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Post by shooting the J on Feb 11, 2015 6:36:27 GMT -6
Green Bay (19-5, 8-2) @ Youngstown State (10-16, 1-10) When: Wednesday, 6:45 PM CST Where: The Beeghly Center, Youngstown, Ohio Video streaming: ESPN3 Radio: WNFL 92.1 FM 1440 AM
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Post by GBPhoenix1 on Feb 11, 2015 6:48:23 GMT -6
YSU is having a tough year so on paper this should be a win for GB. With a very large game looming in two days it is super important to not look past YSU tonight. I am not suggesting that Oakland looked past Milwaukee last night but a 17 point loss pretty much made this a 3 team race for the HL title. I would hate to have a loss at YSU make it a 2 team race that doesn't include GB. In a perfect world GB will jump on these guys early like they did to Milwaukee and WSU recently. If they can get that big lead I would also really like to see them hold on to it in the second half. The final scores of the last two games don't indicate how much GB dominated and also didn't allow the bench to mop up which would be helpful heading into a short turn around for Friday.
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Post by gbbrl97 on Feb 11, 2015 7:29:16 GMT -6
If GB looks past YSU tonight, then they don't deserve to be conference champs and will have to get that NCAA bid the hard way. If they get past YSU, Friday's game at Valpo will create separation in the conference standings, since GB (losses @ Oakland and @ CSU), CSU (losses @ Valpo and @ Oakland), and Valpo (losses @ GB and @ Oakland) are all even right now. Does anyone know how the tiebreakers would work if the regular season ended today?
After this weekend, GB's schedule looks the most favorable since 3 of the last 4 are at home (2 of those home games against CSU and Oakland and the other against Detroit; the lone road game at UIC), while CSU has 2 of the last 3 conference games on the road (@ GB and @ UWM), and the lone home game is home versus Valpo (they also have a road game at Western Carolina in that stretch). Valpo gets 2 of 3 on the road (@ Detroit and @ CSU). Even if GB wins today and loses Friday, they would not be out of contention.....However, a loss tonight versus YSU would be devastating especially if it came down to tiebreakers down the road.
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Post by phoenixphan87 on Feb 11, 2015 9:24:23 GMT -6
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Post by knightlyfe920 on Feb 11, 2015 23:21:32 GMT -6
Wow...
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Post by gbbrl97 on Feb 12, 2015 7:46:41 GMT -6
I remember looking at the score in the 1st half and GB had a 27-17 lead. It looked like they were in control and probably extending that lead......What happened to their perimeter defense towards the end of the first half and the rest of the game? YSU was 55% from 3pt range. We also got outrebounded and were horrible from 3pt range. GB shot well from the FT line, but since GB only had 11 attempts for the game it looks like they settled for jump shots again?
They were looking ahead to the Valpo game, plain and simple. This team is not good enough to do that.....They avoided a potentially devastating loss.
I see Findlay got some minutes last night.....His minutes went way down since New Year's. Any reason why?
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Post by gbbrl97 on Feb 12, 2015 7:48:42 GMT -6
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Post by gbalum2007 on Feb 12, 2015 9:04:28 GMT -6
He only got minutes last night because Sykes was injured in the first half after an inadvertent elbow from Mays on a loose ball.
Other than that, he's the third PG on the team. He doesn't have much of a jumper, so if a team is in a 2-3 zone, as Youngstown was much of the night, it really hinders his ability to penetrate. GB has been seeing a lot of zone this year, especially in conference play due to their inconsistency from the perimeter.
As for the rest of the game, I think they got a little complacent after jumping out to a big lead. They came in to the first ten minutes focusing on the task at hand, but one they got up by double digits, they started thinking about Friday. Half-court defense wasn't as bad as it seems. Give Youngstown some credit for knocking down threes with a hand in their face, including two or three towards the end of the shot clock. I thought Wardle could've applied pressure a little sooner than he did. It's what won them the game in the end.
Kenneth Lowe has to show a little more discipline on the defensive end. He tried to jump in front of an entry pass to Haen (sp?) with about a minute left that led to an easy basket. It wasn't a smart play and not a good risk to take at that point in the game.
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Post by Fanforever on Feb 12, 2015 11:03:28 GMT -6
Good teams have off days where they lose their focus and lose a game which thankfully they did not last night. So I am hoping it is the wakeup call they need to play with greater and continued focus through the remaining games.
