December 26, 2010

NCDS: Craig Carter, Asst. Coach - Siena

 

"Anything worth having is worth working hard for!"

Not sure who said this first...I think it was my mom, but it always holds true in every aspect of life.

Our basketball program here at SIENA COLLEGE has enjoyed great success over the past three or four years. With this success comes high expectations...some self imposed from within our program and team, and some from external sources (i.e. fans the community who gives us tremendous support etc. and for the record we wouldn't have it any other way)! We love and embrace the high expectations and lofty goals placed upon our team and strive everyday to reach those goals.

That being said it obviously won't be easy and there will be a few speed bumps in the road, but a college basketball season is almost never determined in November and December. As much as we see it happen year in and year out, I wonder why we are so shocked and amazed by upsets and slow unexpected starts.

Tennessee enjoyed two huge wins over Big East and National powers Villanova and Pittsburgh, only to lose two hard fought games versus two very good mid major programs in Oakland and Charlotte.

I hope anyone reading this doesn't think for a second that we are in any way happy and accept losing in any way shape or form. But what we will do is strive to learn from our mistakes figure out why we lost those games and try to obtain some positive growth for our team so as not to repeat those same mistakes.

After some tough losses to some very good and well coached teams, I believe our guys have taken it upon themselves to do some soul searching. They have begun the process which is a tough and albeit very important and essential one to any team's success, of holding themselves accountable on a daily basis and assessing what they have done to contribute to our team's successes and failures. Accountability and honest assessment of one's effort has become contagious on our team in recent weeks.

After losing a difficult game at home to conference rival Fairfield, we could see a renewed dedication in our team's effort in practice and film sessions. The Saints have become more vocal with one another. Everyone has seized the chance and opportunity to do a little bit more to make US better.  So Brandon Walters has become more energetic, determined and tougher to make it harder for Ryan Rossiter to score in the post to prepare him for the extra attention that goes with averaging a double-double. Kyle Downey has challenged Clarence Jackson to be the 1st team all league player we all know he can be. Trenity Burdine, just a freshman, coming off a superb performance versus the University of Albany has used that confidence to believe more in himself and the process and has improved even more daily, thus pushing Owen Wignot to raise his game a notch as well. And the daily battle between our two young point guards in Rakeem Brookins and Jonathan Breeden, has helped them both become more poised and confident.

We have now directly or indirectly started to become a team with depth, the team we envisioned we could be at the beginning of the season. We are by no means there yet, like I hinted to early this is a long season and the process of becoming a really good team has no true timetable. We are happy and encouraged with our progress thus far, and hoping to continue getting better each day individually and collectively and hope of course that it manifests into more wins for our team.

In the short term our renewed vigor has already led to one big win, our 1st at home against a well coached and talented Mike Jarvis team, Florida Atlantic. It was truly a team effort and could not have come on a better night.

At halftime, a true SIENA COLLEGE great has his number retired, Mark "Showbiz" Brown. Our next opponent is Georgia Tech, which is led by former Siena coach Paul Hewitt. He has obviously been a superb and well respected coach and he returns to the Capital Region and the Times Union Center with a talented and athletic team that has played very well thus far this season and just recently beat a good Richmond team in the Bahamas. Let's hope his return is a little less joyous for him than it was for Showbiz! LOL

Take care Chalktalk fans! Thanks for taking the time to read my blog entry and as always to my SIENA SAINTS faithful..love you and truly appreciate your support! The absolute best fans in COLLEGE BASKETBALL!

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