Ohio at Northern Iowa - Tuesday 7pm

[UNIFanSince1983]

Bad loss and no excuses for it. It is a bad loss in the terms of losing by 17 at home. It is not a loss to a bad team. Having James, Moran, and Koch not feeling well didn't help, but if they can be on the court you gotta expect more out of them. Ohio may have shown the blueprint. They didn't help on the guys inside, and they stayed out on our 3 point shooters and we struggled to shoot. Their guards were also too quick for our guards, and that caused a lot of havoc on our defense. Doesn't bode well when we play teams like Wichita and Creighton that have athletic/quick guards and big men that can cover us one on one.

Ohio is a better team than you are giving them credit for however. Losing by 5 AT Louisville who is now #4 in the country is a good loss. They had them down by 6 with 3 mins to go. That team will probably win the MAC.

Bad loss, but have to put it behind us and focus on league play. I am sure Jake will have our guys ready.

[DoubleJayAlum]

Couldn't the poor shooting be due to the fatigue of playing a game the night before?

Probably would have been nice if the guys under the weather didn't have to play a game last night too.

Although some UNI fans disagreed at the beginning of this thread, I think it is now pretty clear that if UNI did not schedule in such a goofy fashion, they could have very well been undefeated entering conference season.

Teams with financial difficulties sometimes have to make decisions that put dollars over common sense. I can only assume that UNI's desperation for the funds from the Loras game, combined with inability to afford a buyout of the Loras game, is what drove this back to back scheduling.

It may be time to stop pretending that UNI's money woes will have nothing to do with the success of the teams on the court.

[UNIFanSince1983]

Couldn't the poor shooting be due to the fatigue of playing a game the night before?

Probably would have been nice if the guys under the weather didn't have to play a game last night too.

Although some UNI fans disagreed at the beginning of this thread, I think it is now pretty clear that if UNI did not schedule in such a goofy fashion, they could have very well been undefeated entering conference season.

Teams with financial difficulties sometimes have to make decisions that put dollars over common sense. I can only assume that UNI's desperation for the funds from the Loras game, combined with inability to afford a buyout of the Loras game, is what drove this back to back scheduling.

It may be time to stop pretending that UNI's money woes will have nothing to do with the success of the teams on the court.

I agree. I don't want to make excuses though. We have played back to back games before. We played Rice and Providence on back to back nights in South Padre.

Obviously, not buying out Loras and needing the ESPN money have cost us two games. It sucks but it is the situation we are in right now.I think our team will be alright. Heck going into the season I didn't even expect to be 10-2. After how we have been playing it is disappointing though.

[DoubleJayAlum]

We have played back to back games before. We played Rice and Providence on back to back nights in South Padre.

Very true. The difference, of course, is that so did Rice and Providence. The same can't be said about Ohio.

[Kyle]

Ohio is a good team. They are the type of team no major program wants to be paired up with in March.

UNI lost to the better team tonight, plain and simple. It had nothing to do with playing two nights in the row. Blaming the loss on playing Loras the night before is like blaming the loss on expending too much energy on the shoot around the night before a game. Loras is not just a D-III team, but they are a terrible 2-8 D-III team.

Also, UNI Bball actually makes money. Our athletic department as a whole loses money left and right, but the basketball program has been self sufficient for many years. This gives them freedom to operate in the best interest of the program instead of the best interest of the checkbook. The St. Mary's game was about national exposure, not a paycheck.

[Aargh]

The St. Mary's game was about national exposure, not a paycheck.

If that's true, then that was an EPIC FAIL!

Ohio may be good this year, but Ohio doesn't have much tradition. Ohio is mostly unknown. No matter how good Ohio is this year, most of America (which includes the Committee) isn't going to give Ohio credit for what may be an unusually good year for them.

Even if Ohio ends up in the top 25 in the polls (seems unlikely), getting blown out by them at home will be viewed as a negative. A top Valley team getting blown up at home by a top MAC team is going to get some run if there's a question of including one more Valley team or one more MAC team.

I'm not buying the "two games in two nights" argument. Playing Loras should be less stressful than a hard practice against a good scout team (end of the bench) when the end of the bench should be better than a D3 team.

[Duan]

I am not very familiar with who UNI has beaten this year. Who is their biggest, most impressive win against? For that matter, I wouldn't mind knowing every team's biggest win.....and maybe loss. Reasoning for why that is the case would also be appreciated. Anyone have time to do this? Maybe it could be done in a new thread?

[MoValley John]

I am not very familiar with who UNI has beaten this year. Who is their biggest, most impressive win against? For that matter, I wouldn't mind knowing every team's biggest win.....and maybe loss. Reasoning for why that is the case would also be appreciated. Anyone have time to do this? Maybe it could be done in a new thread?

UNI has played a strange schedule. Not a lot of meat on the bone, but no bottom feeders, either. In the end, they have managed to build a gaudy RPI by avoiding sub 200 teams. But it kind of makes identifying their best win very subjective, I'd guess Colorado State. At the same time, you could argue between Ohio and St Mary's as to which school as a worse loss. My guess is that UNI's worse loss is Ohio.

Of the other schools currently vying for an at large:

Creighton:
Best win San Diego State
Worst loss St Josephs

Indiana State:
Best win Vanderbilt
Worst loss Boise State

Missouri State
Best win Nevada
Worst loss Oklahoma State

Wichita State
Best win UNLV
Worst loss Temple

Fans may disagree with me on these picks, but it is how I would choose best wins and worst losses. I'm sorry I only included the current top 5. Figuring this out for SIU would be a nightmare.

[TylerDurden]

Just was one of those nights...

Haven't seen a defensive performance like that out of UNI, maybe ever. Ohio was wide open all night long, and they shot freaking lights out.

Ohio is really, really good. Have never seen a team come into Mcleod and do to us what they did tonight. I think that is a team that will spend some time in the polls this year, and is definitely an NCAA team. Mad props to them.

Tough loss, especially at home. But I'll definitely take 10-2 heading into conference play. Gotta forget this one and regroup.

When did MacLeod open? BU put a pretty good beating on them in 2006.

[shockerengr]

Also, UNI Bball actually makes money. Our athletic department as a whole loses money left and right, but the basketball program has been self sufficient for many years. This gives them freedom to operate in the best interest of the program instead of the best interest of the checkbook. The St. Mary's game was about national exposure, not a paycheck.

If the Athletic Dept is losing money, it will affect the BBall program and reduce the money available...they just aren't separate entities...and typically, the money making programs are used to fund the rest of the athletic dept. If there's large shortfalls, it's going to cause more decisions that aren't necessarily in the best interest of the program.

Playing a D-III team the night before may not cause many issues as far as fatigue...but it has to mess with game prep and scouting.