NIT

What people forget is that this is what SIU does.  Everyone likes to say that they only lost to SIU because their good players didn't play well.  SURPRISE....a teams good players RARLY play well against SIU because of their defense.  SIU smothers you...frustrates you...iritates you...and makes you play bad.  They have to...God knows we don't have any offese to speak of.

Almost all of our games were close until the last 8 minutes of the game....at that point...the other team is so exhausted and frustrated that they start throwing up crap...or fouling...or just stop playing...and SIU slowly pulls away.  The game we lost...usually came down to being unable to prevent a team from breaking out a 10 point lead.  Usually when that happens we can't get back in it..

Sobasically...you can't just say you lost becasue your good players played like crap...the question is WHY did they play like crap.  If they missed easy open shots, tripped over their own feet on a fast break, or blew slam dunk opportunities...then yes...you can blame it on poor play.  But if every shot is contested, balls stolen, shots rushed, errors forced...you have to give that to the defense.

We just played stupid. When you start off 0-12 behind the arc you don't just keep standing out there and keep jacking up shots. Yes, Southern Illionis's defense was good, but we shouldn't of shot 20+ 3 pointers when they were not falling.

So much for OSU and the scary scary BIG XII.

Face it, the MVC is a good conference.  Without Texas OR Kansas, the scary scary Big XII would just be another run of the mill conference.

K-State (3), and Baylor (4), beat nobody out of conference.  Okies and T A&M had a few nice wins, but other than that, the scary scary Big XII does not have much.

Oh, and Iowa St got beat by Drake by 55 points.  Incase you pokies forgot - Drake 79 - Iowa St 45.

The fans of this board drank way to much of the scary scary Big XII cool-aid.  You guys actually thought you had a chance....rofl......

Let us know when you schedule a MVC team on a home-and-home in the near future....

what happened 7-8 years ago is like a fart in the wind---it's GONE!!!!!! Get over it!Someone's hanging on to the past  and it's not me. Oh wait, I guess I can understand it considering OSU's NCAA tourney appearance as of late. By the way, let me know what "getting a taste of the Big12" is like. You seem to be the only one that experiences that issue.

You know, it is just the same old sh*t from the typical Big 12 crowd.  They have no respect for us.  Never have and never will!!!  We can play with anyone......when we want to.  That has been the most frustrating thing this year.

It doesn't matter anyway.  The fans of the Big 12 suck and have no respect for teams that are just as good, maybe even better than some of them.  I think we proved that last night even though all of the haters will come up with every excuse in the book as to how we got lucky.  Sorry, but that was not luck. 

I like the idea of growing some nards and scheduling a home and home non-conference with us.  Please!!  Somebody from the Big 12 should grant this request.  Most of their teams play cream puffs in the non-conference and have no guts to do something like this.  IMO....this is cowardly!!

I saw the game last night but I don't see a box score here to show me the shooting %, minutes & other telling stats. The OSU team out there last night was the dud one that we have seen several times this year. Shooting 35% and going 4-25 or something like that from 3-pt land.

There was no stifling SIU defense. Kansas has a stifling defense. OSU had open looks all night. We just have a team that has no confidence. I would see them get an open look and they appeared to be confused as to what to do. They would either pass the ball instead or put up a weak shot effort looking like they were scared to "take the shot". 

There are no go to guys on this team. I saw Eaton get the ball once and shoot it and I have never seen a guy take that long to set up and get his shot off. It doinked. There was no rythym in that shot. It happened all night long. SIU was making all their shots. I bet they ended up near the 50% mark. We hung in that game till the last 10 minutes when it appeared we gave up. No one wanted to be the man and get it done.

Another thing I would like to know about the coaching in that one. I saw our subs getting a lot of playing time. Tyler Hatch hardly played all year and yet there he was again & again. Adams same way. Nick Sidorkas same. These guys never even play in close games. Why were they out there so much in a close game? We were within 7 or less points for most of the game. It appeared to me that Sean was giving them playing time either as a Senior award (Hatch) or for next year (Sidorkas, Adams). What the hell? Was Sean just throwing the game? I can see those guys coming in at the end when your down by 15-20 points but they were in there when we were close.  Why were we playing our second team? I was not happy with our coaching staffs will to win.

However, when one team shoots 50% and the other shoots 35%, the outcome will be clear. I didn't see our poor shooting as due to great defense but rather just an  uninspired effort on our part. Even the rebounding stats show lack of effort on our part although I would say that SIU had a good effort on the defensive boards. However, Falkers offensive rebound slams were not due to him "working hard". Our guys were just standing there and he had lots of room to make those. We gave him those, he did not take them from us.

As for the Missouri Valley Conference, The Big 12 would eat up those teams if they were in our conference. I am not talking about the last place teams in the Big 12 (and OSU is one of those) or the Missouri Valley. Those last place teams have had better years, just not this year. I am talking our top 4 vs their top 4 teams. Getting an automatic NCAA bid because you win the Conference does not make you a great team. How many final 4 teams has the Missouri Valley Conference had? How many National Champions? Has any Mid Major Conference had a National Champion? Case closed.

To what, your obviously ignorant and narrow minded rant? You've done us a huge favor along with a good laugh. Thanks

"case closed" lol