Rockets Win Thriller at Stroh

Yesterday was a good day to watch college basketball.  In front of a packed house at the Stroh Center, BG and UT played a highly entertaining and competitive game that ended up with UT on the winning side.  The only thing that would have made it better was a BG win, but it was a great game.

For BG fans, it adds to the disappointment.  BG can play with the best MAC teams, especially at home...see Akron and UT.  Where was this effort in the WMU, CMU and NIU games, for example?  A similar effort in those games would have BG in position to head to Cleveland right now.

You are what your record says you are...and we are an inconsistent team that doesn't bring a winning effort on a consistent basis.

And we're not as good as Toledo....the best team won the game.

Dakich used to say your goal as a team was to be "tough to beat."  As I recall, he was talking about the Romeo Travis-era Akron Zips.  They could go inside, they could go outside and they didn't make mistakes at key times.

That's a good description for this Rockets team.  They are tough to beat.  Here's why.  Three minutes into the 2nd half, BG is up 6.  Biggest lead of the game.  Place is rocking.  UT goes on a 12-2 run to go up 4 with 12 to play.  BG ties it again and it is tied with 10 to play.  UT goes on an 8-0 run to go up 8 with 8 to play, BG calling time.  

BG never had the ball again with a chance to tie the game. UT kept BG at arm's length.  When BG needed a stop, they could not get it.  That's just close-the-game-out basketball.  UT made their last 16 free throws.  They made zero turnovers in the last 9:30. That's a team that is hard to beat.

That's how good we need to be. Competitive every week and every year.  Tough to beat.  That's what it looks like.

They have one other asset....RayJ Dennis, who clearly is one of the best if not the best player in the MAC.  This guy plays the angles on the backboard like Tim Duncan.  It's incredible.  He put the team on his back and made sure his team won.

He had 19 points on 6 of 8 2FG and 2 of 3 3FG shooting, 4 rebounds and 3 assists over 0 turnovers.  In the second half.  (For the game he had 27.)

Kowalcyk stirred some stuff up in the post-game when he said that the MAC had caused a problem by only letting coaches vote on the awards.  Here is what he told The Blade:

“It’s the league office’s unbelievably poor decision to take out the media voting and now you get the head coaches,” he said. “It’s just 12 head coaches. There’s jealousy, there’s bias, there are agendas. We’re not very well-liked, I’m not very well-liked, so be it. The fact that our league office did that, shame on them. That’s a big mistake. That’s wrong.”

Look, that might be a direct shot at the MAC office, but it is just as big a shot at his fellow coaches.  And, just to interrupt Tod the Martyr for a second, Dennis was #23 in the MAC in scoring last year and #6 in assists...those are bulk stats and he was #8 in the MAC in minutes.  So the tempo free stats are a little worse.  He was also over-shadowed by an NBA draft pick.  If Dennis isn't on the All-MAC team after this year, that's an outrage.  Even if it didn't age well, it wasn't an outrage before the season.

Back to this game. Here is an incredible thing.  In the last 5 minutes, there were 50 points scored.  That's the equivalent of a 400 point game...NBA All-star game territory.  Unbelievable and thrilling to watch.

BG had a good offensive game, their best game since their last win at 1.16 points per possession. BG made 62% on 2FG and 44% of 3FG and 71% inside the restricted area, since I have been harping on that.  BG was 18 of 26 in the paint and made 11 of 14 at the line.  In fact, BG outshot UT.  UT made 52% on their 3FGs and 50% of their 2FGs...but won the turnover battle and was 24 of 28 at the line.  No one did much on the offensive boards.

Samari Curtis led BG with 18 points off the bench. He was 5 of 7 and 2 of 6, and 6 assists over 1 turnover. Kaden Metheny had 16 points, (4 of 9 on 3FG, 1 of 4 on 2FG), with 7 assists, 1 turnover and 2 steals. Mills had 13 on 2 of 3 and 3 of 6 shooting, a team high 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. Gabe O'Neal had 13 as well, making all 6 of his 2FGs and adding 5 rebounds. And Ayers had 12 points on 3 of 4 and 1 of 2 shooting and 5 rebounds in 23 minutes. 

Once again, Ayers sat for the last 8 minutes of the game.  Todd Walker asked Huger about it and he said that we needed stops and the team on the court was getting them....in the 8 minutes Ayers sat, UT scored 39 points.  On the other hand, they guys we did have on the floor were scoring.

So, here is where we stand.  That kind of effort was what we need and rarely see. BG has four games left. with Miami and EMU on there and Miami next.  If they get to 6 and 12, they could tie CMU and the head-head is even and gods knows what happens after that. Do we go to Cleveland and bring out "good opponent" game?  Whichever...we saw yesterday what our program needs to look like.