UIC -- Wednesday 2/15

[PantherLou]

I refuse to blame this loss on the officials. Did they suck? yes, but this is the Horizon league, and unfortunately, we all are used to sub par officials.

Anyone who has watched this team all year realizes that we have been razor thin from day one. We have no consistent and reliable presence off our bench.

With AT being all but out last night, we needed someone to step up and "be the man". Boo certainly answered the call, but I would argue that no one else elevated their game to the level required.

I guess it shouldn't be a surprise, because we've gotten no bench support all year, but it's still a huge disappointment.

[pnthr30]

I am not going to comment on the quality (or lack thereof) of the officiating (as soon as I heard Sid and the Simpsons were doing the game, I knew we were in for a ............"interesting" night), but I did want to make one point............although Rob got "T'd" up, he is somewhat fortunate that he didn't get more than one. He was on all three of the ref's hard, ALL night! While he was chewing on Sid's ear, Lamar gave him a "T" which really set him off (lucky he didn't get another one right away). One thing that really surprised me is that Bids didn't really go after RJ and tell him to settle down. RJ was obviously emotional at that point and needed to be restrained, but none of his assistants stepped in and get him back near the bench (he was WAY out on the court). Granted, this is a moot point because he didn't get the second "T", but IMHO the assistants should have stepped in, given the situation. Thoughts?

[Rawls]

Top 5 reasons we lost:
5.Hill - didnt take necessary shots, got outplayed by Al.
4.Not figuring out the zone - At times, it didn't seem like we even tried to, same plays time after time not working, it got aggrevating.
3. The refs - The same calls were NOT made on both ends, crappy calls on both sides, but overwhelmingly more on Milwaukee.
2.NO interior D - Not even swiss cheese. AT not being 100% hurt, but no excuse for the sh!t I saw
1.FREE Throws - They're called that for a reason. Despite the previous four and other reasons, the Panthers STILL should've taken this one home. 58% in RJ's system is sh!t.

Also - way 2 go to the guy that FIRST yelled "Hey, ref, get off your knees, youre blowing the game!" lol, classic
-What was up with that f---in 20-year old in a contest full of 5th graders at Halftime. Worlds biggest douchebag.

[Zoofan]

pantherlou said:

With AT being all but out last night, we needed someone to step up and "be the man". Boo certainly answered the call, but I would argue that no one else elevated their game to the level required.

Yeah...the thing is with AT being hurt, someone needed to step up, and yeah, again i agree that Boo did, but he always does....we needed an inconsistent player to step up and show UIC what we've got. With Adrian's usual double-double games, we needed those 12-15 points from another player. Boo always constributes a great deal, and so although he did well last night we needed something additional. That's what was so disappointing. Do I think we lost just because AT wasn't at full strength, no, but we certainly could have clenched a win if someone else would have gone out and made up for what he was physically unable to do.

[BBFran]

aknowsense said:

it's a tough loss but the season is not over, at least it's not north dakota state
the team and all here need to re-group there's a big nationally telivised game saturday time to start a new home court win streak

I disagree in both respects. The NDSU game for Wisconsin will turn out to be an irrelevant setback. This loss HUGELY diminshed our tournament chances.

And the Missouri State game couldn't be less important. It's just an exhibition game now. The Detroit game is far, far more important, because even if someone upsets Butler the HT is still going to Indy if we lose that game. I wouldn't even think of playing Tigert on Saturday unless he's truly 100%.

[BBFran]

aknowsense said:

it's a tough loss but the season is not over, at least it's not north dakota state
the team and all here need to re-group there's a big nationally telivised game saturday time to start a new home court win streak
a little help from butler would be appreciated but there's no reason this team can't go on the road and win the conference tourney.
sure it would be much better to have it at the cell but if it doesn't happen that's life.

the lost art of the free throw is a killer; does anyone who was at the game know what jeter was so hot about when he got the T, was it something in particular or just a culmination of bad calls?? I thought maybe he noticed a cheap shot or something that pissed him off.

[fan]

pantherpanther said:

We had no answer for the zone defense UIC put on us. We need an answer. Chris played like crap, AT played hurt so was not effective, Joah is on crack with those crappy shots, and Boo did all he could.

I couldn't agree more with these comments. Problems need fixing.

1. Al starts until Hill gets his act together. I don't care if he's a senior. I don't care if he had been steady until the last month. He sucks now and he's hurting the team.

2. Tigert cannot play in Saturday's game. Even if he feels 100% he should not be in there. Bendall has yet to play bad and I'm starting to have faith in him.

3. Joah can play because his rebounds are valuable with Tigert out.

4. I don't know why teams haven't been zoning us all year? I realize that Boo has been hot but making us one-dimensional and having us rely on one player seems to be one hell of a defense. I thought Jeter would have a zone-breaking offense by now.

