Category: Knox Buxton

South Carolina Gamecocks vs Texas Longhorns Basketball game

By: Knox Buxton

On Saturday South Carolina played against Texas in an SEC matchup. South Carolina went into the game 0-13 in conference play and 10-16 overall. I thought South Carolina was going to get killed by Texas because of the way their season has gone so far. To be honest, the only reason I went to the game was to see Texas’s freshman star, Tre Johnson. Tre Johnson is a projected top 10 pick in this year’s NBA draft and the latest mock draft has him going at 6th overall. It is also always fun to watch Collin Murray-Boyles play for South Carolina and he is also a projected lottery pick in this year’s NBA draft. Murray-Boyles is projected to go at 13th in the latest 2025 NBA mock draft. Carolina got hot to start the game and came out and got a lead on Texas. Texas could not get anything going on offense because South Carolina was playing great defense to start the game. Jahmarii Thomas started off gaurding Tre Johnson and was doing a really good job on him. Texas’s offense runs through Tre Johnson so since they couldn’t get him going, it was looking good for South Carolina. Collin Murray-Boyles got off to a hot start for Carolina as he had a couple and one’s and altered texas’s shots at the rim. Carolina stayed hot and went into halftime up 40-22. Johnson had 9 points at the half and it seemed like no one else could score the ball for the longhorns. To start the second half it was more of the same, Carolina went up by twenty and the game seemed like it was just about over. With just under 10 minutes left in the game Texas started force feeding Tre Johnson and he got hot. To go along with johnson scoring the ball at will, Texas broke out a press which seemed to work on Carolina for a little while. It looked like Texas was about to make a comeback with around five minutes left to play but then South Carolina pulled away and won the game 84-69. I enjoyed watching South Carolina get their first win in conference play and seeing Collin Murray-Boyles go for 22 points and 10 rebounds. It was also fun to watch Tre Johnson score the ball at will and seeing Texas’s whole offense run through him. Johnson finished with 29 points and hit some tough shots. That game looked to me like Carolina’s best all around game in SEC play because they played hard defense and were scoring the ball better than they usually do. Even though this season has been pretty painful to watch for Carolina, I enjoyed watching them surprise Texas.

Super Bowl Review

By: Knox Buxton

This year’s Super Bowl was a rematch from 2023 between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs. The Kansas City Chiefs were comin off of back to back Super Bowl wins against Philadelphia and San Francisco. Everyone I had talked to about the Super Bowl this year said they thought the Chiefs were going to get it, especially after going 15-2 in the regular season. I called the Super Bowl back at the beginning of the season and said it would be Philiadelphia and Kansas City and Philadelphia would win. I knew once the Eagles added Saquon Barkley and having one of the best defenses in the league, they had too many weapons. The game started out with both teams being forced to punt. The Eagles got on the board first with a tush push touchdown by Jalen Hurts. A few drives later, Jalen Hurts threw an interception and that is when I thought the Chiefs would start heating up and make it an entertaining game to watch, but I was wrong. Philadelphia forced a three and out and then Jalen Hurts hooked up with AJ Brown for a long passing play and it ended up with the Eagles scoring a field goal to go up ten to nothing. The next drive, Patrick Mahomes threw a pick six to rookie cornerback, Cooper Dejean. Once the Eagles took a seventeen to nothing lead and looked unstoppable, I knew it would be hard for the Chiefs to come back. Right before halftime, Patrick Mahomes threw another interception to Zack Baun on their own side of the field and it led to an AJ Brown receiving touchdown. When the Eagles went up 24-0 at halftime, I knew the game was just about over. The Eagles were dominating every aspect of the game and pressuring Mahomes consistently. The second half was really just more of the same with Philadelphia taking a 34-0 lead before the Chiefs started padding the stats. Kansas City’s last second stat padding was made them able to make the game a little closer before losing 40-22. Jalen Hurts won the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player even though I thought there were a lot of Eagle player that I thought deserved it. In my opinion, I would have just given it to the whole defensive line after how they got after Patrick Mahomes and forced him into making bad plays. I sincerely enjoyed watching the Eagles Beat down the Chiefs and showing everyone Kansas City isn’t all that.

