Troy 55 Piqua 42

Boys' Basketball
Home Team: Troy Trojans
Visiting Team: Piqua Indians
Venue: Trojan Activities Center
Game Time: 7:30 p.m. (theoretically)
Fellow Attendees: None

(JV Score: Troy 73 Piqua 50)

Well, it's not football, but a Trojan victory over Piqua in anything is a good way to start the year.

This was just the Trojans' second win of the year, against nine losses. Unfortunately, this was the first time I've seen them, so I can't really speak to why they haven't had much success. They looked pretty decent to me. They've got a couple of big guys down in the post who look pretty good. The guards aren't anything spectacular, but they seemed solid enough. Maybe they're putting things together and will win some more games from here on out. Or maybe Piqua is just that bad. Time will tell.

I was really impressed with Troy' JV team. I didn't see any amazing talent, but they seemed to be really well coached. They were pretty fundamentally sound for guys so young, especially in terms of passing and defense. They had a good feel for where the other guys were on the floor, and they were fun to watch. They played an uptempo style, quite a contrast from the varsity team's more deliberate play. Of course, that resulted in quite a few fouls, and the refs in that game were quite whistle-happy. The JV game started at 6:00, with the varsity scheduled to begin at 7:30. The varsity game didn't end up starting until about 8:10. That one went quite a bit faster, though, and I was on my way out by 9:15 or so.