Could Miami (OH) Be a Threat With Stud Freshman?
Whenever there is a freshmen player making a huge impact on his team, chances are he plays for a power 5 program and had been highly recruited out of high school. The McDonald's All-Americans at Duke and Kentucky come immediately to mind with their plethora of other accolades that they've acquired before even setting foot on a college court. Typically, once you start to look at the mid-major teams, the stars at this level are seasoned veterans. These players have finally begun to master their craft that had many flaws coming out of high school and so that's why they were only recruited to this level.
However, apparently all of the power 5 school's scouts misplaced their game tape on Michael Weathers or else he has mastered his craft much faster than most mid-major players do. After all, this is a kid who dropped 21 points in his first even collegiate game. Now, this may not sound amazing because freshman at Kentucky and Duke seem to do this a lot but one must remember that they're supposed to contribute immediately. A guy not listed on many well-known recruiting sites isn't exactly to step into his first game and light it up, regardless of the quality of the opponent. The incredible thing is that Weathers is no flash in the pan after his inagural game. In fact, it only took him until the fifth game on the Redhawks' schedule to top the 30 point mark. He finally came down to Earth a bit last night in the Redhawks' 71-87 loss to IPFW having hit his lowest point total of the year with 12. However, I'm willing to cut him some slack because IPFW was just coming off that legendary upset over then #3 Indiana and obviously were still brimming with confidence from that victory. Also, there comes a time when every freshman has his struggles and this may have been that game for Weathers. Given his previous play, I don't think this game was any more than an unfortunate fluke.
Despite Weathers absolutely dominating thus far, the Redhawks may feel a little disappointed as to how their season is going at the moment. They were extremely unlucky not to get wins over Wright State or Delaware as they only lost to these teams by 2 points in each contest. Their other 2 losses were of slightly bigger margins with a 70-79 loss to Northern Kentucky and the aforementioned 16 point loss to IPFW. On a more positive note though, the Redhawks have yet to experience a true blowout in any of these losses which can certainly be seen as a positive. Also, they do have 3 wins over Division 1 opponents (Western Illinois, Austin Peay, and Grambling State), plus 1 non-Division win that contribute to their 4-4 overall record. I see lots of potential for this team of course because of the brilliant play of Weathers so far. If a few more players up their scoring totals slightly and Weathers avoids anymore games like IPFW , they can hang with anyone with such a prolific scorer that will only get better as the season progresses.