Good to know. The radio broadcast definitely doesn't pick up the individual fan as much. There has to be something they can do--whether it be using a different mic that doesn't pic up background noise or moving the broadcasters. I am not exaggerating. My wife walked in the room while the game was going on right when there was a foul on CSU and you heard this student clear as day "ARE YOU KIDDING ME COME ON WHAT". My wife said it sounded like she was the only person in the arena. It is really bad. Unprofessional.

On the game itself, lots of positives.

-The team is immensely talented. Chuck Love may be the best freshman we have had since....I don't even know. He looks like the real deal. Good size, great shooting stroke and even plays tough defense (which has been a knock for a lot of freshmen last few years).

-Tavarez is going to have some monster games for us. He seems like one of those guys that when he is 'feeling it', he will get the absolute green light and stroke it from anywhere. His +/- was +26, which is wild for a game that we only won by 1.

-Free throw shooting was a very respectable 19-25. Rubin shooting 4-4 was great to see. Didn't like that we missed a few key FTs down the stretch though (Richardson going 0-2 at the 5 minute mark and then Houinsou missing front end of a 1-and-1 right after, both in the midst of CSU's run.

-Speaking of CSU's run, I wish Drew would have called a timeout and got Miles back on the floor. An 11-0 run by CSU without using a timeout sucked.

-Going to need a good defensive breakdown. What went wrong? CSU shot the ball well from mid-range and put up a crazy 21-23 from the FT line. But overall, their FG% was 43.8% and 3PT% was 36.7%--neither are bad but also not worthy of 88 points. Did we just get sped up? It seems like they had a ton of uncontested looks, in addition to hitting some really tough shots. 88 points to a Horizon team consisting of 15 newcomers isn't a great sign.

-Turnovers were limited to 7. Love to see that. Moore led the team with 3 but that's expected from a PG.

-Speaking of Moore, he had a really rough start to the game. Some dumb fouls. Some missed layups. But thought he settled decently and played well the last few minutes. Think we all expected better from him after his scrimmage showing. I think he just has to get back up to game speed.

-Interested to see how minutes shake out when Rubin is off the court. Richardson is the obvious backup center, but I am afraid his game will be too slow for the A10. From what little I've seen of him, I am not sure how he will be able to guard some of the quicker, more athletic big men in the league.

-Very limited minutes for Glazkov. Wonder what his role will be on this team. Has Love already passed him up on the depth chart? Also no Anderson or Brayden Young. Wonder if Anderson will redshirt and Young just isn't ready yet.

Feels like every year they try out the uptempo thing, and it never works. I think that plus the terrible rebounding is why we couldn't get any consistent stops, outside of maybe an 8 minute stretch in the early second half. I'm not sure what exactly was going with the defense, but got caught flat-footed off ball screens and gave up a lot of easy looks from deep.

They'll need to figure it out quick, or else this North Texas/Wichita St/Colorado St stretch could be Diamondhead disaster pt 2.

Defense was better in the second half once they basically glued Harris and Danil to the bench. I think they found their 10 man rotation after that and things looked better.

Offense looked great — no notes there.

Re: defense/rebounding. A couple of things.
1. I thought Glazkov struggled and seems like he will be replaced by Love in the rotation.
2. Houinsou was uncharacteristically out of position a few times. Not worried about that long-term, obviously.
3. First half we tried the full court press and just did not execute well. Guys were out of position everywhere. Second half we backed off and I think it got better (they just consistently made some ridiculous midranges and deep 3s when they went on their run — frustrating but those tend to be the type of shots you’ll live with).
4. No idea how long Amos will be out for, but he seems like a piece that will help significantly with defense and rebounding given his size/athleticism. Could see him either starting or having a huge backup role at the 4 and even some 5 if we aren’t comfortable with the Richardson minutes.

All in all, for a buzzer beating win over a Horizon league team, I feel about as good as you possibly could. Offense looks great, and defense is something this staff has proven it can coach. Just have to lock in quickly — cannot have any of the inexcusable non-con resume tanking losses we’ve had the last couple of years

That was some fun! Second half mostly. First half was completely disengaged and out of it.

First, massive appreciation for Cleveland State and for giving us a game. It should not have been close from start to finish but they made everything during the first 10 minutes of the game it seemed. New roster of 15 guys could play. Coaching staff was excellent too. CSU never gave up and almost had it.

Drew hit the jackpot with Deywilk Tavarez and Kayde Dotson in the portal. Without these two doing their work from beyond the perimeter last night we might not defeat CSU playing this way. Do not underestimate Dotson - I knew when Dotson hit the portal and was leaving New Mexico, their fanbase was deeply crushed and broken over losing a great player. Didn't see much floor time last year playing behind Donovan Dent (who is the best PG in the country IMO) but if you were a backup and recruited under Pitino Jr. this dude has got to be a good one. Going to flourish here as backup, secondary PG, starter. Continue playing him and Moore together.

