Iup basketball

[IUPbigINDIANS]

March 15, 2022

IUP defeated California in the Atlantic Region Final inside the KCAC. Ethan Porterfield hit the biggest shot in building history (which then came with the loudest moment in building history). Joe vs. Danny was reaching a fever pitch. Both teams had stars galore.

The rivalry, which reached extreme levels in the 90s, finally appeared to be back.

Fast forward to tonight, less than 3 calendar years later, and, well, times have certainly changed. These two programs are now simply fighting for their PSAC Tournament lives. How both got to this moment, well, those are complicated stories. Neither will be in this predicament much longer. Both should return to power next November. But, this strange 2024-25 story isn't over just yet.

Tonight / Angelo Dome

The interesting thing about 87.5 percent of the West falling under the 'parity' category is every night is a big game.

Teams can go from second to eighth in a week. We haven't seen a division 'race' like this in (from my memory) 35 years.

The division is a jumbled-up mess. Which, of course, if anything, makes for an entertaining season.

Make no mistake, both Joe and Danny need this game tonight.

Part of the 'how they got here' story is both teams are without their two best players. Early in the season, the Vulcans lost both Bryson Lucas and Keith Palek. IUP's Dallis Dillard wasn't quite ready to return from his ACL injury and the decision was made to use this as a redshirt season. IUP's (arguably) best player in the program, Bautista Rodriguez, has been in the Tracksuit Army all season due to an NCAA eligibility issue. Both will return next season. No word if Cal's players will return.

As for those remaining, it's real hard to say what you'll see from game to game. Both teams play well one night, and bad the next.

A couple key items for IUP:

1) Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde

- IUP is a woeful 2-7 in games played outside of the KCAC. The Crimson Hawks are 8-2 at home. The disparity between the 'home' Hawks and the 'away' Hawks has been astonishing. Night and day difference. This team is growing. Playing on the road is the needed next step. Time, by the way, is also running out. So, no time like the present.

2) With both starting forwards and also their top reserve forward lost for the season, Cal's offense has largely lived -- and died -- with the three-point shot. When it's falling, they are a pretty decent team. The Vulcans have fired up a PSAC-high 583 attempts (nearly 30 per game). The attempts have reached near 40 on a few recent occasions. Cal is shooting about 34 percent from deep on the season.

- The bad news, here, obviously, is while Cal is one of the top outside shooting teams in the league, IUP is one of the worst in the league at defending the deep shot (currently 16th out of 17 in 3-point defense). IUP likes to give too much cushion to shooters, preferring instead to clog the lanes. That approach can get a team murdered against these Cal guards. If IUP is going to let the Vulcans launch from all over, uncontested, this will be a long night.

3) Cal can still score a lot of points, but it also gives up a lot of points. IUP should have a big size advantage tonight. This needs to be exploited. Damir Brooks is going to be a match-up nightmare for Cal's remaining post players.

4) Neither team is overly deep. Foul trouble -- which team can stay out of it -- will likely tell the tale.

5) Ian Herring played 30 minutes against Clarion. Alphonso Pickens played 18 minutes. It was far and away IUP's best performance of the season. That wasn't a coincidence. Neither had huge stat lines but both are strong defenders. Herring can shoot from outside, take it inside, and, generally, is a total wild card. He draws attention, which, of course, takes pressure off of Christian Moore and Kymani Merraro. Pickens has shutdown-defender skills and the speed and size to go with it. With those two playing much heavier minutes, Moore exploded for a season-high 23 points. Again, not a coincidence.

- Joe can be a pretty tough out down the stretch. For that to happen, however, his best players need to play the most minutes. And, starting tonight, they need to get a big road win.

[tonyc]

Today's IUP-Clarion game story: https://open.substack.com/pub/tonyco...meOnShare=true

[IUPalum]

Great bounce back. Best showing all year.

100%

[EyeoftheHawk]

Great bounce back. Best showing all year.

I thought the same thing about it being their best performance of the year. Clarion is a much better team than they were made to look today.

IUP is nothing if not inconsistent, which is often true of young teams like this. They can be on fire one game like they were tonight, or look lost in the second half at Slippery Rock and get hammered. If nothing else tonight may have been a glimpse at what might be possible if this group sticks together.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Great bounce back. Best showing all year.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

If Joe plays his same rotation today (minutes-wise) ... Clarion will hammer them. Sarp can't play 34 minutes against Clarion's guards. They are too big and fast.

