Helllooooo AU Hoops blogosphere! Well, last night was the night we were all waiting for, the beginning of the 2009-10 AU basketball season. It was a doozy of a game, and in case you weren't following the LiveTweeting, we lost. At the buzzer. 49-47. If you want a recap of the game, you can go see our friends at Athletics as it's pointless for us to write a redundant recap. Similarly, the box score is here. I think (read: hope) you readers come here for our charming analysis and obscure references, and so I'm going to offer you the former in this edition of the GOOD, the BAD, and the UGLY.
THE GOOD
- The defense was solid last night. At one point in the first half we held Randolph-Macon scoreless for 13:44. We forced 18 turnovers. Had 10 steals. The benefit of having all these guards? Quick hands. We picked Randolph-Macon's pockets often times before they even realized what happened.
- The freshmen. Danny Munoz and Blake Jolivette (20 minutes each) both had pretty solid games. Daniel Fisher had a few more growing pains in his 17 minutes, but he still picked up three rebounds.
- Stephen Lumpkins. Looked dominant last night. 18 points and 6 rebounds in 28 minutes. Could see he was getting fired up after a couple of tough put-backs. He looks like a guy who has done a lot of maturing in the off-season, which is good, because we're going to put the team on his back this year.
- Simon McCormack. As far as I'm concerned he made the best case out of any of the guards for being the starting PG last night. He only got half the time that Blake and Danny did, but he looked more polished than either. Not giving up on plays, hustling like crazy, distributing (and taking care of) the ball. I think Jeff Jones would be remiss not to give him more play time on Sunday against Catholic.
- We got to see 10 players last night, nine of them for 10 minutes or more. Jeff Jones is using pre-season the right way, to try different combinations to see what works and what doesn't. The fact that a lot of it didn't last night brings us to...
THE BAD
- This section really could begin and end with two words: ball handling. 25 turnovers (eight of them from Nick Hendra, who also had a more than respectable 12 points and 7 rebounds, but 8 TOs negates that a little bit, as do the 6 TOs that Lumpkins gave away). We gave up 14 steals. The dribbling was sloppy. The passing was sloppy (we've got to stick with chest passes, these tortoise-esque bounce passes aren't going to cut it). The rebounding was sloppy. Just really ugly overall.
- We played this poorly against a Division 3 school that, to be frank, didn't look particularly good last night either. The overall quality of play was atrocious. It looked like Keystone Kops out there for most of the game. We've got to get our act together or any D1 school is going to make mincemeat of us.
- The 3 point shooting. 1-9 total. The 1, to be fair, was a beauty from Steve Luptak, from about 8 ft behind NBA range with 3 on the shot clock, but the rest of it was horrendous, which leads me to...
THE UGLY
The way we lost. Getting the ball back with 31.4 seconds left. I'm not sure what the set play was intended to do, but I know what ended up happening was Hendra tossing up an ugly three pointer, we fumbled the rebound, and Randolph-Macon's Eric Pugh streaked up the floor to put in the layup as time expired. Like I mentioned, we were 1-9 from 3, and our shot, for the win, was an unbalanced three pointer that Garrison Carr would've had trouble with?
Listen, I could be harder on this team. There's plenty more Bad and Ugly to write. Let me be fair though, this is the first pre-season game, and quite frankly, this writer expected us to lose this game. RMC is a very experienced and good team, D3 or no D3. The fact that the Eagles never got into a rhythm last night is because JJ was constantly cycling players in and out to see who could do what. When we have a firmer line-up down, the chemistry will come. There's a lot of bright spots from last night. The freshmen looked reliable. Riley and Lumpkins showed glimpses of a lot of promise as an inside duo. The defense was very good. There's a lot of room for improvement though, too. I hope you'll be there with me on Sunday as we watch the season continue to unfold against Catholic.
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Monday, November 2, 2009
Break Out The RAID, Let’s Squash Some Yellow Jackets
That time is almost upon us, Eagles fans – less than twenty four hours until the AU men’s basketball team takes to the court for the first time since our heartbreaking loss to the Villanova Wildkittens this past March. This is a particularly exciting time as so much has changed over the past few months.
