(11-18-2014 07:59 PM)NIU17 Wrote:  Great atmosphere. Does Toledo have any good OOC games at home?

Not really. Bucknell, Robert Morris, Detroit, Northern Arizona.

9 point loss. Only a little disappointing. We have a pretty good team.

I was on my feet nearly the whole game watching from my home, it was that exciting. JD with 4 HUGE slams. A bunch of guys scored and played significant minutes. I just don't understand the collapse at the end. We compete with the #15 team in the nation for 38 minutes and then play sloppy as hell the final 2 when it really counts...very frustrating, but overall, I came away pretty impressed by our Rockets.

(11-18-2014 08:17 PM)RocketJeff Wrote:  9 point loss. Only a little disappointing. We have a pretty good team.

Yeah I don't mean to get down in team after only 2 games but man, we could've won tonight

Yep, it's a bummer for sure. It was entertaining as hell with Mark Beier on the radio but I really don't want to be the team that has the bullet points on their resume for all their close losses again.

*Juice is a baller, but sometimes just tries to do too much, imo. There were times where he would dribble too much and then a stupid turnover would happen due to that.
*JD Weatherspoon should not be able to handle the ball, but he looked real impressive under the basket tonight.
*Boothe looks greatly improved and is going to be a crucial part to the Rocket's success this season. He has been huge our first 2 games, but when he gets in foul trouble, I don't feel all that confident.
*Jon Jon was hoisting up brick after brick tonight, hope he can find his groove, sooner rather than later.
*Not sure what to say about Drummond. He looked good for the most part, anyone care to elaborate on his play?
*Stuckey Mosely had his freshman moments at times, but he played significant minutes and that should definitely help us down the road.

We certainly should have opened up some eyes tonight across the nation (cough, cough NCAA Selection Committee). Bring on the Ducks of Oregon! Won't be easy, especially after all that traveling our guys have done this week, but a win at their place would be HUGE for our program. Man, I wish we had, at least, 1 marquee matchup at Savage this year.

Rough game for Jon Jon. No baskets. Just didn't get the scoring in the second half from Juice or Nate, but both had foul problems. Didn't get the FT's in the second half.

What an exciting game! I can't complain after going toe to toe with the 15th ranked team in the country on their home floor in the second game of the season. VCU specializes in wearing teams down at the end, even the teams that handle the press well for most of the game. VCU is a very good team and will be tough to beat this season. On the post game radio show, Coach K said "we are better than I thought." That's very encouraging!

On another note, I believe that Toledo is close to being in the top 5 in the country for active home winning streak. They are currently at 17 in a row and VCU was #5 at 20 going into tonight's game. The top two longest home winning streaks were snapped over the last two days (Florida and Stephen F. Austin)

(11-18-2014 08:35 PM)therockets046 Wrote:  Yep, it's a bummer for sure. It was entertaining as hell with Mark Beier on the radio but I really don't want to be the team that has the bullet points on their resume for all their close losses again.

Not sure what you are referring to. The team was 9-0 in games decided by 3 points or less last year. Their narrowest loss was by 5 points to Ohio in overtime. They were defeated by Western twice by double digits, by 10 at Kansas, by 21 to EMU, by 8 to NIU, and by 7 to Southern Mississippi.

My thinking is that this team could be even better than last year's team which had a 27-7 record but have more losses because you don't typically win all the close ones and the non league schedule is tougher this year.

(11-18-2014 08:41 PM)inductchuck16 Wrote:  *Juice is a baller, but sometimes just tries to do too much, imo. There were times where he would dribble too much and then a stupid turnover would happen due to that.
*JD Weatherspoon should not be able to handle the ball, but he looked real impressive under the basket tonight.
*Boothe looks greatly improved and is going to be a crucial part to the Rocket's success this season. He has been huge our first 2 games, but when he gets in foul trouble, I don't feel all that confident.
*Jon Jon was hoisting up brick after brick tonight, hope he can find his groove, sooner rather than later.
*Not sure what to say about Drummond. He looked good for the most part, anyone care to elaborate on his play?
*Stuckey Mosely had his freshman moments at times, but he played significant minutes and that should definitely help us down the road.

