Game 12: UCLA

This was a wildly entertaining game with a horrible finish for Tiger fans.  Not only did Missouri completely fold, but some questionable officiating sure went UCLA's way.  From a critical standpoint, I thought Missouri played pretty poorly.  Some disturbing trends continued in this game which show the glaring weaknesses that the team will need to shore up if it wants to make a deep run this year.  In all the things to be disappointed in this game (bad calls, Bell's missed gimmie, etc.), the thing that most frustrated me was how lazy Mizzou looked, especially in getting back on defense.  UCLA had tons of easy shots in this game just because they pushed the ball up the floor and beat Missouri defenders to the other end.  That is ridiculous.  The worst play of all was when UCLA had the fast break in which the player out in front missed the lay-up and ALL of the UCLA players were trailing the play while ALL of the Missouri players didn't even bother to run back.

Ever wonder why Missouri is one of the worst teams in the nation at forcing turnovers...they don't hustle.  There were numerous occasions where a UCLA player on offense lost control of the dribble and the Missouri defenders just stood there watching as the player would track down the ball.  On one occasion, the UCLA player dribbled the ball off of his foot and it darted forward toward the Mizzou defenders and none of them even made an attempt to get it.  Inexplicable.

As annoying as Bill Walton was in the telecast, I completely agreed with his point about stats not being worth a lick when the only thing that matters is the win or the loss.  As a result, Pressey's huge night is lost because they couldn't close out the game.

Frank Haith
I normally don't grade the coaching, but tonight I was just floored with what I saw from Missouri.  Surely it should have been a no-brainer to insert Oriakhi in the game for UCLA's last possession.  But instead, NWC is kept in the game who hasn't made a play on defense all year.  Missouri looked like a poorly-coached team in the waning moments of the game and I didn't see a single move that Haith made that helped.  That was disappointing.

Haith also figured it would be nice to go to zone, despite looking horrible every time they tried it in the Bahamas.  Well, it looked just as bad as UCLA scored a wide-open dunk against it.  Why do these guys struggle with defense so much?  Grade: 3/10.

Phil Pressey
Phil had a great game, but was visibly tired at the end and made some questionable decisions late that proved to be costly.  I hope that he will learn from it and move on.  I also hope that he will forgive Bell for blowing what would have been assist number 20.  I'm going to give Pressey high marks because he did a lot of amazing things in this game.  However, his defense was very poor in this game.  He pretty much let Larry Drew II get to whatever spot he wanted on the floor.  Grade: 8/10.

Laurence Bowers
Bowers also wilted at the end after making so many good cuts for a good portion of the game.  All of Bowers makes were dunks and lay-ups on Pressey assists.  But someone has to finish in close.  It seems that is harder than we might think.  Grade: 7/10.

QUICK OFFICIATING NOTE: Pressey and Bowers shot 36 shots from the field in this game, but only were given one free throw attempt.  Hmmm....

Jabari Brown
Brown hit 50% from behind the arc and also made some big shots at crucial times when it was needed.  However, he botched the play at the end of regulation which proved to be costly.  Grade: 6/10.

Alex Oriakhi
Oriakhi played 19 minutes due to foul trouble.  Missouri's defense was noticeably better when he was in the game and I felt like when he was out, UCLA was more likely to get an offensive rebound (which was absolutely the case during the Rosburg-Jank minutes).  Now we know that it is better to grab a player with two hands who is driving to the basket than it is to put the ball down on the floor.  Grade: 5/10.

Negus Webster-Chan
Webster-Chan was disappointing because he completely loses his mind whenever Pressey goes out of the game.  He did an okay job when he was guarding Kyle Anderson, but every other guard who he tried to defend blew right by him.  Grade: 3/10.

Earnest Ross
Ross had a very nice stat line, but missed a crucial free throw late and also struggled on defense (really, the whole team did so there's no point in me singling people out in this regard).  He made a couple of fundamental errors in this game (like trying to save a ball from going out of bounds that clearly went off a UCLA player and then late in the game, not giving the ball up on a 3-on-1 fast break which would have presumedly led to a Brown dunk).  Otherwise, Ross was a very steady contributor in this game.  Grade: 7/10.

