Aggie Sports Blog

2009-03-21T14:55:00.000-05:00

Tip off

2009-03-21T11:30:00.000-05:00

Now 3 hrs of waiting. Maybe UCLA will foul to win it again.

2009-03-21T10:28:00.000-05:00

Boom!

2009-03-21T10:09:00.000-05:00

Jealous?

2009-03-19T12:53:00.000-05:00

Memphis is loosing, crap.

2009-03-19T11:38:00.000-05:00

I finished my bracket yesterday, and, as always, I hate it. There are
a million strategies for building a bracket; I usually go matchup to
matchup and make corrections when something higly unlikely pops up. I
never start by picking my final four and work backwards, that is for
the weak. However I have once again painted myself into a corner. On
my first pass I had Kansas and UNC in the final, which I didn't like
at all, but the only way to fix it was having Memphis in the final.
WTF? Held my nose and sent it in. You can't win your pools every year.

2009-03-19T07:32:00.001-05:00

In the interest of full disclosure, the last time I saw BYU play was in the first round game of last year’s tournament when we, and Josh Carter in particular, beat them 67-60. I have however watched a lot of A&M basketball since then, so I am a bit less clueless than the talking heads. In fact, I have watched enough of A&M basketball to call their first offensive play: turnover by Brian Davis. While BYU plays great defense, allowing 10 fewer points per 100 possessions than the D1 average, they only cause an average turnovers. So this one is all Brian Davis, he just loves giving up the rock to start the game. In fact, a bunch of our guys just hate not turning it over, which is very dangerous considering how fast BYU likes to play⎯ they are the 10th fastest team in the tourney. If we commit a lot of turnovers, or get into one of our notorious 15 minute scoring droughts, then the we will find them ourselves on the bad end of a 12 point run.

Basketball isn’t transitive, but in the absences of any other real insight it will have to do. Both BYU and A&M played Tulsa early in the season, BYU won by six and A&M lost by 11. This tells us exactly nothing. You will never get those 7 seconds back.

My call, A&M by 10.

2009-03-06T18:31:00.002-05:00

Lunardi has jumped us from in the "next four out" group to IN, and not even one of the "last four in." He has us against Syracuse, which should make you chuckle because Cuse was the first team we played, and beat, in modern Aggie basketball tournmanet play.

He has us sitting at 11 right now, I could stand a few more wins and a better seed, but my moma told me never to look a gift tourney berth in the mouth.

2009-02-28T13:48:00.001-05:00

Why the hell is the game delayed? Anyone?

2009-02-27T16:45:00.002-05:00

Again with the obsessive bubble watching...

After dropping out of Joe Lunardi's radar for what feels like months we are back, sort of. We are near the top of the "next four out" list. 6th on the waiting list. The good news is that he now predicts 5 Big 12 teams will make the dance; he had only 4 making it for quite some time. The newest add was OSU as a 12 seed. OSU finishes out with Texas, KState, and OU. They could easily not win another game. But OSU is KState's toughest remaining opponesnt. This is when the comonotorics start to give me a headache.

2009-02-26T17:03:00.002-05:00

If you are like me then you are refreshing the every bubble-watch you can find, and you are infuriated that it takes these people DAYS to update their analysis.

To save you some time, here is the latest...

four-letter-network:

Texas A&M probably needs to finish at least .500 in Big 12 play, so it will have to win two of its last three games.

cbs:

If they can win out, which would include a victory over top 25 Missouri, they can start packing for the Big Dance. Short of that, however, and they may need a couple wins in the Big 12 tournament to feel a bit more secure.

I am not sure why I care about this expert analysis, it's always so obvious; gotta do something between games.

2009-02-26T09:46:00.002-05:00

Some how our baseball team lost to Centenary. I guess that is a school. One of the 234870 tiny teams from Louisiana we play each year. Childress put it pretty clearly, "our bullpen let us down." We kinda played like crap beyond just relief pitching. 8 stranded runners and 2 errors.

The Houston College Classic is this weekend where we face UC Irvin, Rice, and Houston. That is a bunch of really good teams beating each other up. As Childress put it, "it's going to be better than any regional any of the teams there will play in."

2009-02-25T14:18:00.003-05:00

"You’ve got to be good and you’ve got to be lucky. We were a little of both tonight."

Coming into this game Nebraska was the best team in the country at forcing turnovers. This certainly true last night. We had almost twice as many as they had, 15-8. While we cleaned it up slightly in the second half, we completely shut them down in the second half.

They scored 18 points in about 30 possessions (using Ken Pomeroy's FGA-OR+TO+0.475*FTA formula for estimating possessions). That is terrible. Their offensive efficiency (points scored per 100 possessions, again from Ken P.) was 60; they average 100.1; the D1 average is 101.1.

I also have to add this facial by Dash.

2009-02-24T16:09:00.003-05:00

Pat Knight has been suspended for whining about the officiating after we beat them in Lubbock. He knew he "was probably going to get fined or suspended," but thought he need to "lay on a grenade to get your point across." During the game he considered getting thrown out but after consulting with his coaching staff, they "decided it was best not to do that twice."

I understand that coaches get a technical or kicked out for his team, but doesn't it ruin it if you talk about the decision process? Who the hell asks their assistants the pro's and con's of getting kicked out at a particular point during the game? A 2-10 coach I guess.

