Hoops look: Troy at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi

November 30, 2007

By Drew Champlin

What: Troy (1-4) at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (1-3)
When: 3 p.m. CST Dec. 1
Where: American Bank Center, Corpus Christi, TX
Last time out: Troy fell at Ole Miss 102-76. TAMCC fell at DePaul 85-70.

Probable starting lineups
TROY
G-Jerome Odem (6’1, 160, Sr.) - 9.4 ppg, 3.5 apg
G-O’Darien Bassett (6’2, 190, Sr.) - 16.8 ppg, 6.6 prg, 32% FG
F-Justin Jonus (6’6, 221, Sr.) - 19.2 ppg, 3.6 rpg
F-Trayce Macon (6’8, 191, Soph.) - 9.4 ppg, 6.6 rpg
F-Jarvis Acker (6’6, 210, Sr.) - First game of 2007/08 season

TEXAS A&M-CORPUS CHRISTI
G-Tim Green (6’3, 190, Jr.) 10.5 ppg
G-Shannon Shorter (6’4, 200, Fr.) 4.5 ppg
G-Kevin Perkins(6’1, 160, Fr.) 15.0 ppg
F-Justin Reynolds(6’9, 230, Fr.) 11.8 ppg, 8.0 rpg
C-Chris Daniels (7’0, 265, Sr.) 18.3 ppg, 5.8 rpg

What to watch for: Troy’s Jarvis Acker finally returns after missing the first five games because of an academic issue. He has been practicing with the team from the get-go but was recently cleared. If he doesn’t start, he’ll play at least 25 minutes. The Trojans got reserve forward Mario Telfair back from a broken nose and he had six points and seven rebounds against Ole Miss. O’Darien Bassett continues to struggle with his shot, shooting just 32 percent from the field. This is certainly a winnable game for the Trojans, who desparately need one for confidence’s sake. The Islanders, who make a return trip to Troy on Dec. 15, went to the NCAA Tournament last year and nearly upset No. 2-seed Wisconsin, but lost a lot off that team and start three freshmen. Eight freshmen dot the roster, which is led by 7-foot NBA prospect Chris Daniels at center. The Trojans are at a rebounding disadvantage again, on paper.

Player to watch, Troy: O’Darien Bassett. If Troy wants to win, the senior guard needs to up the shooting percentage.

Player to watch, TAMCC: Chris Daniels. He could have gone to the NBA last year, but the 7-footer provides a size and experience advantage that no one on the Trojans can match.

Troy will win if: The Trojans get 40 points combined from Justin Jonus and O’Darien Bassett. Normally, I’d say 35, but this game is on the road. Take Troy’s first half against Ole Miss and second half against Georgia State and Troy may win, but Troy absolutely has to put together a complete game.

TAMCC will win if: they establish the game down low with Daniels and get him to dominate.

Drew’s prediction: Texas A&M-Corpus Christi 87, Troy 81

Basketball note

By Drew Champlin

The game preview on http://www.troytrojans.com has senior forward Jarvis Acker cleared for tomorrow’s game at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Obviously, it doesn’t guarantee a win, but what it does guarantee is an extra body that can give you a good, solid 30 minutes a night if need be. Acker’s a high-energy guy who is the most experienced player on the Trojan team. Not a bad shooter, either.

Troy (1-4) has lost three games in a row and will conclude a 4-game road swing. Troy returns home next Tuesday against Shorter College (surely they’re worse than Paul Quinn) and Alabama State on Saturday.

All-Sun Belt team

By Drew Champlin

I’ve got a vote on this, but will wait until Sunday to send in my selections.
Regardless, here are the Troy players who are on the ballot.

QB-Omar Haugabook
RB-Kenny Cattouse
WR-Gary Banks, Josh Allen
OL-Chris Jamison, Danny Franks, Dion Small
DL-Shawn Todd, Chris Bradwell, Kenny Mainor
LB-Boris Lee, Marcus Richardson
DB-Sherrod Martin, Terence Moore, Leodis McKelvin, Tavares Williams, Elbert Mack
K-Greg Whibbs
P-Greg Whibbs
Return Specialist-Leodis McKelvin
All-Purpose-Leodis McKelvin

Player of the Year - Omar Haugabook
Offensive Player of the Year - Omar Haugabook
Defensive Player of the Year - Elbert Mack
Newcomer of the Year - Chris Bradwell
Freshman of the Year - Jerrel Jernigan
Coach of the Year - Larry Blakeney

Coaches can’t vote for their own athletes. Media can.

