The Dream Season Ends in a Big Thud

[xiaoxue]

oh, those cardiac kids. they toyed with us all nite long and allowed the toros to stay in the lead and the game until the final seconds.

then Mr. Clutch, JBoyd, steps up with eighteen seconds left and drills a monster bucket. Broncos 59-58. all we need is a stop and here comes the playoffs.

we were one fifth of a second from yet another heroic comeback when one of their guys throws up a prayer. nothing but net.

end of season, fans. ugh.

Boyd goes out like the champion he truly is. twenty big points on 8 for 13 shooting. And Deon goes stereo with another twenty and eight huge boards.

sadly, nobody else stepped up. you guys predicted Hot Dog Malone would have a career nite. duh. told you so.

[jayandbutton]

Originally Posted by xiaoxue

end of season, fans. ugh.

Boyd goes out like the champion he truly is. twenty big points on 8 for 13 shooting. And Deon goes stereo with another twenty and eight huge boards.

sadly, nobody else stepped up. you guys predicted Hot Dog Malone would have a career nite. duh. told you so.

i'm going to agree with half of these comments, xiaoxue.
i know jboyd very well, and he truly is a champion in every way. as an athlete. as a student. as a great person. he hit so many clutch shots for us for four years you just can't count them all.

but you need to know that over these same four years hervey hit fewer great shots but frequently was the guy who made some key deflections, steals, rebounds and other hustle moves that might not show up in a newspaper headline. a player can only give all he has, and for the most part, he did.

and look at next year with cook back, all the big men, larry a year older and wiser, and billy steady as ever. with a couple more horses the corral will be loaded again.

and now it's time to give thanks:

1. to the pep band. as the guy who started it with a call that led to a program that only gets better and better each year all i can say is wow!

2. to the cheer squad. they, too, keep getting better and better every year. this group is one of the best in the west.

3. to my friend paul helms. a class act in every way. he has as much knowledge about Bronco sports as any other two people, and his webcasts all year have been both tantalizing and entertaining.

4. to the athletic department. an organization that keeps improving under the steady hand of brian swanson.

5. and finally, to the great fans who saw an up and down year for the men and disappointment for the women. they/we hung in there to the end.

now, a final road trip up to seaside. the men need to win it in order to equal coach k's worst record, 17 and 10. that should be enough motivation for such an oustanding coach.

[lakdod]

This team this season has given us many great thrills this season with the Bakersfield, UCSD, and CAl State LA, but at the same time made alot of upset with there bad play like Chico, Dominguez, and the first UCSD game. The only way now that the Broncos get into the playoffs now if C Washington lose by 40 both games at Alaska, and Seattle loses to W. Oregon and Humbolt by 40. Then maybe they have a chance . Hopefully Friday they will end the season with a victory. The season is over and now we got look forward to next year.
Next year team in my opinion will be better than this year. The Star of the team will be Dion. Dion will be the go to guy next year. Billy will also bring the senior leadership next year, and I will not be surprised if next year he has JBoyd type of year. Larry Gordon with a year under a system will be a monster. Right now he is a great rebounder and is a good scorer. The coaches need to bring in a guard/ SF for next year team. I think next year the team will win CCAA championship and be at least 3-5 seed in the tournament.

[xiaoxue]

Originally Posted by lakdod

Next year team in my opinion will be better than this year. The Star of the team will be Dion. Dion will be the go to guy next year. Billy will also bring the senior leadership next year, and I will not be surprised if next year he has JBoyd type of year. Larry Gordon with a year under a system will be a monster. Right now he is a great rebounder and is a good scorer. The coaches need to bring in a guard/ SF for next year team. I think next year the team will win CCAA championship and be at least 3-5 seed in the tournament.

this will be an even tougher league next year. humboldt, which is always in playoff contention, joins an already loaded lineup. i think we will be in it but perhaps second or third and return to the playoffs.

the difference is that cook is a true team leader, and like the two seniors last year he will step up and get the job done. malone wanted to be but he never had the ability to do that and instead wanted to showboat a lot. look at his stats, particularly his poor shooting. a leader leads by example--and he had zero game winning shots. nuff said.