2009-02-23T12:54:00.002-05:00

An anonymous poster asked the seasonal late February/early March question:

Would it be better for A&M to go maybe 1 and done in the big dance or a better run in the NIT.

I can answer this definitively. It is always better to make the tourney.

It would be better to make the tournament and not score a single basket than to win the NIT without letting any opponent score a single basket.

Evidence: programs are measured by how many years in a row they make the tourney, get to the sweet sixteen, elite eight, final four, etc. There is no, "they made the tourney 3 out of the last 5 years, but won the NIT those other 2 years."

2009-02-22T11:07:00.002-05:00

We finally get a road win in the Big 12, even if it was against the poor Red Raiders who are now 2-10 in conference. As expected, we dominated the on the glass (+14), but a piss-poor job from the free throw line cost us a blow out.

Despite what I said previously about the impact this win would have on our forecast, our probability of a winning in Lincoln only saw a slight bump, from 0.35 to 0.38.

2009-02-21T11:46:00.004-05:00

The Texas win was good for our tourney hopes AND our recruiting. Jeremy Adams (6'5" 215 lb, 27 ppg) picked us over Arkansas after watching the nationally televised beat down.
Is it just me, or does he look a lot shorter than 6'5" in that picture.

2009-02-21T09:12:00.000-05:00

I think of Ken Pomeroy as a college basketball weatherman. For each game he gives the probability of victory. Like a weatherman, he takes historical data and rams it through a series of formulas that include some assumed constants, and out pops a probability. While you (and I, and I am sure Ken himself) don't put full faith in those probabilites, they are pretty decent indicators of how things are going.

Baylor... ouch.

Down by 10 with six minutes left; fight back to within two. The run started just a little late. The loss made even stone faced Josh Carter cry.
However, accoriding to the weather report, it was to be expected, and it didn't really have any impact on our long term forcast, which was lousy 5-11. Essentially we broke even.

One game later and we are (almost) back in business. The Texas win rocketed our long term forcast up to 7-9, with the probability of our predicted two losses at 0.35 (@ Nebraska) and 0.28 (Mizzou). Those are pretty low, but not terrible considering how they are derived. The probablies are based on historical data, which means the Mizzou 0.28 includes four games that have not been played and therefore only the probably of vicorty can be used. If we can convert those highly probably wins to actual wins, there should be some significat upward movement on that 0.28 (it also depends on what Mizzou does between now and then).

If that made no sense, don't worry. The bottom line is that with each win those numbers will move up.

Ken gives us a 0.58 tongiht.

2009-02-10T22:45:00.000-05:00

Hibbert 2 of 2

2009-02-10T21:58:00.000-05:00

Hibbert 1 of 2

2009-02-10T20:49:00.001-05:00

39-65 Dematha. Hibbert was nasty, guy can ruuuun.

2009-02-10T19:52:00.001-05:00

1st quarter: 2-2, 5 points, 2 boards. Very nice move to the basket.
Very questionable defense.

2009-02-10T19:30:00.001-05:00

I just said what's up to Naj Hibbert. Jealous?

DeMatha should DESTROY Archbishop High School. Unsure if photos are
allowed. I will test this.

2009-02-10T15:40:00.001-05:00

Maybe I have been too hard on this team. I tell people that I don't
like them because, even in a blow out, previous teams would always
play really hard, if not smart or well. But this team seems soft and
only plays hard when things are going well.

I may have to change my mind

I just read a story about Billy Gillispie showing his team A&M games
(no link, I am in the DMV and this thing can't cut and paste). From
the headline I thought he was showing some old games, Acid Law/Chris
Walker games. Wrong! They watched games from the current teams, live.

BCG wanted to "show his team his to play." Say what you want about
that SOB, but he is a coach who puts effort and toughness above almost
anything else. I am not. He sees things in this team that I do not.
I will start looking harder.

I hope to see it in Waco.

2009-02-07T17:55:00.000-05:00

NIT, maybe

2009-02-07T13:44:00.001-05:00

K State: no Beasely, but they have won 4 straight, incluing @ Texas,
which is good enough to convince Ken Pomeroy's stats to favor them by
one. One point is clearly within his margin of error, but these guys
are no joke.

Their top two scores are short gaurds. Clemente (6-1) is good for
almost 15 points and three assists, and Pullen (6-0) is just under
that at 14 and 3. Having never seen these guys play, and knowing
atleast DRo and Dash can play some perimeter D, I will speculate sub
par numbers and a W for the good guys.

2009-02-04T23:19:00.001-05:00

Well crap. OU palyed some inspired defense at the end.

2009-02-04T22:52:00.001-05:00

Okay, a buch of our guys have the mohawks.

2009-02-04T22:37:00.000-05:00

Wright is 3-3 with 9 points since they flashed the stay that he had 1
point. Great.

2009-02-04T22:18:00.001-05:00

Also, big ups to the bartender for finding the game after the athletic
department erronously claimed it would be on MASN. Nice $Bill.

2009-02-04T22:16:00.001-05:00

1) that was the best start of any half I have seen this year. 2)
Junior picked the worst game to debue the mohawk; pip squeek Austin
Johnson has had one for years.

