Iup basketball

[Ship69]

Mansfield, roster-wise, is the polar opposite of New Haven.

They are very young (just two Juniors and no seniors or grads). They have a couple bigs but nothing like yesterday. New Haven had a lot of D1 imports who had played a whole lot of college basketball. They had some strong dudes.

IUP has three more games to go and then Diop returns. I'm interested to see how he works in to things. I'd think he will be a big boost until Ethan is back to full health.

I'd guess Ethan was at about 40-50% yesterday. He's a warrior. A lot of guys wouldn't even be playing.

In the world of the transfer portal, it's going to take a very good coach to build anything at Mansfield.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Mansfield, roster-wise, is the polar opposite of New Haven.

They are very young (just two Juniors and no seniors or grads). They have a couple bigs but nothing like yesterday. New Haven had a lot of D1 imports who had played a whole lot of college basketball. They had some strong dudes.

IUP has three more games to go and then Diop returns. I'm interested to see how he works in to things. I'd think he will be a big boost until Ethan is back to full health.

I'd guess Ethan was at about 40-50% yesterday. He's a warrior. A lot of guys wouldn't even be playing.

[IUPalum]

I wouldn’t call NH a street ball team. They switched to that zone in the second half with keeping the African kid defending the rim to prevent easy lay ups. It worked.

I kept yelling the whole second half to dump the ball to the high post and shoot. They didn’t till late. NH wanted them shooting from that elbow.

IUP gutted out a win with Ethan being nonexistent, David being a TO machine and Shawndale missing many bunnies in the first half.

Free throws won the game!

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Ethan was clearly dealing with an illness. Not sure what it was but he was struggling with it.

IUP showed why they’re such a dangerous team. They didn’t play very well for most of the game, but when it was on the line they buckled down and got the W. This group has been in so many big games they’re prepared to deal with a tight game late. They knew they would find a way to win while New Haven was hoping they could pull the upset. Interesting to note that while New Haven was able to tie it eventually, they were never able to take the lead in the second half.

Good win. Cakewalk in the next one.

Their next three 'should' be fairly easy games.

Mansfield isn't terrible. But, they should hammer Bloom and obvious PSU-Altoona.

[EyeoftheHawk]

NH was a professional street ball team. I say that as a compliment. They were big, strong and lightning fast.

I thought IUP was going to let that slip away. Very nice win.

Winning on a day Ethan gets shutout is impressive.

Ethan was clearly dealing with an illness. Not sure what it was but he was struggling with it.

IUP showed why they’re such a dangerous team. They didn’t play very well for most of the game, but when it was on the line they buckled down and got the W. This group has been in so many big games they’re prepared to deal with a tight game late. They knew they would find a way to win while New Haven was hoping they could pull the upset. Interesting to note that while New Haven was able to tie it eventually, they were never able to take the lead in the second half.

Good win. Cakewalk in the next one.

[Ship69]

NH was a professional street ball team. I say that as a compliment. They were big, strong and lightning fast.

I thought IUP was going to let that slip away. Very nice win.

Winning on a day Ethan gets shutout is impressive.

Looked like an iron man game on both sides of the ball. I see New Haven only had 19 minutes total of substitute time.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

IUP certainly got pushed to the limit today. Survives New Haven 65-60

NH was a professional street ball team. I say that as a compliment. They were big, strong and lightning fast.

I thought IUP was going to let that slip away. Very nice win.

Winning on a day Ethan gets shutout is impressive.

[Chuck Norris]

IUP certainly got pushed to the limit today. Survives New Haven 65-60

[IUPbigINDIANS]

We didn't shoot well against you but it's still early. The guys are starting to gel and Coach Hill has been tinkering with his starting 5 and rotations the last few games. We have taken our last two opponents to the woodshed.

I've seen far too many D2 basketball games than I like to admit in public. I have no doubt that WSSU is going to be a strong team as the season progresses.

IUP's trademark is on the defensive end and causes just about everybody to have bad shooting nights. In an offensive era, they still really turn up the heat on defense.

WSSU has a great combination of size and speed ... very athletic. I wouldn't be surprised if they play again in March.

In that game in particular, IUP jumped them in the first half. I think IUP was up either 15 or 17 at halftime. WSSU was a much different team in the second half.

