I thought Hutson really bailed us out. He had four points and an assist (3p by Norris) in five minutes. And he held his ground on defense.

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WOOOOOF. Had not realized that everyone else was 0 for 17 from deep. We can't beat tourney-quality teams shooting like that. They are crashing hard on Krut and just daring us to beat them from deep.

EGAD !!! Oxen ball Reared its ugly head this night
Freebie shooting and our GREAT defense saved us

I hesitate being a coach but maybe play KRUT tomorrow only to get a good lead--then rest him for ARCH

Some of the bad outside shooting is from the fact that Kaifes never got going this year, and I think Porter doesn't like Welch shooting threes. No definitive basis for this, just a feeling.

That's how I would defend the Ramblers: double or triple team Krut, try to eliminate the dribble-drive and backdoor cuts, and dare us to shoot from deep.

In 2021, 3P shooting:

Kennedy 3/20
Tate 6/35
Welch 3/17

Guys are ice cold.

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Thing is, we’re getting good shots. If we hit even 5 that we missed tonight, we win by 20+. IMHO, they need to keep shooting, and try to find their stroke. Packing it in, and just going inside will work tomorrow, and would win a game or two in St Louis...but it isn’t going to work in the Tournament against bigger teams. We hit our threes, or even 40%, we can beat almost anyone in the country. If we can’t, it’ll be a short March.

Good win tonight by the guys. Make our open shots and the game is not close at all. On another note, as a relatively new mid-major fan, can anyone explain how we are slotted in the 8/9 line in most brackets right now? Obviously tomorrow is a must win (as is a good showing in Arch Madness), but I am struggling to understand how we are projected as an 8/9 seed right now. Obviously our conventional SOS isn’t great, but we are top ten in both NET and Kenpom, and ranked in the top 25. Bias aside, I don’t fully understand why we aren’t in more of the 6-7 range.

Of course, none of this matters without a win tomorrow and playing well in St. Louis. I just am curious in others’ more knowledgeable input in why we are being projected a little low (in my opinion) right now.

In 2017, the NCAA created the new benchmark of Quad 1 wins. That's why Illinois State didn't get in to the 2017 NCAA Tournament despite a 42 KenPom and an RPI in the high 30s, if I recall correctly. ISU was 1-2 against WSU, and that was their only win against a Top 50 team. Their second best win was at Loyola, which was their only Quad 2 win.

Quads didn’t come into effect until 2018 or 2019, IIRC. 2017 was still top-50/top-100.