Super Bowl Update

Troy's final game of a three-game home stretch is tonight against UL-Monroe.

You can read my game preview HERE.

ULM is bad. 2-18 is awful, no matter how you slice it. But, ULM beat FIU, who beat South Alabama, who beat Troy. (All of those listed wins were by the road team). ULM has a good scoring guard in Fred Brown and a good-sized big man in Steven McClellan at 6-7, 250, who could give Troy's frontcourt some problems if they're not careful.

Bottom line, unless Troy's shooting from the outside at a high rate, the Trojans are still going to have to defend a little and find a way to get some easier shots closer to the goal, which hasn't been happening of late, if they want to beat anybody.

***Some updated photos inside the new Trojan Arena can be found HERE.

***Congratulations to softball coach Melanie Davis, who is being inducted into the Alabama ASA Softball Hall of Fame today. We ran part of this feature in our paper today. I got to write THIS STORY on Davis last summer when she got inducted into the Wiregrass Sports Hall of Fame, and didn't quite know how I could write the feature from a different angle, but there's more of her back story. Troy softball has been pretty solid since jumping to the Sun Belt and almost made a regional a couple of years back, but UL-Lafayette really has that sport dominated in this league.

***Trying to google around on recruiting. Troy has a few guys in on official visits this weekend. One potential visitor, cornerback Chris Humes from Spain Park, told Birmingham newspapers that he was committed to Arkansas. But none of the Arkansas recruiting sites list him as a commitment. Now, if it were a Sun Belt school's site that wasn't updated, I wouldn't blink an eye, but if the SEC sites aren't updated, it makes you wonder. Regardless, Humes seems like a heck of a talent and if Troy can get him to sign, it's an immediate upgrade to the secondary.

***Troy got commitments last weekend from Madison-Bob Jones duo of Rishad Goode (DB) and Marquez Pride (DE). Goode had said he was going to visit MTSU but was solid to Troy. Not sure if he made the visit or not. Pride, who I'd consider a soft commitment at this point, is on a visit to to somewhere in Kentucky (my guess is WKU) according to his twitter.

I was never able to get a hold of Pride but he had posted on his twitter that he committed. I don't want to write about a guy committing unless he tells me personally or posts it on a social media outlet, so his situation will probably be resolved this week.

***Hazel Green OL Tyler Lassiter visited Troy last week and, from his twitter, looks to be at UAB, and had a nice cookie cake waiting for him upon arrival. Not gonna lie, I'm jealous. Orlando DE Dieugot Joseph visited last week but seems like he's firm to FIU.

***I long for another day where a kid tells me "I'm a soft commit." Troy signed a cornerback who said that a couple of years ago. His name was Charles Hayes from somewhere in Georgia, but he never qualified and I don't know what became of him. I still thought that was pretty funny. You see recruiting sites list guys, like Cody Core (who is supposed to be at Kentucky this weekend), as a soft commit, but you never actually hear a guy say those words.

***A Trojan professional football update to pass along: former linebacker Boris Lee and wide receiver TeBiarus Gill have made their way to Washington to play Arena Football for the Tri-Cities Fever.

Lee was in and out of a few NFL teams' camps and I think was on the Jacksonville Jaguars roster for part of the 2010 season. Gill was a productive receiver at Troy, one of those guys that had good in-game deceptive speed but wasn't going to time well in the 40-yard dash. I hope both of them do well.