Eagles vs Rams Game Review

By: Knox Buxton

The Philadelphia Eagles hosted the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday in the Divisional Round of the NFL Playoffs. The game started off with a long touchdown run by Jalen Hurts and the Eagles led 13-6 at the end of the first quarter. The game started off cold with clear weather, but the snow started coming down slowly. The Rams cut the Eagles’ lead to only three points at the end of the second quarter before Philadelphia drove down the field and got into field goal range right before the half. The Rams came up with two big sacks that pushed the Eagles back and out of field goal range so they could only go into halftime up 13-10. On the first possession  of the second half, the Rams drove right down the field and tied the game up with a field goal. The Eagles answered with a field goal right after that and took the lead 16-13. Towards the end of the third quarter, the Rams sacked Hurts for a safety to trail by just one point. The Eagles got two more field goals and then Saquon Barkley broke loose for a long touchdown run to make the lead 28-15 with four minutes left. Even though it seemed like the game was over, the Rams did not give up and quickly drove down the field and scored a touchdown to cut the Eagles lead to six. The Rams used up their timeouts and stopped the Eagles to get the ball back with two minutes left. The Rams drove back down the field and looked like they were about to score before getting sacked on third down. Stafford threw an incomplete pass to Puka Nacua and the Rams turned it over on downs to end the game. In my opinion, that game was one of the best NFL games I have watched in a long time. The game became very interesting once it started snowing at the end. You could tell that it was hard for both teams to play in the snow so there was a lot more running the ball. The only player that didn’t seem to be affected by the snow was Saquon Barkley. Saquon rushed for 205 yards and scored 2 touchdowns. After that game, it is clear to me that he is the best running back in the NFL. After all the excitement from that game, the Eagles have to get ready to face Jayden Daniels and the Washington Commanders in the Conference Championship. Both teams are hot, but I think it will be the Eagles who get the job done and go to the super bowl. If Philadelphia keeps playing like this, I still believe they will win it all this year.

Carolina Panthers End of the Season Review

by: Knox Buxton

The Carolina Panthers won their season finale 44-38 in overtime against the Atlanta Falcons. I enjoyed watching the game and I was happy with the way Bryce Young performed to end the season. Young passed for 251 yards and 3 touchdowns, he also rushed for 24 yards and 2 touchdowns. He made the jump from being labeled as one of the biggest busts during the beginning of this season to being 1st among Quarterbacks in total touchdowns in weeks 16-18. Bryce Young also had a top 10 passer rating and no turnovers in the final 3 weeks.

The Panthers main problem to end this season was their defense. Losing Derrick Brown and Shaq Thompson hurt the defense a lot to start the season and it didn’t get any better at the end when Jaycee Horn went out for the last week. Horn was really the only good part of the defense this season because he was the only one to get selected to participate in the pro bowl. I think if the Panthers can build up the defense this offseason and add an elite wide receiver to pair with Bryce Young, they could definitely make a run and surprise a lot of people next season. If I was the General Manager of the Carolina Panthers, I would look to add Tee Higgins or Garrett Wilson if we could get one of them for the right price. I would also go out and draft the best defensive players available in the draft and make sure the players on the defense that got hurt are good to go to start next season. The Panthers have the 8th pick in this year’s draft and there are a lot of ways it could go when it comes to making their selection but ultimately, I think it will need to be a defensive player. Their defense finished at the bottom of the league in pretty much every category, but I don’t think it should be super hard to fix. In conclusion, even though Carolina finished with a 5-12 record, I think the future is bright and Bryce Young is the guy for them.

