(02-17-2018 05:21 PM)Luckeyone Wrote:  

(02-17-2018 05:16 PM)TheWoodenNickle Wrote:  

(02-17-2018 05:06 PM)TheWoodenNickle Wrote:  Murphyball sucks at rebounding.

I looked up the stats. EMU is dead last in the MAC at defensive rebounding. Not good.

Doesnt matter, we have the best Defense :-)

Yep, still the best in the conference. Hope you didn't put your money where your mouth was on that prediction of yours :-)

(02-17-2018 06:59 PM)RamyEMU Wrote:  

(02-17-2018 06:46 PM)emu steve Wrote:  

(02-17-2018 06:41 PM)FrankAnderson Wrote:  WMU just lost at NIU, bringing them down to 7-7 with us and BGSU and Kent.

Believe it or not, we are one game behind 4th place. And with Miami losing we have a game of cushion plus a tiebreaker.

Frank, we are in a 4-way tie for 4th overall.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/standings

Too early to start trying to figure out the tie breakers? Kent St looks like they can run the table on their remaining games. I would rank from easiest to toughest:

Kent St (@ Ohio, vs Bowling Green, vs Miami, @ Akron)
WMU (vs CMU, @ ball St, vs EMU, @ CMU)
Bowling Green (vs Akron, @ Kent St, @ Ohio, vs Buffalo)
EMU (vs Toledo, vs N Illinois, @ WMU, @ Toledo)

You never know though...

I would also add that Buffalo, Toledo, and Ball St leading the league seems pretty predictable ftp. The non conference results.

We definitely have the toughest remaining schedule.

(02-17-2018 06:46 PM)TheWoodenNickle Wrote:  

(02-17-2018 06:43 PM)RamyEMU Wrote:  

(02-17-2018 06:36 PM)emu79 Wrote:  

(02-17-2018 06:30 PM)FrankAnderson Wrote:  SIX straight against CMU. Despite everything else this season that is something to be proud of.

Hard to believe CMU, with such a SUPERIOR coach, could collapse against Eastern... Weird.

This Murphy continues to own Keno

As much complaining as we have done against Murphy, Ialways thought he was better than Montgomery at N Illinois. Now I think I would add Keno to the list as well.

We all know Bob W’s opinion on Keno. But who was the one who used to come on this forum to criticize EMU for taking Murphy over Montgomery? Was that Bob too?

Murphy needs to make a deep run (finals) in the tournament. He's never done that. The time is now.

I am still seeing EMU finish 8-10 or 9-9. Neither of these wins this week gave me too much confidence in the team. But I do enjoy revelling in the fact that they are at .500 despite everything, and wondering if the possibilities as you are!

We gotta take care of business at home and find a way to knock off WMU in KZoo. 10-8 should get us a bye.

Very impressed with the resiliency of these kids. We were 3-6 and could've just rolled over and stopped trying. Instead, we've won 4 of our last 5, with the only L being in overtime. It would be awesome to see these kids finish strong and get that bye.

I think Keno is a pompous ass and he mails it in with regard to recruiting but I thought he had a very good game plan. CMU might be the least talented team in the MAC. The zone confused us and offensively they went to the high to low post early and when we tightened up they threw the ball out for the step in threes.

When we dialed up the hustle late in the game it was obvious that the game was a talent mismatch. It was a great win to be sure.

McAdoo made a genuine contribution today. I just wish that Murphy would ease up on his habit of pulling guys immediately when they make a mistake. I like discipline as much as anyone but young guys cannot play scared to make a mistake. Groce's best game was his first start, he attacked the basket and played with reckless abandon as I presume the start gave him confidence. Now he, Ellison, McAdoo and Nobles are tentative much of the time when we need a whole lot more aggression and hustle. The only way to never make a mistake is to do not do anything.

And we won despite going 3 for 20 from 3 point range this team needs a consistent outside threat next year

(02-17-2018 07:44 PM)emu79 Wrote:  And we won despite going 3 for 20 from 3 point range this team needs a consistent outside threat next year

79 that is an issue to be sure. The problem is that after the Major programs get done recruiting all that is left of the three point shooters are BG's Fox, Frye and CMU's Kozinski to name a few. They are like myself years ago, good shooting, slow and unathletic white guys who are unable to play Murphy's zone to his expectations. It is what it is.

i'm late to the party here, but nice win!! that was a great second half. i agree with all of you who voiced appreciation for the team not giving up on the season.

