BigWillie

Sooooo much this. Exactly what I think too. This league has too many good teams to predict who will be in the top 5 at the end. And to emphasize it even more... we went through the "gauntlet" with injuries.

This is exactly my take. I look at it this way... Are we going to win the NCAA? Highly unlikely. Could we OWN the NIT? Waaay more likely. I think we make it OUR tournament. What would make more news? 1 and done in the big dance or winning back to back NITs??

Even the broadcast was different. During the game they had on court interviews and segments where they played question games with the players. Not sure if this had anything to do with the American Showcase stuff that they kept talking about, but I would be good if it was every game. It was fun!

I don't agree with this. I think Draper is inexperienced and Youmans is pretty fair and discusses both squads. I am interested to hear what makes them so bad. I think sometimes when you don't have the voice for radio/commentary like this (Draper) it's easy to say they are bad. Youmans definitely has the voice. Everyone starts somewhere and I think we have had some good ones come through here. Emrich and Followill are the two that come to mind. See above comment. I think they talked about JE just as much, if not more. My Dad is like this too, it's like if they talk about any of the other team's players, they are "in love with the other team". The more I watch JE on and off the court, the more I feel like he is such a great person and player. I mean he is so well spoken, respectful, knowledgeable about basketball and seems like a good guy. The fact that he already has more 30 point games against better competition than TP....well......

We need this win. If they are distracted, I will take what we can get with this team and the injuries right now.

Are you saying this based on those metrics? I would honestly like to see them. I was a Stone fan for a while because of all of the "hustle" stuff, but I am moving to the Stone Cold side (and not the good one).

Speaking of this, if you look at our schedule to close out regular season versus SMU, they now have a gauntlet to contend with while we have some easier games. Will make it very interesting for seeding.

This is exactly my feelings too! Let's just try and get that 4th spot if we can.

This is exactly what happened. A couple of bad calls late again. Yes, looking at the scoreboard, I am not sure why we have started to give up so many points. It's like we are trying a different strategy without Rubin and CJ. I think everyone has already addressed how this didn't make sense, so I will just echo their sentiments. Exactly. Imagine losing one of your best defenders, avg of 10 points a game and another body that can give others a rest to close out games. Injuries make a huge diff.

Why haven't we done this for men's yet??

Yes! I was going to comment this too. It's just this league man. So many good teams and any given night....

Just to update, it seems like he is OK. On another note, I thought AScott bounced back well. Scored and did AScott things again. This is not to take anything away from the guys at all, but I will say that Tulsa is not a good team. I think we beat them by what I would expect. They missed a lot of good shots because of our defense, but also because they are just not that good.

Hopefully see you in Denton first! 😉

This is really it. I would have put more credence in your projection if you said "due to injuries" we will be X, but the prediction came from a place of negativity around players and coaching staff, which is certainly not true. It isn't always black and white.

I think the other issue with Scott is he is very inconsistent at offense. He can score 20 points one game and go 1-9 the next. To me, his offense is his secondary contribution to the team. The first is everything else. Defense, hustle, etc. The problem as has been said already, when we are missing 2 offensive contributors, his bad shooting nights stand out more and very hard to overcome.

I seriously wonder why we do this. If it were football, it would happen. @NorthTexasWeLove is more and more right everyday.

It really depends on the player. A Scott went 1-9 in the last game. Does that hurt his confidence? Nope. He will shoot 9 shots again next game. It really depends on how well you let it effect you. Stone is not a volume shooter, so he doesn't really get the chance to prove himself that way. Secondly, with 2 starters hurt, I don't think we have a choice to play him.

Yeah, I wouldn't mind owning the NIT. Making it our tournament. With as much going on with the separation of the conferences in football, it's going to happen too with basketball. It would be nice to think of the NIT as the national championship for G5.

It's interesting, I watch the little things. At the start of the second half during warm ups, I was watching Stone. He took several 3s of which none went in. Everytime they didn't, you could see his expression and body language that he was just defeated. To me, the mental game is beating him. He needs to just go out and shoot his shot.

Well, turn about is fair play. Don't throw stones, etc. We are now in the same boat. The difference is, I don't think they have issues because of injuries....

100%, the injury bug has cropped its ugly head. Look at any other team, even NBA, when you lose 2 starters, you aren't winning games against top of the conference. It's hard enough to win them full strength. To that point, if you look at the way we are still in games with these injuries, says a lot about our resilience and coaching. I believe in Boss Hodge.

This is exactly my goal too. You are right. Injuries are definitely part of the game and we can't expect this to be the same team missing 2 starters.

Ummm. Comparing Stone to Walker? Ehh...

I saw they had some out there tonight. I emailed the department to ask how I would go about donating some. Are you saying they ordered branded ones?