Eaglepost

by **HarborPointe** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 7:36 pm

Drove over to Mobile in a monsoon. Wife thinks I'm crazy. Pregame intros just finishing. Will keep y'all posted on anything interesting that transpires.

by **HarborPointe** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 7:47 pm

Going with mostly a 2-3 zone on D which is leading to a lot of open 3s for South. 3 of USA's 1st 4 baskets have been from downtown.

by **HarborPointe** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 7:51 pm

Make that 4 out of 5. 14-11 Jags roughly 8 min in.

by **HarborPointe** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 8:01 pm

Eagles answering with their own flurry of 3s and a more opportunistic defense. 26-18 USM 6:48 left in the 1st half.

by **HarborPointe** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 8:13 pm

Where's BDR? Figured he'd made a smart assed comment about me talking to myself by now.
28-25 Eagles 2:36 left in 1st.
South's time out entertainment is quite good.

by **HarborPointe** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 8:24 pm

31-29 Eagles at half. Pretty even game statistically also. USM 6 out of 10 from behind the arc but a lot of misses inside to end the half. Seems like the guys are forcing one pass to many to finish the play.

by **HardRockEagle** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 8:27 pm

It's good that you are in Mobile watching the game. I will be here reading your posts. How are the crowds there? 3,ooo fans??

by **HarborPointe** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 8:34 pm

HardRockEagle wrote:It's good that you are in Mobile watching the game. I will be here reading your posts. How are the crowds there? 3,ooo fans??

Not sure how many the place holds but everyone here could fit in the lower ring easily. Good percentage of gold among those here.
2nd half just underway.

by **HarborPointe** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 8:45 pm

Sticking with the 2-3 but it looks livelier so far. 37-33 good guys 4 min in.
South's dance team changes outfits more than Britney at a concert.

by **TheBlackTheGold** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 8:49 pm

Appreciate the updates much! :notworthy:

by **HarborPointe** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 8:51 pm

46-41 Eagles 11:45 to go. Flowers is the inside presence we've been missing the past few years.

by **WorkingEagle** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 8:53 pm

HarborPointe wrote:Where's BDR? Figured he'd made a smart assed comment about me talking to myself by now.

He's drowning his sorrows over Snead's Heisman finish.

by **TheBlackTheGold** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 8:54 pm

Flowers is a competitor, big time.

by **HarborPointe** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:02 pm

51-45 USM 7:24 to go. Our defense really making South work.

by **HarborPointe** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:07 pm

Eagles by 11, 5:57 left.

by **HarborPointe** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:12 pm

Nice little missed FT-rebound-3 sequence for USM. 61-47 with 4:30 to go.

by **KnightDadEagleAlum** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:14 pm

Is RL as bad live as his stats indicate. I hope he's making some sort of contribution.

by **HarborPointe** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:21 pm

61-51 3:59 left. Big rebounds for the Eagles to keep the ball out of USA's hands. Can't help but think South has one more run in them we'll have to withstand.

by **BYXeagle** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:22 pm

KnightDadEagleAlum wrote:Is RL as bad live as his stats indicate. I hope he's making some sort of contribution.

Knight i listened to the game and for the part I listened to it seemed like R.L was just having an off night. Shots that are normally second nature to him he was missing.

by **KnightDadEagleAlum** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:26 pm

Good win. Flowers is for real. Awaji, Johnson solid tonight. :notworthy:

by **HardRockEagle** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:28 pm

I hope we can handle the ball during the last minute of the game.

by **HardRockEagle** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:30 pm

Beating South Alabama is a good win. South Alabama always have a good team.

by **Gary O** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 9:56 pm

HardRockEagle wrote:Beating South Alabama is a good win. South Alabama always have a good team.

It's a nice win, but they are nowhere near as good as they've been the last 5 years. Like us, they brought in almost a completely new team. But they're under-sized and not nearly as talented. Once we figured out to feed it to Flowers in the post, they had no answer.

Nice game from him and Awaji. Johnson has talent, but is too cute with the ball. A good point makes the hard passes look easy; he makes the easy ones look hard. Bolden disappeared after a strong start. Ayarza can bang and rebound, limited on the offensive end. Pelham got a lot of PT in the 2nd half. Looks to be a Stone clone. Good hustle and energy, did not do much on offense.

We have a team full of legit D1 players for the first time in almost a decade. Much more talented overall, even without Wise. Still not sold on the coaching. Poor spacing, running into each other, had a couple times where we were slow getting the ball to inbound it just like at Ole Miss.

by **southernmiss4ever** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 10:16 pm

Gary, you say you're not sold on the coaching, I respect that but have a question for you.

You yourself stated that we have more talent this year than in the past decade right?

Well, if that's the case and we've had no talent since LE has been here how do you explain us beating UAB (should have beaten them in the C-USA Tourney), and playing Memphis tough every year, and beating them the year they went to the National Championship save a guy named Derrick Rose saving them?

