Yesterday we headed up to Collegeville, yes that's the name of the town where St. John's is. They were a team that has struggled mightily since we got back from Christmas break. Needless to say, their struggles end at the hands of us.
We got off to a rough start after missing a bunch of chippies. We then proceeded to let their shooters get a bunch of wide open 3's and we were all of a sudden down double figures. We just had no answer for their intensity. The Johnnies were also playing a 1-3-1 zone that got us stagnant and forced us to become impatient. We started taking one pass 3's and needless to say, it wasn't working nor has it ever worked. Their starting point then hit a running 3 at the buzzer to push their lead to 17, 42-25. Not pretty at all.
Both teams went back and forth by giving up easy layups on consecutive possessions. We then started chipping away at the lead veeeerrrrrrrryyyy slowly. We finally got their lead under double digits right around the six minute mark. We then had two wide open 3's that would've really gave us a ton of momentum and we couldn't knocked them down. Story of our night. We ended up shooting 5-22 from 3. Tough night for the Pipeshow on the road. Final score, 82-68 in favor of the Johnnies. They had their top six guys in double figures while we had three guys led by Noah's 17.
We just came out flat and never responded, not the way we wanted our only game of the week to go. We have the bye on Saturday and face Augsburg on the road on Monday. They lost to St. Thomas by 16 last night and are one game behind us in the MIAC standings.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Great College Atmosphere
This is exactly what I would hope for at Hutton Arena with our students. Thanks to Utah State's Student Section for these beauties.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
@ Concordia Moorhead 1/22
This is officially my #100 post and I wanted to make a special one. I want to thank all the people who view the blog as well as several of the MIAC coaches that look at it as well. I've been unfiltered for most of my life and I will continually have a difficult time changing that (my brother always said my mouth will get my rear-end kicked someday, still looking for that day). I will use profanity a lot in my normal conversations because that's what I've always done. I prefer not to be politically correct because I think it's stupid and it takes the fun out of a lot of things. I will always been sarcastic and I will never change that.
Things I will do on this blog; a) never call out a person individually whether it be a player, ref, or another coach (especially this since we are a fraternity, some people forget that), b) tell it how it is, whether, we made a mistake on coaching, whether our players are giving enough effort, or whether or not I think our players aren't getting a fair shake (though probably a little more subtle now), c) try to add humor when ever possible, and d) my writing will be like my talking, never will I say that I'm the best writer (maybe the best looking one) but I don't want to seem like some stuck up idiot. And there is my rant for your viewing pleasure, now to the game.
Friday night we headed up the frozen tundra known as the Fargo/Moorhead "metro" area. Just to be clear, THIS is how cold it was up there. Yesterday, it was a solid -20 degrees as a normal temperature and the wind chill was -33. Beautiful conditions up there. Before yesterday's game, the Piper men's hoops team was 1-15 in their last 16 trips to Moorhead. Not exactly sure what it is about their gym but it's always a tough place to play for everyone in our conference. Probably didn't help that during that time Hamline has had one winning season, hmmmmmmmm.
Concordia has a couple of guys that had been playing their tails off over the last couple of games, all three of them seniors. Both Darrin Olmscheid and John Fraase are left handed and about 6'5". They certainly create some matchup problems for us and being left handed doesn't exactly help the problem. Erik Lien is another senior that comes off the bench and has been shooting lights out from 3. They have been playing with some "senior urgency" and that is evident in their team's play.
We said we need to get off to a good start and not be forced to battle back on the road. It's certainly something we have been fighting throughout the whole year. Well, we got off to that good start and led 29-13 with a little under ten to play in the first half. Andy Voigt came off the bench and played great on the offensive end with eight first half points. Josh Pratt hit a couple of 3's and certainly gave us a spark. After taking that big lead, we got a little stagnant on the perimeter and started settling a little bit. Halftime score, Pipers - 39, Cobbers (I know creative nickname and LOGO, I like it) - 29.
The second half was very much back and forth throughout the first 11 minutes of the half as we our lead hovered between seven and 11 points. Then Concordia turned it on. They seemed to have an influx (big word, I know) three point plays and they kept on chipping away and finally got the lead to one with 6:25 left on the clock. At that point in the game we all of a sudden decided that we all wanted to be one on one players and we tried to make plays on our own instead of with the help of our teammates. Andy made a big basket followed by two Levi Wenrich free throws to get the lead back up to five. We then trading and one's and then our guys really stepped up.
Noah Aguirre made a great left handed drive with a score, Carl got an offensive rebound and scored, and then Noah hit a monstrous 3 to push the lead to nine and put the Cobbers on the edge. We then knocked down our free throws down the stretch and came away with a huge 77-65 road win. This was a game that we desperately needed to create some separation within the league standings. We are now 9-7 overall and 7-4 in the conference and currently stand two games behind both Carleton and Gustavus and one game ahead of Augsburg.
We were led by Carl's usually double-double with 14 points and 13 boards (seemed like he had a lot more than that). Mike also finished with 14 as well and finished with five assists as well. Noah finished with 12 and had seven BIG points in the last three minutes. Andy played great and finished with 10 points in 13 minutes of play. We held their top two scorers (Olmschied and Fraase) to 18 points and 7-26 shooting. Can't ask for better defensive production after they combined for 53 points in their last game.
Interesting stats that go along with the league standings. We'll look at all the teams in the conference except St. Thomas (only loss is league loss) and Macalester (only win is league win)
2nd Gustavus - 2-3
2nd Carleton - 1-4
4th Hamline - 2-3
5th Augsburg - 5-0
6th St. Olaf - 5-0
6th Concordia - 4-1
8th St. John's - 4-1
9th St. Mary's - 5-0
10th Bethel - 3-2
Quite interesting to see that all the teams that have below .500 non-conference records are in 2nd thru 4th place. So, it would seem to make sense to play a challenging non-conference schedule to prepare yourself for conference play. Just something to think about at this point in the season.
