Now, on to our next target, a team that is even easier to hate, especially after last season…

Mascot: Minutemen (and Minutewomen -hey, someone’s got to love the perpetual quickies)
Founded: 1851
Location: Amherst, MA
Colors: Maroon and White
2009-2010 record: 12-20 (5-11 conference)
2009-2010 vs. Charlotte: (1-1) Charlotte 72, UMass 58 & UMass 59, Charlotte (+1) 56
All time vs. Charlotte: 5-4

J Felt: Maybe it’s the mid-day forgetfulness that I’m afflicted with as I write this, but I’m struggling to remember any games against UMass that involved us losing in a way that would piss me off. Other than of course, the obvious game that ended last season. The infamous moment that probably sealed the fate of Bobby Lutz’ job. You know what I’m talking about.

6 men on the floor, in an Atlantic 10 Conference Tourney Game. In Halton Arena. With the game on the line.

I hate that moment probably as much as I can hate anything else in memory when it comes to Charlotte basketball. But can I blame UMass for that? They were just there, to witness it. To hate them for that would be wrong.

But I still hate them. I hate them for laying down and not playing defense when we played them in Amherst last year. We looked like the Lakers out there, with Derrio hitting anything he wanted and our team basically scoring at will. By being so uncaring and terrible, they gave our fan base hope and high expectations. Well, screw you for sucking UMass. Of course, in the Atlantic 10 Tourney game, you couldn’t just lie down and take it, you had to pretend you cared again. Sure, we played terrible, but at least we were fighting for a chance at an NIT berth at that point, you were just struggling to prove you could play basketball. Turns out, neither of our teams could, we just managed to suck a tad bit more in the final seconds.

You’re second place in the league for obnoxious fans, too. Not as bad as the Dayton Cryers, but damn, shut the hell up. I remember the incessant internet whining that was spewed when we upset you in 2007-2008 in Atlantic City. You were up, what, 20 points at the half, and let Lamont Mack beat you? You probably should’ve been an NCAA team that season, too. Congratulations on your successful run deep in the Nobody F’in Cares Invitational Tourney after that.

Maybe the biggest reason I hate your program is because you helped build the monster that is John Calipari. You gave him a place to grow and foster. Look what you created, assholes. I’m glad the NCAA came down hard on UMass, you should have known better. Because of the Calipari connection, my 49erFanatics.com HateMeter is registering a clear 6. I hope Derrio bayonets you again next season.

NLP: Yeah, so I’ve hatred (that’s for you grammarnazi) UMass for a long time.  My hatred for the One Minutemen started in 98 aka Demarco’s Senior Year when the Niners visited the icehole of the NE, Amherst.  Great place, you have to fly into Hartford or Boston if you want any chance to get at the place.  Anyway the Niners lost the game in OT 62-68 after seeing both Demarco and Kelvin Price foul out.  Price at that point was doing horrible things against the One Minutemen, having collected 18 rebounds with 12 on the offensive glass.   The game was particularly painful since the Niners were just starting to get things together after stumbling out of the gate losing 5 of their first 8.  Ugh.  We actually went 0-Bay State that season dropping a home game earlier to Boston University.

The 07-08 One Minutemen also have a fond place in the depths of my bowels.  The Niners were experiencing a revival season, en route to what should have been a birth in the NCAA during Leemire Goldwire’s Sr. season.  It wasn’t to be as the Niners lost a few key games away from home including a game in Amherst that was played in front of maybe 100 fans.  The best part and what really stoked the flames of hatred was the pathetic response of the fans “The students were on break.  You try heating the campus in the dead of winter.”  Oh yes, the brutal winters of interior Massachusetts where Siberian Huskies eat their owners just to stay alive.  Hey UMass fans, EAD.

UMass fans are amongst the worst in the league, as J Felt pointed out.  Seldom have I seen a collection of fans so unaware of how vastly their team has sucked since Calipari cheated their way to a Final Four banner which they proudly until the NCAAs forced them to take it down.  Mention it to them and they’ll proudly fap away reminiscing about Julius Irving.  Yeah, okay, nice player.  0 NCAA tournament appearances.  We did that too with Carlos Turnover.  Just saying.

The hatred for UMass does have it’s pluses though.  Case in point:  2008 CUSA tournament.  Up one and with the ball coming out of a time out where Rob Moxley famously tells Leemire to “Stick in their facking eye”, Goldwire does just that, drilling a 3 from the top of the key to put the game out of reach and sending UMass packing.

On the 49erfanatics.com HateMeter, UMass rates a solid 7 for me.  They’ve put holes in the resumes of some very good Niner squads, were responsible for cause us a very embarrassing gaffe (6 men), and have a collection of cocky, condescending fans when they have no right or reason to be.

The above just proves a point about La Salle, the team that is the focus of this entry. This column is supposed to be about La Salle but yet Fordham and Denzel Washington is more interesting, because La Salle is, well, extrememly hard to feel anything about. But we gave it a try anyway. 

