Cycling Circuit

Mauled In Maui

2008-11-25T06:02:00.000-08:00

I wake up at 4:30 pretty much every morning but I stayed up until midnight to watch the first half of that pitiful excuse of a game. If anyone knows what our offense is supposed to look like, would you please tell our players because our coach obviously cannot or will not do so. Our post players and wing men could not slow down, much less prohibit, an entry pass within five feet of the basket. If nothing else, why doesn't CMG take that 14 (I guess she's now 15) year old girl who sat behind me in Coleman Coliseum last year to scream at our players which of their opponents is their hot three-point shooter? I think I saw one of the coach's children on the bench behind him. Why couldn't that kid have been given the job?

I had planned to drive up for our games against Texas A&M, Georgia Tech and Arkansas. I think I'll just go to the USA games those days instead. They might not have that much talent, but at least they have a coach.

I'm out!

Late Lunge Licks Lions

2007-12-01T21:58:00.000-08:00

The Crimsonettes finally have a red headed dancer, although I'm not quite sure she is a "natural" I sure was glad to see her on the court tonight. Perhaps I should not lead an entry with that sentence after using the word "lick" in the byline, but Mrs. Alias has been out of town for two weeks and the red head was the prettiest thing I saw on the court tonight (since my favorite Crimsonette from last year evidently has graduated). Now on to the game.

I am loathe to disagree with the few other Bama Basketball fans who were willing to drive to Coleman Coliseum to watch them play a team like S.E.L.A. (there comes that cheerleader theme again!), but the people who did watch this game should not be disappointed with the team's performance. Sure, they missed their first seven shots from the free throw line (which by itself could have made a huge difference in the game) and (as alcrtide put it) they couldn't hit the ocean from the beach tonight (33.8% from the floor!), but nights like this should be expected from almost any team. And since CMG finally is trying to stress and coach defense he will not have as much time to focus on shooting as he has in seasons past. In my opinion this was not an ugly win; it was evidence of CMG's real commitment to start teaching and coaching basketball instead of "back-yard shoot 'em up," and I for one am darned glad to see it.

No one on Bama's team could hit a shot until the game was almost over. Riley, Gee and Tubbs took turns missing three point shots. Jemison could not hit his ten foot jump shot. Hollinger started at the point and didn't even try to shoot. Gee could not hit his three footers that normally float into the basket. When it became obvious that no one else could hit a bucket, SELA packed the defense around Hendrix to deny him the ball. When he did get the ball near the basket, even Hendrix new-found hook shot evaded him. Riley tried another couple of threes, to no avail. Even Hollinger finally hoisted one. It was an air ball.

Pickett substituted for Hollinger. His threes could not find the basket.

Knox came in when Hendrix picked up his second foul with about 3 minutes left in the half. Knox hit 50% from the field, but he only attempted two shots. Hendrix hit one of Bama's two first half threes. Then he promptly missed another.

The offense did bog down at times, but for the most part the kids were missing good, open shots. They worked hard to get open. Several time throughout the game the forwards (and sometimes Knox) set double screens near the foul line to get Riley or Tubbs open, but the shooters could not complete the play.

Mama said there'd be games like this. There'll be games like this, my mama said. That is why my mama told me that any good team in any sport has to learn to play defense first. Every team and every shooter suffers off nights. Not very good teams (like Bama's) will have team-wide off-shooting nights. Tonight was one of those nights. We would have lost the game if they had not been playing defense.

The stat sheet shows that SELA shot 40% from the field and 50% outside the arc. What it does not show is how hard they had to work to get those shots or that they had two hot shooters the entire game. Bama worked hard all night to deny them the ball and to harass them when they did touch it.

The Lions' 18 turnovers might be the most telling defensive statistic. At least two of those were shot clock violations. Gee was the only Bama player with two turn overs, and at least one of those happened in a failed fast-break attempt.

The effort fans have longed for years to see also was evidenced not only by Bama's 16 offensive rebounds but by their distribution as well. Gee had five and the guards collected six. Hollinger grabbed three of those.

Was this a great win? By no means. Was it a good win? It certainly was. Bama never gave up.

After missing almost every shot for 39 minutes and 38 seconds and still being only six points behind, CMG won the chess match end game for the first time in a long while. Bama got the ball and Hollinger quickly dribbled across the mid-court strip to call Bama's next to last time out. Bama patiently ran its offense until an open Riley drained a three with about 20 seconds left in regulation. Bama was awarded the ball when a shoved was called against one of the Lions underneath the basket. (Okay, so sometimes a team gets lucky on its home court!) CMG used his last time out to set up another double pick play to free Riley to tie the game. Riley's man got around the screen, hence Plan B. Tubbs got the ball and was open outside the arc as the shot clock approached zero, so he launched the game tying shot. With the defense packed around Hendrix and Riley having finally found his shooting zone, the guard hit three more three point shots in the overtime to generate and then preserve the lead. I hope the fans who left the game early at least got to hear the end on their car radios. It was much more fun to see it unfold from the stands.

Bama is not a very good team. They may well not turn into a good offensive team before this season ends. But if they keep playing the way they played tonight they could become a very good defensive team before the season is over. Since that is what I asked to see before the Crimson-White game, I am not about to complain. The shooting can and will come for many of these kids. For now I think they need to continue to focus on defense.

Roll Tide.

P.S. Does anyone know that red head's name?

Suisse Slush

2007-06-21T19:37:00.000-07:00

The blog's inaugural post summarizes Stage 6 of the 2007 Tour de Suisse which probably will be remembered more for its bizarre beginning than for its flashy finish.

Frank Schleck (whose younger brother Andy finished second overall in this year's Giro) began the stage wearing the leader's jersey over his CSC team kit. The riders had barely covered 5 kilometers when they were belted by golf ball sized hail.

The hail damaged the team cars and bikes and injured several riders, forcing them all to run for cover where ever they could find it. After the hail subsided and the riders' injuries had been treated, all the riders and teams agreed to restart the race on the other side of the climb about 95 km from the finish.

Not long after the restart a CSC rider and another from the local favorite Volksbank team attacked. Volksbank has been attacking the entire tour, keeping their riders out front for as long as they can to try to protect the sprinters jersey while gaining as much publicity for the Austrian team as they can.

Team CSC allowed the attack to stay away until just short of the final climb of the stage, reigning in the breaking riders with about 14 km to go. Schleck reached the foot of the climb with plenty of teammates to help. Eventually only Carlos Sastre was available to help pace him up the mountain while they suffered relentless attacks from many of the other leading teams. Schleck eventually cracked and was not able to keep pace with the attackers. While Sastre stayed behind to help Schleck, the attackers continued to advance up the mountain ahead of them.

Thomas Dekker of Rabobank made the last solo attack shortly before the crest of the mountain with a little more than 1 km out from the stage finish. None of the 7 other riders from the lead group could catch him, so Dekker crossed the finish line 8 seconds ahead of Volksbank's Gerrit Glosmer, who came just short of winning the stage before a near-home crowd after having been on the attack almost all day long (photo via cyclingnews.com).

It all made for a memorable and exciting race. Memorable for the carnage wrecking hail storm and exciting because of both Glosmer's and Dekker's performances. Ciasse d'Epargne's Vladimir Efimikin will wear the leader's jersey tomorrow and Rene' Weissonger of Volksbank will wear the white sprinter's jersey.