We get a chance to avenge a road loss to the other Trojans tomorrow (Wed) night.

Last time we lost by 5 and couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. Troy, on the other hand, was red hot from the arc. Over half their attempts were from the arc. Even at that, a plus-13 margin on the boards kept us close.

Since we played, they have lost to Ark State and Ga Southern and have beaten Ga State.

Sagarin picks us by 10.
RealtimeRPI has us by 17.

To beat Troy, you have to guard the 3-point line. We shall see if we learned anything.

Darrell was really high on the team's defense during his radio show last night. We'll see how they do tomorrow night. I still think sometimes a team is just "hot" and there is only so much you can do about it.

I do feel good about our chances tomorrow night. Darrell was noncommittal about Markquis playing against Troy. His statement that he does not want to risk further or more serious injury until Markquis is fully healed, makes sense to me. Based on that, I tend to believe he won't play tomorrow. I'd love for him to be full strength against USA on Saturday. We will definitely need him for that game.

Our team is better than the last time we played Troy and that was without Markquis. (I am still drinking the Kool-Aid)


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If we win our next 2 games (against the 2 teams we have lost to) I will go ahead and order my non refundable tickets to the sunbelt tournament. I already have my room reservations but I can still cancel them.


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For some reason, we are the only game tonight, so this is a chance to stretch our lead (at least temporarily) to 1 1/2 games.

Right now DW has a nice problem: he has more deserving big men than he has minutes to give.

https://troytrojans.com/news/2020/1/21/b...wdown.aspx

(01-22-2020 04:38 PM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  Right now DW has a nice problem: he has more deserving big men than he has minutes to give.

I guess he would have an even bigger "problem" if Kris was available. Boy, I love Kris but I don't know if I could play ahead of any of our current "big 3". If all come back healthy, next year, we are going to have some competition for playing time.

Kris is not as versatile as the others, for sure. He needs to become a better rebounder and more aggressive on offense. But if you are wanting some automatic points, he is as close as we have. About as close as anyone has, for that matter.

Palermo has a hot hand early.

What is going on? We are getting clobbered on the boards.

Would you have thought that Monyyong, Coupet and Johnson would have had five rebounds among them? Our game doesn't work if we aren't rebounding.

Our shooting has been good, defense good, only five turnovers. We are just getting killed on the boards.

Here is something we haven't seen much lately. Eight minutes left in the game and already nine players with double figure minutes.

Curtis and Dunkum in the game. That is nice to see.

Very good complete game by this team.
The starting front line had 38 points and 18 rebounds.
Excellent defense. Held them to 33% and 27%.
We got beat by 8 on the boards, but we were plus-6 in the second half, so we bounced back.
ONLY TEN TURNOVERS!!!!!!
Outstanding game by Lottie. 14 points, 5 assists, only one turnover.
Ditto Johnson. 12 points. 5 of 5 from the field, 5 boards, zero turnovers.
Monyyong 17 points, 7 rebounds, 3 blocks
Palermo gave us 10 excellent minutes. 6 points, 3 of 4 from the field.
Lukic 3 of 6 from the arc.

The rebounding problems were an odd thing. Lots of rebounds were very long rebounds off long three pointers for Troy and they bounced over our big men back to the Troy guards. Maric was very frustrated all night and didn’t play well and overall we were out of sync but even with that we get a solid double figure victory. We are still trying to get roles defined as we add players to the rotation. We are so deep it is tough to spread the minutes and the ball around. A great problem to have.

Lottie is creating an interesting problem for DW. He seems to be a steadier player at the point than Nowell, although not nearly as spectacular. So does he start Lottie, and bring Nowell as a catalyst later? Or does he start them both? But if he does that, he gives up several inches on the perimeter going from 6-5 to 5-7. Or does he just go back to Nowell starting and feed in Lottie later.