Bluejays at Purple Aces (Tuesday, Feb 7th)

[BirdmanBB]

FWIW, I think Creighton is fine. They still get to play Evansville at home. They split with UNI and they have a good opportunity against long beach.

The way this conference has been bulking up in the middle it was looking like we were on a one way track to a WSU-CU final. Now i'm starting to believe we could see another team in the mix at the arch.

[Aces1982]

Big win for UE. They need to finish 2-2 to avoid Thursday. It looks like they caught a break with Drake possibly losing a player for Saturday. Would love to finish 10-8 and get the 3 seed. Although, I don't think 3-6 seed makes any difference.

It is always funny to read other team's message boards to get the perception about your school. They try and slam on your crowd, student sections, noise at the game, flopping, dirty play, etc. The bottom line is, UE is 7-7 and has beaten every Valley school except a 1 point lose to Wichita and a 2 point loss and 3OT loss to Indiana St. And Drake, which they get another chance this Sunday. They were a fluke shot away from sweeping Illinois St and can still sweep Missouri St and UNI with home wins and they can sweep Creighton with a road win. Even with that, you read on all schools message boards how it is embarrasing to lose to UE(EU), or that was a bad game for the Valley, or my favorite...we got Evansville'd. I think because they are not percieved as athletic and they grind on you and set screen after screen after screen and make you play defense for the entire shot clock that they somehow suck. Because they are not sexy when they win then they must suck. I have news for you, if you were to take a poll with all the coaches I think UE would be at the top of the list of the most difficult to prepare for. And no matter what the fanbase thinks it's a game that is never easy. Because they grind and hustle and never give up.

[bluejays89]

Big win for UE. They need to finish 2-2 to avoid Thursday. It looks like they caught a break with Drake possibly losing a player for Saturday. Would love to finish 10-8 and get the 3 seed. Although, I don't think 3-6 seed makes any difference.

It is always funny to read other team's message boards to get the perception about your school. They try and slam on your crowd, student sections, noise at the game, flopping, dirty play, etc. The bottom line is, UE is 7-7 and has beaten every Valley school except a 1 point lose to Wichita and a 2 point loss and 3OT loss to Indiana St. And Drake, which they get another chance this Sunday. They were a fluke shot away from sweeping Illinois St and can still sweep Missouri St and UNI with home wins and they can sweep Creighton with a road win. Even with that, you read on all schools message boards how it is embarrasing to lose to UE(EU), or that was a bad game for the Valley, or my favorite...we got Evansville'd. I think because they are not percieved as athletic and they grind on you and set screen after screen after screen and make you play defense for the entire shot clock that they somehow suck. Because they are not sexy when they win then they must suck. I have news for you, if you were to take a poll with all the coaches I think UE would be at the top of the list of the most difficult to prepare for. And no matter what the fanbase thinks it's a game that is never easy. Because they grind and hustle and never give up.

Evansville is 12-12, Creighton is trying to get in good position for the NCAA tournament and losing to a .500 team that lost to Tennessee Tech is not going to help them at all. In the committee's eyes this is a horrible loss, just like last year when you beat WSU and hurt their at-large chance, so many fans are angry and you will receive a lot of negative comments. If Evansville would not suck in non-conference this would not be a major issue. Marty is a great coach, by the way.

Congrats on the win tonight, and hopefully you finish the season strong.

[Ace Dad]

You tell us not to lose in non-conference play.

Would I be an axx if I said then you should not lose to .500 teams in conference play?

Winning and losing cannot be controlled. Players play to compete. Winning and losing are by-products.

[sixth ace]

Let them enjoy it. Serious question. When was the last time Evansville beat a ranked team at home? I am sure it hasn't been THAT long...just wondering. Did you guys beat Butler at home when they were ranked? Creighton a few years ago?

2003 creighton
Butler this year

[purple&orange]

Creighton struggled from the outside, a lot of them were good looks. Tonight the Aces were fortunate that they didn't shoot them well. It was clear to see the gameplan was to make Creighton throw the cross court pass to the open shooter from the weak side help defender who was trying to take away the lob over the top of the fronting defender. Creighton also turned it over, some forced by good Evansville defense, others simply giveaways.

