[Oskee] Finally checking back in

[Robert Mingee]

I was on a hiatus from the list with out holiday travel, and am just getting caught back up on things.  Hopefully the relative silence here is an indication that others are also busy with the holidays, and not an indication that everyone has given up already :-).  At this point I have definitely abandoned all expectations for the year, but plan to enjoy it for whatever it brings.  When this team is hitting on all cylinders, they can be very fun to watch.  They can also be incredibly frustrating to watch, but as long as I maintain the assumption that any post-season play is gravy, it helps me, at least.  At least here is hope for the future, something I still cannot say about football.

Just a few quick thoughts on the back-to-back OT games.  I only saw the last 13 minutes of regulation and the OT for Gonzaga, but I have no idea how we mounted such a comeback, especially without Tisdale.  Gonzaga looks like a more balanced, complete team than we are, and we really had no business winning that game.  But I didn't see the comeback, so take that with a grain of salt -- maybe we were really balanced in that stretch as well.  The Zags are VERY physical, so it was probably a good tune-up for Big Ten play.  Northwestern, not so much.  They are not a physical team, which I'm sure is partly responsible for Tisdale's monster game.  He's been giving great effort the last few games, but Northwestern's big men are a skinny as he is, so he was able to make good on that effort (unlike Missouri, where he played his heart out, but got thrown around like a rag doll).  I was really pretty unimpressed with Northwestern -- standing around launching 3s is
 not an offense, but it can win you games if you hit a hot streak.  They made a ridiculous number against us and still lost, because we were much more balanced.  I really think that strategy will backfire in the Big Ten, especially against teams like Wisconsin who play stifling defense at all positions (something I'd sure love to see from our guys on a consistent basis...)

Anyway, we've clearly got an uphill battle to get into postseason contention.  It could be our only shot will be finally gelling by the end of the season and winning the B10 tourney.  I think there's still a chance for an at-large, but it's going to mean progressing at a faster rate than we have up to now.  Bruce has got his work cut out for him in the conference season...

-- robert
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