2009-01-31T14:09:00.001-05:00

I am going to do some reasearch into how many games we start with a
turnover. I am guessing somewhere around a lot.

I really like the Junior/Laubaue pairing.

2009-01-31T10:29:00.004-05:00

The Tech win was nice. We have lost to these yahoos in a lot of sports for a long time and I welcome any reprieve. Starting out on the bad end of an 11-2 run was bad bad, but we won. Sloan and Carter are still completely absent from the offense, going 1-9 and 1-7 from the field, respectively. D-Slo did have 5 assists to 1 turnover and Carter had 10 points (free throws), but we need these guys. BJ is not always going to torch teams from tre.

Considering the announcers slobbered Roberson for the entire game, it's understandable if you left with the impression that we witnessed the second coming. But lets look at his numbers...
The kid had an amazing 8 minutes. After that, our big men stepped out on the screen, DRo stepped it up, and he missed just about everything--- 4 points off 10 shots in the remaining 25 minutes of the game. Oh, and his team lost. I am not sure if the announcers knew that.

2009-01-28T21:11:00.001-05:00

11-2 bad guy run and pick and roll defense my middle school coach
would be upset about.

2009-01-28T21:07:00.000-05:00

ESPNU is now in HD, thank you RCN. Oh my god, we just traveled again.
I have never never never seen a team travel this much, and not even
driving. As I type this: us two trips down two turnovers, them two
trips down and two buckets.

2009-01-28T13:08:00.002-05:00

In a 4-way tie for last place in the Big 12, a win tonight would rocket us up to a 3-way tie for 6th place. My guess is maybe five teams from our conference make the dance and we have serious work to do to get back into those few slots.

The game in Austin was better, "Turgeon wasn't as downcast after this loss as he has been after some of the other", but still a loss. Josh Carter still only had one point in the first half and Bryan Davis still only had five points in the game. Yes Turge, "the elephant in the room is we have trouble scoring." Specifically scoring more than our opponent.

2009-01-24T23:39:00.001-05:00

Lost by 9 but we were actually in the whole game. Much improved over
our previous losses where we simply threw away large portions of the
game. Some more boards a a few GD free throws and we would have had a
chance to steal one on the road.

2009-01-23T07:44:00.004-05:00

I hate writing about losses, especially like the one on Monday, national audience, Big Monday, bad news, so I usually don't, but I wanted to take a quick look at the numbers before moving on.

Watching the game, it was clear that their double team was too quick and our guys too soft for us to establish any inside game. The stats say we had 18 points in the paint, which is higher than I would have guessed, and they had 30, which is what I expected. We were whipped on the blocks for sure, but we haven't lived or died by our bigs this year. Take a look at the following graph. The x-axis is our margin of victory, and the y-axis is the points in the paint margin.
It's a mess; no correlation.
If we can win without our bigs, what can't we win without? My Internet connection is terrible right now, so the answer will have to wait. My hunch, NO TURNOVERS!

2009-01-20T17:40:00.001-05:00

Forgive me if everyone has seen this already:

2009-01-19T10:39:00.003-05:00

We just picked up this guy from the University of North Texas:

No, not the guy who broke a tackle and ran 96 yards, we got the guy who threw the 4 yard out. Giovanni Vizza become "disillusioned with the program after the Mean Green suffered 21 losses in 24 games." I am not sure College Station is the kind of place that re-illusions a player right now.

2009-01-17T22:41:00.002-05:00

We simply threw away a quarter of the game. In the first 10:32 of the game we only scored six points; had 3 makes, 11 misses, and 5 turnovers. Considering our three offensive boards, we managed 6 points in 16 possessions, that's an efficiency of 37.5. The DI average is 100.2.

By the time got with in two there was only two minus left, we screwed up our next possession by taking the full shot clock and only getting one point, and had to start fouling.

They hit their free throws, we are 1-2 in Big 12.

2009-01-17T21:41:00.003-05:00

I am still digesting the loss, no clear thoughts on it yet besides I thought we were going to win and there is better than the last time we played them and I thought we were never going to score again.

I do have thoughts on Turge. After listening to his postgame press conference, it is absolutely clear to me that if KU ever offers him a job he will take it. Please please please Mr. Bill Self, start winning more games.

2009-01-16T12:53:00.002-05:00

Denzel Bowles is transferring. Turge said, "Denzel wants to continue his career a little closer to home (Va Beach. He’s a quality young man and we wish him all the best.” If you don't know the name Denzel (because he get almost zero PT), he is the guy that was headed to Wichita State, but lost interest and followed Turge to TAMU

I cannot find the quote, but I seem to remember that Denzel showed up to TAMU way over weight; Turge said something about how he was a completely different player than the one they recruited and needed to rebuild his body. Or maybe that was someone else. Whatever he's gone. One less big is never good (if you click on that link, ignorge the typical Brent Z crap about recruiting ouside of Texas. Way to take issue with a non-issue Brent).

2009-01-15T13:35:00.002-05:00

Here is another chart that is similar to my previous recruiting charts. It tracks the NET WEIGHTED SCORE (sum of the guys we won weighted by star minus the sum of the guys we lost weighted by star) by school from 2002--2009. This is a lot of data, and I am not crazy about this layout but here you go.

2009-01-14T22:26:00.001-05:00

9-2 run to close out the half. Up by 12 and my vote for most improved
player of the year is Junior. That guy is pure beast.