Next up, the Johnnies from...you guessed it, St. John's. We play them at their place on Wednesday in our only game of the week. I don't believe that they have live video for the game but they should have radio and live stats through their athletics' website.
Also, congrats to our hockey team who now stands alone in the first place of the MIAC standings for their sweep of St. Thomas this weekend.
Things I will do on this blog; a) never call out a person individually whether it be a player, ref, or another coach (especially this since we are a fraternity, some people forget that), b) tell it how it is, whether, we made a mistake on coaching, whether our players are giving enough effort, or whether or not I think our players aren't getting a fair shake (though probably a little more subtle now), c) try to add humor when ever possible, and d) my writing will be like my talking, never will I say that I'm the best writer (maybe the best looking one) but I don't want to seem like some stuck up idiot. And there is my rant for your viewing pleasure, now to the game.
Friday night we headed up the frozen tundra known as the Fargo/Moorhead "metro" area. Just to be clear, THIS is how cold it was up there. Yesterday, it was a solid -20 degrees as a normal temperature and the wind chill was -33. Beautiful conditions up there. Before yesterday's game, the Piper men's hoops team was 1-15 in their last 16 trips to Moorhead. Not exactly sure what it is about their gym but it's always a tough place to play for everyone in our conference. Probably didn't help that during that time Hamline has had one winning season, hmmmmmmmm.
Concordia has a couple of guys that had been playing their tails off over the last couple of games, all three of them seniors. Both Darrin Olmscheid and John Fraase are left handed and about 6'5". They certainly create some matchup problems for us and being left handed doesn't exactly help the problem. Erik Lien is another senior that comes off the bench and has been shooting lights out from 3. They have been playing with some "senior urgency" and that is evident in their team's play.
We said we need to get off to a good start and not be forced to battle back on the road. It's certainly something we have been fighting throughout the whole year. Well, we got off to that good start and led 29-13 with a little under ten to play in the first half. Andy Voigt came off the bench and played great on the offensive end with eight first half points. Josh Pratt hit a couple of 3's and certainly gave us a spark. After taking that big lead, we got a little stagnant on the perimeter and started settling a little bit. Halftime score, Pipers - 39, Cobbers (I know creative nickname and LOGO, I like it) - 29.
The second half was very much back and forth throughout the first 11 minutes of the half as we our lead hovered between seven and 11 points. Then Concordia turned it on. They seemed to have an influx (big word, I know) three point plays and they kept on chipping away and finally got the lead to one with 6:25 left on the clock. At that point in the game we all of a sudden decided that we all wanted to be one on one players and we tried to make plays on our own instead of with the help of our teammates. Andy made a big basket followed by two Levi Wenrich free throws to get the lead back up to five. We then trading and one's and then our guys really stepped up.
Noah Aguirre made a great left handed drive with a score, Carl got an offensive rebound and scored, and then Noah hit a monstrous 3 to push the lead to nine and put the Cobbers on the edge. We then knocked down our free throws down the stretch and came away with a huge 77-65 road win. This was a game that we desperately needed to create some separation within the league standings. We are now 9-7 overall and 7-4 in the conference and currently stand two games behind both Carleton and Gustavus and one game ahead of Augsburg.
We were led by Carl's usually double-double with 14 points and 13 boards (seemed like he had a lot more than that). Mike also finished with 14 as well and finished with five assists as well. Noah finished with 12 and had seven BIG points in the last three minutes. Andy played great and finished with 10 points in 13 minutes of play. We held their top two scorers (Olmschied and Fraase) to 18 points and 7-26 shooting. Can't ask for better defensive production after they combined for 53 points in their last game.
Interesting stats that go along with the league standings. We'll look at all the teams in the conference except St. Thomas (only loss is league loss) and Macalester (only win is league win)
2nd Gustavus - 2-3
2nd Carleton - 1-4
4th Hamline - 2-3
5th Augsburg - 5-0
6th St. Olaf - 5-0
6th Concordia - 4-1
8th St. John's - 4-1
9th St. Mary's - 5-0
10th Bethel - 3-2
Quite interesting to see that all the teams that have below .500 non-conference records are in 2nd thru 4th place. So, it would seem to make sense to play a challenging non-conference schedule to prepare yourself for conference play. Just something to think about at this point in the season.
Next up, the Johnnies from...you guessed it, St. John's. We play them at their place on Wednesday in our only game of the week. I don't believe that they have live video for the game but they should have radio and live stats through their athletics' website.
Also, congrats to our hockey team who now stands alone in the first place of the MIAC standings for their sweep of St. Thomas this weekend.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Carleton 1/19
Last night we took on the Knights from Carleton is another tough MIAC matchup. This game has "let down game" written all over it. After beating St. Thomas our guys were due for a big let down and probable loss. It happened to us two years ago when we took St. Thomas to the edge and then got blownout by Augsburg the following game. After watching warmups, it didn't seem like we had the same type of focus as we did for the St. Thomas game but you never know what's going to happen once the ball tips.
We dug ourselves a hole early after standing around the perimeter and just passing the ball around. Not sure if it's Carleton's defense that does this to us but every time we play them it happens. We don't look to attack as much as the coaching staff would like. We have to figure out a way to get our guys getting into the lane more against them, especially if we match up with them in the playoffs. We were down 23-11 with about nine minutes to play and then we finally got some ball movement and some penetration to get open looks and it worked. We battled back to get within four at the half, 36-32.