School: La Salle University
Mascot: Explorers
Founded: 1863
Location: Philadelphia, PA
Colors: Blue and Gold
2009-2010 record: 12-18 (4-12 conference)
2009-2010 vs. Charlotte: Charlotte 84, La Salle 82
All time vs. Charlotte: 1-5 

J Felt: When people ask me, “What teams are in the Atlantic 10?” I quickly name off the easy ones… Charlotte, Xavier, Dayton, Richmond, George Washington, Temple, and then I have to think about the others like Saint Louis, Saint Joseph’s, UMAss, etc.  But one team is always last or forgotten: La Salle. Always. They’re known as the Explorers because that’s what people have to do to find that last team they forgot to list. Sometimes, I even forget that we play La Salle, I forgot to even tune in this past year when we played them. Probably because I forgot they existed (Wilderness did, however, give La Salle fans a reason to hate us). Put it this way, David Scott cares more about covering the Niners than we do about La Salle. 

Turns out they have arguably some of the best history in the conference, with 3 NPOYs and an NCAA championship, but that was back before seatbelts were legally required. If they flaunted that around worse than we flaunt our 1977 Final Four Appearance, I would hate them for it. But I’m not jealous of their championship, since it predated, well, anything, including real basketball. 

I don’t even have a memory that drums up any ill will, either. They beat us once in conference play, but that was during a season I’ve already forgotten. Something about Alice Colson and Sleeves, I think. 

Maybe I should hate La Salle becuase their name is French for “The Sally” and that’s just lame. It also sounds like something from Montreal, and I hate the Montreal Canadiens. I’m grasping for straws here and I know you can tell. So on the 49erFanatics.com HateMeter, I’m giving La Salle a 1. I would give them a “I couldn’t care less”, but alas, the scale can only utilize numbers, and choosing something else could result in a complete collapse of time and space. 

NLP: When I think of La Salle, I think of Independence Day. The movie, of course. In the opening moments of the film, a giant ‘blip’ appears on the radar. It’s basically covering the entire radar screen. When I think of La Salle, that’s not what I think of. When I think of La Salle it’s the exact opposite of that. In fact, I don’t think of La Salle at all. If you were to ask me what I hate about them, I’d pause, look at you like you’re an Amish meth dealer, and then struggle to come up with “Well, I guess because they’re named after someone from Freedom.” 

I need to stock up on Soul Glo.

Actually I do have a reason for hating La Salle. Pull out your Name Confusion Log, because La Salle takes away recognition (about 0.00001% of it) from the greatest movie featuring the greatest Jheri Curl of all time, Coming to America. 

Okay. So how much do I hate La Salle? I suppose I’ll dial them up as a 1 on the 49erfanatics.com Hate Meter. It’s one thing to hate Fordham for being horrible, but it’s another to hate La Salle for being….. not irrelevant, more like…. anonymous. I’d declare Tom Gola to be pissed off and rolling over in his grave, but he’s still alive. Ugh, La Salle. How about Exploring a return to the known universe. 

Overall 49erFanatics.com Hate Meter Score: 1 

Leave your score in the poll and your comments below. Best commentator gets a free subscription and a bottle of Jheri Curl to make your soul glow..

While we won, that game was definitely more like Guilford Courthouse, where the British barely beat the Colonials. It took 2 huge plays to make this win happen, a win that we probably didn’t deserve…

The huge three from Derrio. Guy was missing all night and still wanted that big shot. He hit it to tie. Got to love that guy. Credit goes to Phil Jones for setting that monster screen.

The DiJuan/Derrio steal that preceded the game winning free throws. Our defense had been well, uh, not stellar all night, but came up BIG at that moment.

Of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention Shamari Spears dominating 31 points. He shot (and scored) the ball from everywhere on the floor, shooting over 50% and even knocked down two key three pointers. And it wasn’t just his scoring either, he was fighting on the boards (6 rbds) and working hard down low on defense. If DiJuan is the floor general on this team, Spears is what keeps them fighting. It was obvious he didn’t want to lose this game, and he made sure to remind his teammates of that point.

Can we officially stop the Phil Jones bashing? The guy has toughened up in the post, especially on defense (3 blocks, 5 rebounds), and now is showing a sweet jumpshot from the free throw line. He finished with 11 points and has been key to our last two home victories. Phil Jones is for real, stop complaining about him.

I could spout off for 6,000 words about the officials tonight. But I’ll just say this: THEY WERE TERRIBLE. Whoever leaves the best comment about the refs in the comments will get a legitimate prize. For real.

Now for observations…

• DiJuan Harris was solid – 8 assists, 11 points, 2 steals, 4 rebounds – in addition to the game winning free throws
• Chuck Dewberry (Dewhurst, in case you didn’t know) is such an integral part to this team, almost every single one of his 11 rebounds was key
• Dew’s also a warrior… already had a black eye and now has a split lip to add to it
• He may not have had a great offensive showing, but Braswell has improved steadily on defense (4 blocks tonight)
• Derrio Green is the hero tonight, seems like there’s a new one every close game
• The crowd brought it, I’ll give them that
• Hobbs and Lutz don’t get along, I even saw Mrs. Lutz yelling at Hobbs after the game
• We’re 7-1, tied for first, and still looking at an NCAA At Large, wow
• I really hate George Washington, this game just made it worse

Those going to the game make sure to bring this.

