Great season. Let's not forget that this league's conference champs have wine the first round game three years in a row. Let's go for four and let's kick the door in next season.

(03-18-2017 10:03 PM)MU42 Wrote:  

(03-18-2017 09:24 PM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  The disappointment is pretty strong right now.

Not just because we lost a chance to play a Sweet 16 in our home state, but for some other reasons.

First, given the way the landscape of collegiate athletics continues to shift toward the negative and we now know that our 30 wins wasn't going to get us an at large who knows how long it will even be before we get into the tournament and in this position again.

Second, as a follow up to #1, if we couldn't make the Sweet 16 with this team we likely never will. Not being pessimistic. It's just the sobering reality of this sport. This is the best team we've ever had and may stand as the best team we'll ever have for many generations to come.

So very proud of what we have accomplished but also disappointing to realize this may be as good as it gets.

Idk how much better you want it to be. We root for schools that have zero chance of winning national titles in all major sports. It's literally the same 10 schools competing for titles every year in football and basketball. Sure every once in a while a school like Butler, Utah, or Memphis crashes the party, but they never win. We waste so much time hoping this will be our year but the way things are setup it will literally never be our year.

You can go undefeated in football and still not sniff the title game and you can win 30 games in basketball and have to win your conference title game to get into the P5 invitational, and they will set it up so that you play the other non P5 schools to knock each other out. VCU vs St Mary's, Wichita vs Dayton, Rhode Island vs Creighton, and I know it was the second round but MTSU vs Butler. All 8 of those schools are good enough to be sweet 16 teams.

I'm about done. I'm wore down. There is nothing we can do. I'm going to keep rooting for my Herd but what is the point. It's Duke, UNC, Kansas, UK, UConn, Florida, Michigan, Louisville, and Syracuse every year. And football it's Alabama, Ohio St, Florida St, USC, Oklahoma, LSU, Oregon, and ND can go 9-3 and play whatever bowl they want minus the playoff.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. We are all insane if we keep wasting our lives one this stuff.

This is a very astute observation! I used to think that the NCAA Basketball Tournament was the fairest when it came to giving lesser known school's equal footing when it came to competing for a National Championship... but this proves that backroom P5 manipulation is alive and well through simple bracket genocide.

The separate issue is access to the NCAA tournament and the NIT. We are being squeezed out. Maybe we start raising hell now? Being a Blazer I have learned that people standing together can move mountains.

(03-19-2017 09:02 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  This is true. Mid majors have a small chance in basketball; non in football

The only mid-majors that do have more basketball resources than a lot of power conference schools.

Wichita State is basically an old rich guy dressed up as Cinderella.

(03-18-2017 10:03 PM)MU42 Wrote:  

(03-18-2017 09:24 PM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  The disappointment is pretty strong right now.

Not just because we lost a chance to play a Sweet 16 in our home state, but for some other reasons.

First, given the way the landscape of collegiate athletics continues to shift toward the negative and we now know that our 30 wins wasn't going to get us an at large who knows how long it will even be before we get into the tournament and in this position again.

Second, as a follow up to #1, if we couldn't make the Sweet 16 with this team we likely never will. Not being pessimistic. It's just the sobering reality of this sport. This is the best team we've ever had and may stand as the best team we'll ever have for many generations to come.

So very proud of what we have accomplished but also disappointing to realize this may be as good as it gets.

Idk how much better you want it to be. We root for schools that have zero chance of winning national titles in all major sports. It's literally the same 10 schools competing for titles every year in football and basketball. Sure every once in a while a school like Butler, Utah, or Memphis crashes the party, but they never win. We waste so much time hoping this will be our year but the way things are setup it will literally never be our year.

You can go undefeated in football and still not sniff the title game and you can win 30 games in basketball and have to win your conference title game to get into the P5 invitational, and they will set it up so that you play the other non P5 schools to knock each other out. VCU vs St Mary's, Wichita vs Dayton, Rhode Island vs Creighton, and I know it was the second round but MTSU vs Butler. All 8 of those schools are good enough to be sweet 16 teams.

