Restoring the Roar - College Hoops 2k7

[sandford010]

Game: College Hoops 2k7
Difficulty: All-Conference
Team (currently): Columbia Lions, NY, Ivy League
Halftime: 10 minutes

TEAM PROFILE

Starting Lineup


Team Logo


Team Uniforms
Home


Away


Sandy Campbell hired as head coach of Columbia

Today was a fresh start for the once great NBA rookie prospect Sandy Campbell. It's been two years since Campbell's devastating injury which ended his basketball career in just his second season. Campbell was the NBA rookie of the year only four seasons ago and now he's out of the league completely. Campbell was once compared to some of the greatest shooting guards; Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade and even the Great Micheal Jordan.

Being compared to Jordan didn't make Campbell and Jordan anything a like off the court. Jordan born in North Carolina and went on to represent his own state by playing for the University of North Carolina Tarheels and went on to have a long and successful career. Campbell was born in Scotland, represented his country in the small countries world basketball championships at the age of 15. From then was recruited hard by any and all college basketball programs of any relevance: UCLA, UNC, Duke, NC State, Syracuse... the list goes on and on and on, but Campbell knew from day one there was only one coach he wanted to play for and learn from and that was Coach K at Duke. Campbell hit the ground running in his freshman year, leading the blue devils to a national championship game but coming up short in the final against the Kansas Jayhawks. Campbell had been a first team all-american, wooden award finalist, Naismith player of the year finalist and freshman of the year.

It was generally thought that if he had went into the draft that year that he would be taken with the number 1 overall pick, instead he wanted more at the college level. From then he carried Duke to three consecutive national championship games and won national player of the year for the next three years. There was no doubt he was the best collegiate basketball player ever to play, he loved the game for the game and not the money.

There was no doubt that who ever won the draft lottery that year would draft Campbell. It was thought that who ever got lucky enough to draft him had just drafted themselves several championships. The Brooklyn Nets, who had traded Derron Williams, Joe Johnson and their next four first round draft picks, to trade up to get Campbell. In Campbell's rookie year he did not disappoint. He led all rookies in scoring, assists, rebounds, steals and blocks. He was an all around wonder kid. He was in the top 5 in scoring, assists and steals against the full league. He won All-star MVP, Rookie Challenge MVP, won the three-point contest. He was the soon to be king of the league. Campbell managed to carry the Nets to the eastern conference finals where they took a demanding 3-0 lead of the Boston Celtics... then it happened.

Adrian Peterson, Derrick Rose, Nerlens Noel, Robert Griffin III, Sandy Campbell. Superstars taken down in their prime by torn ACL's. Some came back, others faded. Campbell was kept on the roster for the following season, but he knew he wasn't coming back. His ACL surgery hadn't worked. It was over.

At the end of his second year, one of the best of all time retired. For the past year Campbell has been living on his luxurious rookie salary and signing bonus, but it was never about the money. Campbell loved the game and knew he wanted to Coach.

Today Columbia, an Ivy league school without much success in athletics, announced that Campbell had been signed to a 2 year deal to be head coach of the Columbia Lions of New York.

Campbell stated that he looks forward to the challenge.

[sandford010]

The Season has crept up on us and finally some college basketball action has arrived. Albeit that it's only midnight madness, but college basketball none the less. All eyes are on Columbia in the college basketball world... yes, you heard correctly COLUMBIA. ESPN cameras have been on the campus, national media have been reporting on it. The best that could have been is coaching a team that has had no real success... EVER.

The first look at Campbell's Columbia team was promising. Not saying that they are going to compete for a national title right away, but definite Ivy League contenders. The highlight of Midnight madness at Columbia University was the freshaman shooting-guard Wesley Matthews [not the guy from the trailblazers] securing a starting role by putting up 30 points and winning the game for the reserve team with a three-point buzzer beater to win by one point. It was a one man show and he looked like an all-american out there. It was one of the most exciting performances i've ever seen from a one star recruit.

After the game I spoke to Coach Campbell and he had this to say:
"It was a great showing of what direction we're heading in going into the season. We're a team that has no seniors and everyone is going to have to put work in to win the Ivy League"

When asked how was he going to use Wesley Matthews moving forward coach said "Oh I need to start him after a performance like that, no doubt".

Coach Campbell and his Lions will kick off their regular season by playing Campbell's old college team and highly rated and highly ranked #11 in the country Duke Blue Devils in the college basketball experience classic. It should be an interesting match-up.

[sandford010]

Coach K remains unbeaten by teams coached by former players

It was an emotional day for both Coach K and Coach Campbell. Not only was it Campbell's first game as a NCAA coach, not only did his unranked Columbia team have to match up against the #11 team in the country, the duke blue devils, it was against Campbell's Alumni and against his former Coach and the greatest coach in college basketball ever.

Why was Coach K emotional I hear you ask? Because he had to "smite his son". Campbell broke most of Duke's record and earned Coach K three consecutive national championships.

