Our basketball team defeated Wofford Saturday Night at Memorial, 80-56. Damian finished with 21 points and seven boards, Jeff Roberson went for 13 points and seven boards, and Wade and MFD both had 10. Matt Fisher Davis also pulled down 11 boards, which is huge. If we can get contributions on the boards from guys like MFD, Jeff, Wade and freshman Joseph Toye, who looks to be quite a player, that will really help Damian with Luke out till the end of January. MFD was three-of-four from trifecta, and Wade and Riley were both 2-of-2. Wade had five assists and Carter Josephs got some playing time at point guard and had four assists. Carter can help us. I really believe that. He could really take the pressure off of Riley by playing some solid point, so Riley can concentrate on being a shooter and distributor at shooting guard where he is far more comfortable. We were 10-of-17 from three and 25-of-50 from the field. We were also 20-of-27 from the line, 74%, good number. We held them to 34% shooting from the field and eight of 21 from trifecta (38%). We out rebounded the Terriers 43-30.
Now we have our work cut out for us with a game @ No.9/8 Purdue (AP, Coaches Poll rankings respectively) @7 PM CT/8 PM ET on the Big Ten Network (Channel 610 on DirecTV and 821 on Charter). Purdue is 11-1 after having lost to Butler on Saturday, 74-68 in Indianapolis. Purdue has two seven footers and a good outside game. They have a good overall team. We will be tested once again in what’s been a brutal non-conference schedule. It’ll only make us better though. We’re 7-3 overall now. Would be awesome to steal one on the road at West Lafayette.
***Purdue dropped dropped to #14 in the AP Poll and #13 in the Coaches Poll after its loss to Butler. Butler moved to #9 in AP and #12 in Coaches after their victory.
We are not ranked in the new AP poll and #25 in the new Coaches Poll
Coach Mason has hired Fresno State offensive line coach Cameron Norcross to be our offensive line coach for 2016. At Fresno State, Norcross coached two All Americans who are now in the NFL; Austin Wentworth of the Minnesota Vikings and Cody Wichmann of the St. Louis Rams. He spent four years at Fresno State. In 2012 and 2013, Fresno State won the Mountain West conference championship and appeared in three bowls during Norcross’s his tenure. Prior to Fresno State, Norcross spent 11 years at Nevada, where he was the tight ends and offensive line coach from 2003-’11. He coached under Coach Chris Ault at Nevada, who was known for his explosive, pistol, spread it out offenses. Nevada had three 1,000 yard rushers in 2009. With Norcross on the offensive line, Colin Kaepernick became a household name gaining over 1,000 yards rushing for three straight seasons.
Eight Nevada offensive linemen earned first team WAC All-Conference honors under Norcross, and the 2010 team went 13-1 and finished in 11th in the final AP top 25 poll. Norcross played on the offensive line at Nevada in the late 90’s and earned All Big West honors in 1998. He has a heavy background in the spread offense and that looks like the direction Coach Andy Ludwig is taking the offense. Cameron was born in Ely, Nevada and is 37 years old. He’s married to Jennifer Norcross and has two daughters and a son.
Norcross looks like an awesome addition to the staff. Jesse Johnson of Vandy 247 is reporting that Coach Mason is possibly looking at Georgia Tech special teams coordinator Ray Rychleski as a potential replacement at special teams coach. There is no word on whether Rychleski would coach running backs or not. Will keep you posted on that.