more free throws than we did. Hmmmmmmmm, not going to win those ones. The scary thing about it was that we were right there and should've won. I might be completely bald by the end of the season.
We play at Gustavus on Monday to get league play going again. We have Bethel on Wednesday and then Macalester on Saturday to finish the week.
RAY BROWN UPDATE: Ray went down to Fort Sill, Oklahoma to tryout for their PBL team and was the last cut. Hopefully, he'll see what it takes for him to make it there or someplace else. We'll see what happens and I'll to keep you updated on his status.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
And We're Back
After a ten day layoff (too long in my opinion but not much we can do about it) we headed back to practice on the night of the 26th. I wasn't able to make it until the last few minutes because of flight issues.
As most of you know the east coast got hit with a barrage of snow at the beginning of the week. This was after seeing GREEN grass at my parents' house when I got home on the 22nd. Green grass in December, absolutely unheard of. It snowed on Christmas day a little bit to cover the green and made Christmas "white." My time at home was great. I got to see my mom's dad aka "Big Grandpa" right after I landed up in Rochester. It was nice to see him, he's definitely moving a little slower but as always is still pretty sharp. Over the next couple of days I got to see a lot of family, friends (only 3 left back home), and had some real NY style pizza. Lots of fun.
On the way back to Rochester we heard on the radio that 270 Continental flights to and from Newark had been canceled. My flight was headed to Newark. Surprise, surprise. I have some family members that work in the airline industry and they told me to get to the airport as quickly as possible to see what I could do to get back to the Twin Cities. All Continental flights were on hold until Monday and it looked like I would be headed to Cleveland Monday before going to Minneapolis. I wasn't happy about it but there is nothing I could do at that point. The guy at the counter ask me again where I was headed and I said MSP and he looked up a couple of other airlines to see what he could do and Voila (I know I spelled it wrong) I got to head to MSP at 7pm on a direct Delta flight. On top of getting a flight out on Sunday I was also able to get to spend time with five of my aunts and uncles (three more weren't there, my mom has 8 brothers and sisters) before leaving.
I got back to school right when practice was over and we headed to the weight room to get the guys to look like me. Rome certainly wasn't built in a day. It's really important that our guys get after it in the weight room, they need to get stronger because we need to get to loose balls and be able to finish around the basket.
We had double sessions yesterday and overall it went well. A couple of guys weren't feeling to well because I think they overate for lunch and dinner. It happens, I would rather have them overeat then not eat enough. We had doubles again today and that went ok. We are still making some of the same mistakes over and over and the learning curve of each guy has to be better. We also had a little chippiness (if that's a word) today. A couple of guys were going at it in a rebounding drill and neither was backing down. There was a big shove and some verbal sparring but nothing too much. I didn't stop it at all and I actually enjoyed seeing it. I haven't seen that at all in the past three years. Competitive people going after each other, that's how practice is supposed to be. Guys fighting for spots and fighting for minutes, no harm at all.
We leave tomorrow to head to UW-Whitewater for a game on the 30th. It should be another good one. They are a good team but I think we should right there. Hopefully, Carl will play his usual 30 minutes a game that he has during all non-conference games. You can find all the info for Live Stats/Radio/etc for the Whitewater game HERE.
As most of you know the east coast got hit with a barrage of snow at the beginning of the week. This was after seeing GREEN grass at my parents' house when I got home on the 22nd. Green grass in December, absolutely unheard of. It snowed on Christmas day a little bit to cover the green and made Christmas "white." My time at home was great. I got to see my mom's dad aka "Big Grandpa" right after I landed up in Rochester. It was nice to see him, he's definitely moving a little slower but as always is still pretty sharp. Over the next couple of days I got to see a lot of family, friends (only 3 left back home), and had some real NY style pizza. Lots of fun.
