Game Thread Shox vs Evansville

[shock-it-to-me]

The sky is falling. Falling, falling.

Meanwhile, Evansville is now a borderline top 100 RPI. ESPN has them as a 99, Realtimerpi a 104. Nolan a 103.

If Evansville finishes the season in the top 100, we have one bad loss on the entire season. SIU.

We are not a bubble team, despite what the whiners on here that seem to enjoy nothing more than WSU losing would like to argue. We are playing for seeding. Our seed has taken a hit with this loss. It would probably recover with a win over Creighton.

A win over Indiana State to close out the season likely locks Evansville in as a top 100 RPI team, and doesn't knock ISU out of the top 100.

No, the Evansville loss on its own didn't throw us into the NIT, but my concern is, now we have to go win at CU, where we will certainly be underdogs. Lets say we lose that one - a real possibility, then where are we at? A must win situation in the first round of the tourney. We get upset there, its bubble burst. Had we won last night, we could have probably lost our next two games and been OK. Not now.

[60Shock]

As a player, Ryan virtually shows up every game and is guarded by the opposing teams top defensive players. How can you not appreciate a player of that caliber.

If we had a Ryan, we would be a shoe-in for the Sweet 16 and possibly much higher. That type of player is what we are missing. The guy who is there every game, not for a game or two or three, and then disappears for a while. And unfortunately on senior night, the entire team could have, should have played better.

Other than Ryan, virtually every player on our team was superior to EU's players. Yet they won. Because they played as a disciplined team and we simply did not.

We still can get the job done. But we are going to have to either beat CU on Saturday and win two games in the tournament or win our last 3 games. Other wise, it boils down to the NCAA selection committee and we all know how that can go.

[AZ Shocker]

Here's how the play went down:

Cotton immediately threw it in to Hall, who was posting up, when the ref gave him the ball. Then Cotton faked inside and tried to use Hall as a screen WHILE Hall had the ball. Evansville took it away and Hall had to shoot because time was running out. When Cotton FINALLY got open there was 1.2 seconds left and about 3 Evansville players in between him and Hall. There was no 2nd option from what I could see. It was "throw it in to Carl who will be big and put up a screen leaving Cotton open for 3". That was the play and that play was pathetic. Why was Hall even in the game when we were down 3 with 4 seconds left? Why was Carl the first to touch it seemingly as the first option?? That was a play a coach in middle school draws up. That play didn't lose the game for us, there was a lot more stupid stuff that went down, but it didn't even give us a shot to have a chance to tie.

I did not mind Carl being in there at the end simply because he's a GREAT rebounder. We miss a 3-point attempt by someone other than Carl and who knows....maybe Carl snags the rebound for an And 1 to tie the game.

[Rosewood]

" How can you not appreciate a player of that caliber"?
Easily -- he is a flopper. JT Durley was great at taking charges. He just had a way about him. But in his senior year you could tell he learned how to go down with less contact and get the call sometimes. Ryan will initiate contact, fall down, and get the call. And that I don't appreciate.

[SubGod22]

I did not mind Carl being in there at the end simply because he's a GREAT rebounder. We miss a 3-point attempt by someone other than Carl and who knows....maybe Carl snags the rebound for an And 1 to tie the game.

With what little time remained, a rebound wasn't gonna do anything

[Shockeriffic]

Then pass EO the ball. What is his FG pct? I think I would take my chances if his man is doubling off of him versus Carl double teamed or a desperation shot with 1 second on the shot clock.

That would require the guards to have a quick ball reversal and then a quick entry pass. When's the last time you remember that happening? it's interesting that the Hall/Orupke combination didn't have these problems when Baker and Wessel were healthy.

[Rlh04d]

No, the Evansville loss on its own didn't throw us into the NIT, but my concern is, now we have to go win at CU, where we will certainly be underdogs. Lets say we lose that one - a real possibility, then where are we at? A must win situation in the first round of the tourney. We get upset there, its bubble burst. Had we won last night, we could have probably lost our next two games and been OK. Not now.

So you're not saying that losing to Evansville at home will make us an NIT team, you're saying that losing to a top 50 RPI team on the road will? That's laughable. We wouldn't be punished for losing to Creighton. We would still be 3-1 against the top 50 RPI.

If you're adding it that we would then have to lose ANOTHER game in our first tournament appearance, wherein I believe all four teams we could potentially play would have a 100+ RPI and would then be a bad loss for us, then yes, that would seriously hurt our resume. But you're adding a LOT of stuff to this while you pretend like it's THIS game that's hurting us. We currently have one bad loss on the entire season ... yes, if we get another one in the tournament THAT will hurt us.