Coaching Legacy of James Frizzell (CH 2K8)

[superjames1992]

Princeton Falls to Seton Hall at Home

11/28/07 vs. Seton Hall (5-0)

Final: 57-73

The Seton Hall Priates walked away with their sixth game of the season and kept their undefeated season going as their record now stands at 6-0. The Pirates beat the Princeton Tigers on their home floor, the first home loss of Coach Frizzell's coaching career. Seton Hall jumped ahead early and stormed out of the gates, eventually taking a 38-22 lead going into the last few minutes of the first half. However, Princeton would counter with a huge 14-0 run highlighted by two Kyle Koncz three pointers, including a buzzer beater to end the first half, which cut Seton Hall's lead to just two at 38-36 heading to halftime. The crowd was wild and this had all the makings of an upset. Seton Hall, however, came out on fire in the second half as they went on a 15-2 run early to put the game away en route to a 73-57 win on the road. "I don't know what Coach Gonzales [Seton Hall's head coach] said to his team at halftime," commented Coach Frizzell, "but it certainly worked. I though I said quite an inspiring halftime speech myself, but I guess I can learn some tips from Coach Gonzales." The main difference of the game was the turnover battle. Princeton was careless with the ball all day long, which resulted in a season-high 20 turnovers compared to Seton Hall's seven. "That is my main criticism of this game," commented Coach Frizzell. "If we had not turned the ball over this would have been a very competitive game. We will certainly work on securing the ball in practice this week, I can assure you of that."

Seton Hall Key Players
E. Harvey - 13 points, 3 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 steals
J. Nutter - 18 points
B. Laing - 10 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 3 steals
M. Glover - 8 points, 11 rebounds

Princeton Key Players
K. Koncz - 17 points, 8 rebounds
M. Strittmatter - 8 points, 12 rebounds, 2 assists
Z. Woolridge - 10 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists

The Princeton Tigers fall to 2-4 on the season. Next up for the Tigers is Rutgers (2-3) on December 1st.

[superjames1992]

Top 25 Media Poll
1. Kansas (5-0)
2. Memphis (5-1)
3. North Carolina (6-0)
4. UCLA (6-0)
5. Georgetown (5-0)
6. Marquette (5-1)
7. Arkansas (6-1)
8. Texas (5-0)
9. Clemson (4-2)
10. Tennessee (5-2)
11. Duke (5-2)
12. Pittsburgh (5-1)
13. Washington (7-0)
14. Inidiana (4-1)
15. Louisville (2-3)
16. Texas A&M (2-2)
17. USC (5-1)
18. Connecticut (6-1)
19. Southern Illinois (3-1)
20. Georgia (4-1)
21. LSU (6-1)
22. Auburn (4-0)
23. Kentucky (5-3)
24. Kansas State (4-1)
25. Nevada (6-0)

Mid Major Top 25 Poll
1. Southern Illinois (3-1)
2. Nevada (6-0)
3. Creighton (3-2)
4. Gonzaga (5-3)
5. Bradley (6-2)
6. Fresno State (7-0)
7. Missouri State (3-1)
8. George Mason (5-1)
9. Western Michigan (6-1)
10. Austin Peay (6-0)
11. Western Kentucky (5-1)
12. Butler (5-2)
13. Utah State (5-3)
14. Ohio (3-1)
15. Old Dominion (4-4)
16. VCU (3-3)
17. Drake (4-0)
18. Winthrop (2-3)
19. Drexel (4-4)
20. East Tennessee State (3-2)
21. Akron (2-4)
22. Cal State Fullerton (2-2)
23. Oral Roberts (3-5)
24. Davidson (1-2)
25. Holy Cross (2-5)

Ivy League Standings (By Overall Record)
1. Columbia (6-3)
2. Cornell (4-2)
3. Yale (3-2)
4. Brown (3-3)
5. Princeton (2-4)
6. Penn (2-5)
7. Darthmouth (2-5)
8. Harvard (1-7)

