A Season For Optimism

It's the time of the year where we gather with friends and family to count our blessings, exchange gifts with loved ones, and drink Grandma out of Crown Royal. And nothing warms my heart like thoughts of impending Royal drunkenness. In the spirit of the holiday we're going to cast cynicism aside and accentuate the positive. Or not. We'll see how it goes.

The Flyers pasted a surprisingly passive Appalachian State squad with the smothering defense of seasons yore. They held the Mountaineers to 35.6% shooting and forced 17 turnovers which they Our patron saint, Wabscapitalized on for 15 points. For anyone who thought the Flyers had simply lost their ability to stifle the opposition with corset tight defense, its become plain to all that the competition may have some effect on our ability to stifle successfully. It was an ugly game by all accounts, with UD shooting a nearly equally as ugly 38.6% from the field and a gag-inducing 58% from the line. But as we've learned from the Flyers, a win is a win is a win. Wabs will mail the Mounties a fat check for their time and we'll wish them well from here on out. It wouldn't be shocking for this victory to pay dividends come late in the season. While Jay Bilas won't be pointing to it as a marquee win, ASU just took out a tough Robert Morris team and is a contender to win the Southern Conference.

"One thing that has probably gone unnoticed, is that Kurt shouldn't have played the last two games, because of his strained calf." BG had that to say about Kurt. I'd like to enter this into the list of intangibles that Kurt brings to the table that no one talks about.  While he had it taped up like he had a compound fracture, without BG's post game comments we never hear of the injury. It's this quiet drive and willingness to play through injury that both effect the game with his play and his teammates with his demeanor. And don't look now, but on the heels of back-to-back 8 point games, KH is shooting 58% from the field and a sterling 79% from the line. If the offense is stagnating, I'm certainly not opposed to dumping it down to Kurt on a pair of possessions. I say let him have some shots to either prove those percentages are legit or until they drop. Despite the nice performance, BG was still in full mother bear mode, "Anybody that ever questioned him will have to go through me. He did a great job."  

Mickey Perry played another nice game tonight, which goes to prove that when given enough minutes he's a capable player. He did it late last season for us as well. He led the Flyers with 15 and added 4 boards, 2 assists, and 3 steals while going a perfect 5-5 from the line. Don't look now, part two: Mickey's put up back-to-back 15 point games and has made his last 11 free throws. I don't know if Mickey will ever fulfill the initial hopes from when he announced his transfer from Wisconsin, but he's been a solid contributor for the past two years and has always stepped it up when needed. Way to go, Phillip!

Well, here we sit 9-2 after the brunt of our OOC schedule. Wabs is looking smart.  Who am I kidding?  Wabs always looks smart, that silver haired fox. With that zany Saturday and all those big wins, the OOC is looking like anything but a frolic through Candy Land. We've got two more big games before Ball State Watch out for Gloppy.and then we open the up the A-10 with Duquesne. While BU hasn't looked too tough, taking a double-digit loss to George Washington, Alford has the Lobos purring. The New Years Day clash looks to be our best opportunity at big time OOC W. New Mexico is currently 13/12 and looks capable of dominating the Mountain West. A victory at the notoriously difficult Pit could garner some serious late season cache.

Quick recruiting update. 

Juwan Staten is playing on the country's best high school team. They are dominating all that dare to step on the court with them. Oak Hill routinely scores near 100 points, and as a result Juwan regularly charts double-digit assists while acquitting himself nicely in the scoring department.

Ralph Hill is turning some heads. In a recent game he hit 6 threes and the opposing coach had this to say about him, "Ralph Hill dominated us in the first half and the first quarter mainly where he had a handful of dunks after blowing by our defenders.  He then proceeded to bury a 3 after I told our guy to give him space because he couldn't shoot which he heard and took exception to.  We could not stop him."  I'll just say the quote is encouraging and we'll move along.

Jesse Berry's high school Lafayette Jefferson is nicknamed the Bronchos. I've never actually read a game recap of his because as soon as the word Broncho is mentioned I stare off into space wondering if that "H" is intentional, and if so, what is a Broncho?

Brandon Spearman has been playing good ball for one of Chicago's best high school squads, Simeon.  He's leading his team in both scoring and rebounding and they just suffered their first loss of the season to the city's number one team, the Whitney Young Dolphins.

Devin Oliver continues to put up lines that make you wonder if his Pops is the official scorekeeper. A recent example: 26 points, 9 boards, and 6 steals. He does this while playing for one of the top ranked teams in Michigan's biggest division.

