Game 19 - Southern Illinois (Annual what's a Saluki?)

[achrist70]

I really hope we look at going back to Tywhon starting, this is not anything against Spencer I just like his offense off the bench and it seems that if Tywhon doesn’t start then we forget about him and what he can do.

[UNI Ka-Bullseye]

I'd blame this one on defensive laziness and not staying focused enough on that side of the ball.

Two examples jump out at me. Guy has already made two 3s from the left corner, then after a MADE shot by us, we don’t get back and he finds himself wide open in that corner again and drains it. Inexplicable. A couple possessions later we cheat over and watch a guy with a standing dribble, leaving Jones with an easy spot up shot when he was already 3-4 from 3 at that point.

However, proud of how they fought back. Easy to second guess AJ’s shot at the end because it didn’t go in, but I’ll take that shot just about every time. I’m usually one to complain about the dribble down the clock and jack a shot end of game strategy, but this time seemed different because there were only 8 seconds left and we had no timeouts to draw up anything. Didn’t really settle, drove in hard and created space for a pull up.

[UNIChippewa]

I would love to hear from someone in charge at the league office why SIU shot 23 free throws to our 4.

[BCPanther]

When did this program become the most unclutch program in the country? Not just in-game, but the games as a whole? Like, this game probably just knocked down attendance for Loyola by 1000. Today/yesterday was the first time I saw national press for us all year. We were about to be ranked! Just to have that performance. Has UNI won a big game since that Texas buzzer beater? Someone mentioned this earlier, but why doesn't this stuff happen to the other teams in the conference? Loyola's cruising just fine, sure they got one loss but Drake doesn't look too bad this year. Bradley's only losses are to us. Why can't we just be good? We always look like we're about to be good, and then right about the time we get to the point where it's like "If they win this one, then I'll say they've turned the corner," boom. This.

Check Loyola's schedule before you say they're cruising. They haven't seen us or Bradley and they lost the only road game they've played against a top half team.

Regular season title is still well within reach. I am still certain we're the best team in the league. Tonight just showed that you have to play more than 10 minutes no matter who is on the other side. They've also got DI players that practice and everything.

[BCPanther]

I would love to hear from someone in charge at the league office why SIU shot 23 free throws to our 4.

AJ got hand checked. A lot. Especially coming off ball screens. Those have to be called. To of those get called, AJ gets 4 free throws and we win.

We're good enough to overcome poor officiating and we just weren't tough enough to do that tonight. This one is on us in the end.

[06panther10]

We played crappy soft defense for most of the night. That, and 16 awful turnovers is what lost us the game. The fact that SIU only turned the ball over 6 times, and shot over 20 more FTs than we did should tell you all you need to know about our aggressiveness on both ends.

With that said, we got ****ed once again by another awful flagrant foul call which was a 4-6 point swing on its own. Its a ridiculous rule that we have been on the wrong end of in crucial game losing situations 3 times in the last 20 games.

I would have bet my life savings that AJ’s shot was going to go in. What a great look, he makes that 9 times out of 10, I am still in disbelief it did not go in.

We are incredibly overdue for a long stretch of good luck...

[sevelev711]

I agree 100% with this. It seems like the last several years, we always lose the game right before we're about to have a big home game. Or we drop the big home game. It's one of the big reasons our attendance suffers. Right when it seems like the general public gets interested, we sh*t the bed. It's super frustrating.

And you can't blame anyone who thinks. Who casual fan would want to get invested for the team that's got the highest amount of heartbreak in the country (HrtBrk% in Kenpom) over the last few seasons? It's like watching a tv show that is pretty entertaining most of the time and then when it comes time for season finales they mess up the resolution to every story line and you wonder why you even bother tuning in.

[BCPanther]

We played crappy soft defense for most of the night. That, and 16 awful turnovers is what lost us the game. The fact that SIU only turned the ball over 6 times, and shot over 20 more FTs than we did should tell you all you need to know about our aggressiveness on both ends.

With that said, we got ****ed once again by another awful flagrant foul call which was a 4-6 point swing on its own. Its a ridiculous rule that we have been on the wrong end of in crucial game losing situations 3 times in the last 20 games.

I would have bet my life savings that AJ’s shot was going to go in. What a great look, he makes that 9 times out of 10, I am still in disbelief it did not go in.

We are incredibly overdue for a long stretch of good luck...

3 of our last 4 losses have a 4-6 point swing on a replay review.

How the **** does that happen?

[UNIGrainer]

Very weird flukey flagrant fouls in 3 of 4 losses dating back to last year. Why is that rule even in place? Who are they protecting/what problem are they fixing? Has it changed how anyone has played the game? I think Haldeman still boxes out.

[06panther10]

3 of our last 4 losses have a 4-6 point swing on a replay review.

How the **** does that happen?

Its unfathomable. And those 3 losses could very well have cost is TWO NCAA bids. LOL, like I said, we are WAY overdue for some luck.

I just love the logic of the call on AJ today, he gets a flagrant foul because the guys face was was in the way of his dribbling path, for which the SIU defender was initially CORRECTLY CALLED FOR A FOULING. Nope, never mind, 4 point foul on AJ. Perfect.

[orangetennis]

We outplayed them in every category except for turnovers. That's frustrating.

[UNIGrainer]

And you can't blame anyone who thinks. Who casual fan would want to get invested for the team that's got the highest amount of heartbreak in the country (HrtBrk% in Kenpom) over the last few seasons? It's like watching a tv show that is pretty entertaining most of the time and then when it comes time for season finales they mess up the resolution to every story line and you wonder why you even bother tuning in.

Is heartbreak % in Kenpom really a thing?

[BCPanther]

AJ got poked in the eye in the first half and couldn't really see the rest of the night per Petaros.

[UNI Ka-Bullseye]

AJ got poked in the eye in the first half and couldn't really see the rest of the night per Petaros.

Where were his two FTs and the ball?

[sevelev711]

Is heartbreak % in Kenpom really a thing?

Nope that's just me making horrible attempts at comedy, because it's either try to make a laugh or go to the liquor store and trade in my one year chip.