willisbrown wrote:Didn't Loyola play Valpo 2 days ago? And they had to travel. Rings hollow. Sorry.
I'd rather not lose any of them because of how poorly it reflects on the overall makeup and resume of this team. It is so hard to go through conference play unbeaten or with only one loss, but, it is completely inexcusable for a top 15 team to lose to a 200+ rpi team. Granted it was a quick turnaround, less than 48 hours, so maybe being tired and having a hard time refocusing after Friday is to blame a bit. But, Butler made Loyola look like world beaters today. That in itself is amazing.
EMBARRASSING! LOSING To #218 in the RPI @ HOME
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 dawgsrock |
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Posts: 2198 (02/15/09 05:24 PM) |
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Duck on a Rock |
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Posts: 1330 (02/15/09 05:24 PM) |
willisbrown wrote: There it is. Simple. NDFan, whatever you have to say about expectations is out the door with that sentence. |
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Butler seeds |
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Posts: 2029 (02/15/09 05:25 PM) |
I was talking about the game today and the next three later on. If Butler had lost to Cleveland State in December, we would have chalked that up to
inexperience as a young team. The team can't do that for this game. They stunk and they know it, and if they didn't, they'll know because Brad will
make sure they do.
I'd rather the team lose this game or Youngstown State if it means reaching the Sweet 16 or beyond rather than run the remaining table to 29-2 and experience a one and done bad 1st round game in the NCAA tournament. Don't get me wrong, losing to Loyola was a bad loss and it will hurt NCAA seeding. I do think that, though, in the long run, Brad will use this loss to his advantage to make sure the team feels the desire to work hard and not let that happen again.
Race for the Horizon League Regular Season Championship:
1) Butler University - 22-3 (13-2); Remaining league games, H - 2 (YSU, CSU), A - 1 (UWM) 2) U of Wisconsin-Green Bay 19-8 (11-4); Remaining league games, H - 1 (Valpo), A - 2 (DET, WSU) 3) Cleveland State University 19-8 (10-5); Remaining league games, H - 1 (YSU), A - 2 (Valpo, Butler) 4) Wright State University 16-10 (10-5); Remaining league games, H - 2 (UWM, UWGB), A - 1 (UIC) |
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Dogs that scrap |
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Posts: 56 (02/15/09 05:47 PM) |
If I'm not mistaken, we have been forced to deal with some key injuries. Until we are back to full strength, there are no gauranteed wins. Painfull losses
make teams determined to not lose again. Maybe this will help us down the road. Still hurts bad for now.
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willisbrown |
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Posts: 269 (02/15/09 06:02 PM) |
Dawgsrock, you are right, Loyola played Friday night as well and had to travel two hours to get to indy. And they got their nuts handed to them at Valpo, while
Butler beat UIC pretty good. I am not making any excuses here trust me. What I think I should have said is that these teams were on opposite ends of games
Friday night, and that took Butler's focus away maybe, thinking they could roll over Loyola. I think that hurt today. First half was just about as sloppy
as this team has played all year.
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Coogles |
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Posts: 2 (02/15/09 06:02 PM) |
These are merely my thoughts on the game, so take them as you will.
I came away with one significant overwhelming positive today, and that was the crowd. While not quite a full house, it was about as close as it possibly could be. Even when we were down 15+ in the first half that crowd was cheering on its team every time we got back on offense. EVERY little positive in that game was met with deafening cheers and standing ovations, and that's something I was very impressed to see. My overwhelming impression from that game, though, was that we got out-coached. I know most of you are probably going to be up in arms at that statement given the number of simply bad plays made by our young team and how much we love Brad Stevens, but hear me out. For the past couple games I've seen teams start to get more and more more open looks and second-chance shots. Take a look back at the WSU game. They HAD open shots, and they got them using complex screens and scrubbing off our defense to get separation. They same thing happened today, as Loyola got shot after shot with a man late coming in, and any team that's having a halfway decent shooting day is going to kill us that way. One other similarity I saw is open man after open man coming in on offense for second chance points. I can't count the number of times this game we missed assignments on boxing out a man and they got the put-back. Luckily for us WSU couldn't shoot worth a damn, but they outplayed us on the offensive glass. Each team today came away with 9 OREB, but it seemed to me like most of theirs were right around the basket where we should have had the dominant position. Our offense struggled with ball movement as well. Loyola really did a great job extending its defense and getting out on the perimeter. It showed with with Howard's 30 points, but take out our shooters and you're left with one guy scoring 2's instead of 4 guys putting in 3's. It seemed to work. Overall they really did all the little things that you expect to see from a team that has its opponent figured out. They took us out of our element and made us play a game we weren't comfortable with. More than anything, that, in my opinion, is what cost us this game. |
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dawgkeeper |
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Posts: 1614 (02/15/09 06:07 PM) |
There could have been 50% more people in Hinkle today. Very disappointing loss.
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witheto |
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Posts: 985 (02/15/09 06:34 PM) |
BEing 22-3 at this point and exceeding all of our expectations has nothing to do with it.
Protect your home floor and beat the teams that you are suposed to beat - we did neither today and should be penalized for it in the rankings and the seeding. If I played on this team I would be embarrassed and upset with how I represented the school today. I had similar feelings when I played baseball and we had similar efforts. We represent Butler when we step across the lines and a performance like that should make us hurt inside. |
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peeps112 |
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Posts: 434 (02/15/09 07:57 PM) |
oh boy here we go with the sky is falling again. wazthree with a really classy post about "mr. airball mack" - sweet fan. of course it was a bad loss
and no one is happy about it, least of all the team. we seem to forget that this team has 4 freshmen and 4 sophomores in their eight man rotation. we expect
them to play perfectly all the time and sometimes teams just lose to inferior competition - see 2006, 2007 butler teams, michigan state, wake, xavier, etc.
sure we all wanted a 3 seed, so did they, so lets not pile on and lose our perspective.
