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Post by hawaii bill on Jan 30, 2012 20:58:34 GMT -5
Our team is on a pretty incredible hot streak right now, 2nd longest winning streak in the nation only behind undefeated Murray State. We have some weird losses, namely our first game of the season against Missouri State (who's actually proven to be a pretty good team) and BYU on a neutral floor. Our only other loss was to UNLV by 4 points on the road. We had the youngest team in NCAA division I last year and our record showed it. We had the worst record in almost a decade for our team mainly because of a coaching change (loss of commits and transfers) and players skipping to the NBA (Javale Mcgee, Luke Babbitt, Armon Johnson). That being said, our team went through some lumps last year for sure, but grew because of it. I think our first game of the year we can accredit it to being just that, the first game of the year. Our team chemistry and overall confidence is miles beyond then. We have a terrific future NBA point guard in Deonte Burton, who we hope to keep past this year. He can knock down ridiculous shots from anywhere on the court: NBA three with a defender in his face, athletic shots in the paint, and mid range. He has a really quick step and to this point we really haven't seen any defender able to guard him. He's only 6'1 but can jump out of the building. To compliment, our 2 guard (Malik Story) is currently one of the best three point shooters in the country (I think 2nd in 3pt% and not behind by much) and can go off at anytime. He also has a tendency of just chucking it up sometimes, but his shot selection has improved drastically over the course of the season and especially from last year. We also have at small forward a Duke transfer (Olek Czyz) who was an All-American in high school (he went to a Reno high school which explains why he came back). He has great athleticism for a post player and has really great post moves with the ability to knock down the outside shot. He has really been hitting a little left handed jump hook in the last handful of games as well. Our power forward is a beast underneath and averages over 2 blocks a game despite his relatively small height (6'8"). He will outrebound most guys bigger than him and is really a defensive force. He nearly averages a double double but is terrible from the charity stripe, probably the most awkward shot outside of Shaq. Our glue guy, a 6'8" wing Jerry Evans Jr., is our best all around player outside of Burton. He defends really well and hits shots at a good percentage, although not in bunches. We play a 10 man rotation on most nights and have other players step up in clutch situations. One of the areas we struggle with the most is in the turnover category. Outside of Deonte we really don't have a solid backup to handle defensive pressure and it shows. Conversely our defense has given a lot of teams fits. Our team is overall very athletic and will clog up passing lanes and can create turnovers with half-court traps and 3/4 court pressure. Our coach is in his 3rd year as head coach and had been an assistant for over 10 years. He has shown the ability to coach incredibly well this year and has transformed our team into a hard nosed defensive team that also has the athleticism to light it up on the scoreboard. For our team history, we had a very successful run of four straight NCAA appearances from 2004-2007. We reached the sweet sixteen in one of them, and reached the second round in 07. We didn't make a postseason appearance last year for the first time in 6 years (we played in the NIT and CBI tournaments in the years in between) but are guaranteed a spot somewhere this year. A win against IONA would go a long ways in securing an automatic berth should we not win the conference tournament to which we will be heavily favored. The team is from RENO, not Vegas. Our rival is of course UNLV who has seemed to have the upper hand in basketball over the last few years. We're in the WAC but are moving to the Mountain West next season, so of course we are hoping to end the WAC run on a high note. Hopefully that's a little background info for you to chew on. No matter what, we are IONA fans for your games leading up to us! Thanks for the de-brief. Very impressive. Sounds like you'll be a tough match-up for us. Rooting for you as well, until you get here of course ;D
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Post by tkfwolf on Jan 30, 2012 21:00:23 GMT -5
By the way, Pack visitors, I see you play in an 11,500-seat facility. We don't. Our facility is about a fifth the size of yours. We do play in a 11,500 seat facility. Unfortunately since our NCAA tournament days we've averaged only a little better than 5,000. But, we're back on the rise and expect a sell-out next game against Utah State. Video from the glory days below www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZvYlv9jajA&feature=related
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Post by thehowling on Jan 30, 2012 21:12:05 GMT -5
My esteemed colleague and I can agree on one thing, it's Wolf Pack. However, I beg to differ on the home of our message board. We abandoned wolfpackchat several years ago. silverandbluesports.com is where we've moved to. EDIT: HAH! I'm brain dead and didn't realize we'd set WolfPackChat.com to redirect to the new site. Nevermind, carry on!
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Post by hawaii bill on Jan 30, 2012 21:17:11 GMT -5
By the way, Pack visitors, I see you play in an 11,500-seat facility. We don't. Our facility is about a fifth the size of yours. We do play in a 11,500 seat facility. Unfortunately since our NCAA tournament days we've averaged only a little better than 5,000. But, we're back on the rise and expect a sell-out next game against Utah State. Video from the glory days below www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZvYlv9jajA&feature=relatedYeah I remember you guys in the tournament a few years ago. You had a very good team.
