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Post by kingnebwsu on Mar 7, 2023 0:19:54 GMT -5
So we're pro-CSU tomorrow then? I'm definitely not rooting for NKU. |
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Post by wsuairstrike on Mar 7, 2023 8:05:03 GMT -5
Toss up, both teams won by 1 point when they played each other this year. Nku probably has the advantage and unfortunately I think they will win. Not great for us if that happens.
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Post by jumbojimbo on Mar 7, 2023 8:26:03 GMT -5
I can't root for NKU but there is a small chance they might be able to ride some name recognition and get a 15 seed. If CSU wins their only name recognition is going to the fact that Rolly coached them 25 years ago.
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Post by wsuraider09 on Mar 7, 2023 8:41:01 GMT -5
If we see the same game out of both teams that we saw last night, I give the edge to CSU. The one part of NKU that makes them so tough to prepare for is the zone defensive looks. CSU attacked the rim tremendously last night. Of their 71 shots, they only had 12 3-point attempts. Zone will force them out of the paint obviously, but if they're able to get the ball to soft spots in the zone and hit their short to mid-range shots, I like them. If they get too far down or have a hard time probing inside (therefore settling for a lot of 3s), I like NKU.
Kind of like our two games with them. They punked us with that zone down at their place, and then we came back and beat the living snot out of their zone back at our place (our last good win on the season sadly). It'll be an entertaining game to watch either way.
As far as seeding goes, they're both right together in the NET. NKU is 161, CSU is 169. NKU is 0-2 in Q1 games, and 0-3 in Q2. CSU didn't play any Q1 games, and is 0-4 in Q2, but they're both squarely better than four other AQ teams, so it seems like the HL winner should avoid the play-in game in my eyes.
Because CSU is the better seeded team, Lunardi has CSU as the AQ as a 16 seed playing Alabama. That's a brutal draw, but maybe they can call up Dennis Gates at Mizzou and get a scouting report.
There's a few AQs already in the tournament that are dogshit awful. SEMO (OVC) has a net of 244 and Fairleigh Dickinson (NEC) is 300.
There's also two assumed conference winners with awful nets as well: Texas A&M-CC (Southland) is 188. Alcorn (SWAC) is 240.
With those 4 teams in the tournament, the Horizon winner should be squarely in the field without having to first play in Dayton.
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Post by Raider3G on Mar 7, 2023 12:18:07 GMT -5
Normally, I would agree with you 100% on this. But no way in hell do I want Dwayne Cohill representing our league on the national stage. He makes an ass of himself every time he steps on the court. I think NKU and Milwaukee are our best bets, but I will suck it up and root for whoever represents the Horizon League in the Dance. You should never root for NKU. When it comes to conference expansion, they are our direct competition trying to get into a better conference. If it's between NKU and YSU, it's NKU given that YSU can't represent the conference well on how they act. Given a choice I'm not pulling for a team where their leading scorer throws a self alley oop after the game is in doubt and blows a kiss to the WSU bench. I get the point of direct competition for conferences but if WSU would take care of business it'd matter less what NKU or any other HL team does. |
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Post by wsuraider09 on Mar 7, 2023 12:18:36 GMT -5
Classic HL. Give tickets away to school kids to make the attendance drastically over-stated. Must have learned that from IUPUI.
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Post by Big D on Mar 7, 2023 12:29:34 GMT -5
Classic HL. Give tickets away to school kids to make the attendance drastically over-stated. Must have learned that from IUPUI. I don’t know how long you have been a Wright State fan cause you can say IUPUI and the HL learned that from us. The first several years the Nutter Center was open, guys from the Athletic department used to hand out tickets at the mall and around campus on game days to help fill the arena. |
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Post by raider62 on Mar 7, 2023 12:34:23 GMT -5
Classic HL. Give tickets away to school kids to make the attendance drastically over-stated. Must have learned that from IUPUI. I don’t know how long you have been a Wright State fan cause you can say IUPUI and the HL learned that from us. The first several years the Nutter Center was open, guys from the Athletic department used to hand out tickets at the mall and around campus on game days to help fill the arena. Heck, even as recently as 10-12 years ago, I would go to the Fitness Center in the Student Union and there would be stacks of tickets sitting on the front desk. Anybody walking by could grab as many as they wanted. |
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Post by wsuairstrike on Mar 7, 2023 20:47:10 GMT -5
The good news: even without an impact transfer we could still win the Horizon league tournament. This is an ugly ugly game. Nku has Warrick as their only good player. Rest are trash. And CSU has number 13.
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Post by raiders93 on Mar 7, 2023 21:02:21 GMT -5
So NKU has won 4 of the last 7? Another team comes in this league and does what WSU hasn’t been able to do since Butler left, which is dominate a sinking HL.
