SB Nation User Blog: Jon L

D-Fenders Get Keith Clark; Deron Washington Goes to Tulsa

Jon L — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:52:02 -0000

D-Fenders Get Keith Clark; Deron Washington Goes to Tulsa

Edit: This is what happened: Tulsa Re-acquired F Keith Clark. Waived F Devon Hardin due to injury. Acquired F Deron Washington from LOS ANGELES in a trade for F Keith Clark.
Interesting.

Four Players Suspended

Jon L — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:16:19 -0000

Four Players Suspended

It looks like the D-League has suspended four players from last week's Bakersfield/Reno ~~boxing match~~ game. Cezary Trybanski got two games for taking swings at Rodney Webb and Terrance Gamble. Webb got a game for hitting back, Jared Newson got a game for leaving the bench and Amara Sy got a game for going after Mo Charlo's...area.

Maine Red Claws 96, Erie BayHawks 75; Free Trey Gilder!...?

Jon L — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 07:12:40 -0000

At 7-1, now who's laughing at Crusher (hint: still us) (via nbamusings.com)

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So now it's my turn to talk about these two teams. It would've been nice if the BayHawks had won so I could tout them a little bit but...

Hey guess what! I'm gonna try doing this recap Scott Schroeder bullets-stylee. Which means it might be even longer than my usual recaps. I know you're going to have fun.

Scott talked about this a little bit yesterday, but Trey Gilder probably should start somewhere. I understand that he's probably not starting in Maine while Bill Walker's around, but Gilder's good enough to make the NBA. It's a nice problem to have for the Red Claws. 23 points on 9-12 shooting and 10 boards for him, both team highs and both off the bench (if that makes sense).
Alexis Ajinca had his biggest offensive output of the (D-League) season with 14 points. Too bad it came on 15 shots. Too, too bad. No free throws either. At least Bill Walker had the good sense to get to the line while shooting 1-5 from the field.
Pro wrestling reference!
Cedric Jackson has had exactly one good game outside shooting-wise this season, so I have no idea why he's attempting four threes. Who does he think he is, Ron Howard? (jokes) The 11 assists are welcome, but let's cut down on this whole "doing-things-you're-not-good-at" thing, shall we?
Come to think of it, none of Erie's players have been that great at shooting so far this year. Ivan Harris was their big three-point specialist last year, but he has only 14 attempts over seven games this year. He's made two of them. Twice? Two times. Jackie Manuel has had some okay games, but then he'll usually follow them up with something like last night's 4-14 outing.
Donell Taylor is having a decent season so far, in that he's ' making 38.5 of his threes, averaging almost six rebounds a game and playing some decent defense, but I can't help feeling like a 27-year old former NBA player should be dominating, and Taylor isn't. Maybe he gets a pass against a stacked Maine team, but six turnovers against Fort Wayne? 9-23 shooting against Sioux Falls? Averaging more turnovers (four) than steals (3.6) on the season? 59 percent free throw shooting? I know he was originally miscast on this team as the starting point guard, but I guess I expected more.
Have you seen John Bryant? No seriously, have you seen him? If they still put pictures on milk cartons, I might suggest doing so with this guy. He got a DNP last night, okay fine, but after pretty much dominating the first four games of the year he shot 4-10 and 1-5. Dude is disappearing, which is kind of tough to do when you're as, uh, big as Bryant is.

Toros Acquire Eddie Basden

Jon L — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 01:38:26 -0000

Toros Acquire Eddie Basden

The Austin Toros have acquired 6'5" swingman Eddie Basden. Basden was a two-time Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year at Charlotte, played about 20 games with the Bulls and has spent the last few seasons in Turkey. Austin waived Ryan Bright to make room.

Marcus Campbell Joins the Armor

Jon L — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:02:42 -0000

Marcus Campbell Joins the Armor

The Springfield Armor's first-round expansion draft pick Marcus Campbell is all set to join the team. Campbell averaged a double-double and was third in the league in per-minute rebounding last season, and has been playing in the D-League since 2005. He'll give Springfield a solid player in the middle and let them bring Kentrell Gransberry off the bench (probably; who knows, maybe they'll start him at power forward again). Springfield waived Adam Harrington to clear a roster spot.

