September 8, 2009

Dear Basketball Alumni and Friends:

I hope everyone had a great summer and that you are looking forward to the start of basketball practice next month. The campus is alive, classes are in full swing, our crew is back and preseason workouts are going well!

Last year’s team finished strong by making the Northeast-10 post-season for the seventh consecutive season. We also won 13 out of our last 16 games and earned runner up in the NE-10 Playoffs. With our top four scorers, 6'7" Senior All-American Candidate, Laurence Ekperigin (Cortland Manor, NY/Walter Panas), 5’10” Sophomore Shooting Guard, Christopher Johnson (Lindenhurst, NY /Lindenhurst), 6’6” Junior Forward, Kevin Roth (Lake View, NY/St. Francis) and 6'1" Post Grad. Guard, Damani Corbin (Brooklyn, NY/Frederick Douglass) returning and a total of twelve upperclassmen on the roster, the Dolphin’s expectations are very high. We also have three new faces on the roster this season and one new assistant coach. Promising freshmen, 6’1” Guard, Gamal Mohamed (North Plainfield, NJ/Immaculata), and 6'6” Power Forward, Michael Goodman (Syracuse, NY/C.B.A.) will join 6’10” Center, Jim Janson (Glenville, NY/Scotia-Glenville) to complete our bright freshmen class. Furthermore, I am pleased to announce that we hired a Graduate Assistant basketball coach for our program. I'm excited to introduce Coach Danny Lawson as the newest addition to our family. Coach Lawson, as some of you may know played for Bentley College and was part of a graduating class that went 101-27. Upon graduation, he did film and statistical analysis for the 2007-2008 World Champion Boston Celtics.

As always, our players’ academic and personal growth continue to be the focus of everything we do as a program. By challenging our players to perform in the classroom, we are confident that their performance will also transfer onto the hardwood as well. An example of this is 6’1” Senior Guard, Daniel Jason (Germantown, NY/Germantown). Dan is a Religious Studies major and will balance many community volunteer actions along with his role on the team this season. I am proud to say that he and his teammates posted a 3.0 GPA for last year.

We have a few upcoming events before we get into our basketball schedule. First, it will be great to see everyone before we begin games from September 25-27 at Le Moyne Athletics Homecoming Weekend. We encourage everyone to attend the Annual Gold Wave Hall of Fame Dinner and Homecoming Reception on Saturday night, September 26. On Sunday the 27, we hope you will enjoy the day in Syracuse, watch our ‘Phins Kids Club Basketball Clinic that begins at 11:00am for the future Dolphins and participate in our Alumni Game at 12:00pm. Please mark your calendars today and help generate some excitement about the upcoming season.

It was great to see many of you who golfed in the Gold Wave Open last month. The Gold Wave continues to be there to help our program by providing financial support necessary for continued growth and success. For all the years of tremendous loyalty and generosity, THANK YOU!

Sincerely,

Coach Evans

April 20, 2009

Dear Campers,

Thank you for your interest in the 2009 Le Moyne College Summer Basketball Camps.

This year's camp will consist of two exciting sessions along with our Team Camp and the return of our exciting Prospect Camp. The College Prospect Camp is for boy's entering grades 9-12 and tips off our summer June 27-28. Our popular Overnight Camp and Day Camp I will take place during the first camp session beginning on July 19-23 for overnight campers and July 20-23 for day campers. Session I is for boys entering grades 4-12. Team Camp takes place August 1-2 for Varsity and J.V. teams. Session II concludes our summer August 3-6 and is only for Day Camp II players entering grades 1-9. Please visit our camp website at: http://lemoynebbcamp.com and you will find a PDF file of our summer camp brochure to download. All camps are limited enrollment, so sign up today. We are looking forward to another great summer of basketball and fun. If you are unable to download the attached camp files on our website, please contact the basketball office at (315) 445-4718. We will mail you out a paper camp brochure ASAP. See you at camp.

GO 'PHINS!

Coach Evans

March 9, 2009

I was not on the selection committee this year, however, I was a member for the previous three seasons. The formula that the NCAA uses takes a lot of the subjective view out of the conversation and there are many categories that help determine the five at-large bids in the East Region. I felt all along that we would have to win it all or make it to the finals and have some “March Madness” luck. Once we lost in the finals, in order to get 6 teams from the NE-10 in the NCAA Tournament I was hoping that Bridgeport would lose to Adelphi in the ECC semi's and the top seeds would eventually win the ECC and CACC leagues. I thought we might have an outside chance by the numbers if it was LeMoyne vs. Adelphi for the final at-large bid. Unfortunately, this did not happen for the Dolphins.

The unbalanced NE-10 schedule can help or hurt teams. The fact that we went 1-7 vs. Bentley (0-1), UMass (0-1), Assumption (0-3), Stonehill (1-1), and Merrimack (0-1) did not help prove an argument that we were better than those teams. However, other than Assumption and Stonehill, we never got a chance to play the "better" teams more than one time. This fact may have helped us win a few more games against the "weaker" teams (I believe it’s hard to win against any NE-10 teams – In fact, two of our best grind out wins were at SCSU and New Haven), however it hurt us for making a stronger case vs. the ranked league opponents ahead of us this season. Having served on the committee, I know why we are home. It doesn't seem fair when you hear annalists on T.V. talk about a teams performance in the last 10 games and make strong cases for bubble teams who perform well in their conference tournaments. However, objectivity by the numbers put us on the outside looking in this year.

The goal that I set for each team that I coach is not to make it to the NCAA Tournament, win a conference title or win “X” amount of games (those accolades will take care of themselves). I want each team to evolve and improve throughout the season. Our goal was to improve each day and be playing our best basketball at the end of the season. I believe we did just that this year and I am very proud of the 2008-2009 basketball team.

Thanks again for all your support and it was an amazing ride down the stretch this year. The 6th man that we had at Grant Court provided the ‘Phins an excellent home court atmosphere in which to compete. I hope this school spirit will continue throughout all our sports and events at LeMoyne College. I know this team raised the bar and I hope this future expectation inspires everyone to want it a bit more next year.

I look forward to using this blog to comment on our program at the beginning of each month to keep everyone up to speed with the team.

