Wash U 69 IWU 66

When I interviewed Ron Rose for the IWUHoops.com '07-08 Season Preview and asked him for the "keys to the season", here is what he said...

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"The first thing is realizing the level of play and at what level of urgency and intensity that you have to play every night out to be competitive," he said. "That's the starting point."

Second, Rose pointed to role definition. "Roles will not be established right away, but we need to develop them throughout the non-conference season," he said.

Generating consistency is another key identified by the head coach of the Titans. "We need to develop a consistency this year," he explained. "Last year we knew Zach was going to get 20 (points) and 10 (rebounds), but after that we didn't know what to expect. This year we need to have more answers than that on a nightly basis."

Finally, Rose said his team needs to make progress throughout the season. "There will be some bumps in the road and a lot of lessons learned when you have inexperienced and young guys playing," he said. "It may not always be pretty, but what we will be looking at is how competitive are we, and are we making progress."
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For me, the most gratifying thing about the Wash U game was seeing the Titans develop in all four areas.

1) Realzing the level of play -- I think these guys are really starting to understand just how hard you have to play to beat good Division III teams. Every Titan that was on the floor Saturday in St. Louis played extremely hard.

2) Role definition -- probably the area of improvement that has been the most noticeable from Game #1 to Game #7. The rotation seems to really be taking shape and everyone seems to be embracing their roles.

3) Generating consistency -- the in-game lapses are becoming less and less. In the last two games, the Titans have had just a couple bad stretches in each. The effort is becoming more consistent every time out it seems.

4) Making progress -- the scoreboard vs Wash U says it all. The Bears are better than Albion for sure and probably a little better than Olivet Nazarene, two teams that blew the Titans out. Yesterday the Titans went toe to toe with a great team and came within about two plays of winning the game. Freshman Doug Sexauer had a big 17-point performance vs Webster...freshman Travis Rosenkranz has his break-out game Wednesday at Illinois College, with 20 points...freshman Sean Johnson broke out yesterday, scoring 22...and upperclassmen like Darius Gant, Brett Chamernik, and Jordan Morris seem to be gaining confidence as well.


This team has a long way to go, but there is no question the '07-08 Titans are talented, balanced, well-coached, and most importantly, getting better everyday.

This is getting fun.