Rockets men's basketball team getting hot at the right time

The Rockets bounced back after losing to BG to win two more games on the road. UT picked up a key MAC win over floundering Ball State in Muncie, a place I gave them no chance to be victorious. The Cards went into the UT game as the loser of their last seven MAC games, six of them against the much-better Eastern side of the conference. That solid victory was followed by a close one against sorry-assed Sam Houston State, but since it was on the SHS court, it’s a good win for the Rockets. Defense played a key part in both triumphs for the good guys.

The possibilities grow for the Rockets to have a successful season after all, something we did not think would happen back in late November. UT finishes with two of the final three MAC games at home. All of the final conference games are against the lousy West side of the MAC. The Rockets end with two of the directional Michigans at home (Western and division leading Eastern) with a trip to DeKalb thrown in. All three are very winnable and that would give the Rockets an 8-8 record in the MAC West wasteland, and an above .500 record overall, and a good chance at a home game to open the MAC tournament.

I tip my hat to Coach Tod Kowalcyzk and his staff for getting his players to show improvement throughout the season. The climb out of the abyss and dungeon that the Rockets were in for the previous four seasons in men’s basketball is finally starting to happen. But, like Tim Beckman, I wonder how long it will take for other schools with losing programs to court Kowalczyk if he turns UT into a MAC championship team.

The Rocket men have not yet approached the success of the UT girls. That will take more time, if not next year, then definitely in 2014 when the majority of the current players will be seniors and juniors. The Rockets need to contend for the West and the MAC title overall, something the women do without giving it a second thought. The Rocket women are ingrained and conditioned to win now. Their coach came in a few years ago and turned a losing program into a winner. The only thing missing from the lady Rockets’ resume is a MAC title and trip to the NCAA. Hopefully that will come sometime next month in Cleveland.

UT and BG on the basketball court

The MAC schedule maker came up with a dream basketball day for the Rockets and Falcons by pitting both men’s and women’s teams to face each other on Saturday. That turned out to be a stroke of genius to keep the rivalry fires burning for another year. I hope the MAC does the same thing next year and in years to come. The women played at TU at noon and the men were down at BG at 4 p.m. Coupled with a day of good driving weather, that scheduling enabled some fans from both schools to go to both games.

It was a day full of blowing big double-digit leads. In both games, the road team held a 13-point lead only to blow it at the end. The Falcon girls actually had a 14-point lead with just under 3 minutes to go in the first half, and the halftime margin was 13. Then the Rocket gals got their game going and won 53-50. BG’s coach whined about not getting off a good shot at the end of the game. He should have been mad at his team and himself for blowing the big lead on the Rockets’ floor in the first place. If they had played better in the second half, the last 30 seconds would have been a held ball for the Falcons and a big win for them on the road.

The Rocket men did the same thing as the BG ladies — blew a big lead. In a very rare game for them, TU knocked down 12 of 19 three-pointers, but they continued to turn over the ball in key situations with mind-strangling frequency. The Rockets have one senior on the team, who rarely plays. And BG does have two or three on the floor most of the time. Still, the freshmen, sophomores and juniors on Bancroft Street are experienced enough by now to control the ball. That’s one of their problems, besides not having enough talent. How many times are they going to wilt under pressure, especially on the road, before they finally get it? Their win over Ohio U. was a good victory for them. They held onto a late lead after overcoming a deficit. But that was at home, and the Rockets play better on Bancroft Street than anywhere else.