Game Preview and Thread: Cleary University

The Titans played 14 guys--everybody but Miles Mitchell--and spread the minutes around, with 9 players logging at least 13 minutes and 3 more reaching either 8 or 9 minutes played. Some guys most thought would be mainstays saw limited time: 3 minutes for Tchikou, 9 for both Hurst (all in the second half) and Geeter, who was not in the starting lineup. Coach played a lot of lineups. He may have just been trying to get some minutes against Cleary for guys who likely won't play much this year, or he may be still feeling out his rotation that deep into the roster. Or maybe a combination of both, or some minor disciplinary infraction cut someone's time. Tough to say. But all 14 players got at least one shot off, and 12 scored--the first official D-1 points for Okoro, Kalambay, Nadeau, Lary, Gondrezik, Fuchs, and Johnson.

The Titans got out smartly, scoring the first 7 points of the game and playing tough defense, but Coach starting liberally substituting less than 4 minutes into the game and Cleary battled back. They started trapping our guards out high and we had real trouble with that. Combined with a couple of defensive breakdowns, Cleary actually tied things up at 15 with 11 minutes left in the half. The Cougars' growing confidence showed in their body language and play, and I was thinking, "OMG, we could end up in a nail-biter with a bad NAIA team." But the Titans pulled themselves together and scored 7 straight, then, in fits and starts, pulled away to a 15 point lead. About to blow it entirely open, suddenly the Titans went 3 minutes without scoring late in the half, led by just 12 at the break, respectable but not dominant.

The second half was dominant, however. The Titans outscored Cleary 12-3 in the first 6 minutes and that was pretty much it. The final 7 minutes or so the teams reverted to playground ball that probably didn't benefit either team too much in preparing for the season, but may have been fun for the Titan players, anyway.

It was nice to see the Titans play man-to-man defense throughout the game. Despite some trouble early when Cleary was trapping the guards on the perimeter, the Titans finished with just 10 turnovers, not bad at all for early season play, and on the other side of the ball had 19 assists.

On an individual level, looking at the freshmen, Okoro started his official career with a double-double, 13 points and 10 rebounds in just 16 minutes, and keeping in mind that Cleary is a bad NAIA club, that's still a nice marker. Stephan was just too big and powerful for anyone Cleary had to guard him. Unfortunately, that won't be the case most of the year. Kalambay showed a couple of nice, quick moves around the basket. Nate Johnson doesn't dominate on the court, but as in the Wayne State exhibition, he put up a nice all around stat line (9 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, no turnovers, a perfect 4-4 from the stripe). He only took 5 shots, but looks like he has the ability to shoot from long range or drive. Nadeau didn't shoot well (2-8 overall, 1-4 from three), and he'll have to improve on that. Gondrezik totaled 5 assists (nice) and had some silly fouls (less nice).

For the others, Lovejoy logged a team high 25 minutes, shot well, and forced the pace of the game. Lary also forces the action, and his game borders on out-of-control, but he was still pretty effective. Manciel looked good on offense and shot 4-8 from the floor and a perfect 3-3 from the line, but he's got to improve on his defense--he was beaten badly more than once. Walk-on Peter Fuchs, whose name was spelled "Fucks" at one point in the game notes, entered the game for the final two minutes. He missed a three with about 30 seconds left, but grabbed his own rebound and scored for the Titans' final points of the game and his first points as a Division 1 player. He was clearly fired up, a nice punctuation point to the game.

It's tough to learn too much from a game against a team like Cleary, but overall I think it was good for the Titans to open with an easy win, spread some PT around, have some fun. Cleary's little first half run was probably a good reminder that this team has to play hard all the time, I was disappointed to see the team appear rather easily rattled for a bit, but that should improve with experience--again, it's a very young team playing a variety of lineups.

On another note, it seemed to me some little things were attended to that had frustrated me the last couple times I made the drive to Calihan. The place was cleaner; the students working the ticket booth seemed to know what they were doing; the pep band was there, along with full dance squad and cheerleaders. The atmosphere was generally just more fun than on my recent visits, about as lively as you could get with announced attendance of 977--which looked about right and is not the worst for w week night game against Cleary, though I was hoping we might get more for the season opener with a new coach. Calihan is dated--there's just no way around it--but it still has what it has always had--great sight lines and a noise amplifying effect. We just need a few more people to get out there and the atmosphere can be great.

Finally got to meet our forum member Terry Tyler Fan. Appreciate it.

Overall, while I'm sure Thursday's visit to Loyola will be a reality check, but at least for one night I felt good about the general direction of things.

I was surprised by the lack of playing time for Tchikou (3 minuets), Hurst (9 minuets) and Geeter (9 minuets) and the fact that none where in the starting line up.

The two Freshman that started (Okoro & Johnson) made solid contributions and from what I understand; they are both very committed to the game.