Warriors on Road for Two

Hi Warrior fans, Coach Moore here from Aberdeen, SD. Well yesterday we left at 8 am for our longest road trip of the year and since this was so long I decided I would keep a little log of what we have done on our travels. So here it goes.

8 am - Depart Winona - Everyone is on the bus ready to roll, before we get going, Coach Gove spills his coffee all over the floor, luckily the bus isn't moving so the coffee is easy to clean up but he needs his coffee in the morning so it is going to be a struggle for him.

8:30 am - We put in the first movie of the trip, we have 11 movies total on the bus, some good, some bad and some I have no idea about. This first one is "Fireproof," this is one of the movies that goes in the "I have no idea about" category.

9:13 am - Movie is not very good, no plot, seems like some guy off the street wrote the script, I start to here rumblings about not watching the rest of the movie, but the final decision is to plug on and watch the rest of this movie.

10:30 - First movie is in the books, I would not recommend that one to anyone who doesn't want to waste two hours of there life. I almost felt bad for the actors in this movie as they were probably shooting this and thinking to themselves "I think my acting career is over after this movie comes out."

10:33 - Second movie of the day Lakeview Terrace, this one is supposed to be a good one. Samuel L. Jackson is in the lead role, plays a cop who is upset with his life and goes after his neighbors. He always does a good job in roles like these. My personal favorite Sam L. movie is Die Hard III, loved him and Bruce Willis in that flick.

11:30 - Movie is pretty good, almost to Sioux Falls, bus is starting to get really warm as heat is on for some reason. Guys in the back are really starting to sweat it out by the looks of it in the back. But bus driver fixes the problem.

12:04 - We hit I-29 and start to head North, movie close to being done, not a bad movie but kind of predictable as well, definitely not one of his best ever but if you Sam you will like the movie.

12:25 - Start 3rd movie of the bus trip, the old classic "Beverly Hills Cop," don't think many of our guys have seen this movie but it is one of my favorites. "Is that the man who wrecked the buffet." Great line.

1:30 - Stop for some lunch in Brookings, SD. End up at a KFC that has a buffet, go figure as we are watching the movie with the best line you can use when standing in line at a buffet. Buffet isn't bad but not as good as the buffet in Winona. I bet not too many people knew that but yes the Winona KFC has a buffet, just ask them about it sometime.

2:15 - Back on the road, about two hours left on the trip. We have about 45 minutes left in the movie. Luke Doedens has the Eddie Murphy laugh down pretty good. Eddie's laugh is one of the best ever, guys really like the movie as well.

3:00 - We hit Hwy. 12, which mean after six hours on the road we only have 74 miles left to Aberdeen. Seeing the Aberdeen exit is always exciting for that first minute until you see you have 74 miles still left. I think it is more demoralizing for those making this trip for the first time as when you see an exit for a city off an interstate you think it is only a couple more miles till the city but in this case, it is a sense of false hope.

3:03 - Beverly Hills Cop is over, now we need a filler. Coach Gove has the series "House" that he brought along. Personally not a fan of "House" or really any other show on tv other then "Family Guy", "Rob & Big," "Survivor Man" and "Deadliest Catch" which has to be starting a new season shortly. If you have never watched "Deadliest Catch" it is a must on Discovery Channel. I know some of our guys are into some new reality shows that they are trying to get me to watch like Gar's favorite "Bromance" on MTV, I think he just wants to be in the show and Jason Gorman told me to watch VH1's "Tool Academy." but I'm not watching any show with the word "tool" in it.

4:05 - We hit the "Hub City" Aberdeen, SD. As we pull into our hotel we see our old breakfast spot RG's is now an IHOP. I for one don't care for IHOP's and I know many are disappointed as they always used to get the Chili Omelet when we come here. Coach Leaf says first time in his 21 years he will not be eating at RG's.

5:00 - Time for the staffs favorite show when we are on the road, "Cash Cab." For some reason this show has become our show to watch when we are on the road, especially before our Friday night games. Don't know what it is about this show but I think because we can answer most of the questions that we like watching the show.

