Horizon League MBB opens tonight

[mudclods]

With all 12 Horizon League schools playing each other twice this season, conference play begins early this year with a pair of games before concluding non-conference play.  YSU heads to Wisconsin to play Milwaukee tonight and Green Bay Saturday.  Milwaukee is 1-5 losing 5 straight and has been without Pat Baldwin, Jr.  Haven't heard if he's playing tonight or not but it sounded like it was a possibility.  GB meanwhile is 1-5 winning their last time out against D3 UW-Superior.  Heading into conference play, only Oakland and CSU have winning records; 6 of the 12 schools only have 1 win and Detroit & RMU have yet to win. 

Milwaukee opened as a 7-point favorite but the line has dropped to between 5-6.  Will be interesting to see how YSU plays, and the game plan without Covington.  YSU was hit with an illness early last week and didn't practice most of the week.  Sounds like some guys that were probably going to redshirt may now play with Covington out for the year, I believe Grayson Kelley as well and Vargo in the portal. 

[Penguin Nick]

Is Covington definitely out for the year?  If so, my interest is going to be close to zero and it's going to be a very long year.

[mudclods]

Is Covington definitely out for the year?  If so, my interest is going to be close to zero and it's going to be a very long year.

Yes he is...terrible misfortune

[Double ET]

Is Covington definitely out for the year?  If so, my interest is going to be close to zero and it's going to be a very long year.

Yes he is...terrible misfortune

Since he was never red shirted, could he get another year of eligibility (only playing in 3 games this year)?

[mudclods]

Is Covington definitely out for the year?  If so, my interest is going to be close to zero and it's going to be a very long year.

Yes he is...terrible misfortune

Since he was never red shirted, could he get another year of eligibility (only playing in 3 games this year)?

I believe Coach Calhoun said that was a possibility in his press conference this week

[ucfpengbuck]

This team needs some good luck to come there way .   Between injuries and key players exiting to the portal it's been fustrating.   WE need the transfers to play lights out if we're going to be competitive.

[mudclods]

This team needs some good luck to come there way .   Between injuries and key players exiting to the portal it's been fustrating.   WE need the transfers to play lights out if we're going to be competitive.

Yes I agree.  Everything was building up to a tremendous year last season then COVID hit disrupting things, DQ got hurt and never seemed right after that.  Even losing him and Naz, I was still excited about this year with Akuchie, Covington & Thomas returning and liked what I saw from Hunter, Ogoro, and Rathan-Mayers last year.  And besides those guys, I thought several of the other newcomers were very athletic.  Shame of it is this team could and should be 4-1, and figure were only down 6 to Penn-State on the road with 7 mins remaining. 

I still think this team can be successful.  It appears Oakland and CSU are the teams to beat but everyone else seems to have their issues this far and Wright St and NKU appear to be down.  I think it's all about meshing and a new game plan now with all Covington. 

[ucfpengbuck]

Thought we would lose when UWM was up double digits.  Thanks to coach using the press and Owen Long we pulled this one out 70 -68.

[Double ET]

Thought we would lose when UWM was up double digits.  Thanks to coach using the press and Owen Long we pulled this one out 70 -68.

When Owen Long missed the second FT (up by 2), I thought we were heading to OT. UWM had a good look, but missed a short jump shot.
Good win on the road tonight.

[ucfpengbuck]

Our two leading scorers were Long & Olison that played D3 and NAIA basketball last season.  Not sure if thats a bad or good thing.

[mudclods]

Gutsy and much needed win.  Looked like YSU might get blown out of the building down 11 in the 2nd half...felt like 20 for the way they were shooting.  Owen Long was the difference.  He came off the bench and ended that long scoreless drought.  Once he hit that shot, YSU got going and the press worked.  Impressive 2nd half for Long scoring 17.  The intensity from that point on was good and YSU was getting rebounds and the loose balls unlike the first half.  Foul shooting was the difference with YSU hitting 23-27 compared to Milwaukee at 10-14.

I didn't like the foul that soon by Mayes when YSU was up 3 when Milwaukee inbounded with 9 seconds and only 2 seconds came off the clock.   

Would like to see Myles Hunter get going.  He was a spark last year when he got hot but has struggled to score this year. 

Green Bay beat Robert Morris tonight for their first D1 win of the season.  Would be great if YSU could come out of Wisconsin at 2-0.

[guinpen]

Thought we would lose when UWM was up double digits.  Thanks to coach using the press and Owen Long we pulled this one out 70 -68.

Looks like I changed the channel too soon, shame on me.

[Penquin68]

The D3 and NAIA tranfers are solid shooters, but lack the height, quickness, and athletisim of the typical D1 recruit.  Coaches don't seem to value shooting ability as highly as they do the other qualities and thus we have a team of fine athletes who do not shoot that well, especially at our level. Mays is a good shooter, but the rest of our current team is hit and miss so a good shooter really comes in handy like last night. Remember the team in our tournament we played the 1st night and barely beat who beat the other 2 teams in the tourney. A recent D3 school who had good shooters and could win at our mid major level. I think the addition of shooter to our athletes will make us a much better team. DQ was that good shooter for 2 years for us and made a huge difference from 3, driving to the basket, and shooting free throws. How many games did he win for us at the end of the game? Quite a few I think. Why did we loose the 2 games in our tournament? I think it was among other things the lack of a shooter at the end of the game, even the ability to make foul shots.  Hopefully these guys can continue to do well and take us over the top in some of our games.

[mudclods]

The D3 and NAIA tranfers are solid shooters, but lack the height, quickness, and athletisim of the typical D1 recruit.  Coaches don't seem to value shooting ability as highly as they do the other qualities and thus we have a team of fine athletes who do not shoot that well, especially at our level. Mays is a good shooter, but the rest of our current team is hit and miss so a good shooter really comes in handy like last night. Remember the team in our tournament we played the 1st night and barely beat who beat the other 2 teams in the tourney. A recent D3 school who had good shooters and could win at our mid major level. I think the addition of shooter to our athletes will make us a much better team. DQ was that good shooter for 2 years for us and made a huge difference from 3, driving to the basket, and shooting free throws. How many games did he win for us at the end of the game? Quite a few I think. Why did we loose the 2 games in our tournament? I think it was among other things the lack of a shooter at the end of the game, even the ability to make foul shots.  Hopefully these guys can continue to do well and take us over the top in some of our games.

Excellent points...agree 100%! I felt at the beginning of the season this was one of the most athletic teams for many years.  I was excited the way YSU was shooting the ball in some of those early games, but have hit the wall of late.  Started off the season with a good 3-pt %, but that's really fell of late outside of Mayes; however, have looked good from the FT line. 

It would have felt so much different if YSU didn't blow that SIUE game.  I think if YSU can shoot better Saturday they have a good chance of sweeping the Wisconsin swing and would that erase a lot of the sting from the MTE tourney.   

[ucfpengbuck]

It's still early in the season so hopefully our shooters will step up.  Coach said that this was supposed to be a much better 3 pt shooting team. Shelton the transfer from Hampton was expected to be the guy that can knock them down but his playing time has been limited.  Owen Long showed that ability last night but now there's a scouting on him so will see what he does going forward.

St Thomas is sort of an anomaly since they take about 35 3s a game which is unusual but that's who they are.

I was wondering if the shooting and over all bad offense was due to the sickness that hit the team last week.