This game is a coin-flip. Here's to an injury-free game! Cheers mates!

I expect a close game down to the wire. USM is playing great basketball down the stretch.[/i]

Its going to be tough for us to beat this team 3 times, they are a tough matchup just with the quickness of your guards you have. We are going to have to be locked in. I really think winner of this game takes trophy Saturday night...

The old saying "it's hard to beat a team 3 times" always gets uttered this time of year. But in reality the team that went 2-0 in the first meetings, wins the third meeting 72.4% of the time. This is from a study done last March going back and looking at 981 3rd-game matchups in the NCAA over the last 10 years.

I'm hoping WKU wins for the 3rd time and ODU wins for the 3rd time tomorrow. Payback from last year ;-)

It is according to who scores the most points I guess.

(03-15-2019 08:51 AM)Rojogrande Wrote:  The old saying "it's hard to beat a team 3 times" always gets uttered this time of year. But in reality the team that went 2-0 in the first meetings, wins the third meeting 72.4% of the time. This is from a study done last March going back and looking at 981 3rd-game matchups in the NCAA over the last 10 years.

I remembered hearing that but didn't remember the details, thanks for the specifics.

It worries me a little that Southern Miss makes their bones by hitting three point shots. Our three point defense has been suspect at times. On a given night that could be a bad combination. Southern Miss will have to hit threes to beat us I think. They hit 52.6% last night against Marshall. In our first meeting in Hattiesburg they shot the three very poorly (28.6%). In the 2nd meeting in Bowling Green they torched us for 50% but we hit an uncharacteristically high number as well (47.8%) a feat that I am not sure we will repeat. So if they light us up like that again... I think Southern Miss likely plays Old Dominion for the title.

On the other hand they played the late game... it was a hard fought game against Marshall (even though Marshall did not do me the courtesy of invoking an overtime or two ). Fatigue hurts shooting. Shooting the three well involves A) being active to get open shots and B) using your legs to do most of the work to propel the ball 20+ feet to the net. Fatigue interferes with both of those. There is another old adage... tall doesn't get tired. And when WKU is locked in we are actually quite good. So you see this throughout the year... we get up for games where the opponent has an SEC patch or a Big Ten patch. I certainly hope with the season on the line we will get up for this game as well. If we do, I think we pull out a close hard fought game.

(03-15-2019 08:57 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  I'm hoping WKU wins for the 3rd time and ODU wins for the 3rd time tomorrow. Payback from last year ;-)

I think that's slightly different. Most of the time when a team wins the first two games they weren't BOTH on their home court.

I had rather be the team going into this game 2-0 than 0-2.

(03-15-2019 09:34 AM)Hilltopper2K Wrote:  

(03-15-2019 08:57 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  I'm hoping WKU wins for the 3rd time and ODU wins for the 3rd time tomorrow. Payback from last year ;-)

I think that's slightly different. Most of the time when a team wins the first two games they weren't BOTH on their home court.

(03-15-2019 09:48 AM)MonarchManiac Wrote:  

(03-15-2019 09:34 AM)Hilltopper2K Wrote:  

(03-15-2019 08:57 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  I'm hoping WKU wins for the 3rd time and ODU wins for the 3rd time tomorrow. Payback from last year ;-)

I think that's slightly different. Most of the time when a team wins the first two games they weren't BOTH on their home court.

You'd better hope we lose this afternoon.

Vegas has WKU as a 1 point dog...

(03-15-2019 09:52 AM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  Vegas has WKU as a 1 point dog...

I just saw USM by 1.5. Guess the line moved.

(03-15-2019 10:02 AM)topper1296 Wrote:  

(03-15-2019 09:52 AM)WKUFan518 Wrote:  Vegas has WKU as a 1 point dog...

I just saw USM by 1.5. Guess the line moved.

Yes money is coming in for USM...

(03-15-2019 09:50 AM)Hilltopper2K Wrote:  

(03-15-2019 09:48 AM)MonarchManiac Wrote:  

(03-15-2019 09:34 AM)Hilltopper2K Wrote:  

(03-15-2019 08:57 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  I'm hoping WKU wins for the 3rd time and ODU wins for the 3rd time tomorrow. Payback from last year ;-)

I think that's slightly different. Most of the time when a team wins the first two games they weren't BOTH on their home court.

You'd better hope we lose this afternoon.

(03-15-2019 09:50 AM)Hilltopper2K Wrote:  

(03-15-2019 09:48 AM)MonarchManiac Wrote:  

(03-15-2019 09:34 AM)Hilltopper2K Wrote:  

(03-15-2019 08:57 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  I'm hoping WKU wins for the 3rd time and ODU wins for the 3rd time tomorrow. Payback from last year ;-)

I think that's slightly different. Most of the time when a team wins the first two games they weren't BOTH on their home court.

You'd better hope we lose this afternoon.

Nope, I want you to win so we can lay a can of whoopass on you one more time. We'll even shorten the game by 10 minutes and give you a 21-0 head start

Bettors say no. Line was EVEN hours ago. Now it’s USM -3.5!

(03-15-2019 10:24 AM)Funslinger Wrote:  Bettors say no. Line was EVEN hours ago. Now it’s USM -3.5!

I’m gonna say USM wins but Western covers.

Give WKU credit as they played the better/more complete games in our 2 previous matchups and here's my keys to USM trying to win "game 3" vs WKU

home game vs WKU: we made a last second 3 but still lost by 3 points
- they got 40 of their of their 66 points in the paint
- Bassey had a double double at the half and finished with 17 rebounds
- we shot 5-12 from the free throw line

road game vs WKU (pod play game that we lost by 5 points)
- we were up 44-39 at the 17:19 2nd half point but then went cold as WKU went on a 22-8 run the next 7 minutes to take a 61-52 lead
- they got 12 offensive rebounds
- we got foul happy which allowed WKU to shoot 13-18 from the FT line

IF we can clean things up just a little from each game we have the possibility of advancing but we've got to play a near perfect game in order to do that as WKU seems to do a little better each time.

At least we don't have to wait around until 9:00 pm tonight or later.

(03-15-2019 09:50 AM)Hilltopper2K Wrote:  

(03-15-2019 09:48 AM)MonarchManiac Wrote:  

(03-15-2019 09:34 AM)Hilltopper2K Wrote:  

(03-15-2019 08:57 AM)EverRespect Wrote:  I'm hoping WKU wins for the 3rd time and ODU wins for the 3rd time tomorrow. Payback from last year ;-)

I think that's slightly different. Most of the time when a team wins the first two games they weren't BOTH on their home court.

You'd better hope we lose this afternoon.

Hell no. If we take care of UAB (questionable anyway) then I would absolutely rather face WKU than USM. USM is scary yo.