Alderson Broaddus Basketball

[WVFanatic]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

I didn't get to watch but going into the game I thought it would be an easy win with Concord being down this year. Willis looked like he had a bad game, will need him to get back on track with the game coming up. All four wins coming against teams who beat AB last year is a good sign. It will be interesting to see how the rest of the season plays out. I seen Sanders and Mills didn't play again.

On another note, never like to hear of a coach having to step away due to health issues. Prayers and best wishes sent to Coach Osborne

[WVFanatic]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

Took a trip to the in laws this weekend and snuck away to catch the game. Loud atmosphere but we kept our composure. If this team would would have played smart the whole 40 minutes, it would have been a 40 point game. Willis and Davis can both get hot in a flash. D&E has some good pieces but losing the player of the year is really showing.

[JDonAB92]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

I just got done watching the second half. I didn't see the first half. I couldn't watch it live today.

D&E does some nice stuff offensively with what they got. But they really lost Willis in the second half defensively or just flat left him open too much. He received a pass in transition at half-court, pushed it down and his man just kept back-peddling. He just pulls up and drains a three. Scouting report would never say play him like that. They went 3-2 zone and left him open in the corner. Davis is just explosive and can take it when the shot clock is running down. Big margin of victory and I thought Bocook was way off today. I like Mills running the point. He is just smooth for a freshman who dealt with some early injuries. We have some breakdowns on the defensive end which generally doesn't happen with a Zimmerman team. We let some guys cross our face on some cuts and curls. We had a few breakdowns where D&E didn't convert but could have. It looks like Wright is injured as of Malone game. I really like some of the half-court plays we ran in the second half to free shooters up and get some guys loose. Willis and Davis can flat ball. Malik had an off game and we won by 18. Mills continues to develop and I can see why Zimmerman was high on him this summer.

We are 6-2 right now with our top four players being underclassmen...one junior, two sophomores and a freshman. Of those 8 games, only 1 has been at Rex Pyles Arena! This team played awfully well when they beat Bowie in their lone home game. We played the other 7 on the road. I am guessing Sam may be back for the Findlay game. If we can keep those four guys going, then this year and the future are bright. 12 games at home and 8 on the road the rest of the way. Big one Tuesday with Wesleyan. They have played well lately....getting a win at UVA-Wise and giving Fairmont a real battle.

[JDonAB92]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

BTW, AB grad and HOF Jeff Burkhamer has West Florida off to a 9-0 start and a Top 25 ranking in the latest poll. His UWF team went 20-9 last season despite losing their top player middle of the season to a knee injury. He makes the NCAAs last year if that injury doesn't occur.

[WVFanatic]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

Interesting match up tomorrow. WV Wesleyan seems to have something that AB lacks and that is size all around. Could be a long night if AB gives up 20 o boards like they did against Bowie

[JDonAB92]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

I couldn't watch tonight. I saw the halftime score and I saw the final score. We outscored them by 15 in the second half. We really out-rebounded them bad.

I can see the slow start as we are smack in the middle of finals week. Willis was off it appears. Bocook looked like he had a strong game.

I am a little concerned with all the road games we had this semester and playing two this week during finals about having guys ineligible. I haven't heard any thing. I am just saying we played a ton on the road in the past month and that causes missed class time. I hope they all end up good to go. It is good to have Wesleyan back on the schedule as that gives us another close to campus game. It is also great beating those guys....not my favorite from back in the late 80s and early 90s.

[crixus]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

Took a trip to the in laws this weekend and snuck away to catch the game. Loud atmosphere but we kept our composure. If this team would would have played smart the whole 40 minutes, it would have been a 40 point game. Willis and Davis can both get hot in a flash. D&E has some good pieces but losing the player of the year is really showing.

Getting away from the in-laws. Hallelujah!

