Opening Week

[Ricardo del Rio]

.

Oh hi... only going to show up after wins and not abysmal losses?

Such a Wichita move...

I have no idea what you are talking about. Are you trying to pick a fight?

[Ricardo del Rio]

In all honesty, I'm not looking forward to playing ISU AT ALL. They are freaky athletic and talented. But man oh man--where is the effort on defense? That was street ball, not team ball. I assume they'll get it together, but that was some of the sloppiest matador basketball I've seen since the end of the Stan Albeck era, let alone Geno. That said, again, that's a scary talented team. Let's hope they get some OOC wins for the good of the conference.

Stan Albeck! Good put. Only a few of us know who he is.

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

Notice im the only Redbird to show up after an abysmal loss. They hate me on our board because I don't pull through covers over my eyes and blindly cheer for crap.

[IWokeUpLikeThis]

Might have something to do with fire the coach/AD threads and threatening to kick a player.

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

Might have something to do with fire the coach/AD threads and threatening to kick a player.

The program is a joke. Why do you blindly go along with it. I can't just be okay with it just because they are.mt favorite team when something is clearly wrong.

[glm38]

In all honesty, I'm not looking forward to playing ISU AT ALL. They are freaky athletic and talented. But man oh man--where is the effort on defense? That was street ball, not team ball. I assume they'll get it together, but that was some of the sloppiest matador basketball I've seen since the end of the Stan Albeck era, let alone Geno. That said, again, that's a scary talented team. Let's hope they get some OOC wins for the good of the conference.

Stan Albeck! Good put. Only a few of us know who he is.

Those of us that are older remember Albeck. LOL. Haven't thought of Stan in years.

[BCPanther]

UNI looked young.

Played hard, defensive intensity was there. Just didn't get enough shots to fall.

UTA is a weird matchup. No bigs and play 5 guards at all times.

Best news for UNI is that Tywhon Pickford and Austin Phyfe both played. Nothing to be discouraged about. This team will get better as they play more. Off to the Paradise Jam starting Friday against Penn.

[BEARZ77]

Bears close out a 3-0 week with an 83-70 win vs Stetson. Bears led by Keandre Cooks 20 pts and 8 rbs, Jarred Dixon's 18 pts, and Kabir Mohammed had 12 pts and 9rbs off the bench. Not sure how good Stetson will end up being, but they were as athletic and long a team the Bears will play outside perhaps in the KC Tourney next week. Bear's looked a little leg weary after the third game in 6 days and stetson pressed and ran a collection of players at them most of the game. Bears closed out the week holding the 3 teams[Oral Roberts/ Robert Morris/ Stetson]collectively to averages of 60 pts, 32% fg and .24% 3 pts and forcing 59 turnovers. While not great competition, they were at least all D-1 teams , so take it for what you will.

A couple things of note; I'm looking at Cook as a significant candidate for NOW and an early leader for NOY after a week that saw him average 17.3 ppg, 8.3 rbs, shooting .545 fgs and .417 3 pts and a full segment of highlight reel moments in his first 3 games.

Bears also getting excellent play off the bench from Mohammed who averaged 9pts and 6 rbs for the week. And they're getting exactly what they needed from grad transfer pg Josh Webster who is steady and had 17 assists against 5 to's.

Jarred Dixon averaged 18.7 ppg for the week on 56% fg.

[tribecalledquest]

Loyola looked pretty bad. Shooting was horrendous. Defense was weak. I think they may have overestimated their talent level.

A few said this about their run last year and not expecting a ton of momentum carry-over and were released for it


But


Did anyone ever take the time to actually think that maybe they just had a once in a life time type run where everything went right?

Their bracket fell apart

They trailed Miami the entire game and hit a 35 foot off balance shot to beat Miami after Miami missed a front end of a 1-1 with 9 seconds left

They blew a big lead to Tennessee and Custer got about 9 fortuitous bounces as he hit a 17 footer while falling over and off balance

Also caught Kansas State on their worst shooting night of the season.

It was a great run. Magical.

But man there has been a lot of carry over overreacting to it.

See Bradley, 2005-06.

I am only "judging" Loyola on the fact they are the returning MVC champs, not that they went to the Final Four.

[Hrtnfldhse]

At least with Loyola they lost at the buzzer in a game that could’ve been won if not fouling 2 3PT shooters, missing FTs, newcomers missing defensive assignments.

This is ridiculous. ISU’s seniors are getting wrecked. Seniors should not be playing defense this carelessly. Big difference in leadership from Paris Lee (2 years ago) to Milik. Paris set the tone with effort.

SIU might be the team to beat.

But they lost at home.