What concerns me the most are the turnovers and lack of being efficient on offense. This game reminded me of the loss to Niagara, and I chalked that up to being tired after the 3rd game in 3 days and having no time to prepare without Covington.
I was surprised YSU made really no effort to try and get Akuchie and Thomas the ball inside, and maybe Owens and Dunn aren't ready yet, but their size really isn't being utilized. And I wish we could get more than 10 mins out of Thomas.
When YSU went on the 5 game winning streak with road Horizon League wins along with good wins over Central Michigan and Canisius and throw in Westminster, I thought maybe they got over the hump. They averaged 78 and gave up 60 during that stretch.
Then came WVU. YSU played a terrible first half (WVU was worse), but was only down 1 then they got blown out in the 2nd half. Throw out the Defiance game. The Oakland game had the horrible stretch when YSU couldn't score and got outscored by 22.
Now the last 2 games have been similar, only difference was Robert Morris wasn't as good as the mediocre PFW.
I felt like early on this YSU team was one of most athletic in recent years and if they could shoot the ball well and play defense they'd be dangerous. Defense hasn't been so much the issue this year as it was in some years past. YSU needs to find some guys to step up. Without Covington, they need a leader besides Akuchie. Cohill's advantage in a lot of earlier games was his speed as him and Olison could get to the basket and score, now they seem like they are either getting stripped or just lack the size to finish.
Shemar can knock down shots, but I feel like his size is really hurting him this year. He can't get to the basket at all successfully and has turned the ball over a lot as well. Definitely need more out of Hunter and Ogoro as well.
Surprisingly CSU only beat Robert Morris by 1 last night. YSU needs to find a way to win or the early road wins aren't going to mean much and they are going to find themselves in the middle of the pack of a down year of Horizon League. Felt like Oakland and CSU were clearly the best teams and YSU would be in the next group with the likes of Wright St and Detroit.