Game 14 - January 1 - Belmont

[CincyPanther88]

I said after the WSU game that they needed to find out a way to win when they don't shoot lights out. That's what happened tonight. Tytan is such a beast. There's times where he puts the team on his shoulders. They played great defense. Hopefully Hutty can heal up soon.

[BCPanther]

Per Nelley, they decided to leave Hutty in the back for immediate treatment.

Not sure about status for Saturday yet.

If he has to miss one, Valpo isn't a terrible choice. They don't really play any traditional bigs.

[Wxcpanther]

Per Nelley, they decided to leave Hutty in the back for immediate treatment.

Not sure about status for Saturday yet.

If he has to miss one, Valpo isn't a terrible choice. They don't really play any traditional bigs.

The most important thing here is that it's not a major injury, although ankle sprains can certainly nag at you for awhile. Fortunately, we've got the best athletic trainer in the business to get him back to form.

[achrist70]

A few thoughts and observations

1. Hopefully Hutty is back soon, I am not always the biggest fan, but he has been playing well, and it sounds strange but he helps spread the floor.

2. Belmont is and always will be a solid team, they are well coached. That is a good win to move to 3-0 in conference. We haven't been 3-0 in conference since 09-10.

3. Leon has a very good mid range and turn around game. Something that you don't see much at all these days. He was compared to Michael Jordan by the announcers, obviously that is a stretch, but I understand the comparison.

4. Hornseth and Pock really stepped up well when Hutty when down last night.

5. We need to keep this rolling, this team is fun.

[domedays]

—At the start of the game Campbell and others were attacking and getting in the lane almost at will. By the end of the first half we were stuck dribbling around the perimeter, the ball barely touched the paint. I suppose the difference was Hutty not being out there to bring his post defender out of the lane.

— Tytan is such a unique and special player. Have to appreciate him and his loyalty to the program. Double double against Southern and basically finished the win for them last night.

—Bond is really good. He was just consistently hitting fade away turn around shots. 15 points, 9 rebounds and solid D.
— In this new transfer NIL world, I would guess we will have Bond for only one year, but frankly I will happily take it. Of course I hope he stays and yes college basketball is a mess, but given the current set up I will take him for a year. I hope he takes us places this year and I will pull for him to make some money and have success in the future. The new transfer rules and the coaches recruiting have given us Hutty, Schweiger and Bond, and I get an interesting and exciting team to watch this winter.

[UNIAlum95]

Got ugly once we started slowing things down though with Hutson missing we probably needed to slow down a bit. Credit to Belmont for hitting a lot of shots down the stretch to keep the game within reach but more credit to the Panthers for not folding like a deck of cards when it got close.

Question for the brain trust here - What's Cael's status if he doesn't play this year? Is he done? Does he come back? I'm sure we weren't planning on him to be around another year. Have we heard if there's a chance he'll play yet this season and if so can we really expect to get anything out of that time?

Finally - Make your $#*%& free throws!

[06panther10]

I was very impressed with our effort last night. We controlled the game from start to finish, and for almost the entire game were able to get the shots we wanted on offense. Played with a ton of poise throughout. Our size really showed out defensively too, with a bunch of deflections and runout layups.

This team's strength is that we can score in the paint, and that is how we won the game. We didn't shoot that well from 3, and did not try to just keep jacking up shots. This needs to continue, its the way our team is going to have success.

Losing Hutty would be catastrophic however, you gotta pray they he heals quick.

[BCPanther]

Got ugly once we started slowing things down though with Hutson missing we probably needed to slow down a bit. Credit to Belmont for hitting a lot of shots down the stretch to keep the game within reach but more credit to the Panthers for not folding like a deck of cards when it got close.

Question for the brain trust here - What's Cale's status if he doesn't play this year? Is he done? Does he come back? I'm sure we weren't planning on him to be around another year. Have we heard if there's a chance he'll play yet this season and if so can we really expect to get anything out of that time?