[jayandbutton]

our team had a foul to give. had we fouled anybody in the frontcourt before the shot it would have stopped the flow and improved the chances of a victory. but in the final analysis we never should have been in a position to allow a 9-16 team a road win in the final seconds against us.

our mistakes cost us. credit to them but also we beat ourselves.

[xiaoxue]

Originally Posted by jayandbutton

our team had a foul to give. had we fouled anybody in the frontcourt before the shot it would have stopped the flow and improved the chances of a victory. but in the final analysis we never should have been in a position to allow a 9-16 team a road win in the final seconds against us.

our mistakes cost us. credit to them but also we beat ourselves.

i forgot about that! you are right we had only five fouls for the half. what were we thinking?????????

but remember, an earlier post stated this team has no heart. maybe a better term is the team has no leader, a go-to guy you can could on like david sybesma.

now tonite we will see if this record-wise will be the worst team, at 16 and 11, is the worst ever in the kamansky era. will they step up and set the tone for next year or limp back like losers?

[xiaoxue]

i just heard on the conference hotline that our broncos won its final game of the year up at monterey bay. that puts them finishing no worse than third in league at 13-7 and 17-10 overall.

the good news is that dion cook and larry gordon will lead a more mature, and probably better, team into next year. i only hope coach k. can find some other studs out there like gordon.

the bad news is that this year's team equaled coach k's worst record ever at poly, at 17-10. i think that was his first year, with somebody elses' recruits so it might be safe to say this was his most disappointing team.

we just were crying out for a leader all year long. sure wish jboyd could come back. he set a bronco record for most threes by anybody ever.

the girls lost again. considering this is a five time national title team program our program really has fallen on very hard times. i think the otters were something like 3 and 22.

[jayandbutton]

Obviously Coach K. has to find somebody to fill the deadeye shoes of JBoyd, who finished the year shooting .516 from the field, .484 from long range, and .800 from the line. Other than that hole to fill the Broncos appear loaded with Cook, Gordon, Hofman, Nicholson, and the three big men all vying for playing time.

Cook and Boyd should get a nod for all conference honors. Cook scored more than 15 ppg, had more than 100 rebounds and assists, and was among the top ten in conference in many categories. Apart from Boyd's being among the national leaders in long range accuracy, he was the number two scorer at 12.8 that once again included some clutch shots at the right times.

Boyd, by the way, capped off a brilliant four year career by hitting on 46 per cent of all field goal attempts, 45 per cent of all three point efforts, and a steady 80 per cent from the free throw line, where he outdistanced fellow senior Hervey Malone II by twenty points.

Speaking of returnees, Larry Gordon led the team in both rebounding categories even though he spent the majority of the team's minutes on the bench. Also noteworthy is that both he and Melvyn Nicholson hit on more than 60 per cent of their shots.

Look for the Broncos to be back in the playoffs next year as this team continues to mature.

[xiaoxue]

Originally Posted by jayandbutton

Obviously Coach K. has to find somebody to fill the deadeye shoes of JBoyd, who finished the year shooting .516 from the field, .484 from long range, and .800 from the line. Other than that hole to fill the Broncos appear loaded with Cook, Gordon, Hofman, Nicholson, and the three big men all vying for playing time.

Cook and Boyd should get a nod for all conference honors. Cook scored more than 15 ppg, had more than 100 rebounds and assists, and was among the top ten in conference in many categories. Apart from Boyd's being among the national leaders in long range accuracy, he was the number two scorer at 12.8 that once again included some clutch shots at the right times.

Boyd, by the way, capped off a brilliant four year career by hitting on 46 per cent of all field goal attempts, 45 per cent of all three point efforts, and a steady 80 per cent from the free throw line, where he outdistanced fellow senior Hervey Malone II by twenty points.

Speaking of returnees, Larry Gordon led the team in both rebounding categories even though he spent the majority of the team's minutes on the bench. Also noteworthy is that both he and Melvyn Nicholson hit on more than 60 per cent of their shots.

Look for the Broncos to be back in the playoffs next year as this team continues to mature.

i just noticed that larry gordon finally got a start. all he did was get yet another double-double. i wonder where this team might be right now if he had started all year and the showboat was on the bench. probably with 19 or 20 wins and watchng the playoff show on TV today. both seattle and central washington lost and that should have put our team in it even with one more win.

