Individuals playing roles leads to team winning.

[Auburn]

Fortson harassed on defense and had great vision on getting the ball to the open man.

Clarke hit his shots and only forced up one ugly three.  Great show by him last night.  He's unfortunately a bit short on matching up against other shooting guards as evidenced by Bama immediately hitting a three to match one of Rotnei's.  The other problem with Rotnei on perimeter defense is that the interior doesn't know how to support him very well when the opposing team makes a drive toward the paint or elbow.

Welsh hit his open shots, he's a really good stand-up shooter.  He also had some terrific passes to Sanchez and Clarke.  Nice defense for the most part.

Sanchez finished and when he didn't he was usually fouled and hit the free throws.  Nice to see.  He usually blocked out fairly well when on defense.  He needs to work on offensive rebounding.  And, uh, don't shoot open threes.

Henry played his role really well, too.  Hit a few big shots that made me nervous but I think he'll understand the pace of SEC ball really well after 3 or 4 more games.  He's only going to keep contributing.

Britt.  Gotta hit those layups.  Good work on rebounding on offense and pushing guys around.

Washington.  Nice use of the head-fake and good job on the short/mid-range jumpers.  This guy has done well all year and it's been great seeing the guys get the ball to him.

Anyway, I didn't see anyone being overly selfish and everyone worked hard.  Sure, they have a ton of things to improve upon, especially when the zone defense breaks down, but these guys have a lot of upside (and we've seen it).  Great job and keep it up.

[The Hogfather]

Courtney Fortson looking to get his teammates shots first and shooting very little is KEY to this team's success.  If he continues to do that, we can be win some games.  I still think it'll be a struggle for the rest of the year.  Maybe we can get hot at the right time and get an NCAAT automatic bid.

[want2be]

1) I liked the way Rotnei did MORE on offense that just shoot 3's. I think he gets in the flow of the game better when he tries to create some shots off the dribble. And he is great free throw shooter. He needs to get fouled more.

2) Fortson did not shoot any 3's, but he still threw up to much junk in the lane. He will continue to get better.

3) Henry getting 100% is a key to the rest of the year....Without him we have way to many match up problems.

4) Sanchez would of had a great game IF he would STAY around the basket. He is not an outside shooter

[Auburn]

If Sanchez had a short jumper from the elbow or free throw line he'd be golden.  He likes to (or at least is made to) set screens around the perimter.  I'd like to see a few pick and rolls where he gets to hit that mid-range jumper.  Maybe Washington should be up there more.

It was good to see Sanchez try and set that one hard screen though.  Got a good chuckle out of it.

[Hogbody]

Courtney did have 3 attempt, which he missed.  Of course so did Sanchez.

I liked seeing Rot getting an offensive board with a put-back as well as a beautiful lay-up on the drive that was maybe the best drive of the game.

[donewithdale]

Sanchez is going to have to find a way to be a better rebounder despite his limited athleticism.  Mulitple times last night, he had weakside rebounding position yet the Bama players would just get up higher and get the rebound.  As limited as we are on defense, we cannot be giving second shots. 

[hogdiggity]

Courtney did have 3 attempt, which he missed.  Of course so did Sanchez.

I liked seeing Rot getting an offensive board with a put-back as well as a beautiful lay-up on the drive that was maybe the best drive of the game.

I saw several times when Courtney appeared to think about the 3 and then decided not to.  You think he has heard to not shoot them in practice this week???

Overall I think we had a better effort, hitting free throws really was key in this game.  Great to see what everyone thought Rotnie could be actually come out in this game.

I hope we get Monk back, and soon

[Cash267]

Uhhh...not sure what game you were watching, but Welsh missed over 1/2 his WIDE open shots!!

I was more impressed that he stopped shooting and started getting some of his teammates involved w/ some nice passes! 

[thirtythree]

Courtney did have 3 attempt, which he missed.  Of course so did Sanchez.

I liked seeing Rot getting an offensive board with a put-back as well as a beautiful lay-up on the drive that was maybe the best drive of the game.

Who told Sanchez he had that kind of range? He did play pretty well last night down low. Critical FT's as well.

[Hogbody]

I saw several times when Courtney appeared to think about the 3 and then decided not to.  You think he has heard to not shoot them in practice this week???

Overall I think we had a better effort, hitting free throws really was key in this game.  Great to see what everyone thought Rotnie could be actually come out in this game.

I hope we get Monk back, and soon

It certainly seemed like he was at least cautioned about taking so many 3's.  That one time he stood out on the wing just spotting up looking at the basket for about 3 seconds, and nobody would come out and guard him.  Instead of shooting it up he passed it and I thought that was a sign of improvement.

If we wouldnt have hit 80% of our FT's, that would have been a completely different game.

Completely agree on Monk.  He would help a lot, but it is good to see Henry seemingly getting better and playing more.  Monk was still high-fiving everybody during timeouts and warm-ups.  Glad he's out there.

[TDHog]

"The other problem with Rotnei on perimeter defense is that the interior doesn't know how to support him very well when the opposing team makes a drive toward the paint or elbow.
"

We played a zone which Clarke's responsibitly was the free throw line area (simplified). Man on man there was one instance where Rotnei ran out on a 3 point shooter, his man drovw and no one helped.  But 1 instance does not make a trend.  Clarke is a smart player and his D was OK and the help for the most part was good.  I think he is getting this rep as a "slow white kid that can only shoot" and I don't think that is fair and he showed that well last night.  I was far more concerned with our interior D and loosing players on the base line than with Clarke's D.

[hogtheball]

"The other problem with Rotnei on perimeter defense is that the interior doesn't know how to support him very well when the opposing team makes a drive toward the paint or elbow.
"

We played a zone which Clarke's responsibitly was the free throw line area (simplified). Man on man there was one instance where Rotnei ran out on a 3 point shooter, his man drovw and no one helped.  But 1 instance does not make a trend.  Clarke is a smart player and his D was OK and the help for the most part was good.  I think he is getting this rep as a "slow white kid that can only shoot" and I don't think that is fair and he showed that well last night.  I was far more concerned with our interior D and loosing players on the base line than with Clarke's D.

Thank you!  Rot isn't slow - and he plays solid zone (except late when he's tired).  He's actually the only guard who doesn't get lost on his zone assignments.  All of them are undersized, so defending the three will always be a problem, but they played solid perimeter zone this game.   Our problem was the high and low post areas - especially when Sanchez was resting.

[hogster23]

I dont know that i would say we played solid perimeter zone last night...it only looked like it because alabama could not hit a 3 pointer to save their lives...and i dont believe it was due to our D....

[hogtheball]

I dont know that i would say we played solid perimeter zone last night...it only looked like it because alabama could not hit a 3 pointer to save their lives...and i dont believe it was due to our D....

Zone D won't keep teams from getting threes - that's the primary weakness of a zone.  We were playing zone most of the game BECAUSE Alabama wasn't punishing us with threes.  I said "solid" because our guards were where they were supposed to be in the zone for most of the game.  That is the definition of a "solid" zone.   In previous games, some of our guards have struggled in recovery from help side to the ball when it moves around the perimeter.  They're getting much better at it.   There isn't a zone in the world that can keep a team from shooting threes. 

[hawgsav1]

I was very impressed with Clarke's floater in the lane. 

Regarding our zone, our perimeter D was nonexistent, but Bama defended themselves from the 3 point line.  We kept giving up too many 12 foot jumpshots from the FT, as we left Bama open far too often. 

Our defense was better last night, but a real test is how we can defend against a team that is shooting well from outside.