I've tried to make a "go" of pre-game posts all season, but it gets more difficult to do each passing week. Perhaps you can forgive me if I admit my heart isn't quite into this post. Nonetheless, GaSouth's Iggles will take the floor at HCC for a 2 PM tip-off tomorrow afternoon. The Apps (4-13, 0-4 SoCon) lead the all-time series against GSU (9-9, 2-1 SoCon) by a seven game margin and presently enjoy a six game home win streak. That streak is on the line in tomorrow's game. The Iggles haven't played well on the road this season; and the Apps, for the most part, haven't played consistently well anywhere.

Southern's guard tandem of Jelani Hewitt and Tre Bussey are scoring machines. Both are averaging right at or just over 20 ppg; and both are shooting over 45 percent from behind the arc. If they shoot like that tomorrow, just forgedaboudit.

Southern has an RPI of 312 and falling; while the Apps are at 345 and falling. Nonetheless, RealTimeRPI.com has the Apps winning by two. Yeah, that's the same service that had the Apps beating UTC. No dice.

I'm making no predictions, but I don't have a good feeling about this game. UNC-G's the team I thought we could beat to stop the slide at least temporarily. Boy, was I ever wrong. The way we play defense, I can't see us shutting down Southern's perimeter game.

Maybe some heavy snow flurries and single-digit wind chill will freak the Iggles out. Probably not.

GaSouth is a terrible basketball team; but it's better to be ahead than behind. After 3.5 years worth of second-half collapses, I'm afraid to get hopeful of a win... On the other hand, the Iggles have a track record of playing poorly on the road. Could this be the game?

Well at half we are up 8.

I swear that we play better as a team without Baskin & Canty

Canty is out with a hand injury, Baskin is dressed but not playing.

Win #1 comes over a SunBelt buddy! GaSouth is not a good team, but at this point we can't be choosey. Nice game from Spagnolo, Kobani and Obacha inside.

Congrats to the men for the win.

It is always great to be a Mountaineer.

5 posts. Nobody cares. Sad.

It's a miracle! 1-13!!!

Congrats to the team. I can't think of a better team for us to get our first D-I win of the year over. #FailSouthern #AppStateGATA

The Sun Belt must be ecstatic to be adding these two basketball powers to their conference.


Good to get that first conference win though.

asu66 wrote: Nice game from Spagnolo, Kobani and Obacha inside.

It may have only been GSU, but these guys played great, IMO. If we could get points, rebounds, defense, and hustle like this from these guys every game, we could win a number of additional games. AND, I think their play today should improve their confidence (especially Spagnolo and Kobani). Very pleased to see a great effort and great result today.

Thank you and congratulations to Spagnolo, Kobani and Obacha!!

Also, a nice game by Ty Toney. With a little more confidence and some more playing time, he can be a very solid player. Had several beautiful threes. I'd play him more and play Mike Neal less.

I've been one to knock on Capel as much as anyone, but I gotta say he was EXCITED today when the guys played well. A couple of times when one of our inside guys made a basket and got fouled, he just about jumped out to center court in celebration. Pleased that he could have something to celebrate.

Don't know if it will last, but today's play was enough to get me motivated to go back for the next couple of games.

GO APPS!!!!!

Congrats ASU basketball - brutal year but good to see a strong effort today.

Strong games by Spagnolo and Obacha. Ironically, long losings streaks were broken by ASU in both basketball and football against GSU.

Sounds like Canty will be on the shelf for awhile with his hand injury though. It's been that type of season.

Great win for these kids. Hopefully this is the start of better days to come. Way to play guys!

What do you know? They play Kobani and Toney and they win? Maybe Capel ought to think about playing more than that dastardly 8-man rotation.

Rick0714 wrote:What do you know? They play Kobani and Toney and they win? Maybe Capel ought to think about playing more than that dastardly 8-man rotation.

Down the stretch he used only 6-7 players.

Got to the give guys some credit today, they really hit some big threes late that put the game away. The guys took care of the ball today which will always pay off. There is no guarantee we see this next time out but you have congratulate the guys on their performance today. Kind of sad that the folks who been the biggest critics can't at least acknowledge that. Today doesn't make up for a season of disasters but today was nice to watch for a change.

Kgfish wrote:5 posts. Nobody cares. Sad.

It's 15 posts; and most are positive and congratulatory. Our players wanted this one and everyone called on stepped up to the challenge. I was happy for Jason Capel. Life as a head coach has not been very pleasant for him. He was as excited as a little kid today. That game took some of the pressure off of him and his team.

Whoooooooooo! We won one. I think the key was I hooked my laptop up to the TV and then settled in for a nap. Once I got to sleep, the game went great. I'm going to have to nap through more games. Somebody convince my wife that it's okay.

I'm happy for the players to get a positive result as i'm sure it's been tough hitting the court lately. My desire for a new coach is not at all a knock against them. With Citadel coming up we have a good shot at win #2. Of course we have struggled there historically.

asu66 wrote:

Kgfish wrote:5 posts. Nobody cares. Sad.

It's 15 posts; and most are positive and congratulatory. Our players wanted this one and everyone called on stepped up to the challenge. I was happy for Jason Capel. Life as a head coach has not been very pleasant for him. He was as excited as a little kid today. That game took some of the pressure off of him and his team.

When I made the comment there had been a total of 5 posts made before, during and almost 30 minutes after the game. That is a pretty clear indication few cared about it.

MountainMan wrote:

asu66 wrote: Nice game from Spagnolo, Kobani and Obacha inside.

It may have only been GSU, but these guys played great, IMO. If we could get points, rebounds, defense, and hustle like this from these guys every game, we could win a number of additional games. AND, I think their play today should improve their confidence (especially Spagnolo and Kobani). Very pleased to see a great effort and great result today.

Thank you and congratulations to Spagnolo, Kobani and Obacha!!

Also, a nice game by Ty Toney. With a little more confidence and some more playing time, he can be a very solid player. Had several beautiful threes. I'd play him more and play Mike Neal less.

I've been one to knock on Capel as much as anyone, but I gotta say he was EXCITED today when the guys played well. A couple of times when one of our inside guys made a basket and got fouled, he just about jumped out to center court in celebration. Pleased that he could have something to celebrate.

Don't know if it will last, but today's play was enough to get me motivated to go back for the next couple of games.

GO APPS!!!!!

They played great? GREAT??? A team with zero D 1 wins in 13 tries does not play GREAT. Especially to beat a team with a 313 RPI by 13 points. Shooting less than 50% from the floor and barely 60% from the ff line and turning the ball over 13 times is far from great. The guys played better and did what it took to win the game, but they did not play great. The term great gets tossed around way to much these days. Great was once reserved for the truly exceptional. Not any more. No wonder kids these days have such inflated egos.

Good job Apps. Listened to the game, the guys got the shots to go down when they needed them. Maybe Capel calling out the guys after the UTC game made a difference. This is not a terrible team they just play terrible in stretches.