Iup basketball

[IUPbigINDIANS]

IUP has a tough week upcoming. Joe and the Redshirts host California and then travel to Greensburg next Saturday.

However, I sure hope they aren't looking past tomorrow. Clarion is sitting a little above the .500 mark, but there's more to that story. The Golden Eagles have played a very tough non-conference schedule (including West Liberty and Daemen). They've also lost a lot of very close games.

Clarion is on a current 3-game winning streak (Seton Hill, UPJ and California). Not long ago, they won at West Chester (a tough road venue against a solid team). Earlier in the season, they defeated Frostburg State (when FSU was healthy and playing well).

All of that said, Clarion has also had some strange performances. For instance, they lost to Slippery Rock (without Ike Herster and Maceo Austin playing).

There's also this little nugget: Clarion has won 2 of the past 3 meetings against IUP.

Last year was a strange series. IUP hammered the Golden Eagles in the KCAC. In the rematch ... Clarion hammered IUP. Neither game was remotely competitive. They just took turns blasting one another.

Of note, Clarion had a bye prior to the second game (same as tomorrow's game).

IUP has really struggled containing Jeremy Thomas II. He's had some really big games in this series. Gavin Cote is a big guard who can light it up from outside. Justice Easter seems like he's been playing against IUP for 15 years now. Another guard, Trey Nelson, is the reigning West Player of the Week. Clarion also mixes in an array of big bodies under the basket.

So, long story short, this isn't going to be some walk in the park tomorrow.

Massey is projecting IUP to win, 78-74.

As for me? I have a hunch IUP remembers getting steamrolled up there last season. But, Damian Pitts seems to have found some cracks in the IUP system. I think this will be a "final 90 seconds" type of game.

IUP -1.5

[IUPbigINDIANS]

FYI

The women's game tomorrow at Clarion will now start at 11:30 a.m.

The men's game will start at 1:30 p.m.


This should get the teams out of there prior to Snowmageddon 2026

[IUPalum]

Bautista didn't play (obviously) but the good news is he isn't on crutches, wrapped up or anything else. He appeared to be walking fine. So, he may have been getting a precautionary day off.

Of note, Joe's two true freshmen both not only dressed but played (mop-up time).

They have more offense with Grove starting but less defense. Pick your poison, I guess.

Christian Moore (who doesn't get talked about nearly enough as one of the top guards in the league) went for 24 points and 10 rebounds.

Edinboro didn't pressure IUP at all. Not many teams in the league are going to beat IUP playing a slow-down, half-court game. They played right into Joe's strength.

The Scots hung around for about the first 28-30 minutes. However, they were completely gassed the final 7-8 minutes. They play a really short bench.

IUP did run a good bit of its 1-2-2 press (with Herring at the top). He did pretty well with it.

We'll see if they make the trip to Clarion. Depending on which forecast you read Western PA is either getting 1" or 3' of snow.

The true freshman playing isn't a bad thing. Joe can play them up to 10 games and still redshirt them. Both were/are very raw and need to get stronger!

As you answered your own question, Edinboro really didn't pressure because they run a short bench and were already gassed without pressing.

You say Grove brought more offense, does he??? Yes, he chucks threes, some days he makes them and others... YIKES!!! Grove brings nothing to the paint area. He's got to toughen up and get stronger in that area. Grove is 100% a lost puppy on D.

There is a chance Bautista could play on Saturday per the post game but I wouldn't count on it.

Christian Moore is a key cog on this team. Most teams will focus on Dallis and Ky. I'll let Moore fire away if that's the case. He's a proven top player and IUP can ride him too.

I liked what Ky was doing in the second half. Dribble penetrate to the middle!!! He can either shoot or it gets the D all out of sorts which opens up cutters or wide open 3 balls. He didn't that to Gannon some Saturday and it worked what little he did it.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Joe better rebound from that embarrassment on Saturday. I'll comment more on that in a few weeks. They must get back on track tonight. Any word on Bautista?

Bautista didn't play (obviously) but the good news is he isn't on crutches, wrapped up or anything else. He appeared to be walking fine. So, he may have been getting a precautionary day off.

Of note, Joe's two true freshmen both not only dressed but played (mop-up time).

They have more offense with Grove starting but less defense. Pick your poison, I guess.

Christian Moore (who doesn't get talked about nearly enough as one of the top guards in the league) went for 24 points and 10 rebounds.

Edinboro didn't pressure IUP at all. Not many teams in the league are going to beat IUP playing a slow-down, half-court game. They played right into Joe's strength.

The Scots hung around for about the first 28-30 minutes. However, they were completely gassed the final 7-8 minutes. They play a really short bench.

IUP did run a good bit of its 1-2-2 press (with Herring at the top). He did pretty well with it.

We'll see if they make the trip to Clarion. Depending on which forecast you read Western PA is either getting 1" or 3' of snow.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Joe better rebound from that embarrassment on Saturday. I'll comment more on that in a few weeks. They must get back on track tonight. Any word on Bautista?

No word on Bautista. I'd be surprised if we see him tonight. But, hopefully he's OK.

As of now the game is still on. Indiana may get pretty rough tonight with this incoming storm. Edinboro may be booking rooms next door at the Hilton.

But, massive game for Joe. If they lose tonight ... I fear the train could come off the tracks. This past Saturday was rough. It wasn't just losing up there. It was getting blown out to the middle of Lake Erie. We'll see how they recover mentally.