This time last year we knew what to expect going into the first game of the season, and we handed St. Francis (PA) a lovely 67-46 beating while we watched our first Patriot League championship banner raised to the rafters. We knew Garrison Carr was going to nail the three time and time again, and we knew that Derrick Mercer was going to drive the ball around opposing players more than twice his size (and make it look easy, too). We knew that Brian “Jesus” Gilmore was going to make the clutch plays just as we needed them, and that Jordan Nichols would block even the best of shots with his inhumanly long arms.
Alas, those players – and indeed our entire starting lineup – have graduated. They’ve moved on, each one with a valuable AU degree and a bright future. This leaves our team, however, young and malleable. We’ve heard all the reports from Patriot League Media Day (and if you haven’t read them yet check out Bill’s recap here and here). We know the vast (VAST) majority of the team has never seen significant play before at the college level. We know Vlad “The Impaler” Moldoveanu will be on the sidelines until December. We also know that this means that our team has near limitless potential – and our hapless opponents certainly won’t know what to expect.
This leads us back to the moment ahead of us, at 7:30 PM tomorrow evening. This year we aren’t opening against a Division 1 opponent, but we’ve been graced with the good fortune of having not one, but two Division 3 matchups to test our mettle before the real W’s and L’s start being recorded. Yet just because these are exhibition games doesn’t mean we shouldn’t take them seriously. Rather the faithful Blue Crew – students, alumni, faculty, friends, neighbors, and fans alike – should be there in full force. We need to show this young team that we will be with them from the beginning, and show Randolph-Macon and Catholic what happens when they come into OUR arena.
Of course, this is all just fanboyish rambling. You already know this. This isn’t why you’re here. You want to know what might go down tomorrow night. Well, if you’ve read this far you certainly care, so throw on your Red and Blue and hold onto your seats, folks – this might not be pretty…
Here’s the truth: we might not come out of tomorrow night’s game with that W. It’s a bit of a catch-22 – if we win, well, of course, they’re D3. If we lose, then our team really has some work to do.
Here’s the facts:
- D3hoops.com has tagged Randolph-Macon as the #19 D3 team in the country.
- They've killed before...this time last year Randolph-Macon opened up with an exhibition against neighboring George Mason – and walked away with a 73-72 win
- The Yellow Jackets went 20-6 overall and 14-2 in their conference last year, and return 12 letterwinners and 3 starters
- To reiterate, roughly 3 of our players eligible to play tomorrow have had more than 10 minutes of court time in an NCAA game
It might be close, though, and if we don’t walk away with the W it will be a good wake up call for our players. Luckily it doesn’t count toward our regular season one bit, and it’s important that even if we’re on the receiving end of a hornet’s sting that we aren’t discouraged…we have an entire season ahead of us, and our team will certainly get better.
So come out tomorrow if you can, and most importantly be BLUE and be LOUD! Let’s cheer our team on to an early victory, and even if we lose, just buck up and look ahead (trust me, Catholic is likely to be a breath of fresh air with that lovely winning smell). Plus, AUEagles.com has pointed out that we'll be seeing some "new look Eagles", whatever they mean by that (maybe new uniforms?). If you can’t make it to Bender Arena tomorrow, then make sure to check out AU Basketball Central (this very blog) for the best recap you’ll find out there.
Josh
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Media Day Report Part Two - Jeff Jones Telling It Like It Is
So I was a little bit of a fanboy when I first met Jeff Jones. After stammering my name, the name of the blog, and why I was bothering him, there was kind of an awkward pause before I asked, "So, do you want to maybe, uh, sit down and answer some questions?" Luckily for you, Coach is very forgiving of young pseudo-journalists and was more than generous with his time. What follows here are excerpts from what we talked about.
I started by asking Coach what the starting line-up would be if the Randolph-Macon game was today (last Thursday). His response: "I honestly don't know." JJ indicated that at this point there are three starters more or less locked in: Nick Hendra, Stephen Lumpkins, and, surprisingly, Riley Grafft. For the other two spots, there are "young guys battling for spots."
Right now for the point guard competition, JJ says that, "It's not who's the best player. It's who is the oil, who makes things run more smoothly. There's some good competition going on right now. Things have a lot of moving parts for our team right now with young guys learning and trying to figure college basketball out, much less how they're going to fit in [to a lineup]. I would encourage people not to be too concerned with the starting lineup for the Randolph-Macon game."
