Live from Morehead State

Just got to press row at Morehead State University for the MSU Eagles’ exhibition game against the Asbury Eagles. Nothing formal here, just going to give you my thoughts as we go. Should be a good time. If you stumble upon this during your Monday night surfing, leave questions in the comments about whatever and I’ll get those answered. Particularly if the question is about ’90s rock. I’m so all over that.

(UPDATE: If you are reading this after the fact, start at the bottom and work backwards)

• That’s it for me, look for team previews later this week

• Not a great game for Morrison. He’ll be fine though. He uses low-level point guards and gets away with his spin move in the KIAC

• Corey Britt could be the team’s x-factor. If he’s hot, that’s another legit scoring threat in the starting lineup to go along with his great defense

• Justin Jones will be a defensive beast. Teams will have a tough time scoring against him.

• Couple of takeaways from the game: I love Kenneth Faried. I hope he scores 50 points in a losing effort against the Cats. Also he’s really, really good

• Ball game. 91-57. Good thing it doesn’t count, huh?

• Now Faried leads the “Defense CLAP CLAP” chant. Nobody joins in though

• Dre with a great steal and layup

• Adam Satterfield and Peter Vogel check in for the first time

• Hurtle does the one-handed-rebound-and-bring-it-down-to-the-other-hand thing. Ben Spann’s was louder

• Asbury bench players are outplaying Morehead’s bench players. Alley-oop count goes up to 4 with that catch and lay-up

• Dan Lockwood checks in for Britt. 3 minutes left

• Witt with a nice catch in the lane and gets fouled on the shot

• Morehead does a weird thing where they bring their chairs out all the way to the paint for a full timeout. I wonder who makes those decisions?

• 22 and 15 for Faried and he’s been out for like eight minutes. My goodness

• Hm, no guys on the dance team. WHERE YOU AT MOREHEAD!

• He’s had the best game for Asbury. Just drew another foul.

• Harper 3 makes it 81-49. Britt makes it 81-51. 17 for him

• Don “Don’t call me Donald” Witt checks in for Cannon

• Britt draws his second foul on a 3-pointer of the night. Went all Patrick Sparks on that one

• 78-47. Keep it under 30 and you’ve proven yourself

• Britt with another 3. He’s got good potential to join Morrison and Hurtle as the biggest outside threats

• Touched it. Got blocked.

• 75-44. Largest lead of the game, and expect Shouse to start putting some of the younger guys in soon to get the D-1 experience. Still haven’t gotten to see Cannon touch the ball

• Faried is on the bench coaching Jason Beharie, a 6′9″ freshman from London, England. He’s yelling as much as Tyndall is. You’ve got to love having a guy like that on your team

• I’m not saying this place is dead, but Chris Farley is going, ‘Come on guys, liven up a little!’

• Elliott Cannon checks in. I’ve never seen him play before. 6′6″ freshman from Liberty, Ky.

• Great sign #2. I know in my head that Asbury is overmatched. The score tells me they are overmatched. But they don’t look overmatched.

• Asbury collapsing well on defense. Great sign: Jones doesn’t have a foul yet in the half. He’s got to stay out of trouble if they’re going to be able to guard inside in the KIAC

• Free throw makes it 66-42

• Delph fouled hard on a fast break. In big arenas, you get padding, though, so he’s OK

• Nate Johnson gets a rebound between FOUR MSU PLAYERS. Welcome to the favorite player watch, Nate.

• It took three defenders to pry the ball from Nate Johnson.

• Alley-oop Count: 3.5. Faried doesn’t get full credit for that one.

• Hurtle with another 3

• Jones with a nice block on Les Simmons. He’s really competing for my favorite player honors. Which, if you ask the team, is EXTREMELY important to them

• Know what sparked the last run? The Nate Johnson Experience. Know who just checked in? THE NATE JOHNSON EXPERIENCE

• Phantom foul there on Brian

• Ricky Minard and Sonny Allen are the only names I recognize from the rafters

• One of the little boys just ran off the court in the middle of the dance with an “I did NOT sign up for this” look on his face

• Is there anything better than 2-year-olds doing the chicken dance? I dare you to find something better

• Delph ends his 0-for-4 with a 3 from the corner 56-36

• Nice dish from Britt to Brian under the basket. In all seriousness, Asbury will leave this game better.

• Four offensive rebounds on that possession for MSU. And Tyndall Town is alive!

• Nothing you can do about Faried, really

• Asbury misses first three shots to start the half

• I can’t think of a better tuneup for the Cats than this. Nate Johnson = John Wall

• Next up on Morehead’s schedule — Kentucky

• So do the cheerleaders. About half of them are singing it, including one girl singing it into one of the bullhorns that’s bigger than she is. She’s really getting it

• I don’t know who does that song about “The skyyyy is faaalling down” but I love it

• Asbury fan stats: Six parents, one grandparent, two girlfriends, a JV player and a former player. Also a brother maybe? Don’t know him

• The press row has cupholders that go down real far in the table so your drink doesn’t spill if a ball comes over. I didn’t even get that at Rupp. I’m impressed.

• Now about 450 here. Grabbing a drink real quick…

• Morehead: 17-33 from the field, 5-14 from 3. 21 rebounds and 11 turnovers. A whopping 8 steals.