[crixus]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

Interesting match up tomorrow. WV Wesleyan seems to have something that AB lacks and that is size all around. Could be a long night if AB gives up 20 o boards like they did against Bowie

The Battlers beat WV Wesleyan 68-59. And then lost their G-MAC home opener to Lake Erie 77-61.

http://gobattlers.com/news/2017/12/1...lake-erie.aspx

[JDonAB92]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

I just watched the replay of Findlay and AB at Findlay. I thought we did pretty well for a young team on the road. We have some defensive breakdowns that we have to shore up. Mills twice left too much space between his man and him and the guy drained a 3. But I like his ability at the point. As his body changes and develops at the college level, I believe we have a good one there. We do settle too often for a 3. We also have to get Willis back in a flow. I thought he hit some good ones late in the second half. At one point, we had two sophomores and two freshman out there. We outrebounded them. Dortch gives us something we haven't had in quite awhile and that is a nice shot blocker on penetration shots and shots near the basket. Getting Sanders back will help down the stretch. It increases the depth to a good level. I just haven't watched the team a lot this year. I am hoping to get over there on the 30th for the Hillsdale game.

[crixus]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

That's good news. The entire World needs more teachers!

[JDonAB92]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

Very impressive outing by AB in defeating Hillsdale 79-68. I have been impressed by the improvement in our defense in the past two games against Findlay and Hillsdale. We also got after it on the glass. Hillsdale came into this game 12-2 overall. This was much needed after the road loss to Findlay. We needed to win this home conference game. Hillsdale's only losses to this point have been road losses to Ferris State, KWC in OT and today. The defense needs to continue. It was really at 63 pts for HC as we gave up 5 pts under a minute to play.

Mike Davis (Jr) had 22 points, 6 assists, 5 boards, 4 steals and no turnovers. He is starting to figure out the Zimmerman way of playing ball. Mike has incredible talent and skill. But his passing and team game were much better today. Malik had a double-double with 10 points and 12 boards. Proud of big Mike Mitchell with 17 points today. His contributions were huge. Willis had 10 points and I think his shooting will eventually come back. He and Sanders will get it going before long. Mills did another nice job. We had two sophomores, a junior, a freshman and a senior out there for most of the day. Thursday at home against Ohio Valley. We really owe them from last year and need to take care of business.

[JDonAB92]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

Columbus East HS' Justin Curtis (6'3") has committed to ABU. He averaged 20 ppg and 8.6 rpg last season. He was 1st-team D-II All-Central Ohio, 3rd-team All-Ohio Division II, 270 Hoops Division II 1st team, etc. He has a 3.6 GPA. He is a lefty.

Eddie Christian, who committed to ABU earlier this fall, has been outstanding so far for Beckley Woodrow Wilson HS. These two stick, we then have to go after size.

Two big games this week at Rex Pyles Arena!

[JDonAB92]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

I really like the new offensive coordinator hire in football. He is a former outstanding quarterback at the FCS level and immediately served as an assistant coach on the staff at Morehead State upon graduation. Considering we have recruited very well lately at the QB position, I think this is a good hire. They promoted him pretty quick at that level. He passed for over 10,000+ yards and 72 touchdowns. He obviously has a good understanding and read on the spread schemes. We were young at multiple positions on offense. This looks very promising.

http://gobattlers.com/news/2018/1/9/...-qb-coach.aspx

White out tomorrow for the double-header basketball game. It would be great to see a good student turnout like we used to get. It has tailed off the past couple of seasons. Both teams could use good support for this pivotal contest. WVU isn't playing tomorrow night nor are Philip-Barbour boys. It would be nice to see a good turnout at Rex Pyles.

[JDonAB92]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

I wasn't able to watch last night due to practice. Up 50-24 at half, and then had to hold on to win by 7. It must have been a weird game. I saw Chavez didn't play. I hope it isn't serious.

If the weather doesn't change any more, then I will definitely be there Saturday. There is a winter weather advisory but only up until 10 am. Hopefully ABU will be able to clear any roads and sidewalks by then. With the weather right now in the 60s, I would hope not a lot would stick and the 3 inches won't happen. Ohio Dominican beat Davis & Elkins and were up big at half.

