Friday, November 13, 2009 11:23 PM CST
Freshmen-ladened Toledo faces EIU men in season opener
EASTERN ILLINOIS AT TOLEDO
Tip-off: 6 p.m. CST today at Savage Arena in Toledo, Ohio
Radio: WEIU Hit Mix 88.9 FM
By BRIAN NIELSEN, Sports Editor
bnielsen@jg-tc.com.
TOLEDO -- The best Toledo men’s basketball coach Gene Cross can remember, he never played against Eastern Illinois.
The Rich Central High School product was a walk-on player from 1990 through ’94 at Illinois, which during his freshman year defeated coach Rick Samuels’ EIU Panthers 106-86.
Asked if he got to play at the end of that game, Cross said: “I don’t think so. I can’t remember if I dressed for that game or not. I just remember coach Samuels recruiting me. He and (assistant) coach (Lloyd) Batts did a home visit. I chose to walk on at Illinois.”
Tonight, some of Cross’ nine freshmen might try to make a more memorable experience in their college debuts against Eastern in a 6 p.m. CST season opener at Toledo’s Savage Arena.
That’s right. Nine freshmen. Well, only eight true freshmen along with redshirt Stephen Albrecht, now one of the likely starters.
According to research done by Saint Louis’ sports information staff that also has a young team, Toledo is tied with Saint Francis for the most true freshmen in the country with eight and tied for third for the most underclassmen with 10.
“When you have nine freshmen and eight true freshmen, you’re flirting with changing diapers,” Cross said.
His Rockets have shown some freshman tendencies.
You think Eastern was a bit apologetic because it needed Jeremy Granger’s tie-breaking shot with 1.7 seconds left to beat NAIA Olivet Nazarene 72-70 in Tuesday’s exhibition game?
Toledo was not as fortunate, losing its Monday exhibition to NAIA Central State 56-49.
“You understand that they are young,” Cross said. “After watching film I said, ‘How many of you guys were nervous?’ Several of them raised their hands. At least you know they are human and want to go out and do well. I learned that we are a team that can learn from our mistakes. We came out and really worked in practice. There was a different level of concentration we hadn’t had the previous two weeks.”
So that was step one for a Toledo team trying to rebuild after going 7-25 in its first season under Cross, who served as an assistant coach at Illinois-Chicago, DePaul, Virginia and Notre Dame before replacing Stan Joplin, who was fired at Toledo one year after being the Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year.
Now Cross’ Toledo team might be at a point similar to coach Mike Miller’s Eastern team four years ago when the Panthers went 6-21 before progressing with 10-20, 7-22 and 12-18 seasons.
Now Miller has six seniors, four returning starters and just one freshman heading into a season with high expectations.
“I saw them last year against Western Michigan,” said Cross, who had a film of the Panthers beating the MAC’s Western Michigan 59-57 in last season’s February Bracketbusters game. “Tyler Laser is more than just a shooter. He is a creator. So is (Romain) Martin. We have to get out and cover those guys from 3. (Ousmane) Cisse is a load inside. When you shoot over 60 percent you’re playing within yourself and he does that. (Edin) Suljic can also step out and shoot, maybe not to the degree Billy Parrish did but he can do that.”
While EIU has those veterans, not all of Toledo’s players are just getting through returning tuxedos from their high school prom.
Justin Anyijong, a 6-foot-9 junior and Sudan native who played high school basketball at East Grand Rapid’s Mich., averaged 9.7 points and 6.4 rebounds last season for the Rockets.
Then in the exhibition game he grabbed 20 rebounds, six of them offensive.
Of course, there were plenty of rebounds available when Toledo shot just .344 from the field including 4-for-21 3-point shooting.
“The one thing we saw was we can’t rely on our shooting to carry us,” Cross said. “We shot the lights out in our practices and our scrimmage but we didn’t do that the other night.
“We were able to smell the popcorn and hear the band in the exhibition game. You can have a setback but how you bounce back from that setback is what defines you.”
Contact Brian Nielsen at bnielsen@jg-tc.com or 238-6856.
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