Couple random thoughts about last nights game.
We are extremely fortunate to have a walk on like Dan Loney. He played great.
Stainbrook was the man. Logged a ton of minutes, played hard, and made UW-Milw pay for single coverage. Excellent job by the big fella. I liked his post game interview as well. If there were any teams in the MAC wondering if they could beat WMU without doubling Stainbrook, they will probably change their minds after watching last nights tape. He jawed a little at the officials but did it in a much more tactful way. Kudos to him for working on that part of his game.
DB, you mentioned the other day that Richie will start utilizing his handles and create space (I apologize if I butchered the exact quote). At the time, I thought you were using the "create space" term a little loosely. When someone uses that term, I think of Joe Reitz or David Kool who used their body to create space because they were playing more athletic and bigger competition. However, after watching Richie last night, its fairly evident that 1. he can handle the rock, and 2. he creates his own space by turning the corner on his defender extremely well. I would stand by my comment about him being a more of a scorer than a pure shooter at this point. However, his 3 ball from top of the key looked good. I'll concede that his low percentage could be due to freshman jitters and/or having to launch in order to play catch up earlier in the season when we were losing games. Either way, he isn't afraid and that is one of his best attributes.
The best part about our two freshman is their aggressiveness. Neither one looks scared out there. They might make a mistake or two, but I'd rather have them aggressive than tentative. I expect both of them will have excellent careers at WMU.
With the incoming freshman class and our current underclassmen, I am confident that WMU will continue its winning ways in the next few years.
Excellent win by a gutsy Bronco squad last night. I'm glad I was there to witness it rather than staying at home to watch the 1st half of the pathetic Sugar bowl.
Thats a pretty good assessment of Stainbrook and the 2 freshman from last nite. still wish we could get in a better offensive rhythm. nice win broncos!
Cannot discount the play of D Ward, the lone senior out there last night. I felt like he was very determined to play his best ball last night, and help all the new guys stay comfortable.
His ball handling, along with AR was outstanding, plus he gave up the 3 to take the ball to the hoop.
Since we have gotten back home our seniors and juniors also have really stepped up and played solid Bronco basketball.
They need to all keep it up as we head into MAC play.
Go hard Broncos.
I will comment based upon your thread's title, then read your post.
I remember when, not so long ago, that beating a team like UWM was expected, especially at home. It would not be considered a "big" win.
Winning tournaments (pre-conference) was big...beating Arizona State in Arizona was big.
Now, I will read your thread and become informed...
thanks for posting!
okay I read your post...good assessment.
Me personally, I think we are winning due to lack of depth...sounds a$$ backwards, doesn't it? Some have blamed our success on our weakness (referring to Hawkins' coaching style and mass substitutions). I hate to agree b/c I believe we have a great coach...however, I like how our current roster does not afford Hawkins the luxury of making mass substitutions and disrupting a player's flow for the game.
just my $.02
I don't think your reasoning is backwards. Honestly, ever since our NCAA appearance in 2004, it has been really really tough to differentiate the talent level between 4-12 guys. For example, it's been fairly easy to determine our top 3 players every year and we expect them to play well. Players 4-12, we've historically had no idea how they will perform. Any given year, you can look at those players and label them (shooter, defender, passer, rebounder, etc) and hawk freely subbed them in or out depending on the game flow and particular needs the Broncos had at that moment. Instead of just going with an 8 man rotation, he went with 9 or 10 man rotations. This meant that a guy like D Ward was constantly looking over his shoulder his first two years. We didn't see Ward develop until last year when he knew he wouldn't be yanked after a mistake. It's really tough for your role players to shine or prove their worth when games are managed with a 9 or 10 man rotation.
One of the reasons we did so well last year was because hawk shortened the bench. We knew our 6th man, we knew wolf was coming in as our 7th man, and we knew conteh was our 8th man. (I refuse to use the name of our 6th man purely because I don't want to acknowledge his existence at another school)
The good news about our team this year is that we are really deep and have been able to absorb our injuries. The bad news is that we are really deep this year and I am afraid that the bench conundrum will present itself again when Flen and Mikey return, not to mention Pokely.
And to make myself clear, I don't blame hawk for his substitution patterns. The players need to outperform their teammates in practice in order to make their playing time a "no brainer."
Good talk Nacho. Yes, my name is Ed. If you would have asked me, I would have given you that info. fyi-if I really cared about being anonymous, I wouldn't have used an obvious screen name.
I'd much rather you call me by my first name than "idiot".
(01-04-2012 07:57 PM)wmutkelaw Wrote: [ -> ]I will comment based upon your thread's title, then read your post.