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Post by tkfwolf on Jan 30, 2012 21:21:08 GMT -5
My esteemed colleague and I can agree on one thing, it's Wolf Pack. However, I beg to differ on the home of our message board. We abandoned wolfpackchat several years ago. silverandbluesports.com is where we've moved to. EDIT: HAH! I'm brain dead and didn't realize we'd set WolfPackChat.com to redirect to the new site. Nevermind, carry on!
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Post by ionaintheblood on Jan 30, 2012 22:22:21 GMT -5
I was just on the Nevada board. There is a ton of activity. Some positive comments on our team but a lot of disappointment about the selection. They are concerned about the travel and that a win may not be helpful and a loss will hurt them. They sound like they have a solid team and good fans but I am not sure many of them will make the trip to our high school gym. Now that we have signed Cluess to a contract extension our next job is to renovate the gym. Unfortunately the cost is enormous for what you get but at least it could look like a college gym even if it only seated another 1,000 fans.
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Post by GuyF on Jan 30, 2012 22:27:49 GMT -5
Nevada's RPI is in the high 50s. Did they expect to play at Murray or Creighton? Wasn't gonna happen. They should be pretty happy with this matchup.
Wichita State is the road team that got really hosed. They should have been at either Iona or Oral Roberts. Davidson's RPI is like in the 60s.
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Post by wolfinseattle on Jan 30, 2012 22:30:08 GMT -5
By the way, Pack visitors, I see you play in an 11,500-seat facility. We don't. Our facility is about a fifth the size of yours. 4 years ago there were over 9k season ticket holders. We're down to half of that. The fans in Reno are a fickle bunch. NCAA tourneys or they bail. But things are definitely improving with over 7k at the last game. Hopefully we can pack the house when you visit next year.
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Post by ionaintheblood on Jan 30, 2012 22:34:41 GMT -5
GuyF I couldn't agree more and the more informed of their fans is saying the same thing. They are 6th among the away teams so they should be happy getting number 4 in Iona.
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Post by wolfinseattle on Jan 30, 2012 22:35:13 GMT -5
Nevada's RPI is in the high 50s. Did they expect to play at Murray or Creighton? Wasn't gonna happen. They should be pretty happy with this matchup. Wichita State is the road team that got really hosed. They should have been at either Iona or Oral Roberts. Davidson's RPI is like in the 60s. That's been my argument over there. We got the matchup we deserved and while I haven't seen you play this year I'm really exited about the clash of styles and PG battle. I'll definitely catch a couple of your games between now and the Bracketbuster battle. As was mentioned above...we're all Iona Gaels fans until then.
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Post by ionaintheblood on Jan 30, 2012 22:38:41 GMT -5
I am definitely rooting for the Silver and Blue to keeps its streak until it arrives in New Ro. Would love to play the "hottest team" in the country on a cold February day.
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Post by hawaii bill on Jan 30, 2012 22:42:09 GMT -5
I was just on the Nevada board. There is a ton of activity. Some positive comments on our team but a lot of disappointment about the selection. They are concerned about the travel and that a win may not be helpful and a loss will hurt them. They sound like they have a solid team and good fans but I am not sure many of them will make the trip to our high school gym. Now that we have signed Cluess to a contract extension our next job is to renovate the gym. Unfortunately the cost is enormous for what you get but at least it could look like a college gym even if it only seated another 1,000 fans. Blood, I'm sure their fans are good people, but if our tiny gym isn't impressive enough for them to visit, I think I'll be fine if they stay home and watch it on TV. We're a private college with 3000 students, located in one of the most expensive real estate markets in the world. And there isn't much room to build. I don't know much about Nevada, but I'm guessing its a pretty large state university supported by public funds.
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Post by packbacker on Jan 31, 2012 0:56:54 GMT -5
Blood, I'm sure their fans are good people, but if our tiny gym isn't impressive enough for them to visit, I think I'll be fine if they stay home and watch it on TV. We're a private college with 3000 students, located in one of the most expensive real estate markets in the world. And there isn't much room to build. I don't know much about Nevada, but I'm guessing its a pretty large state university supported by public funds. The travel gripes are mostly reactionary stuff, I think. When you play in a conference that stretches from Louisiana to Hawai'i, long-*** road trips are par for the course. Furthermore, Nevada has brought in its share of east coast teams to Reno for previous BracketBuster games (VCU, Akron, Vermont, Toledo) and I think some of us just don't like seeing the shoe on the other foot this year. Also keep in mind the team was lucky to come out of Louisiana Tech with a win on Saturday after their flight got canceled and they didn't get to sleep much or practice at all. Needless to say, many of us are probably a little wary of a repeat. As seattle pointed out, with all things considered this is a good draw. Iona has a higher RPI than the rest of the WAC by a healthy margin. This game will reveal a lot about both teams and what they can expect to accomplish in the next 6+ weeks.
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Post by maacmaniac on Jan 31, 2012 8:10:25 GMT -5
Welcome fellas.. lets show the country there are some good mid -major teams out there.
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Post by tootie223 on Jan 31, 2012 8:18:44 GMT -5
If the Wolf Pack is half as good as the class exuded by their fans visiting our humble site, then we are in for one helluva game.
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