dahbeed

I was looking forward to these two games and hoping for a split. We had that game won last year if Tayveion hits his free throws at the end and he’s been an 80% plus guy from the line since he’s been here. We have a pretty good squad this year. Bassey is legit legit. His freshman year he really wasn’t. He had good numbers but he wasn’t going to get drafted high so came back. He was playing pretty well until he broke his knee. I honestly (being a lifelong Western fan that expects the worst) didn’t expect much out of him this year being 9 months removed from major surgery. He has far exceeded what I thought we’d get out of him. We’ve got some really good pieces at the other spots also with a bunch of seniors. If Stans is ever going to do something here he’ll do it this year. They’ve announced we’ve picked up a non-conference game at Houston now. I knew from friends close to Stans that we’d been working on it and Houston wanted to but they said something about conference was giving them another conference game or something and couldn’t work it out. That’s what I heard anyway. But now it’s on. UNC tweeted out they were looking for ANYONE to play. Our guys jumped on the horn immediately and got a lot of hemming and hawing out of UNC and the next thing you know they announce they’re playing Northeastern. Stans has called Calipari so many times Cal is not answering any more calls from him. I don’t blame Stans for trying to pick up games. He has to know he’ll probably never have this roster again here. I think he can have some good teams in the future because he simply never stops recruiting. Have you ever watched him in a handshake line? The opposing coach has to physically remove Stans from loving on whatever player went off on us. You never know when a kid might want to txfer out. But this year he has a junior Bassey and some pretty good seniors playing their roles. I don’t think we’ll get blown out by Houston but I doubt Cincinnati expected to lose by almost 40 to them either. But it’s nice to get a game with a ranked team even on their floor. Stans got us the game with Alabama at their place earlier this year by calling everyone. We won that game at the very end and I never cry about refs but we were getting honked that whole game. Amazing that we stayed in it much less won it. I hate we’re not playing these two. Loved playing you guys in the Belt and love playing you guys here in CUSA.

Big congrats to the Mean Green fans that have been waiting for this for awhile. Not a win over us. I’m talking about winning the regular season crown. That’s one hella accomplishment this year. The conference isn’t as good at the top as it was 3 years ago when Middle, ODU, Marshall, and Western were all top 100. But....there are basically no gimmes this year. You have to bring your game every single night. So very impressive job by your squad. I said on our board and CUSA board awhile back of all the teams I’d seen this year in conference you guys were best and La Tech was right there with you. The rest of us can win games but I thought you two were at the top and nothing I’ve seen since has changed my mind on it. Do we have a chance to win the tourney? We do but then again we could easily take a loss in the first game in the tourney as well. Even when we had Bassey I thought we could win any game on our schedule but also thought there wasn’t a single game on the schedule I would have marked down as a gimme. Once we lost him we’re the size of a decent high school team. I’ve been amazed at the games we’ve won. I’ve never thought much of Stans as a bench coach and he still drives me nuts but he’s done a decent job with this group. Him adding a press to this group has really helped us. It turns teams over some but what it mainly does is shortens the time a team can get in its offense. Because if they have time they have a pretty easy job of scoring on us in straight up defense. I met Tasty Greek and his boys several years back and know there are a lot of huge hoops fans at UNT so I just wanted to drop by and congratulate you bunch on a job very well done.

Are you sure you’re not thinking of Sergio Kerusch’s pop? I don’t remember OMV’s dad but you couldn’t miss Sergio’s dad. Dude had that hair straightener working and might’ve even had a soul patch. Straight out the streets of Pimphis Tennessee!

That would’ve been Teeng Akol. He was a transfer from Choklahoma State. It seemed every team in the Sun Belt had a castoff big from the Midget. I always found it hilarious the number of bigs he ran off. He kept a stable of miniature white boy guards doe. I believe ya’ll had a pretty danged good big yourselves from them but I can’t remember his name. Teeng only average around 6-8 points that year but was a serviceable big. He had around 23-25 that game and only missed one or two shots. I believe he outscored Tony Mitchell by 5-6 points in that game. It was by far his best game as a Topper. Sadly Teeng liked the firewater a bit much and he was dismissed from the team about 3/4 of the way through the next year his senior season. I hate seeing anyone with those struggles. No idea whatever happened to him. I’ll go to the Googs and see. He surely could have made some money overseas after finishing up here.

