Looking at this past year the team lead the MAC in defense I believe.
A fair number of the guys were young either sophomores or freshmen. My comments (and yes feel free to disagree)
Harris-I thought he was the most improved player this year. He has alot of raw athletic talent. He needs to work on his offensive game and his free throw shooting but if he keeps improving he could be all MAC his senior year.
Thompson-went from Mr. Clutch to Mr. Pine. His shot deserted him late in the season. Again only a sophomore so here's hoping for improvement.
Burton/Lampley-Burton didn't play hoops last year I believe and is only a sophomore so lets hope his game improves. Lampley was a major disappointment. Neither was the answer at point guard.
Sims-point wasn't his natural position, but didn't turn the ball over. Needs to have more confidence and step up and take the shot. Again
only a freshmen this past year.
Stewart-I didn't expect much its a jump from JUCO to Div I. He will need to step next year and add some bulk.
Dailey-tough year with family issues. Not a real contributor.
Janton-For the past two years I wonder why this guy is on the roster.
Had some decent games. Is he going to disappear again next year or improve?
Balkema-went downhill from the beginning of the season and lost time to Janton. Same question as Janton-is improvement likely?
Greene-benched and then started when Thompson lost his touch. Both Thompson and Greene are the same players not consistent shot production.
Darren Washington has a chance to start next year. Tenharmsel is a project and would be better to see him redshirt. Maybe the remaining recruits will be ALL WORLD-they will have to be for this team to improve next year.
On the other hand CMU had out recruited us for a long time and they are struggling as well.
Credit the Defense to coach McDowell. He is the basic Defensive Coach and for those of you who might remember, his Redford HS teams were always tough defensively.
Doubt Washington will start next season, he has a long ways to go offensively.
Look for Harris to improve.
Balkema's status????
Green's shooting percentage is anemic, dount he shot 30% from the field - SAD
Will probably sign at least one more recruit in addition to Ramsey's mysterious swingman. Could be more if there are roster moves.
EMU lead the MAC in defense not because the they played good defense it is mostly because the other teams played poorly. That is like saying the football team played good pass defense because teams could the the ball so effectively. Some stats are misleading.
Most team just played poorly against us for what ever reason but I am fairly it wasn't because of our defense. Also the MAC is just a bad conference. I saw many many wide open shots being missed by the other teams. I think it was just because they couldn't believe they where so wide open. The only true defense we had was Harris's shot blocking.
(03-11-2011 05:36 PM)emu79 Wrote: [ -> ]Looking at this past year the team lead the MAC in defense I believe.
A fair number of the guys were young either sophomores or freshmen. My comments (and yes feel free to disagree)
Harris-I thought he was the most improved player this year. He has alot of raw athletic talent. He needs to work on his offensive game and his free throw shooting but if he keeps improving he could be all MAC his senior year.
Thompson-went from Mr. Clutch to Mr. Pine. His shot deserted him late in the season. Again only a sophomore so here's hoping for improvement.
Burton/Lampley-Burton didn't play hoops last year I believe and is only a sophomore so lets hope his game improves. Lampley was a major disappointment. Neither was the answer at point guard.
Sims-point wasn't his natural position, but didn't turn the ball over. Needs to have more confidence and step up and take the shot. Again
only a freshmen this past year.
Stewart-I didn't expect much its a jump from JUCO to Div I. He will need to step next year and add some bulk.
Dailey-tough year with family issues. Not a real contributor.
Janton-For the past two years I wonder why this guy is on the roster.
Had some decent games. Is he going to disappear again next year or improve?
Balkema-went downhill from the beginning of the season and lost time to Janton. Same question as Janton-is improvement likely?
Greene-benched and then started when Thompson lost his touch. Both Thompson and Greene are the same players not consistent shot production.
Darren Washington has a chance to start next year. Tenharmsel is a project and would be better to see him redshirt. Maybe the remaining recruits will be ALL WORLD-they will have to be for this team to improve next year.
On the other hand CMU had out recruited us for a long time and they are struggling as well.
i agree with all of this. a lot of guys need to improve significantly for us to have even an equal season next year. i'm guessing 4-12 in the MAC next season. it's going to be bad.
Harris reminds me of Boo Jackson, but a bit more athletic. he could be great as a senior IF he keeps improving. improvement is not a given with any college athlete, and definitely not when coached by this staff.
Player developement is important. Players must also work hard and put forth the effort to improve.
(03-11-2011 05:54 PM)emussuperfan Wrote: [ -> ]EMU lead the MAC in defense not because the they played good defense it is mostly because the other teams played poorly. That is like saying the football team played good pass defense because teams could the the ball so effectively. Some stats are misleading.
