Well-said.
Btw, when’s the last time we won a game with a -15 rebound differential?
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I see Kent lost at home to Central. That’s… surprising. Anyone know of the Flashes had key guys missing?
Wow what a pleasant surprise that finish was. The weird thing about ICL was that he was on the bench in street clothes so that doesnt seem like Covid
Williams was way more aggressive…which was a big help. Missed a couple I think he’ll make down the road…but again, that takes reps…he got some legit time in this game.
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Hope so…as Chips are supposed be an easy W.
He’s a shorter, quicker Will Hatcher…treys, mid-range, drives.
As to pulling Avance’s RS, sitting ICL and ELI etc…eh, they still have their place…Avance looked shell-shocked in-bounding late…and Lairy actually took over…ICL is steady as a ball-handler, assists.
Not that I don’t like that Avance got in…to me there likely will be room for him to play with COVID, injuries etc…so just see how it goes.
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I looked up Kent’s schedule. They came into this game 5-5. I remember they played X well until falling apart in the last 2 minutes in their opener. Like us, they only had 3 D1 wins entering MAC play, but they have home losses to Towson and Southern (though these teams aren’t quite the push-overs they’ve been in years past). The Flashes are beatable, as we saw today.
Towson is pretty good this year I believe…that said Kent is looking a bit more manageable than Toldeo…they are destroying teams.
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Watching the replay, and I echo others’ comments about the tv guys. I also want to add- why do they feel the need to add the “of Ohio” when we’re in the same conference? I can see for GT or Clemson, but Buffalo?
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Here are some numbers that helped us win the game:
2nd Chance Points: Miami 27-21. Also, Buffalo only had 5 offensive rebounds in the 2nd half after grabbing 17 in the 1st half.
Points in the Paint: 38-38. In the 1st half, we had 2 assists vs. 6 turnovers. In the 2nd half, we had 10 assists vs. 2 turnovers. A good sign happened about 5 minutes into the 2nd half when Grant drove and whipped a cross court pass to Lairy for a rhythm 3. After that, it seemed like our offensive game went to another level. We looked for Ayah on the foul line pick and roll and he did a nice job cutting to the basket when our guards drove. Brown’s 2 late 3s were the product of unselfish play. The 2nd half is how we need to play offensively: unselfishly with ball movement. We have skilled offensive players who need to keep realizing that while they can go 1-on-1, ball reversal and sharing puts them in even better positions to score.
Points off turnovers: Miami 20-5. Buffalo isn’t as strong at the guard spot as in years past. Segu is still a pest, but the others are more of role players and we didn’t let anyone else get going.
2nd half shooting: 50% from the field with 7 3s and 17/21 foul shooting. Even though it took most of the 2nd half to get the lead, I felt like we were gaining control of the game as it went along. And this time we closed the deal. We did a lot of good things today. It won’t mean anything if we can’t back it up Saturday against a Central team that surprised Kent in their building. But I hope everyone enjoyed the bus ride home, they deserved it, especially with the effort in the 2nd half. We played very good basketball.
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I echo everything above. I still can’t believe how much more physically dominant UB looked in the 1st half compared to Miami. At one point UB was out-rebounding us 32-13! Kudos to Miami for sticking around and refusing to pack it in. The second half outburst was fast and furious—when Lairy gets going he really scores in bunches and necessitates a lot of attention which then opens up roll guys, skip passes, etc.
Miami’s MAC schedule kind of opens up the next 7 games, with 5 at home and 2 on the road in winnable locales (BG and Western). I hate to get ahead but I’m hoping this can be a springboard for a really, really good start to conference play. Which would be wonderful for program and fans alike.
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I think this was a huge game for Kamari. He missed some early bunnies, but they all did. Yet, you could see him becoming more relaxed, more confident as the game went on. He also made a beautiful touch pass down deep to Precious for a lay-up. I really believe that by the end of the season, he will be an important component to this team. Plus, he has length. Really want to see him improve.
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I sure hope they flew charter. I believe they have flown several other times. More than that–I have no idea.
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As @Bluesman said above, I’d really, really, really like to see more of Williams and Harrison especially. Those two guys are big pieces of the future and can help as they get experience. And looking at the guard minutes today, I think Avance dressing and playing is a good idea to keep everybody fresh.
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Something else I noticed was 6 rebounds is 15 minutes for Beck, 4 on the offensive end. His added size coming off an injury could be key in conference play.
Also did not hurt that da Bulls are terrible free throw shooters …at least in this one.
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They didn’t sit ICL. Why would they just not play the 6th man? He wasn’t dressed and wasn’t available.
They did fly.
As always, the plus/minus stats were revealing. Earlier I posted that Dalonte was the difference maker. Tonight I looked at the plus/minus numbers. Only one Miami player had a minus number. Dalonte was a plus 21, Kamari Williams had the second best number with a plus 13. As happens quite often, Eli had the only negative number at minus 7. Compare his stats with Beck and you fully understand why Eli got zero minutes in the second half.
When a guy has 26 points and17 rebounds and 5 blocks, you would think he was just tremendous, but Imballa had a double digit minus number. Maybe he ought to work on his free throws.
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If Beck is healthy, Eli should really see no more minutes than he did tonight (7). Dae Dae was great, but I don’t like him playing 40 minutes. I figure this was mostly due to the short bench today.