The New "Trading Caron"

Jon L — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:10:26 -0000

With apologies to Manimal Smith who started talking about this over a week ago, I think that if the Wizards are going to trade anyone this year, they should trade Caron Butler. I like Butler generally, but he's just not fitting into the new offensive system, he has just the eighth-best PER on the team (according to KnickerBlogger's stats and discounting Paul Davis and Mike James), and is liked and respected around the league and could bring back some decent value. So here are some ideas, all of which have been cleared through the ESPN Trade Machine (and I'm also trying to be reasonable for what the other teams will agree to):

The Pipe Dream: Butler to Golden State for Andris Biedrins and Anthony Morrow

This is a lot for Golden State to give up, and is predicated on Nelson deciding he hates Biedrins, which isn't entirely out of the realm of possibility. Biedrins has a great contract ($9m over five years) and could replace Haywood if the team decides they want to part ways with him this offseason.

The TruthAboutIt.net White Knight Tribute (jokes): Butler and Dominic McGuire to Philly for Jason Kapono, Primoz Brezec and Jason Smith

Kapono isn't great but could do a very good job coming off the bench and being run off of all of Saunders's screens, and both his and Brezec's contracts expire after this season. Meanwhile, Eddie Jordan gets a few guys who know the Princeton, and he can go back to giving McGuire minutes instead of other guys who might deserve them.

The "This Either Makes Too Much Sense, or No Sense": Butler to the Clippers for Marcus Camby

Camby becomes the backup center and his contract expires after this year. Butler gives the Clippers the option to not retain Al Thornton if they don't want to and still have some talent in between Eric Gordon and Blake Griffin.

The "I Hope He Wasn't One of the Guys Who Hated Saunders": Butler and Javaris Crittenton to Detroit for Rip Hamilton

Hamilton's contract isn't great, but he's certainly familiar with the offense, while the Pistons get to continue to turn the page into a new era.

The Salary Dump: Butler to Chicago for Jerome James and Jannero Pargo

Both players have expiring contracts; the problem with this one is that I don't know where Butler fits into the Salmons-Deng-Thomas rotation. Maybe they move Thomas in addition to this deal.

The "I'm Running Out of Ideas": Butler and Nick Young to Portland for Steve Blake, Travis Outlaw and Martell Webster

Steve Blake gets a homecoming of sorts (which would've mattered more with EJ), plus Portland clears some of their backcourt logjam. I don't love that Webster has four years left on his deal, but it's a reasonable overall price (less than $4.5m) and both the Blake and Outlaw contracts expire after this season.

Thoughts?

Last Night in the D-League; A Night of Third Quarter Troubles

Jon L — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 03:37:32 -0000

David Bailey helped the Skyforce knock off previously-unbeaten Iowa (via www.nba.com)

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Three teams played particularly in the third quarter last night; one was able to bounce back, but it likely cost two of them a win.

Sioux Falls Skyforce 109, Iowa Energy 99

The Iowa Energy have finally lost a game, and the Skyforce were able to take them down even with Reggie Williams still out. They did it basically by using Iowa's game against them - specifically, hitting a bunch of threes. Sioux Falls shot almost 54 percent from outside compared to just 27 percent for the Energy. David Bailey led the way by making four of his seven attempts (25 points total), Keith Brumbaugh was a perfect 3-3 (20 points) and Mike Nelson, Leemire Goldwire and Pete Campbell were a combined 6-11 from outside in relief. Joe Krabbenhoft did it a different way, getting to the free throw line and finishing with 23 points on 15 shots along with 13 rebounds.

Iowa just couldn't hit their shots. Starters Pat Carroll (zero points) and Jeff Trepagnier (four points on 1-6 shooting) gave them nothing, and Rashad Anderson made only two of the eight three-pointers he put up. Earl Barron (22 points) and Mark Tyndale (21 points) each got to the free-throw line to compensate, and Barron added 12 rebounds, but this team was bound to have an off-night eventually. The third quarter was particularly disastrous; Iowa hit just six field goals in the period, and three of those came in the last minute and a half. They were able to make some foul shots to keep from going completely under, but that level of futility from the field hurts.

The rest of last night's games are after the jump.

Austin Toros 110, Albuquerque Thunderbirds 104

These two teams should be familiar with each other, this being the fourth time they've played so far this season (with another game tonight), but the Thunderbirds just don't have anyone who can keep Dwayne Jones off the boards. Jones had 27 points and 24 rebounds last night, and he was pretty much the only Toro who produced in the first half (he had 18 and 10 at the break). Curtis Jerrells went off in the second half, scoring 15 points in the fourth quarter to give him 34 total, along with seven assists. The team got some nice contributions from Alonzo Gee (15 points, seven of which came at the free throw line), Lewis Clinch (13 points) and Justin Bowen (11 points and seven rebounds off the bench), but it was really Jerrells and especially Jones who got this win for Austin.

