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FAU vs. Campbell

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FAU vs. Campbell

FAU seems to be playing pretty well so far tonight. Anyone else listening?

On a related note…..what is with this guy doing the play by play?? It isn't Evan Cohen. Cohen does an adequate job on the broadcasts, not great, but listenable and enthusiastic. This guy the past two games is brutal. Not to be mean, but he really shouldn't be doing radio play by play. It probably doesn't matter since I'm probably the only one listening though…LOL.
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FAU vs. Campbell

Yes, I was listening. The score I last heard was FAU on top 34-21. Go Owls.

I promised my wife I would let her use the computer tonight to do some work. I'll have to check back later.

FAU - THE REAL SLEEPING GIANT
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FAU vs. Campbell

FAU hangs on for the win! 97-88. Whew. Campbell was down by as much as 21 in the 2nd half, but mounted a strong comback, cutting the lead to 5 late in the game. Still, a good road win, in what was a sold out gym. It was closer than it should have been, but hey, i'll take a 2-0 road trip any way I can get it. Now the Owls have until Sunday to fix what happened defensively late in the game.
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FAU vs. Campbell

Here is the game story, interesting note on the last line…

Former Tar Heels coach back in N.C. with new team

BUIES CREEK, N.C. ? Not much has changed about Matt Doherty. Still fiery, still demanding of his players, he appears to be essentially the same coach he was a few seasons ago.

There is one glaring difference, however, one he probably witnesses almost every game. Back when Doherty was the national coach of the year with the North Carolina Tar Heels, his teams almost always played in sparkling, huge arenas and were on national TV more often than not.

For the most part, those days are long gone. He took two years off following his forced resignation from North Carolina and resurfaced at Florida Atlantic of the Atlantic Sun Conference. His new school rivals his previous one in enrollment only ? FAU has 25,000 students ? and the venues are much, much smaller.

How much smaller? Well, Tuesday night, Doherty brought the Owls to Campbell and Carter Gym, the second-smallest in Division I with a capacity of 947. People began lining up about 3 hours before tip-off to assure themselves of a seat, and another standing-room only crowd eventually filled 52-year-old building. Perhaps more familiar to Doherty is where FAU currently now sits in the conference: a 97-88 victory over the Camels moved the Owls (8-7, 7-1 A-Sun) into a tie for first with Kennesaw State.

Not bad for a coach who allegedly couldn?t get along with his players at North Carolina. He took over when Bill Guthridge retired unexpectedly in 2000, and initially, everything seemed great in Chapel Hill. The Doherty-led Tar Heels to a 26-7 record that earned him that award.

The next year wasn?t so good. North Carolina finished 8-20 ? the worst mark in school history ? and the grumbling began among fans and alumni alike. But Doherty recruited a heralded class of freshmen for his third season, a group that included Sean May, Raymond Felton and Rashad McCants.

For a time, he enjoyed an upswing. His young squad reached the NIT in a 19-16 year, and with the valuable experience, better times were ahead. Only Doherty wasn?t there to see it.
A few of his players ? most notably McCants ? complained about his coaching technique and verbal abuse, and even went so far as to admit some of his teammates dreaded going to practice. Doherty eventually quit with three years left on a six-year contract and accepted a buyout of $337,500 from North Carolina.

Roy Williams left Kansas to replace Doherty, and the Tar Heels won the NCAA title last spring.

Doherty? Well, he spent a couple of years as a television analyst before getting hired at FAU, which reached the NCAA tournament for the only time in 2002.

And Doherty doesn?t cut his players any slack. When Owls forward Fred Marshall allowed Comerlee Poole an easy basket midway through the first half, Doherty nearly came on the court to chastise him. Of course, that gave the students seated just behind the FAU bench some new material.

??Leave him alone! That?s how you got fired the first time!?? they yelled.

Doherty wasn?t fazed. He continued to prod and to plead with his team, and they responded to dominate the first half.

The final 20 minutes was a different story. As the Owls lost most of a 21-point lead, they had a shot-clock violation immediately after a media timeout.

Doherty kicked his chair off the wall just behind the bench before quickly calming down. He settled his team down, too. DeAndre Rice had a clutch 3-pointer in the final 90 seconds to help FAU hold on.

The trip was part of Doherty?s return to North Carolina ? the Owls won at Gardner-Webb on Sunday before coming across the state to play Campbell, which is only about 60 miles from Chapel Hill. That likely explained the amount of attention given this game, with about 20 reporters in attendance and a handful of Raleigh-area TV stations.

Doherty had a crew from ESPN following his every move for the show ??The Season.??

President of the No Homers Club. Keepin' it real since 2001.
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FAU vs. Campbell

wow what is up with that. talk about recruiting effect if that happens.
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FAU vs. Campbell

Is he still dealing with temper problems?

FAU - THE REAL SLEEPING GIANT
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FAU vs. Campbell

I did a news search for FAU on google and sorted by date. The article posted above is repeated in about 45-50 different newspapers all over the country. I search the news all the time. I don't think I've ever seen a story covered that much.

Doherty is back with some success and it is attracting some attention. The more he wins the more attention it will get.

I hope the reporter was just being an ass and Doherty was not his old self like he was at UNC. We all read the articles that he has changed, he's a better coach, he has learned from his mistakes. Lets pray that's true.

FAU shot 72% in the first half against Campbell. :o

FAU - THE REAL SLEEPING GIANT
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FAU vs. Campbell

This is a guy that coaches with an extreme amount of emotion. The writer said he immediately calmed down after the flair up. Remember where he was (N.C.) and things started to slide when he kind of lost it. The last ten minutes in a game can make a difference if the character of the player is to give up. How many games in the past few years and even at the beginning of this season did that happen.

