The game vs. Westerm is Tuesday,, but the game against AKRON is FRIDAY NIGHT and will be on ESPN-U.

I'll repeat a comment I made yesterday, namely, Emoni needs a much better supporting cast performance.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket.../401473509 Versus BG, Tyson and Noah combined for 4 - 24.

Yesterday they combined for 4 - 15. https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket.../401473513

I'll admit that when I see comments disparaging Emoni or remind us that he is no hoops messiah that it isn't fair. He is a very talented player playing on a team with other key players who are slumping and other players who are more role players than impact players. Why players are slumping? I have NO idea. Normal cyclic slumps? Injuries? Mental or emotional? Poor fit for the schemes?

Why does Emoni seem to be playing hero ball, trying to be the star? Simply, "If not Emoni, who?" Are Noah and Tyson going to be the 'to go' guys shooting a combined 8 for 39 the two MAC games?

Emoni signed too late to get star talent to transfer with him. If this were MLB Emoni would get one or two intentional passes per game. They would make the other players beat them.

Sorry, Emoni, I hope you aren't a projected 1st round NBA pick and you come back and Stan can get an impact player or two to transfer to help you. I assume he knows the difference between a first rounder (guaranteed contract) vs. 2nd rounder (not guaranteed). Play another year at EMU move up in the 1st round, get drafted, sign a guaranteed contract.

Lest I be wrong, moving from late first to say 25 is worth more $. Moving from 25 to 20 is worth more. Moving from 20 to 15, more. Moving into the lottery... Moving higher into the 1st round is huge. Worth a ton of money.

(01-08-2023 06:21 AM)emu steve Wrote:  I'll repeat a comment I made yesterday, namely, Emoni needs a much better supporting cast performance.

https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket.../401473509 Versus BG, Tyson and Noah combined for 4 - 24.

Yesterday they combined for 4 - 15. https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basket.../401473513

I'll admit that when I see comments disparaging Emoni or remind us that he is no hoops messiah that it isn't fair. He is a very talented player playing on a team with other key players who are slumping and other players who are more role players than impact players. Why players are slumping? I have NO idea. Normal cyclic slumps? Injuries? Mental or emotional? Poor fit for the schemes?

Why does Emoni seem to be playing hero ball, trying to be the star? Simply, "If not Emoni, who?" Are Noah and Tyson going to be the 'to go' guys shooting a combined 8 for 39 the two MAC games?

Emoni signed too late to get star talent to transfer with him. If this were MLB Emoni would get one or two intentional passes per game. They would make the other players beat them.

Sorry, Emoni, I hope you aren't a projected 1st round NBA pick and you come back and Stan can get an impact player or two to transfer to help you. I assume he knows the difference between a first rounder (guaranteed contract) vs. 2nd rounder (not guaranteed). Play another year at EMU move up in the 1st round, get drafted, sign a guaranteed contract.

Lest I be wrong, moving from late first to say 25 is worth more $. Moving from 25 to 20 is worth more. Moving from 20 to 15, more. Moving into the lottery... Moving higher into the 1st round is huge. Worth a ton of money.

I think throwing his teammates under the bus is wrong. You are or not part of a team. The fact is the entire team performed better in the second half which won the game. The fact is we are still 4-11. By the way what is about you hijacking other people's ideas? You did it with Monday Musings and now this.

Dear Steve the Thread Hitchhiker please follow a similar format in the future:

After splitting the home series 1-1 and a great second half comeback against CMU EMU is 4-11 and 1-1 in conference. EMU has two road games this week January 10 at WMU and a Friday road game on 1/13 at Akron.

WMU is currently 4-11 and 0-2 in conference with losses to Kent St and Toledo. For a second season B Artis White is out with injury. The starting lineup is subject to change but will likely look like this:

Lamar Norman Jr. 6'1 Sr. 17.3 ppg
Tray Maddox Jr. 6'6 Sr. 11.8 ppg
Titus Wright 6'8 Jr. 7.5 ppg
Tafari Simms 6'6 Sr. 7.3 ppg
Markeese Hastings 6'7 Jr. 7 pts per game

Seth Hubbard 6'4 Fr. J Hannah 6'4 and Jefferson Mongero 6'4 also both freshmen are options off the bench.