Keion Bell
It's hard to rag on Bell since he did knock in 17 points and provided some nice energy when Missouri took it's big lead.  He also was a force on the offensive boards, converting a number of tips early on and then keeping some balls alive.  However, I can't get past that missed lay-up.  Unbelievable.  Grade: 6/10.

Jankovic and Rosburg
These guys just aren't ready for big-time basketball.  UCLA scored on every possession in which these guys were on the floor.  They are such a huge defensive liability that it's hard to justify them getting any minutes in a tight game.

Overall Thoughts
Missouri allowed UCLA to score 97 points on 81 possessions by giving up so many easy baskets due to UCLA beating the Tigers down the floor.  Missouri's team defense needs to improve.  They looked good in the one spurt when they pushed the lead to 9 points, then got lazy (or tired) and seemed to let the Bruins take whatever shot they wanted.  Missouri had 17 turnovers, UCLA only had 6.

It would have been nice to win this game, but it's really not a huge deal overall.  I just hope they learn and get better.

Next up:  Bucknell on the 5th (Saturday).

Christmas Wish List

This is largely an extension of my thoughts from the Illinois game after allowing the immediate euphoria to subside as I critique what each player needs to do to improve based upon what we have seen up to this point in the season.

Phil Pressey
For whatever reason, Pressey has not been able to make lay-ups like he has in the past.  He had some easy looks against Illinois due to great penetration, but still came up empty in getting the point-blank shots to fall.  If he could start making these close shots, it will make him that much tougher to defend and continue to open up shots for the big guys.

Laurence Bowers
Bowers shooting and scoring have been better than I could have hoped for.  His defense has been okay, but he seems to get tired over the course of a game and his rebounding has been suspect.  Even in the Illinois game where he ended up with 10 boards, there was a ten-minute stretch in the second half where he never jumped and allowed more aggressive Illinois players to get rebounds over him.  (Illinois had 14 offensive rebounds of their own and I noticed that Bowers and Criswell were caught flat-flooted a number of times in the second half.  The refs didn't help during that stretch since it appeared to me that Illinois got away with a couple of over-the-backs.)  Bowers has the ability to dominate and I'd love to see him continue his torrid shooting while adding some meanness on the back boards.

Alex Oriakhi
I loved the way that Oriakhi played against Illinois.  He was a huge presence on the boards on both ends of the floor and really kept Illinois from getting anything going in close.  However, when you consider that he missed 5 shots and none of his shots were from more than 3 feet away, you can either hope that he improves his touch or becomes even more selective in the shots that he takes.  As a senior, it would seem that he's not likely going to all of a sudden develop touch around the basket.  Thus, I'm just going to want to see him improve in his shot selection by passing out of some situations.  He hasn't shown this aspect of his post game and it is an important one.  In the Illinois game, he was triple-teamed on two occasions and rather than pass the ball out for a wide-open shot from the perimeter, he tried to muscle up a shot between three defenders.  Both times he was stuffed and Missouri came away with nothing on both of those possessions.  He needs to recognize when additional defenders collapse on him and kick the ball back out.  Other than that, keep crashing the boards and showing no mercy on that rim when you take it up strong Alex!

Jabari Brown
I really like what I've seen from Brown so far.  Frankly, I haven't seen enough to properly critique his game.  However, he did commit the cardinal sin of basketball when he tried to save a ball from going out-of-bounds by throwing it back underneath Illinois' basket which resulted in an easy dunk for them.  I just want to see that outside stroke which we've been hearing so much about start making 3s at a 50% clip.

Tony Criswell
Criswell continues to provide great minutes and is especially effective on offense.  I'd love to see him use his size better on defense though as he seems to really struggle when it comes to defending.  Hard to complain with anything else when it comes to Criswell and the energy that he brings.

Keion Bell
Slowly but surely Bell has been filling the role that this team needs by playing solid defense and getting out in transition.  He never had a chance to play much in the Illinois game but this team is going to need him this season and I wouldn't be shocked to see him have a nice outing in his hometown against UCLA.

