Blog with Bryan Smithson

The Buffalo game was a crazy one.  After getting down by as many as 17, we pulled out another win.  From the moment they came into our gym it was as if they were trying to intimidate us.  They danced around on our home floor and did all the yelling and screaming that BS teams do.  When I first got out on the floor for the tip none of their players would shake my hand.  It actually made me crack a smile because here these guys are who play for Buffalo and they think bc they are from the Northeast that they were "hard".  At halftime we were down, and I got our team together and I told them that all that energy and all the trash talk, slapping the floor, pushing, shoving, and fouling=== it is all FAKE!!! FALSE!!! I don't believe it one bit, and niether should anybody else in the gym.  All that stuff they were doing did nothing but get them in foul trouble and put us at the line 49 times to their 9 times.  I hit some shots down the stretch and we forced overtime.  At the beginning of overtime I went to shake hands again and they just looked at me with another FAKE attempt at intimidation.  Well we beat them and we beat them good in overtime and they did not know how to handle it.  We exposed all the FAKE energy they had in the first half and sent them to Buffalo feeling upset.  After the game their coach sprinted across the court in attempt to get a hold of the referees, but our beat writer caught him before he got there.  There was even a snapshot of the altercation on the front page of the Asheville Citizen Times on Sunday Morning.  I guess that I can't really put all the heat on the players when they obviously got their attitudes from their coach.  It was one of the best feelings after a game I have had since the Sunbelt conference tournament my freshman year when we(MTSU) beat Western Kentucky in the first round in Bowling Green, KY.

As for our game vs. Montreat college on New Years Eve, we got the win by 30 with no problems.  Everybody got to play and a lot of people scored.  It was great to see our guys, who don't play often, get into the game and play as hard as they did.  They pay the price everyday to be a part of this team and they stay behind us no matter what, so it was our turn to repay them and cheer as they made the plays on the court.  It was also good rest considering we have two great teams to play in the next week.  South Carolina and North Carolina.

After the game some of the guys got together and went to a couple of clubs and house parties, but we took in the New Year at a place called Z Lounge, where everybody was dancing and having a good time.  I didn't get in until pretty late but got enough rest to get up this morning and go lift weights at 11am.  I came home and got a little bit more rest as I watched Florida lose the Capital One Bowl and then I went back to the gym to work on some things that Dan Barto @ IMG gave me after watching my Tennessee game on tv.  (8ft floaters, pull back dribble)  Also, after seeing the box score of last night he wanted me to work on my shooting mechanics from the 3 point line.  I have been in a bit of a slump from the 3 pt line but I took some of Danno's advice today and I think I got it figured out, so now I just need to continue to get as many shots up between now and Saturday, and the fire will be back!!!!