chrisfisher

Kendrick Hogans plays fierce defense, at least in the first 2 games. He looks downright angry at certain times....

Quincy and Wooden played limited minutes.... Once they are rotated in Josh will have 2 big guys under the hoop to increase his assist stats. They rarely went to Howerton and it was mostly guards playing catch and shoot.

My 10 year old daughter and I made it out for both games. We had a blast and were wore out by the end of the basketball game. It was a sporting day we won't ever forget!

Ditto what he said.

BTW, Dez was MIA last night. I already emailed Vito to see what he knows. He said that he wouldn't know anything until early next week. I really hope that everything is OK with Dez.

I found it interesting that JJ started White and Bell last night. I wonder if that is sampling of things to come. I always assumed it would be either Bell or White, with White as back up. That would really make matters/playing time really complicated for the other guards if both PGs started....

One more thing. I didn't realize the Cameron played Arkansas-Little Rock last week. That might help us gauge our win a bit.... Ark-LR beat Cameron 78-59.....We basically put up 30 more points on Cameron and held them to less points. For whatever that is worth....

Cooley - You echo my thoughts on Howerton. Early this week I posted that Howerton is getting better; however, he is simply not there yet, nor do I think he will be there before he graduates. Last night, I saw some of the old Howerton where he is completely unprepared (and surprised) for a pass under the basket or has the ball man handled right from his hands. Howerton got extended minutes (18) last night, and came away with 4 points. He is nearly 7 foot tall, and he should have dominated that floor last night, especially given the competition. If he can't put up big numbers against Cameron, it just isn't going to happen. He looks improved, but he'll have to work hard if he wants the starting role in 2008. Cooley, I'm not sure if I agree with your analysis on Thompson. I noticed that he does start out a bit overly aggressive and slightly out-of-control, which I posted after the exhibition game. But once he settles down, he really knocks down the shots. In fact, Thompson, shot 60% (6-10) overall, and 50% from 3 point range (2-4). For 18 minutes of action, that doesn't sound too shabby to me.

I'm not sure... ULM might have won our division with someone else??? Not sure.. can't recall. But I do know that we were the Sunbelt Conference Champions... no "Co" champs in that one.

I thought O-line had great night... but from what I could tell from the stands, Navy typically only rushed 3, and almost never blitzed....apparently, Navy did not watch film of Troy and everyone else jamming our receivers at the o-line, and and sending everyone else at our QB.

One extremely important thing I forgot to mention: we shot 79% from the free throw line tonight.

Legit call? I didn't realize holding in the endzone was a safety... I thought it would be half the distance to the goal.

I was at the game and obviously couldn't hear anything. Can anyone tell me how we completed on a 4th down and 15 (for a 1rst down) from our own endzone that resulted in a safety for Navy? How in the world did this happen? We were trying to make our comeback, and completed that 4 and 15 which got called back and resulted in Navy getting 2 points. On the punt to Navy afterward, they ran it back for a TD... 9 points in a minute or two... that was the true turning point in the game... please tell me that safety call was legit???

Our bench is filled with numerous extremely talented guards. The competition for playing time this season will be absolutely fierce! The students in our section remarked at how our freshman recruits looked very polished, as if they have played several years of D1A basketball. Josh White runs the floor very well, while Thompson, McCoy, and Dennis look great. I'd throw Willingham into this group based on his performance from the last game, but for some reason he didn't play tonight. Kendrick Hogans also looks like he has great potential and plays extremely aggressive defense. And of course, Ben Bell continues to play very solid. One word on Dennis... a poster on this board stated that Dennis could flat out score... he wasn't kidding. Dennis can shoot. I'm trying not to get too excited given the level of competition we faced in our first 2 games, but I don't recall us looking this good in the past 2 seasons in our exhibition/season openers (also against soft competition). The truth is that tonight we could have put up as many points as we wanted - seriously - no exaggeration. Quincy only played 17 minutes and Wooden only played 11. I guess JJ thought 106 would do just fine. We will find out just how good we are come this Wednesday against the Big 12 opponent, OSU. I hope EVERYONE makes it out to support the team for this HUGE game. Students care about wins against name opponents/conferences and will come out to more future games knowing we are competitive with Big 12 teams.

Nope.

I thought this was a prediction thread.....My bad....I didn't realize you had prophetic abilities Pass the green kool aid 'cause the Mean Green are going to beat Navy!!

Sorry...my prediction is a blow out 45-7 Navy. I saw Navy on ESPN... they are very fast and run an offense that our boys have never seen.

I know it is early in the season to talk 2008 recruiting. The Knox signing plus several walk ons got me thinking about what our scholarship situation looks like for the next 2 years. Here is the current status of each player: 2007 Roster Freshman Hogans (F) Horne (G) Walk-On Thompson (G) White (PG) Sophomore Mangrum (G) – Medical Redshirt, resumes play 2008 Odufuwa (F) - tranfer, starts play 2008 Montague (F) Walk-On Junior Collin Dennis (G) Howerton (Center) McCoy (G) Stewart (F) Senior Bell (PG) Williams (F) Wooden (Center) Willingham (G) Coby Ray (G) Walk-On 2008 Commits Knox (Center) In 2008, 5 seniors graduate (we lose a lot of talent!) which open up 4 scholarships. 1 scholarship already goes to Knox. If JJ gives Horne and Montague scholarships, then we have 1 left for 2008. Do we need another big man? Or another true back up point guard? I think we have plenty of able guards. For 2009, Dennis, Howerton, McCoy and Stewart graduate, which opens 4 scholarships. At this point, we have left Knox, Mangrum, Odufuwa, Montague, Hogans, Horne, Thompson, and White, plus the 1 new person given the 2008 scholarship, plus whoever the 4 players we sign for the 2009 scholarships. I'm not sure where these 4 scholarships should go – to many unknowns with Knox, Hogans, Horne, White, and Mangrum. Of course, there could be walk ons during any of these recruiting seasons. I guess my biggest concern at this point is the 1 scholarship for 2008. If Knox, Howerton, Hogans, Montaque, and Odufuwa work out, we may not have big men concerns in 2008, although Hogans and Montague are somewhat small by our recent standards. We also need to think about someone to back up White, assuming he captures starting PG position. I hope the recruiting gurus on this board will chime in with some expert commentary.

I presume he is probably around 17 years old. At 6'10" 215lb, I'm sure he'll put on the some weight in the coming years. Do guys this tall at this age, still have room for potential growth as a HS senior and early years in college? If so, he'd push close to 7'. Any chance of this?? I am not familiar with growth and development of adolescences in this age range.

Oh, come on.... let me indulge and exaggerate a little.... You are correct, but nevertheless, it would be a good win against a Top 50 nationally ranked opponent (per Sagarin) and one best wins for our program in sometime...... now if we could only pull off the big upset against Texas.

Next big shocker: UNT Mean Green defeat a stunned Oklahoma State on Wednesday, November 14th

Turned out the visit must have gone well given his commitment. #62 will have to do. It should be interesting and good sized line up next year as we will have two 6'10" (Howerton and Knox) centers plus big George Odufuwa (6'8", 240lb), Harold Stewart (6'8"), and Kendrick Hogans (6'7"). I am excited to see who else will be added to the roster this coming year.

Nice! I figured the basketball posters went to the chopping block because athletics had to do some expense cutting after ponying up DD's buyout and upping the payroll for Dodge's increased salary I'll get mine tomorrow!

Can we still hope that they are removed from our team?

My daughter and I are in. But then again, we've been at nearly every game since 2005.