Get one of the top 4 bids heading into MAC tournament time and start peaking come end of February. Losing a game or two won’t concern me that much with a lot of basketball left

(01-30-2018 09:05 PM)bcunn3128 Wrote:  

(01-30-2018 08:56 PM)rockytop Wrote:  Credit balls D. They took away the three, and exploited our post D and lack of rebounding.

Now maybe a few more people will see why I have been ranting for years now about recruiting a true center. Doesn’t have to be 7 feet tall. Moses is barely 6’9” but with his muscular build he just clobbered Adway & Knapke—scoring, rebounding and position on D. Maybe we’ve been lucky that other teams didn’t do that but I expect Adonis De La Rosa at Kent State and Thompson IV at EmU to watch tape & learn. Too much perimeter play and no real inside play for us. Get us a real center, coach.

A) We won't play Kent until Cleveland if that.
B) EMU is just garbage who just lost to WMU at home.

(01-30-2018 09:23 PM)Rocket_Fanatic Wrote:  Get one of the top 4 bids heading into MAC tournament time and start peaking come end of February. Losing a game or two won’t concern me that much with a lot of basketball left

9 games left including two with EMU and NIU and home games with Ohio and CMU.

(01-30-2018 09:05 PM)bcunn3128 Wrote:  

(01-30-2018 08:56 PM)rockytop Wrote:  Credit balls D. They took away the three, and exploited our post D and lack of rebounding.

Now maybe a few more people will see why I have been ranting for years now about recruiting a true center. Doesn’t have to be 7 feet tall. Moses is barely 6’9” but with his muscular build he just clobbered Adway & Knapke—scoring, rebounding and position on D. Maybe we’ve been lucky that other teams didn’t do that but I expect Adonis De La Rosa at Kent State and Thompson IV at EmU to watch tape & learn. Too much perimeter play and no real inside play for us. Get us a real center, coach.

Moses is only muscular by Toledo standards. Steve Taylor would make two of him. Moses just didn’t shy from contact and we do. Coach K turned to the bench and said “He won’t take a charge”, referring to M Jackson who had just given Persons the baseline. We need a Lauf, at least. And BTW, where was W Jackson? I believe he leads the team in rebounds per minute and brings some athleticism. Was he injured? Dog house? Anyone hear?

(01-30-2018 08:34 PM)bcunn3128 Wrote:  Man, we badly need to recruit a true center. Adway & Knapke just getting exposed tonight.

Knapke is OK. Not super physical but more than one dimensional. He forced Moses into a lot of really awkward shots. The refs pretty much swallowed their whistles for much of the time. Adway is neither tall enough or strong enough to be a factor against physical centers. Thompson should have a field day against us if EMU can find anyone willing to give up the ball to him.

(01-30-2018 09:38 PM)H2Oville Rocket Wrote:  

(01-30-2018 09:05 PM)bcunn3128 Wrote:  

(01-30-2018 08:56 PM)rockytop Wrote:  Credit balls D. They took away the three, and exploited our post D and lack of rebounding.

Now maybe a few more people will see why I have been ranting for years now about recruiting a true center. Doesn’t have to be 7 feet tall. Moses is barely 6’9” but with his muscular build he just clobbered Adway & Knapke—scoring, rebounding and position on D. Maybe we’ve been lucky that other teams didn’t do that but I expect Adonis De La Rosa at Kent State and Thompson IV at EmU to watch tape & learn. Too much perimeter play and no real inside play for us. Get us a real center, coach.

Moses is only muscular by Toledo standards. Steve Taylor would make two of him. Moses just didn’t shy from contact and we do. Coach K turned to the bench and said “He won’t take a charge”, referring to M Jackson who had just given Persons the baseline. We need a Lauf, at least. And BTW, where was W Jackson? I believe he leads the team in rebounds per minute and brings some athleticism. Was he injured? Dog house? Anyone hear?

TK said after the game that Willie Jackson “needs to heal” and couldn’t play tonight. I wasn’t at the BG game but I know he played. Maybe got hurt in practice? Or maybe TK was sending a message to his team? A loss to a Ball State team that even played a walk-on tonight should get their attention.

(01-30-2018 09:38 PM)H2Oville Rocket Wrote:  

(01-30-2018 09:05 PM)bcunn3128 Wrote:  

(01-30-2018 08:56 PM)rockytop Wrote:  Credit balls D. They took away the three, and exploited our post D and lack of rebounding.

Now maybe a few more people will see why I have been ranting for years now about recruiting a true center. Doesn’t have to be 7 feet tall. Moses is barely 6’9” but with his muscular build he just clobbered Adway & Knapke—scoring, rebounding and position on D. Maybe we’ve been lucky that other teams didn’t do that but I expect Adonis De La Rosa at Kent State and Thompson IV at EmU to watch tape & learn. Too much perimeter play and no real inside play for us. Get us a real center, coach.

Moses is only muscular by Toledo standards. Steve Taylor would make two of him. Moses just didn’t shy from contact and we do. Coach K turned to the bench and said “He won’t take a charge”, referring to M Jackson who had just given Persons the baseline. We need a Lauf, at least. And BTW, where was W Jackson? I believe he leads the team in rebounds per minute and brings some athleticism. Was he injured? Dog house? Anyone hear?

