Iup basketball

[IUPbigINDIANS]

That's some nice work there. Very interesting to look at. I think maybe one name missing may be Akida McLain (sp?) who of course was a transfer from Boston College. I think he was in the Joe Lombardi era.

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Yep. I knew I'd miss one ... and that's a HUGE one to miss. I went from memory and, well, I'm getting older. He was obviously a key cog on Joe's first National Finalist team.

[IUP CRIMSON HAWKS]

That's some nice work there. Very interesting to look at. I think maybe one name missing may be Akida McLain (sp?) who of course was a transfer from Boston College. I think he was in the Joe Lombardi era.

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[IUPbigINDIANS]

As we're about to set sail on another West season -- and do it, again, with a very thin bench (particularly under the basket) -- it made me curious to look back at the recent era (Lombardi) of post players who have come in to the program (scholarship players only). As we all know, truly elite post players at the D2 level are hard to find but they do exist.

Joe's had a great deal of success recruiting and developing high school post players. He hasn't signed a lot of them, but he's hit home runs with most of the ones he did sign. His luck with transfers down low has been a different story ... more of a mixed bag of success, flops and busts.

High School Recruits:

Darryl Webb - Arguably the best player in school history
Jacobo Diaz - On a very short list of best players in school history
Devon Cottrell - Very solid career
Marcel Souberbielle - Arguably the player who brought the 'new age' in to IUP basketball. Likely an IUP Hall of Fame player.
Ethan Porterfield - Joe's next star in the coming years.
Nathan Lemke - Bust
Chris Edwards - Solid career
Dan Ayebo - Solid career
Jalen Vaughns - Redshirted and left program after one year.
Jeremy Bonifacio - Redshirted and left program after one year.

Transfers (here's where things get tricky ... and, I'm sure I missed one or two):

Tommy Demogerontas - Was on pace for a monster season through four games prior to ACL. Should be a superstar and All America candidate next season.
Ousmane Diop - Remained a redshirt despite Demo going down in just Game 4. Likely not a great sign. Team desperately needs and still taking redshirt.
Willem Brandwijk - Had his moments. Most feel he was under-utilized.
Marko Krivaevic - Timing is everything. Had he arrived a year later he'd have played heavy minutes. Was part of a crowded front-court in his only season.
Shawn Ulrich - Potential is there but minutes have not been. Deep bench player at the moment.
Chucky Humphries - Solid contributor
Blake Danielak - Redshirted and then didn't live up to the hype. Had some moments -- good and bad. Overall solid depth guy.
Tevin Hanner - Solid contributor and career
Daddy Ugbede - Elite offensive player. Total hack on defense. Constant foul trouble held him back from having monster numbers. But, truly gifted offensive player.
Jeremy Jeffers - Solid contributor and career
Dom Keyes - One of the most unfortunate busts of the Lombardi era. Highly questionable redshirt his first year and trouble off the court his second. Never played a second at IUP.
Kalusha Ndoumbe Ngollo - Looked intimidating on the court. That was about all.
Blake Vedder - Took a gamble on the 7'3" project. Played early in lone season but vanquished to deep bench. Left after just one year.
Josh Wiegand - Solid contributor ... kind of the end of the old era of IUP bigs.
Willi Estrella - Solid player
Kahmell Broughton - Lot of hype coming from University of Houston. It ended with hype.
C.J. Rudisill - Technically a walk-on but became an injury-induced starter by mid-season. Left after lone year.
Akida McClain - Very solid contributor

Danielak and Keyes both redshirted in years those teams drastically needed healthy post players. IUP missed the NCAAs both years. I can't not think of these two seasons every time I see Diop languishing on the pine in a track suit. I think the Shippensburg game exposed some weaknesses under the basket -- defensively, in particular. As IUP heads in to the West gauntlet ... and will see plenty of big, physical guys in the paint ... that's certainly the concern going forward this season. They have to get Ulrich more game-ready. There's going to be games Chucky and Ethan get in foul trouble. And, frankly, Ulrich is just a really big body under there that nobody is going to push around. They are lucky to have Shawndale and to be able to throw him down there. But, he's a 6'3" guard being asked to play power forward. Next week's coming fast ... and it's a big one -- Mercyhurst, at SRU and at Gannon. IUP will be undersized in all of them. It's going to be a war in the paint.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Joe is about to go from playing what worked out to be about one game a week for two months in to a real buzz-saw of a schedule. Going 7-2 in January would be a good month.