Lol. No sandbagging here. I’ve just learned not to argue with Pomeroy. I will repeat. If we keep turnovers down we will probably give you guys a game. That stat more than any other has been our leading indicator. One of our posters on the home message board is a Pomeroy guru. No other stat come close to defining how we do as the turnover stat. He has broken down every one of our games from Pomeroy’s numbers. But he does it in a way I don’t have to scratch through all of Ken Pom’s numbers. Watch that stat. Our fan base has lost their minds on every loss this year. I haven’t. Early in the year we were 336 out of 353 teams in experience on Pomeroy. I knew we’d struggle but we do have some talent. When that talent doesn’t turn the ball over you can beat West Virginia and Arkansas at Arkansas and Wisconsin in Bowling Green. When it turns it over you lose at home to FIU. Who I’m not hating on. Their VCU tree coach really is committed to that style of ball and it gave us problems. FIU and FAU have been my biggest surprises this year. Even more than UTSA. I saw UTSA beat us down there last year. I knew they had potential.

Even though the official Texas Library of Baloncesta Knowledge CMJ dropped the correct name I enjoyed your version and it tickled me enough I had to quote you. Orlando Mendez Valdez out of San Antonio is long gone. He was a kid we thought would be good but Darrin Horn underutilized him. In Horn’s defense we did have Courtney Lee (PBUH) and Tyrone Brazleton at guard back then. Horn took the South Carolina job and we hired Ken McDummy. McDummy installed OMV at point god and the rest was history as he had a banner season. He had a run from about midway through the season until Gonzaga put us out in the second round of the NCAA that was one of the greatest runs I remember by a guard at Western. Recorded Western’s first triple-double ever. He did stuff in the Sun Belt tourney and in the NCAA tourney that required him to use a wheelbarrow to pack his huevos around. He was unstoppable. I couldn’t stop laughing in Hot Springs listening to the Tasty Greek making fun of the OMV convention that had traveled up from San Antonio all in matching airbrushed tees that looked straight out of a SA flea market. The last I heard of him he was still playing pro ball in Mayheeco. Played for their national team in a big win in international ball. Beat Puerto Rico for gold medal in some tournament. He married a cute volleyball player from Western. It was probably his hair. I never saw a kid that groomed his hair more for a basketball game than OMV. They have kids. With those genes you gotta believe those kids will play somewhere some day. Pretty sure two daughters so maybe they’ll play volleyball. Thanks for taking me down a very good memory of a player.

I’m not so sure it’ll be an easy win. But I believe (following Pomeroy) it will be a win for the Mean Greens. Plus I’ve followed sports long enough to know how tough conference road wins are to come by. We had both ODU and Marshall down big at their places and were still able to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. This is the most even I’ve seen CUSA since we joined. We had 4 outstanding teams in CUSA last year. I honestly believe any of the 4 could have won a first round game like Marshall did in the NCAA tourney. I don’t think our top team this year could/would beat any of those 4 from last year. But the bottom of our conference is way up this year compared to last. So even when you play a bottom ranked team at their place you are probably walking out with a loss. Look at La Tech. They’re champs at home and can’t find a road win. We can give you guys a game. If you roll us like you did Marshall I’ll be surprised. Our key is keeping turnovers down. Any game we’ve kept turnovers in check we win. When our freshmen start turning it over like they’re shaving points we lose. Bearden has been huge recently.

Lol. Reel in? A group named Barstool? I’m from the message board generation. My 2 sons are from the Twitter generation. I know that Twitter is the preferred method these days and message boards are a 1976 Chevy Vega but I don’t spend much time on there. I’ll sometimes check it like I did looking for Stansbury’s bad back. Even looking for that news item I had to wade through tweets on toxic masculinity from someone I’ve surely never heard of. On the upside I did find Josh’s dunk. So it does have that going for it. But a group that calls themselves Barstool might not be in the reeling in business.