Go ‘Phins!
Coach Evans

February 9, 2009

Dear Alumni,
 
Just a quick note to say thank you. I appreciate everyone who made the time and were able to attend the Alumni Game and/or watch us in action against SCSU this past Saturday. It was a nice turnout and certainly a highlight for me as the current basketball coach to see players from different eras represented. It is remarkable to witness the camaraderie of the LeMoyne Basketball Family and how many college stories you guys relive and reveal after graduation.
 
I sincerely appreciate your efforts to take time away from your busy lives as well as your family time to return for the day. It’s also great to have guys bring their families. Hopefully your children have an appreciation for LeMoyne College and that Dad was a pretty good athlete back in the day…
 
I hope that you all had as much fun returning as I did seeing you. I'm already looking forward to next year’s alumni game in conjunction with LeMoyne’s inaugural Athletic Homecoming Weekend, September 25-27. FYI, next year’s Gold Wave Hall of Fame Dinner will take place on Saturday, September 26.
 
Thank you so much for taking the time and your continued support of LeMoyne Basketball.
 
- Coach Evans

January 1, 2009

Happy New Year! Thank you for your continued support and best wishes to you for a healthy 2009. We finished the 2008 portion of our schedule with four straight wins and are currently 6-5. As you will note from the last blog, we were able to address some of our shortcomings through productive practices and we are now playing “better” basketball. By better, I mean that we are finding ways to gain important possessions and make timely plays to win games. In each of our last five games, we had key moments where the outcomes of games were in limbo, but our good practice habits have proved fruitful.

As the NE-10 schedule heats up, it’s hard not to look ahead and become overwhelmed with the strength of our conference. As a coach, I respect this league too much to think that some games will be easier than others. I know that some match-ups are better than others, but on any given night if you don’t play hard you will lose. I believe it takes about ten games for players and coaches to figure out what works best for the personnel and team. At this point in the season, I think we know how we want to play and believe in each other and trust our system. Now we need to take it one game at a time, quickly focus on the next game on the schedule and not get too high or too low based on a given win or loss. Good teams pride themselves on the process, not strictly just the outcome. At the end of the season we can reflect on our record and hopefully it will be good enough to make the playoffs and participate in the NCAA Tournament.

The month of January presents great challenges for our team and I look forward to checking in when we can take a couple of days off from January 20-21. Until then, I would like to look at the goals we set and how well we performed during our last five games (Record 4-1):
Our current stats are in (#).

Field Goal %        +47% (52%) Excellent
Opponent            -40% (40%) Good

Free Throw          +65% (60%) Improving, but still much too low

3pt%                   +38% (32%) Needs improvement
Opponent             -33% (28%) Excellent

Offensive Reb.       +13 (12) Good, considering shooting %
Opponent               -13 (12) Very Good

Defensive Reb.      +28 (29) Very Good
Opponent               -23 (20) Very Good

Assist                    +18 (17) Good

T.O.                       -16 (15) Good
Opponent              +16 (12) Very Poor – Need more deflections!

Points                   +75 (78) Very Good

We have five home games in January and your attendance is appreciated. The first two games are 3:00 starts on the first two Saturdays and the final three are all weekday games that start at 7:30. The courtside café is in full swing and it’s great to see people taking advantage of the floor-level seating. If you are interested in reserving a table, please visit our website or contact the athletic office. Ted Grant court is a one of the best venues in our league and our kids love to see the place filled with excitement!

Basketball Alumni, please contact me if you are planning on attending the alumni game on Saturday February 7 @ 11:00am. The game precedes the 1:00 women’s game and our 3:00 tip off against Southern Connecticut.

- Coach Evan

December 23, 2008

Back to back road losses in one week definitely forced us to handle the harsh reality of college basketball for the first time this season. Therefore, we are happy that we were able to bounce back with three straight wins; two at home vs. St. Mike’s and Caldwell and one on the road vs. Goldey-Beacom, thus improving our record to 5-5.

December 12 marked the end of the exam period and the first academic quarter. I’m very proud to announce that our team did well in the classroom and achieved a 2.9 GPA. However, we are now in one of the best times of the season: five straight weeks with no class and all basketball! We are looking forward to continued improvement, as the upcoming 11 games during this stretch will present many challenges.

I would ask our supporters, alumni and fans to gear up for our exciting home contests during the time period when our students are on winter break. Also, I am encouraging all basketball alumni to please mark your calendar for February 7. We are planning for our annual alumni game to begin at 11:00am before the women tip off at 1:00 and our 3:00 game vs. Southern Connecticut.

Most importantly, I want to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season and I look forward to seeing you in the Henninger Athletic Center next year.

Go Dolphins!

December 10, 2008

I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving. After getting off to an impressive 2-0 start in NE-10 action, we suffered our first defeat on the road at AIC before Thanksgiving break. Upon our return from the two-day vacation period we had a combined four days to practice and played three games. Unfortunately, during this stretch we played inconsistant basketball and lost all three games. We are currently 2-5.

As I told the players, before we can achieve victory, we must earn it through practice. I believe that good habits on and off the floor create a winning formula and so far we have done a poor job of establishing consistent behavior in these areas. We are currently taking steps that will improve our habits immediately and we must learn to sustain our intensity on a consistent basis. I’m not worried about us when things are going good, but our mental and physical toughness must improve in the face of adversity. I know we are not as bad as our record indicates. However, athletics forces you do deal with reality and we must overcome our current situation.

Without question, we are hurting ourselves by giving up too many second chance baskets, not forcing enough turnovers and not making or getting to the free-throw line enough. These are our most glaring weakness and we must collectively do something about these issues. However, I believe it is important to look at the improvement process and not get caught up with the outcome during good or bad times.

Therefore the goals for our team include:
Our current stats are in (#).

Field Goal %         +47% (48%) Very Good
Opponent             -40% (44%) Needs Improvement

Free Throw           +65% (47%) Very Poor

3pt%                    +38% (38%) Very Good
Opponent              -33% (29%) Very Good

Offensive Reb    .    +13 (11) Good, considering shooting %
Opponent               -13 (15) Needs Improvement

Defensive Reb.        +28 (25) Needs Improvement
Opponent                -23 (22) Good

Assist                      +18 (17) Good

T.O.                        -16 (18) Needs Improvement
Opponent               +16 (12) Very Poor

Points                     +75 (67)

The average win/loss difference in our NE-10 games is only 6 points. Therefore, we must find a way to win a few more possessions each game!