Earnest Ross
Like most Tiger fans, I'd love to see Ross go from being an outside player to an inside player.  I'd also like to see him improve his free throw shooting.

Negus Webster-Chan
Defense and confidence.  Confidence and defense.  He exhibited neither against Illinois in his few minutes in the game.

Game 11: Illinois

Whew!  What a great win!  Ugly at times...frustrating at times...disappointing at times...but another great installment of this amazing series and overall AN OUTSTANDING game from our Missouri Tigers.  I thought Coach Haith did a good job of coaching and substituting as the final result is exactly what we were hoping for.  Three Tigers with double-doubles and all three were crucial to the win!  The best thing about the win is that Illinois is a very good team and Missouri beat them despite playing far from perfect.

Phil Pressey
Live by the sword...die by the sword...win by the sword.  Phil is who he is.  A playmaker with a bit of the wild west in him.  I've defended him all season and I'm not going to stop now.  There's no question he takes quick shots that he has no business taking (but those were the shots that won the VCU game).  If he doesn't keep driving, then he doesn't get the opportunity to make the dimes that he does.  Even on many of his misses, the end result was a made basket due to the defense having to defend him.  In the last three minutes, he was nails.  Loved the way he kept competing despite the woeful shooting.  Grade: 7/10.

Laurence Bowers
Bowers was streaky, but like Phil made the plays down the stretch to pull out the victory.  He kept battling and weathered the storm.  The stat that I thought was the most telling from Bowers was the fact that he had 25% of the Mizzou assists (only one other Tiger had an assist outside of Pressey...Ross had 1).  In watching the game, I was frustrated with Bowers inability to dominate inside on defense, but think that Illinois deserves a lot of credit as they are a very good team.  Grade: 9/10.

Jabari Brown
Brown is the player that this team needed.  18 and 7 is more than I would have dreamed from him in a game like this.  He is a huge upgrade and the best perimeter newcomer without question.  He made some big 3s when the team needed them and was fairly solid on D as well.  Grade: 7/10.

Alex Oriakhi
I thought Oriakhi was the key to this win.  His presence on the boards was so profound as he gathered 7 boards on both offense and defense and kept a number of offensive possessions alive.  He also was perfect from the line.  Great job Alex!  Grade: 9/10.

Earnest Ross
Ross was solid and made a few nice plays at crucial times.  His offensive rebound and put-back when Mizzou was down late in the second half was the pivotal turning point in momentum.  Nice to see him go inside and come up with a big play.  Grade: 7/10.

Tony Criswell
Criswell definitely provided some excitement.  Watching him play defense is like riding a roller coaster without a seat belt.  But he's big enough and active enough to really help the team.  Like Oriakhi, he came up with some big offensive rebounds and made some important baskets when the offense seemed to bog down.  Grade: 6/10.

Keion Bell
Bell was mostly a non-factor and never really got into the flow of the game.  Grade: 5/10.

Negus Webster-Chan
Haith has given Webster-Chan lots of minutes this year to prepare him for these types of situations.  Unfortunately, Webster-Chan wet the bed just as he did against Louisville.  This was disappointing to see as he should be the best player to provide Pressey some rest.  As a result, Phil ended up playing 39 minutes because no one else seems to be able to handle the ball against quality opponents.  Grade: 1/10.

Overall Thoughts
It feels so good to feel like Mizzou played very average, but still came away with an excellent win due to decent defense and domination on the boards (51-29).  I thought the guards played some of their best defense and forced Illinois into outside jump shots.  When Illinois took the lead, they were making some pretty tough shots, but it wasn't due to poor defense.  They were going one-on-one and getting space with crossovers but still settled for 17-foot jumpers.  When they stopped falling...game over.  Illinois is much tougher than UCLA and I hope that Missouri is able to continue to play with a high level intensity out in California.  This team has the potential to be really good.  Merry Christmas!

Next up:  UCLA on Friday.

