B-RadHoops - November 2007
November 25, 2007
While most of the Radford student body had a week off, our team was busy traveling with two road games. It was a tale of two distinctly different locations, venues, opponents and performances. Our game at Air Force was our best all around game to date. We defended well, rebounded to finish the possession, controlled the pace of the game, and were 5 seconds from a significant non-conference win. Leading 42-40 with a foul to give, we grabbed an Air Force player heading toward the lane from about 30 feet out. Instead of awarding Air Force the ball on the sidelines with 2 seconds left, an official thought the player was in the act of shooting. The video suggests otherwise, but that is life on the road. Air Force made the right plays in the OT and we didn't.
Buies Creek, NC is a bit different than Colorado Springs. And the 600+ in attendance at our game at Campbell was a bit different than the 6,000+ at Air Force. Unfortunately, we once again had the turnover bug and a 1st half in which we shot 56% from the field was sabotaged by 13 turnovers. Coaches and players are together in our disappointment over our ball handling woes and this week we will continue to focus on fundamentals, cleaning up our offensive execution, paying even more attention to balance, floor position, spacing, passing and catching.
In B-RadHoops tradition, food must be discussed and while the schedule didn't allow our players an opportunity to enjoy Turkey day with family, our team enjoyed an outstanding meal together on Thursday afternoon. We had a world class Thanksgiving buffet at The Inn at Virginia Tech. And suffice it to say our guys put away more ham and turkey than the Duke women's Volleyball team seated nearby.
This past week we announced the signing of three future Highlanders to scholarship papers and National Letters of Intent. You can read what Doug Doughty of the Roanoke Times wrote about it from this link:
http://www.roanoke.com/sports/college/wb/140668 <http://www.roanoke.com/sports/college/wb/140668>
Additional info on the commitments can also be found on RUHighlanders.com from this link:
http://www.ruhighlanders.com/news/news_detail.php?news_id=1850 <http://www.ruhighlanders.com/news/news_detail.php?news_id=1850>
Students are back on campus tonight and we are counting on them to energize Dedmon on Wednesday when we host Southern Virginia. After playing our first 5 games in 11 days and 4 of our first 6 on the road, it will be great to once again be at home in front of a friendly crowd.
Season Ticket info is available by calling 540-831-5228. We would love to see Dedmon like it was on opening night all the time.
Go to RUHighlanders.com and link to Men's Basketball to sign up for B-RadHoops. The community keeps growing.
Hope you had a great Thanksgiving.
Brad
November 19, 2007
Colorado Springs, CO--We play Air Force tonight but before talking about Colorado lets recap the past week and the two games played in Radford at Dedmon.
On Wednesday November 14th, we played and won our home opener in front of a very spirited crowd of over 2,600-- most dressed in Dread the Red t-shirts. Before the game, a throng of Greek riverside tailgaters were visited by coaches and players bearing pizzas as a pre-game gesture of thanks. What a great idea--football fans tailgate in colder weather, why shouldn't basketball fans? We need to make Dedmon a hostile environment for opposing teams and we did that on Wednesday. I was so impressed with the student sections of Dedmon that stood for the entire game, energized our players and made Dedmon a true home court advantage on Wednesday night. Presbyterian led us 46-45 with eleven minutes and change on the clock. We played our first fairly intelligent and motivated segment of man to man defense to pull away for a 68-54 win.
Hostile environment was not the appropriate term for Dedmon on Saturday November 17th for our game against giant killer Gardner Webb. Coming off a win at Kentucky and appearances in Madison Square Garden against UConn and Oklahoma, Gardner Webb is a confident sharp shooting team. But they were a tired team and we did not do enough to take advantage of that. We feel behind early after allowing their best shooter to get free for five three point attempts in the first half...he made them all. We played a better second half, rallied to get to within a point on a number of occasions inside eight minutes. Amir Johnson was aggressive and creative penetrating on his way to a 20 point, 5 assist night. Amir had a strong "floor game" week totaling 15 assists with only 3 turnovers in our two games. With 1:44 left in the game we were down 3 when Kenny Thomas accidently fouled a three point shooter and that was it for the comeback.
We played better in week 2 than we did in week 1 cutting our turnovers from 19 a game to 14 a game. We are making some progress in that area. But we have a lot of work to do at the defensive end. Tonight we play our 5th game in 11 days. An NBA like early season schedule. With school out this week for Thanksgiving break and our road game at Campbell on Saturday the 24th, we will have some serious practice time to get back to defensive fundamentals.
On a lighter note, after arriving in Denver yesterday, I thought it might be fun for our guys to get a taste of the NBA. I arranged for us to practice at the Pepsi Center practice facility, home of the NBA's Denver Nuggets before busing to Colorado Springs. After a spirited two hours on the court, our players were like kids in a candy store taking pictures of each other in the Nuggets locker room at the lockers of Alan Iverson and Carmelo Anthony.
You learn some interesting things when traveling with a team of college players. For instance...did you know that it appears to be impossible to eat four saltine crackers in a minute, no water allowed while trying to complete the task. Nick McFarlin tried...couldn't do it. And that young man can demolish a buffet!
Season Ticket info is available by calling 540-831-5228. We would love to see Dedmon like it was on opening night all the time.
Congrats to Spencer Smith and the RU soccer team for making it to the Big South Championship game.
Go to RUHighlanders.com and link to Men’s Basketball to sign up for B-RadHoops. The community keeps growing. Thanks
Have a great Thanksgiving.
Brad
November 12, 2007
Our on-court decision making was not truly competitive this weekend; however, one decision at the conclusion of the trip was right on! Our Northwest Airlink pilot in Detroit, along with a maintenance engineer determined too much oil was being burned in one of the plane’s engines and after a delay we were swapped out to a different plane before take-off. Now that is great game management, a crucial time-out and a key substitution!!