These are reachable goals for our team and when we do accomplish these objectives we will have earned victory through consistent positive behavior. I hope we can take advantage of some practice time after exams and improve in these areas. We only have two home games during the month of December and your support is much needed and appreciated!

- Coach Evans

November 16, 2008

The excitement surrounding the basketball program this week leading up to our first game is incredible. We appreciate all the positive local publicity and expect to give a great effort tonight against the Orange. When we decided to play in the CBE Classic, it was our hope that LeMoyne College would be the bigg est winner. The opportunity to be on ESPNU allows our college a marketing opportunity to reach millions of households throughout the country. The entire student body is ready to invade the Dome as well and cheer on our team displaing their school spirit. We’ve also used this game to kickoff our season ticket sales and Hardwood Club membership. I’m proud to say that we exceeded our preseason goals for both of these initives and know that more people will jump on board and join throughout the season.

Our players have worked  very hard during pre-season practice and we are definitely at the point where we want to see other faces and another uniform to play against. Playing Syracuse may be an impossible team to match up against, but we know the game is not “Mission Impossible”. Ultimately in a game vs. a superior opponent, we must make open shots and not beat ourselves with unforced turnovers and mental mistakes. Defensively, we must work hard at protecting the paint and allow one-shot opportunity for the Orange. I know it is much easier said than done. Therefore, our goals tonight are to Compete for the entire game, Execute to the best of our ability, Enjoy the experience and Learn and Grow as a team.

We are very excited about getting the 2008-2009 season started. In addition to the new faces on our teams this year, there have been changes made to our home facility. Most notably, the refurbished Ted Grant Court. Our objective is to utilize this opportunity to make the Henninger Athletic Center an even b etter environment to compete in for our players and an entertaining experience for our fans.

Tonight’s nationally televised game vs. Syracuse University on ESPNU is a great way to start the ball rolling, but let’s keep the ball rolling and make it a priority to support the ‘Phins all season long. On Wednesday, November 19 we need you to wear white and support our team as we WHITE OUT our first home contest vs. the College of St. Rose at 7:30 pm. If you cannot attend, please support us by watching the game live on Time Warner Cable.

I look forward to seeing you at the games!

Coach Evans

November, 11

The Georgia Tech Exhibition Game:

Transition Defense- We struggled in getting back in transition and they shot a high percentage (48.5%) of points in the paint. Therefore, we could not rebound and ignite our fast break.

Fast break- The best way to break is off steals. We did a poor job and as a team and only managed 2 steals for the entire gam e.

Passing / Shooting- When we broke down on offense our poor spacing led to bad shots. When we played with poise, we got g reat looks. Although we shot 3-23 (13%) from the arc, I believe we had great opportunities and have the ability to shoot much better in the future. 60% of our 19 made shots came from an assist. If we were ever going to beat a team like Ga. Tech, we would have to make 3-point shots and shoot a high percentage from the free throw line. Hypothetically speaking, if we had done better shooting (39% from 3 = 18 more points and 70% Ft.’s = 4 more points) it’s possible that we could have scored 23 more points and still lost 76-85. Therefore, we still need to do more than just shoot better to win a game against superior team.
 
Turnovers- Careless mistakes. Committed 19 turnovers. Playing out of control and poor handling of the ball led to that number.

Man Offense- Some bright spots, mainly Laurence Ekperigin (20 points, 8 rebounds). He played aggressive in the paint and finished well. However, our other inside players were intimidated at times by Tech’s size. Guards assist to turnover ratio very poor (7/8). Also, perimeter shooting was a disaster.

Zone Defense- Active and solid at times getting out on shooters, but way too many high low plays for easy baskets. Guards did a poor job of coming back to rebound as well.

Summary:

First, I would like to thank Coach Paul Hewitt for allowing this game to take place. It was a great life experience for our kids to play in an ACC arena and it gave LeMoyne College exposure in the city of Atlanta, Georgia. Our goals for the game were to: Have Fun, Compete and Execute, and Learn and Grow from the experience. Despite the final score, we did have fun. I believe the effort was good and I thought we competed for the entire game, but the execution was off. We have plenty of time to improve before the playoffs, however I want our sense of urgency to be different this year. We teach our system in a whole-part-whole concept. For this reason in the past, we usually start off slow and improve more throughout the season. However, this season I am challenging our team to have better execution from the opening game. The attitude on some days tells me that we will. What takes a team so long to mesh? The evolving of an individual ego into a team ego. Think pass before shot. Defense over offense. My hope is that this team can do it… I’ll comment on our last scrimmage and first game of the season vs. Syracuse University later this week.

- Coach Evans

November 1, 2008

October Practice

Upon returning from our Canadian Tour, we began official practice on October 15. After 12 days of hard work, our most glaring weakness is the lack of defensive leadership that Jason Homes provided our team with last year. In addition, the learning curve that our 6 new players must endure is challenging. Having said that, I believe our early start in Canada was a great advantage and we will get it in time. However, the clock is ticking and because of our difficult schedule, we must be ready sooner than later.

 Here is a breakdown of our player’s performance: 

Phil Barnes - Playing in better shape and much more comfortable on the floor this year. Has the ability to make things happen on both ends, but needs to be more aggressive and consistent every day to reach his potential. We need him to cut down on mental mistakes and be ready to execute.

Mike McDonough – Consistently gives a solid effort, but his play remains inconsistent. He must make a positive impact in the game and develop a dependable cerebral quality. Our team benefits from his daily energy and senior leadership.

Damani Corbin – Providing the most leadership on the floor and pushing the fast break with great speed. Still needs to improve his off the ball defense and cut down on careless turnovers when fatigued.

Laurence Ekperigin - The main attraction. Working well at all phases. L-Train has consistently looked good in practice, however he continues to struggle at times with his free throw shooting.

Durett Miles - He must play with more passion and a sense of urgency when making decisions with the ball. Defensively he is solid and has a good understanding of our system.

Kevin Hassett – Gaining confidence picking up our style of play while learning the 3 and 4 spots quickly. Nose must calcify a bit when playing inside, but is the first to step in and take the charge daily. His basketball I.Q., versatility and conditioning make him a great asset to our team.

