Toledo gets first win in comeback over Valpo

Last night, the Rockets pulled out their first win of the season, knocking off Valparaiso 75-72 in overtime at Savage Arena.  It's been a long season so far and it will continue to be a long season with few wins, but this team is on the right track with the right coach and the right players.

Toledo is in a low place right now after a point-shaving scandal, a coach who lost his job because of that, a coach being hired who just decimated the entire program and won very few games, that coach getting fired because of his on-court record and off-court extra curricular activities, and a new coach taking over a program in worse shape than NJIT.

Head coach Tod Kowalczyk has proven himself at Wisconsin-Green Bay and is doing well with very little this season.  He has three players sitting out this season due to transfer rules and he took over a roster with very few players on it.  He has built a solid core since he took over the program in April (the players who carry the load consists of four freshmen, one sophomore, and one fifth-year senior who committed when Kowalczyk took over) and when his three transfers become eligible (two from Green Bay, one from Iowa State), they will have, at the very least, an above average MAC team.  One could say they would be teetering on the edge of being *gasp* good.

Congrats to Coach Kowalczyk on his first of hopefully many wins in Toledo.  Valpo is having a good year and is a legit team.  Toledo has shown signs of life in spurts this year and have been close to a couple victories, but they put it all together and took home the much-deserved victory.

Notes from the game:
Valpo coach Homer Drew picked up a technical foul in the second half while Toledo was starting their comeback.  Instead of the T inspiring his team, the Rockets looked much more inspired for the rest of the second half and overtime.

Toledo had a five-point lead with 48 seconds remaining.  Valpo's Brandon Wood capitalized on some Toledo  mistakes, went on his own 5-0 run and the score was tied with 26 seconds remaining.  My heart sunk because I thought the chance for a win was over, but the Rockets prevailed in OT (after withstanding another scoring run by Wood).

I hope Kowalczyk is a calm person because between the freshman mistakes by his players, the missed easy shots (the team should have three wins right now if they could convert easy shots), and Brandon Wood, he could be on track for an ulcer by February.

Kowalczyk's two little kids running up to him and hugging him at the end of the game and him carrying them to the locker room was very cute.

The Rockets outrebounded Valpo 48-34.  Freshmen Hayden Humes and Reese Holliday both recorded double-doubles.  Toledo was down by 12 points in the second half