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Post by motorcitysam on Jan 4, 2023 2:00:40 GMT -5
On this date, January 3, in 2013, the Titans welcomed the Milwauke Panthers to historic Calihan Hall, and came away with a clear 74-59 victory. The win made it 16 straight home wins for the Titans, along with their six straight HL win, dating back to the previous season. Five Titans scored in double figures, led by Ray and Jason with 13 each. Howard didn't reach double figures, but he had 8 boards and 4 assists. Ball movement was key, as the Titans had 20 assists on 27 made field goals.
The Titans also raised their 2012 NCAA tournament banner on this night. Attendance, unfortunately, was only 2315, as the Titans improved to 9-5.
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Post by Commissioner on Jan 4, 2023 15:25:20 GMT -5
On this date, January 3, in 2013, ... The Titans also raised their 2012 NCAA tournament banner on this night. Attendance, unfortunately, was only 2315, as the Titans improved to 9-5. Only 2315? Today we'd call that a packed house!
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Post by motorcitysam on Jan 4, 2023 16:18:54 GMT -5
On this date, January 3, in 2013, ... The Titans also raised their 2012 NCAA tournament banner on this night. Attendance, unfortunately, was only 2315, as the Titans improved to 9-5. Only 2315? Today we'd call that a packed house! We sure would. Times have changed. I wished we would have had more fans there for the banner raising, and I wish we would have had more butts in the seats for AD's career, too. I was disappointed that making the NCAA tournament in 2012 and brining back Young Ray and other contributors didn't result in greater fan interest right from the start of the 2012-13 season.
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Post by motorcitysam on Jan 5, 2023 21:11:11 GMT -5
On this date, January 5, in 2013, the Titans continued their strong play at home with an 84-76 win over Green Bay. Once again, the Titan starters scored all the Detroit points, led by Ray with 26 and Jason with 20. The Titans did not shoot the ball well from the floor, but hit an incredible 38-42 from the charity stripe. The Titans also took good care of the ball, turning it over six times. An annouced crowd of 3015 showed up to see the Titans improve to 10-5, 2-0. Ray moved into 20th place on the Titans all time scoring list. Highlights below: detroittitans.com/news/2013/1/5/MBB_0105134308.aspx
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Post by motorcitysam on Jan 10, 2023 22:08:51 GMT -5
On this date, January 10, in 2013, the Titans absolutely blitzed the Youngstown State Penguins, 101-60. It was Detroit's biggest margin of the season. The game had a back and forth start, and the Penguins led by 1 midway through the first half. A 25-2 run from that point put the Titans in control for good. Every active player on the roster scored, with Calliste leading the way with 27. Off the bench, Evan had 17 points and PJ Boutte had seven assists. The Titans won the battle of the boards 46-31. It was a dominating performance.
The game was marred by an incident in the handshake line at the end of the game when Penguins coach Jerry Slocum, actually in the midst of his only winning season at YSU, confronted Coach Ray. Slocum was apparently angry about a lay up that Titan back up Gabe Dos Santos made with about ten seconds left. Apparently Slocum thought that was running up the score. Coach Ray was classy about it and basically ignored Slocum, but Ray Jr. quickly stepped to his Dad's defense. Nothing came from it, other than Slocum whining in the post game press conference. I remember there was some debate on the old board as to whether or not Dos Santos should have pulled the ball out instead of shooting. My feelings are the same now as they were then: There was nothing wrong with Gabe taking that shot and Slocum acted like a jerk.
After losing three in a row earlier in the season, the Titans had won 9 of 10 to improve to 11-5, 3-0 in conference play. The road trip would continue to Cleveland.
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Post by motorcitysam on Jan 12, 2023 17:54:31 GMT -5
On this date, January 12, 2013, the Titans traveled to Cleveland State to take on the Vikings. CSU jumped ahead early, took a lead of eight at the half, and pretty much stayed in control after the break. The lead got as big as 16 at one point, leading to a final score of 74-62, ending Detroit's five game winning streak.