[lakdod]

Originally Posted by xiaoxue

i just noticed that larry gordon finally got a start. all he did was get yet another double-double. i wonder where this team might be right now if he had started all year and the showboat was on the bench. probably with 19 or 20 wins and watchng the playoff show on TV today. both seattle and central washington lost and that should have put our team in it even with one more win.

We would of not got in to the tournament because Fairbanks won both games against W. Washington and C Washington, but C washington beat Anchorage. In my opinion the Broncos would of stayed the same if we would of beat Dominguez

[xiaoxue]

i don't agree with you, LA.
both seattle and central washington finished the year at 16-11. how do you send teams with eleven losses over an 18-9 team that wins 10 of 11 and is the defending regional champion? how do you send a team that goes 9-9 in league over a team that is 14-6?
no way.
had we taken care of business like we should have with a big blowout win this week at home central washington needed a sweep to get in. now fairbanks grabs the spot we should have had in the tournament. the committe would never have placed an unranked team into the top eight save a meltdown like our up and down team had.

what do you think about the comment about gordon starting all year? would that have gotten us in it?

[lakdod]

Larry in my opinion should of at least started every game after the Bakersfield game. I think the main reason why he did not start is that he was afraid to shoot the wide open shot from 3 or long range jumper. It drove me crazy he never took that shot.
I guess we do not agree about if the Broncos won against Dominguez they would be in.
In my opinion te final rankings will be
1. Seattle Pacific
2. W. Washington
3. Chaminade
4. Sonoma St
5. Humbolt
6. Bakersfield
7. anchorage
8. Fairbanks
9. C Washington
10. Seattle

[jayandbutton]

Originally Posted by lakdod

Larry in my opinion should of at least started every game after the Bakersfield game. I think the main reason why he did not start is that he was afraid to shoot the wide open shot from 3 or long range jumper. It drove me crazy he never took that shot.
I guess we do not agree about if the Broncos won against Dominguez they would be in.
In my opinion te final rankings will be
1. Seattle Pacific
2. W. Washington
3. Chaminade
4. Sonoma St
5. Humbolt
6. Bakersfield
7. anchorage
8. Fairbanks
9. C Washington
10. Seattle

what our men did was take a HUGE load off of the selection committee. while on the face of it your analysis above makes sense, there are other issues that frequently come to bear:

1. almost never in the history of this poll has a team which goes unbeaten in the final week been knocked out of the seedings if ranked the previous Wednesday.

2. almost never in the history of this poll has a team come from nowhere in the top ten to get a seeding.

3. almost always is the largest conference in the region, the CCAA, granted at least three teams in the dance. sometimes the number is four. This will be an extremely unusual year when the GNAC nails five slots.

4. if things are close with respect to items 1-3 above deference is given, if applicable, to a defending regional champion, in this case the Broncos.

for these reasons, the Broncos would have nailed the eight seed and played at Seattle Pacific, the tourney host.

among the top eight in the region the team with the softest case is chaminade. the pac west has been a weak conference, as evidenced by higher seeded teams almost every year getting beaten. in 2003 for example number one seed BYU got manhandled by eight seed Bakersfield. if you look at the SilverSword record you will see five of their wins against very weak NAIA teams like Cheyney, Cal Baptist and St. John's College. Beating lowly Hawaii Pacific repeatedly hardly inspires much confidence, and blowout losses to Michigan State, Kansas and Maryland at home say little particularly when added to losses to C. Washington and CSUDH.

Fairbanks actually on paper looks stronger than Chaminade and had the Broncos simply played to their ability the Nanooks could/would have been foiled for a bid. They had wins over two DI schools in addition to DII power Tarleton State, a national semifinalist last year, but their schedule also was padded with two wins over somebody called Life Pacific College. On the loss column they had some ugly ones to teams even worse than those CPP lost to, notably St. Martins and Northwest Nazarene, a team the Broncos beat twice this year, and that's where the common opponent points would have given the nod to us.

Though we never will know for sure, consider it in the bank that the Broncos would have been seeded, and that means unranked Fairbanks would have ended up ninth.