That said, in a typical half-court game, Joe can beat every team in the PSAC. He's never going to beat Gannon again playing the way he does. They literally walk right into the trap. Pun intended.

[IUPalum]

For many reasons, tonight is the biggest game of Joe's season.

Joe better rebound from that embarrassment on Saturday. I'll comment more on that in a few weeks. They must get back on track tonight. Any word on Bautista?

[IUPbigINDIANS]

For many reasons, tonight is the biggest game of Joe's season.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

What’s strange is that when Crutchfield was at West Liberty few, if any, dealt with that style of play better than Joe did. Obviously his teams were much better then, but there also seemed to be a plan to deal with those teams, which seems to be sorely lacking since Gannon adopted that approach.

I thought about that yesterday.

The differences I came up with:

Joe had several physical PGs. Chance, for example, was 5'11" but extremely physical.

His other guards in that era were also in the 6'5" range (Brandon Norfleet, etc.). It's much easier to trap 6'0" (or shorter) guards.

His post players in that era were far superior (Webb, Daddy, etc.). They were extremely more aggressive and much more physical.


Was Joe, too, a little more innovative in his younger years? Perhaps.


But, here's the other thing: Cal BEAT Gannon a week ago with (6) guys. That's it. Six players got on the floor. Danny does the 100 percent polar opposite attack than Joe does. Joe should study what Cal does against Gannon.

Millersville (a team Joe beat fairly easily) lost to Gannon, 74-70.

Gannon is good but shouldn't be embarrassing IUP (as noted in those results).

Joe has to change how he plays them. It clearly doesn't work with his current rosters and strategies.

He's had a post player issue for awhile now, which also isn't helping.

Put it this way ... they keep playing them like they did yesterday and they'd lose 50 out of 50.

[Chuck Norris]

Commentary: They (still) can't break a trapping press. Their press break is custom-made to work against them. They intentionally inbound slowly and then pass to coffin corner.

The end.

Watch WL play Nova.

The ball is inbounded in a second. Joe let's the trapping team set up.

This is clear as day. How they don't try something different is mind-boggling.

Being it's on film, it's a wonder every team doesn't trap them.

What’s strange is that when Crutchfield was at West Liberty few, if any, dealt with that style of play better than Joe did. Obviously his teams were much better then, but there also seemed to be a plan to deal with those teams, which seems to be sorely lacking since Gannon adopted that approach.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

IUP will have a good record at the end of the year, but will have no chance of pushing the top teams. They still don’t have an impactful inside presence and haven’t had one since Tomiwa Sulaiman was on campus. Ethan Porterfield was a scoring presence, but not the type of physical player I’m talking about. IUP also lacks quality depth. They don’t have the ingredients to make any type of meaningful run and it shows against good teams. I’ll let others offer commentary on the coaching.

Commentary: They (still) can't break a trapping press. Their press break is custom-made to work against them. They intentionally inbound slowly and then pass to coffin corner.

The end.

Watch WL play Nova.

The ball is inbounded in a second. Joe let's the trapping team set up.

This is clear as day. How they don't try something different is mind-boggling.

Being it's on film, it's a wonder every team doesn't trap them.

[gman16506]

IUP will have a good record at the end of the year, but will have no chance of pushing the top teams. They still don’t have an impactful inside presence and haven’t had one since Tomiwa Sulaiman was on campus. Ethan Porterfield was a scoring presence, but not the type of physical player I’m talking about. IUP also lacks quality depth. They don’t have the ingredients to make any type of meaningful run and it shows against good teams. I’ll let others offer commentary on the coaching.

Good points! Gannon outrebounded IUP by 12 and it didn't seem that close. IUP didn't seem to have an answer for Idiaru who may be a bigger factor in Gannon's season than I ever thought. And a question to the IUP fan base.......does Merraro try to do too much himself against the press? Seems to me he attempts to go one-on-one too much against the trap-press and gets hung up by the double.

[EyeoftheHawk]

IUP will have a good record at the end of the year, but will have no chance of pushing the top teams. They still don’t have an impactful inside presence and haven’t had one since Tomiwa Sulaiman was on campus. Ethan Porterfield was a scoring presence, but not the type of physical player I’m talking about. IUP also lacks quality depth. They don’t have the ingredients to make any type of meaningful run and it shows against good teams. I’ll let others offer commentary on the coaching.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

There's no point in analyzing that debacle.

But, last year fans at least expected it.

Today was probably the most disappointing performance by an IUP team in at least 30 years.

A coach cannot talk about learning from it when the exact same thing happened 10 months ago. Nothing was learned from it.

Gannon was without a starter today, too.

IUP can't play them slow. That's now (8) straight losses against up-tempo teams. Just about all of them have come by double digits margins. The last two have been 30-ish burgers.

Today would have been worse had Gannon not called off the dogs the last 3-4 minutes.

IUP was beat and bullied under the basket today in a manner I've never seen. Check out the box score. Making matters worse, Bautista Rodriguez went down with what appeared to be a knee injury. It was wrapped after the game and he was hobbling pretty good while walking.

If something doesn't change, stylistically and strategically, we're just going to see this same movie - yet again - when they play in late February.

This is a dark day for the program. I sure hope the team bounces back.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Good Lord


Unless Joe changes he'll get blown out every game against them until he retires.

This is just awful.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

It took a half but the broadcast is fixed.