OMARI

[PointGuard]

Jan. 17: Southern Jaguars—82, Grambling Tigers--69

Another road game, another loss. We still haven’t won an away game this season. Southern began running away with this game early and by the end of the first half we trailed 40-26. We fell behind by 25 before closing the gap a bit late in the game. 21 turnovers and poor D sealed our fate. SF Brandon Harper—12 points; PF Drew Bekale—10 points, 5 rebounds; SG Melvin Dickens—10 points, 3 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals; PG Mario Kelly—8 points, 5 assists. Duane Robinson and Josh Williams have yet to impress me at PG, so I’m significantly minimizing their playing time again. [5-12, 0-5]

[PointGuard]

Call from Dad

My dad, Fred Aura, called me to give me a pep talk. I’m sure he knew our 6-game loss streak was getting me down. He told me that turning this team around would take time and probably not occur until I could get some better players on the court. He suggested that since our offense is hampered by our poor shooting which is hard to remedy, that we focus more on improving our defense. I’d told him when he visited over the holidays that we were working on a 3-2 zone in practice and our guys were getting familiar with it. His opinion was that it’s probably best to begin using it in game since what do we really have to lose by doing so and there may be a lot to gain. He encouraged focusing on recruiting and transfers. And he finished by saying while doing whatever was possible to get wins this season, that I’m really just planting the seeds for future success by developing my players and strengthening team play this season and adding improved talent for the upcoming seasons.

[PointGuard]

Jan. 20: Arkansas-Pine Bluff Golden Lions—59, Grambling Tigers--55

Depressing! We’re at home taking on the team tied with us for last place. We come out flat, shooting horribly in the first half which led to us dropping behind 29-21 at halftime. We played better in the 2nd half, but not well enough to overtake the Golden Lions. Our only player scoring more than 7 points was C Rob Adkins who had 20 points and 6 rebounds. PG Mario Kelly left the game with a sore leg but should play in our next game. [5-13, 0-6]

[PointGuard]

Jan. 24: Grambling Tigers—73, Prairie View Panthers--62

Hallelujah! Not only a win, but a road victory. We’re no longer winless in the Southwestern Athletic Conference. The game was extremely close throughout the first half with Prairie View holding a 32-30 lead at the break. But after 5 minutes of the 2nd half, our offense caught fire and we steadily moved away from the Panthers. We dropped in 49% of our FGA’s and 35% of our 3’s. Other than the Panthers’ C Will Orvis who scored 18 points, we kept Prairie View’s other players well-defended. SG Melvin Dickens had 15 points, 3 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals and a block. PG Mario Kelly scored 11 and had 4 assists. SG/PG David Jamison had 10 points, 2 boards, 4 assists and 3 steals. PF Drew Bekale added 9 points and 6 rebounds. [6-13, 1-6]

[PointGuard]

Jan. 27: Jackson State Tigers—78, Grambling Tigers--60

Losing by 18 at home is an embarrassment. We struggled from beginning to end. At halftime, we were deeply behind, 43-28. Jackson State kept us from making a run in the 2nd half as their C Demetrius Smallwood poured in 28 points plus grabbed 10 rebounds. We were -18 on the boards and got outshot 57% to 32%. SF Garick Weaver had 11 points and PG Mario Kelly scored 10. [6-14, 1-7]

[PointGuard]

So where are we?

Well, we’re still at the bottom of the SWAC standings, tied with Arkansas-Pine Bluff. Our NET Ranking is 359th…laughable, if I could. We’re averaging 70.9 ppg (236th best in Division 1) while we’ve given up 73.4 ppg (185th best). We’re hitting an anemic 44% of our FG’s and 32% of our 3’s. SG Melvin Dickens is averaging 11.4 ppg, PF Drew Bekale 10.5 ppg, and C Rob Adkins 10.4 ppg. Top rebounders are Adkins with 6.9 rpg and Bekale with 5.3 rpg. Mario Kelly leads our team in assists with 4.8 apg. We have 10 games remaining.

Yesterday, we got a call from SG Brad O’Neil accepting our scholarship offer. Brad is a 3-star recruit who is ranked as the 363rd top recruit. He’s from St. Bernard, LA and is a good outside shooter and a sharp passer, but needs to work on his defense. He’s a hard worker, so we expect him to develop well once he gets on our roster. So we still have 1 scholarship to fill but have a number of recruits showing at least some interest. We’re aiming to go all-out on recruiting when April comes around.

[PointGuard]

Jan. 31: Alcorn State Braves—79, Grambling Tigers—52

Alcorn State walked all over us from the get-go. And by halftime we trailed 33-20. While we began scoring more in the 2nd half, things didn’t improve and we fell further behind all the way up to the end of the game. Just two players scored in double figures for us: SF Brandon Harper had 11 points and C Rob Adkins added 10. Mario Kelly had a recurrence of leg pain. [6-15, 1-8]

[CoachPrm15]

With the lack of shooting on this season's team O'Neil should be a welcome addition with his shooting.

[PointGuard]

Feb. 3: Alabama A&M Bulldogs—89, Grambling Tigers--62

The Bulldogs are a good team, we aren’t. Actually we stayed close to them throughout the first half but were behind 40-34 at halftime. We caught up with them early in the 2nd half, but they took total control over the final 12 minutes and we had no answers. PF Drew Bekale, SF Garick Weaver, and PG Josh Williams led our scoring, but each had just 9 points. PF Aubrey Johnson has a sore knee. [6-16, 1-9]

[PointGuard]

Feb. 7: Grambling Tiger—86, Florida A&M Rattlers--75

We were in control throughout the game and displayed solid offense the entire 40 minutes. You could have knocked me down with a feather because we knocked down 49% of our FG’s and 48% of our 3’s. SG Melvin Dickens had 21 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and a block. PG Mario Kelly tossed in 15 points and dished out 7 assists. SF Brandon Harper and C Rob Adkins both scored 10 points with Adkins also hauling down 8 rebounds. [7-16, 2-9]