Shaker beats Shen: 66-59, and boy was it ugly. But hey, that's 8 in a row. Full report tomorrow.
Girmindl's Ghost
A diary of Shaker High School's 2005-2006 basketball season, a retelling of Shaker's fabled 1979-1980 season, and general commentary on high school hoops, updated daily...
"I like sitting in the back row. I found that sitting against the wall is just easier on your back." -Dean Smith, on the comfort of the H-gym bleachers
Welcome! If you've never visited Girmindl's Ghost before, I suggest you start by browsing through the articles in the FAQ section on the right. That will give you a better sense of what I'm up to here, and why there's a picture of H-gym to the left.
Feedback is encouraged in the comments and to the email address on the right. If you have specific knowledge of either the 2005 or 1979 team, please pass it along!
Check out Girmindl's Ghost at its second home on Timesunion.com!
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Funny email: I just got this email:
Hmmm, I'm trying to think of something that would be on TV on a Tuesday or Friday night that would keep me from going to a Shaker game. And emergency news coverage - like nuclear war - don't count, because they would cancel the game. I don't really think there's anything. Maybe my sister becoming President? - but I'd attend that, not watch it on TV. Maybe a Mars landing? That would probably cancel the game. Maybe something like the final episdoe of M.A.S.H.? I guess that could do it. Maybe. Maybe something like a Siena first-round NCAA game? But for that to interfere with a Shaker game means Shaker would be deep in the state tourney. AndI think I'm pretty sure I'd skip anything - even a Mars landing - to see Shaker play in the state finals.
As someone getting a Ph.D. in political science, did you consider watching the State of the Union addres instead of going to the Shaker game tonight?Interesting. It's true that I'm getting a Ph.D. in political science, and it's also true that I would normally watch the SOTU address pretty intensely. I'm definitely a politics geek. But please. The thought of sitting in my apartment watching TV while Shaker was playing 1/2 mile away is just absurd. No way. But I will probably tape the SOTU address. Like I said, politics geek.
Hmmm, I'm trying to think of something that would be on TV on a Tuesday or Friday night that would keep me from going to a Shaker game. And emergency news coverage - like nuclear war - don't count, because they would cancel the game. I don't really think there's anything. Maybe my sister becoming President? - but I'd attend that, not watch it on TV. Maybe a Mars landing? That would probably cancel the game. Maybe something like the final episdoe of M.A.S.H.? I guess that could do it. Maybe. Maybe something like a Siena first-round NCAA game? But for that to interfere with a Shaker game means Shaker would be deep in the state tourney. And
Shen preview / things to watch : Shaker plays Shen tonight at 7:30 in the H-gym new gym. I'll be there, although I might be sitting alone since my wife has a meeting. So stop by and say hi. I usually sit about 10 rows up, behind the Shaker bench.
If you recall, Shaker beat Shen in their first meeting of the seson, 61-47 at Shen back in December. Brad had a nice game - 33/15/4 - and Shaker put 10 men in the scoring column. But they also turned the ball over 22 times and only made half their foul shots. Additionally, Shen's second leading scorer, 5'11" senior guard Cameron Critchlow, didn't play. (full scoring stats here). Shen is a clear middle of the pack team in the Suburban - they've beaten all the bad teams (Mohon, BHS, BHBL, B. Spa, 'toga) and they've lost to all the good teams (AP, Nisky, G'land, Colonie, Columbia, Shaker). That's basically the easiest way to be 6-6 in the league. Besides Critcholow, they get good offensive production from 5'10" senior guard Salih Banks and 5'10" junoir guard Todd Dengan, who has 20 three pointers on the year. They are surprisingly small for a Shen team - only one player bigger than 6'3" - but they did manage to outrebound the Bison in the first meeting, so we'll see.
As usual, I go into games with certain things on my mind (see here, here, and here for good examples ). Tonight I'm going to be watching the following things:
1) Turnovers: It's a tired line I'm preaching, but it's still the most glaring weakness in their game. It's been better in the past few weeks, particularly the pressbreaking. But they still throw it away way too much for a 13-3 team. So I'm going to count turnovers again tonight. I'm going to break them into three categories: pressure induced, sloppy dribbling/passing, andbad calls violations. I'll report my findings tomorrow.
2) JV seating during varsity game: I got a few emails this week in response to my blasting of the JV team for not sitting in the 6th man during the varsity games. They were oddly unapologetic. This one seems like a no-brainer to me. You're 15 years old, you play on the JV, you're going to watch the varsity game, you're wearing dress clothes but you smell like a hockey-equipment bag: all signs point to the students section!
3) Lineups: Over the past two weeks (Guilderland, Mohon, Bethlehem games), Coach H (ha, i never thought of that nickname before) has used a variety of lineups and substitution patterns. Of course, the Mohon game was a blowout, so that was an opportunity to look at a lot of bench combinations. But it still seems to me like they are tinkering with the rotation and constanty trying new things. Hey, that's a good thing! It means there are lots of capable players on the bench, and more importantly it means that some killer combinations might not have yet been found. Some years, the rotation is so obvious that I could coach the game - well, the substitution pattern - from the bleachers. Not so this year. One combination that I liked recently was: Brad, Dare, Vernon, Hooks, Hans. That happened (I think) after Griff got his 3rd foul in the BHS game.
4) Twix pricing: I'm pretty sure it's the end of an era. I now have it on good word that Twix are officially priced at 75 cents. Note that I've bought 6 or 7 Twixes (Twixs? Twax?) at Shaker games this year, and I've paid 50 cents every time but one. But we'll see tonight.
5) Jumpshots: Ever wonder what percentage of Shaker points come on jumpshots - be it three pointers or otherwise? I have a hunch that this number has been increasing during the second half of the season - more threes are being taken and EC, VC, and Hans are definitely shooting more 15+ footers than they did in the first half of the year. Even Brad has taken to using his baseline jumper a bit more, I'd say. I'm not going to lie and say that I'll keep track, but I'm definitely going to watch for this tonight.
6) Chanting: It's been a good while since the 6th man had a virtuoso performance. Granted, I missed the Colonie game, so that's probably not true, but still. This is Shen. One of my alltime favorite student section chants is the classic anti-Shen jingle:
The wheels on the bus go round and round,
Round and round,
Round and round!
The wheels on the bus go round and round,
All the way back to Shen!***
Now, clearly, this chant can only be used once a year - at home vs. Shen - and then only late in the 4th quarter when the game is sealed up.**** So if those condidtions arise and we don't hear it, well that's bad form. Looking forward to it tonight.
7) Fast Breaks: My wife has commented that the newfound up-tempo play (forward looking outlet passes, pushing the breaks, attacking the press) isn't yielding as many points as it first appears, because they are significantly more likely to turn it over in these situations. Usually, SJC has a good eye for basketball, but I totally disagree with her on this one. I feel like they get way more easy baskets now, and maybe it's not on a traditional fast break, but they tend to find things on the secondary break, after everyone is down the court but before the defense really sets up.
8) The 2-guard spot: Prior to the Bethlehem game, SJC asserted that guard play often made the difference for Shaker, since the frontline gave you about the same thing every night. I'm still not sure about that, but I am beginning to think that the "2" might be the key to Shaker's success in the next month. When EC (or Hooks, or VC) is scoring and playing well, it really gives the opposition fits, and it completely opens up the middle of the floor for the frontline. On the other hand, when the "2" is not taking enough shots - nevermind making them - it totally changes the danger-level of the Shaker offense. They run a lot of out-of-bounds plays for the 2, like trying to set Hooks up in the corner for a three, but I'm happy to see EC asserting himself more this half of the year.
Prediction: Shaker, but closer than last time. 65-56.
One other note: I got the following email yesterday in response to my complaints about the Big 10/Suburban coverage in the newspapers:
And finally: Nisky did indeed beat Columbia on 1/20, so they do have the inside track to the 4th SC tourney slot.
NOTES
-------------
***Just like the real kids song, the "wheels on the bus" chant has lots of extra verses, and it's pretty typical to also make up some spontatneous ones as you go. I remember one year (I think it was 1993-94), we sang a good six or seven verses during the final two minutes of the game. Good times. Some of my favorite non-vulgar ones from the 90's include:
The coaches on the bus say "you guys suck!"...
The girls in your school scream "Let's go blue!"...
The kids in the stands say "section champs! (SEC-TION-CHAMPS!)"...
****I don't know why, but this chant has almost always been reserved for Shen. It definitely can be used for other teams without a problem, but it was always more prominent at Shen games. I have no good explanation for that. Against most others teams, we stuck with "Na Na Na Na, hey hey hey, good-bye!" or the classic "Warm up the bus."
If you recall, Shaker beat Shen in their first meeting of the seson, 61-47 at Shen back in December. Brad had a nice game - 33/15/4 - and Shaker put 10 men in the scoring column. But they also turned the ball over 22 times and only made half their foul shots. Additionally, Shen's second leading scorer, 5'11" senior guard Cameron Critchlow, didn't play. (full scoring stats here). Shen is a clear middle of the pack team in the Suburban - they've beaten all the bad teams (Mohon, BHS, BHBL, B. Spa, 'toga) and they've lost to all the good teams (AP, Nisky, G'land, Colonie, Columbia, Shaker). That's basically the easiest way to be 6-6 in the league. Besides Critcholow, they get good offensive production from 5'10" senior guard Salih Banks and 5'10" junoir guard Todd Dengan, who has 20 three pointers on the year. They are surprisingly small for a Shen team - only one player bigger than 6'3" - but they did manage to outrebound the Bison in the first meeting, so we'll see.
As usual, I go into games with certain things on my mind (see here, here, and here for good examples ). Tonight I'm going to be watching the following things:
1) Turnovers: It's a tired line I'm preaching, but it's still the most glaring weakness in their game. It's been better in the past few weeks, particularly the pressbreaking. But they still throw it away way too much for a 13-3 team. So I'm going to count turnovers again tonight. I'm going to break them into three categories: pressure induced, sloppy dribbling/passing, and
2) JV seating during varsity game: I got a few emails this week in response to my blasting of the JV team for not sitting in the 6th man during the varsity games. They were oddly unapologetic. This one seems like a no-brainer to me. You're 15 years old, you play on the JV, you're going to watch the varsity game, you're wearing dress clothes but you smell like a hockey-equipment bag: all signs point to the students section!
3) Lineups: Over the past two weeks (Guilderland, Mohon, Bethlehem games), Coach H (ha, i never thought of that nickname before) has used a variety of lineups and substitution patterns. Of course, the Mohon game was a blowout, so that was an opportunity to look at a lot of bench combinations. But it still seems to me like they are tinkering with the rotation and constanty trying new things. Hey, that's a good thing! It means there are lots of capable players on the bench, and more importantly it means that some killer combinations might not have yet been found. Some years, the rotation is so obvious that I could coach the game - well, the substitution pattern - from the bleachers. Not so this year. One combination that I liked recently was: Brad, Dare, Vernon, Hooks, Hans. That happened (I think) after Griff got his 3rd foul in the BHS game.
4) Twix pricing: I'm pretty sure it's the end of an era. I now have it on good word that Twix are officially priced at 75 cents. Note that I've bought 6 or 7 Twixes (Twixs? Twax?) at Shaker games this year, and I've paid 50 cents every time but one. But we'll see tonight.
5) Jumpshots: Ever wonder what percentage of Shaker points come on jumpshots - be it three pointers or otherwise? I have a hunch that this number has been increasing during the second half of the season - more threes are being taken and EC, VC, and Hans are definitely shooting more 15+ footers than they did in the first half of the year. Even Brad has taken to using his baseline jumper a bit more, I'd say. I'm not going to lie and say that I'll keep track, but I'm definitely going to watch for this tonight.
6) Chanting: It's been a good while since the 6th man had a virtuoso performance. Granted, I missed the Colonie game, so that's probably not true, but still. This is Shen. One of my alltime favorite student section chants is the classic anti-Shen jingle:
The wheels on the bus go round and round,
Round and round,
Round and round!
The wheels on the bus go round and round,
All the way back to Shen!***
Now, clearly, this chant can only be used once a year - at home vs. Shen - and then only late in the 4th quarter when the game is sealed up.**** So if those condidtions arise and we don't hear it, well that's bad form. Looking forward to it tonight.
7) Fast Breaks: My wife has commented that the newfound up-tempo play (forward looking outlet passes, pushing the breaks, attacking the press) isn't yielding as many points as it first appears, because they are significantly more likely to turn it over in these situations. Usually, SJC has a good eye for basketball, but I totally disagree with her on this one. I feel like they get way more easy baskets now, and maybe it's not on a traditional fast break, but they tend to find things on the secondary break, after everyone is down the court but before the defense really sets up.
8) The 2-guard spot: Prior to the Bethlehem game, SJC asserted that guard play often made the difference for Shaker, since the frontline gave you about the same thing every night. I'm still not sure about that, but I am beginning to think that the "2" might be the key to Shaker's success in the next month. When EC (or Hooks, or VC) is scoring and playing well, it really gives the opposition fits, and it completely opens up the middle of the floor for the frontline. On the other hand, when the "2" is not taking enough shots - nevermind making them - it totally changes the danger-level of the Shaker offense. They run a lot of out-of-bounds plays for the 2, like trying to set Hooks up in the corner for a three, but I'm happy to see EC asserting himself more this half of the year.
Prediction: Shaker, but closer than last time. 65-56.
One other note: I got the following email yesterday in response to my complaints about the Big 10/Suburban coverage in the newspapers:
When the two conferences have played, the Big 10 has been dominant since the new millennium. Why this is can be account for in a couple of ways.I think the reader is absolutely correct in explaining why the Big 10 is top-to-bottom a better conference on a consistent basis. No doubt. Clearly, it wouldn't be insane to think that the Class AA final four might be four Big 10 teams. And sure, when you have most of the top teams, you should get most of the media coverage. But I still think the Times Union goes beyond this. If you read the Troy Record or - in particular - the Schenectady Gazette, you get muchmore balanced Big 10/Suburban coverage. But look - I understand that the Big 10 is superior to the Suburban this year. I'm in agreement with that. But if Shaker wins the section this year, count me as one person who won't be utterly surprised. And count the Times Union as one newspaper that will be.
First and foremost is the impact that CBA has had in moving its location to Colonie by the airport. With the ability for all school districts to bus students into CBA within a 15-mile radius that gives them a HUGE advantage and has trasnformed their demographic because almost EVERY Suburban Council school district except Saratoga can bus to CBA. Then, Lasalle gets boosted because ALL athletes cannot go to one place if they want to play sports, so people begin looking for alternatives for their children for playing time, etc. That is the exact reason why Lasalle starting point guard Kyle Dignum left CBA and moved to Lasalle, opportunity.
The impact of LaSalle and CBA has had a huge effect on taking top athletes from the Suburban schools...[I]n the end, private schools are a big reason why the Big 10 dominates the talent and media coverage.
And finally: Nisky did indeed beat Columbia on 1/20, so they do have the inside track to the 4th SC tourney slot.
NOTES
-------------
***Just like the real kids song, the "wheels on the bus" chant has lots of extra verses, and it's pretty typical to also make up some spontatneous ones as you go. I remember one year (I think it was 1993-94), we sang a good six or seven verses during the final two minutes of the game. Good times. Some of my favorite non-vulgar ones from the 90's include:
The coaches on the bus say "you guys suck!"...
The girls in your school scream "Let's go blue!"...
The kids in the stands say "section champs! (SEC-TION-CHAMPS!)"...