Believe it or not, Kevin Pittsnogle actually played a decent game, mostly in the second half when he hit a couple of threes to end the third quarter and a few more shots to open the fourth. Yaroslav Korolev got another double-double with 19 points (on nine shots) and 12 boards and Carlos Powell scored 25 points before fouling out, and the Thunderbirds also got 17 points from Anthony Dandridge in 19 and a half minutes off the bench. They kept it close for most of the game, but Albuquerque had a terrible third quarter, both on offense (they went five and a half minutes without scoring a point) and defense (Jerrells didn't miss a shot in the quarter, and Gee and Jones only missed one a piece). And of course there's the rebounding issue. Erek Hansen is back, which helps, but this team will continue to struggle against strong rebounding centers

Reno Bighorns 98, Bakersfield Jam 90

Reno had a terrible third quarter, just 17 points scored and a six minute stretch with no points, but they were able to get to the free throw line with striking regularity in the fourth (18 of their 31 points in the quarter came on foul shots) to keep Bakersfield winless. They were helped by Amara Sy getting ejected on a flagrant 2 followed by Will Voigt getting a tech (presumably for arguing about the flagrant) as well as Terrance Gamble getting his own with 12 seconds left (?). Desmon Farmer finished a perfect 12-12 from the free throw line on the way to 27 points. If you asked me who would be the second person to record a triple-double this season, "Mo Charlo" would not be my answer. It almost happened, though, and despite being a big part of that six minute scoreless stretch in the third, Charlo finished with 18 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists. Rod Benson didn't have the best shooting night, perhaps still feeling the affects of his bout with food poisoning, but he did collect 14 rebounds. If I had to point to one thing this team needs, it's better bench production. Just 15 points for Reno's reserves last night, and while I like Majic Dorsey, he missed a ton of shots in that third quarter (okay, two) and just generally hasn't played well so far this year.

Amara Sy threw a low blow at Mo Charlo's nether regions with the Jam were up 88-86. Stemming from this, Reno scored 12 straight points (actually the run had started before the flagrant and totaled 17 points) due to all of the free throws resulting from that play and the subsequent Voigt technical. Dear Coach Voigt: sending your opponent to the free-throw line helps them, and doesn't fire your team up. John Williams did a lot to help his team; 25 points, 6-9 from outside, and five assists. He also did a lot to give it away, namely with eight turnovers; two of those came on palming calls, and two came on losing the ball out of bounds. Tyrelle Blair didn't shoot particularly well but grabbed 13 rebounds.

Fort Wayne Mad Ants 124, Springfield Armor 107

So I guess even with Morris Almond, the Armor just aren't very good. The Mad Ants got nice, balanced scoring as seven players scored in double figures, including 23 points each from Ron Howard and Rod Wilmont, and 22 points and 11 boards from Rob Kurz (a good day to be a guy with a three-letter first name beginning with R, I suppose). Kyle McAlarney picked up nine assists, his highest total yet by far, and Anthony Kent grabbed six rebounds in 18 minutes off the bench (hey, maybe he's found his role, hint hint). Fort Wayne was able to jump out to an early lead by getting to the free throw line (and some, okay a lot of, missed shots by the Armor), and they never looked back.

Almond had a terrific game, 39 points on 11-17 shooting and five rebounds, which is partially him and partially what happens when Ryan Ayers guards you just as much as Ron Howard. Unfortunately for Springfield, no one else really got going. JamesOn Curry made seven of his eight field goals on the way to 16 points, but had just two assists and four turnovers. TJ Cummings had 12 rebounds but needed to throw up 22 shots to get 22 points. Kentrell Gransberry played just 10 minutes, and I'm not really sure why. He may not be able to put up double-doubles every night with 30 minutes of playing time, but he can at least give more than this. They're not really getting any consistency right now, but hey, at least pro basketball is back in Springfield.

