>>> HOME

02.13.07

It's a big week coming up for us here in South Central Virginia. We travel up to Charlottesville tonight for what is becoming an annual match up with Virginia, and one that I'm hoping we turn into a game here at Longwood somewhere down the road. We then have our final two home games of the season with Liberty coming here on Thursday night and NJIT coming in next Monday.

The game with Virginia is an important one for us in many ways. We will go out and test ourselves every year against some very high profile programs (who happen to have very good teams) to gauge where we are in our development as a Division I program. These types of games also give our players and fans (especially at UVA) an experience that they will never forget. You also don't ever know exactly what will happen when you take the court against someone who is perceived to be at a level way above you. We have proven to be able to compete against some very good teams (look back to the second half leads at GW and New Mexico for evidence) and one day here we are going to beat somebody we're not expected to. There is no way of predicting when that will be but with the commitment that has been made here at Longwood, it's going to happen.

The Liberty game at home here on Thursday is the closest thing we have to a rivalry game at this point in time. Our motivation will be high for the Flames. We split two games with them last year and came out on the short end of the score against them earlier this year over in Lynchburg. We are currently 2-2 on the season in games against teams in The Big South Conference. It would be big for us to finish the year with a winning record against that league. Like all teams, we want to play well at home, which we have done again this season. Right now, we are 5-5 at home with two to play. Having a winning home record is something that is very important to everyone in our program and something we need to be ready to protect on Thursday night.

When NJIT gets to town on Monday it will be a special night for Longwood Basketball. It will be the first time since I arrived on campus here that guys who have spent 4 years at Longwood as Division I players will be playing their last home game in a Longwood uniform. Two years ago we had no seniors. Last year we recognized Chad Kosmo, who in two years helped us through the transition to the Divison I level.

This year we have 5 seniors who are departing the program and all are extremely important in their own way. Joel Rowe and Darren Holmes have been important members of our team for 4 years and have hung in there through some difficult times. These two guys have earned a special respect from me for everything they have done while they have been here. Husein Pistoljevic has had some unbelievable moments as a Lancer. He is the all time leading three point shooter in Longwood Basketball history and truly epitomizes everything that our program does, and should, stand for. Clayton Morgan came in last year and has been an important piece to the basketball puzzle for us. Clayton has had some phenomenal moments and games for us and has truly helped us become established as a Division I program that is capable of succeeding. Lastly is Maurice Sumter. Accolades aside, if people around the country want to look at a shining example of how a college basketball players should play, and act, and represent himself and his team and his school; look no further than Mo - enough said.

All of these guys will be sorely missed. All have made an indelible mark on the Longwood Basketball Program. All have been an important part of laying the foundation for Longwood as a viable Division I program. I'm sure they do and they can't hear it enough, but I want them to know that.

02.08.07

What a start to the new year for the Longwood Basketball Program. Coming off 3 consecutive wins to close out 2006 we were very excited getting started on 2007.

We kicked off 2007 by embarking on one of our trademark road trips, that are more like what NBA teams have. We got it started by flying out of Richmond on New Year's Day to take on the Providence College Friars on January 2nd. Decent performance for us in the first 22 minutes against Providence as we trailed by 10 at the half and hit an early 3 in the second half to cut the deficit to 7. The rest of the night was not so good for us.

From Providence it was on to New Haven, CT where we tipped it off against Yale on Saturday (6th) afternoon. The Yale game was a tale of two halves for us, neither of which was what we would prefer. Let me explain.

There are two very specific things we need to do as a team in order to put ourselves in position to be successful. Those two things are take care of the ball (limit turnovers) and don't give up too many second chance opportunities (offensive rebounds). In the first half of the Yale game we turned the ball over a bunch of times, which led to a few to many easy buckets for them and a 12 point deficit for us. In the second half we cleaned that up, played very good defense, and gave up 15 offensive rebounds which led to a bunch of second chance points for them.

The combination of these things led us to a 74-62 loss and dropped us to 6-12 on the season. To make matters a little more difficult, Kirk Williams went out with what turned out to be a severely sprained left ankle a few minutes into the second half. His injury would affect us significantly for about the next 3 weeks, as it turned out.

12.31.06

For us, the 2006 calendar year is over. The Lancers will not play again until 2007, when we travel to Providence on Jan. 2. Our win over American was our third straight. After dropping the first two games of the Las Vegas Classic, at New Mexico and USC, we responded with Charleston Southern and Kennesaw State.

Our seniors led the way against Charleston Southern, as Clayton Morgan and Maurice Sumter combined for 39 points and down the stretch we were able to hold off the Buccaneers by converting from the free-throw line. One night later Clayton had a career-best 32 points in the overtime win over Kennesaw State.

The wins gave us a fifth-place finish and a really good feeling heading into the Christmas holiday and we came out of the break with another hard-fought win in overtime. There were eight ties and four lead changes, with last coming with just over a minute remaining in OT.

We are playing very good basketball right now and we will need to continue playing well, as we open 2007 with four straight on the road. We travel to Providence, Yale, New Jersey Tech and Utah Valley State before returning to Farmville, VA for three straight at home, beginning with Savannah State on Jan. 20.


12.15.06

To say that the past couple of seasons were challenging is understating the point. But while many viewed our early stages, of transitioning to Division I, as somewhat disastrous, but I viewed it as progress.

There are a lot of great things about this institution, which was why I left George Mason to become the next head coach of the Lancers. Still, I knew it would take a little time, but we everyday we have continued to move forward.

Part of the process is playing a very competitive schedule and this season was no exception. While we lost 8-of-11, we have been very competitive in through November and the early part of December. There is no column in the standings for close losses or games in which you competed, but it’s that type of effort that eventually gets you into the column headline by “W.”

In our very first loss of the season, against VCU, we continue to battle despite facing a large deficit. Sure it was only the second game of the season, but it was an indication of things to come. There will be no quit in this team.

Now we head to Albuquerque to take on New Mexico in the opening round of the Las Vegas Classic. First round and second games are played on campus and the final two games are played in Vegas. This four-game stretch will take us into the Christmas break.