2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

[Lawson]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

And a scoreboard
And no more 50 50's
And a coach that didn't work for Ohio co auto sales
And something to eat other than mutton
And more crunch bars
And a better prayer before the game

I've never not known the score at a KWC game
The 50/50 helps the sports program, don't know why that bothers you
Mutton is great
The prayers seem perfectly appropriate at a religious school event

[alumnifan]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

Attendance in D2 Basketball has been dropping like a rock and for a reason. 1.) Division I basketball is mostly what all college basketball fans follow. 2.) Back in the hay day of Wesleyan dominating D2 attendance records was also a period in which there were very few DI basketball games on television. People followed local college basketball programs religiously in the NCAA Small College Basketball Division and in the early days of D2. There were no live streams, no ESPN 3, no live streaming of audio broadcasts, no Live Stats, and there were no internet Sidearm sites for people to read. And, the National Championship games were not televised on CBS. You had a local radio broadcast for those games that had a very small radius of maybe 30-40 miles if you were lucky, and a write up in the local daily the next day. Now, everything you need to know about a D2 game is on your computer or phone live. So, people still follow the sport from a distance.

People want to pay money to see teams in huge arenas in large cities with the games being on national television or local television broadcasts at the very least. People like to go to games that are on television.

As to KWC averaging around 1,000 per game, that is just the nature of the beast. However, if they could host and win a regional the attendance would increase. It's not been that long ago when KWC was really down and the attendance came back a lot under Todd Lee. Todd was a good looking coach. He was a smart coach. He was approachable to the media and he did a great job in helping KWC come back from an NCAA punishment that is now 14 years behind the program. People need to get over that.

Malek Harris, I hope, will help this KWC team in the second semester. He had some issues at Kansas State, but he was a top 80 recruit nationally and a top 35 recruit at his position. He was a four star recruit. Having sit out the past 1 1/2 seasons is not going to help him. However, Wesleyan has another good big that will be in practice next season. Their post play should be tremendous by the end of this season and next season. It's going to be hard to replace Bosley and Jacks, but hopefully they can.

I really believe that Happy Osborne is doing the best he can. He started off on the wrong foot in some ways, but there is a learning curve for coaches that come to a Kentucky college program like the Wesleyan program. It is not going away. The college is not going away and they will win big again. I know their emphasis is on graduating their players, and competing with integrity. I know the fans are dying off. I watched one long time fan literally die in front of me in one game. It was horrible, but it was probably as good a place as any for that wonderful man to go home to meet his God.

The losses to Lincoln Memorial and USI were not bad losses. KWC lost seven seniors last season and they all graduated. I'm not sure if Wesleyan really wants to have more students. However, I think it would be beneficial for the college to have a more vibrant on campus atmosphere. I personally loved my time at Wesleyan and will cherish it for the rest of my life. The college and the times were different then. I just hope the students and athletes that are there now can appreciate what they have.

Go Panthers! Be the winners we know you are. I can also tell you this, KWC has already played in front of over 30,000 people this early in the season with the exhibition games. The Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic needs to regroup with the corporations and businesses in Owensboro and bring it to the Sportscenter after some renovation. Wesleyan wants to play USI and Bellarmine every year. It's not KWC not wanting to play these games. Both USI and Bell are hurting themselves. That four point loss to USI IN Evansville could easily have gone the other direction if they played that game in Owensboro.

As to this season, I still believe that by the end of the year KWC is going to be a very strong D2 basketball team, regardless of whether 1,000 or 3,000 people show up for a home game. Last season's conference championship game was not a great crowd if you go by the numbers. Still, it was a very exciting atmosphere at the Sportscenter with a little under 2,000 in attendance. BTW, there are some teams in DI that has attendance worse than that of KWC.

As to the critics of the Sportscenter, well, there is no D2 arena in this country with as much tradition, history and winning records as this facility. It has hosted the best D2 games in the country along with the old Roberts Stadium. It is under new management, and hopefully it will get renovated. Every basketball coach on every level from Kentucky is familiar with this facility, and despite what the critics state, it's still a great arena to watch a basketball game. There are no bad seats in the house. They sell hamburgers, popcorn, nachos, soda, candy, and all of the usual fare that you get anywhere else. So, what? The restrooms can handle the crowds easily, and it just needs some TLC. That is where the people and city of Owensboro need to step up.

Wesleyan is going to be a very dangerous team to play in the post season in March if they continue to improve, they could go a long ways. Whether anyone comes to the KWC games or not, it is still high level NCAA college basketball.

[alumnifan]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

Wesleyan 114 - Salem 89 final - Jordan jacks had an efficiency rating of 33

[kwcpantherfan]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

Our defense wasn't that great today, though there were many times Salem was well covered and just slung the ball towards the hole and it went right in, so there was that. That's one thing about Salem, they can definitely score. They couldn't defend a team of 3 overweight girl scouts, but they can put the ball in the hole. We'll definitely need to play better on the defensive end at Springfield next week.

[Purplebuckeye]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

Agreed defense is not good, they will get beat at Springfield with that defensive effort. Going forward Derksen will have to score a lot to make up for his defensive liabilities

[alumnifan]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

Defense was poor. Derksen seems slow off his left foot. I'm not sure if the players even wanted to play defense today. Jordan jacks played brilliant, though. I would like to see him and malek Harris play together. They will have to play much better defense against the Simpsons.