• Asbury team stats: 9-24 from the field, 4-11 from 3. 9-9 from the free throw line(!), 11 rebounds, 13 turnovers

• Morehead: Faried 14 points, 8 rebounds, 5-5 from the field, 3-3 from grabbing the rim. Hill 11 points. Peterson 6 points, 3 rebounds.

• Asbury stats: Britt has 10 points, 5-5 from the free-throw line, 1-5 from 3. Morrison 7 points and 2 assists. Brian 7 points

• Halftime, 45-31. Could have been worse, but the last four minutes have to damage Asbury’s psyche.

• Peterson alley-oop to Faried from half court. Alley-oop Count: 3

• Johnson with a 3. That’s the only shot they are getting off consistently

• Morrison not handling the ball well. Keeps losing it when going through his legs. Just got whistled for palming on a spin move

• Faried with a charge. He’s got two fouls now.

• That was one of the sickest alley-oops I’ve ever seen. Not to a trailer but at an angle to a guy streaking from the right.

• MSU alley-oop count: 2 And Proffitt hits a 3. That’ll take some of your wind out. 41-26

• WHHHAAAAT????? Peterson fast break off the backboard alley-oop to Faried

• Asbury on an 11-0 run. Looks like Tyndall town closes at 7:30.

• Pretty midrange bucket for Morrison. Cuts it to 10. Aaaaaand turnover by MSU. 36-26

• Brian Johnson takes a charge. He’s the Craig Biggio of NAIA D-II basketball

• 36-24. The student section is called Tyndall Town, which is cracking me up

• Nice move, Phil. Slicing to the lane

• I was texting and almost got a ball to the face

• Biggest benefactors of that idea: Jones, Hurtle, and Delph

• I must say, when Asbury gets comfortable, they get going. They’re a really good team when they believe they are.

• MSU can’t buy a basket right now. Morrison 3 makes it 36-22

• The one advantage of being four feet shorter than the guy guarding you is over-the-back calls

• Great steal and dish by Hurtle to Britt. Don’t call it a comeback, 36-17

• Good box out there by Brian. I say this all the time, but if he were only 6′7″, he would be a DI force

• You cannot take the ball from The Nate Johnson Experience!

• If you talk to me later remind me to tell you something funny

• Jones picks up number three on what looked like a clean tip

• Dre Thomas in too. Delph struggling to get a shot off

• Jones back in with two fouls

• The PA guy sounds just like the guy from Rupp. It’s uncanny

• Nate Johnson just made a beautiful move to split two defenders and got his runner in the lane goal tended

• Johnson back in for Morrison

• 32-9 after a steal and breakaway dunk by Hill. He leads with 11.

• Asbury pressing. Worth a shot, I guess

• Brock Hurtle hits his first 3 in three games. He’s got to come alive for the offense to click this season.

• Really small lineup with Britt playing the 5 spot. Just took a charge.

• Another cheerleader update. We have a rare ratio of nine girls to 12 guys.

• The mascot’s name is Beaker. If he doesn’t make that “mi-mi-mi-mi” sound all night long, consider me disappointed.

• Brock Hurtle and the Nate Johnson Experience in

• Missed 3! They don’t have a cheat code on!

• Hill hits hits another 3

• Hits them all, 21-6 Morehead.

• Britt fouled on a 3

• Man, there’s no driving by these guys

• Toughest matchups for Asbury: Morrison against Proffitt and Jones against Faried

• Corey Britt breaks up the shutout with a 3-pointer

• 18-0 after a three by Harper.

• Time out Morehead. Up 14-0. Asbury has more turnovers (5) than shot attempts (4).

• Just saw a pink Morehead State hoodie. Guess that fad is all over the country, huh?

• 6′8″ guys are always going to have their way in exhibitions like this. Faried has seven of MSU’s 12

• Your celebrity look-alike of the day is: Brandon Shingles=Martin Lawrence

• MSU Alley-oop Count: 1

• 5-0 MSU, Asbury having a really hard time getting an open shot on first three possessions

• Depth perception in these arenas make it so much harder to shoot than in the Luce

• Morehead is starting Ty Proffitt (6′4″), Brandon Shingles (6′3″), Demonte Harper (6′4″), Steve Peterson (6′5″) and Kenneth Faried (6′8″).

• Asbury starting Morrison, Delph, Britt, Johnson and Jones.

•  I had forgotten about Ty Proffitt. He was teammates with Jordan Hammonds at South Laurel and went to Notre Dame. He sat out last year after transferring to MSU. He, Jordan and Walt Allen were a monstrous high school trio.

• A couple of the male cheerleaders are bigger than a couple of the Asbury players.

• MSU has nine OVC regular season championships but only three tournament championships. Only once did they win both, in 1984.

• Ellis T. Johnson Arena. A quick Google search tells me he was an MSU AD and a former football coach at Kentucky. And I learned something today.

• About 250 people here. Ten are Asbury fans.

• Both teams now in the locker room. Now it’s just me and Drake.

• 11 minutes until tip-off. The eye test tells me Morehead has the advantage in size, length, quickness and jumping ability. Other than that — all Asbury.