****I don't know why, but this chant has almost always been reserved for Shen. It definitely can be used for other teams without a problem, but it was always more prominent at Shen games. I have no good explanation for that. Against most others teams, we stuck with "Na Na Na Na, hey hey hey, good-bye!" or the classic "Warm up the bus."
Today (1/31) in 1980: Shaker did not play. Next game is 2/2/1980, away vs. Niskayuna.
Monday, January 30, 2006
On tap this week: Here's a look at what I'm hoping to get up this week:
2005-06
1. Previews and recaps for Shen (Tuesday) and Saratoga (Friday).
2. Part II of theH-gym new gym photo essay.
3. Interview with Coach Holmes.
4. Essay about sitting in the student section, which I'll be doing Friday night.
1979-80
1. Recaps from Shaker's only game - at Nisky on 2/2/1980.
2. The start of some serious player profiling.
A few notes:
1) CBA beat Schenectady last night: 67-61. Here's the Times Union article. That means that none of the big five - CBA, Schenectady, Maginn, Albany, and Shaker - are unbeaten against the others. Sectionals are gonig to be insane this year.
2) Here are the current Suburban standings: Two games to go for everyone. Except, of course, the one thing I don't know is the key piece of info - who won the Columbia/Nisky game on January 20th? TU online doesn't know, and it's not reflected in these standings. I was out of town. I'll look into it today when I'm at the library. Whoever won that game has the inside track to the last spot in the Suburban tournament.
2005-06
1. Previews and recaps for Shen (Tuesday) and Saratoga (Friday).
2. Part II of the
3. Interview with Coach Holmes.
4. Essay about sitting in the student section, which I'll be doing Friday night.
1979-80
1. Recaps from Shaker's only game - at Nisky on 2/2/1980.
2. The start of some serious player profiling.
A few notes:
1) CBA beat Schenectady last night: 67-61. Here's the Times Union article. That means that none of the big five - CBA, Schenectady, Maginn, Albany, and Shaker - are unbeaten against the others. Sectionals are gonig to be insane this year.
2) Here are the current Suburban standings: Two games to go for everyone. Except, of course, the one thing I don't know is the key piece of info - who won the Columbia/Nisky game on January 20th? TU online doesn't know, and it's not reflected in these standings. I was out of town. I'll look into it today when I'm at the library. Whoever won that game has the inside track to the last spot in the Suburban tournament.
| Blue Division | |||||||
| Shaker | 11 | 1 | 0.917 |  | 13 | 3 | 0.813 |
| Shenendehowa | 6 | 6 | 0.500 | | 7 | 9 | 0.438 |
| Guilderland | 4 | 7 | 0.364 | | 7 | 8 | 0.467 |
| Saratoga Springs | 3 | 8 | 0.273 | | 4 | 10 | 0.286 |
| Gold Division | |||||||
| Colonie | 9 | 3 | 0.750 | | 11 | 5 | 0.688 |
| Niskayuna | 7 | 4 | 0.636 | | 8 | 5 | 0.615 |
| Columbia | 7 | 4 | 0.636 | | 8 | 7 | 0.533 |
| Bethlehem | 4 | 8 | 0.333 | | 4 | 12 | 0.250 |
| White Division | |||||||
| Averill Park | 10 | 2 | 0.833 | | 13 | 3 | 0.813 |
| Ballston Spa | 6 | 6 | 0.500 | | 10 | 6 | 0.625 |
| Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake | 3 | 9 | 0.250 | | 5 | 11 | 0.313 |
| Mohonasen | 0 | 12 | 0.000 | | 2 | 14 | 0.125 |
Today (1/30) in 1980: Shaker did not play. Next game is 2/2/1980, away vs. Niskayuna.
Here's an email I've gotten a few times:
1) 2/26/1980 vs. Bishop Gibbons: 42 points, 28 rebounds, and 7 blocks - and he didn't play at all in the 4th quarter. Twenty-eight rebounds in three quarters? Unreal.
2) 2/9/1980 vs Colonie: 34 points, 27 rebounds, 4 blocks.
3) 2/5/1980 vs. Columbia: 33 points, 20 rebounds, 12 blocks, Shaker led 65-17 when the Shake starters exited for good at the end of the third quarter.
4) 12/14/1979 vs. Shen: 39 points, 18 rebounds, 8 blocks, 15-for-19 from the field. Game recap available.
And yes, I believe Sam does have the single-game Shaker scoring record - the 42 points against Biship Gibbons. It was definitely the record at the time (Norm Frani '76 had the previous record of 41) and I'm pretty sure no one has topped it since. It's conceivable Cain did the following year, since he averaged almost 29 in 1980-81. I guess the other contenders would be Corey Anderson '88 (who definitely dropped close to 40 one year in the Girmindl tourney) and the younger Bishop brothers (Jeff '97, Jeremey '98). I'll have to look into it.
Here's an email I've gotten a few times:
What was Sam Perkins' best game as a Bison? And does he hold the single game scoring record?I had planned to wait until February to do any serious profile work on Sam or the '79-80 team, but this question got me thinking last night. Obviously, "best game" is a subjective question. But if you simply look at the numbers, I think four games in '79-80 stand out.
1) 2/26/1980 vs. Bishop Gibbons: 42 points, 28 rebounds, and 7 blocks - and he didn't play at all in the 4th quarter. Twenty-eight rebounds in three quarters? Unreal.
2) 2/9/1980 vs Colonie: 34 points, 27 rebounds, 4 blocks.
3) 2/5/1980 vs. Columbia: 33 points, 20 rebounds, 12 blocks, Shaker led 65-17 when the Shake starters exited for good at the end of the third quarter.
4) 12/14/1979 vs. Shen: 39 points, 18 rebounds, 8 blocks, 15-for-19 from the field. Game recap available.
And yes, I believe Sam does have the single-game Shaker scoring record - the 42 points against Biship Gibbons. It was definitely the record at the time (Norm Frani '76 had the previous record of 41) and I'm pretty sure no one has topped it since. It's conceivable Cain did the following year, since he averaged almost 29 in 1980-81. I guess the other contenders would be Corey Anderson '88 (who definitely dropped close to 40 one year in the Girmindl tourney) and the younger Bishop brothers (Jeff '97, Jeremey '98). I'll have to look into it.
Sunday, January 29, 2006
A few Sunday notes: Nothing major to post today. But a few things that warrant mentioning:
1) Averill Park lost to Ballston Spa Friday night: The score was 48-39, here's the boxscore. That's two losses in a row for AP (and almost three since they barely escaped at Shen two weekends ago). Very significant, since it drops AP to 10-2 in the Suburban and thus leaves Shaker as the only 1 loss team. That means we can win the Suburban overall title outright without help next week if we get a pair of wins. Hello, #1 seed in the Suburban tourney!
2) New rankings outs: The New York State Sportswriters latest state poll is out. Still no sign of Shaker. Schenectady moves up one more spot to #14. Hey, at least the Bison are finally climbing the local rankings. And that, of course, brings us to my favorite punching bag...
3) Times Union Big 10 bias: I've pretty much been on aseason-long lifelong crusade to end the Times Union's bias against the Suburban and in favor of the Big 10. This year I've ranted about their rankings and ripped their "great players" story. Sometimes I've hit the nail on the head and sometimes I've been too harsh. That's how it goes on a blog.
Here's my latest critique: check out the Times Union high school hoops stories page. In the last 10 days, there have been four articles about the boys Big 10, including two front pages stories and many, many player quotes. This doesn't even count the "great players" story mentioned above. Or the front-page story that sure to come tomorrow, given that CBA and Schenectady are playing right now. So that's six stories. In the same time span, there's been one article about the Suburban, a short bare-bones recap of an Averill Park game. I don't think they've written anything substantial about Shaker in a month.
Now, I'm perfectly aware that the Big 10 has more top teams this year, but let's remember the Suburban exists, ok fellas? [Maybe they figure the Suburban is getting plenty of coverage on private blogs? -ed. That's not an excuse. But there's a link to said blog sitting right under the links to the stories you are talking about! -ed. So what. 99.9% of TU readers only look at the print edition. What do you want, a column in the Times Union? -ed. I'm not saying I wouldn't take it... ]
1) Averill Park lost to Ballston Spa Friday night: The score was 48-39, here's the boxscore. That's two losses in a row for AP (and almost three since they barely escaped at Shen two weekends ago). Very significant, since it drops AP to 10-2 in the Suburban and thus leaves Shaker as the only 1 loss team. That means we can win the Suburban overall title outright without help next week if we get a pair of wins. Hello, #1 seed in the Suburban tourney!
2) New rankings outs: The New York State Sportswriters latest state poll is out. Still no sign of Shaker. Schenectady moves up one more spot to #14. Hey, at least the Bison are finally climbing the local rankings. And that, of course, brings us to my favorite punching bag...
3) Times Union Big 10 bias: I've pretty much been on a
Here's my latest critique: check out the Times Union high school hoops stories page. In the last 10 days, there have been four articles about the boys Big 10, including two front pages stories and many, many player quotes. This doesn't even count the "great players" story mentioned above. Or the front-page story that sure to come tomorrow, given that CBA and Schenectady are playing right now. So that's six stories. In the same time span, there's been one article about the Suburban, a short bare-bones recap of an Averill Park game. I don't think they've written anything substantial about Shaker in a month.
Now, I'm perfectly aware that the Big 10 has more top teams this year, but let's remember the Suburban exists, ok fellas? [Maybe they figure the Suburban is getting plenty of coverage on private blogs? -ed. That's not an excuse. But there's a link to said blog sitting right under the links to the stories you are talking about! -ed. So what. 99.9% of TU readers only look at the print edition. What do you want, a column in the Times Union? -ed. I'm not saying I wouldn't take it... ]
Today (1/29) in 1980: Shaker hosted winless Bethlehem, whom they had already beaten earlier in the season by a score of 88-55.
This game was over in less than 4 minutes. Jumping out to a 14-2 lead, Shaker won the first quarter 28-7 and cruised the rest of the way. It was 46-17 at the half, and the 2nd half saw extended action for Shaker's bench. Sam Perkins led the way with 32 points, Brundige had 10 and Tuecke 8. Reserve Joe Barker added 9 in the second half. The final score was 82-44.
This game also marked Shaker's 30th consecutive Suburban Council league victory over the previous year and a half, and brought their overall record during the same period to 38-1. (Read about their 1978-79 season here).
Partial Boxscore:
Shaker (82) – Perkins 12 8 32; Cain 2 3 7; Tuecke 4 0 8; Brundige 4 2 10; Mitchell 1 1 3; Brenan 1 2 4; Barker 4 1 9; Roche 0 4 4; Roe 0 1 1; Howard 2 0 4. Total 29 13 71.
Shaker: 28 18 18 18 - 82
BHS: 7 10 17 10 - 44
Record: 14-0 (12-0 Suburban Council)
Next 1979-80 game: 2/2/1980, away against Niskayuna.
This game was over in less than 4 minutes. Jumping out to a 14-2 lead, Shaker won the first quarter 28-7 and cruised the rest of the way. It was 46-17 at the half, and the 2nd half saw extended action for Shaker's bench. Sam Perkins led the way with 32 points, Brundige had 10 and Tuecke 8. Reserve Joe Barker added 9 in the second half. The final score was 82-44.
This game also marked Shaker's 30th consecutive Suburban Council league victory over the previous year and a half, and brought their overall record during the same period to 38-1. (Read about their 1978-79 season here).
Partial Boxscore:
Shaker (82) – Perkins 12 8 32; Cain 2 3 7; Tuecke 4 0 8; Brundige 4 2 10; Mitchell 1 1 3; Brenan 1 2 4; Barker 4 1 9; Roche 0 4 4; Roe 0 1 1; Howard 2 0 4. Total 29 13 71.
Shaker: 28 18 18 18 - 82
BHS: 7 10 17 10 - 44
Record: 14-0 (12-0 Suburban Council)
Next 1979-80 game: 2/2/1980, away against Niskayuna.
Saturday, January 28, 2006
Game Recap: Away vs. Bethlehem, 1/27/06
Executive Summary: Shaker 53, Mohonason 42. One of those games where the Bison seemed totally in control, but could never pull away and make it a blowout. Shaker definitely had much more talent, and that's good because they didn't play their best game. They didn't play bad...the best word for it might be sluggish. There was really only one scare - Bethlehem scored the first 7 points of the 4th to cut the lead to 44-37 and got as close as 46-42. Shaker then scored the last 8 points to win. Bethlehem spent most of the game is some sort of modified 2-3 matchup zone, and literally tripled Brad whenever Shaker looked his way, which frustrated his inside efforts most of the night. Luckily, Shaker's other scorer's responded - Hooks made three big 3-pointers - and the Bison got the win. Brad finished with 17 points and 12 boards, and EC added 8. Stempsey had a nice game for Bethelehm, although I expected him to be better - he doesn't really dominate. Also, the reffing was atrocious. Final score: Shaker 53, Bethlehem 42. TU box score here. Shaker improves to 13-3 (11-1 Suburban Council). Next game: 1/31/06, home against Shen.
Full Report, "I hate visiting senior nights": Arrived at Sage College - remember that Bethlehem's gym is down for the count right now - around 7:00 for a 7:30 tip, and had SJC and my mom in tow. What a crappy little gym. It reminded me of Shaker's old gym or the junior high gym, except somewhat bigger: the bleachers are literally 2 feet from the court, the bench players have to sit in the first row of bleachers, there's almost zero room out of bounds behind the hoops, and the bleachers have no aisles, meaning people sit everywhere and you can't get up or down well. On the other hand, the speaker system is still 15 times better than the one in theH-gym new gym. Nice. Other notes from the pre-game:
1) A decent crowd: One nice thing about a tiny, crappy gym is that you almost automatically fill the place up. That's definitely fun. Of course, part of the reason it was full was that it was...
2) Senior night at BHS: I'll be honest with you. There's nothing worse than going to a senior night on the road. You have to listen to these dumb little speeches about kids you've never heard of and it just takes forever. Chuck has played modified, JV, and varsity for two year. He's also the class treasurer. Next year he's going to Plattsburgh and wants to study crminal justice. Double-forever at Bethlehem because they also do senior night for the cheerleaders. Jill is looking forward to studying automotive technology at HVCC and then she wants to open her own garage. And no, I didn't make that up. Took like 20 minutes. I thought we might avoid it this season because our last two games are at home. But I guess we were unlucky. The only good news is that Bethlehem's best players are underclassmen, so maybe we can blow them out of the water when they start all the bench seniors for the first few minutes of the game.
3) Where's the 6th man?: Tom Maldonado announced his presence by letting off an enormous 'Gooooooo, Vernon!' as he entered the gym, but few other 6th men were in sight. Maybe 8 people standing during the game. That's too bad, but what I really want to know is...
4) What's with the JV: After they finish their game and get changed, they always come out and sit with their parents, quietly watching the game like they wish they were somewhere else. How about going over and standing with the 6th man and screaming your lungs out, fellas? I just don't understand this. You'd think that the JV team would be the biggest bunch of varsity-loving freaks around, but I guess that's not the case this year. Wasn't Bodgan like #1 superfan last year?
