For North Texas, the SBC Tournament is over. I’m proud of this team and what they accomplished, but this loss stings. 

It’s tough to write about the game that ended your season, especially just hours after it happened. The one thing I have to point out is that the violent collision between Collin Dennis and WKU’s Anthony Sally should never have happened.

For anyone who missed the game, Dennis and Sally ran into each other and collided knee-first. Both collapsed to the ground, both needed medical attention, both were unable to stand up or leave the court without assistance. Sally eventually made it back in at the very end of the game, but Collin was only able to limp back out to the bench as a spectator.

It never should have happened. The collision happened on a WKU break after a change of possession under the basket. The refs were very lax on calling contact fouls under the basket, and there were 4 or 5 loud, violent slaps that went by without a whistle. WKU gains control, Sally starts to dash up court, and then the crash happens.

If the refs would have blown a well-deserved whistle to stop what was turning into a brutally physical game, neither of those guys gets hurt on the change of possession.

The only other thing I’ll say about the game is to echo Ty’s opinion that being present at the Tournament makes it a lot easier to get over the pain of elimination. When you’re here, you don’t dwell on the negative and fall into a lingering funk. There’s good basketball to watch and friendly people from all over the Sun Belt who will try to cheer you up.

Game over, year over. But I love this team, and I love this coach. I’m already antsy for next season to start.

Johnny Jones: still The Man. Good work, Coach.

After the game, I was very grumpy and tense. Fortunately, this woman was sitting behind us during the USA/UALR game, and it was impossible not to have fun in her presence.

Meet Gloria Sherrer, mother of Jags guard Bryan Sherrer.

Ms. Sherrer is a loud, vivacious, hilarious, enthusiastic, and exceptionally vocal super fan. We spent the first half behind the South Alabama bench, listening to her root for the Jags and crack wise about anything and everything happening on the court.

She is a fantastic supporter. Not to take anything away from our own rooting section, but we could certainly use a few folks like her. Every school in America could.

Bryan Sherrer: Apple of his mama’s eye, and USA’s game MVP.

Bryan was actually very cool, stopping after the game to pose for a photo and to give us a short interview. Unfortunately, I forgot the cable that connects my audio recorder to my laptop, and I can’t upload his comments directly.

He says his mother has been cheering her head off ever since he was playing pee-wee basketball, and he’s sure she’ll be screaming over everyone tomorrow night, too.

Unfortunately, not everyone you meet at the SBC Tournament is as gracious and charming as the Sherrers. Some folks here are violent, dangerous sociopaths.

I’m speaking, of course, about Buffalo Bill.

Compare and contrast: Buffalo Bill from Buffalo Wild Wings, and Buffalo Bill from The Silence of the Lambs. The parallels are disturbing.
Photo edited because nobody needs to see “the tuck” again.

What we need to do is lock Buffalo Bill and the Pizza Inn Nazi in a room together and not open the door until only one is left alive. Then, we need to kill the survivor. For the good of humanity.

Farewell, Summit Arena.

And so, another SBC Tournament experience comes to an end. This is the third consecutive SBC Tournament trip for my brother and me, and the first year that we won’t see the final in person.

Despite the premature ending, this was still a fantastic trip and I can’t say enough good things about the venue, the games, and the people. YOU NEED TO BE HERE. Don’t miss this event if there’s any possible way you can make it for all or part of the Tournament next year.

With that, we close the curtain on Radio Free Sun Belt for another year. We’ll be back here next year for the 2010 Tournament.

We hope you’ll join us in person. Thanks for reading, and be sure to keep visiting as we resume regularly scheduled website programming.