It was a weird game offensively. The Titans shot 3-18 from three and 13-32 from the free throw line.
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Post by rc on Jan 16, 2023 18:02:47 GMT -5
I’m glad commissioner told us about this thread, it is awesome. I totally forgot about this team and that season. If anything I would have guessed we were in the NIT the season before the NCAA and not the year after. That team had some great shooters. It’s so sad to think about the affair and how that ultimately cost Ray his job. He recruited well for Detroit and was a good spokesman for the program. Thanks again MCSam for allowing us to relive the “glory” days, our 7th and last NIT team (I was just wondering about how many tournament teams we’ve had in our history and how many games we won once we got in).
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Post by motorcitysam on Jan 17, 2023 20:56:46 GMT -5
I’m glad commissioner told us about this thread, it is awesome. I totally forgot about this team and that season. If anything I would have guessed we were in the NIT the season before the NCAA and not the year after. That team had some great shooters. It’s so sad to think about the affair and how that ultimately cost Ray his job. He recruited well for Detroit and was a good spokesman for the program. Thanks again MCSam for allowing us to relive the “glory” days, our 7th and last NIT team (I was just wondering about how many tournament teams we’ve had in our history and how many games we won once we got in). According to Wikipedia (which I believe is correct in this instance) the Titans have appeared in the NIT seven times with a combined record of 5-8. The highlight, of course, being the 2001 NIT Final Four. The Titans have made the NCAA tournament six times, with a record of 3-6. Our victimes have included Middle Tennessee State in 1977, St. John's in 1998, and Ohio State in 1999. Edit: UCLA in 1999, not Ohio State.
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Post by Rogobob77 on Jan 17, 2023 21:07:13 GMT -5
I’m glad commissioner told us about this thread, it is awesome. I totally forgot about this team and that season. If anything I would have guessed we were in the NIT the season before the NCAA and not the year after. That team had some great shooters. It’s so sad to think about the affair and how that ultimately cost Ray his job. He recruited well for Detroit and was a good spokesman for the program. Thanks again MCSam for allowing us to relive the “glory” days, our 7th and last NIT team (I was just wondering about how many tournament teams we’ve had in our history and how many games we won once we got in). According to Wikipedia (which I believe is correct in this instance) the Titans have appeared in the NIT seven times with a combined record of 5-8. The highlight, of course, being the 2001 NIT Final Four. The Titans have made the NCAA tournament six times, with a record of 3-6. Our victimes have included Middle Tennessee State in 1977, St. John's in 1998, and Ohio State in 1999. We beat UCLA in 1999, then lost in the second round to Ohio State.
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Post by motorcitysam on Jan 17, 2023 21:18:06 GMT -5
On this date, January 17, in 2013, the Titans took on Valparaiso and lost a heartbreaker, 89-88 at Calihan Hall. I remember this game clearly. I wasn't there; I was on a business trip in San Francisco. I was following the game online and getting intermittent score updates. The Titans played an almost perfect first half but the second half was a completely different story. After leading 50-32 at the break, the Titans were outscored 57-38 in the second half. Nick had a super effort, scoring 36 points in 33 minutes. Doug scored 17. In a totally atypical McCallum game, Ray struggled, scoring six points while shooting 2-11, and 2-5 from the free throw line. He did have 7 rebounds, 8 assists, and 2 blocks. The loss broke the Titans 17 game home winning streak.
This game broke my heart. My emotions went from super happy to super depressed, and put a damper on my trip to San Francisco.
The game was played in front of a crowd of 3418. We would be really happy with that turnout these days, but I remember thinking that we should have had a bigger crowd for such a big game, particularly coming off an NCAA tournament trip.
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Post by motorcitysam on Jan 17, 2023 21:19:02 GMT -5
According to Wikipedia (which I believe is correct in this instance) the Titans have appeared in the NIT seven times with a combined record of 5-8. The highlight, of course, being the 2001 NIT Final Four. The Titans have made the NCAA tournament six times, with a record of 3-6. Our victimes have included Middle Tennessee State in 1977, St. John's in 1998, and Ohio State in 1999. We beat UCLA in 1999, then lost in the second round to Ohio State. I ALWAYS get those mixed up. I have no idea why. Thanks.
