Another SWAC school will make their visit to The Super Pit as Grambling (0-7) makes a visit Tuesday, Dec. 20^th. The Tigers are on the financial OOC tour taking on Houston, Mississippi, Arkansas, Washington, Texas Tech, North Texas, TCU, and Louisiana among others before jumping into conference play.

It hasn’t been and will not be an easy tour for them. Of the first ten games, nine have been or will be on the road. They fell at Houston 42-88, at Mississippi 39-69, at Utah Valley State College 34-64, they played Oakland at home losing 45-75, then back on the road to Arkansas losing 44-86, at Washington 37-69 and at Texas Tech 59-87. Now they face North Texas then travel to TCU and LSU before their next home game.

Gone from the team is Justin Patton, F, 6-7, he was expected to be the engine to the team but he transferred to North Texas because of Grambling’s Academic Rate penalties which make them ineligible for postseason play.

Returning from the team that nearly won the SWAC Tournament, in spite of a 12-21 record, is the big guy in the middle. Peter “PJ” Roberson, C, 7-0, 245, Jr., is a player. He gives them an inside game and he leads the team with both block shots with 3.6 and rebounds with 8.6.

The big problem for the team has been guard play. Giving them experience at the guard position is Rashard Boatner, G, 6-0, 170, Sr., and Derron Hobbs, G, 6-0, 160, Sr. However, the leading scorer is Xavier Rogers,G, 6-2, 165, So., with ten points per game and he leads in steals with two per game.

Steven Danridge, F/C, 6-8, 260, SO., leads the team in shooting percentage hitting 44.4% of his shots.

Roman Higgins, G, 6-3, 195, So., leads the team in 3 point shooting hitting 28%.

Rondale Livas, G, 6-7, 215, So., leads the team in assists with three per game and in turnovers coughing it up six times a game. 

This will be another good game for North Texas as they continue to gel as a team. It is a very manageable game which will give Head Basketball Coach Johnny Jones the opportunity to work different players with each other to see which combination is the best. It is also a game where players will be able to show their skills and to get the attention of the coach.

The only problem with this game is the team may look forward to the LSU game allowing the Tigers to jump up and bite them.

Even though they basically have been blown out in their games, at times they were able to go on double digits runs to make games a lot closer.