New Poll Question

Hey Warrior fans, even though the season is over the blog must go on and it is time for another poll question. For this poll the question is very simple but complicated, who has the best rivalry with WSU? I feel everyone can go a variety of ways on this question because over the years WSU has had a huge rivalry with many teams. If one looks back over a long period of time one might go with UM-Duluth as they were a huge rival with WSU in football and basketball back in the 1990's. Once UM-Duluth left, Northern St. and Southwest Minn. St kind of took over as big rivals of WSU. Then over the past couple of years a rivalry has been started with Minnesota State-Mankato, St. Cloud St. and Augustana. But we also have many other schools in our conference that could break into this category as well. So let's hear it fans who do you think is the biggest rival for WSU?

On another note the Warriors are back again working out and getting ready for next season. I must say it is hard having to say good-bye to the seniors but it is exciting to start working toward next year all ready. Our guys are currently working out extremely hard and many are putting individual efforts in to improve their game. Seeing this type of work being put in is great to see as our guys are looking motivated and determined to get back to where they have been in the past.

Until next time, GO WARRIORS!!!!!

Get to Know - Luke Doedens

Hey Warrior fans, I know it has been a while since we have done one of these but it is time once again to "Get to know your Warriors." This time we will get to know our freshman guard, Luke Doedens from Cedarburg, WI. One thing Luke forgot to mention in his interview was a special skill no one really knows about. Well in talking to him and others, Luke is a great fisherman back home but he seldom lets others know about this skill for some reason. So if you are ever looking for a guy who can fish with the best of them look Luke up as he will test your skills.

What is your full name?
Luke Thomas Doedens
What are your parent(s) names?
Andy and Sandy Doedens
Do you have any brothers/sisters?
Chad- 23, Niki-22, Kelly-16
Do you have any pets?
Dog- Dawg
What is your major here at WSU?
Marketing and/or Bus Admin/HR
Why did you select WSU?
I chose WSU because I liked the atmosphere, the coaches, the players, and the town.
What is your favorite color?
Cyan
What is your favorite food?
A wrap in the caf
What is your favorite TV/Show?
The Fresh Prince of Bel Air
What is your favorite movie?
Tommy Boy
What is your favorite type of music?
Rap/ Hip-Hop
What is currently playing in your Ipod/cd player?
Blueprint 2 by Jay-Z
What is your dream job?
Cabana Boy
What is your greatest sports achievement?
Being a part of a National Championship team
What is your favorite type of basketball shoe?
I look good in anything Bert… I do not care. Hyperdunks or pro-models if you need an answer.
If you could go to a major sporting event, which one would it be?
Floor Seats at a Boston Celtics game
Who have you looked up to the most in your life?
parents
Who is your favorite actor/actress?
Will Smith
Who is your favorite singer/artist?
Weezy
Who is your favorite professional sports team?
Celtics?
Who is your favorite basketball player?
Dwayne Wade or Chris Paul
Who is the best person you have ever played basketball against?
Jerry Smith
Who is the cleanest person on our team?
Not Gar
Who is the messiest person on our team?
Dan Kratz
Who is the best dunker on the team?
C-Rob
Who is the best video game player on the team?
Tree Frog (Joel Armstrong)
Who on our team would you choose to be the President of the US? Why?
Whipple
Who on our team is most likely to be famous? Why?
Maximilian Paul Hintz on ‘Top Chef’ or Ben Fisher as a NFL analysist on ESPN
If you had one word of advice for people what would it be?
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

Alumni Update

Hey Warrior fans, hope everyone is enjoying march madness as much as I have been. Yesterday I have a college game on my main TV, a high school game on my small TV and then my computer going with the 3 other CBS games. It was a great day!!

Anyway even though the season has ended the blog according to many of you cannot. So I will not let this thing go so keep checking back for updates and items of interest of our team. I also have to complete our "Get to know you Warriors" segment so keep checking on that as well. But for this update we are catching up with our alumni. Many 3 of the guys from the 2008-2008 team who are playing hoops across the country.

