Hated Rockets Part II (MBB)

 BG makes the trek up I-75 for the second game of the Rivalry of I-75.

First, some news that just hit as I was writing this.  Trey Thomas has a broken leg and won't play again this year, per Jon Rothstein, per Todd Simon.

This is a year we will be ready to see go into the rear view mirror.

UT's win in the opener was the first game of a five-game winning streak for the Rockets....four of them in conference.  They followed that by losing @Miami and @EMU before beating BSU at Savage in their last game when a buzzer beat for the Cards was taken off the board.

They are 9-4 with their streak of regular season titles about to end.  Their kenpom is 219, their lowest since Kowalcyk's first year with the Gene Cross mess.

I was curious what was the difference this year, and it is definitely defense.  UT's program is known for having a great offense, but they quietly coupled that with solid to good defenses.  Their were 2nd, 3rd and 5th twice in defensive efficiency in that period. This year they are last.  In all games, they are 30th worst in the country.

They are 10h against the shot and last against the 3FG and 11th in forcing steals.  As always, they don't give up FTs.  BG scored 84 against the #1 defense Tuesday, so maybe they can convert that into enough scoring to win Friday.  

I re-read the first game writeup, which UT won 84-71.  It actually reminded me a lot of the Kent game in that every time BG chipped it close, UT got an easy basket to push the lead back up again.  As Coach Simon said, "they made us pay."

You can see, they outshot us badly and outrebounded us.  BG did get to the line and made 74%, which is not bad, but UT has the best FT shooting team in the MAC and made 82%.  Even with that disparity at getting to the line, BG was only +3. 

The secret to turning this around is for BG to make more shots against a defense that people are making shots against.  Of course, that gets all the harder on the road.  UT has only lost at home once in MAC play this year.

UT never plays a deep rotation and they didn't against BG.  However, they put four players in double figures.  Sonny Wilson had 18 on 6 of 8 and 1 of 1 shooting, 3-3 at the line, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 1 turnover, if that works for you.

UT was a 7.5 point favorite before the Thomas news hit. The Rockets have laid some stinkers this year, maybe we'll get a long-overdue good break.