[Cider Jim]

Thanks, Lang...much better. I was sitting behind some old VMI guy at the game, and was still talking about the game at VMI where Anderson dropped something like seven 3-balls his freshman year coming off the bench.

I thought Coach Layer's strategy was GENIUS for playing Gordon mostly at the point and letting Jesse do his best Kyle Ohman impersonation driving into the paint and creating his own shot or dishing it off for an easy layup for one of our bigs.

[BJWilliams]

David could not miss tonight and that really provided a spark with Evan and Jesse not filling it up...also I did some research and you have to go all the way back to 1991 to find a game where LU scored 100 or more points against a Div I school NOT named VMI

UM Jesse scored 21 ans was the absolute KEY!

I saw that...what made me think he wasn't filling it up was when I looked at the boxscore 13 of his 21 came at the foul line...which leads to another point...that is one thing that the guys certainly did well last night despite the troubles around the rim...they drew a lot of contact and were able to get VMI in a lot of foul trouble and they converted a lot of free points from the stripe...something that will come in handy if we get into another close game in the second go round through the schedule

[bigsmooth]

shows how much that knob realist knows.. sure kenon had the flu earlier in the week, but he was fully recovered...look at his stat line....

[Dr. Sheh]

John Brown came in at #8 on sportcenter's top 10 plays tonight. Great mid air touch pass by him to Burrus for the Dunk. Very cool to see LU on sportcenter. Great game by the guys and I hope they keep it up!

Is there a link to the top 10 plays? I tried searching at espn with no luck. Overall, very impressed by this team.

[ALAFlamesFan]

John Brown came in at #8 on sportcenter's top 10 plays tonight. Great mid air touch pass by him to Burrus for the Dunk. Very cool to see LU on sportcenter. Great game by the guys and I hope they keep it up!

Is there a link to the top 10 plays? I tried searching at espn with no luck. Overall, very impressed by this team.

If you have facebook here is a clip:

[ALAFlamesFan]

Just watched the replay on ESPN3. Great game. Loved using Evan to bring the ball up. I hope we do that much more. Great to see DM have a breakout game. We just continue to improve and it is fun to watch this team play. Great job!

[jenkins]

duggar even said himself that covington couldn't make up 18 pts difference...i think it was in the Roanoke Times story. Man I miss having realist around here to read his things. It reminds me of talking politics with someone that has the complete opposite views of you in every regard. Even though you know this, you still just can't believe some of the things the person says

[whmatthews]

Is it me or does John Brown remind anyone a little bit of Gabe Martin?

I already called that.

http://www.flamefans.com/forums/viewtop ... in#p330659

John Brown = Gabe Martin

To paraphrase Lloyd Benson's famous putdown of Dan Quayle

"I watched Gabe Martin play a lot of basketball"
"Gabe Martin is one of my favorite all time Flames"

"John Brown is no Gabe Martin"

I love JB, and there are some similarities in size, body type and athleticism, but they have 2 entirely different skill sets. Gabe was an 80+% FT shooter and could also knock down the 3, post up and drive on his man. There is no comparison offensively.

I think they are about equal on D, and I would give JB a slight edge as a rebounder. Stylistically, they don't look alike on the floor. No tomahawk dunks from JB. He's a meat-and-potatoes 2-handed dunker, and doesn't hesitate to just lay it in if his steps are a little off.

I was the first to compare him to the BSC player I think he resembles most, and that is Joseph Harris of Coastal. If anyone thinks that's insulting to JB, go back and look at what Harris did (especially against us).

Good call Manson. I had missed that. I don't know about all the size, skill sets, all the specifics. But he just feels like a Gabe Martin caliber player. Maybe we'll have an 03-04 repeat. We weren't the best team in the league that year, but we were solid.

[olldflame]

There are definately some coincidental similarities between Gabe and JB. Both are JUCO transfers. Both are about 6'4", but "play bigger". Both are very athletic. If you just look at scoring and rebounding, their productivity as Juniors is comparable. It's very easy/convenient to say JB reminds you of Gabe.

They are totally different players. I could name several differences, and mentioned some things in my earlier post, but I'll add one more in the form of a question and let you answer it for yourself.

How many 3 pointers has John Brown attempted in his career at LU?

Hint: It's fewer than Gabe Martin attempted in his first game.

Gabe was a natural 2 guard who could actually play the point in a pinch, but sacrificed his game to play the 4 his senior year because it made us a better team. JB is an undersized power forward with a huge heart. He can't really even play the 3 much for us because we need shooting from that position.

[thepostman]

he did play point some and it made me cringe....

[olldflame]

he did play point some and it made me cringe....

Which is why I said "in a pinch"

But can you even picture JB playing the 2, let alone the point? With limited touches, he is leading the team in turnovers.

On the other hand, JB recognizes his limited range, has really good shot selection, and is shooting a much higher % and averaging about 3 rebounds a game more. As we speak, he is leading the BSC in both rebounding and shooting %. I don't know where we would be without him, (but certainly not 8-1).

[Cider Jim]

I don't know where we would be without him

For one, LU wouldn't have made one of the top 10 plays on Sportscenter this week. Did GM (or SC) ever help us make that?

[olldflame]

Seth gave us more exposure on ESPN than any player we ever had. I'm almost positive his step-back 3 against George Mason made the highlights. Gabe had a tomahawk breakaway dunk against Winthrop that I think made it. Smitty had a couple too.

[BJWilliams]

This aint your father's Liberty Flames team this year to be sure...we have played at a level unrivaled by very few teams in our recent history...maybe not the best team all-time in terms of sheer talent (we could launch a whole nother thread on that debate) but these guys are playing at a very high level and we could be looking at something really special the next couple years

[LUconn]

Seth gave us more exposure on ESPN than any player we ever had. I'm almost positive his step-back 3 against George Mason made the highlights. Gabe had a tomahawk breakaway dunk against Winthrop that I think made it. Smitty had a couple too.

The Bannister/Smith combination surly holds the record for making it the most times.