No. 6 Trailblazers fall in Top-10 Region 24 road showdown with No. 8 John A. Logan

CARTERVILLE, Ill. – The No. 6-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers fell for the first time this season Wednesday night on the road in an NJCAA Division I matchup with No. 8 John A. Logan College 80-64.

The traveling Trailblazers got off to a quick start Wednesday night, scoring eight of the first 10 points of the game.

The Volunteers wasted little time answering back, evening the score at 10-10 and building a 31-19 lead in the first half of play.

John A. Logan continued to put the pressure on, using a 13-3 scoring run to close out the first half and take a 44-27 lead into the break.

The Vols stayed hot out of the halftime break, beginning the second half on a 12-2 run to build a 27-point lead.

John A. Logan grabbed their largest lead of the game midway through the second half at 65-37.

Vincennes slowly began to chip away at this big lead, outscoring the Volunteers 27-15 the rest of the way, but were unable to overcome the large deficit as VU takes their first loss of the season by the final score of 80-64.

“Obviously we didn’t play very well,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. “Congratulations to John A. Logan. They played well and played about like I thought they would play. We just didn’t match the level that we had to. I thought we could have but we didn’t. I thought our defense in the first half was abysmal and I’ve got to get it changed. We’ve got guys that don’t do what I say. They are not attempting to do it the way that we teach it and that’s just unacceptable. I’ve fought it and battled it here for a little while, we’ve been winning and you really don’t have anybody that steps up and says ‘Coach, I’ll do it’. So you keep going on the merry-go-round but you can’t find anybody that will do it and that’s a problem. It’s a problem that we will continue to have until we find those that will.”

“If you watch the last 10-12 minutes, the reason we were able to come back was because obviously they are going to let off the gas a little bit, but also the big thing was that we put Ryan in and Ryan tried to fight over the screen,” Franklin added. “It’s simple. He tried to press up and fight the screen and made it competitive. Everybody else wanted to back-pedal, turn into it, run into it, all of that mess that doesn’t work and it’s not the way we do it. It’s not the way we’ve done it for 25 to 30 years.”

“If you watch the first half and early part of the second half, there’s a reason why we don’t do that,” Franklin said. “If any of the guys that have played for me in the past sat there and watched that, they would say ‘what are they doing’. But that’s what we’ve done all season and now guys on the other end are calling out numbers of our guys. I’ve been telling our guys that the scouting report on us is going to say go right at you because these other coaches know that you are not doing what I teach. That’s what happened tonight. They were calling out our guys and saying go right at him and at that point, if you don’t do it, I don’t know what to tell you. We’ve got to find somebody else. That’s going to be the key. We’ve got to find those that are going to be all about it. True believers. I don’t know why you wouldn’t be and just get tough-minded about doing it and play those guys. But those guys have to present themselves and the other guys, if they are not, then we are past the point.”

“There has got to be a change,” Franklin added. “But you are at the mercy of ‘does somebody really want to be out here that bad’. Right now I’m having a hard time finding someone that wants to be out there that bad. They just go out there and do the exact same thing, the exact same way. We’ve got to get guys to go in and work harder. We could get the ball where we wanted to tonight, that wasn’t an issue, but we have to be strong enough, tough enough to finish it. That all comes back to that toughness and total buy in kind of stuff. We looked like a team that was on the road tonight and wasn’t hard-edged enough and disciplined enough to win a big-time game on the road.”

Vincennes was led offensively by sophomore Tasos Cook (Columbus, Ohio) who finished with 19 points, three rebounds and two assists.

Sophomore Caleb Johnson (N. Preston, Nova Scotia) found himself in double-figures yet again with 15 points, five rebounds and a team-high four assists.

Freshman Michael Osei-Bonsu (Bolingbrook, Ill.) ended his night with nine points and five rebounds, while fellow freshman Ryan Oliver (Nashville, Tenn.) came off the bench late in the second half to add seven points and two rebounds.

