Welcome to our new guest blogger, DM

DM's thoughts and observations from last night's Elon game:

I sat with friends at the game tonight and at one point in the first half --
after four straight Davidson possessions without a basket, after the twelfth
round of looking around at each other and shaking our heads, after a seemingly
endless number of come-on-guyses and are-you-kidding-mes -- someone said what we
were all thinking: "I hope we don't play Elon in the conference tournament."

I don't know what it is about these guys, but we play down to them. And
anyone who watched the opening five minutes knows what I mean -- the score, with
15:19 to play in the first half, was 3 to 2 Elon.

We really shouldn't
have trouble with the Phoenix. They didn't play particularly strong defense.
They had trouble with our full-court pressure. They didn't shoot well (35% from
the field, 65% from the line). In fact, Montell Watson -- Elon's smack-talking,
Curry-shoving shooting guard -- had so many airballs in the first half that the
Belk Arena crowd, eager as always to point out an opponent's dismal shooting,
eventually got bored and let him be.

We had apparently decided before
the game, though, that we'd match Elon struggle for struggle. Nine Davidson
turnovers in the first half. With 18:25 to play in the first, Lovedale had
already notched two fouls. We had one more rebound and only two more points in
the paint than Elon, despite a pretty pronounced front court advantage.

(I'd cite Boris missing four lay-ups in the "we could've done better"
category as well, but, honestly HE ONLY MISSED FOUR LAY-UPS??!! He only this
week realized that you can use that clear board connected to the back of the rim
to help shots go in.)

Curry was the bright spot. For every look I gave a
friend saying wow-that-was-awful, I gave two others, positive ones, after Curry
three-pointers or pull-up jumpers. It's been said before, but here goes: he's a
special player.

And, as much as I want to complain about poor play
tonight, this game wasn't nearly as close as the last one. We led for the final
35 minutes. We didn't need Steph's last minute heroics to steal a win (though we
did need his game-high 36 points). Elon fought back, but this game was never in
doubt.

But, it doesn't mean we want to draw this team again. They aren't
good -- their 7-15 record says as much -- but neither are we when we face-off
against them.


OBSERVATIONS

- McKillop yelled A LOT tonight.
Don't know if the crowd (around 3500) was quiet or what, but I heard him more
than ever. He was concentrating most of his energy on the Canadians, Will and
Max. Though I'm told that's not so out of the ordinary.

- The alumni
hospitality suite at half time had chicken nuggets. Mmmmm.

- Elon's
players like complaining. Didn't get this foul call, look at Sander holding me,
that wasn't off me…etc. I thought the officiating even leaned their way and for
the most part the team wasn't happy. Even the guy who looked like Kenan Ivory
Wayans was angry. That guy's NEVER angry.

- Sweet Caroline rating:
B-minus