Been following the Bobcats pretty closely this season to compare them to the Rockets based off of us losing to them in last season’s MAC Semi Finals and as a potential rematch with them again this season in Cleveland. With that said, I think we match up very favorably with them skill wise, size wise, and depth wise. They are leaning heavily on 3 Players (M. Sears, J. Carter, and B. Vander Plas) for points, rebounds and minutes played. Believe it or not, with the absence of their Big Man D. Wilson this season due to a knee injury, they are getting less production off their bench than Toledo with 3 players combining for around 9ppg. Where last season they had mismatches in Wilson, J. Preston and bench depth over Toledo, that is not the case this season. Don't get me wrong, Ohio is still an excellent team who is going to be hard to deal with now and come tournament time. I just think that Toledo is in a much better position this season to compete against them based on both rosters.

(01-05-2022 02:55 PM)Basketball Jones Wrote:  Been following the Bobcats pretty closely this season to compare them to the Rockets based off of us losing to them in last season’s MAC Semi Finals and as a potential rematch with them again this season in Cleveland. With that said, I think we match up very favorably with them skill wise, size wise, and depth wise. They are leaning heavily on 3 Players (M. Sears, J. Carter, and B. Vander Plas) for points, rebounds and minutes played. Believe it or not, with the absence of their Big Man D. Wilson this season due to a knee injury, they are getting less production off their bench than Toledo with 3 players combining for around 9ppg. Where last season they had mismatches in Wilson, J. Preston and bench depth over Toledo, that is not the case this season. Don't get me wrong, Ohio is still an excellent team who is going to be hard to deal with now and come tournament time. I just think that Toledo is in a much better position this season to compete against them based on both rosters.

Agreed, with McDay awol they are real thin on perimeter depth. If Wilson returns that helps them up front, but they are already pretty loaded there. Last I heard his timeline was similar to Edu, major injury-possible Feb return, but likely to be rusty. UT needs to keep improving. Last year we got a lot better from Dec - mid Feb and then sorta stalled down the stretch. Will need to be at our best at the end.

Defense , defense, and more defense from the UT players. Use Carcoana to clog the middle, perhaps in the same on court presence with Shumate. What could happen against better teams, Shumate fouled out against CMU. UT may pay the price if that should happen early in the game against a better opponent.

It was good to get the bench more time. The big guy is a clod, and that is a compliment. There will be times we need a clod. Someone to take some fouls, if nothing else (and a breather for somebody).

We are small off the bench (small overall) but athletic. I'll take that all day. If they can improve as the year goes on this could be a legit team to take us where we want to go. If we get anything from AJ, that's a plus but I'm not counting on it.

I think our Achilles heel is our 4 and 5 spot, but I really like our 1-3.

Shumate is great. I don't know if he's a 3 a 4 or a 5. Carcoana is a liability generally on defense because he has bad habits, gets out of position and is slow recovering. If he plays more fundamentally solid he is OK as he takes up room and has pretty good instincts and reactions to the ball. Challenge is our normal defense is built around lots of switching and you don't want the Romanian Rhino switching onto a pg 25 feet from the rim.

(01-05-2022 08:27 PM)pono Wrote:  Shumate is great. I don't know if he's a 3 a 4 or a 5. Carcoana is a liability generally on defense because he has bad habits, gets out of position and is slow recovering. If he plays more fundamentally solid he is OK as he takes up room and has pretty good instincts and reactions to the ball. Challenge is our normal defense is built around lots of switching and you don't want the Romanian Rhino switching onto a pg 25 feet from the rim.

Typically TK likes post players that have good passing skills to kick the ball out from the post to the perimeter shooters for open 3 pt shots and I think that is what caught his eye when watching Carcoana. Carcoana is an excellent passer. Unfortunately this current roster is not the usual Kowalczyk beyond the arc bombs away style offense and the big guy seems to clog the middle, getting in the way of slashers like Rollins, Milner, Dennis and even Moss at times. If the coaches pick his spots and matchups carefully he could be some help this year during the MAC season and tournament time when we need some height and bulk to keep Shumate, and hopefully Edu, energetically recharged and out of foul trouble.

Shumate should get an Oscar for playing a position he shouldn't be, and has done a great job in doing so. You can't expect more than he has given.

As mentioned above, who is a 3, 4, 5, whatever. They are undersized no matter how you look at it (inside and bench), but they are athletic, which can overcome other shortcomings. We will no doubt find out what those shortcomings are.

And I truly hope they have a session in practice this week going over how to dunk a basketball with Mr. Moss. I really like him. He's shown some offense the last couple of games - except for some really bad dunk attempts.

Buffalo just beat BG at home 99-88 despite their Big Man J. MBalla not playing. They have 4 All MAC Caliber Starters in MBalla, J. Williams, R. Segu and M. Jack but have been inconsistent throughout the season. One of their major problems is turnovers at over 13 per game. They definitely have the talent to compete for the Championship, it’s just a matter of whether they overcome their inconsistent play which a lot of their fans attribute to poor coaching by Jim Whitesell.

Just saw on the MAC Message Board that 6-5 Guard Luke Frazier has just become eligible for Ohio U after transferring from Dayton. Frazier was the 2020 Ohio Division II Player of the Year after averaging 22ppg. at Mentor Lake Catholic High School. He was limited to only 2 games his freshman season at Dayton due to injury and illness. Not sure, how much impact he will have this season coming in late, but it is something to pay attention to for us Rocket fans who think it could be a Toledo/Ohio/Buffalo battle for the MAC Regular Season and Tournament Championship!

Frazier would have been a good fit in a Rockets jersey. Skilled taller guard with good athleticism. Not sure if he helps them this year as he has to be rusty and doesn't know their systems but plays a role-a scoring guard that handles the ball well- where they are fairly thin. If he gets in against us I hope the scout says to make him go right, saw some video of him dunking like crazy on anyone who let him get a step on them driving to his strong left hand.