MU WINS. McNEAL A STUD.

[SoCalwarrior]

76-68

[TVDirector]

yes, by far, he was the best out there tonight.

team played fairly well.  IUPUI was not a bad team at all... shot the lights out.
our d was solid and usually intense... but they sure hit shots.

3 recruits in attendance behind the MU bench.
didn't recognize any.

crowd was fair.

[bilsu]

It looks like Culliban is significantly better than last year. He looks stronger. he also took the ball to the hoop in traffic and scored. Last year it seemed like everytime he tried a layup it got blocked. He for now is ahead of Acker in the rotation.

[rocky_warrior]

Agreed on Cubes...actually scored taking the ball to the hoop.  I wish he could have done that last year  8)

[Thomas' Danish Delight]

Word, that was definitely a pleasant surprise seeing DC drive and score.  I donno...this girl behind me was saying "win or lose, we still lose" and I agree...we sucked tonight, I'm sorry.

Usually I'm a big fan of JM, but he turned it over 4 times, like one time while he was on a fast break, by himself, no one guarding him...double you tee eff?!

Frustrating night for this fan...what I did like though was DJ's defensive tenacity, especially in the last 10 seconds where he still stole the ball from ooweepoowee and got fouled.  He's getting better at the line, as he needed to.

And oh, the color guard was quite amazing this evening, if I do say so myself.

[CWSKeith]

That George Hill of theirs is quite a player.  I wonder if the game would've turned out differently if he doesn't pick up a fourth early in the second half.

I was impressed by IUPUI and happy to leave with a victory.  Maybe I'm really overrating them, but I think that team is better than about a third of the teams we will face this season.

[MileHigh]

I was impressed with the large amount of students who came out for the game...considering it was the first game, we might see a decrease in attendance for Utah Valley State

[TallTitan34]

I was surprised to see the student section fill half of the upperdeck.  Excellent student turnout!

After the game Hill stuck around to talk to Dom.  Does anyone know if they played against each other in high school?

[ZiggysFryBoy]

I was surprised to see the student section fill half of the upperdeck.  Excellent student turnout!

After the game Hill stuck around to talk to Dom.  Does anyone know if they played against each other in high school?

yes.  on the postgame, DJ said that he played against most of those guys in hs.

[Harrison]

IUPUI has two guys that could play for anyone in  America...Hill and the white kid on the wing.
Acker did a real nice job on offense but gt absolutely abused on defense.  Those that have stated that acker could have stepped in for Dj this year or can next year are watching a different game.

[Pardner]

Some observations from watching on the net.  IUPUI is an experienced, great shooting team, and should make the NCAA's.  Hill is an NBA candidate (his 4th foul was a dagger for them as he was just heating up).  We shouldn't be too down--look at GU (struggled too) and USC (lost to Mercer).  Their opening run to start the second half was disconcerting...we had too many dumb turnovers and were shooting three's too early in our sets during that span.

That said, McNeal forced the action (good or bad) but it gave us energy on both ends to finish them off.  Lazar took it to the hoop in key spots.  We have a ways to get our sub rotations down.  Why is Burke starting over Ooze or Lazar?  We need to really work to establish some inside game.  Ooze looked out of place on O.  Pressure D was good led by DJ.  I was looking for more full court pressure with our guard depth--and IUPUI had a lot of open looks in our half court D.  Was surprised TC did not go full court.  Overall, what I expected.

[mwbauer7]

I donno...this girl behind me was saying "win or lose, we still lose" and I agree...we sucked tonight, I'm sorry.

Why? Its the first official game of the season. We won. What more do you want?

We'll improve. Everyone showed improvement from last year. (and I expect the big guy who didn't show much tonight show us something).

[Thomas' Danish Delight]

I donno...this girl behind me was saying "win or lose, we still lose" and I agree...we sucked tonight, I'm sorry.

Why? Its the first official game of the season. We won. What more do you want?

We'll improve. Everyone showed improvement from last year. (and I expect the big guy who didn't show much tonight show us something).

I want more assists than turnovers, for one thing.  And sure, I saw improvement, and yay for that, but we shouldn't be "outlasting" teams, we should be beating them.  I know it's not MU's fault for people ranking us as high as #8, but we are definitely not playing top 10 basketball right now.

But word, we'll improve.  Poop man, we better.

[bilsu]

I think IUPUI is a better team than most people realize. They are picked to win their conference. They had three good guards and thus were less effected by pressure than our next opponent will be. They also has a good forward. Monday's game will not be close and it will not be because MU's game is significantly better.

[Big Papi]

I donno...this girl behind me was saying "win or lose, we still lose" and I agree...we sucked tonight, I'm sorry.

Why? Its the first official game of the season. We won. What more do you want?

We'll improve. Everyone showed improvement from last year. (and I expect the big guy who didn't show much tonight show us something).

I want more assists than turnovers, for one thing.  And sure, I saw improvement, and yay for that, but we shouldn't be "outlasting" teams, we should be beating them.  I know it's not MU's fault for people ranking us as high as #8, but we are definitely not playing top 10 basketball right now.

