That's it. There will be no run in the MAC tournament this year. UT took a moderately close game at halftime and then blew BG off the hardwood in the second half, leading by more than 20 most of the way and walking to the win, 77-62, in a game that wasn't actually that close.
More to come on the game and the season. BG finishes 13-19. For now, the streak continues. 1968.
The team is vanilla. No character. No style. No internalized sense that playing for BGSU means something. It is reflected from the floor to the stands. Everything is simply going through the motions of having a program. It’s a Slapshot moment, some kind of identity to attach too is needed, they need to learn to “put the foil on.” Or maybe in light of spring training that part of Major League where somebody gets a standee and peels a piece of it off as things come together. The right coach is there to change that, surely at least he must see and recognize that as much as others do.
ReplyDeleteI’d sell-out for a team scrappy enough to defend its home court against all challengers. I miss the days when Laranaga had what I’d just call “asymmetrical” line-ups that had lots of individual styles, one or more of which mixed for crazy fun results on the court….even if I often though Jimbo tried to then coach them almost contrary to their physical disposition. I don’t know that you can actually build a team intended to win at-home but focusing on the home court would be a mental starting point as much as anything. It is why the house that roared did. You can be anybody but when you played at BGSU you belonged to us. Getting wiped out on the road was one thing but the team could mentally wipe that and took-on a very different character at home.
There's one characteristic you can't coach; one can call it desire others mental toughness yet others determination. What ever one wants to call it it comes down to the want to win and work hard to do so each and every day. Way back when coaches used to say you play like you practice
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