The "highlight" of this game was, despite trailing by more than 24 points most of the game, your Milwaukee Panthers scraped together a mediocre effort against this medicore YSU opponent and pulled to within 9-10 points with just under 2 minutes remaining.
That's it. That was the highlight. Other than that it was a great day to showcase Michael Akuchie (33pts, 8reb) for Youngstown State. Earlier in the season we thought that would be the typical stat line for PBJ. Funny how fast reality can smack ya in the face, know? 😐
Josh Thomas (8pts, 5reb) played tough but once again, did not play enough. DeAndre Gholston had another bad shooting game, but he did dish out 6 assists.
Another huge red flag is the fact that Jordan Lathon- our point guard- scored 20pts(!), yet had a single assist. Lathon didn't turn the ball over, which is to his credit, but how on earth we continue to play games in which the leading assist getter has 2 or 3 assists is a problem.
Gholston had 6 against the Penguins but those assists should be coming from Lathon, not Gholston. Gholston needs to have better shot selection. He has single-handidly caused some of our scoring draughts. I say that knowing full well that DreeGo is probably the best (actually playing) player on this Panther team.
We need to work harder and make far fewer mistakes.
Vin Baker, after a couple bigtime games, has receded back into the shadows. As has Joey St. Pierre who showed some promise earlier in the season. Donovan Newby had a solid 21 minutes.
It must be recorded that, despite the lack of ball movement and "shot creation" by Jordan Lathon- J2 had one of his best college performances shooting 7-12 from the field and 4-5 from 3pt land. With Lathon's previous struggles from 3pt, I hope this awesome effort doesn't cause him to force more threes in the remaining games (Lathon is 29.3% on 60 attempts).
Next up is Ft. Wayne, Indiana and the IPFW Mastadons on Friday at 6:00pm CST.
If we get blown out again... we may be looking at an interim coach to finish out the season, if the Athletic Department still cares about the accountability that "the AD" claimed was the cause for the firing of our last long-term coach.
All we can do is hope for the best.
PS: For what it is worth (not all that much at this point- "PBJ is on the way back oh baby we can smell it!!" 😝)- according to the Journal-Sentinel, Pat Baldwin Jr. is slated to return to the lineup this coming week. Will it matter? I would like to think so- maybe we can have one final historic stretch to salvage this depressing '21-'22 season. But it might have to be without Baldwin Jr. If past is any kind of predictor of the future, expect a "setback" and an announcement that PBJ is out, oh right around 5:30pm CST on Friday.
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