Welcome Back Fighting Scots Fans,

Christmas is over, and I am back from California after a nice week spent in warmer weather. I hope that all of you had a wonderfully blessed Christmas spent with family, and I hope that Santa was good to all of you.

The team returned to Wenham a few days ago to prepare for our games this week.  We practiced for about 2 ½ hours on Saturday night after a session in the weight room.  I thought the guys came back and practiced pretty hard after a long break from the court.  On Sunday we practiced for two hours and fifteen minutes.  I really do not like to practice on Sundays, but by practicing on the Sabbath, I was able to give the team an extra day at home for the Christmas break, and I thought that was worth it.  Yesterday we had another weightlifting session before our one hour and 45 minute practice, followed by a 20 minute film session in preparation for our game this afternoon against Bowdoin College.  I wanted to talk about the practice times and weight workouts and film sessions, because I am very proud of the work that our team has been doing all season long.  They have really bought into the process of winning instead of just focusing on the results.  This will definitely pay off in the long run.

Bowdoin is the first of two games this week.  We play them this afternoon at home in the Bennett Center at 3:00.  So far this season, we are 4-1 on the road, but only 1-3 at home.  Bowdoin comes in with a 7-3 record, and two of their losses came to ranked opponents.  They are one of the top defensive teams in the country giving up only 59 points per game on 33% shooting by their opponents.  They also have a very strong guard oriented offense and play a four guard system.  Although they start four guards, their overall height is still much taller than us, and they are outrebounding their opponents by about seven rebounds per game.  Hopefully the two week break from action doesn't make our offense too rusty, or it could be a very long afternoon for the Scots.  They are an extremely well-balanced scoring team, so there is not one player that we can focus on stopping.  We will need to play a very strong team defense.  We are a better team than we were last year, and we will need to be in order to turn around our 74-51 shellacking at their place last year.

Following the Bowdoin game, we have nothing but conference games left on the schedule, including a game this Saturday at the University of Hartford.  Hartford's record is 3-7, but they have played a strong schedule, they are a very young team with two freshmen, two sophomores, and a junior starting.  They are one of the best three-point shooting teams in the conference, and if we don't slow them down from behind the arc, it could be a very long bus ride home from Connecticut.  Their two leading scorers are two of the best shooters in the conference, so be certain that we will be giving them a lot of attention.

As I said earlier, I hope that all of you had a blessed Christmas celebration.  I also hope that you have a joyous and safe New Year's Eve.  What better way to kick off your New Year's Eve celebrations than to head over to the Bennett Center this afternoon and help us against a very strong Bowdoin team.  With the students still away for Christmas break, we will need your help to keep the Bennett Center from looking like a ghost town.  Last year we didn't have the firepower to beat strong teams, but I think this year we are capable of competing against very good teams like Bowdoin.  Thank you for continuing to support Gordon College Men's Basketball.

God Bless,
Coach Murphy
 
"Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see."
 -Hebrews 11:1