In case anyone cares

[ChicosBailBonds]

NDSU's RPI is 38 now.  Looking at their schedule, they should win 20 to 22 games I would gather.

That Nelson kid was quite good...Mr. Basketball in Wisconsin a few years ago and no one apparently wanted him in Wisconsin badly enough to keep him here, or so it seems.  Nice to see the kind come home and do so well.

I suspect this loss may not be the worst thing in the world for this team...we shall see.

[SoCalstu09]

We did give NDstate the best win in their school history! I guess its pretty cool being part of history! NOT.

I'm frustrated with this team's inability to learn from their mistakes and go to a different game plan mid play. Last year when we played Cinci at home, Jerel continued to drive and drive and got blocked 4 or 5 times. Last game we drove nearly every possession and did no better. Im baffled.

Beat Delaware St.!!

[MU71]

This will not be the last game like this.  We simply don't have good 3-point shooters and we'll come out shooting like this again.  When we shoot reasonably from the outside we'll be fine.  When we shoot like Saturday (which happened against Idaho St and will happen again) we'll have a big problem winning.  You can bet your bottom dollar that Bo will make us play half court and beat him from the outside.  Saturday's game will really be tough unless we can turn them over often (which doesn't happen often against UW)!

[CTWarrior]

I agree MU71.  It's not so much who we lost to that bothers me as much as it is the way we lost.  We are a team with no real inside (low post, wide post, whatever you want to call it) offensive presence (although Barro is improving) and no reasonably effective three point shooters.  If we don't turn people over for easy baskets we are going to struggle mightily to score points.  Especially if teams pack their zone against us and concentrate on closing driving lanes and forcing us to make jumpers.  So far we have reserved our worst shooting nights for our weaker opponents, but frankly the strongest opponents we beat (Texas Tech and Duke) were not in a position to take advantage of our main weaknesses, being primarily man-to-man teams without above average perimeter quickness.

[tower912]

Its over, its done.  If we hit our lay-ups, we would have won.
Played OK D, rebounded well, making a shot sure would be fun.
Delaware St next, no time to stay down,
Then fire up! Bucky's coming to town.

DJ and Wesley will be running and wheeling
Daveed and Jerel will both be McStealing
Ooze, Fitz, et al chipping in would be phat
Nothing else matters as long as Wiscy goes splat.

Thank you, I'm in down all week.  Tip your waitresses.

[muhswarrior]

Sort of interesting before Crean came to MU we had very few players that could create their own shots now we have all the athletes that can create but now we cannot find a shooter. 
If I were a shooter I would have signed with MU in a second seeing how Novak played last year.

[SoCalstu09]

Its over, its done.  If we hit our lay-ups, we would have won.
Played OK D, rebounded well, making a shot sure would be fun.
Delaware St next, no time to stay down,
Then fire up! Bucky's coming to town.

DJ and Wesley will be running and wheeling
Daveed and Jerel will both be McStealing
Ooze, Fitz, et al chipping in would be phat
Nothing else matters as long as Wiscy goes splat.

Classic. We should make that our new Fight Song!

[rocky_warrior]

Well, we thought Lazar was a shooter - he may still be but I think he needs to calm down.  We've had reports that Fitz lights it up in practice, but then he doesn't carry that to the game.  Cubillan has been the bright light, as I didn't expect much more than *hopefully* some ball handling out of him (and we've gotten much more)

Bottom line, I'm not too worried yet.  I still believe this team is better than last years team (even without a consistent shooter emerging).  Last year we would have lost to Duke and Valparaiso I'm pretty sure (no certain way to tell).  We've seen Fitz light it up before, and I think he will again.  As for Lazar, I think he's got it in him too.  We do need the kick-outs to happen though.

On the rpi / stats note.  There are only 17 undefeated teams in the NCAA now (S Florida, and S Miss included in that list though).  I'd like Marquette to be in that list, but everybody has a clunker once in a while, and nobody goes undefeated.  For those that think that this is a systematic problem, I'd think they're underestimating this team.  A 3pt and layup and we wouldn't have been having this conversation (or 2x 3pts, or 3x layups...).

As always, some may get to giddy after wins, and others get too nervous after losses.   I'll reserve my judgement of this team for a few more weeks (or months) still.   In 02-03 we lost to East Carolina -- did that team have serious problems?

[LastWarrior]

Let's see where their RPI is at the end of the season.

I'm not debating whether having lost is a good or bad thing for the team.  Personally, I don't ever think losing is acceptable and think that it is a WEAK excuse.  You have to win the tough games when your having an off-night against a team with less talent.  Yeah can pump up NDSU all you want, but at the end of the day, we should have won this game.  The team leaders (Wes & who else?) need to step up and yell at guys to put forth the effort.

Will this game ruin our season?  Of course not!  Will the loss help focus the guys?  Probably!  Will we earn at least a 4 seed in the NCAA Tourney?  I think so!  Will we beat Wisonsin?  HELL YES!!

[ChicosBailBonds]

Let's see where their RPI is at the end of the season.

I'm not debating whether having lost is a good or bad thing for the team.  Personally, I don't ever think losing is acceptable and think that it is a WEAK excuse.  You have to win the tough games when your having an off-night against a team with less talent.  Yeah can pump up NDSU all you want, but at the end of the day, we should have won this game.  The team leaders (Wes & who else?) need to step up and yell at guys to put forth the effort.

Will this game ruin our season?  Of course not!  Will the loss help focus the guys?  Probably!  Will we earn at least a 4 seed in the NCAA Tourney?  I think so!  Will we beat Wisonsin?  HELL YES!!

Not an excuse at all, simply stating that this is college basketball today.  The 1970's and 80's left along time ago.

[LastWarrior]

Not sure i'm following the 70's & 80's comment or how it ties into this discussion.

[WashDCWarrior]

Think Chicos is saying there are few truly weak teams in college Bball today as opposed to 20 or 30 years ago.

[tonyreeder]

let's not forget ND State lost convincingly to Minnesota who has since had their coach "resign."    ND State is going to lose to some crappy teams and that RPI will sink like a rock.