I'm about done. I'm wore down. There is nothing we can do. I'm going to keep rooting for my Herd but what is the point. It's Duke, UNC, Kansas, UK, UConn, Florida, Michigan, Louisville, and Syracuse every year. And football it's Alabama, Ohio St, Florida St, USC, Oklahoma, LSU, Oregon, and ND can go 9-3 and play whatever bowl they want minus the playoff.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. We are all insane if we keep wasting our lives one this stuff.

I think some of you guys aren't seeing the forest for the trees. IMO, MTSU was clearly good enough to be a Sweet 16 team this year, and perhaps even an Elite Eight. But just like many of the "big boys", MTSU simply had a couple of players that just didn't show up yesterday.

I'm not trying to be critical of MTSU (I was pulling for you), but ZERO points from Giddy Potts? Are you kidding me? That's just not acceptable, I don't care if you have "Duke" written across the front of your jersey. It would be difficult for any team to win against yesterday's Butler team if they had a starting player that averages over 15 points a game score ZERO!!

According to ESPN, MTSU had 3 STARTERS that did not score a point yesterday. Again, my response is "ARE YOU KIDDING ME"?? How can you win like that? That's got nothing to do with a lack of resources, etc...That sounds more like a lack of focus and preparation.

http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketb...=400947026

Truth is, THIS is what the NCAA Tournament is all about. Yes, when it comes to resources, scheduling, RPI, facilities, coaches, etc...the deck is stacked heavily against us "little guys". But once you are there, there are NO EXCUSES. You have to PERFORM, or you go home. And unfortunately MTSU has no one to blame but themselves for their early exit.

(03-19-2017 11:53 AM)eaglenjxn Wrote:  

(03-19-2017 09:02 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  This is true. Mid majors have a small chance in basketball; non in football

The only mid-majors that do have more basketball resources than a lot of power conference schools.

Wichita State is basically an old rich guy dressed up as Cinderella.

Wichita State along with most of the BE schools don't have football and the extra expenses so they can devote almost everything to basketball. Same goes with the A10. Yeah Nova, Rhode Island, Fordham and Dayton all play football but its IAA and most of the resources go to basketball. Take a look at UMass, they have fallen off the map in basketball since trying to go IA and balancing both.

What the networks, P5 conferences, and selection committees have done without out officially doing it is to divide division 1 into 2 divisions.

1. There is not one representative from a G5 conference on the Football playoff selection committee.

2. They talk about strength of schedule: You have to play teams in your conference, and out of conference the P5 don't want to schedule you except at their home. And if you are good they don't want to schedule you at all.

3. They talk about the P5 conferences have more at large teams success in the basketball Tourney. Nobody mentions they have many more teams selected to be in the tourney than the non-power conferences.

4. And then you have the money all of it going to the P5 conferences, It is the most unfair system ever devised. We want to let in refugees from other counties because of they way they are treated and lack of opportunities.......The schools not in a so called power conference are also refugees

5. Then there is this total BS where they keep a separate set of statistics for P-5 schools. You will hear announcers say the running back at Clemson leads all running backs among P5 conferences.

Here is the level playing field that we have to deal with.

(03-19-2017 11:36 AM)Herd-in-ATL Wrote:  

(03-18-2017 10:03 PM)MU42 Wrote:  

(03-18-2017 09:24 PM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  The disappointment is pretty strong right now.

Not just because we lost a chance to play a Sweet 16 in our home state, but for some other reasons.

First, given the way the landscape of collegiate athletics continues to shift toward the negative and we now know that our 30 wins wasn't going to get us an at large who knows how long it will even be before we get into the tournament and in this position again.

Second, as a follow up to #1, if we couldn't make the Sweet 16 with this team we likely never will. Not being pessimistic. It's just the sobering reality of this sport. This is the best team we've ever had and may stand as the best team we'll ever have for many generations to come.

So very proud of what we have accomplished but also disappointing to realize this may be as good as it gets.

