We were at home and if we expect to contend in the MAC we should have atleast won by double digits.  Morgan State doesn't have near the talent or depth that we have.  To Morgan's credit they played us hard for 40 minutes in Athens. It forced the Bobcats to focus and close the game out. 

Every team in the MAC has had a bad game so far. Kent blew a big lead to ULL and trailed with less than 5 minutes to go before pulling away at the end. Akron couldn't even get the ball over half court against WVU.  Buffalo trailed Princeton by 20 at half. Miami led a DIII team by 2 with under 5 minutes to go. BG hasn't had the bad game yet other than a bad second half against GW but I'm sure they will.  These games happen. It sucks but they happen. You just have to learn from these games and move on and do whatever you can to play as few of these as possible.  The good thing is we were able to find a way to win. We lost several of these last year.

Ugly game today - I was sweating it until the last two minutes.  Oakland got their asses handed to them by Arkansas and Alabama, but have been playing well of late particularly at home.  I think we beat them if we play well.

You guys apparantly didn't watch Oakland play Tennessee at Oakland's gym. That place was loud and Oakland destroyed and SEC team on the glass all nite long. They got big guards and they got a big manz inside. The dude had like 15 rebounds half of which were offensive. He looked 7 foot atleast. Keely, Baltic and Smith better box out against Oakland or it will be a long nite. They also can hit the 3 ball too and like to go up Tempo. Oakland layed a hunded on some team this week and about 86 on Tennessee.  They had Tennessee down double digits a large part of this game. Oakland might have graduated Benson, but from what I saw at home they are far better than anyone we have played so far.  They have won over 20 games several years in a row. Like Belmont and Kent State have done. If you have done any homework on Oakland they are a legit top 100 program. They reloaded not rebuilding.  We haven't played anyone yet. Marshall and Louisville haven't played anyone either.  Oakland has played a brutal schedule. Toughest non-conference schedule in the country when all is done. We are one of their easier games.  Oakland blew us out of our own building last year.   

Jug...

no doubt I have generally respected your opinion  but you are freaking blind on this one and joined the ignorant masses that generally post stupid drivel here. Oakland retunrs a ton. Although their big fella is gone the replacement has bigger upside and generally the entire team is playing well. I look for us to be in a real fight . Winnable but really have to execute to get out of there with a voctory.

OUBJC is his usual lame self with his predictions and ANALysis. I really hate pointing this finger but once again just incomparable drivel in the first couple of posts intra thread.. WHy? WHy comment? Why say stuff tha is just uninformed and silly? I hate calling folks out but lame is lame and needs to be exposed. The last post above this ctually has some conhenrency but forgets we had oAkland down early till a coaching situation left a really bad line up in the game for a long time and the starters never coulld get the frist 10 minutes momentum and roll going the second time. Force feeding seldom works and certainly did not in hte past.

As far as the Inbound I got chastised 3 years ago when I commented on the lackadasical and lasy inbounding with passes and decisions being wrong. The problem persists. I want my high BBIQ guys with great ball skills puting the pass where it needs to be. THe picks are not ecxecuted and the guy s do not rub off them to get free. It is all about execution ..AL of these teams have film and execution t o do and pick apart.

Ugly win > Pretty loss.

Agree with those who say Oakland will be a tough out.  Sure, they lost Benson, but lets not forget he didn't exactly dominate us last season -- he put up 10 points and 6 boards before fouling out after just 19 minutes of work.  We still lost by 12.

Offutt showed great BBIQ in all phases of the game. Defense was excellent, offensively he forced the issue and when he got pissed late in the 2nd half he went right at the D fouling their 7+ footer out of the game and breaking the zone down by getting into the seams. Clutch at the line with FT's too.

Stevie was pretty ineffective today when faced with the lngth and speed of MS. Made a couple of Frosh mistakes and got to sit in a close game.

DJ looked out of sorts. Getting back slowly on several TO's ad a littel too...no make that a lot too casual with the passes on the floor and out of bounds. I was chastised 3 years ago for remarks regading the inbounding and took it in stride but the problem remains. Granted the throw in spot in the 1st half was in a place of no mans land and the play called was not really one that created a good angle but when you throw in and KNOW the guy who is guarding your guy has a foot of height on your guys throwning it up and over is not an option.  I am sure DJ was fine and hopefully will mentally engage from here on out. REg fighting and scrapping for a rebound with us up and under 3 mins remaining is not the time to take a highly contested rebound and chuck a shot up with a brad new shot clock and 4 blue jersies in the paint. Especially when you are on e of the best PGs in the country. THat is the direct opposite of BBIQ. 

Coming off the Marshall win the tone was pretty hihg. SOming into 0-7 MState the staff had to be teliing them that this was still a pretty good team. IN fact with that length and speed this may be the best 0-7 team I have ever seen . The lenth gave us fits. Closed up ipassing lanes, Baltic at his height was dwarfed and denying the post was a monumental effort that was acheived.

On the subject of offficiating....one of our Indiana guys who has been climbing the ladder officiated yesterday. I a not sure what these guys are told but he wasa totally different official when I saw him 2 weeks ago. He was not the Wrst of the three but i did think he made some calls that are typical in a HS game but that I have not seen called ina college game for a ver ylong time. Fans around me kept yelling 'LETEmplay"but the first 10 inutes of that game were so poorly executed you had to call what was essentially both teams shooting themselves in the foot.

oN TO oAKLAND