Sooner04
11/23/2008, 09:02 PM
Basketball is not like football, friends. Whereas things are out of your hands at times in the sport that features an odd-shaped ball, you always control your destiny in basketball. Two months from now, nobody will remember that we were pushed to the limits by a team called Gardner-Webb.
I have no idea where Gardner-Webb is.
I don't know what state Gardner-Webb calls home.
All I know is that they went back to where they came from with a loss, and that's fine with me.
Win, and move on. Don't care how, and don't bother telling us why, just win and move on. We did, so yay. We played a game very similar to this last year against the Mighty Lumberjacks of Stephen F. Austin and got beat. They out-hustled us, just like Gardner-Webb. They made big shots late, just like Gardner-Webb. BUT, they won, and Gardner-Webb lost. Whew. Take it, and move on.
SCORING BREAKDOWN:
1st - 25 [90 days, Jerry. When you hot, you hot!]
2nd - 17
3rd - 15 [chunks a'blowin]
4th - 23 [Let's spend the night together!]
[u]LEADING SCORERS:
35 - Blake Griffin: Captain Obvious with a call on line two.
17 - Willie Warren: Starting to shoot well.
12 - Taylor Griffin
LEADING REBOUNDERS:
21 - Blake Griffin: Four for four in leading both scoring and rebounding. Perhaps we're the one-man team.
7 - Taylor Griffin
PLUSES:
1. Blake Griffin: I'm running out of ways to describe this guy. You can only call him an animal so often, but he's a rabid wildebeast out there. Perhaps a disenfranchised yeti. I don't know, but he's killing people. I'm not sure he'll face anyone on his level this season.
2. Willie Warren: 17 points, yeah yeah. OK. NO turnovers. That's what I like to see.
3. Offensive Rebounding: 18 of those babies, and every one of them was needed.
4. Scoring: The last time we scored more than 80 in our first four games was in November/December of 1996. As is a common theme for guys throughout life's journey; put it in the hole, fellas!
4. The football team: Holy ****! I was confident we'd beat Tech, but my God, we massacred those clowns. Tyson/Spinks had more of an ebb and flow than this game did. A team in red and black hasn't taken an asswhipping like that since the Allies firebombed Dresden (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II). And massive kudos to whoever signed off on playing Jump Around right after Lewis's INT. If it had been any wilder, people would've been heaving newborn babies off the upper deck.
MINUSES:
1. Tony Crocker: I think Tony had money on Gardner-Webb. Seriously, how does one explain a performance so putrid? Two points on 1-11 shooting while throwing up six bricks from behind the arc. He doubled his point total with four turnovers. That is AWFUL! And those white sleeves......oh the humanity!
2. Taylor Griffin: Taylor had a real nice game, but he was the culprit on one of the most ignorant plays my eyes had ever seen. Leading 80-76 with a couple of seconds to go, the ONLY WAY Gardner-Webb gets the game to OT is by fouling and making a three-pointer. So what does Griffin the Elder do? He clocks a Gardner-Webb guard in the forehead at half court as he shoots a desperation heave. If that shot had gone in they would've had to haul me out of there in that contraption they used to wheel Hannibal Lector around in. Mercy.
3. Post Depth: We have none.
4. Hustle: Every loose ball seemed to go to Gardner-Webb. It was epidemic, and the lack of hustle is really the only way to explain it. Crap like that will get you beat.
5. Defense: I'm no defensive guru, but I saw way too many of our guys yakking at each other to not believe defensive assignments were missed. UAB's got some good guards, so we better shore that crap up.
And so now on to Madison Square Garden, a place where we've played like horse dung for years. To add insult to injury, Mike Davis is coaching the UAB Blazers. I think we all remember the last time we faced that guy, and I doubt I'm the only one who has yet to recover. Hopefully our play in the Garden will improve, and hopefully our record against him will improve as well.
I think Jeff Capel is just the man to do it.
Thank you for your time.
I have no idea where Gardner-Webb is.
I don't know what state Gardner-Webb calls home.
All I know is that they went back to where they came from with a loss, and that's fine with me.
Win, and move on. Don't care how, and don't bother telling us why, just win and move on. We did, so yay. We played a game very similar to this last year against the Mighty Lumberjacks of Stephen F. Austin and got beat. They out-hustled us, just like Gardner-Webb. They made big shots late, just like Gardner-Webb. BUT, they won, and Gardner-Webb lost. Whew. Take it, and move on.
SCORING BREAKDOWN:
1st - 25 [90 days, Jerry. When you hot, you hot!]
2nd - 17
3rd - 15 [chunks a'blowin]
4th - 23 [Let's spend the night together!]
[u]LEADING SCORERS:
35 - Blake Griffin: Captain Obvious with a call on line two.
17 - Willie Warren: Starting to shoot well.
12 - Taylor Griffin
LEADING REBOUNDERS:
21 - Blake Griffin: Four for four in leading both scoring and rebounding. Perhaps we're the one-man team.
7 - Taylor Griffin
PLUSES:
1. Blake Griffin: I'm running out of ways to describe this guy. You can only call him an animal so often, but he's a rabid wildebeast out there. Perhaps a disenfranchised yeti. I don't know, but he's killing people. I'm not sure he'll face anyone on his level this season.
2. Willie Warren: 17 points, yeah yeah. OK. NO turnovers. That's what I like to see.
3. Offensive Rebounding: 18 of those babies, and every one of them was needed.
4. Scoring: The last time we scored more than 80 in our first four games was in November/December of 1996. As is a common theme for guys throughout life's journey; put it in the hole, fellas!
4. The football team: Holy ****! I was confident we'd beat Tech, but my God, we massacred those clowns. Tyson/Spinks had more of an ebb and flow than this game did. A team in red and black hasn't taken an asswhipping like that since the Allies firebombed Dresden (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II). And massive kudos to whoever signed off on playing Jump Around right after Lewis's INT. If it had been any wilder, people would've been heaving newborn babies off the upper deck.
MINUSES:
1. Tony Crocker: I think Tony had money on Gardner-Webb. Seriously, how does one explain a performance so putrid? Two points on 1-11 shooting while throwing up six bricks from behind the arc. He doubled his point total with four turnovers. That is AWFUL! And those white sleeves......oh the humanity!
2. Taylor Griffin: Taylor had a real nice game, but he was the culprit on one of the most ignorant plays my eyes had ever seen. Leading 80-76 with a couple of seconds to go, the ONLY WAY Gardner-Webb gets the game to OT is by fouling and making a three-pointer. So what does Griffin the Elder do? He clocks a Gardner-Webb guard in the forehead at half court as he shoots a desperation heave. If that shot had gone in they would've had to haul me out of there in that contraption they used to wheel Hannibal Lector around in. Mercy.
3. Post Depth: We have none.
4. Hustle: Every loose ball seemed to go to Gardner-Webb. It was epidemic, and the lack of hustle is really the only way to explain it. Crap like that will get you beat.
5. Defense: I'm no defensive guru, but I saw way too many of our guys yakking at each other to not believe defensive assignments were missed. UAB's got some good guards, so we better shore that crap up.
And so now on to Madison Square Garden, a place where we've played like horse dung for years. To add insult to injury, Mike Davis is coaching the UAB Blazers. I think we all remember the last time we faced that guy, and I doubt I'm the only one who has yet to recover. Hopefully our play in the Garden will improve, and hopefully our record against him will improve as well.
I think Jeff Capel is just the man to do it.
Thank you for your time.