Game 28 - Feb 19 - @ Belmont

[BCPanther]

Complete side note but...

Continue playing this way and get any kind of postseason bid and it's time to extend Jake again.

[Purrrrrfect]

So first and foremost...win this weekend and win out if course but since seeding is essentially wrapped up in the context of top 3...let's play the postseason pro game.

In the case we don't win Sunday. So.be guaranteed 2 or 3 seed. Not a ton of difference except for scoreboard watching of who the opponent may be but IF we lose sunday. Do we play for 2 seed or should we rest (decrease minutes) some main guys who are plugging a ton of minutes and get some bench guys some time and reps. 6 spot is up for grabs with ISUr, Evansville, Murray and UIC, 7/10 spots for the 2 seed are essentially any of those previous 4 plus ISUb abd SIU.

Sat. UiC plays host to the Aces so there will be separation there

Murray travels to Bradley and the Trees go to Belmont. We will know a lot more Sat night obviously heading into Sunday and Sunday of course is first priority but my coaching mind just thinking ahead...especially if things go wrong and get outta hand Sunday or something insane...knowing the situation..can start saving legs and get more reps too.


Just like to ponder the hypotheticals during the downtime. Its nice to be in a position where 3 games left and you can actually think about that type of strategy and different scenarios

[BCPanther]

So first and foremost...win this weekend and win out if course but since seeding is essentially wrapped up in the context of top 3...let's play the postseason pro game.

In the case we don't win Sunday.Sunday.be guaranteed 2 or 3 seed. Not a ton of difference except for scoreboard watching of who the opponent may be but IF we lose sunday. Do we play for 2 seed or should we rest (decrease minutes) some main guys who are plugging a ton of minutes and get some bench guys some time and reps. 6 spot is up for grabs with ISUr, Evansville, Murray and UIC, 7/10 spots for the 2 seed are essentially any of those previous 4 plus ISUb abd SIU.

Sat. UiC plays host to the Aces so there will be separation there

Murray travels to Bradley and the Trees go to Belmont. We will know a lot more Sat night obviously heading into Sunday and Sunday of course is first priority but my coaching mind just thinking ahead...especially if things go wrong and get outta hand Sunday or something insane...knowing the situation..can start saving legs and get more reps too.


Just like to ponder the hypotheticals during the downtime. Its nice to be in a position where 3 games left and you can actually think about that type of strategy and different scenarios

You play to win. Period. End of story.

Plus, we're in a great spot for an NIT bid so you play to win.

[Purrrrrfect]

You play to win. Period. End of story.

Plus, we're in a great spot for an NIT bid so you play to win.

Fair..don't disagree a bit !

[06panther10]

We are in such great shape with the seeding scenarios right now actually.

1. Win out and we are conference Champions, obviously that is #1 priority.

But after that, being a 2 or 3 seed and staying off that 4 line is important to stay on the opposite side of the bracket to Drake and hopefully Belmont/Illinois State type teams. And we have already secured a top 3 seed as of today, so its just about going out and playing right now.

Additionally, in the scenario we beat Drake and UIC in our next 2 games, Bradley likely has nothing to play for seeding wise next Sunday in a game that we would need to win to secure a share of the Championship, which would certainly be a positive.

[Wxcpanther]

Complete side note but...

Continue playing this way and get any kind of postseason bid and it's time to extend Jake again.

All the credit in the world to Jake and the job he's done with this group. Even a month ago I thought he needed to go so we could reset with Tutt at the helm. Now I am thankful that Minnesota is playing better so they're less likely to fire their coach lol

[Khan4Cats]

All the credit in the world to Jake and the job he's done with this group. Even a month ago I thought he needed to go so we could reset with Tutt at the helm. Now I am thankful that Minnesota is playing better so they're less likely to fire their coach lol

Some people may not remember that Ben Johnson, Minnesota's Head Coach, was an assistant here under Jake during the Sweet Sixteen run.

[domedays]

It’s hard not to be impressed with what this team has turned into. Maybe one of Jake’s best coaching jobs, or is it the staffs best recruiting jobs. Schweiger, Weisbrod, and Schmitt have really stepped up since the injuries.

Schweiger especially, is starting to look like a difference maker. The portal seems like a good thing with the kids they brought in.
UNI has really been hitting the offensive boards which is odd for UNI. 19 offensive rebounds is the most since 2013.
I’m starting to wonder where Tytan fits in with all time great Panthers. He passed Cam Johnson last night on the all time scoring list.

['70 Grad]

So much for my simplification that if Trey hits his 3s, we win. He was 2-9 from distance. (Hey Trey - you could have made it easier to win!) He did have 8 rebounds. And committed only 2 turnovers.

How in the heck did we win? FT% of .455 and lose the turnover battle. 2 steals to 8. 33% from 3. They commit only one foul in the first half.????????????

We used 3 bench players for a total of 17 minutes (no rest minutes at all for Ben). And yet we were the more energetic team at the end. All of those offensive rebounds. 46 points in the paint. Wow.

