BJones is right...winning when you dont deserve to, is the mark of a good team. Could not believe that we had such a bad offensive night. Wondered where their #44 came from? He was playing possessed at times. Makes sense now that I read he is from Sandusky. He had something to show and prove to his back home folks.

Nice win and now we rest for the MAC and MACC to get to the Dance.

(12-11-2022 12:06 PM)rocket 51 Wrote:  BJones is right...winning when you dont deserve to, is the mark of a good team. Could not believe that we had such a bad offensive night. Wondered where their #44 came from? He was playing possessed at times. Makes sense now that I read he is from Sandusky. He had something to show and prove to his back home folks.

Nice win and now we rest for the MAC and MACC to get to the Dance.

We have Marshall and Vermont left... can't rest yet.

I’m a hopeless Rocket optimist and I went into this season with high hopes for this team despite years of disappointing finishes to seasons gone by. I admire the effort and fight the players showed Saturday to pull out a scrappy hard won battle and yet I have concerns about the way this team is trending.

RayJ has provided some of the best point guard play in Rocket history. Kyle Rowland wrote about his performance in the blah -

“With a LeBron James flair, Dennis scored Toledo’s final 15 points and 19 of their last 21. He was 10 of 11 from the free-throw line in the final five minutes, with a final stat line of 29 points, nine rebounds, six assists, two steals, and only two turnovers in 38 minutes.”

My game plan for stopping the Rockets would be to double team RayJ, get the ball out of his hands and make somebody else try to beat me. It was exciting to watch him put the team on his back in the final few minutes and carry them to a win. But I worry they are becoming too dependent on RayJ and I dread to think where we would be without his steady hand and beautiful floater. I have cautiously enjoyed watching some exciting offensive drives and spins but I worry that the Rocket offense is trending more towards too much dribbling and one on one play. Their weave has become routine and predictable and I rarely see the quick 2nd or 3rd pass around the horn to find the open shooter. There seems to be a lack of offensive flow and rhythm. An offensively skilled player, Dante Maddox, has zero pts in 27 minutes, and Milner with 8 pts in 38 minutes. RayJ had 6 assists but the team only had 10 assists with 16 turnovers. Fortunately, the Rockets ball hawking defense had 12 steals and forced 21 turnovers. I don’t have much trust in Moss as a backup ball handling guard and for some reason Maddox and Milner’s games just aren’t clicking like I had hoped. Farmer has been a pleasant surprise but he needs more experience to develop his strengths and gain some consistency.

The interior defense has been a persistent liability. Canisius dominated the Rockets on the offensive boards with 17 offensive rebounds and an overall rebounding edge 48 – 36. All too often the Rockets defensive efforts are for naught when the opponents get extra scoring opportunities by snatching 2nd or 3rd chances off the offensive boards.
Shumate is fighting hard and seems to be always playing in foul trouble – the opponents know the best way to defend him is to go right at him on offense to get him into foul trouble

Before every game I’ve been checking the opponents roster to see which pedestrian big is going to have the game of his career against the Rockets. Hard nosed inside players like Jaco Fritz (Canisius) , Tytan Anderson (Northern Iowa), LJ Wells (Northern Kentucky), and Brandon Johnson (East Carolina) have taken advantage of the Rockets inside. Next week for Marshall it could be the 7’1 227lb Fr Micah Handlogten.

Edu is making slow progress and I hope Kowalczyk hasn’t lost faith in him. We will need his size and length in MAC play.

I love games on ESPN3. Much less swearing when I know the ending.

(12-11-2022 01:16 PM)eastisbest Wrote:  I love games on ESPN3. Much less swearing when I know the ending.

Exactly

(12-10-2022 09:45 PM)Springboromark Wrote:  I was at the game, Rockets led early 11-4 and I thought that was a start of the blow out, but The Golden Griffins thought otherwise. I mentioned earlier that the Griffins had some tall foreign players who did a good job of rebounding and intimidating UT's shooters as they were driving to the basket. Their tall 6-10 center, Fritz had I believe 12 points and 12 rebounds. Just some bad shooting on the part Rockets and 16 turnovers to boot. Sometimes I saw the Rockets driving to the basket with no option to pass, creating turnovers. The Sandusky Ohio freshman, #44 who scored 19 points did well against the Rockets.

Give Canisius credit, they played hard nose defense in their half court offenseand it wasn't easy for the Rockets. This was by far the best game the Griffins play on the road, other than the win in overtime against the Bonnie's of St. Bonaventure. They have now lost 5 in a row and deserved to win. i did wonder why TK didn't pressed in the front court late in the game. I noticed Cochran in a walking boot, didn't know that before. That doesn't look good.

Ditto

I have season tickets and thought this wouldn't be a close game either at the 11-4 mark but boy was I wrong. Give Canisius credit. They pushed us very hard on a day when we we were not focused. I told the Canisius coach when exiting the floor that it
was great game and they were the better team today and we got lucky. He gave a forced smile and said thanks.

Farmer has missed so many lay-ups this season I have lost count. He doesn't even look at the hoop when finishing. He gives us minutes. he's a decent offensive rebounder but not much more. I know he had a good game vs UNI. Farmer plays tough D and that's why TK was swapping him out on every defensive foul possession in final minutes.

This team misses Cochran.

Lorentson has not yet proven he can be a reliable + point differential player when on the floor. He's still a huge defensive liability.

When Maddox cannot contribute points that puts huge pressure on rest of team with Cochran out. He's a streaky shooter.

I think the team will be okay. It all centers around Cochran getting healthy, no more injuries, and Maddox and Lorentson giving us some additional reliable bench points.

I hate being too technical but Maddox is now a starter. Farmer comes off the bench. By the way, Wilson actually played a tiny bit in the first half. I had to look up his number (which is 3) since I do not recall seeing him on the floor in a close game this season.

(12-11-2022 01:46 PM)Rocket75 Wrote:  I hate being too technical but Maddox is now a starter. Farmer comes off the bench. By the way, Wilson actually played a tiny bit in the first half. I had to look up his number (which is 3) since I do not recall seeing him on the floor in a close game this season.

Maddox, Cochran and Moss are a fight club. They will be a bear trio for heady teams who don't like dudes in their jock. Kent and EMU specifically will hate when those guys are out there.

Wilson played well vs. Michigan in the 2020 game. Only a board and 2 pts but still a solid 9 mins. He is starting to get a shot in spot minutes. There is no true backup pg behind Dennis. But no one is afraid to bring the ball up.

A week's rest will probably do some good.

Milner is an enigma. IMO a pretty inconsistent player, esp offensively. Even within a game he’ll go 1-7 in the first half then 5-5 with two threes in the second. Defense and rebounding you can usually count on but we can’t afford to have him disappear for stretches. It gets compounded when Shumate gets into foul trouble.

(12-12-2022 03:13 PM)H2Oville Rocket Wrote:  Milner is an enigma. IMO a pretty inconsistent player, esp offensively. Even within a game he’ll go 1-7 in the first half then 5-5 with two threes in the second. Defense and rebounding you can usually count on but we can’t afford to have him disappear for stretches. It gets compounded when Shumate gets into foul trouble.

Exactly.