Obviously going up against the conference leading Jaguars was a big challenge for us. While our practices for the game were going well, I sensed the team was doubting their ability to beat Southern. I responded by driving them harder with the intensity of my voice growing steadily. As we completed our final practice, it still seemed the team didn’t feel they were up to the challenge. I gave them a highly-spirited, top of my voice pep talk that was unusual for me. As I was completing it I could feel my voice cracking. And crack it did, because the next morning I had no voice whatsoever. I treated it throughout the day but by game time my laryngitis was in full bloom. All I could do was wave my arms and gesture to my players and write down quick comments to my assistants. Our home crowd carried the team early and we built a 10-point lead with 3 minutes to go in the first half, but suddenly we hit a wall and the Jaguars took advantage to surge back to go ahead 37-36 at halftime. We slipped further behind in the early-going of the 2nd half as our offense continued to falter. We called a timeout. All I could do was draw up a play, but my 3rd assistant coach Glen Fife, who normally is low-key, ripped into the team. The guys were shocked (as was I). But his surprising outburst stimulated our guys to turn the game around. We overtook Southern with the team feeding SG Lonnie Robertson who responded by driving, pulling up, faking, and getting up shots however he could. He finished with 23 points (to go along with 10 rebounds and 4 assists) to lead us to a 79-70 victory. C Correy Parker recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 boards, SF Aubrey Johnson also scored 10 with PF Etan Benton and reserve SG/SF Brad O’Neil each adding 9 points.