We certainly should have opened up some eyes tonight across the nation (cough, cough NCAA Selection Committee). Bring on the Ducks of Oregon! Won't be easy, especially after all that traveling our guys have done this week, but a win at their place would be HUGE for our program. Man, I wish we had, at least, 1 marquee matchup at Savage this year.

I don't think anyone will notice a 9 point loss to VCU. Teams are losing by mid point spreads all over the scoreboard tonight. Rockets lost to Kansas by 10 last year and it didn't do anything for them regarding selection committees. You have to win these games to have them take notice.

You guys have a great team, very impressive showing. Toledo wins that game at home. VCU relies on the 3's way too much.

(11-18-2014 09:11 PM)northrocket43 Wrote:  

(11-18-2014 08:41 PM)inductchuck16 Wrote:  *Juice is a baller, but sometimes just tries to do too much, imo. There were times where he would dribble too much and then a stupid turnover would happen due to that.
*JD Weatherspoon should not be able to handle the ball, but he looked real impressive under the basket tonight.
*Boothe looks greatly improved and is going to be a crucial part to the Rocket's success this season. He has been huge our first 2 games, but when he gets in foul trouble, I don't feel all that confident.
*Jon Jon was hoisting up brick after brick tonight, hope he can find his groove, sooner rather than later.
*Not sure what to say about Drummond. He looked good for the most part, anyone care to elaborate on his play?
*Stuckey Mosely had his freshman moments at times, but he played significant minutes and that should definitely help us down the road.

We certainly should have opened up some eyes tonight across the nation (cough, cough NCAA Selection Committee). Bring on the Ducks of Oregon! Won't be easy, especially after all that traveling our guys have done this week, but a win at their place would be HUGE for our program. Man, I wish we had, at least, 1 marquee matchup at Savage this year.

I don't think anyone will notice a 9 point loss to VCU. Teams are losing by mid point spreads all over the scoreboard tonight. Rockets lost to Kansas by 10 last year and it didn't do anything for them regarding selection committees. You have to win these games to have them take notice.

I agree. Maybe a 2 or 3 point loss gets some attention, but with the spread being 9, come selection time nobody other than all of us and perhaps a few VCU fans will even remember that Toledo gave VCU a better game than most teams have for awhile. The key for me was that we had a couple key players not play really well (Drummond, Jon Jon) and played significant minutes without Juice, and still went toe-to-toe for a good 35-36 minutes with a solid top-20 team.

Kansas didnt help because we played like 2 other top 150 teams... Our rpi was so good because of win percentage. The 20 point tilt in EMU and the NIU loss away are what demolished our chances.

9 point loss doesnt grant much attention, but a 30 point shalacking would when you stack up Toledo (a possible bubble) v. a 4-8 seed. The anouncers love us. JD threw some down. Oregon is a game I would like to win to keep votes in the top 25.

In general, the fact that I am p*ssed that we lost the lead late in the game means I'm pretty happy. Who would've thought we'd really have the lead for about half of that game, and be within 2-3 for most of the rest of it? Proud of the effort--hope they build on it.

As for Drummond...yeah, he had a rough game by my view. But it seems like he just hasn't been the same since that 'incident" late last season. Wonder if they've had him work with a sports psych at all? He just really seemed to lose his "mojo", and he didn't play all that great Sunday against Northern Arizona, either. Need him to get back on track. He's got a significant role to play.

Jon Jon, in my opinion, has struggled being a starter/replacement for Pearson. I am hoping...really hoping...that when he's eligible, Applewhite will be able to step in as a starter, get us at least 10 points/5 rebounds a game, and then allow Jon Jon to come off the bench.

If either one of them plays a better game, then this one might have really gone down to the wire.

