GAME THREAD - MBB at ULM, Thursday 2/9 7:30pm

[ncman071]

Good win. Beat who you’re supposed to beat. At some point, gotta upset someone

Not so sure we were supposed to beat ulm since they are higher than us in standings at 7-5 plus they beat marshall...i mean it wont an upset either

[spacemonkey]

I am predicting a made free throw by Brown to send us to the NCAA Tournament. This is by far the most fun I have had watching an App Basketball team. This is just a great bunch of kids giving it their all for AppState.

[bigdaddyg]

There are 9 teams below us in the standings. We have 5 games left all against teams at or way below us in the standings. Usually every year the team that wins a conference title and the automatic bid is one who gets hot the last couple weeks of the season. It would be great if we were closer to 9-4 in conference play but at least we remain in contention for a top 4 spot. Someone earlier said that we are not top 4 caliber. I contend that the standings say otherwise. If we put it together like we are capable of doing we could reel off these last 5 and then who knows.

[AppStateNews]

I honestly think we have guys on this board who want App to fail and to lose. For crying out loud the never ending bitching and complaining by a few are insufferable. Yes it's a discussion board but damn find something..anything positive to say once in a while.

I really admire you guys that can watch us play and still somehow stay upbeat. I don't understand where you get some of us want us to fail and lose. That's a cheap shot. The fact of the matter is we are a mediocre team at best right now. Frustrating to say the least. We have given away so many games that we should have won and in fact, had in the bag if we could do some simple things like inbound a ball and make a few free throws. If ULM hadn't gone 0 for the last 3 minutes, this would have been another one. I'm happy we won. I still hold out hope that we can get our act together and run off a string of wins because I think we have the talent. It's just a matter of finding some consistency. But right now, We're not seeing it.

If you don't see the difference between this response and your first response, that's on you. Are we a great team right now? Not even close. But to say we had little to do with ULM playing worse than we did is absurd. We played great defense all game.

The thing is, great defense can only take you so far. You still have to outscore the other team. We did that tonight, so, "YEA!" But playing the way we do is not sustainable.

Sure. But you make it seem like that great defense had nothing to do with ULM playing a poor first half.

And, FWIW, this style of play is what has led us to higher levels than we've seen in 2 decades.

[spacemonkey]

over 8000 at the Southern Miss game tonight. This was a miss for the Sunbelt. It would have looked good for the Sunbelt to have this one on the mothership.

[ncman071]

How much better are we really off now than we were with Fox?

Lol much much much better....fox best season was a 9-9 conf finish i believe 15-18 overall...i mean i was 20 last time we made the ncaa tourny...kerns got us back in my 40s....our defense is lights out compared to fox...fox got out coached nearly every single game...we are fortunate to have kerns...has he made mistakes? Of course! But he is doing a helluva job and has us competitive

[AppFan11]

8097 at So Miss house tonight…

[AppinVA]

How much better are we really off now than we were with Fox?

Lol much much much better....fox best season was a 9-9 conf finish i believe 15-18 overall...i mean i was 20 last time we made the ncaa tourny...kerns got us back in my 40s....our defense is lights out compared to fox...fox got out coached nearly every single game...we are fortunate to have kerns...has he made mistakes? Of course! But he is doing a helluva job and has us competitive

I was frustrated at the moment. But I’m still not sure we’re three muches better.

[AppOrange]

over 8000 at the Southern Miss game tonight. This was a miss for the Sunbelt. It would have looked good for the Sunbelt to have this one on the mothership.

That crowd is legit looking on TV

[APPdiesel]

Criticism from fans is part of the game. It’s also not absurd for anyone to be upset at our team for blowing a 17 point second half lead (which we’ve done multiple times this season). At least people care News. Apathy is far more dangerous for our program and many many fans have had good reason to become apathetic over the last decade. Kerns has pulled us out from the depths. He deserves to be commended for that. Does anything think he’s happy this team went on a 4 minute scoring drought? Or that players couldn’t hit key FTs to ice the game away when they had a chance? The game went our way despite playing terribly the final 10 minutes, that’s ultimately what matters but if you pretend people don’t have cause to be upset you’re delusional.

[AppStateNews]

Criticism from fans is part of the game. It’s also not absurd for anyone to be upset at our team for blowing a 17 point second half lead (which we’ve done multiple times this season). At least people care News. Apathy is far more dangerous for our program and many many fans have had good reason to become apathetic over the last decade. Kerns has pulled us out from the depths. He deserves to be commended for that. Does anything think he’s happy this team went on a 4 minute scoring drought? Or that players couldn’t hit key FTs to ice the game away when they had a chance? The game went our way despite playing terribly the final 10 minutes, that’s ultimately what matters but if you pretend people don’t have cause to be upset you’re delusional.

Being upset is one thing. Claiming our play had zero reason for ULM playing poorly in the first half is completely different.

[pop5app]

A win is a win and on the road makes it even better! BUT, for me, this team is unwatchable.

[BambooRdApp]

Remaining games are winnable games against teams equal to us or below us in conference standings. If we do that and JMU loses a couple, we get a two game bye in conference tourney. This is all we can ask for at this point in season. Let's Go App. St.!!

In my opinion, the only bid Sun Belt is getting to NCAA tournament is conference tourney winner. If So. Miss continues to win and only loses in a close game in conference tourney final, they potentially could get an automatic bid. Just my opinion.

