85 - 83 What on Earth was that?
All I know is it was bad
I need a stiff drink
I don’t even know what to say. That’s the worst loss since the Bzdelik Era. Montae Glenn for Georgia Southern was a MAN, and I’m going to put some respect on his name. But I want to know how he had 8 offensive rebounds when Doral Moore, almost half a foot taller, had 3. I don’t know how we were so incapable of ball-stopping against their guards. Our offense was NOT the problem. If you can drop 83, on 43.5% shooting, 45.8% from deep, and 78.3% from the line, in theory you’re going to be in a pretty good position to win the game. But boy howdy was our work on defense atrocious. Chaundee Brown was MVP, going off for 21, 8-12, 3-4, and 2-2 with 9 boards, 5 offensive. Terrence Thompson also had a pretty strong 9 points and 11 boards on 4-7 shooting. But man, everybody else, for all their flashes of brilliance, also had flashes of horrific decision making and execution.
I will say this much. I think there are some pretty intellectually dishonest things being said right now. I am going to put a nail in this season and be pleasantly surprised if the team rebounds and goes on a tear (which HAS happened in college basketball, let’s be truthful) but I’m not going to put a nail in the Manning Era. I’m just not. Guys don’t get to be in Danny Manning’s position without being good at their jobs. I’m not saying he’s flawless, he’s not. But unlike Jeff Bzdelik, he’s young and inexperienced as a head coach and furthermore has shown an ability to coach teams to compete at this level as recently as, oh, LAST YEAR. And don’t give me the argument that John Collins emerged in spite of Manning’s coaching. Please. Maybe I’ll write a more detailed piece about that when I have the emotional energy, but come on guys. There’s valid criticism and then there’s knee-jerking. There’s some of both going on right now.
On to the next. Go Deacs.
--SF