But word, we'll improve.  Poop man, we better.

I really wouldn't worry or even mention if we are or are not a top 10 basketball team.  First of all, we only played 1 game.  Second of all, we really don't know how good IUPUI really is.  Third of all, we are ranked 11 and 12 in the AP and coaches poll.  Fourth, Georgetown struggled like we did and Michigan St. lost and they are generally ranked higher than us.  Fifth, in addition to those teams, USC and Kentucky, 2 top 20 teams were upset. Sixth, we won.

Can we at least get through the month of November before we say things like we are overrated....we are not a top whatever team.....or we don't look like or don't play like the #xx team in the country because frankly at this very very very early stage of the season we have no idea.

[MUMountin]

We also have to remember, games like these will help down the stretch.

Not only is it good for the team's moral to pull out a tough win, but beating a team like IUPUI will help with the RPI later on.

The secret to the RPI, in my opinion, is that beating so-called 'cupcakes' on your schedule that are likely to  go on to win their conference really helps out.  B/c those low/mid-majors end up racking up a ton of wins in conference, they end up with relatively decent winning percentage--which will help us out.  Plus, if IUPUI is as good as they looked against us, they may still a game or two from someone bigger.

[ilovefreeway]

We also have to remember, games like these will help down the stretch.

Not only is it good for the team's moral to pull out a tough win, but beating a team like IUPUI will help with the RPI later on.

The secret to the RPI, in my opinion, is that beating so-called 'cupcakes' on your schedule that are likely to  go on to win their conference really helps out.  B/c those low/mid-majors end up racking up a ton of wins in conference, they end up with relatively decent winning percentage--which will help us out.  Plus, if IUPUI is as good as they looked against us, they may still a game or two from someone bigger.

The good news about IUPUI is that they will win a lot of games.  The bad news is: they must have one of the weakest SOS in the nation.  We are the only major they play.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/teams/iak;_ylt=AqLT910h.tEMvvxVy_2KPCXfzYd4

[maxpower773]

I donno...this girl behind me was saying "win or lose, we still lose" and I agree...we sucked tonight, I'm sorry.

Why? Its the first official game of the season. We won. What more do you want?

We'll improve. Everyone showed improvement from last year. (and I expect the big guy who didn't show much tonight show us something).

I want more assists than turnovers, for one thing.  And sure, I saw improvement, and yay for that, but we shouldn't be "outlasting" teams, we should be beating them.  I know it's not MU's fault for people ranking us as high as #8, but we are definitely not playing top 10 basketball right now.

But word, we'll improve.  Poop man, we better.

You need to relax or you'll give yourself a heart attack.  It's the first game of the season against a decent team with a probable future NBA player on their roster.  If you're worrying about this game you should stop watching now cause the rest won't get much easier.  We have a few games that we should win by a ton, otherwise the other ones will look like normal games where we win by 10-15 points.  As long as we are winning that's all that matters, not how.  If we win every game by 1 point I don't care, we would have won them all.

[Marquette84]

The good news about IUPUI is that they will win a lot of games.  The bad news is: they must have one of the weakest SOS in the nation.  We are the only major they play.

That's ideal for MU since IUPUI's record counts twice as much toward our RPI as their SOS does. 

Far better for MU to play a 20-8 team with a weak SOS than a 8-20 team with a strong SOS. 

[MUCHI814]

anyone else think Barro was pretty brutal?

[Thomas' Danish Delight]

Yup.  He did well on the boards, but IUPUI's big men were holdin' it down.  I remember Ouse (I think?  Or was it someone else?) got stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey.

[ilovefreeway]

anyone else think Barro was pretty brutal?

brutal is too strong, but he does need to play better

[MUWarrior11]

IUPUI appears to be a quality team.  Hill is the real deal, and point guard #24 is a stud.

Obviously Jerel and Lazar stood out.  I think Lazar's performance should be appreciated. He scored 11 (i think?) while only taking 5 shots.  I would like to see him see some more clock.

DB and Ouse only took maybe 4 or 5 shots between the two of them.  We can't get away with that all year. Eventually someone will have to step it up in the paint, but I suppose eneough people have expressed concern for that, so I'll stop there.

Lastly, I thought the crowd was impressive. I'm sure Monday will be a lot less crowded, but it was good to see so many students there last night.

[muwarrior87]

I unfortunately was unable to go to the game last night. While the crowd numbers were impressive, I've heard from multiple people that the student section was big but not very load or into the game.  From the exhibition game, there seemed to be quite a few freshman in attendance.  don't know yet if this is a good or bad thing. I'm guessing a lot of them were a little lost or didn't have someone really leading the cheers, cuz as far as I see it, the cheerleaders really dont.  Myself and two other very loud 106 regulars were unable to attend and I have a feeling that the students just need some guidance by one or two juniors with very big mouths that yell very loudly and do what we can to get others involved.  Boxing bros and my fellow 106ers, I look forward to leading cheers w/ you again tomorrow.

[muhoosier260]

yes mcneal was a stud, and the column graphic should duly note his stats, especially his 20 points