Girmindl's Ghost

There goes that: Not surprisingly, Shaker has dropped out of the Class AA state top 25, according to the latest New York State Sportswriters poll.

I've been lazy about writing up my interview with Brad. Look for it in the next few days. I'll be at the Niskayuna game on Tuesday (my wife is a teacher there, don't hold it against her, i'm forcing her to root for Shaker), and later next week I'll be posting a review of the first 10-game stretch of the season.

Happy new Year!

Today (12/31) in 1979: Shaker did not play. Next game is 1/4/1980, home vs. Columbia.

Game Recap: Tourney vs. Maginn, 12/29/05

Executive Summary: Ultimately, the same result as last night - a close loss - arrived at in completely different fashion. Shaker played well the entire game, and had a 53-46 lead with 5:59 to go in the 4th, only to give the game away to Maginn. Up 2 with the clock winding down, Maginn tied the game with a layup off a nice play with 2.4 seconds left, and (after a few timeouts) then stole the inbounds pass and got a game-winning layup. The Shaker crowd was actually visibly stunned for about 90 seconds after the game ended. Very depressing. On the bright side, Shaker played well on offense and defense most of the game, and at times extremely well. Brad was great tonight, Griff was a monster on the offensive boards, and Tom Duclos had his best game of the year. You can't kill them for this loss - if they had won the game, we'd all be writing about how well they bounced back. Final score: Bishop Maginn 67, Shaker 65. TU box score here. Shaker falls to 6-3 (4-1 Suburban Council). Next game: 1/3/06 at Niskayuna.

Full Report, Nightmare on Lark Street: Got to the Armory about 7:40 for the 8:00 game. I hadn't been to the Armory for a basketball game since the Patroons moved to the Pepsi in 1993, and I hadn't been there at all since my last indoor track meet there in 1995, but it's the same as ever. Five things that stuck out to me about the venue:

1) Still a great place to watch a basketball game: I really think the Armory is an amazing basketball venue. It's a huge place, but it just doesn't seem like it. You actually get the sense when you're watching the game that the place is smaller than H-gym, because every seat in the house has the illusion of being right on top of the court. You look around and you can see that the building is cavernous, but you still feel far closer to the court than you do in the 10th row of the H-gym bleachers. It's just great. The downside of this is that every crowd there looks tiny. You're right on top of the court, you feel like the place is smaller than H-gym, but the seats are way less than half-full. Two guys near me said things like, "sparse crowd, eh?," and I tended to agree with them, but it's an optical illusion. It was actually a pretty good crowd. The only downside is that it's impossible to get that place loud. Even when the Patroons were drawing near sellouts, it was never that loud in there. That still sucks.

2) What a difference a real sound system makes: SJC turned to me during warmups and said something like "is this what it would be like at Shaker if we could hear the announcer?" It's just great to hear a booming voice coming over a PA when Brad rams one home or Hans hits a three. It actually makes the game measurably more enjoyable. Obviously, Shaker is never going to have that kind of quality PA in H-gym, but it'd be a hell of an upgrade to actually hear the announcer at the home games. They even read through the preamble of the section 2 code of conduct before the game. Maybe they do that at Shaker too. Who knows?

3) A Twix bar is priced according to the laws of the modern economy: As I've written previously, the price of a candy bar at Shaker home games has been fixed at 50 cents since at least the Reagan administration. Not true at the Armory. I paid $1 at halftime.

4) Those new "luxury boxes" Jim Coyne has been raving about are ridiculous: When he decided to redo the Armory, Coyne announced that he'd be adding luxury boxes. I was eager to see this. Didn't disappoint, at least on the comedy level. First off, they're at the end of the Armory, above the seats behind the hoop. Who wants to watch a game from there. Second, they're not luxurious, and they're not boxes. Bascially, it looks like you get the same seating as everyone else, except that you have a private door to your seats, a small bar to put food on, and (I'm not making this up) a halogen lamp that looks like it belongs in the dorm room of a college freshman. Yikes.

5) I like the new scoreboards: Above the seats on each side at midcourt, there is a nice scoreboard that looks like it also does video. They didn't have the video turned on, but even so, it looked like a nice touch.

All in all, the experience made me want to go to a Patroons game, so I guess that's a good thing.

As the players came out to warm up, I surveyed the scene. Taylor Battle doesn't look like much, physically, that's for sure. He's only about 6 feet tall. In fact, the whole Maginn teams looks rather small. But you can definitely tell simply by watching warmups that's Battle's a gamer. He has that swagger. The crowd looked to be about 60-65% Maginn and 35-40% Shaker, although Maginn's cheerleaders were in the house and Shaker's were absent. On the other hand, the Shaker 6th man looked to be about 20 strong, and I couldn't really see any organized Maginn student section.

1st Quarter

Shaker started Sheehan, E. Cross, Hans, Duclos, and Griff, with Eddie covering Battle in the man-to-man. Brad won the tip, but then missed a soft turnaround in the lane, and Maginn put in a quick basket. 2-0. Tom Duclos then put in a bucket on a nice drive - the first of many on what was his finest night that I've seen - and then Shaker took the lead on a post move by Brad. I definitely got the feeling that Maginn was going to have a lot of trouble with Shaker's inside play. Griff grabbed a number of offensive rebounds in the 1st quarter, Brad was swatting away and chaning tons of Maginn shots in the lane (as well as cleaning up everything on the defensive glass), and it seemed like Duclos and Brad were muscling around in the lane without a problem. Eddie Cross hit two nice mid-range jumpers in a row, and Brad put down a thunderous dunk off a baseline spin move to really get the crowd going. Vernon Cross added a bucket and Griff put one in on an offensive rebound. It was 20-14 Shaker at the end of the quarter. Forget thirty-seven tonight, they'll have that at the half. The 6th man put together a few nice stretches of "boink," but it wasn't particularly effective in the spacious, sound-killing Armory.

Three big things I saw in the 1st quarter:

1) Maginn is like a slightly better version of the Troy team that beat Shaker in the sectionals last year: It was almost uncanny. They have a legitimate all-area star in Battle, but just like Tiki Mayben he's a whiner and he mopes when he doesn't get his calls or his shots to fall. Or if his teammates don't do what he wants them to do. The team has a fair amount of talent, but they don't play well together at either end of the court. Instead, they kind of just look to get Battle the ball, and when they don't, he yells at them. I can't tell you how much they remind me of Tiki's Troy team from last year. But just like Troy, watch out if the star gets hot - Battle was getting to the hoop quite easily last night, and you could see that he had the confidence to shoot from 22+ feet. He was definitely a danger to go crazy offensively, just like Mayben did in the 4th quarter last year. Overall, Shaker seems like a superior team, as Maginn (like Troy) is athletic and has some talent, but really doesn't play together well.

2) Tom Duclos was ready to have an excellent game: This was apparent from the first posesssion. He was high-energy the whole way, and getting himself involved more than usual. He was getting outlet passes and moving the ball up the court quickly, looking to create shots for himself, and generally giving fits to the Maginn defense.

3) Shaker was using quite a different rotation of players: Midway through the quarter, Bogdan came into the game with Dare, and then a bit later Weinhemier saw some time, and so did Fallon when Brad took a seat for a minute or so. On the other hand, Hooks didn't play nearly as much as he has in previous games.

