Spent all of Thursday at the Cleveland State and just wanted to pass along my observations of the games as it may help someone...
Bama vs UW-Mil
Initial reaction to game: Bama has the talent and played in better conference. Milw was as close to a home game as you can get since they play in Horizon League with Cleveland State and I believe have done pretty well at the Convo/Wollstien Center (I'm not taking the time to look so someone can look this up). Should be interesting...
First half...Milw played some tenacious defense. That pesky fly type that denies every pass to the wing, won't let the man with the ball even square up to the basket because they were playing so close. Bama was annoyed or at least they would have been if they cared about this game. On the other side of the court, Bama played very loose on D and the 3's rained down for Milw.
Second half...Bama comes out and shows a little bit of effort and cuts lead to 5. They must have thought that they could coast a while longer and then turn it on when they needed. Milw was not as tough on defense the second half. Bama never seemed to care if they won or lost this game. With 3 minutes remaining, down 11, Bama was still walking the ball up the court. Only when there was under a minute left did they wake up and put forth some effort.
Milw played a great first half and a good second half. Bama mailed it in for the entire game.
It's getting late so I'm am going to try to shorten these...
BC vs Penn
BC played like Bama thought they could. Came out strong, let up a little, turned it on when needed. Penn tried but was outclassed physically. The Quakers were a little timid at times but I give more credit to BC. BC looked poised throughout the entire game.
Wake vs Chatt
Wake looked like Bama in the first half and BC in the second. Chatt never backed down and looked good in the first half, but it was more that Wake just did not look like they were on their game. To compare, it looked different from the Bama game where you could really give alot of credit to Milw. This game was more of Chatt looked good, but WF looked off. The second half WF took over on both ends. Not sure why the starters especailly Williams and Paul were playing late in a game that was at hand. Noticed that the refs for this game (one in particular) did not let them play as much as the earlier session. Some questionable calls in this game.
WV vs Creighton
Almost a home game for the Eers as the crowd was full with WV fans. Also, Gansey is a hometown boy so alot of Clevelanders in the stands were rooting for him. This was a great game throughout. The first half was a game of runs, Creighton starts off on a 10-0 run, WV ties it at 10, Creighton scores next 5, WV next 11.
The second half was a closed played half with lead changes (not sure how many...look it up if you want) and a close final minutes and an ending that I'm sure that you have seen over and over on SportsCenter. The one thing that I did notice was that WV, on offense in the last minutes, had noone that wanted to look to the basket for a score. As they moved that ball around the outside, every player looked to where they wanted to pass to next, and waited for a teammate to run off a pick or flash up to the area that they were looking. Gansey went from corner to corner looking for a 3 and the center Pittsnogle would hang out at the top of the circle looking for a 3 up there. I think WV was not only fortunate to get the block/steal but were more fortuate to be able to score in transition as opposed to having to make something happen in an offensive set.
So what does all this mean...
I'm taking the chalk..BC looked poised and should be able to handle Milw. At less than 2 posesssions, give me BC. Also, I thought that the Wake line would be around 7-8, but I would still lay the 9'. When push comes to shove, WV won't be able to match up down low with the power of Williams, and their being tenative in the final minutes vs Creighton does not spell good things when going against Wake.
GL to ALL
Hope this helps
Bama vs UW-Mil
Initial reaction to game: Bama has the talent and played in better conference. Milw was as close to a home game as you can get since they play in Horizon League with Cleveland State and I believe have done pretty well at the Convo/Wollstien Center (I'm not taking the time to look so someone can look this up). Should be interesting...
First half...Milw played some tenacious defense. That pesky fly type that denies every pass to the wing, won't let the man with the ball even square up to the basket because they were playing so close. Bama was annoyed or at least they would have been if they cared about this game. On the other side of the court, Bama played very loose on D and the 3's rained down for Milw.
Second half...Bama comes out and shows a little bit of effort and cuts lead to 5. They must have thought that they could coast a while longer and then turn it on when they needed. Milw was not as tough on defense the second half. Bama never seemed to care if they won or lost this game. With 3 minutes remaining, down 11, Bama was still walking the ball up the court. Only when there was under a minute left did they wake up and put forth some effort.
Milw played a great first half and a good second half. Bama mailed it in for the entire game.
It's getting late so I'm am going to try to shorten these...
BC vs Penn
BC played like Bama thought they could. Came out strong, let up a little, turned it on when needed. Penn tried but was outclassed physically. The Quakers were a little timid at times but I give more credit to BC. BC looked poised throughout the entire game.
Wake vs Chatt
Wake looked like Bama in the first half and BC in the second. Chatt never backed down and looked good in the first half, but it was more that Wake just did not look like they were on their game. To compare, it looked different from the Bama game where you could really give alot of credit to Milw. This game was more of Chatt looked good, but WF looked off. The second half WF took over on both ends. Not sure why the starters especailly Williams and Paul were playing late in a game that was at hand. Noticed that the refs for this game (one in particular) did not let them play as much as the earlier session. Some questionable calls in this game.
WV vs Creighton
Almost a home game for the Eers as the crowd was full with WV fans. Also, Gansey is a hometown boy so alot of Clevelanders in the stands were rooting for him. This was a great game throughout. The first half was a game of runs, Creighton starts off on a 10-0 run, WV ties it at 10, Creighton scores next 5, WV next 11.
The second half was a closed played half with lead changes (not sure how many...look it up if you want) and a close final minutes and an ending that I'm sure that you have seen over and over on SportsCenter. The one thing that I did notice was that WV, on offense in the last minutes, had noone that wanted to look to the basket for a score. As they moved that ball around the outside, every player looked to where they wanted to pass to next, and waited for a teammate to run off a pick or flash up to the area that they were looking. Gansey went from corner to corner looking for a 3 and the center Pittsnogle would hang out at the top of the circle looking for a 3 up there. I think WV was not only fortunate to get the block/steal but were more fortuate to be able to score in transition as opposed to having to make something happen in an offensive set.
So what does all this mean...
I'm taking the chalk..BC looked poised and should be able to handle Milw. At less than 2 posesssions, give me BC. Also, I thought that the Wake line would be around 7-8, but I would still lay the 9'. When push comes to shove, WV won't be able to match up down low with the power of Williams, and their being tenative in the final minutes vs Creighton does not spell good things when going against Wake.
GL to ALL
Hope this helps