If Joe wants to win, Herring better play 30+ today.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Underground betting line today:

Clarion -2.5


Joe's a home dog to Clarion. Let that sink in.

[EyeoftheHawk]

That's what has been and what is now. In my post above, I am suggesting what could be, and what is in a comparable small sports market. I am asking the question of why something like that can't be generated in Indiana. I question whether anybody in Indiana has the vision to sidestep the IG and create something new.

So, there is a “guy” that does it for the high school teams, but it’s very much at the grassroots level. He puts on a lot of miles, takes a ton of photos of the kids, and sometimes writes brief Facebook stories about some of the games. He does not cover IUP. Nice enough guy doing what he can, but it’s not what you’re suggesting. There’s another guy that just takes photos, and very good ones, but he doesn’t write about the games.

I suppose it could be done but it would still take some resources. The person or people would have to have nothing else to do, have some talent, and not care if they make any money. Even then a few bucks to cover expenses would certainly help. I suppose you could put together a 5ish person team to cover games and submit their stories to a central hub, and come up with a sponsorship ask to cover expenses and maybe throw the writers a few bucks per game covered, but I don’t know if sponsors would line up for that. Hard to say.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

It's been a long, long time (if ever) since one could refer to Clarion visiting the KCAC as a big game.

The last 'big' Clarion vs IUP basketball game, in fact, came in the PSAC playoffs - about 25 years ago. The Golden Eagles pulled a stunning upset that night. In context, Clarion was pretty good back then.

While that long-ago game had bigger ramifications, tomorrow's game is real important for both teams.

IUP (5-6, 9-9) is about exactly what its record says it is. Good one game. Bad the next. Often times a mix of both.

Clarion (4-7, 9-8) has struggled to close out games in PSAC play.

The West is a jumbled mess. Two teams won't get invited to the conference tournament. As of now, both IUP and Clarion are on the bubble.

This is really a 'must win' for both.

Trying to figure Clarion's season out isn't easy. Much like IUP, the Golden Eagles can certainly have their moments.

For instance, Clarion started the season on fire -- racking up a 7-1 record. Since then, however, they've gone 2-7. But, don't let that stretch fool you.

Along the way, the Golden Eagles have had some heart-breakers -- losing by (3) points at Shippensburg, (2) points to Edinboro, (2) points at Seton Hill, and (3) points to UPJ.

And, by the way, most recently Clarion hung 97 points on Slippery Rock in a 97-87 win.

So, anybody expecting a pushover tomorrow better re-think that real fast. Clarion is four buckets away from having a 13-4 record instead of being 9-8.

One other little item: The Golden Eagles have had a full week to prepare for the trip to Indiana.

IUP offsets that a bit, however, because scouting IUP is next to impossible. I don't think even the players know what they are running from set to set on either end. Joe changes his press calls three times before the ball gets tossed in. So, studying film of this Joe team may make your head explode.

That said, the KCAC should be rocking tomorrow. Students are finally back. It's Boy Scout Day. It's late January with little other options for sports fans.

They both really need this win. That in itself should make it an entertaining game.

[Ship69]

Obviously Tony is well aware but for you others ... The Gazette is a tricky newspaper, sports-wise. Yes, Indiana (proper) is a small town, but the Gazette's circulation and coverage area extends well beyond Indiana High School. The IG covers (used to) the majority of the Heritage Conference schools in addition to Indiana High and IUP. That's a big load for a very lightly-staffed sports department. They also sell papers in to the Apollo-Ridge school district, so that's another one you have to toss a bone at occasionally.

For years IUP could supply the IG with a lot of 'stringers' to help out. I'd guess that fell off some over the years.

The political dynamic is interesting, too. On here, we think IUP sports should be front and center. However, most of Indiana County could give a rats' a$$ about IUP sports. They want the emphasis on high school coverage.

On top of it, as mentioned above, you have the (heavy) influence from IUP breathing down your neck. Tony covered IUP Basketball under Gary Edwards' regime. My goodness the stories he could have probably written about those renegade teams. There was no coach, also, more flamboyant than Edwards. Joe is a coach-speak master and often just talks in circles (but, it sounds good). Edwards could go off the deep end.

