[NU Sports] I waited a day to be a downer...

[Beamsley, Jeff]

Harry wrote <snip>

With our recent close losses and the win over MSU, I want to be optimistic, but  I fear Dennis' complaint is not only real, but spot on to our key problem. Time will tell.

=================

IMHO the MSU win was building on the good offensive play of the "small" lineup we saw in the first half of the UM game.

We have to get offensive production out of the center position in order to open up the lane for the easy backdoor cuts that are key to our offense. If the defense can ignore our center particularly when he is at the FT line (as they do with Luka), that allows them to clog up the lane and disrupt our cuts to the basket.  

MSU paid the price for attempting to play Curletti that way.  When they began to play him straight up, the rest of the offense began to work.  We still needed a big second half from Shurna and Crawford, but that's how this team is put together.  

I agree that we will still have problems with teams like OSU who have a dominant center, but the big question in my mind right now is whether we can take this good play on the road.  Hopefully we'll catch Wisky before they make their tourney run and steal a road win from them. 

As far as the tournament is concerned, if we get to 20 wins I think that we are in.  That will give us a 10-8 conference schedule, a signature win over a top ten team, and some road wins in a conference where that is very difficult.  As far as winning late in the year, our February/March schedule looks pretty good.  We've got 5 home games with OSU being the only one where we are distinct dogs. We've also got 5 road games where we need to find only two wins (assuming we beat UM at home and Minny on the road next Sunday).  It could all come down to a road win against Iowa in early March. 

Jeff


-----Original Message-----
From: Chuck Herron <cherron604 at aol.com>
Sender: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com
Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:44:20 
To: <bwdolphin146 at yahoo.com>; <nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] I waited a day to be a downer...

All,


We are currently 12-5 (2-3).  Is there any drop-dead number of losses that we must avoid to have any hope ?  Football is so much easier - just get to 6 wins any way that you can...


Thanks,


Chuck Herron   Tech '85



-----Original Message-----
From: bwdolphin146 <bwdolphin146 at yahoo.com>
To: Alan Abrahamson <alan.abrahamson at gmail.com>
Cc: nwu-sports <nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Sent: Sun, Jan 15, 2012 11:38 am
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] I waited a day to be a downer...


It's precisely the reverse -- 27 -- in Philadelphia. Maybe that explains the 
difference in our outlook... (smile) 

Bw
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Abrahamson <alan.abrahamson at gmail.com>
Date: Sun, 15 Jan 2012 13:35:20 
To: bwdolphin146 at yahoo.com<bwdolphin146 at yahoo.com>
Cc: nwu-sports at tssi.com<nwu-sports at tssi.com>
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] I waited a day to be a downer...

Such poetry to enliven our basketball musings or, perhaps, travails.

I shall now return to Kafka. (Not Mike.)

Oh, wait. It's SoCal and 72 degrees in January. Hope springs eternal
here in mid-winter and Davide Curletti is the answer. Maybe.

Sent from my iPhone

On Jan 15, 2012, at 12:55 PM, "bwdolphin146 at yahoo.com"
<bwdolphin146 at yahoo.com> wrote:

> ... But beating MSU only means something if it is followed up with a road win 
or 2 to make up for the Illini debacle.
>
> Without follow-up this win is simply one of those occasional but false beacons 
of hope that flare up from McGaw Hall every now and then that tease us with 
their sparks but die out meaninglessly in cold, gloomy ashes.
>
> Brad Wilson
> Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
> _______________________________________________
> nwu-sports site list
> nwu-sports at tssi.com
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