5:45 - Get on the bus for our practice over at NSU.

6:00 - Guys are stretching so Coach Brown and play a game of "Around the World," he wins cause he doesn't tell me we are playing until I am done with my first round and I don't have the opportunity to chance my shot.

7:15 - As we are working on some half court stuff, Mike Mueller decides to throw a pass along the baseline only problem is his pass doesn't make it across the lane as it hits Curt in the head. Now this happens in games and practice from time to time with guys getting hit in the head as they are playing but the problem with this pass is, Curt is not on the floor or playing, he is standing 5 feet off the floor, watching on the baseline. But its plays like these that keep the game fun and we all had a good laugh about it and Mikey was a good sport about it as well.

7:50 - Back on the bus after a good practice. Guys to shower up and then hit up dinner at the Millstone, a family spot here in town. Never have been there before so this could be interesting.

8:30 - Everyone at the Millstone, special tonight is lasagna, garlic bread and with soup & salad bar or all you can eat chicken strips with either fries, baked potato's, hash browns, also soup and salad bar included. Tough decision here but after some talk I go with the chicken strip meal as do many others.

9:30 -Leave the Millstone after a good meal. Everyone seems pretty full from it and the Celtics-Lakers game kept us entertained. Can't believe how many people don't like watching the NBA, watch it live sometime and I bet you change your mind, I think it is awesome as not many people can do what these guys are doing.

11:00 - Lights out for a good nights sleep.

Well that is pretty much our trip out here to Aberdeen. I will keep track of today's events and post them here I get some time on Saturday. Hopefully today is going to be a great day for the Warriors. No pre-game updates for this game as if you are a Warrior fan you know who are the guys to stop for Northern and how they are doing this season. Keys will be to score more points then them, just kidding, we know them well, they know us well, so it will come down to the same stuff it does every game. We must rebound the basketball, get great shots, play great help defense, contain our man one on one. Pretty much we will have to play a heck of a game to have a shot at winning tonight as this is a very tough place to play. Go Warriors!!!!!

Get to Know - Dan Kratz

After one week off, we are again back to "Getting to Know Your Warriors." Starting this week we will be getting to know some guys that have yet to put on a Warrior uniform as they are redshirting with us this season. In this edition we get to know Dan Kratz a little bit better. Dan is a freshman here at WSU and it looking into a career in the area of psychology.

What is your full name? Daniel Jonas Kratz

What are your parent(s) names? Randy and Susan Kratz (49, 46)

Do you have any brothers/sisters? Emily, 13

Do you have any pets? Pug, Rocky

What is your major here at WSU? ) Psychology with a coaching minor

Why did you select WSU? The basketball program and the laptop

What is your favorite color? Lime green

What is your favorite food? Stromboli

What is your favorite TV/Show? Family Guy

What is your favorite movie? Garden State

What is your favorite type of music? Rap/Alternative

What is currently playing in your Ipod/cd player? Jay-Z

What is one interesting talent you have that people might not know?

What is your dream job? Sports psychologist for an NBA team

What is your greatest sports achievement? Going to WSU

What is your favorite type of basketball shoe? Anything other than the Lebron’s. Jonte’s purple huaraches are sweet

If you could select 3 people in the world do have dinner with who would they be? Why? Pete Maravich because of his ridiculous mad skills, My Great Grandpa Jonas because I was too young to remember much of him, and Anquan Boldin of the Arizona Cardinals

If you could travel anywhere in the world where would you go? New Zealand

If you could go to a major sporting event, which one would it be? I’d love to see the Olympics

Who have you looked up to the most in your life? My dad

Who is your favorite actor/actress? Christopher Walken

Who is your favorite singer/artist? Lil Wayne

Who is your favorite professional sports team? (Doesn't matter what profession they are) Philadelphia Eagles

Who is the one person in life you would like to meet? Sigmund Freud

Who is your favorite basketball player? Mike Miller

Who is the best person you have ever played basketball against? Michael Beasley

Who is the cleanest person on our team? Ummm…Josh Korth?

