thrasher31

Boogie was. Lloyd is reposting highlights of himself from HS lol

That's a rule that I have never heard of.

One reason I was iffy about Brice playing PG was his natural scoring mentality, and rubbing the offense takes away from that for him imo. He can do it, but naturally he's a scorer. Running the offense through mast at the high post makes sense also, but I did like Lawrence's aggressiveness today. He needs to continue to pick his spots wisely. Today may have been a wake up call for him though.

Yeah I can't get behind playing Cale before Lawrence, even through his struggles. Cale has maybe a handful of minutes of meaningful in game pt, and rolling him out in rotation minutes in a road game that you almost must win seems like a disaster waiting to happen. I don't love the idea of the lineup change, but I'll concede if that's what they end up doing.

NW doesn't play big really, as they rotate 2, maybe 3 bigs in with Brooks and 3 guards. It makes a lot more sense to start Gary to matchup with Brooks, since he was the one who killed us last time.

I couldn't get to bed until midnight because I was still reeling from last night, and I woke up at 5. Worth it still -keisei is having a bad stretch of basketball, but I trust him to figure it out. They'll need him to close this thing. -fred experimented with a super big lineup with the two bigs, Gary, Sam and Brice. Ended up being a good move and I applaud him for making that adjustment. -this game was pretty much a mirror image of the game last year. Trailed by double digits in the second half, shooter gets unconsciously hot, strap in on defense and force them to beat you in iso ball (Chucky obligated late). Close it out in OT. -brice comes and goes on defense, but when he sits down and straps in, he's a very good defender. Won't get into how this impacts the tournament chances, as there's still 9 chances left on the schedule to build upon. Let's let the guys build on this. Illinois I am not confident in, but NW is one they could find a way to steal. I wanted to get 1 out of those 3, and they're already ahead of schedule.

That's where I'm at. Could maybe get by with 20+BTT win, but you're leaving the decision in the committee hands at that point, which I'm not comfortable about. Just get to 21 and they should be comfortable

The schedule in front of them has been laid out to accomplish that. Find 1-2 road wins out of the 5 remaining, while only dropping Wisconsin at home and they're right there. Winning vs Wisconsin will make the job much easier.

So 5-5 through conference play, with a few very good wins sprinkled in. Road struggles are something to note though, specifically today obviously. They need to win 2 road games out of the remaining 5, and should be favorites in all home games except Thursday. I'll say I feel pretty confident about him being here next year.

Overall what I've seen from Lawrence is about what I expected. Figured it would be an up and down season for him transitioning to be a full time PG. Boogie basically being a zero hasn't helped. Maybe expected better shooting, but he's better than I thought at getting the offense set. Mixed bag, which isn't shocking. Next year he'll move over to where keisei is and the defensive backcourt of him and ulis will be something to watch.

Forgot to mention Eli in my post. The 4 points he got from the ft line were massive. He clearly has a knack to get a bucket, so I'm really excited to see what the next few years hold for him.

Overall fun game to go to. I'm a fan of brooks barnhizers game and I'm glad to see he played well. -keiseis bucket to seal the win was so fun. I really hope that it doesn't go unnoticed how much a joy he has been the past two years. His energy is incredible and so fun -attacking the mismatch in the post with allick was clearly a point of emphasis. Even when he didn't score or get the ball, he was looking to seal his man very quickly and punish that mismatch. -Lawrence has an outstanding bounceback game (turnovers aside). He needed to see the ball go through the hoop a few times, and that happened today. -game was mucky and gross most of the way, especially in the second half, but I'm very glad Nebraska was able to pull it out. OSU on Tuesday is just as big as a game as today. They've went 2-3 after the new year, just like Nebraska, so both teams need this win. Guard play will have to be ready to play and attacking inside will be hard with okpara protecting the paint (2.6 bpg). 3 balls will have to be going.

It was a pfiefer crew, so I expected that honestly lol.

Lawrence has struggled a lot of late, so I understand going with hoiberg early and keeping Lawrence on a short leash. He finally hit a groove on some junk point plays and some pretty passes. Need him to convert on at least one of his 5 3 balls though. I do agree though in regards to getting where we need to go. Lawrence has to be better for us to get where we need to. I see good things from him, but it's few and far in-between bad or mediocre play.

That's what a lot are saying. I don't know if I saw anything pop when he was running, but I'm not a doctor nor will I pretend to be one lol. I'm working under the assumption he won't be back.

With Gary's potential long term injury, him providing something became a bit more important than the past. I don't feel great about a guy getting his first minutes of the season halfway through big ten play, but that's the world we live in

Welp. Kudos to Rutgers for playing tough. Piscataway is a hard place to win, but better team wanted to win last night. -Need to hear something on Gary soon. If he's back this year, and that's a big if, allick and potentially diop or Rice need to step up. Brice will have to play down to the 4 some too. -easily the worst game I have seen from mast this season. Clif is a good big, but he took the fight to mast. -allick was pretty productive, and he'll need to continue that carrying forward, as he's the guy I pencil in as a starter. -j law got easy looks early, but needs to knock down one of his 3s. We've seen him be a good shooter, so it is likely a confidence thing. Him figuring it out in Gary's absence would be a massive development. Nothing really good from that game. Road bug bites them again. Fight on the glass over the next few days in practice and be ready for a MASSIVE game vs NW on Saturday.

I was curious on what the road record is for big ten teams in big ten play only starting back in December. So far road teams are 8-29 in big ten play this season. Wisconsin has two of those wins as well. Will be interesting to watch as the season goes on. Need to get a few on the road though @Rutgers, @Maryland, and @Michigan are the best bets imo. Bart has us winning 3 over the season, with those first two I mentioned, Michigan as a slight underdog and IU as a win.

3-1 is my expectation honestly. I don't think Fred has a win vs NW yet since taking over, so that one will be tough. OSU is a good team also. Winning both of those would be incredible. Both road games are winnable though, even if winning on the road in this conference is a damn hard thing to do. Drop 1 and I'm happy, but drop 2 and I'm a bit concerned.

Also, in games where mast and Krikke played each other in the MW, Mast won every matchup. Fwiw Edit: forgot about the double OT game krikkes sophomore year. Mast is 5-1 vs him from the MW days

I've let this marinate for a day. I was in person and that was my favorite game I've been to outside of the Kansas one in 2017. Everyone who touched the court impacted the game in a positive manner. I really liked the defensive strategy last night. Essentially shut off the rim for edey and force tough 3s. Purdue still scored 72, which is a credit to them and how good they are, but edey was neutralized for 12 minutes basically.

All I want is a split of the next two at minimum. I think Iowa is a great opportunity to do that. Still not great defensively and if they execute the formula from last night and last year vs Iowa in Lincoln, they have a legitimate shot. Double fast on baseline to cut off the rim, rotate HARD to the shooter, and big defender on the double rotate to the big so allick (example I'm using) can get out to the shooter. Or force a mid range contested pull up, which is out of Iowa's offense. Create chaos basically and speed them up.

They're decent. Hopefully tomorrow the roads melt more, because it'll be single digits from there on out

Him knocking down a 3 or two will do a lot for the offense. Him and Gary need to be good on their shots in order to stand a chance. Anything allick adds from distance is a plus, but keep it to 1-2 3pa

It's interesting to watch. I don't think they're a good team still, but they're clearly better than they were last year. Mitchell and Hawkins have a lot of juice to them. And I absolutely LOVE Payne. Very very very good big. Also winning on the road in this conference is a very hard task. Michigan losing to PSU today may just mean they're a bad team, so them losing to Minnesota may have been the start of the spiral.