[jcmanson]

Good win by the guys. The whole game Im sitting there thinking, we should play like this all the time. The guys seemed excited to be running. They probably looked forward to the game, and were excited to be able to score so much.

IMO, tonight was not a game in which Baker can excel. Every time he seemed to get the ball, he panicked and before he could do anything he was trapped and it was too late.

Hubbard obviously doesn't need to play point. Either B.J. or Justin does.

McLean's numbers looked better than he did. At least that's what I thought, but he did what we needed.

If we can beat Asheville we can get right back in the race. I still only seeing us getting at most 7 wins, and that would probably put us in the 4-5 matchup. Which, even if we win that we have to go down to Rock Hill to play Winthrop. Unless we really get hot and can beat Coastal out for 3rd. That should be our goal for the rest of the season is to get 3rd.

[Ed Dantes]

Great job by the team last night, BJ said it best when he said that the guys could have just grabbed their ankles when the going got tough but they fought back to win a must-win game.

It's not unrealistic, IMHO, to say that we can capture AT LEAST three of the next five (esp. with four home games.) That'll put us at what, 6-6 with VMI & Radford left? Not a bad position to be in (not great though), especially when you consider how much parity there is in the Big South Conf. after Winthrop. Second place and sixth place will probably be separated by two games, max.

-ED

[SuperJon]

If we can go 3-2 over the next five games we should be in good shape. That'd put us at 6-6 with two very tough road games left in conference.

Personally, the Bracketbuster and Longwood game doesn't mean much to me. Our nonconferece record just plain sucks, I'm focusing on conference.

[Chris Lang]

8-6 is still very realistic. Win out at home, chalk up Winthrop on the road as a loss, cull a split of the VMI/Radford road games. And there you go. 8-6 will easily be good enough for third in this conference.

[SuperJon]

The HPU game worries me. If we can play a good zone defense against them part of the time and stay out of foul trouble, we have a chance. You saw how we played at HPU though, and it just wasn't good.

We can beat Coastal, especially with how sporadic they've been playing. Then again, we've been just as sporadic.

I don't think we've ever won at VMI, so that game's scary.

We killed Radford at home, but we all know how hard road games are.

I'm thinking .500 is looking very possible right now and quite frankly, I'd love it.

[thepostman]

we won once at VMI that I know of because I was there...it was the 2003-2004 season, the year we won the big south championship...but that is really the only reason why i remember

[SuperJon]

Ok, well it doesn't happen very often, that's what I was trying to say.

[thepostman]

ok i looked just to make sure I wasn't going crazy, and we did lose the time I went and saw them play at VMI, I could've sworn we did win...with that said we are 1-6 at VMI with the only win coming in the 91-92 season....i guess i should check things before I rely on my memory...freshmen year I was able to go to 4 or 5 road games, so i guess that is how the mistake was made....

[Rocketfan]

If we can go 3-2 over the next five games we should be in good shape. That'd put us at 6-6 with two very tough road games left in conference.

Personally, the Bracketbuster and Longwood game doesn't mean much to me. Our nonconferece record just plain sucks, I'm focusing on conference.

I know the Bracketbuster doesn't mean much now, however whomever we play this year ( since we are going to travel ) has to make a return trip to the Vines Center next year. I got that info from Dunton himself. So i would just route for a quality oppenent it can only help us next year no matter what.

[Purple Haize]

As I was leaving the Vines I kept having a line from Major League go over and over in my head: We won a game today, if we win tomorrow, that would be two in a row, and if we win the next one that's called a "winning streak". Could we be on the verge of a DI winning streak?
We won so that is the bottom line.
VMI NEVER looked rattled even down 20 plus. That is b/c, and we should pay CLOSE attention to this, they know their opponents will get tired out by the final 5 minutes of the game and they can put up over 20 in five minutes. That run did not suprise me, our ability to hold on did! We did not fall in love with the jump shot, which is easy to do against this style. VMI also was without 3 or 4 "regulars" which probably hurt them in the first half. I thought Alex (21?) played VERY well, at least as much as he was in. Case in point: Comes off the bench, grabs an offensive rebound off a FT, I believe puts it back in or at least sets up a basket. Gets whistled for a ticky tack foul (Yes, I of all people think they missed thta one) and then gets benched for several minutes. Confusing. Brew's dunk was NO WHERE as near as sweet as the white guy from VMI"s on the break. You could see our defender trying to time the shot to get up to block it, then SNAP!!! Two handed power dunk. He was as suprised as the rest of the crowd!!
I think it is time for a rash of Kool Aid posters now!!! As the old song says "Send in the CLowns"

[TIMSCAR20]

we won once at VMI that I know of because I was there...it was the 2003-2004 season, the year we won the big south championship...but that is really the only reason why i remember

Not true Postman. That year Gabe Martin had the league MVP all but wrapped up and he went out in basically a VMI uniform and played the worst game of his life. Unfortunately the whole league saw it becasue it was on Comcast Sportsnet. I was there too....In the Lockeroom and bench for some of it. However Liberty has won 1 game there but it was a while ago. We have not beaten them there since they joined the conference...We always struggle at Radford too. We have only won there once and I was there for that one too. On the bench and employed as a Ploach (player coach is what the players called me because I used to practice a lot with them). Larry Jackson went on a shooting spree that you as a Postman can relate to He was amazing that night and we won. Hildebrand/Nwoso group was the only team to go to VMI to get a win and that was back in 1992. The teams have only played 13 times including last night. VMI leads the series 7-6. VMI was the first opponent in the Vines ever in 1990 when the building opened.