Now for the Aces, as a UE fan I didn't feel like they played exceptionally well offensively or anything like that. For a stretch they really struggled on D and giving up offensive boards but tonight I felt like they did a better job inside and stopping the drive in comparison to some of the losses. They had a number of guys step up, Lewis Jones had a great first half, hitting a couple of open 3's. Kenny Harris and Ned Cox down the stretch made some plays, got to the rim and got some big buckets.

Creighton struggled and it was close but UE was the better team down the stretch. Creighton missed some FTs but UE got to the rim and got better shots than CU. Does that mean that all of a sudden CU sucks, no. They beat themselves up tonight, keeping UE around and the Aces went and took it.

This is a frustratingly fun group to follow and I'm not even talking about losses like at Illinois State on the banked 3. At times they've really failed to execute and lost games they shouldn't. They are a gritty group that battles for 40 minutes and at times tends to dig holes they can almost climb out of before falling short, but with that said they are my guys.

I'm not sure if the perception of this league will ever change. Hell, watching College Basketball Live now and they showed an unranked game between Iowa State and Oklahoma State, teased an Alabama-Auburn game before mentioning Creighton. Yeah, UE is an average team but when a Northwestern knocks off a ranked team at home it's parity. There is a ton of parity in this league and Evansville can win or lose any game in this league and it wouldn't surprise me anymore. They are wildly inconsistent, period. Creighton will rebound and be fine, they've proven to be too good of shooters over the course of the season to be going 4-22 from deep night in and night out from now on.

Should be fun come Saturday to see Creighton-WSU, two really good basketball teams before tuning in on Sunday to see what my Purple Aces can do at Drake.

And the last W over a ranked team according to the radio guys on the postgame was on Senior Night back in late February 2010 vs Northern Iowa and I'd say they rebounded pretty well.

[pafan]

They were a fluke shot away from sweeping Illinois St and can still sweep Missouri St and UNI with home wins and they can sweep Creighton with a road win. Even with that, you read on all schools message boards how it is embarrasing to lose to UE(EU), or that was a bad game for the Valley, or my favorite...we got Evansville'd.

This is the third straight season that Evansville has upset the #1 team in the conference in Evansville (assuming that CU does in fact win the regular season title).

2012 - Creighton (Losses to Wichita, UNI, Evansville)
2011 - Missouri St. (Losses to Evansville, UNI, Indiana St)
2010 - Northern Iowa (Losses to Wichita, Bradley, Evansville)

Getting "Evansville'd" isn't necessarily saying anything negative about Evansville. There's no one else who can claim so many upsets in recent years.

Although, I guess you can say that the very fact that all these games were upsets is saying something negative about Evansville.

[Wufan]

MSU beat CU this year, not WSU.

[Jays26]

Congrats to UE!....they wanted it more down the streach than CU.

We got cold shooting and Young missed some FT that he will normally make.

With all that has happened with Creighton over the last 2 games, win on Saturday and all is well and they probably win out and get their seed right back up there. Lose and I don't want to think about it.

[Ricardo del Rio]

Big win for UE. They need to finish 2-2 to avoid Thursday. It looks like they caught a break with Drake possibly losing a player for Saturday. Would love to finish 10-8 and get the 3 seed. Although, I don't think 3-6 seed makes any difference.

It is always funny to read other team's message boards to get the perception about your school. They try and slam on your crowd, student sections, noise at the game, flopping, dirty play, etc. The bottom line is, UE is 7-7 and has beaten every Valley school except a 1 point lose to Wichita and a 2 point loss and 3OT loss to Indiana St. And Drake, which they get another chance this Sunday. They were a fluke shot away from sweeping Illinois St and can still sweep Missouri St and UNI with home wins and they can sweep Creighton with a road win. Even with that, you read on all schools message boards how it is embarrasing to lose to UE(EU), or that was a bad game for the Valley, or my favorite...we got Evansville'd. I think because they are not percieved as athletic and they grind on you and set screen after screen after screen and make you play defense for the entire shot clock that they somehow suck. Because they are not sexy when they win then they must suck. I have news for you, if you were to take a poll with all the coaches I think UE would be at the top of the list of the most difficult to prepare for. And no matter what the fanbase thinks it's a game that is never easy. Because they grind and hustle and never give up.

Well, you have not been reading my posts about the Aces and Coach Simmons.

I have admired Coach Simmons from his first season and nothing has changed.

I think Coach Simmons gets more out of less than most coaches in the Valley.

I have often praised the Aces' defense and intense play.

The Aces have been pretty tough on the Shockers and I have no interest in playing them in STL.