My Beloved 95 Bloggees (Welcome Holt):
What a crazy game in Athens on Wednesday night when Vanderbilt defeated Georgia 64 -56 http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201102160230 I was not able to watch it but the box score and recap indicated many noteworthy happenings:
For Vanderbilt:
1. Blog favorite, John Jenkins, was shut out the first half missing all 5 field goal attempts before erupting with 21 in the second half.
2. Jeffrey Taylor was an anemic 2 for 18 from the field making him 3 for 25 or 12 % the last two games. Taylor did contribute positively with 13 rebounds.
3. Festus "Gunsmoke" Ezeli ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dwg8y3-XnIQ&feature=related ) had 7 blocked shots and 7 offensive rebounds out of his 12 total boards.
4. In fact, Vanderbilt had 22 offensive rebounds easing the pain of its 21 - 65 shooting or 32 %. Their 47 total rebounds surpassed the Dogs by 17.
5. Vanderbilt finished the last 9:49 of the game on a 24 - 3 run! And don't forget it was not at their crazy gym.
For Georgia
1. The Dogs defended well inside the arc, limiting Vandy to just 9 of 40 two-point attempts but as indicated above, were dominatied on the boards.
2. Stars Trey Thompkins and Travis Leslie were ice cold on 2 for 10 and 2 for 9 shooting respectively.
3. The "Human Racquetball Court", 6' 8 270 lb Jeremy Price, was in foul trouble severely limiting his minutes and production...just one rebound and that was on the offensive end.
This game was another memorable SEC East classic that has happened frequently this season. NEXT
Bloggee Chip # 2 is doing the cha-cha after his hometown Cincinnati Bearcats upset Louisville Wednesday night 63 - 54 http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201102160116 in the Chili City. The apprentice defeated the mentor as Cincinnati coach Mick Cronin won the revenge game against his former boss, Rick Pitino. (Cronin was a 2-year assistant at Louisville.)
The Bearcats are 7 - 6 in the Big East with 5 remaining games: 2 against Georgetown, home against UConn, at Providence and at Marquette. Putting on my Joe Lunardi bracketologist hat on, I believe they will have to win at least 2 of the remaining 5 to go dancing. That would give them a .500 conference record....below .500 and Cronin's Cronies will be going to the you-know-what. NEXT
It is time to for our regular feature Who is that Assistant Coach? Thusday night I attended the Wofford - Samford game and noticed in the game program an assistant coach of Wofford was Mark Prosser. He looked familiar with a bunch of hair and yes, he is the son of the late Skip Prosser, the former coach of Xavier and Wake Forest, if you remember, also had an impressive mane http://woffordterriers.com/staff.aspx?staff=66 .
Speaking of the game, we all were "oohing and aahing" over All-BB (Barry's Blog) center, Noah Dahlman of Wofford. The undersized 6 ' 6 215 lb Dahlman did not take a shot beyond 2 feet but his quick release with either hand led to 21 points on 8 of 12 shooting in the paint. He maintained his national ranking of 5th in field goal percentage with 62.8 %. Dahlman is special. NEXT
UAB's attempt to make the NCAA field suffered a painful setback at Memphis Wednesday night 62 - 58 http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/recap?gid=201102160349 . Memphis coach Josh Pastner was once again successful in carrying on the tradition of his predecessor and former boss, John Calipari, by not losing to UAB's Mike Davis, who is 0 - 10 against the school formerly known as Memphis State.
Without its star, Cameron Moore because of a broken hand, UAB seemed to do everything needed to beat the Tigers....outrebounding them 34 - 27, Anthony Criswell and Ovie Soko stepping up to contribute double-digit scoring, 12 and 18 points respectively....less turnovers 15 - 13......and the nation's leader in assists, Aaron Johnson, equaling Memphis's total by himself with 10.
What brought the Blazers down was the cold shooting of JaMarr Sanders and Dexter Fields who shot a combined 3 for 18 from the field bringing the team percentage for the game down to 36 %. Memphis shot 47 % which turned out to be the key statistic in its victory. NEXT
South Carolina has been fading, losing 6 of their last 7. Freshman Bruce Ellington has run into the rookie wall seeing his field goal percentage drop to under 35 %. He has not shot over 50 % since January 15th when he was 8 for 15 in the 72 - 69 upset at Florida http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/players/97663 . Lately, his poor shooting has been like the measles and it has been caught by senior Sam Muldrow who is shooting 7 for 28 or 25 % his last two games including 3 for 14 in Wednesday night's 73 - 67 loss to Tennessee http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201102160580 .
With respect to Tennessee, I admire Bruce Pearl's coaching ability and the talent of some of his players like Scotty Hopson, Tobias Harris and Brian Williams, but I feel there is too much tumult and uncertainty around the program for the team to make an impact in March. Focus is difficult for players and coaches in this situation. I hope I am wrong, as do bloggees Bebe, Karen, AJ, Paul, Eli and Pace. NEXT
Belmont is flexing its muscles as it prepares for the NCAA tournament. Thursday night the Atlantic Sun Conference leader overpowered second place East Tennessee State 68 - 58 http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201102170047 . Belmont, a BB sleeper pick for the Sweet Sixteen, outrebounded Murry Bartow's club 42 - 23, which helped compensate for its poor 33 % shooting for the game.
By the way, Tide transfer, 6' 3 Justin Tubbs, scored 14 points in 31 minutes for ETSU, but strangely had zero rebounds and zero assists....quite unusual for a player his size. For the year, he is averaging 9.4 points, 4.2 rebounds and .3 assists per game http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/players/60338 . NEXT
if you want to see a glimpse of Samford's Emily London, the top free throw shooter in Division I basketball (men and women) and featured prominently in these blogs, record the Samford - Elon game on SportsSouth, not Fox Sports South, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SportSouth at 1:00 CST on Saturday. NEXT
The legendary Joe Dean, Sr. is speaking to the Birmingham Tipoff Club, http://www.birminghamtipoffclub.com/ , on Monday at noon ("String Music" , "Reggie King, he is like a mule in there, John", "Nothing but the bottom of the sack" , "He can fill it full" "Stufferino".....just some of the Joe Dean, Sr. "poetry" from when he used to do SEC telecasts with the late John Ferguson and with Tom Hammond in the 70s and 80s). Here is a fantastic recent article on the SEC icon http://www.secdigitalnetwork.com/SECNation/SECTraditions/tabid/1073/Article/219392/sec-traditions-the-king-of-string-music.aspx THAT'S IT
Enjoy......Florida plays on ESPN st LSU at noon CST on Sunday, Alabama's tight win also at LSU on Thursday night should get the attention of the probable Chandler Parsons-less Gators.....I will be at the Samford - Furman game Saturday hoping to see a turnaround by the hometowners as the conference tourney is two weeks away.....will be taking the holiday weekend off from the blog and will catch up next week ......thanks for the many referrals....if this were a multi-marketing pyramid, many of you would be rich,
Barry
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