“I thought Ryan gave us some stuff at the end,” Franklin said. “He’s learning. He’s still not there. He’s a guy that we reached down the bench and gave us something. I thought Devawn, in the first half, gave us something of an effort level. He turned into it and scored over some people in the post. He’s about 6-2, 6-3 and that wasn’t a problem, if guys are strong enough and tough enough to do it.”

“Tasos had to stay out there because we just didn’t have a better option,” Franklin added. “John A. Logan was just staying out on the wings and they were giving you the drive to the basket. The guy on the ball wasn’t really stopping the ball. But in the first half, we had a hard time understanding that the point guard is supposed to run all the way back to the lane on defense, so they don’t throw one over our head. That’s been since day one and they had three of those tonight and our point guard was standing at half court. So obviously we have not bought in to the things that we do, because that’s a pretty simple job and everybody knows that job.”

“I’m obviously not going to be in a good mood, I’m not in a good mood because I’m tired of talking,” Franklin said. “I’m tired of saying what I know to be right. I’ve won a lot of games and I have a pretty good idea and I know exactly why our guy is getting beat the way that he is. And yet, we’ve expressed that and talked about, we still choose that. So that’s my fault because I haven’t been able to get that across the way that I need to. But rest assured I’ll be trying to.”

“But everybody here and all of the guys that play for us need to understand something and I said this to them in the locker room, they better tune out every other opinion,” Franklin added. “Every other opinion and they better bite down and come out here and start doing what I want done, the way I want it done. Because if not, then I’m going to search until I find other guys and they will never play. But even if they play, they are going to get their butt kicked if they choose this other way of playing. That’s what disappoints me. It’s not getting beat, if you do this you are going to get beat. But it disappoints me because we’ve been very clear and tonight it wasn’t complicated. This wasn’t something complex of something being run that we didn’t know. We didn’t fight the fight the way that we were told to fight the fight. If anybody has been at practice or has come around every day, they would know that. That’s where my disappointment is. It’s almost as if rather than working and doing that, we would rather just come out here and get beat like that. That kind of guy is not somebody that is a part of our family. There are no more summit meetings because we are going to have to do what I say because I’ve won these games. A lot. So, I may be the one person in that locker room that knows how.”

The Trailblazers will look to close out the week on a high note as Vincennes returns home to the Physical Education Complex for a Region 24 showdown with Lake Land College Saturday, Dec. 17. Tip-off time is set for 4 p.m. eastern.

“Record-wise, situation-wise we are fine,” Franklin said. “But we’ve got to get buy in. 14-1 is fine. 4-1 in the Region is fine. We’ve played at Olney. We’ve played at Kaskaskia and we’ve played at Logan. Then we are going to get Lincoln Trail and SWIC, those are five of the top teams in our Region on the road this first rotation through the schedule. We knew that and we’ve managed to win two of the three road games so far. These teams are all going to have to come back to us in the second half of the year. But we’ve to get to playing right so we have a chance to beat Lake Land and we have to get playing right so when we get back from break, we have a chance to go to Lincoln Trail and SWIC and then make them all come back to us.”

“The big thing, whether we win or we lose, is are we playing right,” Franklin added. “And we didn’t play right tonight.  I don’t think we’ve been working right. I don’t think we’ve been buying in right. That’s been hidden by a lot of wins. They have said that they want to, but we’ll find out if they want to. Because if you want to then I don’t know why you are not. Because on top of everything else, what I said would happen to you if you didn’t did and has been. You get beat exactly the same way we say you are going to get beat every time. If you want to be good, there’s no reason not to buy into what we are saying. That’s the biggest thing right now. Situation wise, record wise, where we are in the Region race, all of those types of things, we are fine. We are in good shape. But we’ll be in good shape as a team when we get a hardcore group that has bought in. That’s what we are going to find out if we can get or not. That’s my job and I’ll see if I can’t get it done.”