[TIMSCAR20]

Postman I didn't see you correct yourself until after I Posted (get it?).

[SuperJon]

That was a Medic level joke.

[TIMSCAR20]

So true...I should have been a "bigger man" than that! I got a million of them this morning! Zing!

[kel varson]

if we are 8-6 Dunton is probably back. Yes? Let the hijack begin in 3,2,1...

[A.G.]

Pant. Pant. Huff. Puff. Gasping for air. Whew, what a game. I am still exhausted from last night. My thoughts.

SJ is right. Nice sized crowd that just didn't seem to know how to get into a game, until VMI made their run. I think others are right about VMI's run--we just looked gassed at the end--and we may have well gotten lucky on the no-foul call on the 3 at the end.

My main point is that perhaps RD needs to junk his offense and utilize his talent by playing this style. They gutted it out and hung on by a thread, but got the win. It was a badly needed night. But WOW, what fun it was. I sensed the players loved it, too. I have to give the coaching staff credit for having the team ready to play, and in spite of the turnovers, I thought we did a great job handling the traps in the first half. if RD wants to find a way to stimulate interest and perhaps his job, this style might just do both.

For Tuesday, I would do the same thing. Make Ashville run and force the tempo--they certainly would not be prepared for it--and their is no way that the big guy can handle that.

Make my Kool-Aid a double. I'm a bit dehyrated. That was fun.

[Cider Jim]

Random thoughts about the game...
1. the funniest thing of the night was hearing the one group chant, "We want Russell." With all due respect to Monroe, the run-and-gun VMI style of basketball would have exposed Russell as the awkward 6'11" post player that he really is; thank God RD kept him on the bench.
(2) this game--with the exception of 2 others (UVa win & BSC championship)--seemed to be RD's finest hour: he had the athletes & the assistant coaches to prep them to beat VMI's trapping press.
(3) the Blimp was the 2nd funniest thing of the evening. After seeing it and hearing Scar's previous comments, all I could think was "I hope this thing didn't cost 'tens of thousands of dollars'."
(4) How does LU count attendance at a double header like that? The Lynchburg paper said only 4,585 were in attendance, but I'm guessing many of us bought tickets for the girls game and then just stayed for the guys game. Were we counted once or twice?
(5) I thought we were promised 2 open concession stands once the students got back from the break? Still, just one was opened.
(6) Seeing Coach Rocco honored as Big South coach of the year was pretty cool, and I was really impressed with the football video clip and hearing that Rocco stayed for both games as a fan.
(7) I was glad to see so many VMI fans at the game--and especially glad to see them go home disappointed with a loss.

[Purple Haize]

Who knows, this game may have shown some light onto what can make this team click. While not quite to the level of VMI, I think it was apparent to EVERYONE that an extremely more uptempo game plan would make us a BEAST (pardon the saying steal Manger) to deal with. Brew actaully looked comfortable out there. We can really utilize our athleticism. Is it too much to hope for? I will say this type of thing happend "back in the day". We spent so much time in an early season prep trying to simulate a defense we would go against, we eneded up adapting it for the rest of the season and did GREAT!!! Stranger things have happened!

[TylerBakersGonnaBGreat]

I take Full credit for the fan turnout haha

[SuperJon]

You're an idiot. Haha.


I said this earlier in the week to someone, and I mentioned it to Scar last night:

In the movie Glory Road, Texas Western (or whatever they were) was playing against Iowa and they were getting their butts kicked. In the second half, one of the players said, "Coach, let us play our game." The coach let them run and do what they do best and they came back and won the game.

Coach, let us run. Not to the extent of VMI, but more of a UNC type deal. We want to push the ball and not do this motion offense that Winthrop has used to perfection. We have the athletes to do it.

[thesportscritic]

i thought that game would never end. at times it was very torturous to watch.

[TylerBakersGonnaBGreat]

Youre Telling me that i didnt get at least 4,000 of those people out there last night? psssshhhh

[ATrain]

You didn't get me out there last night...but that had a heck of a lot more to do with the fact that I was driving the tennis team to and from Fairfax than anything else

I would've gone if I was here, whether or not you did anything

[SuperJon]

It was all you, Andy. They all came for you.

[TylerBakersGonnaBGreat]

It was all you, Andy. They all came for you.

Thank You, but i cant say all of them did, but most of them came for me, and for Coach D