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Florida Gulf Coast University is the newest addition to the Florida State University system. Ground was broken on the Fort Myers campus in 1995, and the first classes were held there in 1997. FGC began it’s athletic department with men’s and women’s golf, In the year 2000, and began the process of seeking membership in NCAA Division-1 in 2008. FGC is currently a member of the Atlantic Sun Conference, but is not eligible for the A-Sun Tournament, until they complete the reclassification process. D-1 status has been a bumpy ride for the Eagles men’s basketball team, as they finished 11-20 overall, and suffered blowout losses to schools such as Kansas, Florida, Butler, Mercer, Belmont, and East Tennessee State. This season has not started off any better, as FGC suffered a 40 point mauling in their opener at Michigan State, and Thursday night they began their Texas road trip with a 69-54 loss at Prairie View A&M. The loss at PVAM extends their road losing streak to 21 games, dating back to 2007.

Reggie Chambers, a dimunitive 5’9” sophomore shooting guard, was the lone bright spot in the lopsided loss to Prairie View, scoring 20 points. This makes Chambers the teams leading scorer for the season, averaging 12.5 ppg, while shooting 53% from the field and 40% (4/10) from beyond the arc. Chambers averaged 8.6 ppg as a freshman, and is one of three returning starters from last season.

Senior guard Reed Baker was the teams leading scorer last year, and has been a leader for the Eagles since transferring to FGC from Univ. of Michigan. The well traveled Mr. Baker has settled in at FGC after first signing with The Citadel, then asking for his release after a change in the coaching staff. From there he signed with Birmingham Southern, but again asked to be released when the school dropped from D-1 to D-3. From there he walked on at Univ. of Michigan, where he actually played significant minutes as a freshman. Baker started one game as a freshman at UofM, against Army, and had a career high 19 points. Coincidentally, some of his best performances at FGC have also come against the Cadets. I don’t know why he left Michigan, considering that he was actually getting decent playing time there, but he is a native Floridian, and perhaps he just wanted to be closer to home. Through 2 games this season, Bakers scoring numbers and shooting percentages are all down from last season, he’s putting up 11 points per game, but only shooting 27% from the floor and 22% from 3-point range.

Kyle Marks is another Florida native who came back to FGC after beginning his career in another state. Marks, a 6’7” forward, spent 2 years sitting on the bench at Nebraska, before returning to the sunshine state. In his sophomore year at NU, Marks appeared in 19 contests, averaging 2 points per game. After sitting out a year, Marks averaged 9.6 ppg and 6 rebounds a contest as a starter for FGC last season. He gives the Eagles their most physical inside presence.

Anthony Banks, a 6’6” freshman forward currently leads the team in rebounds at 6 per game, and also chips in 7.5 points per game.

Probable Starters:
PG- Reed Baker, 6’1” Sr. 11 ppg
SG- Reggie Chambers, 5’9” SO. 12.5 ppg
F-Kyle Marks, 6’7” Sr.
F- Anthony Banks, 6’6” Fr.
F- Derrick O’Niel, 6’5” Sr.


Huston has a problem.

Huston-Tillotson is an NAIA team, and not a particularly good one. Last season H-T finished 10-20 overall, and 7-11 in the Red River Conference. The Rams also lost their 2 best players from last season, Guards Robert Hatfield and D’Mond Grismore averaged 39 points and 15 rebounds per game, between them. The Rams are 0-2 this year, losing to Oklahoma Christian, and Incarnate Word. H-T has also played Lamar University, but they list that game as an “Exhibition” on their website (as well as the SMU game, and an upcoming game with SFA) and don’t appear to include contests with NCAA schools in their statistics.
The leading scorer for H-T is senior Titus Butler, a 6’4” forward, averaging 14 ppg. The Rams have no one on their roster over 6’6”. This is a game where Kwiatkowski and Luttman should be able to score in double figures.

thes games look like an opportunity to see whether Clinkscales and Haynes can help us with scoring this season. I hope both guys get some significant minutes in these games

I think we found another scorer tonight in Justin Haynes

Bumping this to the top, so everyone can benefit from my in-depth analysis of our traditional rival, Huston-T.