I hate Richmond.

No really, I think we all do. We’ve lost to them four times in a row.

Including two years ago on Homecoming. On Homecoming, against Richmond. We weren’t even terrible that year and we still lost to those damn Spiders!

For me, the hatred really started in early ’06, the Niners first trip to Richmond as an A10 foe. The 49ers were still vying for an at-large and needed to avoid anymore bad losses. Enter Richmond. Those little jerks played slow disciplined basketball and our players couldn’t handle it. Lutz got two technicals, and my friends and I went home dejected. DEJECTED. That’s how Richmond makes me feel.

With that out of the way, the Spiders are probably better this year than they’ve ever been since we joined the A10. Their guards are sick, they play disciplined basketball, and they’re extremely proficient from the 3-pt line. Basically, that is a recipe for 49ersAreGonnaStruggle Casserole. You’ve heard of that dish right? We had some this year against Winthrop and Saint Louis already. Luckily, we won those games. And Saint Louis beat Richmond. So, if you believe in the transitive property of sports, then just add on to Richmond’s loss column now.

Anyway, squash the spiders, I really hope we beat them tonight. The game’s on Channelsurfing.net if you want to watch. Predictions are below, leave yours and we’ll sign you up for our awesome email list with special promo codes to save on exclusive GreenTintedGlasses.net gear. No really, do it.

letsgoNINERS11 – We dont win in the Robins Center. Ever.  67-63 Richmond wins.

J Felt – Charlotte 70, Richmond 64. I don’t believe in the words… don’t ever. We win tonight, because miracles do happen and Braswell’s packing some Raid.

JRitchie – Djiuan Harris reveals that he was actually Spider-Man all along. Niners 38 Richmond 37

HP – The itsy bitsy spider’s web didn’t cover the rim. Niners win an ugly one, 59-54.

D-Fo – Much like St. Louis, this looks to be one that’s gonna really grind down to a crawl.  A big game from Braswell coupled with solid contributions from Green and Harris help the Niners squeeze out a 79-73 victory.

NLP – Shamari Spears sends Dan Geriot into the Witness Protection Program as the Niners get the Robins Center monkey off their collective back.  Niners 65 – Richmond 61

Bust – Not sure how a spider beats a human.. one carrying a pick axe no less, but they do it. Richmond 72, Charlotte 65.

Regardless, it was nice to get the win. We started off extremely sluggish, and it even looked like we might lose early on the 1st half, but somehow our team got it into gear and started scoring points. And score we did. 40 in the first half, and 51 in the second, not a bad offensive output. It was extremely quiet, but we were relatively efficient on offense (45.7%). We also went to the line 29 times and made 22 of them. Our three point shooting was abysmal (27.8%), but we still had our way on offense, even with our starting PG, DiJuan Harris, on the bench.

Game ball definitely goes to Derrio Green. With Harris in foul trouble early on, Green stepped into the PG position. After logging 39 minutes of play, Derrio finished 23 points, 5 assists, 5 rebounds, 1 block, and 3 steals. Not a bad night at all for the sophomore guard. In fact, he looked confident at the PG position and provided scoring from that spot where DiJuan often struggles. It was nice to see him dunk on that breakaway, too often our players go for the layup and misjudge it. While he struggled against the press, Derrio’s ability to create offense from the PG spot will be an interesting plot line as the year progresses.

Have to give obligatory props to Florence from Mercer, that kid is a true scorer. Would love to see him in Green and White, but one can dream. He broke Mercer’s all time scoring record last night to little applause, but we at GreenTintedGlasses.net aren’t afraid to give credit where it’s due. We had no answer for him other than to score more points.

Speaking of that, our defense isn’t very good. We’re giving up easy looks left and right and have trouble stopping the dribble penetration. If the ball is in the post, the defense collapses too quickly, leaving players open on the perimeter all the time. But other times we react too slowly and find ourselves out of position. What the 49ers lack on defense is intensity. Get your arms up, scream at the other players, call out screens, just be energized in general. It seems our players view defense as a “must-do” rather than a “proud to do.” This single aspect of our game must improve versus GT and Tenn or we will be 10-4 going into conference play.

And now to end, just a few short observervations:

• Shamari’s fadeaway is sick, especially when he’s hitting it
• Shamari rarely follows his shot, maybe he knows he needs to get back on D
• Phil Jones has steadily improved every season, and he came up big last night, stop hating on Jones
• Stop hating on Phil Jones, had to be said again
• Someone needs to step up at the two and hit shots
• Bowden is in a funk and is obviously frustrated, get over it, kid, you’ll find your stroke soon, don’t worry
• DiJuan is timid on offense still, 3rd game in a row, what is going on
• Officials were awful, just inconsistent all around
• NCAA needs to do away with the “cylinder” charge/block rule and get the arc, or go back to the previous rules, because officials suck at understanding the current one
• 10-2 is a beautiful sight to see after last season, bring on the Jackets!