Eduardo Archibold Brown - Working hard but has a lot to learn and at this point he is far behind the others. His weight will continue to be an issue with his conditioning until he can drop to 250. In spurts, Ed can be a dominating force.

Can Ozkaner – Last year’s injury put him in a difficult spot because he didn’t gain actual playing experience in our system. Hope he picks it up soon because he is a talented individual who needs to show a better understanding for our style of play. Has great instincts with the ball and can make our team better.

Kevin Roth – As a sophomore, his reliability on and off the court is great for our program’s future. Has the ability to make open 15-18 foot jumpers, but gets more done for us inside living off of Laurence’s attention.

James Cormier – Hurt his shoulder in Canada and missed valuable practice time. He needs to work hard and regain his confidence to play 100%. Once he does, he will need to value the ball more consistently and take more control of the team verbally. He’s improving with each practice daily as he understands our style of play and his ability to score from the point position is a great addition.

Chris Johnson - Talent on offense because of his ability to shoot the three. Will get stronger with age and improve defense as well. I know he’ll get it because he has a great competitive attitude.

Dan Jason - Working hard. Dependable player for practice.

Menelek Lidonde – Walk-on who recently was added to the team roster. He’s a hard worker with great passion and understanding for the game. Congrats Mickey!

We have a scrimmage game today. It will be interesting to see our guys compete against a quality opponent with everyone playing at a high tempo for three 20-minute periods. 

I’ll update you again on Monday!

- Coach Evans

LeMoyne Canadian Tour, October 10-13 

FRIDAY

We all made it across the boarder just fine and that was not taken for granted because we have players on our roster from foreign countries like Can, Phil and Eduardo. Needless to say, we arrived at the hotel with just enough time to relax and watch a few innings of the NLDS before leaving for our game vs. Brock University.

The Brock game reminded me of our first game last year vs. Mansfield University. We came out flat and dug an early hole giving up 21 first quarter points and only managed to score 14 ourselves. We responded to the challenge in the 2nd quarter by limiting Brock to 15 points and we found a better rhythm offensively by scoring 17 points. Although we were down 36-31 at half, I thought we adjusted well defensively during the 2nd quarter. However, I was disappointed with our lack of effort in finishing plays on both ends of the floor. We were scoring at a higher percentage and making our free throws (82%), but we were giving up too many second chance points to our opponent.

 The second half can be summed up easy. We lost our legs and tired quickly, both physically and mentally. When Brock went on a quick run to extend the lead, we responded poorly by loosing our composure on offense. We settled for quick contested shots early in the offense and when we did manage to get open looks, we struggled from the perimeter (1-10 3pt.). We fought hard, but we made too many careless turnovers and our body language was that of a frustrated team who was outscored 49-28 during the final 20 minutes.

It was a long first day in Canada for the humbled Dolphins. The final score was 75-59, but I reminded the team that you’re never as bad as you think you are; and you’re never as good as you think you are as well. I also challenged the players to respond better tomorrow vs. the Southern Ontario All-Stars. According to the Brock coach, this All-Star team is older and more talented than his squad. Brock defiantly played their better players most of the game and we tried multiple lineups in an effort evaluate the play of different guys. Tomorrow, I’m going to work our lineup smarter and try to let certain groups stay on the court longer.

We’ll see what we’re made of quickly!


SATURDAY

What a great morning to visit Niagara Falls! After breakfast, we all walked from our hotel down to the falls for a team photo and sight seeing. Many of the players, including myself have never seen the spectacular natural creation. The weather was beautiful and we all should have felt blessed to be fortunate enough to see such a sight in one’s lifetime. After having a few laughs at the falls, we checked out of our hotel and headed back to Brock University to play the Southern Ontario All-Stars.

We set a few goals going into the game for things that we wanted to accomplish today. I emphasize TODAY, because it is important to learn from yesterday, but live in the present. Today we wanted to be ready to play from the tip and be more aggressive. We wanted to clearly make more hustle plays than our opponent and win the scoring for each of the four quarters. I also challenged the team to execute better on offense. We’ve spent nine days working on our motion concepts and we all needed to demonstrate our knowledge of it better.

From the tip, we looked like a better team today and took a quick 21-10 lead to end the first quarter. Our zone defense gave them trouble and allowed us to get some easy baskets in transition. I was happy with our effort and we seemed to control the tempo and execute much better on the offensive end. There was not an official statistician; therefore I can’t get into small details. However, at the half we were leading 39-27 and needed to be ready for their run at some point during the final 20 minutes of the game. We were playing an experienced group of players who were very competitive.

During the third quarter we struggled to find our rhythm and went into a slump offensively. Normally during these times of the game I can call a quick set play to get a specific person a high percentage shot opportunity. However, we haven’t put any of them in yet, so we had to dig deep and find our way through this challenge. Although we were outscored 13-18, we still had a 52-45 game heading into the final ten minutes.

The fourth quarter turned into a shootout and the All-Star Team made a few three-point shots back to back and took a 2 point lead with :49 remaining in the game. We decided not to foul and challenged our guys to get a valuable stop at the defensive end. Unfortunately, the S.O. All-Stars made a basket with :30 and they were in control of winning the game 66-70. We called T.O. and decided to go for a quick basket. Damani Corbin did just that and with :19 we were down 68-70. We fouled quickly and sent them to the line to extend the game. The shooter went 1-2. For our next possession, Damani drove quickly again to the basket and was fouled on the shot. Damani went 2-2 and with :13 the Dolphins were only down by 1. We pressured in the backcourt and in their effort to play keep away, Phil Barnes stole a cross-court pass and took it in for a score and was fouled. Phil made the foul shot and his 3-point play put us ahead 73-71 with :06 remaining. The S.O. All-Stars did get a good look at a final shot, but it went off the rim and the horn ended a great finish. Final score: 73-71.

The guys were very excited after the game and I spent most of the night trying to figure out how we came back from down 4 with :30 on the clock. So far we’ve had two great games to learn from and the guys were excited to steal a win. As a coach, I wanted to get certain things from a trip, but I couldn’t have asked for a better winning experience to gain confidence. Yesterday we were humbled, but today we displayed the resiliency that good teams need to develop.

