**USC vs. Morgan State GAME Thread**

[Luke Skycocker]

Originally Posted by HeadCockFan

I was really impressed with the shooting. Amazing team effort there. What sucked was the complete snoozes on defense and ball handlers just dozing off and giving them the ball easily. I was impressed with Kacinas. Morgan State really sucked. I was surprised at how dumb their coach was.

Why were you impressed with Kacinas? He had 2 points (on free throws), 3 boards, and 3 turnovers. Didn't play all that spectacularly.

[Luke Skycocker]

1 stat that has to change, 10 assists to 20 turnovers

[gAmkok]

Students turned out again. I hope they keep it up all season. It's a better environment with them in the house.

Morgan State was an aggressive team - very physical guarding the ball. They forced us into a lot of our mistakes and turnovers. If anyone pays attention to the tape of this game, they gave a blueprint for how to defend us when Smith is on the point - just harass him bringing the ball up and there's a pretty good chance he'll hand it over. Even so, I still think he's better than last year, but this team is in desperate need of a better ball handler (Ellington, anyone?).

Frank Martin is the perfect guy for this job. He's going to demand excellence and improvement every day he's here and that's exactly what we haven't had in decades - someone who gives enough of a crap to try harder and demand everyone else try harder too. He is going to milk every ounce of potential out of this roster and every one that comes after it. Exciting stuff.

[ReadR00ster]

Originally Posted by Luke Skycocker

Why were you impressed with Kacinas? He had 2 points (on free throws), 3 boards, and 3 turnovers. Didn't play all that spectacularly.

He has good fundamentals though. He set screens. He crashes the boards. He is not out of position, and he is pretty quick and active for his height. He plays his role. The things he needs to work on, is he has to realize he is not John Stockton sometimes. He's forced a few backdoor passes that just weren't there. He has had some knit-picky moving screens called on him too. These things are fixable. I like the guy a lot. I don't think anyone said he was "spectacular" but I am indeed impressed. He's looked more like a basketball player than any freshman we had the previous few years.

[ktguen]

Can't pin this one on the students. They showed up. Whooooo will people find to blame it on? haha

[Cockhornleghorn]

The student turnout was great considering who we were playing AND they stayed until the end of the game. So, why do so many students leave football games early?

[eaglegolf018]

This shows just how much I really don't know about basketball.

We play Milwaukee and are losing by 17 at one point, can't hit a 3, and had to steal one in OT. I'm happy that we won, but not thrilled with the performance. Frank loved it.

We score 87 points tonight, out rebound a team with a 7 footer and 2 other giants by 10, and shoot great. I'm ecstatic. Frank is pissed. Haha. Love watching it, have no idea about the strategy though

[Cockhornleghorn]

Originally Posted by eaglegolf018

This shows just how much I really don't know about basketball.

We play Milwaukee and are losing by 17 at one point, can't hit a 3, and had to steal one in OT. I'm happy that we won, but not thrilled with the performance. Frank loved it.

We score 87 points tonight, out rebound a team with a 7 footer and 2 other giants by 10, and shoot great. I'm ecstatic. Frank is pissed. Haha. Love watching it, have no idea about the strategy though

Milwaukee has a good team and we played very hard. Morgan State is not so good and we made a lot of sloppy passes. I don't care which sport it is, turnovers will kill you. It isn't acceptable to let a team like Morgan State make 52% of their shots from the field against us.

[LtSmokes1]

Originally Posted by Cockhornleghorn

The student turnout was great considering who we were playing AND they stayed until the end of the game. So, why do so many students leave football games early?

Comparing basketball to football...are you really trying to say they are the same? That's a joke.

[SterlingBrooks]

Frank!

[ConwayGamecock]

Originally Posted by SECgamecock453

It's really exciting the direction this program is headed. Just wish we could get huge crowds for games.. I don't think we ever will unless we're consistently a NCAA Tournament team.

We just need to win and the crowds will come....we were selling out a lot of home SEC games in Horn's first year, and we only made the NIT that season....

[ConwayGamecock]

Originally Posted by eaglegolf018

87 points? What in the world? How did we do that? When was the last time that happened?

It's been a while....we failed to score 80 points in a game the entire season last season...highest we scored was 79 pts in a win over SC State. Only two opponents scored 80 pts on us however: UNC and UK. We have now scored 80+ point in each of our 2 games thus far, with a depleted roster.

We last scored 80 points in an 81-74 overtime win over Arkansas on Jan. 19th, 2011.....

[eaglegolf018]

Originally Posted by ConwayGamecock

We last scored 80 points in an 81-74 overtime win over Arkansas on Jan. 19th, 2011.....

That was probably the last time that I felt good about Carolina basketball under Darrin Horn. Just beat a pretty good Arkansas team after already beating a ranked Florida team on the road and a ranked Vandy team at home and Clemson as well. And Kentucky coming in that weekend. But then they lost to Kentucky. Then they lost to possibly the worst basketball team on the planet in Auburn. And it was straight down hill from there.

[CardiacKemba]

This team needs a real PG. Not these combo guards that chuck a lot of shots up.

[HeadCockFan]

Originally Posted by Luke Skycocker

Why were you impressed with Kacinas? He had 2 points (on free throws), 3 boards, and 3 turnovers. Didn't play all that spectacularly.

He looks physically mature for his age, and for a 'euro style shooter' he held his own in the paint. I just feel like he has a ton of upside, particularly once we get to see him as a SF, in his natural position. I think he has some smarts too. Total package for a small forward if he shoots well.

[HeadCockFan]

Originally Posted by Luke Skycocker

It's not gonna sell out. You might find one for a buck or two cheaper outside, but if not, the ticket office will have plenty

I found 2 tickets for 5 bucks each, then sat wherever I wanted. 10th row center. Good advice!

[HeadCockFan]

Originally Posted by davidmc467

Morgan State is a pretty awful team. We should be fine without Carrera.

Morgan State went 9-20 in the MEAC last year....

You were right. I was worrying about nothing. Their bigs didn't know how to use that size at all. I feel like their coach was just screaming at them and gave no strategy.

[sc455]

Originally Posted by eaglegolf018

This shows just how much I really don't know about basketball.

We play Milwaukee and are losing by 17 at one point, can't hit a 3, and had to steal one in OT. I'm happy that we won, but not thrilled with the performance. Frank loved it.

We score 87 points tonight, out rebound a team with a 7 footer and 2 other giants by 10, and shoot great. I'm ecstatic. Frank is pissed. Haha. Love watching it, have no idea about the strategy though

i wouldnt go that far. frank is just keeping his guys on edge. frank is a character that needs some form of drama or he wont live to his rep..nobody wants a boring frank..only he could go off like that over an asskicking performance. all othrr coaches would be thrilled. but then, they are normal guys who dont feel the need to creare ubwarranted drama.

[gamecockclint]

That sounds like a cheap shot at Frank Martin sc455. I completely understand why he was upset. We played extremely sloppy on both ends. We would've gotten hammered by a good team playing like that.

[eaglegolf018]

Originally Posted by sc455

i wouldnt go that far. frank is just keeping his guys on edge. frank is a character that needs some form of drama or he wont live to his rep..nobody wants a boring frank..only he could go off like that over an asskicking performance. all othrr coaches would be thrilled. but then, they are normal guys who dont feel the need to creare ubwarranted drama.

Well it was more of me just showing how clueless I am about basketball.