The second half was much more of a back and forth battle as neither team could shake off each other. The biggest lead of the second half was five. Neither team was willing to give in. Every time we went up by a couple they would come down and make a play and vice versa. It basically was who was going to make the first mistake. We had a couple of brain farts and didn't do what we normally do on both ends of the floor and it cost us. WIth that said, the game was still tied at 67 with 1:20 left to play. We had a couple of opportunities to win but couldn't knock down shots. With 5.6 seconds left Jeremy Sutherland (their best player and probably best overall player in the league) hit a dagger 3 from the left wing. We still had time to get a decent look and it didn't fall. Final score, 70-67 in favor of the Knights.
It was a real tough loss and hopefully something we can learn from. In games like that, every possession counts and being the good team that they are, every time we relaxed or made a mistake defensively they took advantage. It certainly didn't help that we were 3-18 from 3 and fell back down to earth after shooting really well the last couple of games. We were also 10-14 from the floor and I believe we miss a front end of a one and one when we were up one. Just some little things that we can look back and think that those were the difference in the game. I'm sure there many more throughout both halves but those ones definitely stand out.
We were led by Carl's 23 points and 17 boards. Mike had 19 and played a really solid second half on offense. Noah and Tyler both had 8. Just a frustrating night for the Pipers.
Next up are the Cobbers from Concordia. We will leave tomorrow for the "long" three and a half hour trip up there. Game is on Saturday at 3pm central time. They just beat St. Olaf up there 88-70 as their starting 4 and 5 combined for 54 points. Should be another good one.
We dug ourselves a hole early after standing around the perimeter and just passing the ball around. Not sure if it's Carleton's defense that does this to us but every time we play them it happens. We don't look to attack as much as the coaching staff would like. We have to figure out a way to get our guys getting into the lane more against them, especially if we match up with them in the playoffs. We were down 23-11 with about nine minutes to play and then we finally got some ball movement and some penetration to get open looks and it worked. We battled back to get within four at the half, 36-32.
The second half was much more of a back and forth battle as neither team could shake off each other. The biggest lead of the second half was five. Neither team was willing to give in. Every time we went up by a couple they would come down and make a play and vice versa. It basically was who was going to make the first mistake. We had a couple of brain farts and didn't do what we normally do on both ends of the floor and it cost us. WIth that said, the game was still tied at 67 with 1:20 left to play. We had a couple of opportunities to win but couldn't knock down shots. With 5.6 seconds left Jeremy Sutherland (their best player and probably best overall player in the league) hit a dagger 3 from the left wing. We still had time to get a decent look and it didn't fall. Final score, 70-67 in favor of the Knights.
It was a real tough loss and hopefully something we can learn from. In games like that, every possession counts and being the good team that they are, every time we relaxed or made a mistake defensively they took advantage. It certainly didn't help that we were 3-18 from 3 and fell back down to earth after shooting really well the last couple of games. We were also 10-14 from the floor and I believe we miss a front end of a one and one when we were up one. Just some little things that we can look back and think that those were the difference in the game. I'm sure there many more throughout both halves but those ones definitely stand out.
We were led by Carl's 23 points and 17 boards. Mike had 19 and played a really solid second half on offense. Noah and Tyler both had 8. Just a frustrating night for the Pipers.
Next up are the Cobbers from Concordia. We will leave tomorrow for the "long" three and a half hour trip up there. Game is on Saturday at 3pm central time. They just beat St. Olaf up there 88-70 as their starting 4 and 5 combined for 54 points. Should be another good one.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
St. Thomas 1/18
Last night we took on the mighty St. Thomas Tommies (awful, awful, awful) at Hutton Arena. Coming into the game they were 13-0 and ranked #4 in the country in the latest D3Hoops Top 25 poll. They have a couple of great players in Tyler Nicolai and Alex Healy. Nicolai was Conference Player of the Year last season and Healy was 1st Team All Conference (which seems like the top 95 players in the conference get, but he is very good). They also have a 5th year senior in Teddy Archer who is one of the biggest pests in the conference. A pest, as in, I hate playing against him but I would love to have him on our team. A fourth senior in Anders Halverson starts at the four for them and is uber talented but seems to be the doghouse and plays about 20 minutes a game.
On to the game...
We had a pretty good crowd to start the game, as expected, and our guys really fed off them from the get-go. Tyler knocked down a 3 to start the game and then scoring kept on coming both ways the rest of the half. UST knocked down a bunch of 15 to 17 foot contested jumpers. We were ok with them taking those shots. Those aren't easy at all and we would rather have them take those shots instead of layups. We were clearly running on adrenaline and battling like crazy. As the half wore on, they hit a couple of layups and we were down by as many as seven points the last three minutes of the half. Sam hit a huge 3 right near the buzzer to get us some momentum into the half being down 47-44 after the first 20 minutes.
The second half started much like the first half with a Tyler 3FG that tied the game at 49. We then got a little spurt to push our lead to seven. We played with that lead give or take two points for about six minutes. Every time they made a big play, we answered. Nicolai came up big in the second half and hit four 3's but every time he hit one, we came back with an and one or a 3 of our own. A Nicolai 3 got the game to 77-72 with a little over five minutes to play. We then went on a 7-0 run of our own to essentially put the game out of reach. With 2:04 left and our lead at 15, their coach subbed out their starters and basically gave in. I didn't think that would happen but it certainly helped us breathe a little easier. We finished the game with some subs of our own and came away with a HUGE win, 92-79.
