Thoughts from the BG/OU MAC Tournament game
Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2007 8:20 pm
Well, just got back from the MAC Tournament. It was another long ride home after yet another disappointing season. It’s a shame for me it ended so quickly again because every year around the country you see upsets and teams come out of nowhere to win their tournaments, and every year, no matter how good or how bad we are, I have a reserve of hope that maybe, just maybe, this will be our year. Even though I knew this year would be extremely difficult for us to accomplish the feat, I thought hell, what better a year to finally pull it off and win this damn thing already. Oh well…..
First off, I’ve got to say from the start, we played a much better game this time around than we did the other two times this year vs. Ohio. I wasn’t at the game in Athens, but I was at the one in BG a few weeks ago, and we at least looked much more prepared and competitive this time around. We made a game of it, and I’m proud of the team for that. We didn’t play our best, and we would have needed to in order to win this game, but we played hard and we left it on the floor today. For that, I am grateful and proud of my team.
On the flip side, we just don’t have the horses to win a game against a team like Ohio this year. OU is just one of those teams that we don’t match up well with at all. We can hang with them in stretches, but not for 40 minutes. If you were to line up 10 more games against them this year, I’m not sure I could see us beating them. They just have so much balance and different weapons and have a very good inside/outside game. But today, the difference in the game IMO was Bubba Walthers. About five minutes into the second half in a one-possession game, Walthers hit three three-pointers in a span of a minute! No kidding. It just took the air right out of our sails. He hit back-to-back treys that got the OU crowd into it and then hit a three in Samarco’s face from beyond NBA-range that was the dagger. Watching our guys walk off the floor after we burning a timeout after that shooting exhibition by Walthers, you could see it affected our team and I felt that was ballgame. We tried to battle back, and did, but the damage was done right there. In that 40 minute game, that one minute of play just killed us and gave them the upper hand.
Our lack of production inside hurts us a lot too. Our trio of centers were simply no match against Tillman and Williams. Polk, Lefeld and Larson combined for 2 points, 1 rebound and 9 fouls. We had far superior size, but they killed us with quickness and athleticism and made us look like we were standing in cement as they combined for 24 points, 22 rebounds and 7 fouls. Our only post threat was Miller, and he’s the height of a guard. But the comparisons to Anthony Stacey are becoming more and more warranted the more he plays. If we could take Miller’s moves and ability and put them into Polk’s body, you’d have the premier big man in the MAC. Miller uses his body just like Stacey to feel a defender behind him and he does a great job of drawing fouls against much bigger players. We really missed Hamblet and Samarco’s strokes today though. Both guys had decent looks today, but couldn’t consistently knock down the big shots. Hamblet started off slow and picked it up late, where as Samarco started very hot and cooled way off and forced a few. We needed big games from these two, and they tried, but they just didn’t have one of their A-games today. And of course, not having Marschall able to play at all hurt us before we ever took the court, especially inside where we had no answers.
Lastly, and this is sounding like a broken record for us all season long, free throws and fouling hurt us big time again. Our opponents made more than 250 free throws than we even attempted for the season, and we fouled nearly 200 times more than our opponent did this year, and today it was no different. BG was 6-9 from the line (all by Miller) while OU shot 19-29, and we had 23 fouls to their 10. Yeah, we scrambled to foul late which gave them about six more trips to the line and a few more fouls against us, but despite being outplayed in other areas, it didn’t help out one bit that we gave up 13 more points at the line in a game we lost by 10.
All in all, this year ended about how many of us thought. I for one felt we wouldn’t finish last in the MAC and that we would move ahead of a few teams, but didn’t. While the MAC wasn’t as strong this year as in recent years, there are certainly some solid teams in the league this year, but we struggled against everyone. Teams in the MAC have just seemed to have figured out how to beat us and how to exploit us time and time again in recent years anymore. There used to always be a few teams we could chalk up as wins, especially when we played at home, but those days are no more for BG. We’ve in fact slipped into becoming one of those teams ourselves. Is there a way to fix things at BG? Yes, certainly. But what it’s going to take? Better players, a different coach, a different style of play, or how about all of the above? Who knows. The list and ideas goes on an on. I love this school and I love the teams and that will never change. But with all that said, it only makes it more difficult to swallow after another disappointing season. The one thing we know for is we can add yet another year to ever-growing list of years since we last went to the NCAA Tournament back in 1968 and use yet again the all-too familiar line associated with BG hoops….”Maybe Next Year.” I can only hope I’ll get to see it in my lifetime, but as we approach 40 years of waiting, it really does make you wonder if and when we’ll see it again. Thanks seniors and here’s hoping we keep guys around for next year and make some progress.