Carolina Panthers Update

By: Knox Buxton

The Carolina Panthers are currently sitting at 3-9 but they have been playing decently well recently. The Panthers are 2-2 in their last 4 games and have lost close games to good teams in their last two. They beat the New Orleans Saints and then the New York Giants in overtime the next week. In the past 2 weeks, Carolina lost to the defending Super Bowl Champion Kansas City Chiefs by 3 points and then lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers by 3 in overtime this past week. I personally have been pretty impressed by the way the Panthers have been playing as a whole. They had two big opportunities to beat Tampa Bay where Bryce Young hit Adam Thielen for a touchdown to go up 3 with a minute left. Unfortunately, the Bucs had all 3 timeouts left and drove down the field and got a field goal to tie the game to go to overtime. The Bucs got the ball to start overtime and they missed a field goal and gave Carolina the ball back. Bryce Young found Adam Thielen again with an impressive one handed catch on a third and five to put the Panthers in field goal range. Carolina tried to run the ball with Chuba Hubbard to get closer and make an easier field goal attempt, but he got stripped and Tampa Bay got the ball back. The Bucs drove the ball down the field and got a field goal to win. I personally am just happy that the Panthers look like a functional team again and are putting up fights against good teams. At this point in the season, I would just like to see them put together a few more wins and gain momentum for next season while securing a top pick in this year’s draft. I am also happy that Bryce Young has put together two of the best games of his career so far even though they were both losses. Chuba Hubbard also looks like a top running back and with Jonathan Brooks coming back Carolina has two good running backs they can use in the future. The worst part about the Panthers this year is the defense who is towards the bottom of the league in just about every category this season. In my opinion, if the Panthers just go out and get an elite receiver this offseason and build up the defense everything will be alright. I think Bryce Young is still the guy for Carolina, they just need to get him another weapon.

If Carolina can use their draft pick wisely they could be a good team next year. In conclusion, even though the Panthers are sitting at an ugly 3-9 right now, I think the future is still bright and there is not a lot more that needs to be fixed.

NFL Predictions for the Rest of the Season

By: Knox Buxton

It is currently Week 11 in the NFL, and we are a little over halfway through the 18 week regular season. With that being said, I am going to give some of my opinions for what I think will happen for the rest of this season. To start, I am already predicting an Eagles vs. Chiefs Super Bowl. The Eagles offense looks too good for them not to make a deep run in  this postseason. With Jalen Hurts, Devonta Smith, AJ Brown, Dallas Goedert, and the addition of Saquon Barkley, Philadelphia has the best group of skill players in the league. The tush push with Jalen Hurts at Quarterback is one of the most unstoppable plays in football and with Barkley in the backfield with him there is so many possibilities of plays they can run.

On the other side, the Chiefs are still undefeated 10 Weeks through the season. They have the best Quarterback in the league in Patrick Mahomes and one of the best Tight Ends in Travis Kelce. They also have one of the top defenses which will make them hard to beat when the postseason comes. Another reason to believe Kansas City will make it to the Super Bowl is that Isiah Pacheco will be coming back from injury soon and they already have Kareem Hunt who is playing well right now too. With Pacheco coming back, it will give Kansas City two good running backs they can use. Another team I think will heat up towards the end of the season is the San Fransisco 49ers. They started their season a little rough, but with Christian McCaffrey coming back from injury, it will open up many more opprotunities for their offense. It is rough for them that they lost Brandon Aiyuk for the season so they will have to rely on receivers like Deebo Samuel, Brandon Jennings, and Ricky Pearsall to step up. They also have one of the best defenses in the league which will help them make a run towards the end of the season to get into the playoffs. Those three teams are teams to watch towards the end of the season and it will be fun to see how the rest of their season plays out.

