Southern Illinois Preview and Game Thread

[Scream]

Win at Evansville; lose at SIU. That's conference play unless you're a projected favorite. Success is defending the home court and stealing some on the road. We missed a very good chance to make up for the home loss to WSU, but we still have lots of chances to do that. We're even after 6 games. In October, who wouldn't have taken 9-9 in the Valley? There's no mythical index of how "good" a team is. You are what your record is. Our record just took a hit, but what happens from here on out depends on how well we play. I'm not overly optimistic about that right now because of the kinds of things JCT mentions, but it will be determined on the floor and I like the guys we have on the floor.

[LU Rambler12]

Win at Evansville; lose at SIU. That's conference play unless you're a projected favorite. Success is defending the home court and stealing some on the road. We missed a very good chance to make up for the home loss to WSU, but we still have lots of chances to do that. We're even after 6 games. In October, who wouldn't have taken 9-9 in the Valley?

This is a fair levelheaded post. The only reason this loss hurts is because it was against SIU (arguably the worst team in the Valley right now) and everyone's expectations were significantly heightened after the Las Vegas Tourney win.

I mean...we were actually having discussions about a legitimate NIT bid. As a Rambler fan, when was the last time you felt that was bound to happen?

[01grad]

This feels like the loss to Youngstown in 06/07. An overall good season with a terrible loss that was probably a big factor in not getting a postseason bid.

[BigJoe1963]

This feels like the loss to Youngstown in 06/07. An overall good season with a terrible loss that was probably a big factor in not getting a postseason bid.

Spot on with that analogy

[brot4britu]

OK let's stop the nonsense starting Wednesday--
--We MUST do the dictating--NOT the other way around.
-----eg Stop with the Oxen-ball. We are better than that garbage.
--We must get scoring from Milton--Assists are great but scoring AND assists are better
--Turn James and Turk loose immediately--No more fooling around. Except for WSU and perhaps UNI for now, we are on a par or better than the rest of the League. Now , show it. Christian will pick it up--no worries there

Time to go after Evansville--same as we did at their place--PM Must see to it and do a better coaching job than he did against Salukis.

BTW , did the refs depart from normal Valley style--Ticky-tack--or it seemed that way to me ???

[25yearstreak]

A devastating loss. While I did not think we were as good as our record had indicated, I did not think we were this bad either. We have the depth to get into uptempo.
Since I did not have access to ESPN 3,I could only listen on the radio and use the gametracker. Seems like a snail paced game which is not good for us.
I still think a top six finish is probably but a twenty win season and a post season tourney would both be questionable.
Need to bounce back versus Evansville.

[zeke garrison]

I am still hoping they can go .500 in conference play. Hopefully we are in a bit of a rough patch and the team will work it's way out of the funk. They are young and there are so many directions things can go. Call me cautiously optimistic.

[ahunte1]

I am still hoping they can go .500 in conference play. Hopefully we are in a bit of a rough patch and the team will work it's way out of the funk.

I agree with this. Going into the season, I would have been happy with 8-10 in conference. Then the first two months of the season raised my expectations. Kenpom still projects 20-10 (10-8), but we are trending in the wrong direction.

[JCT]

Oxen ball... Brot's bete noire... If that's the style that's best for winning, I'm all for it, and please give me more. Taking the other team out of their preferred pace, and making the game get played at the pace that's best for your team is a tried and true strategy for winning games. We used a brutally slow pace to beat Boise State, and we slowed down the pace to beat Evansville. When you're dealing with a team that doesn't play much defense and loves to score, that's usually the way to go. Our problem against SIU wasn't necessarily the pace, it was 1. Not even any token offensive rebounding work, 2. Not using all the weapons we have (Doyle's two field goal attempts, James out for most of the 2nd half, almost no press against a team prone to turnovers), and 3. Not taking advantage of in-game conditions (getting the 5th foul on Beane, getting to the line more while in the bonus for the last 11 minutes, etc.). We also had almost nothing on fast break points.

Guard play/Balance. Our starting backcourt had eight field goal attempts for the game (Turk 6, Doyle 2, Crisman 0), and only ONE two point field goal attempt (one make by Doyle). The guards off the bench didn't do any better-- Peterson, Richardson, and White had seven shots on goal, with only four (all by White) inside the arc. Some of that was done by SIU extending the defense and ball pressure out from the arc, but we seemed to have a game plan to go inside repeatedly, and we didn't adjust. No screens on the perimeter, only a couple pull-up jumpers in the gap between the paint and the arc (one missed open 14 foot jumper by Thomas, one make by Knuth that I recall), etc.

Having fun/improvising. From the beginning of the game and increasingly throughout, it looked like the team was dreading every single minute of the game. There were nothing but grim expressions all around, and even the congratulations for good plays looked subdued and fatalistic. The team played like it was under strict orders to not do certain things, even if the opportunity clearly presented itself. We saw that a lot last season, and this is the first game where it's been obvious and pervasive this year. I don't know the personalities well enough to know how to go about it, but something has to be done to lighten things up and change the vibe. Maybe I'd bring in somebody with a good sense of humor and the ability to inspire to talk to the players before Evansville. Maybe the coaches need to dial it down a notch on the regimentation.

[swellafelon]

Maybe I'd bring in somebody with a good sense of humor .... to talk to the players before Evansville.

I have at least 10 minutes' worth of Tom Kelly fat jokes that I could use to inspire the players!