In those games Eustachy went in with an undermanned team, by every account, and faced coaches like John Calipari and Mike Davis, and yet gave them fits for 40 minutes. Would that not be good coaching?

And yes, I know you can come back with Savannah St. and everything I understand that. But, IMO that goes back to talent. When you don't have talent you're going to have let down games a lot, where the players don't play up to their ability and it hurts, especially against bad teams.

I'm just curious as to your response as to how/why we were able to hang with the good C-USA teams that had a LOT more talent and supposedly a LOT better coaching.

by **Gary O** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 10:46 pm

I said we had a team full of D1 talent. We had some talent the last few years. How many times did Wise bail us out after a wasted offensive set? And basketball is a game that on a given night a lesser team can win. But I look at it pretty much opposite from how you do. I think losing to the lesser teams like Savannah State (twice) is the evidence that we didn't have the coaching to exploit teams we are superior to, while on occasion we were able to out-hustle teams like UAB and Houston, make a few shots and catch them on an off night.

Just my opinion, my observation, but I feel like we see the same problems I mentioned in the other post year after year with different players. Right or wrong, the improved talent level will make things a lot more enjoyable.

by **RockTheRock** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 10:51 pm

southernmiss4ever wrote:Gary, you say you're not sold on the coaching, I respect that but have a question for you.

You yourself stated that we have more talent this year than in the past decade right?

Well, if that's the case and we've had no talent since LE has been here how do you explain us beating UAB (should have beaten them in the C-USA Tourney), and playing Memphis tough every year, and beating them the year they went to the National Championship save a guy named Derrick Rose saving them?

In those games Eustachy went in with an undermanned team, by every account, and faced coaches like John Calipari and Mike Davis, and yet gave them fits for 40 minutes. Would that not be good coaching?

And yes, I know you can come back with Savannah St. and everything I understand that. But, IMO that goes back to talent. When you don't have talent you're going to have let down games a lot, where the players don't play up to their ability and it hurts, especially against bad teams.

I'm just curious as to your response as to how/why we were able to hang with the good C-USA teams that had a LOT more talent and supposedly a LOT better coaching.

We are Southern Miss. The last decade has conditioned our average fan to believe that chicken sh-t tastes like chicken salad.

by **southernmiss4ever** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 10:53 pm

I agree with you that we've had talent, just not a complete team. I would love to see what a shooter like Rashaad Carruth could do with this team.

I don't know. It's just weird for me to think people on here want Eustachy fired when he had a 6'3" Courtney Beasley leading the team in rebounds during games, and always guarding guys bigger and stronger than him.

The team never quits under LE. They are always scrapping, and play with a lot of emotion regardless of the talent level. Also in those games against Memphis and UAB, LE knew HOW to beat them. He knew he wasn't going to outscore either of those teams so he made sure that we controlled the flow of the game. That's smart coaching.

Like others on here, there are some issues I have with the team as well and it could very well go back to coaching. If the guys would constantly give the ball to Flowers down low, with the touch he has on his shots, it will open up more 3 pt opportunities. Also, Bolden needs to loosen up. He looks too tense and too giddy to take a shot. He and Flowers could be a good combination down low for us this year.

There's potential there for us to have the most successful season since LE has been here. I just hope people don't get their hopes up too high this year, as I can tell this team will have some bumps in the road.

by **Gary O** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 11:04 pm

I think we wanted him fired BECAUSE we had that situation. I was very much in favor of the hire and it wasn't until year 4 I became disenchanted. Because, as this year shows, it just shouldn't take that long to put together a more competitive team. They've always played hard for him, that was never my issue. But we weren't improving as a team year to year. Players weren't improving, we weren't developing any post players, no real plan of attack on the offensive end, etc. It was just all very stagnant.

by **HarborPointe** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 11:23 pm

Dang, I made one more post from the game, but it didn't show. I must've lost my signal as it was going up or something.

Anyway, with us up 12 and a little over a minute left, a lot of folks who've obviously never seen us play before made their way to the exits. Around that same time, a BLACK-GOLD chant broke out among the Eagle faithful.

I'm with Gary in that a) this is a legit D-I squad talent-wise, the first we've had in ages, and b) they still have a lot of things to sharpen up. It is still early, though. I'll also echo that it'll be interesting to see what happens when we face an opponent with some real size.

by **southernmiss4ever** on Sat Dec 12, 2009 11:42 pm

Gary O wrote:I think we wanted him fired BECAUSE we had that situation. I was very much in favor of the hire and it wasn't until year 4 I became disenchanted. Because, as this year shows, it just shouldn't take that long to put together a more competitive team. They've always played hard for him, that was never my issue. But we weren't improving as a team year to year. Players weren't improving, we weren't developing any post players, no real plan of attack on the offensive end, etc. It was just all very stagnant.

Yeah, but if you're saying this is the most D-1 talent we've had in a decade, but LE has only been here for 5 of those 10 years, should that say anything towards how deep this program actually was when he inherited it?