		S	MIN	PTS	FGM	FGA	FG%	FTM	FTA	FT%	3PM	3PA	3P%	OR	DR	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF
	A. Williamson	*	31	7	2	3	66	3	6	50	0	0	0	5	11	16	1	0	1	4	0
	K. Brand	*	30	4	1	5	20	2	2	100	0	1	0	1	2	3	3	0	0	3	2
	D. Sims	*	28	13	4	13	30	2	2	100	3	9	33	0	4	4	1	0	0	0	2
	J. Booth	*	18	0	0	4	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	1	0	1	1	1	0	2	1
	I. Butts	*	18	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2	3	1	0	0	1	3
	M. Wright		24	15	5	10	50	2	2	100	3	5	60	0	2	2	1	0	0	5	0
	R. Abraham		18	7	3	4	75	0	0	0	1	1	100	0	0	0	2	1	0	2	3
	T. Webb		15	3	1	3	33	0	0	0	1	1	100	0	3	3	0	0	1	0	2
	J. Hunter		12	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	3	3	0	0	0	0	3
	N. Healy		4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
	A. Highsmith		2	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	3
		S	MIN	PTS	FGM	FGA	FG%	FTM	FTA	FT%	3PM	3PA	3P%	OR	DR	REB	AST	STL	BLK	TO	PF
	P. Williams	*	33	10	4	11	36	0	1	0	2	8	25	3	4	7	3	0	0	0	1
	C. Wright	*	31	14	5	12	41	3	5	60	1	3	33	4	2	6	0	1	0	1	1
	M. Perry	*	30	15	4	10	40	5	5	100	2	5	40	1	3	4	2	3	1	2	2
	K. Huelsman	*	23	8	4	6	66	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	2	0	0	0	1	2
	L. Warren	*	15	3	1	1	100	1	2	50	0	0	0	0	2	2	2	0	0	1	4
	D. Searcy		23	4	1	3	33	2	7	28	0	0	0	3	4	7	1	3	0	0	0
	J. Benson		23	4	1	4	25	2	2	100	0	0	0	2	6	8	2	1	0	1	2
	R. Lowery		22	7	2	10	20	1	2	50	2	8	25	0	0	0	6	0	0	1	2

Comments

[Rich]

Got to give it up to KH. A left-handed baby hook, a right-handed baby hook, a 3-step drive down the lane and several balls kept alive during the tip drill. MP also played to impress, and we got to see (albeit for 30-45 seconds) the combination of the dreds on the floor. Bring on BU.

[Jim O'Brien]

It's really weird to see that stat box and only have 8 UD players get on the court.

solid night for P-Dubbs the King of Michigan, 10, 7, 3. I like this kid. If that wasn't obvious enough already.

[Secaur]

Is the team's mascot the Young Dolphins, or is the school Whitney Young and they're called the Dolphins? In all seriousness, thanks for the recruiting update. Since I refuse to go out of my way to pay attention to what 17 y/o boys are doing, I'm happy to read a short write-up about UD's recruits.

[Oliver]

@O'Brien: I concur. I've become accustomed to seeing the box score jammed full by BG.

@Secaur: Boy do I wish they were the Young Dolphins. Alas, they are the Dolphins of Whitney Young High School.

According to DDN, sounds like MJ will be back for Boston U, Luke in 2-4 weeks, and unfortunately CJ's still suffering from head aches. Hard to say when he'll be back as the staff seems to prefer to be extra cautious (as they should) with noggin injuries.

[John]

Hey Blackburn ... do you think in these final three OOC games our SOS will rise from its current 51 to 104?

I think little Johnny nailed the OOC schedule on the head pre-season, don't you?

[Adam]

Another week long break until the Boston game, and now I have to spend time with family in the middle.

Merry friggin Christmas.

[theShroyerFlyer]

@ Adam
At least you won't have to read all the drivel that shows up on here during long stretches without a game...leggings arguements, college football garbage, soccer (I vow to take a bar stool to the back of the head of the next soccer fan that describes the flopping as "gamesmanship"), etc.

I know we can't just talk about the Boston game for a week but there's got to be a book of jokes to be made about Bobby Knight chastising another coach for being unethical. "Paying off players to come to your school is just wrong, coaches today should do it the way we used to...beat them with a chair and choke their mothers until they sign the damned letter of intent!"

[Adam]

The problem is, for the first time in over a decade, I'm not going anywhere this year. My Christmas traveling will consist of driving to my grandma's house, seven miles away. Woohoo! I'd take leggings talk over the nothing that will be discussed while you all go off to far away lands to drink from goblets.

[Matt]

In RE: Diving in Soccer. I forget if I said it on the message board or in comments, but as I said there, diving in soccer is not something that is seen as "gamesmenship", unless the player in question is on your team. It is like if you have some goon on your basketball team who throws elbows and takes cheap shots, it's a disgusting show unless he's throwing elbows on your team, then he's just gritty. For the most part, diving is hated in soccer. The best player in the world in soccer is hated simply because the fact that he has the tendency to fall down easily.

On a semi-related note, I hate Cristiano Ronaldo not because of his diving, but that he wasted his abilities banging Paris Hilton. A guy like that to waste his time on not only a bitch that very well could be the anti-christ as well as being simply not attractive is a crime that should receive jail time.

[Adam]

I hate him because of his hair. Either grow the mullet or don't. No more of this halfsie crap.