Dartmouth +15 ?

[IE]

playing them for 1st play of the season.





Men?s basketball will look to right its ship in 2007-08

Ask any athlete or coach: excuses aren?t the way to go. Even if the team?s leading scorer wasn?t 100 percent all last year and only started 17 out of the 19 games he played. Even if the team?s best rebounder and most improved player tore up his knee and didn?t play after November. Even if the team used a dozen different starting lineups due to various injuries.

Last season, Big Green men?s basketball finished the season with a 9-18 overall record, the only Ivy failing to achieve double-digit victories. Combine that with a 4-10 record within the Ivies, ahead of only Princeton (2-12), and it seems like the only way to go this year is up.

Head Coach Terry Dunn certainly refused to make excuses, even if it was nearly impossible to field a consistent lineup last year.

?It was disappointing because we had much more potential,? Dunn said. ?It was challenging because of all the injuries, and our guys played extremely hard every night to try to overcome that.?

Thankfully, this is a new year. Dartmouth returns three of last year?s starters and eight players with starting experience. While leading scorer Leon Pattman ?07 graduated, the next three scoring leaders have all returned, along with the team?s top two rebounders.

?The guys have been working extremely hard with a positive attitude,? Dunn said. ?We have very lofty expectations. Our goal is to compete every night and get back into the upper tier of the league. This is a league where anyone can win it. We?re looking to increase the tempo, get to the free throw line more and defend the perimeter better. Hopefully, this will help us close out close games better this year and give us more confidence.?

While Coach Dunn hasn?t revealed his starting lineup for Friday?s season opener against Air Force, there are maybe seven or eight players who could be considered.

At point guard, Marlon Sanders ?09 will get the nod. He has starting experience and, with a full season under his belt, Sanders has the experience and maturity for primetime.

In the two spot, DeVon Mosley ?09 will pick up starting shooting guard duties, a role that should fit him well. Playing at the point most of last year, Mosley led the Big Green with 35 three-pointers last year and had 12 games in double figures.

?There was a stretch when he couldn?t miss a shot,? Dunn said. ?He showed he?s capable of doing it. Having him at the two kind of frees up his mind to be a scorer and a shooter rather than have to run the offense and think about where everyone else has to be. We are trying not to tax him so much with responsibility and allow him to shoot more.?

Captain Michael Giovacchini ?08 will also see plenty of minutes at guard. Although Giovacchini struggled with his shot last year, he is a proven scorer and will be counted on for consistency.

?I think Mosley and Giovacchini need to shoot the ball well at the two spot for us this year to give us some added scoring with the graduation of Pattman,? Dunn said.

The two forward positions will be manned mostly by Alex Barnett ?09 and captain Johnathan Ball ?08. Barnett was Dartmouth?s most improved player last year, flashing his all-around skills throughout the season. The hope is that his performance last year will translate into an All-Ivy League season this year.

?Without question he?s someone people around the league respect,? Dunn said. ?He has the kind of talent that can carry a team.?

Ball showed how well he could hold his own at power forward, despite being undersized at 6?4?. He will be expected to score more this year.

?This is really Jon?s team,? Dunn said. ?He does so much that doesn?t show up on the scoreboard or in the stats. Leadership-wise, toughness-wise, intensity-wise, he?s the guy that sets the tone for this team with his work ethic. When you need something, Jon finds a way.?

The center position is still yet to be decided on, as Elgin Fitzgerald ?10 and Kurt Graeber ?09 have been battling for the starting position. At the moment it seems to be a toss-up.

The Big Green will be in Colorado throughout the weekend to play in the Air Force Classic tournament. The team plays Air Force first on Friday at 8 p.m., and the result will determine whether Dartmouth will face Northern Colorado or Virginia Military Institute on Saturday.

Giovacchini said that the team will be in it to win it.

?We are heading to Air Force tomorrow with the goal of winning the tournament we are playing in and getting the season off to a good start,? Giovacchini said. ?We have a lot of experience returning this year, and our young guys are learning fast.?

 

[IE]

Air Force Falcons

Coach: Jeff Reynolds, first season

2006-07 record: 26-9, 10-6 Mountain West

Postseason: NIT semifinals

Returning starter (1): G Tim Anderson, Sr., 9.1 points and 3.5 rebounds (101 assists, 62 steals).

Key nonconference games: Nov. 25 vs. Washington State (at Spokane, Wash.); Dec. 30 at Wake Forest.

Why to hope: Stability. Even though this is its fourth coaching change in the past five seasons, Air Force didn't look far for its next head man. Reynolds was Jeff Bzdelik's top assistant a season ago. Expect nearly everything to remain intact including, most important, the backdoor-happy Princeton offense. And as a head coach, Reynolds does have a track record of success, going 21-7 in one season at Division III North Carolina Wesleyan (1985-86) and 61-27 in three seasons at Wingate (N.C.) College.

But curb your enthusiasm because: Of inexperience. Gone is the core of last season's 26-win team - Nick Welch, Dan Nwaelele, Jacob Burtschi and Matt McCraw. That group won 90 games over four seasons. Air Force's trademark 3-point shooting will take a hit as Reynolds searches for ways to score with a group that isn't as deft from deep. Tim Anderson (34.8 percent on 3-pointers) is the lone returning starter, and the Falcons' fortunes will be tied to how well he performs. But without proven talent around him, don't expect similar success as AFA tries to find its feet.

 

[IE]

newspaper blog about pre-season game vs small university up here in canada.




Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Less Than Confidence Inspiring

Well, on the positive side ?

I liked the new scoreboards at Clune Arena.

Other than that?