On the way back to Rochester we heard on the radio that 270 Continental flights to and from Newark had been canceled. My flight was headed to Newark. Surprise, surprise. I have some family members that work in the airline industry and they told me to get to the airport as quickly as possible to see what I could do to get back to the Twin Cities. All Continental flights were on hold until Monday and it looked like I would be headed to Cleveland Monday before going to Minneapolis. I wasn't happy about it but there is nothing I could do at that point. The guy at the counter ask me again where I was headed and I said MSP and he looked up a couple of other airlines to see what he could do and Voila (I know I spelled it wrong) I got to head to MSP at 7pm on a direct Delta flight. On top of getting a flight out on Sunday I was also able to get to spend time with five of my aunts and uncles (three more weren't there, my mom has 8 brothers and sisters) before leaving.
I got back to school right when practice was over and we headed to the weight room to get the guys to look like me. Rome certainly wasn't built in a day. It's really important that our guys get after it in the weight room, they need to get stronger because we need to get to loose balls and be able to finish around the basket.
We had double sessions yesterday and overall it went well. A couple of guys weren't feeling to well because I think they overate for lunch and dinner. It happens, I would rather have them overeat then not eat enough. We had doubles again today and that went ok. We are still making some of the same mistakes over and over and the learning curve of each guy has to be better. We also had a little chippiness (if that's a word) today. A couple of guys were going at it in a rebounding drill and neither was backing down. There was a big shove and some verbal sparring but nothing too much. I didn't stop it at all and I actually enjoyed seeing it. I haven't seen that at all in the past three years. Competitive people going after each other, that's how practice is supposed to be. Guys fighting for spots and fighting for minutes, no harm at all.
We leave tomorrow to head to UW-Whitewater for a game on the 30th. It should be another good one. They are a good team but I think we should right there. Hopefully, Carl will play his usual 30 minutes a game that he has during all non-conference games. You can find all the info for Live Stats/Radio/etc for the Whitewater game HERE.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
UW River Falls 12/15
We headed on the road for a little doubleheader action with the women's team (all of our games should be that way, especially in our league) as we take on the River Falls Falcons (a little more creative than our league). River Falls was #17 in the latest D3hoops poll and knocked off former #1 Stevens Point two weeks ago. We were planning on a scrap and we sure got one.
The first half started out great for us as we went up 16-6 after the first media timeout (nobody let us know they had those there). We were clicking on all cylinders. They didn't know what to do offensively and we were making shots defensively. They made a couple of changes and that definitely got them going. I believe they went on a 25-5 run at one point led by Jontae Koonkaew. He is a small but strong point that can really fill it up and he did. We battled back and got the game within three at the half. We had 14 turnovers and gave up 9 offensive boards. Just next acceptable anywhere, especially on the road against a veteran team. Halftime score, 36-33.
The second half per usual was back and forth pretty much the whole time. We both made little runs here and there but neither of us could get away from each other. As the second half progressed, it looked like we had them on the heels. We kept getting the ball inside to Carl and he was either scoring or getting to the free throw line. They certainly didn't have an answer for him, just like we didn't have an answer for Jontae. River Falls got a little comfortable with their lead late and we kept on attacking and scoring but could never get it closer than five. Final score, 81-74 River Falls.
We were led by Carl's 22 points, 14 boards and 6 blocks. He probably had a bunch more blocks as well. Mike and Noah rounded out our double figure scoring with 15 and 13, respectively. As usual, we couldn't hit the broad side of a barn from 3, as we finished 5-20 for the game. We shot a stellar 35.7% from the floor overall. Tough to win on the road with those numbers. We ended up 29-33 from the line, which is our best performance from there this season. Just wish we could've gotten there a couple more times during the game.
Once again, we had a close game. That seems to be our MO this year. Hopefully, as time goes on we will be comfortable in these situations and it will help us get a playoff berth and potentially an NCAA berth.
Looking at River Falls' roster and the guys that played, they are a veteran group. They have one 5th year guy in Jontae, three other seniors, one 4th year Jr in Shane Manor, three Jrs., and then two sophomores. That must be nice to have and that is probably why they have won some big games this year and will probably do pretty well throughout the season. We'll get there at some point but we have to get stronger and tougher. Every loose ball has to be ours. That just isn't the case right now. It's clearly a mentality. Either us as a coaching staff isn't doing a good enough job of recruiting tough kids or our guys get soft as soon as they step on campus.
