Saturday, December 13, 2008

Preview the Titans....

Na na na...ooops, wrong Titans.

Anyway, the Detroit Mercy Titans are coming to town tomorrow, and its exciting just to be playing at home again. A win gets us back to 4-4 again, and is something we really should be able to get.

It might not always be that way. The Titans are coached by Ray McCallum, former highly successful coach (and player) at Ball State, and a refugee from the Sampson regime at Indiana. (Jay Smith is an assistant. No really, I didn't make that up).

But for now, things are a struggle for UDM. (The "M" stands for Mercy). They are 2-5 so far, with one win over St. Louis and Eastern Michigan where the Eagle coach popped a fan. We don't have to worry about that, since the game is in our gym.

Along the way, they've lost to Purdue, WMU, DePaul, and a cheesey two-fer to Wisconsin Green Bay AND Milwaukee.

They have yet to win on the road. They were 1-13 last year, too. They struggle to score...their leading scorer and rebounder is Xavier Keeling at 12 points a game/6 board a game. He's a DII star who started his career as a Hoosier.

They average 57 points a game and shoot only 40%/28% from the field. They are almost -5 turnovers per game, and have commited an absolute shload of fouls. (Warning, tomorrow's game could have the pace of middle school field hockey). Their assist to turnover is approaching 1:2.

But, the schedule has probably been tougher than ours. On our floor, I'd like to say this is one we should win. The Titans were picked to be second to last in the Horizon conference...you just have to think this is a winnable one. But, this team isn't to the point where there are any sure wins.

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