Western's Take on Zips Game

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From the Kalamazoo GazetteWMU unfazed by `tail-kicking' at Akron Tuesday, January 30, 2007By Graham Couchgcouch@kalamazoogazette.com 388-7773 There weren't any vicious tongue-lashings at Monday's Western Michigan University men's basketball practice. The players didn't run so many sprints that they spewed their lunches into trash cans. Nor did they sulk about their chances the rest of this season. Saturday's 69-36 whipping at the hands of Akron, the Broncos said, was exactly that. It's no reason, they added, to put down their basketballs and give up the sport. ``When you get absolutely beat bad like we did on Saturday, we've got so many important games coming up, that you really have to have a short memory about it, try to take what you can from the game and move on, almost forget about it,'' said sophomore point guard Michael Redell, who had just two points, two assists and four turnovers against the Mid-American Conference East Division-leading Zips. WMU's first chance to show off its forward thinking comes Wednesday night against visiting Buffalo (9-11, 1-6 MAC). Monday, at a reporter's request, the Broncos (9-11, 4-3) spent most of their time explaining Saturday. ``I've been coaching 20 some odd years now, I mean that's not my first tail-kicking,'' WMU coach Steve Hawkins said. ``It's happened before. I hope I coach another 20 years, and it's going to happen again. I've been on the other end of them, too. ``The problem is, as coaches, it's very easy for you to make a mountain out of a molehill when you lose. If you're not careful, if you haven't gone through it, then you can really cause more damage than good.'' The question then is, did the game at Akron reveal a mountain or a molehill? Saturday, Zips forward Romeo Travis called the Broncos ``very slow'' while analyzing the contest. Monday, the Broncos didn't quite agree with the tortoise and hare comparison in reference to their personnel, though, for one game, they didn't disagree with the take on their pace offensively. Hawkins said the film showed a pretty solid defensive effort by WMU, one that was made worthless by its lack of offense. ``We helped them by being slower than we should have been, by running offense a little more methodical than we should have run (it),'' Hawkins said. Said Redell: ``We kind of held onto (the ball) too long, which caused us to take some tougher shots or some bad shots. They were definitely a quick team, but we were, before that game, the No. 1 team scoring-wise in the MAC. We control what we do on offense. More us than them. ... I'm not going to say they can lock us down. The ball does move through the air.'' As much as anything, Hawkins pointed to the off night by WMU's four best scorers -- Joe Reitz (17.7 points per MAC game before Akron; six at Akron), David Kool (13.7; five), Shawntes Gary (12.5; eight) and Redell (11.7; two). ``In a given game, we've had a guy not play real well and the other three or four have,'' Hawkins said. ``We had a day where all four guys, the main four guys offensively that had been scoring for us, all had bad days.'' A 33-point defeat, however, can leave one of the opinion that the difference in teams was more than a bad afternoon by one of them. If the Broncos see Akron again in the MAC Tournament, do they have enough of an arsenal to defeat the Zips on a semi-neutral court in Cleveland? ``I'd like to have the shot,'' said Hawkins, who pointed to Ohio -- which lost at Ball State Saturday after beating Akron -- as an example of the unpredictable nature of the league. ``Some people would say, `Well, geez, you hope you don't face them again.' That's the very wrong answer. You want another shot. You want another shot at Toledo (too). You want another shot at the teams that beat you. ``The effort that we had given before had been good enough in some of these games to win them. It's not going to be enough at Toledo or at Akron to win a game. That tells us where we're at. So we correct it.'' BRACKETBUSTER TV GAMES ANNOUNCED: As expected, WMU was not among the 28 teams picked for the 14 televised games in next month's ESPN BracketBuster. The Broncos will learn later this week which ``mid-major'' program will be visiting University Arena on Feb. 17. Southern Illinois will play Butler in the marquee matchup. Four MAC teams are slated for TV games that weekend, as well: Toledo (vs. Old Dominion); Akron (vs. Austin Peay); Ohio at New Mexico State; and Can't State at George Mason.

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Hawkins said the film showed a pretty solid defensive effort by WMU, one that was made worthless by its lack of offense. ...Said Redell: ``We kind of held onto (the ball) too long, which caused us to take some tougher shots or some bad shots. They were definitely a quick team, but we were, before that game, the No. 1 team scoring-wise in the MAC. We control what we do on offense. More us than them. ... I'm not going to say they can lock us down. The ball does move through the air.''

that's why they say DEFENSE WINS CHAMPIONSHIPS!

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You know. It is just one game. And I hope the Zips see it that way too and continue to come out hungry every night.