November Results
vs. Cent. Conn. St. W 67-54
vs. Iona W 72-47
vs. #11 Duke L 60-72
vs. Arizona State L 51-66
vs. Oklahoma State L 41-71
vs. Seton Hall L 57-73

[superjames1992]

Press Conference

In a press conference today, Coach Frizzell was asked how it feels to be a college coach. "Well, it is definitely much more stressful than being a high school coach, I can assue you that. There is, of course, a lot more pressure. The biggest difference to me is the talent level and the coaching talent that is out there on the floor. These players are so talented. It is a joy to work with such talented guys. The coaches are a step up as well. Things are so much more complex coaching wise. In high school, there were so many less plays, less complicated defenses and such. But here in college, things are a lot more sophisticated, but I think I have made the transition fine."

Coach Frizzell was also asked whether he thought his team could compete for the Ivy League Title. "Well, I certainly hope we can, but it is too early to tell at this point. We have struggled a bit so far, but we have been playing some tough competition. Plus, Hawaii is pretty far away from here, so three games in three days was even made worse by the time difference and the distance we took our kids from home. I am not worried as I think we will have a great year, but I am not ready to proclaim ourselves Ivy League Champions either. There are four teams with better records than us in the Ivy League. They have a better record than we do, so why not ask them whether they are going to win the Ivy League?"

[doncoryell]

Considering your Tigers played against four straight power conference teams, Coach Frizzell, the team's not doing that bad. The team is going to be well battle trained by the time the conference schedule comes around.

[superjames1992]

Quote: Originally Posted by doncoryell

Considering your Tigers played against four straight power conference teams, Coach Frizzell, the team's not doing that bad. The team is going to be well battle trained by the time the conference schedule comes around.

Yeah, you are right. I wish we could've stole one game in the Hawaiian Classic (which I think represents the Maui Invitational, right?), but Oklahoma State upsetting Alabama A&M really got us, since they were higher rated.

By the way, I forgot to post the rest of the scores for the Hawaiian Classic. I will have to add those tonight if I play the game.

[superjames1992]

Hawaiian Invitational Scores

Championship Game
#21 LSU 77, #11 Duke 62

3rd Place Game
#6 Marquette 87, Illinois 62

5th Place Game
Arizona State 60, Alabama A&M 57

7th Place Game
Oklahoma State 71, Princeton 41

The Louisiana State Tigers are your Hawaiian Classic Champions!!!

[superjames1992]

Rutgers Barely Escapes With Win Over Princeton

12/1/07 @ Rutgers (2-3)

Score: 61-64

With 14 seconds left Korcz nailed a shot for Princeton to get them a 1 point lead. He then proceeded to steal the ball off the inbounds pass and was fouled, though Princeton was not yet in the bonus. All Princeton had to do was get the ball inbounds to shoot some free throws to put them up by two or three points. Instead, a lazy pass was throw which was picked off by a Rutgers defender and was taken down the court where it was slammed how with 8.9 seconds left to give Rutgers a 62-61 lead. Coach Frizzell was livid with his team, but set up a play to get Kyle Korcz the ball down low on the block. He got the ball turned around and shot the ball off the backboard, but shot it too hard as it bricked off the rim. Rutgers got the rebound and was fouled with 0.9 seconds left where they would hit two free throws. A long inbound pass down to Kyle Korcz was gotten by Princeton, but Korcz's long 35 foot jumper clanked off the rim securing the Rutgers the narrow victory. Rutgers was down 38-25 at halftime, but came back to take the lead in the second half before nearly giving the game away. Coach Frizzell was disgusted by the game. "I just hate it when you play great for the entire game and then blow it on some stupid play like that. This is a tough loss to take and it sucks. At least we know we can play with the weaker teams in power conferences, I guess."