Yikes. There weren?t too many positives to draw from the Air Force men?s basketball team?s 66-63 loss Wednesday night to Brock University, a team from Canada that does not have any scholarship players.

Yes, it was an exhibition. And, yes, Air Force is very young and inexperienced.

But the Falcons didn?t exactly play like it was an exhibition ? only nine players were given significant minutes. And they couldn?t claim it was the first time they?d played together because they had the benefit of a five-game trip to Canada in early September and two weeks of practice before that trip.

Here are some other disconcerting observations from the game:

* Brock didn?t have much size ? a pair of kids listed at 6-foot-7 who didn't seem that big and didn't seem that athletic ? but it still managed to grab as many rebounds as Air Force (29).
* Even though Air Force knew Brock would shoot a bunch of 3-pointers, the Badgers still were able to make 17 of 31. Was that an unusually good shooting performance by the Badgers? Yes, Brock?s coach admitted as much. But Air Force should have done a better job defending the 3.
* It didn?t take Brock long to figure out how to defense Air Force ? run a box-in-one defense to neutralize Tim Anderson. The Falcons will be in big trouble unless Anderson gets some help.
* A general lack of emotion, except for when Andrew Henke yelled at his teammates mid-way through the second half.

All that said, however, maybe Air Force needed something like this to make players work harder and understand the value of playing hard and with intensity every minute of every game. The players from last year?s team understood that. Maybe the guys on this year?s team need to learn it the hard way.

"Just because we lost this game, that?s not predicting the season," Anderson said. "Starting off on this kind of foot just says we need to work on our defense more and learn how to play as a team more.?


Indeed. And all of a sudden, a less-than-attractive out-of-conference schedule looks like the best thing that could happen to the Falcons.

 

[IE]

Time to step up, speak up


Air Force senior guard Tim Anderson



By JAKE SCHALLER THE GAZETTE

Air Force senior guard Tim Anderson has read the Bible since he was a kid.

Among the passages that have stuck with him is James 1:19.

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.

?So I?ve always tried to watch what I say and sit back and listen more than I talk,? said the soft-spoken Anderson, who helps organize a weekly Bible study for football and basketball players. ?Actions speak louder than words.?

During the 2007-08 Air Force men?s basketball season, however, Anderson will be asked to talk the talk as much as he walks it.

The 6-foot-3, 180-pound Anderson is the only returning starter from last season?s team that won a school-record 26 games and advanced to the National Invitation Tournament semifinals. No other Air Force player has started a game, and the next-most seasoned returnees after Anderson, who averaged 32.4 minutes, are juniors Andrew Henke (13.7) and Anwar Johnson (7.2).

So a team with a new coaching staff and more freshmen (seven) than seniors (four) will be looking to Anderson for guidance as it begins its season Friday night at 8 with a game against Dartmouth at Clune Arena.

?We need for him to be more vocal,? first-year Air Force coach Jeff Reynolds said. ?Tim?s a very quiet-natured, lowkey guy. And I think sometimes the basketball team takes on that personality. And that?s one of the things that Tim and I have talked about at length ? ?Pick your spots, but maybe energize this team a little bit. They?re going to listen to what you say.??

Anderson said he studied the seniors on previous Air Force teams and has taken what he has liked from each of their leadership styles. He also has tried to remember ?what did I need most? from older teammates at certain moments earlier in his career.

Senior Keith Maren acknowledged that Anderson is ?a quiet kid,? but added ?everybody knows Tim means business when we get on the court, and we all kind of look up to that.?

Reynolds said Anderson has done a good job so far this year of pulling younger teammates aside to teach them the intricacies of Air Force?s Princeton-style offense and match-up defense.

?It?s a learning process for him,? Reynolds said.

Anderson also is learning a new oncourt role. Last season, he often was overshadowed by Jacob Burtschi?s inyour-face game, Dan Nwaelele?s sweet shooting and Matt McCraw?s high-energy guard play.

This year there is no question Anderson is the Falcons? central player. In last week?s exhibition, it took Brock, a Canadian team, one half to ditch its defense for a box-and-one scheme designed to slow Anderson, who had scored 20 first-half points.

But there seems to be no doubt Anderson is ready for additional oncourt responsibilities ? an argument can be made that Anderson was the team?s most indispensable player last season. Former coach Jeff Bzdelik called him the team?s ?glue guy? last year and in late October said he was one of the best guards ?in the nation.?

?He does so many things to affect a game,? Bzdelik said.

As a junior Anderson averaged 9.1 points on 48.1 percent shooting, including 34.8 percent from 3-point range. In addition, he grabbed 3.5 rebounds per game (tied for third on the team), handed out 101 assists (tied for the team lead), made 62 steals (the most on the team) and blocked 13 shots (secondmost).

He also had a knack for making big plays at critical moments. In the victory at Wyoming he flew into the lane for a pair of athletic tip-ins to keep Air Force close in the second half. And in the NIT quarterfinals against DePaul, he made two steals in the final 74 seconds with his team down a point. Then, with the game on the line, he drove the lane and dished to Burtschi for the game-winning basket.

?Last year he was a very, very integral part of what we did, but he was sort of a silent assassin,? Reynolds said. ?This year all of a sudden, he?s the focus.?

 

[Mr. Poon]

I'm on them too. GL on the start of a successful season IE.

 

[HPark1]

nice information, looks good. 10-1 on the ml doesn't look bad either.

gl

 

[hookem10]

hummmmm...... how much did betjamacia give you to post that????? j/k tailin u let's get em!!!!:com:

 

[tsatts]

how bad is dartmouth 24 pts w 7 min left in nice
nice call:nono: :nono: :nono: :shrug: :scared