Well, Coach, sorry, but here in the blogosphere, we ARE concerned about those kinds of things. Even though we understand that the line-up will change, we still want to know who is emerging out of these pre-season practices looking the most promising.
On Vlad the Impaler: "...different players fit into different styles in different ways. Vlad loved GMU. He didn't leave there because he was unhappy with the coaches. He liked the players; he liked the coaches, but that wasn't the right fit for him basketball wise. His skillset fits what we're trying to do, and, quite honestly, we're trying to build around him and give him a lot of responsibility and have other people feed him...Vlad is an accomplished post-up player, not through bulk, but by being smart, being able to use both hands, and being crafty. He's also probably our best perimeter shooter. In the same way we made Garrison Carr the focus of our offense [last year], and then, depending on what the defense did, we created opportunities for other guys built off of that, we're trying to create those same opportunities around Vlad, Nick Hendra, and Stephen Lumpkins...As coaches we have to handle Vlad becoming eligible [midway through the season], it's not a decision I could make right now, it's not a decision I have to make right now."
On the perimeter game this year: "We're not capable of being the same kind of perimeter shooting team that we were a year ago. We don't have Garrison, no one does. Having a guy like [Brian] Gilmore, like Bryce [Simon], we just can't do that this year. We have shooters, but not the same kind."
On the biggest surprise so far this season: "Riley Grafft's performance thus far has maybe been the most pleasant surprise...People will say “wow” that's a big jump [when they see him on the court]...Riley's confidence, hopefully Riley's confidence, is very high. Another thing is Daniel Fisher, he's...a guy that we thought by his junior year might be able to help. He's proven at the very least he's going to be able to get in games as a back-up, I'm not going overboard, but it's something that we didn't expect."
I asked if in two years the Munoz-Jolivette-Snodgrass trio might end up being like the Mercer-Carr-Gilmore trifecta from last year: These three are "different than Carr, Mercer, and Gilmore. [Munoz and Jolivette] are more traditional point guards than Garrison Carr. Snodgrass is more of a wing player than Gilmore. It's important to note that when that class [class of 2009] were freshmen, we went through some rough times...[But] they didn't get crushed, they fought through it, they got better, they got more determined. When those guys were juniors, we were picked sixth [in the preseason Patriot League coaches' poll]. We had lost 90% of our scoring, a lot of our statistics...[but] the hope is the new guys can step in and help...[However,] last time we lost 6-7 players, we filled with juniors, not freshmen, and I don't think our freshmen are ready to step in to that degree...[We're going to have to,] I want to use the term patch together, but I'm not saying that like the Redskins offensive line, it's not a natural fit based on where we played a year ago...We'll be evolving."
On Riley Grafft: "Last year there was no thought that he'd be a guy who could contribute this year. We knew he had athleticism. He's 6'11”, so he's got length. He runs the court very well, but I think the biggest thing, well when we saw him in the recruiting process, he's got some skill that most other guys his height don't have...what he's shown us is to be able to show us some of those skills that we knew about a long time ago [during recruiting]...It's a confidence thing."
On the battle for point guard: "The thought coming in was that one of either Blake [Jolivette] or Danny [Munoz] would come in, and the other would back him up. At this point, Simon McCormack has made it a little bit more complicated, and he's head and shoulders better than where he was a year ago. There hasn't been a knockout" in terms of one point guard emerging as far and away the best. "Practices have been good, we've been doing some scrimmaging. Saturday we will do some scrimmaging situations that probably will determine who starts against Randolph-Macon. After Randolph-Macon, we'll have to take a look after that. Two of those three will get a really long hard look in the Randolph-Macon game." From there, the coaching staff will try to make some decisions to see who will start at point guard. JJ also noted that instead of platooning point guards and playing 2-3 equally, he would "rather have one guy earn the job and the other back him up. So that it's clear to everybody, he's our PG because I think that instills confidence." He also indicated that whoever is the starting point guard will play 25-27 minutes and his back-up will play 13-15 minutes.
I asked JJ if he thought Nick Hendra was ready to stand up and take leadership of the team because in the past he has sometimes opted to make the flashy play instead of the smart play.
