Super Bowl Update

Some quick thoughts from last night's 84-67 win by Troy over West Alabama. You can see the box score HERE.

Not going to sit here and say it'll be a Sun Belt championship contender, just because a few other Sun Belt teams have dominant post players who are around 6'10 and 250 and can be scoring threats in the paint.

Troy dressed out 12 players last night, and it looks like 11 will be in the rotation.

Point guard Will Weathers was scoreless last night, but dished out 10 assists and was creating havoc on Troy's full-court press. This year he has a backup in Nic Combs and he'll get to rest a little bit more.

Troy has several guards/wing players that can score - the question will be who steps up as the go-to guy? A few stand out just from watching one exhibition game. Sophomore R.J. Scott (UCF transfer) has a sweet shot and drained 3 straight 3s that turned a 3-point game into eventually a 19-point lead. He has been in the system for a year now since he sat out last year as a transfer.

Troy got Daronte Clark after just one year at NW Florida State, and he scored 16 off four 3s. The good thing about Clark and Scott is that they're both sophomores.

Justin Wright scored 15 last night and he's a different player than Scott and Wright as he's 6-5 and 220 and doesn't rely on the 3-point shot nearly as much. He'll drive to the hoop and try to create higher-percentage shots. He also had 6 rebounds.
Alan Jones looks like he'll have a few games where he scores 15-20 because he's also a good 3-point shooter. Emil Jones is more of an all-around guy - didn't shoot as well, but scored 6 with 5 rebounds and 6 steals. Steven Cunningham started some games last year and he's going to get plenty of dunks and rebounds because he's freakish athletic and can jump out of the gym.

Troy has 3 guys who played center. Tim Owens returns after playing last year. He's never going to be an offensive threat, but is long and all he really needs to do is rebound and block shots (4 blocks). Ray Chambers is smaller than Owens (6-6, 220), but can score - 12 pts, 12 reb, and even has a jumper with some range. The third center to play was freshman Breon Dixon. He's athletic, but raw. I suspect he'll play a little bit this year.

The 12th guy to dress out and play a little was walk-on guard Brian Feldman.

Troy will redshirt 3 guys - guard D.J. Jethroe, who is a sophomore JUCO transfer (abundance of guards necessitates this), freshman walk-on forward/center Sidki Muwallif and JUCO transfer forward/center Westley Hinton. Those three did not dress out against UWA.

Troy opens the season Friday at Texas Tech , which is not expected to do well in the Big 12, but has a new coach in Billy Gillispie. The game is at 8:30 p.m.