For starters Jonte' Flowers is playing in the 1st round of his playoffs and he had a huge game last night in an elimination game for his team. From the sounds of it Jonte' pulled of the same type of performance he had a couple of times in a Warriors uniform as he went for 37 points 14 rebounds, 6 assists, 5 steals and 1 block. Not a bad night. Now Jonte' has to lead his team one more time as they are tied in the series 2-2. To read the story of the game click on this link = http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=sv&u=http://basketligan.sportsverige.com/&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=1&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dsvenska%2Bbasketligan%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4GGIH_enUS242US242%26sa%3DX

Another former player who team has been playing well since he arrived is John Smith. John is currently playing for the Vermont Frostheaves in Burlington, Vermont. Since John has joined the team they have gone 6-0 and they have one game remaining. With the current winning streak that his team is on they should qualify for the playoff that will start next week. For an a look at John and his team you can go to the following website http://www.vermontfrostheaves.com/. To see how John is doing individually you can follow this link - http://webcast.crezbasketball.com/Team.aspx?Scope=Premier+Basketball+League+2009&TeamId=Vermont+Frost+Heaves&TeamName=Vermont+Frost+Heaves

Finally the last alumni playing basketball still is Quincy Hederson. Quincy is over playing hoops in Australia for the Kilsyth Cobras and they just had their first game of the season on March 14th. In the game Quincy scored 15 points while grabbing 11 rebounds in his teams victory. From talking to Quincy he sounded like he was happy with his performance in the first game but I am sure he feels he needs to improve but a double-double is pretty darn good.

Season Comes to an End

Hi Warrior fans, well our season came to a crashing end yesterday as we just couldn't knock down enough shots to pull out a win. I would first off like to thank all of the fans for the support they gave us throughout the year. While many people did not expect a lot from this team you (the fans) believed in us the entire year and knew this team was capable of great things. I really feel this season was a huge success as not many people understand how difficult it is the make it to the NCAA tournament and just how difficult it is to win games once in the tournament. Our guys have nothing to hang their heads about as they are a class act. They play the game the way it should be played, they respect the opponents, officials, fans of other teams and they represent our University with honor.

On to the rest of the trip. Here is a log for Day 3

Sunday, March 15th

8:45 - Wake up call. Nice to sleep in a little bit more then the past couple of days for our guys.

9:00 - Breakfast again down stairs. Each day the food has been going a bit more down hill as the once great tater tots are now not even worth taking a chance on. Disappointing but what do you expect when its free.

11:00 - Shoot around over at SMSU. We go through Auggie personnel and get our legs stretched out for a bit. Everyone has good energy and focus. Nice to see.

1:00 - Tradition, it is time for Subway. Now we missed out on Subway yesterday because of our game being at noon but the only other time I can remember that we missed out on Subway over the past 5 years was the day of the National Championship games when we would have to eat breakfast for pregame.

2:00 - Everyone back at the hotel for some rest before the game. It is interesting to see what guys do with there down time. Some do homework, other now play a game of cards not sure what game, some take naps and finally some sit on cell phones and talk all day. Top cell phone user on our team might be Mike Mueller. Dude seems to always be on the phone talking to someone. But the top text person on our team is either Ryan Gargaro, Jason Gorman or Curt Robinson. Seems like they are always texting away and they do it fast but not as fast as Quincy Henderson could. Rumor has it back in the day he could text while sitting in class, phone in pocket and text away without ever looking at his phone. Impressive.

2:30 - Wild ending to the Tennessee/Mississippi St. game going on. Both teams are trying to give the game away it seems like. Guy falls out of bounds with the ball for Mississippi St., then Tennessee gives it right back. Crazy game gotta love March Madness

3:15 - Load the bus for SMSU.

5:00 - Tip off

6:45 - Season comes to an end. Tough

8:15 - Everyone is loaded ont he bus after spending some time after game with friends and family. Now time for the long boring trip back home.