We have a little break before our next one. We play another quality WIAC opponent in UW-Whitewater at their place on Dec. 30th.
I'm off to Portland tomorrow morning to go recruit, Nelson will be in Arizona. Hopefully, we come back with a couple of studs and a good outlook for the 2011 recruiting class.
The first half started out great for us as we went up 16-6 after the first media timeout (nobody let us know they had those there). We were clicking on all cylinders. They didn't know what to do offensively and we were making shots defensively. They made a couple of changes and that definitely got them going. I believe they went on a 25-5 run at one point led by Jontae Koonkaew. He is a small but strong point that can really fill it up and he did. We battled back and got the game within three at the half. We had 14 turnovers and gave up 9 offensive boards. Just next acceptable anywhere, especially on the road against a veteran team. Halftime score, 36-33.
The second half per usual was back and forth pretty much the whole time. We both made little runs here and there but neither of us could get away from each other. As the second half progressed, it looked like we had them on the heels. We kept getting the ball inside to Carl and he was either scoring or getting to the free throw line. They certainly didn't have an answer for him, just like we didn't have an answer for Jontae. River Falls got a little comfortable with their lead late and we kept on attacking and scoring but could never get it closer than five. Final score, 81-74 River Falls.
We were led by Carl's 22 points, 14 boards and 6 blocks. He probably had a bunch more blocks as well. Mike and Noah rounded out our double figure scoring with 15 and 13, respectively. As usual, we couldn't hit the broad side of a barn from 3, as we finished 5-20 for the game. We shot a stellar 35.7% from the floor overall. Tough to win on the road with those numbers. We ended up 29-33 from the line, which is our best performance from there this season. Just wish we could've gotten there a couple more times during the game.
Once again, we had a close game. That seems to be our MO this year. Hopefully, as time goes on we will be comfortable in these situations and it will help us get a playoff berth and potentially an NCAA berth.
Looking at River Falls' roster and the guys that played, they are a veteran group. They have one 5th year guy in Jontae, three other seniors, one 4th year Jr in Shane Manor, three Jrs., and then two sophomores. That must be nice to have and that is probably why they have won some big games this year and will probably do pretty well throughout the season. We'll get there at some point but we have to get stronger and tougher. Every loose ball has to be ours. That just isn't the case right now. It's clearly a mentality. Either us as a coaching staff isn't doing a good enough job of recruiting tough kids or our guys get soft as soon as they step on campus.
We have a little break before our next one. We play another quality WIAC opponent in UW-Whitewater at their place on Dec. 30th.
I'm off to Portland tomorrow morning to go recruit, Nelson will be in Arizona. Hopefully, we come back with a couple of studs and a good outlook for the 2011 recruiting class.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Saturday, December 11, 2010
St. Thomas and Row of Honor Cancelled
Row of Honor Ceremony and the St. Thomas game have been canceled due to weather. What I don't understand is how the plows aren't out right now. In both Minneapolis and St. Paul, the plows don't come out until there is a "snow emergency." What a joke. Be proactive instead of reactive. Or in sports' terms, "make things happen instead of waiting for things to happen."
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Augsburg 12/8
Another barnburner for the Pipeshow last night. What a game, 102-98 in overtime. A bigtime defensive struggle. There were stops on what seems like every possession. Just kidding. Neither team could cover a 97 year old grandmother with bad arthritis.
We got off to a really quick start (a first) last night and knocked down a couple of 3's early (another first). We ended up taking a 20-9 lead with about 11 minutes left in the first half. We were playing really good defense on top of getting pretty looks on the offensive end. After letting them get back in the game, we basically went back and forth with them for about a five minute span.
