Ole Miss is a tough team, but Georgia should have found a way to win this one at home. Final score: 80 to 76.
We're now 8 and 7 on the year and 0 and 2 in the SEC.
Even so, there were some good points to this game.
Dustin Ware took the ball to the hole more aggressively. He probably has too much responsibility for bringing the ball up the floor on every possession. Maybe we can use a big man to set hard screens every once in a while to keep the opposing point guards from pressuring Ware all the way up the floor.
Defenses are really trying to take away the triangle offense by overplaying Ricky Mcphee. I would even recommend a clear out for either Travis Leslie or Dustin Ware, or running McPhee all the way from one side to the other.
Perhaps the key play of the game, other than the Ole Miss inbounds play, was the offensive foul against Chris Barnes. Looked like a flop to me, but I guess you have to call that one, since Barnes appeared to lower the shoulder. Doesn't help our cause any, but Shaq gets away with that move all the time.
Runner-up for missed opportunity of the game was the chance that Vincent Williams had to make two from the line. He missed, they got the rebound and their big man was fouled. The Mississippi player, a 60 percent shooter from the stripe, went to the line and sank both of them.
Trey had a terrific spin move and dunk. I was very impressed. He also had a beautiful feed to Leslie for an alley-oop.
Still think we're a couple of players short from being a team that can win in the SEC. Let's keep supporting the team and see how the season turns out.
4 comments:
"Still think we're a couple of players short from being a team that can win in the SEC."
That statement says a great deal about how far this team has come.
We can literally see the improve as they learn the game of basketball.
I am very excited about Coach Mark Fox.
Thanks for the comment, Mike.
How great would it be to have another Thompkins or Leslie on this squad?
We have much better spacing on the floor, much better passing. We just need more talent.
I didn't fault Felton so much for his recruitment-- at least not as much as others seemed to do so. I remember that team with Takais Brown and Mike Mercer, Billy Humphrey and Levi Stukes, and Sundiata Gaines. I thought we had something then.
Of course, Felton never was able to keep the guys he brought in. He did better toward the end of his tenure, though I wish we could have gotten some other highly-ranked players, especially Derrick Favors. At any rate, I thought that the current sophomore class (Thompkins, Leslie, Ware and Anyaorah) was actually pretty good.
Thompkins made huge strides over the summer. I think that's fair to say. He was injured when he first arrived in Athens, and he never appeared to be in playing shape when he came back.
I thought that Chris Barnes would have made a much bigger impact. Anyaorah doesn't seem quite ready yet, even though I think he may one day score a good number of points, assuming he stays healthy.
At any rate, I'd like to see whether Fox can get some momentum going in the recruiting world. Vincent Williams for his first class and Cady Lalanne for his second are pretty good starts, but I'm hoping for a big catch in the not too distant future.
Think we're finally on our way? We could be close.
A legitimate SEC 2 guard would really open things up on the offensive side, and allow us to close them down on defense.
Mike:
Can you imagine what the team would be like with Jarvis Hayes and Sundiata Gaines? Throw in a decent low post threat like Takais Brown (but one who stay in school), and we would give Kentucky a legitimate run for their money.
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