Idk how much better you want it to be. We root for schools that have zero chance of winning national titles in all major sports. It's literally the same 10 schools competing for titles every year in football and basketball. Sure every once in a while a school like Butler, Utah, or Memphis crashes the party, but they never win. We waste so much time hoping this will be our year but the way things are setup it will literally never be our year.

You can go undefeated in football and still not sniff the title game and you can win 30 games in basketball and have to win your conference title game to get into the P5 invitational, and they will set it up so that you play the other non P5 schools to knock each other out. VCU vs St Mary's, Wichita vs Dayton, Rhode Island vs Creighton, and I know it was the second round but MTSU vs Butler. All 8 of those schools are good enough to be sweet 16 teams.

I'm about done. I'm wore down. There is nothing we can do. I'm going to keep rooting for my Herd but what is the point. It's Duke, UNC, Kansas, UK, UConn, Florida, Michigan, Louisville, and Syracuse every year. And football it's Alabama, Ohio St, Florida St, USC, Oklahoma, LSU, Oregon, and ND can go 9-3 and play whatever bowl they want minus the playoff.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. We are all insane if we keep wasting our lives one this stuff.

This is a very astute observation! I used to think that the NCAA Basketball Tournament was the fairest when it came to giving lesser known school's equal footing when it came to competing for a National Championship... but this proves that backroom P5 manipulation is alive and well through simple bracket genocide.

"Backroom P5 manipulation" did NOT cost MTSU that Butler game. Having 3 of 5 starters not score a single point cost MTSU the game. Only 5 players even scored for MTSU all day. 8 scored for Butler.

Some of you guys are disrespecting Butler. Fact is, Butler simply outplayed MTSU, and earned it. It's as simple as that.

Maybe we start making some noise now? Lets start the movement.

(03-19-2017 12:17 PM)HogDawg Wrote:  

(03-19-2017 11:36 AM)Herd-in-ATL Wrote:  

(03-18-2017 10:03 PM)MU42 Wrote:  

(03-18-2017 09:24 PM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  The disappointment is pretty strong right now.

Not just because we lost a chance to play a Sweet 16 in our home state, but for some other reasons.

First, given the way the landscape of collegiate athletics continues to shift toward the negative and we now know that our 30 wins wasn't going to get us an at large who knows how long it will even be before we get into the tournament and in this position again.

Second, as a follow up to #1, if we couldn't make the Sweet 16 with this team we likely never will. Not being pessimistic. It's just the sobering reality of this sport. This is the best team we've ever had and may stand as the best team we'll ever have for many generations to come.

So very proud of what we have accomplished but also disappointing to realize this may be as good as it gets.

Idk how much better you want it to be. We root for schools that have zero chance of winning national titles in all major sports. It's literally the same 10 schools competing for titles every year in football and basketball. Sure every once in a while a school like Butler, Utah, or Memphis crashes the party, but they never win. We waste so much time hoping this will be our year but the way things are setup it will literally never be our year.

You can go undefeated in football and still not sniff the title game and you can win 30 games in basketball and have to win your conference title game to get into the P5 invitational, and they will set it up so that you play the other non P5 schools to knock each other out. VCU vs St Mary's, Wichita vs Dayton, Rhode Island vs Creighton, and I know it was the second round but MTSU vs Butler. All 8 of those schools are good enough to be sweet 16 teams.

I'm about done. I'm wore down. There is nothing we can do. I'm going to keep rooting for my Herd but what is the point. It's Duke, UNC, Kansas, UK, UConn, Florida, Michigan, Louisville, and Syracuse every year. And football it's Alabama, Ohio St, Florida St, USC, Oklahoma, LSU, Oregon, and ND can go 9-3 and play whatever bowl they want minus the playoff.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. We are all insane if we keep wasting our lives one this stuff.

This is a very astute observation! I used to think that the NCAA Basketball Tournament was the fairest when it came to giving lesser known school's equal footing when it came to competing for a National Championship... but this proves that backroom P5 manipulation is alive and well through simple bracket genocide.