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Post by udballer on Jan 17, 2023 21:53:06 GMT -5
We beat UCLA in 1999, then lost in the second round to Ohio State. I ALWAYS get those mixed up. I have no idea why. Thanks. I'm not sure why either, Sam. It was the only game I ever rooted against the Buckeyes. Unfortunately, Scoonie Penn and Michael Redd laid the wood to us that day. Redd was a stud... including with the Bucks until injuries set in.
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Post by Commissioner on Jan 18, 2023 1:05:53 GMT -5
I’m glad commissioner told us about this thread, it is awesome. I totally forgot about this team and that season. If anything I would have guessed we were in the NIT the season before the NCAA and not the year after. That team had some great shooters. It’s so sad to think about the affair and how that ultimately cost Ray his job. He recruited well for Detroit and was a good spokesman for the program. Thanks again MCSam for allowing us to relive the “glory” days, our 7th and last NIT team (I was just wondering about how many tournament teams we’ve had in our history and how many games we won once we got in). According to Wikipedia (which I believe is correct in this instance) the Titans have appeared in the NIT seven times with a combined record of 5-8. The highlight, of course, being the 2001 NIT Final Four. The Titans have made the NCAA tournament six times, with a record of 3-6. Our victimes have included Middle Tennessee State in 1977, St. John's in 1998, and Ohio State in 1999. Edit: UCLA in 1999, not Ohio State. If memory serves, at least twice in the early 1960s--definitely at least once--the Titans turned down the NCAA for the NIT.
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Post by motorcitysam on Jan 25, 2023 15:57:24 GMT -5
On January 19, 2013, the Titans bounced by from the disappointing loss to the Crusaders by CRUSHING UIC 98-47. Crazy game, because the Flames weren't terrible, having come in with 11 wins against 8 losses.
A Homecoming crowd of 4,863 (!) was treated to a dominating Titan performance from the opening tip, and Detroit led 53-14 at the half. Ray was the leader, putting up 25 points on 10-12 shooting. He also had 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals, and a block. Ray was a collegiate super star who contributed in a wide variety of ways. PJ Boute had six assists in only 16 minutes. Big O Solanke hit on a couple of free throws in the final minute of play, meaning everyone on the active roster scored in this game.
Thinking of this game brings two things to mind:
One, this was a dominating performance, but not unusual for the Titans during those McCallum years. I can think of several home games resulting in blowout wins in league play.
Two, I will always feel that PJ made a mistake transferring after the 2012-13 season. I think both he and the Titans could have been helped if he had decided to stay. I am sure he was probably frustrated by his limited playing time in his final year with Detroit, but he announced his intention to transfer shortly after Ray announced he was going pro. There was definitely an opportunity for PJ here, and I believe he would have played well for the rest of his Titan career. Those teams needed a point guard capable of distributing the ball to a talented offensive group of Titans, and PJ would have capably filled that role. As it turned out, PJ transferred to IUPUI (where he sat out a year; remember when guys used to do that) and had a non-descript season for the Jags before leaving after that season to play the most productive season of his career at The Citadel, where he put up a solid 8 points, 6 assists per game.
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Post by motorcitysam on Jan 26, 2023 22:27:49 GMT -5
On January 21, 2013, the Titans fell to Wright State, 64-62. The Raiders came into the game 13-5, 4-1, and as they sometimes did, they managed to slow down the Titans and make it a half court game. It was a tough home court loss for the good guys, with a last minute shot coming up just short. Doug had an excellent game, putting up 20 and 6, but Ray, Nick, and Jason combined to shoot only 7-27. Only 2115 fans turned out for the game, a big disappointment after almost 5,000 showed up for homecoming. Highlights, including Doug's high wire act, are in the link below. detroittitans.com/news/2013/1/21/MBB_0121131346.aspx
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