Posts Tagged ‘Will Campbell’

Monmouth Hawks Defeat Wagner Seahawks, 76 – 67

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

Last night, in front of about 1,200 fans at the MAC Center in West Long Branch, the Monmouth University Hawks welcomed back Center Travis Taylor in a 76 – 67 win over Northeast Conference rival the Wagner College Seahawks. Taylor returned in big fashion against the Seahawks having a career high scoring day with 30 points. This victory brings Monmouth to .500 in the NEC with a record of 7 – 7. The Hawks need to keep on winning as the season draws to a close if they want to secure a playoff berth in the NEC Tournament. For detailed stats from last night’s game, head over to the Monmouth Athletics website by clicking here.

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!

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Monmouth Hawks Get By Bryant Bulldogs, 67 – 62

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

If you decided not to go to the Monmouth University home game against the Bryant University Bulldogs last night, then you missed a very competitive, very good college basketball game. In the end, the Monmouth Hawks won by a slim five point margin, but anyone who was at the game last night has to be impressed with the tenacity of the Bulldogs both on offense and defense. I can’t believe that Bryant hasn’t won a game yet because they looked great at the MAC Center in West Long Branch last night.

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.

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Monmouth Hawks Beat Central Connecticut Blue Devils, 55 – 42

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

Earlier tonight, the Monmouth University Hawks defeated the Central Connecticut State University Blue Devils by a score of 55 – 42 in front of about 800 fans at the MAC Center in West Long Branch. The Hawks defense, led by Whitney Coleman and Justin Hett, dominated the entire game. The Blue Devil offense was not up to par tonight and their defense was falling apart left and right. A weak CCSU offense and a troubled CCSU defense gave the Hawks the openings that they needed to win this game with little question as to who the better team was tonight.

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!

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Snow Day Basketball: Monmouth Falls to Rider, 70 – 63

Saturday, December 19th, 2009

After being in the lead for most of the game, the Monmouth University Hawks fell to the Rider University Broncs by a final score of 70 to 63 earlier today at Monmouth’s MAC Center in West Long Branch, New Jersey. As you’ll see from the pictures below, there weren’t too many fans on hand thanks to the unofficial “snow day” going on in New Jersey. The Asbury Park Press reported that there were about 550 people in attendance for the game – which isn’t so bad when you consider the fact that a blizzard was going on outside the arena. However, there were certainly enough passionate Hawk fans to let the referees know how horrible they thought most of the calls were for the majority of the game. I normally don’t get on the case of the referees because I know that’s a hard, thankless job, but even I was astounded at the ridiculousness of some of the calls this afternoon.

The final score - Rider over Monmouth

Of course, the referees weren’t the reason for the Hawks dropping the lead in the last few minutes of the game. An empowered Rider offense combined with a strong full court press defense to put some severe pressure on the Hawks. The full court press has been tough for the Hawks to combat this season and when Rider brought it out today the defensive strategy helped to foul out two of the Hawks’ leaders.

Here’s a brief recap of the game from the Associated Press:

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. — Justin Robinson scored 13 of his 19 points in the second half as Rider rallied for a 70-63 victory over Monmouth (N.J.) on Saturday.

The game, originally scheduled for 7 p.m., was moved up to 2 p.m. because of an impending snowstorm.

The Broncs (8-5), who trailed 31-27 at the half, used a 16-5 run to turn a 46-41 deficit with 9:39 remaining into a 57-51 lead with 5:10 left.

That run was capped by three consecutive layups by Jhamar Youngblood, who played two seasons for the Hawks (3-9) before transferring and sitting out last season. Youngblood scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half.

Will Campbell scored 27 points to lead Monmouth, including 22 in the second half. Travis Taylor scored 20 for Monmouth, including nine during a 13-2 first-half run that turned an 8-2 deficit into a 15-10 lead.

Will Campbell definitely had a great game today. As the Associated Press story above reports, he scored 27 points – which also ties him for a career high. Not bad for a Sophomore; Campbell is absolutely one of the foundations on which Head Coach Dave Calloway will build the future of his team. As a fan of Monmouth basketball, that sounds great to me!

Another great storyline that played itself out during the game was the return of Jhamar Youngblood to the Monmouth University campus. Youngblood played a few seasons at Monmouth before transferring to Rider. I’m not sure of the reasons why he left the team and went to Rider, but I do know that there was a vocal section of fans at the top of the lower level across from the benches who were dogging the kid out all game. That’s what happens when you leave one team and go to another, I guess. It was definitely entertaining to watch. Almost as entertaining as listening to the fans on our side of the arena go after the referees! Seriously, though, one of the referees was absolutely horrendous.

