What were the benefits for MU for playing this game?

[AirPunches]

I don't really like the RPI and don't follow it all that closely so I'll probably need a little help on this one. Does it make a difference if the game was on the road or not? I'll just get to the point. What the hell was MU doing playing up in Green Bay tonight? Was there any benefit to it other than just being a nice guy and signing a 2-1 deal just because? I'm just curious as to why they would play a game that is a lose-lose situation. Same goes for UWM.

[MUfan12]

I don't really like the RPI and don't follow it all that closely so I'll probably need a little help on this one. Does it make a difference if the game was on the road or not? I'll just get to the point. What the hell was MU doing playing up in Green Bay tonight? Was there any benefit to it other than just being a nice guy and signing a 2-1 deal just because? I'm just curious as to why they would play a game that is a lose-lose situation. Same goes for UWM.

This is what happens when you give in to feigned media outrage. You get a sh*t deal and the worst case scenario happened tonight.

Don't miss much about Crean, but him telling Bo/Pearl to pound sand every year was great.

[GGGG]

Wasn't this done pretty much as a favor to Wardle? 

[mu_hilltopper]

On the bright side, when Buzz leaves in April and Wardle takes his place, he'll have had a signature win against us.

[Dawson Rental]

I don't really like the RPI and don't follow it all that closely so I'll probably need a little help on this one. Does it make a difference if the game was on the road or not? I'll just get to the point. What the hell was MU doing playing up in Green Bay tonight? Was there any benefit to it other than just being a nice guy and signing a 2-1 deal just because? I'm just curious as to why they would play a game that is a lose-lose situation. Same goes for UWM.

It's a 3-1 deal.  And yes, it was done as a favor to a coach who as a player got MU through some days that would have been very dark without him.  Three home games for one away game isn't too shabby.

[chapman]

If your team is halfway decent, a road win against a team that can usually make the top 150 RPI is far more valuable than beating a 300 RPI team at home.  If not, well...you lose to a bad team and don't even make money doing it.

[NotAnAlum]

You have to play somebody and some away games.  I don't think doing a 3-1 against an in state mid major is such a mistake.  Face it last years team beat these guys easily with someone suspended (DJO?).  They would have beat them by double digits in GB.  You can't hide a team that's not very good.  Its not like GB played out of their minds and surprised us.  We're just at their level this year.

[Dawson Rental]

On the bright side, when Buzz leaves in April and Wardle takes his place, he'll have had a signature win against us.

All LW has to do to keep Buzz around is tell him that he won't release JaJuan Johnson from his NLI.  After tonight, Buzz isn't going to leave that kind of shooting behind.

BTW, aren't switchables supposed to be able to dribble, to pass, and to shoot?

[brewcity77]

I'm actually a bit confused by this deal. It has been widely reported today that this was the last year of the deal. That's been on the radio, in the papers, and from people close to the program. This was the end of the deal, so it wasn't 3-for-1.

Except it doesn't seem like it was 2-for-1 either. That game 2 years ago shouldn't have been part of this deal. UWGB's game at the BC was part of the CBI Classic. So was this really a 1-for-1 that was misreported?

Regardless...the benefits were not to take games for granted, to play through contact (Gardner definitely needed to learn that today) and to look for other options when your first choice isn't there. I maintain we'll be okay. We always get upset about the first bad loss, and there's usually always at least one. Not the end of the world.

[Dawson Rental]

I'm actually a bit confused by this deal. It has been widely reported today that this was the last year of the deal. That's been on the radio, in the papers, and from people close to the program. This was the end of the deal, so it wasn't 3-for-1.

Except it doesn't seem like it was 2-for-1 either. That game 2 years ago shouldn't have been part of this deal. UWGB's game at the BC was part of the CBI Classic. So was this really a 1-for-1 that was misreported?

Regardless...the benefits were not to take games for granted, to play through contact (Gardner definitely needed to learn that today) and to look for other options when your first choice isn't there. I maintain we'll be okay. We always get upset about the first bad loss, and there's usually always at least one. Not the end of the world.

Brew, I like the new signature line!

[karavotsos]

RPI, whatever.  Benefit is, this is how you learn.  See: LSU last year.  MU will make or not make the tournament based on what they do or not do in conference. 

[4everwarriors]

Were we a buy game for UWGB?

[ATWizJr]

Were we a buy game for UWGB?

+ 1

[Spaniel with a Short Tail]

I think we're now contractually obligated to extend a C7 invite to UWGB...

[Dunk The Ball Eric]

Yesterday at the MU pregame event LW said he thought it was good to get out and play these types of games to test the team (and I would agree), similar to what Michigan State does. He also said this would be our last trip to GB so guess our all-time record will be 0-1 in GB. I realize the contract is up but his comments implied it will not be renewed. I thought the crowd was at least 50/50 but that the GB fans were much louder than the MU fans, but our team wasn't giving us much to cheer about.

[bilsu]

There is a lot of value to this game. It shows the team that a road game is nothing to take for granted. Consider UW losses at MU, GB losses at UW and MU losses at GB. GB's record is some what misleading, because they just finished up a long road trip. It also shows Buzz he has to do a better job recruiting. He needs to recruit players that can be more than just switchables. Hopefully, the 2013 class fills the need for scoring. It does not fill the need for size. The game was only close, because the reffing made it that way. There were few fouls called, which was good for MU, because GB is a better free throw shooting team. The refs also missed serveral travels. There easily could of been 10 more travels in that game and of the 10, 7 of them would of been on MU. The score was close, but GB was the much better team in last night's game.