chrisfisher

Only 1 point of disagreement with you.... we were extremely sharp shooting... the sharpest we may have been years.... 60% on 2's, 61% on 3's, and 87% (or something like that) on free throws FOR THE GAME.... our sharpness is the reason we won.

White had 6 assists and only 2 turnovers this game. Also take a look at his overall turnovers and they are coming down. He is doing just fine for a freshman PG. The biggest problem we have right now is handling the full court pres. I wish JJ and Co. could figure this one out. I'm getting tired of seeing this, quite frankly.

I don't know if everyone that did not attend realizes this, but we put up over 100 points with our #2 (Wooden) and #3 (Dennis) scorers sitting this one out! Moreover, although Hartford put up some serious points, we made enough defensive stops even with Wooden out, Howerton playing significant minutes, and a hobbled Kendrick Hogans to win the game. We truly "found a way to win" despite considerable adversity. Great win!! Fun game!!!

I almost forgot... our Sunbelt Conference Championship and NCAA Tourny banners were no were to be found for this game???? What gives??? They were huge and looked very expensive. I hope they didn't remove them for good.

JJ said during the post-game interview that he expects Dennis to be back in practice this Wednesday and to not miss any more games. I say give him more time if he needs it.... we really need him healthy for conference play. We can handle Southern, Centenary, and Texas A&M International without him....

Nice! Including the DII wins, the SBC went 8-1 tonight. Final tally for D1 wins was 5-1 and included wins against American East, Big Sky, Ohio Valley, Atlantic Sun, and Southwestern Athletic.

My bad.... I completely forgot about that one...and an important one it was..... good call CMJ!

Great night for the SBC tonight. UNT over Hartford, Denver over N. Colorado, Western Kentucky over Eastern Kentucky, and Florida Atlantic over Florida Gulf Coast. FIU loses to Florida. So far, we are 4-1 with wins over American East, Big Sky, Ohio Valley, and Atlantic Sun, respectively. We cannot seem to get that elusive win over a ACC foe this season. Perhaps the Mean Green will take care of this problem in the NCAA tourny Troy is currently up 62-54 over Alabama State (Southwestern Athletic Conf.) so our SBC potential tonight is 5-1. New Orleans, Ark State, and ULAR are all playing DII so I don't count those conference wins....

The students are holding up their end of the bargin with a good turn out once again (given that it is final's week). It is the season ticket holders that need to turn out in force.

Another thing... it is getting down right hostile (in a good way) for other teams at the Super Pit. The student section was relentless on the Hartford team and coaches again. Hell, they even went after their female trainer that was handing out water. My favorite chant of the day was "U-CONN RE-JECTS!" Our band went after their 10 or so fans, and it got personaaaaaal. One of the Hartford fans was telling a band member to come on over and fight him. At one point the Pit Crew called over a cop on the floor and were pointing to different people on the Hartford bench. The cop seemed to be listening to them, and I actually thought he was going to take action, but I'm not sure what happened b/c the game drew my attention back. I'm sure the Hartford players were sent packing with a few choice things to say about the Snake Pit....err..... Super Pit.

I can't help but wonder if Wooden sitting out helped Howerton step up. Howerton has always played timid, but he knew he took Wooden's role and play much, much better.

Just got back from the game. I figured everyone would be pissed off that we didn't win by 20 or more. I'm glad to see that y'all were not. Hartford had the hot hand today on 3's. In prior seasons, we may not have pulled that out. I don’t know how they called the game on the radio, but even when it was close, I never felt panicked or like we were going to lose. Hartford would make their run, but we’d come right back. I figured that after 12 or 13 made 3’s if they could not take the lead by any significant amount, they probably never would. We played very well offensively and with great patience, especially given that 2 starters were out and played 2nd and 3rd string rotations for a good chunk of the game. Howerton probably had his best game ever. I've never seen him play that aggressive before.... about time!! Howerton didn't score but contributed great minutes on defense. He had at least 1 maybe 2 blocks that didn't show in the stats. Congrads Howerton! Willingham finally found his shot... hopefully he is over the hump. McCoy had a much better game. I can't say he found his shot, but he is getting closer. He tends to shot too strong… he just needs to settle down a bit. McCoy is probably the fastest, most athletic person on the team. And how about Bell!! He really lit it up on points and provided key senior leadership. White had another fantastic game and quietly scored 24 points. I’m not sure what is up with Quincy, but he looks a little slow and not really into the game. I hope that he returns to 2006-2007 form. I know he will. We still struggled with the full court press again, and overall our defense was only average… we definitely need to work on these areas. How about our 86% free throws!!!

I'm worried about this signing.....

Bell did show sparks of scoring at the end of last season. I doubt he will ever be a big scorer for us. He needs to to stop jacking up 3 point attempts... he drives to the basket fairly well, and can hit a mid range jump shot.... know your range... Bell displayed his senior status/skills during the UT full press. Josh White struggled mightily with it. JJ smartly (though took to damn long to adjust) shifted Ben to PG and White to Bell's spot. Bell handled the press much, much better. Basically, Bell instructed all the Mean Green players to leave and then plowed through the UT press....UT then gave up on the full court press for the most part. I still do not understand (1) why White stopped/froze each time a UT guard approached him behind the half court line (he has to skills to dribble around anyone) and (2) why the hell Quincy hangs around back court to help during the full press. Shouldn't this be a guard with good ball handling skills??

I hope Howerton does light it up, but he didn't against Cameron, etc....

SUMG, who is that in your avatar?

Obviously, I haven't watched him play, but it doesn't appear that he is power house scorer. I sure hope he can contribute more than another certain 6'10" center we have. Our team is moving up and we don't need any other "project" players..... I'm sure that JJ saw something in Knox that he really liked... I just hope JJ is right...

Do you think that Odufuwa can fill this role?

Scratch the #12 ahead of CUSA thing... we've somehow already dropped to #18 (CUSA is #14).... UNT is still at #109 though.....

Good stuff... take a look at the thread I started earlier today on the SBC conference rankings... the wins are certainly paying off and getting attention.... nice!

The Sunbelt's winning ways this season are paying off. We moved into the #12 conference slot, past CUSA (#13), and damn near breaking into the Top 10 conferences. Mean Green moved up to #109, which is around 40-50 slots upward (I can't recall but I think we were around #160 or so). Apparently, Sagarin liked our performance last night too. A few other tidbits.... South Alabama moves to #82, and WKU at #83. New Orleans at #164 is still paying for that unexpected loss after beating up a Top 25 team. Don't count New Orleans out though, they could be very difficult this season.

Yo may want to look at McCoy's stats before making this call. They are horrendous. He shoots 30% from 2 point land and 12% (2-16, ouch!) from behind the arc. I believe that he is biggest disappointment so far from the signing class. Don't get me wrong, I truly hope he can get things in order (and believe he will - hopefully around tourny time ), but NOTHING about his play suggests he deserves more time at this point. Thompson, on the other hand, moves strong to basket to create charity stripe shots where he makes 75% of them, and shoots 41% for 2's and 40% for 3's. Thompson (and Dennis) need more time in my opinion, not less.

Wins against the MAC (Florida International/Buffalo), Big 12 (Western Kentucky/Nebraska), CUSA (South Alabama/Southern Miss), and loses in the MWC (Denver/Colorado State), and and Big 12 (UNT/UT). SBC was 3-2 tonight... not bad with wins against quality conferences.....

My daughter, my wife, and I plus my in-laws visiting from Kentucky are in....

Sorry for change of subject.... but WKU is up 5 in OT against Nebraska.... SBC may get that 2nd Big 12 win after all...