Last night's game at Auburn ...

[BrooklynRoss]

... is exactly the type of game we would have lost last year (and in previous years.)

Trust me, I'm not in any way saying we deserved to win. 42% from the line? On the road? In the SEC? And we won? By 6? No way in hell should we be able to pull that off. Thankfully we played hard and our defense wore the Tigers down and, oh yeah, they were missing a lot of their best players. The win? I'll take it.

Regardless of who was or wasn't playing for Auburn they played an admirable game. They certainly never backed down, and I have a new respect for coach Lebos. He got that rag-tag group of lovable misfits to play some serious basketball and gave us a real game.

The point guard situation for the razorbacks right now is a nightmare. Welsh is doing what he can but he's a natural 2. Ervin scares the bejeezus out of me everytime he touches the ball. Bev can actually handle the point when he has to but he's even more of a natural 2 than Welsh. That's it. That's all we got. No real point guard. Yikes. Pel must be losing hair and sleep over this and honestly I don't have any ideas or answers to this problem so I'm just going to trust him to work it out. We won on the road in the SEC with this rough-shod cadre of ballhandlers last night and as I keep telling myself, I'll take it.

Everything wasn't bad though, how about those 3's? Bev was white-hot and I mean, crush-the-soul-of-the-other-team hot. Every time they made a run he put the hurt on the tigers from behind the stripe. He must have decided he wants to be a rich NBA dad after all.

The Hogs dominated the boards, which is exactly how you win a game on the road in the SEC with no point guard when you miss more than half your freethrows. We're going to have to do this many more times against much better front-courts if we want to win the West. The team played hard, on the boards, on the floor, and on defense. They let too many uncontested 3s go in the first half but this was adjusted at halftime.

I still don't know how we won this game, especially considering our 7 and 30-something SEC road record over the last 5 years. I'm just hoping this is a sign of change.

[stchane]

... is exactly the type of game we would have lost last year (and in previous years.)

Trust me, I'm not in any way saying we deserved to win. 42% from the line? On the road? In the SEC? And we won? By 6? No way in hell should we be able to pull that off. Thankfully we played hard and our defense wore the Tigers down and, oh yeah, they were missing a lot of their best players. The win? I'll take it.

Regardless of who was or wasn't playing for Auburn they played an admirable game. They certainly never backed down, and I have a new respect for coach Lebos. He got that rag-tag group of lovable misfits to play some serious basketball and gave us a real game.

The point guard situation for the razorbacks right now is a nightmare. Welsh is doing what he can but he's a natural 2. Ervin scares the bejeezus out of me everytime he touches the ball. Bev can actually handle the point when he has to but he's even more of a natural 2 than Welsh. That's it. That's all we got. No real point guard. Yikes. Pel must be losing hair and sleep over this and honestly I don't have any ideas or answers to this problem so I'm just going to trust him to work it out. We won on the road in the SEC with this rough-shod cadre of ballhandlers last night and as I keep telling myself, I'll take it.

Everything wasn't bad though, how about those 3's? Bev was white-hot and I mean, crush-the-soul-of-the-other-team hot. Every time they made a run he put the hurt on the tigers from behind the stripe. He must have decided he wants to be a rich NBA dad after all.

The Hogs dominated the boards, which is exactly how you win a game on the road in the SEC with no point guard when you miss more than half your freethrows. We're going to have to do this many more times against much better front-courts if we want to win the West. The team played hard, on the boards, on the floor, and on defense. They let too many uncontested 3s go in the first half but this was adjusted at halftime.

I still don't know how we won this game, especially considering our 7 and 30-something SEC road record over the last 5 years. I'm just hoping this is a sign of change.

I'll tell you how we won.

We let them keep taking those 3's but started contesting them.  That was their sole source of offense, and nobody stays that hot for 40 minutes.  I agree with Ervin.  He's worthless.  I can see why Mississippi State wanted to get rid of him.  But Steven Hill didn't do a whole lot either, other than alter some shots and foul out. 

However, if anyone watched South Florida the other night, you would have realized that you can't stand around and wait for something to happen.  Movement is critical. Pel has brought that to the offense, and that was the difference.  Instead of settling for the outside jumpshot like we would have last year, we throw the ball inside and go from there.  Heath tried to do this, but never accomplished it.  Ervin did hit some big shots, but can't turn the ball over and has to make his free throws.  Thats what PG do. 

I thought our front line, with the exception of SH played very well.  I'm proud of the team. Hopefully we'll  get enough confidence to go 16-0 in conference play!! GHG

[BrooklynRoss]

Yeah, the frontcourt did a great job. Ha, if we win 7 conference road games this year I will be a very happy man.

[jst01]

Yeah, the frontcourt did a great job. Ha, if we win 7 conference road games this year I will be a very happy man.

Townes needs to step it up. He should be averaging 10 a game in SEC play.