Looks like Bridges had a great game. That's encouraging because I read a lot of posts on this site downplaying hIs ability to contribute.

I was watching football, but had the basketball game on my iPad. I wasn't paying 100% attention to the basketball game, but here is what I gathered. Overall, they looked good at times and bad at times. Definitely shoot better from 3 point line than in years past. Down double digits in the second half, the team didn't quit, so props to them.

Bridges was a force. There was definitely an effort to get him the ball almost every time down the court in the second half. Abdur-Rahim and Oquendo didn't have a great night.

I didn't see the game but the stats are telling. Oquendo played about 26 minutes, was 0-3 and failed to score. He has to produce for us to be successful. Baumann started and was 3-4 from 3, which was good. JAR was 1-4, his 3rd poor shooting game in a row. He also has to produce for us to win. Losing by 5 on the road to the Bearcats is no shame, but I get the feeling that they were ripe for the taking with a little better play from us. Oh, and Bridges, the guy who has been criticized as only being a back-up at UIC, had 24 pts.

The season is young, but I feel like we need to be taking twice as many 3s as we did against Cincinnati (14) and FIU (15) to be competitive this year.

It's not even a style of basketball I especially like, but it feels like this team was built to shoot...so shoot!

I'm willing to be patient. It wasn't a terrible loss. The formula just feels a bit off given the construction of the roster...

Yes so far so good.

Playing well right now.

Doing a good job of cashing in on possessions for the most part. Getting to the middle fo the easy shots. Playing basic sound defense.

They keep letting South Carolina state hang around. Need a good first five minutes in the 2nd half to get some separation and they will probably lay down.

REDdawg12 said:

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They keep letting South Carolina state hang around. Need a good first five minutes in the 2nd half to get some separation and they will probably lay down.

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Yep. Need to stop trying to hit threes. Make them make threes. Drive and layups.

Good series on defense and offense to push the lead back to 10.

Still can't quite pull away though.

State is 0-4 with every loss coming to a team in a lesser conference than uga. This team isn't very good.

REDdawg12 said:

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State is 0-4 with every loss coming to a team in a lesser conference than uga. This team isn't very good.

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I agree. I honestly don't expect much from our BB team. I am encouraged by the way we did play...but...I was at the beginning of the season last year.

Well, we won by 16, so exactly how much must we win by to show that we have a decent team? What is this, our 3rd game of the year? Let's give them some time before we leap to conclusions. That said, AR and Baumann were a combined 3-16; that cannot continue for us to be successful.

Abdur-Rahim, to me, looks like he has the basketball version of the yips. 0 confidence. I assume he has some talent (being a top 50 high school player is rarely a fluke), but boy, it's sure hard to see right now.

I hope Coach Crean can shake it loose.

Of the 358 D1 teams, SC State is currently #351. Beating them by 16 or 40 does nothing in proving we are a decent team. Where does your or anyone else's definition of being a decent team start. I'd say last years team (7-11) was decent. We have certainly not seen anything that points to this team being decent. We have some competition coming, we'll see how we do then.

7-5 pre-conference and 3-15 in SEC play is what's looming.

Villanova beat #348 ranked Howard 100-81. They let Howard score 81?

North Carolina beat #251 ranked Brown by 7. Brown scored 87 on UNC!

We can throw out stats all day, but it doesn't matter until the games are played.

Yes but those two teams you mentioned have a track record of winning. When the opponents start getting better, they get better. We have yet to prove that we can do this in Crean's tenure.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not jumping ship. That being said I'm also not very confident that we will finish anywhere but bottom 3 in the league.

Yeah, we need JAR to play to his potential. I have not liked what I have seen so far. He's forcing his offense and not letting the game come to him. He's not getting in the flow.

Monkdawg said:

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Well, we won by 16, so exactly how much must we win by to show that we have a decent team? What is this, our 3rd game of the year? Let's give them some time before we leap to conclusions. That said, AR and Baumann were a combined 3-16; that cannot continue for us to be successful.

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Only conclusion I have is we won...

Well, it's better than a loss.