Taylor Quick Stats

It really is amazing the difference that one player can make on a team’s performance. Taylor put up almost 40% of the Hawks’ points for the night. That’s crazy. And what’s even better is that he’s only a Sophomore…

Aside from Taylor’s return after a seven game suspension, there were a lot of other things going on at last night’s game. For example, last night was the first time that the Wagner team has been to Monmouth’s campus since the end of last season, when Wagner obliterated the Hawks by 31 points in the last game played at the Boylan Gymnasium. The leading scorer for the Seahawks during that win was a guy named Joey Mundweiler (who also broke the NEC record for most three pointers in a single game during that game). Last night’s leading scorer for Wagner was Danny Mundweiler, Joey’s younger brother. Taylor commented on last year’s loss to the Asbury Park Press before last night’s game:

“Last year was embarrassing to leave Boylan like that,” Taylor said. “It’s a pride thing. You’re never supposed to lose like that, especially your last game in the gym. So this game should be taken to heart.”

And Taylor definitely took last night’s game to heart, as did the rest of the Hawks. Taylor’s career-high game was complimented by the consistency of guys like James Hett and Will Campbell, a Junior and Sophomore, respectively. When you add in the leadership of a guy like Senior Whitney Coleman and the raw talent of someone like Freshman Ed Waite, then you have a pretty formidable team in this year’s Hawks. Hett and Campbell have become two of my favorite players on the Hawks and I think that they have all of the potential in the world. Like all young athletes, I suspect that their off-season training will be key in deciding how far they go next year and into the future.

As for the total team itself, while there’s no way to know how Monmouth would have fared if Taylor wasn’t suspended for the last seven games, the Hawks still have a chance to make it to the NEC Tournament. After last night’s victory they are tied for sixth place in the NEC where only the top 8 teams make it into the conference tournament. Monmouth needs to keep on winning to stay in the playoff hunt.

I didn’t take as many pictures as usual during last night’s game. The reason for this is because due to a prior commitment I won’t be able to make Monmouth’s last home game for the season on Saturday, February 27th. So last night’s game was likely the last time I’ll see Monmouth at the MAC Center until next season and I opted to spend more time cheering for the team instead of taking pictures. I think that the pictures that I did take, though, are pretty decent – I hope you enjoy them!

Shadow's Entrance Video

However, even though the final score wasn’t close that doesn’t mean the Hawks stood still and took a beating. Not at all, actually. Instead, they came out in the second half and played with the type of desire and energy that you would expect of a championship team. Unfortunately, the Hawks just couldn’t get the ball in the basket and without doing that, you can’t win the game (there’s my John Madden moment for the day). The worst showing came in the three pointer stats where the Hawks were only 16 percent last night. Not good. I don’t have The Mount’s three pointer stats, but they were slamming them left and right in the very beginning of the game and towards the end of the game. Overall, the Hawks only shot 29 percent. Watching the team miss so many shots made the first half drag on; it’s not fun to watch so many missed opportunities for the home team. Hawks Captain Whitney Coleman commented on the missed shots during the post-game press conference (courtesy of the Asbury Park Press):

“Losing is miserable,” said Monmouth fifth-year senior Whitney Coleman. “We need to make shots.”

Coleman’s right – if Monmouth could sink a few more of the shots that they are taking each game, they’d be beating teams like FDU and The Mount. It was encouraging, though, to see the Hawks not give up after being down by double digits at the half. That shows that there is a lot of heart and determination on this Hawks team.

The Asbury Park Press has some great articles about last night’s game where you can get all of the notes, statistics, and quotes from the players and coaches. I’d suggest checking out Tony Graham’s column or Steve Edelson’s column. Mr. Edelson, in particular, focuses on how the team has been hurt by not having Travis Taylor playing for the last seven games. Lucky for Hawks fans – Taylor is back starting Saturday night against Wagoner. The Hawks have also had a great deal of difficulty penetrating their opponents’ defenses. Hopefully, with Taylor returning they can find more success in that area, too.