Akron lost last Friday to a rising Ball State program and won against NIU and is currently 9-6 and 1-1 in the MAC.

The starting lineup looks like this:

Xavier Castaneda 6'1 Sr. 19.5 ppg
Enrique Freeman 6'7 Jr. 13.7 ppg
Trendon Hankerson 6'2 GR 9.1 ppg
Tavari Johnson 5'11Fr. 7.2 ppg
Greg Tribble 6'1 Jr. 7 ppg

Sammy Hunter 6'9 Jr is the first option at about 6 points per game.

I did it just once. I used to do it for football.

The only time I start a "Monday Musing" thread is when Fan fails to do so. Sometimes he goes weeks w/out starting a new thread.

No big deal...

I did want to make my points and opted this thread as a vehicle. Some here and on the main MAC board expect too much of one player.

I call them the way I see them. Not fair to be harsh toward Emoni and treat teammates with kid gloves. So easy to blame the star. Hoop messiah not leading us to the promised land.

We see it in pro sports. Fans want the 1/1 draft pick to turn a bad team (hence the 1/1 pick) into an immediate contender. Rarely works that way. Think the poor Qb drafted 1/ by a last place team. Hint: bad supporting cast. I'm old enough to remember Jim Plunket, Patriots QB, who was 'abused' playing on a very bad team with a porous OL.

And I will repeat a comment I made yesterday. Mr. Bates is likely to find a better supporting cast in the NBA where he is likely headed next season. That appears to be a goal of his and his family. Great for them. He had in my opinion his first complete game yesterday and deserves all the compliments in the world for his performance. Lets hope its a beginning of an upward trend for the reminder of the season. I saw a comment yesterday about a our tough non conference schedule. While I agree that under Heath we are playing a much more competitive schedule I still think last years non conference schedule was tougher than this years. I think the only ranked team we've played this year was U of M and I believe they are no longer a ranked team.

I have NO idea what Emoni's plans for next year are. Unless someone is friends with the Bates or knows Murphy well (hint: he should have the "book" on Bates) then they are are just reading Internet speculation (hint: I read them too from ESPN + or The Athletic).

Again, I'll repeat what I posted before. Second round draftees don't get guaranteed contracts. Any player who comes out early and isn't a first rounder probably has made a big mistake.

I think the NBA, NFL, MLB, etc. 'slot salaries' based on draft position. Those slotted salaries decline sharply from say 1/1 to the last pick in the 1st round. Potential early entries should understand the difference between being drafted 20, 15, 14, 5 or 1/1.

I really doubt that Emoni and his father will make a decision until they get good vibes from the pre-draft process where he might be drafted.

And all of the hype Emoni got as a 16 year old was crazy. He was and is still a very thin athlete. He does not have Kevin Durant's body. The NBA question is: What is his floor and ceiling given his very thin body? Doesn't appear he has gained any weight at EMU.

To Make A Clear Note:

(EDIT: this post was intended as a response to EMU79’s post above about hijacking other’s ideas)

EMUSteve has for years done the “Game Week: @ vs” thread for basketball. And less consistently would create separate threads for each GameDay. This was ever since I first joined this board (originally under a different username) about 10 years ago. I think in the recent couple years, others (myself, luckey, etc) have started doing it randomly as well beating him to the punch. So Steve seems to have dropped off of it. I would NEVER say he was stealing someone’s idea by creating such a “Game Week” thread now.

If anything, that EMU79 started consistently doing it with the starting lineups/ stats, I would have said ‘79 was stealing EMUSteve’s idea and adding his own twist to it. And I liked the twist of starting lineups/ stats as very useful (although, I will note last weeks was misleading, because it included CMU’s Miller who hasn’t played for weeks).

(01-08-2023 08:07 AM)RamyEMU Wrote:  To Make A Clear Note:

EMUSteve has for years done the “Game Week: @ vs” thread for basketball. And less consistently would create separate threads for each GameDay. This was ever since I first joined this board (originally under a different username) about 10 years ago. I think in the recent couple years, others (myself, luckey, etc) have started doing it randomly as well beating him to the punch. So Steve seems to have dropped off of it. I would NEVER say he was stealing someone’s idea by creating such a “Game Week” thread now.

