The 2009-10 Rockets have endured a year unlike any Toledo has ever seen, as UT is on pace to complete the worst season in school history.
Since winning three-of-four games with their last victory coming on Dec. 10 against IPFW, the Rockets are tied with Fordham for the nation’s longest losing streak at 17 games, nearly doubling the previous school record of nine tied by last year’s squad. Their 3-24 record currently sits as the worst winning percentage in the school’s 95-year history of basketball with a season over 15 games played. Toledo is also winless in their 13 Mid-American Conference games this season. Since joining the league in 1951, the closest UT has come to losing every MAC game was a three win season, the last time in 1991’s 3-13 season.
Wins have been just as hard to come by on the road, where the Rockets have lost all 12 games this year and have won just one game in the last three seasons (1-43). Head coach Gene Cross owns a 0-28 record away from Savage Arena in his two years.
Toledo’s only three victories on the season are over mediocre squads that you’ve probably never heard of in IPFW (12-13), UMBC (3-24) and Division III Rochester (13-9).
To put this season in perspective, the Rockets started the year hosting an exhibition game against Division II Central State on Nov. 10. The Marauders were greeted coming off of their bus with “Welcome to Ohio.” Ironically enough, Central State is based in Wilberforce, Ohio, just over 20 miles east of Dayton. Even though they were so unknown that they were welcomed to their own state, they left Toledo with a 56-49 victory over the Rockets.
Even former head coach Stan Joplin has chimed in on Toledo’s struggles this season. Last Sunday, Joplin remarked while working as an analyst for the Western Michigan and Eastern Michigan matchup on FSN-Detroit that the only chance UT had to win another game this season was that the other team “must not want to play and all the stars, planets, and moons must align.” Joplin coached the Rockets from 1996-2008.
The Rockets rank last in the MAC in nearly every major statistical category, including offense (54.5 ppg), field goal percentage defense (44.9 percent), rebound margin (-2), blocks (1.96 bpg), steals (4.2 spg), turnover margin (-4.5) and free throw percentage (63 percent). Of 12 MAC teams, Toledo also ranks 10th in assists (10.8 apg) and 11th in assist/turnover ratio (0.73).
If there has been one area of UT’s game that has been particularly poor, it has been their inept offense, as highlighted by last night’s dismal 12-point first-half effort. The Rockets rank 333 out of 334 Division I teams in scoring at just 54.5 ppg, just above Dartmouth’s 53.7 ppg. They would probably own last place if freshman guard and second-leading scorer Stephen Albrecht (11.2 ppg) had transferred in the beginning of the season instead of after 12 games. With Albrecht, the Rockets scored over 61 ppg and helped UT eclipse the 60-point threshold seven times. In 15 games without him, Toledo has scored just 49.33 ppg and has not scored 60 points on one occasion.
Though it’s difficult to criticize a team, especially one as young as the Rockets (12 underclassman), this team should be showing significant steps towards putting a better product on the floor. Instead, Toledo looks considerably worse than the team that lost by just 13 to No. 2 Michigan State in East Lansing on Nov. 20 in a 75-62 loss to the Spartans. This team has no business being 3-24 on the season. Toledo’s facilities are as good as you can get in the MAC, an excellent recruiting tool that should not produce the worst season in school history, regardless of how young this team is.
Cross should be back next season for UT, but he must make significant strides after such a poor season. Tying the school’s all-time consecutive losses record in his first year at nine, followed by shattering it in his second year with 17 and counting couldn’t have been what Athletic Director Mike O’Brien envisioned when he made the coaching switch in 2008. Toledo’s fans are clamoring for a successful men’s basketball team to follow, but for now they will have to make due with the 20-5 women’s team as the men try to just get back in the win column.
— Zach Davis is the Sports Editor and a senior majoring in communication. He contributes to Scout.com and UWire.com.
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