I've honestly never seen a Hamline team just rise to the occasion like we did last night. We had a bunch of guys really step up and we still didn't put two halves together. Tyler Pannell played his tail off and made a bunch of huge 3's and didn't back down once to them. He finished with 17 on 5-7 shooting from 3. Sam Gullickson hit three big 3's in the first half to help keep us in the game. Carl had a big game with 20 points, 15 boards, and 4 blocks. He also didn't commit a foul. A Carl first. Mike Campbell, Levi Wenrich, and Christian "Ainge" Taber rounded out our double figure scorers. Levi played his backside off and really controlled the game. Couldn't have asked anything more from our point guard.
The only issue I had during the game was the consistency of a couple of questionable foul calls. Mike had a breakaway layup in the first half and got taken down hard and it was just deemed a foul. A little later, Levi fouled one of their guys in a similar fashion and was called for an intentional foul. Mike had another breakaway in the second half that he was fouled on and again they called a regular foul. Maybe I'm being biased but none of the fouls were much different than each other. That could've made a difference if the game was closer.
It doesn't get any easier for us as we take on the Knights of Carleton tomorrow night at Hutton. Carleton is coming off a 30 victory over Macalester yesterday. They now stand at 7-2 in the conference.
Also, Carl was named the MIAC Player of the Week for his play last week. Congrats to him, hopefully he stays on the floor more as the season progresses.
On to the game...
We had a pretty good crowd to start the game, as expected, and our guys really fed off them from the get-go. Tyler knocked down a 3 to start the game and then scoring kept on coming both ways the rest of the half. UST knocked down a bunch of 15 to 17 foot contested jumpers. We were ok with them taking those shots. Those aren't easy at all and we would rather have them take those shots instead of layups. We were clearly running on adrenaline and battling like crazy. As the half wore on, they hit a couple of layups and we were down by as many as seven points the last three minutes of the half. Sam hit a huge 3 right near the buzzer to get us some momentum into the half being down 47-44 after the first 20 minutes.
The second half started much like the first half with a Tyler 3FG that tied the game at 49. We then got a little spurt to push our lead to seven. We played with that lead give or take two points for about six minutes. Every time they made a big play, we answered. Nicolai came up big in the second half and hit four 3's but every time he hit one, we came back with an and one or a 3 of our own. A Nicolai 3 got the game to 77-72 with a little over five minutes to play. We then went on a 7-0 run of our own to essentially put the game out of reach. With 2:04 left and our lead at 15, their coach subbed out their starters and basically gave in. I didn't think that would happen but it certainly helped us breathe a little easier. We finished the game with some subs of our own and came away with a HUGE win, 92-79.
I've honestly never seen a Hamline team just rise to the occasion like we did last night. We had a bunch of guys really step up and we still didn't put two halves together. Tyler Pannell played his tail off and made a bunch of huge 3's and didn't back down once to them. He finished with 17 on 5-7 shooting from 3. Sam Gullickson hit three big 3's in the first half to help keep us in the game. Carl had a big game with 20 points, 15 boards, and 4 blocks. He also didn't commit a foul. A Carl first. Mike Campbell, Levi Wenrich, and Christian "Ainge" Taber rounded out our double figure scorers. Levi played his backside off and really controlled the game. Couldn't have asked anything more from our point guard.
The only issue I had during the game was the consistency of a couple of questionable foul calls. Mike had a breakaway layup in the first half and got taken down hard and it was just deemed a foul. A little later, Levi fouled one of their guys in a similar fashion and was called for an intentional foul. Mike had another breakaway in the second half that he was fouled on and again they called a regular foul. Maybe I'm being biased but none of the fouls were much different than each other. That could've made a difference if the game was closer.
It doesn't get any easier for us as we take on the Knights of Carleton tomorrow night at Hutton. Carleton is coming off a 30 victory over Macalester yesterday. They now stand at 7-2 in the conference.
Also, Carl was named the MIAC Player of the Week for his play last week. Congrats to him, hopefully he stays on the floor more as the season progresses.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
St. Mary's 1/15
Yesterday afternoon we took the Cardinals from St. Mary's (they use to be the Redman, way cooler nickname until everyone became politically correct). They have three prolific scorers (Chris Palmer, Will Wright, and Lukas Holland) that are always a tough matchup. You can check out Lukas Holland HERE in his music debut (I actually like it). Hopefully, he focuses on his music instead of hoops. We knew we had to figure out a way to take one or two of them out and force someone else beat us.
We got off to a pretty good start with a couple of layups by Carl inside and a couple of other good attacks inside. After this we got really stagnant on offense and just stood around. It didn't help that Will Wright (one of the three prolific scorers from above) made a shot from his backside, literally. The ball came to him after he fell and he made a shot from his butt. We were certainly hoping that this wasn't going to be "one of those days" like St. Olaf.
Everytime we had a little answer for the Cardinals they responded with an offensive rebound or a loose ball that led to a score. We didn't seem to have an answer or the energy to keep up with them. Needless to say, we didn't exactly stop Will Wright as he finished the half with 14 points including 2-3 from 3 (less than 30% on the year from there). Both Holland and Palmer had seven as well. We were down 42-35 at the half.
We got right back into the back at the start of the half with a couple of easy buckets. After playing back and forth for a little bit, we went on a 15-0 run over a five minutes span and really stepped on their throat. We just put them away and you could see it in their play and their mindset. We ended up outscoring them 50-24 in the second half to really make a statement. We put together 20 minutes of quality basketball on both ends of the floor. First time all year we've done that.
Their three big guns shot a combined 15-39, including 6-13 from 3 (4-5 for Wright)while the rest of their team was a combined 7-23. Wright finished with 22, Palmer with 19, and Holland with 9. We didn't exactly shut them down but we took them out of their stuff that normally gets them shots and that is certainly one of our philosophies. If you can take away certain teams' sets then you can completely take them out of the game because that is the only way they can score, and we did that.