I haven’t looked at the stats or support information, but will do so after Saturday’s games. I think the winning QB of the Troy-FAU game will get more votes for Player of the Year. Rusty Smith of FAU has more passing numbers, while Haugabook’s ahead of him by more than 500 rushing yards.

Defensive Player of the Year, I think, comes down to Mack and Frantz Joseph of FAU. Again, would have to look at the stats of the other guys.

So there’s a lot on the line here. If Troy loses, Haugabook’s likely just the second-team all-Sun Belt selection.

It might be hard for Jernigan to pull out the Freshman of the Year award, unless he has a monster game Saturday. He’s good enough, but Dwight Dasher of MTSU and Giovanni Vizza of UNT have “numbers,“ even though their teams aren’t as good.

Bradwell’s the only guy on the Newcomer of the Year list, as it’s not for freshmen. Surprised me that no other JUCO transfers were on the list.

Needless to say, should Troy win, look for a lot of the guys mentioned above, maybe all of them, to land on either first team, second team or honorable mention.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on who the best players in the Sun Belt are. Maybe that will influence my voting.

Senior favorites

By Drew Champlin

Spoke with four Trojan seniors and got their thoughts.

OMAR HAUGABOOK

Best place – New Orleans Bowl

Worst place – FIU last year

Best visitor’s locker room – New Orleans Bowl

Worst visitor’s locker room – Western Kentucky. We didn’t have anywhere to put our pads. Everybody’s was on the floor.

Classiest team you’ve played – Nobody

Dirtiest team – I could tell you a lot of teams, but I can’t pick out just one. There’s a lot of teams especially with me

GREG WHIBBS

Best locker room - Virginia

Worst locker room - FAU (had the defense and offense in two different locker rooms)

Best trip - New Orleans Bowl

Worst trip—Louisiana-Monroe (in 2005, 27-3 loss) Long drive, bad trip

Best bus/plane ride home - It was pretty good after Middle Tennessee last year.

Worst ride home - Nebraska (2006 after 56-0 loss). There was nothing good about that one.

Dirtiest team you’ve played - I don’t know

Classiest team you’ve played - No team we play is classy

MARCUS RICHARDSON

Nicest place - nicest place was Virginia, but best environment was LSU. Florida State was fun for me because I’m from Florida, but LSU you can’t compare.

Worst place - UL Monroe a couple of years ago. They didn’t have any security out there, well they had security but their fans were over the rail all day long. You try to listen to coaches and you hear your name being called.

Best locker room - Virginia, that was the best. The shower was spic and span, beautiful, nice towels.

Dirtiest team -  Western Kentucky - holding and cutting and holding. punching under the pile. That’s football, I wasn’t complaining. I was complaining about the holding, but after I realized we weren’t going to get the calls, I stopped worrying about it.

Classiest team - Nebraska. Their fans were clapping for us and all of that junk and rah-rah stuff.

SEAN DAWKINS

Best place - El Paso, Texas, when we played New Mexico State. It was different because I’m from the south and hadn’t been out of the south. It was different seeing all the different houses and being close to the Mexico border.

Worst place - Western Kentucky

Best visitor’s locker room - Nebraska, seeing all the history and banners

Worst visitor’s locker room - Western Kentucky

Dirtiest team - It’s between Florida Atlantic and Florida International. FAU likes to poke your eyes.

Friday links

By Drew Champlin

From me, I wrote on FAU quarterback Rusty Smith (and, in turn, realized how I wouldn’t run out of Troy ideas if I wrote opponent features every week).

From the Palm Beach Post, FAU is wary of Troy’s secondary. Or are they? Here’s a snippet. Trojans senior cornerback Elbert Mack leads the nation with eight interceptions. Opposite Mack is senior Leodis McKelvin, who has two interceptions this season and had a game-saving pick against the Owls last season.

“They are pretty good, but not as good as ours,“ FAU coach Howard Schnellenberger said.

From the Sun-Sentinel, here’s a short notebook.

Also if you still want to look at good blogs about FAU, here’s the one from the Sun-Sentinel and one from the Palm Beach Post.