If that Hickman shows up (or at least 75% of that Hickman) then this team can compete with anyone. Our lack of guard depth still concerns me, especially when injury scares like today happen. Glad Hickman and Deen are ok, but we cannot afford to lose any of Zek, Deen, or Hickman. There is nothing behind them besides Ville, and he is not a starter. Davis is nice depth, but plays more like a forward more than a guard, as he doesn't dribble with the ball much.
I expected big things out of Hickman this year, and he has slumped, however what we saw tonight was hopefully a huge turnaround. If he gets going offensively, the 5 of Deen, Hick, Zek, Leons, Mast is as good as it gets in the league on both ends and I think could compete against bigger fish. Throw Henry in as the sixth man and late game defensive sub for Deen and that's pretty good. Davis, Hannah, and Ville are fine depth. Zek is starting to turn in to a go to guy from the perimeter like I wanted (that three he made from the corner was the shot of the game to me along with Leons three), and Leons finally seems more aggressive and confident at the end of games as well. Combine that with Deen and Mast, and a hopefully rejuvenated shooting option in Hickman, and I think we actually might have several end of game options. However, we always look better against less athletic teams like UNI, so we will see how it goes. Zek can be that guy against anyone though.
Great, great game from the starters, and for the second game in a row I thought the coaches had an excellent defensive game plan. Great week for the Braves to turn this season back around to a positive. They look way better than they did even a week or two ago. This team is finally starting to play like the contenders we all thought they should be. The Valley is still tight and this team still needs to take it game to game as we have seen all year, but this was a really nice win tonight from the starting five and the coaches.
That Drake game at home at the end of the year on senior night is shaping up to be very exciting. Big games this week first though at ISU and Murray St. at home. Hopefully this team has learned not to look past anyone, as it will only take one bad game to send a season back to disappointing results with the Valley race being so tight. Keep working and playing like this every game!
