End of the season for UT men's b-ball team...still a fine season for them

The Rockets' men's basketball season ended with a crashing thud on Saturday, like having someone drop a piano on your head from 10 stories. Perhaps it was good for only 1,300 fans show up to see the loss. UT was never in the game from the opening tip, starting the game with a 16-0 deficit they could never overcome. The Rockets were just simply whipped by a Robert Morris team apparently a lot better than figured. No complaints, though. UT sowed vast improvement and will contend for winning the MAC West next year and maybe the MAC tournament.

Robert Morris is from the Northeast Conference, the same one that produced Long Island University-Brooklyn, Michigan State’s first NCAA opponent. RM was 13-5 in the conference and is now 26-10 overall. I’d have to say the MAC is better overall than the Northeast group, one of the few conferences in the country that the MAC is slightly above in talent and overall competition. And by that I mean the top 4 MAC East teams provide the logic for that opinion — Ohio U., Akron, Kent State and Buffalo. 

The MAC rep to the NCAA, Ohio U., is doing what I expected of them. I have them in the Sweet 16 in some of my brackets. By the way, those brackets were destroyed by Lehigh, who obliterated everyone’s bracket when they beat Duke, and Norfolk State, who respelled Missouri to be M-i-s-e-r-y. Well maybe not everyone’s bracket. I’ll bet 12 Lehigh fans took them over Coach K’s vastly overrated bunch of duds. Ditto for Norfolk State fans.

Regarding the 13-seed Bobcats, these kids took care of highly overseeded #4 Michigan and South Florida as I expected with good defense. They kept possible U of M-evacuee-for-the-NBA Trey Burke under wraps until the last few minutes and forced a lot of bad shots from the other Wolverines who had trouble finding the circular hoop with their GPS systems. Michigan could never catch fire against OU. South Florida simply squandered a nice lead to them, as the Bobcats kept the defensive pressure on the Bulls until Cooper, Offutt and Kellogg could catch them. Too bad for OU that North Carolina is their next opponent. The fun will end with the Tar Heels tarring the Bobcats with a double-digit defeat.

Meanwhile, the UT gals have rolled on to three easy wins over Detroit, Cincinnati and Virginia Commonwealth in the WNIT. A repeat as WNIT champs is looking good. Go Rockets!

Tough week for the Rockets in Cleveland

The Rockets’ week in Cleveland for the MAC tournament ended as they always do — disappointing. The guys were not expected to win, so nothing lost, nothing gained there. Eventual MAC tournament winner Ohio U. took care of them with a strong second half to send them home with an 18-16 overall record. The TU women fared poorly, too, losing again to Eastern Michigan in the semifinal round. The Rockets lost to the Eagles last year in the title game.

The MAC East continues to dominate the tournament. Own may be a better description of their hold on the tournament. The East side of the league hasn’t lost the tournament since 2004 when Western Michigan won it. UT hasn’t won it since 1980, the first year of the tournament. That’s when the Rockets won it on U of Michigan’s campus. The Rockets have had great success playing in Michigan’s venues, as we know. But UT's been coming up empty in the men’s tournament since then for the past 32 years. Next year ought to be better for them overall and in the tournament, as the Rocket men return every player from this year’s much-improved team. Winning the MAC West is very doable; in fact, I think the Rockets will be picked to win it. After that, though, the power side of the conference stands in the way of them winning the tournament and the MAC’s only berth in the NCAA.

The same can be said for UT's girls. They lose two senior starters, but Naama Shafir returns for her senior season and hopefully a much healthier one. She’s a damn good player and a terrific person who represents the university well. Hopefully the gals can put it together and make to the NCAA next year instead of the WNIT. It’s nice to win the WNIT as they did last year, but it means you’re only the 65th best team in the country.

The men got a consolation prize, only because the 32-team CollegeInsider.com tournament exists. UT, BG and Kent State are representing the MAC in this roundball fest of also-ran schools from college basketball’s low-hanging fruit conferences. The Rockets beat McNeese State, the Southland Conference runner-up, in the tournament opener and will play Robert Morris on Saturday afternoon in friendly Savage Arena. Like the far-too-many bowl games that invite mediocrities, this tournament is pretty much in that vein. But if the Rockets bring home the tournament hardware, I guess it’s worth their time playing in it. Other than that, it’s not much to brag about to anyone that you’re the 100th best men’s college basketball team in the country. I know as a UT alum I should be more excited but it's not like the Rockets are playing in the best one of all the tournaments, the NCAA.

UT’s ladies get the chance to defend their WNIT title, starting Friday night against the University of Detroit at Savage Arena.  Here's to the Rocket ladies repeating as WNIT champs, and the Rocket men winning the CIT!

Rocket men get a home game in MAC basketball tournament

The Rockets are on track to do what we never thought they would do this year: finish above .500 overall and make a run at the MAC West title, and maybe even the MAC tournament title. The last one in the previous sentence is very unlikely, because the best teams in the MAC are in the East: Akron, Ohio U., Kent State and Buffalo. Getting past them and winning the MAC tournament won’t happen until next year or 2014, but the Rockets have made substantial progress this year that cannot be denied.

Their victory over Western Michigan on Saturday was great, and I hope I am not jinxing them by saying this: It may have been their best game of the season. Not because they shot 48% from the field and 77% free-throw line, played tough defense on a Bronco team that whacked them last month in Kalamazoo, or showed guts that heretofore were not visible. The reason they won the game was buried in the daily newspaper's account. Turnovers, specifically, only 5 of them. TU gave the Broncos only five extra chances to score. Usually, the Rockets give every team they play at least 14 extra opportunities for points. In the dark ages of the past four years, the Rockets were always giving their opposition 20 or more extra chances to score. That’s the improvement they need to win. Ball-handling is the most important part of the game next to knocking down shots. Don’t give the other team any more chances to score than they deserve. Not to downplay good defense, but defense is usually takes care of itself when you limit the other team’s possessions.

Unfortunatley for the Rockets, they won't finish 8-8 in the West. They kicked away a sure win against an inferior Northern Illinois team on Wednesday in DeKalb and a chance to tie Eastern Michigan for the West title. A 7-9 record will still give the Rockets a home game to start the MAC tournament next Monday, which could be against Miami or Ball State. No matter who it is, the Rockets ought to win that game. The top four seeds getting byes will be all from the East: Akron, Ohio U., Kent State and Buffalo. Seeding is done by winning percentage, regardless of division first-place finishes.

The UT play their first MAC tournament game in Cleveland, skipping home court.

Good luck to the UT men and women in the MAC Tournament. Go Rockets!