EMU played quite well in non-conference play given that EMU was a reconstituted team with a new HC, with many new transfers. But after Covid struck the team, EMU’s play steadily declined in Big Sky games.

Looking back at EMU’s conference stats, both Rice and Ballard stand-out as two players who should have played far more than they did. As when Ballard played, EMU scored far more points than their opponents did. But for Nate Scott, just the opposite was true for EMU’s other players.

One can see why EMU played so well offensively with both Ballard and Rice, as Ballard shot 55.6 percent on two’s and 40 percent on three’s, and Rice shot a whopping 69.2 percent on two’s, and 33 percent on three’s.

Rice performed better than McBride and M. Scott in conference play, and Ballard played far better than Binelli, Njie, and Golson.

Both players should be given a chance to compete for playing this season.

In EMU’s first game playing at nationally ranked Indiana, EMU trailed by l7-points at half-time, 36-19, as Noah and Golson combined in shooting 3-16 shooting from the field. In the second half, Noah had the hot-hand scoring 18- points in the second half, including made l3-three’s, and EMU cut Indiana’s lead to 3-points with 1:39 remaining in the game. Only for EMU to lose 68-62.

EMU was lucky that Indiana shot but 4-24 on three’s as most were wide-open shots. But, Indiana shooting 57 percent on two’s doomed Temple.

I believe Indiana shot so well on two’s is because EMU did not try to disrupt Indiana’s offense, and did not cause enough Indiana turnovers. Indiana had 8 turnovers, EMU 13.

Every EMU player in some way made a positive contribution. Although N.Scott shot but 1-5 from the field he had 10 rebounds. Spottsville and Golson also rebounded well. Binelli made 33 percent of his three’s, and had three steals. McBride shot 2-4 from the field and 6-6 from the foul-line.

In retrospect, another reason for EMU’s loss was Golson taking 15 fga’s and making but 4 field goals. M.Scott who made 3 fg’s on 8 fga’s should have taken many of Golson’s fga’s. M.Scott should also have played far more than the 24 minutes that played, especially since had 3-assists, and committed but one foul.

My macro summary as follows:

To me the season was filled with much excitement during OOC and then reality set in during the MAC season.

The OOC season was exciting and interesting because we played some challenging teams pretty tough except for MSU and DePaul. Noah made claim that he would be a force in the MAC, Monty displayed glimpses of his ability to take over a game, Golson played with passion and toughness, and Darrion and McB demonstrated they could be lock down defenders. I already knew what Okongo and Binelli would give us and was intrigued by the size of Mo Njie and athletic ability of Jihad. Luka showed skill but I thought he and EMU would be better served if he redshirted. I also felt the same about Rice.

If I recall, we finished 5-6 our first 11 games and I thought our team played very hard.

During the MAC season where coaches take notice and have tons of scouting reports on players and the team as a whole we really struggled at times. I thought our glaring weaknesses were exposed by the better conference coaches. Noah was brilliant offensively and he got virtually little help from his teammates. Post Covid19 Monty was not the same shooter he was in the OOC games. McBride is a terrific defender but he can not shoot jump shots over defenders nor open looks with no defenders on him and same with Spottsville. I’m not being overly critical of McBand Spottsville because I loved their tenacity especially Spottsville. I don’t care about Spottsvilles defensive statistics because he usually manned up on the teams best SF or Guard and did a terrific job. As much as Noah carried us offensively, Spottsville carried us defensively and so did McBride - hats off to both of them!! The season in reflection is very telling in that you’re not going to win with mostly freshman. A young rotation got out rebounded, turned the ball over too much, and couldn’t defend that well (excluding Spottsville and McBride). When we’re on defense, I saw our guards follow ball screens at the top of the key and sometimes go around ball screens. There are rules to follow but our guards seemingly had no rhyme or reason on what they did on defense.

However, our freshman gained a lot of experience and hopefully work on their weaknesses. I was happy that our team played hard every game regardless of the score. I also felt Coach Heath and Staff coached to the end of games.

From the beginning, I thought Noah and Monty were EMU’s two best offensive players and that I couldn’t see ENU being consistent winners without both being the focal point of EMU’s offense.As both were needed to help carry EMU’s offense as EMU was not going to get much scoring from the front court..

Don’t believe HC Heath saw it the same way as he played McBride and Spottsville’s ( team co-captains) more than Monty in EMU’s first game at Indiana. He should after Monty scored 28 points early on.Don’t think Heath should have shuffled Monty in and out of games preventing him from finding his rhythm. Nevertheless, both Noah and Monty were in the top 10 of MAC scorer for most of non-conference play.

After Monty contracted Covid entering conference play he never fully recovered and took a back seat to other players in MAC play. He saw his 57 percent non-conference 2-point shooting plummet in MAC play.

As I texted earlier, both Rice and Ballard should have played far more they did. It was an eye-opener late in MAC play to see how good Rice could play.

I also loved Spottsville tenacity and he had his best season shooting and rebounding the ball. Given how well he shot, he should have shot the more often than he did. I was disappointed that his foul-rate was high as hd averaged one foul
per 11 minutes of playing time.

I can’t give Spottsville nor any other defender credit for defending the perimeter as Heath did not have his players defend the three point line.
With EMU being a low-scoring team, there was no way for EmU to win games without keeping MAC opponents from making more than 4-three’s per game. EMU failed to do that.

The player who grew the most throughout the season was N.Scott. He should have shot the ball far more than he did.

Ballard performed far better than Binelli llast season.

As in conference play when Ballard played, EMU outscored it’s opponents by 5.5 points per 100 possessions (over close to 2-games played) compared to Binelli playing when conference opponents outscored EMU by 19-points per 100 possessions.

Ballard also out performed Binelli in almost all individual statistical categories. As Ballard shot 55.6 percent on two’s, and 40 percent on three’s compared to Binelli shooting 44.4 percent on two’s, and 29.4 percent on three’s.

Yet, HC Heath chose to play Binelli in 15 conference games in which averaged 10.5 mpg compared to Ballard playing in 13 conference games and averaging 6.4 mpg.

Whether such was related Binelli being a senior and Ballard a junior is unknown.

We also see that in conference play with Rice playing EMU had a scoring deficit of only three-points per 100 possessions. compared to EMU having a far bigger scoring deficit when with M.Scott or McBride played.

It’s good that Rice is returning as he finished conference play shooting 69.2 percent on two’s, and 33 percent on three’s. So even though EMU will likely sign a good shooting SF, knowing that Noah, Acuff, Rice, and Lovejoy are all on board, should give us confidence in EMU’s backcourt going forward.

Also, it’s also good that Ballard is returning as well given how well he shot the ball in conference play, and that he’ll be joining Golson, Jihad, and transfers Legend and Billingsley, to form a solid foundation in EMU’s front court.