"Backroom P5 manipulation" did NOT cost MTSU that Butler game. Having 3 of 5 starters not score a single point cost MTSU the game. Only 5 players even scored for MTSU all day. 8 scored for Butler.

Some of you guys are disrespecting Butler. Fact is, Butler simply outplayed MTSU, and earned it. It's as simple as that.

Perhaps you missed the game thread where I realized pretty early on that this was going to be a problem and we likely wouldn't be able to overcome it.

The only fouls that were called on Butler the entire game were essentially in the paint or around the paint. Most were actually called for rebounding fouls. I can't think a single time where Butler was called for a foul on the perimeter. Maybe it would be sour grapes for me to say the game - in respect to perimeter defense - wasn't called the same on the other end?

But what I do know is that Butler defenders swamped our guards defensively beyond the three point line. So, we put the ball on the floor and drove. No amount of hand checks or body checks were ever called on Butler the entire game. Butler's defense had complete reign on the perimeter to do whatever they wanted to do. Combine very few open looks with getting hacked and checked to death like hockey players on dribble drives and there was simply nothing we could do.

Johnson was really the only one on the team fast enough and strong enough to fight through all the chipping which is why he ended up carrying the burden of the guards but it wasn't enough in the end. He too got fouled often but it would only be called if he actually got to the rim. Anything outside of the paint and Butler's guards had no barriers placed on how much or how hard they could foul without it being whistled. It's just the way the refs decided to call it and we had no answer for it.

(03-19-2017 02:00 PM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  

(03-19-2017 12:17 PM)HogDawg Wrote:  

(03-19-2017 11:36 AM)Herd-in-ATL Wrote:  

(03-18-2017 10:03 PM)MU42 Wrote:  

(03-18-2017 09:24 PM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  The disappointment is pretty strong right now.

Not just because we lost a chance to play a Sweet 16 in our home state, but for some other reasons.

First, given the way the landscape of collegiate athletics continues to shift toward the negative and we now know that our 30 wins wasn't going to get us an at large who knows how long it will even be before we get into the tournament and in this position again.

Second, as a follow up to #1, if we couldn't make the Sweet 16 with this team we likely never will. Not being pessimistic. It's just the sobering reality of this sport. This is the best team we've ever had and may stand as the best team we'll ever have for many generations to come.

So very proud of what we have accomplished but also disappointing to realize this may be as good as it gets.

Idk how much better you want it to be. We root for schools that have zero chance of winning national titles in all major sports. It's literally the same 10 schools competing for titles every year in football and basketball. Sure every once in a while a school like Butler, Utah, or Memphis crashes the party, but they never win. We waste so much time hoping this will be our year but the way things are setup it will literally never be our year.

You can go undefeated in football and still not sniff the title game and you can win 30 games in basketball and have to win your conference title game to get into the P5 invitational, and they will set it up so that you play the other non P5 schools to knock each other out. VCU vs St Mary's, Wichita vs Dayton, Rhode Island vs Creighton, and I know it was the second round but MTSU vs Butler. All 8 of those schools are good enough to be sweet 16 teams.

I'm about done. I'm wore down. There is nothing we can do. I'm going to keep rooting for my Herd but what is the point. It's Duke, UNC, Kansas, UK, UConn, Florida, Michigan, Louisville, and Syracuse every year. And football it's Alabama, Ohio St, Florida St, USC, Oklahoma, LSU, Oregon, and ND can go 9-3 and play whatever bowl they want minus the playoff.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. We are all insane if we keep wasting our lives one this stuff.

This is a very astute observation! I used to think that the NCAA Basketball Tournament was the fairest when it came to giving lesser known school's equal footing when it came to competing for a National Championship... but this proves that backroom P5 manipulation is alive and well through simple bracket genocide.

"Backroom P5 manipulation" did NOT cost MTSU that Butler game. Having 3 of 5 starters not score a single point cost MTSU the game. Only 5 players even scored for MTSU all day. 8 scored for Butler.

Some of you guys are disrespecting Butler. Fact is, Butler simply outplayed MTSU, and earned it. It's as simple as that.

