Coach Flip Naumburg's Journal

Saturday, March 25, 2006

CSU 15 - ASU 6 – Attendance – just parents and girlfriends and stuff
Weather – fair to midland
Season record = 7 wins –2 losses

TO KNOW, KNOW, KNOW US IS TO HATE, HATE, HATE US, and they do

The reporter from the college newspaper who sort of interviewed me after the game today asked me two main questions. After witnessing a hard fought, very intense, and at moments ‘chippy’ kind of game Grant the reporter asked me post game about our rivalry with Arizona State in a tone that sounded like he thought that it seemed so intense out there that it must have had some kind of a history. It was as if he was surprised he hadn’t heard about it before. No, Grant that’s just what we do to people with our charming style. I explained that we hadn’t in fact had an intense rivalry with the Sun Devils before, but it would seem that we do now. Add them to our list.

We have played ASU down in Arizona a couple of times, and we have also played them before in Las Vegas in the fall, but truthfully they have always gone meekly into that good night or whatever whenever we previously met. I don't recall the scores other than a lot for us to a little for them. Well, they did go down to defeat on this less than balmy afternoon at the Fort, but it was not in any way in meek fashion. I must admit that I really enjoyed the intensity vibe that hung in the air throughout the entire game, as both teams chugged along on their private hate trains.

CSU WHO?

I was walking to my already parking ticketed Toyota Tundra at halftime to get my bottle of water. The Devil players saw me walking nearby and started saying loudly CS WHO? If they were trying to push my button they were indeed successful, but I said nothing and I exhibited no body language, and both of those things are of course rare.

Anyway, I was busy at the time stewing about our meager 6-3 halftime lead. We came out like gangbusters early in that first quarter and we cruised to a 6-2 count after one. We had moments during that quarter that had me saying good things to myself. I want and expect us to be able to play at this level at all times. We were dominating the ball and the tempo. We were scoring with a variety of methods while we were at it. Let's keep it up was my main thought. But then we somehow let down a little and to their credit ASU also stepped it up

The ASU Sun Devil lacrossers found their way inside for a couple of easy goals during the second part of the game and after our early barrage. What they saw while they were in there put hope on the agenda and fired the whole team up. It also shed some much-needed and big time light onto their path going into the second half. They had fought like hell to get themselves really back into the game by the mid-game break with that 6-3 score. They were feeling good almost giddy about things as they currently were, while I on the other hand wanted to strangle something.

This present reality wasn't part of my pre-game visualization picture by any stretch of the imagination. I expected us to come out and pummel ASU, but we could not. I was pissed.

HALF AND HALF

The other question Grant the reporter asked me after the game was what I had said to the boys at the half. My first thought was that if you were anywhere nearby how could you have not heard my f-word laced tirade? The spectacle came complete with water bottle slam and full tantrum style body English. Of course I did not say any of that to Grant.

The CS Who? stuff I had 'overheard' was great in retrospect because it basically gave me my half-time speech. I would characterize my raging rant about respect as mostly temper, partly substance, and definitely a big time challenge to them. I yelled directly at and likely semi-humiliated one or two that didn't deserve it, but who cares, I was rolling like an angry river. At the end of my spittle spewing speech I just stopped and walked away, leaving them to themselves. Great, I didn't even use up five of the ten minutes you get and I had nothing more useful to say than basically get your heads out of your you-know-what and do your own jobs. Meanwhile forget about how everyone else needs to do theirs!

SO, HOW DID IT GO COACH?

Okay, so it was 6-3. We came out, did something stupid right away, and within a minute it became 6-4. Way to go, Coach, you really fixed that! The truth is that we did then go on a rampage, answering the goal that had made it 6-4 within a minute to make it 7-4 for us, and then by the time the dust had next settled we had scored 8 goals in the third quarter and the score had ballooned to 14-6. I was still steaming about some of our defensive breakdowns, but all in all the third quarter was very good for things and for me in particular.

The truth for me is that we had two defensive breakdowns in the second quarter that were bad enough to give an otherwise confused and worried team a good look at getting back in the game. Before that they were in danger of thinking they had no chance. I guess this makes us hospitable hosts.

THE FIGHT AT THE FORT WAS PHYSICAL

There were some BIG HITS today, and by the way I think the refs did a great job of keeping things intense and hard fought, but of also not letting the game turn into a series of events that nobody wants.

There was talk about class after the game and who had it or who did not, but we are both just a couple of STATE schools so who are we trying to kid here? Besides, action and actions on the lacrosse field with kids, refs, and coaches who are out there and in the moment often conjures up things other than acting with 'class' in my mind as it is, and field behavior in general leaves a lot to be desired more often than not. This game was just good clean war/play fun, and within acceptable limits of hating and competing in my opinion.

KUDOS AND TRENDS

Pete the goalie was great as usual with 14 saves and leadership that is difficult to measure. Kellin Bershinsky (#29 – D- 2006) was great all over the field. We missed Adam Schnirel (#34 – D – 2007) a lot. He was hurt last night, and has been having a battle with this injury or that illness seemingly all year. It was clear today how much he brings to us because he was not dressed to bring it. Kurt Nakazono (#11 – D – 2006) has recently taken a step up and become a mainstay of our close defense. He made a huge play of aggression early in the game that set a good tone by taking the ball away from the man he was playing and then we finished it as a team by clearing the ball and delivering it to the offense.

Our attack was pretty good at moments and our Mr. Finish, Tyler Treece (A - #30 – 2008) finished 5 times while adding two sweet assists to his seven point package. Danny the Man Stevens (#32 – A – 2007) was Tyler's inverted ratio with 5 assists and two goals. Together they had seven and seven. That is balance. Meanwhile Campbell Diebolt (#13 – A – 2008) danced to his own tune as usual and finished a nice game for him with 2 goals and an assist to go in his little bucket of points.

Steven Lundberg (#16 – M- 2009) already draws the best or long stick defender as a freshman every time out now, but he still managed to free himself up for two goals as did Ryan Macdonald (#20 – M – 2008). It is my hope that we are developing a great deal in this very important (to me) area of individual middies who are improving almost daily. My hope is that we can put massive pressure on opposing defenses from our midfield position.

We had 10 assists on our 15 goals scored, and that is a good number. Our special team Extra Man Offense was extremely efficient today both in the way they used the time allotted and by the way they converted motion into eventual goals.

We had too many penalties. We always have too many. Sometimes I suppose that is one of those "you can’t have your cake and eat it too" things because we play rough at times.

Next up is U.N.C. (Northern Colorado) at home on Wednesday afternoon. I sure would like to have one of them outdoor practice things soon.

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