B-RadHoops - December 2008

December 28, 2008

We have played a very tough non-conference schedule this year and the toughest team we have faced is West Virginia.  The final score Tuesday the 23rd was WVU 89 RU 54.  But that’s deceiving.  We played them evenly the first 13 minutes of the game and trailed by just 6 with 3:23 left in the first half. 

Three minutes into the 2nd half, they led by 13.  After that it fell apart, because we were unable to take care of the ball and keep them off the offensive glass. 

When I break down a game I try to find as many positives as possible, but I am also honest.  The positives from the WVU game: we held them to just .39% from the field.  We successfully guarded all players but Alex Ruoff into a combined 16-53 from the field.   The negatives: we turned the ball over 25 times to WVU’s 9, we were outrebounded on the offensive glass 23-7, we were outscored 35-6 in 2nd chance points,  Alex Ruoff had a career night with 38 points making 9-14 threes, and WVU took 71 shots to our 45. 

West Virginia is good.  They reconfirmed that on Saturday, with a 76-48 blowout win at Ohio State in which they held the 15th ranked Buckeyes to just 20 2nd half points. 

Saturday after Christmas we hosted Shenandoah.  We were supposed to beat them and did what we were supposed to do winning comfortably 104 – 66. We had five guys hit double figures – Art Parakhouski 18, Kenny Thomas 17, Joey Lynch-Flohr 17, Amir Johnson 11, & Phillip Martin 11.  And Martell McDuffy played a strong game with 8 points and 4 assists.  In his 2nd game of the season, sophomore Chris McEachin, played 19 minutes and picked up 5 assists. 

We had 24 assisted field goals and just 11 turnovers.  And we held Shenandoah to just .35% mixing up our defense between man to man and 2-3 zone. 

We head to Winston Salem Tuesday to take on Wake Forest in our final non-conference game of the year.  Wake is the hottest team in the country right now climbing the national polls to #6. They press full court, have 6 players on their squad over 6-9, have outrebounded their opponents by 12 per game, are outscoring their opponents by 22 points a game, shoot .52% from the field and hold their opponents to just .35%.  But I am excited for our team to have the chance to play them.  It reminds me of the golfer Rocco Mediate and his approach to playing Tiger Woods in the 2008 US Open.  How often does a team get the chance to take on one of the best teams in the country?  How often do you get the chance to test your mettle against what appears to be a special team?  We get that chance on Tuesday.

Happy New Year.

Go Highlanders

Brad

 

December 21, 2008

We traveled to Fairfax, VA this past Thursday, the last day of finals, and played a strong George Mason Patriot team on Friday.  A large contingent of Radford Highlanders rooted us on and we played pretty well, but not well enough to win. 

GMU has had tremendous success the past 3 seasons averaging over 22 wins per season.  This year’s Patriots are experienced, good perimeter shooters and solid defenders.  We outscored them in the paint 32-16.  Both teams shot .40% from the field.  We committed only 8 turnovers.  And we had one more blocked shot and one more steal.  But they shot a blistering 8-11 from beyond the arc in the 2nd half and were 10-19 overall on threes – we were 2-10 in the second half and just 4-16 for the game. 

Art Parakhouski had another double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.  Martell McDuffy – 14 and Joey Lynch-Flohr – 10 were our other double figure scorers.  Joey went to Fairfax HS – right around the corner from GMU’s Patriot Center and there were close to 50 of his family and friends in attendance. 

The game was broadcast on MASN cable.  Former Georgetown coach, Craig Esherick, did the color and veteran broadcaster, Dave Feldman, did the play by play.  I played against Craig when he was a Georgetown Hoya on one of legendary John Thompson’s teams.  Dave was once a graduate assistant basketball coach at Stanford under another coaching legend, Dr. Tom Davis (Lafayette, Boston College, Stanford, Iowa).  If you have watched Bruce Pearl’s Tennessee team or Gary William’s Maryland Terrapins you have watched two Dr. Tom’s protégés who employ his basketball style of full court pressure and “Flex” offense. 

We leave for Morgantown, WV tomorrow and play the Mountaineers on Tuesday.  Bob Huggins is another coach I competed against in college – I was at American University and he was at WVU.  Bob is among the winningest active coaches in college hoops and a future Hall of Famer. There are only a handful of college coaches with more 20 win seasons than Bob.  His teams are always very aggressive defenders and rebounders.  We will need to be strong with the ball and strong on the boards to beat the Mountaineers on their court. 

Our guys will have two days off following Tuesday’s game to be home with family on Christmas and be back in Radford for a late afternoon practice on the 26th.  Division I basketball players have very little if any winter break.  

Congratulations to all the winter commencement RU graduates.  And special congratulations to one VT winter commencement graduate…my son Cory.   

