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

[vbfan19]

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

the Moe Howard defense

[UNIGrainer]

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

Of course he did.

[sevelev711]

Barttorvik wasn't too harsh on us, dropping only 6 spots, as one would expect, one of the blessing/curse things about analytics is the lack of over reaction. Gonna guess the magical mystery box that is the NET won't be as kind.

Barttorvik also now has us projected as a loss @Loyola for the first time all season. Which...fair. That remains the only game that we won't be favored in, and is only one of two games where we won't be somewhat heavily favored. The only other two games that we're not favored by at least five are @Drake and @ISUb

[uni1988]

WTF... getting beat by this dog sh*t team. Yeah... I'm pissed.

[uni1988]

Thought about making the four hour drive for this weekend's game... now I'm thinking NOT. The only games that matter now are in March.

[CyCarp]

I looked at the minutes distribution from last night and it's really mind boggling. Isaiah and Trae played all game, and AJ 39 minutes. I get they're your best players, but those minutes are gonna add up in a hurry. Plus I need an explanation on Luke playing 9 minutes while JD gets 2, Betz gets 0 and Pickford only gets 7. Pickford needs to be out there more...

[anderjao]

Unpopular opinion: Luke played sloppy, but our offense improved in the second half when he came in. Even with the turnovers, we made a run and started closing the deficit when he entered the game. There were also times he was wide open in the paint and nobody passed to him.

For the last three years we lose to teams that shoot uncharacteristically well from 3. But in all those games I'm tired of highlight reels of our guys failing to close out the shooter. We didn't rotate well and oversold on our help defense, and so we kept leaving guys wide open on the perimeter. That's a recipe for giving up career shooting nights

[06panther10]

Unpopular opinion: Luke played sloppy, but our offense improved in the second half when he came in. Even with the turnovers, we made a run and started closing the deficit when he entered the game. There were also times he was wide open in the paint and nobody passed to him.

For the last three years we lose to teams that shoot uncharacteristically well from 3. But in all those games I'm tired of highlight reels of our guys failing to close out the shooter. We didn't rotate well and oversold on our help defense, and so we kept leaving guys wide open on the perimeter. That's a recipe for giving up career shooting nights

I like Luke but I thought his minutes were awful. 0-2 shooting 3 bad turnovers, and 2 fouls in just 8 minutes.

[UNIAlum95]

Did anyone listen to post-game? Wondered if he talked about the minutes / rotations? I'm sure he was looking for something that would work but clearly other than that final stretch where we finally played with some intensity, SIU out gamed us. Yes the refs were bad. That's not the reason for the loss. SIU turned up the pressure and we folded like a cheap suit. Lacked in intensity and desire. All the credit to SIU to kicking us in the teeth and us not having an answer.

[BCPanther]

Thought about making the four hour drive for this weekend's game... now I'm thinking NOT. The only games that matter now are in March.

We're in better shape than Belmont was last year. Go ahead and move away from the ledge dude...

[BCPanther]

Did anyone listen to post-game? Wondered if he talked about the minutes / rotations? I'm sure he was looking for something that would work but clearly other than that final stretch where we finally played with some intensity, SIU out gamed us. Yes the refs were bad. That's not the reason for the loss. SIU turned up the pressure and we folded like a cheap suit. Lacked in intensity and desire. All the credit to SIU to kicking us in the teeth and us not having an answer.

There really wasn't a postgame, they were racing to the airport to beat an approaching ice storm. Just a bad night all the way around.

['70 Grad]

Don't we get to come back from a 16 point deficit once and win the game? Oh, wait. Mudras not here. We must have won.

[hediondo19]

We're in better shape than Belmont was last year. Go ahead and move away from the ledge dude...

Boy, by the way some people react to a loss you would think the sky was falling.

I get it, losing sucks. It happens to every team though. I don't think it was ever realistic to run the table in conference play - that is hard to do.

FWIW - I'll take AJ shooting that mid-range baseline jump shot for the win every single time. That goes our way 9 time out of 10.

[BCPanther]

Boy, by the way some people react to a loss you would think the sky was falling.

I get it, losing sucks. It happens to every team though. I don't think it was ever realistic to run the table in conference play - that is hard to do.

FWIW - I'll take AJ shooting that mid-range baseline jump shot for the win every single time. That goes our way 9 time out of 10.

SIU played the slip screen really well and didn't leave Berhow. They played it exactly right. AJ was the second option on that play and got a decent look. Hard to argue with it.

[UNIChippewa]

Last night sucked, but I'm disappointed in the chatter about us not being "clutch" and always folding down the stretch.

We erased a 3-point deficit with roughly a minute left to win a road game against a ranked team in Colorado last month; that's clutch. We also beat a decent Power 5 team in South Carolina on a neutral court that was a tight game for all 40 minutes that we managed to win by 6 by making clutch shots in the last couple of minutes.

It's fine to be disappointed in last night's performance; I am. But c'mon people, this team is 16-3 with those 3 losses coming by a total of 13 points. Don't be silly.