B-RadHoops - December 2007December 30, 2007
December 23, 2007 It’s agonizing watching a game slip out of a coach’s hands and that’s what happened to my brother, Seth, Sunday night as his Hokies lost at the buzzer in their first ACC game of the year at Wake Forest. It was also agonizing to watch West Virginia make a record 18 three point field goals in a sold out Dedmon Center in our game on Wednesday evening. We honored Radford’s own Darris Nichols before the game but didn’t intend to be party to a career best 23 point night in which he made 7 threes and also had 8 assists. Amir Johnson’s 16 point, 11 assist (career best) double –double couldn’t match the Mountaineers 18-35 three point sharp shooting. West Virginia made only 4 more field goals than us but made 14 more three pointers. We shot 50% from the field in the 2nd half, out rebounded them for the game, outscored them in the paint as well, but WVU’s 24 points off turnovers and 26 points off the bench were too much to offset. A number of former Highlanders were in attendance. Ron Shelburne, Stephen Barber, Tim Blassingame, Tom Gallaher and Coach Chuck Taylor helped fill the blue seats on a memorable evening in Dedmon. Earlier in the week we lost a tough game against a strong James Madison squad. The score was 70-69 with 3:30 seconds to go but three turnovers down the stretch gave JMU the chance to close us out. JMU’s 17 2nd chance points hurt our cause. Our team is getting better. Preparing for the West Virginia game helped us iron out some wrinkles against pressure defenses. And the JMU game proved that our 1-3-1 defense can disrupt a team with good guards. Our players are gone for some well deserved time off until we practice on December 26th. 8 of our players had semester GPA’s of at least 3.0. And Phillip Martin had a 4.0 semester GPA. And that’s while practicing daily and playing thirteen games. Radford basketball sends everyone the best for a safe and happy holiday. Brad December 16, 2007 Hoyas Play Bully read part of the Washington Post sports section's Sunday edition headline about our Georgetown game. The size, strength and athleticism of Georgetown's #4 ranked squad is indeed impressive. And the level of their play on Saturday was extraordinary. They return four starters from last year's Final Four team and added a few McDonald's All American guards to bolster their bench. They shoot it very well from the outside (11-22 from beyond the arc against us) handle the ball efficiently (1st team All BIG EAST guard John Wallace) and have perhaps college basketball's best big man in 7-2 Roy Hibbert. They are capable of winning the National Championship. The game will prove beneficial in the long run for our team. The atmosphere was electric, the competition as good as it gets and the experience gained will prove invaluable. We aspire to compete favorably against teams of this stature and the process of learning what it will take to accomplish that starts with looking world class players in the eye on the court. The stature of the competition didn't keep RU friends, fans and family away. A pre-game reception and a post game affair on the Georgetown campus conference hotel, arranged by RU's Alumni office, was very well attended and there was enough red in the gym to let our players know they had support. While the fall semester is over and our players are anxiously awaiting final grades, early Sunday afternoon on the way out of D.C., they took a field trip to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The museum features permanent and special exhibitions along with memorial areas and a resource center. It is America's national institution for the documentation, study and interpretation of Holocaust history and serves as our memorial to the millions of people lost during the Holocaust. It was a quiet ride from D.C to Harrisonburg. We play tomorrow night at JMU and on Wednesday we host West Virginia at the Dedmon Center. The two teams have a combined record of 14-2 right now. Looks like the West Virginia game is a full house. Hope to see you there. Go Highlanders Brad December 9, 2007
Last Sunday, December 2nd was spent in Gaffney, SC , healing after a disappointing finish and loss at Presbyterian. Breakfast was courtesy of the Hampton Inn: a lobby continental breakfast buffet prior to a film session with the team and a practice at Gardner Webb.
