November 28th - December 2nd MVC games

[ACECARD]

well crap, Drake leads the entire way, then loses by 2 in the last few seconds at DePaul.

Sounds just like two of the losses that the Aces had in Nashville. Inexperienced teams just have to learn how to win. It takes time, hopefully it will happen.

[2livewu]

Well that sucked. Sorry bout that Valley. Sometimes (I hope) the shots just don't fall, and its tough to win that way. Held a team to 54 points, which included a bunch of free throws at the end, you would think that should be a winning formula, but...

I am hoping that this is just a team funk right now and not an indication of the team not being able to shoot straight. Still early and a chance to right that ship, but it's repeating a pattern for UNI. I trust Jake can get things turned. Hopefully we get Lohaus back this weekend to help also.

Overall, 7-2 is a pretty good stretch with Drake even showing a pulse on the road against a Big East team. UNI was a massive let-down for what could have been 8-1.

Is Lohaus the only player missing? That's a pretty big offensive cog if you ask me.

Panthers didn't look good last night. Rhodes isn't much of a D1 player. Haldeman will be good but neither he nor Rhodes can stop much man to man. Spencer has upside, Rhodes doesn't. And post depth and athleticism is a problem. I have no idea why they didn't get more from Koch last night. He wasn't overmatched, in fact looked to have a lot of advantage but there was a lot of standing on O. I don't think they have to be, but right now this is a one dimensional team that has to make a LOT of unguarded or not closely guarded 3s, and in a good % to beat anyone of quality.

It is amazing what 1 game can do to the outlook though. After last night, it's easy to look at UNI and say if not for a complete OU meltdown up 18 they would be 1-4 looking squarely in the face of a 3-7 non-con record.

Why only 10 D1 games and you guys had a tourney right?

[Khan4Cats]

Well that sucked. Sorry bout that Valley. Sometimes (I hope) the shots just don't fall, and its tough to win that way. Held a team to 54 points, which included a bunch of free throws at the end, you would think that should be a winning formula, but...

I am hoping that this is just a team funk right now and not an indication of the team not being able to shoot straight. Still early and a chance to right that ship, but it's repeating a pattern for UNI. I trust Jake can get things turned. Hopefully we get Lohaus back this weekend to help also.

Overall, 7-2 is a pretty good stretch with Drake even showing a pulse on the road against a Big East team. UNI was a massive let-down for what could have been 8-1.

Is Lohaus the only player missing? That's a pretty big offensive cog if you ask me.

Panthers didn't look good last night. Rhodes isn't much of a D1 player. Haldeman will be good but neither he nor Rhodes can stop much man to man. Spencer has upside, Rhodes doesn't. And post depth and athleticism is a problem. I have no idea why they didn't get more from Koch last night. He wasn't overmatched, in fact looked to have a lot of advantage but there was a lot of standing on O. I don't think they have to be, but right now this is a one dimensional team that has to make a LOT of unguarded or not closely guarded 3s, and in a good % to beat anyone of quality.

It is amazing what 1 game can do to the outlook though. After last night, it's easy to look at UNI and say if not for a complete OU meltdown up 18 they would be 1-4 looking squarely in the face of a 3-7 non-con record.

Why only 10 D1 games and you guys had a tourney right?

The way the tourney fell, it was hard to get an extra non-con game scheduled (the last added was non-D1 Coe, which we played the first Saturday-instead of a Friday/Monday combination that a lot of teams did). We also had a pretty grueling travel schedule last year and I believe Jake was trying to avoid that again even if it meant one less game.

The biggest thing to remember with UNI is that there are 11 of 16 players on the roster that had never played a game in a UNI uniform before this year. There are bound to be games where we look out of sorts. I am certainly of the belief that that was the case and we have much more upside than we showed. It is certainly frustrating as we did a lot of things that Jake coached teams usually do well (held the opponents scoring down, forced turnovers, didn't turn the ball over ourselves, didn't foul), we just didn't shoot well.

[Cdizzle]

Seems like having a bunch of new players is even greater reason to play a full slate of games.

[2livewu]

Is the rule still 29 games or 27 plus a tourney (up to 4)?

I'm not sure what the game at Xavier meant. Was it the 4th game exemption type game that UNI (and others) has done in the past?

It seems like if yes then they missed out on 2 potential games but idk.

Low turnovers is good, but man you guys play slow. No doubt just a few made shots wins that game but that was too many 3s and also no assists from PGs is an issue too.

I think you got a good team, but I'm struggling to see a very high ceiling.

[Cdizzle]

Is the rule still 29 games or 27 plus a tourney (up to 4)?

That's my understanding.

I'm not sure what the game at Xavier meant. Was it the 4th game exemption type game that UNI (and others) has done in the past?

I think it was just a regularly scheduled game? Otherwise, yeah, missing 2 games. I'm at the point where I understand teams like WSU and UNI playing a non-D1 school in the regular season if they can't work out a non-RPI bomb. But skipping out on a potential game seems like a bad move to me. Even if people are very in love with computer numbers these days, seeing a 25 or 26 in the win column is still pretty persuasive to a human selector. And while I can understand not wanting to burn out, and having a lot of new players; both of those things seem to push FOR the additional game to develop young talent and depth rather than against it.

[Khan4Cats]

Again, it was the timing of the tournament early in the season. First games in Orlando (originally Puerto Rico) were scheduled for the Thursday following the Friday allowed for first games. Back up from there-assume you want to be at the tourney site at least a full day before, if not two that puts you traveling Tuesday. So, you have 4 days in which to try and get 2 games in. If you are willing to travel, AND you have a willing partner to play you in the direction of the tourney, you could play a game Monday. If you want to play at home, well, we know the issues of getting willing partners for that. We ended up with a non-D1 on Saturday.

That brings us to the week after the tourney ends on Sunday. Well, that happened to be Thanksgiving week. Not many non-tournament games being played on Wed/Thur of that week usually. We did get the Xavier game scheduled for Saturday, so that eliminated a Fri/Sun option. We go Wed/Sat/Wed/Sat then have Finals week followed by Iowa and then UNC (Sat/Wed) followed by Christmas weekend and Valley play starting the following Wed.

The calendar just made it tough this year. I think Jake would have liked to play another game, but as I said in an earlier post, we had a travel schedule last year that had us criss-crossing the country and then out to Hawaii and Jake felt that was not good on the players, so he was not going to do that again.

-also, the Xavier game was scheduled as an add-on to the tourney, but we negotiated it into a home and home.

[Cdizzle]

-also, the Xavier game was scheduled as an add-on to the tourney, but we negotiated it into a home and home.

Did it count as part of this year's tourney?

[Khan4Cats]

-also, the Xavier game was scheduled as an add-on to the tourney, but we negotiated it into a home and home.

Did it count as part of this year's tourney?

Yes, I think it counted as the 4th allowed game of the MTE.

[Cdizzle]

-also, the Xavier game was scheduled as an add-on to the tourney, but we negotiated it into a home and home.

Did it count as part of this year's tourney?

Yes, I think it counted as the 4th allowed game of the MTE.

Thanks for the responses.

Only scheduling 28 out of a possible 31 D1 games seems pretty inexcusable to me. Scheduling is really hard. But it's not thaaaaat hard. Especially when you're being thrown bones by UNC, Xavier and an in-state.