Two home games which one could hope for a sweep, BUT TOL has been a surprise and is a tough team.

We have had success against TOL, esp. at home so we'll see.

WMU after a terrible start is now 2 - 1 in their last three I believe. They got beaten badly by Kent in the middle game.

EMU has to be careful about ending up on either the 8 or 9 line (seed) which means UBuffalo in the quarter finals in CLE.

BTW, every wonder how some teams get a break on scheduling to build gaudy records? Look at TOL.

From Nov 28 thru Jan 4, ONE road game, a bus ride to Huntington, W.Va. Before that road at Oakland and Wright State plus a 3-game neutral site tourney.

Have money will buy home games and a good record.

https://utrockets.com/schedule.aspx?schedule=639

Must win both games this week. Probably won't though.

Toledo is very good. Knapke their big center and Navigato their three point big guy are both vastly improved over last year. The Jackson's have developed as well. Add all MAC Sanford to that mix and you have the MAC west champs. Year over year player improvement like that just does not seem to happen in Ypsilanti.

(02-17-2019 01:51 PM)Jerry Weaver Wrote:  Toledo is very good. Knapke their big center and Navigato their three point big guy are both vastly improved over last year. The Jackson's have developed as well. Add all MAC Sanford to that mix and you have the MAC west champs. Year over year player improvement like that just does not seem to happen in Ypsilanti.

This is an interesting evaluation. It's possible that Toledo has zero 1st through 3rd teamers. It's why we think there is a shot in Cleveland... Although small. Last season we lost POY Fletcher to injury and didn't have much of a shot. Stevie Taylor, Boothe, Juice Brown, Rian Pearson have all been upper tier ALL MAC guys with no cigar to the dance.

Knapke is having a decent season but disappears too much and missed a ton of key layups vs UB. He has no drive to dunk and settles for jumpers. He is shooting well from Three.

Sanford has had a bad year shooting the ball. He played well vs UB, but too little too late. He is averaging the same but taking way more shots.

Marreon and Willy are improved yes but neither are all MAC players. Just high energy guys. Willy is an exceptional rebounder despite only being 6'6.

Navigato is a top 25 three point specialist in the country who has made his 2 point game known more this season. He is the only real statistical and physical improvement most fans have seen.

Off the bench we have a senior grad transfer from Toledo Chris Darrington who played at Tennessee the past couple seasons. He has had two 20 point games and isn't afraid to shoot. He does foul a lot and makes some bone headed mistakes.

Spencer Littleson is our backup guard. He is a hustler who hounds guards on defense.

Edu is our other main asset off the bench. He has a 29 foot wing span and leads the league in blocks without a ton of minutes. He has been a big spark with Knapke on the bench but his offensive game hasn't come around yet.

Overall the difference for this team has been defense. Toledo led the entire first 30 mins vs UB until Perkins hit ,3 or 4 threes to lead all scorers with 26. Tough loss.

2017-2018
Sanford 16.3 ppg, 3.4 Reb, 3 ass (40.3 three)
Navigato 12.2 ppg, 4.2 Reb, 1.7 ass (42.7 three%)
Knapke 10.8 ppg, 6.3 Reb, 1.2 ass (1.8 blk)
M. Jackson 8ppg, 2.9 Reb, 2.7 ass (39 three%)
W. Jackson 7.6 ppg, 5.6 Reb, 1.2 ass

2018-2019
Sanford 16.2 ppg, 4.4 Reb, 3.1 ass (32.6 three%)
Navigato 12.4 ppg, 3.6 Reb, 2.6 ass (45.4 three%)
Knapke 11.4 ppg, 6.9 reb, 1.8 ass (1.4 blk) (44.5 three%)
M. Jackson 11 ppg, 4 Reb, 4.4 ass (31.7 three%)
W. Jackson 9.2 ppg, 9.5 Reb, 1.6 ass

Littleson 3.8 ppg, 1.9 Reb, 1 ass (37.7 three%)
Edu 3.7 ppg, 3.9 Reb, 0.7 ass (1.9 blk)
Darrington 9.6 ppg, 1.8 Reb, 0.9 ass (38.4 three%)

Maybe we get a crowd tomorrow. TOL fans + more than usual of ours.

https://twitter.com/EasternMichU/status/...3435826176

(02-18-2019 02:19 PM)emu steve Wrote:  Maybe we get a crowd tomorrow. TOL fans + more than usual of ours.

https://twitter.com/EasternMichU/status/...3435826176

Is the post referring to a good crowd when you had the GLOW Greek stuff last season? Because the UT crowd was just over 900 and I'm pretty sure it was snowy with a bad crowd...