I am one of those guys who really tries to see a half full glass. And while the final scores of this season’s opening games in Michigan were not favorable, our play at times was encouraging. However, two areas are reason for serious concern and focus. We committed too many turnovers and we allowed too many offensive rebounds. Against Michigan, the turnover total of 19 was not acceptable, but the fact that 16 of our 21 field goals were assists indicates we tried to, and succeeded in making the extra pass on a number of occasions. Some other positives from that evening: the confident and aggressive play of Martell McDuffy, the poised low post footwork of Joey Lynch-Flohr that enabled him to finish a baseline drive with an impressive dunk, and the assertive approach of freshmen Chris McEachin, Alex Gynes & Nick McFarlin. Michigan scored 19 points off our turnovers and had 15 second chance (offensive rebound) points for a total of 34 points. We scored 7 points off their mistakes and hustled for 13 second chance points for a total of 20.
In Ypsilanti, we again struggled making plays with the ball and committed another 19 turnovers. Eastern hurt us on the offensive glass as well with 15 offensive rebounds. Kenny Thomas had a strong shooting game and Joey Lynch-Flohr caused EMU some problems close to the hoop but we were unable to overcome an eight minute stretch where we were outscored 22-7. We were up 36-35 with 15:47 to go when Amir Johnson hit a 3, was fouled and made the free throw. Eight minutes, five missed layups and two turnovers later we were down 57-43. Losing Martell McDuffy to an ankle injury during that stretch didn’t help but we must become physically tougher and improve our concentration and focus at both ends. The telltale stat of the game was points in the paint-- EMU outmuscled us for a 36-20 advantage. An encouraging aspect of this game was our offensive execution vs. EMU’s man to man defense. We scored on a high percentage of our possessions vs. their man to man defense which caused them to switch to a zone and that posed more problems for us than it should have.
Today the players have a day off as NCAA rules require one per week. But not for the coaches. We will break down the EMU game tape to create edits for individuals and the team to review. We have lots of teaching to do and sharing crystal clear EMU game video examples of areas we need to clean up to become better is part of what coaching is about.
An apology is due Bill Conlon who sponsored a few seats at last week’s Tip-Off banquet. A grateful thanks to him. Please let me know if I missed anyone else.
As I was about to enter Dedmon this morning an “It’s Time to Dread the Red” sign advertising Wednesday’s, November 14th home opener caught my attention. After an opening weekend on the road, it will be nice to play a game on our own court. We’ll also play Gardner-Webb this Saturday in Dedmon. Please come on out and support your Highlanders.
Season Ticket info is available by calling 540-831-5228.
Brad
November 4 , 2007
There's no other way to describe last Thursday night. A sellout crowd was on hand for the first annual Radford Highlander's Men's Basketball Tip-Off Banquet. They were there to usher in a new season, lend a helping, most supportive hand, meet the current players, honor some former Highlander greats and enjoy an evening of fun, drink and food. And it just so happened that President Kyle was able to introduce Radford's new Athletic Director, Robert Lineburg, making the evening more excitingSpecial thanks must go out once again to so many people who helped make the evening possible:
Tom Lillard, Director of Athletic Development, with Assistant Coach, Rick Hall, and Director of Basketball Operations, Ross Condon, did outstanding work behind the scenes. They were assisted by Niki Shepherd of the RU Foundation office and Basketball Office Administrative Assistant, Cheryl Cox. Radford's former Faculty Athletic Rep, Chuck Hayes orchestrated the evening's program like a skilled playmaker. And RU Multi Media Producer, Steven May, presented an outstanding team video. That guy has talent!And none of this could have happened without our sponsors:
FNB, Sandy Cupp Davis, Reed Lumber, The Turk Family, Harvey's , BT's, New River Nissan, Virginia Farm Bureau, Chartwells, Dr. Bill Epstein, Charlie and Shirley Cash, & Garret and Meg's.And even folks who couldn't attend helped out by sponsoring player seats at tables--Miles and Cindy Newman, Laurie Buchwald and Scott MannWe are especially indebted to Texas Roadhouse Head Coach, Dave Fitzgerald, for catering the affair and to Vintage Cellar’s Chuck Hussey for providing vino and brew. We honored former players, David Smith, Doug Day, Ron Shelburne and Stephen Barber. Also in attendance were former players Tom Gallaher, Kevin Dill, Jim Sink, and former RU Assistant Coach and current Radford HS Head Coach, Rick Cormany. I have to confess I had a little anxiety as recently as a week ago about attendance and the order of the banquet. But even my pre-game nervousness and Chicken Little persona couldn't argue with 170 plus folks showing up and the wonderful support they showed. It was a great event and one we'll make even better next year! I hope I haven't missed anyone that deserves mention. Let me know if I did.Sunday's Roanoke Times Sports section front page featured a story by Mark Berman about two "bergs" in Southwest Virginia coaching college basketball. Here is the link: And yes, my mother is very proud and is k'velen!! (Yiddish for beaming with pride--not about us, but about her pictures)!
http://www.roanoke.com/sports/vtb13 Four (4) practices and one (1) shoot-around before we take on the Michigan Wolverines. They pulverized Ferris State in their exhibition game last Thursday. We will be breaking down that videotape this week to figure out matchups and tactics. Saturday we had our final scrimmage against a D-I opponent from the Southern Conference. We held our own against some solid competition, played decently, showed some improvement in a few areas and learned some more about out personnel.
I will try to give you some thoughts on the Michigan game from Ann Arbor. You can watch the Michigan game on Direct TV. The Big Ten Network will be carrying it.
Season tickets are available for purchase. Call 540-831-5125 to request a brochure via mail or find out information on how to purchase them. |
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