My Losing Season Read Online Free PDF Page B

coming year as I was.

    PROSPECTS FOR THE SEASON by Coach Mel Thompson.
    The 1966–67 season will again find the Bulldogs in a year of rebuilding. First, on a long list of musts, we must find a replacement for Wig Baumann, the team’s leading scorer and floor leader. Our success will depend on finding a replacement for Baumann and the ability of our younger players to find their maturity in the early going.
    Senior Pat Conroy and Junior John DeBrosse appear to have a shot at floor leading the Cadets. DeBrosse appeared in all 23 games last season as a guard. He scored 248 points averaging just over 10 points per game. Conroy appeared in 16 games scoring 74 points for an average of just over 4 points per game. Both boys are excellent ball handlers. Conroy excels in passing and dribbling. DeBrosse is a fine shot. He hit on 49 percent of his shots last year.
    Our thin blue line will definitely be improved this year with a better overall depth than we have experienced for the past couple of years. Team speed also will be improved with the addition of this year’s group of sophomores.
    Dan Mohr, Doug Bridges, and John DeBrosse all started last season and should, with gained experience, be much improved. Mohr will be our tallest man at 6´7´´. He is an excellent offensive pivot man and is rated as one of the best pivot men in the Southern Conference. Second in scoring last year with 314 points for an average of just over 15 points per game, Mohr was our top rebounder with 156 points in 20 games. Bridges was our third leading scorer, averaging 12.6 points. The year’s experience should make Doug one of our most consistent players.
    Bob Cauthen saw considerable action as a sophomore. He has displayed hustle and heart. The year’s experience should improve Bob’s overall performance and we expect him to have a good year.
    One of our weak points again is the need for height. We don’t have the big man and we will be hurting under the backboards. Rebounding definitely will be a problem.
    Five of the twelve men of the Varsity this season will be sophomores. This group is led by the top three men in scoring on last year’s freshman team—Bill Zinsky, Al Kroboth, and Tee Hooper. The ability of these boys to adjust to Varsity competition will be a key factor in our success this season.

    We veterans knew something the sophomores would learn quickly. Each player would have to submit himself to trial by Mel Thompson, a season-long initiation in which our coach would search for the soft spots and breaking points of his newest players, then would go to work on them with a cruel finesse. By doing this, Mel thought he was making his players tougher and more resilient when the games came down to the wire. I had seen some kids crack under the weight of Mel’s fiercest attention, which was no perversity on Mel’s part, but simply an outgrowth of his philosophy as a coach. Coach Thompson could break a boy in a day or over a season or over a career. It was a gift that he brought to the art of coaching.
    The whistle blew again and the rigid structure of our practice sessions locked into place as Mel shouted, “Two-on-two drill. Conroy and Halpin. You guard Hooper and DeBrosse.”
    Jim Halpin and I glanced at each other. We put on our game faces on October 15 and would wear them until the final horn was sounded at the tournament.
    The two-on-two drill was an excellent teaching method combining both defensive and offensive skills in the open court. It utilized the entire floor and the two players on defense tried to stop the two offensive players from bringing it up the floor. It was also a much easier drill for the guards than it was for the big men. Sometimes, their awkwardness or slowness afoot would be highlighted by any drill that found them scrambling over the entire area of the court. This would often be enough to draw the wrath of Mel on one of the big guys.
    â€œMove it, goddamn it. Move