John Carroll at Cleveland State

"I try not to think with my gut. If I am serious about understanding the world, thinking with anything besides my brain, as tempting as that might be, is likely to get me into trouble." -Carl Edwards Sagan

The John Carroll basketball team plays Cleveland State downtown tonight. It is the first exhibition game for both teams. Carroll has a lot of good players, and if a couple things go right for them, they might be in a good position to possbily beat a CSU team that lost a lot of its leaders and good players from their NCAA tournament team of last year. I expect Carroll to improve on their effort from last year and be ready to play hard. They gotta be patient and work hard to get great looks on every offensive possession and slow down Cleveland State in transition.

For me, are a lot of unknowns for the Cleveland State team, so I can't really go too in depth on the matchups. I know that if the Vikings are trotting out Joe Latas and Tim Kamchick anywhere near the court, Carroll's chances are getting better by the minute. Carroll's first unit can match up pretty competitively with whoever the Vikes put out there. Carroll has to make sure they get great looks, and attack the basket under control and with confidence. They have to slow the ball down when CSU gets it and not allow them to dominate athletically, going from point A to point B without resistance.

It really depends on how into the game CSU will be. This is usually a "go through the motions" game for them. But I am sure they have a lot of guys who are trying to win playing time and spots in the rotation. So that can be good and bad for Carroll. Good because they won't have great chemistry and will struggle doing some of the things that make them good. Bad because there might be some dominant athletes on CSU, who are sick of 4 hours practices, who will be ready to prove their worth and get busy.

For Carroll, it would be great to win, but more importantly it is just the first step in what could be a very fun and exciting year. This is a game that puts you between the lines with some really good players who are playing at the highest level. It allows you to measure yourself, and also see what it's like to play against some of the better basketball players floating around this country. But Carroll's focus should remain on playing with max effort, communicating well with each other, being unselfish and preparing for a long day in and day out journey. Win or lose, the journey begins tonight. And it is important that for the guys at Carroll to appreciate the opportunity to play these guys and take advantage of the opportunity to propel themselves on the path to being a winning basketball team.