Game 10: South Carolina State

Getting a mid-season transfer is always an exciting thing, but very rarely does the transferring player live up to the hype that seems to be generated during the early part of the season.  In fact, I can only think of one time when the player met or exceeded expectations, as Albert White most certainly did.  Obviously, Jabari Brown was a highly sought-after recruit coming out of high school who has now had over a year in a college program.  It would be logical to think he could be a major contributor to this year's team, but it is always wise to not let expectations get too carried away.  Actually, his debut in a Tiger uniform comes at a perfect time as South Carolina State would otherwise not be a very interesting match-up.  Brown's arrival provided quite a bit of drama to what would have otherwise been a complete snooze of a game.  Haith made things interesting by utilizing a steady stream of substitutions which while entertaining, did not necessarily give us much of an idea as to what line-up worked the best together.  Unfortunately, SC State was so overmatched that even Mizzou's walk-ons were able to score rather easily against them.

Jabari Brown
Might as well start with the new guy.  Well, he is pretty much EXACTLY what this team needs.  Showed some great teamwork early on with two assists almost immediately after coming into the game.  He looks to be a great ballhandler and plays within his limitations which is the sure sign of a player who has a good understanding of the game.  He struggled with his outside shot, but showed good poise and though credited with two turnovers, neither was bad (first one was an offensive foul on an aggressive drive to the hoop and the second was a nifty pass that Criswell completely whiffed on).  Grade: 7/10.

Phil Pressey
Phil started off nicely with two shots from the lane and then basically kind of took a back seat for the rest of the game, yet still had a nice line of 6 points and 6 assists.  Grade: 8/10.

Laurence Bowers
I loved that Bowers on his very first touch took the ball from the top of the key all the way to the basket.  He got fouled on his way, but I liked the aggressive approach which I feel is the one area that he needs to work on.  He went to the goal on his third touch with a nice baseline drive as well.  Like Phil, took a backseat as this game provided an opportunity to see the other guys play.  Looked great running the floor.  Grade: 8/10.

Alex Oriakhi
Oriakhi didn't see a whole lot of time but put in his usual effort with 9 points and 11 rebounds.  Loved that he dunked any time he was close.  Grade: 8/10.

Negus Webster-Chan
I thought Webster-Chan looked great in this game.  He made nice passes and good cuts and was active on the boards.  He didn't miss a shot and didn't have a turnover...that's efficient basketball.  Grade: 8/10.

Earnest Ross
Ross worried me in the first half, but seemed to catch the bug and looked much better in the second half when he started going inside with the basketball.  However, he and Jankovic still struggle on the defensive end.  Grade: 7/10.

Keion Bell
Bell looks good in the starting lineup.  He seems to realize what he needs to do to help this team and has a better all-around game over Ross, in my opinion.  He was very active in the passing lanes which led to some easy baskets in transition.  I really want to see these types of results when the competition becomes stronger.  Grade: 8/10.

Tony Criswell
Criswell looked very nice in this game making an early presence on the boards and providing a nice scoring threat from the free throw line.  I really like his game and the energy he brings whenever he is on the floor.  Grade: 7/10.

Stefan Jankovic
Jankovic was given the start tonight.  His defense makes me cringe and his offense makes me smile and laugh at times.  His behind-the-back dribble and finish on the and-one was beautiful and got me on my feet.  Jankovic has the offensive skills to get quality minutes.  His defense though is going to hold him back.  Grade: 7/10.

Ryan Rosburg
I felt like Rosburg finally slowed things down and was able to do what he wanted to do in this game.  That was an encouraging sign as he has played out-of-control up until this point (stage fright perhaps?).  He showed some nice poise and was able to use his size and finish plays in close in tonight's game.  Grade: 7/10.

Overall Thoughts
Really liked the way the team came out showing some different looks on defense, though they did give up a few offensive rebounds when Oriakhi was not in the game.  They showed some 1-3-1 full court pressure and plenty of 2-3 zone (which still needs some work).  The addition of Brown is huge as he is very strong with the ball and looks plenty comfortable at the free throw line.  More importantly, he provides another good player competing for minutes which will only make this team better.

Missouri looked more like last year in the way they pushed the ball up the floor and was able to get some easy looks due to how quickly they got the ball into the forecourt.  Hard to say whether this was due to the quality of the opponent (SC State is one of the worst teams in Div. I) or whether this is something that they will continue to do successfully.  Missouri just brutalized SC State in transition in this game.

