Tues 1/8 games

[3ontheway]

Daddyo, your posts lately seem to be flame fests. What is going on? Why so standoffish?

[shoxrox]

I was about to agree with your post, LJay, but it disappeared.

But furthering what you said, I think we should just have a 344-team NCAA Tournament so everybody can be a "feel good" story.

[TheAsianSensation]

There's no question that a hot Missouri State kills the conference on a national level, perception level, and NCAA tournament consideration level. UNI and IlSU tanking and having a rather marginal BU team start out big isn't helping either.

But as far as I'm concerned, MSU fans are allowed to go all F-U to the conferences' best needs if they want to.

[glm38]

The Bears are just an extremely young team trying to get better. And succeeding the last few games. Some of them are just now getting the effort level required at the D1 level.

This was a very good win for us. Redbirds might be a bit overrated but I still think they are pretty talented.

Downing and Marshall are both playing at a high level. And so is Pickens. He blocked 2 of Carmichaels shots tonight. One a clean block no foul. Whistled for a foul on the other but it was a close call. Pretty amazing stuff.

[jliehr]

[quote="TheAsianSensation"]There's no question that a hot Missouri State kills the conference on a national level, perception level, and NCAA tournament consideration level. UNI and IlSU tanking and having a rather marginal BU team start out big isn't helping either.

But as far as I'm concerned, MSU fans are allowed to go all F-U to the conferences' best needs if they want to.[/quote]

Considering the "gift" that the rest of the Valley gave us and WSU in 2010-2011 when 8 of 10 teams lost 14+? Yeah, I don't want to hear any crying from anyone else.

[Kip Dynamite]

It seems like most everyone on here would rather the Bears just mail it in and believe me, I understand. I'd feel the same way and often have when other teams have done it to the league in the past. Having said that, as a Bears fan, I don't care. I would obviously rather keep winning then getting our azzes kicked. I also realize that we haven't exactly played the toughest schedule in the MVC so far, but man has it been fun watching the lights come on with this young team. I mean come on, the Bears are playing these games pretty much with 4 freshman, a sophomore, and one lone senior. Not to mention a young coach who's still learning himself. I'm not naive enough to think that we are going to challenge for the top but I'm really looking forward to playing Creighton Saturday just to watch our kids play with such big hearts. Win or lose the rest of the year, I'm really proud of this team and their never say die attitudes. Most teams with a non con disaster like theirs would have packed it in and just called it a year.

[Bearvision]

Not to be overlooked is the fact that the Bears system is being run differently. Coach has went to a lot of high ball screens and letting Downing/Marcus attack the basket and he's stopped playing unproductive freshmen while shortening the rotation as a whole.

Gavin has improved and Scheer is making shots.

Other Valley teams have every right to ask why they didn't discover this as the way to run this team a long time ago- especially considering the trip to Costa Rica or whatever- but at least they're growing as a team.

Proud of their effort after a tough start honestly...

[Bearvision]

It seems like most everyone on here would rather the Bears just mail it in and believe me, I understand. I'd feel the same way and often have when other teams have done it to the league in the past. Having said that, as a Bears fan, I don't care. I would obviously rather keep winning then getting our azzes kicked. I also realize that we haven't exactly played the toughest schedule in the MVC so far, but man has it been fun watching the lights come on with this young team. I mean come on, the Bears are playing these games pretty much with 4 freshman, a sophomore, and one lone senior. Not to mention a young coach who's still learning himself. I'm not naive enough to think that we are going to challenge for the top but I'm really looking forward to playing Creighton Saturday just to watch our kids play with such big hearts. Win or lose the rest of the year, I'm really proud of this team and their never say die attitudes. Most teams with a non con disaster like theirs would have packed it in and just called it a year.

By Saturday you'll have missed it! They play Friday...

[TNMSUFAN]

Just don't understand all the talk about us hurting the conference. I think we have had 3 losing seasons since we joined the Valley (and probably the 3rd or 4th winningest team) and usually have an rpi in the top 150. I apologized a long time ago but the fact is we have 1 senior, play 5-6 frosh and are just playing better now. Also, we played a decent schedule especially for the make up of our team.

[shoxrox]

I don't blame MSU fans for feeling exciting and having the "I don't care" attitude. That's expected being fans of their team. My point is I hope MSU fans understand the frustration by other Valley schools for what they're doing now after the non-con season. I think most do, which is good. The only piece I don't get is how a non-MSU fan could be that happy about it. But then again, the fan of that particular school is in that position so many times that he's probably just accustomed to it and that illogical line of thinking.

Welcome back, Bear fans.