2nd Quarter

Brad started the 2nd getting a rest on the bench, but that ended after Maginn made the first two baskets of the quarter. Hans responded with his only hoop of the game, a three pointer, to stop the run, but Maginn generally outplayed Shaker throuhgout the quarter. Or really Shaker outplayed itself - the sloppiness came back in a few spots. And they didn't get back on defense. Two times in particular, Battle got out ahead of everyone on a missed Shaker shot and he got easy breakaway layups. Brad continued to dominate in the post, though, Maginn simply couldn't stop the entry passes or his post moves. He also had the highlight-reel play of the night in the 2nd, as he got a breakaway tomahawk jam off a nice pass by Duclos. Dare added a hoop inside, but Battle got two layups off steals to end the quarter on a sour note, and Shaker took a 31-29 lead into the locker room, having lost the quarter 15-11. I headed down to the concession to get a Twix.

One thing I noticed in the first half was that the refs were calling a very loose game. Not many fouls at all. Brad was 2 for 2 from the line in the fisrt half, and that was all of Shaker's FT attempts. Pretty much the same story for Maginn - I'm not even sure if they took a free throw in the first half. Shaker's scoring looked like this at the break:

Brad 6 2 14
Duc 2 0 4
EC 2 0 4
Grif 1 0 2
VC 1 0 2
Hans 1 0 3 (one three)
Dare 1 0 2

Tot 14 2 31 (one three)

Shaker shot the ball extremely well in the first quarter, not quite as well in the 2nd. But overall a very good effort in the 1st half, with a few giveaway baskets that let Maginn stay close.

3rd Quarter

The third quarter was frustrating in the way that many Shaker games have been frustrating this year - they built a lead and were on the verge of pulling away, but just couldn't get over the hump. The starting five were back on the floor to start the quarter, and the teams played even for the first few minutes. Duclos made a nice three point play off a great pass by Griff, but Maginn hung tough and it was 36-36 with 6:09 left. Shaker then went on a 11-3 run that I thought was going to put the game away. Griff made some foul shots, Brad hit a short jumper on the baseline and then another thunderous dunk, and Dare put in two layups off very nice interior assists from Bogdan. Maginn called timeout at 47-39 and the Shaker crowd stood up to applaud the run. But then Battle immediately dropped a 3-pointer, got a steal and made a layup, and it was back to a game. Griff got a putback basket and it was 49-44 at the end of three.

4th Quarter

A 4th quarter I'll never forget, and a last 10 seconds that I'll forever wish I could forget. After Brad rimmed out a turnaround, Maginn got a basket. Brad then hit one in the post, Shaker got a stop and Tom Duclos threw down a breakaway dunk that was simply electrifying. It was one of those breakaways where my thought process went like this: yeah, go Tom, oh my god is going to try to dunk it, I hope he's got the hops, yesssss, well i guess he's got the hops, my lord. I've never been so wrong worrying if someone had the ability to drop a flying one-handed dunk in my life. Great moment. Shaker was up 53-46, 5:59 to go, timeout Maginn. Again, looked like they were going to pull away.

Immediately, however, Maginn got a hoop, a steal, and a three point play to cut it to 53-51. Absolutely maddening. Every time they got a lead, they gave it right back. With 4:30 to go Brad got a putback hoop after Griff got another great offensive board. Then Maginn cut it to 2 on an easy basket and Griff got an offensive foul on the next trip down the court. With 3:29 to go, Geddings hit a 3-pointer and Maginn had their first lead since 2-0. This is not good. Duclos hit a layup off a great pass from Brad out of the post to retake the lead, 57-56. Battle then made two foul shots after Vernon fouled him driving to the hoop. Shaker got the lead back after Duclos was fouled,made 1 of 2, but Griff got another offensive board on the second shot, got fouled, and also made 1 of 2. Shaker got a stop and Brad hit a soft jumper. 61-58.

Griff got called for a foul on a defensive rebound, sending Battle to line, and he made both. As Shaker brought the ball up the court, Brad got fouled while trying to get position inside, and got to the line for a 1 and 1, but he missed. Battle then hit a three and Maginn had the lead 63-61. Brad scored in the paint to tie the game, and then Battle threw the ball away on an out of control drive. It was a questionable call, and the Maginn fans let the ref know what they thought. But the call stood and Shaker had the ball. As they brought the ball up the court, they curiously didn't go to Brad in the post. Instead, they brought Brad out top and isolated Griff in the low post, who got fouled on the entry pass. Hey, that works for me. He made both from the line, and Shaker had a 65-63 lead with 25 seconds to go. Timeout Maginn. Thank God we're probably going to pull this one out, just don't let Battle fire a three here.

As Battle brought the ball up the court, the Shaker defense looked good. You could see the intesity best in John Hans, who was down in his crouch, eyes fixed on his man. What a moment. Battle held the ball forever - probably too long- and didn't start his move until there were less than 6 seconds to go. He drove the lane, but Brad was there, and Battle executed a nice pass in the paint for a Maginn dunk. Damn. 65-65, 2.4 seconds to go. Timeout Shaker.

After the timeout, Shaker lined up, but Maginn took another timeout. When the action came back, Griff was taking the ball out under the hoop, unguarded. Brad was at the opposite foul line, Hans and Cross were at midcourt on the sidelines, and I'm not sure where Duclos was. When the ref gave Griff the ball, he ran the baseline, then came back down the line, and attempted a pass to Brad, who was running toward the ball and had just crossed midcourt. Jesse Smith, however, intercepted the pass, got to the hoop, avoided Griff, and put in a wild layup. Then the buzzer went off and the game was over. Just like that. It was over. Are you kidding me? Except I didn't actually think that, I was literally stunnded.

Six things about this play and its aftermath that I will remember for a very long time forever:

#1) Seemed like a strange play for Shaker to run - I was surprised Griff didn't throw it right to Hans, who was relatively unguarded on the sideline at about midcourt. I thought they might get him the ball and try for a pass to Brad at the foul line, hoping he might get fouled or get a good look for a quick shot. Instead, it looked like the play was to get it to Brad at midcourt, who would then try to hit Hans or Cross on the wing for a jumper? I don't know.

#2) Griff actually made a great play after the steal - it was probably a bad decision to throw the ball toward Brad at midcourt, but once the steal happened, I thought Griff almost saved his own day. Many players would have just stood on the baseline stunned as Smith jammed the ball home, but Griff had the prescence to try to defend the layup. In a tough as hell spot - he couldn't foul him, Griff forced him to take a ridiculous spinning layup, which almost didn't go in. It was actually a circus shot, one of those that misses 80% of the time. Still can't believe that went in. Uggh.

#3) I've never been so stunned by a basket in my life - the closest thing I can remember is the Lou Roe three-pointer at the buzzer against Siena in the 1991 NIT third round at the Pepsi arena. But even that doesn't compare. I - and I think most of the other Shaker fans - were literally paralyzed by the play. I didn't get angry. I didn't get upset. I literally just sat there. I saw the players on the court - Brad looking around like Charles Witherspoon in the 1983 NCAA final, Hans slinking over to the bench, Griff and Holmes recreating the Fred Brown / John Thompson moment from the 1982 NCAA final - but I didn't have any reaction besides observing it. I heard the Maginn fans - jesus the Armory seems loud all of a sudden - but I didn't react to that either. The only thing I remeber thinking is thank god this isn't the sectional finals, or I would have just had a heart attack. I didn't really do anything until...