Mosely did make a few freshman mistakes, but all in all he did a better job than I thought he would going against that VCU pressure. He should certainly get better as the next few weeks play out.

If we stay healthy, and if Applewhite can truly contribute at a meaningful level, then I think we'll be just fine when MAC play starts. As others have said, we may not have a glitzy a record at the end, but this team may be able to win the MAC championship game.

(11-18-2014 09:29 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  Kansas didnt help because we played like 2 other top 150 teams... Our rpi was so good because of win percentage. The 20 point tilt in EMU and the NIU loss away are what demolished our chances.

9 point loss doesnt grant much attention, but a 30 point shalacking would when you stack up Toledo (a possible bubble) v. a 4-8 seed. The anouncers love us. JD threw some down. Oregon is a game I would like to win to keep votes in the top 25.

Oh, I certainly agree that a 9 point loss is much better than even a 20 point blowout loss...I was thrilled we stayed within 14! And I also agree that the bad losses we had in MAC play really hurt. But, I also don't think a 9 point loss to VCU will take us past being a bubble team. Oregon won't be an easy game...obviously Duke could be trouble...even at Oakland will be a tough game (that team usually plays pretty well at home). I think it's quite possible that we enter MAC play just a few games over .500, but I still believe that the difference between last season and this one is that this time, the team won't peak so soon and instead will steadily improve. At least that's my hope!

Toledo only let it get away from them in the last 3 minutes of the game; otherwise they gave a very good account of themselves. This team has potential.

Games like this will be a big, big help if the Rockets make it to the NCAA this year, but don't anyone fool themselves into thinking that playing and losing to ranked teams is going to help UT or any MAC team get an at-large bid----it just isn't going to happen.

As I pointed out several times every season, there is a serious Catch-22 Rule regarding a MAC at-large bid that has been in effect for some time now; to wit
(with apologies to Joseph Heller):

In order for a MAC team to get an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, that team must lose a tournament game,

BUT....

Any team that loses a game in the MAC tournament is automatically disqualified from receiving an at-large NCAA bid

We need to wait a few weeks to determine if there is any significance to the game against VCU. Rankings in the first week of the season are based upon what? Lets see how this VCU team does with the current roster. VCU certainly was seriously limited on offense tonight with three players doing nearly all of the scoring. They might or might not be a ranked team at the end of the season and therefore the game might or might not make any difference in evaluating the competitive level of the Rockets.

(11-18-2014 09:29 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  Kansas didnt help because we played like 2 other top 150 teams... Our rpi was so good because of win percentage. The 20 point tilt in EMU and the NIU loss away are what demolished our chances.

9 point loss doesnt grant much attention, but a 30 point shalacking would when you stack up Toledo (a possible bubble) v. a 4-8 seed. The anouncers love us. JD threw some down. Oregon is a game I would like to win to keep votes in the top 25.

Based upon what I see from the earliest games Oregon should be a game which could be won. They are not a tall team and are playing three freshman in their 8-9 player rotation. They beat Detroit by 17 at home. So IMO Oregon is probably another decent team but not one that should be over matched against the Rockets.

oregon is pretty good, but probably down a bit from last year. a good matchup for us they are athletic but not real big and kinda young. i think the vcu- if all the travel doesn't wear on us- will help on friday.

jonjon seems to have a stinker every four or five games, but i wouldn't write him off. thought drummond didn't have a lot of energy and that hurt us. some pretty weak calls down the stretch. i don't think we lost the game due to refs, but they gave vcu an edge. i don't think i've ever seen nathan boothe called for a hard foul. it seems every call against him is questionable. he plays perfect fundamental d, and the refs seem to anticipate him fouling and can't help but blow the whistle.

We played 9 guys in the game. My guess is that this is the "real" rotation until at least the end of the semester. Interestiing that Aubrey Williams is part of this group. Kurt Hall and Aparicio are not among the 9 that played. Mosley looks like he will be a contributor as a true freshman.