Believe it or not…
February 24, 2008
but Troy’s men won a game Saturday night, beating FIU 66-59. That’s a team that had won three in a row and had beaten Troy by 25 earlier this year in Miami.
Effortwise, Troy didn’t play like a last-place team. The defense forced 22 turnovers, causing FIU all kinds of problems. I thought they might blow it when FIU’s Alex Galindo hit 3 straight 3s to tie it late, but Tom Jervis made a nice move late and the Trojans’ defense stepped up big, not letting Galindo get off any more shots and forcing bad shots at the end of the shot clock.
FIU is like Troy except that it has a dominant big man in 7-footer Russell Hicks, but Hicks was held to just 8 points on 5 shots with 5 rebounds. Troy’s center tandem of Jarvis Acker and Tom Jervis played great, I thought, combining for 15 points, 10 rebounds and five steals. O’Darien Bassett was very good with 26 points and during the game I can only remember about 3 bad shots taken.
Troy hosts FAU Wednesday in a winnable game and hits the road to face MTSU next Saturday. Troy’s going to be on the road in the first round of the Sun Belt Tournament. My prediction? You better hope they get sent to Denver, because I think they’ll win there. No chance at North Texas, ULL or Arkansas-Little Rock. Others (MTSU, FAU, New Orleans) are toss-ups. FIU, Arkansas State and ULM will for sure be on the road early and Western Kentucky and South Alabama will have byes as will the winner of the West (could be ULL, UNT or UALR).
Obviously it’s not a great season by any means for the Trojans, but this is how it’s shaping up.