If anything, that EMU79 started consistently doing it with the starting lineups/ stats, I would have said ‘79 was stealing EMUSteve’s idea and adding his own twist to it. And I liked the twist of starting lineups/ stats as very useful (although, I will note last weeks was misleading, because it included CMU’s Miller who hasn’t played for weeks).

Thanks.

For those who have been around many years or check my profile, I have been around 19 years. (yep, no typo. January 2004. Hope to be a live and kicking another 6 years and hit the magic 25 years).

During those times, I have posted in various ways as I felt. In recent years I have fallen off the "Game Week: @ and " MBB threads. We had some really bad years, including Covid. I'm just recharging my EMU MBB batteries this season (although my interest has waned as our football performed very well but MBB has not).

I also spend more time on Twitter and follow Vannesse and Alex Alvarado who Tweet some very timely and good info (a lot of verbals, transfers, etc. are posts based on Vannesse's Tweets who seems to break a lot of stuff.)

I like what '79 has done. He includes good information without us having to go to an opponent's website or ESPN.

BTW, for those with Twitter accounts I HIGHLY recommend following Vannesse and Alex Alvarado. They are the "CNN Breaking News" of EMU sports. I GREATLY appreciate what they do. Once again, EMU athletics has RULES they must follow about when and how they release information about players. Followers like Vannesse and Alex are not bound by such rules. Neither is an EMU employee and bound by PIA, HIPIA, and NCAA rules. If one posts that player X might have a concussion they can do it. The caveat is that their information isn't official. Just like someone sitting near the field and seeing a player go into the tent holding his shoulder.

Believe we should focus on this season.

If Heath plays a pressure defense and allows Noah to run the offense, EMU can win going forward. As the team needs to makes steals the entire game just as as they did against CMU. l Emoni needs do his thing.

Heath's deliberate defense and offense should to be thrown into the garbage can.

If Heath continues to let the boys have fun any play as they did yesterday, the young men will bring their high energy to the court.

(01-08-2023 07:36 AM)emu79 Wrote:  And I will repeat a comment I made yesterday. Mr. Bates is likely to find a better supporting cast in the NBA where he is likely headed next season. That appears to be a goal of his and his family. Great for them. He had in my opinion his first complete game yesterday and deserves all the compliments in the world for his performance. Lets hope its a beginning of an upward trend for the reminder of the season. I saw a comment yesterday about a our tough non conference schedule. While I agree that under Heath we are playing a much more competitive schedule I still think last years non conference schedule was tougher than this years. I think the only ranked team we've played this year was U of M and I believe they are no longer a ranked team.

This years non conference was definitely easier than last year- fully agree. But this years was definitely still challenging schedule. Especially given only 4 home games probably caused too much time for travel and not enough for practice. Our frontcourt seems to be still trying to learn what to do, so probably could have used that time.

Regarding the statement above, about Emoni. I think it is the goal of each of the players and families to play in the NBA. I think for some it is more realistic than others. But I am glad to see a very fair statement to Emoni. I do think his defense has been improving all season- we finally saw it more clearly yesterday. I don’t think he has turned 19 yet, so would expect the need for these areas of growth.

For ‘79, see this thread for EMU’s out of conference record LAST year- second post down…
https://csnbbs.com/thread-938733.html

And compare to this year, third post down in this thread…
https://csnbbs.com/thread-962534.html

I would say last years team was doing pretty good in non conference especially with a bunch of newcomers. But they also tanked a little after conference play started for whatever reason finishing the year 3-14.

To focus on this years team as Miggy suggests…

EMU started the year 1-6 in their first seven games.
And have been 3-5 in their last eight.

It might be that their schedule has gotten easier as the season progressed, or might be there actually is some ebb and flow progress with the players going on. Probably a little of both. We’ll see…

Gonna spend some time with the fam then gonna be busy with some work. But will talk to you all about EMU basketball on Tuesday. Go EMU!!