Wesley Matthews started as Coach Campbell told us last week. Matthews helped the lions out to a 9-2 lead within the first 4 minutes of the game. From there it was all Duke.

Duke had a pretty balanced attack with a lot of players scoring while Wesley Matthews scored 30, in his collegiate debut, of Columbia's 59. Duke beat Columbia down 59-83. Coach Campbell had this to say after the game:

"We were never meant to win this game, i think we came out well at the start of the game but we faded near the end of the first half and was never able to catch up. There were some points where i felt Wes was going to go on a scoring tear and mount the best come back of all-time but it didn't happen for us. What's meant to happen happens."

When asked about how it felt to play against his old coach he had this to say:
" Coach K is the best coach in the world. End of discussion. So i had to come into this game with a game plan that had the potential to be a "Coach K gameplan" but it didn't work out. It was very emotional to see him, I had received a phone call from him after my injury but it's the first time since my injury that i've seen him in person."

An emotional day all around. Columbia's next game is against the New Jersey Institute of Technology highlanders. This should be an easy game, even for the lions.

[sandford010]

Campbell's Columbia wins first game of the seasons

The once great player, Sandy Campbell, adds another milestone to his well decorated basketball career, his first win as a NCAA head coach. Ok, it was over one of the worst NCAA teams in the nation, NJIT (New Jersey Institute of Technology), but a win's a win... right?

It was the semi-finals of the Tyler Ugoyln Columbia Classic, Coach Campbell knew this game was a must win.

NJIT was actually tougher than you would think. Columbia struggled with NJIT to begin with. After taking a 9-2 lead over NJIT it began to get closer. At the end of the half NJIT was up by a point, 27-26. Coach Campbell made some adjustments at the half to stop all of NJIT's outside shooting and it paid off as Columbia did manage to pull away in the second half. Columbia crated a lot of take away's which led to easy fast break opportunities for simple lay-ups. The Columbia freshman sensation, Wesley Matthews, had a tough first half managing to go 0/4 from three-point territory, but manged to pull it together in the second half to lead the team with 33 points. His third consecutive game, including midnight madness, where he scored 30 points or more.

I spoke to Coach Campbell after the game and he had this to say:
"Getting the first win of the season was vital here. We knew that we needed to get it now and stop us from going on a bad run of games. I'm ecstatic to get my first NCAA victory. This game has highlighted a couple things which we need to improve on, but all in all we look strong going forward".

Columbia's next game is Saint Peter's university in the Tyler Ugoyln Columbia Classic final.

[sandford010]

Campbell's Columbia lose easy game


Columbia struggled against Saint Peters today in the final of the Columbia classic. The sam style of offense was played today as has been played all season so far, throw up a bunch of threes and see if any of them fall. This didn't work today for Sandy Campbell and Columbia today. Also still major problems on the defensive end of the ball allowing too many open threes.

The same story with a different ending as Columbia got out to a good start but faded away at the end of the first half and never really caught back up. Wesley Matthews continued his good form today with a impressive showing from deep with 34 points. The other Major contributor was starting PG Mack Montgomery with 17. Nearer the end of the game Columbia trimmed the lead down to four but couldn't keep it there as they had to foul to try to mount the comeback. Final score was 78-69 Saint Peters over Columbia.







STATS








Highlights

phpBB [video]

phpBB [video]

[sandford010]

Next up the 1-2 Columbia Lions take on the 1-1 Long Island Blackbirds

[sandford010]

Columbia lose in heart breaker



Coach Campbell and his Columbia have been strugling as of late, going 1-2 in their first three games of the season. Most people felt that going into this game against the Long Island Blackbirds that it would be their third loss of the season. Which it was... but they didn't expect that they'd only lose by one and lead most of the game.



Columbia had taken a different approach on offense this game taking more advantage of the inside game instead of attempting to hot a ton of three-points. It looked to be working as Columbia had a two point lead going into the half, 28-30. After half-time Long Island took the lead with a three from the corner. After that the game kept going back and forth with the lead. With 5 minutes left in the game the lions looked as if they had secured a strong lead with a 8 point cushion. The lions tried to maintain the lead and still had a 8 point lead with 2 minutes left in the game.



But that's when the Lions began to play sloppy and began to have major turn over problems which led to fastbreak points. With a minute left in the game the Lions still had a three point lead. The lions were running the clock down and with 30 seconds on the clock. Montgomary then attempted to lob the ball inside and the pass went straight out of bounds. With 20 seconds on the clock the score was 60-59, to the lions. This is when Long Island PG, James Williams, took the lead when he drove into the paint for the lay-up. The Lions drove back down the court and took the lead right back. The score, with 10 seconds on the clock, was 62-61. All the lions had to do was play solid defense but their full-court press aloud James Williams to beat them down the court. With two seconds left on the clock Wesley Matthews failed to take the lead and the lions lost 62-63 and fall to 1-3 on the season.



