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With the new year comes new challenges for the Quinnipiac men’s basketball team. The Bobcats had a total of five out of conference games before MAAC play starts up again at Niagara on Jan. 2. The Bobcats went 2-3 over the stretch. With these all games over, here are three things to consider before conference play takes up the rest of the season.

Mikey Dixon is good.

 Coming into the season no one really knew what these two knew freshmen, Mikey Dixon and Pete Kiss, would contribute to this Bobcat team knowing in the past that head coach Tom Moore wasn’t very keen on playing freshmen on his squad. But with all the inexperience this team had coming in Moore decided to try the freshmen out and as he would put it, they have been a “pleasant surprise” so far this season.

However, Dixon has been the most impressive out of the two. Dixon is averaging 14.6 points per game so far on the season, highest on the team. Also, Dixon has lead the Bobcats in scoring in three of the five out of conference games. And Dixon has played an average of about 27 minutes during these games as well.

In the Brown game, Dixon had his first career start. It went pretty well as the freshman guard had a career high in points with 23 and played a staggering 36 minutes with some other players limited due to the flu.

However, this was all in a losing effort for the Bobcats. Dixon is a good player and he has proven that, but the four other players around him have to be good as well or else it could just be another repeat of last season. And that is the last thing Tom Moore would want for this talented freshman class.

Who is the leader for this team?

Going into the season many, including Moore, believed that senior Danny Harris would set up into the leader role this season. Through the first couple of games it seemed as like leadership was lacking for this team. The defense was spotty and the offense struggled in settled situations.

Moore even said after the Drexel loss that no one player has been at Quinnipiac and has experienced winning for the team before. It is hard to lead a team to victories if you have never done it before.

The last winning season came during the 2013-14 season were the Bobcats went 20-12. The only player left from that team is senior Alain Chiga, who only played in eight games during that season and is only averaging 11.8 minutes per game this season.

So, where does it end for this team? If Moore wants a leader who has won games, how will that work if he hasn’t done that in the past and isn’t doing that now? I see where Moore is coming from with this philosophy but, there is close to no won left who has winning experience. Someone needs to step up and lead this team to avoid another season like last year.

The Bobcats need someone on the court that will hold everyone accountable to do their job. Because right now, Quinnipiac is going into the new year on a two-game losing streak and have let its opponents score 75 points or more in four of the past five games.

Where is the defense?

 Moore has been doing something this season that he believes is a new look that has not been a part of the Quinnipiac basketball program for a while and that is zone defense. The zone defense at this point in the season has been shaky at best.

Moore even said after the Drexel game that when this team switches into different defenses it becomes a weaker rebounding team. That showed during the Drexel game as the Bobcats were out-rebounded 42-35.

Other than rebounding, defense has just been so up and down all year for this team. The Bobcats on average let their opponents score 80.8 points per game. People might have jumped to conclusions and just say their defense is bad but, I disagree.

I think the zone defense is bad. Moore knows that there are players with little DI basketball experience so that is why he thought the zone would help out as another defensive option. It has been disappointing to say the least. Whenever this Bobcat team goes into their zone, like Moore said, the rebounding effort goes down. For a team that is usually tops in the conference, it doesn’t help an already struggling defensive squad by giving up so many offensive rebounds.

Going back on the leadership problem, Moore said it has mostly been him and his staff trying to get the team where it needs to be successful. The Bobcat head coach said it was also on the coaching staff to find some defensive resolve for the team going into MAAC play for the rest of the season.

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