Son Of A Flying Worm

Nice find on the Cochran player. I'd go with Massie at the 4 based on the small sample size. I don't like playing two non-shooting bigs together. Lorient has definitely out played Newell so far. So, it's understandable if Hodge goes the two bigs route he would choose Lorient.

Mike Mitchell Jr. was out. He's a starter and Minnesota could've really used his shooting. Not as familiar with the other players but they're reserves. This game was a big data point for the Massie over Newell position!

Awesome win! The only bad part was the commentary from the TV announcers. They confused Newell and Lorient for an extended period of time, stated that Atin Wright originally played at Washington State, and clearly barely knew anything about our program. The play by play announcer gave major 'and boom goes the dynamite' vibes. Some thoughts on the game: - The defense was stellar as we've all come to expect. Delo and Massie were great playing multiple matchups. - Minnesota came out and blitzed our PnRs. We really struggled with the pressure. Eventually we started slipping screens and setting brush screens to counteract it. - Trey Edmonds in the second half forced us to play big. He has a grown man body. Hodge settled on a Lorient/Sissoko combination to match Garcia/Edmonds. - An extended run with a Floyd/Walker/Massie/Lorient/Sissoko lineup including to close the game aside from situational subs. Before the season I would've been shocked that this lineup would close a win on the road against a Big Ten school because of the offense. The spacing was predictably an adventure. Massie wasn't efficient but he kind of made the lineup 'work'. He shows handling, passing, and court awareness in the half court. Feels like he could turn into a secondary ball handler in lineups. - Atin Wright had a meh game by his standards, but still really excited about him this season. He's a bit of a showman and I love it. After getting fouled in transition, he slapped the ball away from the defender and stared at him. On Lorient's massive jam at the end of the game, you can see him standing over Edmonds (who was on the ground). GMG

I wasn't sure whether to post it in this thread or in Matt's but . . . Our wait is finally over. Texas Wesleyan is the opponent on November 21st at the Super Pit. Get your popcorn ready.

I get where you're coming from about the defense and it's not totally unreasonable. Army just kept converting 3rd and 4th downs. It felt like they would just fall forward and get 4 yards at times. But as you mentioned the defense did some really good things. To add to that: we kept them below their season average in yards per carry, yards per play, scoring % per drive (only 33%), and doubled up their turnovers. It was a noteworthy performance. We just don't have the personnel to match straight up against a good running team like them and consistently win 1 on 1 -- much less impose our will. Maybe next season. We could've been more aggressive and pressed closer to the LOS with our safeties, more blitzes, etc. Then one missed tackle or gap assignment and they're doing push ups in the south end zone.

It was hard to tell live from my position in the stands if McGill got the touchdown. The replay shown in the stadium wasn't conclusive. Hank asked Morris about it on the postgame radio show. Morris said 'that even on the tape on the sideline' it looked like McGill scored. From watching an ESPN highlight clip after the game it looked like he scored to me. I think you're referring to the fumble that was overturned by replay. It was so close. The DPI call on Nelson earlier in that drive made me absolutely nuts. Chandler's INTs were crushing. There was a mass exodus of people with green shirts on after the first pick. A bubble bursting type of moment.

Nice takes. Regarding Massie at the 4 --- I don't think he quite has the height or length of Bell/Scott. I've warmed up more to him at the 4 after watching him play in person against Evansville. Need to see him play against better athletes. Next week against Minnesota will be interesting.

Massie is intriguing at the 4, but I don't know if he can hold up defensively/rebounding against more traditional lineups. Maybe it works against small ball lineups. His defensive rebounding at Longwood was way higher than previous years. How much of that was his improvement, scheme, randomness, etc? I haven't watched enough to know. Good call on the steal numbers. He's had a steal percentage of at least 2.5% each year. I agree that he's likely a better offensive option than Newell --- better at ball handling, shot creating for himself and others, and more reliable shooting year to year. Vice is a huge wild card and maybe the biggest upside play for this roster. I really hope he can ball this year.

According to the Evansville game notes put out by the university, these are the projected starters: Jasper Floyd Atin Wright Rondel Walker Grant Newell Moulaye Sissoko Not really a surprising 'big' starting lineup. I wonder about the spacing in a Walker/Newell (and Sissoko, of course) lineup. Excited about the length, athleticism, and defensive ability of the combination though.

Watched the game from Section 105. They will almost certainly change the defensive coordinator after the season. That's fine. However, the difference in size, skill, and athleticism was jarring between Tulane's offense and our defense. An upgrade in coaching won't close the gap that much. Need to develop and get better players to be competitive against good offenses. Hope that Jayden Hill and others can come back for Army.

When did he go? I heard the lines were good midway through the 3rd but have no idea about the rest of the game.

Yep, that was before North Texas took the court. I arrived ~10 minutes before their official beginning time, and it was all North Texas related on the court. There were still a good number of people wearing TWU gear around the square though.

Good event that will hopefully be even better next year. All of the usual suspects were there --- Scrappy, the band, cheerleaders. Both teams rode in on the green fire truck. It was parked near the West Oak Coffee Bar and turned on to Elm where pretty much everyone was waiting. Later the players tossed free shirts into the crowd when they were formally introduced one by one. It was cool watching the players interact with the fans even before the meet and greet. Stone kept jumping up and down, waving his hands. Rondell gave some shirts to kids and later snuck kids on the court so they could have fun. Brock Vice let fans near the court pass him the ball while he attempted corner threes. Later Brock picked up a kid so he could dunk the ball. Atin Wright chatted with people near the end of the competitions. The women's team was mostly on the opposite end of the court from me. I couldn't see what they were up to. Some of the drawbacks have been mentioned. The mic issue really stood out. I got there just for the UNT portion, so I don't know how long it had been going on. It kept cutting in and out early during the festivities. No one could understand the names of some of the women's team being introduced. Fortunately, the mic got better as the night went along. It would have been nice if the setup allowed Burton and Hodge to be on the court as they spoke to everyone. Someone might remind Hodge that it's DATCU Stadium now. He implored everyone to attend the homecoming game at Apogee. Haha. GMG