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Post by GBPhoenix1 on Dec 19, 2019 15:26:21 GMT -6
Game is at 1pm on Saturday on ESPN+
NIU is led by Eugene German who destroyed GB in DeKalb 2 years ago. He was super quick and shifty. Two years ago he drove to hoop at will. Now he takes about 44% of his shots from deep. German scores 20ppg and the next closest are 8ppg and 7ppg (Kam's bro).
NIU is +7 rebounds per game. Paging the reborn Manny Patterson, GB is going to need you big time!
NIU doesn't shoot that well, 40% overall but they hold their opponents to 39%. Plus they seem to play some defense or play slow as they score 66ppg and give up 62ppg. The interesting thing is they don't protect the ball that well and don't force a ton of turnovers.
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Post by Heartbroken Phoenix Fan on Dec 21, 2019 15:05:31 GMT -6
Very lucky NIU missed 11 fts or this would have been another collapse on the road.
Amari has taken a step back these past few games with turnovers galore foul trouble and not scoring as much but I am fine with that. This team isn’t going anywhere soon and maybe that means he will stay all four years when they could amount to something.
Unfortunately the guy who un-redshirted was invisible this game.
Mccloud finally looked like the best player on this team as he should but you can’t miss fts at end of game like that.
Defense is still atrocious. It will take nothing short of a miracle for this team not to start 0-2 in conference, although that doesn’t really matter. The last two years they started 3-0 and 2-0 in conference and that meant jack squat.
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Post by bayballer on Dec 21, 2019 15:13:39 GMT -6
Unlike some fans, I’m happy when we beat a decent team on the road. Go Phoenix!
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Post by Heartbroken Phoenix Fan on Dec 21, 2019 15:16:16 GMT -6
Unlike some fans, I’m happy when we beat a decent team on the road. Go Phoenix! Getting lucky once in awhile doesn’t mask the continued problems this team has (no defense, bad end of game execution). Yes a win is nice but in the grander scheme of things it doesn’t make this team’s issues magically go away. They aren’t gonna shoot this well 9 out of 10 games or have the opponent miss that many fts so until they fix their defense they will lose this type of game 9 out of 10 times.
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Post by Panther on Dec 21, 2019 17:09:32 GMT -6
Unlike some fans, I’m happy when we beat a decent team on the road. Go Phoenix! Getting lucky once in awhile doesn’t mask the continued problems this team has (no defense, bad end of game execution). Yes a win is nice but in the grander scheme of things it doesn’t make this team’s issues magically go away. They aren’t gonna shoot this well 9 out of 10 games or have the opponent miss that many fts so until they fix their defense they will lose this type of game 9 out of 10 times. Doesn't help when we have losers as fans supporting either... I don't agree with you but every game comes with good and bad on both sides but looks like you're blind in one eye... Go GB...
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Post by Heartbroken Phoenix Fan on Dec 21, 2019 17:31:36 GMT -6
Getting lucky once in awhile doesn’t mask the continued problems this team has (no defense, bad end of game execution). Yes a win is nice but in the grander scheme of things it doesn’t make this team’s issues magically go away. They aren’t gonna shoot this well 9 out of 10 games or have the opponent miss that many fts so until they fix their defense they will lose this type of game 9 out of 10 times. Doesn't help when we have losers as fans supporting either... I don't agree with you but every game comes with good and bad on both sides but looks like you're blind in one eye... Go GB... If you haven’t noticed attendance and support for this team has decreased every year since linc got here. That isn’t a Coincidence. I’ve been a fan for life but I’m just tired of this coaching staff and lack of adjustments. Being positive doesn’t take the shit off a sundae. It’s still shit.
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Post by Panther on Dec 21, 2019 17:50:52 GMT -6
Doesn't help when we have losers as fans supporting either... I don't agree with you but every game comes with good and bad on both sides but looks like you're blind in one eye... Go GB... If you haven’t noticed attendance and support for this team has decreased every year since linc got here. That isn’t a Coincidence. I’ve been a fan for life but I’m just tired of this coaching staff and lack of adjustments. Being positive doesn’t take the shit off a sundae. It’s still shit. If you were a real fan, you wouldn't find shit in a pile of diamonds... I Loved Jordan, and see how Chicago is after running him away? This teaches you to enjoy the moment one game at a time because winning is a hard thing to mlm put together at all levels. You loose Linc and set yourself back another 7 years... Also, Linc win, he's gone too, just the way it is so even when you not a fan of the coach, you can still be positive about the outcome for the guys. There are things I may not like but it's between me and my inner self. It was a great win for a team with some injuries to starters and people stepping up and playing well... Also, you make statements as if the coach isn't coaching. You have no idea what he is or isn't telling the guys to do and whether or not they doing it... The biggest adjustment is putting the ball in the hoop and the players did that today...
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Post by phearthephoenix on Dec 21, 2019 18:03:24 GMT -6
They won a game on the road, short handed, against a solid opponent in a game that they were a 6 point underdog.