In the coming days (possibly tomorrow), I’ll be posting some random thoughts about my visits to the MAC Center to watch Monmouth basketball this season. Particularly, I have some comments on The Varsity Club at the MAC. Until then, though, below are 30+ pictures from last night’s game. Enjoy!

A few comments. First, I hate when there is a home game for Monmouth that I can’t attend. I really enjoy going to the games, hanging out in The Varsity Club before and after the game, and watching the Hawks compete against their competition. It’s a really good time (or at least I think so). Second, it’s amazing that the game wasn’t canceled (at least it hasn’t been canceled as of 10:00am today). And third – what’s the deal with all of the snow?! I heard from some of my friends in North Jersey that there are spots where the snow isn’t that bad at all. Meanwhile, down here in Tinton Falls we’ve got a foot and more to come!

My cousin was actually going to come down for the game today so he and I could celebrate our respective birthdays (he turned 29 yesterday – Happy Birthday, cousin!). Unfortunately, though, the pending snow storm canceled those plans for us. For those of you looking for some coverage of the basketball game today, you can check out the official online home of the Hawks by clicking here or check out Tony Graham at The Hawks Nest.

Anyway, since my plan for the blog today was to add a bunch of pictures from the Monmouth game that I won’t be able to attend now, enjoy some pictures from outside of my townhouse. The green arrow in one of the pictures is pointing to my car.

Before I go any further, though, I have to make a comment about the officiating in this game. And let me preface this comment by saying that I’m just a fan – not a sportswriter wannabe or someone who thinks that because he watches basketball he is an expert on the sport. I’m not. I’m just a fan who enjoys watching his team win. If you’re looking for an excellent sportswriter’s comments on this game then you want to check out Tony Graham at the Asbury Park Press’ The Hawks Nest blog.

Anyway, here’s my comment on the officiating. I know it’s cliche for fans of the losing team to point towards anything to justify why the team didn’t play as well as they could have or why they lost in the end. And it’s cliche for fans to point towards the officiating as a cause of the team losing. But the referees last night were so incredibly bad and so incredibly off with their calls that you had to believe they were playing a joke or something. I played highly competitive sports in high school and while it’s a whole different world from college, I understand that these student athletes are putting in a lot of time and effort to prepare to play against (and beat) their opponents each week. But how does a coaching staff or a team of student athletes prepare for horrendous officiating? You can’t prepare for that – it’s impossible.

When I got home from the game I checked the DVR of the game (it was on the MSG Network) and there was an interview with the Commissioner of the Northeast Conference who was apparently sitting somewhere near me. I have to imagine that the Commissioner of the NEC was a little disgusted with that type of officiating. She mentioned in her interview that she wants to get the NEC brand out there to other parts of the nation. Well, that’s great, but you want to make sure that the image presented is one of two competitive teams putting out great performances – not one of two competitive teams trying to play around an inept officiating staff.

Moving on, though…

I missed Thursday’s game because I was teaching and it was nice to be back in the MAC Center to watch the Hawks play. It was also nice to see the Shadow Nation fans back in the stands supporting their team (the entire student section was pretty much barren during winter break).

As for the game itself, I thought that the Colonials were overly aggressive and somewhat classless for most of the game. Their players were playing pretty dirty away from the action (which is smart since the referees weren’t paying attention). That said, they’re a pretty strong basketball team with some good field goal shooting. The Hawks couldn’t hit a field goal or three pointer all game last night – it was terrible. And the same was true of the Colonials. In Graham’s blog entry on the game, he quotes the RMU Head Coach Mike Rice who joked that he wanted to fire his shooting coach at half-time.

There are almost 30 pictures from different aspects of the game last night (including some of the non-game stuff going on, like me taking pictures of my friends from across the court). Enjoy.