Review of the Charlotte Hornets first three games of the Season

By: Knox Buxton

The Charlotte Hornets have started 1-2 in the first three games of the season. They have played the Houston Rockets, Atlanta Hawks, and Miami Heat where they won the first game against the Rockets and dropped the next two against the Hawks and Heat. I was honestly surprised by the Hornets performance on opening night in Houston against the Rockets. I knew it would be a close game, but with Mark Williams and Josh Green out it would be a tough one to win. Brandon Miller who is arguably the best player on the Hornets got injured after playing the first eleven minutes of the game and did not return. Lamelo Ball and Tre Mann ended up carrying the hornets to a 110-105 win after they went down by as much as eighteen. Ball nearly had his first triple-double of the season with 34 points, 11 assists, and 8 rebounds as Tre Mann came off the bench and added 24 points and 6 rebounds.  Two nights later the Hornets played in Atlanta against the Hawks without two starters in Brandon Miller and Mark Williams. The Hawks led most of the game even though it was close, but the Hornets could not pull ahead as Atlanta won 125-120. The game seemed like a back and forth between Lamelo Ball and Trae Young as Ball scored 34 points with 9 three pointers and Trae Young finished with 38 points and 10 assists. On Saturday night, the Miami Heat came to Charlotte for the Hornets’ first home game of the new season. Miami took a double digit lead, but the Hornets came back and made it a one score game for most of the fourth quarter. Miami was able to pull away in the final minutes and leave Charlotte with a 114-106 victory. Lamelo was the leading scorer for the Hornets once again with 27 points in the loss. In conclusion, I know the Hornets are 1-2 right now and that does not look good but they have also had 3 of their starters out with Josh Green, Brandon Miller, and Mark Williams. Both of the games they have lost were close without those three so I don’t think there is a need to worry too much. One of the main problems for the Hornets is Rim Protection and when Mark Williams comes back that should be fixed. I have been very happy with the way Lamelo Ball and Tre Mann have started the season as Lamelo has averaged 31.7 points per game and Mann has averaged 18.3 off the bench. If those two can keep it up once Williams, Miller, and Green come back the Hornets could surprise a lot of people in the Eastern Conference this season.

2024-2025 NBA Season Opener Preview

By: Know Buxton

The 2024-2025 NBA season tips off on October 22 with the defending champions Boston Celtics facing the New York Knicks. That game will be followed by the Los Angeles Lakers hosting the Minnesota Timberwolves. I really like these matchups for opening night because all four of these teams should be pretty competitive this season. In my opinion, the Boston Celtics look like the favorites to win the NBA Finals for the second year in a row. They definitely have all of the pieces they need in order to go back to back. They have two stars in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, they have two of the best defending guards in the league in Jrue Holiday and Derrick White, and they also have one of the best shooting and defending big men in the league in Kristaps Porzingis. They have a solid bench with players like Payton Pritchard, Al Horford, and Lonnie Walker IV, but it could be better. To me, their biggest threat to going back to back is their health. If one player in their starting five gets injured for an extended period of time, things could go downhill. Luckily for the Celtics, these players don’t have bad injury histories except for Kristaps Porzingis so this shouldn’t be much of a concern. For the Knicks on the other hand, they also have a good chance to make a championship push. I really like the additions they made with Mikal Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns. Their biggest concern is the depth which they lost by trading Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo. They also lost Isiah Hartenstein to the Thunder in free agency this summer which doesn’t help. As for the opening night game between the two, I think the Celtics will win a close game and this could potentially be a playoff matchup we see later in the season. 

The Lakers are a team to watch this season too. They are led by LeBron James and Anthony Davis , two of the best players in the NBA; but their biggest problem, as always, is the supporting cast for their two superstars. They signed JJ Reddick as a first time head coach and he seems to be very close with LeBron James. This is a make or break season for the Lakers in my opinion because LeBron’s career is coming to an end and Anthony Davis might not want to stay for much longer if there is no LeBron James. For the Timberwolves, I am very high on their young superstar Anthony Edwards. The Timberwolves finished as a top team last season and made a deep playoff run before losing to the Mavericks. They traded their star that went alongside Edwards in Karl-Anthony Towns, but I like the additions of Julius Randle and Donte Divincenzo. The biggest question for Minnesota is if their good season last season was a fluke or not. I think they have all the pieces in place for another successful season, but it largely depends on how the Towns trade turns out for them. In the Timberwolves vs Lakers game, I think the Timberwolves will win in a close one but it definitely could go the other way. This game comes down to which team plays better together because both teams made moves this off-season and have some new additions.

