Indiana State at Evansville (Jan 1)

[acesfool]

The Aces will most likely lose both games to WSU, MSU, UNI, and Creighton. That means the Aces would have to go either 8-2 or 9-1 against the rest of the league to achieve an 8-10 or 9-9 MVC record. My bet is the Aces win 5 at the most and it will probably be less.

[Aces1982]

For the record, I never said they would win 8 or 9 games. But the possibility is there. They took the first step of staying out of Thursday night by beating ISU-B at home. Problem is that was only step 1.

[WuDrWu]

The Aces will most likely lose both games to WSU, MSU, UNI, and Creighton. That means the Aces would have to go either 8-2 or 9-1 against the rest of the league to achieve an 8-10 or 9-9 MVC record. My bet is the Aces win 5 at the most and it will probably be less.

That's pretty fair. I suspect they have a decent chance to get BU, DU and maybe SIU at home. Maybe they can steal 1 somewhere on the road, but I can't see more than 1. That's 5. Anything more would be a serious stretch. They just don't have the talent, and while I think Marty does a really good job with what he has, he's not exactly RMK.

[WSUbballer]

Beating a play-in team at home is hardly what I would call "impressive". Yeah, it's a win, but it getting some people to talk about the possibility of 8-10 or 9-9 is a bit ludicrous.

[Aces1982]

Beating a play-in team at home is hardly what I would call "impressive". Yeah, it's a win, but it getting some people to talk about the possibility of 8-10 or 9-9 is a bit ludicrous.

IT'S A STEP. That is all. Nobody said we were going to finish with 8 wins or 9 wins. You have to walk before you can run.

I didn't realize ISU-B was automatically going to finish 7-10. If you think you can pick all 4 play in teams you are nuts. 5-10 are all very comparable and could finish in any order, to say otherwise is crazy. They are all that bad.

[09grad]

I honestly dont think 7 or 8 wins is so far out reach...I think ISUr, Drake, Bradley, and SIU are all games UE can win. thats five wins. Out of those four teams plus ISUb I think they will need at the very least win 1 of those games on the goad. That is six wins, and every year the Aces seem to beat a better team at home like UNI, WSU, CU, and MSU. That is seven...with a possibilty of eight or nine. If they do win nine games, Simmons is my vote for coach of the year because that will definately be there full potential.

[Aces0976]

Beating a play-in team at home is hardly what I would call "impressive". Yeah, it's a win, but it getting some people to talk about the possibility of 8-10 or 9-9 is a bit ludicrous.

You're right, it's not really "impressive". It's a game we should've won, but we've been losing those games the last several years. For WSU, picked to finish 1st, winning a game like that, the way we won that game, is not a good game, it's cause for alarm. For UE, picked to finish last, ANY conference win is a good win, no matter the opponent or the style in which we do it. I also agree the most likely scenario for us is still probably around 5 wins. At the same time, there's nothing wrong with fans of a team trying to optimistic. Trust me, in Evansville, we have more than our fair share of pessimism.

[WuDrWu]

Ok I am really not trying to be mean here, but why "should" you have won that game?

I watched the game, twice....Indiana State is a better team. They are more talented at almost every position.

I will concede that Evansville has the better coach. But Evansville should have won? Indiana State was up 18 at one point...do you EVER think UE is going to be ahead of ISU by 18? The Trees self imploded, allowing for the Aces comeback. Evansville shouldn't have been in that game.

At best, imho, UE wins 3 or 4 out of 10 HOME games against ISUB, at BEST. Some Aces fans have to stop using the Butler result as a baseline for expectations.

[Aces1982]

Ok I am really not trying to be mean here, but why "should" you have won that game?

I watched the game, twice....Indiana State is a better team. They are more talented at almost every position.

I will concede that Evansville has the better coach. But Evansville should have won? Indiana State was up 18 at one point...do you EVER think UE is going to be ahead of ISU by 18? The Trees self imploded, allowing for the Aces comeback. Evansville shouldn't have been in that game.

At best, imho, UE wins 3 or 4 out of 10 HOME games against ISUB, at BEST. Some Aces fans have to stop using the Butler result as a baseline for expectations.

Did you think we would beat UNI and WSU last year at home? Did you think SIU would beat UNI this year? Anything can happen in basketball. And to say we may win 5 home games, steal one or two on the road and upset one or two at home is not far fetched. Will it happen? Who knows. You could be right as well. UE may only win 5 games, heck they may not win one more game. But to say it is ludicrous or NO WAY it will happen is crazy.

Why should we have won? Because we were at home. Because ISU was without their best player. And because the people that know more about anyone else, Vegas--had us favored.

[Aces0976]

Ok I am really not trying to be mean here, but why "should" you have won that game?

I watched the game, twice....Indiana State is a better team. They are more talented at almost every position.

I will concede that Evansville has the better coach. But Evansville should have won? Indiana State was up 18 at one point...do you EVER think UE is going to be ahead of ISU by 18? The Trees self imploded, allowing for the Aces comeback. Evansville shouldn't have been in that game.

At best, imho, UE wins 3 or 4 out of 10 HOME games against ISUB, at BEST. Some Aces fans have to stop using the Butler result as a baseline for expectations.

A team that is lower half or middle of the conference, I think we should win those games at home. Hell I'm disappointed anytime we lose at home. I didn't get the chance to watch it back on TV, so my opinions may be skewed because when Im at the game, I tend to focus mostly on UE, even on defense. But I came away thinking....ISU played good defense the first half, we played horrid offense.......2nd half, the roles were reversed. I'm not using Butler as a baseline, but Butler is a better matchup for us than most of the valley teams. They are not overly athletic, they rely on defense, precision and shooting to beat you. We just physically match up decent with them. That's also why I'm afraid that the UNC and WSU outcomes weren't really unexpected, because they were/are physical mismatches. The rest of the conference, I don't know until I see them, so I just expect us to win home games until I see otherwise. Granted, I get disappointed quite a bit, but when I said we SHOULD win that game, it doesn't mean I think we're better than ISU, just more on my expectations.