Coach Fox's Hounds made it three wins in a row by beating the Billikens in Athens. They take their record to 4-2.
I finally got a game on TV, since we are close to St. Louis. I loved some of what I saw. The Dawgs are going to live and die on perimeter shooting. That means Ware and McPhee have to continue producing, or at least give teams pause about zoning the middle, taking away Thompkins and Price. Of course, Leslie will just do his thing. Last night, all five were in double digits. I love the offensive motion and working to create opportunities. Much better than what Paul Westerdawg termed the 30 seconds of dribble, drive and turnover offense we have seen.
Seriously, I was very surprised to see Rick Majerus take the approach that you don't need to play that new fangled zone defense crap to beat Georgia. They were in man to man through much of the first half, leading to a 31-18 Dawg lead. Of course, Georgia played the best defensive game they've had in a long time, holding SLU to just 5 first half FGs.
Regretfully, they faded some at the end, giving SLU hope as the Billikens pulled within 5 late in the second half, before the defense stepped up and created a turnover and some solid late game hustle kept them from closing any further. No doubt SLU shot the ball better, but the Dawgs showed some tendencies to leave guys alone trying to collapse coverage, leading to several easy layups or dunks by the Billikens down the stretch (they outscored Georgia 38-33 in the second half). Final score was 64-56.
The Dawgs hit the road for games at Virginia Tech on Sunday and in NY against St. Johns for the Direct TV SEC/Big East Challenge at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, where I'll get to witness Fox ball in person.
Go Dawgs!
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