April 8, 2011

NCDS: Bruce Hamburger, Asst. Coach - Saint Peter's ("Time to Reflect")

 

I want to take this opportunity to review the past month or so, which was an exciting time for the St. Peter’s Peacocks.

The first weekend in March started for us in Bridgeport, CT for the MAAC tournament.  We came into the post season having lost our last two regular season conference games. Needless to say we were not sure how we would respond to this.  Fast forward to March 7 at 9:30pm & our players were cutting down the nets with a MAAC tournament championship & an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.

Our players did a great job of keeping their focus, being mentally prepared & going out and playing very well to get three wins in three days, in which we beat the #1 & #2 seeds in the tournament, including a very good Fairfield team on their home court in the semi finals. We had a hard fought game vs Iona in the championship, and we were able to make plays late in this game to hold them off to seal the win.

It was amazing to get back into the locker room after the on court ceremony and sit back and comprehend what we had just done.  As we all turned our cell phones, on it was crazy to hear all of the ring tones as our phones exploded with texts, voicemails, etc.

We got back to campus after midnight and a contingent of students were waiting for us to celebrate our achievement. It’s great when you can share the success of your team with the student body.  We took a few days off in terms of practice, but we kept busy as a coaching staff with recruiting and making sure that the players took care of their academic work.

We came back to practice on Friday and had three good practices leading up to selection Sunday. Our athletic department did a great job putting together a viewing party for our team & fans as we gathered Sunday night to see who we would play and where we would be going.  Even though we knew we were in the tournament, there was a nervousness in the room as we watched the selection show, as we waited to see SAINT PETER’s appear on the screen.  It was exciting to see our name come up opposite Purdue. Now the celebrating was over, it was time to get to work.

Earlier in the week our video coordinator, Colin Hampton, had reached out to a contact he has in the NBA to get DVD’s of possible opponents from games earlier in the year.  I headed up to our office and started working on watching Purdue videos for the rest of the night.

By the following afternoon, I had watched Purdue’s last four games and we had a scouting report and game plan in place. John Dunne, the head coach had a lot of media responsibilities to deal with, and when he was done with these, we met to discuss Purdue and outline the next few days in terms of scheduling and other logistical matters.

We left New Jersey on Wednesday for Chicago, got settled into our hotel, met as a team and watched Purdue video as we followed our normal routine for game preparation.  Thursday morning started with a team breakfast and then we headed to DePaul University for our closed practice, which was followed in the afternoon by our open practice at the United Center.  One of the highlights of the day was a team photo that we took in front of the famous Michael Jordan statue outside the arena. We headed back to the hotel for dinner , video and the presentation of our scouting report.

Friday afternoon we headed out to the United Center, ready to take on Purdue. Our guys were focused and ready to play.

We did not beat Purdue, as they came out ready to play and we had trouble vs their size and athletic ability. We were proud of the effort that we gave, but they were too good and went on to advance to the 2^nd round.

We flew back to New Jersey on Saturday morning and returned to campus in the early afternoon. The end of the college basketball season is very abrupt when you play your last game.  The next day there is no practice to prepare for, no video to watch, no game plans to work on. There is time though to reflect on the season that just ended. We have two weeks of incredible memories that will stay with our coaches, players and fans for the rest of their lives.  This is what makes March Madness such an incredible event, and we are extremely fortunate at Saint Peter’s College to  have been a part of it in 2011.

I have really enjoyed sharing my experiences this past year with everyone. I have enjoyed reading what other coaches experience during the season, and have learned a lot from everyone involved.  I want to wish everyone an enjoyable “off season”, pre season workouts in September will be here shortly and it will soon be time for another season of college basketball.

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