Coach Campbell had this to say when i spoke to him after the game:
"Losing a game like this which you felt you had controlled most of the game is a kick in the teeth. I'm very disappointed but felt my team actually played well. Still some defensive work to do, but we will bounce back from this."

STATS






HIGHLIGHTS

phpBB [video]

phpBB [video]

phpBB [video]

[sandford010]

Columbia 1-3 goes up against Stony Brook 2-2 at home

[sandford010]

Roar has been restored for the time being



Coach Campbell has had a tough couple of games sliding to 1-3 on the season, but there have been some positives: Some standout performances, close games with teams better than Columbia. Lat night Columbia managed to get out of this to game losing streak at home to Stony Brook Sea Devils.



Most of the games this season have started out by Columbia gaining a big lead and then losing it later in the first half and failing to catchup in the second half. This game was not quite like that. The game was neck and neck all game but Columbia managed to keep ahead till the end. Good inside play aloud more open outside shots which is something which hasn't come easy for this Columbia team. The final score was 63-58 Columbia over stony brook.





STATS








Highlights

phpBB [video]

phpBB [video]

phpBB [video]

[sandford010]

Next Columbia (2-3) go to Providence (3-1)

[sandford010]

Roar Restored? Not so fast my friend

Coach Campbell's Columbia Lions had their first nationally televised game of the season when they traveled to Rhode Island to take on the providence friars. Columbia knew that they were out matched and that's why it hurts even more when they only lose by two points in the closing seconds of the game. The Friars got the lead early and never let go, but near the end of the game Mack Montgomery stepped up hitting 4 consecutive threes to tie the game. Montgomery then sent the friars PG, Seraud Curry, to the line with 10 seconds to go who took the lead for providence.

With the clock ticking down from 10 Montgomery took it upon himself to hold the ball for the last shot of the game, which was the right decision as he had the hot hand, but he couldn't make the game winning buzzer beater. Final Score 58-60

STATS



[Sorry forgot to get highlights and pictures]

Next game at home against Sacred Heart (1-4). Columbia are now 2-4

[Mark.]

Interesting idea. Game looks quite old school! Will be following.

[sandford010]

Yeah the game is pretty old, it has a nice arcade feeling to it. The problem is that the last real, non modded, college games are getting old now. Especially the 2k ones.

[sandford010]

I continued to play some of this legacy and never took any pictures or anything. Since the Providence game we have:

- Beaten Sacred Heart 52-45 at home

- Beaten Wagner 60-55 at home

- Lost to Lafayette away 48-32

We are currently 4-5 with 3 more games to go until conference play starts. Our last 3 non conference games are:

- Saint Johns away (predicted loss)

- St Francis (NY) away (Predicted win)

- Lehigh away (predicted loss)

[sandford010]

Columbia Lions continue to lose big games



Coach Campbell didn't have to far to travel for this big game as they were facing a team from across the city of which they both shared. Campbell seemed happy to only have to travel from the Columbia campus, over on Broadway NYC, to the Carnesecca Arena over in Queens to face St Johns Redstorm. Campbell seemed confident of a good competitive game after a strong performance against another big east opponent several weeks before, Providence.



Campbell's comfort was gone by the end of the first half as they found themselves with many offensive troubles. Too many turnovers. Horrible shooting percentages. Failure to drive into St Johns defense. It was horrible. In spite of this they only found themselves down by 7. With the score only being 14-21. Yeah... St Johns wasn't doing great on offense either... in the first half.

Columbia returned to the court, they seemed relaxed and ready to make a game out of this... They were to relaxed. The turnovers still managed to pile up. The points scored on them managed to pile up and St John's managed to get on a 16-0 run which was only managed to get stopped by a free throw. By the end of the game Coach Campbell wasn't sitting on the bench attempting to coach a comeback... he was in the locker room, probably banging his head off of a locker.



We caught up with Coach Campbell after the game and he had this to say to us:
"There was absolutely no excuse to have been playing that badly. We have let down out school, we have let down our community and we have let ourselves down. We're not going to be sleeping tonight, after a game like this we will be in the gym until 4 o'clock in the morning if we have to be to perfect what needs to be perfected to have any chance of winning"

STATS








There weren't any notable highlights in this game... so no highlights this week

[sandford010]

Columbia back to winning, for the time being



After last weeks shocking performance against Big East team St Johns Red Storm the Columbia Lions put in some hard work. After the 29-59 loss Coach Campbell had them up till 7:30 am in the gymnasium. A all night training session might have been just what they needed as Columbia managed to pick up a win over St Francis (NY) last night in overtime.



After a more than disappointing game from Warren Matthews Jr. against St Johns, where he only managed to muster up 4 points, he decided to show us some of what he was doing at the start of the season. He put up 21 of Columbia's 63 points in their 60-63 OT win.



Turnovers didn't seem as much of an issue against St Francis (NY) as it was against St Johns. With only one game away from conference play the Columbia Lions are 5-6 with their last non-conference game being against Lehigh.

STATS








HIGHLIGHTS

phpBB [video]

phpBB [video]

phpBB [video]