Time to throw caution to the wind and would like to see Coach Heath unleash his players and has them play a pressure defense that results in many steals. Offense has to attack the hoop.

Sitting back and letting opponents shoot the three ball while players try to help out elsewhere results in losses. Heath has to have his bigs defend the rim and not stray from it.

EMU is not a good half-court team. With athletic players they can counter that by getting out in the open court off defensive rebounds, and then attack the hoop. Saw that last game as EMU scored 44-points and CMU scored but 26 points in the second-half. EMU burst CMU's bubble coming off an upset win over Michigan.

Sorry for being repetitious, but that's how EMU should play each game going forward.

I'm trying to not jump the gun, but here is an opponent from next week: Kent State. Scary.

https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men...ne-talking

(01-09-2023 06:07 AM)emu steve Wrote:  I'm trying to not jump the gun, but here is an opponent from next week: Kent State. Scary.

https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men...ne-talking

Senderoff like Tod K at Toledo has built a real program! Buffalo and Akron aren't far behind! Kent St played a really strong OOC schedule! Could've won all 3 'games they lost! Led late in the 2nd half of all 3 games! I watched the Gonzaga game!

(01-09-2023 12:00 PM)EMUGLORYDAYSthe90s Wrote:  

(01-09-2023 06:07 AM)emu steve Wrote:  I'm trying to not jump the gun, but here is an opponent from next week: Kent State. Scary.

https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men...ne-talking

Senderoff like Tod K at Toledo has built a real program! Buffalo and Akron aren't far behind! Kent St played a really strong OOC schedule! Could've won all 3 'games they lost! Led late in the 2nd half of all 3 games! I watched the Gonzaga game!

W/out editorial comment...

https://sagarin.usatoday.com/2023-2/coll...s-2022-23/

(01-09-2023 12:07 PM)emu steve Wrote:  

(01-09-2023 12:00 PM)EMUGLORYDAYSthe90s Wrote:  

(01-09-2023 06:07 AM)emu steve Wrote:  I'm trying to not jump the gun, but here is an opponent from next week: Kent State. Scary.

https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men...ne-talking

Senderoff like Tod K at Toledo has built a real program! Buffalo and Akron aren't far behind! Kent St played a really strong OOC schedule! Could've won all 3 'games they lost! Led late in the 2nd half of all 3 games! I watched the Gonzaga game!

W/out editorial comment...

https://sagarin.usatoday.com/2023-2/coll...s-2022-23/

I think an editorial would actually be helpful. No one knows why you attached a link to the Saggarin ratings. Is it in regards to Kent St’s ranking? EMU’s ranking? The MAC’s ranking? WMU? Akron? Or do you just like Saggarin rankings? Etc.

(01-08-2023 12:26 PM)RamyEMU Wrote:  For ‘79, see this thread for EMU’s out of conference record LAST year- second post down…
https://csnbbs.com/thread-938733.html

And compare to this year, third post down in this thread…
https://csnbbs.com/thread-962534.html

I would say last years team was doing pretty good in non conference especially with a bunch of newcomers. But they also tanked a little after conference play started for whatever reason finishing the year 3-14.

Why last year was disappointing I thought the team effort and hustle was there.

(01-10-2023 03:11 PM)RamyEMU Wrote:  

(01-09-2023 12:07 PM)emu steve Wrote:  

(01-09-2023 12:00 PM)EMUGLORYDAYSthe90s Wrote:  

(01-09-2023 06:07 AM)emu steve Wrote:  I'm trying to not jump the gun, but here is an opponent from next week: Kent State. Scary.

https://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men...ne-talking

Senderoff like Tod K at Toledo has built a real program! Buffalo and Akron aren't far behind! Kent St played a really strong OOC schedule! Could've won all 3 'games they lost! Led late in the 2nd half of all 3 games! I watched the Gonzaga game!

W/out editorial comment...

https://sagarin.usatoday.com/2023-2/coll...s-2022-23/

I think an editorial would actually be helpful. No one knows why you attached a link to the Saggarin ratings. Is it in regards to Kent St’s ranking? EMU’s ranking? The MAC’s ranking? WMU? Akron? Or do you just like Saggarin rankings? Etc.

It was Kent State related.