I honestly don’t know amigo. I was tryna catch local sports yesterday evening and heard them say “blah blah won’t coach due to bad back” through my mother in law babbling about something. Then when the game was on I had it muted. I can’t listen to the announcers. Some annoy me so I don’t take the chance on any of them. I’ve looked all over the twitter and can only find where it said he wouldn’t be coaching last night. They never detailed where he is. I like Stansbury. He’s a pretty straight shooter in post game interviews and media days. Some coach speak but he’s usually honest. He did say ‘kiney’ the last post game. That was his Kentucky version of ‘kind of’. He doesn’t have a real twang but he’s very country in his speech. I believe some of it’s an act. Tries to disarm with his country charm. Guy could sell ice water to an Eskimo. I don’t know if I can insert this link properly or not. It’s the Josh Anderson poster.

Pomeroy has y’all at 63% chance winning. I’d bump that up to around 99.3% chance. I never bet but if I did I’d never bet against Pomeroy. I’ve subscribed to him for around 5 years and it’s uncanny how accurate his site is. After seeing how you violated Marshall last night I feel even worse about Saturday. Our last trip west we beat USM and had to turn around and play early Saturday against La Tech and got smacked around Peter Dinklage at a Dwarf Tossing Renaissance Festival. I see we play at 5:00. Maybe our guys will be awake by then and give you some semblance of a game. Here’s a breakdown of our starters: #23 Charles Bassey - It’s been a pleasure watching a 5* all year. We’ve had some dipshits picking at every nit on him. He is a rebounding machine. He can also be a turnover machine but he just turned 18 in October. He reclassified to sign. He should be playing high school kids. He has a better shot than you might think. He’s more of an old school inside player. Has a pretty good knack for blocking shots. #4 Josh Anderson - The masked man. Dude from La Tech ‘accidentally’ broke his nose in that game. So now he’s wearing a mask. He’s an X-Factor. His outside shot and free throws improved more than any kid I’ve ever seen here in one year but that’s mainly because he was terrible at both last year. He is very explosive off the dribble. He had a pretty key posterize dunk down the stretch last night. #1 Lamonte Bearden - This guy is one of my all time favorite knuckleheads. He drives Stansbury crazy and a lot of our fans. Dude definitely marches to beat of his own drummer. Last year he quit going to class with a month left in school because he was going to ‘the League’. Lmmfao. Maybe the league of distinguished gentlemen but he found out quickly the offers weren’t flying in. So he came back. But had to sit out a semester to get his grades up. He had arguably his best game as a Hilltopper last night with 16 points 11 assists and 0 turnovers. He does something every game that amuses the hell out of me. I will miss his antics. I expect to see him grab our PA announcers mike on senior night and ask “Are you not entertained?” Antics aside he can play when he’s dialed in. #2 Jared Savage - He couldn’t guard Mr. Cherry’s statue on top of Western’s hill (Mr. Cherry started the university and is honored by a statue. It doesn’t move much). He will jack the ball up early and often. Our fans have been ready to run him out of town for not playing dee. He’s a local Bowling Green boy that spent 2 years at Austin Peay and put up numbers. There’s a reason Ray Harper didn’t recruit the local. He won’t play dee. So you watch whoever he’s matched up against. They’re going for a career night. Book it. But. In his defense he crushed UTSA with 3s in the overtime win. He’d thrown up gangster brick after gangster brick all game long but nailed 3 in overtime. #11 Taveion Hollingsworth - Jivvahn Jackson was the only freshman I saw in the conference last year that I thought might have been better than this guy. He broke Courtney Lee’s (PBUH) freshman scoring record last year. He’s leading us in scoring this year. But he is not himself right now. Really, really struggling from the field. When he’s on there’s not a better mid range shooter (a disappearing skill) in the conference. If we can get him back on track we’ll give anyone we play a game. Our guards are big. But they can’t guard the jet quick guys that litter this conference. There are some really good guards in this conference this year. We play really old school ball. Go to the rim. Try to shoot a ton of free throws. Last night we shot a lot more 3s than normal. Stansbury was not there. Bad back. Assistant Coach took the helm. You know the old saying of when the cat’s away the mice play? Our mice were jacking 3s. That’s not our game. We don’t get the ball to Bassey nearly enough. That has gotten better since LaMonte has entered the starting lineup. I honestly wanted a split out of this trip but I knew Rice was no pushover at home. They are not that bad. Not as bad as their record indicates anyway. So we have our split. I would be thrilled if we give you guys a game but it’ll surprise me if we’re within 10 when the horn sounds. Life on the road is tough. Good luck only not too much good luck.

