Eastern Michigan women at Miami at 2 on Saturday...ESPN3

Miami 6-10 ( 2-5) hosts Eastern Michigan 4-11 ( 1-7). EMU has lost 6 straight, mostly close games. Wednesday they lost by 6 at Akron. Eastern is led by 5010 RS SR Areanna Combs who scored 32 vs Akron. She averages 17.9/5.4. She has over a 1,000 career points, as does 5-10 Sr Courtnie Lewis. Other key starters include RS soph Ce’Nara Skanes and 5-9 JR G Natalia Pineda.

This is Miami’s 6th game in 13 days, we won the first two but have lost the next three, and Wednesday night’s performance at Central was the worst as the girls seemed to be worn down. We have 3 more road games following this, so we really need to play great and get a win. Peyton Scott has averaged 23 points a game over the last two games and as the more inexperienced girls seem to be wearing down over this time period, she still looks strong.

We lose 80-69.

Wait, we gave up 80 to a team that has already lost a dozen or so games? I didn’t read the scout threads nor did I remember the game was being played. Just sort of remembered we were playing a bad team soon.

Typical slow start, got down by 14 at one point but cut it to 7 at the half. Made our usual 4th qtr run led by Peyton Scott and tied it at 68-68. From there Eastern went on a 12-1 run to close out the game. The frustrating thing about this team is that they are making the same fundamental mistakes they made at the beginning of the season. Plus, our big girls can’t score in close and they don’t defend well either.

Well, if they can’t score and can’t defend well, this begs the question of why we recruited them. Could this be a case of regression or is this the best we can get. I saw in a box score a few games ago that one of our posts was 1-8 and another 3-13. Memory may be a little off but close. That’s not bad, that’s horrible.

Dick’s theory, with which I concur, is that they were recruited because of their height and athleticism and the coaches knew they would be projects. If we’re lucky, in two years they may be decent MAC post players. Meanwhile, they’re getting abused.

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I respectfully disagree with this. If you can’t make a one foot put back in high school then you are really going to be a project and most likely not successful. One project, ok, multiple- poor recruiting.

Our starting center JR Amani Freeman, has been out since mid December and has a cast on her hand, so I guess a broken bone. Wednesday against CMU our starting power forward FR Maddie Cluse got hit in the face evidently close to the eye with a possible broken bone. We still have two 6-2 girls and one 6-1 girl to play the inside positions, but that has been a weak area for us for awhile.

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Peyton Scott had her biggest game of the year, scoring 32, but did not get a lot of help elsewhere. Edyn Battle and Tajah Foster-Walker had decent games.

My point has nothing to do with injuries, Covid, boy friend problems, etc. simply put, if you recruit a girl who can’t make a one foot shot in high school it is unlikely she will ever make them in college. Recruit one “project “, but she better be a defender, rebounder. The others need to be able to make normal post shots. To say we have had a weakness on the block for awhile is being kind. This isn’t D II we need better coaching, better listening and better players.