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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on Apr 30, 2009 3:24:02 GMT
After reaching an improbable 12-11 record our chances of surprising everyone with any idea about basketball (so not me) by winning the conference were improved dramatically when Murray Mint State fell over their own feet and lost two games on the spin. So if I could continue my winning streak, there'd be a chance to put the title to bed early... Our first opportunity came against Eastern Illinois who'd we'd beaten earlier in the year 107-105 in overtime. This is another really tight game which swings backwards and forwards as each team puts together good, short runs to take 5-8 point leads, meaning that the game lead flip-flops between the two teams 23 times by the time the final buzzer sounds. At the half we're just one point down, 32-31 and getting reasonable performances from a core group of Terrence Murphy, Brian Reese, Joey Strohm and Emmanuel King. Small Forward is the only position we're struggling at, as Dhantay West and BJ Gilchrist are both being blanked. In the second half we're in trouble early as our starters are being shut down all over and the Panthers just rip out to a 17 point lead. This causes to some small amount of swearing on my part and I bin my entire starting line, wheeling out Eddie Henry, Justin Reese, David Condill, Marco Wilson and Joem Butler and watch in startled disbelief as that collection of ne'erdowells somehow start scoring and close the gap to eight points. No, I don't know how. David Condill in particular has been consistently useless for the whole season, but here he goes 4/4 from the field and throws in a couple of free throws too. Sadly though, these Harlem Globetrotters of reverso-world are now knackered and I have to go back to my starting lineup who go back to sucking donkey cock and I lose by seven points, 82-75. :moop: The following week we get our arses handed to us 74-66 by Eastern Kentucky - we land 12 straight points in the last 90 seconds to make the score look all purdy. It's worth noting that we were losing by 19 at the half. So that's that opportunity buggered then. So of course now we've burned out chance, we find an unexpected win at home to Tennessee Tech 83-72 thanks to a game MVP performance from Justin Fletcher. Yes, Justin "I'm the fifth best Guard on the team, out of six Guards" Fletcher. Anyway, one game to go and we're one of five teams who can take the title. The last time we needed to win worked out pretty well...
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Post by Sonic on Apr 30, 2009 6:35:27 GMT
Well that went well then. I have full faith in your team Stu, to perform unexpectedly. I'm expecting the last result to be the same.
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Post by Moo on Apr 30, 2009 7:50:03 GMT
I'm expecting someone to expect the last result.
KUTGW! :thumb:
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on May 1, 2009 21:16:33 GMT
What we needed in our last game : Victory. What we got in our last game : Insipid capitulation.
It's not even worth writing about. We were dreadful and lost to a crappy collection of cockwits 67-48. Yes, we managed an awesome 48 points. A whopping 1.2 points per minute.
That loss dumped us into fifth place in the conference and, therefore, out of the conference finals, which is annoying.
To compound things, behind the email telling me my invite to the conference championships wasn't in the post was another from Center Emmanuel King telling me he was going over the side and transferring to another school. Collegiate athletes transferring to another school have to sit out, (and therefore lose) a year of eligibility, but Mr King would rather lose a year than hang about with us it seems.
King was comfortably my most consistent Center and while he was outshone by Mack Felton on occasion, Felton was a hit or miss player.
:thumb:
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on May 1, 2009 21:24:42 GMT
The Off-Season Our off-season got off to a great start when I went in front of the board and pitched for a budget increase in the hopes of attracting some better coaches and go told that the annual board meeting was no place to crack jokes.
I'd been very carefully marshaling our budget over the close to the season in the hopes that it would carry over, but instead the board looked at the money I hadn't spent and told me I clearly didn't need any more.
Still, at least Guard Brent Lampley lived up to his word and confirmed his letter of intent, becoming a Gamecock for next year.
I'd love to get a transfer in to fill King's gap, but no one appears to be interested and anyone I bring it would have to sit out a year anyway.
I don't like this game.
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on May 2, 2009 2:15:53 GMT
2009/10 ROSTER
Guards PG : Terrence Murphy, Emmett Slater, Derrick Beck SG : Randy Massey, Justin Fletcher, Brent Lampley
With Brian Reese graduated, the pressure to produce points for us this year will fall on Randy Massey, who put up 136 last year - a average of just five points per game, which suggests out attack could be anaemic this year.
The other option will be to go strongly behind Justin Fletcher. Fletcher doesn't have the outside game or quality shot that Massey sometimes shows, but he's aggressive off the dribble and draws a lot of fouls, which gives him free shots and gets the opposition into trouble.
Either way, Terrence Murphy will be tasked with getting Massey and Fletcher the ball and running the offence, which he did well early last year before falling away and being challenged by Eddie Henry.
Beck is a "walk on" who'll surprise me if he's anything other than low-quality depth. Lampley is my recruit from last year. He's hopefully going to be my best guard, but that won't be this year.
Forwards SF : Dahntay West, BJ Gilchrist, David Condill PF : Joey Strohm, Marco Wilson, Richard Royten
This was a mixed bunch last year with Joey Strohm leading the way, second-top scoring with 243 points at 9.7 per game. He also rebounded well and was our only player to hit double figures for rebounds in a single game last season.