But, as stated, it's a very small town. You start writing glaring stories about the program and, well, they won't talk to you anymore. These coaches at IUP don't live under the same microscope as say Pat Narduzzi. If you pi$$ Joe off as a reporter, he's just going to ignore you. It's not like they have obligatory press conferences.

Take Tort's epic Timeout debacle. Had the Pitt coach done that he'd have been lambasted by the media. Tort barely talked about it (and of course blamed everything and everybody under the sun when he did).

As for the IG's rapid decline, it is depressing. I can read the Post-Gazette all day but I tire very quickly reading about Tomlin 365 days a year. They cover high school but it's largely just the big readership schools (NA, PR, etc.). I get it. It's all about clicks today.

The Valley News Dispatch (owned by the Trib) is a pretty good, smallish paper. It's much bigger than the IG, but similar. I'd have much preferred the Trib had bought the IG instead of another of these chop-shop conglomerates.

In fairness, the new Sports Editor is 'new' and still getting his feet wet. But, so far, the IUP hoops coverage has been, well, terrible. It seems Matt is going to stay on and cover IUP Football. I sure hope, anyway. Reading an SID cheerleader release in a newspaper makes me want to vomit.

Had I been covering Tort on a small-town basis, I'd obviously have questioned him about what happened with the timeout fiasco. You can't leave an obvious blunder like that out of your story. You take either his answer or "no comment" and put it in the story. What you wouldn't do is write a column roasting the guy as they do in the big-city press. As you mention, you are in a more intimate setting and you have to work with your sources. This isn't only necessarily true of small programs. Bob Hammel, the newspaper reporter who covered Bob Knight at Indiana for many years, muted his criticism of some of Knight's more hare-brained stunts. I've read other journalists who met Hammel and actually thought he was a good and very knowlegeable writer, and they had some sympathy for his position. In Indiana you had to cover IU basketball, and you couldn't very well do it if the team's coach wasn't speaking to you.

You also go in degrees when you're covering teams. I was almost never critical of high school kids, in most cases 16- and 17-year-olds who are playing because they like the game, and I wasn't too hard on high school coaches, whose compensation at most schools was a phys ed job and a few thousand extra for coaching. Neither was I too hard on small-college guys. Alumni, parents, and boosters will run a coach out of town if they don't like what is going on. I never felt the need to get too involved in that. Somebody like a P4 coach or NFL coach is a different animal. I think if you're going to paid $8 million to coach a football team you need to be able to account for your decisions. And some of these players pulling in a million or more of NIL compensation are going to find out that brings more scrutiny as well.

[Fightingscot82]

Obviously Tony is well aware but for you others ... The Gazette is a tricky newspaper, sports-wise. Yes, Indiana (proper) is a small town, but the Gazette's circulation and coverage area extends well beyond Indiana High School. The IG covers (used to) the majority of the Heritage Conference schools in addition to Indiana High and IUP. That's a big load for a very lightly-staffed sports department. They also sell papers in to the Apollo-Ridge school district, so that's another one you have to toss a bone at occasionally.

For years IUP could supply the IG with a lot of 'stringers' to help out. I'd guess that fell off some over the years.

The political dynamic is interesting, too. On here, we think IUP sports should be front and center. However, most of Indiana County could give a rats' a$$ about IUP sports. They want the emphasis on high school coverage.

On top of it, as mentioned above, you have the (heavy) influence from IUP breathing down your neck. Tony covered IUP Basketball under Gary Edwards' regime. My goodness the stories he could have probably written about those renegade teams. There was no coach, also, more flamboyant than Edwards. Joe is a coach-speak master and often just talks in circles (but, it sounds good). Edwards could go off the deep end.

But, as stated, it's a very small town. You start writing glaring stories about the program and, well, they won't talk to you anymore. These coaches at IUP don't live under the same microscope as say Pat Narduzzi. If you pi$$ Joe off as a reporter, he's just going to ignore you. It's not like they have obligatory press conferences.

Take Tort's epic Timeout debacle. Had the Pitt coach done that he'd have been lambasted by the media. Tort barely talked about it (and of course blamed everything and everybody under the sun when he did).

As for the IG's rapid decline, it is depressing. I can read the Post-Gazette all day but I tire very quickly reading about Tomlin 365 days a year. They cover high school but it's largely just the big readership schools (NA, PR, etc.). I get it. It's all about clicks today.

