I expect Tyler Robbins to get a lot of playing time next season.
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Miami has had a career fair or something this week. I stopped by Friday and all the tables were still on the court. That is usually a 2-day event. A multipurpose facility will always have these problems.
We certainly need career fairs. I thought we had a basement practice facility. Regardless I certainly support the University hosting a career fair
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If Tyler Robbins has to play a lot of minutes next year then weāve got serious problems. That would mean weāve lost Woolfolk, Potter and Kotecki to injury/transfer.
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Does the last ten gamesā log tell a story? And a query-who would you start?
3, 3,13, 9, 5, 14, 6, 9, 40, 0
17, 15, 12, 14, 12, 3, 7, 12, 6, 19
donāt really see Kotecki being more than he is now.
I still havenāt watched the first half because I watched the full womenās game before switching to the men. Just looking at the stats it is ridiculous that two guys who got national coverage on ESPN for their performance Tuesday were total no shows today. That just canāt happen . Elmer stepped up big with 11 and 14 rebounds vs Troy and Toledo. Craft went from 40 points to O points . Between our two starting forwards we had O for 10 shooting and one rebound. We just got destroyed on the boards and that is all about effort and hustle and toughness and desire.
Our defensive game plan was not good. MZ pointed it out during the game. I was actually yelling at my screen watching Cooper chase behind Willis as he curled around the high picks and drove to the hoop. Their game is drive and hit the boards and keep rebounding till you score. They also kept getting a quick switch getting our center on Willis and not having our size inside. WM is almost as good at rebounding as Akron, but they are very poor perimeter shooters. Did no one watch the tape of how they won at Kent? Donāt switch! Go under the screens! Make them shoot perimeter shots. Donāt let them go downhill toward the bucket!
Listening to Coach Steele after the game he made some good points. The long bus rides are tough and give a big advantage to the home team. It is one area where J-term helps us. Then you donāt have to worry about getting back to campus very late and getting up and going to class. To me when you have a schedule like this, you make it into a two game road trip. After the game we could have driven a little over an hour to Ypsilanti and stayed there Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. Every player would have there assignments from their teachers for Monday and Tuesday in advance and we would bring along a tutor or two for the trip and have study tables on Sunday and Monday.
As for gym time at home this week, the job fair is a huge and valuable endeavor. It is one of the reasons we have such a high placement in jobs record. It is not going away. However, volleyball is out of season, so I canāt quite figure out why we could not get all the practice time we wanted, the only team you would have to share the basement gym with would be womenās hoops.
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Yup, a career fair shouldnāt limit gym access. If so, someone screwed up. Wouldnāt be surprised if the sub-gym was converted to a staging area for the companies coming in.
I tend to agree, but we still have two other centers on the roster. Thereās a larger discussion about keeping this roster together next season, but if weāre relying on true freshmen then the team has gone off the rails.
Donāt get me wrong, I donāt think basketball gets the amount of support and recognition it deserves from our athletic department, the ancient facilities and whatnot. But Steele spent half of his post-game interview reeling off a list of grievances/excuses, and then added the addendum, ābut Iām not making excuses.ā Haha.
His points seemed like valid gripes though (4 1/2 bus trip there and back, and then having to turn around in 2 days for a 4 hr bus trip to EMU; the university limiting their practice time this week to one hour due to some Millett activities). He made the point that theyāre a team with a legit shot at a league championship, yet the administration is treating them like an afterthought. I seem to remember Sean Miller describing Miamiās commitment to basketball in a similar manner years ago.
But at the end of the day, other than the big time major programs, you canāt tell me that other basketball programs across the country donāt have to deal with the same types of obstacles. This seemed like frustration boiling over after a lackluster performance from his team, and he chose to vent about some of the things that have bothered him for ages. The types of work-related nuisances that we normally only vent about to our wives or friends after a bad day, only this time, they put a microphone in front of his face. Still, I donāt like to see our winning coach that unhappy with things at Miami.
We couldnāt get gym time at Phillips Hall or The Rec Center or even Talawanda? The eggheads running this school never cease to amaze me.
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Itās a tough one for sure and I get the value of the career fairs (or any event we hold at Millett).
It just bums me out that the basketball team is still having these issues. In 2006 we were supposed to host an NIT game against Butler and when the matchups were announced our athletic department rep was already asleep on Sunday night (thatās a true story.) The track team (who was out of season) used to practice in Millett while the basketball team was also practicing on the main court. Right next to them. Doing sprints. Throwing shot puts. Distracting the hell of the players. We had to wait for the dance to finishing using the main court multiple times before we could start practice. We had to go on the road for a bracket buster game against Evansville because Millett was being used for a massive dance party for the schoolās bicentennial. I could keep going.
I guess my point is Millett (and specifically the basketball court) not being available to the basketball team is a problem that goes back at least twenty years. Hopefully a new arena solves this issue, but it is going to be hard to hang onto a good coach if we are seen as not taking the program seriously.
Again, none of this is an excuse for a dreadful performance yesterday by both the players and coaches. More just a comment on the program overall.
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I guess I wasnāt clear. Iām not saying Robbins will start or that he will put Potter or Woolfolk on the bench. I just think with his size and fundamentals it will be a great asset to have him available to spell those two. They both get in foul trouble and Steele himself said he was worried that they would both foul out against Toledo. Robbins doesnāt look to be a third stringer.
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I am not sure how a newer smaller arena is going to solve these problems unless we were also keeping Millet. But I thought the new arena was replacing Millet
I think there are no plans to immediately do away with Millett. They are going to continue using it for awhile. Eventually it is going to be knocked down. I do not know when the many needed improvements to keep using it would be due.
@DICK Eian Elmer spells his name with an āEā. Small thing I think we should get correct.
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I guess youāre right. I donāt know what the plan for Millett is. Sounds like itās sticking around a least for a while. My thinking is - and this probably sounds stupid - the basketball teams will have more of a claim to the facility that was build specifically for them. Who the hell knows.
We should have moved the career fair to the Millett parking lot. After all, academics and jobs should be secondary at Miami University.
Steele has said Akron is the gold standard in MAC hoops. I wonder if Akron flies to Kalamazoo (281 miles) or takes the bus? Oxford is 247 miles to Kalamazoo, for those wondering.
Totally fair. I hope heās so good he forces Steele to play him. Iām more thinking since we almost never play two bigs together and Potter and Woolfolk will be even more experienced that the only way he sees significant minutes is weāve had attrition or injuries. Iāve only seen highlights, but generally freshmen centers arenāt ready to play right away.
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Iām wondering if the bus ride and lack of practice caused this stat line from 2 starters COMBINED: 0 points, 2 rebounds, 1 steal, 1 block?
Brant Byers on the other hand should not be allowed to practice more than once a week and should have to ride the bus everywhere since clearly, those two things contributed to his 19 points and 2 boards in 9 fewer total minutes than the 2 starters referenced above.