All cleaned up
It’s finally happened. I’m finally settled into my apartment. The only odd-ball thing that remains is my old, busted-up computer desk and that’s slowly being dismantled and shipped off to the junkyard. I’ve got everything set up as I want it and my place actually feels like a home.
Back to the grind
I’m not super excited about returning to work tomorrow, but I do feel like I had adequate time to relax and regroup this weekend. I guess some weekends feel too short–usually, this happens when I’m busy all weekend and never have a chance to stop and enjoy it–but this one felt about right. It doesn’t hurt knowing that tomorrow I’ll have a project waiting for me that I’m enjoying. There are still parts of my job that I don’t particularly enjoy, but that’s part of life and I’m very comfortable with taking the bad with the good.
Finally, a win
Christian Drejer has defected and our team has been given the daunting task of finishing the season well enough to secure a spot in the Tourney. As I watched our game at Ole Miss on Saturday, I immediately saw a flash of something special. The score see-sawed throughout the first half, but, as I spoke to a good friend during half time, I knew the second half wouldn’t be a contest. I was confident that we’d keep our turnovers down and end up winning by 10 to 15 points. In fact, the final score was 81-66, Gators. That seems about right.
It’s still evident that we have trouble defending the paint and I’m really not sure what we can do about it except to move faster and play better help defense. It doesn’t seem like we’re playing the wrong defense, or that we’re incapable of playing the right defense, but that we’re simply not executing quickly enough to stop faster teams who attack the basket inside. Hopefully, Billy D. will figure something out over the next few games. I think our guys are doing a great job of hustling for loose balls, creating turnovers and selecting high-percentage shots. Our offense is strong and can out score any team in the country if our defense will just pick it up a bit. I think we just need to move faster to disrupt passing lanes and help the perimeter defenders when they’re beat off the dribble. That means a lot of switching and hustling to the weak spot on the floor. Our guys are capable of it and it looks like they’re starting to realize the importance of consistent, aggressive defense. I just hope they’re ready come March.