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Old 03-14-2009, 03:50 AM   #306
Radii
Head Coach
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
February 13, 2013

Kent State (15-7, 8-2 MAC) at Ohio (13-9, 7-3 MAC)

Kent State is ranked #20 in the Mid Major poll, the only MAC team to be found there. Toledo and Eastern Michigan have both seen time in this poll throughout the year but for now its just Kent State. They have road losses at Eastern Michigan and Buffalo, and that's it in conference play.

They're rated 83 OVR (83 offense/84 defense/85 sht/84 reb). Very balanced and very strong.

Scouting

PG Clifford Cesar – SR – 75 OVR – 88 speed/80 quicks, great defender(86 def), 85 handling/81 passing. 83 close/66 med/80 3. A serious 3 point threat. 8.0 ppg.

SG Logan Montgomery – FR – 74 OVR – Not a great defender, not great speed. He's a good shooter(84 close/73 med/76 3). Good in traffic, and a good clutch shooter. He's the weakest defender on the team (79 def rating, which is still not bad at all). 5.5 ppg.

SF Michael Murphy – SR – 81 OVR – Murphy is listed as the best defensive player in the league. His DEF rating is only 83, his defensive awareness is 77, block 72, steal 79... all simply outstanding. He has good speed for a SF, and is a good shooter (87 close/75 med/70 3). Great in traffic, great vertical... 10.3 ppg.

PF Duncan Hamilton – SR – 72 OVR – 6'8”, decent on the boards, decent in the post, 86 close/88 in traffic. A threat but not nearly the biggest on the team. 6.5 ppg/4.3 rpg.

C Colin Wierzba – SR – 85 OVR – Wierzba is the first conference opponent I've ever seen given the Star Player designation. He's 6'10”, an outstanding rebounder (86 off/87 def), great in the post (81 off/84 def), a capable shot blocker (84), 92 hustle, 79 strength, 93 close/83 in traffic. 77 offensive awareness/80 defensive awareness. He is leading the conference, by a lot, with 24.1 points per game. 7.6 rebounds and 2.0 blocks round out this outstanding player's numbers.

Cesar and Wierzba both have overall awareness ratings in the high 70s, as well as full experience bars. They are very close to having two guys earn Coach on the Floor designation. I haven't seen anyone in this conference with overall awareness over 72 or 73 until now. They have a 66-48 team unity edge.

To make it even worse, they go 9 deep with as much talent as we have.

This is quite simply the best team in the league. They do have two road losses though, so they are beatable.

Half
Time
OHIO
KSU
Notes
1
16:50
2
0
This is not a team we intend to try to run with. We're double teaming Wierzba every time he touches the ball. On their first possession he goes up anyway and misses. They miss a jumper their second possession, and that's all they've had. A foul and an offensive rebound allowed us to hold he ball for a good 1:15 or so. They're running a 2-3 as their primary defense, but they went to man to man this last time, and Cooper burned his man for a layup.
1
16:30
2
0
Massey comes off the floor with an injury. Flowers is in. We'll see how long Massey is out for. With House already done, and a PF as our backup SF, we don't have enough depth to handle another backcourt injury and continue with this nice 10 man rotation.
1
15:45
2
0
We're told Massey has a strained calf and “there's a chance he'll return” which of course means I'm bringing him in. Kent State is 0-5 from the floor now.
1
13:45
7
0
Flowers beats his man and draws a blocking foul on Wierzba, his first. He's 0-3 on the other end. He hasn't kicked it out yet against our doubleteam, he's shot every time he's touched it. Massey is back in. We have a 3 from Lufkin and 2 FT's from Flowers.
1
12:45
7
2
Murphy hits a little bank shot to get Kent State on the board.
1
12:00
7
4
Backups are in.
1
9:40
11
4
Go go defense! One thing I failed to notice when fawning all over Wierzba... his stamina is 77, he sat before anyone else. He is back in now.
1
8:25
13
4
Sessoms has 4 now after Murphy skies to goaltend a putback. Kent State uses their 2nd timeout already.
1
7:20
13
4
Kent State is apparently frustrated at their shooting. They use another timeout after we miss a shot and they get a rebound... They are 1-12 from the field and 2-2 at the line so far.
1
5:40
13
5
Starters back in. They have added a free throw by Wierzba and have 5 now.

HALF
20
16
Scoring barrage! We led 17-7 and then 20-11. They scored the last 5, including a 3 pointer by backup SG Ruffin as time expired.


We drew foul #2 on Wierzba with about 50 seconds left. He leads them with 5 points and 8 rebounds. Kent State is shooting 5-20, 1-7 from 3. They're 5-6 at the line.


We're not doing a lot better. 8-25, 1-11 from 3(Cooper missed so many open looks). Cooper did score 6, all driving to the basket when they broke down out of their zone and played man to man. Sessoms has 4, Lufkin and Delic have 3. Lufkin has our only 3 pointer. Massey is scoreless.
2
19:20
20
20
They score on the opening play of the half. Lufkin turns it over, they go down and draw a shooting foul on Massey in the fast break, Cesar makes both FT's and we're tied.
2
18:00
20
22
They get a break after a missed Lufkin jumper and Murphy gives Kent State the lead.
2
15:30
23
27
We end what had become a 16-0 run going back to the first half. Cooper finally hits an open 3. We're still keeping the game slow but we're not outright stalling right now.
2
13:30
25
33
Two more three's by Kent State and we're struggling like hell on offense. We get our backups in.
2
11:00
30
35
Flowers with 5 points, a 3 and a drive to the basket, to cut the lead down from 10 to 5.
2
8:00
34
45
And things begin to fall apart a bit. They hit two threes in a row and get a bucket on a goaltend to score a quick 7 straight after we'd managed to make it 37-34. Timeout Ohio.
2
6:45
35
51
Yet another 3 and a 3 point play and we are getting killed. Starters are back in.

The second half is what I feared the entire game. We needed Massey, Cooper and someone off the bench to shoot well today. We got none of that.

Kent State 63
Ohio 40

We led 20-11 with about 2 minutes left in the first half. From that point they outscored us 42-20. We successfully limited Wierzba's effectiveness, and tried to force other players to beat us. For a half, that worked. Then in the 2nd half they all got hot at the same time, or at least it felt that way.

Murphy and backup SG Ruffin led them with 12 each(4-4 from 3 for Ruffin). Wierzba had 11 points and 14 rebounds. After shooting so awfully in the first half, they finished 23-46 for the game. Lets see, they were 5-20 at halftime. That means they were 18-26 in the 2nd half. Damn.

Massey: 2 points (1-11 shooting)
Cooper: 14 points (1-5 from 3)
Lufkin: 3 points
Delic: 3 points/7 boards (1-5)
Watson: 0 points/4 boards

Flowers: 7 points
Sessoms: 5 points/3 boards

I seriously do not understand how this Kent State team has 2 conference losses. I should point out that I didn't just try this stalling tactic because they rated 83 OVR vs our 80. I did it because they had 2 starters significantly better than anyone on our team, and one of their backups (at SF) was better than any of our starters. Their “bad players” in their lineup were as good as anyone we can put out there. I'm not really sure what makes this roster 'only' 83 if ours is rated 80.

Last edited by Radii : 03-14-2009 at 05:47 AM.
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