It’s been a while since my last post, I know. Blame it on Reading Week and Finals Week (not that I was studying or anything…). But now I’m back with a vengeance.
Throughout Winter Break, I’ll try my best to give you something to check out other than the ongoing Film Festival (I’m a big fan of “Rushed”). So let’s talk some men’s basketball.
In case you haven’t been paying attention, Doyle and Co. are 5-2. And what’s even more surprising – they have a realistic shot to have 10 wins before Big Ten season. We need to post a winning record during the entire regular season for a shot at the National Invitation Tournament. If the NCAA tournament is like Britney Spears, you can say the NIT is like Jamie Lynn. (Since Jamie Lynn is 15 years old, I’ll leave it at that.) Anyway, the NIT is still the post-season, and we might actually have a shot to make it this year.
Let’s be clear – the ‘Cats haven’t played very well, and two of their last four wins have come down to the buzzer (mainly because they haven’t put those games away). The Princeton offense they employ relies upon a center who can make crisp bounce passes to teammates inside. But the two players who play most of the minutes at center (Vince Scott and Ivan “Frankenstein” Tolic) haven’t shown a strong grasp of the offense, although Scott’s ability to shoot the three has really helped the team. Because of sub-par center play, the ‘Cats score mostly through two ways: one-man sprints to the basket for wild layups and contested three-point shots as the shot clock runs down.
If the threes are falling (like during the Western Michigan game, when Craig Moore dropped 26 points), the ‘Cats can stay with almost anyone. But if they don’t, we lose to teams like Cornell.
But I think we can pull off at least three wins before January just on account of our sorry excuse of a schedule. If we can get to nine or 10 wins by the time Big Ten season starts, we need to win only a handful of our 16 conference games to post a winning record make the NIT. So there’s definitely hope. Stay tuned.