Iup basketball

[EyeoftheHawk]

The KCAC was humming this past weekend.

Yes, this past weekend -- while the usual residents were across the state.

Indiana High School, sponsored by Mark Arbuckle Nissan, played a boys/girls doubleheader.

The "Road to the KCAC" Heritage Conference Championship is almost always the best atmosphere of the season in there ... but this wasn't all that far behind.

IHS has a budding superstar in Aaron Webb. Webb is a 6'8", do-it-all Junior -- who recently picked up an offer to play at Penn State (main). He will soon be flooded in major D1 offers. He's the show -- and the whole WPIAL knows it. He routinely is getting double and even triple teams. It didn't matter Saturday. Dubois had no chance against him.

I'm sure the local college coach can dream, but Webb is probably never playing another game at the KCAC. He put up 40 against Dubois -- including a few dunks that would even excite Damir Brooks. He also drained some NBA three-pointers. At the high school level, he can play all five positions.

Webb's brother Darius will likely be a D1 defensive lineman. Also a Junior, he's currently at about 6'5" and 250 lbs (and growing). He's athletic and not easy to move on a high school basketball court (or football field).

Indiana High also had a fantastic PA announcer -- loud but not over the top, energetic, enthusiastic, etc.

Both teams were also introduced with the fancy light show. The players eat it up. It adds to the atmosphere. The crowd loves it. I only wish the IUP men's team would be allowed to use it. It is a state of the art arena lighting system, yet the IUP men's team won't use it during introductions. I guess Joe prefers the "put the crowd to sleep" intro instead.


Indiana High put on a great show. It was so good, in fact, it was like a tease for what the KCAC could be like on IUP gamedays. The typical atmosphere as of late for Joe's games has been, well, not good.

This is a college basketball team. IUP has a phenomenal arena -- lighting, sound system, huge video board, etc. However, I think you know where this is going. You can't treat the game like it's being played in the Field House. Use the bells and whistles. Players want them. Students want them. Play college music. Use the fancy lights.

It's maddening. Get the energy going. It's needs spice. Attendance has been terrible the past 2.5 years -- and continuing to decline. They want students to actually show up and get engaged? Get the place bumping.

It's like owning a Ferrari and keeping it under 35 mph.

One time ... when IUP forces the other team to call a timeout ... I'd love to have some lively music que'd up, etc. (like all D1 teams do). It's these little things that the KCAC is capable of doing but doesn't. These are the things that engage the crowd. Not dead silence.

IUP has never gotten this right. Ever! Local high schools pull off an entertaining game experience in their own gyms and football stadiums way better than IUP. Your music comment is interesting. I like the music, but I’m 30 years out of college, LOL. If I like it you can bet the students don’t. They had a modern playlist for the women’s Education Day game and the kids loved it. It was the loudest the building will probably be all year and it was the IUP women vs Chatham.

[IUPalum]

A lot to digest in that crap show today. All I'll say for now is that wasn't basketball. That West Chester coach is a joke. All he coached was for his players to come out and goon it up! How many times is Ky going to get tackled without the player making a play on the ball??? That ref crew could've put a stop to the goon fest if they would've call an intentional foul or something. Wishful thinking with that hack crew of official. I hope IUP doesn't get them again tomorrow.

[bballfan03]

Just curious.. anyone know what Alfonso Pickens is up to?

[IUPalum]

Just curious.. anyone know what Alfonso Pickens is up to?

Funny question... I've tried getting info and radio silence. I know he graduated in December but there has to be more to this story. No way Joe keeps him on the roster as player 10 knowing he'd only play till finals. He suited up for the first four games then wasn't even on the bench after that. Finals were over then, poof, off the roster.

[EyeoftheHawk]

I left after the women’s game but did catch some of the men’s online. The men’s team has just failed to catch my interest in recent years for a variety of reasons, but I do plan to stay today. As was pointed out, it looked like a game that was allowed to get way too physical, and IUP isn’t a team that can play that game like they could a few years ago. That appeared to be West Chester’s strategy and the officiating crew let it happen, hence the result. IUP lacks toughness and I think Tony alluded to that a few times during the broadcast.

IUP still had plenty of chances. They were atrocious from the foul line in the second half and while the refs did let it get out of hand at times, they did call 29 fouls on West Chester. IUP also played poor defense (giving up almost 54%), especially down the stretch when they needed stops. It seemed like West Chester got to every loose ball. Obviously another key factor was Dillard playing with foul trouble all night, which is another topic in itself.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I no longer comment on Joe's team. After last night, that's a good thing. But, last night made me sick.