And yeah...we still don’t have anyone who can guard Persons. He didn’t need 30 tonight, but when they needed a bucket in the second half, he got it for them.

(01-30-2018 09:26 PM)utpotts Wrote:  

(01-30-2018 09:05 PM)bcunn3128 Wrote:  

(01-30-2018 08:56 PM)rockytop Wrote:  Credit balls D. They took away the three, and exploited our post D and lack of rebounding.

Now maybe a few more people will see why I have been ranting for years now about recruiting a true center. Doesn’t have to be 7 feet tall. Moses is barely 6’9” but with his muscular build he just clobbered Adway & Knapke—scoring, rebounding and position on D. Maybe we’ve been lucky that other teams didn’t do that but I expect Adonis De La Rosa at Kent State and Thompson IV at EmU to watch tape & learn. Too much perimeter play and no real inside play for us. Get us a real center, coach.

A) We won't play Kent until Cleveland if that.
B) EMU is just garbage who just lost to WMU at home.

I wouldn’t discount EMU like that. They are again a tall, athletic team like other EMU teams that have given us fits more games than not in the TK era, especially at Ypsi. And I’m not looking forward to the re-match in Muncie, either.

Big game Saturday at Akron. They gave us a good battle in Toledo, and if Willie Jackson still can’t play...yikes. This will be a “test your manhood” game for the Rockets.

(01-30-2018 09:54 PM)bcunn3128 Wrote:  

(01-30-2018 09:38 PM)H2Oville Rocket Wrote:  

(01-30-2018 09:05 PM)bcunn3128 Wrote:  

(01-30-2018 08:56 PM)rockytop Wrote:  Credit balls D. They took away the three, and exploited our post D and lack of rebounding.

Now maybe a few more people will see why I have been ranting for years now about recruiting a true center. Doesn’t have to be 7 feet tall. Moses is barely 6’9” but with his muscular build he just clobbered Adway & Knapke—scoring, rebounding and position on D. Maybe we’ve been lucky that other teams didn’t do that but I expect Adonis De La Rosa at Kent State and Thompson IV at EmU to watch tape & learn. Too much perimeter play and no real inside play for us. Get us a real center, coach.

Moses is only muscular by Toledo standards. Steve Taylor would make two of him. Moses just didn’t shy from contact and we do. Coach K turned to the bench and said “He won’t take a charge”, referring to M Jackson who had just given Persons the baseline. We need a Lauf, at least. And BTW, where was W Jackson? I believe he leads the team in rebounds per minute and brings some athleticism. Was he injured? Dog house? Anyone hear?

And yeah...we still don’t have anyone who can guard Persons. He didn’t need 30 tonight, but when they needed a bucket in the second half, he got it for them.

Persons also forced a ton of shots and had the worst shooting night I’ve seen him have against us. BSU really didn’t play great which should worry us. Persons contributed in other ways but he and Fletcher bird for the “Look at me! Look at me!” Award. Fletcher, unfortunately won tonight. Thanks for the W Jackson update.

(01-30-2018 07:53 PM)bcunn3128 Wrote:  Biggest disappointment is that this is a short-handed Ball State team that only had 9 scholarship players now, and they are playing like the better team.

Actually, 8 scholarship players (and one walk-on who happens to be the son of a BSU legend, but is still a walk-on that only saw action in blowouts prior to this week). I think that's going to come back to haunt at some point due to tired legs, but for now it seems like an addition by subtraction kind of thing. Less distractions now maybe, but the team has played focused this week. Expecting a tougher outing on Feb 17th...

This was a classic let down game. Big win streak culminating in a huge crowd home blowout of your arch rival. Then, a quick turnaround to an underachieving team. I take it as a good loss. You don't want to go into post season play on a long win streak because you can lose some of your resiliency and freeze up if things are going poorly. If the staff uses this game properly they can motivate the team from it and remind them that they aren't that good when they don't play with energy and focus.

Willie Jackson looks like he is nursing a shoulder injury. I imagine the staff would prefer not to tweak it and get him some rest so he is closer to 100% come the stretch run.

I will say that we got out coached tonight. Coach K didn't do enough to swing momentum. The trapping zone was effective but he went away from it. We could have tried to play Knapke and Adway together as neither was in foul trouble. We could have put Dwayne Rose out there as he is a bit reckless, true, but a true energy guy who can spark a team with effort and athleticism-plus we were short a player in our regular rotation. Then, toward the end we were playing one of the weaker free throw shooting teams in the league who had an atrocious foul shooter, Moses, on the floor and we didn't put them at the line down the stretch and make bad to mediocre foul shooters clinch the game on the line on the road. Team should have been fouling after the first trap inside 3 minutes and sending Moses to the line hack a Shaq style until BSU was forced to pull him. Should have also attacked the rim offensively more and got points with the clock stopped and a chance to set up pressure.

Effort, Toughness Propel Men's Hoops Past MAC West Leader Toledo.
http://ballstatesports.com/news/2018/1/3...oledo.aspx

It was a very disappointing game for the Rockets. You have to give Ball State a lot of credit. They were the more physical team and second chance points were the difference. It was just one game, so hopefully, they will respond well at Akron. If they play like they did during the 7 game winning streak, they will be fine. Start a new winning streak on Saturday!

The next game may be more telling than the last one.