March Madness Game 1 - Saint John's - March 20

[nonstopoffense]

I'm proud of this program. Jake is a great coach and even better person. We have great guys representing us on the floor.

I could throw shade at their sideline, but it's well documented what kind of character their head coach has.

We gotta learn how to admit we’re not on our opponents level sometimes and not devolve into some convo about being “classier” or “better people” than the team that just mopped the floor with us.

[orangetennis]

We gotta learn how to admit we’re not on our opponents level sometimes and not devolve into some convo about being “classier” or “better people” than the team that just mopped the floor with us.

You could tell earlier on in the season when we played Tulsa and Wichita that we weren't able to really hang with teams that had more athletes. We were able to find a way to keep those games relatively close, but you could tell the entire time that we were just out manned. And those teams weren't even that great. Tonight's game was always going to turn out this way.
Anymore, the season is 3 or 4 days in St Louis. Therefore, great season!

[UNIAlum95]

Take the 13-0 start out and it’s not a terrible game for us. You just can’t have starts like that against a team like St. John’s.

So now who else is in the camp that taking a two week break just to get prime TV coverage might not be the best thing for the MVC?

[MVCBeat]

You could tell earlier on in the season when we played Tulsa and Wichita that we weren't able to really hang with teams that had more athletes. We were able to find a way to keep those games relatively close, but you could tell the entire time that we were just out manned. And those teams weren't even that great. Tonight's game was always going to turn out this way.
Anymore, the season is 3 or 4 days in St Louis. Therefore, great season!

I don’t know that I agree with that take. We were in control of the Wichita game and kind of blew it at the end.

[catsize]

We gotta learn how to admit we’re not on our opponents level sometimes and not devolve into some convo about being “classier” or “better people” than the team that just mopped the floor with us.

No, we're not on that level. We're also not at a level where we have to worry about vacating wins because of the actions of anyone, either. Shows how scared he was of us that he kept his starters in with a minute left to go and up 20+

[unifan]

Panthers had their ups and downs throughout the year but they proved in St. Louis that they were the best team in the league this year. St. John’s is a legit contender.

Proud of Coach Jake & the guys for a fun finish to the year!

[BCPanther]

Take the 13-0 start out and it’s not a terrible game for us. You just can’t have starts like that against a team like St. John’s.

So now who else is in the camp that taking a two week break just to get prime TV coverage might not be the best thing for the MVC?

That CBS spot is way too valuable to make any changes. The alternative is getting buried on ESPN2 with 1/6th the audience.

[PantherAlum09]

No, we're not on that level. We're also not at a level where we have to worry about vacating wins because of the actions of anyone, either. Shows how scared he was of us that he kept his starters in with a minute left to go and up 20+

I don't disagree that it would've been a decent gesture for Pitino to take a timeout and put subs in so Jake could do the same with close to two minutes left, but you also have to remember that this St. John's team has a huuuuuge chip on their shoulder. They didn't think they were a 5 seed (I didn't either) and then they got sent all the way to San Diego. Their level of athleticism and pressure was always going to be a brutal matchup for us and it was going to take a perfect night for this to happen. It was obvious at 10-0 that this wasn't happening tonight.

There were a handful of plays the first half where our guys thought they had an opening and it disappeared quicker than anything they've experienced this year. Saint Mary's ran into the same issue when they played against Texas A&M's athletes yesterday. Big and slow doesn't cut it anymore. You have to have some supreme athletes to do damage. We have good athletes, but there is an ocean between what we have and St. John's tonight.

Look at the Mid Majors that have won in the tourney this year. Their NIL in most cases usually at least around $3 million. High Point is a weird cult school that plays in an insane arena and has more money than we can fathom. On top of that, they played a team in Wisconsin who does not have crazy athletes. Wisconsin is a bunch of good solid skill players that can really shoot it. VCU has a lot of money for a mid major and played a Carolina team without their best player.

We had the unfortunate opportunity to play a pissed off team full of great athletes including the best player in the Big East and also happened to be playing their best basketball of the year for the last several weeks. This team waxed UCONN twice for crying out loud.

The guys played their butts off and didn't quit. They just ran into a buzzsaw. Next up is the offseason. Ever Loyal!

[kochrab]

Man. Bummed at the result for going to our first March Madness game, but they played hard. So many missed baskets tonight. Game was lost in the first 10 minutes and then really didn't change much along the way. If we didn't get down as much as we did and only let it get down 10, we would've had a better shot of getting this thing in control.

All in all, after this season, I'm just grateful for our team and the effort they put in this year. Cool to have the historic run in STL in our resume now. Let's hope we can get some size in the portal this off season.

[CletusCat]

We gotta learn how to admit we’re not on our opponents level sometimes and not devolve into some convo about being “classier” or “better people” than the team that just mopped the floor with us.

I know. I just can't stand Pitino. They definitely had the better team.

[GarretW1797]

Time for a mid major national championship tournament. NIL and transfer rules have made it impossible for the small schools to compete.

Anyone who knows ball can tell these two teams are not on the same level. There have been a handful of smaller schools who hung around today and yesterday, but only High Point was able to pull it out. The NCAA tournament is just not the same as it was the last time we were in it.