Imagine a team having its star take deliberate cheap shot after cheap shot all night ... and his team didn't retaliate.

That's what happened last night. Kymani was turned into a Ping-Pong ball. I'll be shocked if he plays today. And, if he doesn't, well, it won't be pretty.

I'll give full credit to West Chester and its head coach. The game plan was to clearly turn that game into a street brawl and it worked. With a different crew, it wouldn't have, but it did last night.



I would guess in that quiet locker room last night Joe used the word "toughness" about 75 times. I sure hope he did, anyway, because they got physically mauled last night.

Anybody notice when the game changed? I did. As soon as West Chester started pressing. IUP's press break is entirely too slow and ineffective. Watch the film. Joe literally tee's it up for the pressing team.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

See below from Tony's article:


“They were going at me,” the 5-foot-9 sophomore said, his voice ragged and his back sore. “The one I took on my back was scary. I was taking a lot of hits. I was telling our big men, ‘See the way they hit me? Hit some of their guards like that. Match their aggression.’ If a team is hitting us, I feel like we should hit back.”


That was from Kymani -- the 5'9" guard who plays like he's a cage fighter. His toughness was never questioned.

I guess us three posters weren't the only ones feeling like he did.

IUP should have a few players in particular feeling quite embarrassed this morning. I'm not mentioning names. It's not my job.

This isn't high school. You don't let your stars get abused and you don't get "punked" (as Joe said) on the glass.

Both happened to IUP last night. Rest assured, they let their star point guard get clobbered, and they got decimated on the glass.

It's one game. But, the 'toughness' issue better get addressed in a hurry.

As of now, West Chester just gave the blueprint on how to beat IUP.

[IUPalum]

See below from Tony's article:


“They were going at me,” the 5-foot-9 sophomore said, his voice ragged and his back sore. “The one I took on my back was scary. I was taking a lot of hits. I was telling our big men, ‘See the way they hit me? Hit some of their guards like that. Match their aggression.’ If a team is hitting us, I feel like we should hit back.”


That was from Kymani -- the 5'9" guard who plays like he's a cage fighter. His toughness was never questioned.

I guess us three posters weren't the only ones feeling like he did.

IUP should have a few players in particular feeling quite embarrassed this morning. I'm not mentioning names. It's not my job.

This isn't high school. You don't let your stars get abused and you don't get "punked" (as Joe said) on the glass.

Both happened to IUP last night. Rest assured, they let their star point guard get clobbered, and they got decimated on the glass.

It's one game. But, the 'toughness' issue better get addressed in a hurry.

As of now, West Chester just gave the blueprint on how to beat IUP.

We all know this team needs to get tougher but lets be honest, this team doesn't have it in them! Other than Ky and Dallis, the rest of this team has never played tough in their lives! Joe has also never had to try and coach tough. All of Joe's best teams naturally had tough players. When your two smallest players are your two toughest, then you are in trouble. This team is in trouble!

[Ship69]

A lot to digest in that crap show today. All I'll say for now is that wasn't basketball. That West Chester coach is a joke. All he coached was for his players to come out and goon it up! How many times is Ky going to get tackled without the player making a play on the ball??? That ref crew could've put a stop to the goon fest if they would've call an intentional foul or something. Wishful thinking with that hack crew of official. I hope IUP doesn't get them again tomorrow.

West Chester is like a box of chocolates under Blair. You never know what you're going to get. One game they might play rough-house ball. In another game they might go finesse. And sometimes, like in their game at Ship last season, they don't seem to be interested in playing at all. They always have talent, and if they get some breaks from a consistently inconsistent PSAC officiating crew it can make for a long evening when you're playing them.

The officiating I just don't get. I'd rather have consistently good, but I'll take consistently bad if it's called that way for both teams. What is really irritating is when you have to be at the receiving end of a wrestling takedown to get a call in one half and then in the next half any little touch foul is called. Shippensburg has one of its least physical teams in years and yet when I look up at our scoreboard at home games we'll usually have as many or more fouls than the visiting team. And I can say with confidence that the other teams are playing at least as physical a game as Ship is. Traveling calls? Hey, who bothers with them any more. They must have missed at least 7 or 8 of them in the Ship-Edinboro game. In one instance the Edinboro forward took a step and did a complete pivot move, then broke out of the pivot for two more steps to score. Coach Fite couldn't believe that one. During the next time out, he gave an entertaining demonstration of the illegal move to the official. The Euro step is becoming the Asian continent step.

