Detroit chokes again - love it

[crusadermoe]

Detroit lost to Wright St. at home last night.   

They don't like to play methodical smart teams.  Is Wright St. that good or is Detroit just that unfocused and erratic.   They beat UIC by 50 on Saturday.

Hope Detroit scoops up a lot of losses and has to battle to stay focused for 2 days in a row at the tourney (at Valpo of course).

Anyone one to drive up to Loyola Saturday and cheer for Porter Moser against this jackwagon group of Titans? 

[HC]

Doug Anderson looked like the only one who wanted to play last night while I was watching, and he can't really do much unless he is a foot from the hoop. Oh well.

[historyman]

I think the 3 games in 5 days really hurt Detroit. If you look at the two different highlight videos on HLN it looks like two different teams. Actually Detroit wore red against UIC and white against WSU. McCallum was the guy who looked most tired out of all the Titan players. Even when Detroit had climbed back to within 2 of Wright State there didn't seem to be much energy from the team or the fans.   

[valpotx]

It is what they deserve when they run up the score as much as they do.  Everyone is going to be gunning for a school like that, who pours it on and keeps their starters in until 4 minutes left with a 50 point lead.  They are very hated by the other teams in our conference, so when they are not having their rare excellent shooting night, teams will outlast them 

[LaPorteAveApostle]

McCallum was the guy who looked most tired out of all the Titan players.

Shocking.  I wonder why?

Brand Nubian - Punks Jump Up to Get Beat Down

[KL31NY]

I think the 3 games in 5 days really hurt Detroit. If you look at the two different highlight videos on HLN it looks like two different teams. Actually Detroit wore red against UIC and white against WSU. McCallum was the guy who looked most tired out of all the Titan players.

Ray Sr plays his starting 5 too much. They all played 30+ minutes against us, scored 75 of 98 points against UIC, and played all but 27 minutes against WSU. No wonder they didn't have the stamina to pull out the close ones.

Does Detroit simply put more pressure on their starters to play and produce than necessary, or is Detroit's bench so bad as to keep them off the floor as much as possible?

[LaPorteAveApostle]

Does Detroit simply put more pressure on their starters to play and produce than necessary, or is Detroit's bench so bad as to keep them off the floor as much as possible?

The options, as I see it, are two:

--Detroit's bench really is that bad
OR
--Ray McCallum Sr. is really so dumb that he forgot they had a game two days before and had one coming up in just two days.

YOU make the call...

[FWalum]

Watched the game and really thought that maybe something was wrong with little Ray, he looked very "average" last night with no energy or speed at all.  The WSU defenders had no trouble what so ever staying in front of him as he made his usual drives to the basket that rarely ended in success.  HC was correct when he said that Anderson looked like the only one that came to play last night.  Watching the two teams was such a contrast in style that after the second media timeout it was obvious that Detroit was in deep trouble.  A team like Detroit may be very susceptible to the emotional toll that these two home loses have certainly inflicted.  It will be interesting to see how they respond in future games.

[agibson]

Pretty different script than the Valpo game, it seems.  WSU led practically wire-to-wire.  15-3 six minutes in.  39-30 at the half.  Detroit did tie it 53-53 with five minutes to play, but WSU never trailed.

McCallum again held to single digits.

[oklahomamick]

I think the 3 games in 5 days really hurt Detroit. If you look at the two different highlight videos on HLN it looks like two different teams. Actually Detroit wore red against UIC and white against WSU. McCallum was the guy who looked most tired out of all the Titan players. Even when Detroit had climbed back to within 2 of Wright State there didn't seem to be much energy from the team or the fans.

McCallum played the entire 40 minutes against WSU.  They never go to the bench.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

Pretty different script than the Valpo game, it seems.

Depends which Valpo game you're talking about!  Actually--seems rather like our game with WSU, except that the Titans couldn't seal the deal once they fought back to tie...

[covufan]

Does Detroit simply put more pressure on their starters to play and produce than necessary, or is Detroit's bench so bad as to keep them off the floor as much as possible?

The options, as I see it, are two:

--Detroit's bench really is that bad
OR
--Ray McCallum Sr. is really so dumb that he forgot they had a game two days before and had one coming up in just two days.

YOU make the call...

Or, his assistant coaches that are no longer with the team had those responsibilities, and he forgot to give that responsibility to someone else?

[LaPorteAveApostle]

Or, his assistant coaches that are no longer with the team had those responsibilities, and he forgot to give that responsibility to someone else?

DING!  I think we have a winner.

Case in point:  Last year, the minutes were minimized in the comfortable win over YSU in the HL quarters (McCallum 33, no other starter above 27).

This year against UIC, in a win that was 3 times larger?  Whoops.

Dumb.

