bierce

He definitely shot incredibly well today.

I'm more Terry supporter than hater. I'm more optimist than pessimist when it comes to UT basketball. But I'm more realist than dreamer. This game does not save the season by any means. Kudos to Johnson and Mark for big plays on offense down the stretch. Kudos to Larry for getting into the paint as much as he did. Kudos to Terry for getting the team to dig down and fight like hell on d in the second half. But . . . Yeah, I have to say it. We were gifted 4 ft on dumb A&M technical fouls. A&M shot like crap from the line. (I did say I was fine with us fouling Payne, and it worked.) We got away with a lot of fouls in the second half. OK, to be fair they got away with a lot of fouls in the first half, so kudos to Terry and the team wrestling back. But if a few fouls were called, we don't come back. We were utterly destroyed on the boards. If we don't get Kaluma back soon, then we need to find a solution to our rebounding problems very quickly, or this team will most definitely not make the tournament. RIght now we are not only in the field, but we won't have to be in a play-in game. Long way to go in the season, and we won't stay in the field unless we do something about rebounding. A&M got 12 more shots on basket than we did. We can't win many games in which that happens. So great win, but we're not in a great position right now.

Mark Byington. He was James Madison's coach for the last 4 years.

Give the coach an extension! I kid, of course, but my god, Terry got this team to fight like hell in the second half to beat a ranked team while we were short two key players. And we had dozens of posts on the thread dumping on him.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Eighteen offensive rebounds, including for putbacks in their last 2 possessions. If we lose today, that'll be why. But we cleaned up defensive glass that time and hit a three to cut it to one.

Right now I like Mark driving and kicking out to Johnson better than I like the reverse.

50% career ft shooter.

Kent with his second offensive rebound. Can't get a putback, but go, dude.

I'm generally fine with fouling us Payne.

A&M home of the sixth man. On the floor.

I don't think Larry can expect to get that pass through 3 defenders. And once again, Kent can't finish in the paint. He just can't.

Mark trapped himself and then Johnson in the corner after being fed while driving baseline. Just not a good play by Mark.

We're down only 6. We're without two key players, who happen to be our best rebounders. We've come back from being down 22 at one point in the second half. We're playing hellacious d. Then A&M hits a 28 footer on a busted possession.

He didn't fall on the guy with his full body weight. Oh, wait. Wrong game.

If Onyema is allowed to check players like that, look out.

Kent finally gets a rebound, and he gets it slapped off his knee.

Nice work between Onyema and Larry there.

Mark comes in and makes a dumb foul.

Pryor gets in the face of a 3 point shooter, forces the miss, then hits the shot at the other end. Nice sequence.

Since then, we have been in Johnson trying to do it all by himself mode.

Beautiful feed from Pryor to Kent.

Mark not on the floor to start the half. Pryor in. Mark hurt too?

Big thing to take to the locker room. Don't give it to Onyema 12 feet from the basket in the last second of a possession and expect him to make a shot. OK, that was a really bad half of basketball. We were nuked on the boards. 10 offensive rebounds to 2. Couple that with A&M +2 in turnover margin, and A&M had ten more offensive possessions than us. You can't win that way. You usually can't stay in the game that way. Without Kaluma or Weaver, we are pathetic at rebounding, and if that doesn't change, we're going to lose a lot more games and by big margins. Some of A&M's torrid hot shooting was just that, but too much of it was our guys being lax in guarding the arc. Our offense struggled, but it was at least trying to function before we got to the stretch after Pope dribbled off his foot and Codie hesitated after being fed on the baseline. After that we had three straight possessions get wasted by Johnson and Mark trying to do it all by themselves. Terry settled them down after the timeout, but it's too little, too late. I doubt we will see a comeback for a close loss the way we did against Auburn, since I don't see us competing inside at all. I liked some of what I saw from Codie and Pryor. Not all by any means, and I still wonder why Vinson doesn't even get to sniff the floor when Shedrick and Kent are being absolutely overwhelmed inside.

Better defense by him the next two possessions. Went out on shooter. Still managed to cut off the driver and keep the Agroids from getting the offensive rebound. Then went out on the shooter again.