From gholquis at d.umn.edu  Tue Nov  3 20:13:13 2009
From: gholquis at d.umn.edu (Gary W. Holquist)
Date: Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:13:13 -0600
Subject: [BasketballAlum] UWGB-next up the "Gophers"
Message-ID: <8FA2D6468031735B23F98FA6@your-29399d900d.d.umn.edu>

Bulldog Basketball Alumni and Friends:

In the UMD loss to UWGB last Saturday 77-52, we saw aspects of our play 
that we liked and aspects that were horrendous.  The game provided an 
excellent teaching tool for us as we prepare this inexperienced and 
young team to improve each time out.  (UWGB is a talented, athletic 
team, that is well coached and will have an excellent year in Division 
I basketball.  The practice and game experience on the trip to Green 
Bay that the UMD basketball program received from Coach Kowalczyk-"UMD 
Basketball Class of '88" and his staff was outstanding.  It truly was a 
first class experience in every way.)  There is a litany of points of 
emphasis for our team that the staff took away from the game and film 
breakdown-I'll share a few with you: 1)we tried to score too quickly, 
lost patience offensively, resulting in poor shot selection. 2)this 
poor shot selection came from inadequate screening situations in which 
we just exchanged rather than head hunted opponent defenders-we need to 
do a better job of screening forcing defenders to battle through 4 or 5 
screening situations every trip-this will get us deeper into the shot 
clock, keep us more in a half court game, and produce more advantageous 
scoring opportunities from within our system rather than creating 
something on their own. 3)our post touches were minimal and when the 
ball was passed in the lane, our lane players engaged nobody-we did not 
have enough inside/outside scoring action. 4)turned the ball over too 
many times against their pressure which lost scoring opportunities. 
5)gave up too many transition scores, by frequently not converting to 
defensive positions in gap help situations or by having our poor 
offensive play lead to their easy scores. 6) we need to physically make 
contact with our opponent on rebounding situations-we tried to jump 
with UWGB and it was a futile attempt usually-we are strong grinders 
and we need to play like it in rebounding situations-every time 
physically bang our opponent. 7)did a poor job defensively at times 
guarding the driving line, as well as rotating properly on our helpside 
defense.  As I have always said, when you play against an opponent that 
is better than you, your weaknesses and areas of improvement are more 
readily exposed-we got exposed in a variety of ways from UWGB.  They 
obviously caused many problems for us on both ends of the floor. 
HOWEVER, we did like the fact that for the most part we competed and 
battled.  We kept giving ourselves a chance to stay in the game during 
the first half of play and were only down four at half time.  We had 
some excellent series defensively that we can build on-the team seems 
like they are starting to understand what needs to be done-now it has 
to be accomplished every possession on both ends of the floor.

Heading to the University of Minnesota now-we will practice in the barn 
at Williams Arena tomorrow evening, shoot and walk through game 
preparation at noon there on Thursday, and tip it off at 7:05 that 
evening.  Besides battling, competing, and trying to out work the 
gophers, for the game at Minnesota we have four points we have 
emphasized to the team for our improvement: 1)execute screening 
situations multiple times offensively which will get us deeper into the 
shot clock-3 or 4 swings of the floor each trip, 4 or 5 screening 
situations each trip where we physically get our bodies on our 
opponent. 2)get our bodies on our opponent in all rebounding 
situations-physically make contact and check your man. 3)have post 
touches, whether it be to our 5, 4, or 3 man-the ball has to be thrown 
into the post for an inside scoring threat that may also lead to 
outside scores coming back out from the lane scoring area. 4)limit 
transition scores; this will come from a variety of areas of 
execution-taking care of the ball vs. full court pressure, not having 
our poor half court offense lead to their transition scores, and 
converting to get our defense set so our opponent has to play against a 
set defense.  We are excited about another learning opportunity as well 
as the honor to play in historic Williams Arena against a team ranked 
in the top twenty nationally.

The UMD alumni office has informed me there are close to forty UMD 
Basketball Alumni that will be at the pre-game gathering at the 
Radisson Hotel on Minnesota's campus before the game on Thursday. 
Those of you attending, I hope you enjoy the event and the game.  We 
are working to have the "Bulldogs" compete and battle; though these 
learning situations are sometimes imposing, the 'dogs are improving 
every day thus far and continue to be a great group to coach.

