CSNbbs

This will be a good trip to test our team’s focus - followed by the Florida roadtrip later in the year. Hard to get motivated to play these teams. Rice is an academic powerhouse but their athletic programs are currently anemic. North Texas could give us a game but highly doubtful unless we lose focus.

Re: roadtrips/home&home series - we should be playing Middle and UAB twice per year. Not sure why we don’t. They are currently our biggest conference rivals along with La Tech, Marshall, and WKY.

I'm taking a survive and advance mindset to these road trips. If we can do that and hold serve at home against Marshall and WKU, we could be 8-0 hosting MTSU. If that happens, we could finally see the Ted come alive.

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2-0 on this road trip with no excuses. We cannot be looking ahead to Marshall and WKU. These are 2 must wins. A loss to one of these 2 bottom feeders will crush any remaining hopes to our at large chances and hurt our Top 4 CUSA thus 1st round bye.

(01-01-2018 09:49 AM)Mr.BigBlue Wrote: [ -> ]2-0 on this road trip with no excuses. We cannot be looking ahead to Marshall and WKU. These are 2 must wins. A loss to one of these 2 bottom feeders will crush any remaining hopes to our at large chances and hurt our Top 4 CUSA thus 1st round bye.

So true - this will be the first real conference test. We should beat Rice by +20 and NTX by +10. Anything less is disappointing. And a loss is unthinkable.

History tells me that the Texas trip is hard on these guys. We always struggle in one of the 2, no matter how good or bad the opposition is. While this might be our most well rounded team since joining the league, I would not be shocked if we laid an egg in either game.

(01-01-2018 09:49 AM)Mr.BigBlue Wrote: [ -> ]2-0 on this road trip with no excuses. We cannot be looking ahead to Marshall and WKU. These are 2 must wins. A loss to one of these 2 bottom feeders will crush any remaining hopes to our at large chances and hurt our Top 4 CUSA thus 1st round bye.

At large chances? I’ll have what you are drinking!

(01-01-2018 08:59 PM)ODUDrunkard13 Wrote: [ -> ]History tells me that the Texas trip is hard on these guys. We always struggle in one of the 2, no matter how good or bad the opposition is. While this might be our most well rounded team since joining the league, I would not be shocked if we laid an egg in either game.

The hope and expectation is that this team is better than those teams who were unable to maintain the focus to perform well in back to back road games. Anything less than taking care of business decisively in the two games should be disappointing to a team that is poised to make a run at winning this conference. Let's stop expecting crap performances against crap teams. It seems the team has.

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North Texas is good this year. That will be a very tough game. We really need to handle our business against Rice and get the guys that get a lot of minutes some rest.

Better, yes, but they definitely have not done anything that would qualify them as good at this point.

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(01-01-2018 10:04 PM)Monarchblue Wrote: [ -> ]

(01-01-2018 08:59 PM)ODUDrunkard13 Wrote: [ -> ]History tells me that the Texas trip is hard on these guys. We always struggle in one of the 2, no matter how good or bad the opposition is. While this might be our most well rounded team since joining the league, I would not be shocked if we laid an egg in either game.

The hope and expectation is that this team is better than those teams who were unable to maintain the focus to perform well in back to back road games. Anything less than taking care of business decisively in the two games should be disappointing to a team that is poised to make a run at winning this conference. Let's stop expecting crap performances against crap teams. It seems the team has.

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Yes, for sure. It must be a grind to make that trip ( Porter even said he hated that trip in the postgame show the other night) but this team is experienced enough now not to have any excuses.

(01-01-2018 10:04 PM)Monarchblue Wrote: [ -> ]

(01-01-2018 08:59 PM)ODUDrunkard13 Wrote: [ -> ]History tells me that the Texas trip is hard on these guys. We always struggle in one of the 2, no matter how good or bad the opposition is. While this might be our most well rounded team since joining the league, I would not be shocked if we laid an egg in either game.

The hope and expectation is that this team is better than those teams who were unable to maintain the focus to perform well in back to back road games. Anything less than taking care of business decisively in the two games should be disappointing to a team that is poised to make a run at winning this conference. Let's stop expecting crap performances against crap teams. It seems the team has.

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I'm not lowering expectations or even making excuses for them. I'm just using history/trends as a guide to not get ahead of myself.

Thank goodness, we get Rice first. They can probably come out flat and still win the game by double digits. They won't have the same luxury on Saturday.

Thursday 8:00 in Houston: Rice (3-12, 0-2 CUSA).

Results to date: E Kentucky (72-73); Ga State (54-75); Northwestern St (65-87); UNLV (68-95); Mississippi (62-79); St Thomas, Tx (70-59); UT-Arlington (49-69); UT-Rio Grande Valley (67-69); SF Austin (62-81); St Edwards (91-86); Texas Tech (53-73); N Mexico (69-78); Texas St (66-74); UTSA (66-79); UTEP (62-80).

Last game: UTEP led by only two at HT (31-29), but shot 71% in the second half (80% 3s) and won running away in El Paso. Meanwhile Rice shot only 36% FG and 8-33 3s in the game. Connor Cashaw led the Owls with 17 pts and 8 RBs and Tim Harrison came off the bench for 11 pts.

