Glad I could inspire #23 today. Somebody is reading Bobcat Attack…haha. Reverse jinx always works. Let’s keep it rolling.

That's the AJ Clayton we all want and need!

The Jax Pav lines are starting to resemble the Rondo lines during his prime! I love it!

Hopefully we can clip some Ivy tomorrow, if that's how it pans out.

great game obviously by clayton. misleading stats for Pav. better today than yesterday but he still spends too much of the clock dribbling, he’s caught inside with limited options and beside his turnovers often doesn’t put his teammates in good position with his passes. Elliot gave some good minutes. team played under control much less frenetic. best point guard news is mitchell should return on
a minute restriction on sunday.

I would say they took a step in the right direction. Let’s see what they bring on Sunday. It’s a long season and this group has a long way to go. There is hope.

Observation to note

AJ Brown might be considered the league's best NBA prospect.
He might be the highest rated recruit on our team.
He has size and length.
You can see the athleticism.

He provided glimpses of what he could be as a true freshman.
His Soph year was derailed with injuries.
It's still early in his 3rd year.

But...

Outside of his ability to score the basketball (82 pts - averaging 13.7 ppg this year, 431 pts in his career - averaging 10.5 ppg)

He's kind of the OPPOSITE of a stat sheet stuffer (i.e. he does nothing else really well to help the team outside of scoring).

He has 114 rebounds in 41 career games (2.8 per game). For a guy who is 6'4 with long arms I sure would like to see that number up around 4-5 per game.

He has 34 career assists (to 35 turnovers), 33 steals and 9 blocked shots (all well under 1 per game)

And his defense is...not good.


What a world of difference it would be for this team to a) get Reef back and b) get AJ Brown to be more than a one-dimensional player.

Add that to "good" AJ Clayton, and P.S. play Vic Searls more - all he does is do good things - plus it gives us more size and allows Clayton to play his natural PF position (insert this is why Ayden Evans needs minutes so he can be the bench rotation guy behind those two here and there) - and you just might start to see us resembling what many thought we could be in the pre-season.

100% agree and you beat me to it, but Searls and Clayton are great together, play Evans 8-10 minutes behind Searls and play 10 minutes with Clayton at the 5 with Hadaway. And Hadaway fills whatever minutes are left when Clayton sits or whenever else Searls needs to sit.

That's not too far from where we were projected at the beginning and mid of last season either. Conference play hasn't even started. We looked shaky much of last season before going on a tear at the end and nearly winning the conference.

Of the last 26 years, someone has won with 3+ losses 22 times. 3.5 average losses.

Do I wish we were 6-0? Certainly. Would I feel different about starting conference play? Maybe, but we won't know where we truly stand until 1/17 @ Akron.

The reality is we have 11 exhibition games in which to gear up for conference play. Anything before that is just a distraction from Timmy bringing home some hardware.


My brother, you're talking about misleading stats in a game we won and he had 2 turnovers to 10 assists.

In the last two games he has 25 points, 21 assists and 6 turnovers.

I can live with damn near 4/1 assist ratio all day.

Matches the stats and my observations so far. Pavs would be a great backup PG to Reef. My starting five would be PG - Reef, SG - AJ Brown, SF - Hadaway, PF - Clayton, C - Searls. Let the 2s be PG - Pavs, SG - Sheldon, SF - Elmore, PF - none, C - Evans. Elliott in mop-up time and Burris TBD.

Biggest problem with that lineup is asking Hadaway to guard MAC SF's which are defacto 3rd guards. Probably not ideal.

I've thought about Hadaway at the 3 also, but agree that it's probably too slow of a lineup 3-5 to play in the MAC on the defensive end. And if we played those 3 big guys together and cut out a guard, it really squeezes the rotation for the guards (Out of Pav, Reef, AJ Brown, James, Sheldon who are you taking minutes away from to give Hadaway time at the 3?). As much as they've struggled so far, I don't see Boals abandoning those guys to try this. Who knows though, could be worth a shot. Would be much better rebounding while still having shooting threats through most of the lineup.


The other issue I'd see here is having Pav and Sheldon on the floor together a lot. We obviously don't have these types of stats to tell if this is true or now but I feel like those two on the floor together would be a nightmare on the defensive end. No size or strength, and quickness is lacking compared to James or Mitchell.

i’d look at james for hadaway. he and searls both get in foul trouble. elliot will get more and more time as the season progresses.

Considering not a single white dude under 6’0 logged minutes for (or exists on Portland’s and MTSU’s roster for that matter) either opponent, I’d say this is an incorrect opinion.

I’m with you on his defense being a shortcoming, however.

The problem with EJ4 is he's also a terrible defender. He's either out of position and chasing/reaching/fouling or doing the ole.

Hadaway is a much better defender, albeit statistically against bigs and not against wings like I alluded above. If I HAD to swap a 3rd guard into the lineup
I'd probably swap Sheldon into the 2 guard spot (knowing I'm giving up D - but hoping he's hitting from 3) and moving AJ Brown to the 3.