7pm central on ESPN + or 3 (I forgot to look)

Ohio 11-11/157 NET .... NIU 9-12/250

First, let me address the LARGE difference in the NET rankings. Bobcats have not beaten a team better than Youngstown State (113) while the Huskies beat Kent when they were in the 30's and Indiana State (102). However Ohio did not lose to the likes of Idaho, Albany or Illinois Springfield. I feel the Huskies are a different team from back in 2022. They are shooting better from the three point line and Ibarguen has improved to give us some semblance of a big man. Also, largely unnoticed our turnovers have shrunk from 16.5 during non-conference play to 12.4 in MAC play to 9 in the last three games.

The Bobcats leading scorer is 6'8" Dwight Wilson, so if Crump and Ibarguen don't have good defensive effort, then we got trouble. Ohio's only true center is 6'11" Gabe Wiznitzer who plays about 13 minutes a game with 3.9pts and 3.2 rebounds.
3pt shooters are Hunter .397, Miles Brown .432, Clayton .330 and A J Brown .338.
They do shot a lot of threes.

This is a big game, and a win gives us more breathing room, but loss pulls us back to the bottom pack.

GO HUSKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are 5 pt dogs to Ohio!!!
We are 6-4 MAC play, they are 4-6!
We beat EMU at EMU by 21 points.
They lost to EMU by 11 points.

We should win this game.

(02-07-2023 01:16 PM)El Duderino Wrote:  We are 5 pt dogs to Ohio!!!
We are 6-4 MAC play, they are 4-6!
We beat EMU at EMU by 21 points.
They lost to EMU by 11 points.

We should win this game.

That is a very, very strange line.

Ohio is 10-1 at home and 2-9 on the road.

Seems like they are begging the bettors to pick us.

(02-07-2023 01:25 PM)Milwaukee Pilot Wrote:  

(02-07-2023 01:16 PM)El Duderino Wrote:  We are 5 pt dogs to Ohio!!!
We are 6-4 MAC play, they are 4-6!
We beat EMU at EMU by 21 points.
They lost to EMU by 11 points.

We should win this game.

That is a very, very strange line.

Ohio is 10-1 at home and 2-9 on the road.

Seems like they are begging the bettors to pick us.

Agreed. Doesn't make any kind of sense.

Personally, as much as I try to avoid this term, this is a must win game for us (and the next one) if we truly want to qualify for the MACT. Winning these two put us in an almost lock to make the tournament but dropping one of the next two will be a real disappointment.

At this point, the expectations should be established and no longer is it okay to drop games we should win. It'll probably happen at some point, but it'll sting more now than what I (or some of us) figured it would sting.

With that said, I'm pretty optimistic about tonight. The team is clicking right now.

(02-07-2023 01:49 PM)Big Red Wrote:  

(02-07-2023 01:25 PM)Milwaukee Pilot Wrote:  

(02-07-2023 01:16 PM)El Duderino Wrote:  We are 5 pt dogs to Ohio!!!
We are 6-4 MAC play, they are 4-6!
We beat EMU at EMU by 21 points.
They lost to EMU by 11 points.

We should win this game.

That is a very, very strange line.

Ohio is 10-1 at home and 2-9 on the road.

Seems like they are begging the bettors to pick us.

Agreed. Doesn't make any kind of sense.

Personally, as much as I try to avoid this term, this is a must win game for us (and the next one) if we truly want to qualify for the MACT. Winning these two put us in an almost lock to make the tournament but dropping one of the next two will be a real disappointment.

At this point, the expectations should be established and no longer is it okay to drop games we should win. It'll probably happen at some point, but it'll sting more now than what I (or some of us) figured it would sting.

With that said, I'm pretty optimistic about tonight. The team is clicking right now.

This game is not “must win”. With the tournament taking eight of the twelve teams, 8/9 wins will always qualify. We have eight more games to get 2/3 wins……we don’t need any more than that……preferable yes, must win no…….currently the 9th place team is 3-7.

Original post edited because I can’t count to eight.