The Valley News Dispatch (owned by the Trib) is a pretty good, smallish paper. It's much bigger than the IG, but similar. I'd have much preferred the Trib had bought the IG instead of another of these chop-shop conglomerates.

In fairness, the new Sports Editor is 'new' and still getting his feet wet. But, so far, the IUP hoops coverage has been, well, terrible. It seems Matt is going to stay on and cover IUP Football. I sure hope, anyway. Reading an SID cheerleader release in a newspaper makes me want to vomit.

Could be worse. I had thought the IG was bought by Ogden Newspapers, the company founded by the Nutting family. They own the Lock Haven Express.

[iupgroundhog]

Obviously Tony is well aware but for you others ... The Gazette is a tricky newspaper, sports-wise. Yes, Indiana (proper) is a small town, but the Gazette's circulation and coverage area extends well beyond Indiana High School. The IG covers (used to) the majority of the Heritage Conference schools in addition to Indiana High and IUP. That's a big load for a very lightly-staffed sports department. They also sell papers in to the Apollo-Ridge school district, so that's another one you have to toss a bone at occasionally.

For years IUP could supply the IG with a lot of 'stringers' to help out. I'd guess that fell off some over the years.

The political dynamic is interesting, too. On here, we think IUP sports should be front and center. However, most of Indiana County could give a rats' a$$ about IUP sports. They want the emphasis on high school coverage.

On top of it, as mentioned above, you have the (heavy) influence from IUP breathing down your neck. Tony covered IUP Basketball under Gary Edwards' regime. My goodness the stories he could have probably written about those renegade teams. There was no coach, also, more flamboyant than Edwards. Joe is a coach-speak master and often just talks in circles (but, it sounds good). Edwards could go off the deep end.

But, as stated, it's a very small town. You start writing glaring stories about the program and, well, they won't talk to you anymore. These coaches at IUP don't live under the same microscope as say Pat Narduzzi. If you pi$$ Joe off as a reporter, he's just going to ignore you. It's not like they have obligatory press conferences.

Take Tort's epic Timeout debacle. Had the Pitt coach done that he'd have been lambasted by the media. Tort barely talked about it (and of course blamed everything and everybody under the sun when he did).

As for the IG's rapid decline, it is depressing. I can read the Post-Gazette all day but I tire very quickly reading about Tomlin 365 days a year. They cover high school but it's largely just the big readership schools (NA, PR, etc.). I get it. It's all about clicks today.

The Valley News Dispatch (owned by the Trib) is a pretty good, smallish paper. It's much bigger than the IG, but similar. I'd have much preferred the Trib had bought the IG instead of another of these chop-shop conglomerates.

In fairness, the new Sports Editor is 'new' and still getting his feet wet. But, so far, the IUP hoops coverage has been, well, terrible. It seems Matt is going to stay on and cover IUP Football. I sure hope, anyway. Reading an SID cheerleader release in a newspaper makes me want to vomit.

That's what has been and what is now. In my post above, I am suggesting what could be, and what is in a comparable small sports market. I am asking the question of why something like that can't be generated in Indiana. I question whether anybody in Indiana has the vision to sidestep the IG and create something new.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

At one of the small-town newspapers where I worked we covered the three area high schools as best we could, and that included the girls teams. A coach from an opposing school was astounded to see me covering a field hockey game and taking photos. During the summer we'd print full box scores and standings for our Little League games. We had a large slow-pitch softball league at the time and would print summaries of those games if they were turned in. If I wasn't tied up with high school stuff on a weekend, I'd occasionally slip up to Ship to cover a PSAC football or basketball game. During the winter I was usually doing HS basketball on Tuesdays and Fridays and wrestling on Thursdays and Saturdays. In addition, I covered the local school board and had some other regular reporting duties. Weeks of 70 hours or so were common, I wasn't making a ton of money at a paper that size — and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Obviously Tony is well aware but for you others ... The Gazette is a tricky newspaper, sports-wise. Yes, Indiana (proper) is a small town, but the Gazette's circulation and coverage area extends well beyond Indiana High School. The IG covers (used to) the majority of the Heritage Conference schools in addition to Indiana High and IUP. That's a big load for a very lightly-staffed sports department. They also sell papers in to the Apollo-Ridge school district, so that's another one you have to toss a bone at occasionally.

For years IUP could supply the IG with a lot of 'stringers' to help out. I'd guess that fell off some over the years.