Who is the messiest person on our team? Either myself or Gar

Who is the best dunker on the team? J. Fish because he’s so smooth when he dunks

Who is the best video game player on the team? Brad Meyer

Who on our team would you choose to be the President of the US? Why? Travis Whipple because he practically already is

Who on our team is most likely to be famous? Why? Mike Muller will be a professional poker player

If you had one word of advice for people what would it be? Hustle

Our Photo Guy

Some people have been wondering where we get all of our photos for this website so I figured it would be a good idea to let everyone know so they too can view awesome photos. Andrew Nyhus is the photographer who takes pictures at all of our home games and many of the roads games that he travels to. He has been doing this for the past couple of years as he has put together a great photo gallery of WSU photos of our games, women's basketball, football, volleyball, softball and baseball. Andy has done a great job as his work helps promote our WSU athletic programs and allows players, families and friends to have photo's of them in actual game play. I know in some cases families and players who bought photos from Andy at bigger sizes so they can be framed, if anyone has interest in buying a photo you just need to get into contact with Andy which you can do following the link listed below.

I personally have many photo's of Andy's that I really enjoy but one photo that I personally like is the photo pictured above. It is amazing to see how high both of these players are off the ground and I think it shows the type of players that are playing at the Division II level are just as athletic as those who play Division I. If you would like to visit Andy's photographs you can follow this link:http://www.pbase.com/andrewnyhus

Thanks Andy for every thing you do for our program! Go Warriors!!!

Warriors Go Over 100 in Win

Hi Warriors fans, Coach Moore here with a look back on our game against Upper Iowa.

If the term "on fire" could have ever been used about our basketball team, Saturday night was the night that would have been most appropriate as our guys were "on fire" for the entire night. I personally cannot remember seeing any team at any level shoot the ball as well as we did (knock on wood) it was a remarkable shooting performance when you really think about it, 16-21, 71% from the 3 point line, Wow! But the reason for the high shooting percentage was because our guys did a great job of moving the basketball, staying patient and working until we had a great look at the basket. It was a lot of fun to watch and I think it gave our guys even more confidence going into this weekend as they know they can get a great look at the basket every time we have the ball if they just stay patient and work together.
While the shooting was tremendous the defensive effort our guys put forth was also excellent. We did an outstanding job all game of not letting them get into any rhythm on the offensive end and made them work for every point they got. Our one on one defense was about as good as you could as for as we didn't get beat off the dibble much at all and this was a key for the game as we knew they liked to take the ball to the hoop a ton. On top of that our help side defense was also wonderful, our guys had great rotations when help was needed and we caused a couple of turnovers because of it as well. This game was one of our best defensive efforts of the year and I hope we can carry this effort over to this coming weekend as we have two very difficult games ahead.
Overall I would have to say we played one of our better games of the season on Saturday night as both our offense and defense were clicking. As a team we understand we still have a long way to go and our best basketball of the season has yet to be played. Our fans again we great on Saturday night, we thank you for your support as our guys really enjoy playing in front of big crowds. We will continue to need your support as we head down the final stretch of the season here, we have some big home games still left and hope to see the stands packed even more when we come back from this two game road trip. The rest of the conference season is going to be a battle as on any given night anyone can beat anyone and no one team is going to run away with the title. It should be another fun weekend of basketball ahead as we travel to play Northern St. and Mary. Both games will have great crowds so we will need to be prepared for a loud environment but our guys wouldn't want it any other way.

Go Warriors!!!

Warriors to take on Peacocks

Hi gang, Coach Moore here with a preview on our game tonight against Upper Iowa.

Well this should again be a great test of our team. Upper Iowa is a very talented squad that has been playing some real good basketball of late. Like most teams in our conference Upper Iowa doesn't have one player who we must focus in on as they have many talented individuals who are capable of having big games. The Peacocks are lead by sophomore guard, Matt Lesan, who is averaging 13 ppg. Lesan is a solid player in our league as he has shown the ability to be a good shooter while still be able to take the ball to the basket. Another player to watch out for is senior post player Nick Kramer, Kramer is a huge key to this team as you will see tonight. He plays at the high post position in there motion offense and will be setting a ton of screens. Finally the final player to watch out for is point guard Dan Bestul, Bestul I personally think is a key to there team. We he gets going they are very tough to stop as he has the ball in his hands a ton and is very good at coming off of ball screens and or taking hand-offs to the hoop. He is a quality outside shooter but he does a great job of knocking down jump shots off the dribble.

