UT turns it over

Vikings miss and UT rebounds

Then Boothe is fouled and he will be at the line

Free throws being shot. Hard to believe

Only knock on the guys this game is free throw shooting. Gotta be 50%. This will bite us down the road.

Boothe makes both free throws, then the Vikings answer with a basket.

74-62 UT

Mosley fouled and he will be at the line. 1:27 left

First one good

Second one good

76-62 Rockets

CSU misses and UT rebounds

UT misses and CSU rebounds

Vikings get a 3 and it's 76-65

Rockets win it 76-65

Good win after the long trip. Gotta be jet lag.

Decent win. This Cleveland State team would finish in the bottom half of the MAC. Rockets seemed to turn down the intensity halfway into the second half and then the refs decided to make things interesting. Still, nice games for Garber and Lauf off the bench. Sanford is struggling; would like to see him get his stroke back.

Listening to the postgame: Coach Kowalczyk says he was disappointed and he thinks that the team took a step backwards tonight.

Coasted to a win without much resistance from an undermanned Cleveland State team. Not a ton of energy from our Rockets but jet-lag and finals might be a factor.

(12-02-2015 09:04 PM)emanoh Wrote:  Only knock on the guys this game is free throw shooting. Gotta be 50%. This will bite us down the road.

72.2%

(12-02-2015 09:16 PM)San Giuseppe Jato Rocket Wrote:  Coasted to a win without much resistance from an undermanned Cleveland State team. Not a ton of energy from our Rockets but jet-lag and finals might be a factor.

Whenever a nhl or nba team comes back from a western road trip it's not uncommon to see a rough performance that leads to a loss.

I'd compare coming back from Alaska to that. Just had to tough an ugly one out.

(12-02-2015 09:16 PM)San Giuseppe Jato Rocket Wrote:  Coasted to a win without much resistance from an undermanned Cleveland State team. Not a ton of energy from our Rockets but jet-lag and finals might be a factor.

Still, subs played many minutes, 19 assists on 22 FGs and unbelievable for a Kowalczyk team, 3 shot clock violations in four trips down the court for CSU during one stretch of the second half. Some of that was a function of CSU's dragging out possessions but mixing a trapping zone and man-to-man with a matchup zone at times gives the appearance that the team may have practiced defense at some point. There was really never any drama and the lead never got south of double figures after halftime.

The game slowed to a crawl in the second half thanks to the overinvolved officials. We may not have played great, but we were never challenged.

Here's a link to the game story on the UT site. Also with comments from Coach Kowalczyk (who didn't seem any happier in those comments than he did in his postgame comments to Mark Beier).; Comments from some players too.

http://www.utrockets.com/news/2015/12/2/...ath=mbball

I saw the Rockets for the first time last night. In spite of the some negatives pointed out already and the team being pretty young, I really like what we have for a MBB team.

Boothe and Garber are both doing a nice job. Boothe is maturing nicely and will be a force underneath and from the floor. He has a nice shot. Garber has made nice improvement from last year. He is making his shots, handling the ball well, and occupying space inside the paint well. All are doing a nice job on the boards. Both bigs are hitting their free throws. That is important.

This team is quick. They play well together as a team well. They are unselfish, while not hesitating to take the shot they are always looking for an open team mate. They pass the ball well. This team seems to fly to the ball. Cleveland State was beside themselves, and they have good guard play. Mosely, Sanford, and Rogers did a nice job handling the ball.

At times it seemed like the team fell asleep on defense giving up easy buckets, then there was the 3 Cleveland State possessions in a row that resulted in shot clock violations. The defense shut them down. We need more of that, but wow. I've not seen that before.

The freshman are really capable ball players. Navigato and Sanford start because they belong there. Rogers does a nice job off the bench, and Adway looks raw but when he develops he will be lights out. I look forward to seeing him with a year of development under his belt. This guy could be worth the price of admission. I look for Jon Jon to have a great year. Whatever was going on with last years team's "head case deal" seems to be over with. This team looks like a team from my perspective, as opposed to what we had last year.

Coach K is doing a nice job. I am glad I bought season tickets. I was questioned whether I should knowing I can't get to all the games. I am glad I did. This will be a fun team to watch develop into a really good team by year end. They're already pretty good.

Go Rockets!

Rambling thoughts: Good start to the season, that's for sure. Couple good tests coming up in Green Bay (away) & Oakland (home). Defense was better. That zone was pretty effective. Good team chemistry--maybe the best under Coach K so far? Navigato is a solid freshman who does a lot of the "little" things already. Sanford can shoot--just having a tough stretch lately. Rogers isn't necessarily a scoring threat, but he has handled the ball with confidence. Garber had a couple tough rebounds last noight--the kind that last season he would have lost. Boothe & Jon Jon--well, what can you say? I do think Jon Jon's D has improved.

At one point Adway left the game and he and Coach K were face to face in an "animated" discussion. After getting "The Look" Adway sat down. A moment later something happened on the floor and K turned to Adway, pointed to whatever happened and said " THAT'S why!" Would love to know what it was about but the incident came to mind when he talked about teaching moments in a winning game. He also had a brief moment with Boothe where neither seemed happy with the other. Glad to know Coach K doesn't see this as a rebuilding year.