5. Tyrone Young has to get major minutes this weekend. The game essentially doesn't count. He is a flashy player that would work well on TV. He needs the experience against a good team and he's started to show some flash. If he comes off well in this game, then he gets playing time in Tuesday's game and we're much better off for the tourney. Jeter play him now!

6. Mrs. Cotton will be making an appearance in the student section Tuesday night.

[Kroener3535]

Saturdays game is now irrelevent...we wont get an at large...and I dont see us getting any better than a 12 seed anyways... a win would be nice so we can maybe get that 12 seed but we will see

[milwsport]

kraw said:

Also - way 2 go to the guy that FIRST yelled "Hey, ref, get off your knees, youre blowing the game!" lol, classic
-.

You're welcome!

[teddyp00]

I'm sorry but I have to disagree with Saturdays game being irrelevant. First if a guy can play then he plays. I am sure Jeter and Tigert would both say this. In fact I bet there is no one who wants Tigert to be out there than himself. You play to win the game (thanks Herm), UWM does not get many chances to 'showcase' themselves, but this is one of them and the last thing you want to show possible recruits is that you laided an egg on national tv.

Also, we can likely expect to have the biggest crowd of the season and you would hate to send all those potential season ticket holders and students away with a very sour taste in their mouth.

Finally, a win against a top 50 rpi team would help with the teams seeding if they make the toury, and yes we still have to be the odds on favorite to win the conference tourny no matter where it is with all the seniors we have. With several losses in the past few weeks this will be even more important with the impact the final 10 games a team plays in the committies (sp) eyes.

[Big D]

I read a quote that said you should have been to the line 50 times. I'm sorry, but you do realize how many jump-shots you took last night, right? You had 30-something FTs despite taking 34 three-pointers and a number of other jump shots. UIC did not shoot long nearly as much. How often do you see fouls called on three-pointers or jump shots? Not nearly as much as on layups, and UIC was banging a lot. With no AT, it was free reign in there.

Sure, the refs were bad...I thought they called too many ticky-tack fouls on both teams...and at the wrong times...but in no way did they favor UIC. UIC getting more FTs than UWM should not be a surprise considering the types of offenses that were run, and UWM not getting more FTs should not be a surprise. And Jeter did deserve to get T'd up. He was doing nothing but waving his hands and yelling at the refs all night.

I thought that was a great game....another UIC/UWM classic. UIC shot lights out, and it's hard to beat any team when they shoot like we did. When you guys tied it in regulation, I thought for sure it was over. Our two best players fouled out and two more starters had four fouls. Not cool.

I still think you guys will win the HL. Butler is going to lose at Detroit. But you better believe that I'm happy that it was UIC that caused all this trouble and put an end to that streak...

[dylanrocks]

In the wake of last night's bitter loss to UIC, Saturday's game against Missouri St. is the most irrelevant Bracket Buster game that UWM has played in four years. IMO, the game is nothing more than a glorified exhibition. It actually means a hell of a lot more to the Bears (No. 26 RPI). The only real meaning that I can see is a chance to showcase the program before a national cable audience and a chance to perhaps play back up to a 12 seed should UWM win the Horizon League tournament. Having said that, I would be very judicious in the way that I use A.T. If in fact, he's anything less than 90 percent, I see absolutely no reason to play him.

[dylanrocks]

As for the team MVP, I believe the choice is now clear: It's either Boo for performances like the one he had last night or Adrian, who was obviously sorely missed. In the meantime, Joah had countless chances to demonstrate that he was "the man" on this team and wound up making just four shots close to the basket. In short, Joah is going to draw contact on 100 percent of the plays and in this league perhaps 15 percent of those are going to be called fouls. He just simply had to do a much better job of finishing in the paint and making his free throws. Again, this was my principal grievance with Bobbi's apologetic feature on Joah. His scoring average has risen by just a point from last season not because of the new "slow-down" system, but because he still can't make clutch plays or at least 75 percent of his free throws. Thoughts?

[aknowsense]

dylanrocks said:

He just simply had to do a much better job of finishing in the paint and making his free throws. Again, this was my principal grievance with Bobbi's apologetic feature on Joah. His scoring average has risen by just a point from last season not because of the new "slow-down" system, but because he still can't make clutch plays or at least 75 percent of his free throws. Thoughts?

I think you hit it w/the free throws not just on joah but as a team. in this system you will get to the line it's made to do that but what's the point of getting to the line if you're not making the the free throws? i think in every one of the losses this year; minus memphis you could look at free throw shooting as one of the main contributing factors in the loss. wasn't is at butler we missed one of two throws to make it a three point game allowing them to take the game into ot, make both game is over.

[teddyp00]

I believe what happened at the butler game was we made one of two to go up one with about 22 seconds left. They came down missed a shot(?) and we got the break away dunk by McCoy to go up three w/ 6 seconds left. Then the clutch 3 by butler to all but send it to ot.
Either way they missed man free throws in that game. Also, games that could have been sealed early such as Loyola, Wright St and Butler at home missed throws allowed those teams to really make a close game out of it.