(01-05-2014 11:57 AM)mjs Wrote: (01-04-2014 10:18 PM)Hilltopper2K Wrote: (01-04-2014 10:09 PM)eh9198 Wrote: (01-04-2014 10:06 PM)Hilltopper2K Wrote: (01-04-2014 10:01 PM)eh9198 Wrote: Hopefully it'll silence those jerk uta fans/coaches who keep denigrating Will and the league.
Explain?
Leading into our game the uta coach called Will a "disappointing" player and basically said he's not as good as he's made out to be. There have been uta fans on the main board throwing tantrums any time they're not predicted to win the league.
I guess he was absent the day they taught coachspeak.
This "rumor" has gotten a little out of hand. Their coach didn't say anything. It was a UTA blogger who likely doesn't represent anyone at the school. Kind of like Pappy's blog. Maybe like Burn the Horse, but their blogger doesn't have half the basketball knowledge Jeff does. He said Will Neighbour was disappointing due to only averaging 16 points a game. He has a right to an opinion- I'm sure the UTA coaches don't edit what he says. There is more to the game than scoring. WN will be first team all Sun Belt.
Geezus guys, some of you are overreacting a bunch. Thank you mjs for inserting some rationality into this.
You won't find one quote from a single member of our coaching staff that has said anything disparaging about Will Neighbor.
You won't find one quote from a single member of our coaching staff or athletic department disparaging the Sun Belt Conference.
As for the blogger, that was me and I still stand by my statements. Neighbor is a good player, but the hype I was hearing in the pre-season seems to be out-of-whack with what I have seen this season. While they haven't played as tough a schedule as UALR, Louisiana-Lafayette clearly has a player who can take over games. Payton had a triple double in the loss and was part of the furious comeback that tied the game after trailing for eternity. You can take umbrage with my statement of disappointing teams, but losses to North Florida and Tulsa are inexcusable for a supposedly conference-championship caliber team. Period. The OT win against a SWAC school falls in the same category. No team in the SWAC sould ever, ever contend with the Sun Belt's best. I'd expect a team poised to win the SBC crown to compete with MTSU and Southern Miss too, if not at least beat them, so those losses are okay, but beating Jacksonville State by five on a neutral court didn't do anything for me either. So far, in conference, beating Texas State by four isn't an accomplishment.
As for Neighbor, you can say all I did was look at stats, and that would be true, but the same could be said for Slappy. I guarantee you yesterday was the first time he saw or team outside of stats. I looked at box scores and conference stats and Neighbor didn't do anything for me. He had nine points very early. After 30+ minutes after the start, he didn't get double digits. After watching him, he is a good player, but not elite. After Saturday's action, he is neither in the top five in the SBC in scoring, rebounds, FG %, FT % or blocked shots. UALR is a good team, of which he is a component. Their strength is with team play. That is something we are struggling with mightily, something the last two year's UTA teams haven't.
Beating Texas State on the road isn't an accomplishment. At the beginning of the season, I would have said us maybe would have been, but I am beginning to think I have overrated this team, thinking the three-point loss to Texas and two-point loss to OU showed we were a better team poised to surprise people. Also, we were 7-8 at home last year while going something like 10-4 on the road. Apparently, especially after this week's performance, CPC, despite its bells and whistles, offers no home-court advantage.
As for me, I am not affiliated with the department, but do have connections inside. My blog is my views and mine alone.
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Arlington game and post-game thread