Perhaps you missed the game thread where I realized pretty early on that this was going to be a problem and we likely wouldn't be able to overcome it.

The only fouls that were called on Butler the entire game were essentially in the paint or around the paint. Most were actually called for rebounding fouls. I can't think a single time where Butler was called for a foul on the perimeter. Maybe it would be sour grapes for me to say the game - in respect to perimeter defense - wasn't called the same on the other end?

But what I do know is that Butler defenders swamped our guards defensively beyond the three point line. So, we put the ball on the floor and drove. No amount of hand checks or body checks were ever called on Butler the entire game. Butler's defense had complete reign on the perimeter to do whatever they wanted to do. Combine very few open looks with getting hacked and checked to death like hockey players on dribble drives and there was simply nothing we could do.

Johnson was really the only one on the team fast enough and strong enough to fight through all the chipping which is why he ended up carrying the burden of the guards but it wasn't enough in the end. He too got fouled often but it would only be called if he actually got to the rim. Anything outside of the paint and Butler's guards had no barriers placed on how much or how hard they could foul without it being whistled. It's just the way the refs decided to call it and we had no answer for it.

Didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Butler was physical on defense and shut down the perimeter, as their M.O. has been since Brad Stevens, and MTSU had no answer. Really ticky-tack officiating may have blown the whistle more.

Well, to have two extremely experienced players - one that has scored over 1200 career points - to be held to zero there was a little something else going on than just good defense.

(03-19-2017 12:10 PM)HerdZoned Wrote:  

(03-19-2017 11:53 AM)eaglenjxn Wrote:  

(03-19-2017 09:02 AM)Gilesfan Wrote:  This is true. Mid majors have a small chance in basketball; non in football

The only mid-majors that do have more basketball resources than a lot of power conference schools.

Wichita State is basically an old rich guy dressed up as Cinderella.

Wichita State along with most of the BE schools don't have football and the extra expenses so they can devote almost everything to basketball. Same goes with the A10. Yeah Nova, Rhode Island, Fordham and Dayton all play football but its IAA and most of the resources go to basketball. Take a look at UMass, they have fallen off the map in basketball since trying to go IA and balancing both.

There's a lot to that, which explains why our two Olympic sports only schools are generally at the top of the conference.

"they will set it up so that you play the other non P5 schools to knock each other out. VCU vs St Mary's, Wichita vs Dayton, Rhode Island vs Creighton, and I know it was the second round but MTSU vs Butler. All 8 of those schools are good enough to be sweet 16 teams. "

If you remember they did the same thing in the BCS football era.

I think it was when both Boise St and TCU both in non power 5 conferences
at the time were ranked high enough to get a new years day bowl game.
Now they could have paired each of them against a P5 school but no
they made them play each other. By pitting them against each other it assured no
P-5 school could lose a game to a non-P5 school and most likely both TCU and Boise could
have won that year against the P5 school they should have got to play.

In basketball they try to eliminate as many non power teams as they can ASAP Then by
shear numbers more P5 schools advance and earn more ncaa credits.
It is so obvious its amazing.

There is not any sporting organization in the world that is set up like this.

The answer is for teams to play equal number of home and away just like any othe league.

(03-19-2017 02:00 PM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  

(03-19-2017 12:17 PM)HogDawg Wrote:  

(03-19-2017 11:36 AM)Herd-in-ATL Wrote:  

(03-18-2017 10:03 PM)MU42 Wrote:  

(03-18-2017 09:24 PM)ThreeifbyLightning Wrote:  The disappointment is pretty strong right now.

Not just because we lost a chance to play a Sweet 16 in our home state, but for some other reasons.

First, given the way the landscape of collegiate athletics continues to shift toward the negative and we now know that our 30 wins wasn't going to get us an at large who knows how long it will even be before we get into the tournament and in this position again.

Second, as a follow up to #1, if we couldn't make the Sweet 16 with this team we likely never will. Not being pessimistic. It's just the sobering reality of this sport. This is the best team we've ever had and may stand as the best team we'll ever have for many generations to come.