2009-01-14T21:36:00.000-05:00

Stupid working late...

2009-01-13T07:00:00.000-05:00

I don't follow recruiting; it annoys me. Paying for premium content, cocky 17 year old guys leading people on just to extend our attention; not my thing. Just like athletes I need an off season. A few months where I don't worry about how bad we stink.

This is not to say I don't think recruits are important, I just choose to ignore it until around signing day, which is very soon. That and I never miss an opportunity to do a little analysis.

So how did we do? Eh. Our class is current 15th at rivals.com, but I find that pretty meaningless. The important question is, are we getting the guys we want? The answer: Yes, unless Texas or LSU want them too.

First we look at how we did in head-to-head match ups, by school, broken down by the recruits' star rating (1-5). For the following graphs, I have looked at the head-to-head match ups where A&M and another school have offered a kid a scholarship. The first graph looks at all of those that match ups we have won, and the second those that we have lost.

To combine these two graphs, I use a simple weighted sum for our recruiting "score": you get one point for a one star guy, two points for a two star guy, and so forth; add those up and you get a score. For each school, there is a lost score and a won score; the weighted sum of the guys who picked us over them, and a weighted sum for the guys that picked them over us.
And for a raw comparison, here is the same chart but without weights.
My hope for the future is that Texas and LSU no longer need good players, an lets h0pe that Nebraska doesnt get better because we target many of the same players.

2009-01-10T23:15:00.001-05:00

We lost. Having watched the game ok TV I know what our problem is: we
need to play better offense and defense, and we need to be lore
consistent, and we need to play better defense.

It's one game; this isn't football; it was an away game; all is not
lost.

2009-01-10T21:12:00.000-05:00

First bar game watching of the year... Finally.

2009-01-07T16:10:00.003-05:00

Conference play is very very close. The Big 12 has some decent representation in the polls: OU is 6, Texas is 7, and Baylor is 23. Rankings are pretty meaningless--- especially in January ---but it shows there is a perception that good teams play in our conference. Our first game is on Saturday v OSU, who is the strangest team. Some how as they seem to be really good and have great players, but just didn't win a ton of games. They shit canned their coach and now we see them in a few days.

Recently, their senior guard Terrel Harris said, “Coach said, a few weeks ago, if we don’t take care of these next three games, A&M is going to be a hell of a game.” Those next three games went like this:

Win: 76-53
Win: 122-73
Win: 83-56

That is a 33 point average margin of victory.

For you logic geeks, I am hoping this is not an iff, if and only if, <=>, situation. Since they took care of those games, A&M will not be a hell of a game. We shall see, on TV too.

2008-12-28T10:35:00.002-05:00

After about a week off and conference play starting in about two weeks, $Bill has lined us up 4 warm up games: Sam Houston State, Rice, McNeese State, and North Dakota. Not all are home games, we play at Rice the 31st, but I am sure our guys will be home in time to get their new year kiss.

Sam Houston is a 5-5 team with a loss to Tech and a win over ULALA, never heard of their other 8 opponents. They play about 6.5 guys; two guys, Corey and Lance, shoot a lot of threes, Corey makes them and Lance does not (13-47 this season, at least he is trying)... whatever, we are going to dominate.

2008-12-28T10:29:00.002-05:00

The Collegiate Baseball Fab 40 preseason poll (??) came out just before Christmas, and has us as the highest ranked Big 12 team at number 9. Other conference foes to make the list are:
10. Texas
14. OSU
15. Baylor
22. Mizzou

This seems like good news, and it is, but Rice is back again at number 3, which means we will be playing a super regional in Houston and not advancing to the College World Series. Bummer, I was so hopefully for this season.

2008-12-20T20:09:00.001-05:00

Turge said it after the TCU game, and I bet he will say it after
tonight's game, this team doesn't play until their backs are against
the wall. Tonight we let LSU get within 2 with 3 minutes left, at
which point B-Davis turnded it on with to straight scores and we won
by 11.

I prefer killer instinct over come-back kid, but I'll take wins.

2008-12-16T11:50:00.003-05:00

What looked like a blowout at half turned into a pretty close game. Sloan and Junior both had huge games--- Junior had, I am guessing, his first double double: 14 boards and 17 points, along with 6 blocks, wow wow WOW ---but we still almost gave it away in the second half.

Why? Turnovers. Their guy Twitty also nearly tripled his average offensive production last night with a team (and game) high 27 points, the next guy had 8. Back to turnovers.

From the chart above, you can see we were doing well until midway though the second half: up 13 and just few turnovers. Then things got sloppy. In four minutes we doubled our turnover deficit, and our lead went from 13 to 2. Sloan finally shook us away by stealing the ball and finishing with a 3-point play. Junior blocks a shot, Carter makes some free throws and we are on our way to a 13-2 run. In that run FAMU had 3 turnovers compared to our 2 steals and 2 blocks.

To find the silver lining... that is the second game this year where we didn't roll over and die; something we had a tendency to do last year.

2008-12-15T20:55:00.001-05:00

We are destroying our namesake in Florida. Point leader is Sloan with
14. Junior is haveing the game of his career: 9 points, 1 steal, 3
blocks, 6 boards.