1st Quarter
Shaker started Sheehan, Hans, Duclos, Griff, and E. Cross. Brad won the tip, but Bethlehem scored the first four points of the quarter. Shaker then went on a 9-0 on some nice shooting by EC and Hans. Brad got to the line once and also added a putback basket. Generally, though, Shaker looks a little out of sync attacking Bethlehem's zone. But it's evident that Shaker's talent level is going to be in command toinght: Brad is getting every rebound and on the offensive end they are getting a lot of second chances: nice rebounds by EC, Dare, and Brad lead to baskets. BHS has Stempsey as a counter to Brad in terms of scoring, but they don't seem to have players who can match EC, VC, Duc, and Griff for alternative production. A few bad turnovers cost the Bison baskets - Duc overthrows Eddie on what would have been a sure breakaway layup at one point - but overall they seem in control. Then Bethlehem hits two consecutive three pointers to take the lead 10-9. Shaker comes back on nice hoops by Hans and VC, and the quarter ends 13-10 Shaker.
1st quarter notes:
1) Bethlehem will bomb it: The only way Bethlehem will stay close in this game is by hitting three pointers. And let loose they do. They're like Guilderland. They have no discernable inside game, and their best players are long range shooters.
2)...and their zone is worrisome: Bethlehem definitely forced Shaker to work for their points in the first quarter. They play some sort of modified matchup 2-3 zone - basically, they pressure the ball a bit, collapse everyone on Brad, and dare Shaker to swing the ball around the outside to wide open three point shots or good one-on-one situations across the court from Brad. I can't decide if the Bison are attacking it well. On one hand, they seem to be moving the ball around and getting it to the open men. On the other hand, they also seem to bent on forcing it into Brad, which I'm not necessarily opposed to. I'd like to see their shooters get hot. Brad seems a little frustrated, too, because...
3) No whistles in sight: Shaker got called for zero fouls in the 1st quarter, BHS only two. That's wild because honestly, they could call a foul on every entry pass to Brad in the post. It's getting pretty physical inside, but nothing. Very annoying.
4) Excellent rebounding: Yesterday, I said I was going to watch the defensive rebounding, and it was very good last night. In the first quarter they gave up only one offensive rebound, and even better was that the Bison got forward-looking outlet passes quite a bit and played a nice transition game.
2nd Quarter
An interesting unit in there to start the second: Brad, Hooks, Schaller, Dare, and Kahnle. On his first touch of the game, Hooks drills a three using his patented knuckleball shot. 16-10. Bethlehem's offense isn't doing much at all, and they miss. Hooks hits another three. 19-10. That's it, if he's going to drop those, this thing is over. Still, Bethlehem continues to allow Shaker to shoot wide open looks, sticking to the concept of collapsing in and tripling Brad even before entry passes are thrown. Brad gets to the line on a nice offensive board and foul, but his foul shooting looks a bit off right now. He goes 1 for 2 again and Shaker leads 20-12. EC hits a nice shot and VC makes a nice 1 on 1 move as the teams trade baskets. Griff picks up 2 fouls - one a silly foul on him the other a silly call by the ref - and he heads to the bench for the rest of the half. Hooks finally misses a three and Shaker goes a bit stagnant. 24-18 Shaker. They run off the last 4 points of the quarter to take a 28-18 halftime lead, winning the second 15-8.
Second quarter notes:
1) Nice job, but it could have been better: Definitely one of those times where you feel like they are playing pretty well, but you also know that they could easily be up 20 without some little mistakes and with a few more shots dropping. You can't say they aren't getting the job done - heck, they're up 10 - but it's also obvious that they aren't executing all that well. Part of it is the frustration of the BHS defense - Brad only has 6 points - and part of it is not knocking down some open shots. I wonder if Holmes was happy or mad in the locker room? It was that kind of half.
2)Hooks sure makes you dream: Watching Hooks effortlessly knock down those two threes really gets your mind wandering toward the sectional title and the state tournament. Shaker's offense is simply unstoppable if those shots are going in. It just gives the Bison way too much inside-outside firepower. If teams choose to double or triple Brad like BHS did last night, it's actually pretty crucial that those shots go in. And it's just great to see Hooks knocking them down. I really think his confidence is back to stay.
3) The 6th man has given up: They tried a few "De-fense!" chants, but the criticala mass isn't there. So they sat down. That's fine. Meanwhile, the BHS 6th man - about 15 boys or so - is having a field day screaming stuff at Shaker's foul shooters, although they haven't started a single chant yet. It's a tough sell when you're down a dozen points and your record is 5-9. But they make the effort.
Shaker's scoring looked like this at the break:
Brad 2 2 6
EC 2 2 6
JH 3 0 6
VC 2 0 4
Hooks 2 0 6 (2 three pointers)
Total 11 4 28 (2 three pointers)
Halftime notes:
1) Dumb, Dumber, Dumberest: You know how Niskayuna's gym only has that one little entrance and there's a constant traffic jam there? Well, Sage's gym has the same thing, except that it also invovles a set of stairs. Good times. There's also a team of elementary school aged boys sitting and eating pizza on said stairs. Traffic to the concession has ground to a halt. Who allows this? Oh, it must be the parents sitting on the stairs with them. As I try to manuever by them, I overhear them talking about how they could school Brad, because they could run through his legs. I love 4th graders.
2) Disappearing Act: The BHS cheerleaders went somewhere during halftime and didn't return until about midway through the 3rd quarter. That's suspicious only because...
3) Hit and run: The announcer is now making the following announcement every three to four minutes. If anyone witnessed a hit-and-run in the parking lot, please come to the announcing table. You could simultaneously see 160 people say the same thing to the person they were sitting with: I hope the owner of the car reported that, and it's not some random car out there that got hit-and-run. This is particularly amusing to me because my mom just got a new car. At one point I tell her that they described the model of the car as a "black honda." She almost fainted. SJC has now pinned the crime on the cheerleaders, just like that bad movie where the cheerleaders rob banks...
UPDATE (4:30pm): A reader writes in to explain that the car that was hit belonged to Coach Brehm, Shaker's assistant coach.
4) Mom tries to buy a 50/50 ticket: My mom started to open her wallet at halftime and I quickly put a stop to that. Ridiculous. Here's a golden rule for going to high school hoops games: Don't ever buy a 50/50 ticket at an away game. Visiting fans never win. I'm pretty sure most schools just use two buckets: one to collect tickets from the visitors section and one to collect tickets from the home section. Guess which bucket gets thrown in the trash before the drawing? Heck, you might buy one if you like supporting the public schools. That's fine. But don't delude yourself thinking your getting a piece of that $136.50. No way.
3rd Quarter
The third quarter was frustrating, because it really looked like the Bison were going to pull away, but somehow they didn't. Brad hit a shot and then Tom Duclos - with his thumb all taped up - made a nice steal and got fouled on the breakaway. He made 1 of 2. On the next trip, Duclos again got fouled going to the hoop, but missed both. Stempsey hit a three for BHS, and then Shaker was fouled again (on the floor this time), giving BHS three fouls in the first 1:30 of the half. Duclos put in a basket on a nice drive - he really came alive this quarter - and then BHS answered with an easy layup on an offensive rebound. Hooks then dropped another three pointer to make it 38-23, and I finally had the sense that this thing was over. John Hans had a sweet steal that would have been a breakaway layup, but he was called for a foul on it. BHS scored and then got a three to cut the lead to 10. God, we cannot put these guys away. Their defense was still rough on Brad, but the refs were finally calling fouls inside. Shaker got into the bonus at the 1:30 mark up the 3rd, and it should have been earlier. A preposterous no-call on an EC drive got the visiting crowd going. Next trip, Dare got the ball in the lane, got in trouble and just lofted a pass in Brad's direction. Somehow Brad came down with, stepped by a defender and jammed one home to make it 40-28. BHS scored, and then Griff got fouled on a nice offensive reoubnd putback, and made one of two at the line. Brad then added a foul shot and it was 42-30 at the end of the quarter, Shaker winning the third 14-12.
Third quarter notes:
1) If nothing else, the fouls will decide this one: Shaker had two fouls in the quarter, giving them just 4 for the game. BHS had 9, meaning Shaker will play the whole 4th quarter in the double bonus. The refs are getting really picky inside, calling alot of chippy fouls on BHS, while still ignoring some of the blatant hacks against Brad. Shaker is going to the line alot - everytime Brad gets the ball and makes a move, he's fouled hard.
2) Griff looks very frustrated,and he almost killed a cheerleader: He wasn't getting the ball, he was getting abused when he tried to post up, and I think he was even limping a bit on his ankle. But man was he playing hard. On one play near the sideline, he crashed into the bleacher area and came down pretty hard. Luckily he was ok. Another time, he got tangled up going for a defense rebound and slammed into the wall behind the hoop, narrowly missing the BHS cheerleader as they dove out of the way. And I do love going to the small gyms for one reason: you can hear Griff on offense and defense. He's just ball! ball! ball! on defense and one time when he didn't get the ball in the post, he let out a huge Aaaaaawwwwwww! on offense. He's just fun to watch.
3) Lots of VC, no Bodgan: Interesting bench usage by Holmes tonight. Vernon is gettting lots of minutes. Bodgan is getting none.
4th Quarter
The kind of first three minutes that you pray doesn't happen when you have a 12 point lead. Duclos started the quarter with a strong drive, got clobbered, no call. BHS misses. Hooks then misses a three. BHS scores. Schaller misses a three. BHS scores. Hooks misses another three. BHS misses but gets an offensive board and an easy two. Ahhh. 42-36. Just shoot me. The gym is alive, the BHS fans are going crazy. Not good. Hans misses a jumper and BHS gets a fast break, 2 on 1. But - thank god - Hooks takes a nice charge and Shaker gets the ball back. A wild scence in the gym. The BHS fans can taste the upset and don't like the call. Griff then gets the ball in the post but misses, and BHS starts another fast break. Hans gets good position for a charge call, but a block is called instead. Stempsey hits 1 of 2 on the foul and Shaker calls timeout. 42-37. No points for Shaker yet this quarter. Out of the timeout, Griff gets a tough hoop inside,BHS misses as the other end, Brad takes a hard foul in the lane and makes both at the line. 46-37. That's some breathing room. BHS misses and then EC misses a three pointer. BHS comes back and hits a three. Eddie is then called for a ridiculous charge, and he almost gets a technical when he starts jawing about it. But i don't blame him. It was garbage. BHS gets a hoop and its 46-42. Good lord, don't blow this one. But that's all the points that BHS would get. Griff took a tough foul and made both. BHS missed and Brad made both after getting fouled at the other end. BHS missed, EC scored on a breakaway layup and then Hans made 1 of 2 foul shots near the end. Phew. Final score 53-42.
4th quarter notes:
1) A classic truism: One thing that will never change about high school hoops: You will never get two charges called on consecutive plays agaisnt the home team in the 4th quarter. Never. I was actually surprised that Hooks was able to draw one in such a tight spot to begin with. That was really the key moment, too. No way Hans was getting the call on the following play. It was just comically bad reffing last night - you're classic "don't call the obvious fouls but then make up for it by calling a few chippy ones inside." Awful.
2) Holmes under fire: Coach Holmes has got to be the most calm high school hoops coach ever in tight situations. It's 44-37, Shaker hasn't scored yet this quarter, and he's a picture of serenity in the huddle. Very reassuring.
3) Just your standard regular lunch: Shaker made 7 foul shots and 2 baskets in the 4th. It's not an exaggeration to say that their offense for the whole quarter offensively was something like this: either miss a three pointer or get it into the post, if the latter happens go up hard and you will be clobbered, and maybe there will be a call. They came up with a neat trick to solve the Brad triple team - with the ball on the left wing and Brad posting just outside the low block, they were throwing entry passes to Griff across the lane to the opposite low block, since all the defenders were cheating toward Brad. It worked to perfection once, another time it resulted in a steal and fast break.
Here is the partial boxscore:
And here's the quarter log:
Gosh, it's so nice to see Hooks with 3 triples. That's great. And VC really contributed tonight. Eddie was solid. I thought that Griff and Duc disappeared at times - Griff of course sat the bench most of the 2nd quarter. Duclos didn't do a whole lot besides his outburst in the 3rd. But overall, everyone played very hard.
Four major things to sum up:
1) That's seven in a row: In some ways, the games at this point in the season mean more: momentum and confidence can be everything going into the postseason, and a seven game win streak is nothing to sneeze at. On the other hand, these games also mean less: nothing that happens between now and sectionals is going to change Shaker's status, so it's more important to play well and improve than simply to pile up wins. I thought they played pretty well tonight. They certainly weren't perfect, by any means. BHS picked a nice game plan and Shake went cold for a few stretches and got frustrated inside by the refs and the zone. It happens. They weren't going to beat Schenectady with last night's effort, but that's ok. They weren't playing Schenectady.
2) A deeper and wider bench: Except for Bodgan, Holmes used pretty much everyone tonight for at least some extended time. The main beneficiaries were VC and Hooks, both of whom played well. Schaller is also getting more minutes, which is great because he seems to be capable and John works so hard that he really could use some minutes on the bench to rest. Tom Kahnle continues to impress in his limited minutes, although it's just hillarious how Holmes puts Brad back in immediately if they give up an offensive rebound, even if he's only been on the bench for 20 seconds.
3) No more crappy gyms: That's it for this year. Just theH-gym new gym, HVCC, Glens Falls, and the Pepsi remain as possible game locations. Hooray!
4) Two games (really four) left to get in shape: Shen and Saratoga next week, and then the two game Suburban tourney, then the big dance starts. I think this team has made great strides in the last month. Not only have they won seven in a row, but the turnovers are down, the press break now actually works, they are getting some up-tempo points, and they know how to score and how to stop teams. It's like night and day in a lot of ways. These next four games are an opportunity to hone everything and get it set for sectionals.
Summary and notes
Averill Park lost to B. Spa last night(!) giving Shaker sole posession of the best record in th Suburban...The paper gave Brad 12 rebounds, he certainly looked at least that dominant last night...Next Friday is Shaker's senior night, come out and say goodbye...
Final score: Shaker 53, Bethlehem 42. TU box score here. Shaker improves to 13-3 (11-1 Suburban Council). Next game: 1/31/06, home against Shen.
Executive Summary: Shaker 53, Mohonason 42. One of those games where the Bison seemed totally in control, but could never pull away and make it a blowout. Shaker definitely had much more talent, and that's good because they didn't play their best game. They didn't play bad...the best word for it might be sluggish. There was really only one scare - Bethlehem scored the first 7 points of the 4th to cut the lead to 44-37 and got as close as 46-42. Shaker then scored the last 8 points to win. Bethlehem spent most of the game is some sort of modified 2-3 matchup zone, and literally tripled Brad whenever Shaker looked his way, which frustrated his inside efforts most of the night. Luckily, Shaker's other scorer's responded - Hooks made three big 3-pointers - and the Bison got the win. Brad finished with 17 points and 12 boards, and EC added 8. Stempsey had a nice game for Bethelehm, although I expected him to be better - he doesn't really dominate. Also, the reffing was atrocious. Final score: Shaker 53, Bethlehem 42. TU box score here. Shaker improves to 13-3 (11-1 Suburban Council). Next game: 1/31/06, home against Shen.
Full Report, "I hate visiting senior nights": Arrived at Sage College - remember that Bethlehem's gym is down for the count right now - around 7:00 for a 7:30 tip, and had SJC and my mom in tow. What a crappy little gym. It reminded me of Shaker's old gym or the junior high gym, except somewhat bigger: the bleachers are literally 2 feet from the court, the bench players have to sit in the first row of bleachers, there's almost zero room out of bounds behind the hoops, and the bleachers have no aisles, meaning people sit everywhere and you can't get up or down well. On the other hand, the speaker system is still 15 times better than the one in the
1) A decent crowd: One nice thing about a tiny, crappy gym is that you almost automatically fill the place up. That's definitely fun. Of course, part of the reason it was full was that it was...
