Yes I have a problem, waiting to see if they post a total might play the under, but leaning towards Brown +5.5, anyone else have any thoughts? :shrug:
Early Game Thoughts? EMU/Brown
- Thread starter c20916
- Start date
M. hoops hopes for more of the same, except for record
The Brown men's basketball team will have a familiar look this season.
Four starters are returning. Head Coach Craig Robinson will be running the same offense. The one thing the team hopes to change is last year's 11-18 record (6-8 Ivy League) - something the team, which kicks off its season at noon today at Eastern Michigan University, is optimistic it can do.
"We really haven't changed anything," said shooting guard Mark McAndrew '08, one of the team's three captains. "We've haven't recreated it. We've just built off what we established last year under Coach Robinson and just reapplied it this year."
Robinson said in an interview last month that he feels much more organized in his second season at Brown. Besides holding practices at 5 a.m. this season - the team mainly had afternoon practices last year - he's trying to keep things the same as before so players can know what to expect.
"By the end of last year, we started figuring out what we were doing," Robinson said. "The team got comfortable running the offense."
With the return of most of its starting lineup, including the All-Ivy backcourt of McAndrew and point guard Damon Huffman '08, and with perennial powerhouses Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania in something of a rebuilding mode, this may be the Bears' best chance to win the Ivy League title in recent history. McAndrew said he felt some added pressure coming into this season.
"I've always felt a sense of urgency every day," McAndrew said, "but there's even more so as a senior. It's really your last go around. Everything you've worked for since you were four or five years old ... is now going into this one season. We're not LeBron James or Steve Nash, and we're not probably not going to make it to the NBA, so it means a lot."
For now, the Bears are tempering their optimism. Though Robinson and McAndrew said their stated goal is to win the Ivy League title, both said that the team still has a long way to go before that becomes a realistic possibility.
Robinson said he'll rely heavily on his starters and returning players at the beginning of the season as he tries to figure how good his seven freshmen are. But he'll get his first chance to test them out this weekend, as the Bears will play Eastern Michigan of the Mid-American Conference, and then the University of Michigan on Sunday.
Both teams will have bigger and more heavily recruited rosters than the Bears, but Robinson said his goal is winning.
"And if you can't win the game, you want to be a close game, when you're playing bigger games in big conferences," he said.
McAndrew was a bit more blunt about his expectations for the team this weekend.
"To face that kind of athleticism and talent early in the year is really good for us to see who we really are," he said. "We're going on this trip to win both games. And that's the bottom line."
The Brown men's basketball team will have a familiar look this season.
Four starters are returning. Head Coach Craig Robinson will be running the same offense. The one thing the team hopes to change is last year's 11-18 record (6-8 Ivy League) - something the team, which kicks off its season at noon today at Eastern Michigan University, is optimistic it can do.
"We really haven't changed anything," said shooting guard Mark McAndrew '08, one of the team's three captains. "We've haven't recreated it. We've just built off what we established last year under Coach Robinson and just reapplied it this year."
Robinson said in an interview last month that he feels much more organized in his second season at Brown. Besides holding practices at 5 a.m. this season - the team mainly had afternoon practices last year - he's trying to keep things the same as before so players can know what to expect.
"By the end of last year, we started figuring out what we were doing," Robinson said. "The team got comfortable running the offense."
With the return of most of its starting lineup, including the All-Ivy backcourt of McAndrew and point guard Damon Huffman '08, and with perennial powerhouses Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania in something of a rebuilding mode, this may be the Bears' best chance to win the Ivy League title in recent history. McAndrew said he felt some added pressure coming into this season.
"I've always felt a sense of urgency every day," McAndrew said, "but there's even more so as a senior. It's really your last go around. Everything you've worked for since you were four or five years old ... is now going into this one season. We're not LeBron James or Steve Nash, and we're not probably not going to make it to the NBA, so it means a lot."
For now, the Bears are tempering their optimism. Though Robinson and McAndrew said their stated goal is to win the Ivy League title, both said that the team still has a long way to go before that becomes a realistic possibility.
