Excellent performance by Kyle Fuller, who finished with 20 points and four assists. Eric McClellan added 16 and four assists. James Siakam, who Kevin benched in the first half because he didn’t feel like he was ready to play, came on in the second half and scored 11 points and pulled down four boards. Josh Henderson played a good game in the middle with 11 points and six boards. Rod Odom didn’t have his best offensive game going 1-for-7 from the field, but was four-of-four from the line, and he finished with eight boards. As Kevin said in his postgame, we were good on defense in the first half holding a team, that averages 82 points a game, to only 32% shooting (11-34) from the field. We rebounded well in the second half too. We outrebounded them for the game, 38-32. Marymount shot better in the second half hitting 50 % from the field (14-of-28), but we kept them off the glass when they missed.

The main reason we won though was our free throw shooting. We were 17-of-21 in the second half (81%) and 24-of-32 for the game (75%). We were 11-of-12 in the last 3:35 of the game. Kyle was five-for-six, Rod hit a pair late and Eric hit a pair late. Kyle was eight-of-10 from the line, Rod was four-of-four, Josh was five-of-eight (still would like to see him improve on that), James was three-of-four and Eric was four-of-five.

The key shot of the game was a trifecta by Kyle with 4:08 left with us down 60-59. It put us up 62-60 and we never lost the lead again. What was so big about that three was that we had a a pretty solid lead in the second half only to have them come back on us and take the lead, 62-60, with four and half left . It looked like Providence from Friday night all over again. But we showed a lot of resilience and got the job done when we needed to.

Kevin said in his postgame interview that we could have easily been playing in the championship game of the Paradise Jam tourney in the Virgin Islands last night. We had Providence beaten the first 30 minutes leading by 14 with 10 minutes left in the game. We played so well for that first 3o minutes. I was really impressed with the team’s effort that night and saw a lot of potential in that game despite the loss. And closing out this one will give us a boost as we head to Austin next Monday to play the Texas Longhorns @ 9 PM ET/ 8 CT on ESPN2. I’m going to check out some Texas game film in the next couple of days. They are 4-1 now after losing to BYU last night, 86-82, in a tournament in KC. We are now 4-2.  Will be a major challenge for us and good for us to play in a hostile gym on national TV. Helps us get ready for SEC play. Liked the way we closed it out last night though.

Wake Forest on Saturday at 12:21 PM ET/11:21 AM CT on the SEC Network for our football team. I thought JMatt’s interview with Jim Rome, which I linked on an email yesterday, was spectacular. Romie said that was the best interview he has ever had with a college player and better than most professional interviews. JMatt is so impressive and getting his degree in a couple of weeks in three in a half years in Economics.

I’ve seen a draft projection of Jordan by ESPN which has him going 30th in the first round of the NFL draft, May 8-10. He could improve his stock even more with two more JMatt-like games against Wake and in the bowl game. Leading all-time receiver yardage-wise in the SEC overtaking Earl in East Tennessee on Saturday Night in that epic victory. Incredible stuff. Terrific young man whose future in football and in life looks unlimited. I see Andre Hal, Kenny Ladler and Wesley Johnson going as well in the draft at some point. I would estimate Kenny and Andre going in the third or fourth rounds, maybe higher with stellar performances in the next two games, though Andre is a little banged up and Kenny will sit out the first half of the Wake game because of the targeting penalty called on him in the second half of the Eastern Tennessee game last Saturday. But if Andre can get healthy and Kenny has a big half and bowl game, it would elevate their draft status. Same for Wesley. I’m not counting out guys like Jonathan Krause, Carey Spear or Javon Marshall either. Walker May and Chase Garnham have a pro mentality too. ACS would be a great guy to have on your roster. He’s a leader and can get the job done in the clutch which he did last Saturday Night along with Jon Krause, JMatt, our line and Patton. Should be an interesting three days for VU players in May in the Big Apple.

In the meantime we have two games left. Wake is not a slouch. They’ve been competitive with Miami, losing at the end of that game, and lost to a good Duke team last week, 28-21. They’re always competitive with us. ACS and Patton need to keep that one-two punch going. Everybody needs to bring their A game. A victory over Wake could mean a better bowl opportunity. I’m hearing Liberty or Gator right now. Alabama, Auburn, Missouri or SC could possibly take two BCS bids. Alabama in the national championship game, Auburn and Missouri not totally out of the picture in the BCS championship scenario with victories over Bama, and one of those four teams heading to the Sugar Bowl. If Mizzou wins this weekend versus A&M at home, they’ll be in championship game next Saturday at 4 PM ET/3 CT on CBS. If they lose it’s the Gamecocks going to the Georgia Dome in Atlanta to play either Alabama or Auburn. Alabama-Auburn looks like it’s shaping up to be a classic.Should be some outstanding college football this weekend.

The other two teams would play in the Outback and Capital One Bowl. Then comes LSU, A&M, Ole Miss, VU and Georgia. A&M and LSU will get some bigger bowls, possibly Gator and Chick-fil-A. If we can get by Wake, hopefully handily, and Ole Miss loses to State, that would help us. We have beaten Georgia, so if we win, we deserve a better bowl than them, though that’s not how it works usually. A lot of it is fan base, but our fan base is pretty jacked up right now and we would travel to Jacksonville if given that opportunity. Jacksonville may be a bit of a reach, but it could happen.  Chick-fil-A in Atlanta is not out of the question. That would be an excellent opportunity for our team. Memphis and the Liberty Bowl would be great, but I’d like the players to have the chance to travel somewhere else and for us to be able to show off our program out of state. Would be a nice boon to recruiting to play in Jacksonville or Atlanta, and winning a bowl game always helps. But we need to take care of business on Saturday. Still jacked about the win at Eastern Tennessee.

Any recruiting news pops, I’ll let you know ASAP.