Jan. 3	Lock Haven	Sporadic, but talented team. Took Cal, SRU and UPJ to the buzzer, yet struggled with Seton Hill and lost to Clarion. Best not take this one lightly.
Jan. 6	Mercyhurst	Lady in Red Rematch ... Monday night inside the KCAC with no offense and no crowd. Sounds thrilling.
Jan. 8	@ Slippery Rock	The Morrow visit is rarely easy - students or no students.
Jan. 11	@ Gannon	Hammermill on a Saturday night hasn't always been kind.
Jan. 15	@ Edinboro	Remember the uniforms.
Jan. 18	California	Real big game inside the KCAC on a Saturday night.
Jan. 22	@ UPJ	Not going to be easy up there.
Jan. 25	Clarion	Showing big improvement since Mraz returned from injury.
Jan 29	Seton Hill	Women's game will be the show.

[Golden89]

Happy Boxing Day for everyone in Canada or England.

Happy dead period for D2 basketball fans.

[jrshooter]

Or Festivus for the rest of us. ;)

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Merry Christmas to all of you knuckleheads.

Happy Holidays for the more PC crowd.

[Ship69]

Watched the playback of the game. As Joe often says, a lot of good usually comes out of losses like this one. This team hopefully learned some painful lessons in this game.

The main teaching point I saw is they have to put teams away. IUP had finally taken control of the second half and had a 5 point lead with 5 minutes left. They failed on three possessions to extend that lead to 7 or 8 points (or perhaps more). That would have probably made the difference. On top of it, Ship had two starters fouled out by the 3-minute mark.

IUP's first half was horrendous -- worst this year by a mile. IUP scored 1 point -- 1 point -- in the first 5:45 of the game. How they were only down 7 points at halftime was actually a small miracle. They shot 29% in the first half along with 33% from deep and just 40% from the FT line. The second half was better except from outside. IUP hit 6-25 from deep for the game -- 24% -- including 1-10 after halftime. Defensively, they were very lethargic in the first half. Joe's lack of using some timeouts in the first half can certainly be second-guessed. And, the three-point shooting is starting to become a serious issue.

Fite knew Joe had a weakness defensively underneath and they really exploited it. This is an alarming factor going in to the rugged West season as they will see lots of similar, big, physical teams. When you start as poor as they did against Ship and get in a hole ... that's the worst possible thing to happen as it then let Shippensburg dictate the pace and style of play. With this teams make-up they need to play fast. They will struggle all year in bang 'em style games. It's sure nice to see a 6'10", 245 lb, shot-blocker sitting on the bench in a track suit.

They'll come out better on the other side of this loss. Malik and Armoni aren't going to combine for 4-17 from deep many nights. They have to get more physical on the boards. Ship got every big rebound all night. Defensively, they played pretty well. They forced 17 TOs and Ship shot the ball poorly, too. Ethan was overwhelmed under the basket in this game and unfortunately that is going to happen with a true freshman being forced to play heavy minutes. I get Joe's trying to have a post presence under the basket, but I question if this roster is better suited to play the four guards and Chuckie lineup -- with Ethan and Anthony White coming off the bench. Ethan is ready to play but so far he's seemed to play his best in spurts.

IUP put Ship on the line far too much -- and they paid severely for it. Ship went 27-31 at the line to IUP's 12-16. Malik's three at the buzzer to tie the game missed by about half an inch.

Disappointing to lose but they can take the positive of having a stat sheet as ugly as that one and just about beating a strong, desperate team on the road in a pretty wound up environment.

They get the next two at home. A better-than-you-think Lock Haven is here next Friday night followed by a rare Monday night home game against Mercyhurst. And, then the trip up to Morrow. This is a real tough stretch.

Good analysis. I actually am fairly happy Ship is 8-3 so far as I don't think they've really played more than one or two complete games so far this season. Saturday, it was Nedrow and Biss who carried the scoring freight, while Castello did pull some boards. The rest of the team was in single digits and Talley, who usually contributes a few points, was oh-fer the game. If Nedrow comes on and some of the other players round into consistent form I think they'll be pretty good. Looks as if there are a lot of good, but not especially dominant PSAC teams this year.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Watched the playback of the game. As Joe often says, a lot of good usually comes out of losses like this one. This team hopefully learned some painful lessons in this game.

