Impressive Comeback..

So I was sitting in the Hump at half-time just thinking of all the things I had to talk about on here regarding our effort in the first half. It was pathetic. We were being outplayed, outhustled, and most importantly outshot. The pigs shot a blistering 62% in the first half along with making 8 of 12 treys. We weren't too shabby ourselves. We shot over 40% before intermission and made 7 long balls ourselves, but still weren't close on the scoreboard, trailing 51-36. I wasn't happy. Yet again we were pissing away a home game. But, of course, just as I start to doubt, we shoot lights out in the 2nd half and end up winning by 9, going away.
Ravern had a tough outing. All players do. However, his teammates picked up the slack. Dee finished with a career high 25 and Randy had 22 or so. Don't forget the 3 huge baskets that Benock hit for us. Brian Johnson played hard. Jarvis blocked, scored, and rebounded. Phil single handedly kept us within striking distance with the 16 points he had in the first half. Yes, it was a team effort. All of that combined is good, but like most teams that are on fire in one half, the hogs went cold in the second half. Arkansas' first half performance reminded me of our game against Xavier in the 2nd round of the 2004 NCAA Tournament. They were hitting everything. Not a team in the country was going to beat Xavier that day and not a team in the country would have outscored the Razorbacks in the first half today. Sometimes, teams have those days, or rather halves. Just like Ravern had his worst game of the year, the Hogs had their best half of the year followed by one that could make a statement for one of their worst of the year. But, I must give credit where credit is due and our Bullies played a great 2nd half of basketball. The Hogs shooting famine was in part due to the great defense we played. The defense fueled the offense in the 2nd half, which in turn fueled the crowd (which was a major disappointment to me), which helped keep the defense going. It all came full circle.
I am thoroughly impressed by the ability of this team to keep its poise when times were tough this week. In that hostile environment at Rupp, we pulled through. Even as the 'Cats made their run and cut our once monstrous lead down to 3, we stayed the course and shot lights out to slam the door. After trailing by 15 at half-time today, we kept our heads and our freshman point guard led the way to the huge come-from-behind victory.
Maybe this happened because of the speech Mr. Bailey Howell gave at half-time, or maybe we came back because this team decided it was their home floor and no pigs were going to come in here and take home a W. Either way, this win was huge. It proves that this team can stay calm and not panic. It proves that we can come from way down to get a tough fought victory. Most importantly, it also keeps us in the race for the West. And possibly the overall SEC title. LSU is the team to beat and we do have them at home. We have to continue to be Road Warriors and take a few more Ws from other teams' home courts. Along with protecting our house the rest of the way. I really think that we are coming into our own. We are starting to play our best basketball and we did it today without a bucket from the leading 3-point shooter in the country. Overall, I must give these young 'Dogs an A for their performances this week. Just keep it up and we will find ourselves dancing in March