With a little over a minutes to play to the lead was down to three with Christian Taber aka Ainge at the line for two. He makes the first and missed the second, not very Danny Ainge like. We get a stop and then force up a bad shot on offense and Brandon Rieg gets a big time offensive rebound and goes straight up with and scored pushing our lead to six with 15 seconds left. We then foul them (not on purpose), they miss it, we push the ball up the floor and B Rieg hits a huge 3 to get momentum headed our way for the second half. We lead 46-37 at the break.
The second half did not start off well for us. Matt Quamann (one of the best shooters in the league) hits two 3's because we got under screens to cut the lead to two immediately. Not fun. We certainly didn't want to see him get hot. The rest of the second half was a see-saw battle with nine lead changes and tons of back and forth action. We made a free throw with 12 seconds left to put us up 92-90. Parker Hines, their starting point, brings the ball down and gets flustered with our fans and heaves a one footed 40 footer with about four seconds left. Noah Aguirre grabs the board (not quite as securely as we wanted) and we win....wait, not yet. Noah gets both of his arms karate chopped (seriously, I think they would've broke three cement blocks), loses the ball, Hines gets it and hit a fadaway jumper with .7 seconds left. Tie ball game, now onto overtime.
Overtime gets started both of our starting centers out of the game in Carl Hipp (more of this later) and Cory Polta. We started off with a really aggressive move to the basket by Mike that led to two made free throws. Mike then had another aggressive take and scored a layup. B Rieg was then fouled and made 1 of 2 for a five point lead with 1:26 left. Quamann made a layup and then Ainge missed a great look for 3 in the corner as Tyler Pannell made a great play and got a rebound on the back side, nevermind, he got called for over the back when he just flat out outjumped the guy that tried for a rebound. They make both free throws and it's a one point game again. They foul, B Rieg hits 1 of 2 to put it at 98-96. They miss a off balance jumper, Noah gets the board, passes to Ainge and he is fouled. Ainge knocks down both to give every one free tacos for the night (100 points). We basically left them score (not intentionally) to get it back to a two point game. B Rieg then gets fouled knocks down both from the charity stripe and we go up four to clinch the game, 102-98.
We had six guys in double figures led by Mike Campbell's 22. Ainge had 14, Carl had 13, both B Rieg and Noah had 11, and Andy had 10. We finished the game shooting 53% from the floor, 7-20 from 3, and 33-44 from the line.
We have the Row of Honor ceremony on Saturday at 1pm. The details can be viewed HERE.
We got off to a really quick start (a first) last night and knocked down a couple of 3's early (another first). We ended up taking a 20-9 lead with about 11 minutes left in the first half. We were playing really good defense on top of getting pretty looks on the offensive end. After letting them get back in the game, we basically went back and forth with them for about a five minute span.
With a little over a minutes to play to the lead was down to three with Christian Taber aka Ainge at the line for two. He makes the first and missed the second, not very Danny Ainge like. We get a stop and then force up a bad shot on offense and Brandon Rieg gets a big time offensive rebound and goes straight up with and scored pushing our lead to six with 15 seconds left. We then foul them (not on purpose), they miss it, we push the ball up the floor and B Rieg hits a huge 3 to get momentum headed our way for the second half. We lead 46-37 at the break.
The second half did not start off well for us. Matt Quamann (one of the best shooters in the league) hits two 3's because we got under screens to cut the lead to two immediately. Not fun. We certainly didn't want to see him get hot. The rest of the second half was a see-saw battle with nine lead changes and tons of back and forth action. We made a free throw with 12 seconds left to put us up 92-90. Parker Hines, their starting point, brings the ball down and gets flustered with our fans and heaves a one footed 40 footer with about four seconds left. Noah Aguirre grabs the board (not quite as securely as we wanted) and we win....wait, not yet. Noah gets both of his arms karate chopped (seriously, I think they would've broke three cement blocks), loses the ball, Hines gets it and hit a fadaway jumper with .7 seconds left. Tie ball game, now onto overtime.
