The team had a nice road trip to NY over the Thanksgiving break, bringing home wins over Manhattan (Sagarin 169, the return game for last season's Bracket Buster) and St. Bonaventure (283). The emergence of Dobbins as an inside force is very heartening. Eastern's Sagarin actually rose to 204. Beginning tonight the schedule gets harder for EMU. The next six games are against better competition:

Tonight - Detroit Mercy (146)
12/1 - Notre Dame (31)
12/4 - Illinois State (115)
12/22 - Temple (105) - a recent 2 pt loser to Akron.
12/28 - Rhode Island (70) - 1st round of a tournament in Corpus Christi, TX.
12/29 - TAMU-CC (161) or Georgia Southern (133) - second round matchup.

There is also the final OOC game against Chicago State (234) on 1/2.

By the end of December we will have a much better idea of what this team can accomplish in the MAC this year.

The first conference game is against CMU in Mt. Pleasant on 1/6.

DexterEagle, how do you think we are going to fare in these next 7 games?

Will Matthews be back after this semeser is done (for the Temple game), or does he have to wait until the winter semester starts? I'm not sure how that rule works.

I would be very happy if we won 5 of these, but i'm going to guess 3.

Anyone else?

EMU needs to shoot better from 3-point land. If they don't they're going to see a lot of zone defense like St Bonaventure used. BTW, EMU hosts St. Bonaventure next year.

Speaking of zone, I heard a UM fan complaining on the radio about Beilein only using man-to-man and not using zone. Sound familiar?

Does Matthews return for the 12/22 game?

EMUAARON Wrote:DexterEagle, how do you think we are going to fare in these next 7 games?

Winning 4 games would be huge. The winnable games are, UDM, ISU, TU, and TAMU-CC/GSU.

Quote:Will Matthews be back after this semeser is done (for the Temple game), or does he have to wait until the winter semester starts? I'm not sure how that rule works.

From what I've read he won't see action until the Chicago State game.

Quote:I would be very happy if we won 5 of these, but i'm going to guess 3.

Anyone else?

With CSU in the mix, 5 wins before the conference begins is possible.

TheWoodenNickle Wrote:EMU needs to shoot better from 3-point land. If they don't they're going to see a lot of zone defense like St Bonaventure used. BTW, EMU hosts St. Bonaventure next year.

Amen to that (3-point shooting that is). I've never seen EMU colder from the arc then they were against Oakland.

Quote:Speaking of zone, I heard a UM fan complaining on the radio about Beilein only using man-to-man and not using zone. Sound familiar?

I saw Michigan, on TV, in the Alaska tournament. Beilein has a lot of teaching to do. I'm sure he's running man-to-man so they can competently play more than one defense. Just playing zone in the age of the 3-point sniper doesn't make for winning seasons.

Quote:Does Matthews return for the 12/22 game?

See Post #4.

I've got to run a few errands before heading to the Convo for tonight's match against Detroit. See you at the Convo!