#4) Brad kept his composure just long enough to get his all-tourney trophy: The first thing I actually remember thinking after the basket is, Geez, I can't believe Brad is walking up to the announcing table in a composed manner. I give him a lot of credit for that. And I still do. Bad enough that they had to calmly shake hands with Maginn after the game, but how you could sit through the award ceremony 90 seconds after this happened is beyond me. Even worse is having to walk up to that table and get your tropy. I'd be ready to run out on Washington Avenue and kill someone. Of course, I felt a slight satisfaction watching Brad (slightly, but deliberately) slam his trophy into the ground when he sat back down, and then not even bother to take it with him.

#5) Griff was not able to keep his composure much beyond the handshake: Griff's an intesne player, and I've never seen him more intense than sitting on that bench during the award ceremony. I felt so bad for him. He played such a great game, and I hope he doesn't take this loss on his shoulders personally. On the bench afterwards, he was part distrought - at himself I think- and part angry, although at the time I couldn't figure out his anger. It really didn't look like a foul on the steal, and the kid made a tremendous spinning layup. In effect, I was basically too stunned to think about the situation, because it wasn't until I was walking out of the Armory that I started thinking about....

#6) How in the hell did that kid get that shot off in 2.4 seconds?!?!?!: This literally never occurred to me at the time of the hoop. I was too stunned by it. But as I was walking out of the Armory, I started to get pissed. That kid intercepted the ball closer to midcourt than to the three-point line, which means he caught it in the air, took 2 or three dribbles, spun to avoid Griff, and then threw up the shot. Can that be done in 2.4 seconds? Yeah, but it's not particularly likely. And then the buzzer didn't really go off until the shot was already through the hoop. Geez, did they just get jobbed on this one? I don't know. But I never questioned it at the time. Not that it would have made any difference last night, but it was pretty suspicious.

And I'm not saying it was malicious. The volunteers who run the clocks at high school basketball aren't out to job anyone. But it seems more than likely that the clock started late there. And that's too bad. Doesn't excuse Shaker's loss - it wasn't that play that lost the game for them, it was any number of individual plays - but it certainly made me mad in the car on the ride home.

That's when I switched over from stunned to rip-roaring pissed off. Somewhere on route 9 in Loudonville. I'm pretty zen about it now, but I was definitely upset last night. I think my most irate moment on the drive home was when my wife tried to calm me down by saying, "well, don't you at least feel some sympathy for CBA now?" Thanks, honey. Just shoot me.

Just so I know I'm not crazy, I got the following email this morning from a reader, with a subject line of "how?" and just one sentence in the email: Uggh. Too depressing to think about when you put it that way.

Anyhow, here's the partial boxscore for Shaker:

Shaker
Name	FG	FT	FTA	FT %	3-Pt	Points
Eddie Cross	2	0	0	--	0	4
Vernon Cross	1	0	0	--	0	2
Ryan Dare	3	0	0	--	0	6
Tom Duclos	6	2	3	67%	0	14
John Hans	0	0	0	--	1	3
Griff McLoughlin	2	5	6	83%	0	9
Brad Sheehan	12	3	4	75%	0	27
TOTAL	26	10	13	77%	1	65

I'm not really pissed anymore about the final play. I'm more upset that they put together a good game at both ends of the floor and didn't get a win. They were the better team tonight, and it was really just a few bad minutes of defense that cost them the victory. Uggh. There were bright spots - Brad is continuing to dominate, Griff is just a monster on the boards, and Tom Duclos sprang to life last night in a way I've never seen him play.

I got this quick note from Shaker student Joe Bianchino: Yeah, that's pretty much right. I didn't touch on Bodgan's D at all, but he did guard Battle pretty well when he was in there.

At any rate, time to move on.I can't think about this game anymore.

Summary and notes

Jesse Smith had 4 points on the night for Maginn - the basket that tied the game and the one that won it...Battle finished with 26 points and 4 three-pointers...Brad had about 7 or 8 blocks, but at least 10 other phantom blocks, Maginn was really changing their shots in the lane...don't bother with the Times Union recap, it's wrong in at least two spots***....And don't get too upset by all this, they did play well. And it could be alot worse, this could have happened in early March.

Final score: Bishop Maginn 67, Shaker 65. TU box score here. Shaker falls to 6-3 (4-1 Suburban Council). Next game: 1/3/06 at Niskayuna.

***Both the first and second setences are incorrect. The first says Shaker had a 9 point lead with 4:43 to go, but that's wrong. Shaker's largest lead in the 4th was 7, 53-46. Maginn scored the first five out of the timeout to cut it to 53-51. Second sentece, also wrong. The game was tied at 63 all and Griff made two free throws to take the lead. The TU thinks Shaker was up 65-61 and Maginn made a basket. That's just not correct. I know it's picky, but how can the paper screw up both facts that they open a story with?

Today (12/30) in 1979: Shaker did not play. Next game is 1/4/1980, home vs. Columbia.

I don't know what to say: Bishop Magin 67 Shaker 65. I'll recount the horror tomorrow.

Game Recap - Thirty-seven freakin' points?: Lasalle 40, Shaker 37. Wow. Maybe it was the Armory rims. Maybe it was too much eggnog and too many Christmas cookies over the weekend. Maybe it was an instant karma curse related to this blog, seeing as they're 1-2 since I proudly proclaimed their entry into the state top 20 rankings. I don't know.

[UPDATE (1:30pm) : I have now recieved some game reports, which appear below. They tend to contradict the TU recap, saying that it wasn't a crushing Lasalle defense, but instead a very sloppy Shaker performance. See below for more]

I'm suspicious of the Times Union take on the game, which is basically that they got smothered by a vicious Lasalle defense: When the score was first published on the TU online boys basketball page, it was just the boxscore. The above article hadn't appeared yet. I looked over the box score and thought of three plausible reasons Shaker was held to 37 points:

#1) Lasalle played a stall offense, something like NC State in the 1983 NCAA championship game or Princeton against Georgetown in the 1989 NCAA first round.

#2) Shaker had massive problems in the turnover department, and shot like 25% from the field.

#3) Lasalle's defense was ridiculously good.

The TU obvioiusly portrayed the answer as (#3). But newspapers like to write high school basketball stories from the positive angle**, so I was skeptical, and the reports I've gotten seem to indicate (#2) is the right answer. That doesn't surprise me at all. Turnovers have been a recurring problem this year. The submitted evidence seems to back up the (#2) thesis. For instance, here's a game recap submitted by Shaker student Joe Bianchino:I got this report from reader Marc M.: I also got this, straight from Brad Sheehan himself:Yikes. That's not good. But it makes a lot more sense to me than the newspaper's "wicked Lasalle defense" angle. Obviously, good defense can lead to turnovers, but my sense is that loss was as much Shaker sloppiness as it was the "ball pressure" that Lasalle "preaches." Let's hope Joe B. is right, and that they bounce back big tonight.

Thirty seven points. Geez. Well, better now than in late February.

Here's the partial box score:

Shaker
Name	FG	FT	FTA	FT %	3-Pt	Points
Eddie Cross	1	0	0	--	0	2
Vernon Cross	0	0	0	--	0	0
Ryan Dare	1	0	0	--	0	2
Tom Duclos	4	5	6	83%	0	13
Pat Fallon	0	0	0	--	0	0
John Hans	0	0	0	--	0	0
Brian Hooks	0	0	0	--	0	0
Griff McLoughlin	1	3	4	75%	0	5
Steve Schaller	0	0	0	--	0	0
Brad Sheehan	4	5	8	63%	0	13
John Weinheimer	1	0	0	--	0	2
TOTAL	12	13	18	72%	0	37

Score

	1	2	3	4	Total
La Salle	11	10	11	8	40
Shaker	8	10	9	10	37

I'll be at the game tonight, so expect a more full-bodied game recap tomorrow. I'll also publish my interview with B. Sheehan tomorrow.

