Up Next: Loyola

[CyCarp]

Pretty sad when I freshman is not just outproducing, but outworking everybody else. The Bench Carlson has been beat plenty of things on this board, I swear every time he's on the foul bad stuff happens. At one point today he gave up a 3, then the camera immediately went to Jake who was just shaking his head. I kind of thought he'd be bench after that, but he wasn't.

[PurpleCatFan]

I think we should shake up the Valley since the season is over and go to a run and gun offense. Maybe the players would learn how to score and he Valley would not be ready for this. Might even get the fans excited to see us score more than 40 points.

[TravelingPanther]

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[UNIChippewa]

Well, looks like I can go ahead and erase the DVR recording of the game from this afternoon without needing to spend a single second of wasting my time watching it.

At this point I do not see any point in spending any time or effort in watching this team not just lose games, but lose games that are eminently winnable on paper.

There is absolutely no reason for this team to be 0-4 in MVC play after the way we performed against terrific competition in our non-conference schedule. None. Unlike last season we do not have players out with injuries. We have supposed senior leadership from two (and three, if you count Ted) seniors who have been with the program for five years, two of those years being NCAA tournament seasons, including at the very least our 2nd best team ever.

Unacceptable, pure and simple.

[kochrab]

Well, looks like I can go ahead and erase the DVR recording of the game from this afternoon without needing to spend a single second of wasting my time watching it.

At this point I do not see any point in spending any time or effort in watching this team not just lose games, but lose games that are eminently winnable on paper.

There is absolutely no reason for this team to be 0-4 in MVC play after the way we performed against terrific competition in our non-conference schedule. None. Unlike last season we do not have players out with injuries. We have supposed senior leadership from two (and three, if you count Ted) seniors who have been with the program for five years, two of those years being NCAA tournament seasons, including at the very least our 2nd best team ever.

Unacceptable, pure and simple.

The only thing to look forward too is next year when we get another scorer. Add in a big man inside from who knows where and we're (hypothetically) light years ahead of this year. At this point, let's get next years class some playing time. Thanks for your contributions Koch, Carlson and Friedman. But if they can't lead the team on the court, lead the team from the bench.

[sevelev711]

The only thing to look forward too is next year when we get another scorer. Add in a big man inside from who knows where and we're (hypothetically) light years ahead of this year. At this point, let's get next years class some playing time. Thanks for your contributions Koch, Carlson and Friedman. But if they can't lead the team on the court, lead the team from the bench.

I was going to tell you to stick on topic, but who cares at this point. I've got two questions, firstly, do we know if the coaching staff actually plans on going after a big in the transfer market, or is it something we're just expecting to have happen? I'm not an in-the-know guy, I don't have sources, but I've heard nothing about who we're targeting or even if we're targeting.

Secondly, who even makes up the starting five next year? Certainly Pickford, and almost certainly Green, and either Phyfe or the hypothetical transfer big. Who do those last two spots go to, though? Wyatt probably gets one, since he's our "best guy off the bench" purely because he was injured too much, so regular conditioning and scheming should have him in, but then who? Brown? Haldeman? McCloud? Each has their goods and their bads, but I see more bads than goods for each.

Don't get me wrong, I wholeheartedly agree with you that we'll be better next year, if for no other reason than addition by subtraction, and two 40% 3pt on the floor at any time requires more respect than we've had in recent years, but if the trend continues on the current path, I don't see how we turn last in the Valley into a tournament team at any point soon.

[UNI Ka-Bullseye]

Credit Koch for his play today.

He fought hard on both ends of the floor.

Aggressive going for blocks. And had a few assists.

For sure, this loss cannot be put on Koch. Really played like he wanted it tonight. 9 boards, 5 offensive. 5 blocks. 2 turnovers with 2 assists and a couple secondary “hockey assists” where he hit the open man, who made the extra pass on the defensive rotation, who then drained the shot. Looked much better seeing the double team coming and passing quickly often before it even got there to give him trouble.

[UNI Ka-Bullseye]

3 players showed up for us today, Bennett, Tywhon, and Wyatt.


I really don’t know why Klint was in the game, we played so much better with him on the bench, I really don’t get it.

