Motivation

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I’m curious about the pressure and fatigue that invariably comes with all of the noise around this season. Thinking that likely the trip to Michigan last week exposed a little of that. “One game at a time” is easy to say, but harder in reality. Players and coaches know what is coming up; how do you remain motivated when you are traveling up to Eastern and Western Michigan facing teams who are near the bottom of the conference?

Tonight is big. A chance to soak in the sellout crowd and play with purpose. Build momentum going into Athens and the MAC Tournament. The disrespect is rampant. Bruce Pearl, ESPN (yes, I see Miami at the top of the MBB Homepage, but read it: “Now, I suppose it’s possible Miami is the worst undefeated team of all time…”). Listen to the Field of 68 After Dark podcast - the sweeping assessments like “play somebody”. The pundits and elites can’t stand the idea of their power structure being disrupted. Screw ‘em all and go out and pound Toledo.

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I don’t think that they’re playing tight. It’s hard to win on the road. Everyone acts like it’s easy. It isn’t.

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=>I am not sure it is playing tight as much as it is chronic fatigue. The jump shots have been greatly off. This is beyond bad luck. With bad luck, or hot shooting fool’s gold, water always finds it level.

But this is more than that. Shots have been short or way off to the side. It fear it is just long term fatigue and the legs just are not there.

Probably not a coincidence that the bench has gotten shorter.

If I was TS, I would have made practice very light the past two days to give these guys rest and recovery. Probably the same for the rest of the campaign.

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These guys don’t need any more motivation. Just keep it simple. Win tonight. Be the better team tonight.

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