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."
Sunday, January 16, 2011
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)