Leatherneck Nation

The battle for the "Old Railsplitter Axe" is tonight (Dec 16) at Western Hall. Game time is 7:00 PM.

According to their roster, EIU has no Freshman or Sophomores - team is made up of all Juniors and Seniors, Looks like they have a lot of JUCO guys.

Thought about driving in for this one. Good thing I opted out or I would have headed back north about 15 minute mark of 2nd half.

Being the worst team defensively in the country doesn't really surprise me. For a coach to not make any adjustments....continues to kill me.

Crazy, Coach Mo had the best defensive stats in the country year after year with the worst offensive ratios. We now have the opposite. How has that seemed to work out...

Yeah, Mo team would have an off night leading to blowout loss of about 18 points.

Not much to cheer about here. Eastern Illinois won the game 85-47.

Ben Pyle led the Western scoring with 14 points.

Western had 19 turnovers.

Attendance at Western Hall = 347.

Next game will be at Western Hall on Thursday (Dec 19) vs Holy Family College.

Western Hall was very quiet for most of the 2nd half. But the crowd did make some noise when Jake Weyhrich came off the bench in the last 1:30 and grabbed 4 rebounds.

I am sure I could dig up some legit research on crowd size and athletic performance but I will speak only from my own experience while playing basketball in my youth. IMHO, a small crowd HELPS a visiting team as much as it HURTS the home team. The home boys get absolutely zero adrenaline rush from the crowd. The visiting team walks in, sees almost nobody, and gets some immediate swagger ("This is all you got for us? Lets get this over and get back on the bus!"). A smart coach must adapt to the environment.

‘The Old Railsplitter’ will be returning to Charleston.
From the McDonough County Voice:
https://www.mcdonoughvoice.com/sports/2 ... ks-at-home

We just abandon the system offensively which allowed EIU to work their system to the max and hit a three as time expired or well into the possession. Its tougher to play defense than offense. So down the floor come the Necks and someone fires up a three ball, no rebounders, here comes EIU again working their stuff. Rocker step, pass, rocker step pass, inside out side, diving post person wide open for a layup, and back down the floor again for WIU. Quick shot, or turnover, back on defense, tired emotionally, physically, ................Mo's teams never stopped using the system and thats why it was so hard to beat them, create space score wise etc. This was just an absolute "klanker!" jc