We took two mini-vans on this tour and needless to say, both of them were happy for the hour and a half ride to Toronto. We arrived at 7:00PM and I’m sure the guys are enjoying a night on the town as I write this blog. Speaking of fun, Coach Driscoll is calling me and I got to run. I could go into detail about the play of certain players, but I think I’ll leave it tonight as a great team effort.


SUNDAY

We gave the guys the morning to sleep in, recover and recharge! At noon, we hit the road for Ottawa. The 4-hour drive was a lot of fun in both vans to talk and spend time together. At some point, most of the guys fell asleep, but there were quite a few funny stories about the night in Toronto (none that I can share). The drive was long, but this time of year we all enjoyed looking at the scenery and the stunning fall foliage along the QEW.

We safely arrived in Ottawa, checked into the hotel and needed to be on the road again by 5:30 for our next game vs. Algonquin College. Unfortunately, James Cormier injured his shoulder during the 3rd quarter of yesterday’s game and will not be able to play anymore during our tour.

Once again, before the game we set an agenda for things we wanted to accomplish today. The guys fought hard, but Algonquin shot the lights out to start the game. They made 9 three-pointers in the first half and we trailed 41-30 at the half. We may have been tired from the trip, but that was not an excuse. Sometimes you have to give the opponent credit, they made everything. We varied our line-up in an effort to keep fresh legs on the court for short periods of time and evaluate different players during the first 20 minutes as well.

We found a strong group that worked well together in the second half and the players displayed the proper way to play from behind. Although we were still trailing with 10 minutes remaining, I felt we were gaining momentum. We executed on offense and I can’t explain how well the team shared the ball. Defensively, the contested outside shots failed to go down for our opponent and with 3:00 remaining, we were able to pull ahead and win comfortably by a score of 80-70.

It was Canada’s Thanksgiving Holiday, therefore a stat crew was unavailable. I can't remember all the details to the game, but I do know a few things. #1, I’m tired and #2 the lineup of Corbin, Barnes, Hassett, Roth and Ekperigin played extremely well together. Our final day is tomorrow and the guys have this evening to enjoy Ottawa’s nightlife. I doubt anyone is staying up too late tonight!


MONDAY

The wake-up call came at 8:00AM and we were off to visit the Parliament Hill area of Ottawa. Our hotel was only a few blocks from the site, so we took a morning stroll along the Rideau Canal to visit. Viewing the buildings and grounds of Parliament Hill was a rewarding experience for everyone. The site featured architectural beauty that reminded me of pictures I’ve seen from London’s Parliament buildings. Anytime you visit a national political building, it’s hard not to think about the historical significance and federal decision-making that takes place between the walls. Our game vs. La Cite was at noon, so we only had time to take a few photos and it was back to hoops.

Our fourth game in four days worked out just fine. Mike McDonough and Eduardo A. Brown carried the load inside for us in an attempt to rest Laurence Ekperigin and an injured Kevin Roth. Mike scored 15 and Ed scored 13 respectfully. However, Kevin Hassett led all Dolphin scorers with 21 during our 77-52 victory. After the game, we fueled the vans and prepared for the three-hour ride home.

Other than a little delay at the boarder, we all made it back to the Heights! We’ll take Tuesday off and get ready for our first official practice on Wednesday. The trip was a great head-start program for our team and I believe the game conditioning experience will pay dividends. I look forward to keeping you posted, but please don’t check in daily.

My next blog entry will take place on November 1. At that time, I’ll give you my impressions on each player and comment on our exciting exhibition game at Georgia Tech and opener at Syracuse.

Best swishes and GO ‘PHINS!
- Coach Evan

October 7, 2008

Practice #6

Today I’ll try to keep my enthusiasm in check, give you an overview of our Monday practice and obtain a second opinion on our team.

Today was not a good practice. It was great, considering we’ve only had six days together as a team. We had officials for a live whistle and I will use the video-editing machine to illustrate the important areas that need individual and team development before Wednesday’s practice. I would also like to thank Liverpool head basketball coach, Jerry Wilcox for dropping by to watch the guys in action and his input. Our practices are always open to the coaching community and I encourage area coaches to bring their staff and players to see what our program is all about. The only problem we experienced on Monday dealt with the fact that one of our baskets on the main court would not lower down to the level we needed to play. Therefore, we went full cross-court and used half of the main court to work on our zone. Eduardo’s ankle was also stable enough for him to go about 80%.

I don’t want to get carried away or overly enthusiastic, because our defense is not near our offense and we have issues that need improvement (example: turnovers). However, some of the weaknesses I thought we’d have going in are not weaknesses. We’re shooting the ball extremely well, which is something I was concerned about. The amazing thing is how much better everyone is, especially the point guard position play of Durett Miles and freshman, James Cormier. We are experimenting by moving Damani Corbin off the ball and he has adjusted great to that position as well. There’s not one person on our team that I could say has not made substantial improvement, not only in their physical play, but also in their basketball attitude.

I think going toe-to-toe with NE-10 Champion, Bentley College last year and falling short both times has given us confidence and made our players extremely hungry. Our talent level, even with the graduation of starters; Jason Holmes, Dan Cromwell, Jonathan Joshua and Mark Covin on the court right now is outstanding. Therefore, I’m going to pinch myself and I don’t want to get too carried away. This is very exciting for me to see the work ethic attitude, to see the potential of our new players and to see the improvement of guys like Phil Barnes, Can Ozkaner, Mike McDonough and Kevin Roth. As you can tell, I’m really excited.

Honestly, we haven’t had a bad day, even when we were working in a very cold gym (Some things never change this time of year at LeMoyne). However, to get another opinion, I asked senior, Damani Corbin about our team and its progress.

SE: Damani, what are your thoughts on practice so far?

DC: I think practice is going really well so far. The guys are given the opportunity to get familiar with not only their teammates, but with the coaching staff as well. Despite the few injuries, I think that the work ethic has set a pretty high standard and if we keep it this way, it is going to be a very exciting season.

SE: What do you think of our new players?

DC: I really like our new players both on and off the court. They are all great guys and each brings something needed and different to the team. I think that they all realize that no spots are guaranteed and there is a possibility that they all can get some minutes. So, they are going at the older players in practice making it very competitive.