As for Lowe he has not made the jump from last year that we all expected but is playing hard and has potential. I see some Greg Mayes in him as far as size and ability. Although Greg through the years has seemed aloof at times which I have not seen from Lowe. Now he needs to develop a jump shot from at least 15 feet out next year to make him more dangerous. ALso with Lowe I do not think he knows what type of player he is or should be. So again i see him being in the Greg Mays type of roll where he could post a smaller player up or take someone off the dribble (larger player) similar to Greg.
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Post by knightlyfe920 on Feb 12, 2015 12:41:53 GMT -6
And now everyone follows suit with my criticism of Lowe, strange....
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Post by Fanforever on Feb 12, 2015 13:09:59 GMT -6
And now everyone follows suit with my criticism of Lowe, strange.... I am not following suit to your criticism on Lowe and still think he deserves to be in the game. All i am saying is he is kind of a tweener that needs to develop his game like Greg has. He plays hard and has not had the jump we all thought he would as a sophomore but is not as bad as you seem to beleive. Lowe has a bright future with the Nix and the coaches will help bring the potential out more next year. Last year he had Alec Brown to take the heat off of him like the rest of the team, its just that Lowe has taken longer to adjust down in the post. IO think he may be trying to hard instead of letting it come to him. He is a natural athlete that seems to be pressing this year. So again i am not saying Lowe has been bad but only that he has not progressed as much as i would have liked this year.
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Post by gbalum2007 on Feb 12, 2015 14:03:59 GMT -6
And now everyone follows suit with my criticism of Lowe, strange.... I was criticizing a single play, not his overall game, as you tend to do. Just not the right play to make at that juncture and it stuck with me. I hope it's used as an opportunity to teach a young player (he's still only a sophomore) that there are times to take that risk, and times to sit back and play solid post defense.
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Post by GBPhoenix1 on Feb 12, 2015 21:30:09 GMT -6
Well this game was an emotional roller coaster. GB started off really solid in the first 13 minutes. They had a 13 point lead, grabbed a ton of rebounds and loose balls and in general played with a high level of effort. They looked like they were going to deliver the knock out blow early. In particular I thought Love and McKinnie played great defense and closed out possessions. Also, for those who say Wardle doesn't adjust in the first half they were sending a double team to Hain when he was in the post. They almost never do that but seeing big guys eat them up recently he made a game plan adjustment that worked nicely. Plus McKinnie was scoring at will showing off a bunny, a transition and 1, a mid range jumper on a set play and a three pointer to start the game.
In the last 7 minutes of the half though YSU got their act together and I thought GB started settling for jumpers. Until the end Love couldn't buy a bucket. Mays and McKinnie who could score inside at will were settling for outside shots as well.
In the first 7 minutes of the second it was back and forth and GB took a 46 to 45 lead.
Then the wheels came off the wagon for about 6 minutes. YSU went on a 13 to 2 run. Now GB didn't do themselves any favors on offense. A few dumb turnovers and few more long jumpers didn't help the cause. Mix in YSU made 4 unassisted three pointers and split a pair at the line that came from an unassisted drive. It seemed like a case of a desperate team getting super hot off of one on one play.
However, give GB credit in the last 7 minutes or so. They didn't panic and closed out on a 15 to 4 run. Love and Sykes finally made 3's and in general just played like experienced guards. GB forced a ton of turnovers with good defense. They didn't score on that many run outs despite what Slocum claimed in the post game comments but just being able to stop YSU from getting any looks was big.
It wasn't a classic GB win as they were out rebounded and shot less free throws than YSU but in the end they played 20 good minutes to YSU's 14 good minutes and made the plays that they needed to in order to win and keep the title hopes alive.
As for Lowe he made a few mistakes but he showed some really nice ability on a few of his boards. On offense it seems like he thinks too much and defers to the other guys so he doesn't seem comfortable. His first touch in the post he made a great quick spin to the hoop to finish on the opposite side using the rim to guard the ball. He looked more Mays like on that play than any other this year.
My final take is on Tevin. I want to like him, I want him to be good. I think he has a fair amount of talent. However, he also seems to think too much, defer too much and also doesn't seem to be wound up tight enough with the winning is everything mentality that Sykes and Love have. In this game I thought he moved the ball quickly around the perimeter but only one time did he try to drive in. On that drive I thought it was a nice look but Mays didn't connect on the pass and it was a turnover. The rest of the time he just floated around on the perimeter looking like he didn't want to screw up instead of looking like he wanted to make an impact.
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