MBB: American Southwest Conference

[Ralph Turner]

McM--Bryant Ft misses and then makes. McM 99-94.
AC-FG 99-96.
McM--Stephens FT  2-2. McM 101-96.
AC--Hill on the put back McM wins 101-98.

[dballa]

HPU 87 UTD 73.  It wasn't even that close throughout.  HPU had a 20 pt lead for most of the game and increased it to almost 30 at one point.  It started getting close at the end when all the subs came in with about 4 or 5 mins left in the game.

[SRLobo51]

Sul Ross beat UTT tonight. I got off late and didn't get the correct score. It was something like 96 - 90. It seemed like a pretty close game all the way.

UMHB's loss helps us out a little.

Keep it up Lobos, take care of UTD Saturday!!!!

[Ralph Turner]

I don't know what to say about tonight.  I got in on the last of the game and it seems that the team is still making the same mistakes over and over.  This AC team has only won one game this year and we trailed for 38+ minutes!  What in the world!!!!

I had great hopes for this team, but I wonder if they have the desire to get better.  Desire has to burn inside you.  In my profession, there were/are lots of guys who have more talent and were/are more brilliant than I, but the equalizing force over a career is passionately to wake up every morning intently concerned that you will get better that day, every day for decades, long after you thought that you were good at what you do.

The sign over the door in my high school locker room said, "If you think you are green, you will continue to get ripe.  If you think you are ripe, then you can only get rotten!"

The beauty of the system that Coach Holmes and Coach Vanlandingham have tried to run is that when it is perfectly executed, you have 11-12 players who finish the game totally spent.  They should have left it all on the court, and they ran away from the other team in the last 10 minutes.  I was expecting us to do that tonight, but the defense seemed to keep making the same mistakes, giving up easy back door layups, making stupid ball handling errors, etc.

MC handed us our hats.  They stomped us bad.  I thought that we had gotten our bad games out of the way and were on our way up.  The loss at Henderson State U and this game tonight suggest that we have not decided to get with it yet.

The West is tough and everyone has McMurry in their sights.  There is no rest for us.  This team has Ozarks and then the HPU/SRSU trip.  We can be 3-0 over that stretch or 0-3 and chasing someone.

[Ralph Turner]

I have "slept on" what I wrote last night and have one other thought about the concept of "passion to get better".

Vince Young.

Matt Leinart was the 2004 Heisman, the best collegiate football player in 2004.  National Champion in 2003 and 2004.  Reggie Bush was the 2005 Heisman Winner, the best collegiate football player in 2005.

Wednesday night, who wanted it more?  Vince Young's team was 12 points down with less than 5 mnutes left against the 2-time National champions going for a first ever three-peat!.

Whose "burning desire to get better" every day, every play, won the game?  He "smash-mouthed" USC on their own southern California turf, and everyone in America knew whom USC had to stop from scoring only once to win the three-peat.

Vince Young has talent.  Vince Young is very football-smart (I don't know his GPA ).  And, Vince Young has that burning desire to get better, every day, every play.

[finnman]

Wow!  I gave UMHB all this credit yesterday and they get crushed by ETBU.  Well, I guess you better show up every night...McM barely gets by a 1-9 team at home.  Who knows who is going to win the West.

But I do know this...McM better start showing some more enthusiasm and heart the whole game, or we will have more major problems on the road.  Now credit...our best post player was not suited out, but we could still play with alot more passion.  This team looked alot like their first game, but with alot less enthusiam.  When we played HSU and ETBU, I thought they played like a team that was going places.  I think what bothers me the most is the lack of rotation on defense and leaving other teams all the open shots...it is absoluting the thing that is driving me crazy.

On a positive note...the team did a great job of coming back last night against a hot shooting AC team.  And most of that comeback seemed to come from some in your face better defense down the stretch. 

I'm always going to be one of the Indians best fans...but I'm always going to be a straight shooter with how they are playing.  You guys don't seem to totally have bought into the system...us fans have seen it work...but you have to play 40 minutes of in your face defense and have som FUN!  You have to get a little swagger out their.

[mcmfan]

Coach Holmes was definitely upset during and after the McM-AC game.  "We can't guard a saloon door that swings both ways," he told the Abilene Reporter-News.  The full article is at:

http://www.reporter-news.com/abil/sp_lc_mcmurry_univ/article/0,1874,ABIL_8787_4367734,00.html

[baddog]

Ralph -- USC's "Three-peat" is one of those "big lies" that arise every now and then and was supported and promoted by most of the sports media until this week.
Following the 2003 season LSU won the BCS Annual "OK, Who wants to beat the stuffing out of the Sooners?" Bowl.
And following the 2004 season, IMHO if the BCS had not screwed up and invited OU to that championship bowl, a legitimate contender, Auburn, would have give USC a game and, more likely, a loss.

[baddog]

Ralph -- By the way, why is this conversation on this site? I have not been following faithfully for a month and just happened to get on this morning.
Another by the way: Happy New Year.

[Ralph Turner]

baddog,   Happy New Year.  Thanks for correcting me on the erroneous statement of the USC "three-peat".

The McMurry win over Austin College was not a reflection of the efforts that the teams gave on the court.  (AC falls to 1-10, their only win over UDallas who is 2-11 and only has defeated Cal Tech and Swarthmore.)

McMurry should have put AC away very handily.  However, AC players wanted that game more than McMurry.

Baddog, Asst. Coach Vanlandingham has rejoined his mentor Coach Holmes.  They were the braintrust behind the 1998-2001 McM crew.

1998-99 --  22-3 --  Won the ASC-West (8-0) and lost in the semis of the post-season tourney on a very, very long 3-pt buzzer beater.  Passed over by the Selection Committee for a Pool B bid.

1999-2000 -- 27-2  -- Lost in the Elite 8 at Champion Calvin to Calvin.  Among the leaders in D3 in offense and Margin of Victory.

2000-01 -- 24-4 -- Lost in Sweet 16 to Finalist William Paterson with Player of the Year Horace Jenkins, whom McMurry guard Andrew Ottaro shut down until the free throws at the end of the game.

We fans see that 73-9 run and saw this year's talent and knew what the team could do, if they only would be "coachable"!

Coach Vanlandingham and Coach Holmes brought in 9 new players and resumed coaching their system.  We fans realize the job before the team, but we also believe in the coaching staff and the system.   These players need to adopt the "passion to get better".

That was the reason for the posting!

[Pat Coleman]

I was fully willing to reference USC's 2½-peat if the Trojans had fulfilled their end of the bargain and won.

[Ralph Turner]

McM by 4,  15-11;   14:28 left.

[Ralph Turner]

Media  Timeout; McM 28-21; 9:40 left in first half

[Ralph Turner]

McM 51 UOz 35 1:45 left in the half.  Both McMurry Point guards have 3 fouls.

[etbualum]

Concordia  44

ETBU 43

Half

ETBU down by as much as 17

ETBU shooting 57% from the floor
Cedric Isom 8 pts 3rbs 3assists
Chris Isom 8 pts 6rbs
Melvin Allen 8pts
Brandon Palmer 7pts

Concordia shooting 50% from the floor
Joel McDonald 11pts
Maxwell 10 pts
Graves 7 pts