The political dynamic is interesting, too. On here, we think IUP sports should be front and center. However, most of Indiana County could give a rats' a$$ about IUP sports. They want the emphasis on high school coverage.

On top of it, as mentioned above, you have the (heavy) influence from IUP breathing down your neck. Tony covered IUP Basketball under Gary Edwards' regime. My goodness the stories he could have probably written about those renegade teams. There was no coach, also, more flamboyant than Edwards. Joe is a coach-speak master and often just talks in circles (but, it sounds good). Edwards could go off the deep end.

But, as stated, it's a very small town. You start writing glaring stories about the program and, well, they won't talk to you anymore. These coaches at IUP don't live under the same microscope as say Pat Narduzzi. If you pi$$ Joe off as a reporter, he's just going to ignore you. It's not like they have obligatory press conferences.

Take Tort's epic Timeout debacle. Had the Pitt coach done that he'd have been lambasted by the media. Tort barely talked about it (and of course blamed everything and everybody under the sun when he did).

As for the IG's rapid decline, it is depressing. I can read the Post-Gazette all day but I tire very quickly reading about Tomlin 365 days a year. They cover high school but it's largely just the big readership schools (NA, PR, etc.). I get it. It's all about clicks today.

The Valley News Dispatch (owned by the Trib) is a pretty good, smallish paper. It's much bigger than the IG, but similar. I'd have much preferred the Trib had bought the IG instead of another of these chop-shop conglomerates.

In fairness, the new Sports Editor is 'new' and still getting his feet wet. But, so far, the IUP hoops coverage has been, well, terrible. It seems Matt is going to stay on and cover IUP Football. I sure hope, anyway. Reading an SID cheerleader release in a newspaper makes me want to vomit.

[Ship69]

I always hold the record-online (see link) from Clinton County (Lock Haven) up as an example of how the local community might need to do the coverage themselves. Lock Haven and Indiana actually have a lot of similarities as communities go. The record-online is local advertising-based. The local sports coverage is comprehensive on the high school and college levels. I just watched a Central Mountain High School wrestling match using their portal.

The local paper, The Express, is the equivalent of the IG. Traditional small town paper that has been bought up by a small town paper conglomerate. The coverage in The Express is lacking. The corporate management doesn't care. The record-online was originally a newspaper from nearby Renovo (they still have coverage for that town). John Lipez, owner of the local LH radio station, bought it and turned it into 100% online. I do not see why a community like Indiana could not come up with something similar.

https://therecord-online.com/site/

At one of the small-town newspapers where I worked we covered the three area high schools as best we could, and that included the girls teams. A coach from an opposing school was astounded to see me covering a field hockey game and taking photos. During the summer we'd print full box scores and standings for our Little League games. We had a large slow-pitch softball league at the time and would print summaries of those games if they were turned in. If I wasn't tied up with high school stuff on a weekend, I'd occasionally slip up to Ship to cover a PSAC football or basketball game. During the winter I was usually doing HS basketball on Tuesdays and Fridays and wrestling on Thursdays and Saturdays. In addition, I covered the local school board and had some other regular reporting duties. Weeks of 70 hours or so were common, I wasn't making a ton of money at a paper that size — and I enjoyed every minute of it.

[iupgroundhog]

I was only a very casual reader and can concur. IG coverage was superb especially considering that compared to some other media markets of D2 schools, IUP's coverage was still among the best. Its rather nice to get 1 or 2 weekly articles or columns. I also appreciate the transparency that comes from those because I'm sure Tony and Matt have relationships with Tort and Joe. Outside of those feel good media day stories fed by the SID, the best coverage Edinboro got were Erie news regurgitations of SID stories.

I always hold the record-online (see link) from Clinton County (Lock Haven) up as an example of how the local community might need to do the coverage themselves. Lock Haven and Indiana actually have a lot of similarities as communities go. The record-online is local advertising-based. The local sports coverage is comprehensive on the high school and college levels. I just watched a Central Mountain High School wrestling match using their portal.

The local paper, The Express, is the equivalent of the IG. Traditional small town paper that has been bought up by a small town paper conglomerate. The coverage in The Express is lacking. The corporate management doesn't care. The record-online was originally a newspaper from nearby Renovo (they still have coverage for that town). John Lipez, owner of the local LH radio station, bought it and turned it into 100% online. I do not see why a community like Indiana could not come up with something similar.

https://therecord-online.com/site/