P.S. Taylor Battle played last night, which means the real Maginn teams will be on the court tonight.

Final score: Lasalle 40, Shaker 37. Full box score here. Shaker drops to 6-2 ( 4-1 in the Suburban Council).

Next Game: Tonight, Bishop Maginn Holiday Tournament, 2nd Round vs. Bishop Maginn, downtown at the Washington Avenue Armory.

**There's nothing wrong with doing this. And I definitely understand the impusle to try and find the positive-spin, especially when we're writing about teenagers who play a game for fun. But I think the TU goes overboard in this category. It's ok to say that Shaker played a bad game, it's not like they don't know it. And the coaches' quotes are silly - of course Holmes and the Lasalle coach are going to praise the Lasalle defense. Back to previous spot.

Today (12/29) in 1979: Shaker did not play. Next game is 1/4/1980, home vs. Columbia.

Can't say I know what happened: ...but it sure looks like something went badly wrong tonight, as the Bison got beat by Lasalle, 40-37. More details in the morning.

Any aspiring writers?: No 2005-2006 posts today. I couldn't get my interview with Brad transcribed and written up fast enough to post it this morning. Probably tomorrow or friday.

Also, I can't go to the game tonight, so send me a recap if you are there and you like that kind of thing. Doesn't have to be fancy. I will be at the game Thursday night, stop by and say hi if you see me.

Today (12/28) in 1979: After the closest call of the season in the 1st round of the Shaker tourney, the final was a blowout. The Times Union headline says it all:


That's Perkins grabbing the rebound in the picture and Jeff Tuecke standing in the lane. If you look very carefully, you can see the standing room only crowd down along the baseline in the opposite corner of the gym.

The game was never close, as Shaker held leads of 12-2, 20-8, and then 37-18 at the half. Shaker's bench saw extended action in the second half.

Sam led the scoring with 24 points, but the real damage was done by Tuecke and Cain, who were constantly left open as Albany attempted to double and triple team Perkins. Tuecke finished with 21 and Cain 13. All three big men on Shaker's front line were named to the all-tournament team, with Sam getting MVP honors.

All were relieved to see the Bison return to dominating form one day after the near-debacle against Saratoga. Said Girmindl, "I had some things to say to them before tonight's game. I'm not going to go into details, but we held a team meeting and kind of laid it on the line. They're capable of playing very, very well. They know it and I know it. Fortunately, they showed what class they are in tonight." Indeed.

Here is the partial box score:

Shaker (76) - Perkins 9 6 24; Cain 5 3 13; Tueke 8 5 21; Meehan 1 2 4; Brundige 1 0 2; Mitchell 1 0 2; Howard 1 0 2; LaLiberte 1 0 2; Barker 1 0 2; Roche 1 0 2. Totals 29 18 76.

Shaker 20 17 20 19- 76
Saratoga 8 10 12 15 - 45

Record: 6-0 (4-0 Suburban Council)
Next 1979-80 game: 1/4/1980 home vs. Columbia.

Maginn Holiday Tourney Preview: First off, I'm assuming this a tournament, but it's not so clear. In a normal high school hoops tournament, there are two games the first night, and then the losers play early on the second night and the winners play later on the second night.

But in the Times Union, on highschoolsports.net, and on the tournament's own website, Shaker is already listed as playing Maginn on Thursday night at 8pm. Under normal tournament conditions, they would just list "TBA" or "consolation game" and "championship game." Of course, many sources - like the TU - just list out two opponents in these situations, so it probably is a tournament. But it's a little wierd that the tourney's own website lists actual teams instead of "Consoliatoin game" and "Championship game" for Thursday night. Who knows.

UPDATE (4:25 pm): It isn't a tournament! Shaker plays Maginn Thursday no matter what. And my sources tell me that the Girmindl tourney was the same way this year - Shaker would have played CBA even if they lost to Amsterdam. Some sort of Suburban Council/ Big 10 thing, in the mold of the old ACC/Big East challenge. Weird. What is this world coming to...

Anyway, here are outlooks for Maginn and Lasalle. You can access the old Shen outlook here (and the recap from the first Shen game is here).

Lasalle (2-4, 2-2 Big 10) looks to be one of those middle of the pack Big 10 teams - better than the bottom feeders, but not in the same class as the big boys. They lost their first two games of the season to out of towners - a close game to Spring Valley (coincidentally, the team Shaker beat in the 1978-79 regionals) and an even closer game to Collegiate School. In the Big 10 they've posted convincing wins over two weaker teams - a solid victory over Troy and a thrasing of Bishop Gibbons. On the other hand, they've been and they've already lost to Bishop Maginn in a tight game and been blown out of the gym by CBA. The Cadets have a balanced offensive attack, with 3 players averaging double-digits and 5 other regular contributors. The Cadets do not boast a ton of size at center, but their forwards are big. They are led by 6'1" guard Kyle Dignum, and two forwards - 6'4" Jaamal Smith and 6'3" Patrick Reardon. Dignum is a three-point threat.

Prediction: Shaker is the better team here, but Lasalle can't be taken lightly. However, I think the Bison will play well at the Armory and overmatch the Cadets. 62-48, Shaker.

Bishop Maginn (4-3, 2-3 Big 10) will be a completely different opponent based on whether or not their star guard, 6'0" Taylor Battle, plays this week. Battle injured himself 10 days ago in a loss to Albany, and then didn't play in Maginn's lost to Schenctady last week. Battle, who is averaging better than 20 points/game, is one of the top prospects in the area and a deadly threat from outside and off the dribble. He is supposedly out for at least another week with a severe ankle sprain. Overall, Maginn is a young team and a small one. They list only one senior on their roster, and no player over 6'4". Prior to Battle's injury, Maginn posted a solid win against Guilderland, a come from behind victory over Niskayuna, a tight win over Lasalle, and and a blowout win over Gibbons.

Prediction (without Battle): Shaker is a strong favorite to beat Maginn in this case. The lack of size on Maginn, combined with Battle's absence, should give Shaker control of the game. 66-50, Shaker.

Prediction (with Battle): Different story all together. Shaker will be faced with a situation something like the Columiba game: either find a way to stop Battle or find a way to overcome him dropping 40 on you, like they did with Zampier. Shaker is still the better team, but in this situation they would have to play like it. Still, I think they will. 68-60, Shaker.

I'll definitely be at the Thursday game, and probably at the Wednesday game. Stop by and say hi. If you're going to the tournament and you'd like to write a recap for either game, feel free.

Today (12/27) in 1979: Shaker played their 1st round game of the Shaker Invitational Tournament, which later became the Girmindl Tournament. In 1979, Shaker invited Saratoga (which was not yet in the Suburban Council), Albany, and Colonie to the tournament. The first round matchup was Shaker vs. Saratoga and Albany vs. Colonie. Coming into the tournament, Shaker stood at 4-0, Saratoga at 4-2, Albany at 3-2, and Colonie at 2-2. Obviously, Shaker was a heavy favorite to win the tournament.

One dissapointment of the tournament was that not everyone got to see it. Although the Shaker gym had been quite crowded during the prior 1978-79 season and either sold out or close to sold out during the first two home games of the 1979-80 season, no one was prepared for the onslaught of spectators at the Invitational tournament. Estimates range between 200 and 500 people having to be turned away both nights because the H-gym was sold out to a standing room only crowd.

