Detroit 1/25

[uwmpanther]

uwmfutbol said:

Rebounding and costly turnovers.

I suppose it's good that I'm so disappointed, though. At least this means my expectations have risen again for this team.

That's a healthy attitude

[mcdadenets50]

Ouch. Coulda shoulda.

It's a step for this team to be competitive on the road.

Take out the frustrations on uwgb.

[Deleted]

Bad game for Ricky, but that is going to happen for a rookie. He will have more ups and downs, but it is clear that he'll be a major player in the future.

Roman is starting to understand division one basketball. I think he may have the brightest future among our freshman. Kaylan is also making great strides.

The future is bright.

[uwmeasye]

what i don't understand is why skinner isn't getting any playing time (4 min) where as nick got 20 min.

[uwm97]

Just a few random thoughts:

1. We shot the ball pretty damn well. Avo and Hanson had their jumpers working.

2. As has been stated here, the rebounding was pathetic. Not sure why Skinner didn't get more time.

3. Franklin was killing us out there with his turnovers. Having Hansen or Gentry in there the majority of the 2nd Half would have helped.

4. Paulsen's jumper wasn't working but he kept at it and made some key shots down the stretch in the 2nd Half. Hanson, Avo, and Paulsen sure aren't lacking in confidence, and that's a good thing.

5. Massiah had his best game all year. I hope he starts looking to shoot the 3-ball now a little more. He's got a hell of a nice touch.

6. Compared to where this team was back in November, it's night and day. There still isn't any real rhyme or reason to a lot of the substitution patterns. But I never thought Avo would be as good as he's been this year. You're looking at a pre-season First Team ALL HL guy next year. The progress the guys have made is marked.

[uwmfutbol]

I still don't quite like Jeter's substitutions, but they're also a lot better than they were. He's also settling with who he plays and who he brings in at various times.

[DetTitan]

bball30 said:

I can't figure out what Bob Brainerd was talking about how they are now no longer the "Detroit Mercy" but the students are clearly chanting "UDM, UDM"

I imagine he was reading the media guide, which has actually had this statement in it for quite some time.

"To The Media:

Since the consolidation of the University of Detroit and Mercy College of Detroit in 1990, UDM athletic teams have found themselves referred to in many different forms. In order to maintain consistency, we ask the media and our opponents continue to refer to us as UDM -- or use Detroit or Detroit Titans -- and eliminate the use of such abbreviations as U-D, U of D Mercy, Detroit Mercy, etc.

Thank you for your cooperation and your continuing coverage of the Detroit Titans"

I dunno, honestly , we just need to change the name back. There is SOOO much confusion. Mainly because there is a well known all-boys Private Prep School in Metro-Detroit named U of D Jesuit, and it's sister school for girls, Mercy High School. The average Metro-Detroiter and Detroiter just know it as U of D, and anything else gets confusing.

I'll also note that Mercy College of Detroit had no athletic teams, so that is why we are the Detroit Titans...and not the Detroit Mercy Titans.

Confused yet?

Oh, and they were chanting "Paulsen". I guess they picked a player to harass...

They were chanting Airball at Smith because he had several airballs early on...obviously it didn't work, he ended up with 30 points.

Should be a much bigger student section vs. Butler. Our attendance continues to dwindle. The Butler game, the Wright State game (ESPN2) and Homecoming vs. UIC should be fairly well attended, but no where near the good ol' days when Calihan was getting sold out.

[uwmfutbol]

DetTitan,

Good game tonight. The team did a good job getting revenge on the Panthers. Cotton and Bell were definitely stud transfers.

[DetTitan]

uwmfutbol said:

DetTitan,

Good game tonight. The team did a good job getting revenge on the Panthers. Cotton and Bell were definitely stud transfers.

Thanks, I guess I am disappointed that you got back into the game. I wish we would have stepped on the pedal and never let up. I thought we really looked good out of the gates. But to your guys credit, you hit some tough shots and kept within striking distance throughout the game. Man does Hanson have a quick release from deep....

That was probably Bell's best overall game. You can still see he is hampered and slowed from his achillies injuries. It's amazing he is even on the court after tearing his achillies twice.

Cotton wasn't at his best tonight. Something like 4-14. The past few games he was becoming very efficient. He was off tonight, but luckily guys like Jokic, Bell, and Goode were on.

What is your guys impression on Hayes. He can make some very tough shots over top of people. I know your play by play announcer was impressed by him last year in our meeting at your place. He has really progressed as this year has gone by. He will be someone to watch in the HL for the next several years IMO.

[ArtVandelay]

I think Hayes is going to become a very good Horizon League player. I didn't really come away with a lasting impression last year, but this years performances against UWM has given me a much better understanding of what type of player he will become. While he still doesn't have the strength to play a Coville type role his jumper from inside the arch is near impossible to stop once he has the ball. It seemed like every time he got the ball near the top of the key, or near the basket he would use his athleticism to jump and hit a mid-ranged jumper. Also he made some very impressive defensive plays with his hustle, and knack for blocking shots. Playing against Hayes made tonights game incredibly frustrating, and towards the end of the game it seemed like he would always answer when we scored.

While we didn't win tonight, I thought the game was a lot of fun to watch. Both teams seemed very evenly matched despite our lack of a Ryvon Coville type player and the game was a battle until the end. We are headed in the right direction, and I am feeling confident that we will be will be able to contend for a league championship next season. We have the guards now, and post players to help complement those already on the roster are on the way. Since other programs in our league now consider "UWM a joke" I'm starting to get the feeling that this team will be able to upset those that want to overlook us during the rest of the regular season, and on into the league tournament.