JJ: "Frank [Borden, last year] played defense and didn't screw up. That's why he played in front of Hendra...If you look, Nick was in at the end of the games; he was playing more minutes. The maturity, the decisions were still an issue [last year]. He needs to make a bigger step from last year to this year because we're going to have to rely on him. [Last year] I could just yank him [if he made mistakes], we don't have that luxury this year...We had a practice where Nick was aggressive, made some great plays, then made some bonehead plays, and we didn't yank him because we need him to learn that we need the really good plays, but there's a line there, and you can't cross that line...From the time he got to AU until now he's made a lot of progress, but there's more progress [to be made]. In high school, you get volume, you get 30 shots a game. In college, you need to be efficient. It's an important lesson that he's going to need to learn even better...You look at Greg Sprink [from Navy] a couple of years ago. [We're saying to Hendra,] 'We're going to give you chances to do things with the ball, you need to make sure that you make good decisions. If you don't get an opportunity we're coming back to you.'"
On leadership on the team: "We don't believe in captains, we don't nominate captains. Assigning them a title, I can remember as a player at UVA and as a coach, that there were so many times that the team got it wrong because they're either the senior or the popular guy, so I was like, we're not doing that. Leaders lead, our leaders are going to lead, why do I need to put a letter on someone? Brian Gilmore was a vocal leader, Derrick Mercer was the guy everybody looked to, Garrison led by example, those guys were so competitive...They were so competitive, but they led in very different ways, but in very effective ways, but not any one of them was any more of a leader, it was just different ways. Luptak and Matt Wilson are really taking it to heart. Nick is trying to assert himself a little more. Lumpkins is trying to assert himself with his work ethic. Even Vlad, Vlad feels like he needs to be a leader on this team, he hasn't been around that long, he hasn't played in any games, and the guys look to him like 'okay, you're our best player', at Mason he was just another guy."
That's all I've got. Re-posting some of this, it makes me realize there's a LOT of good stuff in here. I want to thank Jeff Jones, though I doubt he reads this, for his candor. One other quote from JJ I want to add is on team motivation: "I made my career out of being pissed off at the other team." That actually made me laugh during the interview.
I'll cut this short now because I think this has already run pretty long, but I want to say I'm pretty surprised about the positive (and rave) reviews on Riley Grafft and Daniel Fisher. Those two, combined with Lumpkins and Vlad when he's available, have the opportunity to give the Eagles an inside game that I thought wasn't going to be possible. That's encouraging.
I think Josh is going to post a preview of Randolph-Macon tomorrow, so look forward to that. I will see you all, I hope, in Bender Arena at 7:30p on Tuesday!
THE SEASON IS UPON US!
PRO DEO ET PATRIA AND GO EAGLES!
I started by asking Coach what the starting line-up would be if the Randolph-Macon game was today (last Thursday). His response: "I honestly don't know." JJ indicated that at this point there are three starters more or less locked in: Nick Hendra, Stephen Lumpkins, and, surprisingly, Riley Grafft. For the other two spots, there are "young guys battling for spots."
Right now for the point guard competition, JJ says that, "It's not who's the best player. It's who is the oil, who makes things run more smoothly. There's some good competition going on right now. Things have a lot of moving parts for our team right now with young guys learning and trying to figure college basketball out, much less how they're going to fit in [to a lineup]. I would encourage people not to be too concerned with the starting lineup for the Randolph-Macon game."
Well, Coach, sorry, but here in the blogosphere, we ARE concerned about those kinds of things. Even though we understand that the line-up will change, we still want to know who is emerging out of these pre-season practices looking the most promising.
On Vlad the Impaler: "...different players fit into different styles in different ways. Vlad loved GMU. He didn't leave there because he was unhappy with the coaches. He liked the players; he liked the coaches, but that wasn't the right fit for him basketball wise. His skillset fits what we're trying to do, and, quite honestly, we're trying to build around him and give him a lot of responsibility and have other people feed him...Vlad is an accomplished post-up player, not through bulk, but by being smart, being able to use both hands, and being crafty. He's also probably our best perimeter shooter. In the same way we made Garrison Carr the focus of our offense [last year], and then, depending on what the defense did, we created opportunities for other guys built off of that, we're trying to create those same opportunities around Vlad, Nick Hendra, and Stephen Lumpkins...As coaches we have to handle Vlad becoming eligible [midway through the season], it's not a decision I could make right now, it's not a decision I have to make right now."