On the Small side, BJ Gilchrist got all the early starts, but then his game fell apart and he went through one spell where he scored four points total in five games.
Dahntay West came in when Gilchrist fell off, and did a decent enough job, but I have no other scoring at the SF position. When West runs out of energy the position becomes a black hole for the ball.
Condill was rubbish last year and will be gone next year, while Wilson was rubbish last year but will hopefully improve this year and become someone I can get some use from.
Royten is a walk on who can fook off.
Center C : Mack Felton, Joem Butler, Derrick Hughes
Losing Emmanuel King was a real blow here, especially as Hughes is still academically ineligible for being a fucking idiot. Felton and Butler were both used to cover at the PF position last year when Strohm ran out of steam, but this year that won't be possible.
Felton did show some skills last year, but it was so sporadic that it absolutely could not be relied upon. Butler was barely adequate.
The good news is I have five scholarships available for next year, so I could try to get in one player at every position...
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Post by elth on May 2, 2009 4:00:54 GMT
What would life be without these little challenges, eh?
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Post by Sonic on May 2, 2009 13:02:36 GMT
Could you explain that to those who keep evolving FM Elth?
Stu, it's looking like it's going to be another ianteresting season.
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on May 2, 2009 14:53:57 GMT
That's very philosophical, elth. I presume you were drunk.
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on May 2, 2009 18:56:07 GMT
OFF-SEASON RECRUITING
Part 1 of 14,378
When recruiting season finally opened there was some good news; our success in 2008/09 meant that there were now people from Alabama who were interested enough in becoming a Gamecock that, when I called, they didn't hang up on me before I could finish saying "This is Coach Cakes and I'd like to see you on my Cocks."
Admittedly, most of the people who came into recruiting season predisposed to join my cocks were rubbish, but just the fact that they were there was encouraging and gave me a fallback position should I fail to get someone who, y'know, had played basketball before.
Last year's recruit, Brent Lampley was ranked around 350 in the country, so I decided to have a sniff around that sort of level this year and then make some hopeful punts further up the rankings and see what happened. With five scholarships available and gaps at approximately every position, I wouldn't be limited in my pursuit by need at least.
First on the sniff list was Point Guard Donnell Ballinger. He first came to my attention purely because of the whole Ball-Cocks relationship, but he was ranked 444 in the country overall, 90th at his position and had an "A" grade for passing.
After repeatedly phoning Ballinger until my phone's batteries died I went back to the player lists and then started following a pair of Small Forwards called Bryant Hays and Byron Bryson. Bryson was rated slightly higher at 657 to Hays' 678, but Hays had a 3.7 Grade Point Average to Bryson's 2.2, which is perilously close to the 2.0 that will get you kicked out of basketball for being a stupidhead.
All three players were listed at this point as "+++" for interest in coming to the Cocks, which is the highest rating available.
After those early successes I started cold-calling kids from the South East of the country at random, in the hopes of attracting someone with genuine top level talent by dint of being close to where they were from so they could go home and fuck their cousins at the weekend.
After a couple of players just slammed the phone down on me, (rude!), I got through to a Small Forward called Mateen Mullahon who said he wasn't interested in Cocks, but then turned out to be curious after all and let me make a pitch to him.
Mullahon's big interest is in playing time, which is good because he's the 48th rated player in the country, so if he came to me I'd try to put him on the court every single minute. Also ian-terestingly, his parents really, really want him to be close to home and they have a reasonable amount of influence over him, so you never know.
My conversation with Mullahon raised his interest from none to "+", so I set out to watch a few of his games live. If I can raise him to "++" then I'll invite him to come to our school for a look around and bust out the cheerleader with the "Cocks" sign and no knickers.
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Post by Moo on May 5, 2009 8:49:36 GMT
Nice write up, fella. I found the whole recruiting thing both interesting and infuriating, probably much in the same way you have. Because Maine had a really low pull, I found it very hard in trying to tempt anyone to join and almost had to wait until the first wave of recruiting had been done by the high and mid range colleges and then try to feed off the scraps. It also didn't help that I had a very low budget so therefore couldn't get the draft reports or go to the combines (or whatever they're called in Hoopyball) and had to rely on the player list and the "pin" method. As a team with low prestige, Maine just had to search for those that were interested first of all, then looked at the three main attributes needed for that position and try to get someone that got a C or above in two of them. I was with Maine for a few seasons and found that the school prestige never changed and on the forum I went on for TCB, it was said that it was a flaw of the game that this rarely moved by much, if at all. I'm almost tempted to go back to it and take a position at another college, TBH, to see if there's any difference in how things work when you have money to spend.
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Post by Sonic on May 5, 2009 8:57:54 GMT
I was with Maine for a few seasons and found that the school prestige never changed and on the forum I went on for TCB, it was said that it was a flaw of the game that this rarely moved by much, if at all. I'm almost tempted to go back to it and take a position at another college, TBH, to see if there's any difference in how things work when you have money to spend. I think you should do this, and then write about it on here too. That way we can see the difference from when you had no money to when you did. It would be interesting too. Not like s1ut's here.
