|
Post by shooting the J on Feb 27, 2014 6:38:25 GMT -6
Green Bay (22-5, 12-2) @ Oakland (11-18, 6-8) When: Thursday, 7:00 Where: Orena, Auburn Hills, Michigan TV: ESPNU
Need to keep it rolling for the national TV audience tonight. Every game has possible NCAA tournament seeding implications. Oakland has a diverse offense and they play well at home. Need to defend Bader at the 3 point line, keep Felder from muscling his way to the hoop, all while denying Petros the ball on the block.
I'm excited to see more of Alfonzo McKinnie tonight. The step back 3 he hit versus Valpo was big time.
|
|
|
Post by gbbrl97 on Feb 27, 2014 7:33:59 GMT -6
Do we know if Vince Garrett will be available for the game? His length on the preimeter may help slow down Bader.
|
|
|
Post by stillaphoenixphan on Feb 27, 2014 8:57:44 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by GBPhoenix1 on Feb 27, 2014 17:28:11 GMT -6
No reason Vince won't play tonight other than he has not been in the rotation as much prior to the suspension.
It is senior night which hopefully doesn't bring out too large of a crowd. It is a late start in Detroit and it is cold so I would guess it won't be too alive.
The guys still have a lot to play for, I want two wins to put an exclamation point on the regular season.
|
|
|
Post by shooting the J on Feb 27, 2014 17:28:48 GMT -6
Do we know if Vince Garrett will be available for the game? His length on the perimeter may help slow down Bader. He should be available to play. However, he only played 13 minutes in the 1st match-up when the Phoenix held Bader to 2-13 shooting. Oakland plays a 3 guard lineup, so they make it easy for us to put Fouse on Bader. Fouse is a dynamic defender with a terrific combination of length and anticipation. Garret was the guy who would slide over to the 3 spot when Fouse subbed out, but with Fonzi back he's started to take over that role.
|
|
|
Post by stillaphoenixphan on Feb 27, 2014 21:02:33 GMT -6
Wow what a win after being down by 13 at half and win by 8. Alec, McKinnie, Jordan and Keifer really brought us back. Nice minutes from the bench. They could have easily thrown in the towel at half and but came out and just dominated. Alec and Mckinnie were great from the 3 point line. Jordan just dominated around the basket. A job well done 1 more win and then a week to get healthy. WTG Men Stats from Yahoo, only bad one was TO's and I think they had 13-14 in the 1st half. Higher FT % would make life easier lol. If you look at the minutes played were have a 8 man rotation and seem to wear down opponents in 2nd half. sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/green-bay-phoenix-oakland-golden-grizzlies-201402270441/
|
|
|
Post by Nix on Feb 27, 2014 21:07:53 GMT -6
What a phenomenal win. As previously said they could have just thrown in the towel, but came back with a gutsy win. I can't even imagine what this season would have been like if Zo would have been healthy all year, but it may have been for the better, with the emergence of G's midrange and Kenny Lowe stepping up, who knows what could have happened. We are crazy deep. Tevin providing great minutes. What a win! Outright regular season champs! Glad I ordered my Horizon League Champs tshirt.
|
|
|
Post by gbbrl97 on Feb 28, 2014 7:46:35 GMT -6
I was nervous about this game since GB already has the conference title and home court locked up, and I was afraid we were going to lose any momentum built up after the Valpo win last week. There's nothing worse than stumbling down the stretch, then taking a week off before you play in ther conference tourney and may be vulernable.
However, GB did wake up from their first half slumber and outscored Oakland 40-19 in the second half. I liked Jordan's play, as well as McKinne off the bench. Tevin also had sold minutes as well......
If Al was availble from the get-go, I won't make any 28-0 predictions (a la Wichta State), but I think we would have beaten Wisconsin at home, beaten Eastern Michigan and probably against Harvard in the GAS tournament. I still think we would have lost a conference game, assuming that Alec would still have hurt his shoulder ight around the time we played at Valpo a few weeks back. With a healthy McKinnie, GB would have been 26-2, maybe 27-1 at best and looking at a single-digit (at-large) seed in the NCAA's.
|
|
|
Post by GBPhoenix1 on Feb 28, 2014 11:11:48 GMT -6
Al M makes a big difference. He spaces the floor and makes winning plays. He had another shot blocked at the rim from behind on a nice dive to the hoop so once again I can only imagine what he would do at full health!
Jordan and C Love sitting with fouls hurt in the first half. Once they were back they did a good job slowing down Mondy and Bader.
Mondy was making a ton of tough shots in the first half, some there was nothing to be done. Bader got some open looks but for the most part GB made him work.
Kampe was somewhat gracious in defeat. He said GB's defense didn't force mistakes and they beat themselves. A few times that was true but for the most part I disagree. Oakland isn't a tough team and GB imposed their style on them in the second half. When Benzinger and Petros are your tough guys that says a lot. Mays clobbered Benzinger on a foul that pretty much shut him up for the rest of the game after he was trying to mix it up with Sykes.
Either way it was a nice win on ESPNU but they need one more on Saturday to complete the job before a week off.
|
|
|
Post by Nix on Feb 28, 2014 23:55:06 GMT -6
My one thought is, yeah we can speculate and insert Zo into the rotation. But if he doesn't get hurt, do we see G's mid range grow, or does he stick more to the post with Zo spreading the floor? And also, do we see the emergence of Kenny Lowe if Zo is healthy all year?
|
|
|
Post by stillaphoenixphan on Mar 1, 2014 9:22:30 GMT -6
My one thought is, yeah we can speculate and insert Zo into the rotation. But if he doesn't get hurt, do we see G's mid range grow, or does he stick more to the post with Zo spreading the floor? And also, do we see the emergence of Kenny Lowe if Zo is healthy all year? I had thoughts along the same line. 1 as a freshman Kenny probably wouldn't had seen any time. 2 Greg's got a sweet baseline shot that he seems to hit 75% of the time. Would he have gotten the confidence if he hadn't seen so much time early? But after watching Fonzi he sure is a smooth player. Seems like a shorter more athletic AB and that's no knock to AB it's a compliment to Fonzi. But speculation aside it was 2nd half defense that won the Oakland game. WTG men.
|
|
|
Post by shooting the J on Mar 1, 2014 12:43:58 GMT -6
My one thought is, yeah we can speculate and insert Zo into the rotation. But if he doesn't get hurt, do we see G's mid range grow, or does he stick more to the post with Zo spreading the floor? And also, do we see the emergence of Kenny Lowe if Zo is healthy all year? I had thoughts along the same line. 1 as a freshman Kenny probably wouldn't had seen any time. 2 Greg's got a sweet baseline shot that he seems to hit 75% of the time. Would he have gotten the confidence if he hadn't seen so much time early? But after watching Fonzi he sure is a smooth player. Seems like a shorter more athletic AB and that's no knock to AB it's a compliment to Fonzi. But speculation aside it was 2nd half defense that won the Oakland game. WTG men. I'm not sure Mays or Lowe would have had their playing time affected that much by a healthy A-Mac. The Phoenix were ready to play a big line-up with A-Mac and Fouse on the wings. I think Garret, Fulton, and now Findlay were the players who saw the largest increase in their roles because of the injury. Alfonzo is a serious 3 point shooter now. We've seen a few minutes of the big lineup since Alfonzo's return, and I think we'll see a lot more of it in the HLT. I agree StillaPhoenixFan that the 2nd half defense against Oakland was the key. I just love that we a team now that has the tough, gritty defense needed to win tough road games in February and March.
|
|