Sunday thoughts: Blancett, Panthers

Hey everyone,
I will be posting a new article later today about Men's Basketball but I thought I would share some Sunday morning thoughts:

Before yesterday's game against GSU, I was discussing with former DOB Will Roberson about the performance of Eric Blancett this year. I was commenting on Eric's lethal three-point shot and yet his inability to get more than 4-5 minutes PT this year and only one attempt. Will said, "if he hits his first, then he will get more chances. This year, he has just been missing his first shot." Well yesterday, Eric hit his first, second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth shots en route to three 3-pointers and a game-high 17 points.
For those who have followed Davidson basketball closely, this performance was less unlikely than just well-timed. EB was a solid 8th man last year and this year has merely provided a body to give Brendan Winters or Matt McKillop a rest. But with breakout games against the Citadel and Charlotte last year, everyone knew that EB had a stroke from outside. This year it just took 17 games to find it. Hopefully, this will continue to help EB's teammates as opponent scouts will try to apply more pressure defensively on #30, making other Wildcat weapons more lethal. When you have five guys on the floor who can hit shots from anywhere, you are very difficult to defend.

In the NFL side of things, I think the Panthers are sitting in the driver's seat. "How is this possible?" one might ask, when so many starters are hampered with injury. Well apart from Deshaun Foster, all of our injured players are going to play. It is the playoff's and they have the fortitude to play through it. Also, everyone says that the run ends here. The Panthers had to lose games at the end of the season so they would be an underdog in the playoffs and going on the road. As much as I love Bank of America stadium, our guys do better when it's just them by themselves and the whole world is against them. The Panthers are the ultimate underdog team and this is how we play. Nick Goings and Jake Delhomme? Boys out of the south who drive JEEP's. Nick's license plate? GONE. Steve Smith is reputed as one of the best wide receivers in the NFL this season. His response? "I may be in the top 20." These guys don't care about the hype and that's why they are one game away from their second Super Bowl in three years.

All of these thoughts and more will be furthered explored on my radio show tonight which you can find on iTunes podcast. Search Davidson Sports.