Went from sitting in the 2nd seat with possibility of jumping into the 1 seed and now in a tie for 5th. Perhaps this team started reading about how good they were?

Humble pie was served. Now how do they respond? This will be on the coaching staff to get them back into the fight.

Any word on Errin Hodges injury? It looked like they were icing the ankle on Saturday. She kind of crumbled and my initial reaction was that she reinjured the knee. If it's high ankle sprain -- she was in considerable pain -- this could be a lengthy one. She was obviously missed at the end of Saturday's game and on Sunday. Certainly not the most vital player on the team, but she is important.

(02-22-2021 02:05 PM)Milwaukee Pilot Wrote:  Any word on Errin Hodges injury? It looked like they were icing the ankle on Saturday. She kind of crumbled and my initial reaction was that she reinjured the knee. If it's high ankle sprain -- she was in considerable pain -- this could be a lengthy one. She was obviously missed at the end of Saturday's game and on Sunday. Certainly not the most vital player on the team, but she is important.

Sounds like high ankle from what I’m hearing which sucks. She has found a bit of a role on this squad as a defender.

The giant red flag to me are the reoccurring issues with this team and previous teams.

Ball security
Shot selection at appropriate times
Post defense
Offensive sets after stopped in transition.

(02-22-2021 07:14 PM)62423dp Wrote:  

(02-22-2021 02:05 PM)Milwaukee Pilot Wrote:  Any word on Errin Hodges injury? It looked like they were icing the ankle on Saturday. She kind of crumbled and my initial reaction was that she reinjured the knee. If it's high ankle sprain -- she was in considerable pain -- this could be a lengthy one. She was obviously missed at the end of Saturday's game and on Sunday. Certainly not the most vital player on the team, but she is important.

Sounds like high ankle from what I’m hearing which sucks. She has found a bit of a role on this squad as a defender.

The giant red flag to me are the reoccurring issues with this team and previous teams.

Ball security
Shot selection at appropriate times
Post defense
Offensive sets after stopped in transition.

Thank dp----high ankle sprains are among the worst injuries to have...there is probably no timetable on return and we are awfully close to March.

I hope this collective group doesn't sour on this team. I know that there were a handful of postponements but you have to go back to before Christmas to find two more total losses. The MAC is actually a pretty solid women's basketball conference, with some real talent. Let's just continue to support and hopefully we get a bounce back tomorrow---or see how much Errin's absence hurts the team.

Huskies are 11-8, 9-5 and can still make some noise in the MACT. I really like how A'Jah Davis is taking charge in the paint, averaging 10.7 ppg. She had 31 pts total in the two KSU games. Janae Poisson and Paulina Castro are hitting threes every game. Like to see another 6-0-plus player step up. Riley Blackwell, the 6-1 senior, has been kind of "quiet." Errin Hodges' recovery after previous injury and now this one could be slow, unfortunately. Before that all got started I was encouraged by her aggressive play and potential. Wish her all the best.

Unless something changes (these days, who knows?), next opportunity to recover:

Today, Wednesday, 6 p.m. home vs. Ball State
ESPN+ WLBK 98.9 FM/1360 AM

(Previous game Feb. 8 @ Ball State, NIU won 78-74. Chelby Koker scored a career-high 34 pts. Errin Hodges was next with 10.)

(02-24-2021 07:29 AM)pvk75 Wrote:  Unless something changes (these days, who knows?), next opportunity to recover:

Today, Wednesday, 6 p.m. home vs. Ball State
ESPN+ WLBK 98.9 FM/1360 AM

(Previous game Feb. 8 @ Ball State, NIU won 78-74. Chelby Koker scored a career-high 34 pts. Errin Hodges was next with 10.)

Hoping they had a couple good days of practice and a nice re-focusing session.

The ladies at home against ball state aren't getting any help from the refs late in the 4th. However, they play really bad defense. And a loss, because they have terrible clock management.

(02-24-2021 09:04 PM)UnknownScout Wrote:  The ladies at home against ball state aren't getting any help from the refs late in the 4th. However, they play really bad defense. And a loss, because they have terrible clock management.

I didn't see the game and was only able to see the box score--of which you can only guess. Seemed like a bad fourth quarter, but a very even game--one very nice note and quite frankly, surprise--Errin Hodges played significant minutes. That is very good news.

Apparently didn't get killed on the boards like the recent games.

Scout---they just aren't a very good defensive team---lack of size is one thing but you would think playing about an eight guard offense they would be all over the opponent.

And I know that she didn't have many turnovers yesterday, but with Chelby having the ball in her hands almost continuously, clock management is not going to be a strong point either.

I noticed in the play by play in the last nine seconds "nothing" happened. Did we get a shot off? Did we commit a last second turnover?

I guess we are stuck right in the middle now---have beaten good teams, lost to fair teams...

We shall see....even in frustrating times WAY more easy to watch and follow than the men.

(02-25-2021 09:52 AM)Milwaukee Pilot Wrote:  

(02-24-2021 09:04 PM)UnknownScout Wrote:  The ladies at home against ball state aren't getting any help from the refs late in the 4th. However, they play really bad defense. And a loss, because they have terrible clock management.

I didn't see the game and was only able to see the box score--of which you can only guess. Seemed like a bad fourth quarter, but a very even game--one very nice note and quite frankly, surprise--Errin Hodges played significant minutes. That is very good news.

Apparently didn't get killed on the boards like the recent games.