On the perimeter game this year: "We're not capable of being the same kind of perimeter shooting team that we were a year ago. We don't have Garrison, no one does. Having a guy like [Brian] Gilmore, like Bryce [Simon], we just can't do that this year. We have shooters, but not the same kind."
On the biggest surprise so far this season: "Riley Grafft's performance thus far has maybe been the most pleasant surprise...People will say “wow” that's a big jump [when they see him on the court]...Riley's confidence, hopefully Riley's confidence, is very high. Another thing is Daniel Fisher, he's...a guy that we thought by his junior year might be able to help. He's proven at the very least he's going to be able to get in games as a back-up, I'm not going overboard, but it's something that we didn't expect."
I asked if in two years the Munoz-Jolivette-Snodgrass trio might end up being like the Mercer-Carr-Gilmore trifecta from last year: These three are "different than Carr, Mercer, and Gilmore. [Munoz and Jolivette] are more traditional point guards than Garrison Carr. Snodgrass is more of a wing player than Gilmore. It's important to note that when that class [class of 2009] were freshmen, we went through some rough times...[But] they didn't get crushed, they fought through it, they got better, they got more determined. When those guys were juniors, we were picked sixth [in the preseason Patriot League coaches' poll]. We had lost 90% of our scoring, a lot of our statistics...[but] the hope is the new guys can step in and help...[However,] last time we lost 6-7 players, we filled with juniors, not freshmen, and I don't think our freshmen are ready to step in to that degree...[We're going to have to,] I want to use the term patch together, but I'm not saying that like the Redskins offensive line, it's not a natural fit based on where we played a year ago...We'll be evolving."
On Riley Grafft: "Last year there was no thought that he'd be a guy who could contribute this year. We knew he had athleticism. He's 6'11”, so he's got length. He runs the court very well, but I think the biggest thing, well when we saw him in the recruiting process, he's got some skill that most other guys his height don't have...what he's shown us is to be able to show us some of those skills that we knew about a long time ago [during recruiting]...It's a confidence thing."
On the battle for point guard: "The thought coming in was that one of either Blake [Jolivette] or Danny [Munoz] would come in, and the other would back him up. At this point, Simon McCormack has made it a little bit more complicated, and he's head and shoulders better than where he was a year ago. There hasn't been a knockout" in terms of one point guard emerging as far and away the best. "Practices have been good, we've been doing some scrimmaging. Saturday we will do some scrimmaging situations that probably will determine who starts against Randolph-Macon. After Randolph-Macon, we'll have to take a look after that. Two of those three will get a really long hard look in the Randolph-Macon game." From there, the coaching staff will try to make some decisions to see who will start at point guard. JJ also noted that instead of platooning point guards and playing 2-3 equally, he would "rather have one guy earn the job and the other back him up. So that it's clear to everybody, he's our PG because I think that instills confidence." He also indicated that whoever is the starting point guard will play 25-27 minutes and his back-up will play 13-15 minutes.
I asked JJ if he thought Nick Hendra was ready to stand up and take leadership of the team because in the past he has sometimes opted to make the flashy play instead of the smart play.
JJ: "Frank [Borden, last year] played defense and didn't screw up. That's why he played in front of Hendra...If you look, Nick was in at the end of the games; he was playing more minutes. The maturity, the decisions were still an issue [last year]. He needs to make a bigger step from last year to this year because we're going to have to rely on him. [Last year] I could just yank him [if he made mistakes], we don't have that luxury this year...We had a practice where Nick was aggressive, made some great plays, then made some bonehead plays, and we didn't yank him because we need him to learn that we need the really good plays, but there's a line there, and you can't cross that line...From the time he got to AU until now he's made a lot of progress, but there's more progress [to be made]. In high school, you get volume, you get 30 shots a game. In college, you need to be efficient. It's an important lesson that he's going to need to learn even better...You look at Greg Sprink [from Navy] a couple of years ago. [We're saying to Hendra,] 'We're going to give you chances to do things with the ball, you need to make sure that you make good decisions. If you don't get an opportunity we're coming back to you.'"