9:00 - Stop at Arby's in Worthington. I have been told Arby's has a new sandwich that is just awesome it is the roast beef burger or something like that. So if you are into Arby's you are supposed to try it and add double the beef for a $1 more says Coach Leaf.

9:45 - Back on the bus for the rest of the trip home. A movie was put in but I have no idea what it is and I will be honest I'm not in the mood to figure it out. But anyway it is your basic action movie that we have all seen a million times but with different actors. We have car chases, gun fights, bombs going off, the main character getting shot at by 20 guys at once but still no one can shoot him but he can knock off all of them, the love scene with the girl that the main character hates at first, a villain who demands money and almost get it but in the end our main character pulls off the miracle and gets the villain. Lets just say in this movie the main character can drive his car on to the top of a train, then jump the car into a train car after the villain unhooks the part of the train the car was on. This movie was just stupid.

11:30 - Well after that thriller of a movie we go with the great movie of Madagascar 2. Ben Fischer loves the penguins in this movie for some reason. But any Disney movie is a good movie so this was an enjoyable one to watch given how the day had gone so far.

1:00 - Pulling up to Memorial Hall at WSU. Everyone unloads the bus one last time for the season. Really weird not having our season end out in Springfield, MA. But after going down to the locker room real quick I walk up and walk by the trophy case with the 2 National Championships we have and realize how great of a group our seniors have been. Wow!

Go WARRIORS!!!!

Warriors into 2nd Round

Hello Warriors fans!!! Well yesterday was a great day for our team as we were able to pull out a win against an excellent Metro St. ball club. The team was excited with the win but also has refocused as they understand we have another challenge tonight against Augustana. Well here is log of yesterday's travels.

8:00 am - Wake up call, we decided to not use our shoot around time at 7:00 in the morning. We felt it was important for our guys to get a little extra sleep and we felt after our practice the day before our guys were ready to go and so we didn't need to get up so early for a shoot around.

8:15 - Breakfast, pregame meal down stairs at the buffet. Food was okay but nothing great once again. The one nice thing is we don't have to leave the building for breakfast like we do at many other places on the road.

10:00 - Load the bus to go over to SMSU for the game. Guys focused and ready to go.

10:35 - Walk through and shoot around in SMSU volleyball gym. Since we didn't use our shoot around time at 7:00 am we were able to use a shoot around time at 10:35 instead but just not on the main floor. This works well as many of our guys before our home games like to get into Talbot gym for shots and stretching so this is close to a regular warm up for a home game.

11:30 - Guys leave the locker room and take the floor for pregame warm ups.

12:00 - Tip off against Metro St.

1:45 - Final horn sounds as we pull of a 60-59 victory.

2:30 - After the guys are done talking with all the friends, family and fans who came out to watch the game they head over for some lunch at Arby's.

3:30 - Team is back and now watching the St. Cloud St./Auggie game. The game is starting to get close after Auggie has a 18 point lead early in the second half.

4:15 - St. Cloud and Auggie game is over. What a finish as Auggie throws the ball with 2.8 seconds left to the top of their three point line to there big man, who then pass the ball over to their best shooter who knocks down a three. The guy was able to get his feet set and had a great look as a St. Cloud guy went to the basket instead of staying right on him. Unreal ending to a great game.

4:30 - Guys head back to the hotel for some rest before going back over to our new favorite spot Applebee's. Don't think I will be going to an Applebee's for a while after this trip is over but hey not a lot of options out here so we will take what we can get. I think the guys really like the 2 for $20 deal because they get the boneless buffalo wings. I had the wings as well they are okay but no where as good as Buffalo Wild Wings.

6:30 - Time for dinner is pushed back as the guys head over to watch the SMSU/Northern game first and then head over to Applebee's. SMSU dominates the entire game as Northern is just not hitting anything.

7:45 - After the game everyone is over at Applebee's for dinner. Place is packed, service is pretty slow as it take at least an 1 1/2 hours for the food.