Justin Sofman on Defense

However, as a Hawk fan I was glad to see our guys win. Overall, I thought the Monmouth defense was sluggish in the first half, but much better in the second half. It seemed like some of the players may have taken Bryant for granted and thus didn’t expect to be behind by almost ten points a few minutes into the game. Also, I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that some of the Hawks didn’t seem to have their heads in the game for the first half. On that note, if you head over to The Hawk’s Nest blog on the Asbury Park Press website, you’ll see that there are some interesting “notes” for the game. One of the notes says that Dutch Gaitley started for the Hawks last night because Freshman Ed Waite came late to the pregame shoot around. Frankly, Waite’s play seemed to be affected by his not starting the game. Some of that may be age-related, but since I don’t know the entire story of why he was late to the pregame shoot around, I can’t be sure of the circumstances.

Yet it wasn’t just Waite who seemed distracted last night. Another Hawk walked off the court after being substituted out and yelled, “Fuck!” because he wasn’t happy with his performance. The same player did the same thing a little bit later in the game. That’s not acceptable. Being a college athlete is not an easy responsibility to shoulder and I understand that pressure. However, there’s little that can be said to defend a player when he walks off the court and yells “Fuck!” twice in one game.

At the end of the day, though, Monmouth is on a four game winning streak and making waves in the Northeast Conference (NEC). Their next home game is on Thursday, January 21st against Saint Francis of Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, I will not be at that game because – fortunately – I will be teaching that night. I’ll be back watching the Hawks and taking pictures on Saturday, January 23rd when the Hawks take on Robert Morris – a game that will be broadcast on MSG.

Some other thoughts from the game…

One of the pictures below shows some Bryant fans with signs supporting their team. I thought that was great – even though the team is down 18 straight games, their fans are making the trips to away games and bringing signs to show their support. That’s great. I’m always impressed with Head Coach Dave Calloway and the way that he commands his team on the court. He’s got to be the hardest working coach in the NEC, hands down. Also, Travis Taylor started off the game a little bit slow, but I thought that he did a great job on defense. Take a look at one of the pictures below where Taylor blocked a Bryant player’s shot like it was no big thing. Taylor is a tough player and a great asset for the Hawks. Not enough good can be said for Will Campbell and his consistent levelheadedness under pressure. Campbell sunk five separate three point shots, two of which were in the last few minutes to seal the victory for the team. Very impressive. Some more on Campbell’s game-winning pair of three pointers from The Hawk’s Nest:

Campbell, who ended with a game high 19 points, sent Monmouth in front 64-62 connecting from the right corner with two minutes left.

With 15 seconds remaining Campbell struck again from the right wing after Monmouth coach Dave Calloway called time with seven seconds showing on the shot clock.

“Obviously on that last play there, we’re looking for Travis (Taylor) or Will,”
Calloway said. “Those were the two calls.”

Bryant (0-16, 0-4), which has lost 18 games in a row dating back to last season, double-teamed Taylor and point guard James Hett got the ball to Campbell.

“James made the right decision and went towards Will and Will hit a big shot,” Calloway said.

Below you’ll find nearly 30 pictures from last night’s game. I’ve been trying to refine the pictures a little bit more than from the first few games so that they all don’t look exactly the same (it’s a basketball game and I have a stationary seat, what do you expect?!). Enjoy.

Monmouth Wins

Some comments about the game from the official Monmouth University Athletics website:

Monmouth University posted its third straight victory with a 55-42 win over Central Connecticut State on Thursday night. Monmouth, which held CCSU to its lowest offensive output of the season, improved to 6-9 overall and 2-1 in the Northeast Conference, behind Travis Taylor’s sixth career double-double, and Justin Sofman’s game-high 14 points.

Taylor, who had just two points at the half, recorded his fifth double-double of the season, adding 10 points and 10 rebounds to the effort, while Sofman went 4-for-9 from beyond the arc off the bench.

The Blue and White, who last opened an NEC slate at 2-1 in 2006-07, last won three straight games in the same campaign, when Monmouth strung together four straight victories in late-December and early-January.

