THE RILEY REPORT
 

February 21, 2007

HMy apologies for the delay in getting my latest comments out to you all. The season, and particularly WAC play, tends to take its toll as we find ourselves constantly focusing on preparing for opponents. Our schedule typically has us home for a pair of games and then on the road for a pair of games with travel arrangements taking up a good portion of a day.

Anyway, what matters now is the present. We currently find ourselves at 15-12, 5-8 in the WAC and following a very nice win over a good ball club at Long Beach State in this year's Bracket Buster's event. Our season has very much been up and down, with highs and lows, as we have struggled to find a level of consistency. At the same time, we have to understand that we are very close to where we want to be and have suffered numerous close losses that easily could have gone our way. I am particularly satisfied with our team's ability to weather the storm, so to speak, and hang in there and remain focused on the task at hand. I cannot recall a season where we have had so many tough, close losses, and I am very proud of the resilience our team has shown in trying to move forward. We started WAC play at 1-5, and so to have 3 winnable league games to close the regular season with a chance to finish 8-8 is a testament to this squad. Again, had some close losses gone our way, that record would be that much more impressive, but that is life and sports sometimes! You can either pout about it or keep on trucking, and I think our team has chosen the right approach.

As always, it is important to head into the WAC tourney on a high note and playing well as we put ourselves in a position to make some noise. Our final 3 games are tough, as all WAC games are, so we need to keep improving! I am very pleased with the strides we have made defensively as this team has built a reputation of being one of the best, if not the best, defensive teams in the league. However, I would have to go one step further in saying we have become very solid with our half court defense. Our defense in other areas, particularly in transition and on the boards, has slipped and will be areas that we need to improve in if we want to achieve our goals.

Our most recent trip, at Utah State and at Long Beach State certainly presented a challenge as the two teams combined for a 22-0 record at home this year. We had our chances at Utah State and were able to put in an iron man effort in defeating a very good Long Beach State club (1st in the Big West), on the road. Furthermore, these games followed a road trip in which we defeated Fresno State on the road and had a controversial call go the other way in a 1 point loss at 10th ranked Nevada. Not bad for a team battling to remove the stigma of being a terrible road team! Well, that is it for now. 3 more league games before we head to New Mexico for the WAC tourney. As always, our focus is one game a time!

Updates on the Way!
Go Bows!
Riley Wallace

January 9, 2007

Hope this latest installment finds everyone having enjoyed the holiday season. While schedules tend to be very hectic for many, it is important to find the time to spend the holidays with family and friends. What a great feeling it was to see the families of our players make the trip to Hawaii to see the 43rd annual Rainbow Classic! Glad we were able to send them all back to the mainland with smiles!

We currently stand at 9-4 as our non conference season officially concluded with a win on December 28th over Tennessee-Martin at home. Our focus now moves on to our conference season with opening games on the road against New Mexico State and Louisiana Tech, respectively. More importantly, we head into these league games on a five game winning streak and remain focused on continuing to improve. With wins over 2006 NCAA Tournament participant Northwestern State along with wins in the Rainbow Classic over San Francisco, Nebraska, and Creighton, we hope the momentum we have established with continue into league play.

The 43rd Rainbow Classic was quite an experience, as it often tends to be. The field, as always, was terrific and we knew we had our work cut out for ourselves if we were to achieve our goal of winning the championship. Our focus, of course, was one game at a time. In our first two games, against San Francisco and then Nebraska, we did an excellent job of jumping out to strong leads and had good control. We held on to win but did not finish well by any means. When our team puts together a 40 minute effort, we are tough to contend with and that was the mindset heading into our championship game with Creighton of the Missouri Valley Conference.

The championship game was a great test for us as Creighton may very well have been the best team we have played thus far and we responded by putting forth perhaps our most consistent effort of the year. It certainly did not hurt that Matt Lojeski, our senior co-captain, decided to put together one of the all time great performances in Rainbow Classic history with a 33 point performance, most of which came from the perimeter, including 5 from downtown. Big time players step up in these moments and he certainly did just that.

Winning the Rainbow Classic was a terrific feeling and one in which we need to continue to build on. Conference play is a new phase for us and everyone starts out with the same record. We need to understand that there is still room for improvement and the Western Athletic Conference is, once again, very strong and deep.

Updates on the Way!
Go Bows!
Riley Wallace

December 7, 2006

It has certainly been an interesting start to our season and I would be lying if I said it doesn’t feel good to be home. At the same time, however, I feel that our tough stretch to start the season, particularly with 5 of our first 7 games on the road, will prove beneficial down the stretch. Simply put, good teams compete and win on the road, and the only way to understand this is to be in such positions, in hostile environments, against good teams.