Finally - Make your $#*%& free throws!

Last I heard they were hoping for late January for Cael Schmitt and there are no plans for him to be back next year whether he plays or not. We don't have a ride for him (already one over for next year) and he was planning on being done with playing after this year. That, of course, can all change as we've seen before.

Another long defender wouldn't be the worst thing ever.

[UNIAlum95]

Last I heard they were hoping for late January for Cael Schmitt and there are no plans for him to be back next year whether he plays or not. We don't have a ride for him (already one over for next year) and he was planning on being done with playing after this year. That, of course, can all change as we've seen before.

Another long defender wouldn't be the worst thing ever.

Thanks for the clarification (and spelling). Hope he can come back and provide a little depth during games.

[Username]

The thing about Hutty is he gets 20 points with ease (wide open 3s and at the basket). Over 5 times this year and 3 out of last 4. Yesterday sort of seemed like it was on that trajectory before being cut short.

Campbell played relatively well and had 15 points on 14 shots.

[BCPanther]

The NET is the greatest thing ever.

We beat a good team, the UIC team that we dog walked beat Drake and we fell a spot.

Great system. Glad the formula is secret.

['70 Grad]

My goodness - Belmont took 39 3-point shots vs 22 2-point shots! (20 in the first half, vs only 10 2-point shots and 19 in the second half, vs 12)
Any other teams we play that go out of "balance" that much?
They blocked 6 of our shots (without fouling )
Only 6 turnovers by us - that really, really helps.

[sivert]

Weird thing is that if EITHER team made a decent 3pt%, they would have won easily.

I like Tytan driving. He seems to be figuring out how to drive with side steps - reminds me of Giannis (except he tries for a layup when he gets to the rim instead of dunking).

I like Redek on D. He brings energy, which we seem to really need sometimes. I like him driving too, if he starts making more shots or assists, he seems like he’ll be really good. (Although his 11 minutes were bad BoxPlusMinus-wise).

The way the game is called now, we must drive, drive, drive. It seems like all you need is an effort to go around or at least diagonally through a defender and you draw the foul.

Hopefully Hutty is well soon, but it will be interesting to see Hornseth take the post.

[7YrsOfCollegeDownTheDrain]

It was an interesting game last night. we started fast and withstood runs even short a big. I really liked our effort on D, i like seeing born get more and more comfortable. At 6'3 he's a nice defender and so far in the games i've seen he doesn't get beat off the dribble by other PG's.

Leon is great - i hope he's happy in CF and decides to stay he's relatively close to home getting to play in a good bball league so i hope we get to keep him on campus for a few seasons. Really fun to watch.

Last night was a really nice team win. lots of guys chipping in 10-15 points, good d, good effort.

to echo everyone else - hope Hutty isn't too serious. After he initially hobbled off he went in before half and came back looking like he was moving pretty well but never re-entered the game, then stayed in the training room for the second half. Hope it's more minor issue and he's back sooner rather than later.

The officiating didn't decide or impact the game last night but it was interesting. I found it to be evenly called for both teams but,for about 30 min it was a pretty physical game... lots of contact with no calls. the last 10 they called a ton of fouls... mostly on hand checks and perimeter bumps but then let contact in the paint go. From a player perspective that had to be a real challenge to deal with such a drastic shift. I know at one point they whistled UNI for several fouls in about 30 sec of game time...jake called timeout to chew on the guy from halfcourt to the baseline...then they came out from the TO and did the same thing to belmond... i get that sometimes you have to reel things back in to clean things up but just really odd shift that the players seemed to struggle to adjust too.

[PantherAlum09]

We shot 16% from three and won. Typically we would have lost by a lot shooting that percentage. Hopefully tonight was just an off night at the FT line as well. I am happy to get the win. I hope Hutson is ok.

This really goes back to the importance of having Ben and Leon on the roster to go with Ty, and Trey. They can go get a shot when you need it and it doesn't have to be a three.