* He did not say when, but indicated that Spencer Littleson will play again sometime this season.

* Gave high praise to Luke Knapke for his loyalty in coming back for his 5th Year as he had opportunities to transfer to some Power 5 Programs without having to sit out this season. He also had high praise for TJ Smith for being unselfish for what the coaches are asking him to do on the court, i.e. rebound and play good defense. He said, a lot of today's players would not accept that type of role.

* Despite their struggles during Mid American play, he said the team is sticking together and not doing any finger pointing. He said that is mostly due to the tremendous leadership of the 4 Captains (L. Knapke, W. Jackson, S. Littleson and M. Jackson). He also credits his Assistant Coaches for staying positive which he said rubs off on the players who are in tuned to how the coaches are reacting to their current struggles on the court. He loves this Coaching Staff!

* With the league schedule the way it is with games every Tuesday and Saturday, practice time is limited this time of year to getting ready for the upcoming opponent, not for fundamentals or player/team development work. They do not practice on Sundays or Wednesday and the days they do practice they're very cautious about not overworking the players, especially the starters who are playing heavy minutes. They will have time to work on other stuff during their bye week between the Buffalo and Western Michigan games in a couple of weeks.

The Blade dude tweeted that Littleson practiced today, but no decision yet on playing tomorrow.

Interesting stat on playing minutes - UT has 4 of the top 7 players in the MAC in minutes played. Marreon (2), Knapke (4), Willie (6), Littleson (7). That's gotta take a toll in comparison to the other teams as the season progresses.

(02-03-2020 07:43 PM)northcoastRocket Wrote:  The Blade dude tweeted that Littleson practiced today, but no decision yet on playing tomorrow.

Interesting stat on playing minutes - UT has 4 of the top 7 players in the MAC in minutes played. Marreon (2), Knapke (4), Willie (6), Littleson (7). That's gotta take a toll in comparison to the other teams as the season progresses.

Hence the connection between playing time, fatgue and loses down the strech. Surely the other players (williams, etc) can come in and give a couple of minutes! It would be interesting to see if this same trend holds during TK's tenure, my money says it does!

(02-03-2020 09:34 PM)Party on the hill Wrote:  

(02-03-2020 07:43 PM)northcoastRocket Wrote:  The Blade dude tweeted that Littleson practiced today, but no decision yet on playing tomorrow.

Interesting stat on playing minutes - UT has 4 of the top 7 players in the MAC in minutes played. Marreon (2), Knapke (4), Willie (6), Littleson (7). That's gotta take a toll in comparison to the other teams as the season progresses.

Hence the connection between playing time, fatgue and loses down the strech. Surely the other players (williams, etc) can come in and give a couple of minutes! It would be interesting to see if this same trend holds during TK's tenure, my money says it does!

This has happened every single year.

Old bit by now. Is not going to change


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Ride ‘em hard and put ‘em away wet...

It's good to see that Knapke didn't transfer out to a Power 5 Conference this season. The impact of prospective new transfer rules as proposed by the Big 10 would drastically effect MAC schools with all star MAC athletes transferring "up" looking for a bigger stage and some Power 5 athletes transferring down looking for playing time. Add into the formula the possibility of bigger schools being able to pay players in the revenue sports and the future of the MAC gets very murky.

Look at TK's track record over his tenure at UT. The vast majority of players fit into one of two categories. Category one includes players who were starters or sixth man from day one of their Rocket careers. Category two is players who left the program before using up their eligibility. The exception under TK is the guy like Zach Garber who doesn't play a lot his freshman year but stays with the program and eventually contributes meaningfully. I'm not close enough to the program to explain why this happens, but I think it's odd, and I also think it explains why we often lack the depth that some other MAC teams have.

I cannot see Donavan Moore staying with the program. As shorthanded as we are right now, he should be getting minutes if he has any type of skillset. For whatever reason, he primarily remains on the bench. Why would he stay with Toledo when he is treated as if he was a walk on?

Can you imagine being one of the scholarship players sitting on the bench and then listening to these comments by the coach? He is lamenting the fact that guys are getting tired and UT owns several spots at the top of the list of players averaging the most minutes per game. A not very subtle vote of no confidence.

Does UT have any walk on's on this year's team ?

Guard Blake Williams is a walk on.

The MAC West coaches who play lot of people are Hawkins (with his foul type defense) & Davis (Belief in using 10 players a game). BSU, NIU, & EMU do the same as Toledo. Interesting thing is that fans on blogs of the 3 just mentioned schools would remove the coaches now if they could. Also WMU wants Hawkins to retire. MAC West is a pretty sad place for the teams fans. But someone has to win the division.

(02-04-2020 12:45 PM)Tom D Wrote:  The MAC West coaches who play lot of people are Hawkins (with his foul type defense) & Davis (Belief in using 10 players a game). BSU, NIU, & EMU do the same as Toledo. Interesting thing is that fans on blogs of the 3 just mentioned schools would remove the coaches now if they could. Also WMU wants Hawkins to retire. MAC West is a pretty sad place for the teams fans. But someone has to win the division.

Toledo players rank numbers 2, 4, 6, and 7 in the conference in minutes played per game.

(02-04-2020 02:38 PM)Dwight Wrote:  

(02-04-2020 12:45 PM)Tom D Wrote:  The MAC West coaches who play lot of people are Hawkins (with his foul type defense) & Davis (Belief in using 10 players a game). BSU, NIU, & EMU do the same as Toledo. Interesting thing is that fans on blogs of the 3 just mentioned schools would remove the coaches now if they could. Also WMU wants Hawkins to retire. MAC West is a pretty sad place for the teams fans. But someone has to win the division.

Toledo players rank numbers 2, 4, 6, and 7 in the conference in minutes played per game.

some of this is TK's style but a lot of it is having an all freshman bench with only 1 guy (if he's not starting) in saunders who is any kind of a scoring threat.

(02-05-2020 03:31 AM)pono Wrote:  

(02-04-2020 02:38 PM)Dwight Wrote:  

(02-04-2020 12:45 PM)Tom D Wrote:  The MAC West coaches who play lot of people are Hawkins (with his foul type defense) & Davis (Belief in using 10 players a game). BSU, NIU, & EMU do the same as Toledo. Interesting thing is that fans on blogs of the 3 just mentioned schools would remove the coaches now if they could. Also WMU wants Hawkins to retire. MAC West is a pretty sad place for the teams fans. But someone has to win the division.

Toledo players rank numbers 2, 4, 6, and 7 in the conference in minutes played per game.

some of this is TK's style but a lot of it is having an all freshman bench with only 1 guy (if he's not starting) in saunders who is any kind of a scoring threat.

Isn't he really in a no-lose situation of giving the bench playing time? Playing time is a big recruiting tool for a mid-major.

Why he doesn't have confidence they can hold their own for a few against presumably also off the bench opponents, head-scratcher. Meanwhile, the opponent's first line is getting a rest and ours are too tired to make headway against their bench.

You're losing. Let players play. I think, rested starters are starters not turning ankles or making other awkward plays leading to injury.