That was a big win for us Saturday. I wasn’t surprised. This group has shown they can play pretty well when they’re up for a game. But then can lay down when they’re not. It’s what comes with being so young and inexperienced. We’re #334 out of 353 teams experience wise. But there is talent. No true point god killed us early. I think we’ve found one in 6’8 Dalano Banton. Everyone knew about Bassey but Banton was a top 100 recruit as well. He truly looks pass first and at 6’8 sees the floor really well out front. Still screws up but he’s a freshman. We could easily lose at Charlotte tomorrow night and then get up of ODU and pull off the upset at their place Saturday. We had people losing their mind when we lost to Mo State and Indiana State and Troy. I didn’t like it but didn’t lose my mind a bit. I knew what we’d be like early this year. We can be really really good when we’re dialed in. When we don’t come ready to play we can lose just like anyone else. Bassey has outplayed every ‘name’ big he’s gone against. Our guys still have a problem getting him the ball. I enjoyed the hell out of our NIT run last year. I’m enjoying the process this year. Josh Anderson is a matchup nightmare. We didn’t get him until around game 20 last year due to eligibility issues but he’s getting better and better every night out. I rewatched the Wisconsin game as I had taped it. It was no upset. Go watch the Arkansas game too. Our talent is as good as theirs. They just need to learn to play as a team. The Wiscy game was probably the most unselfish I’ve seen us play this year. Btw, congrats on the great start. I know the Mean Green fans love their hoops and deserve a winner after the pain of the last several years.

Congrats again Mean Green fans. I meant to get on here last night but didn’t. Looks like hella first year for McCasland. Nice start, a rough stretch when the schedule got very rough. One hella nice run at the end. You guys gotta feel good about the direction you’re headed. I know how we felt when we got rid of Ken Pol Pot McDummy McDonald and Ray Harper took over. It’s a relief to get rid of someone that you knew early on was a train wreck. I’m talking about McDummy. I’m sure some of you felt early on that Benford wasn’t the guy. It’s hard to go through it. So enjoy the championship. Hang a banner. Be better next year. With Middle having a new coach and with ODU losing Porter we’ll need everyone to step up a bit more if we’re to match what we did as a conference this year.

Congrats Mean Green. I wish we could have joined you still playing. I enjoyed our run. I’ve enjoyed your run as well. Great job forcing game 3. Unbelievable what your coach has done after a tough end to the season.

Good luck Mean Green. It would be awesome for you guys to win this thing. I can’t think of one negative that came from your participation. Maybe the bean counters don’t love it but I honestly have no idea how ya’ll came out on that side of it. I’m very happy for my boys I met down in Mobile years ago. They know who they are. Big time hoops fans in a football state. And funny as hell too. I know ya’ll have been waiting for something good to happen since JJ left. I think this counts in that column.

Thanks. It was a good win from start to finish. I’m sitting here watching Utah vs St Mary’s and it’s just gone into overtime. We play whoever wins this game. I think we can play with either of them.

Fun to be playing this late no? Lol. I was more worried about tonight’s game than the USC game just because they were hyping it up in Stillwater. I thought we were the better team all night long. OSU wasn’t as good as our top level teams in CUSA imo.

Congrats to the Mean Green. You guys are absolutely crushing it right now. Tip of the cap to your coaching staff and your players for wearing everyone out in this tourney. I know you guys love your hoops and I’m happy to see some excitement after putting up with the Benford years.

