Huskies looked like they belonged last night, but you never sensed they would win the game, even with the short second half lead. You knew that Marquette would nail a couple of threes and that would be it. Overall, the team showed up and made it competitive. We lack a big man right now. I had hopes for Lacy, it can change but so far he is not getting it done. With Maric I think we might have snuck out with a win

So far into the season I have been pleasantly surprised. Daow, Thorpe and Stash have worked in nicely. Unfortunately the guy we need most is Lacy James and he has been out of control too much. I think he is trying too hard. Hopefully if key can come back and James steps up we will be fine in the MAC.

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

Huskies! Wow. I came away scratching my head a bit, but also impressed with NIU. German is a great scorer with an incredibly quick first step. I was sitting about 6 rows up off the Marquette bench. I was very nervous when NIU had a 4 point lead in the second half.

Marquette shot the ball poorly after a long layoff and the refs were incredibly bad.

Regarding the crowd, I was actually impressed with it considering it was a Monday night game vs. a MAC opponent and the students on winter break. The fact that 9K-ish fans still come out with that scenario=big time college hoops. The stadium will always look a little more empty than it really is considering they play in an NBA arena with 18k seats.

I was impressed with the NIU turnout. I saw a good amount of red scattered around the stadium.

Overall thoughts from the game:

1) whew! a win is a win but NIU played MU extremely tough
2) german was the best player on the floor last night
3) Huskies have some size
4) they penetrated at will-not super surprised considering Marquette's makeup but still....
5) Jae Crowder, Dwyane Wade and Steve Novak were all there. former MU greats and NBA stars.. probably pretty cool for the players to see them

Now that the game is past us.... go HUSKIES!! Beat duke...

Chihuskie, methinks Lacy is coming on...8 points and 9 boards is a good, workman like effort...of course we win if Marin was still here, but Lacy is only a redshirt soph with just 11 games under his belt...still shaking off the rust of not competing in games for 2 years. I think he will be pretty solid the next few years. It also hurt that Owen didn't dress.

by the way, who is STASH, Tommy?

Lacy did finally look serviceable/OK/decent. I'm torn on this team, you watch them as a complete team, doesn't seem good enough to compete in the MAC. But they seem to get up for some of these big name teams. But can they continue that throughout MAC play? Meh, I'm not so sure. Hope I'm wrong.

(12-19-2017 01:07 PM)cagy cager Wrote:  Chihuskie, methinks Lacy is coming on...8 points and 9 boards is a good, workman like effort...of course we win if Marin was still here, but Lacy is only a redshirt soph with just 11 games under his belt...still shaking off the rust of not competing in games for 2 years. I think he will be pretty solid the next few years. It also hurt that Owen didn't dress.

by the way, who is STASH, Tommy?

I think you were referring to me not Chihuskie. I hope you are right about Lacy. The games I have seen in Florida and on tv and espn3 he
looks athletic, strong and quick but he hasn't put it together yet. Mon might have been his best game but I hope he progresses farther. And
I am not an insider so I didn't know Anastasios goes by Tommy.

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

I haven't followed NIU hoops at all this year or in the past, but judging based on what I say last night, the Huskies should have a decent shot at winning the MAC. Also, they should throttle UIC. I watched them earlier this year against Loyola (granted they are a very good squad) and get killed. I think NIU is much better than UIC.


go Huskies

(12-19-2017 02:25 PM)Red Dog Wrote:  I haven't followed NIU hoops at all this year or in the past, but judging based on what I say last night, the Huskies should have a decent shot at winning the MAC. Also, they should throttle UIC. I watched them earlier this year against Loyola (granted they are a very good squad) and get killed. I think NIU is much better than UIC.

go Huskies

NIU ranks 312th in the nation for assists per game. One or zero pass possessions won't work when teams are actually playing defense. The refs were also horrendous last night which probably kept the game closer than it should have been. I'm not sure NIU will even make it to Cleveland...huge surprise with all the late MAC tourney runs we've seen under Monty...

RPI - NIU 220 UIC 313
KEN POM - UIC 217 NIU 241

So who knows what will happen. Go out to the Convo and enjoy the Huskies. Fun to watch.

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

p.s. I hope I am not warping into MD2 with these stats

UIC plays Illinois State tonight, everyone in Illinois should take a peak for those not in state.

One thing for sure..... The Huskies are getting better. Yes they may be missing some pieces to be a revived program, but if you look at a lot of the midmajor programs. There are a bunch of programs with one elite player. It’s the teams that have elite players along with experience that often win the small conferences.

(12-19-2017 04:20 PM)BDB5yp Wrote:  One thing for sure..... The Huskies are getting better. Yes they may be missing some pieces to be a revived program, but if you look at a lot of the midmajor programs. There are a bunch of programs with one elite player. It’s the teams that have elite players along with experience that often win the small conferences.

Makes you wonder what we would have looked like if Marin stayed and if J Key was healthy. Lacey would have been a good 4 but has trouble against bigger Centers. He's played ok but is overmatched at times and we don't have enough depth there.

Watched bits and pieces early on between UIC and ISU. Both teams struggled early and played poorly for at least 12 minutes to start game.

If we cannot beat UIC at home later this week, WE SUCK.