Remaining Conference Slate

[marceagfan5]

Right now we are tied for 5th with PSU who holds the tiebreaker over us due to head to head win.

MSU and ISU are 1 game in front of us in a tie for 3rd place.

No one is catching Weber and Montana and that game in Missoula should determine 1st place.

We hold the tie breaker over MSU and still have 2 remaining against ISU so we have a shot to move up if we can win some games. I don't expect us to win at Weber, but we better win at home against UNC next week. If we do that over our next 2 games, we most likely have to win 2 of the final 3 conference games in order to finish 3rd or 4th in conference and host the first round playoff game. We play at ISU, at PSU, then host ISU, we need to win 2 of those games and if we do, we should finish 3rd or 4th.

We have 5 conference games and a bracketbuster remaining, this team needs to dig down deep, especially the seniors, and find a way to play well and finish strong.

 

[oldtimeewualum]

@marceagfan - good breakdown of the conf situation. I think it will be very tough for our team to win any of the remaining road games. Coming off a close win at NAU (#333 in rpi) and a home loss to Sac State (#317 in rpi), I simply have no confidence that this team has a late season run in it. I hope I am wrong, and, hopefully it works out that we play Montana State (#270 in rpi) in the tourney because I think we have their number.

 

[marceagfan5]

@marceagfan - good breakdown of the conf situation. I think it will be very tough for our team to win any of the remaining road games. Coming off a close win at NAU (#333 in rpi) and a home loss to Sac State (#317 in rpi), I simply have no confidence that this team has a late season run in it. I hope I am wrong, and, hopefully it works out that we play Montana State (#270 in rpi) in the tourney because I think we have their number.

Old Time - I agree, winning on the road is going to be tough. Weber is really good, and ISU appears to be a lot better than expected although I know nothing about them. We also play at PSU who already beat us in Cheney. If we can win 1 of those 3 games and hopefully hold serve at home against UNC and ISU I think we have a shot at the 4 seed. I'd settle for the 5th or 6th seed over the 3 or 4 if it meant a trip to Bozeman for the first round, we match up really well with the Bobcats this year.

Hopefully we can win the games that we are supposed to (UNC) and not lay an egg like we did against Sac. St.

 

[clawman1]

@marceagfan - good breakdown of the conf situation. I think it will be very tough for our team to win any of the remaining road games. Coming off a close win at NAU (#333 in rpi) and a home loss to Sac State (#317 in rpi), I simply have no confidence that this team has a late season run in it. I hope I am wrong, and, hopefully it works out that we play Montana State (#270 in rpi) in the tourney because I think we have their number.

Old Time - I agree, winning on the road is going to be tough. Weber is really good, and ISU appears to be a lot better than expected although I know nothing about them. We also play at PSU who already beat us in Cheney. If we can win 1 of those 3 games and hopefully hold serve at home against UNC and ISU I think we have a shot at the 4 seed. I'd settle for the 5th or 6th seed over the 3 or 4 if it meant a trip to Bozeman for the first round, we match up really well with the Bobcats this year.

Hopefully we can win the games that we are supposed to (UNC) and not lay an egg like we did against Sac. St.

Color me skeptical. This team has played 24 games and had over 100 practices now you think they will all of a sudden start playing as a team? I would expect the trend to continue, which is gross under achievement. Blame it on who you want, players or coaches but the end result is another losing year for Eastern Bball
So... why is making the playoffs such a big deal when they will most likely get torched the first game.
Save yourself the misery and focus on the women's team or ???

 

[Eagle1990]

:clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[EWURanger]

Let's give the players and staff a little bit of time before we throw them under the bus. Regardless of this season's outcome, I feel pretty confident that there are some positives to be gained from this year. Give it a little time, I think we are going to see some good things over the next couple of years. You cannot accurately assess a situation after one season.

 

[clawman1]

Let's give the players and staff a little bit of time before we throw them under the bus. Regardless of this season's outcome, I feel pretty confident that there are some positives to be gained from this year. Give it a little time, I think we are going to see some good things over the next couple of years. You cannot accurately assess a situation after one season.

A little bit of time? I guess comparing 100 practices and 24 games is a little bit of time... in comparison to the Ming dynasty, but in the world of college bball this has been a really long year.