Utah Flash 104, Idaho Stampede 98; Sundiata Gaines, Meet Dontell Jefferson

Jon L — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 06:03:40 -0000

More photos » by Chuck Burton - AP

Dontell Jefferson going up against Gerald Henderson in training camp. No, it's not a coincidence that I chose this photo. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

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Idaho started off okay, but the Flash were able to limit their possessions (just 95 for the Stampede, which will probably be about as low as it'll get all season), and Dontell Jefferson put Sundiata Gaines on lockdown. Gaines has been fantastic so far for Idaho, but yesterday shot just 5-15, missed four of his five three-pointers, and scored less than 20 points for the first time all season. He finished with 10 rebounds, eight assists and four steals, but he was forced into some tough shots and missed five straight at one point in the second quarter. The rest of the Stampede didn't fare much better, shooting under 30 percent from outside overall, and Anthony Tolliver shot 3-11. Mildon Ambres grabbed 15 rebounds but needed 16 shots to get 10 points. Cedric Simmons got the start and was one of the few bright spots offensively for Idaho; 26 points on 11-17 shooting, and he threw in four blocks for good measure.

Utah got Luke Nevill back, and while he's still finding his way on offense, the freshly be-visa-ed Aussie had eight boards in 22 minutes. Jefferson wasn't great offensively either, but he was terrific guarding Gaines and had seven assists, and after his second turnover in the first quarter he didn't have another one until there were 12 seconds left in the game. He did a fantastic job keeping Gaines and the rest of Idaho's offense from getting comfortable. Utah got its scoring primarily from Andre Ingram and Carlos Wheeler, who have each played pretty well so far this year. Wheeler had 24 points on 11-16 shooting along with seven rebounds. Ingram made four of his five threes (three of which came in the second quarter) on the way to 21 points, and seven boards of his own. Utah got almost nothing from their bench (19 points on a combined 6-19), but they didn't really need it.

Last Night in the D-League; Mo Almond Could Put the Spring in Springfield

Jon L — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 05:56:20 -0000

Mo Almond played well in his D-League debut yesterday. (via www.nba.com)

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Tulsa 66ers 98, Springfield Armor 91

In yesterday's early action, the score of this one was 18-13 after the first quarter. Ugh. I missed it, because I was busy sleeping. I said it was early action. (Okay, so it was 11 am central time. Whatever.) Tulsa's win put them at .500, and they have some nice pieces that could push them higher in the standings. Mustafa Shakur has been a fantastic point guard in this league so far, and he had 27 points on 13 shots with six assists and five rebounds (and also five turnovers). They have a few guys who each can get hot on a certain night, and last night it was Cecil Brown with 5-8 shooting (though he also missed both of his threes). And, cough cough, they have Latavious Williams, who played a season high (it seems wrong to also call it a career high) 15 minutes last night and gave the team 10 points on five shots and seven rebounds. He missed half of his foul shots, but he also didn't commit a foul or turn the ball over once. Byron Mullens (who's technically more a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder than the 66ers) added 19 points and six rebounds.

It's amazing what a former NBA player can do for a team. Springfield lost, but Morris Almond had 27 points and seven rebounds, but he also put a spring in JamesOn Curry's step, so to speak. Curry had 15 points on 7-11 shooting and a season-high seven assists before fouling out. Maybe he just needed someone to pass the ball to. Major Wingate had six turnovers but otherwise continued to play pretty well with 12 points and six boards. The Armor fell to 0-6, but things may be starting to look up.

The rest of the games (which were played at a more reasonable hour) are after the jump.

Iowa Energy 117, Dakota Wizards 108

Where the hell did this come from, Mark Tyndale? 31 points on 9-17 shooting (12-15 from the free-throw line) and eight rebounds for Tyndale in 27 and a half minutes. He had help in the form of 20 points from Earl Barron, nine assists from Curtis Stinson and 16 points on 10 shots (4-7 on three-pointers) from Jeff Trepagnier, but it was pretty much all Tyndale down the stretch.

Dakota got some decent games from Maurice Baker (30 points) and Marcus Dove (eight points on 4-5 shooting, 11 rebounds), but aside from those two the Wizards shot 37 percent from the field. They were also whistled for 33 fouls, which might be more of a big deal if both Griffin and Stinson hadn't fouled out for Iowa. This one was mostly on them, particularly in the second half. David Bell made three of his six three-point attempts but was 0-7 inside the arc. Romel Beck was 0-3 from outside and 3-10 overall. Connor Atchley is giving them nothing off the bench. Et cetera.

