Just win, baby.

We only had 10 turnovers though it seemed worse because 8 were in the first half. I thought Townes was really good also. And we had two huge offensive rebounds late.

I can't explain why there are so many open threes against us.

_________________
MBB Scholarship Chart

Very fortunate win.....but they all count. Krut and Marques carried us. Very nice game by Bruno. Some nice defense by Aher - but he needs to stay aggressive on offense and drive the ball. More than anything - we need Clayton to start showing up and I am not sure that he will. I think he played an entire half without getting on the stat sheet. He's just not able to get off any shots or get open for shots. And seems awful slow when he is driving.

I'm not worried about Clay. I want to see Aher stay aggressive, too. And I want Cooper to get more than one shot in 21 minutes.

Clay was clearly frustrated tonight. There were a couple first half defensive lapses and Porter was going to yank him except there was no whistle. That's the first time I've ever seen him to that with Custer.

_________________
MBB Scholarship Chart

I see where our bench scored but one point---lousy !!!!however we are still tops

Really disagree on a lot of this. Uguak had 7 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals and a key block. His offense didn’t dictate the rest of his play, and skokna answered the bell big time. Custer struggling isn’t a massive shock; like at arch madness last year they had Isiah brown matched up against him. One of the best defenders in the valley at 6-6 with a massive wingspan. And like MSU, UNI isn’t a good 3 pt shooting team; they just were hitting tonight in the first half. We scored a come from behind win; something we haven’t done all year (ISU was holding on). Wins like this are big for confidence; especially with Williamson out for the foreseeable future.

Custer is getting the brunt of us not having as many offensive weapons this year (yet)....His man never left him, even when in normal circumstances his defender would have helped out he continued to guard him on the perimeter. He is just not getting many opportunities because of extra defensive attention.The real key is for him to not force it and keep turnovers low.If other guys step up like Skonka did tonight and Williamson gets back eventually things will open upfor him. There were some sloppy passes... and UNI hit some contested 3s and whats his name, the dorky center got hot......Would have been a horrible game to lose but it was not that bad a win.....of real concern to me is Krutwigs free throw percentage....I think it was better last year???? Dont want to see teams playing whack-a-mole.....
Negron earned a spot up on the roster with his performance against SIU and thought he was okay again tonight, Frank is gonna have to earn his time back,

At this point in the season, I'm shocked that the guy who has been the disappointing compared to last year is Custer. He was so consistent last year, it's been a real bummer to see him struggling offensively. Even more odd that it's not because he's missing, more than he's just not taking the big shots he was taking for us all of last year. I'm assuming it's because teams are keying on him.

If Krutwig keeps it up, he may have a chance to be a three-time player of the year. IF we win the league, I don't think there's any doubt that he's going to be POY. There was an interesting post on the Illinois State messageboard, and I don't know how much truth there is to it. The poster said:

"Muller has mentioned that Krutwig is a guy that he has sent film to the head of officials on to ask what they are supposed to do to defend him. Because he is so big, he backs players down using his lower half and then if the defender tries to push back, they get called for a foul. Krutwig initiates the contact to create space but doesn't use his upper body so the refs don't call it.

Defensively, watch any time a player takes a shot in the post. He rarely leaves his feet, puts his arms straight in the air and his chest into the shooter. Since the refs are watching his arms, this contact never gets called either.

Keep an eye on these things during the next Loyola game. You won't be able to unsee it."


If true, I think it's weird that Muller would send tape to the league and ask what they need to do to defend him. If I were the league, i'd of written back to him and just said, "get good." I'm assuming he would do that it in the hopes of getting a bug in the refs ear to call fouls on him and try to get him out of the game early. I may be biased, but I don't think Krut is getting any special treatment. I think his skill-set and footwork are just things teams in the Valley don't see, and they can't figure out how to effectively defend him.


It'll be interesting to see on Saturday if Krut gets called for some early fouls (or offensive fouls). It hasn't been a problem all season, so i'm assuming if we see that, Muller got to the refs heads.

A win is a win. I will take it.

I like what Bruno has done the last two games. He has been aggressive and hit open shots. We need players to play with urgency. We need that energy and confidence from the non-starters. Aher played with intensity.

I am not sure if our defense is worse, but it seems like the other teams we play are hitting open shots. On the other hand, we struggle with consistently hitting open shots. Is it me or does it appear that our timing and our movement is off? It seems like last year passes were made to players who were ready to shoot and passes were sharper. This year passes are tapped, players fumble the pass or pass up an open shot.

UNI seemed to know which players to leave open. It is clear to me that as a Final Four team -we are getting the other team's best shot.

If that’s the case who do we have to write about Muller running a program where you can get arrested 3-4 times and only miss exhibition games?

Also isn’t what was described just posting someone up....? Like he’s not wrong he used his base to establish space. UNI’s bigs did the same thing a few times yesterday and scored. Krut just goes straight up to defend it rather than lean in.

Hard for Custer to get assists when the people he passes to then pass up the shot. Just saying, I observe several situations that it appears to be a reasonable shooting scenario, but the player isn't thinking the same way. This disrupts the flow, and leads to the off looking passes/turnovers we are seeing. Confidence has to grow on some of our players to see the opportunity and take it. Time will resolve this, but maybe not soon enough.
Kudos to PM for following his instincts on sticking with Skokna. And to Skokna for playing defense thru his shooting woes. It will pay off going forward to have that extra player.
Seems like very next game is the BIG game. ISU on the road..... wow! This season has unfolded in such an unpredictable manner... I guess, for LUC, every game is big just because you don't want opponents to gain too much confidence against us going to the conference tournament.
Long way to go.....