February 25, 2022

Chat with Coach Biehl #8

by Brother Neal Golden, S.C. (CJ ’57)

"The Crusaders finished regular season play last Friday with a tough 39-32 loss in Baton Rouge to Madison Prep, the top-seeded AAA team. Their 6’9” center, Percy Daniels, scored 23 of their 39 points. “We put Parker Dinsdale on him who was giving up 5” and 80lbs,” says Coach Chris Biehl. “I thought Parker did an excellent job on him. We were short-handed with only eight healthy bodies. Madison Prep is one of the top three teams in the state. I thought we held our own. It was a good game for playoff experience. I was really pleased with the way the boys played. I liked the way we competed. Troy Santa Marina stepped up and played one of the best games of his career.

“We played some four-corner offense, which is not my style, but the boys were really good at it. On our second possession of the game, we held the ball for over two minutes and ended up knocking down a wide open shot. It really slowed them down and deflated the enthusiasm of the crowd in their gym. If we had tried to go toe to toe with them, especially being short-handed, it could have gotten ugly quickly. But the boys executed the game plan well.”

Wednesday night, the Crusaders played Holy Cross in the first round of the Division I playoffs. The Crimson and Gold defeated the Tigers for the third time this season, 48-31, but the victory was not as easy as the score seems to indicate.

“It’s hard to beat a team three times. We had a 14-point lead early in the second half, and they go on a 12-0 run. Sometimes you rest too much, and we did in my opinion. They scored 31 points the entire game, but 12 of those came on seven consecutive possessions in the third quarter. 

“I called timeout and made it a point to be very calm in the huddle. I didn’t want my boys to panic, and I couldn’t show any panic. I told them, ‘It’s not what they’re doing. It’s what we’re not doing.’ It’s the playoffs, and a team’s gonna make a run, but we’re not responding well to their run. Let’s settle down and take care of the ball. Take it one possession at a time. More than anything else, I wanted to be a calming influence on them. This team doesn’t point fingers; they don’t shrug shoulders. I wasn’t really worried about that. Do what we do; get back to who we are. I made one minor defensive adjustment, and Coach Joffe drew up a couple of plays for the offense. From that point forward, we outscored them by 15 the rest of the way. In the playoffs, you just can’t let the opponent go on a run. If you do that against anybody that’s left, you’ll end up on the wrong end on the scoreboard.

“We don’t shoot the ball well. So we have to generate a lot of our offense from our defense. We did that in the first half. But we turned the ball over so many times in the third period that they did basically our game plan and turned the script on us.

“One thing I liked is at the end of the game, we ran the four corners offense. We’ve got the most unselfish kids I’ve ever seen. We broke the defense down and got easy layups.”

The Crusaders now play John Curtis at their gym Saturday afternoon at 2:00 p.m. Brother Martin won the first-round game in our gym 58-46 but lost the second round game 59-48 at their gym two weeks ago.

“I thought we played our worst game of the year at their gym. They played well, and we didn’t respond well. They were hot from behind the three-point line.”

The big question is whether 6’6” C Ray Lotten will be able to play. “He was cleared by his doctor this morning (Thursday), but he still has to pass the concussion protocol. He was back at practice today but with no contact. We have to wait 24 hours to see how he responds. If he responds well, we should have him for Saturday’s game. The problem is he hasn’t practiced in 10 days. The good news is we should get Jayden George back. So minus Clayton Lonardo, we’ll hopefully be at full strength Saturday.

“It’s not going to be easy trying to get to the state semifinals. I want so badly for my boys to have the opportunity. None of them has played a game in the Cajundome in Lafayette. I think it’s the best venue in Louisiana for a basketball game. 

“The game Saturday is going to be interesting. We feel like we've got a good game plan going into it. We’re not gonna do the exact same thing as we did last game and think it’s gonna turn out differently. For us, it’s about how much offense we can generate from our defense.”

What are the keys to victory Saturday?

“First, match their physicality. We got pushed around the last time we played them.

“Second, make sure we limit them to one shot.

“Third, settle in and play team ball. When we play good team ball, we’re tough to beat. We have to play with poise which we didn’t do last time.

“Since Curtis moved Buddy Taylor to point guard, they’re a better team. He’s very quick.  He’s a very smart player who doesn’t get rattled. He’ll be a tough matchup. But they have other good players too. There’s nobody we can sag off of. There aren’t that many weaknesses. We have to match their effort and exploit some things we don’t think they do too well.”"