Iup basketball

[IUsuallyPonder]

WTF is with the broadcast? Ethan, KJ, and Dallas are handsome men, no doubt, but that isn’t what I turned the video on to see…

[Chuck Norris]

We are 2 for 3 on the year for bad broadcast. I'm turning this off.

Yep. Glad I hustled my kids into bed so I could watch a picture of Ethan KJ and Dallis. Top shelf work, IUP.

[Cobra Hawks]

Anyone else can't get a visual?

[IUP24]

Anybody care to start showing us the broadcast?

We are 2 for 3 on the year for bad broadcast. I'm turning this off.

[Chuck Norris]

Anybody care to start showing us the broadcast?

[Chuck Norris]

Through choppy audio and no visual evidence I believe I heard it’s a 4 guard plus Ethan starting lineup. Stewart replaces Waldo.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Iup has changed calendars so classes are in session until the 22nd. So most students will stay for the week at least

Big game alone they won't come. Give out those tee-shirts and they pack the place.

[ironmaniup]

I hope I'm wrong, but I think you could be overestimating the crowd. Bet a lot of students who could get out of town depending on their Friday class schedule will leave today. Also a good weather day that may have people doing other things in the late afternoon/early evening and keep them from going.

There are also other entertainment events tonight related to sports locally. Maybe 1,800 to 2,000. But I doubt they'll push 3k and have a crowd that's buzzing this early. Hopefully it's filled to the gills though.

Iup has changed calendars so classes are in session until the 22nd. So most students will stay for the week at least

[IUP24]

Joe has to split these next two. They cannot get swept.

Tonight is going to be humming in there. It's tee-shirt night and all that b.s.

The St. Thomas Aquinas game is on Thanksgiving weekend (very small, lame crowd). They have to cash in on this crowd tonight.

I hope I'm wrong, but I think you could be overestimating the crowd. Bet a lot of students who could get out of town depending on their Friday class schedule will leave today. Also a good weather day that may have people doing other things in the late afternoon/early evening and keep them from going.

There are also other entertainment events tonight related to sports locally. Maybe 1,800 to 2,000. But I doubt they'll push 3k and have a crowd that's buzzing this early. Hopefully it's filled to the gills though.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

My position here is that tonight probably tells us how the season is going to go. Is this a bad team? Can this be an NCAA type team? Or maybe this is just an average team that will look good on some nights and during some stretches, but is mostly a roller coaster. I think things will be clearer tonight.

If he still keeps Brooks in his doghouse, knowing what I know about Joe and how he operates, I think he will be made the example and be riding the pine most of the year and at some point either leave the team or enter the portal at season's end. If he lets Brooks play, and the team looks how it's supposed to look (with the questionable redshirt situation in place), and wins, maybe they have a chance to be good. If he keeps Brooks out and they lose, and maybe lose convincingly, it could really be a long year.

I think IUP has to win this game to have a 'solid' chance to make the tournament. I don't see them beating St. Thomas Aquinas. And I'm not convinced they don't take a loss to ESU and/or somebody else in December. By all accounts, this Walsh team is really good and will be playing in March. This is a good opportunity for IUP to show us who they are. Or who they are not.

I think for this being the 3rd game of the year, the stakes honestly couldn't be higher. This is an important game tonight.

Joe has to split these next two. They cannot get swept.

Tonight is going to be humming in there. It's tee-shirt night and all that b.s.

The St. Thomas Aquinas game is on Thanksgiving weekend (very small, lame crowd). They have to cash in on this crowd tonight.

[Ship69]

Tonight is a rare Thursday night game at the KCAC -- and an even more rare late tip-off.

Looking at Walsh, it has a lot of playmakers and good size. Position for position, this will likely be the biggest (size-wise) starting lineup IUP faces aside from Slippery Rock.

Guard Kobe Mitchell has been a huge import. Ironically, he was teammates with IUP PG Garvin Clarke last year at Akron.

Mitchell hit a whopping (9) treys in Walsh's exhibition win against Oakland, and hit (5) more in an opening victory against Grand Valley State.

Garrison Keeslar will also cause match-up problems. At 6'7", he rotates between G and F (and will play all three guard positions). He is also a very strong, aggressive defensive player.

Another G/F, Milan Square (6'5"), had a good game against IUP a year ago (a 14-point IUP win in Ohio). Walsh had two starters out that day and IUP led by as many as 30 at one point in the second half.

Two other starters, Aiden Satterfield (6'8") and Zack Oddo (6'6") are also productive offensive players.

The Cavaliers supplement these players with some big, physical forwards off the bench.


IUP will counter with a rotation of big, athletic guards. The million dollar question tonight is how will IUP match-up under the basket (and also how will IUP's SF's handle chasing around Walsh's inside/outside post players)? Ethan Porterfield will cause them a lot of issues, but again the SF spot is THE major concern for IUP tonight.

It's real simple: Damir Brooks needs to play -- and play a lot. After watching two games, it's my opinion KJ and Waldo will get eaten alive tonight. Brooks' stay in Joe's doghouse is hopefully over and let's pray they can get a productive 22 minutes out of him tonight. Because of his issue, we haven't seen IUP at full strength yet this year. What we have seen out of that 4 position has been, to be polite, horrendous (on both ends). I do expect another step for Waldo. The jitters should be gone now. But, you can't be productive in foul trouble. He needs to be much better tonight.