Some keys for us tonight will first be our ability to rebound the basketball. This area still needs a ton of work and we had a good week of practice in this area, now I hope we can carry it over to the game tonight. Another key will be our ability to contain them on the drive to the basket, we cannot let them breaks us down off the dribble one on one or bail them out by putting them to the foul line. In the past couple of weeks we have been much better one on one defenders but tonight they will test us. Finally we must get a great shot every time down the floor. Last weekend we did a great job of not settling for a good shot but working on offense till we got a great shot. We need to carry this mentality over again to this game as we are a team that is full of capable shooters who can score from anywhere on the floor. If we stay patient on offense, we almost always are able to get a wide open shot in the 35 seconds that we have the ball.

This game should be another great NSIC battle and a game that cannot be overlooked. As everyone can see you must come ready to play every night or you will get beat. It truly is one game at a time and we cannot worry about anything else other then Upper Iowa at 8:00 o'clock tonight. I hope to see another great turnout by the best fans in all of Division II. Go Warriors!!!

A Message from Coach Leaf

Hi everyone I was at practice today when Coach Leaf approached me with something he wanted to be put on the blog. He wants everyone who was at the game on Saturday night to know that he did not have a collard shirt on with the tag still on the shirt. The collard shirt he was wearing was actually an adidas brand shirt with the adidas logo on the back of the collar that from a distance obviously looked like a tag hanging out the back of his shirt. He went on to say he had over 10 people come up and tell him he had, "a tag hanging out the other night when he was coaching". Now people come on, would we let him go out on the floor with a tag still on his shirt??? Well maybe, but anyway he wanted to let everyone know so no one else had to tell him about it. He thanks everyone for being worried but as he says he knows how to dress, collard shirt, black sweater, dress pants and brown shoes. I think we need a Coach Leaf dress a like night, someone should get that going!!! Go Warriors!!!

Warriors Post Win over UMC

Hi Warrior fans, hope everyone had as good of a weekend as we did, we played two solid games this past weekend and it helped move us into first place in the NSIC.

As for our game against UM-Crookston. I felt our energy level was once again a key reason why were able to get out to a big lead early. Our starters did a great job of setting the table early by getting out and running when we had the opportunity and playing solid on the defensive end. Before the game we talked about building a lead and not just maintaining a lead like we had done the night before against Minnesota State Moorhead. I felt like we did a better job of continually building on a lead and not just maintaining it in this game. Our guys off the bench we once again ready to roll and added to the high energy level we had for most of the game. Also I think everyone on the team is really starting to feel comfortable in the roll that we are asking them to play as part of this team. Guys are getting real comfortable playing with each other and you can see how well we are starting to jell on the offensive end as we were able to get a great shot almost every time down the floor this past weekend. Our rebounding still needs work, we can be so much more aggressive going after the ball, it seems like we can get 3 or 4 guys going after the ball but we cannot get everyone to play at the same aggressive level while on the floor. But we are getting closer and I think over the next couple of weeks as we get closer to the end of the season guys will be playing even more aggressive.

Overall we are very happy to be in the position we are currently in as far as the standings go. I think our guys understand the importance of taking each game one at a time and how we have to be ready to go every time we step out on the floor or we will get it handed to us. We all see the parity in this league and how on any given night anyone can beat anyone, so we have to be ready to go every time we step on the floor. Let's hope we can carry over our great weekend with another great outing on Saturday night as we have a very talented Upper Iowa team coming to town.

Thanks again to all the fans who were at our games this past weekend, our players and staff appreciate how much you support our team and you are one of the main reasons why we are as successful as we are. Let's pack the gym again this weekend!!! Go Warriors!!