The Titans at the halfway point of the HL season

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Photo courtesy of Detroit Mercy Athletics


The Detroit Mercy Titans are halfway through league play and what at one point looked like they could put themselves into the driver’s seat in the HL. Unfortunately, that was not the case. Instead, two very close losses to Purdue Fort Wayne (they will always be IPFW to me) and CSU, where it looked like the Titans had a good chance to get the win and they did not have the shots to put the Vikes away.

Then Detroit Mercy went to Green Bay and lost to a team that they should have run out of the gym. No disrespect to Will Ryan but that’s a bad basketball team. I missed the game I was sick and slept through it. UDM was without Matt Johnson, Antoine Davis did not shoot well, and DJ Harvey had one of those nights where he can’t get anything going.

The Titans avenged the Thursday loss by beating Milwaukee. It was a very ugly game. Until Antoine took over last in the second half. With 13 points in the final minutes helped with two Noah Waterman free throws and a Willy Isiani three. Before he could take over; the Panthers had an over 8-minute run where they went 0-17 from the field and had five turnovers. They still led by one when they finally made a field goal. Something I feel like the Titans needed to capitalize on.

A positive for Detroit Mercy lately is that Donnie Marsh’s defense is working, and if it keeps working it could help the Titans climb back to the top of the league and in the Horizon League tournament.

Keys to the rest of the season

Obviously, if the Titans win out that would be wonderful. I don’t expect that.

1. Beat Oakland. Don’t give Kampe the satisfaction of winning again. Figure out Cain and Moore. In turn, get to a place in the standing where you don’t have to play OU until the conference championship game.

2. Beat CSU. Detroit had them at the Buzzer and made mistakes down the stretch last time out. Davis has done well vs CSU the last two years. Splitting the season series will go a long way if the Titans have to play them in Indy.

3. Split the season series with Wright State. This is not the WSU team of the last few years, but they are still good. They lack depth but their inside-outside game is strong, and they are better in the post than the Titans.

4. Don’t lose to teams you are way better than and play to the team’s potential.

5. Waterman is back but he needs to step up and be good for at least 10-15 a game regularly.

6. The Matt Johnson from last year needs to come back. Johnson has shown flashes of his old self. If he can contribute strong defense and 10 points a game it will help the Titans a ton.

7. Figure out Harvey and Jordan Phillips’s roles.

8. Figure out what Shaw and Koka can add to the team every night. They have been used sparingly and had some flashes but what can they do every night.

9. Kevin McAdoo needs to be consistent and play with confidence. Kevin looks good in spurts a little more consistency and he will be a big help to the rotation.

If a few of these things can happen the Titans could be a Darkhorse in the Horizon League tournament.

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