vs. Wright State (12/13)

[Hammer]

When three to four guys collapse on you someone on the floor is open. Other teams make us pay dearly for those kinds of hedges but we don’t repay the favor.

[Globetrotter]

Cam young best game so far. 6 steals.

[Hammer]

If Cam Young can stop turning the ball over he’s going to earn a lot of minutes. Our younger guys fought much harder than our seniors and that just can’t happen.

[mbenecke]

Sounds like Huger plans to add 2 more games between now and Kent State. Makes a lot of sense - a 17ish day layoff is super long and could lead to rust entering conference play. Our guys need to be sharp and hit the ground running when we get to December 30th, ideally.

A home game against Defiance College is listed for this Friday night on their website. We'll see if that comes to be.

[BGSU33]

I said in the offseason our biggest need (after Turner decided to return) - by far - was someone to play in the post for us. Whether that meant a true C or a versatile F, we needed immediate help there because we had no quality player to fill the spot on the roster. I hoped like hell we could have found a proven grad transfer like what Ohio did with the JMU Dwight Wilson who is becoming a double-double machine. But no, we're still in love with Swingle (I still can't understand why Huger loves this kid so much) and brought in a weak Juco option in Washington who looks timid and scared at times. The position was and still is our Achilles' heel, and since we had the opportunity to address it but didn't, it's going to cost us in a number of games to come like it did today. We're not going to win three games in three days in Cleveland with next to nothing in production from that spot. It's just not gonna happen.

[hammb]

I watched only about 10-12 mins of the first half yesterday. I was coming out of the grocery and when I got in the car it was already 16-5 I think at like 12:10. By the time I got home and got the game on TV we were already down by almost 20. I watched the rest of the first half, and in that time I'm not sure I saw a single good possession on either end of the floor. On offense we looked like we were just taking turns seeing which player could heat check their way into a 15 point outburst. Didn't seem at all interested in running any sort of offense and slowly piecing it together. Defensively we just looked lost. Obviously that final 10:00 of the 1st half was brutal, but that's what I saw in my limited viewing. I coudln't bring myself to keep it on to watch the 2nd half. I figured we'd chip back into the lead, but the game was over and there aren't any positives to take from what you do in the 2nd half of a 30+ point blowout. The game is over at halftime.

As for the roster discussion, there is little doubt that our C spot is a major problem. I've seen nothing in a year to make me believe Swingle can play at all. Big guys often take time to develop so I'm not comfortable saying he'll always be awful, but we haven't seen many encouraging signs yet. Overall, I'm a big fan of playing small. I'd much rather have a series of 6'9 athletes at C than the Wiggins/Swingle big guy that just clogs up the middle in a pure post role on both ends. The issue really becomes the fact that Huger has always seemed hell bent on that traditional big guy to take postup possessions, etc...and if you're dedicated to running sets that way you should probably have at least one guy on the roster capable of being worth those touches. I've got no issues with Washington, I think he's a fine rotation piece to give similar production to what we got from Sierra last year. And he's a better athlete than Sierra as well.

The crazy thing to me, that I'm having a tough time wrapping my head around, is that Swingle is playing much worse than Mattos did last year. They're both around 15 mins and Mattos (who I genuinely thought was pretty awful) still grabbed 5.1 boards a game and scored 4.9 ppg on 1.25 points per shot. Swingle is only giving us 2.7 boards a game and 2.7 ppg on 1.17 points per shot. It's early which makes rate stats even less reliable, but that scoring per shot production is beyond awful. By FAR the worst of any of our starters. And let's make no bones about it, Mattos's scoring numbers weren't good, but still better than what Swingle has given us.

I'm hopeful that we'll find a way to play the longer athletes together for long stretches. Getting Matiss bakc will help. We're gonna be a bad team on the boards for sure this year, but we should be able to create some offensive mismatches with a smaller lineup. Defensively it's going to be an issue all season.