On leadership on the team: "We don't believe in captains, we don't nominate captains. Assigning them a title, I can remember as a player at UVA and as a coach, that there were so many times that the team got it wrong because they're either the senior or the popular guy, so I was like, we're not doing that. Leaders lead, our leaders are going to lead, why do I need to put a letter on someone? Brian Gilmore was a vocal leader, Derrick Mercer was the guy everybody looked to, Garrison led by example, those guys were so competitive...They were so competitive, but they led in very different ways, but in very effective ways, but not any one of them was any more of a leader, it was just different ways. Luptak and Matt Wilson are really taking it to heart. Nick is trying to assert himself a little more. Lumpkins is trying to assert himself with his work ethic. Even Vlad, Vlad feels like he needs to be a leader on this team, he hasn't been around that long, he hasn't played in any games, and the guys look to him like 'okay, you're our best player', at Mason he was just another guy."
That's all I've got. Re-posting some of this, it makes me realize there's a LOT of good stuff in here. I want to thank Jeff Jones, though I doubt he reads this, for his candor. One other quote from JJ I want to add is on team motivation: "I made my career out of being pissed off at the other team." That actually made me laugh during the interview.
I'll cut this short now because I think this has already run pretty long, but I want to say I'm pretty surprised about the positive (and rave) reviews on Riley Grafft and Daniel Fisher. Those two, combined with Lumpkins and Vlad when he's available, have the opportunity to give the Eagles an inside game that I thought wasn't going to be possible. That's encouraging.
I think Josh is going to post a preview of Randolph-Macon tomorrow, so look forward to that. I will see you all, I hope, in Bender Arena at 7:30p on Tuesday!
THE SEASON IS UPON US!
PRO DEO ET PATRIA AND GO EAGLES!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Media Day Report Part One - Hey, Mr. Willllsoooon
Before I get into the meat and potatoes that you're all hungry for, I want to say that overall I'm really happy with the way Media Day went, and I want to thank my friends over at AU Athletics for facilitating my attendance today. If you haven't read the LiveTweeting at twitter.com/auhoops, I suggest you do that because a lot of the choicest quotes from Coach Jeff Jones's introductory speech are there. From my shorthand, here's a lot more of his speech.
Bob Socci, Patriot League commenter, asked Coach Jones how the team was going to deal with the loss of so many talented players. JJ started with, "I think it's safe to say that a year can make a big difference.”
Here are some other tidbits from his speech:
- “[Losing guys] is something we're dealing with.”
- “Losing two assistant coaches further compounds the challenges that we face.”
- “It's a different kind of challenge and a year that allows us as a coaching staff to re-examine some of the things that we do to help the team achieve its potential.”
- “We've been pleased with the effort of our guys, but we have a long way to go.
- "Sometimes it's been baby steps, sometimes it's been one step forward, and one step back.”
- “The question is not if, but when, we're going to round into shape and be competitive in the Patriot League this season.”
- Coach Jones is excited about the young men on the team and “there will be some surprises as the season continues on”
- The Patriot League is “always competitive, tough when you have to go on the road, but as I look around this year, certainly Holy Cross is the team that everyone seems to be looking at, they will clearly be an outstanding team.”
- There is “amazing balance” in the Patriot League, and this could be “one of the most interesting PL seasons in my years in the league.”
- JJ is “Looking forward to the season.”
- Concludes with: “Let's hope that in a month we'll be much better off than we will be next Tuesday.”
I didn't, admittedly, pay as much attention to the other coaches' speeches because this is, after all, the AU Hoops Blog. The other speeches were okay, talk about past challenges and future potential, yadda yadda yadda, Laugh-ayette isn't winning anything, Lehigh's downplaying their team, etc. etc. Anyway.
After the press conference, I awkwardly stood around until Matt Wilson, who is a very friendly guy, agreed to talk with me (and two other actual people who are real journalists and not 20 somethings running a hobby blog because it fills in between times where he has to paint himself blue) about AU basketball.
