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Don Haskins Sun Bowl Invitational


clarkwgriswold

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We gritted it out and made the shots we had to at the end. It's a miracle the UCI's coach didn't get T'd up. He was in the refs ear the entire game. Big dog didn't have the greatest game but it was enough. #55 Green was a tank but he tossed up a bunch junk shots that somehow went in. Bring on UTEP.

 

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5 minutes ago, Hilltopper said:

Unlike those wins we had against USC and S Carolina in Vegas last year.:nutkick:

 

Point stands, but it was UC-Santa Barbara and Iona in Vegas. The USC wins (both Southern Cal and South Carolina were in Charleston, IIR). We did beat Oregon State in Hawaii three or four years ago.

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It's probably better that Eastern Shore won since UTEP came in at No. 289 in the KenPom rankings and Eastern Shore at No. 331, so it's not like either team is very good. Might as well beat a bad team on a neutral court than take the chance of losing to a bad team in a true road game.

 

Overall, hopefully the Irvine game was worth going to this tournament, because it was evident it would be the only game worth anything, regardless of who the second opponent was. Either UTEP or Eastern Shore is a no-win game. Maybe you can argue there would've been something to be gained from playing a true road game against UTEP, but I doubt there would've been more than 500 people in the stands.

 

With that, I won't kill anybody for agreeing to this tournament. The Zips took a chance and it backfired. I'm sure it was sold to Irvine and Akron that you guys get a crack at each other (both top 50 to 70 teams last year) with the winner taking on UTEP (since the Miners brought in as close of a gimme as you can get with Eastern Shore). As luck has it, Irvine (ranked No. 178 in KenPom) is decent but not as good as they were a year ago; and UTEP is god awful.

 

But last year the mid-major tournament worked out well. Both Iona and Santa Barbara were ranked right around the top 100. 

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2 hours ago, Hilltopper said:

We gritted it out and made the shots we had to at the end. It's a miracle the UCI's coach didn't get T'd up. He was in the refs ear the entire game. Big dog didn't have the greatest game but it was enough. #55 Green was a tank but he tossed up a bunch junk shots that somehow went in. Bring on UTEP.

 

Not!  Maryland Eastern Shore!

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2 hours ago, wadszip said:

 

Point stands, but it was UC-Santa Barbara and Iona in Vegas. The USC wins (both Southern Cal and South Carolina were in Charleston, IIR). We did beat Oregon State in Hawaii three or four years ago.

2013.  We might have another chance vs USC -- the California one -- in next year's Diamond Head Classic.

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Oregon State made a miracle 3 at the buzzer to take a 27-26 lead over KSU at halftime.  Shot much like the one Washington made at the final buzzer last Saturday night that beat WMU.  Oh, the Broncos played a good first half against #-- (fill in the blank) UCLA and trails by 12, 45-33.  Western actually led for about six minutes, before the Bruins woke up.  Western, as usual is a very game ball club.  I've always been a Steve (Minion) Hawkins fan.

Edited by Z.I.P.
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8 minutes ago, Z.I.P. said:

Oregon State made a miracle 3 at the buzzer to take a 27-26 lead over KSU at halftime.  Shot much like the one Washington made at the final buzzer last Saturday night that beat WMU.  Oh, the Broncos played a good first half against #-- (fill in the blank) UCLA and trails by 12, 45-33.  Western actually led for about six minutes, before the Bruins woke up.  Western, as usual is a very game ball club.  I've always been a Steve (Minion) Hawkins fan.

Western is an enigma. They played No. 1 Villanova to 11 points, now within 4 in the second half against No. 2 UCLA and they nearly beat a top 50 ranked UNC-Wilmington team. But they also have a 25-point to a horrible Cleveland State team.

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8 hours ago, gozips19 said:

Akron needs/better dominate the conference this year. 

 

Now we're talking.  Go and try to win 30 games, or close to it.  Enough of this talk of just positioning ourselves for the Anything-Can-Happen MAC tournament.  This could be another repeat of the 2012-2013 conference run, and maybe we won't get a player suspended right before the final league game this time.    

 

I think we're far from hitting any peak with this team.  We're not even playing our best lineups all the time yet.  Keith has been trying to work in the bench guys in hopes of developing those 7 thru 10 guys this year.  If we can get to the point where some of these guys can really contribute some productive minutes before we risk any losses in the process, this team could potentially get close to running the table in conference play.  

Edited by skip-zip
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33 minutes ago, NWAkron said:

From just following games on the computer, Buffalo seems like a "streaky" team that will run up 12 to 15 points really fast.  CMU with that player who is scoring 40 per game appears to be the bigger threat.

 

WMU has a really small frontcourt. Their PF/C starting combo come in at 6'6 and 6'8. They also ask Rayson and Keene to play pretty much every minute of every game (They are both averaging 35 mpg. Take out the D2 opponent game and they are averaging more like 37-38). They are both undersized themselves each coming in at 5'9. They aren't a team built to win 3 games in 3 days.

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43 minutes ago, kreed5120 said:

 

WMU has a really small frontcourt. Their PF/C starting combo come in at 6'6 and 6'8. They also ask Rayson and Keene to play pretty much every minute of every game (They are both averaging 35 mpg. Take out the D2 opponent game and they are averaging more like 37-38). They are both undersized themselves each coming in at 5'9. They aren't a team built to win 3 games in 3 days.

 

I hope your analysis is correct.

 

I think the biggest factor we've seen this year so far in our ability to succeed is probably whether someone can guard the Big Dog.  For a time last night, UC-Irvine has even able to control us because they had two huge post players that they could rotate in and out.  The teams that need help to keep him away from easy baskets is likely going to struggle.  

 

I see OU as a team with the potential to go one-on-one on him too.  For that reason, I may want to consider them a threat. On the other hand, it looks like WMU likely would be unable to do that, putting them at a big disadvantage. 

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boat raced

To be beaten very badly at something, especially in such a fashion that you were behind from the start and never had a chance. Comes from the Boat Race, an annual rowing competition between Oxford and Cambridge, in which the first side to get ahead can move to the middle of the river (where the current is fastest) and is almost never overtaken thereafter.

"Chicago got boat raced by Green Bay, 37-3."

#dominated #blown out #ass kicked #outplayed #overmatched #annihilated

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Yeah, I mean I'm not saying CMU couldn't out shoot us for a game. What I'm saying is they aren't really a good defensive team and are a very poor rebounding team. I just don't think they can find other ways to win when they are having an off shooting night, which they will be vulnerable to when their studs in their 100th minute of a back-to-back-to-back. Not to mention them wanting to run an uptempo style of offense while other teams try to bully them with their size will wear them down faster.

Edited by kreed5120
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