Princeton Key Players
K. Koncz - 21 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, 5/10 3pt.
N. Savage - 10 points, 6 rebounds
M. Strittmatter - 11 poiints, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals

Rutgers Key Players
E. Pettis - 25 points, 5 rebounds
J. Griffin - 19 points, 2 rebounds, 2 steals

The Princeton Tigers fall to 2-5 on the season. Next, they will take on the Evansville Purple Aces (2-3).

[superjames1992]

Princeton Sinks Late Free Throws to Down the Purple Aces

12/5/07 @ Evansville (2-3)

Final: 71-62

The Princeton Tigers would face another tough opponent in the Evansville Purple Aces of the Missouri Valley Conference in this one. Princeton jumped out to an early lead, effectively taking the crowd out of the game for the entire first half. Princeton would take an eight point lead at halftime, as the score was 33-25 in favor of the Tigers. Evansville would go on a run in the second half to tie the game as the crowd came alive. Evansville was behind by two points with a minute left. They began fouling, but unforunately for the Purple Aces, Princeton sank their free throws to grab a 71-62 point win and stop their losing streak at five games. "It feels great to finally get a win," commented an exuberant Coach Frizzell. "We have not won a game since November 14th and I am glad we were finally able to notch a win. We played as a team out there. We had four guys in double figures. If we can play like this in the future, we are a team to look out for."

Princeton Key Players
K. Koncz - 17 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists
N. Savage - 12 points, 4 rebounds
M. Strittmatter - 10 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 5 steals
Z. Woolridge - 14 points, 10 rebounds

Evansville Key Players
J. Holsinger - 13 points, 5 assists
S. Ely - 10 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists
V. Gomez - 13 points, 7 rebounds

The Princeton Tigers improve to 3-5. They will look to upset the Penn State (4-2) exactly a week from now as they will travel to State College to face off against the Nittany Lions.

[superjames1992]

Penn State Sneaks Out With a Win

12/12/07 @ Penn State (4-3)

Final: 55-57

Penn State was a rather tough matchup for the lowly Princeton Tigers, though Princeton would play a very nice game and was in it until the very end. Penn State controled the game early, but only held a 28-24 lead at halftime in a grind-it-out, low scoring game. Penn State would build a five point lead after hitting a three pointer with just six seconds remaining. Then, a huge mistake occurred in which they fouled Noah Savage on a three pointer. Savage would make all three free throws, making it a 57-55 lead for the Nittany Lions and cutting the lead to only two. Penn State inbounded the basketball with only two seconds on the clock, which was tipped and stolen. Coach Frizzell got a timeout called, but only 0.3 seconds remained and it looked like it was over, unless Princeton could pull a Derek Fisher like back in the 2004 NBA Playoffs where Derek Fisher managed to get off a wild shot with only 0.4 seconds remaining to win game six of the Spurs/Lakers series. Now back to the game. The pass was inbounded to Noah Savage who was open in the corner. He fired off a shot, but the buzzer sounded before he could release his shot, though his shot clanked off the back of the rim, anyways. "It was just not enough time to get off a shot," explained Noah Savage. "I tried to just throw it up there really fast, but I hadn't even hardly caught the ball when the buzzer sounded. This loss hurts a lot." Coach Frizzell was equally disapointed. "We played hard and it's a shame we could not get the victory," he said. "I guess we can consider this a moral victory, though I'd rather see a victory in the box score than a moral victory any day."

Princeton Key Players
K. Koncz - 18 points, 2 rebounds
N. Savage - 12 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals
Z. Woolridge - 12 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists

Penn State Key Players
T. Battle - 16 points, 2 rebounds, 7 assists
D. Morrissey - 15 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists
G. Claxton - 12 points, 2 assosts

The Princeton Tigers fall to 3-6 on the season. They will take on the Manhattan Jaspers (6-3) on Sunday, December 16th.

[doncoryell]

That was a tough loss to Penn State but that was on the road and expected.

BTW, thanks for putting in write-ups on the games. It's a lot better than just seeing stats alone.