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Post by wsuraider09 on Mar 7, 2023 21:27:54 GMT -5
So NKU has won 4 of the last 7? Another team comes in this league and does what WSU hasn’t been able to do since Butler left, which is dominate a sinking HL. Exactly. Butler left. Then it was Valpo who got called up. The ball was totally in it court but we've failed miserably in grabbing ahold of this atrocious league and that's a damn shame. |
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Post by Big D on Mar 7, 2023 22:16:27 GMT -5
So NKU has won 4 of the last 7? Another team comes in this league and does what WSU hasn’t been able to do since Butler left, which is dominate a sinking HL. Exactly. Butler left. Then it was Valpo who got called up. The ball was totally in it court but we've failed miserably in grabbing ahold of this atrocious league and that's a damn shame. |
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Post by wsuraider09 on Mar 7, 2023 22:41:30 GMT -5
Exactly. Butler left. Then it was Valpo who got called up. The ball was totally in it court but we've failed miserably in grabbing ahold of this atrocious league and that's a damn shame. I'm not sure what the relevance of that graphic is or how it relates to the tournament thread. This is a one-bid league, has been since Butler left, and I don't see any chance that changes anytime soon. Counting regular season championships in a one-bid league is about as good as a bag of peanuts in my eyes. The winner of the regular season historically has met a disappointing fate in the postseason (this year included). I believe CSU in 2019 was the only #1 seed to win the league championship tournament, which is what really matters in a league like this. The fact that we've been in this league 22 years and have 3 championships is really telling, NKU has been in the league for 8 years and has tournament championships in HALF of the years they've been here. My only point was that our biggest rival is getting to the championship games (without EVER being the #1 seed fwiw) while we've only appeared in 1 of the last 4. We do a lot of things a lot better than most of this league: we have won big buy games, we are the golden standard for attendance, we get a lion's share of the televised ESPN games, yet we can't figure out how to put the winning formula together to win conference tournament, let alone make it to the championship game on what I'd consider to be an acceptable frequency. All of that to reiterate my point that when Butler left, I think a lot of us thought it was our turn to ascend the ranks and be the king of the hill in this league, and I think that we're moving further from that goalpost than we are toward it. |
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Post by Big D on Mar 7, 2023 23:31:37 GMT -5
I'm not sure what the relevance of that graphic is or how it relates to the tournament thread. Read your post that I quoted again and tell me where exactly you were ONLY talking about past HL tournaments. It doesn't say a god damn thing about the HL tournament. You said "Exactly. Butler left. Then it was Valpo who got called up. The ball was totally in it court but we've failed miserably in grabbing ahold of this atrocious league and that's a damn shame." You talked about grabbing ahold of the HL and my tweet shows otherwise. This season did not turn out the way any of us wanted. Get over it and stop insulting our program by downplaying our success under Nagy. We have won the HL regular season championship 3 times, gone to 2 NCAA tournaments and have the HL's only NCAA victory since Butler left the league. That isn't failing miserably by any stretch of the imagination. For the record, we have had just a little bit more adversity than NKU has had since they joined the HL. Just this year, we lost 2 All-conference players from last season. One of which, was just named on one of the All ACC teams. I doubt that you think we wouldn't have won the HL this year if they both returned. NKU didn't have to deal with the financial crisis we had to deal with in the last several years. When we cut 3 sports, we also cut all athletic department spending. That had a real effect on our ability to schedule teams, recruit, and retain assistant coaches because we didn't have the money to. It also killed us from a PR perspective. Can you imagine how hard it was for our staff to try to sell coming to Wright State when every other team we were recruiting against was negatively recruiting against us telling those recruits we were going to drop out of D1 before they would set foot on campus. Through all of that, we won 3 regular season championships. We went dancing twice and we have the conference's only NCAA win since Butler left. That's not anything close to failing miserably. |
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Post by jerrygball on Mar 7, 2023 23:40:32 GMT -5
It's hard to be that next Big-time Mid-Major program that everyone wants to be...Gonzaga, Xavier, Butler. There's only a few, maybe Belmont, a few others I'm not thinking of could kind of fit in that category. And even Xavier, Butler haven't been to the NCAA tournament the last 4 years I believe coming into this season.
Valpo has been awful since leaving the Horizon. I bet their fans wish they were still in the HL.
You have to give NKU credit, they are just a little better program than WSU. But the grass isn't always greener on the other side, so they'd probably be wise to stay in the HL. I always wanted WSU to go to the MAC but it'll probably never happen and they'd probably actually struggle there as the MAC seems to have improved.
It's disappointing the Raiders haven't made that jump, but few programs do. I think overall you have to be content with where they have been at with Nagy. The transfer portal is hurting them, and probably Nagy's kryptonite a bit, not navigating it as well as other coaches have although he benefitted from Bill Wampler a few years back. The run of coaching especially from Brownell, to Donlon, to Nagy has been pretty good for a Mid-Major program. Maybe when Nagy retires or moves on the next Coach leads them to even better success winning. I think he's really wanted to bring that great team to WSU but it just hasn't happened, albeit, many good teams and good memories.
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