Jordan Davis and Marcus Ware

Imagine that – a smart move by someone from Princeton. Ha!

You can get a great review of the game and some post-game quotes from Tony Graham over at The Hawks Nest. For example, Mr. Graham has quotes from Coach Dave Calloway regarding how the Hawks coaching staff made some adjustments at halftime that put the defense on better footing against a very tight Princeton offense. What I also like about Mr. Graham’s post-game article is that he has quotes from the Hawks players. Like this one from Hett:

“Coach (Dave Calloway) trusts us to come down and make a good read,” Hett said. “I don’t think I made the best read. They kind of ran a couple of guys at me.”

And Hett is correct – as the strongest offensive player for the Hawks, Princeton made sure to put additional defenders on him when he came down the court. Frankly, that’s to be expected at this point. Speaking of the most impressive Hawks on the court, this Jordan Davis (#10) is a pretty solid player. He could easily become one of the big fan favorites if he keeps up the hard work and keeps up his tenacity in future games. He had a very impressive outing tonight.

In any event, as a fan I was very pleased with how the Hawks played in the second half and I hope that they keep that type of intensity going throughout the entire contest in future games. Enjoy the 36 pictures below – including a Santa Claus sighting!

James Hett Winning the Game

Twice during the game Monmouth’s Ed Waite threw up on the floor. In fact, the first time he yacked it appeared that he splashed the basketball a little bit. While I didn’t see the first upchuck, I definitely saw both shots of his second oral expulsion and it was gross. The best part of the vomiting fiasco was that after Waite threw up for the first time and the officials called for an official timeout, Head Coach Dave Calloway was overheard immediately asking the referee if it was still the team’s ball. Hilarious! That’s a man who keeps his eye on the prize, eh?

Bear with me, I’m trying to get all of the possible ways to say “vomit” out in this one entry. Unfortunately, I’m not as professional about discussing Waite emptying his stomach as someone like Tony Graham at the Asbury Park Press, who eloquently wrote, “sophomore forward Ed Waite took sick on the floor.” Graham is good; I’m just trying to find new ways to say vomit.

Aside from the vomit, it appeared that the Hawks were outmatched for a good portion of the game. However, through a few good stretches of play, they were able to position themselves well enough to win the game. What struck me was how the gigantic center from England, Phil Wait, played during the game. It just seemed to me like there was something off in his game tonight. And I’m not sure, but I also got the distinct feeling that by the second half of the game Wait’s teammates were trying to find ways to play around him.

Now, by no means am I an expert on basketball so take this next statement for what it is, which is a fan making an observation. However, I’m boggled about Wait’s actions on the floor. It seems to me that if you’re 7′ 2″ that you should be under the basket at all times. You should be the lead the team in rebounds and, frankly, you should probably be among the top scorers since you’d likely be putting the ball directly in the basket with each rebound. It doesn’t appear that Wait does any of that too often. In fact, if you look at the box score for tonight’s game, Wait had less rebounds than any of the other starting five.

And it’s not like he wasn’t near the bottom of the basket, rather he was just too far away from the basket to make a difference. There were routinely two or even three guys between him and the hoop when he was going up for rebounds. He also seems to be a very lateral player in that he likes to reach forward when the other team takes a shot. Shouldn’t a guy that tall be putting those massive arms up in the air and jumping to block the shot?

Whatever, I’m just a fan watching a game making an observation.

I hope you enjoy some of the 40+ pictures below. This game was a lot of fun to attend and even though I can’t find an official number on the attendance tonight, I would assume that all of the folks who were there would agree that it was a fun game to watch.