9:30 - Head back over to the gym to watch the 2nd half of the Mankato/Fort Lewis game. Mankato is up 45-35 at halftime but take total control in the 2nd half and walk away with an easy win.

11:00 - Lights out and off to bed as we get ready for another huge game and day.

Well that was our Saturday out here pretty much in a nut shell. Everything has been great so far as the set up of the gym is great, the people working are great and all the fans have been great. We are really happy with the win against Metro as they are a very very good team. I felt our key to the game was our patience with the zone and working for a great shot. Early in the game we rushed a couple looks but settled down and really did some nice things. On the defensive side our guys did a good job for the most part containing their man and making them work for good shots. Our one problem again was rebounding and we must do a better job of that tonight or we are going to get killed. Auggie is a great team with a lot of different weapons and we must make them work for everything they get. Hopefully our guys are rested and ready to go for another great challenge.

Unitl next time, GO WARRIORS!!!!!!!!!

Day 2 - Practice Day for Metro St.

Hey Warrior fans hope everyone is getting ready for the big game at noon today. He is a quick look at our second day out here in Marshall.


6:30 - Wake up call

7:00 - Team meets down stairs for a buffet style breakfast. Food is pretty good for a buffet style but you can see many of our guys are not used to getting up this early. It will be interesting to see how well we practice.

9:10 - Load the bus to head over to the RA Facility for our practice. The one plus of being first is we are able to do all of our stretching out on the main floor. The only rule is we cannot touch the basketballs until our official basketball time starts at 10:00 am. So no shoot around for the players or coaches before we officially start at 10.

10:00 - The clock starts and we have 55 minutes to go through our practice. This amount of time is the same for every team that comes in today so you have to move through stuff quickly. We make sure our guys get a lot of shots up so they get used to the shooting background here. This background is one of the tougher ones in the conference because there is a ton of space behind the hoops, unlike in Winona which is an easy background having the wall right behind you.

10:55 - Clock hits zero and we have a very spirited practice. Guys shoot the ball well, we moved well and I think after seeing this we will be ready to go at noon tomorrow.

11:05 - Get back to the hotel to watch the Gophers. They are up early and seem like they might be able to stay with Michigan St today.

12:15 - Go around the rooms to make sure none of our guys are sleeping. Even though this is down time today for us tomorrow we will be playing a game at this time so we do not want anyone sleeping as we need everyone ready to go at noon.

1:05 - Gophers fall to Michigan St. They struggled to get good looks the entire second half, now they have to wait for Sunday to see if they get in. I think they are in.

1:10 - We head across the street to Arby's for a quick lunch. Today during lunch Ben Fischer gives his ideas on who is going to be the #1 seeds. In his eyes he thinks 3 Big East teams are going to be #1 seeds along with North Carolina. Not sure on this some guys including me debate with him on his ideas. In the end he holds strong that Louisville, UConn and Pitt will be #1 seeds but I think he might be cracked in the head a little bit. My picks are Louisville, North Carolina, Memphis and UConn, but I want to say Michigan St. if they win the Big Ten, even though I think the Big Ten is down this year.

3:00 - Our women's game is getting ready to go over in Mankato so some guys are getting ready to watch it on their computers only problem is the wireless is too slow to watch so updates on the score is all we can get.

4:00 - Some guys are napping while a couple of them are down shooting pool in the rec area at the hotel. I guess Gorman is a pretty good shot from what I hear. Don't put any quarters down at a table he is at or you are just giving him a free game.

6:30 - Head over to our new favorite spot, Applebee's. Not much else around this town so that is why we are back. Many do a pasta bowl or salad for a meal along with an appetizer as the 2 for $20 deal is still going.

7:30 - Applebee's messes up our order so some guys still don't have meals and now a coaches meeting has started to Coach Leaf heads to that while his food is just arriving. So some of our guys split his ribs and fries basket.

8:00 - Finally leaving Applebee's as everyone is done eating. Now its just time to lay low as we get ready for the game.

