Great game last night. These guys play like a team. What i haven’t heard mentioned is the passing. Toledo is doing a nice job finding guys open in the paint. Buffalo brought a lot of energy. They blocked a lot of dunks, because they have good team speed and length. Shumate looked like he wasn’t feeling well. He didn’t have his usual energy. Rollins came back nice after going down with a foot injury. I was very happy to see that. It didn’t look good at all when he was trying to get up. Ray J is a fantastic point guard. Moss had a great game. He is physically tough, and when a team comes in trying to push you around, his presence is noticeable. The bench is coming along. Hats off to Saunders and Kooper for quality minutes. Very nice win. This is a very capable team, they enjoy playing together, and they want to win. Fun to watch. Shame on the city for not selling the arena out. It was cold last night, but I drove 2 hours to be there. It was worth it. Go Rockets!!

I love the old guys bitching about the music being played at events that are centered around 19-21 years old kids. Forget about what pumps up the players and students, give me some Skynyrd!

(01-25-2022 10:10 PM)UofToledoFans Wrote:  Pretty bad crowd from our announcers twitter photo(3,927). Good thing tv only showed the student sections.

Why cant we have 6k there Friday? A lack of weekend games have curved interest by sometimers who could be consistent fans. We hit a stretch late in the year that should draw well.

There are lots of people not attending games because of covid-not just UT.

(01-26-2022 02:45 AM)pono Wrote:  

(01-25-2022 11:12 PM)Rocket65 Wrote:  

(01-25-2022 11:01 PM)SamoanRocket Wrote:  The very loud rap crap gets old after a few seconds...(The Glass Bowl also)

isn't this when the band is supposed to play?

We think they've cut back the pep band for the loud rap crap....The Glass Bowl has also cut back the marching band....pretty sad.

(01-26-2022 07:16 AM)PTLROCK Wrote:  Great game last night. These guys play like a team. What i haven’t heard mentioned is the passing. Toledo is doing a nice job finding guys open in the paint. Buffalo brought a lot of energy. They blocked a lot of dunks, because they have good team speed and length. Shumate looked like he wasn’t feeling well. He didn’t have his usual energy. Rollins came back nice after going down with a foot injury. I was very happy to see that. It didn’t look good at all when he was trying to get up. Ray J is a fantastic point guard. Moss had a great game. He is physically tough, and when a team comes in trying to push you around, his presence is noticeable. The bench is coming along. Hats off to Saunders and Kooper for quality minutes. Very nice win. This is a very capable team, they enjoy playing together, and they want to win. Fun to watch. Shame on the city for not selling the arena out. It was cold last night, but I drove 2 hours to be there. It was worth it. Go Rockets!!

You are spot on about their passing. 18 assists with only 9 turnovers while Buffalo had 11 assists and 13 turnovers. To me, that was the big difference in the game, Toledo making the extra pass to get a high percentage shot while Buffalo did a lot of standing around and watched as guys went one on one.

(01-26-2022 08:34 AM)SamoanRocket Wrote:  We think they've cut back the pep band for the loud rap crap....The Glass Bowl has also cut back the marching band....pretty sad.

Details please

At the start of second half Buffalo really attacked the offensive boards and I thought UT really started blocking out and crashing better. UT had some breakout transition buckets that broke game open. In past games with Buffalo when Mballa and company tried enforcing the Will UT wouldn’t have an answer tonight our guards really stepped up. Miss sets a nice edge, hoping Simmons can be a similar type player next year.

I’ve heard it mentioned either on this board or on the coaches show that this team, and last year’s team seem a lot like the 1976-1980 teams. Those teams had Miller, Swaney, Selgo, Joplin, Knuckles, Lehman among others. They were unselfish, defensive minded and talented just like this team. Didn’t win every game but were in the mix to win the league championship every year.

I remember that one of the most talented players on those teams was Swaney who didn’t get major minutes until he showed he could defense the way Coach Nichols demanded.

IMO that was the best stretch of men’s basketball in UT history. Hope this group can equal or improve on their accomplishments

Definitely true for Jim Swaney playing time. Probably one of the most talented offensive players of the group but certainly had to develop a taste for Coach McDonalds "D". I would not put any of the last few years teams in this comparison but CERTAINLY this years group. The last few teams always had too many who has a severe allergy to defense and TK never seemed to demand it. Love this years group and the emphasis on defense.

Problem I have is that this seems to come from the players and not necessarily TK. He has never seemed to demand it previously. The unselfish passing and defense are most definitely like those of the 76 - 80 teams!

COVID is killing our crowds! That is a SHAME for sure. The 8000 students at OU probably didn't worry about COVID. These kids deserve SRO crowds. Wish we could find a way to deliver them. Go Rockets!!!

(01-26-2022 10:24 AM)WHRocket Wrote:  I’ve heard it mentioned either on this board or on the coaches show that this team, and last year’s team seem a lot like the 1976-1980 teams. Those teams had Miller, Swaney, Selgo, Joplin, Knuckles, Lehman among others. They were unselfish, defensive minded and talented just like this team. Didn’t win every game but were in the mix to win the league championship every year.

