That's about average for most of their opponents... 20 or more fouls by the opposition in 8 of their 17 previous games. St. John's had 22 fouls and 14 turnovers against them. Kent State had 27 and 20. Both were Fordham losses. They're very tight and physical on defense, and they press and force activity to the rim.



JQ had one of his best games last time out... Maybe it's just matchups and trying to keep turnovers down? Dolan is pretty solid handling the ball.

[That's about average for most of their opponents... 20 or more fouls by the opposition in 8 of their 17 previous games. St. John's had 22 fouls and 14 turnovers against them. Kent State had 27 and 20. Both were Fordham losses. They're very tight and physical on defense, and they press and force activity to the rim.]

Probably good we played Fordham in that case


[Is JQ injured? Only 2 minutes of play today.


JQ had one of his best games last time out... Maybe it's just matchups and trying to keep turnovers down? Dolan is pretty solid handling the ball.]

Yeah, I thought it was a bit off as Drew had JQ playing nearly 30 minutes recently.


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OK, another tight tough win. The trend of executing late and grinding continues. The Good, Bad, and Ugly.

1. Ugly: Defensive rebounding continues to be sub-par. We gave up 14 offensive rebounds. We held them to 36.2 % (21-58) from the floor and could have been better with some better defensive rebounding. Fordham is the leading offensive rebounding team in the conference, primarily because they shoot a low percentage. Officials. Another game where then refs were blowing the whistle a lot. Drew mentioned it in passing during post-game interview that he felt they were grabbing and holding us when tried to get our offense moving. Still not getting any respect in the A10. We were also slow getting to Gray on all 3 of his 3 pt makes in the 2nd half. We fouled another 3 pt shooter giving up a 4 pt play late when we were up 6.


2. Bad. We got another technical foul. This game it was on Dez. This is a bad trend that must stop. We got a break today when the other player involved also got a T. It could have cost us the game if the other guy did not get a T as well. As a result of the double Ts, no foul shots were taken. It did give Dez his third personal foul and he needs to stay on the floor for us.

3. Good: Road win! Another game where we fell behind early, had some foul trouble, and found a way to win. This team believes it is going to out execute you late and they are so much tougher and confident than last year. The “Breakfast Club” paid dividends as we shot 75% (15-20) from the line, and we needed all of them. Dez continues to make FTs, that’s 3 games in the row where his FTs are much better. Tom hit his 2 FTs. Dame was dramatically better making 5-6, well above his season average. Defense, despite sub-par defense rebounding, got us back into the game and won this one for us. Dame was key tonight, but Dez hit some big shots and Dawson another good game on offense and defense. Norris was quiet offensively, only 3 pts, but it was HUGE 3 when we needed late second half and he only had 1 TO. Dolan played 20 minutes (season high?) and while he did not score, he had 5 rebounds, 4 on the defensive end and no TOs. Good job again by Drew in handling the foul trouble and he also continues to show improvement. This group is much tougher and is now listening better than last year’s group. Side note: Rubin had some foul trouble and only played 12 minutes tonight as Drew was leaning on Dame. During a late timeout, camera caught Tom encouraging Miles and got him him to smile as put his arm on his shoulder. Great Senoir leadership and a passing the torch moment!

This group may not blow people out, but it looks they won’t get blown out like last year either. It’s gonna be a wild ride the rest of the way out. Fun to watch and they have room to improve. Let’s go get VCU! Saw them play a little a couple of days ago and they are definitely not the VCU of the last few years. Dangerous, yes…but its a winnable game.

OK, some of these wins haven't been pretty for the Ramblers. But let's not forget some of the really good Rambler teams that barely won at home against teams like Bradley and Valpo just a two or three years ago by grinding out wins. That's conference basketball. Everyone knows everyone else's strengths and weaknesses. These tend to be tightly contested. Ramblers have a good record in tight games. UNO, UMass, Fordham, Duquesne all good. UIC and Richmond not so good. 4-2 in tight games. These tight games are excellent experience that helps teams grow. BTW: Thanks Dame for hitting four straight FTs down the stretch to ice the game. Ramblers are 5-1 in A10 play! That's something. (Also, can we dream of Dolan regressing or progressing to the mean on his career 3 pt shooting percentage; or, Sheldon shooting threes in Gentile like he did when he played for Valpo? This team would take a discernible step forward with one more 3-pt shooter.

another exciting game...
1. I thought Fordham was big..all over...will be interesting to see how the battles between Tripp and Miles develop over the years. When they had Tsimbila, Grey and Tripp in there they were big and it showed on the boards.
2. Fordhams leading scorer Medor did not play...that is two games in a row we got a little break due to injury of an important player on the other team...better lucky than good?
3. Fordham chose not to double the post and guarded our shooters...in fact they invited the ball into the post and dared us to go mano-mano ...interesting gambit. Adelekum made em pay.
4. My guess about Quinns limited play and Sheldon getting more minutes is we needed offense and Sheldon can create his won shot. We get a lot of our 3 point shots passing out of doubles or help...hard to do today...
5. Looked like a nice turn out of LU fans in the Bronx
6. I thought Tom Welch gave us some nice minutes in the first half.

Here are Saturday's post-game interviews with Drew Valentine and Dame Adelekun.
https://soundcloud.com/ramblersn/fordha ... al_sharing

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