Carl had a big day while playing close to (surprise, surprise) 30 minutes. He had 23 points and 16 rebounds. Mike had 16 points with 14 coming in the second half, really giving us a spark. Noah had another solid game with 11 points, 5 boards, and 5 assists. We only had eight turnovers, which I think is a season low, hopefully a step in the right direction.
Tomorrow we take on the Tommies from St. Thomas (let's get a little more creative Minnesota) in a huge game for us. UST has had three straight relatively close games in their last three. Hopefully the fans will be out in full force. Game time is 7:30 central time.
Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Here is a great quote that would perfectly describe him. "Great men are often hated and envied by their peers. It is usually not until they are gone that their greatness is recognized."
We got off to a pretty good start with a couple of layups by Carl inside and a couple of other good attacks inside. After this we got really stagnant on offense and just stood around. It didn't help that Will Wright (one of the three prolific scorers from above) made a shot from his backside, literally. The ball came to him after he fell and he made a shot from his butt. We were certainly hoping that this wasn't going to be "one of those days" like St. Olaf.
Everytime we had a little answer for the Cardinals they responded with an offensive rebound or a loose ball that led to a score. We didn't seem to have an answer or the energy to keep up with them. Needless to say, we didn't exactly stop Will Wright as he finished the half with 14 points including 2-3 from 3 (less than 30% on the year from there). Both Holland and Palmer had seven as well. We were down 42-35 at the half.
We got right back into the back at the start of the half with a couple of easy buckets. After playing back and forth for a little bit, we went on a 15-0 run over a five minutes span and really stepped on their throat. We just put them away and you could see it in their play and their mindset. We ended up outscoring them 50-24 in the second half to really make a statement. We put together 20 minutes of quality basketball on both ends of the floor. First time all year we've done that.
Their three big guns shot a combined 15-39, including 6-13 from 3 (4-5 for Wright)while the rest of their team was a combined 7-23. Wright finished with 22, Palmer with 19, and Holland with 9. We didn't exactly shut them down but we took them out of their stuff that normally gets them shots and that is certainly one of our philosophies. If you can take away certain teams' sets then you can completely take them out of the game because that is the only way they can score, and we did that.
Carl had a big day while playing close to (surprise, surprise) 30 minutes. He had 23 points and 16 rebounds. Mike had 16 points with 14 coming in the second half, really giving us a spark. Noah had another solid game with 11 points, 5 boards, and 5 assists. We only had eight turnovers, which I think is a season low, hopefully a step in the right direction.
Tomorrow we take on the Tommies from St. Thomas (let's get a little more creative Minnesota) in a huge game for us. UST has had three straight relatively close games in their last three. Hopefully the fans will be out in full force. Game time is 7:30 central time.
Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Here is a great quote that would perfectly describe him. "Great men are often hated and envied by their peers. It is usually not until they are gone that their greatness is recognized."
Thursday, January 13, 2011
@ St. Olaf 1/12/11
Yesterday we took on the Oles (another terrible one)from St. Olaf down in Northfield. We were expecting a pretty good game. This was our first of three straight games where we play teams that have a "bye" before playing us. It is a distinct disadvantage to have to deal with that not only once but in three consecutive games. We've looked it up and several teams in our league never have to play teams after a bye (Macalester and Bethel) while we have the most with St. Thomas and St. John's slightly behind us. There is my rant for the day and now onto the game.
We got off to a decent start with a couple of 3's by Noah and a layup from Carl. We attacked several more times and were either tripped (automatic foul call according to the rules) or hit that forced turnovers. We couldn't get a rhythm offensively because we want to attack and our guys became tentative for some reason. We ended up settling for 3's and shot a decent percentage (6-13) for the half but that isn't our game. Carl got into foul trouble as well which certainly didn't help our cause (one of the fouls was a brutal call). We did not defend at all in the first. It seemed like every time Olaf shot the ball it went in. I guessed at halftime that they were shooting in the high 60s or low 70s. They ended shooting only 55% but they were 6-12 from 3. Halftime score, 48-36 in favor of the Oles.
In the second half we decided that we needed to increase the tempo and give ourselves more opportunities to score. We ramped up the pressure the tempo increased greatly throughout the half. Biggest issue is that we couldn't get enough stops to cut into the gap enough. They had their lead up to as many as 17 with just under ten minutes to play.
Carl essentially dominated the second half and Andy played really tough down low as well. We are going to try to get them on the floor a little more together as the season progresses. Both of them are playing well right now especially when they rebound. We finally played with some urgency in the last couple of minutes and actually got the lead down to four with eight seconds left but couldn't get another turnover to really put a scare into them. Final score in this true defensive battle, 102-96. We score 60 points in the second half and play about as good as you can offensively throughout the half and can't win the game. Not sure if we could've covered my 91 year old grandfather last night. We were definitely disappointed in our defensive effort.
Carl finished with 24 and 10 in 23 minutes of play. Just imagine if he played a complete game like he did at Gustavus. Mike finished with 14 with most of them coming late. Noah and Sam Gullickson finished with 12 as Sam was 4-5 from 3. We have to find him more minutes even though he's a Duke fan. We are now 6-6 overall and 4-3 in the conference.
We have a huge three game homestand coming up on Saturday vs. St. Mary's, next Monday vs. St. Thomas, and next Wednesday vs. Carleton.