2) Senior night at BHS: I'll be honest with you. There's nothing worse than going to a senior night on the road. You have to listen to these dumb little speeches about kids you've never heard of and it just takes forever. Chuck has played modified, JV, and varsity for two year. He's also the class treasurer. Next year he's going to Plattsburgh and wants to study crminal justice. Double-forever at Bethlehem because they also do senior night for the cheerleaders. Jill is looking forward to studying automotive technology at HVCC and then she wants to open her own garage. And no, I didn't make that up. Took like 20 minutes. I thought we might avoid it this season because our last two games are at home. But I guess we were unlucky. The only good news is that Bethlehem's best players are underclassmen, so maybe we can blow them out of the water when they start all the bench seniors for the first few minutes of the game.
3) Where's the 6th man?: Tom Maldonado announced his presence by letting off an enormous 'Gooooooo, Vernon!' as he entered the gym, but few other 6th men were in sight. Maybe 8 people standing during the game. That's too bad, but what I really want to know is...
4) What's with the JV: After they finish their game and get changed, they always come out and sit with their parents, quietly watching the game like they wish they were somewhere else. How about going over and standing with the 6th man and screaming your lungs out, fellas? I just don't understand this. You'd think that the JV team would be the biggest bunch of varsity-loving freaks around, but I guess that's not the case this year. Wasn't Bodgan like #1 superfan last year?
1st Quarter
Shaker started Sheehan, Hans, Duclos, Griff, and E. Cross. Brad won the tip, but Bethlehem scored the first four points of the quarter. Shaker then went on a 9-0 on some nice shooting by EC and Hans. Brad got to the line once and also added a putback basket. Generally, though, Shaker looks a little out of sync attacking Bethlehem's zone. But it's evident that Shaker's talent level is going to be in command toinght: Brad is getting every rebound and on the offensive end they are getting a lot of second chances: nice rebounds by EC, Dare, and Brad lead to baskets. BHS has Stempsey as a counter to Brad in terms of scoring, but they don't seem to have players who can match EC, VC, Duc, and Griff for alternative production. A few bad turnovers cost the Bison baskets - Duc overthrows Eddie on what would have been a sure breakaway layup at one point - but overall they seem in control. Then Bethlehem hits two consecutive three pointers to take the lead 10-9. Shaker comes back on nice hoops by Hans and VC, and the quarter ends 13-10 Shaker.
1st quarter notes:
1) Bethlehem will bomb it: The only way Bethlehem will stay close in this game is by hitting three pointers. And let loose they do. They're like Guilderland. They have no discernable inside game, and their best players are long range shooters.
2)...and their zone is worrisome: Bethlehem definitely forced Shaker to work for their points in the first quarter. They play some sort of modified matchup 2-3 zone - basically, they pressure the ball a bit, collapse everyone on Brad, and dare Shaker to swing the ball around the outside to wide open three point shots or good one-on-one situations across the court from Brad. I can't decide if the Bison are attacking it well. On one hand, they seem to be moving the ball around and getting it to the open men. On the other hand, they also seem to bent on forcing it into Brad, which I'm not necessarily opposed to. I'd like to see their shooters get hot. Brad seems a little frustrated, too, because...
3) No whistles in sight: Shaker got called for zero fouls in the 1st quarter, BHS only two. That's wild because honestly, they could call a foul on every entry pass to Brad in the post. It's getting pretty physical inside, but nothing. Very annoying.
4) Excellent rebounding: Yesterday, I said I was going to watch the defensive rebounding, and it was very good last night. In the first quarter they gave up only one offensive rebound, and even better was that the Bison got forward-looking outlet passes quite a bit and played a nice transition game.
2nd Quarter
An interesting unit in there to start the second: Brad, Hooks, Schaller, Dare, and Kahnle. On his first touch of the game, Hooks drills a three using his patented knuckleball shot. 16-10. Bethlehem's offense isn't doing much at all, and they miss. Hooks hits another three. 19-10. That's it, if he's going to drop those, this thing is over. Still, Bethlehem continues to allow Shaker to shoot wide open looks, sticking to the concept of collapsing in and tripling Brad even before entry passes are thrown. Brad gets to the line on a nice offensive board and foul, but his foul shooting looks a bit off right now. He goes 1 for 2 again and Shaker leads 20-12. EC hits a nice shot and VC makes a nice 1 on 1 move as the teams trade baskets. Griff picks up 2 fouls - one a silly foul on him the other a silly call by the ref - and he heads to the bench for the rest of the half. Hooks finally misses a three and Shaker goes a bit stagnant. 24-18 Shaker. They run off the last 4 points of the quarter to take a 28-18 halftime lead, winning the second 15-8.
Second quarter notes:
1) Nice job, but it could have been better: Definitely one of those times where you feel like they are playing pretty well, but you also know that they could easily be up 20 without some little mistakes and with a few more shots dropping. You can't say they aren't getting the job done - heck, they're up 10 - but it's also obvious that they aren't executing all that well. Part of it is the frustration of the BHS defense - Brad only has 6 points - and part of it is not knocking down some open shots. I wonder if Holmes was happy or mad in the locker room? It was that kind of half.
2)Hooks sure makes you dream: Watching Hooks effortlessly knock down those two threes really gets your mind wandering toward the sectional title and the state tournament. Shaker's offense is simply unstoppable if those shots are going in. It just gives the Bison way too much inside-outside firepower. If teams choose to double or triple Brad like BHS did last night, it's actually pretty crucial that those shots go in. And it's just great to see Hooks knocking them down. I really think his confidence is back to stay.
3) The 6th man has given up: They tried a few "De-fense!" chants, but the criticala mass isn't there. So they sat down. That's fine. Meanwhile, the BHS 6th man - about 15 boys or so - is having a field day screaming stuff at Shaker's foul shooters, although they haven't started a single chant yet. It's a tough sell when you're down a dozen points and your record is 5-9. But they make the effort.
Shaker's scoring looked like this at the break:
Brad 2 2 6
EC 2 2 6
JH 3 0 6
VC 2 0 4
Hooks 2 0 6 (2 three pointers)
Total 11 4 28 (2 three pointers)
Halftime notes:
1) Dumb, Dumber, Dumberest: You know how Niskayuna's gym only has that one little entrance and there's a constant traffic jam there? Well, Sage's gym has the same thing, except that it also invovles a set of stairs. Good times. There's also a team of elementary school aged boys sitting and eating pizza on said stairs. Traffic to the concession has ground to a halt. Who allows this? Oh, it must be the parents sitting on the stairs with them. As I try to manuever by them, I overhear them talking about how they could school Brad, because they could run through his legs. I love 4th graders.
2) Disappearing Act: The BHS cheerleaders went somewhere during halftime and didn't return until about midway through the 3rd quarter. That's suspicious only because...
3) Hit and run: The announcer is now making the following announcement every three to four minutes. If anyone witnessed a hit-and-run in the parking lot, please come to the announcing table. You could simultaneously see 160 people say the same thing to the person they were sitting with: I hope the owner of the car reported that, and it's not some random car out there that got hit-and-run. This is particularly amusing to me because my mom just got a new car. At one point I tell her that they described the model of the car as a "black honda." She almost fainted. SJC has now pinned the crime on the cheerleaders, just like that bad movie where the cheerleaders rob banks...
UPDATE (4:30pm): A reader writes in to explain that the car that was hit belonged to Coach Brehm, Shaker's assistant coach.
4) Mom tries to buy a 50/50 ticket: My mom started to open her wallet at halftime and I quickly put a stop to that. Ridiculous. Here's a golden rule for going to high school hoops games: Don't ever buy a 50/50 ticket at an away game. Visiting fans never win. I'm pretty sure most schools just use two buckets: one to collect tickets from the visitors section and one to collect tickets from the home section. Guess which bucket gets thrown in the trash before the drawing? Heck, you might buy one if you like supporting the public schools. That's fine. But don't delude yourself thinking your getting a piece of that $136.50. No way.
3rd Quarter
The third quarter was frustrating, because it really looked like the Bison were going to pull away, but somehow they didn't. Brad hit a shot and then Tom Duclos - with his thumb all taped up - made a nice steal and got fouled on the breakaway. He made 1 of 2. On the next trip, Duclos again got fouled going to the hoop, but missed both. Stempsey hit a three for BHS, and then Shaker was fouled again (on the floor this time), giving BHS three fouls in the first 1:30 of the half. Duclos put in a basket on a nice drive - he really came alive this quarter - and then BHS answered with an easy layup on an offensive rebound. Hooks then dropped another three pointer to make it 38-23, and I finally had the sense that this thing was over. John Hans had a sweet steal that would have been a breakaway layup, but he was called for a foul on it. BHS scored and then got a three to cut the lead to 10. God, we cannot put these guys away. Their defense was still rough on Brad, but the refs were finally calling fouls inside. Shaker got into the bonus at the 1:30 mark up the 3rd, and it should have been earlier. A preposterous no-call on an EC drive got the visiting crowd going. Next trip, Dare got the ball in the lane, got in trouble and just lofted a pass in Brad's direction. Somehow Brad came down with, stepped by a defender and jammed one home to make it 40-28. BHS scored, and then Griff got fouled on a nice offensive reoubnd putback, and made one of two at the line. Brad then added a foul shot and it was 42-30 at the end of the quarter, Shaker winning the third 14-12.
Third quarter notes:
1) If nothing else, the fouls will decide this one: Shaker had two fouls in the quarter, giving them just 4 for the game. BHS had 9, meaning Shaker will play the whole 4th quarter in the double bonus. The refs are getting really picky inside, calling alot of chippy fouls on BHS, while still ignoring some of the blatant hacks against Brad. Shaker is going to the line alot - everytime Brad gets the ball and makes a move, he's fouled hard.
2) Griff looks very frustrated,and he almost killed a cheerleader: He wasn't getting the ball, he was getting abused when he tried to post up, and I think he was even limping a bit on his ankle. But man was he playing hard. On one play near the sideline, he crashed into the bleacher area and came down pretty hard. Luckily he was ok. Another time, he got tangled up going for a defense rebound and slammed into the wall behind the hoop, narrowly missing the BHS cheerleader as they dove out of the way. And I do love going to the small gyms for one reason: you can hear Griff on offense and defense. He's just ball! ball! ball! on defense and one time when he didn't get the ball in the post, he let out a huge Aaaaaawwwwwww! on offense. He's just fun to watch.
3) Lots of VC, no Bodgan: Interesting bench usage by Holmes tonight. Vernon is gettting lots of minutes. Bodgan is getting none.
4th Quarter
The kind of first three minutes that you pray doesn't happen when you have a 12 point lead. Duclos started the quarter with a strong drive, got clobbered, no call. BHS misses. Hooks then misses a three. BHS scores. Schaller misses a three. BHS scores. Hooks misses another three. BHS misses but gets an offensive board and an easy two. Ahhh. 42-36. Just shoot me. The gym is alive, the BHS fans are going crazy. Not good. Hans misses a jumper and BHS gets a fast break, 2 on 1. But - thank god - Hooks takes a nice charge and Shaker gets the ball back. A wild scence in the gym. The BHS fans can taste the upset and don't like the call. Griff then gets the ball in the post but misses, and BHS starts another fast break. Hans gets good position for a charge call, but a block is called instead. Stempsey hits 1 of 2 on the foul and Shaker calls timeout. 42-37. No points for Shaker yet this quarter. Out of the timeout, Griff gets a tough hoop inside,BHS misses as the other end, Brad takes a hard foul in the lane and makes both at the line. 46-37. That's some breathing room. BHS misses and then EC misses a three pointer. BHS comes back and hits a three. Eddie is then called for a ridiculous charge, and he almost gets a technical when he starts jawing about it. But i don't blame him. It was garbage. BHS gets a hoop and its 46-42. Good lord, don't blow this one. But that's all the points that BHS would get. Griff took a tough foul and made both. BHS missed and Brad made both after getting fouled at the other end. BHS missed, EC scored on a breakaway layup and then Hans made 1 of 2 foul shots near the end. Phew. Final score 53-42.
4th quarter notes:
1) A classic truism: One thing that will never change about high school hoops: You will never get two charges called on consecutive plays agaisnt the home team in the 4th quarter. Never. I was actually surprised that Hooks was able to draw one in such a tight spot to begin with. That was really the key moment, too. No way Hans was getting the call on the following play. It was just comically bad reffing last night - you're classic "don't call the obvious fouls but then make up for it by calling a few chippy ones inside." Awful.
2) Holmes under fire: Coach Holmes has got to be the most calm high school hoops coach ever in tight situations. It's 44-37, Shaker hasn't scored yet this quarter, and he's a picture of serenity in the huddle. Very reassuring.
3) Just your standard regular lunch: Shaker made 7 foul shots and 2 baskets in the 4th. It's not an exaggeration to say that their offense for the whole quarter offensively was something like this: either miss a three pointer or get it into the post, if the latter happens go up hard and you will be clobbered, and maybe there will be a call. They came up with a neat trick to solve the Brad triple team - with the ball on the left wing and Brad posting just outside the low block, they were throwing entry passes to Griff across the lane to the opposite low block, since all the defenders were cheating toward Brad. It worked to perfection once, another time it resulted in a steal and fast break.
Here is the partial boxscore:
| Name | FG | FT | FTA | FT % | 3-Pt | Points |
| Eddie Cross | 3 | 2 | 2 | 100% | 0 | 8 |
| Vernon Cross | 2 | 0 | 0 | -- | 0 | 4 |
| Tom Duclos | 1 | 1 | 4 | 25% | 0 | 3 |
| John Hans | 3 | 1 | 2 | 50% | 0 | 7 |
| Brian Hooks | 0 | 0 | 0 | -- | 3 | 9 |
| Griff McLoughlin | 1 | 3 | 4 | 75% | 0 | 5 |
| Brad Sheehan | 4 | 9 | 12 | 75% | 0 | 17 |
| TOTAL | 14 | 16 | 24 | 67% | 3 | 53 |
And here's the quarter log:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total | |
| Shaker | 13 | 15 | 14 | 11 | 53 |
| Bethlehem | 10 | 8 | 12 | 12 | 42 |
Gosh, it's so nice to see Hooks with 3 triples. That's great. And VC really contributed tonight. Eddie was solid. I thought that Griff and Duc disappeared at times - Griff of course sat the bench most of the 2nd quarter. Duclos didn't do a whole lot besides his outburst in the 3rd. But overall, everyone played very hard.
Four major things to sum up:
1) That's seven in a row: In some ways, the games at this point in the season mean more: momentum and confidence can be everything going into the postseason, and a seven game win streak is nothing to sneeze at. On the other hand, these games also mean less: nothing that happens between now and sectionals is going to change Shaker's status, so it's more important to play well and improve than simply to pile up wins. I thought they played pretty well tonight. They certainly weren't perfect, by any means. BHS picked a nice game plan and Shake went cold for a few stretches and got frustrated inside by the refs and the zone. It happens. They weren't going to beat Schenectady with last night's effort, but that's ok. They weren't playing Schenectady.
2) A deeper and wider bench: Except for Bodgan, Holmes used pretty much everyone tonight for at least some extended time. The main beneficiaries were VC and Hooks, both of whom played well. Schaller is also getting more minutes, which is great because he seems to be capable and John works so hard that he really could use some minutes on the bench to rest. Tom Kahnle continues to impress in his limited minutes, although it's just hillarious how Holmes puts Brad back in immediately if they give up an offensive rebound, even if he's only been on the bench for 20 seconds.
