The SBC Tournament Report: UALR vs. FAU

By: TYMat B

Game 3 - (2) Arkansas-Little Rock - 66 (7) Florida Atlantic - 60

After dinner...and back at the Mitchell Center. We ended up sitting with the student fans FAU brought (meaning UNT didn't have the smallest fan base) and convinced them that we'd pull for the Owls if they would stick around and cheer for UNT in the late game (find out how well that worked out later).

The FAU student section. Small, but LOUD (and proud).

My notes on this game are sketchy at best since we became FAU fans...but this was my first look at UALR post Mike Smith...and for the life of me I can't understand how this guy only averaged 9 points per game this season. Smith is a beast at 6'7" 280...with a nice touch out to about 15 feet and outstanding footwork for a man his size and girth. FAU has a big and athletic frontcourt, but they had no answer for Smith who finished with 18 points.

FAU was down 34-24 at the half but was able to make a strong push in the second half...thanks in large part to the worst free throw shooting display I have seen this year (including UNT/ULL). UALR finished 14 of 32 from the line, but were just awful in the clutch. FAU managed to get the lead down to 2 a few times, but were unable to get over the hump...and fell in the end by 6.

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Additional comments from Ioannis:

The dejected FAU bench
(Owls head coach/Koncak League hero Rex Walters is the one in the blue shirt)

The FAU kids are exactly what this tournament should be all about. They made the 10 hour drive to watch their team. They were loud, standing throughout the game, stomping and cheering and taunting and generally doing their best to represent their school. Great bunch of guys, even if they did decide they'd rather go out drinking and drown their sorrows with the FAU cheerleaders than stick around and watch basketball with us.

If I were still in college, I probably would have done the same thing.

These guys were obviously having a blast. They were in Lafayette last year, and they came back for this year's tournament, too. They're going home today, but they're going home with great memories and hopefully (fingers crossed for you, guys) some depressed cheerleader lovin'.

Oh, and some sweet Sun Belt merchandise, too.

One of our new FAU superfriends hits a clutch 'mini-basketball into a cooler' shot to win the new halftime contest.

They won the halftime contest, but their team lost the game. It's a sad trend, but more on that later. For now, congrats to the FAU guys for getting some free Sun Belt gear.

In their honor, I'll close out this post with some more unfortunate fashion choices.

Alabama Douche takes in the evening session.

FAU guard Paul Graham wears one blue shoe and one red shoe.

Not sure what this one was all about... Graham was the only one on the team with mismatched shoes. At halftime, he ditched the 'foreign NFL placekicker' look and came back on the court with two red shoes.

The UALR mascot. Very, very questionable.

Where to begin on this guy... The odd dark-black body tone? The weird bright white armor? The maroon feather duster plumage on his helmet? The black highlights (very metro of you, Mr. UALR Trojan) on that maroon feather duster plumage? The velvet short cape? The leather skirt?

I wouldn't be surprised if the UALR mascot was the Grand Marshal at the San Francisco St. Patrick's Day parade.

Not that there's anything wrong with being gay... But even our homosexual readers have to agree that there IS something wrong with those fashion decisions.