Iup basketball

[IUPbigINDIANS]

IUP hangs on, 79-72.

Lock Haven did some things well, but IUP did A LOT of things poorly.

* The SRP has to make some shots. Polce, KJ and Dillard have to knock one down every once in a while. Yes, Dillard banked in a trey on a misfire.

* Just quit with the long passes. It's a turnover every time, game after game. The Shippensburg loss should have taught the lesson but it continues. Shawndale isn't out there.

* Suliaman has to catch the ball. He got dished some wide open layups and just couldn't catch the ball at least 3 times for easy layups. That's 6 points going the other way.

* LHU has a couple Oscar nominations on flops today. Washington is almost on the level of Preston Boswell and Brent Pegram (who get looked at and end up in Row 7)

* Changed the call to keep Montague in the game with 8 mins left instead of fouling out. No comment.

* IUP's defense decided to let Fidelis, LH's best scorer, unguarded for much of the second half. He went nuts.

* Did I mention STOP WITH LONG PASSES IN TRANSITION? THEY DON'T WORK.

* IUP blew an 18 point lead ... was a 1-point game late in second half

* David and Armoni continue to make incredible passes while driving the lane to wide-open players ... who muffle the catch. IUP left at least 14 points on the floor today in this exact circumstance.

* Radford missed his third game and wasn't on the travel list. Odd.


A win is a win. Road wins are even better. But, that wasn't pretty. They should have won that game by 25-30 points.

On the positive, Ethan, Armoni and David had great games. Demo had some moments -- but they need more out of him.

Lock Haven is now 4-7 -- losers of 7 straight. That's a shame because they have some talent on that team. They will get somebody this year in an upset.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

IUP hasn't played this bad all year. My Lord.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Fun stat for the IUP defense:

The oppossing team has not made a trey against IUP in the last 40 court minutes ... 2nd half at Cal and 1st half at LH.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Not a work of art, but Joe is up about 15 at the half.

It probably should be 28-30.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Ugly start

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Looks like Radford is out again.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

The 'trap' game of the current schedule stretch is tomorrow at Lock Haven. It's a strange game ... oddest gym in the conference, empty facility, etc.

The Bald Eagles have lost 6 in a row after a 4-0 start.

Despite the losing streak, they haven't been getting clobbered aside from the UPJ game.

Lock Haven gave both Gannon and Mercyhurst pretty tough nights, and it also has a nice OT win over Edinboro.

They are scoring about 74 ppg and giving up 77 ppg. They aren't deep, but the starting five has some decent players -- some have been there for a while.

They have nice size throughout the starting lineup. Jesse McPherson (6'7" SF) has had a good game against IUP in the past. MarkAnthony Fidelis is one of the better guards in the league. DaQuan Granberry (formerly of Kutztown) is an athletic, big guard at 6'5".

This is certainly a game IUP is favored to win. But, the Bald Eagles have enough to make them work for it.


Keys:

* IUP's last two games (against D2 opponents) they've been losing at halftime. Joe spoke after the California game about getting off to better starts and matching intensity in the first half. Lock Haven, like everybody else, will be sky-high to play IUP. A fast start by IUP tomorrow can be crushing to a struggling team on a long losing streak.

* Polce and Dillard should have gained a lot of confidence in the second half of the California game. The theory was they'd keep growing with each game. That may have been the half we look back on and say it started to click. I'd split their minutes at 25/15. If Bryce Radford is still out, K.J. will probably get 6-8 minutes.

* Tomiwa Sulaiman is going to need to do some banging tomorrow. Lock Haven has some muscle under the basket.


Notes:

* No word on Radford's status. He's missed the past two games and was still in a boot at California. While I don't anticipate him having a large role, his return is important. Armoni Foster can't keep playing 39-40 mpg every night. A minute here or there off the floor will help. Radford gives them an extra capable offensive player (in spurts).

* The SRU game Monday night being PPD isn't the end of the world. Having SRU, Mercyhurst and Gannon in a 6-day stretch was going to be pretty rough. This will give IUP an extra day to prepare for the Mercyhurst match-up zone.

[EyeoftheHawk]

David Morris broke out with 22 points. It was coming. He had a fantastic game on both ends. When he got hot it took heat off Armoni and then he went off.

Ethan had 23 and Armoni had 20. Demo had a gritty game.

IUP scored 53 in the second half after just an ugly 31 in the first half.

I thought the last 90 seconds of the first half changed the whole game. They cut the deficit from 18 down to 9 and you could tell the momentum was finally swinging.

After a rough first half, Polce and Dillard looked like different dudes the last 20 minutes. Both hit huge treys down the stretch.