Tayveon was Mr. Basketball in the commonwealth last year. Kentucky still plays basketball with only one state tournament. No class divisions. So it’s not like he was the 1A Mr. Basketball. He was the best player in the state. He set the scoring record for Lexington which is the second largest city. Many good players have come through Lexington before him but he’s at the top there now. He’s about 6’2 at best BA (before Afro) and maybe 6’7 with Afro. He’s not super quick. But he’s what you call a ballplayer. He’s fearless at driving the ball and very good on his bank shots. That sounds like a simpleton statement but not all kids are that good off the glass. He’s kind of a throwback in that his strongest suit is his mid range jumper. He’s shooting very well from 3 but he’s not one of these kids that camps outside the arc. He’s very selective when he pulls from out there. The biggest adjustment for freshmen is usually playing college level defense. Stansbury has assigned him to the other teams best guard every game. He has come out on top more often than not. As good a player as Ahmad Caver is for ODU Tayveon outscored him 20-15 last night and more importantly stuck most of his in the second half. Caver was on 12 with 18 minutes to go in second half. He hit a 3 at around 7-8 minutes left and didn’t score again. I’m pretty sure the league coaches will look at points per game and give freshman of the year to Jivvahn Jackson for UTSA. He’s a fabulous freshman and has won freshman of the week so many times. On Pomeroy Tayveon is rated nationally in 7 categories. Jackson is rated nationally in 4 categories and 2 of those are % of possession and % of shots. I’m not going to dog the kid. You guys see him this week and he is tough. But I’m not so sure he’s better than Tayveon. As far as recruiting Kentucky kids and making them a priority we’ve done it for a long time. But we have lost several to both Louisville and UK when they throw a crumb at the last minute. We were fortunate to get Tayveon to sign in the early period. He was just a 3 star on paper but fortunately the games aren’t played on paper. Not high profile enough for a Big Blue offer. It’s funny though, a lot of their fans are hammering Calipari a little bit now over not signing him. Hopefully we don’t lose him to them in a couple years . It’s happened before. I don’t think it will happen with this kid though.

In college ball it’s goaltending if the ball is touched after it hits the backboard. As long as it is above the rim. Doesn’t matter if it’s on the way up or down. If it leaves the player’s hand and the defender pins it before it hits glass that’s not goaltending. Hella way to lose the game.

It'll all die out before you know it. I mean nobody over here still thinks of Western as 'goat f*****s' right? And that wasn't even athletics. That incident was a group of AG Fratty McFrattersons. But I still hear about it. But I don't hear about it as often. I don't think average Joe even remembers it but message board posters have long memories on any potential fuel for fire. Sounds to me like your school has done everything right so far. These dang college kids. If it ain't the marijauna then it's the sex. Who'd think college age kids would fall under the spell of either of those? Sex is what took down Ray Harper. And no laws were broken. Nobody went to jail. But 3 players were expelled and pretty much forced a resignation by the head coach. Louieville still hasn't faced down their hookers for high schoolers controversy. I hate it for you guys. I'll be following this just out of curiosity.

Arkstfan is a super smart guy and probably top of the food chain at Arky State for knowing what's going on. But he does seem emotional on this one. The whole Arky State crew wears a "you think you're better n me?" Trailer Park chip on their shoulders. It probably serves them well in a state so one sidedly dominated like Arkansas is. I've actually listened to their AD on his radio interviews and I'd take him here at Western in a minute as far as the way he fights for his school. Doesn't make him right in all of his assessments though. He's ran Western and Middle down many times over the last few years with his digs. As far as the way he handled this one. Let me paint a scene: Mojair out with his boys in a dusky bar. Sketchy looking bottle blonde at the bar but still the best looking broad in the place. Mojair makes his move as all the boys watch. Slowly walks back to the table subtly shaking his head no. One of his boys "well?". Mojair "probably a lesbian"

Exactly what I thought when I was made aware of the tweet. There might be some groundwork laid but what if he pulls off the first 16v1 win? I just heard another rumor of Kermit to LSU and Ray to Middle. That'd be my nightmare scenario. If ya'll do pick up Ray I'll give you the rundown on him. He was let go/resigned by a President that never wanted him and an AD that didn't hire him. If the problem hadn't happened with the 3 players this would have been his last year as he was set up with a shittty schedule by the AD that boomeranged and kicked Stansbury in the nuts. Here's a fun fact: Ray is dancing with Jacksonville State. His main recruiter last year, Shawn Forrest is dancing with SMU (not legal yet but come on) and another assistant Chris Shumate is at NKU which is dancing for the first time ever. In my mind I picture all three of them flipping those Johnny Cash duo single middles at our administration. And laughing.

