Heckuva game, but the Cats left a lot of points on the table at the FT line. 53-49.
One of the more interesting comments in the game applied to both teams, though I think it was directed at MSU at the time.
It noted that an 8-9 seeding is probably worse than a 10 seeding, because a 7-10 matchup is still pretty competitive and the second game is (barring major upsets) against a 2 seed rather than a 1 seed.
But you want to avoid the 11-11 first round game. A home win on Saturday should achieve that.
Nicholson was in a boot and on crutches, but all the Cats are saying is he won’t play this week and they’ll re-evaluate him ahead of the Big Ten Tournament. Whether that’s just blowing smoke or optimism is something we’ll have to find out next week.
I think Nicholson is a decoy at this point. I hope I’m wrong.
Shawn
Nicholson is the Persa of basketball.
We watched the late second half at our local brewery. We missed the front half of a one-and-one and had 3 consecutive possessions end in a turnover. Can’t win doing that.
I haven’t looked at the play-by-play, but I think at least 3 of the free throws they missed during the game were the front half of 1+1’s maybe all 4.
Turnovers and rebounds hurt, but MSU came out of the halftime locker room storming, and the Cats didn’t. Though they got the lead back, they had lost the momentum and the crowd was ragging Buie for his airball 3.
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At least our NET ranking only dropped 1, to 53. A win in Buie’s final home game would salve the wound some. Minnesota got lapped by Indiana last night.