In the first game of the night, Albany easily beat Colonie, 78-62 to gain a birth in the tournament finals.

The Shaker-Saratoga first round game turned out to be the best game of the tournament. After jumping out to a 22-7 lead, the Bison played very poorly in the late 2nd quarter and 3rd quarter, and had to hold on for a 66-62 win. It was by far their smallest margin of victory during the regular season (next smallest was 16) and it was the only time they were in danger of losing a game in the 4th quarter.

In the first quarter, Shaker easily controlled both ends of the court. Using a balanced attack, Shaker built a 22-9 lead a the end of the first quarter. Perkins, Meehan, and Brundige all had 6 points, and Tuecke chipped in with 3. It looked like Shaker would cruise into the finals against Albany via another typical blowout.

In the second quarter, however, things changed. Shaker turned the ball over numerous times and didn't execute on offense. Saratoga's small, quick guards came alive from the outside, and Shaker actually lost the quarter, 16-13. Still, they took a 10 point lead into the locker room.

In the 3rd quarter, Saratoga really put the heat on, and Shaker turned in its worst quarter of the season. The Blue Streaks won the quarter 23-14, and had closed the lead to 49-48 Shaker at the end of the period. Many of the points came on fast breaks where the Shaker defense failed to get back. After the game, a gruff Julius Girmindl called the team "lazy." Girmindl also rested Perkins during the final 4 minutes of the 3rd quarter, electing not to bring him in even as the lead continued to shrink.

Still, even with Perkins' return in the 4th, Shaker could not pull away. The teams traded baskets, and with 5:38 to go, Saratoga took the lead, 56-55, on a short jumper by Brian Smith, who tallied 25 on the night. Shaker immediately responded with a 5-0 run. Chuck Meehan made a pair of foul shots, and Perkins got fouled while converting an easy layup for a 3-point play. After trading baskets, it was 64-59 with 26 seconds left. But Saratoga got a 3-point play on a great shot by Smith and a foul on Brundige, and Saratoga was within 2 with 17 seconds to go, 64-62. Brundige made his shots after being fouled, however, and Shaker held on, final score 66-62. More an escape than a win, here's the cover of the Times Union sports section from the following morning:

That's Perkins going in for a layup in the picture, Tuecke is standing in the lane. On the far left is Cain, and in the background out by the (non-existent) 3-point line is Jim Howard.

Here is the partial box score:

Shaker (66) - Perkins 8 6 22; Cain 6 2 14; Tueke 3 0 6; Meehan 3 5 11; Brundige 3 3 9; Mitchell1 0 2; Howard 1 0 2. Totals 25 (16-26) 66.

Shaker 22 13 14 17 -66
Saratoga 9 16 23 14 - 62

Record: 5-0 (4-0 Suburban Council)
Next 1979 game: 12/28/1979 Shaker Inivitational Holiday Tournament, finals vs. Albany.

On tap this week: Just quickly, here's a look at what will appear on Girmindl's Ghost this week:

2005-06
1. Previews and game recaps for Shaker's tourney games on Wed. and Thurs.
2. My interview with Brad Sheehan '06
3. Hopefully one other essay - the photo-essay of H-gym.

1979-80
1. Recaps from the Shaker invitational tourney, 12/27/1979 and 12/28/1979.
2. Possibly an interview with J. Tuecke '81, which might happen this week.

Girmindl's Ghost will return in earnest tomorrow, December 27th. Shaker's next game is wednesday night in the Bishop Maginn Holiday Tournament, downtown at the Washington Avenue Armory. Their first round game is against Lasalle. The other two teams in the tournament are Bishop Maginn (of course) and Shen.

Today (12/26) in 1979: Shaker did not play. Next game is tomorrow, 12/27/1979, against Saratoga in the first round of the Shaker Invitational Tournament.

Merry Christmas: Girmindl's Ghost will return in earnest on Tuesday, December 27th. Shaker's next game is wednesday night in the Bishop Maginn Holiday Tournament, downtown at the Washington Avenue Armory. Their first round game is against Lasalle. The other two teams in the tournament are Bishop Maginn (of course) and Shen.

Today (12/25) in 1979: Merry Christmas! Shaker did not play. Next game is 12/27/1979, against Saratoga in the first round of the Shaker Invitational Tournament.

And then there were none: Schenectady falls to CCHS, leaving Section 2 with no unbeaten Class AA teams. Teams with 1 loss: Shaker (lost to AP), Schenectady (lost to CCHS), and Columbia (lost to Shaker).

Girmindl's Ghost will return in earnest on Tuesday, December 27th. Shaker's next game is wednesday night in the Bishop Maginn Holiday Tournament, downtown at the Washington Avenue Armory. Their first round game is against Lasalle. The other two teams in the tournament are Bishop Maginn (of course) and Shen.

Today (12/24) in 1979: Shaker did not play. Next game is 12/27/1979, against Saratoga in the first round of the Shaker Invitational Tournament.

Game Recap - "Warm up the Tractor": After a slow start, Shaker turned it on in the second half to pull away with a 54-40 road victory over Burnt Hills. I couldn't go to the game, but I think I have enough information about it - 2 emails and the newspaper reports - to reconstruct it pretty well. I'll analyze the boxscore and then let the various summaries do the talking. Let's start with the Times Union summary and box score. Here's the summary And here's the boxscore:

Individual Statistics Shaker Name FG FT FTA FT % 3-Pt Points Matt Bogdan 1 0 0 -- 0 2 Eddie Cross 3 3 5 60% 0 9 Vernon Cross 0 0 0 -- 0 0 Ryan Dare 0 0 0 -- 0 0 Tom Duclos 1 0 0 -- 0 2 Pat Fallon 0 0 0 -- 0 0 John Hans 1 0 0 -- 0 2 Brian Hooks 1 0 0 -- 0 2 Thomas Kahnle 0 0 0 -- 0 0 Griff McLoughlin 1 5 8 63% 0 7 Steve Schaller 1 0 1 0% 0 2 Brad Sheehan 11 6 10 60% 0 28 John Weinheimer 0 0 0 -- 0 0 TOTAL 20 14 24 58% 0 54 Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Name FG FT FTA FT % 3-Pt Points Anthony Bevilacqua 2 0 0 -- 0 4 John DellaPia 3 0 0 -- 0 6 Kirk DeNero 2 0 0 -- 0 4 Kevin Himmelwright 5 3 4 75% 2 19 Jacob McCrindle 2 0 0 -- 1 7 Chris Pearce 0 0 0 -- 0 0 A. J. Witkofsky 0 0 0 -- 0 0 TOTAL 14 3 4 75% 3 40

Score

	1	2	3	4	Total
Shaker	9	9	14	22	54
Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake	7	12	7	14	40

That's pretty scary that Burnt Hills only went to the line 4 times all game. They must have been completely unwilling to take the ball to the hoop against the Shaker defense. And man, does the defense look good in the boxscore, holding them to 7 points in the first and 7 in the third. I'm glad the offense got going in the 2nd half. It does look like the Shaker foul shooting took a mini-vacation tonight.

It's nice to see that on any given night, different Shaker players make the big secondary contribution. Eddie Cross with 9 is huge, especially in a game where his brother doesn't score and Hooks, Duclos, and Hans are held to a bucket each. And I guess you just can't say enough about Brad right now. Outscoring B. Hills in the 2nd half? Wow. He's upped his average to about 24 points/game, and seems to be unstoppable as of late. And it looks like Matt Bogdan logged some minutes and added a bucket.