I think you guys will do really well up at the Gannon tournament. And, Good Lord, your team is putting some miles on the bus this year.

[krober34]

They could be real scary if they could actually shoot.

We didn't shoot well against you but it's still early. The guys are starting to gel and Coach Hill has been tinkering with his starting 5 and rotations the last few games. We have taken our last two opponents to the woodshed.

[IUPalum]

Hurst is playing two less games than IUP and their nonconference schedule isn't very tough. We'll see how that plays out a couple months from now.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Opponent watch:

Concord - 2-2
Winston-Salem State - 3-1
Bowie State - 2-3
Walsh - 2-2


I suspect Concord will hover around or slightly above .500 most of the season.

Bowie State has played a really brutal schedule thus far (as always). They should win a lot of games in CIAA play. Winston-Salem will be in the CIAA race all year. Walsh obviously has some injury concerns, so their season is a little harder to project.

The SOS item is going to be pretty big this year. I think you have four front-runners in the Atlantic -- IUP, West Liberty, Fairmont State and East Stroudsburg. And, I don't think any of them will lose very often this year.

We haven't seen enough from Mercyhurst yet. They've somehow only played once, but, on paper, should be pretty strong.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

They are nice wins for sure and IUP can’t help that they are just significantly better than these teams. That’s a “problem” they’re likely to have all season long. Obviously they’ll have an off night or an opponent will play a tremendous game, but to me, this team’s’B’ game is good enough to beat anybody in this region most nights. Shawndale is an elite scorer the likes of which we have rarely seen. Then you have 3 other top shelf D2 players who can get 20 points on a given night and a solid group of role players. And everybody has bought in fully to playing suffocating defense. I just don’t see many holes.

The one hole is if Ethan or Tomiwa get in early foul trouble. Luckily, they only need to get through 4 more games until Diop returns.

He's much better than his career stat line suggests. He instantly gives Joe a 6'10" option off the bench. He's a solid rebounder and shot blocker. He's oddly one of the fastest players on the team.

I'd agree, depth-wise. Joe's very deep. I'm still getting used to it. It's actually odd to see him go 9 deep (and soon 10).

I even like his two big forwards on the deep bench. In a pinch they could play some minutes. Big, strong kids.

His big advantage over 95% of teams is Polce and Bethea would start for most of his opponents. He's bringing them off the bench. Add to it Brooks is getting better each time out. Once Brooks is past his first-year jitters, look out.

[Chuck Norris]

They didn’t play well against Concord in the first half and had to overcome a 5-7 point deficit they faced at the half. They blitzed them in the 2nd half, but it’s not as though they ‘haven’t’ been tested.

They certainly aren’t through this gauntlet to open the season, but I’ve liked what I’ve seen. They need to play a full 40 minutes though, because there will be a game where they struggle in the 1st half and they won’t be able to just run a team out of the building.

But these are nice wins. Concord is a good program and will win a lot of MEC games. Bowie is always good, and WSSU probably wins a lot of games this year too. Walsh is a great program as well. We’ll see if Joe can keep this going.

They are nice wins for sure and IUP can’t help that they are just significantly better than these teams. That’s a “problem” they’re likely to have all season long. Obviously they’ll have an off night or an opponent will play a tremendous game, but to me, this team’s’B’ game is good enough to beat anybody in this region most nights. Shawndale is an elite scorer the likes of which we have rarely seen. Then you have 3 other top shelf D2 players who can get 20 points on a given night and a solid group of role players. And everybody has bought in fully to playing suffocating defense. I just don’t see many holes.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

They didn’t play well against Concord in the first half and had to overcome a 5-7 point deficit they faced at the half. They blitzed them in the 2nd half, but it’s not as though they ‘haven’t’ been tested.

They certainly aren’t through this gauntlet to open the season, but I’ve liked what I’ve seen. They need to play a full 40 minutes though, because there will be a game where they struggle in the 1st half and they won’t be able to just run a team out of the building.

But these are nice wins. Concord is a good program and will win a lot of MEC games. Bowie is always good, and WSSU probably wins a lot of games this year too. Walsh is a great program as well. We’ll see if Joe can keep this going.

After New Haven they have what should be a lighter stretch for 3 games.