[NattyBumppo'sRevenge]

We beat a team above us in the standings on the road, so it was definitely a good win. It wasn’t a pretty win, but we led the entire game. Our defense was on point and we had spurts of offense that were exciting to watch. Our scoring droughts and missed FT’s are frustrating and I get it. But we are finding a way to hold on to the leads as evidenced in our last 4 wins opposed to our lost leads at the beginning of the season. As mentioned earlier, we’ve already played everyone above us and they still play each other, so we have a shot at making top 4. But a 5 seed playing a bad team in the first round could create some good momentum so not all is lost if we don’t get 4.

[NattyBumppo'sRevenge]

A win is a win and on the road makes it even better! BUT, for me, this team is unwatchable.

What about listening on the radio?

[bigdaddyg]

Being in a one bid conference means the regular season is really almost (almost) pointless. We pretty much proved that a few years ago. It's crazy that a really good team can go like 27-4 (maybe USM) in the regular season then get upset in a 4 day tournament and get relegated to maybe the NIT but a team can stumble along all year and go 19-12 (maybe App) and get hot for 3-4 days and get a bid. I'm not a big advocate for some crazy expanded tournament but they could easily add one game to include every regular season champ and the auto qualifier for each conference. Maybe a home game playin. If any conference champ wins 25+ regular season games that should absolutely mean something. No idea what the magic number is but if a school has a great regular season and loses in a tournament that's ridiculous.

[NattyBumppo'sRevenge]

Being in a one bid conference means the regular season is really almost (almost) pointless. We pretty much proved that a few years ago. It's crazy that a really good team can go like 27-4 (maybe USM) in the regular season then get upset in a 4 day tournament and get relegated to maybe the NIT but a team can stumble along all year and go 19-12 (maybe App) and get hot for 3-4 days and get a bid. I'm not a big advocate for some crazy expanded tournament but they could easily add one game to include every regular season champ and the auto qualifier for each conference. Maybe a home game playin. If any conference champ wins 25+ regular season games that should absolutely mean something. No idea what the magic number is but if a school has a great regular season and loses in a tournament that's ridiculous.

Additional play in games is a good idea to accommodate mid major tournament winners that didn’t win the regular season and regular season winners that didn’t win the tournament.

[BambooRdApp]

I think what App. St. did a few years ago is an unlikely scenario. Didn't we win like 5 games in 5 days. That is brutal and happy to be able to say we did it.
I do hope we can get to top 4. Although not easy if we are 4th seed as we have to play 1 seed before final game...but I really want two days of rest.

[APPdiesel]

Being in a one bid conference means the regular season is really almost (almost) pointless. We pretty much proved that a few years ago. It's crazy that a really good team can go like 27-4 (maybe USM) in the regular season then get upset in a 4 day tournament and get relegated to maybe the NIT but a team can stumble along all year and go 19-12 (maybe App) and get hot for 3-4 days and get a bid. I'm not a big advocate for some crazy expanded tournament but they could easily add one game to include every regular season champ and the auto qualifier for each conference. Maybe a home game playin. If any conference champ wins 25+ regular season games that should absolutely mean something. No idea what the magic number is but if a school has a great regular season and loses in a tournament that's ridiculous.

Additional play in games is a good idea to accommodate mid major tournament winners that didn’t win the regular season and regular season winners that didn’t win the tournament.

I want to see the NCAA tournament rules changed as follows: regular season conference champions and conference tournament champions both get auto bids. If the regular season champ also wins the conference tournament it opens up an at large spot.

People have argued that many times before but they simply won’t. Regular season champs won’t want to intentionally lose or rest players in their conference finals to help get a second conference member in. It’ll kill momentum, morale, and hurt their seeding in the NCAAT.

[bigdaddyg]

Being in a one bid conference means the regular season is really almost (almost) pointless. We pretty much proved that a few years ago. It's crazy that a really good team can go like 27-4 (maybe USM) in the regular season then get upset in a 4 day tournament and get relegated to maybe the NIT but a team can stumble along all year and go 19-12 (maybe App) and get hot for 3-4 days and get a bid. I'm not a big advocate for some crazy expanded tournament but they could easily add one game to include every regular season champ and the auto qualifier for each conference. Maybe a home game playin. If any conference champ wins 25+ regular season games that should absolutely mean something. No idea what the magic number is but if a school has a great regular season and loses in a tournament that's ridiculous.

Additional play in games is a good idea to accommodate mid major tournament winners that didn’t win the regular season and regular season winners that didn’t win the tournament.

I want to see the NCAA tournament rules changed as follows: regular season conference champions and conference tournament champions both get auto bids. If the regular season champ also wins the conference tournament it opens up an at large spot.

People have argued that many times before but they simply won’t. Regular season champs won’t want to intentionally lose or rest players in their conference finals to help get a second conference member in. It’ll kill momentum, morale, and hurt their seeding in the NCAAT.

I would add one layer. Let the top 4 seeds in each bracket get a bye to the first weekend. Everyone goes bananas every year when that random low seed pulls the big upset on the first day but usually they fade out. Put some importance back into the regular season. If those 16 top seeds get byes then the other 16 or so qualifiers get a legit shot. You really add no more days unless it's really expanded and you start on Tuesday. Imagine App hosting a Tuesday playin game if we were the CCT winner and played a regional opponent like ETSU or UNCG who did the same thing. If an average or even below average mid major won their tournament but had a crappy record having to play in with a preliminary round game isn't out of the question. If any team wins both the regular season and tournament they deserve to go straight into the tournament. I could see USM qualifying based on record and rank.