[BuKnightsNation]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

Agreed defense is not good, they will get beat at Springfield with that defensive effort. Going forward Derksen will have to score a lot to make up for his defensive liabilities

He loves to score but he gives up more than he puts in. He even hit shots this weekend and gave up more than he scored. Just think what it would have been had he shot his normal 40% or below from the field. Scotty had it right. That night his FR year when he went off against USI and everyone thought he played great, he actually gave up more points on the defensive side of the ball.

Will give him credit though. He has seemed to rebound the ball better the last two games.

[Looking For 9]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

I'm confused about Josh and saying his defense was bad yesterday. The starting center for Salem played 30 minutes scored 9 points. Looked to me like the three point shot is what hurt us the most. Josh's foot work is bad but do not think he should have guarded the 30 footers that were made. Salem only scored 14 points in the paint. Not bad. 9 rebounds is good and several times he tipped the ball to a teammate. His skill level is not way as good as Bell fans stated but he is much better than any centers we have had for several years. I am glad to have him.

[kwcpantherfan]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

I'm confused about Josh and saying his defense was bad yesterday. The starting center for Salem played 30 minutes scored 9 points. Looked to me like the three point shot is what hurt us the most. Josh's foot work is bad but do not think he should have guarded the 30 footers that were made. Salem only scored 14 points in the paint. Not bad. 9 rebounds is good and several times he tipped the ball to a teammate. His skill level is not way as good as Bell fans stated but he is much better than any centers we have had for several years. I am glad to have him.

I'm also glad to have him and over the course of the 8 games we've played so far this regular season - and I have watched every minute of all 8 in person - the improvement he has shown in his effort and attitude has been immense. Talent is absolutely not an issue for him - his success (or lack thereof) is 100% determined in his head, and his head has been right the last 3-4 games. On this team he doesn't need to score 20 ppg, and frankly, he doesn't have to be a big-time defensive stopper. If he can put up 10-15 points and grab 5 boards, AND show up for the hustle plays (which he has been) then that can be the difference for us.

The defense Sunday could have been better, but it really wasn't THAT bad. Salem hit some shots that just left me shaking my head wondering how it went in. That's going to happen. They had a Spaniard that literally had hit 1 shot all year, and was I think 0-11 from 3 coming in - and he hit 6 of 10 from 3, including a couple from 25 ft plus, and a couple with a hand in his face. What are you supposed to do against that? We won by 25. I would have rather have beaten them by 50 ... but it's hard to be too upset when you win by 25.

As I've already said, we'll have to be better defensively against Springfield. I believe we will be. Our tendency over the last few years has been to allow teams like Salem to play us closer than we should. We've not developed the killer instinct to take a team that we have down by 20 and expand the lead to 40. But, we do tend to step up and play better and more focused when we're facing a team that is more challenging. So I believe that's what we'll do Sunday. It will be our first true road game of the season, though ... so you never really know what's going to happen there. And this is the same Springfield that lost at home to Bellarmine by only 4 points. Of course they also got beat by Kentucky State, who is, well...not very good. So we'll have to see which KWC and which UIS show up.

[kwcpantherfan]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

On a side note - Salem played zone defense against us the ENTIRE game yesterday. I cannot think of one single possession that they went man to man. Coach stated on the radio that they worked a ton on zone offense during the week between games, and it showed. Our offense against the zone looked better than I have seen it in YEARS, going back at least a couple of years before Coach Lee left. We definitely have zone buster shooters now as well. That's one achilles heel we've definitely had the last couple of years especially is that if a team went zone on us we would really struggle to put up points, but if we can continue to play against it the way we did this game that won't be a problem going forward!

[UIndyGradyGreyhound]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

On a side note - Salem played zone defense against us the ENTIRE game yesterday. I cannot think of one single possession that they went man to man. Coach stated on the radio that they worked a ton on zone offense during the week between games, and it showed. Our offense against the zone looked better than I have seen it in YEARS, going back at least a couple of years before Coach Lee left. We definitely have zone buster shooters now as well. That's one achilles heel we've definitely had the last couple of years especially is that if a team went zone on us we would really struggle to put up points, but if we can continue to play against it the way we did this game that won't be a problem going forward!

Maybe you can get Ray Harper back to get your guys from barber school? I thought those credits work at KWC?

[kwcpantherfan]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

Maybe you can get Ray Harper back to get your guys from barber school? I thought those credits work at KWC?

chirp chirp ... chirp chirp

[Looking For 9]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

Agree 100% 35 assists is remarkable in any league. I do wish we could get every player playing their best at once. Two non starters with career highs, in the teens, in one game is pretty good. Big mike and Sam need to join the party.

[Purplebuckeye]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

Are there any grade casualties? Has Malek Harris been sitting on bench at home games?

[kwcpantherfan]

Re: 2016-2017 Kentucky Wesleyan basketball thread.

Are there any grade casualties? Has Malek Harris been sitting on bench at home games?

Harris has been at home games, yes, and appears to have good chemistry with the rest of the team as far as I can tell.