First and foremost, I am disappointed to see that no coverage on ESPN+ is listed on our website or on watch ESPN. I don’t know what the issues are ( possibly lack of available personnel?), but I find it disappointing. I guess you will have to be there to see our team.
Wilberforce is 5 and 10 and I think they have a game on Thursday night before playing us. While we have been discussing playing time leading into the start of the MAC season, none of that applies to this game. This should be a last chance to get some of our Freshman significant time and maybe even play the 5 freshmen together for awhile. Hopefully everybody will get 15 minutes or more in this game. 200 available minutes divided by 11 players comes out to an average of a little over 18 minutes.
I looked up Wilberforce on Wikipedia and it is an interesting read. Wilberforce is a small town about 3 miles outside of Xenia and the University is located across the street from Central State ( of interest, as a college freshman Darweshi Hunter played for Central State and they played Miami in Oxford and he had a big game against us ). Wilberforce is an historically important institution as it opened in 1856, just a few years before the Civil War started, and was the first historical black college in the U.S., owned and operated by the African Methodist church. This was a time when Abolitionists were a powerful force in Ohio and it had the support of Abolitionists. It was also a time when it was commonly thought that Blacks were not capable of learning and being highly educated. One of the largest groups of the first students were mixed race kids from the South sent by slave owners who claimed these kids as their own.
In 1865 arsonists burned most of the buildings down but white abolishionists, led by Ohio Governor Salmon Chase came up with the money to rebuild the university.
New head coach Mark Mitchell comes from a one year stint at Taft High, where I would think he coached Eian Elmer. He had also coached at Taft before leaving for a position at Ohio State.
His daughter Kelsey was a star at OSU and the second overall pick in the 2018 WNBA draft.
Many times while reading HawkTalk, I find myself getting less intelligent. But with your write-up Dick, I find myself being more informed and perhaps even more intelligent.
Hunter struggled in the first half but didn’t flinch
Team came back the 26th to have a practice
Steele impressed with how the team has handled the break even though nothing is happening in Oxford right now
Knows Wilberforce’s coach. Was assistant for OSU women’s team and coached at Taft
Wilberforce will trap and press all game
Has only watched one WMU game this season (takes the season one game at a time)
WMU rebounds on offense and runs
MAC non-conference records don’t mean much because teams schedule so differently
Steele wants a better than .500 OOC record, but feels team is way better than last year
There’s no reason with the trajectory that Miami can’t win the conference
Can count the number of freshman Miami has really played against on one hand. Thinks this will be huge for all the guys going into year 2, especially Elmer
