Doug Gottlieb’s conference debut as head coach did not go the way he had anticipated, as the Green Bay Phoenix lost to the IU Indianapolis Jaguars, 84-75, in both teams’ conference opener. Granted, you could also say that Doug Gottlieb’s debut as head coach hasn’t gone the way he anticipated, as the loss puts them at 2-7… and why am I talking about Doug Gottlieb? I’m giving him free attention. I’m the IU Indy guy!
Whatever, the important thing to me is that Paul Corsaro is 1-0 in conference play and managed to overcome their own poor free throw shooting and the nation’s leading scorer Anthony Roy’s 34-point outburst over on Green Bay’s side. Jarvis Walker led the way with 25 points for the Jags, with Desean Goode having easily his best performance all season at 16 points and 11 rebounds. Alec Millender and Sean Craig also joined in double digit scoring for the winning effort.
Usually the best player on the side of IU Indy, Paul Zilinskas was completely shut down by the Phoenix defense as well as impotent shooting that evening (only 4 for 12 baskets made), leaving him with only 11 points, so seeing other guys on the team being able to step up shows me that the team shouldn’t be hamstrung if he has a rough night on the court. Scoring off turnovers also helped, as the Jaguars got 18 points off turnovers versus GB’s nine, as well as 22 second chance points versus five, which given IU Indy’s struggles elsewhere offensively, was vital to winning last night. Defensively, only two Phoenix players besides Roy reached double digits (Marcus Hall and Foster Wonders, which must be the name of an indie band).
One thing of concern was that the starters all played for around 30 minutes, with the bench only coming out for situations and netting a combined five points and three rebounds. In their previous wins against Alabama A&M and Trinity Christian, the bench usually got in some time to ensure the starters wouldn’t get worn out and often got help via Nathan Dudukovich or Timaris Brown. Last night, that didn’t happen, so was Corsaro keeping the starters out for momentum or because he was worried about the conditioning? I’m not sure.
So, here’s a few random observations that have nothing to do with the game:
- The Jungle’s main advantage for being very, very, very small is that it’s stupid easy to fill so it doesn’t matter. 615 fans in the gym over at the Natatorium is far more likely to affect the game than 615 fans over at the Corteva Coliseum (man, I remember when it was the Pepsi Coliseum; certain names just stick with you). When they finally build the James T. Morris Arena as part of the new Indianapolis Athletic Center, fan retention will probably go back to being a challenge unless the school puts on a more aggressive ad campaign besides putting players on a few city buses or even better, starts winning. But that’s way ahead in the future.
- During the game on ESPN+, some of the other HoriZone Roundtable guys noted the fact that a fan was being offered a free pizza from Hotbox Pizza if he made a half-court shot. For anyone not from Indianapolis, Hotbox Pizza is a pizza chain around the area that really, really loves their plastic drink cups. They’ll put sodas in there, they’ll put breadsticks in there, they’ll even put sauce in there. I’m not a particular fan of Hotbox, as I prefer Jack’s (yet another pizza group… look, Indianapolis may not have a lot of culinary tradition besides the Beef Manhattan and hamburgers, but we absolutely will demolish a pizza) and their tavern style pizza even if its outrageously priced.
- Oh, this thing:
- See #3. As usual, whenever I mention a mascot this school has, I scare the crap out of Bob McDonald. This is Jawz the Jaguar, and he’s arguably the laziest mascot I’ve ever seen, as he usually will stand in a spot next to the cheerleaders and just clap his hands. It’s not like the school is incapable of making a harmless mascot; see our little guy for Day Camps for schoolchildren during the summer, even if its arguably traced from Dora the Explorer.
… I will post Jawz again in the future.
Anyhoo, IU Indy is 1-0, and heads to Highland Heights, KY yet again to take on Northern Kentucky this Saturday. Should be a good test against a program that isn’t also trying to build from scratch.
