January 13th-14th games

[Cdizzle]

A testament to keeping your foot on the gas was the end of the Miami - Duke game last night. Miami didn't back down when they got it to 13 with over 4 minutes to go and really put it on at the end - extending to 20 and keeping it there.

It helps when you are playing a team that absolutely quits, as Duke did. Duke doesn't like to get punched the last couple of years. They fold like a cheap tent.

[PantherSigEp]

A testament to keeping your foot on the gas was the end of the Miami - Duke game last night. Miami didn't back down when they got it to 13 with over 4 minutes to go and really put it on at the end - extending to 20 and keeping it there.

It helps when you are playing a team that absolutely quits, as Duke did. Duke doesn't like to get punched the last couple of years. They fold like a cheap tent.

Which has always puzzled me given the talent and the coaching.

[Cdizzle]

It helps when you are playing a team that absolutely quits, as Duke did. Duke doesn't like to get punched the last couple of years. They fold like a cheap tent.

Which has always puzzled me given the talent and the coaching.

Young guys with one foot out the door on the way to the NBA have a lot less pride riding on the outcome of their one collegiate season. I also think Coach K has given up defense in exchange for chasing the top high school recruits each year. They out-talent people most of the time, because they are definitely supremely talented, but if you can punch them in the mouth, a lot of times the flood gates open.

[uniftw]

It helps when you are playing a team that absolutely quits, as Duke did. Duke doesn't like to get punched the last couple of years. They fold like a cheap tent.

Which has always puzzled me given the talent and the coaching.

Young guys with one foot out the door on the way to the NBA have a lot less pride riding on the outcome of their one collegiate season. I also think Coach K has given up defense in exchange for chasing the top high school recruits each year. They out-talent people most of the time, because they are definitely supremely talented, but if you can punch them in the mouth, a lot of times the flood gates open.

It's almost like Coach K doesn't know what to do with the one and done guys.

His best teams were always JR and SR heavy teams full of guys that were 4 year guys with average NBA potential. It takes a special kind of coach mentality/scheme to deal with one and done guys on a consistent basis.

[UNIFanSince1983]

Wow Bradley made that game closer than it needed to be. Hit a few 3s in the second half and made a run. Luckily our guys hung on despite Free Throws consistently being a weakness for us. The one thing I can complain about with Jacobsen is that he takes the air out of the ball far too soon a lot of times. We were in a great rhythm, but then get up by about 20 and instead of just running our stuff we change it up. I feel like this then hurts our defense as our guys are not playing with the same intensity they were early in the game. I am okay with taking the air out if we are up 20 with like under 5 minutes to go, but we seem to do it with like 10-15 minutes left and that is entirely too much time. Again credit to Bradley for knocking some shots down at the end. Hopefully at some point we can put a full 40 minute game together.

[Cdizzle]

After tonight's game, both WSU and UNI will have played SIU, Bradley, Drake and Loyola.

The preseason bottom 4 in the Valley? SIU, Bradley, Drake and Loyola

Loyola has surprised this season, but the league sure went really hard in an effort to backload the conference race. UNI and WSU face off in the last game of the season, and Evansville faces both UNI and WSU in the 16th and 17th league games.

This may work out in favor of the league...as WSU and UNI may have a better chance of racking up early wins and both being ranked. But I wish less effort was made to load interest into the last 10 days of the race and more effort was made to make things as even as possible across the entire league.

[uniftw]

After tonight's game, both WSU and UNI will have played SIU, Bradley, Drake and Loyola.

The preseason bottom 4 in the Valley? SIU, Bradley, Drake and Loyola

Loyola has surprised this season, but the league sure went really hard in an effort to backload the conference race. UNI and WSU face off in the last game of the season, and Evansville faces both UNI and WSU in the 16th and 17th league games.

This may work out in favor of the league...as WSU and UNI may have a better chance of racking up early wins and both being ranked. But I wish less effort was made to load interest into the last 10 days of the race and more effort was made to make things as even as possible across the entire league.

Agreed completely.

It's nice that UNI and WSU were given all the chance in the world to "guarantee" a hot start and a bunch of wins up front but kind of sucks at the back end.

[Cdizzle]

Agreed completely.

It's nice that UNI and WSU were given all the chance in the world to "guarantee" a hot start and a bunch of wins up front but kind of sucks at the back end.

It also makes for a really tough start to the league schedule for teams trying to get off the mat. For instance, what if ISUb had been seen as a 7th place team instead of a 6th place team coming into the year? Do you think they'd be 4-0? Loyola has made a HUGE turnaround, but has little to show for it with a 2-2 record because they had to play WSU, UNI and UE in 3 of their first 4.

I'm not saying tough stretches won't just naturally occur when you're balancing the schedule out, but this was clearly deliberate. I'm sure creating late-season made-4-TV matchups is also important and leads to some decisions. Just seems a little overboard this year.

I've also always thought it was funny that a team would play both of their matchups with 2-3 other league teams before playing a couple of teams at all. This sort of stuff seems pretty innocuous. But what if WSU has an injury during the 2 weeks they play Drake and MSU twice while UNI has an injury during the two weeks they play WSU and ISUr twice? Suddenly it's a lot less innocuous to the potential outcome of the league race.

[uniftw]

Agreed completely.

It's nice that UNI and WSU were given all the chance in the world to "guarantee" a hot start and a bunch of wins up front but kind of sucks at the back end.

It also makes for a really tough start to the league schedule for teams trying to get off the mat. For instance, what if ISUb had been seen as a 7th place team instead of a 6th place team coming into the year? Do you think they'd be 4-0? Loyola has made a HUGE turnaround, but has little to show for it with a 2-2 record because they had to play WSU, UNI and UE in 3 of their first 4.

I'm not saying tough stretches won't just naturally occur when you're balancing the schedule out, but this was clearly deliberate. I'm sure creating late-season made-4-TV matchups is also important and leads to some decisions. Just seems a little overboard this year.

I've also always thought it was funny that a team would play both of their matchups with 2-3 other league teams before playing a couple of teams at all. This sort of stuff seems pretty innocuous. But what if WSU has an injury during the 2 weeks they play Drake and MSU twice while UNI has an injury during the two weeks they play WSU and ISUr twice? Suddenly it's a lot less innocuous to the potential outcome of the league race.

We've got SIU done before the end of Jan, ISUb twice in 13 days, ISUr twice in 16 days but Evansville first game and then second to last game in conference and Loyola second game and then 3rd to final game

[BCPanther]

ISUb and ISUr are done with each other tonight.