3) No more crappy gyms: That's it for this year. Just the
4) Two games (really four) left to get in shape: Shen and Saratoga next week, and then the two game Suburban tourney, then the big dance starts. I think this team has made great strides in the last month. Not only have they won seven in a row, but the turnovers are down, the press break now actually works, they are getting some up-tempo points, and they know how to score and how to stop teams. It's like night and day in a lot of ways. These next four games are an opportunity to hone everything and get it set for sectionals.
Summary and notes
Averill Park lost to B. Spa last night(!) giving Shaker sole posession of the best record in th Suburban...The paper gave Brad 12 rebounds, he certainly looked at least that dominant last night...Next Friday is Shaker's senior night, come out and say goodbye...
Final score: Shaker 53, Bethlehem 42. TU box score here. Shaker improves to 13-3 (11-1 Suburban Council). Next game: 1/31/06, home against Shen.
Today (1/28) in 1980: Shaker did not play. Next game is tomorrow, 1/29/1980, home against Bethlehem.
Friday, January 27, 2006
Shaker beats Bethlehem: It wasn't their best effort, but it was definitely good enough. A rough and tumble game. Final score 53-42. Full report tomorrow AM.
On the record with Bodgan and Dare: [Note: During the first week of January, I sat down with Matt Bodgan and Ryan Dare, two junior reserves on the Shaker team. Bodgan is a 6’3” small forward and Dare a 6’2” power forward. When the interview was conducted, Shaker was 7-3 and was just starting to pull out of the 1-3 slump they went into during Christmas break. This is the third feature interview to appear on Girmindl’s Ghost. In early December, I talked with the leaders of Shaker’s 6th man. Later that month, I sat down with Shaker center Brad Sheehan.]
I usually like to start interviews by talking about specific individual plays from the season. And luckily, when Matt Bodgan and Ryan Dare are the players in question, the game sequences that come to mind first invariably involve both of them. In particular, the Maginn game stands out in my mind: three times Bodgan got the ball in the lane and decided not to shoot, but instead hit Dare with a clever pass on the low block for an easy layup and an assist.
“Yeah, he owes me a lunch for that,” Bogdan blurts out, laughing like he’s more interested in holding it over Ryan’s head than actually getting the lunch. He then turns and stares Dare down before again busting into laughter.
Dare calms things down via a lighthearted matter-of-fact explanation. “After the game, my parents said that I should buy him a lunch. I haven’t yet, but it may happen. He certainly hasn’t forgotten,” he observes, shaking his head but also smiling. Good lord, I think. These two must be really good friends. And perhaps a bit more selfishly, And boy do they like to talk. Who knows where this is headed.
I immediately scrap the game plan I had devised for the interview and go off the cuff. I notice that Bodgan is wearing gameday dress clothes, but Dare is dressed casually. So I ask about it. Dare involuntarily laughs and then offers an explanation.
“We had a pasta party last night, and the whole team decided we weren’t going to dress up today. Boggs was there, but I guess he didn’t get that memo,” he deadpans, but then again starts laughing. Bodgan shakes his head and rolls his eye, as if he’s been getting this same ribbing all day, which he probably has. This is going to be a fun interview.
We’re sitting in the Shakerlibrary media center, and I’m quickly realizing that perhaps a different venue might be have been much more appropriate. Bogdan and Dare are both excitable, talkative teenagers, and in combination they are behaving more like brothers than teammates. The periodicals librarian media specialist – the same one who used to yell at me in the early 90’s, I swear – scolds us, and we try to return the conversation to a more normal decibel level.
That’s apparently not easy for Bodgan to do. Not only does he talk a mile a minute throughout our conversation, but he takes significant pride in his ability to get loud. “Last year, when we were on the JV, I was definitely the loudest kid in the 6th man during the varsity game. I was just ridiculous. We’d let the gym be quiet during the foul shots and I’d just yell at the foul shooter. I was really, really loud. I loved it.”
And that explains a lot. Although he probably only plays about 6 or 7 minutes a game, Bodgan is clearly the darling of the 6th man this year. Fans bring signs with his name on them, begin furious chants whenever he enters the game, and constantly yell things at him on the court.
At the Niskayuna game, I thought I even detected Bogdan acknowledging the 6th man while the ball was in play. His man had just gotten the ball on the wing and someone in the 6th man screamed, “Get in your stance, Bodgan!” It looked like he responded by nodding ever so slightly, never taking his eyes off the ball but clearly letting the fans know that he could hear them.
“Yeah, I did do that. They loved it,” he admits to me. “The thing is that once the play is going, you usually can’t really hear the crowd. That was an exception. It’s usually not like that. On the other hand, when there is a stop in the action, you definitely hear them. Certain words will get your attention. You try not to listen, but you hear it.”
I don’t believe him. Especially when he adds, “I love playing emotional basketball. I love letting the atmosphere get to me.” Right now, the library atmosphere is definitely not getting to either of them, as I spot the periodicals librarian glance over at us with a scowl.
Dare then chimes in, grinning ear to ear. “Special chants tend to get your attention. Like during the CBA game, there were a ton of those. And during the breaks, we’d hear them. I know I was listening. I try not to, but it’s hard.”
He pauses as if to analyze his statement, and then he resumes. “Look, I think this whole team is a very emotional group of players. We play with a really high energy and it’s a good mentality. Everyone realizes our chances this year and knows what’s at stake.”
And that’s a key word for both of them, I think: chances. In one sense, chances to win championships. “You know, Griff’s sneakers have ‘LC’ written on them, last chance,” says Dare. Last chance to win the section [for the seniors].” And while neither of them say it, it’s pretty clear that while it may not be the last chance for the juniors, it’s probably their best chance.
And also chances in the ‘opportunity’ sense of the word. While Bodgan and Dare were both starters on the JV team as sophomores, it’s been an adjustment for them to sit on the bench most of the game this year. “I know I’m going to get playing time,” says Dare. “Coach has confidence in all of us. But I also know we have a really talented and deep team, so I have to make the most of the time that I do get.” You can see it when Holmes taps them to go into the game. They don’t walk over to the scorer’s table. They run.
And that seems to suit both of their attitudes. If they're eager to get in the game, they're anything but cocky about their skills. In fact, you get the sense from both of them that getting into the game is as much a confidence boost as an opportunity to prove themselves. The chance to play is simultaneous the validation that you deserve to be playing.
Of course, along with these chances comes a lot of pressure.“The first two games of the year (Amsterdam and CBA), I was definitely nervous,” explains Dare. “Huge crowds, everyone had been talking about it for weeks. I know all the juniors were nervous, being the first couple games on varsity. Obviously you want to play well.”
And play well he did, scoring 7 points against Amsterdam and adding a crucial 6 against CBA, solidifying his spot in the regular rotation.
“My role is to just go in there and play as tough as I can. I try to be like Griff – get all the rebounds I can, and maybe score a couple of points. But mainly rebounding and trying to body up the big men, especially if Brad’s not in there.”The surprising thing is that Ryan is only 6’2”. But – as anyone who has seen him play can tell you – he plays much bigger than that, especially in the post. His game is somewhat reminiscent of Griff’s in that way.
Bodgan, on the other hand, took a little longer to get his sea legs. “I sat the bench against CBA, and I was honestly pretty scared – I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get into that thing.” But lately Bodgan has found himself some time as a solid role player off the bench.
“My role is more defensive, just get in there and shut down my man. Give a spark to the team. I typically guard whoever’s hot at the time among the small guys. Often that means I’m matched up against great players, like [Maginn standout] Taylor Battle. On offense I just try to get the ball to the scorers in good position – usually Brad, but I guess occasionally others, like Ryan,” as he unleashes a long grin.
That probably downplays Bogdan’s contribution. The first word most people reach for to describe his game is “smart.” He just looks like he’s always thinking on the court, and when he’s playing well, it usually pays off in the form of assists.
I detect a confidence in his voice that probably wasn’t there six weeks ago. In fact, it wasn’t a given that Bodgan was even going to play hoops this year – he’s an all-state cross-country runner who could easily have found stardom on the indoor track this year.
“Back in November and early December, I don’t think I had found my role yet. I was working hard in practice, but I was struggling. At one point I was even questioning why I didn’t just run track. I was thinking ‘we could have a national-quality 4 X 800 relay right now.’ But I kept working hard, and I was so happy after the Maginn game, when coach gave me a shot and I played well.” Bodgan still things of himself as a runner who plays hoops, not vice versa. “I run two out of three seasons, and that’s what I’m going to do in college. I think a lot of people were actually surprised I played hoop this year, because I had such a successful cross country season.”
One reason I think Bogdan stuck with the hoops is the obvious friendship he has with Dare and the other members of the team. “This is a really close team,” offers Dare. “And Matt and I have been good friends for a long time.” File that in the obvious folder, fellas.
And neither of them seems to have come by their success on talent alone. In fact, Bodgan is eager to offer his praise for Dare with a classic left-handed compliment.
“I can remember in 7th and 8th grade, I was so much better than him,” he says, with Dare patiently waiting for him to twist it into a compliment. Boggs continues to twist the knife. “Freshman year I was just praying that he made the team.” Wait for it. Wait for it. “But by the end of the season, he was starting, it was incredible.” There it is.
Dare offered his own version of the story, the implicit argument being that he could wipe the gym floor with Bogdan these days. “I didn’t start playing hoops till 6th grade, and I never once made the A team at St. Pius [where he went to 6th through 8th grade]. “But then after 8th grade, I realized that I really wanted to play hoops in high school, so I went to Koubek camp [a popular and excellent local summer sleepover basketball camp] and I improved so much there.”
In fact, the summer basketball programs – both camps and AAU leagues – have really had a big effect on Bodgan, Dare, and much of the Shaker team. That’s pretty amazing to someone who grew up in the late 80’s, when the only summer basketball options were Shaker’s one-week camp and the playground games at Latham little league.
“We all go to Koubek camp – me, Bogs, Hooks, and we always have a great time. We don’t play on the same team, but we always hang out together at the cabins. It’s really fun. I also play AAU. Hooks’ dad started a new team, the Adirondack storm, and me, Hooks, Eddie, and Fallon play on that.”
Because of track commitments, Bogdan can’t play AAU. He’s a big fan of the camps, though. “You get to see all the local players. You really get a good feel for what’s out there in section II, and not just in Class AA, but everyone.”
At this point, the librarian kicks us out and we have to continue the interview in Taft cafeteria. I begin to ask about the other guys on the team, and before I can finish the question they both jump right in.
“First off, playing with Brad is ridiculous,” says Bodgan. “Just the stuff he does at practice, you don’t think you’ll ever see that from someone on your team. Just the way he opens the game up.” Dare concurs. “In practice, if you get a stop on him, it just boosts your confidence so much. And really it’s the same thing with Griff. If you’re playing with someone that strong, it’s going to help you get better. Our practices are just so hard and so physical, it makes the games and the opponents seem so much easier.”
Given their penchant for emotional play, it isn’t surprising how they instantly answer when I ask them who their favorite player on the team is:
“Far and away, it’s Griff,” says Dare, as Bodgan nods in agreement. "His emotion is just unbelievable. He just plays his heart out every single game. He never quits. His emotion toward the game is just amazing. And he always brings up the other players. If someone is in a slump, he just picks them up. He’s such a leader.”
There’s a pause in the conversation, and then out of nowhere, Dare decides to let the Times Union have it. “One thing that’s been bothering me is the whole Suburban vs. Big 10 thing. I know the Big 10 has dominated Section 2 for a while now, but it frustrates me that we seem to get no respect in the rankings. I know it doesn’t mean anything, but still.”
It’s the most dead-serious comment I’ve gotten from either of them about anything, and I use the opportunity to shift topics. Crossing my fingers and not knowing what to expect, I turn their attention to the Maginn game.
“Utterly frustrating,” Bodgan offers after thinking for about 5 seconds. I’m not sure if he’s going to say anything else, but then he does. “We actually played a good game. We accomplished our goals on offense, and we held Battle in check for most of the game. But he just made some shots late. Our defense wasn’t up to par. And we were definitely annoyed by the final play. We tried doing it at practice – stealing the ball, dribbling to the hoop and shooting a layup in 3 seconds – and we didn’t think it was possible.”
Dare was even more direct. “One word to describe my feelings after the game: frightened. That was just a scary locker room. People were really mad. But Coach Holmes calmed us down. He just said there was nothing we could do about it, so we can’t let it affect us going forward. That actually really set the tone. We could have gotten down about it for a long time.”
As it turned out, they did bounce back quickly, beating Niskayuna 55-53 the following Tuesday, although they did blow a 14-point lead in the 4th quarter, a recurring problem this season.
“Turnovers have been absolutely key for us this year,” suggest Dare. Against Lasalle, we were just throwing it away. We couldn’t execute our pressbreak. It was just terrible. At Nisky, it was more the pressure than anything else. But we have to improve.”
Bogdan then suggests that they are working hard on it. “Nonstop in practice. We put in some new pressbreaks, and we’re really focusing in on the turnovers.” And ever since that point in the season, it has gotten better: for five straight games now, the press breaking has been good and the turnovers – particularly the unforced throwaways – have been way down.
Bodgan credits Coach Holmes.“He’s a great teacher. He can yell, but he usually stays calm. He doesn’t get angry, he just tells us what we have to do and lets us go to it. And that works well with this team, I think.”
Dare thinks for a moment and then adds a counterpoint. “Sometimes he tries to motivate us by getting all fired up. At halftime during the BHBL game, we were only up 19-18 and he really worked us over. It definitely got me going, and I think it really got the team going. We ended up winning by 14. But don’t get the wrong impression, he’s definitely not a drill sergeant. I think he really likes how the team has bonded, and that we joke around and all.”
These two? Joke around? They’ve only been needling each other and telling gossip stories for half an hour at this point. It’s enough to make me wonder how they ever manage to bring the intensity to the court that they do. I try to pry a bit deeper.
“We like to joke around on the bus before the game,” explains Dare. “And maybe even a little bit during the JV game. But you should see how the attitude changes when we head into the locker room. From then on, it’s all business. And I mean all business.”
But joke around they do. Three times during the interview, Bogdan takes us “off the record” because he’s just dying to tell a funny story from the season but isn’t sure how it will look in print.
I steer the conversation back to the pasta party they had mentioned earlier, hoping to get some more insight about the social dynamics of the team. Before I can even ask a question, they both look at each other and start laughing. This should be good.
“Well, it was Griff’s birthday, and his mom get him a zing-o-gram,” explained Bodgan. “It was a fake cop. So there was this knock at the door and then all of sudden there’s this cop demanding to search everyone for who knows what, and no one has any idea what was going on. It was unreal. You should have seen the look on Griff’s face. Priceless.”
“Then this guy dressed like a referee comes in and starts rapping,” adds Dare. “It’s funny because before the season started we weren’t quite sure how the two grades were going to interact, because the seniors were really tight and the juniors were really tight too. But now it’s just one big thing. It’s awesome.”
“It’s those kind of things that make the season really fun,” adds Bodgan, who starts to add some more juicy details before (wisely) opting to shift the conversation off the record again. More fodder for the gossip column.