The one thing I'm looking for from Shaker in the coming month is an increase in their ability to put their "A" game together for a full 4 quarters. Obviously, every win is a good win, but it will be important later in the season to play complete games with as few poor stretches as possible.

Here's a game/6th man report that was filed by Shaker senior Tom Maldonado: And here's a game/6th man report sent in by Shaker senior Joe Bianchino: Warm up the tractor indeed.

Final score: Shaker 54, Burnt Hills 40. Full box score here. Shaker improves to 6-1 and 4-1 in the Suburban Council.

Next Game: Wednesday night, Bishop Maginn Holiday Tournament, 1st Round vs. Lasalle, downtown at the Washington Avenue Armory.

New State Rankings: According to the New York State Sportswriters, Shaker is still the 14th best Class AA team in the state. This poll was taken prior to the AP loss, so Shaker may drop next week, although i'm not sure how far, since AP is ranked highly in Class A. Here's the Class AA top 20, with the teams section and record in parenthesis. (For an explanation of the section and PSAL system, see my recent post on the topic):

1. Mount Vernon – 1 (3-0)
2. Christ the King – NYC PSAL (2-0)
3. Niagara Falls – 6 (6-0)
4. Abraham Lincoln – NYC PSAL (6-0)
5. Cardozo – NYC PSAL (7-0)
6. Rice –NYC PSAL (0-1)
7. Rush – Henrietta – 5 (4-0)
8. New Rochelle – 1 (3-0)
9. Buffalo Riverside – 6 (2-0)
10. Utica Proctor – 3 (5-0)
11. Copiague – 11 (2-0)
12. Wings Academy – NYC PSAL (8-0)
13. White Plains – 1 (2-0)
14. Shaker – 2 (5-0)
15. Fairport – 5 (3-1)
16. Syracuse Henniger – 3 (4-0)
17. Grady – NYC PSAL (9-0)
18. Campus Magnet – NYC PSAL (9-1)
19. Sachem East – 11 (3-0)
20. Schenectady – 2 (5-0)

Today (12/23) in 1979: Shaker did not play. Next game is 12/27/1979, against Saratoga in the first round of the Shaker Invitational Tournament.

A question I've gotten more than a few times is: what happened in 1978-79, the year prior to the year Girmindl's Ghost is following closely?

Well, it's a lengthy story in itself, but I'll try to tell it briefly. Shaker had been quite good in 1975-76 and 1976-77, losing both years in the sectional final. They had an off-year in 1977-1978, but the outlook was good for the 1978-79 season: they had two talented seniors in the frontcourt - Jeff Almstead and Mike Budka - and a deadly outside shooter named Mike Sally. Things were looking up.

And then 6' 9" junior Sam Perkins showed up. I'm going to save that backstory for another post.

Led by Perkins' amazing inside play (23 ppg, 14 rbg, endless blocks) and Sally's lights-out shooting, Shaker went 20-0 in regular season play, and found themselves ranked as high as 2nd in the state polls during the season, behind only mighty Mount Vernon. Shaker dominated the Suburban Council regular season play, and Sam was named to the all-state first team at the end of the season. Although the Bison were not nearly as dominant as they would be the following year, they had almost no close calls and won most of their games by a very healthy margin. Here are three newspaper clippings from the regular season:

After another blowout win:

After beating Columbia to get to 19-0:

After beating Monhonason to finish the regular season 20-0:


Shaker was, of course, seeded #1 in the Class A sectionals. They got a first round bye. In the second round, they were almost upset by Bisop Maginn despite a 13 for 15 shooting exhibition put on by Perkins. But they held on for a 50-49 win.

In the semifinal round of the sectionals, Shaker beat Linton (now Schenectady High) 71-53. Perkins had a career-game, with 28 points, 22 rebounds, and 16 blocks. Chuck Meehan and Mike Budka each added 12, and Jeff Almstead had 8.

The 1978-79 season's Class A sectional final is still regarded today as perhaps the greatest game every played in section 2. Shaker came in as the favorite at 22-0, but Catholic Central had been considered the local basketball powerhouse for quite some time, and had won the Big 10 championship during the regular season. Additionally, the Big 10 had traditionally been seen as a better conference than the Suburban Council during the 60's and 70's, and it was almost unheard of for a non-Big 10 team to win the section.

The game was played at the ARC at Siena and televised live on WNYT. The ARC sold out it's 4500 tickets, and the Times Union reported that over 1000 people were turned away at the door. The game did not disappoint. Shaker fell behind early, 10-2, and trailed 31-21 at the half. Perkins picked up his 4th foul in the 3rd quarter, and Shaker was in trouble. With 3:40 to go in the game, they were down 54-46, but then they came roaring back. Perkins hit a hook shot, Shaker got a steal and a long-range jumper from Sally, and then Perkins scored on a breakaway dunk to make it 54-52 with less than a minute to go. With no shot clock in 1978, Shaker was forced to foul. After CCHS missed the front of a 1-and-1, Shaker tied the game on another jumper by Sally with 22 seconds left. CCHS held the ball for the last shot, and looked to have the game-winning layup with 2 seconds to go, but Perkins blocked the attempt (many, many people at the time and over the years have contended it was goaltending) and the game went into overtime. In the overtime, the two teams traded baskets for a bit and it was 60-60 with 1:15 to go. Shaker decided to try to hold the ball for the last shot, and Perkins made a short jumper in the lane with 2 seconds remaining to give Shaker the sectional title, 62-60. Perkins finished with 35, Jimmy Brundige and Mike Sally each added 10. Here is the TU sports page headline from the next day:

The picture is a shot of the infamous block/goaltend at the end of regulation.

Shaker's next game was the regional final against Spring Valley, a 15-7 team that had won an upset sectional title. Shaker was heavily favored, but during the week before the game, 5 players on the team - including starters Perkins, Sally, and Almstead - came down with the flu and missed days of school. So the game looked to be more competitive than expected. It was again held at the ARC, a huge homecourt advantage for Shaker this time, and the Bison delivered, winning 75-65. Despite illness, Shaker played one of their most complete games of the season, shooting 65 percent from the field and 90 percent from the line. Perkins led the way with 30 points on 14 for 19 shooting, Sally added 14 on a perfect 7 for 7 from the field (on many shots that would have been 3-pointers now a days), and Jeff Almstead added 12. Spring Valley coach Lou Kliewe was very impressed with Shaker, "We'd heard about Perkins, of course, and he proved how good he was. But that is no one-man team. That Sally kid could probably shoot from the parking lot and it would go in. That's just an excellent team." Shaker advanced to the state semifinals, and learned the next day that they would face the #1 ranked team in the state, might Mount Vernon, in the state tournament in Rochester. Here's the preview from the TU:

Mount Vernon was ranked #1 in the state, Shaker #2. But Mount Vernon was a heavy favorite in the game, boasting 3 players who were serious D1 prospects. And for the first time all season, Perkins was going to have to deal with a single man who could, in theory, contain him - Mount Vernon's Rodney McCray, a fellow 1st team all-state selection. For a stretch, it looked like Shaker might pull off the upset. They played great defense in the first half and headed into the locker room with a 28-27 lead. But then Mount Vernon went on a serious run in the 2nd haf, taking as much as a 48-38 lead with 6 minutes to play. Shaker came roaring back on some hot shooting by Sally and some baskets by Perkins to make the score 48-47 with 3 minutes to go, but could never get over the hump. Mount Vernon outscored them 11-2 the rest of the way for the victory. Perkins finished with 27 (McCray had 22) and Sally added 12.

