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Post by shooting the J on Feb 26, 2015 18:46:26 GMT -6
Green Bay @ UIC When:Thursday, 7:00 Where: UIC Pavilion, Chicago Streaming video: ESPN3 Radio: WNFL 92.1 FM 1440 AM
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Post by knightlyfe920 on Feb 26, 2015 21:09:40 GMT -6
Don't mean to be debby downer here, but how in the hell does anyone expect us to make any kind of a run in the tournament after blowing a 15 point lead and almost losing to arguably the worst team in the conference?
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Post by fightphoe93 on Feb 26, 2015 21:33:12 GMT -6
Knight, I wish I could talk you down from the ledge, but I can't. It just seems like this team is deficient in outside shooting and offense in general. It's pretty likely going to cost them come tourney time. I'll be kind and give them a 20% shot at winning the tourney title, but deep down, I don't believe in this year's team as much as last year's.
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Post by shooting the J on Feb 26, 2015 22:01:21 GMT -6
Don't mean to be debby downer here, but how in the hell does anyone expect us to make any kind of a run in the tournament after blowing a 15 point lead and almost losing to arguably the worst team in the conference? Do you realize that both Valpo and Cleveland State also only beat UIC by the exact same margin. The HL tournament is going to be wild.
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Post by knightlyfe920 on Feb 26, 2015 22:44:58 GMT -6
Don't mean to be debby downer here, but how in the hell does anyone expect us to make any kind of a run in the tournament after blowing a 15 point lead and almost losing to arguably the worst team in the conference? Do you realize that both Valpo and Cleveland State also only beat UIC by the exact same margin. The HL tournament is going to be wild. Those teams also manhandled us at one time or another. Whenever we settle for jumpshots is when our downfall begins. I will still never understand our overall reluctance to drive the lane and try to draw fouls. We do shoot FTs poorly, but we have a higher chance of converting those than outside shots. Our defense is alright, but prone to giving up huge runs, much like in this game. Overall, that is not the formula for a conference title.
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Post by phoenixphan87 on Feb 26, 2015 23:18:23 GMT -6
Keifer was fantastic and the run at the end of the first half should have ended the game. Then we got jump shooting happy, didst attack the basket and let a bad team make a run. Half court offense isn't our strong suit and it was horrendous tonight. I just cant see these guys playing 2-3 full games against top competition to win the tournament. Hopefully a good showing saturday will keep us away from the host til the championship game.
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Post by GBPhoenix1 on Feb 27, 2015 6:42:51 GMT -6
For being on the road I thought GB did a good job of imposing their style to start the game. They had a ton of rebounds and were attacking down hill in transition. It lead to some sloppy play but in general GB was getting what they wanted. In the second half UIC played a lot more zone and started making some difficult shots which limited GB's ability to attack in transition.
Jay Harris scored a ton of points with high efficiency. He made some really hard step back and fade away shots which he balanced with a few drives. Yet GB still made it really hard on him in my opinion. He played 37 minutes and only got up 9 shots. He is a ball hog so that to mean indicates that he really had to work for his shots. On the season he is 37% shooting from the field and 31% from deep. In this game he was 8 for 9 from the field and 4 for 5 from deep. Sometimes you tip your cap because he had to take hard shots to do it. Same thing for Lance Whitaker, he is a 20% three point shooter but made one of one. Tai Odiase is a 40% free throw shooter and made 4 of 5. I am just saying sometimes teams get on a hot streak.
I would like to give a shout out to Bill Jacobson. He called every touch foul against GB putting UIC on the line a lot. Then when C Love drives in he gets called for an offensive foul. He ran into a help defender who had a foot clearly in the arc. What is the point of the arc on the floor if you aren't looking at it? Bill Jacobson worked the semi final game last year and was terrible, nothing has changed.
Also, I appreciate the nod from Wardle to play Humphrey 6 minutes in his last college game in Chicago but I also think those 6 minutes closed the book on why he wasn't playing more earlier this year in place of other players.
