Michael Martinez
Special to FOX Sports Detroit
Detroit -- With Halloween over and the new season just beginning, Horizon League teams can forget about ghouls and goblins and focus on the frightening proposition of scoring against the Detroit Titans defense.
Last season, head coach Ray McCallum and the Titans thrived on the defensive side of the ball. They led the league in blocks, rebounding margin, field-goal percentage defense and three-point field-goal percentage defense. UDM was also second in steals and third in scoring defense.
The scariest part, though, is that Detroit looks to be even better this year.
It definitely will be bigger. The Titan front court has been bulked up, creating a depth it lacked in 2009-10.
In addition to returning 6-10 junior Eli Holman, the Titans will be relying on 6-10 sophomore John Hoskins, 6-8 junior Nick Minnerath and 6-11 junior LaMarcus Lowe to provide big minutes.
"We really have a four-post rotation," McCallum said. "Those guys have to be ready to play, and they're all going to get an opportunity."
Holman returns as the most talented of the Titan big men. He ended last season third on the team in scoring with 11.8 points per game, but McCallum said his biggest value comes from his ability to crash the boards.
"With Eli we have the best rebounder in the conference," he said.
With a year's experience under his belt and no major injury to slow down his off-season training, Holman has emerged as one of Detroit's best players. But he denies that he's more valuable than his teammates.
"Everybody has a role to play on this team," he said. "I wouldn't say (I'm a) leader, but I'd say (I'm) someone who's been through the fire before."
The same can't be said of the rest of Detroit's front court.
Of the other three bigs, only Hoskins has court experience with the Titans -- and not much of it, 4.6 minutes per game in 25 appearances.
"We've got a lot of guys who haven't played a game together," McCallum said.
Still, potential abounds.
Lowe led the Mid-American Conference in blocks his freshman year at Western Michigan. Minnerath led his Jackson Community College team in rebounding and was named a junior college All-American.
But their lack of Division I game experience prompted McCallum to schedule two exhibition contests before the season.
"It's just a matter of getting them in game situations and getting them a feel for how to play the games," he said.
In the first game against Division II opponent Hillsdale on Oct. 30, all four front court players saw action. Although the Titans were much taller, they barely outrebounded the Chargers, 40-37. Hillsdale was effective on the offensive glass, grabbing 16 rebounds to the Titans' nine.
It wasn't the most impressive rebounding effort, but McCallum said the team will improve.
"I think we had some jitters out there," he said. "We need to continue to work on the fundamentals of rebounding. We've got guys that can touch the top of the square, but you have to put two plays together, and that's blocking out and pursuing the ball."
The Titans will face Lake Superior State Nov. 6 at Calihan Hall in their final exhibition before the regular season.
(Michael Martinez is a junior journalism student at UDM. Come back next week for Part II of his position-by-position analysis of the Titans.)
Nov. 1, 2010