Losing is always painful, but I've seen so many good things coming from this team over the past few weeks that I can't help but be excited for the coming games and for next year. If we shoot like we did tonight, and put a stronger effort into rebounding and limiting turnovers we will blow UWGB out on Saturday. Impessive effort tonight, but just came up short...

Art Vandelay

[DetTitan]

I agree with you Costanza...

You have some excellent young talent that looks to be coming together. Torre Johnson could be a handful in the Horizon League...he better be prepared to hear chants like Rich McBride did though

I was impressed by Massiah. He has range on his jump shot, but he is also tall, fairly well built, and looks to have lots of athleticism. Hanson and Smith can really shoot the ball...at least they did last night. Jeter is too good a coach to let UWM fall into the likes of YSU and CSU. UWM will be back, and my hope is so will Detroit.

There was an article in the Detroit News about how our University realizes the commitment it must make into the Basketball program after our former AD (and now AD Emertius/head of fundrasing) Brad Kinsman toured UWM and Marquette's facilities and saw just how far behind we are. I mean, Marquette used to be our main rival...and now look at the gap...But it looks like the University admin are on board. There is also talk of bringing non-scholarship football to boost interest in the University. Don't know how that would work.

Here is the article.

www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070124/SPORTS02/701240344/1019

As far as your assessment of Hayes, I agree. He like Cotton (to quote Steve Hawkins of Western Michigan), "is a tough shot taker, and a tough shot maker."

When you watch him, he is spinning and turning around, firing jumpers over top guys that are right on him and you are like "oh no, what a bad shot, why on earth did he take that" and then boom, it goes in. He just needs to improve his Free Throws...2 FT's down the stretch that he missed kept it at a 2 point game and Smith was able to tie it. I'm just glad you guys didn't take a three...

[DetTitan]

holy smokes, I didn't realize Massiah was a senior. Nor did I realize Smith was a junior. I knew that Hansen was a junior and of course Paulsen being a transfer was also a junior. Didn't get a good look at guys like Swiggett or Franklin last night.

[Kingsbury]

Swiggett blew out his ACL in practice after the Loyola Game. As you can tell, UWM lacks a true point guard but makes due with Hanson, Franklin and Smith.

I was impressed with Hayes, Bell and even Cotton last night. I expected Cotton to be forcing shots up, but he played in control. I couldn't believe AR found his shot againt us , those were some deep 3's he made.

[DetTitan]

kingsbury said:

Swiggett blew out his ACL in practice after the Loyola Game. As you can tell, UWM lacks a true point guard but makes due with Hanson, Franklin and Smith.

I was impressed with Hayes, Bell and even Cotton last night. I expected Cotton to be forcing shots up, but he played in control. I couldn't believe AR found his shot againt us , those were some deep 3's he made.

I was equally surprised about Mo. Those three's were deep. But he shot them with confidence. It is about time we got production out of him, seeing as he is a senior and his brother is...or was...an NBA All-Star. Hopefully he comes on similar to how Ben Green finally showed up in the second half of his senior year last year. What a boost that would be. Mo also made a nice spin move inside for a 2 pointer. He has been riddled with injuries over his entire collegiate career, and no one really knew what kind of player he was...inside...outside...turns out it is really neither. So far he has just been an energy guy who can play defense.

I have to disagree on Cotton last night though, I thought he forced a lot of shots.
4-14 from the field. He has been hitting 20+ points with regularity over the past 4-5 games. And being very efficient while doing so. He was 9-16 vs. UIC, 8-17 vs. Loyola, both 22 point efforts. 10-19 for 27 points vs. Cleveland State. 7-15 for 18 points vs. YSU. But last night the other guys picked up the slack.

Too bad about Swiggett, you never like to hear about a guy getting an injury like that. Covile was able to recover from an ACL tear though, and look at him now.

In fact, there was an article about him and his comeback in the Detroit Free Press today.

www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070126/SPORTS08/701260442/1048/BUSINESS05

[uwmeasye]

UWM head coach Rob Jeter on the loss

"We just needed some breaks to happen and we just couldn't catch a break. These guys fought, they did everything they needed to do to help this team win, and we just needed as few breaks to happen and they didn't. That's just what happens sometimes. Sometimes things bounce your way and sometimes they don't, and it didn't bounce our way."

Jeter on the play to tie the game at the end of regulation

It's simple. We were going to put the ball in Avery's hands, set a ball screen and, if they help, maybe he can pitch it back. He did an unbelievable job drawing a little contact, getting past a guy, and finishing on the play."

Jeter on having just three players score in the first half

"We move the ball, in our offense, so that different opportunities are going to pop up for different guys, It just so happens that some guys didn't have as many opportunities. It's a team game and a team effort, and the fact that we were down and able to come back and we had different guys scoring, I think that shows more maturity from other guys that they were able to step up and make some shots."

Jeter on nearly pulling out an OT win on the road

"We want to win games. We didn't win the game so now we have to get back to the drawing board and get ourselves ready for the next opportunity."

Avery Smith on his game-tying shot

"Coach called a play to put the ball in my hands and I just took the ball screen, went toward the baseline and put it up."

Smith on UWM's improving play on the road





"I think every time we come out on the road we keep fighting. We're getting better. In this one, a couple of things didn't go our way so we just have to come into the game next time and play even harder and come away with the victory."