Well, probably unlike most of you, I got a lot out of this game. I was able to attend and really enjoyed the experience. First of all, the coliseum was packed with Rebels (and a few Bulldog fans), and it showed. Aside from the time leading up to State's quick jump to a twelve point lead, our crowd was loud and rowdy. Two players rated with five stars (OMG OMG OMG FIVE!!! THAT'S MUCH BETTER THAN FOUR) by rivals.com were in attendance today, and it was a good display for them. Sure, we lost the game, but it was a close game with a packed house. The players, btw, were C/F Johnny O'Bryant from Cleveland, MS and SG Ky Madden from Arkansas. I'll go into this in more detail later, but our 2011 class has the potential to be quite good and quite large.
Now for player notes... Terrance Henry had another solid game with 12 points, 6 boards, and two monster blocks. It's really encouraging to see him coming along, since i had discounted him for the year due to his weight. On a night when neither Terrico White nor Chris Warren played very well, it was good to see Henry step up as a big man. Reggie Buckner was also exciting to watch, throwing down two dunks that really excited the crowd. Murphy Holloway played a predictably underwhelming game. I imagined that most of his game would be removed by Varnado, since his points usually come off of mid-range jumpers, which Varnado swats away with ease. Trevor Gaskins somehow managed to log four fouls in thirteen minutes. That's nothing though, compared to Deaundre Cranston's five fouls in eight. Those two were out of position over and over again on defense, and it showed. Eniel Polynice shot the ball fifteen times and only managed to make three baskets. Yeah. It wasn't so good. Polynice's play other than his shot selection was pretty good, but we can't handle weak attempts at layups. Also, Zach Graham was a baller. He needs to continue playing 30+ minutes.Graham scored 14 points, shooting 50% overall, led the team with seven boards, and registered four steals. He was phenomenal. Chris Warren, not so much.
This brings me to a major point.... how in the world did Dee Bost go off on us so much? I know that he's a very good player, but do we have no one who can defend the guy? I'm scared to think of what John Wall will manage to do to our point guard defense.
But all in all, I liked the game. I hate that we lost, but this isn't football. Good teams lose basketball games. We'll be fine this year. We're certainly not a top fifteen team, but we're likely to go dancing. That would make for a solid season, considering the young big men.
Alright. I'm izzout. Leave your thoughts in comment form.