Northern Iowa (11/7/23)

Great win! 

Great debut.

Tough game to start the season! Nice win by the Mean Green.

Really proud of how the boys fought back tonight.  Very gutsy win.  Congratz to Hodgy for his first of many.

Happy for Ross and they looked real good.  Also good crowd tonight!

Light that tower! Team is stacked with talent. Whereas last year we wondered where the offense would come from if not from Perry, I think this year we'll have a solid 5-6 guys who can get into double digits any given might. Scott has become an elite scorer and Rubin is healthy. Looking forward to a more consistent performance against Omaha!

Thank you basketball team, you have spent the past 5+seasons not disappointing me 

Something to note. This was a great win especially as it was Hodge's first game as HC. 

We haven't given up 77 points to a team since last year's double overtime against UAB with them scoring 79 points. 

Good test tonight.   Much better than playing a cupcake game.  We found some new players.  We seemed a little out of steam at the end of regulation, but found new energy and grit again in OT.  

Nice win against a tough opponent.  Good start for Coach Hodge.

Stats

Where do I find the post game conference?

Really good win today vs a very good team. Overall I am happy, the team was calm and fought back after losing the lead. Edwards is looking like a stand out from the transfers, but all of the new guys have contributed.

One of the things that need to improve is covering their shooters, on many plays our guys seem to get lost or try and help too much leaving their man open. That's something I expect will be ironed out as Hodge and co. will drill the guys on this. Another is ball security, too many lost balls on the dribble. Sissoko needs some confidence, he looks like his old self, not like in the NIT. He has all of the tools, he just needs to put it all together. Stone continues to be an offensive liability, I hope he really turns it around this year. He just seems to always be going 100mph, just slow down and pick your shots. 

For the games coming up I'd like to see Moore get some minutes, and maybe Morgan if we are up big. 

Fun game. Great W. D has some wrinkles to iron out. 

14 minutes ago, HoosMeanGreen said:

Where do I find the post game conference?

radio post game.  varsity app.

Crowd was great tonight.  Students were awesome.  I don't think I have seen that many students on a game 1 of the season.  Not a lot of height on this team but 18/22 on free throws and some of the transfers we picked up are going to be fun to watch.  

1 minute ago, GoMeanGreen1999 said:

Crowd was great tonight.  Students were awesome.  I don't think I have seen that many students on a game 1 of the season.

Yes, and nice to not crap their bed, either.

First, Congrats to Ross on his first win as HC. That UNI team is no joke. Well coached, hard nosed, and resilient. Tons of respect for that program.

Was awesome to have a tough back and forth game against a real opponent to start the season. The Maniacs continue to impress. They showed out and set the tone for the energy and crowd interaction in the game. Was amazing to feel the Pit rock in game 1. It usually takes half a season for our fans to wake up and give us the true home court advantage. Maybe we’ve turned the corner on that front as a program? 

All in all - Great win and great atmosphere at the Pit! More of that please. GMG!

31 minutes ago, greenminer said:

radio post game.  varsity app.

Didn’t find it. 😞

Great game and a good win.

I get the feeling UNI is a better team that many have predicted, their interior defense made it hard for UNT to penetrate, and they were able to generate some quality looks on the other side of the ball. 

 

 

You know what’s better than having a packed student section? WINNING while having a packed student section. 

That was a very good UNI team that is going to have a much better record than their 14-18 campaign last season. Fundamentally sound, don't make a lot of mistakes, can shoot the ball, and also benefitted from more than enough shooter's rolls that the home team usually gets.

Their run was a perfect storm of them continuing to get good shots off of cuts that we just couldn't stop plus some tough 3's. We also gave up too many second chance opportunities. But during that bad stretch, we also had too many dumb turnovers tried to cut through double teams and getting stripped.

Really wish they would have taken advantage of #32, who had 4 fouls for like the last 10 minutes of the second half, when they UNI was making its run. Instead he fouls out on a crazy bang-bang play that I was honestly surprised we got a favorable call on.

But at the end of the night, you could not ask for a better game on opening night with that kind of student attendance. It felt noticeably different than the Southern Nazarene game last year, even though the average UNT student wouldn't know that UNI is a solid team. Hopefully that attendance carries over into Saturday, because two of the last three nonconference home games fall on fan-unfriendly days.

7 hours ago, Matt from A700 said:

That was a very good UNI team that is going to have a much better record than their 14-18 campaign last season. Fundamentally sound, don't make a lot of mistakes, can shoot the ball, and also benefitted from more than enough shooter's rolls that the home team usually gets.

Their run was a perfect storm of them continuing to get good shots off of cuts that we just couldn't stop plus some tough 3's. We also gave up too many second chance opportunities. But during that bad stretch, we also had too many dumb turnovers tried to cut through double teams and getting stripped.

Really wish they would have taken advantage of #32, who had 4 fouls for like the last 10 minutes of the second half, when they UNI was making its run. Instead he fouls out on a crazy bang-bang play that I was honestly surprised we got a favorable call on.

But at the end of the night, you could not ask for a better game on opening night with that kind of student attendance. It felt noticeably different than the Southern Nazarene game last year, even though the average UNT student wouldn't know that UNI is a solid team. Hopefully that attendance carries over into Saturday, because two of the last three nonconference home games fall on fan-unfriendly days.

they mentioned it a few times on the broadcast, but UNI was picked 2nd in the MVC preseason coaches poll, so I think everyone close to the program/conference is expecting the same thing. 

Heise was the player they lost after two games last season and he dropped 20...and their center Hutson was definitely better than I anticipated. they're gonna be a problem for everyone they play, especially once their star Born gets going. 

UNI has a tune up game next, then play our conference mate South Florida before going to the Atlantis tourney in the Bahamas where they start off with North Carolina...would play either Villanova or Texas Tech next...and finish with either Michigan, Memphis, Stanford or Arkansas. 

I think for the sake of RPI, we'd want them to lose to AAC opponents and then run the table. UNC were down last year and struggled for a half with Radford in their opener. I think that's definitely a game UNI could win and would be a big boost for us.