{"id":30220,"date":"2016-02-17T14:32:37","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T20:32:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=30220"},"modified":"2016-02-18T09:58:14","modified_gmt":"2016-02-18T15:58:14","slug":"illinois-tech-coach-focuses-on-the-positive-despite-losing-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/illinois-tech-coach-focuses-on-the-positive-despite-losing-record\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois Tech coach focuses on the positive despite losing record"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Grant Miller<\/strong><\/p>\n

The good news is the Illinois Tech men’s basketball team doubled its win total from last season.<\/p>\n

The bad news? The Scarlet Hawks lost their final home game Saturday and currently hold a 4-20 record with just one match-up left. But coach Todd Kelly remains optimistic.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year we just had an assembly of guys,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cThis year we had a college team. Next year, we need to be a program.\u201d<\/p>\n

Illinois Tech lost to University of California Santa Cruz on Saturday 74-64 in front of what coach Kelly estimated was about 175 people. Kelly doubted that a larger crowd, cheerleaders or a mascot would have helped much.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be great for our program,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cBut additional fans wouldn\u2019t help us win games.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"JasonMorrisFreeThrow\"<\/p>\n

Freshman guard Jason Morris shoots a free throw against UC Santa Cruz. (Grant Miller\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n

Kelly brought in eight freshmen and made all of them, including star point guard Anthony Mosley, run sprints if they arrived late to practice or missed layups. The Scarlet Hawks were forced to meet his standards,and Kelly said they stepped their game up.<\/p>\n

Kelly has been more than just a disciplinarian. He said he also sat down with Mosley for individual film sessions and has seen results on the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cMosley has really improved in terms of turnovers and raising his field goal percentage,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cHe has better shot selection.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mosley shot 50 percent from the field against Santa Cruz despite tight defense from guards Jared and Matthew Ponce.<\/p>\n

Mosley attributed his scoring to splitting Santa Cruz\u2019s screen defense and getting \u201ca few easy breaks,\u201d but Kelly said he has become a smarter player.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s learning the college speed and pace,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cI think he was playing at high school pace before.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly said it was difficult to gauge his team\u2019s improvement on Saturday with leading scorer Samuel Rarick, starting forward Parker Joncus and bench guard Quentin Forberg out with injuries, and this game did not represent Mosley\u2019s improved ball control because he had six turnovers.<\/p>\n

Kelly also said the team in general gave up the ball too often and allowed too many points in the paint. As a result, Santa Cruz scored 26 points from Tech\u2019s 21 turnovers and 30 points down low.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t win ball games turning it over that much,\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n

[vimeo 155690630 w=474]<\/p>\n

Illinois Tech lost to UC Santa Cruz at the Keating Sports Center. (Grant Miller\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n

Assistant coach Ebenezer Noonoo works mostly with the Scarlet Hawks big men and introduced the team to his towel drill, an exercise that makes his players box out with their hands grabbing both ends of a towel draped over their necks. He said as a coach, he is never satisfied, but their front court has made strides, especially center Ryan Barnes.<\/p>\n

\u201cRyan was our catalyst in the post,\u201d Noonoo said. \u201cHe and Jake worked their butts off.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barnes more than doubled his scoring average with eight points, and Jake Digiorgio led the game with 17 rebounds, allowing Tech to win the rebounding battle against Santa Cruz.<\/p>\n

But Noonoo said the Scarlet Hawks need to work on consistency and make more \u201cmomentum buckets.\u201d
\n\u201cWe started off good and had good intensity, but it died down,\u201d Noonoo said. \u201cWe have the right pieces. We just have to make the right plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mosley, who led all scorers with 21 points, said Tech made the wrong plays and got outworked.<\/p>\n

But Mosley said the Scarlet Hawks showed better decision-making at this point in the season, and Digiorgio said Tech has matured as a team overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have higher expectations for each other,\u201d Digiorgio said. \u201cWe don\u2019t play like freshmen anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Todd Kelly pushes his team against UC Santa Cruz. (Grant Miller\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Grant Miller The good news is the Illinois Tech men’s basketball team doubled its win total from last season. The bad news? The Scarlet Hawks lost their final home game Saturday and currently hold a 4-20 record with just one match-up left. But coach Todd Kelly remains optimistic. \u201cLast year we just had an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":208,"featured_media":30352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[585],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-winter-2016"],"yoast_head":"\nIllinois Tech coach focuses on the positive despite losing record - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/illinois-tech-coach-focuses-on-the-positive-despite-losing-record\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Illinois Tech coach focuses on the positive despite losing record - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Grant Miller The good news is the Illinois Tech men’s basketball team doubled its win total from last season. 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