SE: What do you think the benefits of this early practice time and Canadian games will be for us?

DC: I think that these early practices and games will build character and toughness in our team right away. The basketball season is pretty long and strenuous to begin with. For us to get through and be competitive during this additional two weeks will serve as incentive for us at the end of the season when the NCAA rolls around because we’ve put in more time than any other team.

SE: For people who haven’t seen us yet, what would stick out if they saw our team right now?

DC: I think our size and athletic ability would be the thing that stands out about our team. In my opinion, we’ve reloaded from last year’s team. The talented team you saw last year is back with more size and athleticism… so watch out!

Thanks Damani. I thought everyone may be interested in another opinion and I think this veteran was right on the money.

- Coach Evan

Day 5

October 6, 2008

While I’ve been impressed with our offensive production since our practices began, today I’ll talk about an area of our team that needs work and let you know what are plans are in leaving for Canada and the weeks ahead.

We’ve spent much of our practice time on offense, however I’m not too sure about our defense. We have inexperienced, new players who haven’t learned our defense system and upperclassmen who seemed to have forgotten some of our concepts. It’s easy to spot a selfish offensive player, but at this point our entire team is selfish on defense. In order to teach defensive habits, you must form them through repetition. With only 9 practices to get prepared for this tour, we just haven’t spent much time practicing good defensive habits. I believe that we are as ready as we can be to play offensively, but we just need to get ready to play defense with the remaining practices for our trip to Canada. We must do a better job of converting back in transition, protecting the paint, contesting all shots while giving opponents one chance to score and finally, chasing down every loose ball.

After taking it easy physically in practice this weekend, we will have a live whistle today and video tape the scrimmage portion. Today will be a great barometer to see the areas that we need to improve. I will also be able to evaluate the play of each individual and start to think about the different lineups that we will use this weekend. We’ll take a mandatory day off to rest and recover on Tuesday, but get right back into it again with individual instruction and practice on Wednesday and Thursday. After class on Friday, we will head to St. Catharines, Ontario Canada to play our first of four games vs. the Brock Badgers.

When we return back to LeMoyne College on Monday after our final tour game, we’ll take Tuesday off before starting the “official” first day of practice on the 15th. At that point, it will be back to the normal routine in preparation for the season, academics and running two Kid’s Night Out programs for the community.

Recruiting is always a priority and we’ll be going after two to three basketball players in this year’s class trying to sign at least one prospect early. I’ll get into that more in future blogs, but so far we’ve been able to evaluate and go into some of the homes or schools of rising seniors and meet with them and their families already. It may not seem like an important class when you look at our roster. But, you will notice that we have a large junior class and I want to build a solid foundation this year because we will loose a lot in two years. So far, we’ve had a series of unofficial visits as well by underclassmen, which has been a great start for our program.

- Coach Evans

Day 4

October 4, 2008

Today I’ll talk about our last two practices from Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.

Friday’s practice was interesting at the beginning to see who was going to make it out of the training room. Unfortunately, Chris Johnson’s shoulder is injured and may require some extra time off to heal, but Kevin Hassett’s ankle was good enough to go. Please understand the difference between hurt and injured. Although Kevin was not 100%, it’s important for players learn to have a high threshold for pain and often times, play hurt. I have great respect for players like Brett Favre, John Stockton and Cal Ripken because of their ability to play hurt throughout their long careers.

All the guys worked really hard and got after it during Friday’s practice. However, with 30 minutes of practice time remaining, I noticed the team breaking down mentally and physically. I challenged them to stay focused. But, it’s the first time they’ve worked this hard against competitive competition since last March where every possession is scrutinized by coaches. It was at that time that Eduardo Archibold Brown took a nasty fall but popped right up. With too much sweat in the paint, we moved to the other end to finish up practice. Wouldn’t you know it, the very next play Easy Ed fell again and sprained his ankle. PRACTICE OVER for everyone! I should have known that someone might go down.

I could see Ed wearing out, but he was playing hard and beginning to pick up some of our concepts. My goal was to get Eduardo to Canada through some hard practices and get him to drop a few pounds in the process. Well, if you load up a truck every day, sooner or later it’s going to wear out. Although it was only day 3, I remember how Pat Riley wanted to get Shaquille O’Neal under 10 percent body fat because he felt that was why he was getting injured. In fact, the year the Heat won the NBA Championship was the first time in awhile that Shaq was under 10 percent body fat (I doubt he will ever get there again!). Our size is impressive, but we need to have Easy Ed back on the court and get him in shape.

Saturday’s early morning practice was at C.B.A. High School. Chris and Eduardo were injured and could not go, bringing us to an even 10. We were at the high school because our gym needed to get prepared for Sunday’s Open House. We also wanted to be done early enough to give Damani Corbin and Mike McDonough the opportunity to take the GMAT and LSAT practice exams offered for interested LeMoyne students. I shared some good news with the team before practice: we were not going to go as hard for the next two days and although they didn’t show it, I could tell they were all really excited. We still went for 2 1/2 hours and got a lot out of it by reviewing and adding some simple plays without defense. Overall, it was very productive and we are going to do the same light practice on Sunday. Monday, however we will pick it up again and have a live whistle from referees when we scrimmage.

We’re trying to stay very simple with a basic zone, basic man-to-man and only two or three quicksets offensively. We want our young guys to learn it and not get frustrated with having to think too much. One of the things that hurt new players is that they have to think too much and not just instinctively play. We’re trying to keep our offense simple and they’re picking up the little aspects day-by-day.

I would like to wrap it up today by talking about the work that our student-athletes have to put in the classroom. It’s not really a problem for our guys to keep up with their academic workload during the first few weeks of school in September. At that time, they’re not preparing for exams and they are just learning the rigors of going to class and studying. Where they begin to struggle a little bit is this time of year. We have all our players give progress reports to their professors to fill out which give them and our staff an idea where they stand at the mid-term point. If they are struggling, players will have resources to help them improve, but they have to learn where they’ll have to make sacrifices in their social lives, not in the world of academics or basketball. They’re going to have to learn what a Friday and Saturday night is, and that the other days of the week are for dedication. I hope they are smart enough to learn that.