The interview has now gone on for an hour, but neither of them show any signs of slowing down. Then all of a sudden Bodgan looks up at the clock, sees the time, and says, “Oh, crap, we gotta get going Ryan. We’re going to be late.” They're out of the cafeteria in a flash, and just like that the interview is over. I look down at the timer on my ipod. Sixty-seven minutes. Wow.
Three hours later, I’m sitting in the bleachers at Saratoga. For the first time all season, Shaker is using a 1-3-1 trap press, and Holmes sends Bodgan in to stand at the point and hound the ball. The 6th man has broken into an extended “Boooogggg-daaaan!” chant. I look over at the bench. Dare is smiling. The ref hands the ball to the 'toga player. I look back at Bogdan. I can see it in his eyes. The atmosphere is getting to him, and this is his chance.
I usually like to start interviews by talking about specific individual plays from the season. And luckily, when Matt Bodgan and Ryan Dare are the players in question, the game sequences that come to mind first invariably involve both of them. In particular, the Maginn game stands out in my mind: three times Bodgan got the ball in the lane and decided not to shoot, but instead hit Dare with a clever pass on the low block for an easy layup and an assist.
“Yeah, he owes me a lunch for that,” Bogdan blurts out, laughing like he’s more interested in holding it over Ryan’s head than actually getting the lunch. He then turns and stares Dare down before again busting into laughter.
Dare calms things down via a lighthearted matter-of-fact explanation. “After the game, my parents said that I should buy him a lunch. I haven’t yet, but it may happen. He certainly hasn’t forgotten,” he observes, shaking his head but also smiling. Good lord, I think. These two must be really good friends. And perhaps a bit more selfishly, And boy do they like to talk. Who knows where this is headed.
I immediately scrap the game plan I had devised for the interview and go off the cuff. I notice that Bodgan is wearing gameday dress clothes, but Dare is dressed casually. So I ask about it. Dare involuntarily laughs and then offers an explanation.
“We had a pasta party last night, and the whole team decided we weren’t going to dress up today. Boggs was there, but I guess he didn’t get that memo,” he deadpans, but then again starts laughing. Bodgan shakes his head and rolls his eye, as if he’s been getting this same ribbing all day, which he probably has. This is going to be a fun interview.
We’re sitting in the Shaker
That’s apparently not easy for Bodgan to do. Not only does he talk a mile a minute throughout our conversation, but he takes significant pride in his ability to get loud. “Last year, when we were on the JV, I was definitely the loudest kid in the 6th man during the varsity game. I was just ridiculous. We’d let the gym be quiet during the foul shots and I’d just yell at the foul shooter. I was really, really loud. I loved it.”
And that explains a lot. Although he probably only plays about 6 or 7 minutes a game, Bodgan is clearly the darling of the 6th man this year. Fans bring signs with his name on them, begin furious chants whenever he enters the game, and constantly yell things at him on the court.
At the Niskayuna game, I thought I even detected Bogdan acknowledging the 6th man while the ball was in play. His man had just gotten the ball on the wing and someone in the 6th man screamed, “Get in your stance, Bodgan!” It looked like he responded by nodding ever so slightly, never taking his eyes off the ball but clearly letting the fans know that he could hear them.
“Yeah, I did do that. They loved it,” he admits to me. “The thing is that once the play is going, you usually can’t really hear the crowd. That was an exception. It’s usually not like that. On the other hand, when there is a stop in the action, you definitely hear them. Certain words will get your attention. You try not to listen, but you hear it.”
I don’t believe him. Especially when he adds, “I love playing emotional basketball. I love letting the atmosphere get to me.” Right now, the library atmosphere is definitely not getting to either of them, as I spot the periodicals librarian glance over at us with a scowl.
Dare then chimes in, grinning ear to ear. “Special chants tend to get your attention. Like during the CBA game, there were a ton of those. And during the breaks, we’d hear them. I know I was listening. I try not to, but it’s hard.”
He pauses as if to analyze his statement, and then he resumes. “Look, I think this whole team is a very emotional group of players. We play with a really high energy and it’s a good mentality. Everyone realizes our chances this year and knows what’s at stake.”
And that’s a key word for both of them, I think: chances. In one sense, chances to win championships. “You know, Griff’s sneakers have ‘LC’ written on them, last chance,” says Dare. Last chance to win the section [for the seniors].” And while neither of them say it, it’s pretty clear that while it may not be the last chance for the juniors, it’s probably their best chance.
And also chances in the ‘opportunity’ sense of the word. While Bodgan and Dare were both starters on the JV team as sophomores, it’s been an adjustment for them to sit on the bench most of the game this year. “I know I’m going to get playing time,” says Dare. “Coach has confidence in all of us. But I also know we have a really talented and deep team, so I have to make the most of the time that I do get.” You can see it when Holmes taps them to go into the game. They don’t walk over to the scorer’s table. They run.
And that seems to suit both of their attitudes. If they're eager to get in the game, they're anything but cocky about their skills. In fact, you get the sense from both of them that getting into the game is as much a confidence boost as an opportunity to prove themselves. The chance to play is simultaneous the validation that you deserve to be playing.
Of course, along with these chances comes a lot of pressure.“The first two games of the year (Amsterdam and CBA), I was definitely nervous,” explains Dare. “Huge crowds, everyone had been talking about it for weeks. I know all the juniors were nervous, being the first couple games on varsity. Obviously you want to play well.”
And play well he did, scoring 7 points against Amsterdam and adding a crucial 6 against CBA, solidifying his spot in the regular rotation.
“My role is to just go in there and play as tough as I can. I try to be like Griff – get all the rebounds I can, and maybe score a couple of points. But mainly rebounding and trying to body up the big men, especially if Brad’s not in there.”The surprising thing is that Ryan is only 6’2”. But – as anyone who has seen him play can tell you – he plays much bigger than that, especially in the post. His game is somewhat reminiscent of Griff’s in that way.
Bodgan, on the other hand, took a little longer to get his sea legs. “I sat the bench against CBA, and I was honestly pretty scared – I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get into that thing.” But lately Bodgan has found himself some time as a solid role player off the bench.
“My role is more defensive, just get in there and shut down my man. Give a spark to the team. I typically guard whoever’s hot at the time among the small guys. Often that means I’m matched up against great players, like [Maginn standout] Taylor Battle. On offense I just try to get the ball to the scorers in good position – usually Brad, but I guess occasionally others, like Ryan,” as he unleashes a long grin.
That probably downplays Bogdan’s contribution. The first word most people reach for to describe his game is “smart.” He just looks like he’s always thinking on the court, and when he’s playing well, it usually pays off in the form of assists.
I detect a confidence in his voice that probably wasn’t there six weeks ago. In fact, it wasn’t a given that Bodgan was even going to play hoops this year – he’s an all-state cross-country runner who could easily have found stardom on the indoor track this year.
“Back in November and early December, I don’t think I had found my role yet. I was working hard in practice, but I was struggling. At one point I was even questioning why I didn’t just run track. I was thinking ‘we could have a national-quality 4 X 800 relay right now.’ But I kept working hard, and I was so happy after the Maginn game, when coach gave me a shot and I played well.” Bodgan still things of himself as a runner who plays hoops, not vice versa. “I run two out of three seasons, and that’s what I’m going to do in college. I think a lot of people were actually surprised I played hoop this year, because I had such a successful cross country season.”
One reason I think Bogdan stuck with the hoops is the obvious friendship he has with Dare and the other members of the team. “This is a really close team,” offers Dare. “And Matt and I have been good friends for a long time.” File that in the obvious folder, fellas.
And neither of them seems to have come by their success on talent alone. In fact, Bodgan is eager to offer his praise for Dare with a classic left-handed compliment.
“I can remember in 7th and 8th grade, I was so much better than him,” he says, with Dare patiently waiting for him to twist it into a compliment. Boggs continues to twist the knife. “Freshman year I was just praying that he made the team.” Wait for it. Wait for it. “But by the end of the season, he was starting, it was incredible.” There it is.
Dare offered his own version of the story, the implicit argument being that he could wipe the gym floor with Bogdan these days. “I didn’t start playing hoops till 6th grade, and I never once made the A team at St. Pius [where he went to 6th through 8th grade]. “But then after 8th grade, I realized that I really wanted to play hoops in high school, so I went to Koubek camp [a popular and excellent local summer sleepover basketball camp] and I improved so much there.”
In fact, the summer basketball programs – both camps and AAU leagues – have really had a big effect on Bodgan, Dare, and much of the Shaker team. That’s pretty amazing to someone who grew up in the late 80’s, when the only summer basketball options were Shaker’s one-week camp and the playground games at Latham little league.
“We all go to Koubek camp – me, Bogs, Hooks, and we always have a great time. We don’t play on the same team, but we always hang out together at the cabins. It’s really fun. I also play AAU. Hooks’ dad started a new team, the Adirondack storm, and me, Hooks, Eddie, and Fallon play on that.”
Because of track commitments, Bogdan can’t play AAU. He’s a big fan of the camps, though. “You get to see all the local players. You really get a good feel for what’s out there in section II, and not just in Class AA, but everyone.”
At this point, the librarian kicks us out and we have to continue the interview in Taft cafeteria. I begin to ask about the other guys on the team, and before I can finish the question they both jump right in.
“First off, playing with Brad is ridiculous,” says Bodgan. “Just the stuff he does at practice, you don’t think you’ll ever see that from someone on your team. Just the way he opens the game up.” Dare concurs. “In practice, if you get a stop on him, it just boosts your confidence so much. And really it’s the same thing with Griff. If you’re playing with someone that strong, it’s going to help you get better. Our practices are just so hard and so physical, it makes the games and the opponents seem so much easier.”
Given their penchant for emotional play, it isn’t surprising how they instantly answer when I ask them who their favorite player on the team is:
“Far and away, it’s Griff,” says Dare, as Bodgan nods in agreement. "His emotion is just unbelievable. He just plays his heart out every single game. He never quits. His emotion toward the game is just amazing. And he always brings up the other players. If someone is in a slump, he just picks them up. He’s such a leader.”
There’s a pause in the conversation, and then out of nowhere, Dare decides to let the Times Union have it. “One thing that’s been bothering me is the whole Suburban vs. Big 10 thing. I know the Big 10 has dominated Section 2 for a while now, but it frustrates me that we seem to get no respect in the rankings. I know it doesn’t mean anything, but still.”
It’s the most dead-serious comment I’ve gotten from either of them about anything, and I use the opportunity to shift topics. Crossing my fingers and not knowing what to expect, I turn their attention to the Maginn game.
“Utterly frustrating,” Bodgan offers after thinking for about 5 seconds. I’m not sure if he’s going to say anything else, but then he does. “We actually played a good game. We accomplished our goals on offense, and we held Battle in check for most of the game. But he just made some shots late. Our defense wasn’t up to par. And we were definitely annoyed by the final play. We tried doing it at practice – stealing the ball, dribbling to the hoop and shooting a layup in 3 seconds – and we didn’t think it was possible.”
Dare was even more direct. “One word to describe my feelings after the game: frightened. That was just a scary locker room. People were really mad. But Coach Holmes calmed us down. He just said there was nothing we could do about it, so we can’t let it affect us going forward. That actually really set the tone. We could have gotten down about it for a long time.”
As it turned out, they did bounce back quickly, beating Niskayuna 55-53 the following Tuesday, although they did blow a 14-point lead in the 4th quarter, a recurring problem this season.
“Turnovers have been absolutely key for us this year,” suggest Dare. Against Lasalle, we were just throwing it away. We couldn’t execute our pressbreak. It was just terrible. At Nisky, it was more the pressure than anything else. But we have to improve.”
Bogdan then suggests that they are working hard on it. “Nonstop in practice. We put in some new pressbreaks, and we’re really focusing in on the turnovers.” And ever since that point in the season, it has gotten better: for five straight games now, the press breaking has been good and the turnovers – particularly the unforced throwaways – have been way down.
Bodgan credits Coach Holmes.“He’s a great teacher. He can yell, but he usually stays calm. He doesn’t get angry, he just tells us what we have to do and lets us go to it. And that works well with this team, I think.”
Dare thinks for a moment and then adds a counterpoint. “Sometimes he tries to motivate us by getting all fired up. At halftime during the BHBL game, we were only up 19-18 and he really worked us over. It definitely got me going, and I think it really got the team going. We ended up winning by 14. But don’t get the wrong impression, he’s definitely not a drill sergeant. I think he really likes how the team has bonded, and that we joke around and all.”
These two? Joke around? They’ve only been needling each other and telling gossip stories for half an hour at this point. It’s enough to make me wonder how they ever manage to bring the intensity to the court that they do. I try to pry a bit deeper.
“We like to joke around on the bus before the game,” explains Dare. “And maybe even a little bit during the JV game. But you should see how the attitude changes when we head into the locker room. From then on, it’s all business. And I mean all business.”
But joke around they do. Three times during the interview, Bogdan takes us “off the record” because he’s just dying to tell a funny story from the season but isn’t sure how it will look in print.
I steer the conversation back to the pasta party they had mentioned earlier, hoping to get some more insight about the social dynamics of the team. Before I can even ask a question, they both look at each other and start laughing. This should be good.
“Well, it was Griff’s birthday, and his mom get him a zing-o-gram,” explained Bodgan. “It was a fake cop. So there was this knock at the door and then all of sudden there’s this cop demanding to search everyone for who knows what, and no one has any idea what was going on. It was unreal. You should have seen the look on Griff’s face. Priceless.”
“Then this guy dressed like a referee comes in and starts rapping,” adds Dare. “It’s funny because before the season started we weren’t quite sure how the two grades were going to interact, because the seniors were really tight and the juniors were really tight too. But now it’s just one big thing. It’s awesome.”
“It’s those kind of things that make the season really fun,” adds Bodgan, who starts to add some more juicy details before (wisely) opting to shift the conversation off the record again. More fodder for the gossip column.
The interview has now gone on for an hour, but neither of them show any signs of slowing down. Then all of a sudden Bodgan looks up at the clock, sees the time, and says, “Oh, crap, we gotta get going Ryan. We’re going to be late.” They're out of the cafeteria in a flash, and just like that the interview is over. I look down at the timer on my ipod. Sixty-seven minutes. Wow.
Three hours later, I’m sitting in the bleachers at Saratoga. For the first time all season, Shaker is using a 1-3-1 trap press, and Holmes sends Bodgan in to stand at the point and hound the ball. The 6th man has broken into an extended “Boooogggg-daaaan!” chant. I look over at the bench. Dare is smiling. The ref hands the ball to the 'toga player. I look back at Bogdan. I can see it in his eyes. The atmosphere is getting to him, and this is his chance.
News flash: Is it possible someone over in the sports department at the Times Union is studying Girmindl's Ghost? Because just three days after taking them to task over their area rankings, the new rankings show a much more logical ordering for Class AA:
Still hoping to get the Bodgan/Dare interview up later today...
Class AA rankings:Now look, I don't think there's a big difference between CBA, Shaker, Albany, and Maginn. And I don't even think there's much of a gap between Schenectady and the field. But I do think these are much more reasonable rankings than last week. I mean, it was just silly when Maginn was ranked #2 but was in fourth place in the Big 10. That made no sense whatsoever. Glad they got it rectified. And wow, those are five darn good basketball teams. Sectionals are going to be a war, eh?
1. Schenectday (13-1, 10-1 Big 10)
2. CBA (12-3, 9-2 Big 10)
3. Shaker (12-3, 10-1 Suburban)
4. Albany (10-5, 8-3 Big 10)
5. Bishop Maginn (10-5, 6-5 Big 10)
Still hoping to get the Bodgan/Dare interview up later today...