It's referring to our game vs. WMU last year, when glow in the dark stuff was given to fans/students. That was an above average crowd.

(02-18-2019 04:51 PM)FrankAnderson Wrote:  It's referring to our game vs. WMU last year, when glow in the dark stuff was given to fans/students. That was an above average crowd.

Gotcha

TOL is a 3 point favorite tonight per ESPN website.

Line: TOL -3.0
O/U: 134.5

Things are getting interesting down the stretch. UB and BG continue to run away with it in the conference, but we have already beaten the two teams tied for third (both TOL and KSU are 8 - 5).

The secret this year in the tourney is to stay off the UB / BG brackets. P.S. I'm still not convinced about BG, though.

Just a reminder. There is a 3-way tie at 6 - 7 in the MAC and two of those teams (MIA and Akron) play each other.

A win tomorrow and we go one game up on either MIA or Akron.

"Just win baby..."

(02-20-2019 06:43 AM)emu steve Wrote:  Things are getting interesting down the stretch. UB and BG continue to run away with it in the conference, but we have already beaten the two teams tied for third (both TOL and KSU are 8 - 5).

The secret this year in the tourney is to stay off the UB / BG brackets. P.S. I'm still not convinced about BG, though.

Seems like you're right. They just lost to a bad Ohio team

(02-22-2019 09:01 PM)mpleafan Wrote:  

(02-20-2019 06:43 AM)emu steve Wrote:  Things are getting interesting down the stretch. UB and BG continue to run away with it in the conference, but we have already beaten the two teams tied for third (both TOL and KSU are 8 - 5).

The secret this year in the tourney is to stay off the UB / BG brackets. P.S. I'm still not convinced about BG, though.

Seems like you're right. They just lost to a bad Ohio team

Also, check out their season. The OOC season was not impressive. They got into conference and just started winning like crazy. Weird.

They have lost to UDM, Hartford, Cleveland State, etc. and beat a couple non-D-1 plus some weak sisters like NCCU, Hampton, etc.

I don't know what their best OOC win was. I WANT to play BG in the MAC semis...

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketb...e/_/id/189

FWIW, here is an article written for kids by the Washington Post on the NBA 3-point shot.

Yes, the game has REALLY changed over the decades and successful college teams, and those who pull big upsets, use it well.

http://thewashingtonpost.newspaperdirect...iewer.aspx

(02-23-2019 08:36 AM)emu steve Wrote:  

(02-22-2019 09:01 PM)mpleafan Wrote:  

(02-20-2019 06:43 AM)emu steve Wrote:  Things are getting interesting down the stretch. UB and BG continue to run away with it in the conference, but we have already beaten the two teams tied for third (both TOL and KSU are 8 - 5).

The secret this year in the tourney is to stay off the UB / BG brackets. P.S. I'm still not convinced about BG, though.

Seems like you're right. They just lost to a bad Ohio team

Also, check out their season. The OOC season was not impressive. They got into conference and just started winning like crazy. Weird.

They have lost to UDM, Hartford, Cleveland State, etc. and beat a couple non-D-1 plus some weak sisters like NCCU, Hampton, etc.

I don't know what their best OOC win was. I WANT to play BG in the MAC semis...

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketb...e/_/id/189

Tbh I thought they were gonna be for real when they lost a close one to a decent St John's team. Then they lost to those teams.

Bottom line: We are one game out of 4th place (tie) and 1 1/2 out of third.

We need to beat CMU Tuesday to move toward 4th place (we split with Kent and need to split with Central).

We still have TOL so we can make up a game there and get the tie-breaker over the Rockets.