This loss hurt. It pissed me off badly. (I hope my neighbors couldn't hear me last night.) But we have 3 conference losses by a combined 4 pts. We can stil turn it around.

BTW, the haven has taken a decidedly negative turn on Horn. I can understand how they might feel that way. BUT, I want to go on record as saying I am still a Horn fan. I think Horn was the absolute right choice for us. And I still believe that Horn (sooner or later) will get us where we want to be and host a party there.

KEEP THE FAITH.

The problem with fans crossing that line from criticizing to saying Horn can't coach, or Horn was the wrong hire, or mentioning Horn in the same sentence with Killcullen (which is a not so thinly implied call for Horn's job) is this:

Horn returns what 10 of 11 players this year? He adds 4 (seemingly) good players including his first three 3-star recruits of his young career. So it seems to me that it is very likely that Horn will have a fantastic year next year. So if you call for Horn's head this year...

Do you have any right to enjoy his success next year?

Mark my words... Horn will get us there whether its this year or next year or the year after that. In the mean time... enjoy the 20 win seasons.

I agree H2k. I too choose to be optimistic. We're a team with several key injuries playing games against teams who look to their WKU game each year as the measuring stick of their success. I refuse to give up on this team or its coach.

There are some level heads on the Haven, however, just like politics, it's usually the most loud and obnoxious who get the most attention, regardless of whether they have anything to substantiate their position.

It's easy to blame, blame, blame but in politics and athletic competition, "stuff" happens and excuses can be legitimate. We have several key injuries, teams get fired up for us yet we have a hard time getting fired up for them, the expectations for this team were overhyped and excessive at the beginning of the year, and our coach is building for the future by developing a deep team, which in the short term can result in close games or even losses.

I believe we have 9 remaining regular season games, 3 of which will be tough road games. I believe we can go anywhere from 6-3 to 9-0 during this stretch which would leave us at 21-10 to 24-7 going into the Sunbelt Tourney.

I believe Coach Horn will lead us to the promised land and NCAA tourney wins in the near future, hopefully this year.

GO TOPS

I think Lee actually hurt us in the past two games. He played great defence but his shots just were not fallen. He has taking most of the shots in these games and they are not going in. We need him back on the floor so he can get back into his groove but those missed shots took points away and just gave the other team another chance to score. Those shots may not have been missed if OMV or Ty or even Braz. was taking them. Myself im not worried since we always have trouble anywhere in the state of Arkansas and Lee will find his shot! I don't always understand Horns rotation but I also don't know everything thats goning on down at the bench. I do not blame Horn and I do think he is accembling a great roster for up coming seasons. As for why we never blow anybody out anymore, (( EXAMPLE)) Im 5 foot 9 1/2 150lbs and if i had to fight someone that was 6 foot 6 and 230 lbs, I think Im going to grow some balls and fight with everything I've got because I really don't won't to get my a#@s kicked, and if I saw that my 6 foot 6 bully had a broke leg,,,, well ,,, I would kick the sh%%t out of it. And thats pretty much been our story of late. That and we are the #1 scouted them in the Sunbelt, so were not going to suprise anybody.

We will be fine.


Go Tops!!

I am not sure why everyone things the loss at ASU was so bad. They are 8-1 at home and beat both UNT and UALR by 24 points at home-- two teams that we lost to.

I didn't go in expecting to win the game and I wasn't surprised (yes, disappointed) when I read we lost.

Now if we lose tomorrow to Denver, I will have a different take on this team and coach.

If I have a criticism of Horn it would be this:

I think that you have to recruit for 3-4 years down the road. He knew 3 years ago that Wilborne would be gone as of this year and yet our three best post players are Evans (fr.) Emerson (so) and Walker (redshirt so.). IMHO this is our whole problem this year. You simply can't depend on freshmen or even sophmores to consistently do the dirty work (defend and rebound). I think our gaurds are having to double down low a lot which leaves the perimeter open.

If we had recruited a 6-10, 6-11 beast of a freshman project 3-4 years ago then he would be paying some serious dividends right now. But to be fair, he did go out and get a 4 star center for this year. Its not Horn's fault that he didn't make the grades.

