Basketball note

November 30, 2007

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.

From the other side, Part 12

November 29, 2007

By Drew Champlin

A big thanks to Ted Hutton of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel

1. How much better is Rusty Smith this year?
Much, much better. Last year he really looked like the freshman he was, and was very inconsistent. This year he came in with the job and a whole new attitude and basically took over the offense.
Saturday he set single season records in passing yards and touchdown passes, and did that in 11 games, where they previous leader needed 14 (the year FAU went to the I-AA semifinals).
He’s gotten better each week, as have the players around him.

2. A lot of people picked FAU low (not me). Have they overcome your expectations, or did you see this all along?
I said this would be a breakout year for FAU, and it has been. They had nearly everyone back from last year, and with the QB position stablilized, they were primed. I figured 7-5 if things went well, and that is about where they are.

3. How is FAU on the road vs. at home?
FAU is 3-3 on the road, but 3-0 in Belt games, with losses at Oklahoma State, Florida and Kentucky. The Owls have never really been better on the road or at home. That said, they are 0-3 at Movie Gallery Stadium.
4. What areas of Troy can FAU exploit?

Geez, Troy looks pretty solid on both sides of the ball. I would expect FAU to use some no-huddle and shotgun with Smith rolling out to try and blunt Troy’s blitzes. The line has done a good job of protecting Smith, and I think the key will be the running game. If FAU can make Troy wary of the run, Smith my find some receivers open.
FAU’s defense has been kind of spotty, and Tebow ate them up, and I view Haugabook as the Tebow of the Sun Belt. I would expect them to try and keep him in the pocket so he can’t run wide, and try and make him throw more than he might like. FAU has had at least one interception in 19 straight games, and the corners are really solid, so the Owls don’t mind trying to defend the pass.

5. What areas of FAU can Troy exploit?
FAU’s pass rush has been anemic, so Haugabook may get more time than usual and that might open up some deeper routes. I would test FAU’s run defense. Some teams have had some pretty big nights on the ground, and that would also keep Smith and the offense off the field.

6. Make a prediction
Troy 24, FAU 21. This will be the first big game for most of FAU’s players, and it is in a place the Owls have not fared well at. Troy has more veterans of big games, and has been really stout at home.
Hope it’s a great game, but I think next year will be the year of the Owls. They lose one starter on offense and three on defense and will be tough to handle.