Cannisius or however you spell it

[Globetrotter]

57-51 Good guys 11:04 left

Looks like we are playing a 7 man rotation this week.

Are people being voted off the team every game?

[Globetrotter]

No Edwards, Thomas, Greer or McComb

[Globetrotter]

I wish we had someone who could tell us why these players aren't playing. The mystery is killing me

[Globetrotter]

Marcus Hill has 22 pts and Spurgin 15

[Globetrotter]

WE won

[hammb]

Followed loosely on Twitter/ESPN play by play. Hill had a late bucket then spurgin with a block to seal it.

Couple nice wins to finish the trip to Canada.

I'm curious why the rotation was so limited too. I actually am happy to see it pared down some...huger would always try to roll 9-10 guys and never had a plan. But 7 guys on the 3rd straight day? Have to figure there's an injury reason.

Of course I doubt we even sent our media people out there and we don't have local media that will cover this team. Other than an occasional tweet from a blade or sentinel reporter there is just no coverage.

[footballguy51]

Was this an experiment on using a short rotation for March?

[Diemilkweed]

Spurgin played 32 minutes today. 3rd game in a row and he was hitting a 3 in the 4th and got that block at the end. i think we can relax about his conditioning

I am assuming that Thomas' ankle was not as ready to go as assumed. He was 0-8 from the field and the team had a terrible day on turnovers. Maybe he tweaked it, maybe he just wasn't ready yet.

And after we got drilled Friday, I think coach was like "That's it - winning time" and stopped playing people who aren't really ready. I love McComb's hustle. I love that he stayed. But his shooting ..... i hope he works that out.

[Hammer]

The short rotation and starting Towns seems to be working. I have no clue what this team is going to look like come February. Nothing would surprise me.

[Falcon Fryed]

That was a good win against a good Canisius team They were able to gut the win out and I think it was a big win for team morale. This was the first game out of the last 3-4 that the whole bench had the energy that they started the season with.

The two people missing in the rotation tonight were Thomas and Edwards. It has seemed that the recent play of McComb and Greer has been situational or subbed in when Simon gets pissed at the energy or level of play of the main rotation.

From pictures on social media it seems Thomas hasn't been practicing. There was no way he was playing all three games with a lower body injury and playing 24 minutes in the one game he did play. He also seemed to have a slight limp during the WKU game. I think Edwards can be chalked up to either injury or falling in the Simon dog house. His lack luster performances and inconsistent minutes use would make me lean toward the latter.

[hammb]

Yeah I think it's fair to assume Thomas is a primary rotation (starting) player, but is still not back from injury enough to give us much. Especially in a 3 games in 3 days scenario.

The entire trip to Canada were against respectable Kenpom teams that would currently sit in the top half of the MAC (we're 6th). Good to go out there and go 2-1 against teams of that caliber, especially after falling to Oakland and Bellarmine.

That pretty much puts a wrap on the competitive portion of our OOC schedule. I'm not in love with it, but for a first yr coach I can somewhat excuse it. I hope it doesn't continue to be a trend like it was with Huger every year. The rest of the non-conference games are against Kenpom teams over 300 or lower division schools. I'll always prefer playing some actual competition to prepare for MAC season, but here we are. The next 5 games should provide ample opportunity to continue honing on that rotation, but if it's the 7-8 guys (adding Thomas) that play the bulk now, I'm fine with that. Hopefully we'll have chances late in games to work some of the other guys into minutes as well.

We kinda knew it when the schedule was released, but it is concerning that Oakland is the only team on our OOC schedule within 50 Kenpom slots of OU, Toledo, Akron, and KSU.

[TommyG]

I’m guessing the majority of the schedule was set before Simon was hired. He may have had a chance to add a game or two, but likely everything was penciled in. Not sure if he’ll schedule similar or different than Huger, but I’d guess this year was basically out of his hands.

I think it will be a grind for this team in the MAC…I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way. I think there will be some good games and some struggles, but the key will be how the team improves as the year progresses.
That was one thing you didn’t see a lot from Huger’s teams. Outside of the 1 deep run to the finals, you didn’t see a ton of progression from November to March.

I enjoy watching this team more, but that may be because the past few seasons were frustrating to watch.

[hammb]

I’m guessing the majority of the schedule was set before Simon was hired. He may have had a chance to add a game or two, but likely everything was penciled in. Not sure if he’ll schedule similar or different than Huger, but I’d guess this year was basically out of his hands.

I think it will be a grind for this team in the MAC…I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way. I think there will be some good games and some struggles, but the key will be how the team improves as the year progresses.
That was one thing you didn’t see a lot from Huger’s teams. Outside of the 1 deep run to the finals, you didn’t see a ton of progression from November to March.

I enjoy watching this team more, but that may be because the past few seasons were frustrating to watch.

Agreed on all accounts, except to add that Huger's teams did more than simply not progress as the year went on, they typically got far worse. His February/March record was abysmal. Even that team that made the finals run limped into the MAC tourney losing something like 3 of their last 4 regular season games to hurt their seeding.

I think this team has potential to grow, in large part because they have division 1 size (something Huger never built) and they are still just a conglomeration of parts working through playing together.

The one thing Huger did very well over the years was retaining talent. It was remarkable how he kept guys like Plowden & Turner in the program. Yet, we never actually saw the benefits of a group gelling together after playing together for years. I know Simon has talked on podcasts about his ability to retain talent at SUU being key to his success. If he can do that here, I think we're in for a fun ride, whether it's this season or not.