I remember that one of the most talented players on those teams was Swaney who didn’t get major minutes until he showed he could defense the way Coach Nichols demanded.

IMO that was the best stretch of men’s basketball in UT history. Hope this group can equal or improve on their accomplishments

I believe you must include Mix, Brisker, Rudley, Miller, Backensto, on your list of great teams. The current group has a chance to be included if they make the NCAA tournament.

I think people want to discredit TK for poor defenses in the past, instead of looking at Ingram and Offutt and realizing they maybe pushing the intensity up in practice and games. As we saw whe Mac went to Kent Nics teams didn’t seem to play with the same intensity. Nic was known more for his motion offense and sitting guys who took bad shots or had turnovers. Mac was the guy up running the defenses.

(01-26-2022 11:27 AM)rockytop Wrote:  

(01-26-2022 10:24 AM)WHRocket Wrote:  I’ve heard it mentioned either on this board or on the coaches show that this team, and last year’s team seem a lot like the 1976-1980 teams. Those teams had Miller, Swaney, Selgo, Joplin, Knuckles, Lehman among others. They were unselfish, defensive minded and talented just like this team. Didn’t win every game but were in the mix to win the league championship every year.

I remember that one of the most talented players on those teams was Swaney who didn’t get major minutes until he showed he could defense the way Coach Nichols demanded.

IMO that was the best stretch of men’s basketball in UT history. Hope this group can equal or improve on their accomplishments

I believe you must include Mix, Brisker, Rudley, Miller, Backensto, on your list of great teams. The current group has a chance to be included if they make the NCAA tournament.

I agree that was a great team, but it ended up being just one year because of other issues outside of basketball causing a decline. I was comparing last year’s MAC champs along with this year’s potential as multiple years of excellent play. We’ve never had an extended period of really good teams other than the 1976-1980 teams. If you’re an optimist, you could also add next year’s potential team (every starter likely to come back). I know I’m getting ahead of myself, but what the heck.

Another great win for this amazing team!!!

Team chemistry is best in 40 plus years!!!!

Fantastic court awareness. No need to play zone when you play amazing helping man to man D.

I love how our guards rebound as discussed by Coach K in Mondays radio show. We were out-sized last night buy we more than held our own as stated in earlier threads.

I'm disappointed by the attendance!!!

City needs to see this team

Go Rockets!

My dig on the crowd was more about hapenstance than blaming fans or marketing. Twitter, facebook, and instagram have been promoting UT very well. There are some obvious reasons for less than sell out crowds on Tuesday nights in January during a pandemic.

Beating a good team at home is a terrific way to make them come back. If the pandemic slows down, temps get out of the single digits, and games start happening on weekends we will see an increase. The students showed up. Now we need a reason for them to stand up and be loud. BG late in the year will be rocking. Ohio is on a weekday. Akron friday should be a dandy... the rest may be walk thru blowouts.

Strange as it sounds, losing Edu to injuries may have been one of the best things to have happened to Rockets basketball in years. It forced TK to change the way they play offense and defense.

(01-26-2022 03:31 PM)Sleepy Wrote:  Strange as it sounds, losing Edu to injuries may have been one of the best things to have happened to Rockets basketball in years. It forced TK to change the way they play offense and defense.

Yup, good point. Could add that having your conference player of the year pg transfer was another blessing in disguise too. Dennis has outplayed sears and segu the past two games

(01-26-2022 10:52 AM)rocket 51 Wrote:  Definitely true for Jim Swaney playing time. Probably one of the most talented offensive players of the group but certainly had to develop a taste for Coach McDonalds "D". I would not put any of the last few years teams in this comparison but CERTAINLY this years group. The last few teams always had too many who has a severe allergy to defense and TK never seemed to demand it. Love this years group and the emphasis on defense.

Problem I have is that this seems to come from the players and not necessarily TK. He has never seemed to demand it previously. The unselfish passing and defense are most definitely like those of the 76 - 80 teams!

COVID is killing our crowds! That is a SHAME for sure. The 8000 students at OU probably didn't worry about COVID. These kids deserve SRO crowds. Wish we could find a way to deliver them. Go Rockets!!!

While the criticism of TK's lack of defense in past seasons is valid, doesn't he deserve credit for the improvement this season?

(01-26-2022 05:19 PM)pono Wrote:  

(01-26-2022 03:31 PM)Sleepy Wrote:  Strange as it sounds, losing Edu to injuries may have been one of the best things to have happened to Rockets basketball in years. It forced TK to change the way they play offense and defense.

Yup, good point. Could add that having your conference player of the year pg transfer was another blessing in disguise too. Dennis has outplayed sears and segu the past two games

Perfect examples of turning misfortune into opportunity. Kowalczyk and the staff deserve a lot of credit for making adjustments that emphasizes the teams strengths.

All good points.

We have good problems. The bench might get a little bigger if AJ starts to play, and the bench has improved. How they handle this should be fun to watch.