We got off to a decent start with a couple of 3's by Noah and a layup from Carl. We attacked several more times and were either tripped (automatic foul call according to the rules) or hit that forced turnovers. We couldn't get a rhythm offensively because we want to attack and our guys became tentative for some reason. We ended up settling for 3's and shot a decent percentage (6-13) for the half but that isn't our game. Carl got into foul trouble as well which certainly didn't help our cause (one of the fouls was a brutal call). We did not defend at all in the first. It seemed like every time Olaf shot the ball it went in. I guessed at halftime that they were shooting in the high 60s or low 70s. They ended shooting only 55% but they were 6-12 from 3. Halftime score, 48-36 in favor of the Oles.
In the second half we decided that we needed to increase the tempo and give ourselves more opportunities to score. We ramped up the pressure the tempo increased greatly throughout the half. Biggest issue is that we couldn't get enough stops to cut into the gap enough. They had their lead up to as many as 17 with just under ten minutes to play.
Carl essentially dominated the second half and Andy played really tough down low as well. We are going to try to get them on the floor a little more together as the season progresses. Both of them are playing well right now especially when they rebound. We finally played with some urgency in the last couple of minutes and actually got the lead down to four with eight seconds left but couldn't get another turnover to really put a scare into them. Final score in this true defensive battle, 102-96. We score 60 points in the second half and play about as good as you can offensively throughout the half and can't win the game. Not sure if we could've covered my 91 year old grandfather last night. We were definitely disappointed in our defensive effort.
Carl finished with 24 and 10 in 23 minutes of play. Just imagine if he played a complete game like he did at Gustavus. Mike finished with 14 with most of them coming late. Noah and Sam Gullickson finished with 12 as Sam was 4-5 from 3. We have to find him more minutes even though he's a Duke fan. We are now 6-6 overall and 4-3 in the conference.
We have a huge three game homestand coming up on Saturday vs. St. Mary's, next Monday vs. St. Thomas, and next Wednesday vs. Carleton.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Webcast for St. Olaf
Sunday, January 9, 2011
at Macalester 1/8
Yesterday we took on the Fighting Scots (creative nickname, I have no problem with their colors either) at the Leonard Athletic Complex on the campus of Macalester just a couple of miles south on Snelling Ave. My issue for the day was that we didn't play a doubleheader with the women's team. Our women played the Lady Scots at our place at 1pm while we played at 3pm at MAC. Just makes no sense at all. Why we can't all play doubleheaders I have no clue why. It's beyond stupid if you ask me.
MAC is coming off their first win of the year vs. St. John's and also their first win in conference in 52 games. They seemed to walk into the gym with a little more confidence than normal and that showed throughout the game. They certainly have a good nucleus of guys, which include the MIAC's leading scorer Pierce Peters, for them to get several wins in the league this year. Hopefully, none will be against us.
Per usual, the game was back and forth for the first 20 minutes. We really didn't want them to linger around and give them confidence to make a run at us in the 2nd half. We didn't do a great job of that. Part of that has to credit MAC, they play hard and execute their stuff. Those are two reasons why I believe they will get a couple of wins this season. They were giving themselves a bunch of second chances by dominating the boards in the first. They outrebounded us by ten in the first half including a 8-3 lead in the offensive boards category (more on this later). We still led for most of the first half and ended up leading 37-31 at the break. It part to the solid play of Charlie Choiniere as he went 3-3 from the floor in front of his old high school coach who is an assistant at MAC. Not a pretty half for us.
Our second half lead hovered between seven and ten points for the first couple of minutes of the half. MAC then increased their defensive pressure and really got into the passing lanes and forced some turnovers. Normally, if that happens it opens up bigger driving lanes to the hoop but we didn't take advantage of it and seemed tentative. The Scots got the lead down to three with about 13 minutes left to play. That didn't exactly bode well with the coaching staff. Nelson got into the guys a lot during a timeout and we responded with a little 5-0 run to get the lead back to eight.
MAC just wouldn't go away. They kept on battling and were like that annoying bug that keeps bothering you during the summer. MAC had a couple of mini runs and got the lead to two with five minutes to play as it looked like they had our number. We finally the got the ball inside and Carl Hipp took over down the stretch. They had no answer for him. We put the game away with some free throws in the final minutes as the final score was 81-71.
We were led by Mike's 19 including 9-11 from the charity stripe. Carl had 18 on an efficient 7-8 shooting in only 19 minutes. Per usual, Carl got into foul trouble and was forced to play five minutes in the first half. Embarrassing display by the MIAC refs with him. Once again we had a bunch of guys hovering in the six to eight point range. We did a good job defensively on their two leading scorers (Peters and Justin Wasik) holding them to 6-25 shooting. We still need to take away some of our mental errors on defense because teams always make us pay. That could be the difference in close games.
Two telling stats for this game. We got mauled on the boards (only by six but it seemed more than that) and gave up 17 offensive boards. Part of that is that MAC didn't shoot that well from the floor but they almost got 50% of their misses. Not good enough. We also had 20 turnovers. The previous two games we totally dominated both of these aspects of the game. If want to continue our winning ways we need to get back to dominating the glass and taking care of the ball. As it stands, we'll take the win. We are now 6-5 and 4-2 in the conference. We are currently tied with Gustavus for 3rd place with us holding the tiebreaker.
Next week will be play at St. Olaf on Wednesday night and then come back to Hutton for a Saturday matinee matchup with St. Mary's.
MAC is coming off their first win of the year vs. St. John's and also their first win in conference in 52 games. They seemed to walk into the gym with a little more confidence than normal and that showed throughout the game. They certainly have a good nucleus of guys, which include the MIAC's leading scorer Pierce Peters, for them to get several wins in the league this year. Hopefully, none will be against us.
