[TIMSCAR20]

Guys,

Sly asked me to post my "blog" about the games I cover for FTN from Facebook to here. I have one from Cinn Christian and the second one is from ECU which I just finished. Enjoy.

[TIMSCAR20]

Ok,

since I feel I have the best seat in the house for Liberty Men's basketball and since I think this year is gonna be fun again not like last season's 7-20, I am gonna try to write a few thoughts after each home game that I call.

1st let me say Alex McLean's 15 points 15 rebs was a monster game. I don't care if he was playing against a high school girls team (which they pretty much were with Cincinnati Christian LOL), that is a big performance. Didn't start along with Damien Hubbard for being late but they came in and went to work. LB is so good it is really hard to say something original and I pride myself in being an original thinker. 27 points was just another day at the office for him. He can do it all plain and simple. I think 2115 is possible and 2151 would give him the all time Big South Scoring record. Ironically he could be at the top of the Big South scoring without ever winning a scoring title! In fact Liberty has never had a player win one, (Reggie Williams from VMI is probably gonna win it this season) not even me or my teammate Bailey Alston (we didn't play in the Big South and I never scored anywhere close but Bailey's 26 per game would have been more than enough). Whit Holcome Faye quietly finished 3rd on the list from Radford. 2151 was Coastal's Tony Dunkin and he is also the only guy in the history of NCAA basketball in ANY conference to win 4 POY's. Enough about Larry's chase for immortality.

J Holland played the best game he has ever played in a Liberty uniform! He was a pest on D and he hit a couple of tough shots including a 3. He only had 2 steals on the stat sheet but he forced at least 5 or 6 turnovers. BJ Jenkins still needs to marinate a little but he will be fine. Walk-on Kyle Ohman came in and played like a veteran and I think Randy Dunton will have to get him some minutes as a role player esp. when Brewington gets eligible. Tyler Baker is Gonna Be Great (www.flamefans.com inside joke). At 6-9 he can play on the perimeter and that is tough to stop for opponents. Big Russell Monroe needs more minutes. He only played 5 minutes in a 40 point blowout. Coach D missed that one in my opinion.

Don't get it twisted, Cincinnati Christian shot it well in the first half but Liberty was simply the better team. I missed Your Friend Sparky in the house and I missed having the students there to create atmosphere. Gotta win back the crowds. That is all for now. My next note will be after the Dec 2 East Carolina game. That will be the 1st true test as far as a team on our level. They are in Conference USA but they are young and very beatable. Also that night us alumni will be honored and Karl Hess will have his number retired. He scored 2373. Don't think Larry Blair will get there but he is gonna try!

SCAR

[TIMSCAR20]

Once again, I writing from my view at center court calling the games for FTN. I thought last night's win was a big step in the right direction for Coach Randy Dunton's program. A win over a Conference USA team looks good on paper around the country. ECU is young but talented. I think they will be really good in a year or two but they need to figure each other out first. They will win some games in CUSA but don't expect them to be cutting down nets or anything at the end of the season. That being said, Former UVA guard (played with Ralph Sampson) Ricky Stokes is really gutsy for taking a road game in Lynchburg in the first place. Not many teams from a power conference would ever, ever come into the Vines Center. I know he figured they could win the game but it is still a no win situation for a power conference team in terms of public perception: You lose it is a big deal, you win, no big deal. Liberty returns the visit to Greenville, NC next season. This is the 1st win in 6 tries for Liberty over ECU. I was on the teams that lost to the 1st 2 teams. A pro by the name of Blue Edwards was on the team back then. He had 3 of the best game dunks I have ever seen and believe me I have seen and played a ton of hoops in my time! If we had youtube back then you guys would still be rewinding the tape. He had 16 at halftime then we played a box and one and I was the one to guard him. He finished with 22. But I digress. Back to last night. Larry Blair had one of his worst games shooting wise this season and never really got into an LB type night. There were 3 of his summer league teammates on ECU, Cory Farmer, Sam Hinnant and Jeremy Ingram. They were ready for nearly everything Larry threw up and they forced him into a 4-14 shooting night. Each one of his baskets were tough shots that only LB could pull off with success. That is a real testiment to this team's improvement. Larry has a bad night and they still beat a quality opponent. The reason in my opinion was a strong performance off the bench by the young backcourt of Freshman BJ Jenkins and Sophmore Justin Holland. Those guys brought so much more energy and created havoc in the backcourt of ECU. They forced bad shots to be taken and got many deflections and steals on defense. BJ was electric in the open court with on the mark passes and twisting spinning shots in traffic. Great game for him and his confidence will continue to grow. J Holland didn't stuff the stat sheet but he did so many more positive things that don't show up on a stat sheet that coach D couldn't take him out of the game. BJ finished with 12 points in 24 minutes and Holland had 6 big rebounds from the guard position. Alex McLean is a real man plain and simple. His 17 points and 11 rebounds were amazing. He shot poorly from the FT line which is uncharacteristic of him or else he would have easily got to 20 points. Speaking of the FT line, I have never seen such a struggle to make free shots for both teams as we witnessed last night! ECU shot themselves in the foot by going 10 for 27 from the line. Jon Fields who is a handful himself at 6-9 with long arms and a 70% shooting percentage could not find the broad side of the backboard from the charity stripe. He was 2 for 12. You may ask how can you miss 10 of 12 shots with no defense but I was asking how he made 2 of those bricks he was throwing up because they weren't even close. That and the Liberty defense was the undoing of the ECU Pirates. I had some good material about Captian Jack Sparrow and the Pirates of the Carribean prepared in case the game was a blowout, and at 17-3 ECU in the early going, I thought I was going to need that filler and a whole lot more. However a 6-11 inch Junior named Russell Monroe came in and got the party started for Liberty with a thunderous dunk in transition followed by a fierce expression and a pump of the fist that seemed long over due from the home schooler from Alma. I am a big Monroe fan and I would love to see him play more. He has been efficient in the 6 to 8 minutes a game he is in there right now. Coach is feeling more and more confident in his ability to contribute though. Give the Liberty coaching staff a lot of credit for preparing the team to guard the tendenciies of Courtney Captain (his name just is a perfect segway for my Jack Sparrow rant...Oh well), Darrell Jenkins and Sam Hinnant. They held Hinnant to 0-5 and 1 point. Jenkins and Captain account for a good deal of ECU's offense but had moments where they looked lost thanks to Holland and BJ Jenkins' smothering defense. Darrell Jenkins finished 4-12 and Captin 6-16. They not only had their own Jenkins but they also had their own Blair. He was nothing like our Blair but was a factor in the game in a negative way. Gabe Blair was in foul trouble the whole game and he would have given Alex McLean more of a challenge together with Fields as both defenders are 6-9. McLean took advantage of his absense and went to work on smaller defenders at a couple of key moments in the second half. Big win for the Flames and I cannot wait to see them take the floor on Monday night in the Vines. The students need to return to the Vines and support this team. It could be a special year with the talent on the floor. We have yet to see the much heralded Dwight Brewington hit the floor too. Trust me folks, he is the real deal! Not to sound like a certain team manager that posts on www.flamefans.com, but Dwight is a beast! Wait till you see him! OK, I'm done. Good win for the Flames!

