I picked this game at 73-68 and was told that predicting holding ISU under 80 was bold. I didn't know your team, but I knew about mine.
I want to take a moment to express my appreciation for how I have been treated on this board. When I first got here there were a number of threads that were cocky, bordering on arrogant, waiting for some yahoo to show up from UAB claiming that we had a chance to win. You sounded like a pretty typical P5 team looking down on a pissant little mid-major from C-USA. Then we got to talking and it all smoothed out. I watched some video and looked at stats and while I knew we had a chance I went to Louisville fully prepared to see the kids lose. I was ok with it because we had overachieved and I figured that the tournament experience would be good for the young'uns.
You guys took a tough loss, and fell to a team that wasn't in your league, both literally and figuratively. I come back over here and while there are a few butthurt posts, mostly it's because you feel like the team didn't perform to their potential, that they didn't put out enough effort, that they were distracted, etc. I see damn little whining, no blaming the refs, none of the usual message board crap. I could pull a bunch of your quotes but I won't bother - you wrote them and you've read most of them.
You guys are refreshing. We used to have to deal with the Memphis and Louisville fans in the conference, and the few nice guys really stood out among all the dicks. The Louisiana Tech fans are still crying today that they lost to us in the tournament in Birmingham (on a neutral floor, not our home court) and how the refs made it happen, that we got lucky to squeak by you and will surely be exposed on Saturday. It's ridiculous. I want to go over there with a bale of crying towels. We were 6-2 against the top four teams in the league in the regular season, unbeaten at home during conference play, and we lost by 3 to Tech at their place (where they had about a 24 game home win streak going), beat them by 20 at home, then beat them again in the tournament, and they still think we cheated our way in somehow. It's quite a contrast to y'all.
They even chanted "We've got football" at us, the low rent scum. Didn't appreciate that much...
This was a pretty damn good game, if you are able to set aside your expectations. You jumped out early, which made me sweat, because I thought if you built a big lead you'd just cruise. Instead the team dug deep and pulled together and made it a tight game, back and forth.
The other thing is that I thought the refs were pretty good. I don't know that there were any calls that I was really bent about, other than the usual charging/blocks, and those are judgement calls.
Just so you know a few things from our side - William Lee, the kid who won it late and gave Niang fits, was a Top 100 recruit, last year's Mr. Basketball in Alabama. He's gonna be a beast when he grows a bit. True freshman. He didn't do it today, our outside shooting stunk, but he's a damn good three point guy to boot.
Nick Norton, the little white boy point guard, was sick. He gutted it out a bit but he's better than he showed and has a sweet three point stroke. Monte schooled him, but we managed to hold him down some, not that the stat line shows it other than the turnovers.
This is a very young team and they are very team oriented and unselfish, playing whatever role is needed. Mehinti, the forward with the mohawk, got no points today, but had 6 rebounds, 3 blocks and an assist. Chris Cokely is another true freshman, and was Conference Sixth Man. I don't know that I've ever seen a freshman do that. 14 minutes, 4 points, 4 rebounds, an assist and a steal. Tyler Madison, 14 minutes, 11 rebounds, 9 of them offensive.
Robert Brown got 22 points in the conference tournament. The tape showed what he does, and he came out and got 21 today, and he earned them.
We shot like crap all day. Some of that was you, some was just poor shooting and poor shot selection.
One other thing. The talk about not shaking hands. You had two or three players that did not, for whatever reason, but our players were out celebrating at midcourt. You tell them to "act like you been there before", but the reality is that not one of them *had* ever been there before. Your guys got kept waiting and I can't get upset if some of them were hurting and wanted to go or just didn't want to wait. I saw Monte talking to Denzel Watts afterward, they played against each other from middle school on up in Flint, Michigan. Others came over and spoke to Haase.
I think it's a non issue that got blown out of proportion.
I know it hurts still and you're disappointed, and I hope this didn't sound like I came back to gloat. You guys have shown class across the board, and I just wanted to say so.
One other thing - President Watts did go to the game, and was up in a skybox. He peeked out once in a while, but probably watched it on TV, the weasel. I hope that we could be heard well over the television. We're a lot louder at home with several thousand more people joining in. Anyhow, after the game a few of us were standing out front on the sidewalk waiting for our bus to pick us up and Watts came out and walked past us to his SUV with a couple of bodyguards (you ever known a university president that needed bodyguards?) and his fixer lawyer, and this happened. I'm briefly visible as it begins, the guy with the eyepatch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ6U43R0TKo
That's about the only thing that could have happened to make my day better today.
Thanks, guys. You've been fair and kind. You're good fans, proud of a good solid team, and that's uncommon any more. We're gonna try to take out UCLA next. They beat us early when the kids were green and new and William Lee was not playing, recovering from two knee procedures. I don't think we're the pushover they think we are. We'll see.
It's been a good season for us if we lose Saturday. If we win, well. You know how it goes. I think this team will be back to the dance. We have just two seniors, and only one of them gets any minutes to speak of. We'll be better next year. Maybe we'll see you again.