I fully suspect a crowd upward of 2,800 tonight. It should be a great atmosphere.

I might stream this one. Sounds as if it could be interesting and there aren't many other games on Thursday night. That's a big team Walsh has. I saw your comment about Slippery Rock and watched them a little last night. That probably will be one of the toughest matchups for Ship this year as it looks like SR has three or four 6-5 guard types who can play. When you have short guards, as we do this year, that is not a great scenario. I don't think I've ever seen Chris Fite play a zone, and he's probably not going to start now, but I'd certainly be tempted to do so if I were in his shoes for that game.

[IUP24]

My position here is that tonight probably tells us how the season is going to go. Is this a bad team? Can this be an NCAA type team? Or maybe this is just an average team that will look good on some nights and during some stretches, but is mostly a roller coaster. I think things will be clearer tonight.

If he still keeps Brooks in his doghouse, knowing what I know about Joe and how he operates, I think he will be made the example and be riding the pine most of the year and at some point either leave the team or enter the portal at season's end. If he lets Brooks play, and the team looks how it's supposed to look (with the questionable redshirt situation in place), and wins, maybe they have a chance to be good. If he keeps Brooks out and they lose, and maybe lose convincingly, it could really be a long year.

I think IUP has to win this game to have a 'solid' chance to make the tournament. I don't see them beating St. Thomas Aquinas. And I'm not convinced they don't take a loss to ESU and/or somebody else in December. By all accounts, this Walsh team is really good and will be playing in March. This is a good opportunity for IUP to show us who they are. Or who they are not.

I think for this being the 3rd game of the year, the stakes honestly couldn't be higher. This is an important game tonight.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Tonight is a rare Thursday night game at the KCAC -- and an even more rare late tip-off.

Looking at Walsh, it has a lot of playmakers and good size. Position for position, this will likely be the biggest (size-wise) starting lineup IUP faces aside from Slippery Rock.

Guard Kobe Mitchell has been a huge import. Ironically, he was teammates with IUP PG Garvin Clarke last year at Akron.

Mitchell hit a whopping (9) treys in Walsh's exhibition win against Oakland, and hit (5) more in an opening victory against Grand Valley State.

Garrison Keeslar will also cause match-up problems. At 6'7", he rotates between G and F (and will play all three guard positions). He is also a very strong, aggressive defensive player.

Another G/F, Milan Square (6'5"), had a good game against IUP a year ago (a 14-point IUP win in Ohio). Walsh had two starters out that day and IUP led by as many as 30 at one point in the second half.

Two other starters, Aiden Satterfield (6'8") and Zack Oddo (6'6") are also productive offensive players.

The Cavaliers supplement these players with some big, physical forwards off the bench.


IUP will counter with a rotation of big, athletic guards. The million dollar question tonight is how will IUP match-up under the basket (and also how will IUP's SF's handle chasing around Walsh's inside/outside post players)? Ethan Porterfield will cause them a lot of issues, but again the SF spot is THE major concern for IUP tonight.

It's real simple: Damir Brooks needs to play -- and play a lot. After watching two games, it's my opinion KJ and Waldo will get eaten alive tonight. Brooks' stay in Joe's doghouse is hopefully over and let's pray they can get a productive 22 minutes out of him tonight. Because of his issue, we haven't seen IUP at full strength yet this year. What we have seen out of that 4 position has been, to be polite, horrendous (on both ends). I do expect another step for Waldo. The jitters should be gone now. But, you can't be productive in foul trouble. He needs to be much better tonight.

I fully suspect a crowd upward of 2,800 tonight. It should be a great atmosphere.

[Ship69]

Joe's bench philosophy has always been structured as such, in my opinion, to never face a true "down" year. it's worked well, mostly. You can't argue with the results. In a vacuum, there's specific games and some stretches where it hurts the team on the court, and then in the W/L column. The idea is he brings in 3-4 guys with the intention of 1-2 of them getting redshirted. If he has a veteran team already, he looks at the guys he redshirts as recruits for the next year. He shortens the bench to spread his talent out over the coming seasons. That approach to having an ace in the hole was able to exist previously, but it can't anymore. Not when these guys will transfer at the first opportunity when they don't like something they are served in the dining hall.

The last few years have been unusual. At Ship guys such as Ty Crespo who lost a year to Covid are just starting to get some playing time. The Covid year and Ship's unbalanced roster last season combined to hold back development for several players. With the roster stacked up, Chris Fite has redshirted all his freshmen this season for the first time I can recall (one was a medical redshirt). Between Covid and the transfers it's been hard to stay with a consistent recruiting philosophy at most places. The next season or two will finally clear out the backlog of Covid-affected players.

[Ship69]

Joe's going to have his older crowd all fired up about this 8 p.m. tip-off on Thursday.

It is a bit odd. I don't ever recall an 8 p.m. tip.

I don't know if that's as weird as the 5 p.m. tip scheduled when IUP visits Ship on Dec. 1. It's pretty unusual to schedule a game that's basically right over the dinner hour. I'm wondering if they did it that way to enable IUP to hop on the bus early for their Dec. 2 game at Lock Haven.