Other than the injured players, it’s been a wonderful first four days. Better to get these things out of the way early before we get into the season. These 9 days of practice leading up to our trip to Canada are just what the doctor ordered (no pun intended). The guys are truly working hard. You can see that they’re all very excited to be on the court and looking forward to spending time in Canada together next weekend.

- Coach Evans

 

October 2, 2008 Practice #2 Today, I’d like to tell you about our second day of work in preparation for our foreign tour to Canada. The guys are playing hard and competing with great energy. Like most seasons, when you start off, everyone is playing too fast and when you try to run before you can walk substandard things tend to happen. As a team, we need to slow down and realize that although we are in a sprint to get ready for our first “exhibition game” on October 10, we have 35 days before our first actual contest. To make maters more challenging, we had two injuries today and our athletic trainer, Scott Peterson will earn his money getting Chris Johnson and Kevin Hassett back the court. The good news is that neither player should be out too long, so we wish them a quick and full recovery. The most noticeable aspect of our basketball team, aside from our size, strength and depth, is our low post game and transition offense. That’s our bread and butter and as long as we have Laurence Ekperigin, teams will have to devise ways to stop him down low. One thing we’re working on more than anything else with our offense is throwing the ball inside to the post about 75 percent of the time. That doesn’t mean we’re not going to look to shoot threes, but we’re working inside to out. We are so tall and strong inside. Laurence and Kevin Roth have gotten so much better, Mike McDonough is improved and practiced well today, Kevin Hassett will be better suited to score inside at the DII level and Edwardo Archibold Brown’s an immovable force. We have a great low post presence and it’s been an emphasis for us to work on that facet of our offense. I’m sure people will notice that right away in our exhibition games. We’re going to try to pound it inside for high percentage shots. It may be hard for us to score against some of the bigger DI teams on our schedule early, but we are ultimately preparing for games in the NE-10 Conference. With that said, the biggest surprise of this basketball team is that our outside shooting has progressed as well. Returning players such as Durett Miles, Can Ozkaner, Phil Barnes and Damani Corbin are much-improved shooters when they take uncontested shots. Each one of them has also improved two or three aspects of their offensive game and that’s why we’re a much-improved basketball team. Recruiting two quality outside threats from the 3-point line was a priority facing our staff last year. I believe the outside shooting from our freshmen guards, Chris Johnson and James Cormier will add even more pressure on teams who double the post because of their ability to make open shots. We are banged up a little, but it’s important that we continue to stay focused and show improvement during our next practice tomorrow. An early morning practice on Saturday will force me to prepare quickly and I will report back to you on Saturday afternoon. Gotta get somewhere with a TV quick tonight and root for my Cubbies. “We” dug a hole to start the series and tonight, we are behind again in Game 2. Go 'Phins! Coach Evans

October 1, 2008

Practice #1

Today I’d like to tell you about our first practice and comment on some of our players. It’s obvious from day one that our overall size, athleticism and familiarity are different than last year. We have more size and depth, but we are inexperienced at key positions trying to replace 4 starters from last season. This Canadian trip is so important for us because of all the experience our new players will get as a head start for practice on Oct. 15.

Our returning players are off to a good start and will always give you 100 percent every day. They are all dependable and trustworthy as players. The y are also one year wiser and understand what they’re doing out there and make our practices better with their presence. They know how hard we worked and how close we were to doing something special last year and they want to improve upon the success we tasted. That’s very important for the new guys on our team, to see the stability they provide for our team every day.

I’m probably as pleased with Phil Barnes as I am with any player on the team. He’s looking to be more of a basketball player and he’s taking his game more seriously. He was not passionate about basketball last year and he spent too much time thinking and not playing. He’s still not where I want him, but he’s so much improved and so much better, that I think he’s going to have a great senior year ahead of him.

A pleasant surprise has also been Durett Miles at the point guard position. He’s more vocal and physically very tough. He gets after people and makes it very difficult for anyone to be effective. He’s a good scorer, but just needs to work on his balance on his jump shot. He’s a good passer and a tough, hard-nosed guy. Another young man that really understands how to play the game is James Cormier at point guard position. He and Durett are really going to compete, although they are different players. Durett is the consummate point guard and understands how to get in the lane and make other people better. James is more of a scoring point guard. They will complement each other very well.

Eduardo Archibold Brown, our talented front line junior transfer, has dropped his weight from 275 pounds to 260. We feel he needs to play at 250, however the most important thing is to get him consistently running. He’s never had the ability to play every possession. If he made two great plays, he had to take the next three off because of his lack of conditioning. We’re going to try to get him to be able to play all five possessions and making something good happen for this basketball team in the short spurts that he is able to play.

We’re looking forwa rd to our second practice later today. As with most of our practices for this trip, we will close them out with mini scrimmage games to 8 points (3’s and 2’s count their worth and with shooting fouls, we shoot one shot – by making the free throw, you receive 2 points). Last night, we experimented by playing our veterans against our newcomers. Believe it or not, our new guys found a way to win every game. The new guys didn’t execute at all, but I was happy to watch them find a way to win. The vets played together more and I’m sure if the games were longer, they would have won. Needless to say, it is already apparent to me that this is without question, the most physical talent we’ve had in my time at LeMoyne. I’m really fired up about this team because our depth should allow us to wear down our opponents. We’re spending about half our practices teaching our motion offense and getting our running game going. I’m hoping in Canada that we can execute, adjust and get great shots within their FIBA 24 second shot clock rule. I believe we can get a lot of work accomplished in preparing for our upcoming season if we can quickly learn to play our style of basketball. If there were ever a foreign trip that would benefit a team, it’s this year’s group. Our newcomers will have the opportunity to play so many minutes. It’s a blessing for what we need to develop in our basketball team.

I’m looking forward to getting out on th e court tonight and then sharing my thoughts with you tomorrow.

