Standings after 4 games

by **MVCfans** » January 7th, 2011, 9:26 pm

Standings after 4 completed MVC games. It appears that there is some separation at the top and bottom already.

Wichita State 4-0
Missouri State 4-0
Creighton 3-1
Indiana State 3-1
Drake 2-2
Southern Illinois 2-2
Northern Iowa 1-3
Evansville 1-3
Illinois State 0-4
Bradley 0-4

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by **jlandrus11** » January 8th, 2011, 10:26 am

After Indiana State's slow start to the season, I think we finally figured out what works best for us. Give the credit to the players and Coach Lansing, for finally figuring it out.

by **bleach** » January 8th, 2011, 12:18 pm

jlandrus11 wrote:After Indiana State's slow start to the season, I think we finally figured out what works best for us. Give the credit to the players and Coach Lansing, for finally figuring it out.

If they can get a few roadies, a top 4 finish is possible. They have positioned themselves well.

by **Aargh** » January 8th, 2011, 12:49 pm

I'm curious about what happened to UNI? Where are all the UNI fans? I just want to ask a few questions and get some information.

by **valleychamp** » January 8th, 2011, 6:00 pm

Fire away.

by **Aargh** » January 9th, 2011, 3:22 am

valleychamp wrote:Fire away.

My pre-season pick for UNI was 4th. UNI fqans seemed to have UNI above that level in their picks.

I moved UNI to 3rd after LasVegas, when UNI looked hotter than CU.

What happened? Getting blown out by 25 @ InSU gives the appearance that UNI's players have packed their bags for spring break.

What happened to the backup guards and front court players who were supposed to be ready to go?

How did UNI go from front-runner to Thursday contender in a week and a half?

by **Khan4Cats** » January 9th, 2011, 10:35 am

Okay, I was one of the posters who had higher expectations for UNI and I still do.

As for what has happened,...

we lost two games with late shots to start league play, one at home to one of the two teams expected to contend for the league title. Noting to panic about there, though it would be nice to get a couple games where bounces go our way later this year to even those out.

I did not get to follow the game Friday as I was out of town, but it appears UNI started out cold shooting and Indiana State was hot. This is an ISU team taht has shown streaks of being good and streaks of being bad, but they are unbeaten at home-so I will reserve overall judgement until I see them win on the road and/or be beaten at home. As for UNI, what was most disappointing to me Friday was that it appeared their defense was down. Not sure why, it could be legs and I was questioning why we were not going deeper into our bench in the first three games, as we were so effective at running waves at people last year. I don't believe its a case of the players packing up their bags already, though they have shown a tendency to not be able to rally back if they fall behind by a large margin this year, but we will see for sure today how they come out against Bradley.

As for the reserves and bench, we did have to adjust our line-up after an injury to one of our senior starters and it looked like we had adjusted to that. He is back and now we are trying to work him back in the line-up/rotation. Not sure how much this has affected combinations, but it might be something.

The other players I will admit to being a little more optimistic than what they have shown, especially considering how young they are. In the front court, we have O'Rear who is a senior, but is adjusting to being a starter and he has never really been a scorer. He has done what he does, but is being asked to play more minutes than in the past. A lot of people were really high on Jake Koch after how he finished last year, but we still have to remember he is a sophomore and only averaged 3 pts a game last year even after his end of season. Chip Rank has not gotten his shot going in college yet, but has shown signs more recently of getting comfortable. Austin Pehl is coming off of two years basically without game-time. He has upside but is also very much playing like a freshman big man, despite being a RS So. It is different not having a beast to be able to throw it down to down low, but we have been adjusting our offense to take more advantage of our posts mobility, it is just not as smooth as would have been hoped for.

As for the guards, with the exception of Anthony James, they have been in a collective shooting funk. Kwadzo got off to a horrendous start from 3 pt land, but is improving. Johnny Moran has been a more effective three-point shooter but for some reason has been below 50% from the FT line. Marc Sonnen has been hot and cold, but a lot of defensive responsibilities fell on him when Dunham went down and he has just now been able to look to get more into the offense. Dunham isn't and hasn't been a scorer even though he can, but he does a lot of little things-particularly on defense. He is still adjusting to playing with the foot injury which has healed but likely won't be 100% the rest of the year. I would like for them to work Morrison in more as I think he has one of the better shots on the team, but we have played so many close games that Jacobson has chosen to stick with the more experienced guards at this point.

I am not going to panic with this team anytime soon. No one expected them to repeat last year, and they still have a good shot to finish well. We need to show an ability to win on the road in conference, which as young as we are, probably should have been a little more expected. Our defense should keep us in most games, though Friday was an exception. We need to be more consistent on offense, but it should be noted that even in Vegas, we weren't "lights out" for the entire time.

by **DUBulldog** » January 9th, 2011, 10:57 am

Khan4Cats wrote:I am not going to panic with this team anytime soon. No one expected them to repeat last year,

Wasn't UNI pretty much the consensus pick to win the MVC last season?

by **valleychamp** » January 9th, 2011, 12:03 pm

I picked UNI to finish top 3. I still going to stick with that prediction.

Getting crushed on the road by In St was really the only surprising result of the season. Losing at the buzzer to MSU and SIU on the road are not surprising at all. Coming into the year, I think most of us thought this team was going to be very up and down, and that has held true so far as we have looked very good against some decent teams, and we have looked very bad against some mediocre teams. Though, I don't think any of us expected losing a game in the matter that we did at ISU. This team has a significant lack of size and has some real limitations on offense. Unlike last year, we just have to play really well to get a win. We can't play so-so and sneak away with a win, because we aren't going to get a ton of rebounds and we aren't going to score a ton of points.

This game against Bradley on Sunday is crucial because we will see how this team responds to that poor performance at ISU.