[BleedOrange]

I watched only about 10-12 mins of the first half yesterday. I was coming out of the grocery and when I got in the car it was already 16-5 I think at like 12:10. By the time I got home and got the game on TV we were already down by almost 20. I watched the rest of the first half, and in that time I'm not sure I saw a single good possession on either end of the floor. On offense we looked like we were just taking turns seeing which player could heat check their way into a 15 point outburst. Didn't seem at all interested in running any sort of offense and slowly piecing it together. Defensively we just looked lost. Obviously that final 10:00 of the 1st half was brutal, but that's what I saw in my limited viewing. I coudln't bring myself to keep it on to watch the 2nd half. I figured we'd chip back into the lead, but the game was over and there aren't any positives to take from what you do in the 2nd half of a 30+ point blowout. The game is over at halftime.

As for the roster discussion, there is little doubt that our C spot is a major problem. I've seen nothing in a year to make me believe Swingle can play at all. Big guys often take time to develop so I'm not comfortable saying he'll always be awful, but we haven't seen many encouraging signs yet. Overall, I'm a big fan of playing small. I'd much rather have a series of 6'9 athletes at C than the Wiggins/Swingle big guy that just clogs up the middle in a pure post role on both ends. The issue really becomes the fact that Huger has always seemed hell bent on that traditional big guy to take postup possessions, etc...and if you're dedicated to running sets that way you should probably have at least one guy on the roster capable of being worth those touches. I've got no issues with Washington, I think he's a fine rotation piece to give similar production to what we got from Sierra last year. And he's a better athlete than Sierra as well.

The crazy thing to me, that I'm having a tough time wrapping my head around, is that Swingle is playing much worse than Mattos did last year. They're both around 15 mins and Mattos (who I genuinely thought was pretty awful) still grabbed 5.1 boards a game and scored 4.9 ppg on 1.25 points per shot. Swingle is only giving us 2.7 boards a game and 2.7 ppg on 1.17 points per shot. It's early which makes rate stats even less reliable, but that scoring per shot production is beyond awful. By FAR the worst of any of our starters. And let's make no bones about it, Mattos's scoring numbers weren't good, but still better than what Swingle has given us.

I'm hopeful that we'll find a way to play the longer athletes together for long stretches. Getting Matiss bakc will help. We're gonna be a bad team on the boards for sure this year, but we should be able to create some offensive mismatches with a smaller lineup. Defensively it's going to be an issue all season.

I've been baffled at the distribution of playing time between Washington and Swingle. Washington gives us FAR more on defense, offense, and rebounding.

The difference between Mattos and Swingle is length. Plus, Mattos could actually get off the floor. Mattos may have been really green in the beginning, but he made visible progress every game.

"Clogging the middle" is not even a thing in D1 hoops. Clogging the lane is for pickup games at the rec center. In D1, guys can actually run and jump - having a big guy standing in the paint isn't helpful.

[Matty B]

If Cam Young can stop turning the ball over he’s going to earn a lot of minutes. Our younger guys fought much harder than our seniors and that just can’t happen.

Cam young might need to be our starting center. Seriously.

[zete]

Wright St may be the best D 1 team in Ohio.

[guest44]

Wright St. is somewhere in the range of 3rd-5th best team in Ohio. Another off-season with a generational player in justin Turner on the roster, another off season not addressing the biggest need. A rim protector who can rebound. Bowling Green is currently 166th in the KenPom. That's good for 7th in the MAC. Buffalo played BG without Mballa who is a total matchup nightmare. Bowling Green goes as far as Justin Turner takes them. Same as last year.

[BillyLP]

Wright St may be the best D 1 team in Ohio.

They are third, at worst. Xavier and Ohio State probably have them beat due to roster talent, but as far as how they gel as a team, they'd be hard to top.

[guest44]

They would be underdogs to both Cincinnati and Dayton also. So yes 3rd at best.

[factman]

Wright State got beat at home by Youngstown State tonight. I think we best get our act together EVERY night.

[mbenecke]

Yup. It was mostly because we can’t defend bigs, that we lost this game.

Good thing we haven’t lost since then.

[mbenecke]

Wright State got beat at home by Youngstown State tonight. I think we best get our act together EVERY night.

And today, Wright State turned around and beat that YSU team by 38. Crazy stuff.