No Holmes or Dickerson???

[Flipper]

Eloquent?...I was going for edgy. Shucks....

[BGSU33]

Coach Jans said it directly in his postgame presser in Cleveland. Holmes could not go physically in the second half against EMU. He said he had not practiced since his injury against Buffalo. That means he hadn't done any conditioning for at least 10 days or more. Jans said he had no wind in the second half. The kid gave a gallant effort in the first half, but obviously wasn't himself...especially on the defensive end. How many lay-ups did EMU guards get with nobody protecting the rim? That wasn't the Holmes we had seen all season.

I heard Jans say all of that too, I listened to his presser as well. But anyone with a pulse and two eyeballs could see what EMU did in the first half and then to the second was a huge halftime adjustment and the main reason Holmes played a tail of two halves. Rob Murphy said afterwards as well. But no one needed Murphy to tell them that, it was plain as day to see for all. There are some people commenting on what happened who clearly didn't watch or see the game. Further, I'm not even debating if Holmes felt 100% or not. I heard he felt okay but whether Holmes was 30%, 50%, 80% or 100% was almost besides the point as what EMU did was eliminate him all together offensively from our game plan in the second half, and it worked. LeBron James would have been affected by that adjustment - it was brilliant. I believe Holmes took one shot the entire second half in the first minute or two and not one thereafter. Was he winded or out of sorts in the second half? He very well could have been, again, not debating that, but he was swarmed time and time again whenever he touched the ball. They were not going to let him do what he did in the first half (16 points). Offensively, EMU also set screens crossing guys in the low post where a post guy would body-up Holmes and then rolled as their guards attacked the paint and had numerous lanes for layups because of it. Holmes was screened on plays unable to defend the rim either over the top or by rolling under and their guards went right past him. The bottom line is EMU outplayed BG in the second half. Period. Holmes at whatever health level he was didn't matter as EMU made the changes and BG didn't counter. That's the beauty of college basketball because you can negate and offset talent gaps with schemes and execution. Butler went to back-to-back national championships doing just that. Hats off to EMU for doing what they did vs BG.