I do agree that the transfer portal age has something to do with this, because a lot of power teams are led by former mid major stars. I don't agree however that it is entirely impossible for mid majors to be competitive. High Point won. Siena was competitive. Wright State was competitive. Hofstra was competitive for 80% of their game. Furman was competitive. Kennesaw State was competitive. McNeese was competitive. A couple other teams competed well for around half of their respective games (Us, Hawaii, Cal Baptist, and Akron). In bigger mid major leagues, Santa Clara was competitive. VCU and Utah State were able to win. Saint Louis kicked the living **** out of Georgia. I think the big thing is the coaching of power teams has gotten much better in recent years, and these teams know how to close out games better. A lot of the power 5 vs mid major games the last couple days were close for a while and then obliteration in the last 10 minutes.

[GarretW1797]

I figured this is how the season would end. Especially with the way St. John's was playing to end their conference tournament. Give us Kansas, Wisconsin, or Vanderbilt and we probably would have had a better result. But nonetheless, this was still a great season compared to where we were just two months ago. Even going into the MVC tournament I thought there was no chance we'd be talking about this team playing an NCAA Tournament game. That 4 games in 4 days run will always be a top moment in our history. And yeah, we just ran into a buzzsaw that was gonna do whatever it took to win this game. I knew as soon as they were full court pressing to start the game that it was gonna be a long day. But there were some great moments in this game still. Tristan, even with all his out of control lapses of judgement, made some fantastic plays including that behind the back pass to Trey on the layup. Trey and Leon did their jobs well, and Will did all he could being guarded by Zuby. Take out that 13-0 run they started on and we only lose by 13. This St. John's team I can definitely see making a Final Four run. I hope they don't because Rick Pitino is a scumbag, but would not be shocked to see it.

[PantherAlum09]

I do agree that the transfer portal age has something to do with this, because a lot of power teams are led by former mid major stars. I don't agree however that it is entirely impossible for mid majors to be competitive. High Point won. Siena was competitive. Wright State was competitive. Hofstra was competitive for 80% of their game. Furman was competitive. Kennesaw State was competitive. McNeese was competitive. A couple other teams competed well for around half of their respective games (Us, Hawaii, Cal Baptist, and Akron). In bigger mid major leagues, Santa Clara was competitive. VCU and Utah State were able to win. Saint Louis kicked the living **** out of Georgia. I think the big thing is the coaching of power teams has gotten much better in recent years, and these teams know how to close out games better. A lot of the power 5 vs mid major games the last couple days were close for a while and then obliteration in the last 10 minutes.

It's possible but it takes a perfect storm. Most of these low to mid majors are dealing with a 1/4 the NIL money the Power conferences have. You can absolutely benefit from having a terrific coach but most of these high majors also have very good coaches. There's only so much scheming you can do to combat being outgunned on the court all game. We are fortunate to have Jake as our head coach but most of these mid majors that are complaining about the fact that high majors don't schedule them will soon be high major coaches who don't schedule mid majors all non conference. Matt Painter had a really good retort to Travis Steele and Flynn Clayman today and I would encourage everyone to watch it. They are just doing what makes sense with the NET.

[BobCat]

I don't think we were beat because they were 'more athletic". We were mainly just out shot from 3 point land .... a mediocre 3pt shooting SJU hit more from behind the arc (10-29) than the Panthers (3-14). Had each shot their average (6-19) & (7-19), with all else staying the same, and you're looking at a 67-66 game.

Some takeaways on this:

-UNI outscored the vaunted SJU frontcourt in the paint, 34-32
-UNI led in fast break points 5-1
-UNI led in steals 6-3
-SJU out rebounded us, but had only 2 more second chance points (11-9)
-UNI had just 6 turnovers for the game despite the brutal press
-SJU only had 4 more points off turnovers (13-9)

-After that brutal run at the start, UNI stayed fairly close. It was 20-4 [shudder] at about the 12 minute mark...it's a closer 59-49 after that

-Hornseth and an undersized Tristan Smith held a great forward, Zuby Ejiofor, to 14 pts, 2 under his average (not sure if you heard the announcers mention it one of the 25 times, but apparently he's an unbelievable phenom and it's a major crime he wasn't voted to some all-Universe team....)


I'm disappointed by the outcome, but still proud of the team. Since Sunday night, pundits were banging that SJU would need to shoot and hit a lot of 3's...and they did. And despite hearing all damn week about how they have of the best front courts in the country, they didn't start going inside a lot until after they built up a lead. That shows the concern they had for UNI's defense.

SJU did have some really athletic blocks, but the numbers show the score made this look worse than it was.

[QCPanther05]

It's possible but it takes a perfect storm. Most of these low to mid majors are dealing with a 1/4 the NIL money the Power conferences have. You can absolutely benefit from having a terrific coach but most of these high majors also have very good coaches. There's only so much scheming you can do to combat being outgunned on the court all game. We are fortunate to have Jake as our head coach but most of these mid majors that are complaining about the fact that high majors don't schedule them will soon be high major coaches who don't schedule mid majors all non conference. Matt Painter had a really good retort to Travis Steele and Flynn Clayman today and I would encourage everyone to watch it. They are just doing what makes sense with the NET.

Yeah, I don’t think the difference is so much coaching as it is depth. I read that one of those low major teams played five guys THE ENTIRE GAME(?!). Meanwhile, St. John’s was subbing in guy after guy with no drop off. Most of their rotation guys would have been stars in the MVC. Someone said above that the high majors are better at closing out games because of coaching, but with a deep bench, you have guys playing fresh until the final buzzer.

The difference between our best and worst teams has been depth. That’s hard to build at a mid-major, esp in the pay for play era.