Is it the same farm my puppies went to? I wasn't crazy about Stansbury as a hire but I thought he was by far the best of our options. His conference winning percentage in the SEC really bothered me for as much talent as he had there and the fact he was in the West and not facing UK and Florida 2 times a year. And I really doubted he'd be able to recruit at the same level here at Western as he did previously. This 5* was a perfect storm for him. He'd recruited the kid to A&M. When Stansbury left there Robinson decommitted. Shammond Williams and the staff was let go at Tulane. He's Robinson's godfather. Stansbury hired Williams. That's how he ended up here. The staff was pretty sure they had Malik Newman until the Kansas visit. Stansbury had been an assistant when Newman's dad played at Ms State. I'll be honest. I was leery of him. He was a top 10 player out of high school but if you read the articles on his Ms State departure his father is a very involved parent. I've coached a ton of youth sports and those guys can be nightmares. That said Stansbury was willing to put up with that. But I'm not sure there isn't some relief. Again, not sour grapes by any means. We're supposedly in good on Galen Alexander a SF our of La that ranks in the 55-65 range depending on where you look. Western hasn't had this level of players here since Clem Haskins was coach in the early to mid 80's. Courtney Lee was a way under the radar player. Our fans our giddy right now. I'm more pleased with the Robinson commit than I would have been with Newman. A 5* big is tougher to pull into a Western than a good shooting guard whose dad wants you to play at point. I've been at a couple of occasions where Stansbury spoke. He's a high charisma salesman. I can see why he's a good recruiter. Now let's see if he can coach. Lol.

Do you want the official version or my best Mel Gibson Conspiracy Theory take on it? Official version is 3 players went before University Tribunal (?) not sure what its proper name is and were suspended. Ray resigned shortly thereafter. Thanking university. President of university thanking him. Blah blah blah. All the rumor is there were 3 players that had consensual sex with a student. This happened in November. Everything was cool. Until one of the dummies released a video. She wasn't cool with that. Or her dad wasn't cool with it. Didn't break any laws. Didn't break any NCAA regs. But did lose out in University Tribunal. I know that's not the proper term but that's what it is. Google Yale Rape. There was no rape involved here but the same type of system that took these 3 out was the same system they used at Yale. They're using it all over the country pretty much on campuses. I know a professor at another school. Not Western. He has been involved in these type committees. He was involved in one where a regular student had consensual sex with a friend. She regretted it and said she had been drinking. He was asked if he knew she had been drinking. He said yes but she was fine. He was expelled. No trial. Her word. His. He said if a male student witnesses a female having a drink at a party there is no such thing as consensual sex. If these rules are in place everywhere some of you ugly folks ain't ever getting laid now. Our fanbase was somewhat divided on Ray. The biggest thing is Ray was not the President's pick. Ross Bjork (now AD at Ole Miss) picked him. Pres doesn't love him. Pres. does in fact LOVE/MAN CRUSH Dennis Felton. Wanted to bring Felton back. Felton was early leader. Everyone up here thought he was a shoe in. Todd Stewart wanted to interview many and he was leaning towards Stansbury. Our president has approximately one year left. He's already said he's stepping down in 2017 after 20 great years up here. I'm guessing Todd convinced him he would have to live with the hire. Pretty sure this is all Todd Stewart. I can live with Stansbury but am concerned about his 56% winning percentage in conference. He has some shadiness attached to him. Was accused of impropriety by USC and UCLA when he stole Reynardo Sidney out of San Diego. How either of those 2 schools could ever accuse anyone of shady behaviour makes my tail hole tickle. PS. Word is Todd Stewart had already worked out an extension with Ray whose contract expired in June. Then someone undercut him. I honestly believe we were going to be a very good team next year. This year was a rebuilding year with 10 newbies and we still took out MTSU and UAB in the last couple weeks of the season and finished above .500 We had a guy sitting out from Tennessee that in my opinion will be a stud. Add him with Justin Johnson and we have hella front court for next couple years. Oh well. I'm heading up to Diddle Arena Monday at 1:00 for introduction of our new coach. I personally didn't believe we needed a new coach but I don't get asked.