Shaker finished the season 24-1, two wins short of the state title, with their only loss to the eventual state champions. But things were looking excellent for the coming year: Perkins would be back, presumably bigger and stronger. Same for point guard Chuck Meehan. Mike Sally would be a tough loss, but reserve Jim Brundige was thought to be close to as good of a shooter. And waiting in the wings on the JV team to replace Budka and Almstead were two incredibly talented and incredibly tall rising-junior forwards, 6'5" Jeff Tuecke and 6'7" Tim Cain. If the 1978-1979 team was good enough to reach the state semis, then the following year looked to be a lock to contend for the title.

Things were looking up indeed. Sam played for the U.S. junior national team over the summer and added 30 pounds to his frame. The Shaker varsity played together in the Hoffman park summer league and dominated the competition. And when the first poll of the 1979-80 season came out, lo and behold it was Shaker ranked #1 in the state and Mount Vernon ranked #2. The Times Union preview for the season wrote, "Barring the unimaginable, this Shaker team will be in Rochester in March, looking to avenge last year's loss to Mount Vernon and claim the state title."

And that's where the story of the 1979-80 Shaker basketball season, as told on Girmindl's Ghost, begins.

Slow start, big finish, back on track: Shaker beat Burnt Hills tonight, 54-40, with a strong second half. Full report tomorrow.

The next few days: No time for a real post today, because I spent my blog-related time today conducting an interview with Brad Sheehan '06, which went very well. I'm going to wait till after Chirstimas to publish the interview, however, because we talked for about 45 minutes and it will take me some time to transcribe the tape and write the essay.

Tomorrow, however, I will have a recap of the Burnt Hills game as well as the much asked-for back story on the season that preceded the 1979-80 season. I attempted to shoot the photo-essay of H-gym today prior to my interview with Brad, but it was being used for practices. So that will have to wait.

After tomorrow, Girmind's Ghost will go quiet for Christmas, returning Monday or Tuesday next week.

Today (12/22) in 1979: Shaker did not play. Next game is 12/27/1979, first round of the Shaker Invitational Tournament vs. Saratoga.

Today was also the first day that High School Sports Weekly printed its national rankings for high school basketball teams. Shaker appeared at #15. The Bison were already ranked as the #1 team in the state (by the New York State Sportswriters Association.)

Game Recap: Home vs. Averill Park, 12/20/05

Executive Summary: A 61-57 OT loss. In some ways, a bad loss. Shaker was up 8 after the first quarter (18-10), up 8 at the half (36-28), and up 5 with a little more than 2 minutes to go. It just got away from them at the end and in overtime. On the other hand, I don't want to say they didn't play well. They did. Brad was virtually unstoppable tonight - his post moves were great, he was perfect from the foul line, and he was stroking his 15'-18' jumper. The rest of the team played very well, too. The guards took care of the ball, the passing and shooting was good, and the defense was solid. Put it this way: if they had won the game, we would be talking about how well they played. It was that kind of loss. Still, it hurts. Averill Park is a good team, but I still think if these team played 10 times, Shaker would win 7 or 8. But give AP credit - they played very well. Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the night is that - for various reasons - it was a very low intensity crowd in the stands, even in the 4th and OT. The 6th man barely showed up. Final score: Averill Park 61, Shaker 57 (OT). TU box score here. Shaker drops to 5-1 (3-1 Suburban Council). Next game: Thursday night at Burnt Hills.

Full Report, Clash of the suburban titans (but where's the noise?) : Got to Shaker with SJC around 7:15 for a 7:30 start.** Had a nice chat with Coach Dopp, and we took our seats in the Shaker adult section. As the players came out to warm up, I surveyed the scene. A good sized crowd for a Tuesday game. The Shaker adult section is 3/4 full, the student section is 3/4 full, the adult Averill Park section is more than 1/2 full, and there's a smattering of people in the 4th section. Nice. Both Averill Park and Shaker look very crisp in warmups. I mention to SJC that I think this should be a very good game. AP is currently ranked in the Class A top 20 and Shaker in the Class AA top 20, but it's never clear how to compare teams in different classes.

Strangely, the 6th man section of the student bleachers looks pretty thin. As it turns out, the 6th man was depleted by the Christmas concert down the hall, illness, and several week-long suspension from games for previously inappropriate cheers. And for the whole game - particualarly for the 1st half - the 6th man was very weak. Go figure, the same day I publish an interview singing their praises, they barely show up for the game. - no painted chests, no signs, and no real energy. If you read my column yesterday and then went to the game, you probably think I'm a lunatic. I even got an apology email last night from a few of them. So no, I'm not living in some fantasy world where a dozen kids doing weak cheers is somehow special. Last night was an abbertation.

It was also symbolic of a greater phenomenon I have often noticed at Shaker games and definitely noticed last nigt: sometimes the crowd is just flat on Tuesday night, with no real explanation. This was one of those nights. It wasn't just the 6th man, it was everyone. The stars were aligned for a huge, enthusiastic crowd; after all, these were the only two unbeaten teams left in the Suburban Council. But the crowd never really got going. The Times Union article said there was a "playoff energy" last night, but that was strictly on the court. Even in the overtime, you never got near the crowd participation that we have seen in the first four home games this years.**

I didn't keep score by hand last night. Usually that's not too big a deal, since my memory is pretty good and I can use the box score to help me reconstruct the game. Unfortunately, neither the paper TU or the online edition has the box score this morning, so i'm kinda rowing without a paddle in this recap. Bear with me. UPDATE: The box score is in! Accurate totals now appear in the column.

1st Quarter

The 1st quarter put me in a good mood. It looked like Shaker was going to out muscle AP and win this one convincingly. Brad won the opening tip, but Shaker turned the ball over before they took a shot. The teams traded missed hoops, and then John Hans nailed a 3-pointer to give Shaker the lead, which they would never relinquish until the overtime. And boy was Brad hot tonight - after rimming out his first two attempts from the post, he settled down and began knocking shots down from everywhere. Easy baskets in the lane, short stuff in the paint, and a flurry of 15'-18' jumpers that found that bottom of the net. And he was perfect from the foul line. And the defense looked solid - Averill Park wasn't getting a whole lot on offense.

In fact, the only thing keeping AP in the game was there foul shooting - I think they were perfect from the line in the 1st half. But AP was also racking up their own fouls, however, and I thought Shaker would get to the bonus early. At the end of the quarter it was 18-10 Shaker, and things were looking good. But boy was it quiet in that gym. Felt like about 1995. No energy whatsoever. And boy were the refs calling this game tight. AP's guards were picking up fouls at an alarming rate on really touchy stuff, but I wasn't complaining.

2nd Quarter

The second quarter played pretty even, and that disappointed me. I really thought they might run away with this one, something like a 38-23 halftime lead or something, but it wasn't going to happen. Brad continued his hot play - he had 16 points in the first half and a nice dunk midway through the 2nd quarter - but Averill Park picked up it's offensive game. About midway through the quarter, Shaker switched to a 2-3 zone, and that seemed to give AP fits for a while. And Shaker's key reserves - Hooks, E. Cross, Dare, and Fallon - looked good as a unit when they were in for a while in the 1st half. If the 1st quarter was Shaker domination, the 2nd quarter was an even match based on poor execution by the Bison. The turnovers came back and the shooting went a bit cold. (Sorry for the lack of detail here, I don't remember a whole lot of 2nd quarter specifics).

