How the H@ll do we lose by 22 at home on Senior Night?

[UNIChippewa]

Unless we are on national TV I can't watch these games. Thank God for that tonight.

The box score didn't say much other than shooting percentages, and I saw that Bradley shot close to 60% despite having eight less attempts than us. We shot 38%. So, I guess that partly answers my question right there, but for us to lose by 22 on our own home court is disgusting and unacceptable. I would say that even if we weren't to twenty wins yet and fighting for the NIT.

Was it lack of effort on defense? Did McDermott get outcoached that much? Just really disappointing to see that score tonight (at least Iowa State won). I don't care how well Bradley is playing. You don't let a team shoot 60% against you on your own home court.

[JayJ79]

senioritis?

*ducks*

[ejacobson]

SENIORITIS!?!?!?!?!?! Im going to get slammed for this as of my relationships, but **** THAT BULL****!!!! BEN and CRAWFORD were the ONLY two players that came to play lastnight. If anyone thinks otherwise they just really don't know basketball.

Mac tried to call plays when we needed to cut loose.

Ben was driving the ball and making things happen, and we put Brooks in and shut it all down.

Crawford was hitting some three's and then BU shut down, he and Ben with double teams, and then we were screwed.

Brown got baptized by fire lastnight playing against two NBA players in Somerville and OBryant and he fought hard but he just isnt there yet, not his fault at all.

After those three players (Ben, Erik, Travis), everyone else looked like they were sleep walking I personally just don't get it, but ohh well.

[DWadle1983]

SENIORITIS!?!?!?!?!?! Im going to get slammed for this as of my relationships, but **** THAT BULL****!!!! BEN and CRAWFORD were the ONLY two players that came to play lastnight. If anyone thinks otherwise they just really don't know basketball.

Mac tried to call plays when we needed to cut loose.

Ben was driving the ball and making things happen, and we put Brooks in and shut it all down.

Brown got baptized by fire lastnight playing against two NBA players in Somerville and OBryant and he fought hard but he just isnt there yet, not his fault at all.

After those three players, everyone else looked like they were sleep walking I personally just don't get it, but ohh well.

Do you think the players are tired or is it something else?

[Newsbreaker]

I agree, Jacobson, and even Crawford, were ready to go. The rest of the team looked like they wanted to sit and watch.

Last night, to an extent, was also a product of our own play as of late. We've been down a lot lately, only to charge back and make a game of it. With about 5:00 to go, I saw a team looking at each other, wondering who was gonna bail them out, rather then a team looking to attack.

[ejacobson]

I know that the players are tired, but last night was a lack of focus and the game plan got shredded by Thuai and Wright. So yeah we need to be able to cut loose and run when the game plan gets beat and the two times that has a happened (MSU and BU) we have tried to run set plays to get out of it and it hasnt worked yet. The baskets that we got against BU were the rebounds of misses, drives after a set play broke down. I just think Mac gets a little scared and tries to control the game too much, rather than just letting the players play. I love Mac he is a phenomenal coach but he is still very young in terms of coaching tenure.

Thats my thoughts.

[jegbomb52]

Well, whatever happened its time to fix it or last night might not have been the last b-ball game in the dome for the boys as we might be hosting a first round NIT Game! Play the way we played last night that puts us losing by 50 at SIU and getting smoked by Drake in the first round of the Valley Tournament. Can anyone say losing 5 of 6 down the stretch? I can, but the selection comittee can not!

[Kaboom]

SENIORITIS!?!?!?!?!?! Im going to get slammed for this as of my relationships, but **** THAT BULL****!!!! BEN and CRAWFORD were the ONLY two players that came to play lastnight. If anyone thinks otherwise they just really don't know basketball.

Ben and Eric are they only ones who cared last night, if I were one of those to guys I would been extremely disappointed in my other teammates. As a senior, it's time for those BJ and ECraw to call the bigs out, what has Grant Stout been doing the last 4 games? He looks like a zombie. IMO, definitely call McKowen play out.

[panther2317]

Bradley (as many said before the season) showed last night that they are the most talented team in the league. Period. If they want to, they can beat anyone. They may run the table in St. Louis...or they may decide to mail it in vs. Drake and on Friday at the Savvis and be NIT bound. You just never know with that group.

They were unconscious from the field and everytime UNI made a shot...they answered. Tip your hat to them and we need to move on to SIU quickly.

[ejacobson]

I agree, Jacobson, and even Crawford, were ready to go. The rest of the team looked like they wanted to sit and watch.

Last night, to an extent, was also a product of our own play as of late. We've been down a lot lately, only to charge back and make a game of it. With about 5:00 to go, I saw a team looking at each other, wondering who was gonna bail them out, rather then a team looking to attack.