Overtime gets started both of our starting centers out of the game in Carl Hipp (more of this later) and Cory Polta. We started off with a really aggressive move to the basket by Mike that led to two made free throws. Mike then had another aggressive take and scored a layup. B Rieg was then fouled and made 1 of 2 for a five point lead with 1:26 left. Quamann made a layup and then Ainge missed a great look for 3 in the corner as Tyler Pannell made a great play and got a rebound on the back side, nevermind, he got called for over the back when he just flat out outjumped the guy that tried for a rebound. They make both free throws and it's a one point game again. They foul, B Rieg hits 1 of 2 to put it at 98-96. They miss a off balance jumper, Noah gets the board, passes to Ainge and he is fouled. Ainge knocks down both to give every one free tacos for the night (100 points). We basically left them score (not intentionally) to get it back to a two point game. B Rieg then gets fouled knocks down both from the charity stripe and we go up four to clinch the game, 102-98.
We had six guys in double figures led by Mike Campbell's 22. Ainge had 14, Carl had 13, both B Rieg and Noah had 11, and Andy had 10. We finished the game shooting 53% from the floor, 7-20 from 3, and 33-44 from the line.
We have the Row of Honor ceremony on Saturday at 1pm. The details can be viewed HERE.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
St. John's 12/6
Had another barnburner last night against the Johnnies (terrible nickname, one of many in our league). St. John's has a big time veteran core with three senior starters that have all started essentially their whole career to go along with two junior starters that have started the past three years. Those guys all generally play at least 30 minutes a game. Their 6th man is another senior who has not seen a ton of time over his four years but he is a very skilled 5 man with a body like Joe Burger but not fat and balding.
The first half started off as a back and forth first couple of minutes (seems like every game has been like that for us). He find Carl Hipp for a bunch of scores early as he is getting great position position. St. John's pulls away a little as we didn't find their two best shooters in Sam Blank and Andy Burns. That's one of the things we have talked about over and over and we still do it. Very frustrating, hopefully we'll learn and become better. Aaron Barmore hits three early baskets all off of Aaron Burtzel's passes. That is all he does and we couldn't match up with him after going over that for the past two seasons. We ended up being down by as many as 11 and battled back to within five before Burtzel made his first jumpshot of the season, making the game 34-27 at the half.
We were led by Carl's ten points and Mike Campbell had six to round out our leading scorers. Once again, we struggled again from 3 shooting 0-7 in the first half. We are getting good looks too. Just not knocking them down.
Second half was more of the same as SJU got their lead up to as many as 16 with about 14:30 left to play. After that point, Nelson got a "T" for getting on an official after everyone in the gym heard a slap (you can hear it on the film as well) and it wasn't called (sound familiar). After that point, we revved up our intensity and started chipping away on their lead. We started attacking the basket more and getting to the free throw line. As the game wore on, they looked tired and their main players were getting into foul trouble. Momentum was on our side. We kept on attacking and getting the ball inside. We got the game within four points with about 45 seconds left and missed an open layup which somewhat deflated our sails. We were still battling and got it within three but could get no closer. Final score 80-72.
Here is a couple of things that could've gone our way and didn't (no fault but our own). Two guys dove for a loose ball (second time this season and second time this game) and their guy hit it out to Sam Blank and he hits a huge three with about six minutes to play. Mike Campbell and Andy Voigt battle for a rebound (just communicate, AHHHHHHHH), they lose it and it goes right into Barmore's hands and he scored a layup. Those two plays are a potential ten point swing. On top of those two, we go 25-35 from the line (not an awful percentage) and lose by eight.
Stats of the night.
Hamline
38%FG
1-16 from 3
25-35 from line
14 offensive boards
10 turnovers
St. John's
52%FG
5-12 from 3
21-25
6 offensive boards
17 turnovers
Bottom line, we have to make shots. We didn't do a great job defensively tonight but a ton of those FT's for them were in the last couple of minutes. We were clearly the aggressor late. We need to play like that all the time and to have that urgency to win basketball games.
We were led by Carl's 23 and 9 boards. Mike had 15, while Noah Aguirre rounded out our double figure scorers with 13. Levi Wenrich played a solid game at the point with 7 points, 3 assists, and no turnovers. He also made all five of his free throws.