Terrible analogy. Your baseless assumption that we lead the MAC in defense simply because every team on our schedule "played poorly" has literally no correlation to a football team having good pass D numbers because their run D is so bad. I understand your argument if it were one or two games where other teams played bad, but leading the league in defense? Maybe you should just give credit where credit is due. This was a dismal team on the offensive end, but they played effective defense and altered shots at the rim. Once is an accident, twice is a trend, but leading the league?..come on.
(03-11-2011 05:54 PM)emussuperfan Wrote: [ -> ]Most team just played poorly against us for what ever reason but I am fairly it wasn't because of our defense. Also the MAC is just a bad conference. I saw many many wide open shots being missed by the other teams. I think it was just because they couldn't believe they where so wide open. The only true defense we had was Harris's shot blocking.
This is just pessimism that reminds me of disgruntled Randy Quaid in the 2nd half of Major League 2. I don't blame you- I'm a current student and absolute die hard fan and the one game I brought my dad to was the WMU debacle on Earl Boykins day...brutal-, but you aren't seeing things objectively if you truly believe what you posted. I was extremely disappointed with the team this year and I think it's time for Ramsey to go (I understand why that may not be possible though), but I did notice at every game (save for Western) we played consistent on-ball defense for most of the game. Guys will get open shots...what matters is who is taking them. Trey Ziegler had quite a few open looks from outside in the first CMU game, but we took away his strength, which was getting to the rim. Harris, Higgins, Green, and in a few cases Bowdry, were all consistently effective on the defensive end this year, whether it was on-ball or help defense (where Harris excelled). Was it perfect? No. But to say that it was because all the teams we played against just had bad games that day? Absolutely ridiculous.
(03-11-2011 05:36 PM)emu79 Wrote: [ -> ]Looking at this past year the team lead the MAC in defense I believe.
A fair number of the guys were young either sophomores or freshmen. My comments (and yes feel free to disagree)
Harris-I thought he was the most improved player this year. He has alot of raw athletic talent. He needs to work on his offensive game and his free throw shooting but if he keeps improving he could be all MAC his senior year.
Thompson-went from Mr. Clutch to Mr. Pine. His shot deserted him late in the season. Again only a sophomore so here's hoping for improvement.
Burton/Lampley-Burton didn't play hoops last year I believe and is only a sophomore so lets hope his game improves. Lampley was a major disappointment. Neither was the answer at point guard.
Sims-point wasn't his natural position, but didn't turn the ball over. Needs to have more confidence and step up and take the shot. Again
only a freshmen this past year.
Stewart-I didn't expect much its a jump from JUCO to Div I. He will need to step next year and add some bulk.
Dailey-tough year with family issues. Not a real contributor.
Janton-For the past two years I wonder why this guy is on the roster.
Had some decent games. Is he going to disappear again next year or improve?
Balkema-went downhill from the beginning of the season and lost time to Janton. Same question as Janton-is improvement likely?
Greene-benched and then started when Thompson lost his touch. Both Thompson and Greene are the same players not consistent shot production.
Darren Washington has a chance to start next year. Tenharmsel is a project and would be better to see him redshirt. Maybe the remaining recruits will be ALL WORLD-they will have to be for this team to improve next year.
On the other hand CMU had out recruited us for a long time and they are struggling as well.
Good post. I don't see how this team will improve at all next year unless some guys make drastic leaps in production, which is unreasonable to ask for at this point. Of the 3 PGs, I thought Burton flashed the most potential. He can get to the rim with ease, but he's a terrible shooter (including FTs, which is vital if you are going to be a slashing PG). If he can fix that shot a little bit, he could be pretty good.
Harris is a guy who kept us in games with his play around the rim on the defensive end. Altered shots, blocked shots, and rebounds were huge for us. However, its an adventure any time he touches the ball on offense. He's a great athlete, but he's got a lot of work to do in terms of ball skills. Glad he's only a sophomore.
Scoring looks like it'll be a problem yet again next year, so I'd say 4-12 or 5-11 is a reasonable outlook in the MAC, and that's assuming Thompson finds his shot again. If he doesn't improve, that record could be worse.
(03-11-2011 07:32 PM)EagleSam Wrote: [ -> ] (03-11-2011 05:54 PM)emussuperfan Wrote: [ -> ]EMU lead the MAC in defense not because the they played good defense it is mostly because the other teams played poorly. That is like saying the football team played good pass defense because teams could the the ball so effectively. Some stats are misleading.
