Doug or Brad, please feel free to combine this into the post-game thread. Sorry, just wanted to give some useless thoughts. Thanks.
1.) To the crowd who thinks it's ridiculous we take this game as seriously as MIZ does, congrats. Clearly, based on history, losing this game is a precursor to big things as evidenced by the fact in any given year we've lost to MIZ, the furthest NCAA Tournament advancement we'd had is the second round.
2.) By contrast, the most successful teams we've had in school history have taken this game seriously, won, and got to the Elite 8 (1983-84), the Sweet 16 (1985-86), the Final Four (1988-89), the Elite 8 (2000-01), the Sweet 16 (2001-02), the Sweet 16 (2003-04), the title game (2004-05). That's probably a short sided view, but, to presume taking this game too seriously is some roadblock to having great success in March also is short-sided.
3.) Underwood seems to take this game as seriously as Kruger did. They're a combined 2-6, with, in 4 of those losses, having the better teams.
4.) As I said after last year's loss, our best chance to beat them again will be when Tilmon, Pickett, Smith, and Pinson are gone. And due to COVID, they're all likely to be back next year. Was hoping we'd be able to get back on track after this game, but not sure that'll happen. Meanwhile, we have guys from Cali, overseas, New York, East Coast, Florida, etc. Not a good recipe for a rivalry game. Either way, yeah.
5.) I didn't watch. Santa parade in our neighborhood and all that. Every score I saw we trailed. Looks like, viewing the play-by-play, we had one, maybe two small leads in the first half, then tied it late. Otherwise, we were playing catch-up. Moreover, we got our asses kicked, relatively speaking.
6.) Hey, maybe MIZ is really good. I dunno. They're 5-0 with wins against No. 21 Oregon and No. 6 Illinois. Every game they've played, they've basically led from wire to wire comfortably, other than down the stretch tonight ---- but still never surrendered the lead. So maybe they're very good.
7.) That said, they scored 62 against Wichita State and 69 against Liberty, yet managed to put up 49 on us in the first half. That's a bit confusing to me.
8.) As other have said, it's just one game. Lots clearly left to play for. Hopefully this group bucks the trend I mentioned above as far as losing to Missouri yet advancing beyond the second round of the tournament. If not, then, welp, not caring about this game as much as MIZ really doesn't do us much good.
9.) I honestly felt we'd win tonight. I figured worst case would be how it seemed to play out ... MIZ kind of controls everything, we get it tight late then semi-pull away for a 77-72 type win with Ayo winning it by himself. It's hard to fathom we actually lost.
10.) IF ---- and I stress IF ---- Underwood really just treats this as "just another game" ---- doesn't mean he doesn't want to win, but that's it's no different that Minnesota on a Tuesday night in January ---- then we're likely going to keep losing to them. And I'm fine with that if the tradeoff is Sweet 16s and Elite 8s and beyond. It's early, but, so far, we haven't seen that trade-off. Can only hope that starts in earnest, because beating MIZ doesn't seem to be happening any time soon.
11.) We all ---- including me ---- like to dog Cuonzo. He's 3-1 against Underwood, the last 2 years with lesser teams on paper.
12.) And yeah, the euphoria of beating Duke is gone. Recruiting is in the toilet as we sit here today. Just hoping we actually make some noise in March, which definitely would make up for tonight.
Sorry for the long rant.
GarenV
1.) To the crowd who thinks it's ridiculous we take this game as seriously as MIZ does, congrats. Clearly, based on history, losing this game is a precursor to big things as evidenced by the fact in any given year we've lost to MIZ, the furthest NCAA Tournament advancement we'd had is the second round.
2.) By contrast, the most successful teams we've had in school history have taken this game seriously, won, and got to the Elite 8 (1983-84), the Sweet 16 (1985-86), the Final Four (1988-89), the Elite 8 (2000-01), the Sweet 16 (2001-02), the Sweet 16 (2003-04), the title game (2004-05). That's probably a short sided view, but, to presume taking this game too seriously is some roadblock to having great success in March also is short-sided.
3.) Underwood seems to take this game as seriously as Kruger did. They're a combined 2-6, with, in 4 of those losses, having the better teams.
4.) As I said after last year's loss, our best chance to beat them again will be when Tilmon, Pickett, Smith, and Pinson are gone. And due to COVID, they're all likely to be back next year. Was hoping we'd be able to get back on track after this game, but not sure that'll happen. Meanwhile, we have guys from Cali, overseas, New York, East Coast, Florida, etc. Not a good recipe for a rivalry game. Either way, yeah.
5.) I didn't watch. Santa parade in our neighborhood and all that. Every score I saw we trailed. Looks like, viewing the play-by-play, we had one, maybe two small leads in the first half, then tied it late. Otherwise, we were playing catch-up. Moreover, we got our asses kicked, relatively speaking.
6.) Hey, maybe MIZ is really good. I dunno. They're 5-0 with wins against No. 21 Oregon and No. 6 Illinois. Every game they've played, they've basically led from wire to wire comfortably, other than down the stretch tonight ---- but still never surrendered the lead. So maybe they're very good.
7.) That said, they scored 62 against Wichita State and 69 against Liberty, yet managed to put up 49 on us in the first half. That's a bit confusing to me.
8.) As other have said, it's just one game. Lots clearly left to play for. Hopefully this group bucks the trend I mentioned above as far as losing to Missouri yet advancing beyond the second round of the tournament. If not, then, welp, not caring about this game as much as MIZ really doesn't do us much good.
9.) I honestly felt we'd win tonight. I figured worst case would be how it seemed to play out ... MIZ kind of controls everything, we get it tight late then semi-pull away for a 77-72 type win with Ayo winning it by himself. It's hard to fathom we actually lost.
10.) IF ---- and I stress IF ---- Underwood really just treats this as "just another game" ---- doesn't mean he doesn't want to win, but that's it's no different that Minnesota on a Tuesday night in January ---- then we're likely going to keep losing to them. And I'm fine with that if the tradeoff is Sweet 16s and Elite 8s and beyond. It's early, but, so far, we haven't seen that trade-off. Can only hope that starts in earnest, because beating MIZ doesn't seem to be happening any time soon.
11.) We all ---- including me ---- like to dog Cuonzo. He's 3-1 against Underwood, the last 2 years with lesser teams on paper.
12.) And yeah, the euphoria of beating Duke is gone. Recruiting is in the toilet as we sit here today. Just hoping we actually make some noise in March, which definitely would make up for tonight.
Sorry for the long rant.
GarenV