Rio Grande Valley Vipers 125, Albuquerque Thunderbirds 112

Joey Dorsey had a field day in this one, as one would expect given how thin Albuquerque is up front. 18 points and 18 rebounds, and he had 14 of each at halftime. Six turnovers aren't great, but I'm sure coach Chris Finch will take that if it comes with 7-9 shooting. The entire RGV starting five scored in double figures, as did Stanley Asumnu. Mike Harris had 23 points and seven rebounds, Antonio Anderson had 17 points on eight shots and 13 assists. The Vipers never scored less than 30 points in a quarter, and now they've won six straight.

Albuquerque wasn't all that bad, they just couldn't keep Dorsey off the boards, couldn't guard RGV's shooters, and couldn't keep Harris out of the lane. But, you know, other than that. Yaroslav Korolev shot 8-12 for 18 points, Carlos Powell had 23 points on 13 shots and Kevin Pittsnogle had 19 points off the bench. Albuquerque had a decent third quarter, but the Vipers had four of them, it's as simple as that.

Fort Wayne Mad Ants 107, Sioux Falls Skyforce 98

Fort Wayne was in control for pretty much the entire game; 40 of the Skyforce's points came in the second quarter. Other than that, I think it's fair to say that they struggled. Jeff Potter posted a to-do list before the game, so let's see how the team did.

We have to get off to a strong start tonight. We can't continue to fall behind early and have success; I'd say that finishing the first quarter with a 30-19 lead qualifies as starting strong
Got to rebound...be physical and BLOCK OUT; Fort Wayne was actually outrebounded 37-49, but that apparently didn't matter.
Execute; Does making 45 percent of your threes count as executing?
Kyle McAlarney has to be a threat; McAlarney was 4-7 from outside and finished with 18 points. Only one of those made threes came in the second half, but we'll be lenient and say that he was a threat early, and opened the floor a little bit for his teammates.
Ron Howard has to make his teammates better and stop looking out for his game. Scouts will be much more impressed with that type of play compared to throwing up a bunch of contested jumpers to try and get 20; Welllllllll...Howard got his 20 points, but he needed a team-high 17 shots to get there. He had seven rebounds and a six assists as well, but I can only imagine that spending several months with Mike D'Antoni's Knicks encouraged him to shoot, you know, whenever

Sioux Falls shot okay overall, 40 percent (okay, not great), but could barely hit anything from outside. Reggie Williams was good, anyway, with 27 points and six rebounds, and Greg Stiemsma grabbed nine boards. That's about it.

Maine Red Claws 116, Erie BayHawks 90

This was a close game at the end of the first quarter, then Erie decided to start missing all their shots. Maine, on the other hand, made 59 percent of its three-pointers, including a 6-8 outside shooting night from Billy Thomas (who had 26 points in total along with seven rebounds), a 5-7 effort from Tony Bobbitt and 3-5 from Billy Walker (who finished with 19 points and 11 rebounds). Will Blalock still hasn't been great offensively, but he had a season-high nine assists, and Trey Gilder had 24 points and seven rebounds off the bench.

John Bryant finally had a subpar game for the BayHawks, with 10 points on 10 shots and four rebounds, and only four of those points came after the first quarter. His backup Jarvis Gunter played pretty well with 14 points on nine shots and six boards, five of which were offensive, and Cedric Jackson had nine assists, but other than that the BayHawks just weren't very good on offense. The team has a few days off before playing the Red Claws again in back-to-back games, so perhaps they can come up with a solution by then.

Last Night in the D-League (and not at the concert that I attended)

Jon L — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 18:41:36 -0000

Taylor Griffin's receding hairline made its D-League debut last night. Look out, Anthony Tolliver! (via www.nba.com)

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Au contraire, Scott! There is a review of last night's games, I just didn't write it last night.

Iowa Energy 94, Dakota Wizards 82

Taylor Griffin is probably a borderline NBA bench player, but that makes him a pretty good D-League player. 19 points on 8-10 shooting and 10 boards for Griffin in his first game on assignment, though he also turned the ball over six times and committed a dumb flagrant foul. Curtis Stinson handed out 11 assists (four of which went to Griffin), Mark Tyndale had 14 points on seven shots and Marvin Phillips grabbed seven rebounds in a little over 17 minutes off the bench for the Energy, but no one else played particularly well.

