Schedule

[Panther Cat]

Has anyone else noticed that we've played 11 games in a month and one day. That is a game almost every three days, incldudin 4 in 8 days. That is a big reason for out decline in my opinion. Not only is that tough on the bodies, but that is hardly any time to implement a gameplan. It's also tough to go with a group of freshman that have to play a lot of a minutes. When is the last team to make it far in the postseason with four freshman and one player with about a half year of playing time being the only people on the bench?

This schedule was brutal during the lat strectch. After the Bradley game we'll have about 10 days where we play Illinois State at home and then the start of the MVC tournament. In other words I think that looks like a good chance for the players to get their legs back and get ready to make a run in the tournament.

[BCPanther]

This is the reason the Valley needs to pick a week in early December and call it "Opening Week" or something. Let every team play 2 conference games and then after Christmas you only have to get 16 in instead of 18.

[DancerHall Cat]

I mentioned this in another thread. Its the MVC schedule and its not unique to UNI. SIU has played 11 games in exactly a month. The MVC schedule is roughly the same every year, and I dont buy the conference schedule as excuse for our recent failures.

[UnderParPanther]

i think they mentioned something in the broadcast last night about the scheduling. with the ncaa rules requiring players to have a day off a week, plus all the games and travel, teams dont get the practice time that they had earlier in the year. we've been in a rut and our schedule the last week or so sure hasnt helped as we've played alot of games. i would agree with panther cat that we should have very fresh legs come valley tourney time and some extra time to practice.

[UNI MadCat]

Has anyone else noticed that we've played 11 games in a month and one day. That is a game almost every three days, incldudin 4 in 8 days. That is a big reason for out decline in my opinion. Not only is that tough on the bodies, but that is hardly any time to implement a gameplan. It's also tough to go with a group of freshman that have to play a lot of a minutes. When is the last team to make it far in the postseason with four freshman and one player with about a half year of playing time being the only people on the bench?

This schedule was brutal during the lat strectch. After the Bradley game we'll have about 10 days where we play Illinois State at home and then the start of the MVC tournament. In other words I think that looks like a good chance for the players to get their legs back and get ready to make a run in the tournament.

While I agree with what you are saying in some respects the truth is that every other team in the league is in the same boat. The great teams are excelling and the rest are plodding along and we are crashing. Yes, we are very young but we are also losing to the teams we should beat.

I hope you are right on the last part. It would be rare to see that big of a turnaround though.

[BCPanther]

I just thought about it and if we would have beat the teams we should have (IlSU, InSU, DU x2) we would be 11-5 and in third place all by ourselves and probably in the dance...

Even if we lose to WSU, CU x2, MSU, SIU we are in third place ALONE... Man I know we lost some games we shouldn't have, but I didn't realize where we would be... That hurts...

[Panther Cat]

I just thought about it and if we would have beat the teams we should have (IlSU, InSU, DU x2) we would be 11-5 and in third place all by ourselves and probably in the dance...

Even if we lose to WSU, CU x2, MSU, SIU we are in third place ALONE... Man I know we lost some games we shouldn't have, but I didn't realize where we would be... That hurts...

Should we have beaten those teams, probably, but games aren't garunteed to anyone as we've found out. Plus are supposedly easy game at Indiana State happened to come on the road the day after another road game. UNI was supposed to have an off day in between those games which maen they can't practice, they can only watch film. So it makes it tohgh to get that one, even though they had 800 people at the game. These freshman are used to playing a 22-25 game schedule in about 3 months, it's just an adjustment that our team hasn't been able to make lat ein the season the last 2-3 years.

Also, if you go by your theory by losing to who we should have lost to, then we probably wouldn't have won at MSU or WSU, or beat SIU at home.

[BCPanther]

The way I look at it is that the bottom four are teams that we should have beaten. The other games are complete and total toss ups that depend on matchups... IMO...

[UNIAlum95]

The Valley needs to change its scheduling to allow for a Monday game before the tournament. I would be surprised if this is not addressed this year by the conference. Many teams have really complained about that this year (I don't believe I have heard any complaints from UNI though)....