2008-12-13T23:17:00.001-05:00

Walkup is doing his best Acie Law. Two games in a row he knocks down
clutch threes with seconds left.

Ice cold.

After Walks 3 Holmes added his own with 00:01 left for a tie. We rode
that wave in OT and beat Alabama 86-78.

Carter found his shot tonight; 5-11 from three. We need that.

2008-12-13T21:12:00.001-05:00

We just closed out the first half of our first true road game very
strong. Down 7 with 6:35 left, we went on a 14-4 run to end up on the
good side of a 39-36 halftime score. The streak was a team effort: 5
guys contribute to the run, B-Davis had a pair of jams, and DRow
dropped two dimes.

2008-12-12T13:07:00.002-05:00

I am still amazed at the Arizona comeback, and I want to figure out what the hell happened. I am sure we will remember the comeback to be much more dramatic than the stats will reveal, but I have been investigating none the less. For whatever reason here is what happened:
With 10 min left in the game, when we have been trailing by at least 8 points for the last 16 minutes, and as much as 14 in that stretch, we cut their lead to 2 in less than 4 minutes.

More analysis to come, unless our next game is particularly interesting.

2008-12-11T09:49:00.002-05:00

So I have been MIA for a while, sorry. "Football" season took the wind out of my sails. Despite that mess, senior punter Justin Brantly made rivals.com's All-American list.

Now basketball is doing well, especially the women--- #3, wow ---and the Arizona comeback--- I still can't figure out what happened. I am starting to get excited about College Station sports, well and the weather is crappy and it's dark by 4PM so what the hell else am I going to do?

2008-12-05T21:44:00.001-05:00

Um. Sloan juat showed up.

2008-12-05T21:42:00.000-05:00

13-2 in the fist 5 minutes? I am not loving the Big 12-Pac 10
hardwood series. Carter is 0-3. Our only points came off a 3 foot
hook from Junior. We also look slow slow slow. Barf.

2008-11-16T22:25:00.004-05:00

Something bothered me at the end of the Baylor game, besides that I was still listening; JJ had some big plays that didn't matter. It bothered me because it felt familiar. We loose and he has a great box-score game.

Here is a little graph that might help.
This is JJ's cumulative passing yards against our lead (This graph could be made much better if the x-axis was time, but the play-by-play I used doesn't give a per-play clock. If you know of a play-by-play that does give this let me know and I will fix the graph).

60% of his yards came AFTER we were down by 34. This would be fine if we were down 34 at half, but we weren't, this was within a minute of the fourth quarter (Again, don't pay attention to the x-axis, it doesn't indicate time; it's meaningless.).

The majority of his yards came at the end of the game when we were down huge

How often does this happen?

I could only get play-by-play to 6 games: Baylor, OU, KSU, Miami, Army, and Colorado, which is an okay sample. Some wins, some losses, some blowouts. But considering these games...

40% of JJ's passing yards came when were were down 21. I am not sure what to do with this metric. I know our defense stinks, and it's quite possible we are almost always down by three TDs, so I need to look into something better, but that number is hard to ignore.

What about big plays? Half of JJ's 20+ yard plays came when we were down by at least two TDs. 38% came when we were down at least 21.

An really big plays? JJ has had 5 +50 yard plays. We were down by 21 in two, 13 in one, and tied the the other two.

In the interest of full disclosure, we are almost always loosing. In fact, only 16% of JJ's pass attempts came when we weren't loosing. I am not blaming him for all of this, I am just pointing out when he gets his stats.

2008-11-16T17:19:00.001-05:00

Got the live feed of the basketball game to work. Baylor? Who is that?

2008-11-15T17:39:00.000-05:00

This is out of control. Doomsday. Baylor is up 13 at half. They
have 108 more yards than us; double the first downs; nearly double
time of possession; double the first downs; the list goes on.

How how how can we be this bad?

2008-11-14T15:18:00.003-05:00

Say it ain't so Joe! A 10 seed? We only lost 1 player. He does have the 7 Big 12 teams in the dance: KU (6), Mizzou (11), Texas (3), OU (4), OSU (13), and Baylor (7). Yes that's right Joe has Baylor finishing above us; no respect.

The good news is that I think this is the first time we have been in a pre-season bracket. Maybe no respect is too much.

2008-11-07T09:14:00.004-05:00

Notice yourself smiling? That is because it's basketball season has started and Turgeon didn't think we were awful.

72-59 isn't some sort of crushing win--- the margin was within a point of last year's opener ---but in the post-game Turgeon said, "We will have a good offense." Considering his comments last year, we know Turge is brutally brutally honest, and when he said we are going to be good at something I believe it.

Digging though the box score...

I don't have the play-by-play, but I bet Turge burned through all of this timeouts in the first half trying to figure out why we couldn't shoot or gaurd. In the first half we shot 12-31 (38.7%) while Kingsville shot 13-25 (52.0%). Something happened around half time and we flipped the stats: good guys went 16-28 (57.1%) and bad guys went 10-27 (37.0%).

Our defense must have improved in the 2nd half. Besides the obvious drop in field goal percentage, we started forcing Kingsville to make harder shots. In the first half only 15% of their shots were 3-balls; in the second half 50% were behind the arc. Again, I don't have the play-by-play, but I don't think they just started chunking 3's to catch up; they only shot 5, and were never down by a ton.