Today (1/27) in 1980: Shaker did not play. Next game is 1/29/1980, home against Bethlehem.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
BHS Preview / Odds and Ends: I'm going to preview the Bethlehem game today, because tomorrow I'm posting the long-anticipated Bogdan/Dare interview, and I'm pretty sure that deserves stand-alone status. But first, a bunch of loose ends to tie up:
1) Game location tomorrow night: A bunch of people have emailed me about the location of the game tomorrow. It's at Sage College of Albany (used to be JCA) on New Scotland Ave. I think Bethlehem had a flood or something that took out their gym a while back. Here's a link to the Bethlehem athletics page that confirms the location.
2) Increased readership, thanks TU: I've been pretty hard on the Times Union lately - I've trashed their rankings, I've mocked their "fantasy" article - so it's worth mentioning that they have tripled my readership since they began advertising Girmind's Ghost on their website. Thank you, TU.
3) Colonie Spotlight Article: In this week's edition of the Colonie Spotlight, there's a nice profile of Girmindl's Ghost by Shaker senior Matt Rucinski. Sweet, even more readership. If you'd like to read it, it will be here for the remainder of the week. It's a good read, and I even accidentally slam Brad at one point.***
4) On the record with the Coach: On Tuesday I sat down with Coach Holmes for a 40-minute interview. Went well. Look for it on Girmindl's Ghost sometime next week.
5) Picture this: This is just a funny story. When I went to get the picture of the banner for yesterday's post, it turned out that the model airplane club was using the gym. So I asked their advisor if he minded if I took a few pictures while they were in there, and I think he thought I was going to take pictures of the club. He proceeded to tell the kids to "look at the camera" when they threw their planes. Um, no. I'm just here to photograph the felt hanging from the wall. Very awkward when I left after taking zero shots of the club. But very hillarious.
6) Must have been interesting: My tracking software can tell me how people got to Girmindl's Ghost - if they used a search engine, or what website they linked from, etc. So I was looking through that stuff today when I found that one visitor got here by searching msn.com for "Mohonason cheerleaders," which brought them to the Mohon recap in which my mom called the Mohon cheer squad "skanky." That's so awesome on so many levels. So many levels.
BHS Preview
Shaker plays tomorrow night at Bethlehem. SJC and I will be there. For those of you who followed the team last year, you might recall that the Bethlehem game was a disaster: coming off a blowout at Mohon, Shaker never really got it going and lost at home to a BHS team that really wasn't very good. And so now we find the team again coming off a blowout of Mohon. Let's hope we get better results that we did a year ago against BHS.
I think we will. Bethlehem is 4-7 in the Suburban this year, with losses to AP, B. Spa, Nisky, Columbia, Shen, and Colonie twice. They've beaten BHBL, Saratoga, Mohon, and Guilderland. That's not very impressive. The Eagles are led by 6'0" junior Kevin Stempsey, who is one of the top scorers in the league, as well as a top 10 pick in my section 2 fantasy draft. Averaging 18 pts/game, he's hit 32 3-pointers this year. Definitelt dangerous. The Eagles also get decent production from senior guard Craig Orner, who is averaging about 10 pts/game. The real danger, though, is the 3's - they've made more of them than Guilderland this year, and we all know how trigger happy that team is.
Still, Shaker is clearly the superior team in this matchup. Four things I'm watching for tomorrow night:
#1) Griff's ankle: Everyone I've talked to says he's doing much better and should be good to go tomorrow night. I hope that's the case.
#2) Guard play: My wife claims that the frontline - Brad, Griff, and Duc - is going to give you a darn good offensive performance virtually every night - something like 40 points. Given that, she says the real key for the Bison this year has been how well the guards play. She notes that Hans and EC have been fantastic during the current winning streak. So we're going to pay special attention to the guards tomorrow night.
#3) Defensive rebounding: Looked much better against Mohon, but on the other hand, what didn't look good against Mohon? I usually track a few of the secondary stats at the game. Tomorrow I'll be looking at boards.
#4) 6th man creativity: I'll admit it - I sometimes like the "road" 6th man better than the home one. Since there are usually fewer members on the road, you get a less polished and more improvisational repetoire - spontaneous individual catcalls, the trying out of new chants, and some generally wacky behavior. Saratoga definitely comes to mind in that regard, as does the miniature 6th man at Guilderland.
Prediction: Everything points to a convincing Bison victory. I have no reason to think otherwise. BHS is not very good, Shaker is on a roll, I feel confident. Shaker 67, BHS 51.
I'll have the teaser recap up when I get home from the game tomorrow night. Full report Saturday AM. Hope to see you at the game, stop by and say hi! Gooooooooo, Vernon!
Footnotes
-----------
***I was asked to compare Brad to Perkins, and I intended to say 3 things: that Perkins had a more dominating high school career overall, and that Perkins was a better rebounder, but that Brad has better range than Sam did in high school and Brad is also a better passer. Either I forgot to say it that way (probable) or Rucinski threw me under the bus (doubtful), because nothing after the "but" got into the Spotlight. Good times.
1) Game location tomorrow night: A bunch of people have emailed me about the location of the game tomorrow. It's at Sage College of Albany (used to be JCA) on New Scotland Ave. I think Bethlehem had a flood or something that took out their gym a while back. Here's a link to the Bethlehem athletics page that confirms the location.
2) Increased readership, thanks TU: I've been pretty hard on the Times Union lately - I've trashed their rankings, I've mocked their "fantasy" article - so it's worth mentioning that they have tripled my readership since they began advertising Girmind's Ghost on their website. Thank you, TU.
3) Colonie Spotlight Article: In this week's edition of the Colonie Spotlight, there's a nice profile of Girmindl's Ghost by Shaker senior Matt Rucinski. Sweet, even more readership. If you'd like to read it, it will be here for the remainder of the week. It's a good read, and I even accidentally slam Brad at one point.***
4) On the record with the Coach: On Tuesday I sat down with Coach Holmes for a 40-minute interview. Went well. Look for it on Girmindl's Ghost sometime next week.
5) Picture this: This is just a funny story. When I went to get the picture of the banner for yesterday's post, it turned out that the model airplane club was using the gym. So I asked their advisor if he minded if I took a few pictures while they were in there, and I think he thought I was going to take pictures of the club. He proceeded to tell the kids to "look at the camera" when they threw their planes. Um, no. I'm just here to photograph the felt hanging from the wall. Very awkward when I left after taking zero shots of the club. But very hillarious.
6) Must have been interesting: My tracking software can tell me how people got to Girmindl's Ghost - if they used a search engine, or what website they linked from, etc. So I was looking through that stuff today when I found that one visitor got here by searching msn.com for "Mohonason cheerleaders," which brought them to the Mohon recap in which my mom called the Mohon cheer squad "skanky." That's so awesome on so many levels. So many levels.
BHS Preview
Shaker plays tomorrow night at Bethlehem. SJC and I will be there. For those of you who followed the team last year, you might recall that the Bethlehem game was a disaster: coming off a blowout at Mohon, Shaker never really got it going and lost at home to a BHS team that really wasn't very good. And so now we find the team again coming off a blowout of Mohon. Let's hope we get better results that we did a year ago against BHS.
I think we will. Bethlehem is 4-7 in the Suburban this year, with losses to AP, B. Spa, Nisky, Columbia, Shen, and Colonie twice. They've beaten BHBL, Saratoga, Mohon, and Guilderland. That's not very impressive. The Eagles are led by 6'0" junior Kevin Stempsey, who is one of the top scorers in the league, as well as a top 10 pick in my section 2 fantasy draft. Averaging 18 pts/game, he's hit 32 3-pointers this year. Definitelt dangerous. The Eagles also get decent production from senior guard Craig Orner, who is averaging about 10 pts/game. The real danger, though, is the 3's - they've made more of them than Guilderland this year, and we all know how trigger happy that team is.
Still, Shaker is clearly the superior team in this matchup. Four things I'm watching for tomorrow night:
#1) Griff's ankle: Everyone I've talked to says he's doing much better and should be good to go tomorrow night. I hope that's the case.
#2) Guard play: My wife claims that the frontline - Brad, Griff, and Duc - is going to give you a darn good offensive performance virtually every night - something like 40 points. Given that, she says the real key for the Bison this year has been how well the guards play. She notes that Hans and EC have been fantastic during the current winning streak. So we're going to pay special attention to the guards tomorrow night.
#3) Defensive rebounding: Looked much better against Mohon, but on the other hand, what didn't look good against Mohon? I usually track a few of the secondary stats at the game. Tomorrow I'll be looking at boards.
#4) 6th man creativity: I'll admit it - I sometimes like the "road" 6th man better than the home one. Since there are usually fewer members on the road, you get a less polished and more improvisational repetoire - spontaneous individual catcalls, the trying out of new chants, and some generally wacky behavior. Saratoga definitely comes to mind in that regard, as does the miniature 6th man at Guilderland.
Prediction: Everything points to a convincing Bison victory. I have no reason to think otherwise. BHS is not very good, Shaker is on a roll, I feel confident. Shaker 67, BHS 51.
I'll have the teaser recap up when I get home from the game tomorrow night. Full report Saturday AM. Hope to see you at the game, stop by and say hi! Gooooooooo, Vernon!
Footnotes
-----------
***I was asked to compare Brad to Perkins, and I intended to say 3 things: that Perkins had a more dominating high school career overall, and that Perkins was a better rebounder, but that Brad has better range than Sam did in high school and Brad is also a better passer. Either I forgot to say it that way (probable) or Rucinski threw me under the bus (doubtful), because nothing after the "but" got into the Spotlight. Good times.
Today (1/26) in 1980: Shaker did not play. Next game is 1/29/1980, home against Bethlehem.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Banner Scandal, confirmed: Continuing on a story from yesterday's mailbag, it turns out I was correct about the current banner hanging in the H-gym new gym. It is wrong. I can’t remember when that banner went up – it wasn’t that long ago that they replaced them, maybe 2 or 3 years ago. But they definitely blew it.
I was over at the high school yesterday for an interview with Coach Holmes, so I took a picture of the banner:
You can see that it lists sectional championships for 1978, 1979, 1991, and 1992. But Shaker has only won the sectional title twice – 1979 and 1992. So how did the 1978 and 1991 years get up there? Homes offered his own take on the mystery, which makes sense to me:
In 1977, they were 19-1 going into the sectional final, but got blown out by a pretty good, but completely beatable, Albany High team, 78-62. Shaker’s leading scorer – 6’10” junior Dave Cole – was held to just 7 points. (Yeah, i know. Can you imagine if Cole was just a few years younger and played with Perkins and Cain? Now that frontline would have been unreal.)
In 1979 they won the section after an undefeated regular season. We’ve discussed that in detail before. Greatest final in section 2 history.
In 1980, well, that’s half of what this blog is all about, so I’m not going to give anything away there. Go read the daily recaps, the ’79-80 topics, and the namesake essay to wet your lips. Girmindl’s Ghost will deal with their sectional run in March.
In 1981, they were again 19-1 going into sectionals, but were upset in the second round by a miserable Albany High team. Leading 50-45 with a minute to go (and no 3-point line on the court), they missed three consecutive front ends of 1-and-1’s (including one with under 10 seconds to go, leading 50-49), and lost 51-50.
Ugh. Just shoot me. That’s right, they were a combined 78-2 in the regular seasons of ’77,’79,’80, and ’81, and they got the title once. Once.
As long as we're talking history, we might as well do the whole thing. Three other times in the last 30 years – 1976, 1992, and 1994 – they were legitimate contenders. Maybe not the best team, but certainly a factor***:
In 1976, they made the sectional finals with a 14-6 record, but lost to top-seeded Albany High in a very tight finish, 71-68. Down 52-39, they took the lead late in the 3rd after going on a 14-0 run. But they couldn’t keep it.
In 1992, they won, although they probably weren’t the best team – they were something like 15-5 during the regular season. Columbia was 19-2 or so, and CBA was also about 19-2 (although Shaker beat them in the regular season). But the Bison beat CBA in the sectional semis and Columbia by 2 in the finals.
In 1994, Shaker was definitely not the best team – they didn’t even win the Suburban –but they made the sectional finals, only to lose to – you guessed it – Albany High.
So yes, Shaker has had seven good shots at the section - where they were either the best team or made the sectional finals - in the last 30 years. Twice they came away with it. Four times they were turned back by Albany High. And in 1980, well, stayed tuned…
Footnotes
---------------
***An argument can be made that they were a factor in 1998, but that’s only if you believe Schenectady could be beaten, which I don't. 1997 is a whole different issue - I simply don't remember. They did win the Suburban, but I can't remember the sectionals. I'll look into it.
I was over at the high school yesterday for an interview with Coach Holmes, so I took a picture of the banner:
You can see that it lists sectional championships for 1978, 1979, 1991, and 1992. But Shaker has only won the sectional title twice – 1979 and 1992. So how did the 1978 and 1991 years get up there? Homes offered his own take on the mystery, which makes sense to me:
I think what happened is that whoever made the banner asked what years we won the section, and was told ’78-79 and 91-92,’ [in reference to the academic years]. They misinterpreted that to mean all four years.Hilarious, but also cruel. Because in a just world where the best team always won, Shaker would have 4 sectional titles – 1977, 1979, 1980, and 1981. In those four years, they were the top seed in sectionals:
In 1977, they were 19-1 going into the sectional final, but got blown out by a pretty good, but completely beatable, Albany High team, 78-62. Shaker’s leading scorer – 6’10” junior Dave Cole – was held to just 7 points. (Yeah, i know. Can you imagine if Cole was just a few years younger and played with Perkins and Cain? Now that frontline would have been unreal.)
In 1979 they won the section after an undefeated regular season. We’ve discussed that in detail before. Greatest final in section 2 history.
In 1980, well, that’s half of what this blog is all about, so I’m not going to give anything away there. Go read the daily recaps, the ’79-80 topics, and the namesake essay to wet your lips. Girmindl’s Ghost will deal with their sectional run in March.
In 1981, they were again 19-1 going into sectionals, but were upset in the second round by a miserable Albany High team. Leading 50-45 with a minute to go (and no 3-point line on the court), they missed three consecutive front ends of 1-and-1’s (including one with under 10 seconds to go, leading 50-49), and lost 51-50.
Ugh. Just shoot me. That’s right, they were a combined 78-2 in the regular seasons of ’77,’79,’80, and ’81, and they got the title once. Once.
As long as we're talking history, we might as well do the whole thing. Three other times in the last 30 years – 1976, 1992, and 1994 – they were legitimate contenders. Maybe not the best team, but certainly a factor***:
In 1976, they made the sectional finals with a 14-6 record, but lost to top-seeded Albany High in a very tight finish, 71-68. Down 52-39, they took the lead late in the 3rd after going on a 14-0 run. But they couldn’t keep it.
In 1992, they won, although they probably weren’t the best team – they were something like 15-5 during the regular season. Columbia was 19-2 or so, and CBA was also about 19-2 (although Shaker beat them in the regular season). But the Bison beat CBA in the sectional semis and Columbia by 2 in the finals.
In 1994, Shaker was definitely not the best team – they didn’t even win the Suburban –but they made the sectional finals, only to lose to – you guessed it – Albany High.
So yes, Shaker has had seven good shots at the section - where they were either the best team or made the sectional finals - in the last 30 years. Twice they came away with it. Four times they were turned back by Albany High. And in 1980, well, stayed tuned…
Footnotes
---------------
***An argument can be made that they were a factor in 1998, but that’s only if you believe Schenectady could be beaten, which I don't. 1997 is a whole different issue - I simply don't remember. They did win the Suburban, but I can't remember the sectionals. I'll look into it.
