Troy 68, Mocs 61

This was the most frustrating game of the year to date.

The feeling in the offseason was that if there was one game in the CBE Classic that the Mocs needed to win, it was the Troy game. The feeling was that Troy was the team that was most beatable of the three teams visiting Chattanooga. Therefore, if the Mocs wanted to have a successful tournament, they needed to win this game.

But it didn't happen. It just wasn't meant to be, tonight.

Again, I have no problem with the effort. They got rebounds. They played hard and dove for loose balls. They didn't get to all the loose balls tonight (several toss ups went the other way). The Mocs were also the aggressor on offense, getting to the foul line ten more times than the Trojans. The problem was that the Trojans only made two fewer free throws, despite having ten fewer attempts. The Mocs made just 57.7% from the free throw line for the game.

But that is downright blazing hot compared to what the Mocs did from three point range. The Mocs shot a putrid 18.2% from three point range. At this point, it must be in the Mocs head. They simply are missing wide open looks. Did they shoot too many threes tonight? Maybe a few, but just 37% of their shots were threes. This is not disastrously high. Troy shot a higher percentage (of course, they were making a higher percentage as well).

Rico White had his best game yet, scoring fourteen points. Z Mason and Drazen Zlovaric made a combined 5 of 12 from the field with eighteen points. But they did their job on the glass, combining for 19 rebounds.

Here was the really exciting thing. We saw good things from Cobb at Kansas. We've been waiting for the other three freshman to really show us what they're made of. Eric Robertson had a couple of very nice plays. Gee McGhee showed a couple of bursts. They both impressed me even more than they have in any other game yet this year. Then, there was Casey Jones, who stood out above all of them in the flashes that I saw tonight. He had a couple of very athletic, very nice baskets, and came up with five rebounds too. I really liked what I saw out of all three of these guys tonight, especially Jones.

The defense is far from perfect so far. They are allowing opponents to shoot too well, especially considering how poorly the Mocs are shooting. They will need to improve on their closing speed on shooters. This has been a problem throughout all their games so far. They do a good job on this most of the time, but occassionally have been leaving shooters open and they have been making those shots.

Free throw shooting, shooting from the field, and closing speed on the perimeter- those are the things that need to be worked on. However, the effort is very good. They have been rebounding the ball really good. They have been doing an OK job protecting the ball and not turning it over.

This is not a bad team. This is a quality team that could still win plenty of games. They are going to eventually start shooting the ball better. When that happens, this team will win several games in a row.

GO MOCS!