Here is a look at how MAC basketball teams other than KSU are as faring through the first few weeks of the season. I'll start with some teams from the West...
The Toledo Rockets are off to a 5-0 start and becoming a fashionable early season conference favorite. UT owns a nice road win over Boston College as well as victories over Detroit, Stony Brook, Florida A&M and Florida Atlantic. With the exception of a road game in Lawrence Kansas against the Jayhawks, the Rockets play winnable games the rest of the way leading up to conference play.
The backcourt trio of Julius Brown (16.5 ppg), Rian Pearson (15.7 ppg) and Justin Drummond (15.2) is leading the way for the Rockets who average over 90 points per game. 6'9 post Nathan Boothe is also putting up big numbers for UT. The sophomore is averaging 11 points and 5 rebounds per night while 6'6 junior JD Weatherspoon leads the team with a 6 rebound per game average.
Eastern Michigan is 3-1 in real games (I refuse to count Concordia and Albion) with wins over Cleveland State, UT Arlington and Robert Morris. The Eagles still have games left against Syracuse, Purdue, Duke and UMass before conference play begins but they did give Kentucky all it could handle for a half earlier this week. 6'7 forward Karrington Ward leads EMU in scoring (16.2) and rebounding (6). 7'0 senior Da'Shonte Riley and 6'8 senior Glenn Bryant make up a formidable interior to the Eagles 2-3 zone defense. I just get the sense that it may be the same old same old for EMU after the above mentioned stretch of games takes a little wind out of their sails.
4-2 Western Michigan hosts Cornell this evening. The Broncos put together a nice 2-1 showing Hawaii including a win over New Mexico State. After that, a loss to North Dakota State has been sandwiched between wins over Alabama A&M and Oakland. 6'11 senior Shayne Whittington is averaging a double double so far this season for the Broncos and guard David Brown has been on fire scoring 22 points per night. The other double digit scorer is 6'6 sophomore Connar Tava. After tonight, the Broncos have roadies at Northwestern, Missouri and Drake so we will know more about them shortly. I just get the sense that another middle of the road finish awaits WMU.
The Ball State Cardinals are out of the gates at 2-3 and visit Cleveland State on Saturday. They have been getting nice production out of their starting five that includes 6'9 senior Majok Majok, 6'2 senior Jesse Berry and 6'4 senior Chris Bond. There are a few other recognizable names on the BSU roster so experience shouldn't be a problem. Looking at their season box score, however, depth may be a concern for 1st year coach James Whitford.
Elsewhere Central Michigan is 3-3 and Northern Illinois is 2-3 with a win over San Jose State.
(11-29-2013 02:07 PM)fallsdog Wrote: [ -> ]Here is a look at how MAC basketball teams other than KSU are as faring through the first few weeks of the season. I'll start with some teams from the West...
The Toledo Rockets are off to a 5-0 start and becoming a fashionable early season conference favorite. UT owns a nice road win over Boston College as well as victories over Detroit, Stony Brook, Florida A&M and Florida Atlantic. With the exception of a road game in Lawrence Kansas against the Jayhawks, the Rockets play winnable games the rest of the way leading up to conference play.
The backcourt trio of Julius Brown (16.5 ppg), Rian Pearson (15.7 ppg) and Justin Drummond (15.2) is leading the way for the Rockets who average over 90 points per game. 6'9 post Nathan Boothe is also putting up big numbers for UT. The sophomore is averaging 11 points and 5 rebounds per night while 6'6 junior JD Weatherspoon leads the team with a 6 rebound per game average.
Eastern Michigan is 3-1 in real games (I refuse to count Concordia and Albion) with wins over Cleveland State, UT Arlington and Robert Morris. The Eagles still have games left against Syracuse, Purdue, Duke and UMass before conference play begins but they did give Kentucky all it could handle for a half earlier this week. 6'7 forward Karrington Ward leads EMU in scoring (16.2) and rebounding (6). 7'0 senior Da'Shonte Riley and 6'8 senior Glenn Bryant make up a formidable interior to the Eagles 2-3 zone defense. I just get the sense that it may be the same old same old for EMU after the above mentioned stretch of games takes a little wind out of their sails.
4-2 Western Michigan hosts Cornell this evening. The Broncos put together a nice 2-1 showing Hawaii including a win over New Mexico State. After that, a loss to North Dakota State has been sandwiched between wins over Alabama A&M and Oakland. 6'11 senior Shayne Whittington is averaging a double double so far this season for the Broncos and guard David Brown has been on fire scoring 22 points per night. The other double digit scorer is 6'6 sophomore Connar Tava. After tonight, the Broncos have roadies at Northwestern, Missouri and Drake so we will know more about them shortly. I just get the sense that another middle of the road finish awaits WMU.
The Ball State Cardinals are out of the gates at 2-3 and visit Cleveland State on Saturday. They have been getting nice production out of their starting five that includes 6'9 senior Majok Majok, 6'2 senior Jesse Berry and 6'4 senior Chris Bond. There are a few other recognizable names on the BSU roster so experience shouldn't be a problem. Looking at their season box score, however, depth may be a concern for 1st year coach James Whitford.
Elsewhere Central Michigan is 3-3 and Northern Illinois is 2-3 with a win over San Jose State.
Majok Majok, love that name and his horrendous foul shooting!
(11-29-2013 02:52 PM)GoFlashes7 Wrote: [ -> ]Majok Majok, love that name and his horrendous foul shooting!
I second that, almost like Duany Duany from Wisconsin a few years back!
