*Game 4, EKU*

[06panther10]

Gotta play better, and take care of the basketball.

I know nothing about EKU, anybody?

[BCPanther]

One really good player. I believe Mayo is the name. Put up 40 in a game earlier this year. Other than that? Pretty meh.

This is one we 'have' to get.

A win probably sets us up to play Old Dominion back to back.

[sivert]

...This is one we 'have' to get.
...

That's usually said in relation to at-large, which is gone. The path for that is SUPER-narrow and was probably lost in Arlington. The only games we 'have to get' are the 3 in St. Louis.
I'm not disagreeing, BC. I agree that we have to get it because the 18-19 team must decide if they are going to fight to win.

Every team we play will know one thing for sure: Pressure UNI like crazy - they will get frustrated, miss everything, and turn the ball over. Nearly every game is going to be a pressure cooker.

[BCPanther]

That's usually said in relation to at-large, which is gone. The path for that is SUPER-narrow and was probably lost in Arlington. The only games we 'have to get' are the 3 in St. Louis.
I'm not disagreeing, BC. I agree that we have to get it because the 18-19 team must decide if they are going to fight to win.

Every team we play will know one thing for sure: Pressure UNI like crazy - they will get frustrated, miss everything, and turn the ball over. Nearly every game is going to be a pressure cooker.

This was never going to be an at large team. That's not what I'm saying. This is a team that was 300+ in the RPI last year and is at best a middle of the pack OVC team. It's a game every Valley team should win convincingly.

[domedays]

That's usually said in relation to at-large, which is gone. The path for that is SUPER-narrow and was probably lost in Arlington. The only games we 'have to get' are the 3 in St. Louis.
I'm not disagreeing, BC. I agree that we have to get it because the 18-19 team must decide if they are going to fight to win.

Every team we play will know one thing for sure: Pressure UNI like crazy - they will get frustrated, miss everything, and turn the ball over. Nearly every game is going to be a pressure cooker.

Sorry, but you are hitting my pet peeve here. There is more to a season than the NCAA tournament. Maybe like winning a conference regular season championship. We definately need to crack the code on how to prepare for the conference season. I feel this is an important game. Not "a must win game" but still would be a good confidence boost.

[sivert]

Yep. Makes sense. Honestly, I don't think that this team is that far from being a VERY tough team. The last two games were close - and will incredibly bad turnover and shooting. 31 turnovers in two games. 5/39 (0.13%) from 3. Fix either one of those things and both games would have been wins. Fix both and we we're all happy and buying tickets to St. Louis.

Not getting Tray Croft is tough. The emphasis on motion and offensive right-of-way has made this a quick point guard's game. Not trying to re-start the argument of whether AJ is best as a PG or SG. Adding Tray next year will be interesting.

I still think this team can go a long way. There is so much emotion in this game (frustration, determination, fight). The last couple years we have finished the OOC riding high and then Valley play comes and there's no fight.

[sevelev711]

It stings now, but I'd much rather take the non-conference being rough and getting it together in MVC play vs the other way around. I'm amazed at how many people have already given up on this team. The rhythm isn't there yet, very true. It's also game 2 out of 30 something. There are basically just two issues to the team, 3-pt shooting and turnovers. As was already mentioned, fix one and we win, fix both and we dominate. This is so much better than last year when the issue was basically everything.

As for this game, I don't want to get into the semantics of what a must win game is, but I will say that this is a game that they absolutely should win. One that there would be alarm bells going off if they were to lose, and for very good reason. Eastern Kentucky is not good. We should take this one.

[Gboom23]

For those planning on the radio for this one, it looks like it’s on AM 1330 and FM 107.3.

[orangetennis]

We've led at the half, only to give up 40+ 2nd half points in each of these loses. Call that coaching, conditioning or cohesiveness, but it needs to get fixed.

[sevelev711]

Under 12 break, 22-15 UNI. I haven't watched the whole thing, and I'm not really watching it now, more of just a powerpoint presentation. But they've been looking better. 2-3 from 3 and only one TO since I've started watching.

[sevelev711]

Under 8, UNI getting on a roll now, 34-22. Eastern Kentucky has been fairly heavily pressing us, and it started off pretty rough, but now they're playing through it pretty well. Good dunk by Biggie.

[ceaser150]

Looks like Haldeman is 3-3 on 3 pointers

[sevelev711]

And as soon as I said that, Panthers went on a fairly cold streak, now only lead 39-32. Notable was that AJ was out for most of that stretch.

[sevelev711]

Half time, 48-42 UNI. E. Kentucky can't miss it seems, but neither can Spencer Haldeman. 4-4 from the three, team as a whole is 8-16. Only 4 TOs for UNI. Only problem right now is the rebounding. 10 offensive boards for E Kentucky to UNI's 13 total rebounds.

[sevelev711]

AJ had to sit with two fouls for a lot of the half, only played 9 minutes. Shame too, because he seems to be having his best overall game so far, 7 points and 2 assists in those 2 9 minutes. Pickford and Phyfe both playing plenty, with 13 and 10 minutes respectively.