Final: BU 69 UNI 65

[tornado]

Walt played all 40 minutes, Tyshon played 36, Barnes 34, and foul trouble forced a lot of the substitutions...

I actually think UNI is a better team than their record might indicate......This is our first win over a Valley team that had a winning league record...we need more of this..
but their overall record against DI opponents is still just 9-9, so the three MVC teams we own wins over have a combined record against DI's of 23-31.
Walt is right in the running with Jarmar Gulley & Cleanthony Early for this week's Player of the week with his game Wednesday. Gotta play well on the road in Evansville Sunday. We haven't played particularly well on the road all season, time to start.


Two columns this morning one each from DR & KW - but as for Ben Jacobson not doing anything to deserve the technical... I definitely saw him stomp and object vigorously to the refs no-call on that possession..
We've been "T'ed" up before for stomping and we even got one once when an inadvertently kicked scorers table caused a water bottle to accidentally fall onto the floor near the bench.

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20140123/SPORTS/140129603/11130/SPORTS?rssfeed=true

http://www.pjstar.com/article/20140122/SPORTS/140129604/11130/SPORTS?rssfeed=true

[Da Coach]

It was a fun game to watch.
It was nice to see Chris Blake get a basket last night. He was 1-1 with a dunk. Can anyone recall the last game Chris Blake scored a basket? It has been a long time. His last basket was against Arizona State way back on 11/22/13, 14 games ago when he went 1-2 that night.

And Jordan Prosser's 7 points last night is the most he has scored since he had 8 points against Alabama State in the second game of the season (11/10/13).

On the other hand, Tyshon Pickett only had 2 rebounds in the game, despite playing 36 minutes. He is among the MVC leaders in rebounding, and has not had less than 4 rebounds in any other game except the blowout win against Texas Pan-Am game, when he also had 2 in 24 minutes.

And Xzavier Taylor had 4 fouls in 10 minutes, giving him 65 personal fouls for the year, far more than any other Brave, despite the fact he is 7th in playing time. Omari Grier has only 32 personal fouls in 20 games, despite being among the leaders in minutes played.

[Rick LeHew]

- but as for Ben Jacobson not doing anything to deserve the technical... I definitely saw him stomp and object vigorously to the refs no-call on that possession..
We've been "T'ed" up before for stomping and we even got one once when an inadvertently kicked scorers table caused a water bottle to accidentally fall onto the floor near the bench.

I thought the "T" was for being outside the coaching box. When he called the "T" - Ben looked down and pointed he was inisde the box (at the time)but the official pointed to outside the box. I did not hear a foot stomp where I was at. I thought it was a weak call but we will take it.

[tornado]

most coaches actually live just outside the coaches box -- they don't get called for it but it also then makes it easy for the ref to use it as cause if he needs to justify a T
I actually thought the refs back was towards Jake as he ran back upcourt, when he heard what Jacobson was saying and doing... turned and whistled the T - so not sure how he could have even seen if Jake was outside the box - it just seemed to me he heard something and swung around already calling the T before he even saw where Jacobson was.

[peoriaspitfire]

...Overall another good effort from the guys. Need to be able to take it on the road Sunday as we play Evansville. Games at Evansville, Loyola, Drake, and SIU are winnable games and as long as we can go 2-2 in these games and win against all 4 of them at home, 2-0 so far, I think we can avoid playing on Thursday in St. Louis. Whether this team can do it or not remains to be seen.

We have one MVC road win since Geno has been here. If we win two of these, then that would be ground breaking for sure.

As for last night??™s game, I thought the Braves played with more movement in the offense which I appreciated. I think Walt had like 6 or 8 points at half, but really turned it on about midway through the second half and was a big reason why we came out on top. Walt missed a few layups that were highly contested and if he could ever learn to pull up or hit the floater, then that would help his rack game even more. I still can??™t stand our out-of-bounds plays, but maybe we??™re saving our best ones for the NCAA tournament. It??™s always good to get a win. Go Braves!

[Da Coach]

I thought the "T" was for being outside the coaching box. When he called the "T" - Ben looked down and pointed he was inisde the box (at the time)but the official pointed to outside the box. I did not hear a foot stomp where I was at. I thought it was a weak call but we will take it.

I think you are right, but if it was for being "outside the coaches box" I find it amazing how laughably inconsistent officials are in calling this. Almost every coach steps onto the court or past the "coaches box" endline frequently, and it is almost never called, unless the coach interferes with action on the court, or unless an official is just looking for an excuse to nail a coach with a technical.

Nobody violates this rule more than the heavyweights of coaching like Bill Self, John Calipari, Rick Pitino, and Tom Crean.

I watched Indiana's last 2 games (against Northwestern and Michigan State) and he was so far out of the coaches area it looked more like he was one of the players on the court. Yet I do not recall ever seeing him called for the violation.

It is hard to find many photos of Crean during game action, but here are a few from an earlier non-conference game (ignore the circles, they are not mine)-

[BUBalum05]

Nobody violates this rule more than the heavyweights of coaching like Bill Self, John Calipari, Rick Pitino, and Tom Crean.

I watched Indiana's last 2 games (against Northwestern and Michigan State) and he was so far out of the coaches area it looked more like he was one of the players on the court. Yet I do not recall ever seeing him called for the violation.

Tom Crean is a serial offender of the coaching box rule. The Wisconsin @ IU game he almost interfered with a loose ball that squirted his way and he was probably 3' on the court and 3' past the box. No formal warning was issued either.

[bradleyfan124]

It was a fun game to watch.
It was nice to see Chris Blake get a basket last night. He was 1-1 with a dunk. Can anyone recall the last game Chris Blake scored a basket? It has been a long time. His last basket was against Arizona State way back on 11/22/13, 14 games ago when he went 1-2 that night.

And Jordan Prosser's 7 points last night is the most he has scored since he had 8 points against Alabama State in the second game of the season (11/10/13).

On the other hand, Tyshon Pickett only had 2 rebounds in the game, despite playing 36 minutes. He is among the MVC leaders in rebounding, and has not had less than 4 rebounds in any other game except the blowout win against Texas Pan-Am game, when he also had 2 in 24 minutes.

And Xzavier Taylor had 4 fouls in 10 minutes, giving him 65 personal fouls for the year, far more than any other Brave, despite the fact he is 7th in playing time. Omari Grier has only 32 personal fouls in 20 games, despite being among the leaders in minutes played.

Chris Blake also made a nice deflection at the end of the game that helped to preserve the victory

[Da Coach]

Chris Blake also made a nice deflection at the end of the game that helped to preserve the victory

Chris is a 4/5 player who is just not blessed with enough size or offensive skills to help us more so far, but I like his energy and aggressive rebounding. I hope he can get more minutes.
Chris Blake is actually the best rebounder on the team when figured per 40 minutes:

Player.......Rebounds per 40 minutes
Blake.........10.2
Pickett.........9.3
Taylor..........8.6
Prosser.........8.5
Barnes..........7.8

[LongTimeFan]

It was a great game by the players and the coaching staff.