(02-17-2018 07:44 PM)emu79 Wrote:  And we won despite going 3 for 20 from 3 point range this team needs a consistent outside threat next year

I keep getting on my soapbox about shooting. It's like hitting in baseball. If you don't do it, you don't win...

I get upset about what I can call 'Murphy Derangement Syndrome (MDS)' which blames Murphy for everything.

We had 3 players who combined Saturday for 1 for 15 behind the arc yesterday. CMU shot the ball very well from behind the arc. Our treys were not desperation shots as if we trailed and tried to get back into the game. Team was ice cold all game long. Big shout out to McAdoo for saving us. He took 4 shots and got us 6 points. That's the same as JT4 taking 4 shots and making 3 (4 shots, 6 points).

CMU was 11 for 26 and 12/13 FTs. With that shooting CMU should have blown us out of the gym.

Sorry, but I can't blame a coach when a team shoots 15% behind the arc. The open looks were there... Perimeter players should be able to make 25 - 35% of their treys. We shot FTs well. Again, FTs is 100% on the players. There is no defense. No nothing on FTs. Either the player makes them or he doesn't. The other team does not 'defend' the FT.

In many respects, I found the win very, very satisfying as we just killed them inside.

If we shot 25% behind the arc, we'd won going away... We'd all been going out for donuts half way through the 2nd half.

Despite what is posted here hundreds and hundreds of times, this is a very good team which legitimately has shooting problems. We have players like Minnie, Nobles, maybe Bond, maybe Jackson, etc. who should be able to consistently hit 25 - 30% of their treys.

If we put up 20 treys and make 6 or 7, we win most of our games... This team has enough points in the paint and defense to beat most MAC teams.

Sometimes posters really confuse me. I believe a poster was saying how bad we are at defensive rebounding, YET the CONFERENCE stats do NOT bear that out.

We get 35.4 defensive rebounds per game, which is the median for the conference. No story here.

https://static.getsomemaction.com/custom...nfonly.htm

Any video highlights with Bond?

(02-18-2018 06:44 AM)emu79 Wrote:  Any video highlights with Bond?

https://twitter.com/EMUHoops/status/965047399587688449

Bond's dunk shook the shot clock yesterday.

(02-18-2018 02:49 AM)emu steve Wrote:  Sometimes posters really confuse me. I believe a poster was saying how bad we are at defensive rebounding, YET the CONFERENCE stats do NOT bear that out.

We get 35.4 defensive rebounds per game, which is the median for the conference. No story here.

https://static.getsomemaction.com/custom...nfonly.htm

Yep. The story is, and will continue to be, our lack of offense. It's always "something" on that end of the floor. We could be hitting our shots, but at the same time turning the ball over at an alarming rate. Or we could be taking care of the ball and just missing shots. Or we do both, yet we can't make a free throw when the game is on the line.

It's why I find the complaints about the zone to be baffling. Even when we have poor defensive games, by our standards, we are still around league average in points allowed and opposing FG%. Do we get lazy and undisciplined at times? Yes. But more often than not we are the class of the MAC defensively. Elijah Minnie is among the conference leaders in both steals and blocks...can you say, MAC DPOY candidate?

I agree with you, Steve, that there are times where we execute an offense, but just can't make shots (sounds like yesterday was a case of that). However, Murphy's lack of a system is, more often than not, the culprit of our failures. I say it a lot, but it kills me that we can't get Thompson easier looks. He's largely been wasted this year with being double teamed in the post any time he catches it.

As we both have said, it's pretty easy to see why we are .500. Great defense, plus lousy offense, equals "middle of the road". If we can find a way to hit shots and run some kind of offense efficiently, I think we will finish strong. If not, it will likely be another 9-9 or 8-10 finish with us hosting our 6th straight MAC tourney first round game.