They played the first 5 minutes about perfectly. From 70 seconds left until about 20 seconds left, they also did well. (Made us use our last time out, hit a 3, etc.) Max could have helped with free throws (he did make important ones in a previous game).

What a gutty, core group.

Tytan refuses to lose.

[06panther10]

So much for my simplification that if Trey hits his 3s, we win. He was 2-9 from distance. (Hey Trey - you could have made it easier to win!) He did have 8 rebounds. And committed only 2 turnovers.

How in the heck did we win? FT% of .455 and lose the turnover battle. 2 steals to 8. 33% from 3. They commit only one foul in the first half.????????????

We used 3 bench players for a total of 17 minutes (no rest minutes at all for Ben). And yet we were the more energetic team at the end. All of those offensive rebounds. 46 points in the paint. Wow.

They played the first 5 minutes about perfectly. From 70 seconds left until about 20 seconds left, they also did well. (Made us use our last time out, hit a 3, etc.) Max could have helped with free throws (he did make important ones in a previous game).

What a gutty, core group.

Tytan refuses to lose.

I never said we "needed Trey to hit 3's to win", I said that we are basically unbeatable when he, or our team in general, hits a bunch of 3's with the way we are also playing defense right now.

Which the numbers bear out completely, as we are undefeated when we hit 10+ 3's.

[PantherAlum09]

So much for my simplification that if Trey hits his 3s, we win. He was 2-9 from distance. (Hey Trey - you could have made it easier to win!) He did have 8 rebounds. And committed only 2 turnovers.

How in the heck did we win? FT% of .455 and lose the turnover battle. 2 steals to 8. 33% from 3. They commit only one foul in the first half.????????????

We used 3 bench players for a total of 17 minutes (no rest minutes at all for Ben). And yet we were the more energetic team at the end. All of those offensive rebounds. 46 points in the paint. Wow.

They played the first 5 minutes about perfectly. From 70 seconds left until about 20 seconds left, they also did well. (Made us use our last time out, hit a 3, etc.) Max could have helped with free throws (he did make important ones in a previous game).

What a gutty, core group.

Tytan refuses to lose.

This is why the defense stepping up has been so important. Last night was a combination of tightened down defense in the 2nd half and Belmont really struggling from the line. We also really pounded the paint in that second half and got Tytan a ton of good looks. He has improved so much at finishing around the hoop this year.

For all of Hutty's struggles finishing around the hoop, he was absolutely huge on the glass in the 2nd half, too. Ben, Ty, and Max were fantastic last night. Huge win.

[BCPanther]

Now that he's healthy, you can see why the entire league wanted Max.

He put on a clinic guarding Lundblade last night.

[clenz]

Of note - the starting 5 are playing increased minutes right now. However, that is a pretty new things and are on "fresher" legs than the rest of the top of the league playing similar minutes. The minutes were pretty spread for most of the season simply out of necessity due to injuries.

Cael comes in to games right now having played 151 total minutes in 10 games as of last night. That's just enough to start to get a flow for the D1 game, especially coming off the injury. He's only going to get better. Hornseth is only at 402. Pock is at 270. Born when he's needed is only at 127.

Even at that, our high minute guy this year is Tytan at 812. That is 24th in the league for minutes played. Schwieger at 809 is 26th. Trey is 32nd at 776. Max is 53rd at 624. Hutson is 56th at 603. Bond is 61st at 563 (only 20 games) to 27/28 for everyone else. Then we get to Will at 81st with his 402. Minutes will start to pile up, but this staff didn't burn the fuel tank early in the season so the guys *should* have more juice in their legs for the stretch run and quick turn around at Arch Madness.

By contrast, D+ has 3 of the top 9 in minutes, and the top 2 and only players over 1000 minutes on the season and they have played 27 games to others in the top 10 at 28. Murray State has 3 of the top 9. Bradley and Belmont start to take up most of the 10-30 range for minutes.

The only other team in the league Tytan would lead in minutes is UIC and all of their starters are 30 34 36 37 44. Only Tytan and Trey are in/above that group and only Max would lead that group.

Avoid the injury bug moving forward and between now and March 9th I like this team's chances.

[CyCarp]

I don't know if anybody knows, but I'm going to ask again... is there still optimism about getting Bond back this season? We're two weeks from Arch Madness at this point.

[nadf.]

Also FWIW, that locks us into the 3 seed or better.

Damn - this didn't seem right to me but it is true.

UNI is in a really good place right now. You want to avoid playing Drake until Sunday. Three games in three days is going to be a challenge for them - they have guys averaging 39, 37, and 34 minutes a game. Even with UNI losing two starters to injury, there is nobody averaging over 30.0 minutes a game.

Winning a share of title is very much in play, but the chance of getting the 1 seed still has to be very remote with Drake owning the tiebreaker. I haven't seen any of Hacksaws charts recently but we have to be about locked in to the 2/3 seed. Its gotta be about statistically impossible to play Drake before Sunday.