Just looking at the box score from last nights game, here are some items I noticed:
1. Bears kept there turnovers way down. Only 10 for the game, against 17 for Arkansas.
2. Sixteen total assists. That shows great teamwork. A far cry from the Terrance McGee - Dano Novak arguments on the floor in front of 6,000 fans.
3. Cooks - Weems - Jehle seems like the lifeblood for the Bears this year. Jehle was huge off the bench with 8 points, 9 boards and 5 assists.
4. Free throw percentage was alarmingly bad, 56.3% (9-16). The starters were 4 for 10. And, I do not know how many misses were on the front end of one and one. They will lose a lot of games if this does not get corrected.
5. The three point percentage was not bad: 34.6%. I would say that this is an average performance, even though 26 attempts seems like a lot. If they are going to rely heavily on the three and compete for a conference championship, this stat probably needs to be near 40%.
All-in-all, great win.
I also would like to tack on to this post a commentary about MVC scheduling. The Bears have the best non-conference win this year so far. This caused me to take a look at other MVC teams schedules and I am disappointed with the number of games against quality and BCS programs. I think it is key to schedule these games, whether home, away or neutral, in order to obtain multiple bids in the tournament. Some of the fault lies with the BCS programs as they are afraid to play the MVC teams. However, it hasn't prevent several MVC teams from scheduling tough teams. Here is a breakdown of "quality" / BCS programs MVC teams will be playing this year:
Bradley - Florida, Michigan State, Butler
Creighton - New Mexico, Nebraska
Drake - Butler, Iowa, Iowa State, Vanderbilt
Evansville - Butler, North Carolina
Illinois State - No one
Indiana State - DePaul, Louisville, Purdue
Missouri State - Auburn, Arkansas, Utah, Tulsa
Southern Illinois - Duke, UCLA, St. Marys, Nevada
University of Northern Iowa - Marquette, Auburn, Iowa State, Iowa, Wyoming
Wichita State - Georgetown, Texas Tech, Texas Christian
What concerns me is that Creighton and Illinois State, the two teams that you would think are the best teams in the conference (preseason), have such a weak non-conference schedule. It will be easy for the committee to dismiss either one of these teams because of schedule. Hopefully, those teams that schedule decent clubs will (1) pull off an upset here and there; and (2) the other whoopings they take will toughen them up for conference and lead to conference success.
2 comments:
I wasn't at the game either, but I'd have to say I don't think Jehle is one of the main cogs on our team this year. I sure hope Jehle keeps it up with quality games off the bench, but I'd say that our main 3 are Cooks-Knapp-Weems, and probably McFarland and Splaurie are going to be more impactful to the team's (hopeful) continued success this year.
Either way, it sounded like a great game. I hope the fans keep coming to games this year to cheer our Bears continue this nice surprise of an early season start, and don't start petering out once the newness of JQH beings to wear off. I don't like the fact that the first game still had hundreds of seats available just days before the game vs. Arkansas. Still, I hope people keep coming out and the Bears can create or convert some new fans this year.
Go Bears!!
As think as long as we stick to the game plan of consistantly outscoring our oponent we will win. If we sway from this plan, and are outscored by another team then we will more than likely lose those games. I don't have a percentage to throw at you, but if I was to take a guess I would say 35%.
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