April 17, 2008

I guess there is no other way to say this other than “WOW”! What a great ride through March Madness we just experienced. I am so proud of our players and my staff. To win the NEC Tournament and advance to the NCAA Tournament was such a special feeling. I have been lucky enough to be a part of other teams that have advanced to the NCAA Tournament both as player and assistant coach. This was my first time as a head coach (hopefully not the last) and the only way I can describe the feeling I have for my guys is… well it’s close to how I feel when my daughter learns a new word or counts to 30, just so proud of them! I’m not just proud of the fact that they won but also the work they put in and how they never gave up on our goals or dreams.

We really tried to get better every day. We had some young players and we thought they would continue to grow as the season went along. We also changed our approach somewhat on the offensive end after a home loss to Sacred Heart on 1/19. As a staff, we were fed up with playing good defense but because of our offensive output we would be in close games or just lose. So we decided to really try and get out in transition. On made baskets or misses, just get to our break spots as fast as possible and play from there. Now we were on the attack on offense and defense. We put more possessions into the game, which meant more opportunities to score. I was worried somewhat about how our defense would fair playing this way because we had worked so hard to be the best defensive team in our league. And to be honest, I didn’t want to give that up! But because our mindset is defense 1st, our guys continued to defend and I was just going to have to trust them like I want them to trust me.

The switch worked! We averaged 75 points the last 16 games of the season as compared to our first 18 games where we averaged 63 points. Now, playing this way meant we were going to need production from our bench and man, did we get it! Jean, Shawn and Kelly gave us great minutes off the bench. Each guy started playing well at the same time so there was no drop off when we went to our bench. As a team, we started playing our best basketball in February and when March hit we were really confident in what we were doing and in each other.

Again, I’m just really proud of what our team was able to accomplish. We talked about win a championship during our first team meeting in August, so for us to reach that goal gives me a great deal of pride in our program. I’m also proud that our team was the vehicle to showcase to the nation what a great place Mount St. Mary’s University is!

I want to thank everybody who helped us get to this point; there are many people behind the scenes that make this work! Thanks also to all the fans, alumni and administrator for all of your support. I hope everybody involved had some fun on this ride. Now, next year will be here soon enough so it’s back to work for us! Thanks again.

March 18, 2008

It’s game day.

A few hours from now we will face Coppin State in the first game of the 2008 NCAA Tournament. We are very excited about being a part of the Big Dance for the first time since 1999, but we know we have our hands full with a very good Coppin State team. They finished the season in much the same fashion as us. Coppin State was playing its best basketball over the last month of the season, winning 12 of their final 13 including four wins in four days at the MEAC tournament. Coach Ron Fang Mitchell is an outstanding coach who doesn’t get nearly the credit he deserves. It should be an entertaining opening game.

I am so proud of the effort put forth by this team. As the fourth-seed in the NEC tournament we had an opportunity to open at home against Quinnipiac. It was the first tournament win at home for the program since 1996. We played well, just as we had during the final few weeks of the season. We had a lot of confidence heading into our semi-final contest at Robert Morris, but we knew we would face a big challenge. RMU was the regular season champion and ranked No. 12 in the Mid-Major Top 25 at the time. Our guys were really focused on what we were trying to do both offensively and defensively. We played with a sense of urgency and came away with a victory. We took that same energy and attitude into the NEC championship game. One of our goals this season was to get to the NCAA Tournament. We have accomplished that. Now, like everyone else in the tournament field, we want to play hard, win and advance. We look forward to the challenge on Tuesday evening in Dayton, OH.

Lastly I want to thank all of you that have taken the time to email over the past week. I have heard from family, old friends and colleagues, loyal Mount fans and alumnus and people that just happened to be watching our win over Sacred Heart in the Northeast Conference Championship game. I wish I had the time to respond to each and every correspondence, but there were simply too many to count.

March 5, 2008

We ended on regular season with a big win over Monmouth at home 81-67. It was big because with our win and Quinnipiac losing at Wagner, we now host a 1st round play-off game against Quinnipiac. The biggest story from our win against Monmouth was our freshman guard Jean Cajou. Jean had a career high 27 points. He scored 16 of our last 19 points of the game! It was senior night and we started Jason in place of Sam. The way Sam played maybe I should keep bringing Sam off the bench. He ended up with 15 points 3 rebounds 2 assist 1 block and 2 steals. Shawn also provided a spark off the bench shooting 4-4 from the field and finished with 10 points. Chris didn't have a great shooting night but he finished with a career high 11 rebounds! I'm going to check the tape to make sure that's right.

I'm happy for Chris and Jason that our guys stepped up to give those guys a win on senior night. I will miss both of my guys and thanks them for all the hard work they put into this program. They are part of the foundation that we are trying to build a championship level program on.

Also, with the win we ended our regular season 15-14 (11-7 in NEC). At first glance it might not seem like much but to us this is huge! This was the first winning regular season here since 1996-97.

I'm proud of how hard our guys have worked this year and we are going to do everything we can to keep our season going. I have talked to our players about playing basketball in the most exciting month of the year, MARCH! Memories that won't soon be forgotten are made during this month. This is the month that tears of happiness and sadness flow in locker rooms all over the country. I'm excited about our opportunity to continue to advance in our tournament and chase our goal of making to the "Big Dance". On Thursday night two teams will be fighting to survive to play another day. Man, I love March!

February 19, 2008

We are coming off a huge win at home vs. Quinnipiac 77-70. That win pushed our conference record to 9-6 and we are now a half-game behind Quinnipiac for 4th place. The top four teams get to play the 1st round of our play-offs at home, so every win is big! We had a big night from our backcourt, Chris Vann had 20pts 8 rebounds and Jeremy had 21pts 6 assist. Jeremy also had the honor of guarding one of the most talented offensive players in the league, DeMario Anderson. He ended up with 23pts but on 8-20 FG and he was in foul trouble, which always helps! We also had a good night from Markus Mitchell who had 12pts 8 rebounds and while Sam only scored 2pts, he still had 7 rebounds and the block shot that sealed the win. Our bench was a big part of why we won and why we have won 3 straight! Kelly Beilder, Shawn Atupem and Jean Cajou combined for 20pts and made some huge plays for us down the stretch.

This was a good win over a good team! With 2 weeks left in the season, it’s still a tight race for where teams will end up and we could play Quinnipiac again in the play-offs. Both teams beat each other on their home floor, so these last three games are big for both of us!

On Thursday we were able to win on the road vs. FDU 78-61. Chris led us in scoring with 20pts and shot 6-8 from 3pt range! Chris missed his first two 3pt attempts and after that he was rolling! Markus and Sam again were strong on the backboards as they combined for 14 rebounds. Our bench was big for us again. Shawn Atupem had a career high 17pts; Kelly Beidlier had 6pts, 4 assist and 12 rebounds; Jean Cajou had 9pts on 4-4 FG shooting.

Jeremy had a big challenge; he guarded Manny Ublia who leads the NEC in scoring. He ended up with 20pts but on 7-17 shooting. Our defense was pretty good on this night. FDU shot 34% FG and 14% 3PT FG for the game while we were able to shoot 50%FG. We did a good job of sharing the ball and ended up with 20 assist. We that being said, we also shared the ball with the other team and some people in the stands and ended up with 21 turnovers!

We have some more work to do but I think we are starting to play our best basketball of the year now. We are a young team with some vets who play major roles. If we can continue to defend, rebound and make shots we will have a chance to compete for the NEC championship. Again, there’s a lot of work to be done before we get to that point but I like the direction we are headed.