Kansas only leading Eastern Illinois by 4 with less than 5 minutes to go. Wow!
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Press conference is up. Some highlights:
- Ipsaro only has 5 turnovers in 6 games. Impressive for a freshman guard
- he thinks the stats were wrong and Elmer had a double-double
- talked about turnover percentage and pace. Target is 12 or less turnovers with mid to high 70 possessions (<16%)
- Hunter has the most experience on the team with 2 full seasons of D1 Basketball
- St. Bonaventure didn’t play a single freshman against us
- mentioned Potter was playing at ~50% against Evansville. Didn’t give a timeline for his return but did say he’s going to be a key piece of the rotation
- easy to forget Morris is still a sophomore and he’s taking on a lot of responsibility
- failing to get clean rebounds is causing a lack of fast breaks. Ipsaro and Cooper can really move if they can get an outlet pass.
https://twitter.com/MiamiOH_BBall/status/1729713494143246658?t=TL-p8h7okARexVn8kooJEw&s=19
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Just watched this again Monday for the first time in several years on the airplane from NY. Still makes me laugh out loud, especially Rodney.
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He can play the 4…in certain matchups (say Ohio State)… if not Elmer needs to get in to use his athleticism.
I thought our 4 freshman who played were outstanding. Truthfully, they outplayed most of the older players. The 4 freshman contributed 54 points and 17 rebounds. Plus 6 assists. I would like to see Kotecki get more rebounds, but that will come. Granted this was against a very bad DIII team, but I continue to love what I see from this true freshman class.
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Any hopes of rebound versus Buckeyes, think you have to play Morris and Kotecki together and challenge Kotecki to put his body on someone…maybe Potter can play by then…but this game is not far off (like a week)?
Seems like the 4 for OSU (Battle) is not overly quick…
Beat WMU by ~20 and play Central M tonight.
Before OSU you might want to look at Marshall. We play them next. While their record isn’t good, at 2-4, they are big. Real big. Their starting lineup includes, 6’8", 6’8", 6’10" and off the bench they bring in 6’7", 6’9",6’10, 7’0".
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And they beat us in Oxford last season…
Badly. Pretty sure that game was over in the first 5-10 min. They were older, stronger, taller, and faster. This 5 game stretch is as tough as any Miami has played in a few years. I’m not sure what success looks like, but I’d like to see some guys who have looked out of sorts start building confidence as conference play approaches.
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You look Marshall, I can’t do it all around here, LOL.
But there you go…if we don’t employ some frontcourt lineups with both of those guys (Morris/Kotecki) at 4/5 in these games, then I don’t know what Steele/staff are thinking. I just know there will be an opportunity to matchup with Buckeyes. Marshall destroyed us last year…it was not even on same playing level, so that matchup will be interesting in light of the St. Bonnie effort.
I’d even like to see:
Ipsaro (PG)
Cooper and/or Darweshi (2G)
Darweshi and/or Elmer (3)
Kotecki (BF)…Morris some minutes
Morris (BF/C) …Potter/Kotecki some minutes
Mabrey unfortunately has not made the leap forward as hoped…and I guess Lewis is not eligible or playing, he’s on roster still…is he with team? Obviously staff favors Bultman, he will have minutes at the 3/4.
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Why I think you’re not seeing Kotecki and Morris on the court together:
- They are both prone to fouling and limiting their minutes helps prevent both of them getting into foul trouble, where you might end up with neither of them in the game.
- Playing them together may end up with both needing a rest at the same time.
Steele is trying to avoid a stretch with both on the bench. Just a guess.
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For sure, but at this point, you have to have roll the dice to see if you can manage them in-game.
Obviously, just some minutes from Potter (if healthy enough) would help a lot.
That said, time to learn to not foul and see if those two can play together. Miami will be at disadvantage either way, and I don’t see us being quick enough at other positions to out quick anyone.
Maybe play some zone with those two out there?
With that said, liking what I see from Elmer and he can play 3/4, based on matchup.
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I’m totally on board with waiting until Potter is 100%, but you’re right, even 15 minutes a game from (healthy) him would help tremendously.
I imagine there will be a game or three in the upcoming schedule where the score gets a little out of hand. That’d be a perfect time to play Morris and Kotecki together.
Super high hopes for Elmer. Hope he’s followed in the footsteps of Morris a year from now.
Yup, would just to see some minutes of it…
Ipsaro
Darweshi
Bultman
Elmer
Morris
Also interesting lineup…Ipsaro is a blur on the court, he gets from one end to the other is no time.
My guy, one is a freshman and the other has ~3 years of organized basketball experience, iirc. Fouls come because the game is too fast. Morris was one of the worst in the nation at fouls/minute last season. This year he’s sitting around the 50th percentile for big men. He’s developing fine. Don’t put him in a position where you’re going to stunt that.
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I don’t disagree we need two posts on the floor together in most of this next 5 game stretch, but with only 2 post players, I don’t see how he can do it and risk having them foul out.
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We’re not talking about 40 minutes of play, we’re talking about ~15 minutes together, yeah we know what they are in terms of experience, but in today’s age of college bball frosh are not your typical “freshman.”
Kotecki, Ipsaro’s of the world, even Cooper don’t look uncomfortable out there (heck they look more comfortable at times than some of the transfers and upperclassmen)…anyway, why I mention zone as well…maybe you could limit some foul opportunities and get a look at these guys together.
Otherwise, it may have to wait until Potter and/or Anderson are back.
Speaking of frosh…anyone look over Mekhi Cooper’s stat lines? He might be on lowest side of fouls per/min, has decent + A/TO, shooting % great…pretty impressive!
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You’re right, but not in the way you think. Nobody is playing freshmen. Like I mentioned, in a 30 point win, St. B played zero freshmen. They’re the oldest team in college basketball this year. Texas St. played one. Evansville played two. With the transfer portal, teams are trying to stay old and shield themselves from freshman mistakes.
Cooper stats (percentiles are among D1 guards with a minimum number of minutes played):
Looks like a fair amount of green on there for Cooper…but those stats really are not what matters…how Cooper compares to who’s avaiable to play for Miami are the most important.
There’s not a great comparison on the roster, position-wise in upper class, but Dean would have to be it (~22 years old, played a bunch of ball at college leve). Cooper winning out in almost every metric, essentially the same when looking at Mabrey comparison (Cooper is playing beyond his years, from a Miami perspective).
Again, we are talking 10-15 minutes of play together on Kotecki/Morris side (Morris is doing okay on the foul side, okay…Kotecki and Elmer, as you might expect from frosh, not as well). That said, when Kotecki is in, he’s on an island as the only “big”…maybe that leads to some of his fouls (moving picks, rotating late, etc).
I would not mind seeing a zone with these guys together for a bit. Otherwise, Potter and Anderson should change this teams capability quite a bit when they are back.
Look out, Skins discovered italics.