Texas A&M 67, Oral Roberts 53

Our defense is progressing. In the first exhibition game we didn't play any defense, in the first game of the season we didn't defend for the first five minutes, and in the first half of this game we did "about as good as we can do defensively." Hell even DJ guarded "for the first time since he has been here." At half time Oral Roberts had only 17 points in 23 shots. The second half we a different story, 36 points in 32 shots, which may be the a conditioning issue. Turge's teams play pressure defense and motion offense, and this teams is just "not in good enough shape to play the way [he wants] to play and do it for 40 minutes."

Last game DJ had only two boards, so coach joked that he was on track to "set a record for the fewest rebounds for a 7 footer in a season." DJ responded with eight boards, three of them on offense. Eight is not quite the 20 he promised, but I will take it.

I have never heard a coach call out an opponent's fans before last night. Oral Roberts head coach Scott Sutton (remember him? his name was mentioned as a replacement to Billy G) said that DJ is a "special player" and thought it "was a little disappointing that only 8400 people show, they need to get out here and see this kid play." Ouch.

Up next is the other team dumped by Billy G, UTEP. The Miners play a style similar to what Memphis played last year, which is good and bad. Good because we played Memphis in the tourney last year, so we will be familiar with the scouting report. Bad because, well, they beat us.