These are the type of games GB should be winning and need to win to get the program back to where it should be, and that’s exactly what they did today. Well done fellas!
The non-conference portion of the season was disappointing but this is a fantastic way to finish it off and get ready for the toughest road trip in the conference next weekend.
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Post by yayphoenixyay on Dec 21, 2019 18:45:39 GMT -6
Solid win here. NIU would be a top 3 team in our conference, so a road win here gives me a little confidence.
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Post by uscg2012 on Dec 21, 2019 19:03:11 GMT -6
Any road win is a good win in my eyes.
Now am I happy the way we played in the last 5 minutes? Hell no. Up 4 with the ball and jacking up threes with 25 seconds on the shot clock?
Can this keep this momentum up heading to Wright State and Northern Kentucky or will we get blown out of the water? This team has shown it can be competitive on the road, just needs to be more consistent. Hopefully the competitive team shows up. NKU will be short Dantez Walton and maybe Jalen Tate therefore that came is ripe for the taking.
Any body got status on McNair and Pipes? Although Manny Patterson in my eyes should take some of McNairs minutes, he presence on the boards has been outstanding. Plus a better match up with Loudon Love.
I’m going to enjoy this win but the real season starts Saturday. None of this other stuff matters, remember all we have to do is finish 4th for Linc to get an extension 👍
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Post by kmell822 on Dec 21, 2019 19:20:07 GMT -6
They won a game on the road, short handed, against a solid opponent in a game that they were a 6 point underdog. These are the type of games GB should be winning and need to win to get the program back to where it should be, and that’s exactly what they did today. Well done fellas! The non-conference portion of the season was disappointing but this is a fantastic way to finish it off and get ready for the toughest road trip in the conference next weekend. Exactly, they have been easy to critique in their losses, but this is a good win. Two road wins against D1 teams that are not horizon league caliber teams is a good starting point.
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fangb
New Member
Posts: 20
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Post by fangb on Dec 21, 2019 19:34:55 GMT -6
This team has had to overcome so much adversity ie: injuries, playing 5 power schools,(traveling to almost every region of the country), missing classes, fans bashing specific teammates(last time i checked this is a team sport) and they have kept fighting and grinding despite it all.
Support for this team is down according to who, a couple fans that have disliked everything from day 1, and will until the end(which is their prerogative), the rest will continue to support.
KEEP GRINDING AND KEEP FIGHTING GB, GOOD WIN, thanks for the early XMAS present..
P.S. I’m pretty sure that a particular player didn’t miss a free throw at the end of the game on purpose.
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Post by GBPhoenix1 on Dec 22, 2019 11:19:25 GMT -6
As others have said it wasn't always pretty at the end but short handed on the road they got the job done. Winners figure out how to win and losers figure out how to lose in sports. Perhaps this is a good sign for conference play that things are starting to click. Manny and Hunter made nice contributions again and those are two guys that Linc wasn't using a ton before. Same could be said for Will. With Will and Manny GB might have a solution for Loudon Love next week if the refs don't let him travel non stop LOL.
Taking the air our of the ball a bit at the end did take the wind out of the offense's sails but they made some really big hustle plays to overcome that.
On defense the only thing I found frustrating is not really stopping German in the second half. German had a lot of drives and the defense and the help defense just kept backing up and letting him attack the rim. By comparison they did a much better job staying in front of German in the first half.
Zaire Mateen is not my favorite player for NIU. Dude runs his mouth a lot for a guy who didn't contribute a ton. Also, he might have double dribbled before he shot that floater.
I agree with the point about support the team even if you don't like Linc. Winning at GB is a spring board to other opportunities.
I normally don't get on players or coaches too much because of what Panther wrote, we aren't int the gym/huddle/locker room to know what is up. The area that I will openly critique is the public perception of the program. That is all on the program. Linc is the second highest paid employee of the university, he should be a face and name that people know in and around GB. Linc or the SID or AD have mostly choosen to keep him as an annonomous face. The other business item that they have to fix is the schedule. The average person doesn't want non D1 games and they don't understand what buy games are. Coming into the Evansville game they see 3-7 and think the team sucks. It is pretty easy to see support is down, people want to support winning and don't understand why the program is in the position it is in with the schedule they have to play.
I am still very optimistic about the year ahead. I thought they would go 6-7 in non conference play, only the EIU game didn't go the way I thought it would. Against mid major D1 teams they were 3-3. I recognize that isn't dominance but they could easily win 12 HL games if they play together.
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Post by 6thman on Dec 23, 2019 8:50:48 GMT -6
New to the board, Alum living in suburbs of Chicago and was able to catch the NIU game. I was impressed with the energy the team played with throughout the game. They are obviously a little shorthanded right now due to injuries and finding consistent scoring options on a nightly basis is a concern I'm definitely more optimistic going into Horizon League play after what I saw this weekend.
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