Meanwhile, NIU only trails by 4 (57-53) at Nebraska when the Huskers were favored by 17, and OU has the wrecking ball out in the first half against Evansville leading 42-26 at the half.
Akron taking Cleveland State to woodshed. 17 point game with 8 minutes to play. BG in a tussle with Xavier as well.
BG was down 11 with 6:00 to go, now has just finished a 10-0 run to trail by 1 with 3:53 left. This would be a big upset.
Miami getting pounded at Evansville. EMU going to lose @ Purdue, and UB trailing St. Bon. in Buffalo late.
Buffalo now up 3 with 1:00 to go. Nice finish.
Gary Waters makes me laugh....
"It was all us,'' Waters said of the setback, noting half of the missed layups and free throws keep CSU in the game. "It had nothing to do with Akron."
Friend of mine went to the game and said both teams looked like crap. Said it was painful basketball to watch. He's an Akron guy who thinks the quality of talent on both teams has really fallen off from where they were in the last couple of years.
I agree with your buddy, axeme. Overall in the MAC one or two players can make a difference. With that in mind here are three teams to keep an eye on as conference play approaches:
Toledo is 8-0 and there is a reason for that. Tod Kowalcyzk has put together a nice roster for the Rockets. Juice Brown and Rian Pearson may be the best backcourt combo in the MAC. 6'9 250 pound Sophomore Nathan Boothe is going to be a tough matchup for most conference opponents. Add to the mix Justin Drummond and JD Weatherspoon who also average double figure points and the Rockets appear to be the most balanced team in the conference.
With the exception of a roadie at Kansas, the Rockets should stay hot coming into Mid American Conference play. The best part for UT is that four of the five players mentioned above are back next year.
I don't think any of the players listed above are as talented as Javon McRae at Buffalo. The Bulls have reeled off four straight wins including yesterday's victory against St. Bonaventure. UB has five winnable games heading into MAC play and I am interested to see if Coach Hurley can turn around the most under achieving group in the MAC over the past few years.
McRae's frontcourt mate Will Regan is off to a nice start and a "veteran" backcourt with some familiar names (Oldham and Skeete) is starting to heat up. The "X" factor for Buffalo is Xavier Ford. He hasn't been great so far but he was a big time recruit for Buffalo that comes off the bench and gives them depth under the hoop that most MAC teams just don't have.
The last team that I can't ignore is Akron. First off, I think Keith Dambrot is one heckuva coach. Demetrius Treadwell and Nick Harney are four year players who know how to win in the MAC and the return of Diggs only adds to Akron's length and athleticism on both ends.
Say what you will about lack of a point guard but what the Zips lack there they make up in other places. Kretzer and McAdams are both 6'7 wings who had nice freshman seasons. Point is, Akron is long and strong. We will find out if they have "figured it out" over the next couple of weeks with games against Oral Roberts, Oregon State and South Carolina among others.
And for the record, today in plain dealer Elton mentioned the importance of Marquise Lawrence taking a big step in the next couple of weeks. No mention of Ortiz, no mention of Spicer...Marquise Lawrence.
I saw that, it's obvious Elton has no clue. This is the time of year the rotation shortens, not when guy barely getting blowout time steps up to be an important cog down the stretch. If you haven't earned enough of a look in early OOC games you will not be relied upon in conference games. It's hopeful this kid makes great strides before he's done at KSU, just don't see it happening this year, a year that should've been a redshirt season.
I believe that he may still be red shirted.
Marquiez Lawrence has played in 5 games already, avg. 4 mpg. No redshirt for him.
Yeah, they put him in after the deadline for playing and still claiming a medical hardship, so no redshirt year for him this year,
(12-09-2013 01:26 PM)Polish Hammer Wrote: [ -> ]I saw that, it's obvious Elton has no clue. This is the time of year the rotation shortens, not when guy barely getting blowout time steps up to be an important cog down the stretch. If you haven't earned enough of a look in early OOC games you will not be relied upon in conference games. It's hopeful this kid makes great strides before he's done at KSU, just don't see it happening this year, a year that should've been a redshirt season.
I think if you look at the box score from the Bucknell game, that's what the important games going forward are going to look like, rotation-wise - no Carter, Lawrence, Fleming, a couple of minutes for Tabb, Thomas and Simmons getting the most minutes off the bench.
I'd like to see more of Khaliq, but don't expect it, unless he produces enough that he can't be kept on the bench
All this talk about how Lawrence should have red shirted just makes me think, what if Spicer still had 3+ years of eligibility left? I think we could have got by without his 6.1 mpg in the 25 games he played last year.
And remember, we have wide-body Raasean Davis coming next year! Hopefully we have the problem at forward-center next season like we have with the guards this year.....lot's of talent!
(12-09-2013 09:14 PM)anti-zip Wrote: [ -> ]All this talk about how Lawrence should have red shirted just makes me think, what if Spicer still had 3+ years of eligibility left? I think we could have got by without his 6.1 mpg in the 25 games he played last year.
+1
(12-09-2013 12:48 PM)fallsdog Wrote: [ -> ]And for the record, today in plain dealer Elton mentioned the importance of Marquise Lawrence taking a big step in the next couple of weeks. No mention of Ortiz, no mention of Spicer...Marquise Lawrence.
He also felt Akrons victory over CSU was enough to rank them 2 or 3 spots above Kent in the Ohio rankings. He might turn out to be right but nothing like ignoring the data so far.
We will be testing ourselves against CSU in several weeks. We really, really want to win that game.