I sat in the vacated Ozone right on the court which is always fun to see how big, strong & fast things are down there. Toledo's offense is elite. Simmons, Wilson & Lewis...3 freshmen go 11 for 13 from the field, 5 assists 0 turnovers. They're smooth and comfortable and the whole damn team just shoots the ball well, or at least did last night. And 0 seniors. I would be excited if I'm a Rocket fan.
Coach Boals seemed despondent last night. Grumpy in more of a quiet way, not an angry way. His subs were more of the "you pissed me off there, come sit on the bench" variety. The whole vibe seemed icy...this team needs a good night in the worst way right now.
Ben Wight played 8 minutes, grabbed some rebounds and committed some fouls. Uneventful handshake. He sure handled his trip the Convo more classy and gracefully than Sam Towns.
Clayton did the catch and hoist awkward 3s of yesteryear and I hated it. He is a legit post player in the MAC. Let's embrace it. And Hadaway's ups and positioning and sense are really good...but he too camped out on the perimeter several times and even hoisted 2 threes himself. Hadaway should almost never be shooting 3s, and Clayton when he is spotted up open.
We have a ball handling / shot creating issue. EJ4 does his thing, but I worry that is getting sniffed out more with the same 1 or 2 pop and spin moves that opponents are starting to look for. Jaylin is really struggling with his outside shot and not having much luck distributing. Shereef is reckless with the ball. Sheldon doesn't have the size and stones yet and Miles seems reluctant, even though I believe he has PG skills.
Someone mentioned Mark Sears. Yeah, he is exactly what this team needs. We need our 5th year seniors Jaylin & Miles to step up and quarterback this team better going forward.
One thing we did well was hustle back and defend on breakaways. I think we had 5 really nice blocks/defenses of would be sure buckets, 2 of which brought completely garbage fouls from the very whistle happy refs.
I do credit Toledo, I thought they looked really good. We really need to get a win Saturday and if so, week 1 isn't so disastrous. Drop another one at home Saturday and it's a sad state of affairs.