Per usual, the game was back and forth for the first 20 minutes. We really didn't want them to linger around and give them confidence to make a run at us in the 2nd half. We didn't do a great job of that. Part of that has to credit MAC, they play hard and execute their stuff. Those are two reasons why I believe they will get a couple of wins this season. They were giving themselves a bunch of second chances by dominating the boards in the first. They outrebounded us by ten in the first half including a 8-3 lead in the offensive boards category (more on this later). We still led for most of the first half and ended up leading 37-31 at the break. It part to the solid play of Charlie Choiniere as he went 3-3 from the floor in front of his old high school coach who is an assistant at MAC. Not a pretty half for us.
Our second half lead hovered between seven and ten points for the first couple of minutes of the half. MAC then increased their defensive pressure and really got into the passing lanes and forced some turnovers. Normally, if that happens it opens up bigger driving lanes to the hoop but we didn't take advantage of it and seemed tentative. The Scots got the lead down to three with about 13 minutes left to play. That didn't exactly bode well with the coaching staff. Nelson got into the guys a lot during a timeout and we responded with a little 5-0 run to get the lead back to eight.
MAC just wouldn't go away. They kept on battling and were like that annoying bug that keeps bothering you during the summer. MAC had a couple of mini runs and got the lead to two with five minutes to play as it looked like they had our number. We finally the got the ball inside and Carl Hipp took over down the stretch. They had no answer for him. We put the game away with some free throws in the final minutes as the final score was 81-71.
We were led by Mike's 19 including 9-11 from the charity stripe. Carl had 18 on an efficient 7-8 shooting in only 19 minutes. Per usual, Carl got into foul trouble and was forced to play five minutes in the first half. Embarrassing display by the MIAC refs with him. Once again we had a bunch of guys hovering in the six to eight point range. We did a good job defensively on their two leading scorers (Peters and Justin Wasik) holding them to 6-25 shooting. We still need to take away some of our mental errors on defense because teams always make us pay. That could be the difference in close games.
Two telling stats for this game. We got mauled on the boards (only by six but it seemed more than that) and gave up 17 offensive boards. Part of that is that MAC didn't shoot that well from the floor but they almost got 50% of their misses. Not good enough. We also had 20 turnovers. The previous two games we totally dominated both of these aspects of the game. If want to continue our winning ways we need to get back to dominating the glass and taking care of the ball. As it stands, we'll take the win. We are now 6-5 and 4-2 in the conference. We are currently tied with Gustavus for 3rd place with us holding the tiebreaker.
Next week will be play at St. Olaf on Wednesday night and then come back to Hutton for a Saturday matinee matchup with St. Mary's.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Bethel 1/5/11
Got back to our first home game of the new year vs. the Bethel Royals. Somewhat creative nickname but I'm going off on their colors. They are probably the only school (college or high school) that are the Royals and colors are you guessed it...navy blue? That's right, navy blue. Makes no sense at all. On another note, if Bethel ever offered me a job, I would turn it down immediately. I don't like what they stand for and I think they are very hypocritical (at least with the run-ins I've had with their bball staff). Maybe I'm just judging based off a few people but I'll go with it.
Off to the game. We got off to a good start and Bethel had no answer, ever. The game was never much in question. They clearly had no answer for us at any position. It was a nice game to "relax" as a staff as in we didn't have to deal another close game.
In the first half we were led by Mike Campbell's 16 points. They simply couldn't cover him at all. That's always nice to know that they flat out can't match up with someone on your team. Carl also had a big double-double in the first half. We went into the locker room with a 50-31 halftime lead.
To start the second half, Bethel came out firing with a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to twelve. We didn't panic and answered with a 12-0 run of our own and Bethel hit the panic button. It would never get closer as we were able to get some guys some good minutes throughout the half. They looked completely deflated and didn't look like they wanted to be there as our lead hovered around 40 for the last six minutes of the game. Final Score, Pipers - 99 Royals - 65.
We were led by Mike and Carl with 18 points a piece. Carl also finished with 15 boards. Noah rounded out our double figure scorers with 11 on 3-3 shooting from 3. We had seven more guys with anywhere from nine points to six points (Tyler, Levi, Josh, Sam, Brandon, Ainge, and Andy). We were quite balanced. Our record now stands at 5-5 and 3-2 in conference play.
We play at Macalester on Saturday at 3pm. They won their first game of the year last night against a quality St. John's on the road. It was their first league win in over 50 games. It certainly won't be an easy one as they will be sky high after that one.
Off to the game. We got off to a good start and Bethel had no answer, ever. The game was never much in question. They clearly had no answer for us at any position. It was a nice game to "relax" as a staff as in we didn't have to deal another close game.
In the first half we were led by Mike Campbell's 16 points. They simply couldn't cover him at all. That's always nice to know that they flat out can't match up with someone on your team. Carl also had a big double-double in the first half. We went into the locker room with a 50-31 halftime lead.
To start the second half, Bethel came out firing with a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to twelve. We didn't panic and answered with a 12-0 run of our own and Bethel hit the panic button. It would never get closer as we were able to get some guys some good minutes throughout the half. They looked completely deflated and didn't look like they wanted to be there as our lead hovered around 40 for the last six minutes of the game. Final Score, Pipers - 99 Royals - 65.
We were led by Mike and Carl with 18 points a piece. Carl also finished with 15 boards. Noah rounded out our double figure scorers with 11 on 3-3 shooting from 3. We had seven more guys with anywhere from nine points to six points (Tyler, Levi, Josh, Sam, Brandon, Ainge, and Andy). We were quite balanced. Our record now stands at 5-5 and 3-2 in conference play.
We play at Macalester on Saturday at 3pm. They won their first game of the year last night against a quality St. John's on the road. It was their first league win in over 50 games. It certainly won't be an easy one as they will be sky high after that one.
