Sunbelt Games Today - 11/15/08

[chrisfisher]

Further Evidence.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...iQoSlAD94FP2D00

That's good enough for me... that's bummer though... I was pretty excited about what I thought was a SBC win over the ACC..... oh well...

[CMJ]

Here's a game story.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/story/356930.html

[Censored by Laurie]

I certainly don't want to come off as excuse-making-guy...and I'm not happy with an 0-5 opening night...but here are a list of excuses as to why this isn't an awful night.

4 of these games were competitive against comparable, top mid-level programs. LA Tech will be greatly improved this season once they blend 4 D-1 transfers, including Magnum Rolle, a top 20 post when he signed with LSU a few years ago. UNI is near the top of the MVC. NC State will be highly competitive in the ACC, Houston same in C-USA...and UAB is good, but Troy should've been able to hang with them...but for a team that lives and dies by the three, 6-34 will more than likely mean die most nights.

Teams were missing some key players. The most notable for me was UNO ability to stay with NC State without the services of forward Kyndall Dykes. ULL was without point guard Randell Diagle, wing Chris Gradnigo and forward Emmanual Adiefe. Western Kentucky was without guard A.J. Slaughter, and post D.J. Magley only played 6 minutes.

Again, I'm not trying to justify an 0-5 start, especially with 3 of those loses on home court...but none of these should really be labelled as bad losses...save for maybe Troy.