Today, Sunday December 9th was spent in the New River Valley, smiling after a week in which we recorded two wins thanks to some committed man to man defensive stretches, and a week of solid contributions from virtually every member of our team. It's Hanukkah, the festival of lights celebrated for eight nights. A double OT win at Gardner Webb and another revenge win over a feisty Campbell team are two gifts I very much appreciate. I want to mention the high road taken by Gardner Webb coach, Rick Scruggs. At the completion of our game,he commented "the better team won" out of respect for our team trailing in the game for less than one minute during that 50 minute affair. And Campell's Robbie Laing is top-notch in my book. I met Robbie about 20 years ago when I was the Director of Player Personnel for the Portland Trail Blazers. Robbie was an assistant at Georgia Southern. I was scouting a player on their team by the name of Jeff Sanders who was a Chicago Bulls first round draft pick that year. By the way, this Sunday's breakfast put the Hampton Inn's to shame. There are not many better ways to start a day than a New York delicatessen style toasted everything bagel topped with whitefish salad, red onion and tomato! Or actually two of them! Sunday afternoon Coaches Ali Ton and Cedric Smith, Director of BBall Operations Ross Condon and five of our players --Joey Lynch Flohr, Phillip Martin, Amir Johnson, Nick McFarlin and Chris McEachin-- helped me conduct a clinic for two Radford youth basketball teams. Our guys and coaches did a great job teaching some young girls and boys offensive and defensive fundamentals. Phillip Martin, a very active and aggressive defender himself helped Coach Smith at the defensive station. I had to remind him to make sure he didn't commit any fouls when demonstrating. And the day got even better watching younger bro Seth's VT Hokies put the clamps on GW in a blowout. So it was a week where two Greenbergs recorded wins over two GW's! It's finals week at Radford and we don't play any more games until Saturday the 15th when we travel to Washington, DC to face Georgetown which figures to go into the game as a top 5 ranked team in the country. We will practice around our players final exams this week with concern for their studies..and some concern for Roy Hibbert, Georgetown's center whom some feel is the best college big man in the country. We are about to embark on the Murderer's Row portion of the schedule. December 15 @ Georgetown, December 17 @ JMU, December 19 vs. West Virginia and January 2 @ South Carolina. Those opponents currently have a combined record of 25-6. Here's a holiday gift idea...turn someone on to B-RadHoops by forwarding this email to them. Go Highlanders! Brad December 2, 2007 Gaffney, South Carolina - 9:00pm After a comfortable home win over Southern Virginia, we are back on the road gathering ourselves for the 2nd of a 2 game road trip against future Big South foes. Southern Virginia game highlights include some strong defense-- limiting the visitors to .34% shooting from the field and just .27% on threes. Martell McDuffy, Kenny Thomas, & Joey Lynch-Flohr led us at the offensive end. It was another night when the student body came out to enjoy an evening of hoops in Dedmon, with an especially strong sorority and fraternity presence. After the game, several coaches, parents, players, friends and family took advantage of the hospitality of Tom Whitehead at BT's. BT's has subscribed to our sports network and airs our televised games in the restaurant. So if you can't travel to see us, you know where you can find us. Friday, we traveled by bus to the home of Presbyterian College, Clinton, South Carolina. Our bus rides are always enhanced by a few movies. Action movies usually rule. Gangster flicks are regulars also. But nobody on our team or staff was ready for Coach Ali Ton's selections the past two trips. Direct from Istanbul, we watched Star Wars Turkish style and Turkish Superman. It is safe to say the budget for these productions was not typical of a Hollywood studio. For instance, the opening sequence of Turkish Superman is supposed to be a shot of outer space, but it's really just a bunch of old Christmas ornaments hanging against a black sheet displayed for two minutes while the pirated Superman Theme plays in the background. Our guys, out of respect for Coach Ton, watched these farces for about 10 minutes before the catcalls started. We had more FG's than Presbyterian, shot a better FG%, shot better from the foul line, outrebounded them and committed only 13 turnovers. Joey Lynch-Flohr scored a career high 21 and Amir Johnson had 16. But the Blue Hose, a fierce Scotch-Irish warrior, made 10 threes and beat us 62-60 off a steal and a layin with 15 seconds left in the game. It was a disappointing game but being the eternal optimist, I have reminded our team that we are two plays (one at Air Force and one at Presbyterian) away from being 4-4. We are about to have a team meeting to watch some game film from last night and also go over some scouting info for tomorrow's game at Gardner Webb. While it will be difficult for some of our guys to watch some of last night's late game mishaps (our inability to come up with crucial defensive rebounds and a tough late game ballhandling error), seeing clear cut examples of what we must do to finish off an opponent is a teaching moment that must take place. We play our 6th road game tomorrow before driving back late Monday evening. We hope to be back in Radford around 2:00 am on Tuesday. Traveling by bus after the game enables our guys to miss only one day of school. Our next home game is Saturday December 8th against Campbell. Please come out and help us in the revenge game against the Camels. Hope to see you at Dedmon. Season Ticket info is available by calling (540) 831-5228. Go to RUHighlanders.com and link to Men's Basketball to sign up for B-RadHoops. The community keeps growing. Go to RUHighlanders.com and link to Men's Basketball to sign up for B-RadHoops. The community keeps growing. Brad |
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