Stats: 66.5 pts (vs 75.7); .393 FG (.304 3s); .660 FT; +1 RB; A/TO= 0.66 (17 TOs/g)

Starters (UTEP)
F Robert Martin (6-6 220 So). 21.9 min.; .442 FG (5-18 3s); .620 FT; 3.3 RB; 7.8 pts (9 starts)
F Malik Osborne (6-8 200 Fr). 25.0 min.; .408 FG (4-20 3s); .674 FT; 6.3 RB; 6.1 pts (11 starts)
G Malik Cashew (6-5 200 Jr). 31.4 min.; .388 FG (28-83 3s); .727 FT; 6.9 RB; 2.8 assists; 16.3 pts
G Bishop Mency (6-5 215 Sr). 28.7 min.; .364 FG (21-74 3s); .640 FT; 4.9 RB; 7.3 pts
G Ako Adams (6-2 170 So). 27.8 min. .310 FG (14-64 3s); .818 FT; 2.9 RB; 3.3 assists; 8.1 pts

Bench
G Lester Miles (6-0 170 Fr). 15.5 min.; .333 FG (11-29 3s); .762 FT; 1.5 RB; 4.2 pts (5 starts)
F Tim Harrison (6-8 220 So). 10.9 min.; .393 FG (9-30 3s); .526 FT; 2.2 RB; 4.2 pts
F Austin Meyer (6-9 235 So). 11.6 min.; .727 FG; .516 FT; 1.6 RB; 3.4 pts (4 starts)
G Najja Hunter (6-5 180 Fr). 13.4 min.; .346 FG (1-10 3s); .526 FT; 2.6 RB; 3.8 pts

Team has shot poorly and been hurt badly by TOs (and resultant points). When not shooting 3s (25.4/game), team attacks baskets and gets to the FT line (24.5/game).

(01-01-2018 10:04 PM)Monarchblue Wrote: [ -> ]

(01-01-2018 08:59 PM)ODUDrunkard13 Wrote: [ -> ]History tells me that the Texas trip is hard on these guys. We always struggle in one of the 2, no matter how good or bad the opposition is. While this might be our most well rounded team since joining the league, I would not be shocked if we laid an egg in either game.

The hope and expectation is that this team is better than those teams who were unable to maintain the focus to perform well in back to back road games. Anything less than taking care of business decisively in the two games should be disappointing to a team that is poised to make a run at winning this conference. Let's stop expecting crap performances against crap teams. It seems the team has.

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Agree, but the back to back crap performances @Fairfield and @Scope were concerning. Got away with it and would likely get away with it against Rice, but we cannot afford a crap performance against North Texas. They are better than bad... probably closer to mediocre and probably better than Fairfield.

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(01-02-2018 09:12 AM)EverRespect Wrote: [ -> ]

(01-01-2018 10:04 PM)Monarchblue Wrote: [ -> ]

(01-01-2018 08:59 PM)ODUDrunkard13 Wrote: [ -> ]History tells me that the Texas trip is hard on these guys. We always struggle in one of the 2, no matter how good or bad the opposition is. While this might be our most well rounded team since joining the league, I would not be shocked if we laid an egg in either game.

The hope and expectation is that this team is better than those teams who were unable to maintain the focus to perform well in back to back road games. Anything less than taking care of business decisively in the two games should be disappointing to a team that is poised to make a run at winning this conference. Let's stop expecting crap performances against crap teams. It seems the team has.

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Agree, but the back to back crap performances @Fairfield and @Scope were concerning. Got away with it and would likely get away with it against Rice, but we cannot afford a crap performance against North Texas. They are better than bad... probably closer to mediocre and probably better than Fairfield.

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Hopefully the crap performances at Fairfield and Scope can be chalked up to holiday season woes. Yep, I'm well aware that's an excuse and I could be wrong. Glad the team came out with all cylinders firing vs UNC-C

(01-02-2018 10:12 AM)odu09 Wrote: [ -> ]

(01-02-2018 09:12 AM)EverRespect Wrote: [ -> ]

(01-01-2018 10:04 PM)Monarchblue Wrote: [ -> ]

(01-01-2018 08:59 PM)ODUDrunkard13 Wrote: [ -> ]History tells me that the Texas trip is hard on these guys. We always struggle in one of the 2, no matter how good or bad the opposition is. While this might be our most well rounded team since joining the league, I would not be shocked if we laid an egg in either game.

The hope and expectation is that this team is better than those teams who were unable to maintain the focus to perform well in back to back road games. Anything less than taking care of business decisively in the two games should be disappointing to a team that is poised to make a run at winning this conference. Let's stop expecting crap performances against crap teams. It seems the team has.

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Agree, but the back to back crap performances @Fairfield and @Scope were concerning. Got away with it and would likely get away with it against Rice, but we cannot afford a crap performance against North Texas. They are better than bad... probably closer to mediocre and probably better than Fairfield.

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Hopefully the crap performances at Fairfield and Scope can be chalked up to holiday season woes. Yep, I'm well aware that's an excuse and I could be wrong. Glad the team came out with all cylinders firing vs UNC-C

I actually think that is a reasonable excuse. Lots of good teams crapped the bed over the holiday break. It happens.

Distractions (social/family events and more free time), routine change (no classes), and conflicting interests (total focus on next weeks game against low quality opponent or trying to fill holes in the schedule to bang your hs booty call) are of issue around the holidays. It is not an excuse, but it is an explanation. It's kind of like when work has a little lull and you naturally want to use the time to take a break and disengage a bit. Good leadership can turn it into a strength.

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Did Marcus Evans eventually transfer to FecesU? Or did he go to a Power5 school?

(01-02-2018 03:21 PM)Petey Hodge Wrote: [ -> ]Did Marcus Evans eventually transfer to FecesU? Or did he go to a Power5 school?

VCU. Sitting out since he transferred. He also tore his acl last summer.

Didn't hear about the acl. Wouldn't wish that on anyone.