A great win! For overall standings, NIU is off to a good start but the only really good team they played beat them pretty handily. They have not played a schedule anywhere close to UT. UT only plays NIU once, which is a shame, and its at their place where they might get 200 fans instead of our usual 3,000 +. Is that because of the cross over game with BG?
(This post was last modified: 12-09-2022 07:39 AM by stpeterocketfan.)
(12-09-2022 07:38 AM)stpeterocketfan Wrote: A great win! For overall standings, NIU is off to a good start but the only really good team they played beat them pretty handily. They have not played a schedule anywhere close to UT. UT only plays NIU once, which is a shame, and its at their place where they might get 200 fans instead of our usual 3,000 +. Is that because of the cross over game with BG?
There are no divisions in basketball anymore, so for an 18 game season, you play 7 teams twice and 4 teams once. This year, UT plays NIU, CMU, Buffalo and Ohio only once.
Upon further reflection after the initial celebration, I have a couple of thoughts. First, Wiard and Garcia were the principal offensive forces early in the game. But in the last 5:56 crucial minutes all of the final 11 points for the rockets were scored by Goss and Mikonowicz. Goss scored 7 consecutive points and Sammi got the last four in the final 13 seconds of the game. I had to listen to the game without access to video. My second thought regards Mikonowicz on defense. My impression from the audio feed is that she was defending against Kiser, Michigan's 6-3 post player who averages 20 points/game. Kiser is 5 inches taller than Sammi! She held Kiser to 15 points and they had similar rebounding numbers (Sammi 7, Kiser 8). IMO that was another significant contributor to the win.
(12-09-2022 09:03 AM)kazoorocket43 Wrote: Upon further reflection after the initial celebration, I have a couple of thoughts. First, Wiard and Garcia were the principal offensive forces early in the game. But in the last 5:56 crucial minutes all of the final 11 points for the rockets were scored by Goss and Mikonowicz. Goss scored 7 consecutive points and Sammi got the last four in the final 13 seconds of the game. I had to listen to the game without access to video. My second thought regards Mikonowicz on defense. My impression from the audio feed is that she was defending against Kiser, Michigan's 6-3 post player who averages 20 points/game. Kiser is 5 inches taller than Sammi! She held Kiser to 15 points and they had similar rebounding numbers (Sammi 7, Kiser 8). IMO that was another significant contributor to the win.
I need to watch the game again, but they definitely started the game with Sammi on Kiser, but because UM plays much of the game with 2 or 3 bigs, UT switched up and threw all different bodies at her, including Cook, Garcia, Brewer and even Goss I think. Wiard got stuck on one of their bigs a couple times.
I agree that Sammi had a huge game on both ends. Interestingly, she was +15 for the game - by far the best Rocket by that metric. Jansen was incredibly +9 in only 7 minutes of play.
Goss too was very big on the offensive end. I think, honestly, UM kinda thought they could ignore her and she used that to advantage, getting wide open several times on back cuts.
Q had an understatedly good game too. Didn't score a lot, but didn't need to, so she didn't force anything. But she had 6 boards and played some great D, getting 4 steals.
(12-09-2022 10:29 AM)DetroitRocket Wrote: Great win. If we could have beaten undefeated Penn State, and we should have, we would be maybe looking at top 25 now.
Except I think we’re the last team PSU beat. Still would help a lot .
Rockets move from 69 to 55 in the NET Rankings after the win. UM only drops from 12 to 19.
Disappointing that is as far up as they moved, using this mysterious formula the NCAA won't publish. Unfortunately, that's the last opportunity for a good win in OOC play. Some MAC teams still in the top 100 - BG 63, Ball St 94, NIU 98, so need to beat them and hope they continue winning otherwise. Need to be in the top 40 to have a chance at an at-large bid I think.
(12-09-2022 01:26 PM)northcoastRocket Wrote: Rockets move from 69 to 55 in the NET Rankings after the win. UM only drops from 12 to 19.
Disappointing that is as far up as they moved, using this mysterious formula the NCAA won't publish. Unfortunately, that's the last opportunity for a good win in OOC play. Some MAC teams still in the top 100 - BG 63, Ball St 94, NIU 98, so need to beat them and hope they continue winning otherwise. Need to be in the top 40 to have a chance at an at-large bid I think.
NCAA committee looks at several computer rankings, the most important thing is quality wins and this is a big one, especially if Michigan has a good big10 season
Great win and probably TC's best game management in light of being totally undersized. She had people in the right place at the right time. Our depth is a great asset for sure. If we had just one true big we would be easy a top 25 team. We miss Hannah badly, especially in a game like that where their bigs were talented.
If UM had Q and Sophie they would be a different team for sure. Hope we can work on beating the double team out front as it really kept us out of our offense for a while.
That game will pay BIG dividends throughout this year. Confidence has got to be solid from here on out, especially on the road!!
Go ROCKETS!!!
Rockets lead the nation (or are close) with 14 straight true road wins. Neutral took a loss to PSU, and obviously lost in Cleveland last season. For a team with such great home support... we aren't leaning on that to get to 20+ wins. Remarkable. I'd even go as far to say that our away contingent leads to better crowds for US vs. most in the Midwest. A tourney site within 200 miles would love the Rockets in their bracket!
Notre Dame, Columbus, Ann Arbor, Lansing, Lexington, West Lafayette, Bloomington, etc.
