Sack up Little John its up to you!

[BBALL_NATION]

UNI is off to a great start and with big wins with the starting five accounting for 75% of the minutes. NOW WHAT?

How will the loss of Eric Crawford effect the Panthers? Can they fill the 31+ minutes per game production?

While a heavy load of minutes on the starting five has been successful for the UNI squad... as stated before and ignored by those too close to the program, the lack of a bench will finally come to haunt you.

Seriously, I never thought it would happen this way. I figured your guys would just get worn out at the end of the season. Little John is going to have to bring his game to prime time level to keep you boys afloat.

In the long run it could be valuable experience for the other 2 bench players and some will even get more than 8 minutes in a non-blowout game. But we are not surgar coating anything and truth be known your bench can't carry the weight.

You will be back running on all cylinders in 6 weeks but will it be too late?

Time will tell.....

[BillRawz]

who is this guy and where did we get him, i say we trade him to a cubs message board for Nomar and some chicage style pizza

[crich1]

BB NATION is right about the lack of depth being something that can hurt. Hopefully Brown will play like he did last night and early in the season and Viet can return. Little doesn't have to prove anything to anybody but the rest of the bench does. Time to step up and make something happen. It will make the team better when Erik comes back.

[pantherclaw]

Seriously this guy sounds like a newspaper article or t.v. sports reporter. LAME. I think that we will be more than able to come back stronger than ever.

[ejacobson]

Bball has been here before he is a bad mouthing fool and usually likes to pride himself on being cruel to hardworking players. Please panther fans ignore all his posts and do not diginfy him with any response. As you will see most of the big time posters will likely avoid this thread because of this. Just my thoughts.

[BBALL_NATION]

Bball has been here before he is a bad mouthing fool and usually likes to pride himself on being cruel to hardworking players. Please panther fans ignore all his posts and do not diginfy him with any response. As you will see most of the big time posters will likely avoid this thread because of this. Just my thoughts.

hmmmmm cruel to hardworking players? I'm not sure I pointed a finger at any player in the negative way. This is a team sport and I'm pointing out that your team runs closer to 7 deep and you just lost a major part of that.

If that is cruel then I guess you would be saying that they can't handle the load.

[Matt Trump]

I'd say the team did pretty well tonight running 7+ deep

[ejacobson]

Good call BBALL, genius, great basketball insight and knowledge as usual. Way to go Panthers. JLitt D'ed it up and Travo knocked down the shots. Way to cover for EC TEAM.

[panther2317]

One down, 7 to go without EC. Monday night is HUGE. I hope SIU comes to CF and plays like they did last night vs. Drake. Scoring 46 points and being helped by Drake's 25 TO's (inlcuding one on the last possession of the game).

I also noticed that SIU really only plays their starters any significant minutes (at least according to this morning's box score). So tomorrow night could be 12 guys + 40 minutes = extremely crucial Valley game.

Last night's road win wiped out the home loss, now UNI is back to "+1" pver SIU and "+2" on the rest of the league in getting road wins.

Protect the home court Monday night, let's go PANTHERS!!!

[Matt Trump]

Depth is taking us to 2 OTs against the league leader and taking us home for the victory.

[NJ Panther]

and winning. BBall is a freaking genius. ESPN should hire this idiot

[ejacobson]

and winning. BBall is a freaking genius. ESPN should hire this idiot

Should hire, I thought he was Dick Vitale and Jay Bilas' secretary. I hope he gets Dicky V's Duke cheerleading outfit nice and clean every week.

[pantherfan4ever]

hmmmmm cruel to hardworking players? I'm not sure I pointed a finger at any player in the negative way. This is a team sport and I'm pointing out that your team runs closer to 7 deep and you just lost a major part of that.

If that is cruel then I guess you would be saying that they can't handle the load.

The Panthers don't tend to ever go real deep and it doesnt really seem to hurt us. a lot of our guys play big minutes and have for the past 2 or 3 years. i dont think it will be that tiring on us as long as we get some guys to step up and put in some decent minutes (like Brown did at Ill St and like Josten, Atilia, and Williams did last night). I really think you will only see the starters increase their minutes by a couple minutes a game (with the exception of little who can easily handle between 33 and 35 mintues a game (10 more than his season avg). on a given night you will see either Josten or Brown put in an extra 10 over their season avg, and then beyond that there is only about 11 more minutes to split up between the starters, atilia, and williams. The starters are basically all over 30 minutes a game (coleman is close) and will probably all be around 33 minutes a game (except ben will be about 35 where he has been all year). If Brooks and Stout up their minutes to 33 that accounts for 4 of the 11 minutes we need to cover.. and then coleman will likely see about 4 or 5 minute increas which would leave us with about 2 or 3 minutes left to give to atilia, williams, etc..

obviously this is estimation and some of josten's and Brown's minutes could go to Williams or Atilia.. We do have some inexperience picking up about 15 to 20 of the minutes that Crawford played, but it seems that UNI always has someone step up and pick up the minutes and plays big... So far it has been brown at Ill State and Josten and Williams last night.