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Major round of applause for The Rack, who sounded like he came up huge in Bamba Fall's absence. We need that kind of production from him to keep going.

And nice job by Hop -- seriously. I played a little basketball (I was terrible, but I played), and there are days when the ball just isn't going to go through the rim, like there's a cover on it or something. Hats off to Hop for realizing this was one of those days and doing other things to help us win. Steals, assists, almost a career-high in rebounds, defense -- a player who sometimes gets called "selfish" clearly was anything but today.

On to UAB:
My thinking is this: We'll miss Bamba Fall against UAB, but if we can get another strong effort from The Rack, we could be OK in that respect. The killer when we played them at Moody, of course, was that McDonald guy (#5). I think he could have shot from the locker room that night and it would have gone in. We're not going to shut him out, of course, but if we can keep him in the human range, and get more scoring out of Hop .... who knows?

Go MUSTANGS!

Without having seen it, I think that might have been Rack's best game since he's been at SMU.

Perfect timing!

PonyPride wrote:Without having seen it, I think that might have been Rack's best game since he's been at SMU.

Perfect timing!

It just kills me to think he's had potential to step up all this time but never used it.

He was active on the boards, actually caught some passes, hit a couple of open jumpers, and played a little defense. I think it may have been his best game in a SMU uni.

Time for an even better game tomorrow!

In high school, my coach used to say "I saw lots of promises being made out there today" after somebody had a good game. Meaning: When you show people you can play at that level, there's no excuse for not playing at that level every game. You're promising to always play like that.

I agree that "Big D" is a good nickname in theory. But I'll hold off on calling him that myself until he has about 4-5 more games like today. Only then will I be comfortable referring to him as "Big D" with a straight face.

BHop showed his smarts today by distributing the ball and setting up
Rack, Morris, & Pearson.

Don't you think that Tubbs deserves some coaching credit here.

He has seen teams double and triple Bhop in the past 3-4 games
(all losses) and I would be willing to bet they spent a lot of practice time
on what to do when this happens. Good move Jimmy, and thanks for
executing the plan BHOP.

Thank God our team caught the ball some today. We still managed to
have way too many turnovers and many of those were bumbles.

of course Tubbs deserves some credit because it sounded like a true team effort, but it really came down to some guys like Rack and Devon knocking down some open looks from outside when they had to. Morris Almond is a man among boys, he could basically score most every time he was able to get in scoring position with the ball. Despite that SMU found a way to win. The players deserve most of the credit for fighting and hitting shots.

You're both right. Yes, Coach Tubbs gets some credit. He has known all along that most teams are going to gang up on Hop, and has said in post-game press conferences that when that happens, Hop has to find his teammates with the ball and those teammates "need to make shots." Today they did -- Rack, Pearson, and how about 8 (I think) from Jon Killen.

jtstang wrote: It just kills me to think he's had potential to step up all this time but never used it.

Well we *do* have one more year from the Rack.

ponyboy wrote:

jtstang wrote: It just kills me to think he's had potential to step up all this time but never used it.

Well we *do* have one more year from the Rack.

Well, I'm not gonna hold my breath, but I sure hope you do....

jtstang wrote: Well, I'm not gonna hold my breath, but I sure hope you do....

Agreed that it was but one game.

Coach Tubbs, who had a chance to TAKE OUT #22 during a sideline collison!!, coached a GREAT game.............Tubbs was the man today!!

Glad to see some props for Coach Tubbs!

And let's not forget Devon Pearson, who came through with 15 points off the bench.

Great job, Ponies -- beat down the Blazers.

jtstang wrote:

PonyPride wrote:Without having seen it, I think that might have been Rack's best game since he's been at SMU.

Perfect timing!

It just kills me to think he's had potential to step up all this time but never used it.

All this time? This is the first season he has seen much real time - he gets forced to ride the bench too much to get going. If I remember correctly he started off another recent game for us with our first 6 points. Tulsa maybe?