My only significant gripe was that Missouri did not dominate the boards in this game as they have in their previous games.  SC State got 14 offensive rebounds which is disappointing but might be attributable to the wholesale substitutions that Haith was employing in this game.

Next up:  Hmmm....I wonder.

Game 9: Tennessee State

This was a difficult game to evaluate.  I felt like Missouri played pretty poorly overall and the final score was more a result of cold shooting from Tennessee State than from good defense by the Tigers.  Even more so than the last game against SEMO, this game highlighted some rather significant concerns that need to be addressed for this team to succeed.  Two of my three primary concerns which have been noticeable all year and were again highlighted in this game were (1) ballhandling and (2) outside shooting.  (Team defense is the third concern which gets a pass in this game.)

Phil Pressey
Pressey has to be frustrated.  He continues to make passes which should get assists, but this team just doesn't have the ability to finish.  I thought the first half was interesting when he went out of the game and Missouri failed to get a shot up on three straight possessions.  Against good defenses, this team is horrible at handling the ball and Phil is the only player who can move the ball with the dribble.  Pressey's shot selection was improved and his passing was fine, just little help from the recipients of his passes.  He sat out most of the second half.  Grade: 5/10.

Laurence Bowers
Bowers was solid.  His shot was very smooth today.  My only criticism is that he is still reluctant to cut to the basket and is more content to stay at the free throw line and beyond.  He had one nice cut on a break and Pressey hit him with the pass for the easy basket.  Grade: 8/10.

Alex Oriakhi
Oriakhi was decent.  I'm starting to accept him for what he is.  He is never going to have the touch that Ratliffe had around the basket.  He's a bruiser and provides nice interior defense and rebounding.  I'll take a double-double from him any day of the week.  Grade: 7/10.

Negus Webster-Chan
Webster-Chan looked pretty weak again in the first half, but had a nice second half as he was active on the boards and actually got the ball to places where his teammates could score, finishing the game with a team-high 4 assists.  This was nice to see after the last couple of games where he was a virtual no-show on the stat sheet.  Grade: 5/10.

Earnest Ross
Pretty bad.  Grade: 1/10.

Keion Bell
Not much better.  Did make a couple of baskets, but was otherwise a complete non-factor in this game.  Grade: 3/10.

Tony Criswell
Criswell really is a Bowers-lite.  He's decent in the high post as he can knock down the shot from the free throw line and showed that he can find the open man down low.  Unfortunately, he still loses the ball way more than he should.  Not sure if we'll see much improvement in this area this year.  I certainly hope so.  Grade: 4/10.

Stefan Jankovic
Jankovic is one of those players who needs to get in the game for a few minutes and get his game legs.  His first touch was dreadful as he threw the ball right at the feet of Bell resulting in a turnover, but then seemed to settle down and provide some nice minutes.  I still don't completely trust him though as being the type of player who can give quality minutes in a tough game.  Grade: 6/10.

Ryan Rosburg
More of the same.  He was given a great pass down low which he squandered by putting the ball on the floor and going to the left side of the hoop WHEN THERE WAS NO ONE THERE.  Result: ball stuffed right back in his face when all he had to do was lay the ball in as soon as he caught it.  These are fundamentals which he still hasn't mastered which will become more pronounced when the competition stiffens.  Grade: 3/10.

Overall Thoughts
This team really needs a shooter who can knock down the open shot from outside.  Right now no one seems to be able to do that and it's clogging things up and slowing this offense down.  Bell and Ross were back to stinking it up as between the two of them, they finished with 5 points, 6 rebounds and 8 turnovers.  That is ridiculous when you consider how little they actually handle the ball.  They are just not getting it done on offense and are really hurting the team when they are putting up these types of numbers.  Ross has been getting worse each game as he can't knock down the outside shot and doesn't have the handles to take the ball inside.  Bell has shown some good signs but struggled today.  I am really hoping that Brown can provide some solid results from the perimeter.  Thankfully, from now on, we'll have all players available and will soon know whether Brown is the player that we are hoping for.

Next up:  South Carolina State on the 17th (Monday).

