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Toledo's RayJ Dennis looks to set up a play for his team as Ohio's Tommy Schmock defends.
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Briggs: After statement win, Toledo basketball looks like it has its best team in years

COLIN MAYR/OHIO ATHLETICS

Briggs: After statement win, Toledo basketball looks like it has its best team in years

ATHENS, Ohio — When Tod Kowalczyk said before the season that he thought this Toledo basketball team could be even better than last year’s edition, most people figured he had lost his mind.

“You two guys included,” the coach told a pair of Blade writers here Friday night.

And, for once, who could blame us?

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The Rockets didn’t just lose two stars from a team that won the Mid-American Conference by two games. They lost two of the very best mid-major talents period: league player of the year Marreon Jackson and all-conference deadeye Spencer Littleson.

Buffalo Bills quarterback Josh Allen walks off the field after an NFL divisional round playoff football game against the Kansas City Chiefs, Sunday, Jan. 23, 2022, in Kansas City, Mo. The Chiefs won 42-36 in overtime.
David Briggs
Briggs: Toledo, Cleveland, Buffalo, and Lake Erie's belt of football heartache

A step back wouldn’t have just been forgiven.

It should have been all but certain.

But, hey, what do we know?

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Clearly, not a whole lot.

With the Rockets’ 87-69 liquidation of Ohio at the roaring Convocation Center the latest evidence, I’ll be damned if Kowalczyk wasn’t right.

These guys could be better.

And not just better than last year’s team, but better than any other team in Kowalczyk’s career.

Tell me you watched Friday night’s nationally televised beatdown — as impressive of a statement as I’ve seen Toledo make in the past decade — and disagree.

In the early showdown of the MAC season — a matchup of the reigning league regular-season and tournament champions and the conference frontrunners this year — Toledo (15-4, 7-1) was playing a first-place Ohio team on a nine-game winning streak on its own quaking floor.

And when I say quaking, that’s no exaggeration. This was as good of a MAC basketball atmosphere as you’ll see, the students jumping, the music thumping, the place bouncing. Put it this way: I’ve been to at least a hundred basketball games up the road at Ohio State, and I can count on one hand the environments there that approached what the 8,069 fans delivered Friday.

“We’ve got great fans, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to offend anybody,” Kowalczyk said, “but tonight is the best atmosphere I’ve seen in the MAC in 12 years.”

You especially should have heard it (actually, you couldn’t hear anything) when the Bobcats cut an 18-point deficit to six midway through the second half, then, on Toledo’s next trip up the court, starter J.T. Shumate was whistled for his fourth foul on a questionable charge. The roof threatened to levitate, and, with their limited depth being put to the test, the Rockets threatened to unravel.

Yet, they couldn’t be rattled.

Ohio got within six points three times in the second half, and each time the Rockets answered on the next possession. The final time, they went on a 16-2 run punctuated by the exclamation point to end them all: an off-the-backboard alley-oop from Ra’Heim Moss to Setric Millner, Jr., who slammed it through with both hands.

Thunder meet silence.

“Oh yeah, man, it was great,” Millner said with a wide smile.

“That’s what we want to feel coming into the opponent’s gym,” Ryan Rollins added, “to have them leave early and upset.”

For Toledo, this was a wire-to-wire clinic, the visitors making it look easy on offense (they shot 59 percent) and making Ohio work like crazy on defense (the Bobcats were 8 of 29 from beyond the arc).

You might say it was simply the Rockets’ night, and maybe it was.

But, really, this is who they are.

They didn’t win because they caught fire (they were 7 of 17 on 3s). They won because they do everything well, playing a smart, hard, positionless brand of hoops that is a joy to watch.

If you look at the teams Kowalczyk led to a MAC title in 2014 and 2021, both were excellent, but only on one end of the floor, ranking 250th and 182nd in defensive efficiency, per KenPom. These Rockets are the full package, ranking in the top 50 offensively and top 100 defensively, the latter of which is the second-best mark of Kowalczyk’s career.

It’s not hard to see why, either.

At least not anymore. They returned Rollins — who poured in 26 points as he continues to thrive outside Jackson’s shadow — Shumate, and Millner, all of whom are all-league-caliber players. And they added the live-wire Moss and transfer guard RayJ Dennis, both top-end defenders.

Better than last year?

“I think so,” Ohio coach Jeff Boals said. “I thought that coming in. They're a tough matchup with Shumate. He can guard the 5, space you out, he can shoot 3s, his numbers are ridiculous. ... And when you have two really good guards like that, it's a little more spread out this year. Littleson was more of a catch-and-shoot guy. These two guards can do multiple things, which you've got to game-plan for differently. They're a good team.”

And, maybe, just getting started. 

I asked Kowalczyk if these Rockets have the highest ceiling of any team he has coached. 

“I would say, on January 21, yes,” he said, “but this team can get better.”

After Friday night, that can’t be a pleasant thought for the rest of the MAC. 

First Published January 22, 2022, 4:46 a.m.

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Toledo's RayJ Dennis looks to set up a play for his team as Ohio's Tommy Schmock defends.  (COLIN MAYR/OHIO ATHLETICS)
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