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skyline time |
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Posts: 213 (02/15/09 08:00 PM) |
All - Loyola played lights out today and would have beaten a number of great teams on their court. They couldn't miss. While there were surely
questionable calls throughout the game, we had less than 20 fouls called against us. If we make our free throws in the first half, this is a completely
different game. But give Loyola credit, they couldn't miss today.
Also, I liked the intensity of the defense down the stretch when we were pressing and doubling...it was a nice change of pace. |
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ed schilling |
Today's Loss | ||
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Posts: 188 (02/15/09 08:42 PM) |
I have a few comments relative to today's loss. They are:
1. We are 22-3 starting 3 freshmen, 1 sophomore and 1 junior with our first sub being a sophomore. 2. Before our first game would you have taken a record of 22-3 at this point in the season? How about 15-10? The later would have been more realistic in my opinion. 3. When the announcement was made relative to the lost little girl, it kind of put things in the appropriate persepctive. I am pleased with 22-3. I am pleased with our players and coaches. I am thrilled the little girl was found. Go Dawgs. Big Chill |
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riksmits4prez |
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Posts: 201 (02/15/09 08:59 PM) |
I don't think he's making a point to talk about expectations.
Not sure who said it, but it's about protecting your home court and beating the teams you're supposed to. A road loss is completely different, but today was just sad. |
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witheto |
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Posts: 990 (02/15/09 09:44 PM) |
Correct... we are ALL very excited to be 22-3. Great, awesome, perfect.
However, forget about the record and not protecting the home court and beating teams you are supposed to beat (we didn't lose to the 2nd best team in the league) are embarrassing. |
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peeps112 |
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Posts: 436 (02/15/09 11:39 PM) |
you mean young teams always win all their home games and beat the teams they are supposed to beat? have some perspective. practically half the teams in the top
25 lost to unranked teams this week. we are a young team, bad moments or losses or letdowns are going to happen. stop pressing the panic button.
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 WAJC69 |
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Posts: 3351 (02/15/09 11:49 PM) |
Duck,
Don't need to say a thing! Thanks for the love! |
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DenverDawg |
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Posts: 27 (02/16/09 12:25 AM) |
peeps112 wrote:Agreed, no need to press the panic button. Let's give Loyola credit. They played a good game, so good that we couldn't overcome the hole that was dug early in the game. I'll actually come away from this game with some positives. Howard played a very strong second half. Every possession went through him and we were effective. Problem was, so was Loyola. Rightfully so, we've been very proud of Brad's coaching not allowing us to give up 12-0 runs. What did Loyola do? They never allowed us to go on a big run. There was always a big three to be hit or a key putback off a miss. Also, this game gave us an opportunity to show some different defensive looks and Nored played well, running the offense efficiently thru the second half. I don't like when people say "live by the three, die by the three." We've certainly been helped by the three and today unfortunately were hurt by the three. We just couldn't find the defensive stops we needed earlier in the game. I was really impressed by the Howard's presence in the post. I knew he was good down low. Tonight he took over in the second half. We just couldn't get the stops we needed on the other end, but I was very happy with the display of our inside game. Loyola pressured the ball. The last few games where teams have pressured the ball we've struggled to get in sync. It's done just enough to get us out of our rhythm/comfort zone. Today we didn't hit enough free throws in the first half or enough threes throughout the game to overcome. Capitalize on a a couple more open looks and this is a different game. I came away from the game on Friday very happy about this team. Today wasn't a Fridayesque performance, but it's still the same team. Am I happy about the game? Absolutely not, but Loyola deserves credit and this team is going to be fine just like after the UWGB loss.
Last Edited By: DenverDawg
02/16/09 12:42 AM.
Edited 1 times.
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Dogs that scrap |
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Posts: 61 (02/16/09 01:07 AM) |
The fact of the matter is we don't seem to want to attack the basket when we need points. You're not going to draw fouls by shooting threes. Nored had
a good take today when we needed one. There should have been more from others. Feeding the post all the time is fine as long as the other team doesn't shut
it down. Why should matt have to do it all. Somebody else take it the rack!
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witheto |
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Posts: 994 (02/16/09 08:18 AM) |
peeps112 wrote:No I don't. But I mean a team that is 22-3, has a chance to tie for the regular season championship, has won its last two games by 19 and is at home should protect the home court, and win games that they should. I am not pushing any panic button. I still have plenty of confidence in the team and know they will be alright but this loss is embarrassing. We never should have lost this game if we came out and played. Heck, if we would have made 1/2 of the missed free throws we would have won. |
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sampstar |
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Posts: 226 (02/16/09 09:39 AM) |
i'll take some of the blame for Mack...i jinxed him by saying how good he seems to always do in the 2nd half of games.
i take the blame for the missed free throws at the start, i didn't start watching until we were down 11 or so and had already missed like 6 in a row. sorry. Question: Why did Hahn not shoot more than one 3 (making it somehow after rattling the rim) after making 5 the past 2 games? |
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teamwork12 |
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Posts: 11 (02/16/09 09:49 AM) |
Does anyone know why Zach Hahn didn't play more against Loyola. He played 9 minutes total. What's up?
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