Coach Flip Naumburg's Journal

Friday, October 27, 2006

CSU 16 – UTAH 4

LIGHT MY FIRE

We are in Las Vegas.  We were lucky enough to get to play a game today, Friday with Utah to help us prepare for tomorrow's 3-round fight and hopefully a shot at this 'Best of the West' Tournament title. Eight teams will play for that tomorrow. They are: UC Davis (our first opponent), Cal Poly, the University of Arizona, Arizona State, Cal Berkeley, Utah, and of course our host, the Big Boys and often the team I use as a barometer to measure our team with, the BYU Cougars. I figure if we are good enough to play with them, then we theoretically should be able to play with anyone in our division.

We came out quickly today and truthfully made a shambles of the game early on, scoring quickly, and taking I think an 8-1 lead with plenty of time still to play in the FIRST quarter.  I'm not going to say we were playing great, because we were not.  We weren't bad, though, and the team we played, the Utah Utes were a young team, one just getting started.

SPLISH SPLASH

At any rate we became somewhat uninflated, yes, as in not full of much at that point and we almost let the Utes have a look at the game, and I think it was 8-3 at the half.  They made some adjustments (played zone defense, etc.) and we had one of our droughts. We managed to somehow give them some air, almost enough to breathe life into the Utah effort. 

I raged at halftime.  I want us to play the same no matter what personnel is in the game for us, and we had not been.  I want us to play the same no matter whom the opponent might be, and that wasn't the case either.  I'm a disciple of the success pyramid guy and I wanted to go 'up' faster in our building process. Again, however, we hadn't 'sucked' or anything.  Still, I feel like I need to go the whip with this team, and that if I'm not yelling/screaming about something or at somebody I am not getting the most out of them. 

In the second half we scored within seconds and tacked on a few more quickly after that, and if it wasn't already over before then it was over now.  Again I relaxed in a conflicted sort of way, and the game took on a more methodical feel to it. My blood had cooled and it didn't heat up again.

TWEET TWEET, THAT'S FOR SURE

I don't have the statistics from the Utah game here as I write.  There are some somewhere.  We brought three scorekeepers, so I hope that is so.  A lot of people played minutes.  Birdy (#1 – M – 2007) had a powerful game with about 5 goals or so and a couple of assists on top like cherries.  He didn't play that much.  Tyler Treece (#3 – A – 2009) had a few fantastic finishes, and Brian Stone (#6 – M – 2007) also added three goals.  We out-shot the Utes a whole lot to a very little.  We could get the ball more or less anytime we wanted it, and we did play a pressure styled defense that was effective.  We tried to and ultimately did force them to make mistakes repeatedly.  We did not, however, capitalize on a high enough percentage of those forced errors by turning them immediately into real scoring chances.

FIRE IN THE HOLE (WHOLE?)

We used two goalies only during the four quarters played, as I want badly to give some continuity to that position right now, and also the players who play it.  It has been hard.  We cannot use 6-8 goalies every game.  One of our new ones, Sean Grasso (G – 2009) might have a broken hand from the other day in practice, and I feel so bad for him because I like him and because he is such a 'refreshing' new addition to our little mix.  I was looking forward to him getting a real goalie shot while out here. He brings to us a little teeny bit of the New York swagger.  He's a regular 'wise guy'.  Anyway, Lance Simmons (#45 – G – 2010) started today and has a few times already.  The defense has confidence in him. Garrett Fitzgerald (#8 – G – 2009) played a very solid second half, and their faith in him grows as well, but basically we were not challenged that much or that often on defense on this day. Things are a little more comfortable for me in the goalie pasture these days, I'm not sure why, and it is my intention to use more than one but less than 7 goalies in many or most games.

MANANA BABY

It's all about tomorrow.  We will have to get off to a good start early and keep it going as long as possible.  It will be a grind to earn any kind of team success.  It will take a big effort for a big part of the day, which of course will be hot and sun filled.  We have a few injury dings in spite of the coaches trying to pace things against Utah by using as much of the whole roster as possible.  We always take the tournament approach, whatever the format for multiple games, and so today we won nothing but the first round game and the right to play UC Davis in the quarterfinal game tomorrow morning.  They are on an 11:30 leash tonight.  The curfew should be no problem.  They (players) all love to gamble or whatever, but they all also know what we came out here to do, and it is to play that's for sure, but it has nothing to do with gambling.

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