It was a blow when Quinndary Weatherspoon’s trifecta went through the net last night at the buzzer as State came back from a 17 point deficit and defeated us, 75-74 in Starkville last night. It was crushing actually. I felt like I got punched in the stomach when that shot went through the net. We had a shot at the rebound on the first miss by State, but couldn’t corral it and Weatherspoon, who played a phenomenal game for them with 24 points on four-ofsix from trifecta and some terrific defense on MFD in the second half, sank the deep three from the left corner.
We played really hard, but just couldn’t finish the game. But we’ve still got five regular season games left starting this Saturday against Georgia @ home, 11 AM CT/ Noon ET on ESPN2. Then we go to Florida next Tuesday night, Feb 23rd, for a 6 PM CT/7 PM ET tipoff on the SEC Network. We play UK at home, Saturday, Feb. 27th, at 3 PM CT/4 PM ET on CBS, then UT @ home, Tuesday, March 1st, @ 6 PM CT/7 PM ET on SEC Network, and finish off the season @ A&M Saturday, March 5th, with an 11 AM CT/Noon ET tipoff on ESPN2.
The SEC Tournament is at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville March 9th-13th, a Wednesday through a Sunday. The tournament will be televised by the SEC Network with the championship game Sunday at Noon CT/1 PM ET on ESPN. It would be nice to get a bye on the first day of the tournament.
We are now 15-11 overall and 7-6 in the SEC. It’s not over until we finish off the SEC tourney, so there is still time to make the NCAA’s.
Still believe in Wade, Dame, MFD, Jeff, Luke, Riley, Nolan, Josh, the whole team. MFD hit six threes last night, but they took him away early in the second half and we couldn’t seem to compensate. Wade is an awesome player, a leader on the team, the floor general, and a passionate VU basketball player. I love Wade. Sometimes, I wish he’d play a little more under control and not force things. You never want to take away Wade’s aggressiveness and passion to win, so maybe Kevin just keeps letting him loose. He’s done a good job taking care of the ball lately. When he does that, we are an outstanding team. Jeff Roberson has been super for us all season. Dame has been on fire lately. He had 20 and 10 last night. He’s been awesome. Luke has been very good. He’s just a key cog in our arsenal. We HAVE to have Luke on the court in crunch time. MFD is a serious marksman and a great player for us. He’s a good rebounder and an underrated, good defender. Riley and Nolan are giving us great hustle even though their threes aren’t falling like they usually do. Still believe that’ll happen. They give us such great hustle and hard nosed play that we have to have them on the court. We need both of them. They are such great team players. Josh has given us a lot of good minutes. Still believe Josh can help us down the stretch. Guys like Joe Toye, Cam Justice and Samir Sehic can still help us down the stretch. Carter Josephs can give us some good minutes if needed.
We still have a very good team. Please keep the faith.