My buddy who played baseball at Southwestern provided the following scouting report for HT:
If the basketball team is anything like the baseball team there, then we'll be facing 5'8 Hispanics

Finding it really hard to muster up the motivation to get down to Moody tonight for this game...I say the team makes it a goal not to be tied at half...then we can claim improvement between the FL Gulf Coast game and this one.

They should not come within 30 points of us tonight. But they will. Betcha we don't even win by 20.

George S. Patton wrote:They should not come within 30 points of us tonight. But they will. Betcha we don't even win by 20.

Friendly wager, I'll take the over (25 points+) and you take the under, and the loser buys the winner a coke at the next game (TCU or Texas State, take your pick).

Balatro Diabolus Ex wrote:

George S. Patton wrote:They should not come within 30 points of us tonight. But they will. Betcha we don't even win by 20.

Friendly wager, I'll take the over (25 points+) and you take the under, and the loser buys the winner a coke at the next game (TCU or Texas State, take your pick).

Deal. But I'll let you know what game I'm going to make. Looking like TCU but I'll PM you. Hopefully, the sodas won't be flat.

Deal. See ya at whatever game you make.

If this continues to be crappy basketball, we may have to think about buying each other something stronger.

George S. Patton wrote:They should not come within 30 points of us tonight. But they will. Betcha we don't even win by 20.

That's the spirit! Go Ponies!
Were you a cheerleader in school?

When you have a pretty good feel for a program and where it's strong and weak, these observations are not done in the manner of a shot in the dark.

Let's see we've won 19 games -- COMBINED IN THE LAST TWO YEARS -- we've won less than 10 conference games == COMBINED IN THE LAST TWO YEARS.

The head coach is a jerk. He's a control freak and can't recruit this area. His point guard came within a whisker of transferring.
Should I go on?

Now, I want us to succeed, but I do not believe the talent that is here is being given the best chance to win from the current head coach.

I'm calling it like I see it.

Balatro Diabolus Ex wrote:Deal. See ya at whatever game you make.

I'm too embarrassed to win the terms of this bet because of what happened.

George S. Patton wrote:When you have a pretty good feel for a program and where it's strong and weak, these observations are not done in the manner of a shot in the dark.

Let's see we've won 19 games -- COMBINED IN THE LAST TWO YEARS -- we've won less than 10 conference games == COMBINED IN THE LAST TWO YEARS.

The head coach is a jerk. He's a control freak and can't recruit this area. His point guard came within a whisker of transferring.
Should I go on?

Now, I want us to succeed, but I do not believe the talent that is here is being given the best chance to win from the current head coach.

I'm calling it like I see it.

Patton, I'm sorry but you are totally right on and the control freak is what he is and always has been.........He even took the trouble two years ago of hiring a cameraman video Doh for a whole game just to see what Doh does during the game on the sideline..why? ....he will not let ANYone be bigger than he is. He will NEVER let this team run and do what they do best with their specific given Bball skills. The players still do NOT like him (as even if they may be HIS recruits, he continues to push their personal buttons and [deleted] them off during practice and games) and he still CAN"T recruit this area still as the area now knows his BS. ( there is NO reason that with these great facilities that he can't keep DFW guys at home for their friends and family to watch them play and don't forget local players have crowds come out to watch them play..ie. Sasser) I really like him as a person (really!) but the players just won't/can't play for him and maybe now don't think ever will. The platooning system is way 'old school' and can work MAYbe if you have a strong 10-12 players to work with but alway affects the flow of the players games. He is a controlling person who may never change and let someone be the real leader on the court. I thought when he got rid of Malcolm Farmer, as the players really disliked him, and hired the two Reggies that they would serve to insulate Doh from the players personally and they would actually teach the guys some good fundamental ball skills and galvanize the team.

Doh needs to back off and let them play! This team is NOT physically ( nor mentally) designed this year to run a slow down East Coast NBA style type of game and 2-3 Zone with total control by the coach from the bench.

We will see how this progresses.

Maybe he can change. He finally put some rebounders on the lane for mccoy's free throws at the end of the game. Kills me watching him not put anyone there to rebound when everyone knows how badly SMU shoots free throws. I will take any progress I can get at this point.