I agree with you Sam, but I want to add one caveat:

We've lost a couple games (NFU, BG1, BG2) because of missed FTs. Bond saved us vs. Miami with his block but the other 3 did not go our way.

One could argue, easily, that both MBB (and EMU FB) are say 5 points from having very good seasons (think if we made the PAT at Army and a FG vs. WMU).

Take two BG losses and flip them to wins and we are 9 - 5 in conference. Add the NFU game and we could be 19 - 8.

The difference for both sports between 'average' and very good isn't much. Simply a few plays which didn't go our way.

(02-18-2018 02:49 AM)emu steve Wrote:  Sometimes posters really confuse me. I believe a poster was saying how bad we are at defensive rebounding, YET the CONFERENCE stats do NOT bear that out.

We get 35.4 defensive rebounds per game, which is the median for the conference. No story here.

https://static.getsomemaction.com/custom...nfonly.htm

Scroll down to defensive rebounds %. Dead last.

(02-18-2018 09:00 AM)TheWoodenNickle Wrote:  

(02-18-2018 02:49 AM)emu steve Wrote:  Sometimes posters really confuse me. I believe a poster was saying how bad we are at defensive rebounding, YET the CONFERENCE stats do NOT bear that out.

We get 35.4 defensive rebounds per game, which is the median for the conference. No story here.

https://static.getsomemaction.com/custom...nfonly.htm

Scroll down to defensive rebounds %. Dead last.

Yeah, there are multiple defensive rebounding statistics.

Looks like you and I found different ones. The aggregate (offense and defense) is a big wash. We are minus 1 rebound per game. Most MAC teams are +/- 1 rebound.

I only see 4 teams which are very good (UB and BSU) or bad (Akron and Ohio). My view on data has always been very small differences aren't 'significant'.


REBOUNDING MARGIN G Team Avg. Opponent Avg. Margin
1. Buffalo 14 543 38.8 496 35.4 +3.4
2. Ball State 14 548 39.1 514 36.7 +2.4
3. Toledo 14 517 36.9 497 35.5 +1.4
4. Bowling Green 14 512 36.6 493 35.2 +1.4
5. Miami 14 495 35.4 477 34.1 +1.3
6. Western Michigan 14 479 34.2 475 33.9 +0.3
7. Central Michigan 14 500 35.7 500 35.7 +0.0
8. Kent State 14 483 34.5 484 34.6 -0.1
9. Eastern Michigan 14 482 34.4 496 35.4 -1.0
Northern Illinois 14 449 32.1 463 33.1 -1.0
11. Akron 14 454 32.4 509 36.4 -3.9
12. Ohio 14 485 34.6 543 38.8 -4.1

(02-18-2018 08:34 AM)emu steve Wrote:  

(02-18-2018 06:44 AM)emu79 Wrote:  Any video highlights with Bond?

https://twitter.com/EMUHoops/status/965047399587688449

Bond's dunk shook the shot clock yesterday.

Thanks

(02-18-2018 08:58 AM)emu steve Wrote:  I agree with you Sam, but I want to add one caveat:

We've lost a couple games (NFU, BG1, BG2) because of missed FTs. Bond saved us vs. Miami with his block but the other 3 did not go our way.

One could argue, easily, that both MBB (and EMU FB) are say 5 points from having very good seasons (think if we made the PAT at Army and a FG vs. WMU).

Take two BG losses and flip them to wins and we are 9 - 5 in conference. Add the NFU game and we could be 19 - 8.

The difference for both sports between 'average' and very good isn't much. Simply a few plays which didn't go our way.

True, but in the case of the last BG game, it was largely due to us going completely stagnant on offense and scoring 20 points in the 2nd half. The missed free throws hurt, but they wouldn't have mattered if our offense didn't fail us in crunch time.

It almost haunted us in the Miami game as well. Thankfully, Tim Bond saved us.

Dear Friends,
The most important point to me, is that we have now beaten Central six straight, and I hope the streak continues. All the complaining we do about Eastern's scheduling of out of conference games is nothing compared to Central's very weak scheduling. That is how Keno tries to get to the twenty win total every year, because his teams over-all do not have much talent.