The Monmouth team is much better than their record would show. I look for a strong showing from the Hawks in the coming weeks as 2009 comes to a close. Before I close up this post with thirty-something pictures from the game, I want to give two quick shout outs to Coach and GGL for coming along to the game! Oh, I’m experimenting with different functions on my camera and which ones are the best for taking action shots. You’ll see that some of the pictures are crisper than the ones I took at the Monmouth vs. UPenn game, but that other pictures are darker in tone. I’m working on it…

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Monmouth Beats UPenn at the MAC Center, 80 – 75

Sunday, December 13th, 2009

Last night in a Northeast Conference versus Ivy League competition the Monmouth University Hawks defeated the University of Pennsylvania in men’s basketball by a score of 80 – 75. The game took place in West Long Branch at Monmouth’s MAC Center in front of a reported attendance of 1,445. And hey, this was the first time that UPenn ever lost to an NEC team and the first time that the Hawks ever beat the Quakers. Pretty exciting for Hawk fans, huh?

Below is a quick report from the AP on the game as well as almost 50 pictures from the game and some of my thoughts.

WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. – Travis Taylor scored 28 points and Monmouth (N.J.) earned an 80-75 victory over Penn on Saturday night.

Taylor shot 12-for-14 for the Hawks (3-7), who snapped a four-game losing streak. Whitney Coleman contributed 20 points and eight assists.

A jumper by Taylor early in the second half gave the Hawks a 58-48 lead with 13:35 remaining, but Penn went on an 11-2 run to cut the lead to 60-59 with 10:53 left.

The Quakers (0-7) would later tie the score at 73 with two free throws from Zach Rosen with 2:13 left on the clock. But Penn was unable to take the lead, as they Quakers were outscored 7-2 in the final 2 minutes.

Rosen led Penn with 23 points. He shot 7-for-12 from the field, and nailed five 3-pointers. Mike Howlett chipped in with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

Monmouth shot 52 percent from the field (26-for-50).

I’m always impressed by Whitney Coleman, Will Campbell, and Travis Taylor when I watch the Hawks play. The Hawks are really a great team whose abilities are better than their 3 and 7 record. But I think that once conference competition begins the Hawks will prove just how talented they are in the NEC.

Overall, the Hawks played well, but the Quakers weren’t so terrible and are probably a better team than their 0 and 7 record. This was the type of game that either team could have won, but it’s worth mentioning that this is also the type of game that was Monmouth’s to lose. For a while in the beginning of the second half it seemed like the Hawks were going to let their lead slip away, but the defense came alive and Monmouth maintained their lead in the final minutes. Of course, UPenn did come back to tie it up late in the game, but the Hawks succeeded in the end.

And now… Almost 50 pictures from last night’s game for you to enjoy!

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Monmouth University Men’s Basketball Team Wins Home Opener Against FIU

Saturday, November 14th, 2009

Earlier tonight, the Monmouth University men’s basketball team won their home opener (and their first home game ever in the MAC Center) by beating Florida International University 99 – 70. As a season ticket holder, I was at the game and I have to say that it was absolutely phenomenal. The Hawks soundly beat a team coached by NBA Hall of Fame member Isiah Thomas and they beat them with no questions about who the better team was – the Hawks dominated, hands down.

The final score of the MU vs. FIU game

The final score of the MU vs. FIU game

In my view, the Hawk players of the game were #10 Will Campbell, #25 Travis Taylor, and #5 Whitney Coleman. Taylor, in particular, was dominant for most of the night. The FIU team played aggressively with a few minutes left on the clock and I’m sure that their aggressive play with help them in future games. However, the Hawks managed to not just to win, but to win by 29 points and nearly broke the 100 point barrier in their first game of the season! It really was a great win for the basketball team and, as an alumnus of the university, it was great to see such strong (and vocal) student support. That’s the type of experience that many of my fellow alumni and I never had the opportunity to get while we were undergraduates, but I like that the current generation of students have this great facility and a great team to cheer on!

And on that point, there are a bunch of Monmouth University alumni from the late 1990’s/early 2000’s that have some degree of bitterness towards the university for a variety of reasons. As someone who was always aggravated that the college completely botched my graduation back in the spring of 2003, I have to admit that I was very impressed with the production tonight. It all went off perfectly and the entire show made me slightly proud to be from Monmouth. And for those of you that know me, you know that this statement means something else coming from my mouth! For those of you who are friends with me on Facebook, you can check out over 50 pictures from the game.

I can’t wait for the big game against Seton Hall this Sunday afternoon – if you’re in the Monmouth area you should check it out!

Mainstream Coverage of the Monmouth victory over FIU: Miami Herald | The New York Times | Asbury Park Press (PDF Download)

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