Mocs 81, Appalachian State 69

The Mocs are far from perfect. Bell gets out of control when he is bringing the ball up the court too often. There is a tendency on offense to go too fast and take the first three that becomes available.

But despite all that- the Mocs are now 1-0 in the Southern Conference, having beaten the favorite from the North, Appalachian State. Yes, the game was in Chattanooga, but it was the Mocs first home win of the year.

The Mocs were outrebounded one of the best rebounding teams in Division 1, statistically speaking. Let that sink in for a minute. The Mocs have gone from being a terrible rebounding team to being a good one in just the span of a few games. This started a while back that the Mocs started turning this into a positive stat, but now it has become a downright edge for the Mocs.

The big thing tonight though was the Appalachian State simply did not make their shots. They were not a good shooting team tonight. They made less thatn 25% from three point range, and for a team that depends on guard play as much as the Mountaineers do, this was a very dangerous thing. Sims didn't get many open looks, and when he got them- he actually missed them. He also missed two free throws, which was a shocking thing to witness.

Appalachian State shot very well from the free throw line and the Mocs struggled- but the struggles actually worked out for them tonight. They shot roughly 65% from the free throw line. The Mocs shot 4 for 6 down the stretch. Early made two, but then Jefferson missed two. Jefferson's second miss went out of bounds off of Appalachian State, though. And then Odem promptly made two free throws and put the game out of reach.

Wattad had 21 fairly quiet points. Bell had twelve assists. Early had eight rebounds.

My problems for tonight- Bell plays out of control too often. Way too often. Slow down and take a deep breath every now and then. For the rest of the Mocs, make free throws. Don't jack a three inside the first five seconds of the shot clock. Just settle down.

My positives- we won! Against the #29 RPI team in the country heading into last night's games. We beat them worse than Vanderbilt did and as badly as Mississippi State did. There's something to be said for that.

The Mocs have a shot to get to 2-0 in SoCon play by beating Western Carolina at home on Saturday afternoon.

So what happened? Did the practice really help the Mocs? Did the time off make that much of a difference? Or is this team just really capable of playing this well, which makes some of the other performances all the more puzzling? My bet- time off helps this team. And this team is very capable when they aren't playing Louisville or Tennessee. The Mocs have a real shot to be a very good Southern Conference team.

Now let's see them do it twice...

GO MOCS!