50-48 #59: A BRIEF BASKETBALL PREVIEW, IN LIEU OF SOMETHING LONGER AND MORE PERVERSE, WHICH IS SURE TO COME SOMETIME SOON

50-48 #59: A BRIEF BASKETBALL PREVIEW, IN LIEU OF SOMETHING LONGER AND MORE PERVERSE, WHICH IS SURE TO COME SOMETIME SOON

Okee doke. Football over. Basketball beginning. Let’s unpack these facts and see what semiotic residue when can scrape from the corners of this white-tiled reality. Shall we?

We’re 6-1 going into the Jim Thorpe on Wednesday, our only loss coming to Missouri State in Springfield. Also, Southeastern Louisiana took us into overtime. These things being what they are, it might behoove all of us to brace ourselves for an up-and-down season. Such is the nature of playing with a heavy freshman population.

BUT: Though we suffered myriad defensive lapses early and played inferior teams far too closely, our last three games have been handy victories, with an average 20-point ass-kicking margin. In that last one, a 98-70 win over North Carolina Central, freshman Courtney Fortsen managed to avoid whiplash from his massive dreadlocks and gave the Hogs their second triple-double in history.

We have four—FOUR!—Hogs averaging double figures in points: Courtney is leading the way with 15.4, followed by finally-playing-to-his-potential Michael Washington with 14.9, superstar shooting guard and soon-to-be-freshman-sensation Rotnei Clark with 14.3, and stalwart Stefan Welsh (lonely as he may be without backcourt mate Pat Beverly this season) with 10.4. Michael Sanchez is managing 8.7 points and 7.9 rebounds. He’s all feet and elbows and this point, but what he lacks in aesthetic grace is compensated for by (hopefully) genuine potential.

Remember: Stefan and Michael are juniors, but everyone else is an underclassman. Thus the positive vibes that come from seeing us spread our point-margin in the last three games, lowly as they might be to FAMU, Texas Southern, and the aforementioned NCC.

The point to all of this is that even though the team hasn’t performed like a contender so far, there is reason to believe that the boys will be stout by the end of the season. Before we get to conference, however, we have two hellacious tests: Okiehoma on December 30, and Texas on January 6. If you are reading this in Fayetteville, and you are not at those games, I’m not going to be your friend anymore. The youngsters need all the help they can get. Besides, everybody likes screaming obscenities at Okiehoma and Texas. To quote Teach from David Mamet’s American Buffalo: Guys like that, I like to fuck their wives.

At the same time, however, we need to brace ourselves for possible losses. God help me I would sell my soul to beat Texas, and I would sell all of your souls, as well. But we might not be ready quite yet. Regardless, it’s a decent nonconference schedule that should get us ready for the SEC on January 10.

Either way, there will be highs and lows. There will be, to wit, giant bulls running at us, but at the same time we will often manage feats of unimaginable grace in the face of such bulls. (click.)

50-48
Fuck Texas
WPS

PS: NOTE TO REFEREES IN THE TEXAS GAME: If you start giving Texas your typical bullshit sycophantic calls, BEWARE.

PPS: We here at 50-48 love Texas Tech, BUT STOP FUCKING COPYING US, BRUTHA!