Here I sit on a snowy cold N Dakota like day here in AKRON--pondering all things LUC HOOPS.

Now taht the Braves lost today, the race for second and third in Conf is shaping up--We have as good a chance as anyone to now finish sixth or higher. Barring hurts, we only need more players--O'Leary MUST step up--NIXON MUST develop--Those two are keys. Young O'Leary appears to have stalled--you think ??
This whole deal is now getting serious--

Shockers of course are a lock then the Trees--maybe--Then what ??

It is now squarely up to the Ramblers !!

As I see it, Brot, we have three key "put up or shut up" games left on our schedule that will decide whether we finish better than Thursday in St. Louis: Feb. 1 at Southern Illinois, Feb. 9 vs. Illinois State, and Feb. 15 at Drake.

I am not expecting a win (or even much drama) at undefeated #3 Wichita State. I only hope our players can soak in some positive lessons and take away some encouragement and resolve from the experience.

But four days after Wichita State, we have a chance to take away a tiebreaker, get even for a bad home loss, and break the road losing streak at Southern Illinois. I think SIU played one of their best games of the season when they beat us, and we played average. If we're going to win a true road game at all this year, the roadie at SIU is the most doable, I think.

I am assuming we will be the favorite and we will win in our home games against Bradley and Evansville-- they have road problems, and we played very well at Evansville in a close loss. But the home game that is in doubt is the one against Illinois State. They are a different team on the road than the one we saw in Normal, and I think we can beat them at home with a fired-up crowd and our experience playing them before this season. To me, this game is going to be a challenge that I think we can meet and a statement that we're no pushovers, especially at the Joe. It would be another win against a top-half league team (to go with Missouri State and UNI), and help establish more confidence. The game is on TV, but I plan to take the train up to Chicago for that one.

And the last especially crucial game in my eyes is at Drake. We did a great job against them at home, but I would like to see a second true road victory in conference, and this one is the most plausible.

I have hopes, but I think we lose at UNI and Missouri State. I think the game at Bradley (another one I plan to attend) will be difficult-- they're a confident and proud team in front of their substantial home fan base.

So if we perform as well as I think and hope we're able to, we can realistically finish the remaining games 5-5, giving us a final conference record of 8-10, good enough for 6th or maybe even 5th place. With victories in the games I mentioned, we would presumably have tiebreakers over SIU, Drake, and possibly Bradley. If we tie with Evansville, Missouri State, Illinois State or Northern Iowa, we're almost certainly getting the lower seed. The biggest horror (and frankly, one that I kind of expect from past experience-- it's already happened this year to the men's soccer team), is tying for 6th (or worse-- a multiple team tie for 5th) and getting busted down to 7th and the Thursday slot because of tiebreakers.