Dakota had problems right out of the game, when Curtis Withers missed a layup, got his own rebound, then missed another layup. The Wizards scored just 14 points in the first quarter, and no one other than Mo Baker (and a 1-2 Marcus Dove) shot more than 40 percent from the field. The rest of the team was "highlighted" by David Bell's 1-10, five turnover performance. The team did okay on the boards, led by Withers's 10 rebounds (six offensive) and Renaldo Major's seven with four blocks, but they just couldn't hit shots. Romel Beck led the team in assists with three (actually tied with Jason Straight), which might be the first time that's happened, ever. I don't think that was a ball distribution problem as much as it was potential assists failing to go through the hoop. Dakota has now dropped three straight, but they get a rematch against Iowa tonight.

Idaho Stampede 105, LA D-Fenders 95

The Stampede won despite poor outside shooting nights from Anthony Tolliver and Roberto Bergersen (1-6 each). They won despite shooting less than 70 percent from the three throw line. They won despite getting just 16 assists as a team. They won because, surprise surprise, LA has a lot of guys who miss a lot of shots. Idaho also got a terrific game from Sundiata Gaines (31 points, six rebounds, six assists), some solid rebounding (10 boards for Bryson McKenzie, nine for Tolliver, seven for Emmanuel Jones) and other than Tolliver and Bergerson, they made almost half of their threes.

Diamon Simpson had 10 rebounds and a team-high five assists (which should be embarrassing for the rest of the team) and James Jackson came off the bench to score 21 points on 13 shots and grab seven rebounds (though he made less than half of his free throws), but otherwise I'm really starting to hate how this team was put together. Running down the field goal column in the boxscore, we have 3-10, 2-10, 5-13, 5-15, 2-6 and 3-10. The fact that no one should be surprised by that makes me wonder what, in fact, the D-Fenders/Lakers braintrust was thinking when they assembled this roster. There's athleticism, sure, and Ryan Forehan-Kelly wasn't this flaky last year, but poor shot selection abounds.

Reno Bighorns 107, Utah Flash 103

Russell Robinson only handed out four assists, but he had his best shooting night of the season, going 8-14 (including 4-6 on threes) and scoring 26 points. Desmon Farmer didn't shoot particularly well, 8-20, but he did a great job of getting to the free throw line and made 13 of his 15 attempts there to finish with 33 points. Rod Benson had 17 points and eight boards, but Reno was outrebounded overall. They also didn't get a whole lot from their bench aside from Cezary Trybanski (nine points) and Doug Thomas (seven points, nine rebounds). They won this game by forcing turnovers and at the free throw line; Orien Greene, Jordan Brady and Bennet Davis all fouled out for the Flash, while Carlos Wheeler finished with five fouls.

Dontell Jefferson had a fantastic shooting night, 10-19 for 30 points, but he also turned it over eight times against just three assists. Who does he think he is, Desmon Farmer? Several of those turnovers were in the fourth quarter as Utah was trying to come back, and no one else on the team finished with more than three; this one's all on DJ. Of course, getting some odd foul calls doesn't help, and both Wheeler and coach Brad Davis got T'd up, I'm assuming for arguing the calls (Farmer also got a tech for Reno). Wheeler had a very good game, 18 points and 15 rebounds (though a few of his six offensive boards were off his own misses), and Andre Ingram hit three of his four three-pointers and eight of his 10 field goals overall on the way to 23 points.

Austin Toros 115 Bakersfield Jam 89

Hey, you know who's not a good team? Bakersfield. Coach Will Voigt has apparently been reduced to trying crazy/dumb ideas like starting Amara Sy at center. Sy rebounded okay, nine boards, but he needed 10 shots to get 10 points. Austin's starting center Dwayne Jones, on the other hand, was a perfect 6-6 from the field and 7-8 from the free throw line, finishing with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Lewis Clinch had a solid game with 23 points, and Alonzo Gee added 19 points and seven rebounds. All 10 Toros played, nine of them scored, and the one who didn't (Augustine Okuson) still contributed with two rebounds and two blocks in seven and a half minutes.

Back to the Jam, they actually shot the ball pretty well; 42 percent on threes, 50 percent from the field overall. Jeremy Wise came off the bench to score 19 points on eight shots, John Williams had 10 points on six shots, and the team had six players finish with double-digit scoring. The problem was the defense - they let Austin score 67 points in the first half, and the points were coming from all over. Threes, layups, jump shots, whatever. Note to Will Voigt: this doesn't mean that you should try starting Reece Gaines at center. It means you need to get a real center, and real defenders.