10:00 - Everyone is in their own rooms getting ready for the game.

10:30 - Lights out for the team but the coaches stay up and watch the Duke vs Boston College and Syracuse/West Virginia games. Pretty sure some of our guys are watching too as I know they cannot just fall asleep on comand.

11:00 - Boston College just runs one of the strangest plays in basketball as it seems all they wanted to do is get the ball inbounds and let the clock run out but the problem is they are losing. Not a good ending to that game.

11:06 - Yes, Syracuse is in overtime again. I hope this goes another 3 or 4 overtimes but Syracuse knocks down a couple 3's early and pull out the win. They are on a roll.

11:30 - Off to bed.

Well that was our day out in Marshall. Looking forward to the game and seeing all the fans. Until next time. Go Warriors!!!!!!

Day 1 - Warriors Head to Marshall

Hey Warrior fans, hope everyone is getting ready for the big weekend and has plans on making it out to Marshall. It should be a great tournament and our guys are looking forward to the noon game on Saturday. Well as I stated the other day I have been keeping a log again of our adventure out here and what we have been up to so far. Here we go, again.

Thursday - March 12th

12:30 - Everyone is loaded on the bus and ready to go. We have 24 people going on the trip and we have a 48 passenger bus so everyone should have two seats for themselves to stretch out but for some reason Joel Armstong and Jordan Fischer are sharing a seat, freshman are funny sometimes. After a couple of minutes Jordan does get his own seat up near the front of the bus.

12:45 - Find out the Gophers are now only up 50-49 against Northwestern. We are getting updates from a phone, technology is great!

12:50 - Time for the first movie of the trip. "Role Models" This movie was one I was looking forward to watching but it was a disappointment. I would not recommend this to any family to sit down and watch together. Definitely has some language and other items that are for adults only, but our guys like these types of comedies as most college students do.

1:10 - Find out the Gophers pulled out the win. Great to hear as they will be on now in the morning and we can watch them after our practice. Only bad news is they are playing a Michigan St. team that has dominated them, twice.

2:30 - Out in the middle in the great flat lands of Minnesota. I think we are around Jackson so we have about two hours left on our trip. The first movie is coming to an end and we are looking at our next movie, "Resurrecting the Champ."

4:15 - Movie is over we are about 30 minutes out. The movie was based on a true story when a struggling report run into a man he thinks is a former boxing champion and writes a story about the man in hopes of getting his career off the ground. This movie was okay but not a must see. I actually remember hearing about this on ESPN a few years back so it is kind of weird a movie was written so fast about it but if you like reading columnist from newspapers you would find this story interesting.

4:16 - Coach Gove is putting in one of the box sets of the series "Cheers" and attempting to find one of the shows he really likes, only problem he can't remember which one it is. We end up starting the episode where Frasier ends up out a window on the top story of the Cheers building threatening to jump because Lilith his wife is leaving him to go live under ground with her new boy friend.

4:30 - We get to Marshall and head over to Burger King for a quick bite to eat for our guys. "Cheers" episode is just getting to the good part too.

5:10 - Done with our quick little snack we check into our hotel. Haven't been in this hotel in a while but last time we were hear they had a basketball hoop in the swimming pool which is always fun.

6:00 - Load the bus and head over to SMSU for a shoot around and to stretch the legs after the long ride. We don't get to practice in the main gym as they have high school games going on but we use the gym where they play volleyball in. Nice little gym and set up for volleyball, a lot like our Talbot gym in size but they have nice scoreboards, jumbo-tron, perfect set up for volleyball. Very nice.

7:30 - We complete our shooting and get ready to load back on the bus. Lots of people at the high school games, SMSU needs a bigger parking lot as a ton of cars are parked well down the street.

8:00 - Team heads over to Applebee's for dinner, which is right next to us. Applebee's has the 2 for $20 deal going on right now so many of our guys go with that. You get to entrees and an appetizer for $20 very good deal actually as the entrees are at least a $1.50 less and basically you are getting a free appetizer on top of that.