(02-07-2023 02:12 PM)HuskieDave Wrote:  

(02-07-2023 01:49 PM)Big Red Wrote:  

(02-07-2023 01:25 PM)Milwaukee Pilot Wrote:  

(02-07-2023 01:16 PM)El Duderino Wrote:  We are 5 pt dogs to Ohio!!!
We are 6-4 MAC play, they are 4-6!
We beat EMU at EMU by 21 points.
They lost to EMU by 11 points.

We should win this game.

That is a very, very strange line.

Ohio is 10-1 at home and 2-9 on the road.

Seems like they are begging the bettors to pick us.

Agreed. Doesn't make any kind of sense.

Personally, as much as I try to avoid this term, this is a must win game for us (and the next one) if we truly want to qualify for the MACT. Winning these two put us in an almost lock to make the tournament but dropping one of the next two will be a real disappointment.

At this point, the expectations should be established and no longer is it okay to drop games we should win. It'll probably happen at some point, but it'll sting more now than what I (or some of us) figured it would sting.

With that said, I'm pretty optimistic about tonight. The team is clicking right now.

This game is not “must win”. With the tournament taking eight of the twelve teams, 8/9 wins will always qualify. We have eight more games to get 2/3 wins……we don’t need any more than that……preferable yes, must win no…….currently the 8th place team, who would make the tournament, is 3-7.

Agree Dave---definitely not a "must" win game. Certainly a "nice to" win game so we can avoid ANY "must" win games in the next three weeks.

(02-07-2023 01:16 PM)El Duderino Wrote:  We are 5 pt dogs to Ohio!!!
We are 6-4 MAC play, they are 4-6!
We beat EMU at EMU by 21 points.
They lost to EMU by 11 points.

We should win this game.

You can pick other games and you get a different result. For instance:
Buffalo - Ohio lost by 3 we lost by 18
Ball State - Ohio beat them by 5 and we lost by 18
Even records can be tricky as the schedules are different.

It comes down to who makes more threes. Who has less turnovers. Who makes free throws holding a late lead. etc.

I hope you are right but Wilson scares me. They also have lot of good three point shooters who could get hot.

GO HUSKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

p.s. Lately we have been getting off to good starts so that needs to continue.

Wilson is a load. My guess is that they will attack inside with him and try to get our bigs in foul trouble. AJ Brown is still out for them which helps. Jaylen Hunter has been playing well lately.
Their post defense seems suspect, so I am thinking the Huskies will attempt to drive the lane early and set up the perimeter shooting.
I think the betting line is where it is to get an even amount of betting on each side. Ohio has a passionate fan base compared to ours.

Seems like the combination of Coit having an off night and the Bobcats dominating their offensive boards is too much to overcome tonight.

With that said, Thornton is playing amazingly.

(02-07-2023 09:25 PM)Big Red Wrote:  Seems like the combination of Coit having an off night and the Bobcats dominating their offensive boards is too much to overcome tonight.

With that said, Thornton is playing amazingly.

Have faith. Still time.

GO HUSKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Frustrating just can’t close in from behind by 6-10

1:17 to play and we've cut it to 3.

Coit having an off night
Team struggling from 3PT
Ohio getting a lot of O-Rebs
Team being off from FT

Add it all up and it just wasn't enough. Ohio is fine. Nothing special. They played their asses off and we looked off.

Three missed dunks...

That alone tells you it's going to be a struggle.

Ohio made 10 threes and NIU made 5 hard to overcome.

NIU hung in there. We were just a bit off tonight, sucks, but still have a good feeling for the rest of conference play.

(02-07-2023 10:27 PM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  NIU hung in there. We were just a bit off tonight, sucks, but still have a good feeling for the rest of conference play.

Agreed. There were a lot of little things that would have changed the outcome. Ultimately, when I heard the announcers talking about how Ohio hadn't won a road game in like 2 months...we were doomed.

It's funny how that stuff happens. We were hot and almost due for a dud of a game. They were cold (on the road at least) and were almost due for a good game.