The main teaching point I saw is they have to put teams away. IUP had finally taken control of the second half and had a 5 point lead with 5 minutes left. They failed on three possessions to extend that lead to 7 or 8 points (or perhaps more). That would have probably made the difference. On top of it, Ship had two starters fouled out by the 3-minute mark.

IUP's first half was horrendous -- worst this year by a mile. IUP scored 1 point -- 1 point -- in the first 5:45 of the game. How they were only down 7 points at halftime was actually a small miracle. They shot 29% in the first half along with 33% from deep and just 40% from the FT line. The second half was better except from outside. IUP hit 6-25 from deep for the game -- 24% -- including 1-10 after halftime. Defensively, they were very lethargic in the first half. Joe's lack of using some timeouts in the first half can certainly be second-guessed. And, the three-point shooting is starting to become a serious issue.

Fite knew Joe had a weakness defensively underneath and they really exploited it. This is an alarming factor going in to the rugged West season as they will see lots of similar, big, physical teams. When you start as poor as they did against Ship and get in a hole ... that's the worst possible thing to happen as it then let Shippensburg dictate the pace and style of play. With this teams make-up they need to play fast. They will struggle all year in bang 'em style games. It's sure nice to see a 6'10", 245 lb, shot-blocker sitting on the bench in a track suit.

They'll come out better on the other side of this loss. Malik and Armoni aren't going to combine for 4-17 from deep many nights. They have to get more physical on the boards. Ship got every big rebound all night. Defensively, they played pretty well. They forced 17 TOs and Ship shot the ball poorly, too. Ethan was overwhelmed under the basket in this game and unfortunately that is going to happen with a true freshman being forced to play heavy minutes. I get Joe's trying to have a post presence under the basket, but I question if this roster is better suited to play the four guards and Chuckie lineup -- with Ethan and Anthony White coming off the bench. Ethan is ready to play but so far he's seemed to play his best in spurts.

IUP put Ship on the line far too much -- and they paid severely for it. Ship went 27-31 at the line to IUP's 12-16. Malik's three at the buzzer to tie the game missed by about half an inch.

Disappointing to lose but they can take the positive of having a stat sheet as ugly as that one and just about beating a strong, desperate team on the road in a pretty wound up environment.

They get the next two at home. A better-than-you-think Lock Haven is here next Friday night followed by a rare Monday night home game against Mercyhurst. And, then the trip up to Morrow. This is a real tough stretch.

[Ship69]

Good, exciting game. And IUP would win by 15 at your place. They're No. 3 for a reason. Outstanding backcourt.

What I'm interested to see is if Luke Nedrow is this guy from here on, or if this week has been an aberration. He owned the lane.

A strange season so far. Ship probably won the one game of the three this week I thought they'd be least likely to win. They're going to need this week's Nedrow unless the shooting improves. It's been almost bizarre. A guy is lights-out one game and can't hit the broad side of a barn the next. Anyway, a good and needed win.

[jrshooter]

Great win for Ship. Joe out-coached badly. Amazing it was that close.

Good, exciting game. And IUP would win by 15 at your place. They're No. 3 for a reason. Outstanding backcourt.

What I'm interested to see is if Luke Nedrow is this guy from here on, or if this week has been an aberration. He owned the lane.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Great win for Ship. Joe out-coached badly. Amazing it was that close.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Armoni will leave here as Joe's best guard ever. Scary to think he's just a sophomore. He's 5-Tool to borrow a baseball term. He's 6'4" with PG speed and elusiveness. Shutdown defender. Great shot and driver.

Chucky doesn't light up the score sheets in his role, but he's the glue to this team. Ultimate team player -- on and off the court. I so wish he'd have arrived here earlier (straight from high school) but IUP is very fortunate to have him.

Oddly the thing this team is struggling with is the deep shot. When it clicks they could be deadly. I'd still like to see them crash the boards a little harder.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

It sure wasn't easy. That final is a bit deceiving as they had a huge run to end it.

Tell you what ... Shepherd has a nice team. Balanced. They'll be a tough out in East play.