Here's To Eating Crow

Just when I thought you couldn't get any dumber, you go and do something like this... and totally redeem yourself!

There was a moment there, Wednesday night in Knoxville, where it looked like the heartless, pants-dumping version of Zags showed up again. By about 12 minutes into the game, the Zags had fully showcased their every flaw, bricking their way to a double digit deficit. The Slipper Fits was cursing the Zags every way to East Sprague. Except, surprisingly, of all people, Matt Bouldin, who basically carried the Zags single-handledly back into the game. Bouldin had the kind of game that everyone has been hoping for /slash/ expecting of him. He took control of the game when no one else would or could. The Zags, without question, owe the game to Bouldin. And Will Foster. Foster big-boy'd the Vols when Josh clearly couldn't. Foster came up HUGE with a number of crucial blocks and rebounds. Well, come to think of it, Matt couldn't have done it without Steven or Austin. Steven Gray is the truth. His play was inspiring, and restored TSF's hope for these confidence-starved Bulldogs. Austin Daye played well in the second half, and finally looked like he wanted the ball. He gets pushed around and completely burned on defense, but he picks up a lot of (cheap) blocks and is the offensive threat. He just needs to start taking the ball to the hole like a man, getting fouled and shooting 20 free throws a night like Adam. That is how he is going to take over games, and hopefully he'll stick around another year to learn how to do just that.

At their worst Wednesday the Zags were horrible, but at their best they played really, really well. If the Vols hadn't imploded, however, TSF isn't sure the Zags could have pulled out that game, particularly given their awful, awful first half. Things certainly were not looking good when Tatum was doing his best Dominguez impression. The Zags did, however, turn things around and manage to pick up a huge road win, in spite of TSF's certainty they were going to choke.

Pargo is clearly at an all time low, confidence wise, so TSF, rather than point out his many, many mistakes, is going to give him the benefit of the doubt and trust that he is going to turn things around. To give him credit, TSF was impressed with his play down the stretch. He didn't try to take the game over by himself, instead giving the reins to the red-hot Bouldin.

While the Zags have every reason to be proud of their solid victory in Knoxville, snapping the Vols 37-game home win streak, they still have a lot of work to do. For starters, free throws. The Zags were beyond abysmal from the charity stripe, pitiful really. Had they even shot Shaq numbers from the line, they wouldn't have had to put the Vols away in overtime. TSF believes that the Zags are going to turn that around after they've had a few conference games to get them used to watching the ball go through the net. The other thing the Zags have to improve on, immediately, is rebounding. You can't expect to win games consistently when you get beat on the boards night after night. If they can turn around these two aspects of their game the Zags will be a different team, a team that not many others can compete with.

Go Zags.