January 7th games

[UE-grad]

It is time for Marty to go. I still can't believe what I witnessed last night at the Ford Center.

What is the proper game plan against an athletic, evenly distributed team with nobody on the floor taller than 6'6"? why - play man on D and pack the lane on offense.

It is unacceptable that Big E didn't have an opportunity to own the paint. He should have had 15-20 shots and scored 30. The entire night Loyola didn't have to be pressed into doubling Mock, 2 or 3 other ACES brought their man to him clogging the lane.

The simple answer would have been to S P R E A D the floor give E some room to work, open up some driving lanes (UE had plenty of success driving can you imagine if there was actually room?), give themselves an opportunity to rebound.

On defense, play 2 bigs and play a 3-2 zone to pressure the shooters and ensure every trip was a one and done.

The end of the game was pathetic, that is 3 end of game situations where there has been no real effort to score, at least no real opportunity. Why wasn't DJ driving towards the basket for a dish to E or a foul opportunity?

8 years of Marty has been 6 too many. He was a bad hire, and every day he is on the job the program is falling farther behind. Fire the entire staff TODAY.

These arguments can't be broken - enough is enough.

[UE-grad]

The Sycamores have beaten three upper tier teams; Illinois State, Evansville, and Missouri State. Good for them. That's a great start and I think it shows that they might avoid Thursday. Drake, Bradley, and SIU will not. Who will be the 4th team?

Evansville - the ACES will be 1-6 to start the season after being swept by Loyola in the return game.

And they'll follow that up with 9-2 to finish.

I highly doubt it - there will be losses to (at least) IlSt x2, @ SIU, @ UNI, @ WSU = 7-11 for the season. At lest Marty should get fired after that.

[BUFANATIC79]

I try not to trash teams, but I don't know how Bradley fans can ever have optimism or hope about their team this year or for the next several years.

The Bradley team that I saw tonight plays like a lower division team.

Well I wasn't very impressed with the 15th team in the country against a "lower division" team. Got outplayed for a half, and Bradley was right there for thirty minutes. If they could score at all, that game is much closer.

[Wufan]

I try not to trash teams, but I don't know how Bradley fans can ever have optimism or hope about their team this year or for the next several years.

The Bradley team that I saw tonight plays like a lower division team.

Well I wasn't very impressed with the 15th team in the country against a "lower division" team. Got outplayed for a half, and Bradley was right there for thirty minutes. If they could score at all, that game is much closer.

WSU fans are also searching for 40 minutes of perfection. In the end, it only took 20 minutes of defense and 10 minutes of offense to win by 20.

[hot nuts]

The Sycamores have beaten three upper tier teams; Illinois State, Evansville, and Missouri State. Good for them. That's a great start and I think it shows that they might avoid Thursday. Drake, Bradley, and SIU will not. Who will be the 4th team?

I'm kinda thinking Missouri State right now.

[2livewu]

I try not to trash teams, but I don't know how Bradley fans can ever have optimism or hope about their team this year or for the next several years.

The Bradley team that I saw tonight plays like a lower division team.

Well I wasn't very impressed with the 15th team in the country against a "lower division" team. Got outplayed for a half, and Bradley was right there for thirty minutes. If they could score at all, that game is much closer.

You and seemingly a lot of WSU fans as well.

If this team shot FTs as well as the average GM team at WSU they'd be 3-0 with all wins by double digits.

They aren't beating teams by 30 in the first half so it's apparently time to cut bait. A little perspective, from both sides, is probably needed at this point.

[Snaggletooth]

I try not to trash teams, but I don't know how Bradley fans can ever have optimism or hope about their team this year or for the next several years.

The Bradley team that I saw tonight plays like a lower division team.

Well I wasn't very impressed with the 15th team in the country against a "lower division" team. Got outplayed for a half, and Bradley was right there for thirty minutes. If they could score at all, that game is much closer.

I wouldn't say they got outplayed - wsu just didn't shoot well first half. The same shots fell in the second half, plus wsu turned up the defensive pressure and BU folded, Even the great Kentucky doesn't win by 20 every game, in fact 3-10 points is more the norm.

[PantherSigEp]

The Sycamores have beaten three upper tier teams; Illinois State, Evansville, and Missouri State. Good for them. That's a great start and I think it shows that they might avoid Thursday. Drake, Bradley, and SIU will not. Who will be the 4th team?

There are currently 3 tiers in the Valley right now, IMO. Missouri St, at this point deserves to be in the bottom. Until Evansville and ISUr iron out the inconsistency, they belong squarely in the middle tier. There are only 2 "upper" teams because for now only 2 teams have a true shot at an at-large bid due to their performance and body of work.

[Khan4Cats]

I'm not going to worry about WSU being in close games at half. They had plenty of those last year as well. When they start having close games in the last five minutes, then I will say they are either sliding back to the pack or (hopefully this is the case) the pack is catching back up to them. They are still the front runners and games are 40 minutes for a reason.

Still waiting for UNI to put a full game together and bury some teams. They won by 16 last night and there were all sorts of things that need fixing: no free throws in the first half for the second time in three Valley games, giving up double digit offensive rebounds, being even in rebounds, missed lay-ups, offensive shot selection, lazy passing....

Maybe we will see it at Drake Saturday, but I doubt it as Drake always plays us tough, especially in Des Moines

[uniftw]

It is unacceptable that Big E didn't have an opportunity to own the paint. He should have had 15-20 shots and scored 30. The entire night Loyola didn't have to be pressed into doubling Mock, 2 or 3 other ACES brought their man to him clogging the lane.

The simple answer would have been to S P R E A D the floor give E some room to work, open up some driving lanes (UE had plenty of success driving can you imagine if there was actually room?), give themselves an opportunity to rebound.

what's funny is this is exactly what everyone has been saying for years about Marty and UE fans get all pissy about.

He runs DJ (or Colt before) off 800 screens to get him 20-25+ shots per night. Meanwhile guys like Mock, who could dominate the Valley, get completely thrown aside most nights.