9:30 - Head back to the hotel and get ready for bed. We will be getting everyone up early as we must get used to this because of the time of our game so guys will be up at 6:30. So lights out is 10:30.

Midnight - I know I should be sleeping like our guys but couldn't as UConn and Syracuse just went through one crazy game and it is not over yet! Just starting the 5th overtime.

12:09 A.M. - Syracuse pulls away in the 6th overtime, 127-117. I'm sure not many of you watched it live but you will see replays of it on ESPN as they show highlights and talk about it for the next 24 hours straight and actually make people sick of hearing about it in the end. ESPN likes to go overboard with great games too much for my liking.

12:20 - Off to bed. Wake up is going to come fast at 6:30.

Check back later for more on our trip.

Warriors to take on Roadrunner in Mashall, MN

   Hi Warrior fans, first I want to apologize for not updating this in a while.  It has been a couple of crazy days with school back in session and I just couldn't find time to get back at this thing until today.  But now it should be back to normal here as we start the most important week of the season.  Obviously by now most of you know who we are playing on Saturday.  Metro St. is currently the #8 ranked team in the nation and they will be a huge challenge in the 1st round.  While we will be tested our guys are looking forward to the challenge and will enjoy being in an underdog role.  It will be something new for our guys but we are not expected to do much so all the pressure is on those top teams that have been playing well.  It should be a great tournament in a great atmosphere and we are looking to make some heads turn this weekend.  

  Now on to some good news for all the fans, back by popular demand I will be keeping a log for this weekends games.  I have had many family members of players along with fans talking about how cool the log was when we went on our Northern/Mary trip.  Well since this weekend is such a big weekend and everyone enjoyed it before I will again be keeping a log starting at 12:30 tomorrow when we depart for Marshall.  So keep checking back day by day as I will update this site with what the Warriors are up to on this trip.  

Until then, GO WARRIORS!!!!!

Warriors vs Huskies, Part III

What's up Warrior fans, Coach Moore, here with a preview of our game today versus St. Cloud St. Today's game will be second time we have played St. Cloud in the past seven days. The last time we meet I am sure many fans remember the Warriors 81-100 loss up in St. Cloud. On that day we were a team that did not do too many things right and we struggled with every aspect of the game but today we are hoping to turn it around by playing much better in front of our home town crowd.

Keys to the game today will be like they have in many of the past games. We first have to make sure we get out and find where the shooters are. In the past two meetings the Huskies have been able to get shooters wide open shots pretty much whenever they wanted because we were not sound defensively by not talking or seeing the screen. Today that must change and we cannot lose the shooters they have on the floor. Second key will be making sure we get back in transition. This has been a problem that we have had all year but it really is starting to show in the past couple of games as we have given up easy looks to all the teams we have been playing for the past two weeks. Today we have to get back on defense and not let them get the ball down the floor to a wide open shooter. Finally we must rebound the basketball. That statement is a broken record with this team as we really struggle to win games when we do not rebound. Now on Wednesday we were out rebounded by 10 and were still able to come out on top but today if we let that happen we will be in a world of hurt. We must rebound on both ends and we must go get loose balls when they are on the floor, the team that gets to the loose balls will be the team getting another key possession that they can use to score.
We had a great shoot around this morning and our guys really seemed ready to go. They know what is at stake but they also know it is all up to how we execute that will determine if we win this game. If we do the little things we should be okay, if we do what we did last Saturday it will again be a long day. Hope to see you all at the game. GO WARRIORS!!!!!!!!

