I have no confidence in our ability to beat them at their place.

However . . . for all the hoopla about them, NT is only 6-6 and has only one win of any consequence - at Loyola Marymount. Four of their six wins are over non-D1 or SWAC teams. Their new guy, Tony Mitchell, makes them even more dangerous, but against LSU he had 11 points and 5 rebounds in 27 minutes - not bad numbers, but not the sort that legends are made of, either.

NT is a game where Gus really could have helped us.

Denver is another matter altogether.

But we will have to go some to win either of them.

Until we develop big, strong, skilled big men, we will never be a consistently strong program. As some have mentioned, if Gus had been at full strength this season, it would have helped a lot. WN and Javes are just not strong enough yet to bang inside effectively, and Marlo, while playing well at times, is only around 6'7", which puts him at a disadvantage against teams with good 6'10" or taller players. But we'll be allright in time. Just how long it will take, I don't know, but I see talent there. Just needs more time to develop.

I was playing in a 4-man scramble and I hit my approach shot to 6 inches of the hole. The other three on my team said great shot, no need in us trying to get any closer. I said you bet there is, one of you might hit it in the hole.

I am hoping UALR puts it in the hole against NT. No matter what, you always have a chance to win. That's why the games are played. That and so I can go and yell at the refs.

Obviously we have a chance. I'm not conceding victory in any game until it's played, even as far fetched as that would be against Kentucky.
But we have some obvious shortcomings that need to be addressed, no matter who we're playing

I'll be going over to NT this week to see both the women & men play.


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Want be following them to Denver but will watch that on Trojan Tracker.

We have a super young team and are still working on fully integrating Tony Mitchell into the system (not only could he not play until December 18th, he wasn't even cleared to practice with us till the day before). We're gonna be a whole lot better in another couple of weeks than we are now.

I expect a knock down, drag out street fight. Most of the games between LR and NT seem to go that way.

(12-27-2011 10:06 PM)CMJ Wrote:  We have a super young team and are still working on fully integrating Tony Mitchell into the system (not only could he not play until December 18th, he wasn't even cleared to practice with us till the day before). We're gonna be a whole lot better in another couple of weeks than we are now.

I expect a knock down, drag out street fight. Most of the games between LR and NT seem to go that way.

I was glad we were playing you before Mitchell got well integrated into the system. Also your students are out on break. Two things that may help us, but I'm not sure it will help us enough to win in Denton. Should be a good game, however.

Sometimes we tend to believe that a small crowd on the road gives us some advantage, all things being equal. But I'm not sure. A large crowd can possibly energize both teams to play better. I think the home advantage isn't always the fans, but the familiarty with the surroundings in shooting the ball. But it makes the game more fun when there are energetic fans there. I remember one coach telling his team that when they're on the road, just always imagin the fans are cheering for you. In football there is a definite advantage since the opposing team has trouble hearing the signals, but in basketball, it's more of a reactionary sport, so I don't think the crowd noise makes a lot of difference.

At least we will get to see a team whose 3-point shooting is worse than ours.

I think ours is not bad. We got off to a bad start with some new players who probably just needed some time to get used to the speed of D1 ball. WN, Ben and Taggart have shot the three particularly well the past few games. I think as they continue to gain the confidence to take the shots, they'll make a nice percentage. I've said for years that shooters need to shoot. Think of how some very good three point shooters miss their first three or four shots. If they stopped shooting, they'd be considered lousy shooters, because they'd go 0-3 or 0-4 in a lot of games, and their shooting percentage would be terrible. But if they are good shooters, they know it's pretty certain they'll begin hitting them, which is normal for a good shooter. Of course if a player is not a good three point shooter you don't really want him shooting them in the first place. Actually it would be great if we could get an uncontested layup on every possession, but I don't think that's likely to happen, so it's important to have some good outside shooting to balance our offense. I still think back to the game last year when Joe was coaching, and we hit 18 threes. We're not likely to ever see that again. Not in this lifetime, anyway.

We arrived in Denton and will watch the women's game tonight. We were able to get on the pass list for the women's game

We will also see the men tomorrow night but were not able to get on the pass list due to numbers of players family members in the area. Will buy tickets tonight for tomorrows men's game. Expecting a full allotment of players families for tomorrows game

(12-28-2011 03:39 PM)RBL Wrote:  We arrived in Denton and will watch the women's game tonight. We were able to get on the pass list for the women's game

We will also see the men tomorrow night but were not able to get on the pass list due to numbers of players family members in the area. Will buy tickets tonight for tomorrows men's game. Expecting a full allotment of players families for tomorrows game

I'm pretty sure I saw Stan Blackmon at the UNT game last year. Could have been the SMU game- not really positive which one it was.

(12-28-2011 05:18 PM)mjs Wrote:  I'm pretty sure I saw Stan Blackmon at the UNT game last year. Could have been the SMU game- not really positive which one it was.

One of the All-Time greats. He will have a soft place in my memory because he was on the first Trojan team I ever saw play.

Looks like the experts have us as about a 12 point underdog.

I'd be surprised if we beat yall by that much.

We have lost a lot of close games and we need to start finishing. We have been in just about every game to the end.

Looks like we finished tonight. Good win!

Congrats guys. Yall played better than us all night.

I am gonna go trash my room now.