We followed our loss on the road to UNLV with two good wins at home against Coppin State and Oregon State, respectively. Our win over Oregon State, in particular, was especially gratifying as we were able to click on all cylinders in producing a quality win over a quality program.

The Great Alaska Shootout is a renowned tournament with a rich history and tradition. It’s never easy to adjust to weather that you rarely see, but we were prepared and had terrific hosts. As for the tournament, we were clearly in the tougher side of the bracket and opened up with Hofstra, a team widely considered the favorite to win their league and was very likely the best team left our of last year’s NCAA field. They are a tournament quality team with sure-fire tournament guards. We had our hands full with their guards but were able to somewhat keep them under control. I was pleased with our effort and execution of our game plan and certainly with the outcome; a win over a very good ball club.

With the win over Hofstra, we moved into the championship bracket with the University of California, Loyola Marymount University, and the University of Pacific. As you can see, this was a very tough group and we opened with 2006 NCAA participant California on ESPN 2. As this team continues to mature, it needs to find a consistency. 40 minutes at 100 percent. We got off to a sluggish start against California, resulting in a large deficit we were unable to overcome. We did fight back to cut into the lead but were unable to maintain our push down the stretch. Our effort against California was very disappointing, and one we as a team need to examine as we continue to find our identity.

There is no time to pout and get down in this game, and particularly in this tournament as we had our final game to determine 3rd place the very next day against 2006 NCAA participant Pacific. This was a great test for us to see how we would respond after our lackluster effort against Cal. Furthermore, this was a quality team we were facing with a highly regarded program and coach in Bob Thomason. From the start, we took control of the game with a combination of offensive execution and defensive frustration. Our effort was terrific as we were in the passing lanes, on the boards, and after loose balls. When we come out like this, we are a tough out for any team and we need to realize that this type of effort has to be a constant for us.

We followed our solid performance at the Shootout with two very sub par efforts in losses at Santa Clara and home against UNLV. While we were competitive in both games, this team has to start making a commitment to finding a consistent level of play. As of now, we are team of spurts; of highs and lows. With our next game ten days away, this is a great time for us to get back to the basics and drill and teach in practice. With a tough travel stretch to start the season, we have not been able to have as much practice time as we are accustomed to. While I certainly look forward to our next game, this gap certainly gives us the opportunity to focus on ourselves for a while and I think that is something we need to do as we continue to improve and develop as a team.

Updates on the Way!
Go Bows!
Riley Wallace

November 7, 2006

This is certainly an exciting time of the year. Our guys have worked hard and have tried to maintain focus during practices. While we have had some struggles at times, I can absolutely say that there has been some considerable improvement from Day 1. As a coach, constant improvement is critical. You set lofty goals for your team, but, at the same time, understand that this is a process. We will not reach these goals overnight but we certainly strive for them on a daily basis.

On Saturday, November 4th we defeated the University of Hawaii –Hilo 83-50 in an exhibition game. For the most part, I was quite pleased with our effort and unselfishness. Obviously, we still have significant areas in which to improve upon, but we are certainly headed in the right direction.

We depart this Wednesday, November 8th for our game at UNLV. I’m sure our guys are looking forward to the beginning our regular season. More importantly, I am sure that they are looking forward to seeing some new faces, rather than beating up themselves, as they have, for quite some time.

As we all know, playing on the road is never easy. There is a reason a significant discrepancy exists between success on the road versus success at home. At the same time, though, we must understand that good teams win regardless of where they play and this is certainly a good test for us, right off the bat.

We have to be on our game as UNLV has a good core of players returning from a very good ball club. While they have an inexperienced frontcourt, Coach Krueger does an excellent job of developing players and that frontcourt should be ready to go. The backcourt, on the other hand, is quite experienced and may be as good as we will see this year. Coach Kruger’s son, Kevin, transferred from Arizona State this summer and is eligible to play immediately. That is a huge pickup for the program as he is a big-time player and big-time shooter.

Well, I hope everyone involved with our program and our fans are as excited as I am. As always, our schedule is very competitive and should let us know exactly where we are at. From UNLV, we return to the Stan Sheriff Center to play Coppin State and Oregon State, respectively, before opening against Hofstra in the highly regarded Great Alaska Shootout.

Updates on the way!
Go Bows!
Riley Wallace