Terrible analogy. Your baseless assumption that we lead the MAC in defense simply because every team on our schedule "played poorly" has literally no correlation to a football team having good pass D numbers because their run D is so bad. I understand your argument if it were one or two games where other teams played bad, but leading the league in defense? Maybe you should just give credit where credit is due. This was a dismal team on the offensive end, but they played effective defense and altered shots at the rim. Once is an accident, twice is a trend, but leading the league?..come on.
(03-11-2011 05:54 PM)emussuperfan Wrote: [ -> ]Most team just played poorly against us for what ever reason but I am fairly it wasn't because of our defense. Also the MAC is just a bad conference. I saw many many wide open shots being missed by the other teams. I think it was just because they couldn't believe they where so wide open. The only true defense we had was Harris's shot blocking.
This is just pessimism that reminds me of disgruntled Randy Quaid in the 2nd half of Major League 2. I don't blame you- I'm a current student and absolute die hard fan and the one game I brought my dad to was the WMU debacle on Earl Boykins day...brutal-, but you aren't seeing things objectively if you truly believe what you posted. I was extremely disappointed with the team this year and I think it's time for Ramsey to go (I understand why that may not be possible though), but I did notice at every game (save for Western) we played consistent on-ball defense for most of the game. Guys will get open shots...what matters is who is taking them. Trey Ziegler had quite a few open looks from outside in the first CMU game, but we took away his strength, which was getting to the rim. Harris, Higgins, Green, and in a few cases Bowdry, were all consistently effective on the defensive end this year, whether it was on-ball or help defense (where Harris excelled). Was it perfect? No. But to say that it was because all the teams we played against just had bad games that day? Absolutely ridiculous.
Nope true to every word. If we played against any kind of good team we would have been aboslutely wipe off the floor. Our defense only look good because the teams we played where so bad and that is the truth. Just look at how many times we gave up big leads. A lot of times "this is true for most MAC games" their tops players where sitting out because of injuries, how many times did OUR top players sit out because of injuries. I can not think of any really we had no major injuries this year, some say Mat was out because of an injury but he wasn't much of a factor even when he wasn't injuried. We only looked good because we played a lot against other teams backups or bench warmers. THere is only one reason people like think we looked good on defense and that is because of B BO.
(03-11-2011 05:36 PM)emu79 Wrote: [ -> ]Looking at this past year the team lead the MAC in defense I believe.
A fair number of the guys were young either sophomores or freshmen. My comments (and yes feel free to disagree)
Harris-I thought he was the most improved player this year. He has alot of raw athletic talent. He needs to work on his offensive game and his free throw shooting but if he keeps improving he could be all MAC his senior year.
Thompson-went from Mr. Clutch to Mr. Pine. His shot deserted him late in the season. Again only a sophomore so here's hoping for improvement.
Burton/Lampley-Burton didn't play hoops last year I believe and is only a sophomore so lets hope his game improves. Lampley was a major disappointment. Neither was the answer at point guard.
Sims-point wasn't his natural position, but didn't turn the ball over. Needs to have more confidence and step up and take the shot. Again
only a freshmen this past year.
Stewart-I didn't expect much its a jump from JUCO to Div I. He will need to step next year and add some bulk.
Dailey-tough year with family issues. Not a real contributor.
Janton-For the past two years I wonder why this guy is on the roster.
Had some decent games. Is he going to disappear again next year or improve?
Balkema-went downhill from the beginning of the season and lost time to Janton. Same question as Janton-is improvement likely?
Greene-benched and then started when Thompson lost his touch. Both Thompson and Greene are the same players not consistent shot production.
Darren Washington has a chance to start next year. Tenharmsel is a project and would be better to see him redshirt. Maybe the remaining recruits will be ALL WORLD-they will have to be for this team to improve next year.
On the other hand CMU had out recruited us for a long time and they are struggling as well.
Good post.
I'm extremely optimistic about Harris. He's the type of guy that can contribute without having to run plays for him specifically. I think he makes a huge leap next year, and averages 12 pts., 8 boards, and 3 blocks per game.
Also, I would like to be the first to say that I LOVE Sims. If they move him away from PG, he will be the most improved player on the team next season. MARK MY WORDS. He's athletic and smart - that's a helluva good start for this team.
Finally, I believe that Thompson can improve enough to score 10-12 per game.
Taken together, these three players could certainly serve as the core of a semi-competitive EMU team, assuming there is also continued improvement from the rest of the roster.
I think the team plays better with Sims at the point. Lampley and Burton apparenbtly have not done the job, look at their shooting percentages and turnover ratio Defensively they haven't been able to stay in front of opposing guards.
What puzzled me is that Ramsey doesn't appear to be recruiting any PG's this spring. Looks like EMU will have to live with the 3 currently on the roster.
EMU will host MSU T'giving weekend according to sources.