I remember when, not so long ago, that beating a team like UWM was expected, especially at home. It would not be considered a "big" win.
Winning tournaments (pre-conference) was big...beating Arizona State in Arizona was big.
Now, I will read your thread and become informed...
thanks for posting!
What do you mean by a "team like UWM" they are the defending regular season champs from the Horizon League, they are a good team. To me this is a big win because of how many players were injured and not playing as anything else.
With Hawkins the number of players in the game rotation gets tightened as the year progresses.
Also Hawkins has always been more forgiving of an offensive error than a lapse on defense.
What has not been mentioned anywhere is that in the Milwaukee game, WMU basically shut own their opponents top 3 leading scorers. Williams, Allen and Haarsma shot a combined 4 of 19 and were kept off the FT line also. Williams was noticeably very frustrated, especially after he got a fat lip in the second half.
Stainbrook scored for WMU but Bronco defense won the game.
(01-05-2012 11:17 AM)okgc Wrote: [ -> ]With Hawkins the number of players in the game rotation gets tightened as the year progresses.
Also Hawkins has always been more forgiving of an offensive error than a lapse on defense.
What has not been mentioned anywhere I have seen is in the Milwaukee game, WMU basically shut own their opponents top 3 leading scorers. Williams, Allen and Haarsma shot a combined 4 of 19 and were kept off the FT line also. Williams was noticeably very frustrated, especially after he got a fat lip in the second half.
Stainbrook scored for WMU but Bronco defense won the game.
Yup. I agree as well
Quote:UWM head coach Rob Jeter said. "I think the entire game we never felt real comfortable with anything we were doing. We were just searching. Then we became really frustrated with our inability to do anything inside on both ends of the floor."
(01-05-2012 10:45 AM)Tommyboy Wrote: [ -> ] (01-04-2012 07:57 PM)wmutkelaw Wrote: [ -> ]I will comment based upon your thread's title, then read your post.
I remember when, not so long ago, that beating a team like UWM was expected, especially at home. It would not be considered a "big" win.
Winning tournaments (pre-conference) was big...beating Arizona State in Arizona was big.
Now, I will read your thread and become informed...
thanks for posting!
What do you mean by a "team like UWM" they are the defending regular season champs from the Horizon League, they are a good team. To me this is a big win because of how many players were injured and not playing as anything else.
"mean"...I guess I will better state what I "mean."
Not too many years ago we were basically un-beatable at home. It did not really matter who the opponent was. I believe a ranked SDSU (San Diego, not South Dakota) team got beat by us, and others. Beating a UWM team (at home) that is from another mid-major conference should not be that big of a win. Not much bigger than beating UDM at home. Wins are wins...and I hate to say that one is bigger than another. 20+ wins should be the goal...and should be expected. I believe we need to raise our expectations.
I respect your point...it was a win over a good team. However, last years win against UWM was bigger as it was at their place...and they won the conference, last year. Remember, our team lost to Loyola (same conference as Butler and UWM and Detroit) last year, at home...that was a good loss, using Chip logic?
And last year we were not missing four of our top 8 players when we played them. I think that considering the health circumstances that YES this is a big win...............regardless. I don't think that it was meant to be our "biggest" win. I also don't think it is wrong to be optimistic when it comes to the Broncos.
Always proud to be a Bronco.
(01-05-2012 02:05 PM)acer1 Wrote: [ -> ]And last year we were not missing four of our top 8 players when we played them. I think that considering the health circumstances that YES this is a big win...............regardless. I don't think that it was meant to be our "biggest" win. I also don't think it is wrong to be optimistic when it comes to the Broncos.
Always proud to be a Bronco.
I honestly was not trying to hi-jack this thread, and turn it into an argument, like so many of the other thread turn into.
(01-05-2012 03:15 PM)wmutkelaw Wrote: [ -> ] (01-05-2012 02:05 PM)acer1 Wrote: [ -> ]And last year we were not missing four of our top 8 players when we played them. I think that considering the health circumstances that YES this is a big win...............regardless. I don't think that it was meant to be our "biggest" win. I also don't think it is wrong to be optimistic when it comes to the Broncos.
Always proud to be a Bronco.
I honestly was not trying to hi-jack this thread, and turn it into an argument, like so many of the other thread turn into.
No worries, no hijacking..
Big wins come in different forms. Beating a team like Arizona St. or Arizona is a BIG win. And beating a respectable UW-Milw team despite being shorthanded can also be a BIG win.
Either way, Go Broncos! Deliver another BIG win on saturday!
I'll decide what's a BIG win or HUGE announcement around here.