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
at Gustavus 1/3/11
Brought in the new MIAC year with a game at Gustavus. They are always a tough team because they are so fundamentally sound and very well coached. We always seem to give a little trouble because we penetrate like crazy and they have a tough time defending against it. I know for a fact that their head coach, Mark Hanson, does not like when their guys penetrate so they don't practice against it very much at all. We have split with them the previous two seasons with them coming out on top in the first game we've played them both times. And now onto the game.
As usual, we got the ball inside the Carl on the first couple of possessions and he scored multiple times to give us an early 11-6 lead. We showed a little more pressure than we have and it looked like they weren't prepared for it at all. We turned them over a bunch of times in the first half and that just doesn't happen against GAC. As the first half wore on, we were going back and forth as we held an eight point lead with about eight minutes to play. The Gusties (once again terrible nickname) then went on an 14-2 run that had them taking the lead. It wasn't a very good good defensively on the game and on top of that we were forcing some early shots during that time. We have to rely on our offense to get us great shots every possession. We ended up making a couple of boneheaded mistakes late in the first a gave up a couple of layups because of it. Halftime score, 40-37 in favor of the Gusties.
Second half opened up with a 3 from Noah Aguirre. We were all tied up. Time was ticking away and it looked like GAC was going to pull away, up as many as seven points on several occassions but we kept on inching and clawing our way back with a couple of guys making some plays especially Brandon Rieg and Noah. For the last ten minutes of the half no lead grew bigger than four points. Just another barnburner for the Pipers. We kept on going back to the pick and roll with Carl at the top of the key. GAC wasn't making any adjustments to it and we were scoring with either Carl or Noah on basically every possession. Problem was, they were hitting every mid-range jumpshot in sight. With a about 1:20 left on the clock, Noah made a great play defensively and looked to have a break-away layup, one of their guys sprinted back as Noah tried to initiate contact and missed the bunny. We got the ball back with about 40 seconds left and Mike Campbell had a great look from the corner and it went in and out as we went to overtime.
Overtime was our time. We really executed down the stretch and put the game away with making some great passed and protecting the ball. We also made our free throws, which is never a bad thing. It was fun to watch us get a good win against a good opponent. Final score 94-89 Pipers.
Carl led us with an impressive 29 points and 15 boards. Noah had a great stat line with 23 points, 6 boards, 5 assists, and 5 steals. Brandon finished with 13 and played some great defense down the stretch. Mike rounded out our double figure scorers with 12 including going 8-10 from line down the stretch. Levi Wenrich also did a great job of controlling tempo and making the right passes at the right time. Andy Voigt also bounced back from a tough Whitewater game with six points and four boards.
This game was a drastic change from the Whitewater game. We didn't panic, we didn't play tight, and we battled all game long. We ended up outrebounding them 46-32. That rarely happens against GAC because they always have a bunch of bruising forwards to deal with. I'm hoping that this game leads to some consistency the rest of the way.
We have to play tough like that the rest of the year in order to be where we want to be. We play Bethel tomorrow night at Hutton Arena at 7:30.
As usual, we got the ball inside the Carl on the first couple of possessions and he scored multiple times to give us an early 11-6 lead. We showed a little more pressure than we have and it looked like they weren't prepared for it at all. We turned them over a bunch of times in the first half and that just doesn't happen against GAC. As the first half wore on, we were going back and forth as we held an eight point lead with about eight minutes to play. The Gusties (once again terrible nickname) then went on an 14-2 run that had them taking the lead. It wasn't a very good good defensively on the game and on top of that we were forcing some early shots during that time. We have to rely on our offense to get us great shots every possession. We ended up making a couple of boneheaded mistakes late in the first a gave up a couple of layups because of it. Halftime score, 40-37 in favor of the Gusties.
Second half opened up with a 3 from Noah Aguirre. We were all tied up. Time was ticking away and it looked like GAC was going to pull away, up as many as seven points on several occassions but we kept on inching and clawing our way back with a couple of guys making some plays especially Brandon Rieg and Noah. For the last ten minutes of the half no lead grew bigger than four points. Just another barnburner for the Pipers. We kept on going back to the pick and roll with Carl at the top of the key. GAC wasn't making any adjustments to it and we were scoring with either Carl or Noah on basically every possession. Problem was, they were hitting every mid-range jumpshot in sight. With a about 1:20 left on the clock, Noah made a great play defensively and looked to have a break-away layup, one of their guys sprinted back as Noah tried to initiate contact and missed the bunny. We got the ball back with about 40 seconds left and Mike Campbell had a great look from the corner and it went in and out as we went to overtime.
Overtime was our time. We really executed down the stretch and put the game away with making some great passed and protecting the ball. We also made our free throws, which is never a bad thing. It was fun to watch us get a good win against a good opponent. Final score 94-89 Pipers.
Carl led us with an impressive 29 points and 15 boards. Noah had a great stat line with 23 points, 6 boards, 5 assists, and 5 steals. Brandon finished with 13 and played some great defense down the stretch. Mike rounded out our double figure scorers with 12 including going 8-10 from line down the stretch. Levi Wenrich also did a great job of controlling tempo and making the right passes at the right time. Andy Voigt also bounced back from a tough Whitewater game with six points and four boards.
This game was a drastic change from the Whitewater game. We didn't panic, we didn't play tight, and we battled all game long. We ended up outrebounding them 46-32. That rarely happens against GAC because they always have a bunch of bruising forwards to deal with. I'm hoping that this game leads to some consistency the rest of the way.
We have to play tough like that the rest of the year in order to be where we want to be. We play Bethel tomorrow night at Hutton Arena at 7:30.
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