We have the Augsburg Auggies (terrible, I know) tomorrow night at home again. They lost to St. Thomas 65-61 last night at their place. Hopefully, we can knock down some shots.
The first half started off as a back and forth first couple of minutes (seems like every game has been like that for us). He find Carl Hipp for a bunch of scores early as he is getting great position position. St. John's pulls away a little as we didn't find their two best shooters in Sam Blank and Andy Burns. That's one of the things we have talked about over and over and we still do it. Very frustrating, hopefully we'll learn and become better. Aaron Barmore hits three early baskets all off of Aaron Burtzel's passes. That is all he does and we couldn't match up with him after going over that for the past two seasons. We ended up being down by as many as 11 and battled back to within five before Burtzel made his first jumpshot of the season, making the game 34-27 at the half.
We were led by Carl's ten points and Mike Campbell had six to round out our leading scorers. Once again, we struggled again from 3 shooting 0-7 in the first half. We are getting good looks too. Just not knocking them down.
Second half was more of the same as SJU got their lead up to as many as 16 with about 14:30 left to play. After that point, Nelson got a "T" for getting on an official after everyone in the gym heard a slap (you can hear it on the film as well) and it wasn't called (sound familiar). After that point, we revved up our intensity and started chipping away on their lead. We started attacking the basket more and getting to the free throw line. As the game wore on, they looked tired and their main players were getting into foul trouble. Momentum was on our side. We kept on attacking and getting the ball inside. We got the game within four points with about 45 seconds left and missed an open layup which somewhat deflated our sails. We were still battling and got it within three but could get no closer. Final score 80-72.
Here is a couple of things that could've gone our way and didn't (no fault but our own). Two guys dove for a loose ball (second time this season and second time this game) and their guy hit it out to Sam Blank and he hits a huge three with about six minutes to play. Mike Campbell and Andy Voigt battle for a rebound (just communicate, AHHHHHHHH), they lose it and it goes right into Barmore's hands and he scored a layup. Those two plays are a potential ten point swing. On top of those two, we go 25-35 from the line (not an awful percentage) and lose by eight.
Stats of the night.
Hamline
38%FG
1-16 from 3
25-35 from line
14 offensive boards
10 turnovers
St. John's
52%FG
5-12 from 3
21-25
6 offensive boards
17 turnovers
Bottom line, we have to make shots. We didn't do a great job defensively tonight but a ton of those FT's for them were in the last couple of minutes. We were clearly the aggressor late. We need to play like that all the time and to have that urgency to win basketball games.
We were led by Carl's 23 and 9 boards. Mike had 15, while Noah Aguirre rounded out our double figure scorers with 13. Levi Wenrich played a solid game at the point with 7 points, 3 assists, and no turnovers. He also made all five of his free throws.
We have the Augsburg Auggies (terrible, I know) tomorrow night at home again. They lost to St. Thomas 65-61 last night at their place. Hopefully, we can knock down some shots.
Monday, December 6, 2010
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Nike Basketball 'No excuses' advert... with a twist!
One of the best commericials of all time. Sick of hearing excuses.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Coaches' Poll
The other day, the MIAC Coaches came out with a "preseason" poll for fun. We were predicted to finish 9th out of 11 teams. If this isn't a motivator for our team then I don't what is.
Here is the POLL
Here is the POLL
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Carleton 12/1
Over the past couple of years, our games with Carleton have been really good ones. It's essentially a battle of two different styles. They want to slow the ball down and the their stuff and we want to get it out in transition and take advantage of our athleticism. They knocked us out the conference tournament last season, so we are hoping for a little revenge.
The games started with a little back and forth action. We ended up taking a four to seven point lead throughout most of the first half. We were getting great catches inside with Carl Hipp and Andy Voigt. They were getting catches really deep in the post and basically just turning and shooting before a double team could get there. Those guys will need to do that more often for us to be successful throughout the season. The scored ended up being tied at the half, 26-26 after some timely 3's by Tom Sawatzke and Jeremy Sutherland. We were led by Brandon Rieg's 10 points.
