Dane Pound

Having those kinds of options is one of the things I really like about the make-up of this year's team. Holy Cross was pretty much the opposite of the Quinnipiac game. The Q is is big and physical so Rich Peters got more minutes. Holy Cross puts five guys on the floor who can all hit 3's (and they did.) which makes it a tougher cover for your typical post guy so Dallas got more minutes. Through 8 games it seems like Cremo, Hooley, Evan, Sanders and Mike Rowley are all going to get consistent minutes. The minutes of Dallas, Peters, Charles and Andrews are going to be more situational. I'm really looking forward to Andrews and Travis Charles figuring things out more on the defensive end because they have a lot to add. That said, I'm pretty amazed how quickly Cremo has picked everything up for a freshman. Two straight games were Mike Rowley has made big plays down the stretch to win games. He knocked down the free throws at the end of the game at the Q and then bringing it the length of the floor against HC.

I'm glad I was able to stay away from my phone and wait to watch the whole thing when I got home. Road wins are always tough, especially at that place. We are now winning the tough close games we were losing earlier in the year. Great to see the Peter knocking down some shots - 20 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists. That's quite a night. Last season after 8 games we were 2-6 This season (not counting Oneonta) 5-3

That doesn't sound so great. Holy Cross is another one of those teams we haven't been able to beat in recent years including an aggravating loss there two years ago. Hopefully today is the day.

He might not contribute as much on the court this year as he did last year but from a distance, Dallas seems like a terrific teammate. He's done a couple of things like that this year. He also was the guy to run out on the floor to help Stire when he went down. They aren't game winning three point shots but they're the kind of things that define your team's culture.

That was two hours of watching sausage-making but I'll take the end result. There are going to be some grinders throughout the year. Our first road win of the year. Good game to have Stire and his 9 rebounds back tonight. I really like his toughness. I guess I didn't have to worry about hyping Cremo too much last year.

We also got a commitment this fall from BJ Jenkins, a guard out of Neosho Community College. He seems to have been playing with a pretty high level of competition - Neosho's leading scorers were Joseph Acuil, Jenkins and Brett Frantz. Frantz is now starting at Youngstown State and Acuil signed with Baylor. If Jenkins is somewhere near that level we have a nice player coming in. There should be some good competition for minutes at the guard spot.

CB told Wyland that he wouldn't play on Tuesday but there was a chance for next Saturday's game.

2 points, 8 rebounds, 8 assists and four steals. That's a Brian Lillis stat line and I mean that as a compliment to both players. Otherwise, I'm not sure what to say. I didn't expect that to be that easy, even without Sears. Pretty solid weekend. NJIT was picked third in the Atlantic Sun and Yale was picked to win the Ivy.

Today's game stories said ankle sprain. Hopefully not the high ankle sprain variety. Those take quite a while to come back from.

I'm not sure if we've ever played both of the Coaching Jones brothers in the same year before but we need to find a way to get the Jones split today.

We're debating the playing time of a guy who could be our 5th leading D1 scorer by the end of the day. The real Peter Hooley will show up and he's not the first guy to go through this - Brian Lillis, Mike Black and others have struggled at times in their senior season. In the meantime, as much as is sucks to watch him go through this, long-term it's probably not a bad thing if Cremo and Andrews can get some minutes early in the season. It will make us that much of a better team in February and March.

Some of that is probably covered on the TU blog about the game. I don't think Hooley missing outside shots is the problem, the six turnovers were. I think he passed up some shots and drove into some bad situations and turned the ball over.

Playing the Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme) during the visiting team's introduction was inspired. Well done. I actually thought keeping the arena dark(er) during the game was a worthwhile experiment. I'm not sure why people got so upset about it - maybe they can't read the game notes or keep track of stats in the dark?

Damon Lynn is a killer. He shot 50% from three and it didn't seem like he missed that many 7 of 14. That's a really well-coached team. They knock down outside shots, hit free throws and don't hurt themselves. With a good big man NJIT would be a terror. In addition to the points, I like the fire from Cremo when the rest of the team seemed to be sleep walking. Mike Rowley quietly had a big night - 10 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal and two blocks along with six points. That's a nice night's work. I thought our seniors would carry us early until the rest of the new guys rounded into shape. It was the other way around tonight, as the freshman carried us for a while and created the spark. Travis Charles is going to be a really good player but he got lost of defense a couple of times tonight. NJIT is a tough team to stick with, they're quick and run so many different things at you. Hopefully Stire isn't out for any length of time but if he is we're going to need more minutes from him. Happy to escape with this win.

Has Shareesa Richards going in the second round.

Two lousy football games on Thanksgiving but that Monmouth - Notre Dame made up for it. Monmouth knocked off #17 ND in the final minute. Great game. Colin Stewart from Glenville plays for Monmouth. He had 9 points tonight and 19 in Monmouth's win over UCLA earlier this year.

Safe travels to everyone and Happy Thanksgiving! Now, on to Mike Black Friday.

It's waaay too early to worry about that. We started 2-6 last year and ended up as a 14 seed. We're a good team or will be good. We are just incredibly frustrating in these road games. We had chances up eight to put them away and didn't. Then chances up 1 to stretch the lead and didn't. Really nice effort by The Barber wasted in the loss - 12 points and 8 rebounds.

!#!#$!#$!#$!@#$

That was fairly painless. Lots of minutes for the bench guys, worked on the rotation a little and we competed pretty well even when up big. Watching Travis Charles get some extended minutes was fun, he's got a motor that doesn't seem to stop.

And I believe it was behind Ilko...Haha! They placed it so Bob could see the replay. That's where the true power is at Sefcu Arena.

Strong showing in that second set. They were down big and came roaring back. I think that took the heart out of the Seawolves. 5 PM today for all the marbles and hopefully some revenge against UNH.

That was fun. Our offense covered up most of our defensive lapses but we're getting there. If I had to nitpick I'd point out that we're still not shooting great from the free throw line. I liked the minutes for Cremo for Singletary. He might have forced a shot early but seemed to settle down. CB said earlier this season that he'd like to get the rotation down to 8 guys, I'm not sure how that will happen but it's a good problem to have. My third straight year watching that Tillotson kid for Colgate. His team lost tonight but the he competes hard every minute he's out on the floor. Tough player.

I guess I'm the only one who had that image association. Oh well. The nice part about the trophy is that has our school color on it already (sorta.) Back to the game. I know EIH left the UNH game with a shoulder injury. Hopefully he'll back for this one.

Curious about that too. They both seemed out of gas the last couple of minutes and settled for long jumpers. Singletary was asking to go to the bench part way through the second half and I don't know that he ever got there. Aggrivating loss but there is a lot of talent on this team. We just need to get some roles settled. Hopefully a few days and a few practices at home will help.