[Red and Black]

Pente and Parsons did anything they wanted the other night against FC. That's a huge problem, man! They shot the lights out from the perimeter and slashed them for layups almost at will. What's your answer to stop or combat that the next time they play? My answer would be to keep a fresh guard rotation on them and play with more size in the paint. If your answer is to hope and pray they "shoot the percentage they should be shooting" next time and try to come out on top of a shootout with BL missing 10 FT's again then you're just flipping a coin. Meade and Spriggs were on Pente all night and he scored 34 on them. Obviously, If they can't beat BL then they can't win the 58th. 

To say that they "wont lose another game if..." is silly. Go look at their remaining schedule, it's pretty brutal. I don't think they will beat JC, Lawrence, Martin or Pikeville without Howard starting and playing most of the game. Those teams are all bigger and faster than FC. Doesn't matter if Spriggs/Johnson/Boyd combine for 65 in those games if Howard and Samons don't rebound and guard the rim then they'll give up 90 to those teams. I think the play of Howard and Buck were the main reasons they took BL to overtime, not the Spriggs/Boyd/Johnson/Meade performances. If you go back and watch you'll see that Coach Moore played Howard almost the entire game. He knows how valuable he is but I think he's having trouble working him into the starting lineup over upperclassmen. I think FC has a good team, they just aren't complete without Howard on the floor. 

Also, for the record, I'm glad I ain't the coach at FC as well.

 I can agree on a lot of this that you’ve said. I totally understand how you feel
About moving him above the upperclassman into the starting lineup without any judgement being thrown at him. He’s a good coach and will play who he thinks needs played and id say he has different lineups in at different times for reasons and who they are playing. Doesn’t matter if Howard starts or not he’s still getting huge minutes and maybe more than a few in the lineup. All starting is in my opinion is getting ur name called before
Tip off lol. Howard’s comes in off the bench and brings a spark off the bench and changes the way of the game with his size and ability’s. Let him develop and right around district time he’s gonna eat in my opinion. Think Alan Jo is doing the right thing as of now just playing Howard off the bench and not causing problems with parents but hey what do I know im not the coach and ill support his decisions with whatever he decides because it’ll be for the good. You’ve only lost 1 game with the lineup you’ve been running so no need in changing things. Also Howard is still in middle school and has middle school games and practice so I’d say he isn’t there all the time like they hoped he was. Let Alan Jo Moore do what he thinks is best and Coach how he wants.

I agree with that. Don't get me wrong, I think Coach Moore is a very good coach and he is doing a very good job. My opinions don't contain anything at all against him, just opinions on how they could be a little bit better from what I've seen. He sees these kids at practice every day whereas I don't. He knows them better than I do. I have never spoken to any of them in my life and I just watch the games. I don't think he would make a decision to start or not start a kid based on judgement from parents or fans, my thought was more along the lines of him being worried about negatively affecting the team chemistry by starting an 8th grader over a JR. I do think that by the end of January we will see huge amounts of growth from freshman Buck and 8th grade Howard who are both still extremely inexperienced because of their age. They both may end up emerging as options 2 and 3 behind Spriggs by tourney time, we'll see. I just think at this point, from what I've seen, they are better served with a better chance to win with Howard on the floor as much as possible, including starting the game with him. You saw how poorly FC started against Rowan. They spent the whole 1st half trying to recover from the early run that Rowan went on to start the game. I think if Howard is in the game those early runs don't happen, but maybe Moore has a reason for not having him in at the tip. Either way, I hope FC wins every game they play except when they play against the blackcats.