We needed that!!!

We got a big win last night! What a way to find a way to get a much needed win. The team played with passion last night. They played with determination. They played together as a team. They played with a lot of pride. Our whole program was proud last night. We had many contributors last night...Will had 28 pts, Dave had 16pts and 10 rebs, KG had 15, Tim had 10. There were many highlights last night and it is hard to list them all. Bentley hit a huge three for us down the stretch, Dave got a huge offensive rebound off a FT and put it back, KG hit a big floater down the stretch, Will hit a few big shots...I could go on! But the icing on the cake was the old Marietta connection of Tim to Stefan. DT had a great call to get Stefan in the game and look to throw it at the front of the rim. Will set a great screen and the lane opened up for Stefan to catch a great pass from Tim. The toss and score led to a 85-83 win. The game was nip and tuck all night long and I am so proud of the determination our guys showed. What a great win for them!!!

Will, KG and Josh...

The Berry College athletic department started the "athlete of the week" in January. We have had three guys that have been named already this month.

Will Blackwell was named athlete of the week for the week of January 11...Will is having one of the best seasons in recent memory...http://berry.edu/athletics/story.asp?ID=2828&sport=WRunning

Kendall Gadie was named athlete of the week for the week of January 25th...here is the article...http://berry.edu/athletics/story.asp?ID=2839&sport=WBasketball

Josh Bracken had a break out week and was named athlete of the week for February 1...here is the article...http://berry.edu/athletics/story.asp?ID=2846&sport=MBasketball

Congrats to our guys! They certainly deserve the accolades they receive!

A few bumps in the road...

Every year a team faces adversity and every year the team has choices to continue to fight and scratch and claw or do the other. We certainly did not play well for a four game stretch starting over at Emmanuel. We ran into a buzz saw with the Emmanuel and we just couldn't get going offensively and that in turn affected our defense. The Emmanuel game also led to some pretty serious injuries for two guys that are our leaders, Will and Lee.
We hosted a pretty athletic team in Southern Wesleyan. We battled, but just couldn't finish the task. We had the lead for a good bit but just did not get the win. There certainly was some bright spots with the play of Josh Bracken and Kendall Gadie. We had 5 guys in double figures, which is something we haven't had in a long time.
We had a short turnaround and got to go to the big crosstown rivalry over at Shorter College. We faced a team that was very determined and very hot! They shot the ball so well and we just couldn't get enough stops and rebounds to give our guys a chance to get the win. It was a night that was tough for the whole program. Again, there were some bright spots from some guys. Kendall finished the last two games playing 80 minutes of the 80 minute game!
We then faced a daunting task going to Lee University to square off with a team that, I'm sure, did not forget the loss we gave them here in the second game of the season. With the injuries, it has been difficult to string together practices to have a great sense of ourselves heading up to Cleveland to face Lee. We went into halftime down 9 points. We competed with them possession for possession for the first 20 minutes and then we just hit a wall. They scored to the first 7 points out of halftime and we did not recover. Lee has a chance to have a special year!
I have always known that adversity will make you stronger. Our team has faced some bumps along the way with injuries and some very hot teams. I know the character of the team will eventually get us out of the rut that we are in. I know this can be a good team!

Tough road game...

We need to figure out our road woes... We played a very good Emmanuel team on the road Sat. and they played awfully well. It is never good when a Will and Lee get banged up in the first few minutes of the game and the other team makes a ton of shots. We just need to find a way to play better on the road. Stefan was a bright spot on Sat. with some good play. Hopefully that will continue down the stretch.


Hopefully a little bit of time between games will lend itself to mending some injuries and having a few good practices. We definitely need to have a few good practices prior to the upcoming weekend with a home game vs. SWU and an away one over a Shorter.

We have a team that has proven that we can compete against anyone on our schedule. We need to continue to strive for improvement every day and we need to have a couple guys regain some confidence and we will be fine.

Great win by the Lady Vikes Sat.!!!

Gutsy Win!!!

We won, we won, we won! It was a good win at home after a long lay off. I was so proud of the effort of the guys to hang on for the win. It was an awkward game playing at home on the night of the national football championship and also dealing with a snow storm (or dusting if from the north). It certainly was a empty gym tonight but it was an exciting game to watch from a spectators standpoint with a few lead changes and two teams playing hard. Will, Tim, and Lee played as well as they could. Will registered his first double/double last night and Lee got his second in the last three games. The free throw line was the difference in the game. We finished the game going 39 of 46 from the charity stripe.

Thanks for the support for the ones that braved the weather and were not at home cheering for the Tide!

Big one tomorrow!!! It will certainly be a challenge to maintain our unblemished mark at home with the running hornets coming to Cage. SPSU is very talented and athletic. They are out to a 9-2 start and ranked in the top 15 nationally. Hopefully we can muster a great effort and get a win!!!

BPC at Home!

We have not played at home since Nov. 21st and that certainly was a sweet win for us that night. I hope we can remember that night tonight. We have hid some good practices back from Christmas break, so hopefully we can put it together and get a big win this evening. Brewton Parker will bring an athletic group in here tonight, so we will need to play with composure and poise. Hopefully the friendly rims will get us out of a little scoring drought that we have been in recently. We will need to contain a couple of their perimeters and limit them to just one shot per possession.

It will be a sparse crowd tonight as Alabama and Texas go for the national championship in football. Also, we have currently having the snow storm of the year...about 1/2 an inch!!!

Go Vikings!!!

SD Zoo, Harbour Tour and Lee going off on the ocean...

What a neat zoo! I know why it is known nationally / worldly. I know each player had a separate best memory of their favorite animal. It seemed like most of the favorites were elephants, tigers, hippos, polar bears and then the snake exhibit. Mixer, Hipp, Corey, Bradley and I got attacked by some species of monkey...i'll post the video later! Lots of fun memories hopefully for the guys. We found a good dinner place in Mimi's Cafe. Kendall stole the night with an order of Lamb shank and a side of pancake. The best was the he asked in a straight face if he could substitute his salad with a pancake...the waitress wasn't sure how to respond.

Today is the last day out here to do some exploring. I think we are going to drive north up the pacific coast highway and see some of the coastline. Maybe venture down to the harbor area or the "Gaslight" district. I am sure we will find some good Mexican food to wrap up the trip this evening.