11/20/06 - Long Week Pays Off …
It has been a long week as we played 5 games in 8 days. Obviously, I am very excited about our 5-0 start and am looking forward to the Mississippi State game on Tuesday night at Littlejohn. I feel like our team took a step forward on Friday night with our win over Appalachian State as we responded with a good outing after not playing very well on Wednesday night against Furman. We need to continue to build off of this performance and raise our level of play with each game if we are to attain our goals for the season.
We had a great trip to Norfolk, VA last weekend where we played 3 tough games in 3 days as we expected. I was able to catch up with some old friends who I had not seen in years, but most importantly, our team was able to win all 3 games and come home with our second tournament title in 2 seasons. We really responded well to the hostile environment on Sunday afternoon during the Old Dominion game and that experience will serve us well down the road this season.
We will continue to work on our pressing and trapping over the next few weeks as these are areas that we really need to improve in if we are to be as effective as we need to be out of our press. We are getting closer to being a solid pressing team, but we are not where we need to be at this point. This is one area where I fully intend to push our players hard over the coming weeks in practice.
I want to take a moment to personally thank our fans and students for their support these first two games. We really need to continue to build our fan base and have great crowds this week for our games against Mississippi State and Charleston Southern. I enjoyed eating lunch with those students on Thursday afternoon who were waiting in line for South Carolina football tickets, and appreciate all of their support. I hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving holiday. Personally, I am looking forward to having my team over to my house for Thanksgiving dinner after practice on Thursday!
-- Coach P
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