Ha ha no. Between the poor play and these terrible announcers it has been brutal!

This analyst is such a homer. ESPN announcers are supposed to not be partial. He even admitted he was a Mercer fan earlier.

Enjoy the ride fellas. Grinded it out today. 13-3. Special year.

Great defense down the stretch. Good mature response by this team when down and on the road. [/align]

Thank you for the run as requested, coach!

Suck it, Bob.

I guess Hoffman is still "reloading"...

It was a win. Nice to win one on the road playing far from their best game, also not letting the game get away from them when Mercer went on that run and got up by 7.

Thank you Bucs! When it counted, Bucs came through.

(01-07-2017 06:27 PM)RodShaw2 Wrote:  It was a win. Nice to win one on the road playing far from their best game, also not letting the game get away from them when Mercer went on that run and got up by 7.

Yep. Since "it's tough to win on the road", that was great poise and maturity to keep the ship from sinking there. I really just fear we might have had a different outcome if this was 2 years ago. Don't know; but it's hard to not wonder.

From seven points down to a nine point victory looks like a sixteen point swing to me, on the road. Not bad.

Take that L Bob!

This is shaping up to be a special team.

Ria’n Holland got 24 points on 8-15 from the floor, 4-8 from 3 and 4-4 from the line with 3 assists and only 1 turnover. In the process outquicking every defender that the Bucs put on him. Also decent defense with 3 steals. Definitely an unimpressive player.

But except for Jelks’ 11 rebounds and Cory Kilby with 7 rebounds and 6 points off the bench, not too many other Bears had much of an evening. Strawberry had difficulty getting back from his grandfather’s funeral, had a flight cancelled due to weather and missed the shoot around. He was not a factor.

Good defense caused the Bucs 18 turnovers and lower scoring than usual. But the Bucs grabbed 12 steals, turned Mercer over 17 times and held them to a terrible 38.9% from the field and 24% from 3, while shooting a good percentage themselves (51.2% from the field and 35.3% from 3). Wish that free throw percentage were higher than 67.9%.

But a 9 point road win in a gym where Mercer wins 85% of the time is nothing to sneeze at.

For the Bucs only Cromer had a great night with 23 points on 8-13, 4-7 from 3 and 3-4 from the line; 5 rebounds and 2 steals, 2 assists… but also 3 turnovers. Glass was solid with 8 points on 2-4 and 4-5 from the line, 6 rebounds and 2 steals. Others were more mixed, like Bradford with 15 points on 5-10 from the field and 5-5 from the line, 5 rebounds and 3 steals… but also 0-3 from 3 and 5 turnovers against 3 assists; and Hanner with 7 points, 2 rebounds, 1 block and 3 steals. Jermaine Long had some decent moments, but some blank stretches, especially in the second half.

The Bucs weren’t clicking on all cylinders, but a good win in all.

Loved that stretch where Desonta took over on both ends of the floor. He hit a running floater in the lane and looked like he was going to jump over there big.

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(01-07-2017 07:48 PM)swvabucsfan Wrote:  Good defense caused the Bucs 18 turnovers and lower scoring than usual.

For the Bucs only Cromer had a great night.... Glass was solid with 8 points on 2-4 and 4-5 from the line, 6 rebounds and 2 steals. Others were more mixed, like Bradford with 15 points on 5-10 from the field and 5-5 from the line, 5 rebounds and 3 steals… but also 0-3 from 3 and 5 turnovers against 3 assists; and Hanner with 7 points, 2 rebounds, 1 block and 3 steals.

2 of Cromer's 3 TOs were in the first 2 minutes(ish) when he was just wild with adrenaline. I really liked Glass's work tonight - the whole game. Bradford was indeed spotty, but money late in the second half when it counted. Poor HMP was once again the victim of "Hack-a-Hanner". We really need him to be able to convert on those FTs.
First time Long gets more playing time than Merriweather. A.J. just didn't seem to have his mojo working tonight. He had a hard time getting his hands on the ball.

You all may think I'm crazy, but I swear it seemed like Forbes was reading my mind this game. As soon as we had those early turnovers and were utterly failing to penetrate, I said, "ok, time to get Williams in", and it wasn't 5 seconds until that happened. After Cromer was forcing stuff in the first half, I said to myself, "I hope Forbes tells him at halftime to 'let the game come to him', and doggone it if Forbes didn't say after the game that he told him exactly that. Also...I was thinking....this is a game where you just go with your hot hand, which is why Williams and Merriweather didn't get as much PT. Burrell getting in foul trouble also made him keep Glass in longer - which worked great, I thought. Also Burrell for the first time I can remember had no confidence in his shot. He didn't want to shoot.
It was just weird how in sync Forbes seemed to be with my thinking. [Not in any way bragging; just reporting. Sure ain't always like that.]

And yes, as swvabucsfan notes, I thought Mercer's D was very good - until the last 6-8 minutes of the game.

This team has no lack of, if necessary, the capacity of finding ways to win. Forbes continues to impress me in tiny little things he sees - and virtually always is ahead of where the game is. bartow always reacted to adversity as if it was some sort of unfair burden. I think Forbes sees things unfold immediately, can project forward, and can multi-task-coach *much* better than bartow. Duh.

What a W by this team....tough and answered the bell down 7 midway through the 2nd half. Held them to below 40% shooting on their court is incredible. Got a great game from Long and Glass. Good to see Cromer play well infront of friends and family. Mercer is a tough game because they try and slow you down and change defenses a lot but Forbes and they boys delivered a major knockout punch down the stretch

In the not so distant past, getting a little bit behind could and at times would have led to a major loss. Instead the team adapted, made adjustments, and came back for an amazing road win.

That says a lot about where this team is and what they are capable of achieving. There is still a lot of basketball left to play and anything is possible, but this is the most confidence I've had in the team in several years.

http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/Basketba...am&lp=2&p=

No doubt TJ had a lot of adrenalin given Mercer's proximity to Albany, GA. No idea if there's hurt feelings there about recruiting, or if it was just playing in front of "home" folks.

Forbes is 3-0 against Bob.

Forbes is 3-0 against Bob.

Actually this win made 4 -0. Bucs won both regular season games and won again in SoCon tournament against Mercer last season.