[IUPalum]

It's a damn shame this officiating crew swallowing their whistles has allowed Millersville back in this game.

[IUPalum]

Hey Joe, why didn't you foul on the last possession? Instead Day Waters gets off a 3 that almost fell and maybe could've been a foul with the way this crew officiated today.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

West Chester is like a box of chocolates under Blair. You never know what you're going to get. One game they might play rough-house ball. In another game they might go finesse. And sometimes, like in their game at Ship last season, they don't seem to be interested in playing at all. They always have talent, and if they get some breaks from a consistently inconsistent PSAC officiating crew it can make for a long evening when you're playing them.

The officiating I just don't get. I'd rather have consistently good, but I'll take consistently bad if it's called that way for both teams. What is really irritating is when you have to be at the receiving end of a wrestling takedown to get a call in one half and then in the next half any little touch foul is called. Shippensburg has one of its least physical teams in years and yet when I look up at our scoreboard at home games we'll usually have as many or more fouls than the visiting team. And I can say with confidence that the other teams are playing at least as physical a game as Ship is. Traveling calls? Hey, who bothers with them any more. They must have missed at least 7 or 8 of them in the Ship-Edinboro game. In one instance the Edinboro forward took a step and did a complete pivot move, then broke out of the pivot for two more steps to score. Coach Fite couldn't believe that one. During the next time out, he gave an entertaining demonstration of the illegal move to the official. The Euro step is becoming the Asian continent step.

The officiating is so bad because we have a full cast of out of shape, 60-some-year-olds doing it.

They can't keep up. They are way too slow. Most are about 50 lbs overweight. They are constantly WAY out of position, etc.

It's a terrible job. The pay sucks. The travel this time of the year is awful. You have ego-maniac coaches screaming at you for 2-3 hours.

They literally put Millersville back in the game today, and then called the worst technical I've ever seen near the end.

Casey and Joe both lost their minds today.

But, somebody has to do it. They are starving for younger officials. But, for the reasons above, they cannot attract anybody. You'd have to be near insane to sign up for the job.

[EyeoftheHawk]

The officiating is so bad because we have a full cast of out of shape, 60-some-year-olds doing it.

They can't keep up. They are way too slow. Most are about 50 lbs overweight. They are constantly WAY out of position, etc.

It's a terrible job. The pay sucks. The travel this time of the year is awful. You have ego-maniac coaches screaming at you for 2-3 hours.

They literally put Millersville back in the game today, and then called the worst technical I've ever seen near the end.

Casey and Joe both lost their minds today.

But, somebody has to do it. They are starving for younger officials. But, for the reasons above, they cannot attract anybody. You'd have to be near insane to sign up for the job.

Sitting court side you can really see how far some of these guys are out of position. They miss a lot, and then call things they think they see because of it. Saying that, the young official was probably the worst of the three yesterday.

I don’t think any of these guys try to be bad. You see some that are ego-driven and want attention, but I do think these guys are at least trying to do a good job. I think all teams want is consistency and that was a problem yesterday. Joe even screamed that at the younger official yesterday during one of the rants. IUP was very lucky to get out of there with a W.

[iupgroundhog]

The officiating is so bad because we have a full cast of out of shape, 60-some-year-olds doing it.

They can't keep up. They are way too slow. Most are about 50 lbs overweight. They are constantly WAY out of position, etc.

I tuned in for a while yesterday and that was my initial impression. The officials are really overweight. I don't denigrate people who are overweight but being in shape should be part of that job.

Is the officiating more of a problem on a regional basis, i.e. in western PA?

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I tuned in for a while yesterday and that was my initial impression. The officials are really overweight. I don't denigrate people who are overweight but being in shape should be part of that job.

Is the officiating more of a problem on a regional basis, i.e. in western PA?

The word is -- at the high school level -- the WPIAL is going to stager football games starting next Fall to be played on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. This is due to a drastic lack of officials.

It is my understanding that this will cause a trickle-down as many WPIAL officials also work small college games (i.e. PSAC, MEC and local D3).

I fully agree on the weight comment. However, these officials are on a wooden rectangle with really fast and really in-shape 18 to 23 year-olds. You cannot be effective if you can't keep up. The game is too fast. It's a real problem. They'd never release their grades, but they'd be horrible. Officials in basketball have to be in the right places at the right times.