[PAmedic]

thanks SCAR- well done. Good to hear big Russ is coming outta his shell.

[TDDance234]

Not to sound like a certain team manager that posts on www.flamefans.com, but Dwight is a beast! Wait till you see him! OK, I'm done. Good win for the Flames!

Uhoh, a manger sighting.

[TIMSCAR20]

I thought about Manger in church today when Dr. Falwell was talking about a little child born in a manger.

[SuperJon]

He put the "www" on the front of it. No one does that. The "www" is implied. It's kind of like talking about me and being fat. We don't even have to point it out anymore. Just like Medic and short or you and bald. It's all simply implied.

[TIMSCAR20]

Jon, I did that so it would show up as a link and people reading would follow it and fall into the Matrix that is Flamefans.com And I AM NOT BALD

[LU'sbestmanager]

thanks for the shout out. lol

oh yeah, and he will be a beast! lol

[ATrain]

Jon, I did that so it would show up as a link and people reading would follow it and fall into the Matrix that is Flamefans.com And I AM NOT BALD

ROFL

[thesportscritic]

Jon, I did that so it would show up as a link and people reading would follow it and fall into the Matrix that is Flamefans.com And I AM NOT BALD

you are to bald baldy

[jmdickens]

I saw SCAR late Friday night. I was suprised with how much hair he had. WOW.lol

[SuperJon]

Why are you seeing Scar late on a Friday night?

[pbow]

SCAR I was lovin the brown suit yesterday, I have one very similar to it.

[jmdickens]

I wouldn't take that from pbow, he is from West Virginia. SCAR you might want to burn that suit then....lol pbow.

[Baldspot]

What's wrong with admitting you are bald?

[TIMSCAR20]

Baldspot would you admit to a crime you didn't commit? I never argue that I am a scrubby ball player now and that I am out of shape compared to my old days but I will not say I am bald when I am not bald. If you ever get within 5 feet of me you would know that. Or I can let you feel my head for the stubble But don't rub it too long or MRS. SCAR might get jealous Pbow thanks for the compliment. I love that brown suit too. It went well with my orange, peach, tangerine shirt. I may be bald someday but until I am...Dickens caught me on Friday at LaHaye trying to work out so I could score more than 2 points in the next Alumni game.

[SuperJon]

Is this Queer Eye For The Straight Guy now?

[Baldspot]

Not sure why I thought of this but I remember the Seinfeld episode where the guy shaved his head for a couple years thinking it was cool, then Elaine wanted him to grow it back, but when he tried he couldn't?

[TIMSCAR20]

Yes I remember that episode too Baldspot. It was funny. I do the test all the time. There won't be any surprises in that dept on my part.

[Hold My Own]

I went over this with his wife just a few weeks ago....it's by choice...I didnt believe it either, but after further review it appears to be the case

[givemethemic]

I thought I heard somebody talk about Pink shirts and popping collas, so I figured I would chime in.. Nice Orange shirt SCAR on Sat night, I always knew that you liked the Cleveland Browns!!!!!!!

[Sly Fox]

I believe that was a burnt orange shirt ... Hook Em.

[TIMSCAR20]

Sly that was for you.

[grm]

I watched the game on computer last night, and loved every minute of it. The team looked great, and SCAR was very enjoyable to lsiten to. I appreciate all of your insights, and think you do a great job.