The second half started off pretty even and then Carleton started gradually pulling away after our lack of defensive rebounding. It's embarassing to watch our guys not want the ball. Last season, we dominated the boards and this year we are getting killed. Is it strength? Is it wanting it more? Is it size and athleticism? I think we are flat out being soft. We can't expect teams to fall back to defense instead of crashing. Scott Theisen had a career high of 10 boards, four of them offensive against us. His previous high was six. Not acceptable at all.
Though Carleton never really pulled away, we couldn't string together enough baskets to get it closer than three down the stretch. They made their free throws down the stretch after missing a bunch early while we shot 8-15 in the second half from the line. They had four offensive boards off of free throws and capitalized on every one of them. We missed probably four to six layups in the second half. We got outrebounded by 15. We lose 62-56. Hmmmmmmm. All things that we can fix and take care of. No way we should've lost that game.
On a positive note, we held them to 36% shooting from the floor and 27% from 3. Former player Nick Carroll said that he thought that was the best he had ever seen us defend against Carleton. It was just a very frustrating loss to take. My hairline creeped back a little more than I would've like as well.
On a funny side. Coach Whitmore ripped the hell out of his pants in the first half. No one noticed it until halftime when Victor Easter said something to him after his halftime speech. It wasn't just a little rip either. His pants split basically from the middle of his butt to his crotch, probably a six inch rip. He ended up coaching the second half in a warmup suit. That'll be a story for us to tell for a long time.
We play our first home game of the year on Monday vs. St. John's. They are playing really well right now and I believe are 5-1 with their only loss coming to UW-Stevens Point. We also play Augsburg at home on Wednesday and then St. Thomas on Saturday as we put up the Row of Honor in Hutton Arena at 1pm and we play at 3pm.
The games started with a little back and forth action. We ended up taking a four to seven point lead throughout most of the first half. We were getting great catches inside with Carl Hipp and Andy Voigt. They were getting catches really deep in the post and basically just turning and shooting before a double team could get there. Those guys will need to do that more often for us to be successful throughout the season. The scored ended up being tied at the half, 26-26 after some timely 3's by Tom Sawatzke and Jeremy Sutherland. We were led by Brandon Rieg's 10 points.
The second half started off pretty even and then Carleton started gradually pulling away after our lack of defensive rebounding. It's embarassing to watch our guys not want the ball. Last season, we dominated the boards and this year we are getting killed. Is it strength? Is it wanting it more? Is it size and athleticism? I think we are flat out being soft. We can't expect teams to fall back to defense instead of crashing. Scott Theisen had a career high of 10 boards, four of them offensive against us. His previous high was six. Not acceptable at all.
Though Carleton never really pulled away, we couldn't string together enough baskets to get it closer than three down the stretch. They made their free throws down the stretch after missing a bunch early while we shot 8-15 in the second half from the line. They had four offensive boards off of free throws and capitalized on every one of them. We missed probably four to six layups in the second half. We got outrebounded by 15. We lose 62-56. Hmmmmmmm. All things that we can fix and take care of. No way we should've lost that game.
On a positive note, we held them to 36% shooting from the floor and 27% from 3. Former player Nick Carroll said that he thought that was the best he had ever seen us defend against Carleton. It was just a very frustrating loss to take. My hairline creeped back a little more than I would've like as well.
On a funny side. Coach Whitmore ripped the hell out of his pants in the first half. No one noticed it until halftime when Victor Easter said something to him after his halftime speech. It wasn't just a little rip either. His pants split basically from the middle of his butt to his crotch, probably a six inch rip. He ended up coaching the second half in a warmup suit. That'll be a story for us to tell for a long time.
We play our first home game of the year on Monday vs. St. John's. They are playing really well right now and I believe are 5-1 with their only loss coming to UW-Stevens Point. We also play Augsburg at home on Wednesday and then St. Thomas on Saturday as we put up the Row of Honor in Hutton Arena at 1pm and we play at 3pm.
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