Today’s game
Miami at Western Michigan, 4:30 p.m., 1450, 980
While celebrating the 50th anniversary of The Beatles’ invasion of the United States, some pop music lovers might recall that the group had among its later productions a song, album and film, all entitled “Magical Mystery Tour.”
What Miami’s men’s basketball team has been going through lately could more accurately be described as a misery tour. There’s been nothing magical about it, and it doesn’t promise to soon get better.
The RedHawks will take a three-game losing streak and losses in four of their last five games into a matchup today at against a Western Michigan (15-8, 8-3) team that escaped Oxford with a 78-77 overtime win on Jan. 11.
“There’s no doubt it doesn’t get any easier,” Miami coach John Cooper said after Wednesday’s 75-62 loss to Buffalo.
After getting pummeled by reigning East Division Player of the Week Jacon McRea for 25 points and 11 rebounds in the loss to the Bulls, Miami now gets to face the West Division Player of the Week in Broncos’ guard David Brown, who averaged 23 points in a pair of Western Michigan wins last week before scoring a game-high 17 – including two go-ahead free throws with 26 seconds left – in a 57-54 win over East Division-leading Akron on Wednesday. That was the Broncos’ fourth straight win and sixth in their last seven games since a 69-64 loss to Bowling Green, the East’s last-place team.
Brown scored almost a third of the Broncos’ points – 25 of 78 – in their win at Millett Hall earlier this season.
“That was definitely a game that went down to the wire,” recalled senior forward Will Felder, who scored 19 points in that game while senior Bill Edwards was pouring in 24 in his first appearance of the season after coming back from a knee injury. “There’s no reason it can’t happen again.”
“They’ve shown the ability to win games in the 50s and in the 80s,” Cooper said. “That’s the sign of a good team.”
One bright spot for the RedHawks is the improved, long-range marksmanship of guard Jaryd Eustace. The 6-foot-7 freshman from Australia missed his first nine 3-point attempts of the season and was 1-for-15 in his first six games. Since then, he’s a combined 20-for-48, including 4-for-8 while scoring a career-high 14 points in an 82-75 loss at Ohio last Saturday and surpassing that with a team-high 17, including four 3-pointers in six tries, Wednesday against the Bulls.
“I think it’s clear that he’s getting more comfortable, and he is making the adjustment,” Cooper said. “He’s shooting the ball better. Now that can open up other areas. If they run at him, he can go around them. He made a spin move in the second half that you didn’t see two months ago.”
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