So very proud of what we have accomplished but also disappointing to realize this may be as good as it gets.

Idk how much better you want it to be. We root for schools that have zero chance of winning national titles in all major sports. It's literally the same 10 schools competing for titles every year in football and basketball. Sure every once in a while a school like Butler, Utah, or Memphis crashes the party, but they never win. We waste so much time hoping this will be our year but the way things are setup it will literally never be our year.

You can go undefeated in football and still not sniff the title game and you can win 30 games in basketball and have to win your conference title game to get into the P5 invitational, and they will set it up so that you play the other non P5 schools to knock each other out. VCU vs St Mary's, Wichita vs Dayton, Rhode Island vs Creighton, and I know it was the second round but MTSU vs Butler. All 8 of those schools are good enough to be sweet 16 teams.

I'm about done. I'm wore down. There is nothing we can do. I'm going to keep rooting for my Herd but what is the point. It's Duke, UNC, Kansas, UK, UConn, Florida, Michigan, Louisville, and Syracuse every year. And football it's Alabama, Ohio St, Florida St, USC, Oklahoma, LSU, Oregon, and ND can go 9-3 and play whatever bowl they want minus the playoff.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome. We are all insane if we keep wasting our lives one this stuff.

This is a very astute observation! I used to think that the NCAA Basketball Tournament was the fairest when it came to giving lesser known school's equal footing when it came to competing for a National Championship... but this proves that backroom P5 manipulation is alive and well through simple bracket genocide.

"Backroom P5 manipulation" did NOT cost MTSU that Butler game. Having 3 of 5 starters not score a single point cost MTSU the game. Only 5 players even scored for MTSU all day. 8 scored for Butler.

Some of you guys are disrespecting Butler. Fact is, Butler simply outplayed MTSU, and earned it. It's as simple as that.

Perhaps you missed the game thread where I realized pretty early on that this was going to be a problem and we likely wouldn't be able to overcome it.

The only fouls that were called on Butler the entire game were essentially in the paint or around the paint. Most were actually called for rebounding fouls. I can't think a single time where Butler was called for a foul on the perimeter. Maybe it would be sour grapes for me to say the game - in respect to perimeter defense - wasn't called the same on the other end?

But what I do know is that Butler defenders swamped our guards defensively beyond the three point line. So, we put the ball on the floor and drove. No amount of hand checks or body checks were ever called on Butler the entire game. Butler's defense had complete reign on the perimeter to do whatever they wanted to do. Combine very few open looks with getting hacked and checked to death like hockey players on dribble drives and there was simply nothing we could do.

Johnson was really the only one on the team fast enough and strong enough to fight through all the chipping which is why he ended up carrying the burden of the guards but it wasn't enough in the end. He too got fouled often but it would only be called if he actually got to the rim. Anything outside of the paint and Butler's guards had no barriers placed on how much or how hard they could foul without it being whistled. It's just the way the refs decided to call it and we had no answer for it.

I don't think you can blame the refs for this one. Butler had at least one guy foul out early. Butler also received 16 foul calls vs MTSU's 21 for the game. Not a huge difference.

Butler just played very good defense, and they shot better than MTSU on offense (51% to 44%). But the biggest difference seemed to be in the 3-point shooting, with Butler hitting 8 of 15 (53%) of its' shots vs MTSU hitting only 4 of 19 (21%). That was literally the difference in the game. I'm guessing this is where Giddy Potts was supposed to be a big help, but wasn't?

MTSU had a great year. Regular season and tournament champions. A few bad shots away from the sweet sixteen. Your team is now loved by many across the nation who had previously never given MTSU a second thought. Nothing to be down about

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

Kermit Davis, MT talking new contract

He was already under paid.Deserves a significant raise. IMHO the only mistake would be a contract that is too long with MT on the hook.The hard part to negotiate may be the money guarantee length of the contract.

Don't despair, dear MT fans. Your athletic program will continue to perform at a high level, and that will make our Planters Bowl victories to come all the sweeter.

I will be right one of these years. Until then I am at least a consistent source of inane comic relief