I thought IUP was getting good looks in the first half but nothing would fall. Bad misses, too, with deep rebounds.

Cal played an incredible first 18 minutes. They were sizzling. IUP made some great adjustments. Joe took away the trey which seemed to baffle the Cal offense.

Sulaiman gave them some tough minutes and helped control Alston a bit.

That's the second time Danny has blown a huge lead against Joe and ended up losing by double digits..

IUP's press break wasn't pretty. Cal may go to that much earlier in Round 2.

First time I've actually seen Preston Boswell play (after hearing about him for what seems 7 years). He's tough. The freshman Cal played (big kid can't remember his name) had a great first half. He may be a special one.

Cal is a good team. That was a big win.

[IUPalum]

David Morris broke out with 22 points. It was coming. He had a fantastic game on both ends. When he got hot it took heat off Armoni and then he went off.

Ethan had 23 and Armoni had 20. Demo had a gritty game.

IUP scored 53 in the second half after just an ugly 31 in the first half.

I thought the last 90 seconds of the first half changed the whole game. They cut the deficit from 18 down to 9 and you could tell the momentum was finally swinging.

After a rough first half, Polce and Dillard looked like different dudes the last 20 minutes. Both hit huge treys down the stretch.

I thought IUP was getting good looks in the first half but nothing would fall. Bad misses, too, with deep rebounds.

Cal played an incredible first 18 minutes. They were sizzling. IUP made some great adjustments. Joe took away the trey which seemed to baffle the Cal offense.

Sulaiman gave them some tough minutes and helped control Alston a bit.

That's the second time Danny has blown a huge lead against Joe and ended up losing by double digits..

IUP's press break wasn't pretty. Cal may go to that much earlier in Round 2.

First time I've actually seen Preston Boswell play (after hearing about him for what seems 7 years). He's tough. The freshman Cal played (big kid can't remember his name) had a great first half. He may be a special one.

Cal is a good team. That was a big win.

Gritty second half effort!

Joe made some great adjustments! By adjustments, he got them to slow down, cut the sloppiness out and changed a few defensive match ups. It worked!

The poor turnovers caused IUP to get destroyed in transition.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Bingo! Great D and controlled the ball.

David Morris broke out with 22 points. It was coming. He had a fantastic game on both ends. When he got hot it took heat off Armoni and then he went off.

Ethan had 23 and Armoni had 20. Demo had a gritty game.

IUP scored 53 in the second half after just an ugly 31 in the first half.

I thought the last 90 seconds of the first half changed the whole game. They cut the deficit from 18 down to 9 and you could tell the momentum was finally swinging.

After a rough first half, Polce and Dillard looked like different dudes the last 20 minutes. Both hit huge treys down the stretch.

I thought IUP was getting good looks in the first half but nothing would fall. Bad misses, too, with deep rebounds.

Cal played an incredible first 18 minutes. They were sizzling. IUP made some great adjustments. Joe took away the trey which seemed to baffle the Cal offense.

Sulaiman gave them some tough minutes and helped control Alston a bit.

That's the second time Danny has blown a huge lead against Joe and ended up losing by double digits..

IUP's press break wasn't pretty. Cal may go to that much earlier in Round 2.

First time I've actually seen Preston Boswell play (after hearing about him for what seems 7 years). He's tough. The freshman Cal played (big kid can't remember his name) had a great first half. He may be a special one.

Cal is a good team. That was a big win.

[IUPalum]

Whatever the F Joe said at halftime ... wow.

What a different team.

Great road win.

Bingo! Great D and controlled the ball.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Whatever the F Joe said at halftime ... wow.

What a different team.

Great road win.

[IUPalum]

Joe's playing 5 on 4 again. Not an ounce of production out of 5th spot. Ugly half.

Correct! Add to it the horrific turnovers trying to get the ball to the paint.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Joe's playing 5 on 4 again. Not an ounce of production out of 5th spot. Ugly half.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

They have to get some guys rolling.

Demo needs to show that ability to take over a game (like we saw when he first got here). He's had a mixed bag of games this year. He has to cut down on his turnovers. They don't need him to be 1984 Magic Johnson.

If he gets rolling it will do wonders for Armoni and David.

I'd also like to see Tomiwa Sulaiman put together a nice string of games. He's shown flashes. He doesn't need to score (much) but he has the ability to be a major disruption on defense and on the glass.

This is also David's chance to finally be a big scorer here. It's in there ... just want to see him cut it loose.

This will be Game 5 without Shawndale. The adjustments to the lineup should be starting to come together a bit better.

They'll still be a tough team every night. They just won't be blowing people out very often like we saw in the first 7 games.

I just hope Polce can go about 25 minutes tomorrow. Give Dillard/Radford the other 15.