Just got back from Emmitsburg. Great to spend some time with "Coach" Nashville who always has such great insight about the game.
Game was a tale of two halves. MSM could not miss in the first half. Give them credit. They moved the ball well and made their shots.
But then our guys really turned up the defensive intensity in the second half. It only took them about 2 minutes to get back into the game. I couldn't help but flash back to the George Mason CIT game in 2010 (Stags erased a 27-point deficit in the 2nd half) and wonder if we would be seeing another great comeback. Turns out that we did.
The boxscore shows that we had 16 steals. That's an enormous number. And I'm guessing that almost all of them came in the 2nd half, which makes it even more amazing. MSM shot very well, but they turned the ball over 11 times more than we did. Couple that with a few extra offensive rebounds and considerably more FT's than MSM and the Stags were able to grab victory from the jaws of defeat.
Leach, Goodine and Fields again did the bulk of the scoring, but two other things should also be noted. 1) Seck had a very good start to this game. Regrettably it looked like he twisted his ankle and sat for most of the game after that. But he looked good while he was in there. 2) Yetna made a very significant contribution today. He scored, he rebounded, he blocked a couple of shots, and he played a significant number of minutes. I don't think we win this game without him. Nice to see those two contribute as we head into the tourney.
Enjoy the bus ride home guys. You earned it.
Last Edit: Mar 9, 2024 21:10:37 GMT -5 by vastagman
Don't think we subbed until the last minute in the second half. That reminded me of Tim Clueess, he would do that all the time if they were down at half.
Just got back from Emmitsburg. Great to spend some time with "Coach" Nashville who always has such great insight about the game.
Game was a tale of two halves. MSM could not miss in the first half. Give them credit. They moved the ball well and made their shots.
But then our guys really turned up the defensive intensity in the second half. It only took them about 2 minutes to get back into the game. I couldn't help but flash back to the George Mason CIT game in 2010 (Stags erased a 27-point deficit in the 2nd half) and wonder if we would be seeing another great comeback. Turns out that we did.
The boxscore shows that we had 16 steals. That's an enormous number. And I'm guessing that almost all of them came in the 2nd half, which makes it even more amazing. MSM shot very well, but they turned the ball over 11 times more than we did. Couple that with a few extra offensive rebounds and considerably more FT's than MSM and the Stags were able to grab victory from the jaws of defeat.
Leach, Goodine and Fields again did the bulk of the scoring, but two other things should also be noted. 1) Seck had a very good start to this game. Regrettably it looked like he twisted his ankle and sat for most of the game after that. But he looked good while he was in there. 2) Yetna made a very significant contribution today. He scored, he rebounded, he blocked a couple of shots, and he played a significant number of minutes. I don't think we win this game without him. Nice to see those two contribute as we head into the tourney.
Enjoy the bus ride home guys. You earned it.
Couldn't have stated it any better about what happened Va. Such a feeling of happiness from you and I and a couple of other Stag fans in an arena with almost 3,000 previously screaming fans now becoming very silent (and some leaving early with a couple of minutes to go) certainly was something to behold and feel great about. For while that G. Mason comeback will probably never be equaled, the fact is this one will have to go down as one of the best in Stag history and surely should make them confident going into the tournament in thinking they are never out of a game even if they fall behind by a few points. What a way to hit the magic number of 20 wins, something that hadn't happened in over 12 years and was really a pipe-dream when this year's edition started out at 1-6. As you say, the defensive activity in the second half was magical, and the fact that Yetna and to some extent Seck really contributed a lot to this victory hopefully will mean a lot concerning what could happen later this week. We got our money's worth for sure and it was worth our effort to be there, right?
getting a treat listening to old pal Martin Bahar broadcast the game on ESPN +
Martin is back on the East Coast and doing well. And while not coaching this season he is still involved in the game as you can see with his television presence. I've got a feeling he will get back to helping a program again in the near future. He was always one of the real good guys to ever coach at Fairfield.
"We went 15-for-25 from 3 [point range]," Mount coach Dan Engelstad said. "I didn't think there would be a day when we were playing basketball when we went 15-for-25 that we would lose a game."
getting a treat listening to old pal Martin Bahar broadcast the game on ESPN +
Martin is back on the East Coast and doing well. And while not coaching this season he is still involved in the game as you can see with his television presence. I've got a feeling he will get back to helping a program again in the near future. He was always one of the real good guys to ever coach at Fairfield.
A couple of “ifs”. If Casey is retained he will need to revise his staff. If he revises his staff he could for sure use Martin Bahar to recruit players.
Did Seck hurt his ankle towards the end of the MSM game? I though I saw the trainer working on him and he did not play towards the end of the game. Does anyone know?