THE DAILY DIVERSION

In my hastiness last night (and possible intoxication) I left out a few things.

First of all: FOOD.

We ate at two good places yesterday. We had a pregame meal at Olde Tyme Grocery, which is right by campus. It's got a real, old school feel, a half a Po' boy will take care of you, and for less than five bucks. Unfortunately, Murph's Olde Tyme Snowballs was closed (it was adjacent to the Grocery).

After the game we headed over to Pete's on Johnston's sportsbar. This is a pretty nice little joint. Did I mention it's smoke free? That comes in really handy when you're trying to enjoy a good burger. The beer there is pretty cheap too, so no complaints. If you ever happen to stroll in there, ask for Josh. He took good care of us!

Okay, now about the tournament. Who ever made the decision to have this tournament at the cavernous CajunDome needs to be slapped. It wouldn't matter if you 7,000 in this place, because it would still look empty. This place is huge and the court is forever away from the stands and benches. The stat boards are about 6 miles off the court and, without a telescope, are indiscernable. The lighting is okay, on the court, but it makes you feel like you're in a movie theater, since that's the only place where there is light. I feel sorry for the teams, because there's no backdrop behind the goals, which can be a real detriment for shooters.

Back to the Lady Topper's game last night. I've had some time to think about it, and I'm not changing my mind. We got a royal hosing last night. I looked over the stats after posting (which I shouldn't have, because it just made me a little more upset) and noticed a few things.

First of all, we outrebounded them 46 to 25, and had nearly as many offensive rebounds as they had total rebounds, with 22. We shot better than they did, shooting 48% to their 43%, all while shooting 7 more shots in the game. However, the only thing that made this game what it was was free throws. We shot 11 for the game, hitting 3 of them. Arkansas State shot 29, making 22 of them. Anyone see any a problem there?

Yes, turnovers were killers for us, being that we had 24 and they only had 11. However, if the officials called fouls on half of those supposed turnovers (which they should have), then it's a completely different ball game.

With all of that said, I still have to give Arkansas State credit for doing what they needed to do. They won and that's not going to change. I'll close with this, though... Good luck getting those calls tomorrow against the homestanding Lady Cajuns!