Iup basketball

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I'll say this, IUP should have a large crowd on Wednesday. With David, Armoni and Ethan on the squad it should fill quite a few seats!

One thing to keep in mind ... I put on the the first couple minutes of the Clarion/Mercy game at lunch. The broadcaster said Mercyhurst is limiting attendance in order to combat Covid. They have the seating pushed in behind the benches. So, get there early. As you said that place is small to begin with now.

First time I noticed, too, Mercyhurst is starting (4) guards and only playing Cam Gross (6'5") underneath. That's quite a contrast to some of the gigantic Lakers' lineups of the past.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I'll say this, IUP should have a large crowd on Wednesday. With David, Armoni and Ethan on the squad it should fill quite a few seats!

I remember that from the 19-20 season. IUP had some great crowds at GU, Mercy and Edinboro. In fact, the Boro game felt like a home game. Get loud in there Wednesday. They'll need you guys.

[IUPalum]

Mercyhurst does seem to be in a bit of a funk.

Last 3 games:

* Lost at home to East Stroudsburg, 85-72
- Pretty rare for any team to score 85 on them, but the Warriors have had their number.

* Beat a severely depleted Gannon team, 68-63

* Struggled with 1-win Seton Hill before surviving, 82-76
- Again, surprised to see the Griffins get 76 points on the board

The Lakers do play Clarion today at 1 p.m.


I heard the remodel is really tight.

Rest assured, they'll be ready for Joe's visit.

It's safe to say Joe is a work in progress. I'm not sure they've figured out how exactly they want to play yet. It's tough changing styles 8 games in to a season. I think their best bet is to slow down on offense and crank up the defense. I think Joe hit it on the head and they just thought the game Saturday was over at halftime. They took their foot off the gas and looked disinterested the first 12 minutes of the second half.

I'll say this, IUP should have a large crowd on Wednesday. With David, Armoni and Ethan on the squad it should fill quite a few seats!

[IUPbigINDIANS]

IUP going to Hurst Wednesday is the biggest game to date. Neither team is playing their best basketball but who ever wins this one becomes the clear cut favorite for now. The Hurst new remodel is even tighter than the old. The court now goes north/south instead of east/west. No more stage and probably lost about 700 seats. Horrible remodel in my opinion. Waste of money for that dump. They could've made if a touch bigger and more modern but... YUCK!!! Only thing going is IUP just played in a tight sand box at LH so at least they started to adapt.

Mercyhurst does seem to be in a bit of a funk.

Last 3 games:

* Lost at home to East Stroudsburg, 85-72
- Pretty rare for any team to score 85 on them, but the Warriors have had their number.

* Beat a severely depleted Gannon team, 68-63

* Struggled with 1-win Seton Hill before surviving, 82-76
- Again, surprised to see the Griffins get 76 points on the board

The Lakers do play Clarion today at 1 p.m.


I heard the remodel is really tight.

Rest assured, they'll be ready for Joe's visit.

It's safe to say Joe is a work in progress. I'm not sure they've figured out how exactly they want to play yet. It's tough changing styles 8 games in to a season. I think their best bet is to slow down on offense and crank up the defense. I think Joe hit it on the head and they just thought the game Saturday was over at halftime. They took their foot off the gas and looked disinterested the first 12 minutes of the second half.

[IUPalum]

IUP going to Hurst Wednesday is the biggest game to date. Neither team is playing their best basketball but who ever wins this one becomes the clear cut favorite for now. The Hurst new remodel is even tighter than the old. The court now goes north/south instead of east/west. No more stage and probably lost about 700 seats. Horrible remodel in my opinion. Waste of money for that dump. They could've made if a touch bigger and more modern but... YUCK!!! Only thing going is IUP just played in a tight sand box at LH so at least they started to adapt.

[IUPalum]

I heard all those comments after the game Saturday. Joe is exactly right, they didn't deserve to win. This team needs to stay hungry for 40 minutes of basketball no matter what the scoreboard says.

The transition game both directions hasn't been great since Shawndale went down. I'm more worried with the defensive transition, They have to get back defensively! They've given up easy looks or poor fouls at times. They can't afford to take to trash foul due to bad transition.

The other thing I'm worried about is the players trying to jump passes. If they don't get the steal they are hanging the others out to dry. They must pick their spots better. If everyone is back by all means try and jump, then defense can rotate but if the defense isn't back in transition then you have to sit.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Some comments from Joe on the not-too-hot performance at Lock Haven (from today's IG):

"Two years ago, I don't think anyone shot 50 percent (on us) all year," Lombardi said of LH's stats. "Lock Haven shot 50 and 40 percent on 3s. We didn't deserve to win today. We thought it was over at halftime and lost our edge, and counted on the defense, and we did not have much defensive presence today."

"Hopefully we learned from that," he said. "I've been trying to get this team more hungry and working on their toughness and competitiveness, and I'm hoping that stone cracks. If it doesn't, we won't win any championships this year."


Lock Haven torched IUP for a 63% clip from the field in the second half -- including 5-8 from deep. LH won the second half, 45-38.


Interesting comments. Anybody who watched the game knew that wasn't a good performance. By my count, IUP left 14-16 points on the floor due to not catching the ball cleanly, sloppy passing and unforced turnovers. I also came up with about 13-14 points IUP gave up on terrible defense -- over-shooting attempts to clog a passing lane, etc. IUP did a tremendous job in the first half of taking away the trey ball, but completely slacked on it in the second half.

As Joe said, they didn't deserve to win that game, but got a little lucky. I kept saying that was going to be the trap game. Lock Haven plays well in their building and has some talented players. IUP committed 14 turnovers -- numerous were self-inflicted.

They won't all be a work of art, but that probably wasn't a warm and fuzzy film review yesterday.

One item that has been maddening -- and it's somewhat understandable -- is IUP continues to turn the ball over in transition. When Shawndale was playing, they were going to run-n-gun for 40 minutes. They can't play that way anymore. It appears it's a very hard thing to stop doing. Game after game they are throwing away possessions on long passes in transition.

Rotation-wise, Polce played 26 minutes. Dillard got 16. KJ and Diop combined for 8. I'd really like to see KJ knock down a shot. His confidence seems to be lagging. Pinch-hitting isn't easy but a couple shots falling could go a long way. I'd still like to see Diop get more minutes. Hopefully Bryce Radford returns soon. While I don't think he'll play a huge role, there will be games and match-ups were they could use him.

[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.