Final: UL (61) vs ASU (56)

[anhil8tor]

this team is growing. get on board

[Just1More]

Another freshman, Josh Soto, played significant minutes off the bench and scored eight points. Shepherd was also quite disruptive defensively. You could tell they tightened up in the last four minutes but their defensive intensity never wavered. Also, Shawn Long was Coach Marlin's player guest at last week's Rebounders Club luncheon. While it is great to have a victory over ASU considering how hard the guys played, effort alone won't win on the road. They will have to execute more efficiently to do so. That will be very tough considering Mbamalu may miss a few games. Next two games is an especially tough assignment as they go to WKU and MT. That includes the league's highest profile team and probably this year's best team. Still, I bet they will give it their all.

I saw a lot of rawness. My bud that came with me was a past season ticket holder (for many years) and he was more impressed than expected as well. And you're right. It will take more than huge effort to win on the road. I'm not tallying Ws at this point. I'm looking for signs of "it's broke and we can't fix it" or "it's raw and we can fix it". The latter was evident last night.

I just have to confess... I haven't gone to many games in the past 3 years. From all of the negativity in that span, I thought the players themselves weren't giving the effort. I see more effort than I've seen in a decade and a half.

[zephyr]

Another freshman, Josh Soto, played significant minutes off the bench and scored eight points. Shepherd was also quite disruptive defensively. You could tell they tightened up in the last four minutes but their defensive intensity never wavered. Also, Shawn Long was Coach Marlin's player guest at last week's Rebounders Club luncheon. While it is great to have a victory over ASU considering how hard the guys played, effort alone won't win on the road. They will have to execute more efficiently to do so. That will be very tough considering Mbamalu may miss a few games. Next two games is an especially tough assignment as they go to WKU and MT. That includes the league's highest profile team and probably this year's best team. Still, I bet they will give it their all.

And also keep in mind that Soto was playing out of position, especially on defense when he had to get inside and play against bigger guys and was asked to rebound a lot. We are just going to be undermanned once again during this stretch. Its a shame because we see a lot of fight in these guys and some emerging talent but may just not have enough to win some close games on the road.