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There are certain popular refrains in the sports world: "Establish the run to set up the pass.” “Momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher.”
And the most appropriate adage at the current moment for the hard-charging hoopers from Ypsilanti, “In March Madness, it all comes down to quality guard play.”
It might not be heard quite as often as the others, but it carries a great deal of truth.
Eastern Michigan cleared another hurdle Wednesday night, advancing to the quarter=finals of the MAC Tournament with a guard-dominant triumph of favored Bowling Green.
Stars of The Backcourt
The starting backcourt of Raven Lee and Mike Talley combined for 48 points. The rest of the team had 25. It took until eight minutes were left in the first half for any Eagle besides Talley/Lee to even add their name to the score sheet.
It was a virtuoso performance by the pair. Lee popped for 27 points, and maybe most importantly drew only one personal foul after picking up the maximum five in four of his last nine games.
Talley was similarly superb. He played nearly the entire game (39 minutes), rang up 21 points, and took care of the ball like it was his first born. He penetrated, drove, and controlled the offense without once turning it over. His five assists were -- almost unbelievably -- the only five EMU dimes on the night.
Guards are critical to March basketball because the rock is in their hands so often. Silly giveaways must be kept to a minimum, quality shots must be taken, and free throws have to be drained calmly at the game's most nerve-rattling moments.
Lee and Talley took that last responsibility to heart against Bowling Green. The duo cashed in every single one of their 14 opportunities from the charity stripe, an invaluable asset when trying to close out a tight tournament game. It’s especially impressive when you consider that neither guy is an above-80% free thrower on the year, and Talley is below 70%.
Raven Lee is the more polished of the two, an off-guard with deep range and a sneaky ability to finish in traffic with the left hand. He’s a righty, but somehow possesses the same grace on the left side of the floor as a natural southpaw like Manu Ginobili. He has good size for a guard at 6’3”, and with his role (and statistics) sure to expand next season with Talley graduating, it’s not a stretch to say Lee has a chance to be playing 82-game schedules sometime down the line.
Mike Talley is the hot-blooded one, a pit bull point guard that plays like he’s got something to prove on every single possession. He’s barely six feet, but it doesn’t stop him from driving among the trees multiple times a game, often winding up on the floor and without the whistle he was looking to hear. But the next time down, he’s right back there again. It’s almost like somebody forgot to tell Talley that he’s not a 6-foot-7 condor like Clyde Drexler. But if a guard’s biggest fault is his insistence on knifing into the paint and attacking the tin too often, it’s a situation you can live with.
Judged By Your Performance in March
Rob Murphy, Eastern’s promising young coach, has emphasized recently that March is where the money is made. He’ll tell you that in the month of March, his guys are undefeated. 4 and 0. But they won’t have long to enjoy this one.
The Eagles take the court in Cleveland again tonight, this time against Toledo, a team they dispatched with ease, 85-59, just six days ago. This time around, it’s sure to be a far greater challenge, especially considering this will be EMU’s third game in four nights, while the Rockets have not played since the aforementioned blowout at the Convocation Center.
It wouldn’t be advisable to count this Eastern team out. Not with two guards that are playing their best ball of the season at precisely the right time.
The tournament bracket to determine the Mid-American champion is not friendly to the second-level teams. In order for Eastern Michigan to cut down the nets on Saturday, it’ll be after having defeated five different opponents in just six nights of play.
But Lee and Talley and the rest of the squad have been in this meat grinder for a couple of days now, and they seem to like it just fine.
The tallest players are the ones that throw down alley-oops and block shots into the fifth row. They are the ones generally snapped up with the first overall pick in the NBA Draft.
But in college basketball, in March, it is often the little guys that are called upon to play big.
Guard play is the name of the game.
And fortunately for Eastern Michigan, they have two of the best.
