hockey game has devolved into a huge brawl.

Whittington is one of the best players in the MAC!!!!!!!!!

(02-02-2013 08:58 PM)Hiller4Hyz09 Wrote:  Whittington is one of the best players in the MAC!!!!!!!!!

He has looked real good against another great center.

that looked like a charge or a no call...

ball don't lie

Nice win.

Could have blown this game wide open if we were a little better at the line.

Have a good night, folks.

Hockey just scored two quick power play goals to go up 2 to 1 against Ferris.

Great win! GO BRONCOS!

(02-02-2013 07:24 PM)DesertBronco Wrote:  I'm getting texts from people there saying attendance is sparse?

No excuse for stupid unless they don't come to games. I would bet a bunch that it was far and away the biggest crowd of the year. Also the most students who stayed until the last couple of minutes when we had a 10 point lead.

Attendance: 3312
More students than we have seen all year

(02-02-2013 10:12 PM)MRBUTTONS Wrote:  

(02-02-2013 07:24 PM)DesertBronco Wrote:  I'm getting texts from people there saying attendance is sparse?

No excuse for stupid unless they don't come to games. I would bet a bunch that it was far and away the biggest crowd of the year. Also the most students who stayed until the last couple of minutes when we had a 10 point lead.

Glad it was incorrect, we need good attendance when the team is winning.

I seriously got texts saying it was sparse, maybe it was early.

Buttons, why are you a d!ck?

(02-02-2013 11:41 PM)DesertBronco Wrote:  

(02-02-2013 10:12 PM)MRBUTTONS Wrote:  

(02-02-2013 07:24 PM)DesertBronco Wrote:  I'm getting texts from people there saying attendance is sparse?

No excuse for stupid unless they don't come to games. I would bet a bunch that it was far and away the biggest crowd of the year. Also the most students who stayed until the last couple of minutes when we had a 10 point lead.

Glad it was incorrect, we need good attendance when the team is winning.

I seriously got texts saying it was sparse, maybe it was early.

Buttons, why are you a d!ck?

Another class reply. Why are we not shocked ? Sorry but my name is neither Richard or Dick. Nobody doubts the texts you got. I was wondering where the people sending the texts were looking.

You don't deserve class attack boy, you're consistently nasty with every post, no exception, and you get what you give, you don't see me complaining when someone gets mad at me.

They, as in "the texters" were looking at the stands, as it was explained in progress, maybe the stands filled up late, apparently and hopefully.

But then, you're such a self righteous pr!ck there's no explaining a serious of events to you because you don't want to hear them.

It was an average weekend crowd in my opinion. Largest of the season but that isn't saying much. Wasn't close to 4k which I consider a large WMU hoops crowd. Student section might have been slightly larger then average but not much. A lot of it was athletes from other sports.

You can call it sparse, but it was the largest crowd of the year. Wish the Lunatics had brought their game with them. Amazed at how passive they were the entire game. Had expected more.

(02-03-2013 11:28 AM)Broncobelt Wrote:  You can call it sparse, but it was the largest crowd of the year. Wish the Lunatics had brought their game with them. Amazed at how passive they were the entire game. Had expected more.

Maybe the vocal leaders were in Big Rapids last night.

Who was the short ref at the game? He looked like a midget running with the players on the floor.

I thought the attendance looked closer to 4000 on saturday night.

Good showing by the students. Still no effort in regards to cheering in unison or getting excited. However, the pinwheel was back and there was a group of 5 or 6 guys in the balcony that at least looked the part of being a super fan. Baby steps...

Student showing was good. However, as mentioned, a lot of them were athletes from another team. There was around 100 players on the court at halftime being honored for academic achievement. I love the support that is being reciprocated by all the WMU sports teams lately. I just don't think those are the students that are going to be running the zoo and getting everyone fired up. But...it's still a step in the right direction.

The game...

As mentioned in an earlier post...Javon McCrea is a beast. Straight up physical specimen. He's a legit power forward in Big Ten. He's really really really good within ten feet of the basket. He's long, strong and very athletic.

What's really impressive is that Shayne imposed his will and ended up being the best player on the floor Saturday night. Seriously, look at his line...36 minutes played, 23 points, 9/18 from the floor, 5/6 from the line, 4 steals, 0 turnovers, only 3 fouls. If Shayne plays like that, we are a tough team to beat and I really like our chances down the stretch in league play.