Game 8: SEMO

This was an interesting game.  The bad news is that Missouri's defense in the first half looked as bad as I've ever seen it.  SEMO looked quicker, more aggressive and ran the floor scoring at will against the Tiger defense.  The good news is that the first half punch in the face seemed to wake the Tigers up and they looked quite a bit better holding SEMO to only 20 second half points.  The nice thing about a game like this is that even when Mizzou doesn't play its best, there are some positives that can be gleaned which I will touch on after the individual breakdowns.

Phil Pressey
Phil stunk.  Not sure why he thought he needed to keep shooting.  Not only were his shots dumb, but they weren't even close to going in.  Yet he kept shooting and shooting.  His poor shot selection contributed to the first half deficit.  This was definitely a disappointing outing from him.  Grade: 2/10.

Laurence Bowers
Bowers finally put two decent halves together and looked like a star going for 26 and 9.  I also liked the way he fought for boards (but I could probably say this about everyone on the team).  Grade: 10/10.

Alex Oriakhi
Oriakhi just did not have it tonight.  He really struggles to score and thought it was interesting that Haith elected to start the second half with Oriakhi on the bench.  It is demoralizing to work the ball inside and so close to the goal and yet come away empty on multiple occasions.  Grade: 3/10.

Negus Webster-Chan
Webster-Chan also started the second half on the bench (more on this later).  Again, not much to say about him as he is statistically almost a non-entity (3 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist in 24 minutes of playing time), yet he clearly struggled on defense in the first half.  Grade: 4/10.

Earnest Ross
Speaking of no-shows, I don't remember Ross much in this game other than him getting lost on defense and shooting up a guarded 3 (which was the only FG he took).  From my vantage point, I thought he was the worst defender during that horrific first half as it was usually Ross that was caught in the lane on the screen giving a SEMO shooter a wide-open shot.  However, Haith did start him in the second half and it seemed to work.  Grade: 2/10.

Keion Bell
Bell started off rough, but really made his presence felt and is slowly becoming a nice piece of the rotation.  I really liked how tough he was going for the rebounds which is what I want to see him do in every game.  He ended up with a solid 12 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal and a block.  And both of his free throws were as pure as could be.  Grade: 8/10.

Tony Criswell
This may have been a breakout game for Criswell.  He is showing that he can be quite a weapon on offense and he just needs to be as committed on defense as he is to scoring.  I thought it said a lot that he got the second half start and really delivered during those first ten minutes when Mizzou really destroyed SEMO and took the game over.  Grade: 7/10.

Ryan Rosburg
Rosburg continues to get minutes and but one for one sequence, didn't look half bad while he was in.  He still seems a little intimidated at this level and I hope he works through that and becomes a player that can be counted on.  Grade: 4/10.

Overall Thoughts
I really thought it was interesting that Haith went to a line-up of Pressey, Ross, Bell, Criswell and Bowers to start off the second half.  It seemed to work and I think that with Bell slowly but surely coming along that this is a line-up that offers plenty of athleticism and offensive firepower.  Oriakhi is a bit of a conundrum right now with how poorly he has been shooting and doesn't have the quickness to defend on the perimeter that this line-up does.

A few positives that came from this game were the emergence of Criswell and the nice results that came from the line-up that started the second half.  I think Haith may have stumbled upon something that will work nicely in the future.

Funny stat:  Mizzou's forwards were 3-3 from behind the arc, while the guards were 1-10.

Next up:  Tennessee State on Saturday.

Game 7: Appalachian State

After the quality competition that was faced last weekend in the Bahamas, it was to be expected that the Tigers may look relaxed (or rusty) facing an opponent who to this point in the season has not played well.  On top of that, the team has been dealing with the distractions that were DixonGate.  But the guys really came out strong and I was especially pleased with how they played defense in the first half after giving up a few easy baskets.  They really buckled down and actually played very good team defense.  Unfortunately, the second half was a different story, as Missouri actually got outscored in the second half (horrible second half efficiency with 12 turnovers...many of them unforced).

