I'm back! It was a brief hiatus, as I'm trying to center this blog on conference season and road games that I attend. With that being said, here we go:
5-Out: Gene's Takeaways from UTC's 68-58 loss to Middle Tennessee State University on Friday:
1. This team is tough: The Mocs could have folded Friday night. They were down nine at the half and were 9-for-30 shooting in the first 30 minutes, but they kept fighting. They were down 16 midway through the second half but fought back to cut the lead to five. The Blue Raiders were a physically tough team that took a while to adjust to, but once the Mocs did, they made the game interesting.
2. Chaos not chaotic: The Blue Raiders had four turnovers in the first half. They were patient, got good shots and as a result led 29-20 at halftime. In the second half, the Mocs forced nine turnovers and shot 55 percent from the floor. At one point, GP had an "and-one" opportunity that could have cut the lead to four, that began with a steal. Moral? No turnovers leads to the team having to guard more in the half-court, which the team is currently good at, but not great.
3. Guarding the paint? A lot of this team's success will depend on its ability to defend at the 4, or the power forward position. Lance, in my opinion, is the team's best overall defender, but he needs the team's other guys at that position to contribute on that end as well. Marty, Chuck and Duke are definitely better offensive options -- and not enough can be said about how the latter two have progressed since their arrival. But their improvement on defense will be pertinent to the team's success going forward, because ...
4. Teams are attacking Tuoyo: It's not hard; you see a tree, you try to trim it. Tuoyo is the 6-foot-10 tree, playing security in the paint when teams try to score, and teams are doing anything they can to try to get him in foul trouble, because there is a 6-10 guy backing Tuoyo up right now. That guy -- 7-foot UTC signee Trey Kalina -- is currently at North Cobb Christian right now, putting up great numbers for his high school team. But not having Tuoyo in the game gives opponents one less thing to worry about, and he's spent the last two games in foul trouble. That's why improvement on the defensive end is important for the other post players.
5. The shooting? It's still there: In seven of the last eight halves of basketball, the Mocs have shot over 50 percent. Sure, it took a while for them to adjust to what MTSU was doing, but after 9-for-30 shooting in the first half, they were 16-for-29 in the second half. Will the first-half shooting lose you a lot of games? Sure. But will the Mocs encounter anybody in the Southern Conference as physically imposing as MTSU? Nope. And they shot 55 percent in the second half of a game that was in contention until the final minute. More reason to be pleased with the final outcome, as opposed to discouraged.