Bryan Davis played like Bryan Davis; 1-8 shooting and 8 boards in 29 minutes. He has to contribute more on O.

Somehow both BJ Holmes and Nathan Walkup had 4 fouls. I am going to speculate that is because of the tight ball-guarding.

Before the season Turge said Dash "is going to help us" and Loubeau's "head is spinning." Seems he had his names mixed up. Dash was 0-2 with a turn over, and Loubeau was 4-6 with 3 boards.

JC, DRow, and Sloan played great. 14 points, 14 points, and 5 assists respectively.

I am glad basketball is back, so were the nearly 9K fans and 3K students.

--UPDATE--

Here is a short highlight video.

2008-11-05T21:35:00.003-05:00

Finally, basketball season is here (actually it was here about an hour ago). Turgeon and the boys laced up against Texas A&M-Kingsville at Reed. Davis, Roland, Carter, Sloan, and Elonu got the start.

With the game about half over, Sloan has hit all four of his free throws; very good news, and Davis has two fouls; filling Joe's shoes like we hope.

2008-11-01T20:26:00.000-05:00

Watching Tech reminds me of how we used to be; playing inspired
football at home and winning games we were not supposed to win. When
does that start again.

2008-10-30T20:09:00.003-05:00

Okay kids, Colorado is our last chance to grab a conference W at Kyle. Before Tech, our chances of getting a home win seemed pretty bleak. While we didn't get the win in Lubbock, we did... hugs. "During the Texas Tech week, you could really see a big change in the locker room. There were a lot of guys going around hugging everybody. There was a lot of excitement." Hold on, give Trent Hunter a chance, he's a fish. "Some of the seniors … they’re a lot more passionate now than they were at the beginning of the year."

Seniors, that is so last season.

19 players have seen action for the first time this season. The motive is less throw-them-to-the-wolves and more whole-the-hell-else-do-we-have, but result can be the same: bad now, good later. Shermi knows “it’ll pay off for somebody. Hopefully it’ll be me." I hope so too, and not because $Bill lets Sherms say around too long.

Jerrod Johnson's too-soon start is paying off already. But Johnson can't take all the credit, "I really think I'm a product of my environment, the coach and players around me and the things I've been taught." JJ is only one man.

The OU game will be televised, but we don't know how, yet. Suck it up on Saturday and we will be on FSN; blow out Colorado and we are headed for a nationally televised ~~ass kicking~~ game on ABC.

2008-10-26T12:44:00.003-05:00

Too bad the season is over, because that would have been a hell of a game last night. 1083 yards of offense, 11 TDs, and two punts. That is like a McDonald's All-American game, zero defense. Iowa State's QB Austen Arnaud had a career day, throwing more than 100 yards more on Saturday than in any other game in his career, but couldn't find the end zone. In total, Iowa State had 401 yards in the air but only one passing touchdown. How does that happen? Goodson didn't play due to a sprained ACL so the running game was pretty much dormant outside of Cy-Gray's 27 yard TD.

Freshman Ryan Tannehill passed T-Murph (and others) to be A&M's most prolific freshman receiver, and there are still at least four games left in the season.

Shermi quote of the year, "Our back is so far up against the wall we have splinters up our butt."

2008-10-25T11:26:00.003-05:00

Um, I am watching Tech v KU. Have you seen this guy from Tech, Brandon "Mankind" Carter with Halloween makeup on, including striped lipstick?
Really?

2008-10-24T14:36:00.004-05:00

With football season over it's been pretty sleepy around here, so Maroon Madness (Haj Hibbert was there, I can't wait to see this guy play) and Turge's media day were a welcome wake up. Basketball is BACK, finally. In his first press conference of the season, Turge talked about being more comfortable, Josh Carter stepping up as a leader (and hitting more shots, thank god), and James Blasczyk, the last minute big man he brought in when DJ split.

Besides Blasczyk, there will be a couple of other fresh faces, point guard Dash Harris and forward David Loubeau. Right now, David's "head is spinning" with the speed Turge is pushing. He will be good, but "he's got a long ways to go." Day one Turge said DJ had a long way to go, and he was exactly right, so I think we can trust him that we will have to wait on Loubeau.

Dash is another story. Turge loves this guy, and a former point guard he should know. I am not even going to paraphrase this praise...

We're trying to change the way we play. We're trying to play faster. We weren't able to do that last year, and Dash is going to help us do it. We just have to have somebody to run with him. I love his decision-making. Great on-ball defender. He's just going to help us. He's going to help us and be a part of the rotation and he's a winner.

Check Dash drop some dimes in these clips...

I maintain that a player with a cool name gets a disproportionate amount of media attention. Dash will be one of those players. A super-fast guy named Dash, are you kidding me. This is the cheese that the four-letter network loves.

2008-10-18T11:23:00.001-05:00

Stick a fork in us, we are done.

2008-10-17T11:23:00.002-05:00

Even if you hadn't looked at the schedule, you would know we are playing Tech this week by the posters on this site:

Tech poster 1:
"10 out of the last 13 the underdog has won. BWHAHAHAH. Isn't it time to go do a tradition or something. Y'all are pathetic."