Robinson said he'll rely heavily on his starters and returning players at the beginning of the season as he tries to figure how good his seven freshmen are. But he'll get his first chance to test them out this weekend, as the Bears will play Eastern Michigan of the Mid-American Conference, and then the University of Michigan on Sunday.
Both teams will have bigger and more heavily recruited rosters than the Bears, but Robinson said his goal is winning.
"And if you can't win the game, you want to be a close game, when you're playing bigger games in big conferences," he said.
McAndrew was a bit more blunt about his expectations for the team this weekend.
"To face that kind of athleticism and talent early in the year is really good for us to see who we really are," he said. "We're going on this trip to win both games. And that's the bottom line."
Back from injury, Medlock starts anew
EMU junior ready to take back the reins at point guard
In Carlos Medlock's world, there is no room for hypotheticals.
Long gone are the days when the Eastern Michigan University junior point guard viewed last season as a series of what ifs, what could have beens, and if onlys.
It's all forgotten. The 12 games he missed with a broken right foot. The stretch of five Mid-American Conference games following Medlock's injury that produced four losses. The 12-point, second-round MAC tournament loss to top-seeded Toledo that came on the heels of Eastern's first tournament win in eight years. None of that matters now as Medlock enters his third season as the Eagles' floor leader, prepared to take the next step after seeing his sophomore year end prematurely.
"Once we got to preparing to this season, everything in my mindset about last year was all gone,'' Medlock said.
"I'm just focused on doing better this year.''
Before sustaining the foot injury, Medlock had started every game of his Eastern Michigan career as the starting point guard. Now, he begins the new season in just that manner.
Brand new.
As difficult as he found watching his team finish the season without him, Medlock grew, suddenly seeing the game from a new perspective.
He watched as things on the floor developed without him, mentally taking images he could use when he did return. He used his time off to watch film, concentrating on his game and breaking down aspects of how he played that needed improvement. Chief among them was patience.
For some time, Eastern coach Charles Ramsey had pleaded with Medlock to stop rushing and to take a calmer approach to running the Eagles' offense. Medlock, however, couldn't see it, maintaining that he was playing with a style that he used to become one of the league's top point guards.
"When you're out there playing, you're just so hyped,'' Medlock said. "You're into the game, and so you don't see those things.'' But in film study, Medlock instantly saw what Ramsey was saying, coming to the realization that he didn't have to sacrifice productivity by simply slowing down. Together, player and coach pored over game films, studying scenarios if Medlock displayed a little more patience, the outcome could have been better.
And throughout the instruction, Ramsey used a simple principle to drive his point home.
"Be in a hurry, but don't rush,'' Ramsey would tell Medlock.
Medlock, who led Eastern in scoring with 13.2 points per game last season, now returns to his role with a renewed sense of pace. He realizes that he can be more effective as a floor leader if he remains patient rather than trying to make too much happen all at once.
With patience, Ramsey believes, Medlock's turnover-to-assist margin will change significantly, putting the 6-foot guard in a better position to make better decisions. And out of better decision-making will come a smoother offense, which, in turn, will lend itself to Medlock seeing improvement in his own game.
Medlock, who is not yet at 100 percent nearly 10 months after breaking his foot, now translates the film study to his approach to the court.
Watching the game go on without him also provided Medlock with a better working knowledge of the game that he uses to bring younger players along.
It's a role Medlock is quickly becoming more comfortable with, taking the next step in his development as a player. And moving forward is just the next step for a player whom much has always been asked from since the day he arrived at Eastern. But Medlock doesn't regret the approach Ramsey took with him from the start.
"If coach didn't throw me to the wolves the way he did, I wouldn't be the player I am now,'' said Medlock, who scored eight points in 19 minutes in Eastern's recent exhibition win over Northwood. "He told me from Day 1 he was going to put me in, and he was going to surround everything around me.''
And while Ramsey says he didn't have any other choice but to use Medlock in that fashion, he believes the dividends of his decision are starting to pay off in the form of an experienced guard well-versed in what he demands.
