At the start of every practice, Emporia State coach David Moe gives his team a State-of-the-Union type address.
They are usually filled with a little bit of Moe's humor, a little bit of his passion and a lot of honesty. So much honesty I wouldn’t be surprised if Moe is ducking a shoe — a la President Bush — some day.
One of the State of the Union addresses that I missed and I wished I would have attended was the day following the loss at Central Missouri on Dec. 6. From talking to the ESU players, I feel like the message that day was the Hornets got exposed.
Going into the game, they were a confident bunch. They had controlled every game and not been challenged for three weeks. They were 2-0 in the MIAA and looking like they might content for a conference title. They had found an offense that brought out everybody’s strengths.
They were playing loose and the ball was moving and everything was fluid and every shot was falling and it really was beautiful basketball.
Then Central Missouri came out and hit the Hornets in the mouth. They were physical and didn’t let the Hornets get into their offense. And the ball quit moving and the shots quit falling (zero 3-pointers for a Moe ESU team for the first time ever), and it was far-from-beautiful basketball.
The Hornets had been exposed.
They’ve had just one game since that loss — an 89-61 win against Bethany, an NAIA team — and they've had a lot of practice time to figure things out and help build their confidence back up. But really, it’s yet to be determined how they are going to bounce back.
This week we will find out. The Hornets play three MIAA games in six days, starting with a game at Truman on Monday, then at home against Nebraska-Omaha on Wednesday and finishing at home on Saturday against undefeated Southwest Baptist.
If the Hornets finish this stretch 3-0, they will compete for a conference title. If they can finish 2-1, they’ll have a chance to finish near the top of the league, which would be a successful season with a team of almost all newcomers. Anything worst than 2-1, and the team could lose confidence and maybe never recover.
The encouraging thing is that every time the Hornets have hit a valley this year, they’ve bounced back and responded in a positive way. Moe has reminded his team of this repeatedly. It’s a regular theme of the State-of-the-Union addresses.
After a pitiful performance in a preseason scrimmage at Central Oklahoma, the Hornets figured out that they needed to trust each other in order to be successful. It was the preseason and everyone was new and trying to prove themselves, but after that day, they started to become a team.
Then there was the exhibition opener against Wichita State when the Hornets came out intimidated and fell behind 15-3. Eventually, their nerves settled and they started playing team ball and they were better because of the experience. They’ve had other low points throughout the season, and they’ve always bounced back.
This week the Hornets will have to prove that they can play against physical defense, because Truman, Nebraska-Omaha and Southwest Baptist have definitely been studying the Central Missouri tape. They have to also prove that they can find a way to win when the 3-pointers are not falling, because with three games in six days, the legs are going to get tired and at some point the shots are going to quit falling.
I’m predicting that the Hornets win their first two games, and then with their confidence high, they’ll play with Southwest Baptist, the third-ranked team in the country. And if they stay with Baptist and give themselves a chance at the end, maybe a little White Auditorium magic will help them pull off the upset.
Regardless of what happens, the State of the Union address will tell the story the following Monday. It’ll just be a little bit more humor than brutal honesty if things go the Hornets’ way.