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CMU @ #23 UB (2/9 - 3:30pm ET)


Kevin

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It is a 40 minute game. I know we all want a perfect 40 min, and yes we were awful in 1st 10 min, but still won by 14. Considering a hurt CJ and no Nick totalling 0 points, we were only down a few at halftime.  Then with a full compliment of players, won the 2nd half by close to 20. Big road games next week. Gotta win 2. Go Bulls

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Thank you, Central Miss-again. Not that I really wanted to see the Bulls down 18 in the first half - but the fight back, and the second half, were a reason for the building to get excited, get loud, get into it.  I've been waiting for that for a while and it made for a really fun afternoon in the end.  Central bringing a fight themselves, eventually made UB wake up and got fans alive too.

When Central was up 18, the stats looked like: they were shooting 59%, they were 5 for 9 from 3, they were out-rebounding UB, and UB had turned it over 7 times.  By halftime, UB had chopped most of that lead away - UB didn't turn it over again, and Central hadn't made another three.  What was missing for the Bulls was a physical interior presence, at both ends of the floor.  Too many second chance put back points for the Chippewas.  In the second half the Bulls got serious on defense, they started locking down those looks on the perimeter (until the end) and closed down the lane.  They started fighting harder for, and winning, those rebounds underneath.  (To be fair - it feels like UB gives up so many contested threes at home. Or end-of-shot-clock threes).  Central crashed the boards on offense, but that left them perilously exposed in transition if they didn't get those - which UB turned into a number of dunks.  Some of our veteran leaders took on the challenge in the second half and turned this around.

Harris - put up a lot of points, mostly from driving to the hoop and using his long reach to beat the defender for the layups.  Was pretty cold still from outside, but got some rebounds.
CJ - zero points in the first half, came to life in the second half with some big three's when needed
Perkins - entered at halftime really fired up, was the physical player they needed inside today, in the first five minutes he hit a jumper and drew two fouls
Dontay - was the delightful pest he usually is on defense, a great steal from Roundtree near the end
Williams - had a really smooth drive to the basket for a layup in the second half, he didn't seem so clutzy with the ball. A good sign of things to come.
Dominic - does it say something that he was the choice to go in there ahead of Fagan and Bertram in that situation?  I said before the season that there would be some MAC league battles where we'd need some size and toughness inside, and today was that day.
Graves - a pair of really great rebounds in the second half, positioned himself well against a taller opponent on the offensive glass.  The kind of thing CJ does.

Crowd - a nearly full arena that had a reason to come to life.  The upside to being ranked is you get a lot of new fans into the building; the downside is it seems like it should be insanely loud and it isn't, because casual fans don't tend to get crazy.  Props to people for showing up today and for getting loud when there was a good reason to be.

Central - they didn't have much depth to work with, evidenced by the fact that they spent most of the second half with at least 2 guys out there with 4 fouls apiece.  Austin - you can play like that, but when you have four fouls, you're playing with fire, don't act surprised you get called for a charge and your night is done.  Roundtree - had no interest in interfering with a 2 on 1 break down the stretch, because they needed him on offense.  Their Patton Oswalt look-alike coach didn't have many other options on the bench.

If we've learned anything from the past two weeks, it's that no matter who they beat in the non-conference part, no matter how much they sliced up some of the league teams already, the job isn't nearly done.  It will be a fight more often than not, and every opponent is going to be dialed in to play the Bulls.  A lot of tough games to go.

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32 minutes ago, skrabukes said:

I heard it yelled in the crowd today

That’s f$&@ing ridiculous. This team will go only how far and how well their top 3 perform. Dontay has proven he’ll be there. If Graves plays like a mean cuss and like someone punched him in the mouth we’ll be tough to beat.  

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6 minutes ago, UB85 said:

That’s f$&@ing ridiculous. This team will go only how far and how well their top 3 perform. Dontay has proven he’ll be there. If Graves plays like a mean cuss and like someone punched him in the mouth we’ll be tough to beat.  

Yep. I wish badly that Jordan could make FTs.  He's very important out there but we could see "hack a shaq" the way his FT % has been. We definitely are the best team in league when at full tilt. Sometimes they forget that they have to bring the intensity and that the other team is just going to roll over to them...not gonna happen! 

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