This web site, by the way, has been excellent for its discussion this year, far better than last year when our men went 24-7 and the Elite Eight. Maybe next year we actually will have a team worthy of the dance once more.

[lakdod]

xiaoxue and Jay you are right if the Broncos would of won they would of got in because Central in the 8th seed in the tournament. We were only two points away from making it into the dance. It makes me feel even more sick about that loss to Dominguez. I was hoping Fairbanks would of got in for I would of not felt that bad about the loss to Dominguez
Here was the top 8
1 Seattle Pacific
2 W. Washington
3 Chaminade
4 Sonoma
5 Bakersfield
6 Anchorage
7 Humbolt
8 C. Washington

[jayandbutton]

Originally Posted by lakdod

xiaoxue and Jay you are right if the Broncos would of won they would of got in because Central in the 8th seed in the tournament. We were only two points away from making it into the dance. It makes me feel even more sick about that loss to Dominguez. I was hoping Fairbanks would of got in for I would of not felt that bad about the loss to Dominguez
Here was the top 8
1 Seattle Pacific
2 W. Washington
3 Chaminade
4 Sonoma
5 Bakersfield
6 Anchorage
7 Humbolt
8 C. Washington

this is a bad deal for our league given that our two surviving teams must play each other in the first round. the only good news is that one of them makes the field of 32. i predict anchorage will blow chaminade into another time zone. ditto for what seattle pacific will do to central washington, which did not deserve to dance with an anemic 16-11 record and a poor stretch run. Fairbanks got screwed. It defeated the number 2 team in the nation--national semifinalist Tarleton State (a team that beat TCU in Fort Worth)--early, two DI teams, one from the Big Sky, the other from the Atlantic Sun, and played San Diego State from the Mountain West pretty tough as well. It only fell out after losing to Anchorage on the road and should have come back in after its sweep this week and the Poly loss. Go figure--you beat what was then the top team in the league in WWU and CWU head to head, and then the committee rewards you by allowing to sit in the ice of Fairbanks! My guess is that the Nanooks figured they were in given their sweep and the Bronco loss. Imagine what the Alaska news media must be saying about the fix of the Washington mafia.

One final note: our men were ranked fifteenth in the nation at the start of the year. Hard to imagine such a powerful program would get swept by perennial dormat Dominguez Hills. It won't happen next year...guaranteed.

[xiaoxue]

Originally Posted by jayandbutton

this is a bad deal for our league given that our two surviving teams must play each other in the first round. the only good news is that one of them makes the field of 32. i predict anchorage will blow chaminade into another time zone. ditto for what seattle pacific will do to central washington, which did not deserve to dance with an anemic 16-11 record and a poor stretch run. Fairbanks got screwed. It defeated the number 2 team in the nation--national semifinalist Tarleton State (a team that beat TCU in Fort Worth)--early, two DI teams, one from the Big Sky, the other from the Atlantic Sun, and played San Diego State from the Mountain West pretty tough as well. It only fell out after losing to Anchorage on the road and should have come back in after its sweep this week and the Poly loss. Go figure--you beat what was then the top team in the league in WWU and CWU head to head, and then the committee rewards you by allowing to sit in the ice of Fairbanks! My guess is that the Nanooks figured they were in given their sweep and the Bronco loss. Imagine what the Alaska news media must be saying about the fix of the Washington mafia.

One final note: our men were ranked fifteenth in the nation at the start of the year. Hard to imagine such a powerful program would get swept by perennial dormat Dominguez Hills. It won't happen next year...guaranteed.

yah, and fairbanks had a better record than central too. bad move.

[jayandbutton]

Originally Posted by xiaoxue

yah, and fairbanks had a better record than central too. bad move.

i was wrong about central washington. they finished 15-12 and went 6-7 down the stretch, which included ugly losses to western oregon and northwest nazarene. and two of the their NAIA wins did not even count, against warner pacific and alderson broaddus. this team ended up with the worst record in the entire field of 64.

how did the committee give them the bid over fairbanks, which was 17-10, including wins over missouri valley champion southern illinois as well as the win this weekend over central? seems like even cal poly at 17-10 would be a better pick....huh?

[lakdod]

My only guess is that they had the same conference record and probally loss a coin toss or something like that on who was the 5th place team.