Anyway, that's my theory as to our problem this year. A good center would have made us near invincible in the belt.

My last gasp of optimism for this season is this:

If getting pasted by UNT isn't a wake up call I don't know what is. Maybe this will spark some kind of change in strategy/ mentality etc.

We will probably lose at USA sealing our fate of a 4-seed.

But then 3 out of our last 4 are at home. We can still regroup and get hot at just the right time.

My optimism is gone.

At this point, we are fighting for an NIT bid and we are fighting to win the tournament... we are no more a favorite than anyone else. I am not going in with the expectation of winning the tournament. I will actually be quite surprised if we do.

I am fine with having weaknesses. All teams have them. I am not fine with little to no improvement, and I am even less fine with our coach denying the fact the weakness exists.

Baseball season yet?

I also do not expect to win the tounament. And as I have said, I am not happy with the direction of this season, but I AM happy with the direction of the program under Horn.

Hilltopper2K Wrote:I also do not expect to win the tounament. And as I have said, I am not happy with the direction of this season, but I AM happy with the direction of the program under Horn.

I can't be happy with the success/direction of any program that does not include NCAA appearances.

If we do not make the NCAA by next year I will be right there doubting Horn with everyone else. But in all fairness to him it is painfully obvious we will be better (and quite possibly much, much better) next year for multiple reasons.

1. We return what something like 10 out of 11 players. Including all five starters. I don't think you can underestimate the value of having players play together over a course of years, not just one season.

2. We add exactly what we need: skilled postmen. I believe that Japaith will help the most because of his experience and having practiced with the team this past year. I think people forget that Evans is a frosh, Emerson and Walker are sophmores. THEY WILL GET BETTER!!!! As I have said before I think having a consistant post presence will make everything else seem to click.

3. The Schedule! We have the best most favorable schedule in recent memory. And it couldn't be a better year to have it.

If we don't make the NCAAs (notice I didn't say win the Sunbelt because any team can be upset in a one and done tourney) then I will have to begin to conclude that the problem is in fact Horn.

Until then... consider me his #1 fan!

You know... if any other Sunbelt team (except maybe USA) was in third place they'd say "WOW!" We have a great chance to win the tourney. But we are in third place and fans seem to think we have no chance.

Maybe it is the uptick in morale on the Haven, or maybe I am just becoming numb to losses... but my optimism is returning.

Reasons for optimism THIS season:

1. If that game last night was on a nuetral floor we would have won. If USA is the best the conference has then we can beat any of them.

2. There is still time and 2 out of our last 3 are at home. We need some confidence builders.

3. When you look at our 5 losses 4 were on the road and the other team was playing in front of thier biggest home crowd of the season. I don't think you can measure what effect that has on a home team... but its huge. Those teams will not have that advantage in LaLa land.

4. We are close to being a good team. We are not a good team... but we are close. If the team can make even a small improvement we can win the belt.

5. We have taken everybody's best shot. I don't think that any belt team has taken our best shot.

Here's hoping.

This season reminds me a lot of South Alabama's season last year.

Last year Law got hurt for them and they lost the heartbreaker game against us. They lost some close games and ended up losing the regular season to us. But they were the deeper team for it and we all know how it ended up.

Good observation. We can only hope.

Lots of room for optimism after FIU.

Courtney Lee is slowly but surely returning to his old self, and how about Brazelton??

I LOVE those quick drives to the basket for a layup. If we can do that a few times a game we will wear down most any team in the Sunbelt.

Even Emerson managed to catch the ball a couple of times and draw a foul instead of just turning it over.

I know its just FIU and that they didn't have thier best player... but we do have as good a chance as anybody.

It's pretty telling when your point guard scores in the paint more often than your center or forward.

Quote:It's pretty telling when your point guard scores in the paint more often than your center or forward.

I agree. That said, Tyrone Brazelton is the key to success this year. If he can keep his assist to turnover ratio near 2-1 (as it has been the last few games) and get 2-3 transition buckets a game like he has been to speed up the pace... we will dance.