Tech poster 2:
"I now look at them with there cult views and pity them that they can not break free from the Aggie bondage and must suffer as a die hard for a program that take solace in beating Army."

Tech, keepin it real.

2008-10-16T15:36:00.002-05:00

So I blew it on the K-State upset call, and pretty much everyone has given up on the season. Things are so bad in College Station that Tech fans have emerged from the dust to talk shit about how they are so good that they don't even want to talk shit. They "will probably not even waste the energy of calling [their] aggie friends to rub it in. [They] now look at them with there cult views and pity them that they can not break free from the Aggie bondage..." Aggie bondage? Really? The sun even shines on a dog's ass some days; 10 of the last 13 days to be exact. We have given up 100 points in our first two Big 12 games and I bet our field goal tossing foes believe they can make it 200 in three games, but Vegas is only giving them +21. I actually don't even care. Out.

2008-10-11T12:48:00.000-05:00

Vegas is giving KState 3.5; Not a humiliating line. If I knew how, I
would start a vote on what you think the Tech line will be. 45 sounds
conservative.

2008-10-10T21:05:00.003-05:00

I am not always the biggest fan of the four-letter network's Tim Smith, but today I am...

I still think I can hear A&M play-by-play announcer Dave South's call ringing in my ears from that play.

South's call--- "HE GOT A TOUCHDOWN. HE GOT A TOUCHDOWN. HE GOT A TOUCHDOWN. HE GOT A TOUCHDOWN" ---has got to be one of the best, maybe I'm bias.

In case you forgot what a champion in maroon looks like:

2008-10-10T17:33:00.001-05:00

Mi Bennett will no play on Saturday. Some BS about "team rules."
Haters.

2008-10-08T22:45:00.000-05:00

KState @ Kyle Field; 2nd home win? I am kind of feeling this one.

JJ gets the start by default, not by ability or production, unfortunately. It's pretty clear that Shermi wants to stick with McGee. How else can you explain the unwillingness to name a starter? He wants the vet in there and will wait until the trainer's update on Saturday to give up on the shoulder; always hoping next week's news is better. I don't blame him. JJ gives us glimpses of great; McGee doesn't turn the m f'in ball over.

When it gets this dark, it's easy to see rays of light: the O-line gave JJ time; in the Army game we got on blocks and stopped, we actually moved OSU; we are punting the ball well; lots of young guys are getting serious minutes. There it is. The sign you gave up on the season is when you point out how much this will help NEXT season.

This brings some relief. All expectations are slid to '09 and each W will be a treat. I like treats.

2008-10-06T11:34:00.001-05:00

Any self-respecting pundit must justify his analysis at all costs; admit a mistake and your credibility evaporates. So here is mine... Careful analysis shows I was 62% right. The top runners v worst defenders was not the blood bath that most anticipated. We kept both guys under their normal production levels and, for the most part, out of the end zone. That said, our offensive line and receivers need to get better at tackling. If we are going to hand them the ball 5 times, we cannot let two of those go back for TDs. A&M is not on the decline; you cannot erode what you don't have. We are there, declinED.

2008-10-04T16:59:00.001-05:00

Um, TTech hung 5 TDs on KState in the first half. We are screwed.

2008-10-02T22:00:00.005-05:00

I am calling it. We beat OSU.

Everyone everyone thinks we are getting smoked. They are ranked for the first time in five years. The four-letter network picked it 45-20 bad guys; that is professional analysis ladies and gentlemen. Jackie Sherrill knows that line smells, "Since when has A&M been a 25-point underdog to Oklahoma State or a 25-point underdog to anybody?" Exactly Jackie (in the interest of full disclosure, Jackie was talking about our "tremendous step back,” and not the inability of Vegas to pick a good line for our games, but whatever).

OSU may have the both of the top two Big 12 rushers and may sport the top rushing offense in the country and we may sport the 5th-worst rush defense in the country, but everyone know those kind of comparisons are crap when they don't work in your favor. I mean please, who has OSU played? Probably not Army.

UPDATE: K-State will not be on TV.

2008-10-01T21:29:00.004-05:00

My obsessions over plummeting financials have been a welcome distraction from a football team that was inches from hitting rock bottom. I didn't expect to see a fourth quarter, fourth down defensive stand to get the W in a game where Vegas gave us +30.

In the Army we (probably) said goodbye to McGee and (I hope) welcome back to J Train. I've complained about the big man for a while; his crying and weight have not gone over looked here. But at times like this, when a guy says, "I was asked to play fullback, and that's what I'm going to do. But when I'm called upon to carry the ball I'm going to put my team on my back," GIVE HIM THE BALL!

I listened to Dave South announce the game, so no clue how many times JJ avoid the sack and extended the play, but he has got to do better than 53 yards, a TD, and am INT. I guess his shoulder is not feeling great. This is reminding me of Fran years when half of our starters were hurt.

A single bright spot is Trent Hunter. The TRUE FRESHMAN defensive back was awarded Big 12 defensive player of the week. When was the last time that happened? Probably Jackson Appel. Here is to four more years of Hunter roaming the pitch.

2008-09-27T14:32:00.002-05:00

We beat Army; the wheels didn't fall off, but they almost did. The odds makers gave us something like 30 points, we won by 4. It was nice to see J Train to get the rock and the first to lock up the win.

