Smith Spontaneously Combusts, Bucs Rout Paladins

Ka-BOOM!

This was the sound that rang out in front of a shockingly sparse crowd when Mike Smith went up for a two-handed dunk that brought Mike Smith to 30 points in a game for the first time in his career. Smith was all over the floor in the first half, with 21 of ETSU's 43 first-half points, at one point outscoring the entire Furman team. JT stepped in during the second half, found his feet and had one of his best games as a Buccaneer, scoring 20 points despite just hitting two threes the whole night. Smith's 32 points and 100% effort from the stripe both tied tournament records, as did Tubbs' five steals. The defense was there for these two as well, especially Smith, as Amu Saaka, an all-conference selection in the SoCon, had more fouls (4) than he did points (3). That's no small feat, and a big part of why this game turned out the way it did.

As impressive as their performances were, and as great as it was to blow Furman out (largest lead was 22 with 11:45 to go), this was hardly a perfectly played game for Bartow's crew. Zeke was invisible. Micah had five points and four turnovers, and fouled out on top of that. We're not exactly playing world-beaters the rest of the way, but this team can't afford to have one or two of its starters messing on the linens in every game. Not when we're getting eight bench points, with half of those coming from Sollazzo, who was swapped in favor of De'Shaud Johnson at the point. This was a move made more for sentimental reasons than tactical ones, but honestly, Johnson looked like he could have played the point more often. He only had five points, but also dished out four helpers and did not turn the basketball over. What a novel concept.

As enjoyable as it was to watch the "Mike Smith & Friends Show" last night, the "Friends" of that equation need to figure out how much more basketball they want to be playing. They've got just under a week to do it, but they have to realize that even though this is essentially the Meineke Car Care Bowl of college basketball, it's still the postseason. Maybe they should all eat breakfast with Justin Tubbs, since he has it figured out. Or maybe they could sleep in their extremely awesome gold uniforms. Have I ever mentioned that I love gold uniforms?

I. Love. Gold. Uniforms.