High Point: post mortem

Well, that happened.

It's hard to know how to feel about this team right now.  Take the fact that Mark Fox teams always seem to start slow, add in the loss of veterans Marcus Thornton and Nemi Djurisic, then mix in the loss of two potential starters to injury before the season even begins and you have a recipe for disaster.  But "disaster" is a kind word for what we saw Wednesday night:

• We have to start with Charles Mann going 8-8 from the FT line, and the team going 17-20.  That won the game, and High Point's 7-17 performance lost it for them.  It was nice to experience the other side of that coin for once.
• It could have been even better.  Two of the misses were by Kenny Gaines and J.J. Frazier.
• Gaines only took 8 shots.  That's not even close to enough considering he's the only Bulldog who can put the ball in the basket right now.
• E'Torrion Wilridge showed a little more aggression, at least in the first half.  I liked it.  8 rebounds too.
• Kenny Paul Geno missed two bunnies.  Houston Kessler was a defensive liability for most of the night.  Those two have to play better, or we have to hope Ogbeide and Wilridge start taking their minutes very soon.
• 15 offensive rebounds for High Point.  That's 2 out of 3 games in which Georgia has rebounded very poorly.  Mark Fox teams win when they defend and rebound, so that's not a good sign.  Derek Ogbeide hasn't even taken the court and there's already real pressure on the young man.
• High Point attempted 20 more shots than Georgia.  Through three games, Georgia has been out-shot by their opponents 189-149.  Yikes.
• Georgia had 16 turnovers and 13 made baskets.  Through three games, Georgia has made 56 field goals and turned it over 47 times.  Amazing.
• J.J. Frazier had 8 rebounds!  Need to get him shooting better, but that ain't too shabby.
• From the start, it looked like it was going to be Georgia's night.  John Brown's first foul came mere seconds into the game.  Him being stuck on the bench contributed to Georgia's big first half lead and was a major factor in the Bulldogs' win.
• I say that because John Brown is probably going to be playing in the NBA next year.  Once Yante Maten was gone, there wasn't a person in Stegeman who could have guarded him.  If I see High Point on TV, I'll stop just to watch him play.
• Some ridiculous calls on Yante, too.  With that said, the refs probably would have called it the other way as well if we could have gotten the ball inside.  And with John Brown on the bench, Maten could have and should have had his way inside.  The refusal and/or inability to feed the post was maddening.
• Mike Edwards, on the other hand, was completely over-matched.  That was a redshirt senior bound for the NBA up against a true freshman and it showed.
• Sincere congratulations to Osahen Iduwe on his first collegiate point.  Here's to many more.

Georgia is 2-1.  What does that mean?  I have no idea.  On one hand, we're a hot Kenny Gaines and a cold High Point team away from 0-3.  On the other, we're a couple made free throws away from 3-0.

Next up is a Seton Hall team that just knocked off Ole Miss and shut down Stefan Moody.  If Gaines is the only Dawg that makes the trip, 2-2 is a certainty.