Iup basketball

[IUPalum]

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Concord's coach is the Kevin Reynolds of the MEC.


Whiny little b-yatch.


Their new 'Bolte' is pretty good. He's going to be a terror down there the next several years. He's already a diva in his second college game.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Demo's coming out party.

Dude was chucking. He's a nice looking player.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Its just one game, but unlike previous years, they didn't relax and let WVW back into the game. Maybe this team will have the killer instinct that the teams have lacked a bit last few years.

Good point. Different persona for sure. You can see a 'toughness' to this group.

They have some things they haven't had in awhile. Shawndale is a really strong player. He can score and also does a ton of dirty work. He can really drive the bucket and is very physical.

This is going to be a very good defensive team. Big, fast guards.

Demo can really launch the ball from NBA range. He's going to cause teams problems. He's basically a 6'7" guard.

Some of the not so good:

* Porterfield looked overmatched. Granted ... First game.

* First half press was horribly ineffective. It was much better in the second half.

* Joe struggled big time against the zone in the first half. No big surprise as Joe's teams always struggle against zones. Very surprised WVW came out of it ...

* Morris had a very shaky first 20. His second half was night and day different. They crunched him hard in the first half.

* They came out real tight. Big crowd. First game. Jitters.

* Ulrich got in the final three minutes. Appears that will be his role for now. Diop is a giant. Goodness. Maybe next year.


I really liked No. 2 from WVW. The game changed when he got in foul trouble. They have a nice team. They struggled with the PSAC game being called so much tighter on fouls. They have a shot at UPJ tonight. UPJ can score but they don't play defense anywhere near the way IUP does.

Tonight will be a battle.

[ironmaniup]

Its just one game, but unlike previous years, they didn't relax and let WVW back into the game. Maybe this team will have the killer instinct that the teams have lacked a bit last few years.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Test for Game 2 ... Concord freshman Hellar ripped the nets against UPJ ... 28 points and 5 treys.


That was a real good UPJ they just beat. Big test tomorrow.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Dante Lombardi was a late add to the IUP staff.


So, Joe's scout team features Shammgod Wells and Dante.


Not bad.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Anybody think Morris will ever throw a hot dog alley-oop off the backboard again? Lol.


Joe was up 25 and had a coronary.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Armoni 21
Morris 15
Demo 11
Shawndale 11
Chucky 8
Malik 7
Porterfield 2


8-30 treys
15-19 FT
26-61 FG

Positive on glass 35-24

[IUPbigINDIANS]

IUP 73
WVW 50

Final


IUP won 2nd half by 29

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I sure felt a lot better a month ago. Seeing that a D2 bottom-feeder took Elon to the wire Tuesday night sure doesn't help (in a real game for Elon).

The thing Joe has is four really good guards. Deemo isn't going to be Cobo but he doesn't need to be. Chucky will be the jack-of-all-trades.

But, this post player conundrum is on Joe. If Diop wasn't ready to play he shouldn't be here. Same with Ulrich. You don't get a roster with four guards of this caliber often. So, I certainly agree with you that this will be the typical 7-man Joe rotation -- probably as early as tomorrow night. Shawndale and Porterfield will be the 6th and 7th guys. Benton, Ulrich and Anthony White will be used for foul trouble, etc.

One thing I did take notice of in today's article is Tony said Diop is a 'candidate' to redshirt. Last week he said he was going to redshirt. I question if after the dismal rebounding performance at Elon if Joe's decision has changed.

I guess we'll find out soon enough. They are going to be tested tomorrow night. WVW has a slew of upperclassmen and also a new 6'5" transfer guard from Mt. Saint Mary's.

I also can't rule out Joe's playing this 'awww shucks we're in a rebuild' routine and then he's going to really drop the hammer tomorrow night.

[Chuck Norris]

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Preview story from today's Indiana Gazette (By Tony Coccagna)


Retooling Crimson Hawks face season of transition

THE GUARDS:THE FORWARDS:THE OTHER NEWCOMERS: Ousmane Diop, a 6-10 forward, transferred from Division I Niagara.

There are two other freshmen in the ranks: KJ Rhodes, a 6-4 guard from Pittsburgh who played at the IMG Academy in Florida; and Bryce Radford, a 6-0 point guard from Beckley, W.Va., who has nursed an injury throughout the preseason.

