Are we for real or was Akron just one of those magical nights? Are Devo/Baltic/Keely in good enough shape to repeate Tuesday's performance? Can Cooper nail 7 threes if Miami shuts down Freeman/Kellog like he did vs. Akron? Some questions to ponder.
No question about this: Muck Fiami.
Akron has a good defense and Miami does not. In fact, their defense sucks. One of the worst in the conference and in the
bottom 30 nationally. They don't hang on to the ball and they don't turn opponents over. How are they 10-5? I have no idea and think they're in for a fall. We're catching them at the right time; they're about to regress to the mean.
Our offense is better. Our defense is better. The only place they have us is rebounding. If we can draw even on the boards, we'll win without much problem.
Dragon--I think the sample size in MAC games is high enough to conclude that Miami is one of the better MAC teams despite the stats in their season box score. They are 10-5. Maybe there are factors in their play that aren't really captured well by the data at hand. Also, as you know, there are certainly "intangibles", or factors that can't be measured.
I'm not ready to conclude that Miami all of a sudden is going to be a different team than 10-5 in the MAC. They are one of about six teams capable of winning the MAC tournament.
IMO, Ohio will have to play really well to win this game in Oxford. Maybe it's because I've been to so many games over the years there and I've seen what it's like there.
Agree that if the Bobcats bring their "A" game, they have a good shot at winning this one. The Bobcats' "B" game might be enough to win if we get a few breaks.
Miami's scoring margin in MAC games is +5. Typically, that would equate to an 8-7 record rather than a 10-5 record. Miami has won more than an average share of close games, though, and there is something to be said for that. They've won two MAC games in OT and has just one game by more than 12. They lost games by 21 and 17. They are far more likely to get blown out than to win by blowout. But they also are likely to win close games. They've really only lost one close MAC game.
By comparison, our scoring margin in MAC games is +55. That's the kind of margin that more often comes out to 10-5. Of course, that just shows how many close games we've lost. The exceptions are the Ball State and Kent State games. Our MAC losses are by 4, 3, 12, 5, 6 and 2.
A lot of times, those things eventually even out. That's probably what Dragon is getting at. But sometimes teams just have a knack for winning close games and others don't. I hope we've started to learn to win those games and maybe to a certain extent the luck will run out on Miami in the next few games. We can certainly hope so.
At any rate, completely unrelated, can someone text me occassional updates on the game tonight? I have to be at high school basketball all night. I don't have a fancy phone to check scores on my own. Thanks in advance!