Phil Pressey
Pressey was content to not force the action as he didn't even take his first shot until 17 minutes into the ball game.  He got a little trigger happy in the second half and ultimately ended up with a pretty forgettable stat line of 5 points, 7 assists and 4 steals.  While the Bowers dunk was the highlight of the game, Pressey should get 90% of the credit as he did a ridiculous spin-move with the dribble at half court that very few can pull off at full speed (no one does it better than Pressey).  The no-look pass to Bowers was the cherry on top.   Grade: 5/10.

Laurence Bowers
Bowers started off great by scoring the first 7 points of the game and hitting his first 5 shots (2 of which were 3s).  He then continued to shoot well the entire half as he himself equaled the entire output of the Appalachian State team.  He normally starts off slowly, so it was great to see him start strong.  Unfortunately, he completely disappeared in the second half as his contribution to the team in the second stanza was 2 points, 1 rebound and 3 turnovers.  Bowers has yet to put two good halves together this season.  Will it happen?  Inquiring minds want to know.  Grade: 7/10.

Alex Oriakhi
Oriakhi seems to have lost his touch from the line.  Not much else worth saying.  Grade: 4/10.

Negus Webster-Chan
Webster-Chan gets a lot of minutes and pretty much does nothing (0 points on 4 shots in 28 minutes).  In essence, he is getting the minutes that would have been played by Michael Dixon.  He is not one-tenth of the player that Dixon is, but that is the last I am going to say along those lines as the Dixon ship has sailed.  My hope is that Jabari Brown is good enough on both ends to be getting all of these minutes because NWC is somewhat of a stand-in player at this point in his career in that he doesn't lose games, but neither does he win them.  Grade: 4/10.

Earnest Ross
Ross had a nice stat line and I was happy with his presence on the boards.  He had a nice sequence where he ran the floor and was able to finish with two lay-ups on consecutive possessions.  His shot selection is still a little suspect, but I'm not going to complain too much in this game.  Grade: 6/10.

Keion Bell
Bell is what he is.  I for one am learning to accept him just as that.  He is a great rebounder for his size and is decent enough on defense and in transition that he deserves the minutes that he is getting.  His outside shot is horrible looking, but he knocked down one three in this game (the basketball term "rainbow" doesn't quite do his outside shot justice).  I much prefer it when he picks his spots to attack the goal, but even then he rushes his shot a bit.  What I LOVE about his game is that he is virtually automatic at the line and he has that awkward long-step to the goal which is going to draw some fouls.  Bell is going to help this team.  Grade: 6/10.

Tony Criswell
Criswell continues to be active on the boards in his limited game action (grabbed all 3 of his rebounds in his first 5 minutes of action).  I wish he would be a little more judicious in his shot selection as he has a pretty quick trigger whenever he touches the ball on the offensive end of the floor.  The thing is...he makes some of them.  The problem with Criswell is that he has the game of a 6'5" small forward, but he's 6'9" (which I guess really isn't a problem...surely those 4 inches come in handy from time to time).  If Criswell could figure out how to play good defense, his minutes would double.  Grade: 7/10.

Rosburg and Jankovic
Rosburg continues to get minutes and he actually did a couple of nice things while in the game early on by taking two charges.  But when both he and Jankovic were in at the same time at the end of the first half, Appalachian State went on a 6-0 run to close out the half.  Based upon what we have seen from these two, it really would have made sense to redshirt one of them as they just don't seem to bring much when you consider that between the two of them, they played 16 minutes and finished with a grand total of 2 points on 4 field goals and 2 free throws.  No need to give these guys a grade.

Overall Thoughts
I considered this game (and the next two) as fillers.  Let's get Brown in the rotation and see what this team has as it preps for the meat of the season.

I don't have any desire to discuss the Dixon situation.  But I will say this, losing him is a huge blow to this team's chances to be really good.  I know the team is very upset (even angry) about how everything played out and are still a bit shell-shocked at the realization that Dixon will not be playing with them this year  (from a legitimate source).  While I don't expect anyone to perform as well as Mike would have, this does give plenty of opportunity for someone else to step up and be a primary weapon this year.  The lone positive in all of this is simply this...we know what we have to work with and they have been working together in all of the games up to this point in the season.  Let's hope they pull together and turn into a darn good team.

Next up:  SEMO on Tuesday.