All three are redshirt candidates.

THE COACH:THE SCHEDULE:

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Prediction time:


Non-conference: Not nearly as daunting as a year ago, however, I see them being tested in four of the six games (including both this weekend). Projection: 6-0

Crossover: The mid-DEC weekend trip to Shepherd and Shippensburg is a difficult task. East Stroudsburg will be tough but it's in the KCAC. Projection: 5-1

PSAC West: Joe is around .500 at SRU in his past 10 trips up there. I assume they split with UPJ. I also figure on a split with Mercyhurst as that zone still boggles IUP. One other slip-up, perhaps to Cal, is possible. It is a HUGE advantage to go up to SRU in early January. It's a circus up there when the students are on campus (for IUP's visit). Projection: 12-4


Predicted regular season record: 23-5


Notes:

It's a new era. Cobo and Dante are gone. IUP will have a new look this season for the first time in awhile. There were some promising things in the Elon exhibition. There were also some troublesome items. The much smaller lineup this year, as it appears, is going to cause some issues in West play. Porterfield should come on as the season moves along, but if he's going to get 25 mpg, the progress has to be rapid. If we knew Ulrich's status I might take them at 24-4. I see this as a fun season. With those guards they are going to really light up some scoreboards. Chucky and Demo are very solid underneath. Porterfield will be in time. I'd sure like to have one more down there to rely on, however (and not be sitting on the bench in a warm-up suit).

This is a team I don't see as really peaking until mid-Jan. Lots of new parts. It has a high upside. But, it has to survive these first 70 days. After this weekend, Le Moyne and East Stroudsburg are right around the corner. The gel process by default has to happen quickly. Joe runs an extremely detail-oriented system on both ends of the floor. They have to catch on fast.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Last year I remember him being a handful early in the first meeting with WVWC. If I remember correctly, Howlett countered by having Meinie play PG in the second half of that game (similar to a move he made in the tourney) to draw the big boy out and tire him out chasing. Meinie ended up going for his season high in that first meeting as a result I believe.

In the second meeting, I recall him being a total non-factor (foul trouble if I recall correctly).

My guess is that by PSAC standards, you'll view him as a "soft" big. A prototypical European big who'd rather hang at the 3 point line on offense than post up down low. I would assume that PSAC bigs would handle him easily.

Petrovic the PG is perhaps the bigger threat. Streaky shooter who can hit from anywhere if he gets hot. But equally able to be frustrated by tough D and go cold.

Well ... we don't even know what kind of bigs we have yet so it may not matter if he's 'Euro big' or 'PSAC big'.

We know we have an athletic, 6'10" D1 transfer (Ousmane Diop) who is going to, per IUP (Joe) custom, redshirt this year. It's a long-standing, incredibly-frustrating (mind-boggling) tradition here in Indiana.

We know we have another 6'8", 240 lb power forward on the roster in Shawn Ulrich who is either hurt or in Joe's infamous doghouse. He dressed but logged zero minutes at Elon. So, maybe a bit of both.

We know we have Chucky Humphries. He will have a big year.

We have Tommy Deemo (haven't learned to spell that last name yet). He will have a big year as a 6'7" grad transfer from D1 Northern Illinois -- and flash shades of Cobo. He had a double-double at Elon.

There's also the coveted 6'9" true freshman Ethan Porterfield, whom most expected to redshirt but that's not the case. He logged 25 minutes at Elon. Expectations are very high for him in the coming years.

And then we have the 6'5" Dylan Benton, who, in one off-season went from deep bench walk-on to apparent rotation player walk-on.


My question is this: If Diop and Ulrich aren't deemed ready to play, now, by Joe ... why are they here? These aren't 18-year-old freshmen. This is a team stacked at the guard position. There's no possible explanation that Diop couldn't have helped this year even for 8-12 minutes per game -- defense, taking and giving fouls, blocks, etc.

I get giving Radford and K.J. Rhodes redshirts, although most all say K.J. is ready now. With the four guards they have he'd waste a year in mop-up time. I suppose it is a nice benefit to have those three on the bench as redshirts. Joe can burn a redshirt at any point if they have to (injuries, etc.). I'll just say this season is off to a weird vibe before it's even begun.