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Post by Moo on May 5, 2009 9:16:59 GMT
I have the earlier version of the game, Total College Basketball, but it's essentially the same. Everything was revamped for Stu's version, but I suppose the underlying principles would be the same and could be adapted by him.
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on May 5, 2009 13:58:01 GMT
I managed to raise Mullahon to a ++ and invited him to the school and he loved the cheerleading tour, which mean he left the school as a +++.
So I immediately got on the blower to his folks and arranged a trip out to his house, at which point I pitched playing time to him while reminding his folks that he'll be within a short distance of home, which was important to them.
At the end of the meeting I handed the kid a scholarship offer to come to the school. There was one small problem though, as I'm sure I had ten thousand dollars when I walked into the house, but I seem to have misplaced it while I was in there.
I''m sure it'll turn up.
It'd be terrible if Mullahon found the ten grand, say, accidentally stuffed into the envelope with his scholarship offer, but I'm sure he'd return it if he did. He has an honest face.
In other news, Donnell Ballinger alsdo liked the cheerleading game and said he'd be very likely to come to the school if offered a scholarship. At which point, the national scouts immediately wrote him down from 444 in the country to over 1100 (this thing goes to eleven!).
I don't think the scouts rate us.
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Post by Sonic on May 5, 2009 14:29:46 GMT
Fair point Moo, though I was trying to be funny. I should just leave that to Horn Though if you ever do change your mind, that [art hasn't changed. Part even. Stu, can I go to one of your cheerleading games? I hear they are very educational.
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on May 8, 2009 20:51:26 GMT
Suffice to say it hasn't been a great start to the 2009/10 season, as the JSU Gamecocks stumbled to a ropey 1-2 start which included an opener against the Oregon Beavers where we scored only 14 second half points and new freshman Shooting Guard Brent Lampley was an impressive oh-for-eleven shooting on his debut.
Terrence Murphy tried hard with 12 points and seven assists and Joey Strohm continued to look useful with 10 points and 8 rebounds, but we had zero shooting all day from a position called Shooting Guard as my Cocks failed to open up the Beavers.
The second game looks better, because we won, but it was against a Boston Terriers side who are slightly better at basketball than a team made up of an armchair, a lamp, two candle holders and a wardrobe and we only won by five and once again the Guard position was a black hole of points.
Game three was our best effort, as you can see from the fact that we lost by 22 points; 70-48. However, it was against the other Oregon team; the Ducks, who are rated 17th in the country, so I always expected a dry pounding there.
Joey Strohm again top scored from the Power Forward position and there was some life at the SG position as I switched reserve PG Emmet Slater in there and he got ten points. Not exactly a stellar performance, but better than anything we'd got in the previous pair of games.
Amusingly, recruiting is going disasterously too as exactly no one has signed for us at the end of November and even the guy I offered ten grand too sent the money back.
Not only can I not give the scholarships away, I can't pay people to take them either. :moop:
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Post by elth on May 9, 2009 4:23:14 GMT
my Cocks failed to open up the Beavers. Nothing unusual for you?
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Post by Mr Bismarck's Electric Donkey on May 10, 2009 4:28:45 GMT
Another three games on and still no one has signed on for the Cocks, but the deep pain of rejection has been salved somewhat by the fact that we've found our mojo again and won three on the spin.
Our first bounce-back win came against the VMI Keydets. Now, Gamecocks may be a silly name but at least it's not a made up word. What the fuck is a Keydet?
We had some slight issues with a guy called Nick Strandmark who dropped 20 points us, despite being sodding double teamed for 40 minutes, but we finally found a way to score, by going heavily inside and relying on Forwards Joey Strohm and Dhantay West and letting the Guards pick up the pieces, rather than asking them to score.
As a result, backup Point Emmett Slater scored 15 points, mostly on uncontested shots after one of the Forwards had crashed the basket and collapsed the defence. Power Forward Joey Strohm landed a bucket at the buzzer to tie Strandmark for the game lead with 20 points as we won 78-68.
After beating VMI by ten we went on to beat Coastal Carolina by 12 in a crazy game which featured a 96 point second half. We won 85-73, leading 36-26 at the break and then squeaking the second half 49-47.
What was very pleasing was that the scoring was spread out - Dhantay West's 15 points led the team, but Terrence Murphy scored 12, Justin Fletcher 10, and Mack Felton, Emmett Slater and Marco Wilson all got 9.
Fletcher doubled his 10 from Coastal Carolina into 20 against the "Upstate Spartans" leading the scoring as we caned the Spartans 75-58, doing just enough to led all scorers in the game after Joey Strohm fouled out with five minutes to play and 17 points.
Fletcher scored 71 points all of last season and already has 46 this year.
In 20 days I'll get Derrick Hughes back as he has stopped being stupid after a year and has good enough grades now to get back on the court.
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