I thought Will Regan having an off night shooting was a huge difference in the outcome. He had multiple open looks that he couldn't bury. He ended up 2/10 from deep. Considering he led the league in 3 point shooting with a 47% clip going into the game, I am very pleased he was "off" saturday night.

Our defense clamped down in the second half. Only gave up 29 points. I know buffalo had a stretch or two where they made a run. But those runs were only 5-6 point swings. We didn't break down and open the flood gates.

Buffalo is better than their record right now. I think losing Oldham has really really hurt them. He's has experience in this league and gives them a 4th guy that can score. They only lose Watson after this year. I fully expect them to be a force in the East next year...and likely have a say in what happens this year with tournament seeding. They are going to hang a loss on someone (ohio?) that costs that team a seed in Cleveland. Cross your fingers.

Witherspoon is a quality coach. He went to a 1-3-1 zone with about 3 minutes left in the game. I forget the outcome of the zone, but I am shocked they didn't go to it earlier.

I like to think Darius Paul looks a lot like what Mike Williams looked like as a frosh at juco. Different builds and bodies. But, both of them possess the ability to score against quality defenders within 12 feet of the hoop. Maybe "crafty" is the word I'm searching for? Not sure that is the best choice of my words. Maybe this describes it better. I remember when Mike got the ball within 12 feet of the hoop, I knew he could get a quality shot and had a darn good chance at scoring. It didn't matter who was guarding him, he had length and basketball IQ. I feel the same way about Darius right now. His contributions saturday night were awesome. 15 points and 8 rebounds are great numbers for a frosh PF. I don't believe there is a better frosh in the MAC right now.

Had a brief conversation with Acer after the game. He asked me who David Brown reminded me of. Without hesitation I said Reggie Berry. It was his answer too. Brown deserves to be starting right now. However, his contributions off the bench are amazing. I don't know if any of you remember how we struggled to score at times during our non conference games. It seemed like we would go into stretches where we had 3 or 4 frosh on the floor with Pokely and nobody could be counted on to score. Part of that is the level of competition. The other part is that was David Brown not playing. Cross my fingers that he can stay healthy.

It's evident that Hawk is going to ride the hot hand at PG. I don't think he will switch the starters. But I do think he looks to see who is making things happen in the first 8 minutes of the game and then shapes his rotation around that PG. Frankly, I don't care how he manages the situation if we win. If we lose...different story. There are two big differences between Richie and Klein IMO. First, Klein has no problem passing it down the court to an open wing man. Richie chose not to do so multiple times Saturday night. Klein is more aggressive in pushing the ball, Richie is more careful about not wanting to make a turnover. Second, Klein penetrates the lane a little more than Richie. Either way...I'm happy that the two of them only committed two turnovers the entire game.

Wednesday night can't come soon enough!

Don't forget Shayne also grabbed 14 rebounds. His energy was on the glass was big.

I agree that Buffalo is going to play spoiler and have a say in either seeding or the outcome of the MAC Tournament. They're tough and more than good enough to play spoiler. Nobody is going to want to play them in Cleveland. McCrae in my opinion is the best player in the MAC outside of DJ Cooper and they have enough quality shooters around him to make someone's night hell if they get hot. Witherspoon is a very good coach and he's going to have them ready to play come tournament time.

Agreed with Paul/Williams comparison as well. Darius has the sort of mid-range game that is rare at this level. It's kind of old school really. He's smooth with the ball and can get his shot off against just about anyone. Some of the move combinations he uses to get his shot open are pretty amazing to watch. His passing ability is close to elite for a big man at this level. I'm absolutely giddy that he's only a freshman.

I like Brown coming off the bench. Bringing in offense and that spark I think is big for us- similar to what Reggie Berry brought. DB is better off the dribble than I remember Reggie being. Having a second unit with a quality scorer just adds so much more to the depth of the team and gives us more potential lineup combinations. He can sub for Hutch or Pokley if one of them starts cold or gets into foul trouble. Starting isn't as important as being out there when the game is on the line, and Brown is getting those minutes.

^ During one of the recent interviews Coach Hawkins mentioned David Brown has requested he not be in the starting lineup.