Missouri State Preview and Game Thread -- 02/22/2020

[RamblinTank22]

From a basketball fan perspective this game is horrible. No flow, tons of whistles, and so long

[Mudville21]

If we were making FTs, we would be right there. MS State making FTs late. Kennedy the only guys who showed up today. Two games i a row where we drw officials who were whistle happy.

[JCT]

I believe we equaled the number of foul disqualifications from the last two seasons COMBINED in this one game.

[SisterJean]

Same thing different day. Refs don’t matter. We lost to Bradley last year because they didn’t call any fouls. Got killed today and they called too many. Have to be able to win both types of games. Good teams can. Well coached teams can. Don’t see this team winning 3 straight in St. Louis. Don’t see them ever making it back to the tournament again. Hope I’m wrong. Big expectations next year but it’s all the same guys that can’t win on the road coming back. Same guys who can’t make the free ones. Same team that has been wildly inconsistent for the last 700 days. Every other team in the conference is still getting better also.

[GoRamblers]

Same thing different day. Refs don’t matter. We lost to Bradley last year because they didn’t call any fouls. Got killed today and they called too many. Have to be able to win both types of games. Good teams can. Well coached teams can. Don’t see this team winning 3 straight in St. Louis. Don’t see them ever making it back to the tournament again. Hope I’m wrong. Big expectations next year but it’s all the same guys that can’t win on the road coming back. Same guys who can’t make the free ones. Same team that has been wildly inconsistent for the last 700 days. Every other team in the conference is still getting better also.

Look, the loss sucked but can the doom and gloom.

We won the league last year in spite of the inconsistency. We lost big time players and still find ourselves at the top of the league.

Conventional wisdom says that teams that deal with the adversity of losing the close games learn from their mistakes. All things being equal, they'll be fine next year.

Yes, the free throw shooting sucks but Krut is an example that you can improve. 57% last year to 68% this year. The coaching staff just needs to preach practice.

Look, there are many of us here that suffered through very lean times. This is the renaissance of LU basketball and if you can't see that...well I'm sorry. My recommendation is to drop the end of the world schtick and enjoy the ride. It's much more fun.

[01grad]

Same thing different day. Refs don’t matter. We lost to Bradley last year because they didn’t call any fouls. Got killed today and they called too many. Have to be able to win both types of games. Good teams can. Well coached teams can. Don’t see this team winning 3 straight in St. Louis. Don’t see them ever making it back to the tournament again. Hope I’m wrong. Big expectations next year but it’s all the same guys that can’t win on the road coming back. Same guys who can’t make the free ones. Same team that has been wildly inconsistent for the last 700 days. Every other team in the conference is still getting better also.

Look, the loss sucked but can the doom and gloom.

We won the league last year in spite of the inconsistency. We lost big time players and still find ourselves at the top of the league.

Conventional wisdom says that teams that deal with the adversity of losing the close games learn from their mistakes. All things being equal, they'll be fine next year.

Yes, the free throw shooting sucks but Krut is an example that you can improve. 57% last year to 68% this year. The coaching staff just needs to preach practice.

Look, there are many of us here that suffered through very lean times. This is the renaissance of LU basketball and if you can't see that...well I'm sorry. My recommendation is to drop the end of the world schtick and enjoy the ride. It's much more fun.

+1

Some people lose sight of just how young this team is, and all of our shortcomings right now (free throws, road struggles, etc) are pretty typical of young teams. We’re one win away from equalling last years total...both in conference wins and total wins. If some people can’t see the improvements this team has made since the beginning of the year, and the potential they have going forward, they’re blinded by their own sick hopes that their predictions of doom come true.

[ahunte1]

Let's go Valpo

[ToledoRambler]

This one falls on Porter.

Uguak turned the ball over 2 times in the first 45 seconds of the game, but doesn’t get the hook. We go down 9-0. For the better part of the first half, we don’t get the ball to Krut, and when we do he’s out at the three point line. Uguak goes the whole first Half not only not scoring, but not even trying.

I think there was a moment in the second half when we had it down to 9 or 8 and got the ball back but Krut was not in the game. That was the time to call a timeout, put Krut in, and feed him the ball. Instead, Frank bobbles the ball down low and turns it over. That moment was when I thought the chances of a comeback were shot.

We are a good team. I disagree that we can’t win three straight in St. Louis. We go 24-30 instead of 18-30 from the line and we would have had a chance to win this game despite the atrocious first half. Missing 12 free throws, some of them 1-and-1’s is not going to put you in position to win road games. A lot of things went wrong, but tanking those free throws in a 2/3 empty arena is a lack of discipline and focus. It needs to be a point of emphasis over the summer. So far this year it’s probably been the difference between 19 wins to 22 or 23 wins.

We now root for Valpo tonight, and everyone needs to go back into the gym on their own time Sunday morning, stand at the free throw line with the ball, think about what it means, and get better.

[goramblers2011]

Same thing different day. Refs don’t matter. We lost to Bradley last year because they didn’t call any fouls. Got killed today and they called too many. Have to be able to win both types of games. Good teams can. Well coached teams can. Don’t see this team winning 3 straight in St. Louis. Don’t see them ever making it back to the tournament again. Hope I’m wrong. Big expectations next year but it’s all the same guys that can’t win on the road coming back. Same guys who can’t make the free ones. Same team that has been wildly inconsistent for the last 700 days. Every other team in the conference is still getting better also.

Was waiting for the SisterJean post! "Don't see them ever making the tournament again" is an absolutely preposterous thing to say.

The loss sucked. The Bears have been really tough lately. they handed Indiana State their only home loss, they pounded Drake by 35 points and took Bradley to OT @Bradley. We got in a big hole early and couldnt get out.

As said, we still control our own destiny for 2nd. Beat Drake at home Tuesday and then get ready for a massive game in Peoria. We got the guys to win Arch, there's no team that I look at and say "no chance we beat them."

(But the free throw shooting is bad, feel free to direct your anger towards that aspect as much as you want.)

[goramblers2011]

Krut's father not happy on Twitter and for good reason! Points out that Krut has played over 100 games on college and that was his first time fouling out. And only fouled out once in 100+ high school games. Clown show by the refs today.