These 3 played half of the available minutes and scored 43 of 50 points (86%), got 26 of 37 rebounds (70%) including 9 of 11 offensive (81%).

This is better than the last couple games when only one or two players showed up (and not at all these same guys) but is it too much to ask to have more than 3 guys act like they want to be out there?

[UNI Ka-Bullseye]

Last thing - at the under 8 minute timeout, the 2nd half fouls were Loyola 8, UNI 4. We proceeded to get the last 8 fouls of the game called against us (only 2 were intentional at the end of the game). Were we really fouling that much more than them at the end of the game? Or perhaps they missed at least once Bennett getting mauled on the block (turned into a jump ball) and a 2 second long foul of Wyatt as the defender rode him from the instant he put the ball on the floor until he shot the layup. Some free throws in these situations certainly would have helped us score more than 5 points in the final 5:15. End of game officiating you expect more on the road than at home.

[CyCarp]

Last thing - at the under 8 minute timeout, the 2nd half fouls were Loyola 8, UNI 4. We proceeded to get the last 8 fouls of the game called against us (only 2 were intentional at the end of the game). Were we really fouling that much more than them at the end of the game? Or perhaps they missed at least once Bennett getting mauled on the block (turned into a jump ball) and a 2 second long foul of Wyatt as the defender rode him from the instant he put the ball on the floor until he shot the layup. Some free throws in these situations certainly would have helped us score more than 5 points in the final 5:15. End of game officiating you expect more on the road than at home.

With 5 minutes or so left, Tywhon got knocked to the ground 3 times going for a rebound within what couldn't have been more than 45 seconds and didn't get a single call. Other than that, I didn't really see much.

[achrist70]

We have to score more than 50 points to really complain about officiating, but the white haired official was horrible, and Jansen had an off night.

[BCPanther]

The officiating was perfectly fine. When you can't score and play a style where you give yourself zero margin for error by design, you lose all riights to complain about officiating plus you had an Elite 8 level crew yesterday. It wasn't a 'Saturday Night in the Valley' bunch.

The last two years with the bad starts you could kind of figure it out and know things were going to get better (the entire team being sick for a month in '16 and settling into roles last year after a bad non-con), I don't have that feeling at all this year. This team will get better but it doesn't appear to my eye to be a team that can go 10-4 or 9-5 from here. Its like we're already at our ceiling. Playing Thursday or not playing Thursday wouldn't surprise me either way but say we get to Saturday and the matchups are just horrible for us. We don't have a sole that can guard Alize, Illinois State's talent scares me. Drake is apparently going to shoot 45% from 3 all year.

Quick touch on next year, we HAVE to get more athletic. I'd like to see him use one or two of the open rides either on a JUCO or Grad Transfer that has a body that's ready to play the 3/4 and can get to the rack and command just enough attention to get our shooters some cleaner looks. AJ is obviously the real deal and he and Pickford are two great pieces to build the next 3 years around. As of right now, your starters next year are McCloud, AJ, Pickford, Brown and Phyfe. I'd love to find a real big body 4 that rebounds the hell out of the ball to compliment that as Ty can't do it alone.

Also, Jake needs Mac to put his friend hat on and they need to talk offense. Out of nowhere Mac is running one of the most efficient offenses in the country and not ball screen after ball screen and set after set. We're obviously not going to go full run and gun like Mac does but there have to be some principles we can take from what he's doing.

This might be a lost season, but the future is still pretty bright

[PantherAlum 2008]

McClouds offensive play HAS to get better...or should I say back to where it was in the Bahamas. Having your starting PG score 2 points in a game is not D1 material. Maybe if he had 15 assists to go along with those 2 points, but he only had 4 assists.

[DownGoesKansas]

Next year is a long ways away, but at this rate I think McCloud goes to the bench. AJ is the point guard. Add in Wyatt, Pickford, Phyfe and then I am not sold on who is should be. Brown possibly but I don't think he has shown enough yet.

I am sick and tired of not being able to make shots and excited for AJ to get here to help with that with a healthy Wyatt and throwing in Spencer off the bench being able to play solely away form the ball.

[run&blade]

Hoping some people transfer off the team and get some transfers and/or JUCOs.

Roster lacks a talent when everybody is looking forward to an incoming freshman.