The score at halftime was 36-28, but it felt like Shaker was in control. I headed out in the hallway to get on line for a Twix, stopping to chat with Erik Elkin at the scorer's table, who gave me the low down on where the 6th man disappeared to. I had initial suspected massive school crackdown, but it was much more mundane than that. Ahhh, yes. The holiday concert. Illness. A few suspensions. Typical.

3rd Quarter

The second half was basically a disaster for the Shaker offense. 10 points in the 3rd, 7 in the 4th, and just 4 in overtime. The third quarter was when the wheels came off, in my opinion. And it wasn't that Shaker played all that bad. They didn't. But three key things happened. First, AP came alive on offense. That's not to say that they scored much more than they did in the first half - they didn't. But they started to really work the ball around and get good shots. And the ball spent a lot more time down at our hoop. Whereas in the 1st half they were staying alive through perfect foul shooting, in the 3rd quarter they started making their shots, getting some rebounds, and really working the Shaker defense. Luckily, their foul shooting went cold or Shaker might have fallen behind.

Second, the AP defense really started pressuring Shaker's guards. That must have been a halftime adjustiment. Entry passes to Brad became much more difficult, and Hans was forced to either drive by his defender or expend a whole lot of energy possesing the ball in the front court. Either way, AP got what it wanted - a more up tempo game when Shaker was on offense that kept Shaker from methodically feeding the ball inside for easy baskets. The only silver lining for Shaker was that AP was racking up fouls at an alarming rate - Shaker was in the bonus with minutes left on the clock in the 3rd quarter. I'm still shocked this morning that no one on AP fouled out of the game. It seemed like they were picking up a foul - particularly their guards - every minute or so.

Third, Shaker just went dead from the field. After scoring only 17 points in the second half, it's amazing they didn't get run out of the building. But that's a testament to how well the Shaker defense held up. AP only managed 25 point in the half themselves.

AP put a run on that eventually reduced the Shaker lead to 39-38, but then Shaker went on a 7-0 run to get back their halftime cushion. Brad made a few jumpers, they used some nifty interior passing to an easy hoop, and Hooks made a great turn around move on the baseline to shake off a defender, one of the nicer plays I've seen all year. Duclos suffered what looked like an ankle sprain at one point, but later returned to action.

Perhaps the most ridiculous aspect of last night was the AP coach. Not a bad guy, but jesus, mary, and joseph was he animated. Kinda reminded me of a young Rollie Masimino from Villanova crossed with a young Jim Valvano from NC State. He was constantly mortified by the referees calls, and he was just over-the-top enthusiastic with his players. Kept me entertained, but I think it annoyed a lot of fans.

The 4th quarter ended 46-41 Shaker, and I was still optimistic about the final outcome.

4th Quarter

The 4th quarter was frustrating. That's the only way to describe it. The crowd finally picked up a bit. But both teams were sluggish on the court. I guess a better way to put it is that the defense took over. I'm sure AP fans can point to many, many opportunities gone untaken. And that's definitely how I felt. Rimmed out shots, missed free throws, silly calls by the ref, passes gone bad. Still, the Bison looked like they were going to eek this one out. After trading just a few baskets over the first 4 minutes of the quarter, AP hit a couple in a row to pull within 1. Timeout. Oh god, here we go.

But then all of a sudden Shaker was back up by 5 and there was only about 2:30 on the clock. Things looked good. AP hit a 3 pointer, but Shaker had the ball and there was only 45 seconds on the clock. A furious possession occured, with multiple timeouts by Shaker and intense AP defense. They ran the shot clock all the way down and ultimately got a decent 3-point attempt from Hooks as it expired, but the shot just rimmed off. It was that close. It was that kind of night. Timeout AP. 21 seconds to play. Shaker up 2. AP brought the ball down the floor, and the Shaker defense looked good. 15 seconds. They're moving it around. God, just don't hit a three. 10 seconds left. Still moving the ball around, a near steal by Vernon. 5 seconds left. C'mon. A an open shot from about 12 feet just off the lane. And it's good. Damn. Timeout shaker. A desperation heave by Brad falls short, and we're headed to overtime tied at 54.

Overtime

Shaker win the tip. Hans is fouled in the frontcourt, and since Shaker is in the double bonus, he's shooting two. Makes one. 55-54 Shaker. AP comes down and gets a gimmie basket in the lane, but Shaker comes back and gest a putback basket in the lane. AP ties it on a foul shot, and then both teams miss on their next possession, then AP gets a and there's less than a minute to go. Game tied at 57. AP works the ball around and then makes a tough shot in the lane. Damn. Shaker turns it over, and has to foul. But AP's not in the bonus yet, so they waste 10 seconds getting 2 fouls. AP misses the foul shot, rebound and timeout Shaker. 18 seconds to go.

Looks alot like the CBA game, excpet no, everything is different. The crowd isn't really standing, and Shaker's down 2, not 1. And it's overtime. And I don't feel too good about this. After an inbounds and a timeout, there's 11 seconds to go. They get the ball into Brad near the top of the key, who dishes it to Hans, who puts up a three. My thought process from the inbounds and the following 6 seconds:

C'mon, get it inside. Let's get Brad to the line. He hasn't missed there tonight. Ok, yup, get it in. C'mon buddy. One more time. Flip to Hans? Ok. That works too. Wow, he's open. And yup, he's going to shoot it. Please drop. Wow, that looks pretty good, c'mon. This would be a great ending. It's close, it's close. Ugggghhh. Get that board. Uggggh.

Damn.

AP made both it's free throws with 3 seconds left, and that ended it. Too bad. 61-57. Brad finished with 29, but without the box score I couldn't tell you the breakdown of the rest of the team scoring. I would guess something like this: Hans 8, Duclos 6, Griff 8, V. Cross 4, E. Cross 2. UPDATE: Turns out my guess wasn't all that bad: the totals were actually: Hans 10 Duclos 7 Griff 5, V. Cross 5, Dare 2.

Summary and notes

As far as the basketball goes, as enjoyable game as I've been to since...well, since the CBA game. But a very good game. Crowd was pathetic, but that happens. AP is a good team, this isn't a huge upset, but I still think Shaker is a somewaht better team.

I got an email from one of the 6th men leaders, Joe B., before I even got home last night. I think he summed up the game (and the crowd) perfectly: That's exactly right, in my opinion. And maybe (probably?) we'll get another crack at AP in the suburban council tourney.

Final score: Averill Park 61, Shaker 57. TU box score here. Shaker drops to 5-1 overall and 3-1 in the Suburban Council.

Next Game: Thursday night at Burnt Hills.

**Actually, that's not true. The TU listed the game last night as a 6:30 game, both in the newspaper and the online edition. Not wanting to take any chances, we got over to Shaker around 6:15 just to make sure. Of course, it was a 7:30 game, so we went home and had dinner. Thank god we only live a mile from the school. Our second arrival was at 7:15. Head back to the text.

***At one point late in the overtime, the crowd was so inexplicably quiet (given the situation) that I observed Mr. Sheehan stand up and begin urging the crowd to get up and make some noise. It didn't work. It was just one of those kind of Tuesday nights. The only people making significant constant noise were the 7th grade boys sitting at the top of the Shaker adult section. That's usually amusing - you can see the future student section before your eyes - but last night it was sad, since they were the ones doing the most cheering. Head back to the text.