Warriors Win, Now Host NSIC Tournament

Hey Warrior fans, Coach Moore here with a quick recap of last nights game and information for this weekends games.
Well after a sloppy first half our guys turned up the intensity and pressure in the second to come up with a huge win in the first round of the NSIC Tournament. The first half is a half that we would rather forget as we were out played in almost every facet of the game. We were just slow on reacting to the ball, moving on both ends, decision making and rebounding as it was just a terrible half for us. But give credit to Concordia St. Paul as they were taking advantage of our play by hitting 8 three pointers in the half and really making us look like we had no chance to win this game. But then in the second half from the first minute you could see a new life in our guys and I think it was a combination of them playing as hard as they can and our crowd really getting behind us. In the second half we moved the ball so well, we knocked down some open shots and we had good spacing for driving lanes on the offensive end. On defense is where we won this game as we contested a lot of the shots they were able to take at times we still left guys wide open on rotations when we had to help and recover but we didn't allow them to catch and shoot like they did in the earlier in the game. Our pressure on the ball was awesome, we cause some turnovers and we made them play at a faster pace then they wanted to at times. It was just night and day in comparison of the two halves and we are happy to have come out on top with a victory.
Now right after the game we over we were greeted with more good news as we found out Northern St. had beaten Southwest Minnesota State so we were now hosting the rest of the conference tournament. This is awesome for us as we now do not have to travel anywhere and we get to play in front of our home crowd once again. We will be playing at 2:30 on Saturday versus St. Cloud St. following our women's game that is being played at 12:00 versus St. Cloud St. The second men's game will be at 7:30 when Northern St. and Mankato St. play a women's game will be played before this game as well. Overall it will be a great day of basketball as you can catch 4 great games all in one day here in Winona. Unitl next time, GO WARRIORS!!!!

Warriors End Regular Season with Loss

   Hi Warrior fans, Coach Moore, here with a look at our game from Saturday night and a look forward to the NSIC Tournament.  The Saturday night was a tough game to handle as we really struggled with every aspect of the game.  

   On the offensive side of the ball we struggled in about every aspect of the game.  Our spacing the entire night was not very good, we didn't give ourselves driving lanes or passing angles that would have made passing the ball and going to the basket easier.  We were not aggressive going to the basket as they would bump us off our path and instead of continuing to the basket we would pick up the ball or stop our drive.  Our screening was not good, we did not set many screens and the ones we did were not in the best areas where we could get a good look at the basket.  Our ball movement from side to side was not good as we would dribble too much in place instead of moving the ball and finally our shot selection was not the best either.  We did have some open looks that we missed but too many times we took shots quickly when we could have worked the clock to get a better look.  The only thing we did well was we did shoot a good percentage from the free throw line but of the free throws that were missed at least 2 were front end of one and one's which we missed giving us an empty possession.  It really was not a good night for us even though we had 81 points in the game as I think our guys just couldn't get in any rhythm or comfort with the ball.  So while we struggled on offense we have to be positive that we could play so bad but still put 81 points up on the board.  

   On the defensive side of the ball we were not very good either as we gave up 100 points, which is way too much.  We again were not moving with the quickness or speed needed to keep up with them the entire night.  We lost shooters way to often, did not rotate on help defense correctly, didn't communicate on screens and we took some chances that we did not need to take.  What we needed to do was contain our man one on one and make them take a difficult shot but we were just a step slow the entire night with everything.  But give them credit as they did make a high percentage of outside shots and really attacked us the entire night.  On a positive note though I felt as the game went on we became better on defense and did start to make them take tough shots when they were not at the free throw line.  

   Overall the game was a total downer but we cannot worry about the game and it's outcome.  We have to bounce back with all of our focus on Concordia St. Paul as they are a tough team that has beaten us once all ready this year.  In the next couple of days we will really be looking for us to get back into good offensive rhythm and work on continually containing our man one on one.  But in the end we have nothing to hang our heads about after the season we have had.  We finished 2nd place in one of the toughest conferences in Division II in a year that many people did not think we would be close to the top.  We have shown flashes of brilliance during the season and I think we have not played a great game of basketball in a while so we are due to go on another run of great basketball.  It will be another fun week of basketball and as a fan I look forward to all the games being played this week and preview of a great regional tournament next week.  

   Until next time, Go Warriors!!!!!!