<a href='http://www.cleveland.com/sports/college/index_story.ssf?/sports/college/more/mac_capsules.html' target='_blank'>http://www.cleveland.com/sports/college/in...c_capsules.html</a>
I am a little suprised at how low the Flashes are picked based on what returns. Behind Akron and Marshall. No way. I would have picked them 3rd behind OU and MUr.
Again, why is Buffalo in the conference? Put BG in the East where the belong and say goodbye to the Bulls! KSU/ BUGS has been a great b-ball rivalry and needs a home and home.
Toledo only sixth? EMU picked to finish
third?!? This guy must be
...
Back to the top. This got buried under the MUrMUg crap.
The guy obviously has no idea what he's doing on this beat. His request to go to the Lifestyle section must have fallen through.
The Kent prediction aside, stupid as it is, it's the other predictions that are more laughable.
I can see how a reasonable person could pick OU, and Ball St. is a no-brainer. Other than that, you could probably flip-flop his choices top to bottom and be a lot closer.
Akron? 5-13 Akron added such a stud they are now going to threaten for the East title?
Toledo 6th? They lost one poisonous player from last year' 11-7 MACC semi-final team.
I could go on, but at least it's good to know that here is a paper to be ignored for their college basketball coverage. Cleveland just ain't a CBB town. :rolleyes:
<!--EDIT|axeme|Nov 14 2002, 08:45 AM-->
MY GOD I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO BASKETBALL!!
You know, it's not that I care any less about our basketball team (for any that don't know already, I'm a Marshall fan), but the games tend to be a little bit (but only a little) easier to watch sometimes, because my expectations aren't nearly as high for our basketball team. That's especially going to be the case this year, as I think our team is going to be fun to watch, but they're going to have some serious ups and downs.
Some of my observations from the one exhibition I've watched so far (for anyone who might actually care about an expected middle-of-the-road MAC team):
Even with the loss of Tamar Slay (who I felt hurt the team more than helped it last year), I believe that Marshall has one of the most talented teams to be here in years. Unfortunately, the vast majority of that talent is also extremely raw, and will play at times with little discipline with regards to decision making. No doubt, they'll be frustrating to watch at times because of this, but I'm a bit more understanding than the average person, so I expect this and it should make it a little easier to bear.
After Blackshear and Wright (who I believe is much better than many people give him credit for), the talent level on the team seems to drop off slightly to a plateau that encompasses most of what's left. Hopefully, this means that White will actually play more players this year and get some of this talent the time it needs to properly develop.
One of the most likely players in that second tier to break out and jump up to the first tier is newcomer Marvin Black. He is, I believe, a juco transfer, and he seems to have a very solid basketball sense about him. He demonstrated the ability to slash and get to the hole, plus showed that he had very good court vision dishing off to Armpalu in the lane for wide open shots on multiple occasions. Unfortunately, he appears to be set to play the 4 spot, even though he would be best described as a small forward.
Patton, Marshall's local recruit out of an area high school, is going to be very good across his career. He's another with very good instincts, and should develop very nicely. He's ready to step in and help the team instantly. At about 6-10 or so, I've likened him to a taller, slightly slower version of Tamar Slay, or possibly a solidly more athletic (particularly once he puts on some more weight and can hold his own underneath) version of JR VanHoose. Once he develops a bit, he will give teams fits with matchups...much more so than Slay did, as Slay seemed afraid to post up underneath. I already sense that this won't be a problem for Patton.
Blackshear is going to continue to put up a multitude of 25 footers game after game, and he will hit a considerable amount of them. If he learns (1) to drive to the basket more often, and (2) to dish to his teammates, he will become a much more dangerous threat than he already is.
Finally, with White looking to employ full court pressure throughout much of the year, and looking to run a very up tempo game, he needs his players to play with a whole lot more aggression on defense than they showed in their one outing so far. Hopefully, that's just a side effect of the fact that it was the first exhibition, and that energy will pick up.
One thing is for sure. It's a good thing I'm a huge fan of rollercoasters. It's going to make this season a whole lot easier to take. :)
EdM
Thanks for the post EdM! I like to see what the other teams are up.
You always had informative sutff to contribute during hoops last year on the SO board and we had some good-for-a-few-laughs exchanges. (goldflash)
We played last night--story below:
[quote]Men's Basketball Cruises Past Czech Select, 82-52 In Exhibition
November 13, 2002
KENT, Ohio