Jeeze I'm longwinded. Still have not wound down from today. Later.
I want to take a moment to express my appreciation for how I have been treated on this board. When I first got here there were a number of threads that were cocky, bordering on arrogant, waiting for some yahoo to show up from UAB claiming that we had a chance to win. You sounded like a pretty typical P5 team looking down on a pissant little mid-major from C-USA. Then we got to talking and it all smoothed out. I watched some video and looked at stats and while I knew we had a chance I went to Louisville fully prepared to see the kids lose. I was ok with it because we had overachieved and I figured that the tournament experience would be good for the young'uns.
You guys took a tough loss, and fell to a team that wasn't in your league, both literally and figuratively. I come back over here and while there are a few butthurt posts, mostly it's because you feel like the team didn't perform to their potential, that they didn't put out enough effort, that they were distracted, etc. I see damn little whining, no blaming the refs, none of the usual message board crap. I could pull a bunch of your quotes but I won't bother - you wrote them and you've read most of them.
You guys are refreshing. We used to have to deal with the Memphis and Louisville fans in the conference, and the few nice guys really stood out among all the dicks. The Louisiana Tech fans are still crying today that they lost to us in the tournament in Birmingham (on a neutral floor, not our home court) and how the refs made it happen, that we got lucky to squeak by you and will surely be exposed on Saturday. It's ridiculous. I want to go over there with a bale of crying towels. We were 6-2 against the top four teams in the league in the regular season, unbeaten at home during conference play, and we lost by 3 to Tech at their place (where they had about a 24 game home win streak going), beat them by 20 at home, then beat them again in the tournament, and they still think we cheated our way in somehow. It's quite a contrast to y'all.
They even chanted "We've got football" at us, the low rent scum. Didn't appreciate that much...
This was a pretty damn good game, if you are able to set aside your expectations. You jumped out early, which made me sweat, because I thought if you built a big lead you'd just cruise. Instead the team dug deep and pulled together and made it a tight game, back and forth.
The other thing is that I thought the refs were pretty good. I don't know that there were any calls that I was really bent about, other than the usual charging/blocks, and those are judgement calls.
Just so you know a few things from our side - William Lee, the kid who won it late and gave Niang fits, was a Top 100 recruit, last year's Mr. Basketball in Alabama. He's gonna be a beast when he grows a bit. True freshman. He didn't do it today, our outside shooting stunk, but he's a damn good three point guy to boot.
Nick Norton, the little white boy point guard, was sick. He gutted it out a bit but he's better than he showed and has a sweet three point stroke. Monte schooled him, but we managed to hold him down some, not that the stat line shows it other than the turnovers.
This is a very young team and they are very team oriented and unselfish, playing whatever role is needed. Mehinti, the forward with the mohawk, got no points today, but had 6 rebounds, 3 blocks and an assist. Chris Cokely is another true freshman, and was Conference Sixth Man. I don't know that I've ever seen a freshman do that. 14 minutes, 4 points, 4 rebounds, an assist and a steal. Tyler Madison, 14 minutes, 11 rebounds, 9 of them offensive.
Robert Brown got 22 points in the conference tournament. The tape showed what he does, and he came out and got 21 today, and he earned them.
We shot like crap all day. Some of that was you, some was just poor shooting and poor shot selection.
One other thing. The talk about not shaking hands. You had two or three players that did not, for whatever reason, but our players were out celebrating at midcourt. You tell them to "act like you been there before", but the reality is that not one of them *had* ever been there before. Your guys got kept waiting and I can't get upset if some of them were hurting and wanted to go or just didn't want to wait. I saw Monte talking to Denzel Watts afterward, they played against each other from middle school on up in Flint, Michigan. Others came over and spoke to Haase.
I think it's a non issue that got blown out of proportion.
I know it hurts still and you're disappointed, and I hope this didn't sound like I came back to gloat. You guys have shown class across the board, and I just wanted to say so.
One other thing - President Watts did go to the game, and was up in a skybox. He peeked out once in a while, but probably watched it on TV, the weasel. I hope that we could be heard well over the television. We're a lot louder at home with several thousand more people joining in. Anyhow, after the game a few of us were standing out front on the sidewalk waiting for our bus to pick us up and Watts came out and walked past us to his SUV with a couple of bodyguards (you ever known a university president that needed bodyguards?) and his fixer lawyer, and this happened. I'm briefly visible as it begins, the guy with the eyepatch.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ6U43R0TKo
That's about the only thing that could have happened to make my day better today.
Thanks, guys. You've been fair and kind. You're good fans, proud of a good solid team, and that's uncommon any more. We're gonna try to take out UCLA next. They beat us early when the kids were green and new and William Lee was not playing, recovering from two knee procedures. I don't think we're the pushover they think we are. We'll see.
It's been a good season for us if we lose Saturday. If we win, well. You know how it goes. I think this team will be back to the dance. We have just two seniors, and only one of them gets any minutes to speak of. We'll be better next year. Maybe we'll see you again.
Jeeze I'm longwinded. Still have not wound down from today. Later.