Ohio played hard. I wouldn't say they were all that great. They did knock down almost all of their FTs the last 7 or 8 minutes of the game, which definitely helped keep NIU from cutting beyond that 6 point deficit until the very end.

And Wilson was fine but not impossible to defend. He's a really strong guy and really his main thing is pushing his way to the basket. He makes his share of mess-ups with the ball (a couple of bad travels with the ball in the paint). Ibarguen was a bit exposed against him since Konan is big but lacking experience (and possibly a little banged up still from the myriad of injuries he's had this year) and Durosinmi is almost useless because the second he gets in the game...he's got like 3 fouls and then they either have to go back to Ibarguen or buy some minutes with Crump. As much as I wasn't sorry to see either of them go, it'd have been nice to have kept a guy like Makuoi on the roster just for competent depth. Btw, Makuoi is having a decent year at Tennessee State averaging 23 minutes a game and 9.4 points. He's been better than Kueth at TSU (or UTS or whatever they go by).

Btw, as I was watching, there was a face on the bench that didn't look familiar to me. And I kind of forgot about it until I was just now looking at sports-reference and NIU's roster and there's a name there I've never seen.

Steven Tipton

6'2" Guard

No stats

I looked at the NIU roster on the website and he's not listed and no profile on Verbal Commits. So, I googled and barely came up with anything other than a twitter account, but I think he's from Wisconsin (Brookfield Central HS).

No idea who this is but he must be a walk-on.

How come they only post the post game interview when we lose? LOL.

why do we stink at home?

(02-08-2023 06:52 AM)numbersdontlie Wrote:  why do we stink at home?

Because the seats in the south upper bowl are pushed back.

(02-07-2023 11:34 PM)Big Red Wrote:  

(02-07-2023 10:27 PM)NIUfilmmaker Wrote:  NIU hung in there. We were just a bit off tonight, sucks, but still have a good feeling for the rest of conference play.

Agreed. There were a lot of little things that would have changed the outcome. Ultimately, when I heard the announcers talking about how Ohio hadn't won a road game in like 2 months...we were doomed.

It's funny how that stuff happens. We were hot and almost due for a dud of a game. They were cold (on the road at least) and were almost due for a good game.

Ohio played hard. I wouldn't say they were all that great. They did knock down almost all of their FTs the last 7 or 8 minutes of the game, which definitely helped keep NIU from cutting beyond that 6 point deficit until the very end.

And Wilson was fine but not impossible to defend. He's a really strong guy and really his main thing is pushing his way to the basket. He makes his share of mess-ups with the ball (a couple of bad travels with the ball in the paint). Ibarguen was a bit exposed against him since Konan is big but lacking experience (and possibly a little banged up still from the myriad of injuries he's had this year) and Durosinmi is almost useless because the second he gets in the game...he's got like 3 fouls and then they either have to go back to Ibarguen or buy some minutes with Crump. As much as I wasn't sorry to see either of them go, it'd have been nice to have kept a guy like Makuoi on the roster just for competent depth. Btw, Makuoi is having a decent year at Tennessee State averaging 23 minutes a game and 9.4 points. He's been better than Kueth at TSU (or UTS or whatever they go by).

Btw, as I was watching, there was a face on the bench that didn't look familiar to me. And I kind of forgot about it until I was just now looking at sports-reference and NIU's roster and there's a name there I've never seen.

Steven Tipton

6'2" Guard

No stats

I looked at the NIU roster on the website and he's not listed and no profile on Verbal Commits. So, I googled and barely came up with anything other than a twitter account, but I think he's from Wisconsin (Brookfield Central HS).

No idea who this is but he must be a walk-on.

I am sure he is a walk on body just in case anybody else gets injured. Also looking at his stats from Brookfield Central, he went from 5'10" in 20-21 to 6'2" in 21-22. He was rewarded with that growth spurt by playing 5 minutes in the 20-21season to 7 minutes in the 21-22 season.

It would be better if his name was Steven Tip-in.