Scout---they just aren't a very good defensive team---lack of size is one thing but you would think playing about an eight guard offense they would be all over the opponent.

And I know that she didn't have many turnovers yesterday, but with Chelby having the ball in her hands almost continuously, clock management is not going to be a strong point either.

I noticed in the play by play in the last nine seconds "nothing" happened. Did we get a shot off? Did we commit a last second turnover?

I guess we are stuck right in the middle now---have beaten good teams, lost to fair teams...

We shall see....even in frustrating times WAY more easy to watch and follow than the men.

Yeah, the last 9 seconds was a nightmare. I'm going to assume they drawn up play was busted and they seemed to lose track of the clock, and #14 Brandon ended up with the ball and just didn't take a shot until after/at the buzzer and even then it wasn't a good shot. They need to get back on track here, so they can make a solid run in the MAC tourney.

Is this current 3-game losing streak an aberration or was the winning streak they had? Which is the real Huskie team?

Everybody's right ... I watched most of the game, and all the stats were pretty even. No glaring differences. But NIU's defense showed some real weaknesses ... NIU had a 56-46 lead in the third and couldn't find the defense to hold any of it. At the end, with a 79-79 score, Ball State just got the last shot and a foul to go up 82-79, and NIU couldn't score in the last 9 seconds.

What all that omits is that after Ball State scored to tie it at 79, and NIU missed from three, and Ball State rebounded, the refs stopped the game to sort out the clocks. For a loooong minute they were watching video, adding and subtracting time to the official game and shot clocks.

That meant that for NIU, the end-game strategy kept changing with the clocks. NIU looked like it would have 1 second left after the shot clock expired, but ended up with 9 seconds. Ball State didn't really have that problem ... it had the ball and 20+ seconds to score. It did what it has been doing all game: ran off some clock, gave the ball to Oshlynn Brown (26 pts, all without even trying a three), let her drive inside for a layup and get fouled. Her 3-pt play was the difference.

As to DF's question, this seems to be an up-and-down team that was 2-1 before going 0-5 before the 9-1 run that is now playing 0-3. Could be the schedule, the weather, personal issues, personnel issues ... who knows?

(02-25-2021 01:55 PM)pvk75 Wrote:  Everybody's right ... I watched most of the game, and all the stats were pretty even. No glaring differences. But NIU's defense showed some real weaknesses ... NIU had a 56-46 lead in the third and couldn't find the defense to hold any of it. At the end, with a 79-79 score, Ball State just got the last shot and a foul to go up 82-79, and NIU couldn't score in the last 9 seconds.

What all that omits is that after Ball State scored to tie it at 79, and NIU missed from three, and Ball State rebounded, the refs stopped the game to sort out the clocks. For a loooong minute they were watching video, adding and subtracting time to the official game and shot clocks.

That meant that for NIU, the end-game strategy kept changing with the clocks. NIU looked like it would have 1 second left after the shot clock expired, but ended up with 9 seconds. Ball State didn't really have that problem ... it had the ball and 20+ seconds to score. It did what it has been doing all game: ran off some clock, gave the ball to Oshlynn Brown (26 pts, all without even trying a three), let her drive inside for a layup and get fouled. Her 3-pt play was the difference.

As to DF's question, this seems to be an up-and-down team that was 2-1 before going 0-5 before the 9-1 run that is now playing 0-3. Could be the schedule, the weather, personal issues, personnel issues ... who knows?

ZERO consistency. Absolute ZERO in this program.
2 steps forward 3 steps back.

They better get some. One of the NIT regionals is in Rockford ... big chance to play in a post-MACT, post-season tourney in NIU's back yard. See the "Women's NIT" thread.

Game today 1 p.m. @ Western Michigan
Official website says ESPN+ (ESPN says ESPN3)
Also 92.9 FM/1180 AM
NIU is 11-9 overall, 9-6 MAC
WMU is 5-13 overall, 4-12 MAC

Note: way back on Jan 2, NIU won 73-56, first game of a 9-1 run. Since then, Huskies are 0-3 and have dropped from third to sixth in the standings. Top 8 go to Cleveland for the MACT.

Standings
(Conference, Overall)

Bowling Green 12-3 16-4
Kent State 9-4 10-6
Ohio 10-5 12-6
Central Michigan 11-6 13-8
Buffalo 9-6 12-8
Northern Illinois 9-6 11-9
Ball State 10-7 12-9
Eastern Michigan 7-5 10-7
------------------------------
Toledo 6-11 10-11
Western Michigan 4-12 5-13
Akron 3-12 6-12
Miami 2-15 3-18

What in the name of HuskieLand is going on? NIU is 0-3 coming into this game as #6 conference against the Broncos at #10 and ...
WMU 41-28 at the half, though Northern went on an 8-0 run at the end. That means with under 4 minutes, WMU led 41-20. So Huskies are 13 down to start the second half.

WMU 63-41 at the end of three. WMU 19 pts off NIU turnovers. Northern working really hard to get dropped from the MACT, never mind the NIT.

NIU sports has become a total joke. Let’s hope we can get back to some winning with football next season. I have never seen NIU sports in such terrible shape. Losing has become the expectation.

On the other hand, men's tennis is 7-0 with a double match today at Evans vs. mighty Cardinal Stritch.

(02-27-2021 03:33 PM)pvk75 Wrote:  On the other hand, men's tennis is 7-0 with a double match today at Evans vs. mighty Cardinal Stritch.

Wow, I might be up all night celebrating .