Matt was great to have at media day for the team. The lone senior, Matt was well-spoken and gave very thoughtful answers to my myriad (and sometimes odd) questions. He clearly understands the transition that the team is undergoing, has a great knowledge of the game and his team, and he was a font of knowledge for me today.
Without further praise, here is Matt Wilson on a number of topics:
- On how practice has been going: "Practice has been going well. It's a long process as far as improving because we have so many new guys...it's a long road ahead of us, but we've all been working hard, and we're excited to have a lot of opportunities ahead of us."
- On changes to the team's plan this year: "We have to play a different style this year. We're playing a little differently in practice. We're doing different things...We're going to push the ball a little more. We don't have the personnel that we had last year. We don't have the solid point guard in Derrick Mercer, we don't have the explosive scorer like Garrison. We're going to have to try to work the ball around a bit." (then later) "Not so much more passing, but just how we initiate our offense. We're likely going to push the offense a bit more. We're going to try to create opportunities in transition a bit more and try to get the team when they're not exactly settled defensively. Because last year when we had Derrick he was able to get the ball wherever he wanted whenever he wanted...We're still going to play very good defense, and we're still going to be patient, but we're going to try for more opportunities...Likely we're not going to be as strong scoring in the half court, so we're going to have to score some in transition to make up for that."
-On his role this year: "My role is probably going to be that of a facilitator, as far as giving our best scores, that is Nick Hendra, Vlad (when he's eligible), and Stephen Lumpkins
opportunities to be successful. That's what we're all trying to figure out is exactly what our role is going to be."
-On Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Moldoveanu) not being eligible until the second semester: "It's a little disruptive, but Coach does a good job making sure that he plays with both the first and second teams."
- On the freshman who has made the most progress so far: "We have a kid named Daniel Fisher from Australia, and I'd say he's made the most progress thus far. He's a hard worker, and I think he's going to be good for us. He's good at getting post positions, getting other people open" - This is actually a sentiment that Jeff Jones echoed, but we'll get to that later.
- On the conditioning regimen: "Offseason was very very difficult, our strength and conditioning coach Jason Riddell is very good at what he does, and so our lifting regimen has been very strenuous. We conditioned three times a week, we did two days where we ran sprints and one day where we did agilities. So we've been just doing the best we can so we can be in the best shape possible when it's time to compete."
- On team leadership: "As far as leadership goes, myself, Steve Luptak, and Nick Hendra are the three who were here both years we went to the tournament, and we've really been trying to get the guys up to speed on the work ethic that that group of seniors (last year's) had and how to take care of the things they need to off the court."
- Me: "You guys have like nine guards...how is this going to work? Are you going to play a four guard set?"
Matt: "We are not going to play a four guard set, and that's one thing that we actually tried. Likely there will just be a rotation since obviously you can't play nine guards at once."
(to which I added, astutely, "but it would be sweet if you could")
Listening to the voice recording of this made me realize I sound like a complete valley girl about AU basketball. Ugh. Anyway, that's enough for one night. I'll get the Jeff Jones entry up sometime this weekend for all of you. Probably not tomorrow night, but maybe sometime Saturday. If I have to push it to Sunday, have a safe and happy Halloween!
ALSO: THE FIRST PRE-SEASON GAME IS ON TUESDAY! THIS TUESDAY! GET READY! GET PUMPED!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
Bob Socci, Patriot League commenter, asked Coach Jones how the team was going to deal with the loss of so many talented players. JJ started with, "I think it's safe to say that a year can make a big difference.”
Here are some other tidbits from his speech:
- “[Losing guys] is something we're dealing with.”
- “Losing two assistant coaches further compounds the challenges that we face.”
- “It's a different kind of challenge and a year that allows us as a coaching staff to re-examine some of the things that we do to help the team achieve its potential.”
- “We've been pleased with the effort of our guys, but we have a long way to go.
- "Sometimes it's been baby steps, sometimes it's been one step forward, and one step back.”
- “The question is not if, but when, we're going to round into shape and be competitive in the Patriot League this season.”
- Coach Jones is excited about the young men on the team and “there will be some surprises as the season continues on”
- The Patriot League is “always competitive, tough when you have to go on the road, but as I look around this year, certainly Holy Cross is the team that everyone seems to be looking at, they will clearly be an outstanding team.”
