Tulsa @ UCF: Post-game Review (W 74-72)

Matt's game notes:

I’m not sure what it is about Tulsa University, but when they come to town, both teams come to play hard. This game just cemented itself in my top two games of all time, only behind the triple overtime thriller against Tulsa at home last year. Let me start this off with a big props to Jermaine Taylor: To anyone who accused Jermaine of being “not clutch”, he ran off 13 straight points last night to bring us back to an 8 point deficit. He banged down three 3 pointers to get the crowd back on their feet, and hit all of his free throws during the 13 point run. There were PLENTY of NBA scouts there tonight to see his performance, but I’ll get back to that later.

There is one man I would never want to play basketball against, simply because of his passion and effort level in the game. Kenrick Zondervan is downright scary when he gets his head on right and his adrenaline pumping. He played incredibly well last night and did his job almost flawlessly. He got the ball inside and backed his man down for some nice layups off the glass. He had a couple of travelling calls on him, but he made up for it later. The best part of his performance last night, and probably the biggest factor on our win, was his ability to get Jerome Jordan in foul trouble early. Jerome had two fouls by the 15 minute mark in the first half and played very sparingly until the 2^nd half. Z finished the game with 18 points, just short of his season high 19 against ECU.

NBA Scouts: There were quite a few scouts in attendance last night to see both Jerome Jordan and our own Jermaine Taylor. At the media table in front of us there were three men we were able to confirm as scouts: One from the Los Angeles Lakers, one from the Detroit Pistons, and one from the Orlando Magic (the same scout from last time). As some of you know, most of the scouts from the NBA are friendly with each other and have met each other before, like most sports talent scouts. In addition to these three, there were 4 more men who sat next to and between them, all talking and seemingly taking notes. They also left the game all at the same time. Putting all of this together, we can only assume that the additional 4 men were scouts as well.

Some of the things we were able to get off the notes:

· On JT: Doesn’t always get back on defense immediately after a rebound

· On JT: Started slow, but is catching fire late

· On JT: His shot release is too low (which he later erased once Jermaine started hitting his 3s)

· On Jerome: Doesn’t do much to stop the pass inside.