Some positives to look at. Kenny Lowe with some crafty looking post moves, he took his time and then made a nice move 3 times. Keifer Sykes with a career high and a nice mix of getting lose down low and picking his spots for jumpers. Plus Sykes played solid man to man defense. Rebounding, A Mac in particular did a lot of damage. Give it up for late game execution and experience. When the game was tied at 61-61 GB played calmly and rattled off 3 scores to extend to a six point lead. In particular they executed a Sykes basket out of a time out. Later when UIC was face guarding Sykes on an in bounds, they executed an inbounds pass to him after a timeout and he scored two free throws. When Sykes missed the back end of a bonus, A Mac gets the board tipped out leading to two more free throws made for Sykes.
When thinking how is GB going to win any games in the HL tournament I think it is important to remember that this week CSU went on the road to UWM and lost a game they needed. Valpo went on the road to Detroit and lost a game they needed. GB went on the road and with their experience pulled out a win they needed. Yeah the half court offense isn't great but GB has some experience and it showed this week when the pressure was on at the top of the league.
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Post by gbbrl97 on Feb 27, 2015 7:19:48 GMT -6
It seems like this team is stumbling to the finish line. This seems to be the trend of this program even in the TK era.....and when we got a CBI or CIT bid, GB barely showed up. This team seems worn out, and other than Lowe and Francis, the bench production is not there. At this point, GB will have to play to its strengths well (driving to the basket, defense, and rebounding) to get anywhere in the HL tourney. If they have long stretches of defensive lapses or become a jump shooting team, they will lose. The FT shooting needs to get marginally better at least.
Right now, I'd rather have GB try to get the #2 seed and get some rest and just reset themselves mentally, which means that Valpo will host. GB has played well at the ARC in recent years, although they all have been close losses......GB has a slightly better chance with CSU being the host, since their atmosphere would be less intimidating and the fact that it's a lot harder to beat a team 3 times in a season, especially 2 evenly matched teams like GB and CSU.
Keif will have to carry this team and C-Love and Greg will have to show up for all games played in the HL Tourney.
Fist things first.....Beat Oakland. If not, I may join Knight on that ledge.
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Post by Fanforever on Feb 27, 2015 10:12:04 GMT -6
I am not ready to jump off the ledge but do hope they can regain their outside shooting touch. The person that i thought would be a consistent shooter this year was Turner Botz.
UIC has some talent but not enough to win the close games. IMHO Howard Moore has not done a good job there and needs to be replaced.
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Post by PantherU on Feb 27, 2015 10:57:48 GMT -6
Don't mean to be debby downer here, but how in the hell does anyone expect us to make any kind of a run in the tournament after blowing a 15 point lead and almost losing to arguably the worst team in the conference? Do you realize that both Valpo and Cleveland State also only beat UIC by the exact same margin. The HL tournament is going to be wild. This times 1,000. There are four teams that could win the tournament. It's going to be so awesome.
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Post by jonnyindepere on Feb 27, 2015 11:11:36 GMT -6
It seems like this team is stumbling to the finish line. This seems to be the trend of this program even in the TK era.....and when we got a CBI or CIT bid, GB barely showed up. This team seems worn out, and other than Lowe and Francis, the bench production is not there. At this point, GB will have to play to its strengths well (driving to the basket, defense, and rebounding) to get anywhere in the HL tourney. If they have long stretches of defensive lapses or become a jump shooting team, they will lose. The FT shooting needs to get marginally better at least. Right now, I'd rather have GB try to get the #2 seed and get some rest and just reset themselves mentally, which means that Valpo will host. GB has played well at the ARC in recent years, although they all have been close losses......GB has a slightly better chance with CSU being the host, since their atmosphere would be less intimidating and the fact that it's a lot harder to beat a team 3 times in a season, especially 2 evenly matched teams like GB and CSU. Keif will have to carry this team and C-Love and Greg will have to show up for all games played in the HL Tourney. Fist things first.....Beat Oakland. If not, I may join Knight on that ledge. I think the amount of dunking this team does play a factor into why the team is stumbling at the end of the year. Dunking puts an inordinate amount of unneeded stress on the body. Now, I know just like myself, everyone here loves seeing the high flying acts and top 10 plays on SC but where has it gotten these guys in terms of post season play? If you're under 6'5 many experts say you shouldn't be dunking at all, I think dunking is something we have become so infatuated with and playing above the rim is driven into kids’ minds from a very young age, that players aren't using post moves and don't show any patience or skill when trying to finish around the rim, they just want to go straight up and try and posterize someone. Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers, who has made a name for himself dunking the basketball says he is now avoiding dunking unless it's absolutely necessary because of knee and ankle injuries that guys like, Derrick Rose, Amar'e Stoudemaire, Antonio McDyess, Russell Westbrook, Dwight Howard and Dwyane Wade (all high flyers or powerful dunkers at one time) and countless others have experienced which in result has hampered them throughout their careers. Even Michael Jordan and Vince Carter spoke about stopping their dunking to save their knees. The list is endless of players who miss games every season from these injuries. When I watch foreign players in the college game or the NBA I see skill and guys who can last, and what European player do you know who is a high flyer? IMO the dunks can happen, but just at a lesser rate, the players need to be made aware of the damage they're doing to their bodies in the long run, every year we see Sykes at 6'0 come hobbling in at the end of the year, and we're all amazed with his dunks, but really, what do they matter if we end up watching UWM last year take our spot in the Big Dance. I want guys who can be patient and be fundamentally sound, this team is far from it. It's all in the recruiting and the coaching methods, last year Mays spoke of the team having a specific amount of dunks they were supposed to get a game. If that was actually a real part of their game plan that's just awful, just put the ball in the hole! We will see where we go from here, I still have confidence that GB wins the tourney because lately, everyone has been stumbling, it's tough to beat a team three times in one year so I like our odds against CSU the third time, and GB always plays tough at Valpo, so we will just have to wait and see how it all plays out. As for our outside shooting, it's really really bad. I know Botz is known as a shooter but his defense needs to get better to see consistent time, and it can't be easy to only be getting a few minutes here and there to try and knock down your shots. There needs to be time to get out of a funk, like I believe the elder Wes Matthews said, "Shoot to get hot, shoot to stay hot." Right now, someone needs to be shooting to get hot, it's not like anything else we've tried is really working all that well. Good luck the rest of the way Phoenix.
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Post by circle70 on Feb 27, 2015 11:42:26 GMT -6
UIC has some talent but not enough to win the close games. IMHO Howard Moore has not done a good job there and needs to be replaced. UIC fan here. 75% of us on our message board would like to see Moore gone (fan survey). His up-to-the-minute record: 46-110 in 5 years. Whenever we call for his head, some "spin doctor" from the Athletic Dept. comes on to say that Moore is an excellent, well-respected coach. His task will take some more time. Besides, our goober AD saw fit to extend Moore's contract for 3 more years (when he still had 2 years left on the old one). Moore is under contract through the 2017-18 season. We be dead in the water.
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Post by PantherU on Feb 27, 2015 11:51:38 GMT -6
UIC has some talent but not enough to win the close games. IMHO Howard Moore has not done a good job there and needs to be replaced. UIC fan here. 75% of us on our message board would like to see Moore gone (fan survey). His up-to-the-minute record: 46-110 in 5 years. Whenever we call for his head, some "spin doctor" from the Athletic Dept. comes on to say that Moore is an excellent, well-respected coach. His task will take some more time. Besides, our goober AD saw fit to extend Moore's contract for 3 more years (when he still had 2 years left on the old one). Moore is under contract through the 2017-18 season. We be dead in the water. I voted in that poll to keep him on. He deserves some more support. Your goober AD (great name) is such a jag that I think he should be replaced before Moore.
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Post by Fanforever on Feb 27, 2015 12:02:19 GMT -6
Circle70 thanks for joining our board and providing the information you did. I really feel bad for you as there does not appear to be a light at the end of the tunnel, only continued futility due to Howard Moore. The Goober AD about sums up the issues you are having and will not change. To me 5 years is plenty to show what you can do.
I have not tracked your last recruiting classes and was wondering if you see any potential in them? It pains me to say but Jeter in Miwaukee has brought in some talent that should allow them to contend. Just am not sure about UIC's potential players.
I have driven through Chicago quite a bit lately taking my daughter to tennis tourneys and the sport building next to the highway looks nice.
Good luck with your team.
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Post by phoenixphan87 on Feb 27, 2015 12:20:42 GMT -6
How Howard Moore received an extension is just baffling.His only respectable season was two years ago when they had around a .500 record and beat a 10 or 11 win Chicago State team in the CIT(auto bid because their league didn't have a NCAA bid). That program needs some life and needs to work out some sort of buyout and move on.
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