The obvious difference:  the loss of the assistant coach who was schtupping the AD.  Clearly, he was a guy to keep track of small details.

[wh]

Or, his assistant coaches that are no longer with the team had those responsibilities, and he forgot to give that responsibility to someone else?

DING!  I think we have a winner.

Case in point:  Last year, the minutes were minimized in the comfortable win over YSU in the HL quarters (McCallum 33, no other starter above 27).

This year against UIC, in a win that was 3 times larger?  Whoops.

Dumb.

The obvious difference:  the loss of the assistant coach who was schtupping the AD.  Clearly, he was a guy to keep track of small details.

Was it that, or was he letting things fall through the cracks?

[KL31NY]

We've talked a lot in this thread and our WSU game thread about Detroit's bad decision-making during their game with the Raiders and any other flaws that we perceive from the Titans' program, but I think Billy Donlon and his staff deserves some credit. I re-watched the final possessions of the game, and WSU took a huge timeout before Detroit ran its last play. The Titans came out and ran they played from the formation they showed the Raiders before the timeout, but Wright State made a switch defensively.

WSU showed man-to-man, including covering the in-bounder, until they called the timeout. When they came back, the player would have been guarding the in-bounder backed off and waited near the sideline like a "floater." With McCallum already trying to get by his own defender for the final shot, this floater got in Ray's way, forcing him to fade away over the sideline for a tough shot he missed to lose the game. As much as we can bash Detroit for it handled the end of the game, WSU should be given some praise for this switch which saved the game for them.

[crusadermoe]

Sure, Wright St. should get credit for their coaching and their play.

Hoping that either Wright or UWGB can slip in front of Detroit and make them play in the quarters & semis back to back.   That puts them in role of playing two solid games in two days to make the finals.   Of course I am seeing us at the #1 and playing at the ARC.  It's ours to lose after winning at Detroit and taking the first WSU game. 

[vuweathernerd]

speaking of choke jobs - milwaukee led by 17 at the break, only to score 8 more the rest of the way in their loss to uic tonight in chicago.

[agibson]

42 points in the first half, 8 in the second.  Remarkable. 

They didn't shoot lights-out the first half, but well, for sure.  8-18 from 3 is quite good (44%), 48% overall.

But.... the second half... my goodness. 0 for _17_ from 3.  12% overall, 3-25.  Must have been horrific.  Only three free throws attempted in the second half.

[StlVUFan]

42 points in the first half, 8 in the second.  Remarkable. 

They didn't shoot lights-out the first half, but well, for sure.  8-18 from 3 is quite good (44%), 48% overall.

But.... the second half... my goodness. 0 for _17_ from 3.  12% overall, 3-25.  Must have been horrific.  Only three free throws attempted in the second half.

I noticed one stretch of about a dozen possessions -- 6 milwaukee, 6 uic -- every one of which was ugly.  Seemed like everyone was taking bad shots, making sloppy passes, ball ricocheting all over the place like it was a volleyball match.  It was when milwaukee led 50-49, and I honestly thought the panthers were going to hold on and right the ship.

[agibson]

Milwaukee didn't score a point... for the last 9:39?  Wow.

[talksalot]

As someone posted earlier, I don't harp on those kind of games (halves) since what happened to VU on 3/2/92 when Tony Bennett went off for 30... as the Phoenix beat us 69-25...I did just see that our game up there this year is the 31st anniversary of that debacle... may just have to make a road trip... hope that game doesn't matter !

[valporun]

talksalot, the math on that anniversary is wrong. It will only be 21 years, not 31.

[wh]

The worst Valpo half I have personally witnessed was at Chicago State in 2000. We scored a whopping 12 points in the 1st half!  We played about even in the 2nd half and ended up losing by 21 points. It was Lubos' sophomore year and we were riding a 9-game winning streak.  Chicago State as usual had a losing record.  Homer had reportedly been wearing the same coat and tie throughout the winning streak, but changed outfits after that. 

[bbtds]

The worst Valpo half I have personally witnessed was at Chicago State in 2000. We scored a whopping 12 points in the 1st half!  We played about even in the 2nd half and ended up losing by 21 points. It was Lubos' sophomore year and we were riding a 9-game winning streak.  Chicago State as usual had a losing record.  Homer had reportedly been wearing the same coat and tie throughout the winning streak, but changed outfits after that. 

http://statsheet.com/mcb/games/2000/02/24/valparaiso-47-chicago-state-69

the stats from that game.

It looks like Homer emptied the bench at the end of the game because even Punda, Thomason and Phil Wille got to play.

[LaPorteAveApostle]

MARKO! ................. (PUNDA!!)

MARKO! ................. (PUNDA!!)

MARKO! ................. (PUNDA!!)

etc.  those were the DAZE