Very true, we played trying NOT to Lose, rather than playing to win. Hell Bradley played trying to beat every team in the nation last night, they played hungry and with Passion, I give Les and the Braves a lot of credit because they are one hell of a team, and they cut loose and let it all hang out while we just kind of tried to finese this one out.

Time to get back to basics. Drive, shoot, pass, get the tall guys the ball down low, and when they collapse hit the jumpers. But hey as of now according to RealTimeRPI, we only dropped to 25th while Bradley moved up to 31 I think. So in terms of numbers we lost to a good team, of course we know that but the rest of the college hoops world doesnt.

Sorry lost track of which rant I was on. Uhhh

GO PANTHERS!!!

[panther2317]

Wow...still 25th in the RPI. I remember last year when after the quarterfinal loss to SMS (it was still SMS then), no one gave us a chance to get in and people like PTTB kept telling us that our RPI was going to get us in.

This year...it will be our RPI, our # of wins vs. the Top 50 and our 2 wins (LSU and IOWA) vs. the Top 25. GO PANTHERS!!!

[Sex Panther...]

I know that the players are tired, but last night was a lack of focus and the game plan got shredded by Thuai and Wright. So yeah we need to be able to cut loose and run when the game plan gets beat and the two times that has a happened (MSU and BU) we have tried to run set plays to get out of it and it hasnt worked yet. The baskets that we got against BU were the rebounds of misses, drives after a set play broke down. I just think Mac gets a little scared and tries to control the game too much, rather than just letting the players play. I love Mac he is a phenomenal coach but he is still very young in terms of coaching tenure.

Thats my thoughts.

Some good points here. I'm pretty sure the game plan going in was to completely sag off Thuai and help down low, which going into the game looks like a pretty solid strategy since he was 1 for 6 from the 3 point line FOR THE SEASON. I'm sure no one anticipated him catching and rhythm shooting 2 3 pointers with the confidence of Benny and hitting nothing but the bottom. I also guarantee you that Mac was happy with O'Bryant taking a dribble from the top of the key and fogging up a 17 footer that clanged off the rim, hit the top of the dome, bounced twice more and then fell in. Before we knew it we were down double digits while executing the exact defensive strategy we should have been executing. UNI is a highly disciplined team, we need to be that way, but at times we look almost robotic on offense. Is that a product of being weary legged or a product of running a set play the majority of the time down the floor. Right now probably a combination of both, but that's who we are...it ain't gonna change. Benny has proven he can create for himself, Coleman is an "energy" type player who can as well, but he needs to be given the ball first, Crawford isn't full strength yet but I think he is sloooooowly bouncing back, everything else we get comes from open looks while running set plays. We miss a guy like Chris Foster, he's not coming back and we don't have anyone on our roster that can fill that role and not be a liability elsewhere. I wish Brooks was that type of player along with the other things he brings to the floor but he's not....plus it has to be difficult for him to be playing with those nail holes in his hands and feet. Obviously I am being facetious but I can guarantee you that Brooks is giving everything he has and he'd cut off his right arm for a win every game. I get sick of him being crucified everytime we lose a game. Give Bradley credit. We got beat by a talented, athletic team playing with maximum confidence right now. We beat a real good team in Bucknell, we can beat SIU IF we outplay them on their floor like Bradley did to us. We can win the MVC tourney. For whatever reason there seems to be a lot of attitude around here that we should be annointed a win everytime we hit the floor because we beat Iowa, because we beat LSU. We won those games because we outgutted the opponent that night. We have to play that way every night or we are going to get beat. The players and coaches know that, I think a portion of the UNI fan base needs to relearn that fact. I enjoy rooting for a team like that and will continue to do so win or lose.

[irishpanther]

As soon as Grant shot a couple last night he didn't really try to score but for Ecraw and BJ they knew if they didn't shoot it would be worse. Grant needs to keep his head up and keep on shooting b/c all player miss shots but all players make shots too.

[JayJ79]

sorry, I should have indicated better that I was joking.
I certainly wasn't actually accusing #5, #11, and #12 of coasting through their last home game. t'was just that the reference to senior night reminded me of "senior skip day" in high school.

bad joke.

[ejacobson]

sorry, I should have indicated better that I was joking.
I certainly wasn't actually accusing #5, #11, and #12 of coasting through their last home game. t'was just that the reference to senior night reminded me of "senior skip day" in high school.

bad joke.

Sorry I was still a little fired up from last night so I kind of snapped JayJ, (side note: after the game , I went to my lab to find I had left my keys in the lab which had since been locked by one of my collegues, and I could not reach any of them by phone, security isnt allowed to unlock labs, and so I had to spend 2 hours waiting for the Custodain to arrive to let me in to the lab so I could finish my experiment.) So yeah yesterday was a rough one, but I get what you were saying now. Sorry for the overreaction, I get emotional about Ben's games and especially the Panthers

Thanks for clarifying.