"He had to grow up overnight - he didn't have a lot of help, and he just had to sink or swim,'' Ramsey said. "Now, he's mentally tough. Not only was he thrown in, but he thrived.''
EMU junior ready to take back the reins at point guard
In Carlos Medlock's world, there is no room for hypotheticals.
Long gone are the days when the Eastern Michigan University junior point guard viewed last season as a series of what ifs, what could have beens, and if onlys.
It's all forgotten. The 12 games he missed with a broken right foot. The stretch of five Mid-American Conference games following Medlock's injury that produced four losses. The 12-point, second-round MAC tournament loss to top-seeded Toledo that came on the heels of Eastern's first tournament win in eight years. None of that matters now as Medlock enters his third season as the Eagles' floor leader, prepared to take the next step after seeing his sophomore year end prematurely.
"Once we got to preparing to this season, everything in my mindset about last year was all gone,'' Medlock said.
"I'm just focused on doing better this year.''
Before sustaining the foot injury, Medlock had started every game of his Eastern Michigan career as the starting point guard. Now, he begins the new season in just that manner.
Brand new.
As difficult as he found watching his team finish the season without him, Medlock grew, suddenly seeing the game from a new perspective.
He watched as things on the floor developed without him, mentally taking images he could use when he did return. He used his time off to watch film, concentrating on his game and breaking down aspects of how he played that needed improvement. Chief among them was patience.
For some time, Eastern coach Charles Ramsey had pleaded with Medlock to stop rushing and to take a calmer approach to running the Eagles' offense. Medlock, however, couldn't see it, maintaining that he was playing with a style that he used to become one of the league's top point guards.
"When you're out there playing, you're just so hyped,'' Medlock said. "You're into the game, and so you don't see those things.'' But in film study, Medlock instantly saw what Ramsey was saying, coming to the realization that he didn't have to sacrifice productivity by simply slowing down. Together, player and coach pored over game films, studying scenarios if Medlock displayed a little more patience, the outcome could have been better.
And throughout the instruction, Ramsey used a simple principle to drive his point home.
"Be in a hurry, but don't rush,'' Ramsey would tell Medlock.
Medlock, who led Eastern in scoring with 13.2 points per game last season, now returns to his role with a renewed sense of pace. He realizes that he can be more effective as a floor leader if he remains patient rather than trying to make too much happen all at once.
With patience, Ramsey believes, Medlock's turnover-to-assist margin will change significantly, putting the 6-foot guard in a better position to make better decisions. And out of better decision-making will come a smoother offense, which, in turn, will lend itself to Medlock seeing improvement in his own game.
Medlock, who is not yet at 100 percent nearly 10 months after breaking his foot, now translates the film study to his approach to the court.
Watching the game go on without him also provided Medlock with a better working knowledge of the game that he uses to bring younger players along.
It's a role Medlock is quickly becoming more comfortable with, taking the next step in his development as a player. And moving forward is just the next step for a player whom much has always been asked from since the day he arrived at Eastern. But Medlock doesn't regret the approach Ramsey took with him from the start.
"If coach didn't throw me to the wolves the way he did, I wouldn't be the player I am now,'' said Medlock, who scored eight points in 19 minutes in Eastern's recent exhibition win over Northwood. "He told me from Day 1 he was going to put me in, and he was going to surround everything around me.''
And while Ramsey says he didn't have any other choice but to use Medlock in that fashion, he believes the dividends of his decision are starting to pay off in the form of an experienced guard well-versed in what he demands.
"He had to grow up overnight - he didn't have a lot of help, and he just had to sink or swim,'' Ramsey said. "Now, he's mentally tough. Not only was he thrown in, but he thrived.''
Thanks IE,
They posted a total of 129.5, I am going to leave that alone, and just go with the Ivy league in this one.
Brown +5.5 2 units.
They posted a total of 129.5, I am going to leave that alone, and just go with the Ivy league in this one.
Brown +5.5 2 units.
