You can't do this boys

[UNI MadCat]

Regarding the loss itself, regardless of Crawford, we could have, and probably should have, won the game. We shot 35% for the game, that should pretty much explain it all. So CU must have been playing some good D? Or did we miss a lot of open shots?

But still, you could have managed to eek it out anyway with FTs. You can't shoot 62% from the line. Especially when you miss the front end like we did, that's more than a few hidden points right there.

I try not to get too down about a game, especially a b-ball game when there are so many of them, but this one hurts more than any loss in a LONG time. Probably since the CU game at home last year, ironically.

I understand that in theory we are still in fine shape for an at-large of any kind, but just yesterday we were optimistically looking at a 6 seed, with reason.

But now we're looking at a huge loss of Crawford and we have to go on the road then with the conference leaders coming in, that's scary. Follow that up with a Drake team that will press the heck out of us and without Craw, that could be huge too.

Somebody pick me up b/c I'm staring at a 1/2 empty glass right now!!!

[Panthers to the Bone]

Go by a comparison of what UNI did last year. As I stated on the State of the Panther Nation address, UNI is one up on last year's conference win total, and one up on the non-conference win total (up to these points last year). That makes UNI 2 games up on last year's win total through similar competition. UNI goes on the road to Illinois State, and that was a game UNI won last year, so a win, and UNI would still be up 2 games. Lose, and UNI is back to only 1 game up. Still in good position, and the bench players are now going to get their chance to shine.

[UNI MadCat]

Go by a comparison of what UNI did last year. As I stated on the State of the Panther Nation address, UNI is one up on last year's conference win total, and one up on the non-conference win total (up to these points last year). That makes UNI 2 games up on last year's win total through similar competition. UNI goes on the road to Illinois State, and that was a game UNI won last year, so a win, and UNI would still be up 2 games. Lose, and UNI is back to only 1 game up. Still in good position, and the bench players are now going to get their chance to shine.

Understand it. But here's the thing, this wasn't a team that was set up to finish the same as last year, it was supposed to be much better. Potential's still there but this is a big blow. At this point, my re-adjusted goals are for a NCAA birth, any seed.

[Panthers to the Bone]

UNI still has winnable road games that they lost last year (at Evansville and at Drake). They need to take care of business Saturday. I understand your concern, but this is not the worst thing possible. UNI will get EC back, and when he comes back, there will be depth added that hadn't been there before. UNI has capable, younger players that can step in collectively and fill this hole. Don't jump off the edge! This team is good, and don't forget that UNI has one of the best game coaches in the country.

[ejacobson]

If we split with CU and win our other road games it is very likely that we can still win the MVC. SIU has not played anyone of the top 5 on the road yet and is going to have a rough last month of the conference season. With that said these guys can win this thing and can win any game they play if they play all out. Last night on TV it looked as though the team was just not there mentally and I doubt that Mac will let that happen again. Its happened 3 times this year. We have not yet been beaten, we have lost all 3 games by our own mistakes. If we played our A game last night we would have won. Ben missed open shots, Eric gets injured, Grant dropped passes in the lane, Coleman missed nearly all his free throws. I think that JLitt, Brooks, and Travo did well, although JLitt got in foul trouble which was BS, but not why we lost. This team can still make a solid run at the MVC title and the NCAA tourny, but we cannot just expect to walk on the court and win, the boys have to bring the A game every game here on out.