[JDonAB92]

Re: Alderson Broaddus Basketball

I was at the game yesterday. I haven't been able to watch this team much at all due to other obligations. It was good to sit in Rex Pyles. It really was. My buffalo nickel thoughts:

Not the prettiest win, but you have to win those games and we did. I give credit to Ohio Dominican. They came out with a very good game plan. Their players executed it very well. They played tough-nosed defense and made our guys work for every thing. They did some good things that played to their strengths. It is good we could win a game like that. I looked out there and we had 1 freshman, 2 sophomores, 1 junior and 1 senior and the first guy off the bench yesterday was Dortch, a freshman. We didn't play our best, but we gutted out a win and played tough down the stretch of the game.

Mike Davis is a real talent on both ends of the floor. ODU's Waugh, a senior, gave Mills and our team fits yesterday. Mike guarded Waugh the final eight minutes. Mike hit clutch shots when we needed them. He can take it off the dribble, he can shoot, he is nasty in transition with his leaping ability and he likes to defend. I followed AB a ton when we had Stan Hall and Terrell Eargle on the same team. Stan was 2nd-team All American and Terrell (who did more) was 3rd-team All-American. Mike is no different in what he contributes to our team. Willis was off again but his shots were open looks. He has to shoot those. Mills had a tough outing going against Waugh. Malik was pretty good but I believe he was under the weather. He literally lost his lunch during the game. He tried to get off the court to the trash can and didn't make it. Mike Mitchell did pretty well second half. Parker Dortch is going to be good for us. It is a learning curve right now, but I love his upside. Ummmm, Ohndo Smith coming in there yesterday and doing pretty well bodes well for depth. Having his 6'8" 300 pound frame gives us a size guy. I also thought Artice came in there first half and gave us some energy when Malik went out.

Chavez said he thought he would be back. It is a knee injury. MRI tomorrow. He has a little bit of a limp, but he thinks it is minor.

I sat up top at half-court yesterday. Greg Zimmerman did a nice piece of coaching yesterday. Say what you want, but down 23-10, he made some nice adjustments and didn't panic with the players. His veteran leadership really showed yesterday when things didn't look good. He went to a 2-3 zone which he doesn't really like to. They hit some 3's early against it. He called timeout and made some nice adjustments to how guys played the very positions. He took away the wings and defended the short corner better. We allowed 23 points in the first eight minutes. We gave up 42 points in the final 32 minutes. We were down 63-55 I know for sure with under 6 I think. I thought he managed possessions very well when we didn't have any to squander. ODU was switching at times and hedging at times on screens, and he got the ball to the right players on mismatches. He also got the right defensive matchups and we outscore them 12-2 down the stretch to get a hard-fought victory. He has his critics and people who don't like him. I get it. I do. A lot of those were in the old WVIAC schools and there are others. But from a sideline tactical standpoint and preparing teams, he is very good. According to the current NCAA basketball records, he is 6th in winning percentage in NCAA D-II winning 75% of his games thru 17 years. He does it at a private institution that has had its share of tough times during his tenure and does it in a rural area in a town of 3000 people. He had his toughest season last year, and he righted the ship. Regardless of how the rest of the season plays out, we have a bright outlook. I don't mind saying this: I am going to miss him when he isn't roaming the sidelines at Rex Pyles.

I think and hope that the women's program is starting to turn the corner. They lost two tough games this week against two quality programs. They were up 10 points in the 4th quarter when I got there yesterday. They played Cedarville tough and also played tough up at Ursuline earlier in the season. I am really hoping they can crank out some wins down the stretch.

I liked the fact that the president sat down in the student section yesterday and supported the teams. He got up top at half and talked with fans and alumni. I really appreciate the job he has done here. Speaking of the student section, I thought it was good considering it is a 3-day weekend on campus and a chance for some to go home. I listened to ODU's radio broadcast archive today and they were loud. They helped down the stretch when we were down. You could tell the team was very grateful for that support. Malik, Mike Davis and Brandon made an effort to salute the students and go over to them after the game.

Tough week this week. We are in Cleveland tomorrow night, in Nashville on Thursday and Owensboro on Saturday. The G-MAC is good and has a lot of parity. We have to win at home and get some of these on the road. It will be a tough tournament from seeds 1-8.