Tavarez is a weapon off the bench / 6th man type. Keep him there. Shot selection a little iffy, Drew got PO'd on one three attempt.

Hopefully just off games for these guys but I expected more from Moore and Kymany.

Maybe Harris started so he could get going? Did not get much.

As soon as Chuck Love checked in, my whole focus turned to him. Tough player both ends. His run in the second half changed the game. Then when CSU called time and Love came back to fire up the bench I saw Lucas-like leadership and fire. We've got a special talent in Chuck Love folks. Eager to see how he does against all the upcoming mid major opponents on the schedule...

Per TalkinBlers Dave ETA on Amos is 4-6 weeks. Ideally, I'd expect Amos to be starting at the #4.... or no?

I would love for BlersBreakdown on X to examine what went wrong defensively and why Cleveland State picked us apart so easily in the press, in transition, and on offensive rebounds.

MercyHurst Thursday will be a nice tuneup and to correct everything wrong. Won't win like this with North Texas on Sunday.

My thoughts about yesterday:

1. Drew has been experimenting with full court pressure early this season. CS did a pretty good job of getting the ball up through our pressure and and getting into transition on us. They were able to get us scrambling a bit on defense and got some good looks. CS made some shots early in the game and was lights out from the FT line. We backed off a little in the second half and had some better moments defensively, but had too many fouls and FT shooting and some tough makes by CS kept them in the game and prevented us from pulling away.

2. 11-0 run by CS was bad at a point in the second half where it looked like we were taking control of the game. Drew needed a time-out in the middle of that run but inexplicably did not call one. There were some missed FTs and one bad call during that stretch and Moore who had a tough shooting night had a couple of forced shots that did not help.

3. Four things we always worry about are fouls, TOs, FT shooting, and rebounding. The TOs were great at only 7 and so were the FTs. The rebounding was terrible, and we are still committing too many fouls away from the basket. Amos will help a bit on the rebounding when he comes back, but we need to be better on the glass.

4. Love, as I posted in my St. Francis thread, is a BALLER. He is a 4 star showing why he was a 4 star. Love has that spark you love to see in a guy. It's clear he loves to play and he gets excited. The fact that Drew was putting him in late and trusting him on the floor to play defense is pretty impressive. After he hit his 3rd 3 in a row, there was a time out and Drew walked halfway to the student section and was screaming for the crowd to get up. He has passed Glazkov in the rotation. Glazkov looks stiff and mechanical. He is thinking way too much. Playing scared might be the best way to describe him right now. He got ZERO minutes in the second half. He needs to get out of his head and just PLAY. He looks like a potential transfer portal guy at this point. I hope he can figure it out, but it does not look good. I was shocked to Harris start the game and the second half.

5. Tavarez is a cold blooded shooter with no conscious. He was OK against De Paul and SF, but was great yesterday. Guess he needed for the lights to be on for real. We knew he could shoot it, but he on ball defense is much better than I realized. He is a bit smaller and Drew subbed out late for him defensively, but he can shoot it and is a pretty good passer when he wants to be. Tavarez also does not need a lot of space to get his shot off.

6. Dotson continues to impress. Tough kid.

Overall, the defense needs to tighten up. I would like to see us play a bit more half court defense and limit transition of the other team. Once we get into the conference, we will need to play more halfcourt defense and that is where our bread and butter will need to be. We will score points this year, but that will get tougher too once we get to the A10.

I like what we are seeing and I wish we would have wone by more, but right now I want this team to stack wins while it cleans up some stuff. Thursday should be a good time to work on some finer points and then North Texas will be a tougher test.

I like Young. He needs some polish, but he looks to have a good basketball IQ and when we do see him, he plays hard. I think his size will be needed at some point this year in limited minutes. Miles has stayed out of foul trouble for the most part this year, but with Amos out (Amos is not really a 5, more of a 4) we will need some bodies in the post. Richardson has appeared a tad slower than his tape showed. I am not sure if it is a speed issue or just getting to know the system to react without thinking. His size will be needed at some point. We do have a four star center on the way and Young, who was always a bit of a project, will probably be destined to be a back-up, but you can never have too much size and he could develop into more than a mere backup due to his smarts and the ability to be rim protector.

As far as Anderson is concerned, I have a feeling from reading his interviews when he committed that he was anticipating being a redshirt as he focused on getting into the program, getting physically stronger, and learning his freshman year. He did not seem concerned about big minutes. It would not surprise me if he did redshirt, but he did have some very good moments in the SF game. Another athletic player with good hops and seems to have a good basketball IQ. I think he will blossom into a very good player for us.