[Liberty22]

Well dang

[jmclaughlin]

Wild game.
A few things that stood out to me:
McGhee forces too much action. Need him to play aggressive but he plays hero ball far too often
Our bigs…play small. Robinson + Rode + 50 combined minutes = 2 rebounds…COMBINED!
Poor FT shooting. Sure 78% doesn’t look bad but the 0-2 from Shiloh were killer. Both on front end of a 1&1. Both during key stretch runs. One should / could have been a 5 point possession. The foul on the play through and three by Brody but instead we came away empty after SR’s miss.
LU will have a good season.
This is early year basketball. Every team is working on rotations and identity. We are close.
Also, what a huge run to make this one a game. 26-0 run is incredible.

[Ill flame]

I think we will win 20+ games by virtue of being in one of the weakest conferences in the country but we aren't looking good this year. It's hard to believe this is a senior heavy team. What in the world was McGhee doing with his shot selection at the end of the game? This just hasn't been his year yet and we live or die as a team with him unfortunately.

I liked our crowd for a random sunbelt opponent. It makes me excited for next year when those crowds should be closer to the norm against C-USA opponents.

[Cider Jim]

26-0 run is incredible.

That was a beautiful thing to watch!

[stokesjokes]

McGhee has the hero-ball gene for sure. Hard to blame him when our offense isn’t producing good looks. Their size and length along with all the whistles made it hard to get into an offensive rhythm.

Really need Rode to find his offense. Need someone to be a 2-way player. Our 3 best offensive players are defensive liabilities at this point. I was and am still hoping Warfield and Venzant make the jump on offense.

[Purple Haize]

The chemistry and culture that RMK fosters is a thing to behold. Seeing it live is the only way to do it Justice. He gets the most he can of the players he has. IMO he just needs more talented players, especially Bigs
LU made a lot their run without help from Darius. I though Darius was fine down the stretch. He needs to take over there and BE selfish. He was fine doing that late, he just came up short. Needs to get that magic/confidence back.
The defense (despite the score) looked better. That needs to continue to improve
Watching Mrs HCRMK is almost as entertaining as watching the game itself!

[Dalegarz1]

I agree with most of the assessments already given. Not only do we have a lack of inside scoring, when our “bigs” catch the ball in the lane they NEVER get in a triple threat position. It’s not only that they can’t score-there isn’t even an attempt. I’m sorry but Porter did not contribute on either end. He is a defensive liability and offensively, along with McGhee, he drives baseline only to find himself in no man’s land and frequently turns it over. The atmosphere in tHe arena was great and Peebles was lights out for a stretch. BTW, how hot was #1 for Southern Miss in the first half!
I hope I’m wrong, but I see us in the middle of the pack in conference play.

[ballcoach15]

We need more scorers on the court.

[Liberty22]

Think how good we could be if we had a haase on our squad

[Purple Haize]

Think how good we could be if we had a HAIZE on our squad

FIFY

[AATL]

It was great to see the team bounce back with some energy after looking demoralized in the first half. Quite the energy shift and a sign of maturity.

Also great to see Peebles bust out. He had some flashes last year, but having a consistent threat not named Darius McGhee would go a long ways in spreading out the floor.

[stokesjokes]

Does Peebles remind anyone else of James Harden (without the handle)? Real herky-jerky movement that keeps the defense off-balance

[ballcoach15]

We need more than 1 or 2 players in double figures each game. Other than Mcghee, most everyone else is very inconsistent.

[Tothehoopyall1]

My guess is that Porter will not be starting pretty soon. Did he score a basket? I know scoring is not his main role but I don't think he scored. Is he becoming a liability in a way? The last play was a turnover in his attempt to set up Darius.

We are tough to play at home and the crowd helped us get back in the game, but overall we are not looking great.

Rode seems a little lost out there. He looks like he's regressed. Preston was a non-factor (we weren't playing Regent).

Brody- Why is he not starting?

Some teams peak later in the year and I hope this is the case for us, however my projection right now is that we will not win the ASUN (we are playing too much like last year's team). We just have to many holes and teams are getting better and better at prepping for Darius.

[flameshaw]

No bigs with scoring ability. Stop McGhee, easy win. I don't see us winning the conference either. Just a replay of last year.

[AATL]

I'm not ready to hit the panic button. Southern Miss was LONG and physical - that's not going to be the norm in the ASUN. A very good Bama team just eviscerated Jax St by 42.

It's an ugly start, but lots of time before conference play and I won't be shocked if yesterday's starting 5 is not the starting 5 on ASUN day 1.

[Ill flame]

Porter is averaging 4.8 assists per game which would be the highest we've had since the 2014-15 season if he doesnt regress. He doesn't need to score as long as he's setting up other guys to score. Last year we desperately needed a guy like that and we finally found him. Of course he's a true freshman so he needs to work on some things.

[stokesjokes]

I’m not going to get too high on Porter yet. We thought we had a big for the future after Abii’s first few games too.

I hope he does answer the pg question for the next 4-5 years, but let’s see how he holds up once our opponents have some scouting against him.