We are off to a pretty good start! We had a tough schedule in front of us and we have come through at 4-2. We have had two great wins over teams that I think will be ranked by the end of the season (Lambuth and Life). The Lambuth game was a lot of fun for the guys and it certainly was a great team victory. The Covenant game was a great win from the standpoint that we played well from start to finish. We got the lead early and kept our concentration up for the majority of the game.
The Life game game brings back a lot of memories for me. My Freshman year we played Life at their place for the chance to advance to the conference tourney finals. We went into the game as the #4 seed and they were #1 in the country. We won in an unbelievable game! Life went on to lose in the national championship game. Lots of fun as a freshman to experience that game. With a great personal history with Life that victory last week was great for me and our program!
We certainly have shown some great glimpses of how good we can be. Our concentration continues to be on taking care of the ball and rebounding the ball. If we want to be as good as we can be those two areas need to improve.
This coming weekend will be huge for us. We will need to play with a great passion and energy to give us our best chance to win. AUM will be undefeated coming into the contest on Thursday. They are led by Kip Small and Robert Johnson. I know I have not forgotten our opener in the Cage last year nor have the guys.
Faulkner will be another huge test on Saturday. They will come into the game with one or two losses (depending on Shorter result Thursday). Both AUM and Faulkner are coming off a very impressive weekend in Faulkner's classic. They defeated Campbellsville and LSU Shreveport (both schools in the top 15 nationally). Faulkner will be very perimeter oriented.
I hope we play with passion for all 80 minutes or more if needed. I continue to love coaching these guys. They want to be better! Thanks for the support and I hope we make you happy!!!
It is amazing to think that the season is here; not almost here, but here! The guys have worked hard over the 25+ practices and I hope the dividends will prove positive. We certainly have a neat mixture of experience and youthful excitement! I couldn't have been more blessed with a better group of guys and staff. They have certainly done an unbelievable job while I have been absent with the birth of Will and the passing of Grandma Pat (my Mom's mom).
Baby Will is doing well. It is awesome seeing Molly interact with her new brother! She is so excited to brag about Will. Casey continues to be a trooper. Hopefully the family will be able to make the opening night...we'll see.
We had an intersquad scrimmage on Sunday afternoon that went well. It is always hard to evaluate a scrimmage because there is a great bucket that probably means not great defense. There might be a great offensive rebound, well that means maybe a missed box out. You get the idea... There were definitely some highlights and some areas that we can improve. We shot the ball very well (some were contested and some not) and we thought as a staff that we competed on the defensive end of the floor. One thing that was very evident to us as a staff was that we could have very good depth. It is amazing to think that last year the margin of victory on the season was less than 1 point (75.2 to 74.8). When you are 18-13 on the season you realize how significant each possession is. We will continue to stress the value of "gold" (the ball) throughout the season.
The opening weekend should be a huge challenge with Union College (KY) and Cumberland University (TN). We have not played Union for a couple of years, but they are also a tough group of guys that play extremely hard on both ends of the floor. Cumberland will have some revenge on their minds, after beating them twice last year. They have signed three D1 guys to add to an experienced group from last year. We will need to compete as hard as possible to reach our goal of two wins!
I can't wait to get the season started and I look forward to seeing you all there next Thursday!
Molly loves hanging out with the "boys"! 
We are not sure what this means!
Chris was the high bowler for the day while Tim was a close second!
It is always wonderful having the guys over to eat. Hopefully our team chemistry on and off the floor will lead to great things this season. It is an honor to coach such great young men.
This is our family this season!
The seniors --- The picture with Ferg was too blurry!
Tim -- doing whatever Tim does!
Lee -- We are excited about Lee being a part of us this season!
I think they are trying to be tough???
