Agree. They really worked well together.

When I listened/watched the press conference coverage after the Kent loss, I noticed that Saul mentioned he doesn't have a "lock down defender." Obviously he's the coach and I'm a spectator, but in my humble opinion, Mike Laster is one of the best defenders on the team and he hasn't seen much floor time this season. He is not as offensively polished, I completely agree, but he seems to be a really dependable defensive player. It's a trade off, play him or play Dartis/Block, but if we are getting burned by a perimeter player I'd love to see Laster get his shot at the guy.

I also agree about Wadley being a great asset, but he can get sucked into seeking the blocked shot a lot and leaving his man from the weak side. This happened a few times in the BG game and led to offensive rebounds and putbacks.

Back to last night's game, very solid second half. I got worried when the run for Western hit 8-0 to start the second half but the guys responded really well. Tony played a great game, extremely efficient and dominant on the boards. Jaaron's third foul looked to me to be a horrendous call. I thought the Western defender was well within the circle when trying to take the charge. It does scare me more than a little when Jaaron has to sit, but we survived it. Block was huge off the bench, great to see he doesn't seem to have any trouble after the hamstring injury. Treg struggled but gave his usual high energy effort despite puking in the tunnel in the first half. It was a good win to build on and hopefully Dartis is back and playing Saturday when we head to Meechigan.

I missed much of the first half so I didn't realize Treg was sick. That explains why Block got so much run. Even sick Treg hustles. He had a huge steal off of a missed FT in the second half that was a complete hustle play.

Defense allowed just .86 points per possession. That ties their season-best (also allowed .86 vs. Marshall and UC-Riverside). 

"Quarterly" scoring from last night:

	Q1	Q2	Q3	Q4	Final
WMU	13	18	17	16	64
Ohio	15	20	14	33	82

 

If you squint real hard, you can make out a very good basketball team with this group. That's encouraging to me. When you have a point guard, a shooter, a big man and a couple energy guys, you've got a shot at doing nice things at the end of the season. Ohio has all of those things.

Really good point. I kinda feel like Laster is a key for this team. If he can give 20 min/game like he gave last night, that's a big, big boost in my opinion.

Defensively, I really think Laster brings something to the table that some other wings of ours do not. As Saul would say, he is "Detroit tough" and I think it shows in his defensive mindset.

Remember, it's just one game. Mike played great, but let's see if he can be consistent. He's been give opportunities all season. He's got the ability, now let's see if he can continue to take advantage of the opportunities.

I agree with Alan, Laster has not gotten enough minutes to make an impact.

The minutes played don't lie. I agree, it is a crowded position, and there's only so many minutes. You look at a three game span, how about the 10 game stretch prior to that? One of those 10 games he got double digit minutes. The other 9 games, all sub 8 minute games and 2 DNP/CD's. It's a little confusing to have a guy who started several games as a true freshman suddenly the next year a marginal guy who barely cracks the rotation. I trust Saul, and I fully understand there's a lot the fans don't see. It's still hard to ignore the decrease in his minutes. As a freshman he averaged nearly 19 minutes per game. As a Sophomore, just under 10 minutes per game.

I think what's really tough for him is that the minutes that make up the 10 minutes average have been so inconsistent. Plus it's a fine line between being aggressive and forcing things. With a clearly defined role and pattern I'm sure it would be easier for him to settle into a groove. Hopefully this last outing will be a springboard for that. Of course, I thought he had a really good first game this year and his minutes went way down in game 2.

I agree, it's tough to be consistent, but I think it's even harder to be consistent and produce/make an impact in half the number of minutes played.

How vigorously do we play? With a lot of guys, it limits minutes per player--that's just math.

But if we are playing with terrific effort, really pressing it on offense and, yes, DEFENSE, there's plenty of room for 8-10 guys to play 16-25 minutes...and to have played a lot of good, skills-engaging ball.

200 minutes of hell.