#2 Louisville 51 - Northern Iowa 46

[Bravesfan]

Well, great effort by UNI tonight, but they could not quite get over the hump. The game appeared to be even closer than this score as UNI was trailing 48-46 with under a minute to go. It looked like UNI never got the ball back afterwards. So again, close, but unfortunately close does not count when they blow a great shot at a huge win. But they will have other chances, though I'm not sure who they play tomorrow.

At least Wichta State's win over VCU looks even better today after VCU upset #19 Memphis today.

[sportsnut2]

UNI gets defensive rebound with about 6 secs left, down 48-46, and was fouled but the referee called jump ball. UNI could have/should have had two free throws to tie the game.

Afterward, in an interview with Pitino he said "UNI plays in the most underrated league in the country. Creighton is big time, Illinois State is big time, Wichita State is big time, these guys are big time. That's the most underrated league in the country"

[Bravesfan]

UNI gets defensive rebound with about 6 secs left, down 48-46, and was fouled but the referee called jump ball. UNI could have/should have had two free throws to tie the game.

Afterward, in an interview with Pitino he said "UNI plays in the most underrated league in the country. Creighton is big time, Illinois State is big time, Wichita State is big time, these guys are big time. That's the most underrated league in the country"

Well that's great to hear Pitino complement the Valley. Very appreciated that many BCS coaches understand how deep a conference we have. But that stinks that the refs appeared to hose UNI like that! Not actually watching the game, I can't completely comment on the refs, as I was just watching the scoreboard. But give credit to the refs. It looks like they stuck it to the Valley again!

[Fetz86]

It wasn't a great call, but UNI made 1 basket in the first ten minutes of the second half. Both teams outworked the opposing side on the defensive end of the floor, the Cardinals were just better at getting out on the break when they forced turnovers to pull out to the lead at 40-22 before UNI clawed back into when they started working the ball better for open shots. UNI showed how tough senior lead MVC teams can be tonight, just went scoreless for too long to start the half.

[tornado]

UNI gets defensive rebound with about 6 secs left, down 48-46, and was fouled but the referee called jump ball. UNI could have/should have had two free throws to tie the game.

Afterward, in an interview with Pitino he said "UNI plays in the most underrated league in the country. Creighton is big time, Illinois State is big time, Wichita State is big time, these guys are big time. That's the most underrated league in the country"

Pitino sounds like Heath...

anyway Drake is up 6 points over Cal with nine minutes to go

[Chico]

Drake blows a late lead and loses 73-70.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/boxscore?gid=201211220095

[ChewaBrave]

UNI played a great game with a solid game plan and never backed down. The Cards shot horrendously and made a ton of unforced turnovers. The Cards won because they scored run outs on steals and dominated the panthers on the board's which helped to ease their just incredibly poor shooting. Good game for sure.

[tornado]

Drake blows a late lead and loses 73-70.


http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketb...d=201211220095

and Ben Simons went cold - he took 15 shots to get just 13 pts...and was 1-7 from the arc
Drake was badly outrebounded too.......

[Bravesfan]

It wasn't a great call, but UNI made 1 basket in the first ten minutes of the second half. Both teams outworked the opposing side on the defensive end of the floor, the Cardinals were just better at getting out on the break when they forced turnovers to pull out to the lead at 40-22 before UNI clawed back into when they started working the ball better for open shots. UNI showed how tough senior lead MVC teams can be tonight, just went scoreless for too long to start the half.

Wow! I didn't realize that UNI was down that much. Yeah, maybe making just three or four more baskets earlier in the half would have given UNI the game. Maybe the ref's call was bad, maybe not. The game should not have come down to that in the first place.

[Bravesfan]

and Ben Simons went cold - he took 15 shots to get just 13 pts...and was 1-7 from the arc
Drake was badly outrebounded too.......

Yeah, unfortunately two big time blown opportunities for the Valley yesterday. At least now we are beginning to establish a body of work this weekend that will show where the Valley is headed. We still have quite a few big games this weekend and next, but those are two huge blown opportunities we won't be able to get back.

The good news is even if the Valley ranks low in the rankings (say 11th or under), we can still get two or more teams into the NCAA Tournament via the "teams earn bids, not conferences" rule. But the lower the Valley ranks, the fewer opportunities for quality in-conference wins like we had in 2006. And so far, only Creighton and Wichita St. look like NCAA Tournament contenders right now, and we don't even know how good the Shockers will be come conference time since they lost a lot of good players over the offseason. But still a much better start for them than I expected.

[Dubl R 1]

I really thought that jump ball call late was poor. Tough break for UNI