- Coach Evans

 

September 26, 2008 I'm very excited to announce that we will play four exhibition games on a visit to C anada during our student's fall break. Our tour will begin when we depart after class for Ontario on Friday, October 10th. That evening we will play our first game at Brock University at 8:00 p.m. We will spend the night and do some sightseeing at Niagara Falls and the next day play at Brock University again vs. the Southern Ontario All-Stars at 2:00 p.m. After the game, we will depart for an evening in Canada's largest city, Toronto. After spending the night in Toronto, we will travel north and close out our Canadian tour by spending two days in Canada's capitol city, Ottawa. On Sunday, we will compete against Algonquin College at 7:00 p.m. and on Monday; we will finish out our competition schedule with a noon tip-off vs. La Cite collegiale and return home after the game. This four-day tour is a great cultural experience for our team to learn about life in a foreign country. It is also a positive opportunity for our program to grow, particularly in acclimating our incoming freshman and transfers. We will have the benefits of practicing as a team for nine days before embarking on four games against good competition. It's a great start for our new players, along with the returning veterans who I expect to be integral factors on our team this year. This is the first international trip for a Le Moyne basketball team since competing in London, England during the summer vacation period of 1997. I would like to take this opportunity to thank friends of the program who contribute to the Gold Wave and make trips like this possible for our student-athletes. If you did not contribute recently, I would encourage you to do so because your support plays an integral part for the success of our program. Due to this foreign trip, the Men's Basketball Gold Wave account is currently depleted. In an effort to provide the best for our players in the future, we need your continued financial support. I look forward to blogging after each of our nine practices next week and keeping you up to speed with our team's development. I also appreciate all the basketball alumni and friends who have reached out and emailed me. I'm glad to know that you have a positive response to our new athletic website and the effort to connect with the program through the use of this blog. - Coach Evans

 September 10, 2008

Greetings Le Moyne Basketball fans:
As promised in my last blog, an update on the condition of our players as we move in September.

Seniors:

Phil Barnes- He has worked on his body and is 25 pounds lighter than he showed up last year. His quickness and athleticism is impressive and he’s knocking down consistent shots from the new 3-point line during individual workouts.

Damani Corbin- After getting back into the swing of things last season after a year off, he returned to campus in awesome shape. He has improved his outside and free throw shooting, but more importantly, he is showing great leadership on and off the court. He will graduate in the spring and plans on returning next year for his master’s degree and final year of athletic eligibility.

Mike McDonough- Spent time in Ireland this summer studying during an academic term abroad and also found time to work on his game as well. He is in the best shape of his life and brings a positive attitude to the court everyday. His toughness on the court and work ethic in the classroom are good examples for the younger players to follow.

Juniors:

Eduardo Archibold Brown- Big body transfer who needs to drop 6-8 pounds. That will be easy after our first week of practice. Starting to show signs of fitting in with his new teammates and our style of play.

Laurence Ekperigin- Played well in the Empire State Games this summer. Continues to work on developing all aspects of his game and is the most coachable player on the team. Terrific athlete… Enough said!

Kevin Hassett- Transfer from Iona College who is poised to make an outstanding impact on our team. He’s in great condition and should excel this year because of his ability to play inside and out while playing the forward position.

Dan Jason- As tough and hard working as they get! You will not find a more wonderful and giving person with a great attitude in our program. A very improved player who shows great leadership by example.

Durett Miles- Represented the Adirondack Region as a point guard during the Empire State Games this summer. Has matured as a leader and has a good feel for our style of play. Must continue to play aggressive and be vocal on the court.

Sophomores:

Can Ozkaner- Has great individual one on one moves, but must discover ways to utilize his skills while playing within our team system. Practiced with the team last year, but missed team competition due to an NCAA rule and suffered a knee injury as well during the off-season. He added strength during his time away from the court and needs to get agility back to 100% quickly and work on his footwork daily. Can has the potential to develop into an outstanding player but must push himself harder to maximize his abilities.

Kevin Roth- Fully recovered from the broken hand that he suffered during our final game at Bentley. He is in tremendous physical shape and ready to compete for a starting position. Possesses a high basketball I.Q. and skill that make him an excellent fit at the four position to complement our strong inside players. Freshman experience will pay dividends and provide strong leadership for the future.

Freshman:

James Cormier- Love the fact that he’s a scoring point guard, a coaches son, but most of all…a gym rat! It’s very important that he learns our system quickly and then has the ability to relax and slow down offensively and make great decisions with the ball for his teammates.

Chris Johnson- Skilled offensive player who can light it up from the 3-point line and provide our team with an instant threat from the perimeter. Presently, he is recovering from a stress fracture in his non-shooting arm and not participating in workouts. Our entire team is looking forward to seeing Chris healthy soon!

Team Strengths at this Point:

*Attitude: Team has humble, talented and motivated players combined with strong returning leadership.

*Depth: We are athletic and/or physically strong at every position.

Concerns:

*Extremely difficult schedule.

*Four new starting positions will expose our inexperience, but talented replacements will have an opportunity to prove their worth.

*Free throw shooting- Our team must excel in this area because of the number of close games that occur throughout our season and our different abilities to get fouled.

I will update you on our progress in the next couple of weeks. . . 

Steve Evans
Le Moyne Men's Basketball Head Coach

 

August 27, 2008 Welcome to my first official blog entry. The Internet has grown into an important source of news and information and I am looking forward to providing an additional resource for LeMoyne fans and basketball fans. I hope that you find this site to be both informative and fun. We had our first team meeting on Wednesday this week and the one thing that is quite noticeable with our team is that this is the most physical talent we’ve had since I’ve been here at LeMoyne. It doesn’t mean that this will be our best team… time will tell – but it’s the most physical size, talent and athletic ability we’ve had during my time as head coach. It’s taken time to put this collection together, with the qua ntity of players we have coming back, the size we have, and the depth we’ve added at each position, we’re all very excited about the season ahead. Next week we will officially begin weight training three times per week, conditioning twice per week and start individual instruction shortly after on September 8. Our players will also voluntarily play pick-up games during open gym times as well. Until official practice begins, the NCAA allows six hours of strength and conditioning with our team and two hours of on the floor skill instruction per week, with a maximum of four players per session. We will conduct four different sessions with a combination of three or four players, with each session lasting about 1 hour while working around class schedules. Every second of the workout is involved with conditioning, offensive basketball, including reading screens, post moves, one-on-one moves, jab series, ball faking, shooting off the dribble – everything that you need to be a great individual player at your position. If I must say, the summer improvements to the Henninger Athletic Center and Ted Grant Court look first class and the facility allows us great flexibility in working with our players individually. Please check back soon. I look forward to giving you a rundown on each of our players during my next blog!