Go Bulldogs!

Gary W. Holquist
Head Basketball Coach
University of Minnesota Duluth

From gholquis at d.umn.edu  Mon Nov 16 12:30:51 2009
From: gholquis at d.umn.edu (Gary W. Holquist)
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:30:51 -0600
Subject: [BasketballAlum] Season opening win!
Message-ID: <4623CD904202E5F8DC64EC57@your-29399d900d.d.umn.edu>

Bulldog Basketball Alumni and Friends:

The Bulldogs earned a very good win yesterday over Michigan Tech 
University in the season opener.  Ron White (6-5, 195 lbs. Sr. 
Chicago-IL) hit a jumper off a pick and roll (younger alumni it was the 
same "Portland" play that we have run for 12 years) with two seconds to 
go in the game to give us a 70-68 win.  We built a 12-point lead late 
in the second half, but had a poor stretch offensively with five 
minutes to go and fell behind by one with less than a minute remaining. 
Jordan "Spud" Schade (5-9, 170 lbs. Sr. Oshkosh-WI) hit a three to put 
us up by two, Tech scored in the lane the next possession to tie the 
game, and we ran the clock out looking for that last shot.  These two 
seniors showed experience and maturity down the stretch by making those 
two huge shots.  Ryan Rasmussen (6-2, 190 lbs. So. Waupun-WI) lead us 
in scoring with 18 points and White had a solid line with 13 points-7 
rebounds-5 assists.  The four freshmen gave us great minutes and played 
hard as well as effectively.  They contributed at an excellent level 
for this win.  Two of them, Dylan Rodriguez (6-7, 220 lbs. Fr. 
Blaine-MN) who is now starting, had nine points, and Jake Hottenstine 
(6-3, 190 lbs. Fr. Green Bay, WI) our first man off the bench, had 13 
points, 2 assists, and 3 steals.  All four of the freshman bring energy 
and competitiveness everyday.  They have by passed some upper classmen 
in the fight for minutes and have earned the right to be on the floor. 
The learning curve continues to be steep, but I liked how we practiced 
and played this past week.  As all of you remember, the MTU contest is 
always a tough, hard-nosed game.  It has always been a 
possession-by-possession game, which goes down to the last play.  I 
like the fact we found a way to win and showed some toughness.  It was 
a grind-good old fashion UMD Basketball.

We prepare now for two games this weekend at the Minnesota State 
University Mankato Tip Off classic.  Friday we play the University of 
Nebraska-Kearney and Saturday we play Maryville University from St. 
Louis, MO.  The UNK game is a regional contest, like the MTU game was. 
Anytime we can earn a regional win outside of conference play is 
important for post-season ramifications.  However, that is still an 
eternity away for this young inexperienced team.

On the recruiting front, we signed this past weekend an outstanding 
player from Benilde-St. Margaret High School in the Twin Cities.  It 
will be released to the media on Wednesday morning and we are extremely 
excited about having a player of his caliber commit to us early.  His 
name is Pete Crawford, who is a 6-4 185 lb. swing player that has 
refined skills as an inside/outside threat.  He is an athlete that 
excelled on the football field as well this season as a wide receiver. 
(His father Jim played basketball and football for the 'Dogs in the 
late '70s.)  Pete has been a three-year starter for an outstanding 
basketball program that played for the Minnesota State Championship 
finishing as runner up in 2007 and was the State Champion in 2008.  He 
is returning as the leading scorer on this year's team that is 
currently the #1 ranked team in the state for class AAA and #5 ranked 
team for all classes combined.  He had a very successful AAU summer 
playing for the Howard Pulley organization out of the Twin Cities.  We 
plan to bring in at least three more scholarship players for this class 
of 2010.  Getting a commitment from Pete early on will allow us to sign 
other quality players that will want to play with him.  We have been 
working hard on four in particular over the past few years that we are 
still in the mix with.

Hope to see some of you at Mankato.  Go Bulldogs!

Gary W. Holquist
Head Basketball Coach
University of Minnesota Duluth