Happy Holidays to all.

Go Highlanders

Brad

December 14, 2008

Most college basketball coaches would be distraught and depressed after back to back home losses.  And while I am disappointed with the final outcomes of our games vs. Duquesne and James Madison, what is foremost in my mind is how we are going to improve our team as the season progresses.  In both games our opponents shot over 50% from the field and over 40% from beyond the arc on three pointers.  It is hard to beat teams with defensive field goal percentages like that.  We have at times played some outstanding defense this season.  That was not the case this week. 

Against a very fast Duquesne team we were a step slow in setting up our defense and in helping out.  Art Parakhouski just missed setting a new RU rebound record with 20 rebounds (13 offensive).  Art scored 17 points and had 2 blocks as well.  And Martell McDuffy had a season high 21 in the game.

Three pointers hurt us in the first half against JMU but we guarded pretty well in the first 20 minutes of that game and led at the half by 6.  We guarded the perimeter much better in the 2nd have against the Dukes but didn’t contain the ball and they got to the basket on us and made 65% of their shots in the second half.  We led by 11 with ten minutes to go but couldn’t hold onto the lead.  Martell had 20, Amir Johnson had a double-double with 16 points and 10 assists and Joey Lynch-Flohr had 23 points missing just 1 shot from the field. 

We met our game goal of less than 14 turnovers in both games.  And we out rebounded both opponents as well.  We also made 31 of 37 free throws.

So while some coaches would be distraught and depressed, I see potential in our team to be as good as anyone in our conference provided we keep improving in all facets of the game.  The most important thing for our team is to remain focused on getting better each and every day.  Bill Bradley once commented that defeat has a richness of experience.  We have to learn from defeat.  But we cannot feel sorry for ourselves or dwell on the past.  All I want from tomorrow is to make it better than today go the lyrics from Bruce Hornsby’s song Jacobs Ladder.  That is how we approach our practices and that is what I will remind our players on Tuesday when we get back in the gym.  It is vital that we comprehend and apply this.  Especially give our upcoming schedule with road games against George Mason, West Virginia and Wake Forest before January league play kicks in.  Our attitude will greatly influence our ability to improve.

After the game on Sunday I was a guest of President Kyle at a holiday gathering attended by close to 100 friends of Radford.  It is heartwarming to receive encouragement from so many people and I really appreciate the support of everyone.  Highlights of the evening were musical performances by Radford Vice-Mayor Dick Harshberger who rehearsed If I Were A Rich Man, a new faculty member soprano Jenice Riebe singing My Favorite Things and Johann Nordstedt’s humorous rendition of a University of Pennsylvania fight song.  It was the merriest of holiday parties.

Go Highlanders

Brad

 

December 7, 2008

One of the challenges coaches face when playing multiple games in a week is limited practice time to prepare for the next opponent and spend time working with individual players on new team schemes.  Each opponent is unique in their style presenting different personnel matchups.  And you might have only one day to prepare for that opponent. That was the case for us this week.  We had a disappointing second half against a sharp shooting and precise ball handling Gardner Webb team on Thursday and had just one day to prepare for Winthrop.  Winthrop has recently dominated the Big South and has beaten Radford twelve straight times. 

Winthrop has splendid athletes who try to score driving to the hoop.  And like Gardner Webb, and what we will see a lot this season, they start a lineup with four players no taller than 6’-4”.  

We prefer playing man to man defense.  But we have to be flexible to avoid putting our bigger frontcourt players in uncomfortable situations trying to guard smaller and quicker players far out on the floor.  Assistant coach Cedric Smith scouted Winthrop and emphasized that Winthrop was not shooting the ball well from the outside and our defense needed to try to force Winthrop to beat us from the perimeter.  We learned a lot about our team Saturday evening in a 73-52 win over Winthrop.  We learned that our team can play multiple zone defenses to compliment our man to man defense.  And we learned that Art Parakhouski has the potential to impact the game at both ends of the floor.  He played his best game of the season finishing with 24 points and 10 rebounds. Kenny Thomas had another strong shooting game finishing with 20 points, Amir Johnson ran the team with poise and purpose picking up 6 assists, Martell McDuffy nailed 2 three pointers scoring 10 points and Joey Lynch-Flohr made his presence felt with 9.   It was a good team win.

And it certainly made a Sunday day off much more enjoyable for the author of B-RadHoops.  So I had time to get a good workout, see a great movie – Australia, and follow my brother’s win over Navy on the internet. 

We have two attractive non-conference matchups this week.  Duquesne of the Atlantic 10 comes to Radford for a Wednesday 7pm game and Sunday at 2pm we host in state rival JMU of the Colonial Athletic Association. 

Go Highlanders!

Brad