He has the fire and drive to create champions something that Green didn't even come close to doing as a coach. I doesn't strick me as a Bobby Knight but I'm sure he gets frustrated especially when you are about to throw away a win. He regained his composure and he got the players back on track.

He has already made a big difference in the program and as he continues the players and his staff will flow together. Remember he is dealing with some left over mundane attitudes and sometimes it takes emotion to get attention. It obviously worked tonight they won, again, they hung in there.



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FAU vs. Campbell

FAU will be featured on ESPN2's "The Season" on February 1. Of course, it's on in the midnight to 1a.m. time slot. It would be interesting to know when shooting started — were they following Coach around during preseason, etc.?

As far as the flair-up goes, Coach Doherty is an emotional guy who "wears his heart on his sleeve" so that everyone knows exactly how he feels —- this in no way means that he kicks players around the locker room the way he kicks an occasional chair or trash can!
I too belive that being that close to Chapel Hill last night put a bit more pressure on the coach than even he expected.

Way to go Owls!



Here's an article from the Fayetteville Observer — looks like there was quite a bit of heckeling going on.

Welcome Matt

By Brett Friedlander
Staff writer

BUIES CREEK ? A few things have changed for Matt Doherty in the two years since his painful departure as coach at North Carolina.

Instead of staying at the Ritz-Carlton when he and his team are on the road, they now take up residence at the Comfort Inn in Fuquay-Varina. And instead of playing at packed basketball palaces such as the Smith Center, he?s getting to know the inside of the 947-seat Carter Gymnasium and other band boxes like it.

But those are only the differences visible to the naked eye.

Though he might not have looked it as he jumped, shouted and contorted his Florida Atlantic team to a 97-88 victory against Campbell on Tuesday, Doherty was much wiser and more humble than he was when his players? uniforms matched the Carolina blue shirt he wore for his first coaching return to the Tar Heel state.

?I think I?m doing a better job now of enjoying the moment, of enjoying family and friends,? said Doherty, who brought about 30 of those acquaintances, including Tar Heel radio announcer Woody Durham, with him Tuesday. ?The two-year sabbatical made me understand that.?

Although he admitted to suffering from his usual pregame case of the nerves, Doherty certainly looked relaxed as he walked out of the FAU locker room to his bench a few minutes before tip-off.

He smiled, waved and took a detour to shake hands with and hug some of his supporters sitting behind the bench. He then traded a few barbs with the Campbell students trying their best to get under his skin with shouts of ?Sit down? and ?Where?s your ring?? in reference to his UNC recruits winning last year?s national championship without him.

Once the game started, though, he might as well have been on the sidelines at Cameron Indoor Stadium coaching the Tar Heels against Duke.

He even kicked a chair for good measure when his Owls lost track of the situation coming out of a timeout and were called for a shot clock violation. Fortunately for him, the wayward seat barely missed a Harnett County sheriff?s deputy stationed behind him as it rebounded off the wall.

Doherty quickly apologized for losing his cool, but the incident was telling.

His perspective on coaching, winning and expectations might have changed. But his intensity and will to win still burn as hot as ever.

?Once that ball goes up, you have the same feelings you had preparing to beat Duke,? he said. ?When I was coming over on that bus, it reminded me of the ride from Chapel Hill to Duke. I had the same gut feelings walking into Carter Gymnasium, it?s just that there are less people watching.?

Actually, there were a lot more than usual for Campbell.

Not only was there a capacity crowd of fans, who began lining up to get in 3 hours before game time and were capped at 947 by the local fire marshal stationed outside counting, but there were also 35 credentialed members of the media there to record the event.

That?s about 20 more than the school record, according to Campbell sports information director Stan Cole.

It made for an atmosphere that had the feel of an NCAA tournament game. Neither team let the fans down.

Doherty?s Owls jumped out to a 21-point lead by shooting 72 percent from the floor in the first half, then held on as the Camels rallied to make it interesting at the end.

The win was FAU?s fourth straight and seventh in eight Atlantic Sun Conference games, a drastic improvement from the 10-17 record the Owls posted a year ago.

?The big thing I noticed is that Matt Doherty has really done something with that team,? said Campbell guard Jake Wohlfeil. ?Last year they were kind of a street hoop team and this year they?re really connected. They didn?t really care who got the ball, who shot it. They played together on defense. They were just a really together team.?

That, more than anything, illustrates how far Doherty has come since his days in Chapel Hill, when he and his players often seemed to be at odds and never seemed to be completely in tune with what each was trying to accomplish.

Other than a couple of early season one-game suspensions to starters DeAndre Rice and Brent Crews, Doherty has had nothing but smooth sailing with his players at FAU.

?I think at UNC, it was a program where you had to win,? Rice said Tuesday. ?But the story goes both ways. He didn?t connect with the players, but the players didn?t connect with him. Here he?s more humble. He?s taking his time with us and learning from the mistakes he made.?

And he?s enjoying himself more than ever before.

?If you coach for the thousands of people or the money or the TV exposure, you?re doing it for the wrong reasons,? Doherty said. ?I enjoyed that win as much as any win as a coach. To hear the kids chanting afterward, to see them jumping around and being goofy, you can?t put a dollar figure on that.?
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FAU vs. Campbell

Doherty apologized on the radio after the game for what he termed poor coaching that allowed Campbell to get back into the game. He took the blame.

I discovered the games can be heard free on the Web via www.wlvj.com.

Was that Cohen as announcer? I thought I heard his name. He did sound rough. Without a color man, the broadcast lacked alot.
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