GO BG!!!
First off, I’ve got to say from the start, we played a much better game this time around than we did the other two times this year vs. Ohio. I wasn’t at the game in Athens, but I was at the one in BG a few weeks ago, and we at least looked much more prepared and competitive this time around. We made a game of it, and I’m proud of the team for that. We didn’t play our best, and we would have needed to in order to win this game, but we played hard and we left it on the floor today. For that, I am grateful and proud of my team.
On the flip side, we just don’t have the horses to win a game against a team like Ohio this year. OU is just one of those teams that we don’t match up well with at all. We can hang with them in stretches, but not for 40 minutes. If you were to line up 10 more games against them this year, I’m not sure I could see us beating them. They just have so much balance and different weapons and have a very good inside/outside game. But today, the difference in the game IMO was Bubba Walthers. About five minutes into the second half in a one-possession game, Walthers hit three three-pointers in a span of a minute! No kidding. It just took the air right out of our sails. He hit back-to-back treys that got the OU crowd into it and then hit a three in Samarco’s face from beyond NBA-range that was the dagger. Watching our guys walk off the floor after we burning a timeout after that shooting exhibition by Walthers, you could see it affected our team and I felt that was ballgame. We tried to battle back, and did, but the damage was done right there. In that 40 minute game, that one minute of play just killed us and gave them the upper hand.
Our lack of production inside hurts us a lot too. Our trio of centers were simply no match against Tillman and Williams. Polk, Lefeld and Larson combined for 2 points, 1 rebound and 9 fouls. We had far superior size, but they killed us with quickness and athleticism and made us look like we were standing in cement as they combined for 24 points, 22 rebounds and 7 fouls. Our only post threat was Miller, and he’s the height of a guard. But the comparisons to Anthony Stacey are becoming more and more warranted the more he plays. If we could take Miller’s moves and ability and put them into Polk’s body, you’d have the premier big man in the MAC. Miller uses his body just like Stacey to feel a defender behind him and he does a great job of drawing fouls against much bigger players. We really missed Hamblet and Samarco’s strokes today though. Both guys had decent looks today, but couldn’t consistently knock down the big shots. Hamblet started off slow and picked it up late, where as Samarco started very hot and cooled way off and forced a few. We needed big games from these two, and they tried, but they just didn’t have one of their A-games today. And of course, not having Marschall able to play at all hurt us before we ever took the court, especially inside where we had no answers.
Lastly, and this is sounding like a broken record for us all season long, free throws and fouling hurt us big time again. Our opponents made more than 250 free throws than we even attempted for the season, and we fouled nearly 200 times more than our opponent did this year, and today it was no different. BG was 6-9 from the line (all by Miller) while OU shot 19-29, and we had 23 fouls to their 10. Yeah, we scrambled to foul late which gave them about six more trips to the line and a few more fouls against us, but despite being outplayed in other areas, it didn’t help out one bit that we gave up 13 more points at the line in a game we lost by 10.
All in all, this year ended about how many of us thought. I for one felt we wouldn’t finish last in the MAC and that we would move ahead of a few teams, but didn’t. While the MAC wasn’t as strong this year as in recent years, there are certainly some solid teams in the league this year, but we struggled against everyone. Teams in the MAC have just seemed to have figured out how to beat us and how to exploit us time and time again in recent years anymore. There used to always be a few teams we could chalk up as wins, especially when we played at home, but those days are no more for BG. We’ve in fact slipped into becoming one of those teams ourselves. Is there a way to fix things at BG? Yes, certainly. But what it’s going to take? Better players, a different coach, a different style of play, or how about all of the above? Who knows. The list and ideas goes on an on. I love this school and I love the teams and that will never change. But with all that said, it only makes it more difficult to swallow after another disappointing season. The one thing we know for is we can add yet another year to ever-growing list of years since we last went to the NCAA Tournament back in 1968 and use yet again the all-too familiar line associated with BG hoops….”Maybe Next Year.” I can only hope I’ll get to see it in my lifetime, but as we approach 40 years of waiting, it really does make you wonder if and when we’ll see it again. Thanks seniors and here’s hoping we keep guys around for next year and make some progress.
GO BG!!!