[EKY Sportster]

Congrats to UHA!! Good game . Congrats to the Tigers on a good showing and making it to the final four! We're proud of you guys no matter what! Put up a good run for a team of what amounts to 4 guards and 1 forward at best.

Now for my thoughts on the game: The Tigers were clearly outmatched in terms of athletic ability and in height. But the Tigers played hard and didn't lose the rebounding edge by much which is remarkable considering the height and leaping advantage that UHA had on the Tigers. The Tigers never really got into their normal offensive sync as is evidenced by their lower than normal score. The Tigers missed several crucial shots, put up several unnecessary threes at times, missed several uncharacteristic free throws, and didn't take care of the ball a few times which in a close game like this one killed them. Despite this typical sub-par performance by the Tigers, they played hard and had the game somewhat in their control late in the fourth with a 4 point lead. But the key play IMO came late in the 4th when Landon was called for a foul on a three point shot. Don't know of anyone other than the ref that thought he even made contact with the shooter, but the foul was called. This allowed UHA to cut a 4 point Tiger lead to 1. Then there was a turnover by the Tigers. Then Grimm had his pocket picked bringing the ball down the floor and that pretty much ended it. Whether the foul called on Landon was just or not is irrelevant as it was called and the Tigers then followed that up with a few more mistakes and dug themselves a hole that they couldn't get out of this time. A little frustrating knowing that the Tigers could have had this one. But they didn't play their best couldn't really get their perimeter shooting to go down early and struggled the entire game.

Was really impressed with the Tigers run in the tourney though. Grimm played hard and tough throughout the tourney and had decent games in all three of the Tigers games. Hats off to Grimm. Landon had a tough first game, a great game last night and then another tough game today. Murray put out his usual effort and played very good D in all the games. JD and Blake didn't play as well in the tourney as they have been playing. But the Tigers have had a good season and have more business to take care of.

UHA has a very impressive team, but they don't take advantage of their ability. The slow half court approach doesn't seem to fit the ability of their players. I'd go with the run and gun if I had a team like UHA. Not overly impressed with Hopson to be ranked as high as he is. With his ability and height advantage, he should've dominated the game and he didn't. That is amazing. He also didn't appear nearly as aggressive as he needs to be for a big guy of his size and ability. I wouldn't mind having him on my team here in EKY, but on a national level, I'm sure I could find plenty that should be ranked way above him. This is not intended to take anything away from this young man because he has the ability if he would just make some changes in his playing style. Too timid to be a key player at the next level at this time IMO.