Evaluating the Knicks and Timberwolves Trade

By: Knox Buxton

The New York Knicks and Minnestota Timberwolves just made a blockbuster trade right before the start of the NBA season. The Timberwolves traded their center, Karl-Anthony Towns, in exchange for Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, Keita Bates-Diop, and a future first round pick from the Detroit Pistons. The Knicks made this move because they needed to add a center due to Mitchell Robinson getting foot surgery over the summer and having to miss the beginning of the season. The Knicks gave up a lot of depth to acquire Towns by trading DiVicenzo and Randle. Both players were big contributors to the Knicks last season and were a big reason why they made it to the second round of the playoffs. The Timberwolves added more pieces to help their young star, Anthony Edwards. In my opinion, the Knicks won the trade for now, but it could quickly turn around depending on how Towns plays this season and how deep the Knicks go in the playoffs. New York’s biggest problem is the depth, they can try to solve that by giving Deuce McBride more minutes off the bench and trying to add people in free agency or they could see who has the ability to step up early in the year. On paper, the Knicks have one of the best rosters in the league, but like last year, that does not matter if no one can stay healthy. They were missing Julius Randle, OG Annunoby, and Bogdan Bogdanovic. They ended up losing to the Pacers in the second round, but Jalen Brunson proved to be one of the best players in the league. Their lineup this season looks like it will be Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, OG Annunoby, and Karl-Anthony Towns. When asked about the trade, Knicks fan Jackson Bonser stated, “I think it’s a fair trade. I also think that we will know within the first ten games whether the Knicks really won the trade or not.” Bonser is very high on New York’s all star pint guard, Jalen Brunson. When asked about how Brunson will fit with Towns this season Bonser said, “It’s a match made in heaven, and both will be on an All-NBA team this season. Additionally, I believe that Jalen Brunson will be in the MVP conversation this season.” The Knicks have a lot to prove by making that move, but Knicks fans like Jackson have a lot to be excited about for this upcoming season.

The Panthers’ Problems

By: Knox Buxton

The Carolina Panthers have started off the season 0-2 and look like the worst team in the NFL again this season. They lost to the Saints 47-10 in the season opener in New Orleans, and then lost to the Los Angeles Chargers 26-3 in week 2 for their home opener. A lot of people wonder why the Panthers are just so bad this year. The reason why isn’t just from one problem, it is from a ton of different problems added together.

The first and biggest problem in my opinion is that their owner, David Tepper, is the worst owner in the NFL. He consistently makes the wrong decisions such as hiring the wrong coaches, like when he hired Frank Reich last season and he didn’t even make it through the whole season before he got fired. He hired Reich after Steve Wilkes almost led the Panthers to the playoffs the year before even after they traded Christian McCaffrey to the 49ers and got off to a terrible start. The players made it known that they wanted to keep Steve Wilkes around, but Tepper obviously did not care and we saw how that turned out. In my opinion, the sooner David Tepper steps down as the owner of the Panthers, the sooner the Panthers will turn things around. Tepper just has no idea what he is doing and he acts more of a fan than an owner. The Panthers also seem to make the wrong decision everytime about what players to sign. They traded for Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield in back to back years and neither of them could play well on the Panthers. Now Baker is playing the best football of his NFL career for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Sam Darnold has put together a couple good games for the Vikings. They selected Bryce Young with the first overall pick last year and have already benched him after week two of his second season. Young has started off his career 2-17 as the Panthers starter and I know he hasn’t been playing well, but the problem is not all on him.

If Mayfield and Darnold can play well when they are not on the Panthers, I believe Bryce Young can too. He has been given one of the worst receiving rooms and offensive lines in the league to start his career and as an undersized quarterback, there’s not much he can do about it. The problem is not just the quarterback position, it is just about everywhere on the field. The Panthers should start by figuring out if Bryce Young is the guy to build around or not. Then they need to keep getting the offensive and defensive lines better. After that, they should go out and get a top receiver who is in talks of being traded by their current team such as Tee Higgins or maybe even Deebo Samuel. That is the best way to start getting on the right track. If Young is not the guy, which right now it seems like he is not, they need to try to get a good draft pick and draft a top quarterback this offseason. They should not try to trade for another mediocre quarterback like they have in past years because we see how that has gone.

The final thing I will talk about what they need to do is they need to figure out who to keep and who to let go of on the coaching staff. Dave Canales is in his first season as the Panther’s head coach and it has not looked good so far. I get that we are only two games into the season, but if this keeps up he might not make it the whole season just like Frank Reich. At the end of the day, there are many problems with the Carolina Panthers organization, but I believe if they can start correcting their mistakes little by little they can turn it around.