The Hawks have been excellent in conference play thus far. If they can keep up the winning momentum going into Saturday’s home game against Bryant, I think they’ll have a real chance of competing to win the Northeast Conference this season. However, it’s still early in the season to think about that stuff yet. More on the game from the The Hawk’s Nest:

Justin Sofman scored 14 points, 11 in the second half, and Will Campbell tallied 11 of his 13 in the first.

Monmouth (6-9, 2-1) won its third game in a row for the first time since a four-game streak in 2006-2007 with a 55-42 decision over CCSU before 776 fans at the Multipurpose Activity Center.

“They were doubling real hard and played real physical, that’s always a good
defense,” said Taylor who ended with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

“We tried to double down and rotate on him,” said coach Howie Dickenman of CCSU (4-9, 1-2).

“I told them (his players) ‘No strolls in the park, every time he gets the ball it’s an emergency,’” Dickenman said.

An emergency is right! In fact, all of the Hawks played very well and I thought that Head Coach Dave Calloway did a great job of rotating in some of the back up players to give his starters some rest and his second string some experience. It was good to see players like Dutch Gaitley and Nick Del Tufo playing tonight. The Monmouth team is pretty good – they have a nice core of young guys that can really be the foundation for a strong team in the coming years.

There are more than thirty pictures from the game below. I’ve been trying to hone in on some of the shots and make them look a little bit better via Photoshop and Picasa, so I hope that they are better to look at. And for the haters (P.Nuts), the reason why all of the pictures look relatively the same after each game is because I sit in the same seat and how much different is each basketball game from the next?!

One final thought. The kid who wore #24 for the Blue Devils had a tattoo that read “God’s Gift” on the back of his arms (you’ll see below in the photos). One of my roommates and I found this absolutely fascinating (hence having to take the pictures). I was dumbfounded for two reasons. First, I can’t figure out what it means. Sure, I get the whole, “I’m God’s Gift to [insert something here].” But to get that saying tattooed on the back of your arms? Really? Second, the kid wasn’t that good at all. Maybe he was just off tonight, but I wasn’t impressed at anything he had to give tonight on offense or defense. So when you add a poor performance to the inherent arrogance of suggesting that you are God’s Gift to something…well, it made me pretty confused.

Enjoy the pictures!

Then when I got into high school I was so occupied with playing football and wrestling that I really didn’t have the time to watch much basketball. As a result, I wound up not watching any NBA games for a number of years – even though college and graduate school. In 2006, when I was finished going to school full-time, I took fleeting glances at the NBA to see if it could hold my interest and I was completely unimpressed. Aside from the fact that everyone is absolutely gaga for Lebron James (which is extremely annoying), I believe that the most disenfranchising aspect of the NBA is the utter lack of maturity among some of the players.

You only need to look at the ridiculous case of the Wizards players flipping guns around in the locker room for the perfect example of what I’m talking about. Here’s some stupidity from the linked article:

The New York Post has reported that Arenas and Crittenton drew guns on each other. When asked about that Saturday, Arenas said: “I can’t speak on that. But if you know me, you’ve been here, I’ve never did anything [involving] violence. Anything I do is funny — well, it’s funny to me.”

You’ve never “did anything violence?” Really? Are you sure that you’ve never “done anything violent?” Okay, I’m not the grammar police, but what about the content? Is it funny to flip a gun around in the locker room? Seems to me that’s about as funny as hosting dog fights…

At some point when I was in college I heard the NBA referred to as “Ghetto Ball.” I didn’t believe this adjective until I began to see this type of stuff: players jumping in the crowds to fight fans, uncontrollable marijuana use among players, children calling themselves “King” in high school because they’re a big fish in a small pond, players pulling guns on one another, etc. I don’t have time for this type of immaturity.

