Coach Flip Naumburg's Journal

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

USLMDIA QUARTERFINAL GAME

CSU 11  ARIZONA  7

Like so much dust in the wind the humidity and overbearing heat blew off to East Texas, or at least somewhere other than here.  Today here in Dallas it was downright pleasant.  It was almost dead solid perfect weather wise.

SECOND ROUND SCARINESS

I admit that this game made me somewhat nervous.  We had serious adjustments we were trying to make because of injury.  That kind of thing can often have much influence over the player rotation and consequently the total flow of our game. That was for starters.

We have had many of our scariest moments at these championships in the quarterfinal game.  We trailed Michigan one time in St. Louis by, I think, six goals at the half (8-2) before winning that one (10-9?).  It was a thriller. 

We were down by four goals to Stanford in the fourth quarter one other year before pulling that one out of our you-know-whats very late in the game.  So my trepidation for the quarterfinal not being a "sure thing" just because you have a good or high bracket seed is well founded.

PHEW!

Then I was a little rattled by the fact that there are all these CSU fans and family coming to Dallas tomorrow or Friday.  This makes it seem like it is our job to make it to the semi-finals Friday night.  That is a lot of responsibility, or at least I take it as such.  What would I say if we lost?

MEOW

I knew that Arizona was going to be a hungry team with everything to gain and almost nothing to lose.  Their Laxcat season seemed to get stronger as the year went on.  They have never beaten us, and we have played several times.  That is a lot of motivation for them to begin with, and then you (I) have all that law of average stuff to deal with and to be tormented by. 

THE GAME

Many played well today in our win over the Arizona (#8 seed) Wildcats.  Pete Jokisch (#3 – G – 2006) was solid in our goal with 10 saves.  The defense was bailing us out of trouble quite often, but as a whole we could have cleared the ball better than we did, and believe it or not I would have liked to be even more aggressive on defense because I didn't think the Cats could handle our kind of pressure.  On the other side, Arizona put a lot of heat on us in an attempt top keep us from getting the ball out of our defensive end of the field, and they did a good job in that phase of the game.  This will be another area of focus tomorrow.

U of A got up on us 2-1 early, but we got up quickly and never trailed again. It was only 4-2 at the half, but we had accomplished our goal, which is to simply win each quarter one at a time. We won three of them, and the third quarter was tied at 2. Maybe this pre-set goal is a good one for us to focus upon.

The Cats turned it over to us frequently, but the difference was that we were forcing most of their turnovers.  Our mishaps and errors on the other hand were often gifts to them, catnip if you will, and I wasn't the smiling cheshire coach all day, I can assure that. 

In the end we made them pay for their mistakes more than they made us pay for ours and that was a good thing and perhaps the difference.  Even still, I want and hope for a higher level of overall "execution" on our part. 

Pat Bird (#1 – M – 2007) was fantastic for us with four goals and an assist.  Tyler Treece (#30 – A – 2008) had three goals and two assists, but somehow I wasn't happy with his game.  What is my problem?  Campbell Diebolt, my Philly boy (#13 – A – 2009), was really impressive and had two goals and two assists for the day.  Kellin Bershinsky (#29 – D – 2006) brightened our day with his defense and his ground balling.  We are lucky to be led on the field by one like him. Many more deserve praise, but I have to go to bed.

Our face offs are still not where we want them to be, and that will be an area of work for tomorrow on our game free day. The game was intense and fun to be a part of.  There were big hits and fast break finishes. At the end of the day, however, it was a game where 'we' led and they 'hoped'.

IT'S NOT PERSONAL, SONNY.  IT'S JUST BUSINESS (The Godfather)

Tonight at our meeting I almost apologized to the team because here we are, successfully still standing as a member of the elite "final four" at the national tournament, and I spend 90% of the time yelling about something or treating us like we aren't doing enough, or worse, I act like we are losing or just lost.  Sometimes it's right after the team played their guts out to get a win.  I know, I'm not perfectly Mr. Positive.  Everyone here knows that.  Well, Coach, don't you think you should pat them on the fanny once in a while?  Yes I do think so, and I try like hell to do that, but I mostly do it mostly on an individual basis. 

The overall team thing is, however, that I am "patiently" waiting for that "perfect" game, and perhaps I will not be satisfied until I see it.  I know perfection is a tough one.

THOSE WHO LIVE IN GLASS HOUSES….

I made a ton of mistakes today.  I hand picked people to put in that went in and didn't have exactly storybook moments.  I was muttering to myself a couple of times about my personnel choices of the moment. 

Then there was the timeout that I called about .5 seconds before Matt Reiss (#10 LSM – 2006) tucked a goal in the high right corner with his long pole.  For once the ref did hear me and called the timeout immediately so it was ruled no goal, and it was at a time when we really could have used a goal.  It all worked out in a way so that to the naked eye I appeared to be an idiot.  I am fortunate that we did in fact score only seconds after that timeout, so I did feel somewhat vindicated.  More importantly they all quickly forgave me as I apologized voraciously and publicly, except of course Reiss, but he got over it, too, and I got a hug from him at one point later on. By the way, I was committed to the time out call and likely would do the same thing again and not think twice about it. I wanted the damn timeout and we needed it.

HATER WITH A CAUSE?

As much as I like this team and the players on it I guess I never feel like I can let up on them, and that sometimes I HAVE to yell and rant big time to get them to where they need to be.  Either way, onward we go, and it is not my intention to reinvent anything between now and tomorrow.

A SEMI TOUGH AND A VERY FAMILIAR ROAD TO HOE – THE ONLY WAY TO GO

BYU (#4 seed) beat Michigan (#5 seed).  Actually they pounded the Wolverines early this afternoon.  We will therefore meet the Cougars Friday night.  I know it is a "careful what you wish for" kind of thing, but I couldn't be happier about the bracket match.  They beat us a few weeks ago.  In order to "complete" this season we must take care of our BYU business.  This is as it should be.  If the road were not to take us to the Cougars from Provo then something would not have been right.  We are on the path we need to be on. 

The fact that we have tomorrow as a day off with no game also puts us right where I think we need to be, because we can use that day to rest very much.  We don't require two days off.  One should be fine.

3 FOR FIVE AIN'T BAD

The WCLL (Western Collegiate Lacrosse) has always been a great Club lacrosse conference. They traditionally put the most teams in the tournament.  The West Coast league is very strong, both in team quality and in overall organization.  They have in fact always been the leaders in this whole "Club" lacrosse movement, which has gotten so huge over the last 20 years. 

It is, however, certainly noteworthy that our measly little Rocky Mountain Conference comprised of only five teams has three of the four berths in Friday's semi-finals. Colorado (#4 seed) plays UCSB (#10 seed, wow!) the only one not from the RMLC in the early semi-final Friday.

YOU GO GIRLS

We will also take time to go out and cheer on the #1 seeded "lady" Rams from CSU tomorrow, who are also here as #1 seed for the women's event, and they were huge cheering for us today.  We will try to return the favor at noon tomorrow.

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