2008-09-27T12:45:00.002-05:00

I am listening to the ~~crap~~ game on the radio because RCN (my cable company) is incompetent, so I cannot judge, but that has to be one of the worst defensive efforts we have ever put up. Army went 84 yards for 7, 39 of them defensive penalties. Dave South et al. seem to think a few of those were bad calls.

Offensive recap: McGee throws a 42 yard bomb, gets hurt, then JJ throws an INT to set up a 58 yard fumble return by Freeney.

14-7 good guys.

2008-09-24T08:01:00.003-05:00

At the beginning of the year, even the most sceptical fans thought we would be 0.500 at Kyle Field; we are 0.000. Vegas has us as heavy favorites over Army this weekend, despite their dreaded triple option offense and our dreadful defense---- 105 out of 119 in rush defense.

Will we be stuck at 1 win at this most hollowed of fields? Maybe.

Army, K-State, Tech, Colorado, and OU are our home games. If we loose to Army the wheels fall off--- $Bill will need to fly to Washington, DC and get in line for a bailout ---that's a W. Tech and OU are top 10 teams; L L. K-State and Colorado are maybes. K-State can put points on the board, 44.7 per game, so our offense will have to keep up with what our defense can't contain. Unfortunately our offense produces slightly less than theirs: min 14, max 28, and mean 21.7. Colorado is 3-0 with a win of a top 25 team. Yes that top team was West Va and they got smoked by East Carolina, who in turn lost to NC State who you know stinks, but college football is't transitive. West Va started as a top 10 team and Colorado beat them. We did not start as a top 10 team.

There may be only 1 victory at Kyle this year, but at least it's still Tim Smith's favorite place to watch a game. Is it basketball season yet?

2008-09-23T15:54:00.005-05:00

The thing that strikes me the most about the Miami game is how people see what they want to see. Those that groaned when Stephen was announced with the starters then left their feet and cheered when JJ's name came next saw a different game. They saw him stay alive in the pocket in the face of a ton of presure, and throw for 275 yards and 3 TDs, even with crummy receivers running crummy routes. "Just think how McGee would have done with that pass rush," they say.

I saw none of that. Even Sherms admits that despite the numbers, the passing game it was "nothing to hand your hat on." I saw poor decision making on runs and passes and a complete disregard for protecting the ball. I saw "14 points on a silver platter." I saw poorly thrown passes that left receivers stretched out and dangerously vulnerable to hits. Thankfully Fuller only had the wind knocked out of him.

Other frustrations/news:

Niether JJ nor Goodson are risk adverse. When face with decision to either run straight and be guaranteed four yards, or make a move and either 20 yards or loose two, they will both choose the shake and bake EVERY TIME. We went three and out in one series because JJ left us at third and short after a fail moved.

In his post game news conference, Sherms said that we had no success in the two back set, and some success at the option. In fact, you saw JJ line up as a receive at one point so that we could run the option with out the risk of injuring the QB. The option? Really? Are we reverting to the Fran playbook? Did Sherms learn something about this team that our former coach already knew?

JJ hurt his shoulder, but not as bad as McGee.

Shermi tucked in his shirt.

I cannot believe people complained out that.

2008-09-20T14:41:00.001-05:00

JJ under center. First play is a false start. Second play Goodson
takes it 60 for 6. I like it.

2008-09-20T14:08:00.001-05:00

They just announced both McGee and Johnson as starting; very sneeky
McGee got some groan and JJ got cheers.

2008-09-20T14:05:00.000-05:00

I may get hit my the fly-by.

2008-09-20T13:08:00.000-05:00

Word on the street is that JJ gets the start. Not sure how reliable
the word is, but it's it word.

2008-09-20T11:43:00.000-05:00

I can think of worst places to have a beer on a Saturday morning.

2008-09-20T11:08:00.000-05:00

I just read that ABC is showing the Notre Dame/Michigan State game to
most of the nation; that is good news. 1) We are 3-78837382 in
nationaly televised games, and 2) the fewer people who see this beat
down the better.

2008-09-18T21:15:00.001-05:00

According to the wall in the Wings 'n More men's room, Miami is +4 on
Saturday. Not sure if that line has moved, but 4 seems low
considering we are 0-1 at home in the Sherms era.

2008-09-17T21:42:00.001-05:00

Shermi is not expected to name his starting QB (publicly) before
Saturday. I hate speculating, but I cannot see a reason for this
beyond Sherms really wanting Stephen--- or really not wanting JJ ---
under center, so he is delaying his decision as long as possible.

2008-09-16T23:51:00.003-05:00

I have stuck by McGee because I think he is a bad-a. The latest evidence of this came when he was asked if he thought he’d be able to play, McGee said, "I always do."

2008-09-15T19:08:00.001-05:00

Zone Club seats don't suck. Well they might not see a fade to the
corner of the opposite endzone, but are recievers can't catch those
and our QB's can't throw them so maybe missing it is good.

2008-09-15T19:01:00.001-05:00

McGee is still uncertian for Miami. He's doing more this week than
last, which was nothing. One day at a time.

2008-09-14T22:16:00.001-05:00

Saw this sign tonight; its not sports related but it's in College
Station and amazing.

2008-09-14T18:02:00.001-05:00

Here is a pic of the Reed Arena practice facilities. Not much from
the outside.