The other problem that I have with watching the NBA is that I’m not that into the Chicago Bulls any more. I’d rather root for the home team. However, the home team in New Jersey is the Nets and, well, they suck. On top of them sucking, this is a team that is trying its damnedest to get into Brooklyn in the Atlantic Yards development. While I think it would be cool to have a Brooklyn-based NBA team, if it means losing the New Jersey franchise, then that’s not good for our state, is it?

Anyway, until the NBA cleans its act up, I’ll stick to watching Monmouth University’s Hawks. Sure, it’s a different level of competition, but at least I know the kids don’t have guns flying around nor are they looking to get into a fist fight with the fans!

Because I was disenfranchised by WWE, I began watching Total Nonstop Action (TNA) which is based out of Orlando and Nashville. It’s pretty entertaining, though the writing seems to be questionable at times. This is the same TNA that Hulk Hogan recently announced he would be working for as a management consultant (in fact, he makes his debut tonight).

Anyway, I began watching TNA a few years ago and at some point during the summer of 2008 I began working on a TNA-only wrestling website. Many of you know that I began my foray into the wrestling website world with a personal website called The Balrog’s Lair, which eventually morphed into TBLWrestling.com. That website is more like a wrestling supersite with information dating back over a decade. I intended for TNAStars.com to be a different type of site – one that has news, rumors, results, and opinions, but also one that has profiles of wrestlers from the promotion. I didn’t quite accomplish my goal to have a bunch of profiles of the wrestlers on TNAStars.com, but I did manage to put together what I think is a pretty bad ass design for a small wrestling website.

Anyway, this pet project of mine is now live so if you have any interest in learning some more about TNA Wrestling, then head over to TNAStars.com and enjoy!

What I liked about last night’s game (aside from the surprising number of fans in attendance) was the aggressiveness that the Hawks played with – especially in the second half. Many of the fans have been waiting all season to see the Hawks really take it to their opponents in the second half and the team did not disappoint last night. About halfway through the second half the Hawks caught fire and, led by Whitney Coleman, seemed almost unstoppable. The momentum caused the Quinnipiac coach to call a time out, but the Hawks raged back after the interruption. In terms of competitiveness, last night the Hawks played as good as I’ve seen them this season.

I generally don’t like to talk negatively of the opposing team in these brief reviews, but it really seemed to me that one of the main players on Quinnipiac had no idea where he was or what was going on. Anyone who was at the game probably noticed the same thing, but #12 seemed (to me at least) like he was hungover or just not mentally focused on playing a decent game. And it really showed in his stats – 4 points and 5 personal fouls. The guy had more fouls that points and he’s one of their major players! Weird.

Some quotes from Monmouth Head Coach Dave Calloway from the Asbury Park Press:

“I thought we did a great job on them (Feldeine and Rutty) and even their other guys,” said Monmouth coach Dave Calloway.

“They’re (Quinnipiac) solid. Obviously that’s their two best players and we held them both under their average.”

“If you hold the other team’s two best players and don’t allow anyone to really go off – and they have other players who could have gone off – it was an all around good defensive game.”

No comment from Coach Calloway regarding when a Quinnipiac player inadvertently landed on him during the second half as he was trying to save the ball from going out of bounds. Seeing one of the players land directly on the Coach got a reaction out of the crowd – it was something that you don’t see everyday at the MAC Center!

Special shout outs to one of my roommates for coming along to the game and two of our fellow Sigma Pi alumni who were at the game. It was fun to catch up with them over a few beers in The Varsity Club. And I’ve been working on making the pictures that I take look better before posting them on the blog, so please let me know if you think these are better and clearer than previous pictures. Check out the twenty or so pictures from the game below.

The Asbury Park Press interviewed Monmouth University head coach Dave Calloway earlier in the week and one comment he made about his team is that they have to be more consistent. Tonight, Monmouth fans almost saw the return of the inconsistency that has plagued the Hawks during the second half of most of their games. They almost saw that return… The run that the team went on in the final minutes was great and I hope that they continue to bring that level of aggressive play to the second half of each of their games.

Enjoy the thirty something pictures from the game below.