Week 9 of MIAA play

[Btech#3]

Week 9 was a very interesting week. The 4 dangerous teams that were 7th, 8th, 9th & 10th coming into this week were Rogers St, UCM, MO West & NSU created a lot of havoc with the teams in the top 6. Rogers upset ESU & Wash, UCM upset MSSU and NSU upset Wash. All four of those teams are very capable and are all making a move to get in the top 6 and not have to play in to the MIAA tourney. UCO and NWMS are clearly the top 2 in the conference with both holding serve and UCO beating FHSU further distanced those two from the pack. Week 10 should be more interesting as it looks like Pitt St & Lincoln--teams in the bottom 4 are also playing better. I think the difference in the conference this year versus last year is the depth of good teams. I agree with Backdoorcut that there are two great teams but I think there are more than two decent teams. #3 thru #8 or #9 is pretty even in my opinion. That Rogers St. team is a pretty salty team and they are #7 and NSU is no push-over and they are currently 10th. Both of those team are much improved over last year.

[Mule4ever]

The Mules just aren't very good and bad teams often find a way to lose. Of the Mule's 8 wins against D2 opponents, 6 are by 8 points or more. The Mules are 2-6 in 2 possession games (games decided by 6 points or less or in OT) & 1-4 in single possession games (3 points or less or OT).

The Mules have some talented guys but they seem to try do it themselves instead of together. They rank 13th out of 14 MIAA teams in assists/game.

Mules 3 point shooting usually is not very good. Can they score inside or are they basically forced to take the threes

[Randy]

The Mules are the worst 3 point shooting by % in the MIAA. Sides shoots for the highest % but the big guy, Pinkley, has made the most. Pinkley is definitely not a "back to the basket" post player so the Mules inside game consists basically of Nelson, Gilbert & Hunter slashing to the basket. In the few big wins they look great. Moving the ball around and finding the open man. The problem is in the close games, they tend to try do things by themselves. I think that's a big reason the record is so bad in close games.