- There is “amazing balance” in the Patriot League, and this could be “one of the most interesting PL seasons in my years in the league.”
- JJ is “Looking forward to the season.”
- Concludes with: “Let's hope that in a month we'll be much better off than we will be next Tuesday.”
I didn't, admittedly, pay as much attention to the other coaches' speeches because this is, after all, the AU Hoops Blog. The other speeches were okay, talk about past challenges and future potential, yadda yadda yadda, Laugh-ayette isn't winning anything, Lehigh's downplaying their team, etc. etc. Anyway.
After the press conference, I awkwardly stood around until Matt Wilson, who is a very friendly guy, agreed to talk with me (and two other actual people who are real journalists and not 20 somethings running a hobby blog because it fills in between times where he has to paint himself blue) about AU basketball.
Matt was great to have at media day for the team. The lone senior, Matt was well-spoken and gave very thoughtful answers to my myriad (and sometimes odd) questions. He clearly understands the transition that the team is undergoing, has a great knowledge of the game and his team, and he was a font of knowledge for me today.
Without further praise, here is Matt Wilson on a number of topics:
- On how practice has been going: "Practice has been going well. It's a long process as far as improving because we have so many new guys...it's a long road ahead of us, but we've all been working hard, and we're excited to have a lot of opportunities ahead of us."
- On changes to the team's plan this year: "We have to play a different style this year. We're playing a little differently in practice. We're doing different things...We're going to push the ball a little more. We don't have the personnel that we had last year. We don't have the solid point guard in Derrick Mercer, we don't have the explosive scorer like Garrison. We're going to have to try to work the ball around a bit." (then later) "Not so much more passing, but just how we initiate our offense. We're likely going to push the offense a bit more. We're going to try to create opportunities in transition a bit more and try to get the team when they're not exactly settled defensively. Because last year when we had Derrick he was able to get the ball wherever he wanted whenever he wanted...We're still going to play very good defense, and we're still going to be patient, but we're going to try for more opportunities...Likely we're not going to be as strong scoring in the half court, so we're going to have to score some in transition to make up for that."
-On his role this year: "My role is probably going to be that of a facilitator, as far as giving our best scores, that is Nick Hendra, Vlad (when he's eligible), and Stephen Lumpkins
opportunities to be successful. That's what we're all trying to figure out is exactly what our role is going to be."
-On Vlad the Impaler (Vlad Moldoveanu) not being eligible until the second semester: "It's a little disruptive, but Coach does a good job making sure that he plays with both the first and second teams."
- On the freshman who has made the most progress so far: "We have a kid named Daniel Fisher from Australia, and I'd say he's made the most progress thus far. He's a hard worker, and I think he's going to be good for us. He's good at getting post positions, getting other people open" - This is actually a sentiment that Jeff Jones echoed, but we'll get to that later.
- On the conditioning regimen: "Offseason was very very difficult, our strength and conditioning coach Jason Riddell is very good at what he does, and so our lifting regimen has been very strenuous. We conditioned three times a week, we did two days where we ran sprints and one day where we did agilities. So we've been just doing the best we can so we can be in the best shape possible when it's time to compete."
- On team leadership: "As far as leadership goes, myself, Steve Luptak, and Nick Hendra are the three who were here both years we went to the tournament, and we've really been trying to get the guys up to speed on the work ethic that that group of seniors (last year's) had and how to take care of the things they need to off the court."
- Me: "You guys have like nine guards...how is this going to work? Are you going to play a four guard set?"
Matt: "We are not going to play a four guard set, and that's one thing that we actually tried. Likely there will just be a rotation since obviously you can't play nine guards at once."
(to which I added, astutely, "but it would be sweet if you could")
Listening to the voice recording of this made me realize I sound like a complete valley girl about AU basketball. Ugh. Anyway, that's enough for one night. I'll get the Jeff Jones entry up sometime this weekend for all of you. Probably not tomorrow night, but maybe sometime Saturday. If I have to push it to Sunday, have a safe and happy Halloween!
ALSO: THE FIRST PRE-SEASON GAME IS ON TUESDAY! THIS TUESDAY! GET READY! GET PUMPED!
Pro deo et patria and GO EAGLES!
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