Today (1/25) in 1980: Shaker traveled to Shen, hoping for a rerun of the second game of the season, when the Bison buried the Plainsmen 93-65. They got what they wanted.
Shaker started the game slow, and only held an 11-8 lead at the end of the first quarter. But they started to pull away in the second, outscoring Shen 17-8 to take a 28-16 halftime lead. In the 3rd quarter, Shaker put them away, winning the quarter 24-6. Perkins scored 14 in the 3rd to spark the run. With the score 52-21, Girmindl emptied the bench and the Bison coasted to a 71-47 victory.
Sam finished with 27 points, exactly equal to his season average thus far. He also held Shen’s best player – Dave McClure – to just one field goal and four points. Jeff Tuecke added 8, as did Brundidge and Howard.
Partial Boxscore:
Shaker (71) – Perkins 13 1 27; Cain 1 5 7; Tuecke 4 0 8; Brundige 3 2 8; Mitchell 1 0 2; LaLiberte 2 0 4; Barker 1 2 4; Roche 2 0 4; Brennan 0 1 1; Howard 3 2 8. Total 29 13 71.
Shaker: 11 17 24 19 - 71
Shen: 8 8 6 25 – 47
Record: 13-0 (11-0 Suburban Council)
Next 1979-80 game: 1/29/1980, home against Bethlehem.
Shaker started the game slow, and only held an 11-8 lead at the end of the first quarter. But they started to pull away in the second, outscoring Shen 17-8 to take a 28-16 halftime lead. In the 3rd quarter, Shaker put them away, winning the quarter 24-6. Perkins scored 14 in the 3rd to spark the run. With the score 52-21, Girmindl emptied the bench and the Bison coasted to a 71-47 victory.
Sam finished with 27 points, exactly equal to his season average thus far. He also held Shen’s best player – Dave McClure – to just one field goal and four points. Jeff Tuecke added 8, as did Brundidge and Howard.
Partial Boxscore:
Shaker (71) – Perkins 13 1 27; Cain 1 5 7; Tuecke 4 0 8; Brundige 3 2 8; Mitchell 1 0 2; LaLiberte 2 0 4; Barker 1 2 4; Roche 2 0 4; Brennan 0 1 1; Howard 3 2 8. Total 29 13 71.
Shaker: 11 17 24 19 - 71
Shen: 8 8 6 25 – 47
Record: 13-0 (11-0 Suburban Council)
Next 1979-80 game: 1/29/1980, home against Bethlehem.
Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Times Union Area Rankings: As you probably know by now, I’m no fan of the Times Union’s high school hoops coverage. This is mostly because I don’t think they dedicate enough space to it, but it’s also because I’ve always felt they have a pretty strong Big 10 bias. Today, I’m going to examine their area rankings.
Here are the Class AA rankings as published by the Times Union last Friday (1/20), along with their explanation of how the rankings are done:
Boys basketball rankings are determined from overall and league records and from head-to-head matchups as of January 18th.
1. Schenectady
2. Bishop Magin
3. CBA
4. Albany
5. Shaker
Just so that we have all the facts here, here are the overall and league records of each of these teams as of last Friday:
Ok. So if I'm looking at this correctly, the TU rankings are really fishy, at least if we judge them by their own logic: Boys basketball rankings are determined from overall and league records and from head-to-head matchups as of January 18th. Because if we rank the teams by overall record, it looks like this:
1. Schenectday, 11-1
2. Shaker, 11-3
3. CBA, 10-3
4. Maginn, 9-4
5. Albany, 9-5
And if we rank them by league record, well, it looks like this:
1. Shaker, 9-1
2. Schenectady, 8-1
3. CBA, 7-2
4. Albany, 7-3
5. Maginn, 5-4
Ok, so what about head to head records? Let's look at all the encounters between these five teams:
Schenectday: 4-0, with a +26 point differential (beat Albany by 1; beat CBA by 5; beat Maginn by 8; beat Albany by 12)
Maginn: 2-2, with a -7 point differential (lost to Albany by 5; beat CBA by 2; beat Shaker by 2; lost to Schenctday by 8)
Shaker: 1-1, with a -1 point differential(beat CBA by 1; lost to Maginn by 2)
CBA: 2-3, with a -2 point differential (beat Albany by 2; beat Albany by 3; lost to Schenctady by 5; lost to Maginn by 2; lost to Shaker by 1)
Albany: 1-4, with a -13 point differential (lost to Schenectady by 1; lost to CBA by 2 ; lost to CBA by 3; beat Maginn by 5 ; lost to Schenctday by 12)
Of course, none of this is perfect because the teams have played each other different amounts of times (and playing Schenectady is clearly not in your interest for this analysis), but I still think we can say a few things:
point #1: It's obvious that Schenectady should be ranked #1. I think that is clear from the above statistics. They may or may not be the best team, but they have performed the best so far this season, and that's what counts for the rankings.
point #2: The four other teams - Shaker, Maginn, CBA, and Albany - seem very evenly matched. Each has beaten and lost to one of the others, and the games have generally been very close (this ignores CBA's whipping of Maginn last night.) It's pretty hard to honestly say who the second, third, and fourth best teams are.
point #3: That said, there is no way the TU should have Shaker behind Albany in their rankings. No way. Shaker is ahead of them in every category that the TU uses - overall record, league record, and among head-to-head matchups bewteen the top 5 schools. Just absurd. Should Shaker be behind CBA and Maginn? Maybe. Maybe not. If you simply go by what the TU says you should go by, I think Shaker should be ahead of them. But if you add in some additional factors (discussed below), I can understand why they are behind them.
point #4: No way Maginn can be ranked #2. Even before last night. That's just silly. As of last Friday, they were 5-4 in the Big 1o. Obviously, CBA has now rectified this error, so it's a moot point.
Ok, so what are some other factors we might want to take into account when we try to stack these teams up, given that they seem awfully close (except for Schenectady) right now:
factor #1, conference: Obviously, if the Big 10 has 4 of the top 5 and the Suburban just 1, it might behoove us to admit the Big 10 is better this year overall. Now, we partially mitigate this by looking at the head-to-head matchups. But it's still true that Maginn, Albany, CBA, and Schenectady play a harder schedule than Shaker. So that's a point for each of them.
On the other hand, you can take this too far. For the last 40 years, it has been common practice to assume the Big 10 schools ( or the "city schools" prior to the formation of the Big 10) are generally better than the Suburban schools. And, my god, does the TU ever play this up. Did you ever notice how much they hupe the matchups betweeen the Big 10 powerhouses? You'd think the Suburban didn't exist sometimes, given the way they treat the Big 10. Annoying.
factor #2, other wins/losses: One thing we want to check out when ranking teams are the quality wins and/or bad losses they have on the side. So discounting any of the heads up play, what do these five teams have in those categories:
Schenectady: quality outside wins over Carnasie and Cardinal Hayes; bad loss to CCHS;
Shaker: no quality outside wins (lost to Averill Park in OT); 1 bad loss to Lasalle.
CBA: quality win over Averill Park; no bad outside losses.
Maginn: no quality outside wins; no bad outside losses.
Albany: no quality outside wins; no bad outside losses.
And right there is where I think Shaker gets really hurt in these rankings. I think the editors of the rankings look at that loss to Lasalle and wonder. I guarantee you, if Shaker had not lost to Lasalle (or had beaten AP), things would look very different. Because if their only losses were to AP in overtime and Maginn by 2 (both games they had in control), people would have little to point at.
factor #3, Battle's injury: Taylor Battle missed a key stretch of games for Maginn. And I think that's why the TU editors are forgiving Maginn's weak conference record.
Overall, then, I think you can see why Shaker is 5th in the eyes of the TU editors. Obviously, they aren't just going by schedule and heads-up mathcups like they say. They are taking into account things like conference evaluations, outside wins/losses, and Battle's injury to arrive at their standings. Otherwise, there's no way Maginn is #2. No way.
Still, Shaker should be ahead of Albany. All that Albany has on their resume is a win over Maginn and some tough games against CBA and Schenectady. They might be better than Shaker, but they certainliy don't have the resume to be ranked higher. And that's true of all of these teams, more or less. Schenectday deserves it's #1 ranking, but after that I think it's a crapshoot as to who is actually the second best team. And the really good news is that this is not Schenectday '98, or even '02 - any of these five teams has a crack at sectionals.
Bouns question: who cares about the TU rankings? Well, that's a good point. The only real reason to care is that these rankings will have an influence on the section 2 basketball committee when they make the seeds for sectionals. But that doesn't really matter because they seed the Suburban and Big Ten separately (so Shaker would not be the "5 seed" or "4 seed," but just simply the #1 seed from the Suburban. So, honestly, it's not anything to really get in a twist about. It's just a ranking.
Here are the Class AA rankings as published by the Times Union last Friday (1/20), along with their explanation of how the rankings are done:
Boys basketball rankings are determined from overall and league records and from head-to-head matchups as of January 18th.
1. Schenectady
2. Bishop Magin
3. CBA
4. Albany
5. Shaker
Just so that we have all the facts here, here are the overall and league records of each of these teams as of last Friday:
BIG TEN TEAMS
| Team | W | L | PCT | | W | L | PCT |
| Schenectady | 8 | 1 | 0.900 | | 11 | 1 | 0.923 |
| CBA | 7 | 2 | 0.818 | | 10 | 3 | 0.800 |
| Albany | 7 | 3 | 0.727 | | 9 | 5 | 0.667 |
| Bishop Maginn | 5 | 4 | 0.545 | | 9 | 4 | 0.667 |
SUBURBAN TEAMS
| Team | W | L | PCT | | W | L | PCT |
| Blue Division | |||||||
| Shaker | 9 | 1 | 0.909 | | 11 | 3 | 0.800 |
Ok. So if I'm looking at this correctly, the TU rankings are really fishy, at least if we judge them by their own logic: Boys basketball rankings are determined from overall and league records and from head-to-head matchups as of January 18th. Because if we rank the teams by overall record, it looks like this:
1. Schenectday, 11-1
2. Shaker, 11-3
3. CBA, 10-3
4. Maginn, 9-4
5. Albany, 9-5
And if we rank them by league record, well, it looks like this:
1. Shaker, 9-1
2. Schenectady, 8-1
3. CBA, 7-2
4. Albany, 7-3
5. Maginn, 5-4
Ok, so what about head to head records? Let's look at all the encounters between these five teams:
Schenectday: 4-0, with a +26 point differential (beat Albany by 1; beat CBA by 5; beat Maginn by 8; beat Albany by 12)
Maginn: 2-2, with a -7 point differential (lost to Albany by 5; beat CBA by 2; beat Shaker by 2; lost to Schenctday by 8)
Shaker: 1-1, with a -1 point differential(beat CBA by 1; lost to Maginn by 2)
CBA: 2-3, with a -2 point differential (beat Albany by 2; beat Albany by 3; lost to Schenctady by 5; lost to Maginn by 2; lost to Shaker by 1)
Albany: 1-4, with a -13 point differential (lost to Schenectady by 1; lost to CBA by 2 ; lost to CBA by 3; beat Maginn by 5 ; lost to Schenctday by 12)
Of course, none of this is perfect because the teams have played each other different amounts of times (and playing Schenectady is clearly not in your interest for this analysis), but I still think we can say a few things:
point #1: It's obvious that Schenectady should be ranked #1. I think that is clear from the above statistics. They may or may not be the best team, but they have performed the best so far this season, and that's what counts for the rankings.
point #2: The four other teams - Shaker, Maginn, CBA, and Albany - seem very evenly matched. Each has beaten and lost to one of the others, and the games have generally been very close (this ignores CBA's whipping of Maginn last night.) It's pretty hard to honestly say who the second, third, and fourth best teams are.
point #3: That said, there is no way the TU should have Shaker behind Albany in their rankings. No way. Shaker is ahead of them in every category that the TU uses - overall record, league record, and among head-to-head matchups bewteen the top 5 schools. Just absurd. Should Shaker be behind CBA and Maginn? Maybe. Maybe not. If you simply go by what the TU says you should go by, I think Shaker should be ahead of them. But if you add in some additional factors (discussed below), I can understand why they are behind them.
point #4: No way Maginn can be ranked #2. Even before last night. That's just silly. As of last Friday, they were 5-4 in the Big 1o. Obviously, CBA has now rectified this error, so it's a moot point.
Ok, so what are some other factors we might want to take into account when we try to stack these teams up, given that they seem awfully close (except for Schenectady) right now:
factor #1, conference: Obviously, if the Big 10 has 4 of the top 5 and the Suburban just 1, it might behoove us to admit the Big 10 is better this year overall. Now, we partially mitigate this by looking at the head-to-head matchups. But it's still true that Maginn, Albany, CBA, and Schenectady play a harder schedule than Shaker. So that's a point for each of them.
On the other hand, you can take this too far. For the last 40 years, it has been common practice to assume the Big 10 schools ( or the "city schools" prior to the formation of the Big 10) are generally better than the Suburban schools. And, my god, does the TU ever play this up. Did you ever notice how much they hupe the matchups betweeen the Big 10 powerhouses? You'd think the Suburban didn't exist sometimes, given the way they treat the Big 10. Annoying.
factor #2, other wins/losses: One thing we want to check out when ranking teams are the quality wins and/or bad losses they have on the side. So discounting any of the heads up play, what do these five teams have in those categories:
Schenectady: quality outside wins over Carnasie and Cardinal Hayes; bad loss to CCHS;
Shaker: no quality outside wins (lost to Averill Park in OT); 1 bad loss to Lasalle.
CBA: quality win over Averill Park; no bad outside losses.
Maginn: no quality outside wins; no bad outside losses.
Albany: no quality outside wins; no bad outside losses.
And right there is where I think Shaker gets really hurt in these rankings. I think the editors of the rankings look at that loss to Lasalle and wonder. I guarantee you, if Shaker had not lost to Lasalle (or had beaten AP), things would look very different. Because if their only losses were to AP in overtime and Maginn by 2 (both games they had in control), people would have little to point at.
factor #3, Battle's injury: Taylor Battle missed a key stretch of games for Maginn. And I think that's why the TU editors are forgiving Maginn's weak conference record.
Overall, then, I think you can see why Shaker is 5th in the eyes of the TU editors. Obviously, they aren't just going by schedule and heads-up mathcups like they say. They are taking into account things like conference evaluations, outside wins/losses, and Battle's injury to arrive at their standings. Otherwise, there's no way Maginn is #2. No way.
Still, Shaker should be ahead of Albany. All that Albany has on their resume is a win over Maginn and some tough games against CBA and Schenectady. They might be better than Shaker, but they certainliy don't have the resume to be ranked higher. And that's true of all of these teams, more or less. Schenectday deserves it's #1 ranking, but after that I think it's a crapshoot as to who is actually the second best team. And the really good news is that this is not Schenectday '98, or even '02 - any of these five teams has a crack at sectionals.
Bouns question: who cares about the TU rankings? Well, that's a good point. The only real reason to care is that these rankings will have an influence on the section 2 basketball committee when they make the seeds for sectionals. But that doesn't really matter because they seed the Suburban and Big Ten separately (so Shaker would not be the "5 seed" or "4 seed," but just simply the #1 seed from the Suburban. So, honestly, it's not anything to really get in a twist about. It's just a ranking.