 

[c-note]

I have a hard time giving much of an assessment on Hayford until we start seeing some of his recruits enter into the system. Chiverton is definitely a me first type of player so I cannot disagree with any of you on the team's selfish demeanor. You do need to realize that a few of the player's really don't have a high basketball IQ, I think expectations were simply just too high, at the beginning of the season I just could not figure out why we thought we were a top 3 team with Dean leaving. Chiverton looked good at the beginning and they played as a team a few times, then they played Wa St and all hell broke loose, just seemed like the chemistry was gone from there on. We need actual sized big men, Laron is not good, Ederaine has good things about him but cannot put the ball on the floor and does not have good post moves. I am impressed that Colimon came on strong this year and I think Winford was under used, Forbes tries hard and that is all you can ask of him. Hayford said he never had a losing record, let's see if he is a man of his word. I did not expect to be above .500 going into this year.

 

[Obzerver]

good post c-note especially the part of having o high basketball IQ. Don't see alot of it on this team..infact quite the opposite. I've watched enough of this team play and have thought that on nuerous occasions. Sure one can lay some of this on the coaching staff but I've coached, played and reffed sports thru the college level and can say I've seen many blunders by players that simply aren't smart plays. These are usually done in the heat of battle and falls solely on the players...let's be honest, some players are smarter than others and all the coaching in the world can't stop players who don't have a high BB IQ from doing stupid things no matter how long they have played, at what level they have played or what coaching they have/had.

 

[Eagle1990]

Please. It isn't just the players. This is a team that came together at end of last year winning some big games, making the tournament and everyone back. The coaches in the Big Sky, who know more than we do, picked us third. Consider that last year we split with Weber and Montana and this year we will be swept by both. Main difference is the coaching. These posts are correct in that Hayford needs "his" guys and he will be fine once he does. However, there is no question this team has underachieved. We should be easily in third. The blame is shared between players and coaches. To question Griffith and Edderline is a joke. I would bet my house that we will not see a post player snag 18 boards in a game from any of Hayfords new recruits. Griffith will be missed more than people think. The guy rebounds and defends.

 

[EWURanger]

agreed on Laron and Cliff E. Laron is a tremendous rebounder and plays D. Not sure where the criticism of Griffin is coming from. Dude fouls way too much which has made him inaffective at times this season, but it's not our "lack of a true big man" thats hurting us, it's the fact that we have no depth there that is.

When we lost players early in the season I said lack of depth would be an issue. We are down two scholarship players and are RSing two others. At this point I think it's safe to say depth is an issue.

 

[c-note]

Laron would make for a good guy coming off the bench and Ederaine is what we call a tweener, too short for the 4 position and not a shooter and ball handler for the 3. Lack of depth has pushed those two into roles that might not have been ideal for them but it is what it is. Previous regime was not known for the recruitment of post players and Chiverton reminds me of an Earlywine recruit to be honest. He had a couple of talented guards that weren't known for sharing the rock. I think we have to wait two more years to really define the program, the effort the team displays now will be somewhat indicative of what we will expect from his teams. Talent level, character and teamism we can start to measure next year and the following year is how he puts it all together.

 

[marceagfan5]

I'm not going to count this team out. I don't think we win tomorrow (but we can), but we will make the big sky conf tourney and I think we win our first round game regardless of home or away. If we do that, you just never know...this team has enough shooters to compete with Weber and Montana. You never want to have a team in a tournament that has the ability to go off from 3 point range and is loaded with seniors, those are the type of teams that can make big runs and this years team, even with all the ups and downs, has the ability to do that.

Colimon is a solid PG who can compete with Lillard and Cherry, and Chiverton (when he is playing well) is a nightmare matchup for every team in our league. Ederline and Laron are different post players, but all the negative things people are saying about them, are also positives because if makes it very difficult for other post players to guard Ederline or Laron.

When it comes down to it...2 of our losses were on a hustle play technical by Chiverton and a 3 pointer by PSU, if neither of those things happen, we are 7-4 in conference and cruising to the 3 seed. We also took the Griz to the wire in Missoula which very well could be the site of the conference tourney. This team has the ability and has shown some glimpses, the past 4 weeks have been difficult, but I still believe these guys make a tourney run.

 

[Eagle1990]

LOL. Your "tweener" had 18 rebounds, 15 points and 6 assists the last game and is shooting .49%, averaging 8 rebs and 3 assists per game (over 2 more per game than Hayford recruit Chiverton). Laron is shooting 62%. The issue is not our inside game. When was the last good post player we had? EWU has rarely had good posts, or the Big Sky for that matter. It is a guard league and always will be. You are right that Chiverton is reminiscent of the mistakes that Earlywine made early in a couple of guards, however, Forbes, Dean, Winford, Collimon were/are good guards. Hayford make the same mistake Earlywine did taking a transfer with baggage. While I agree that future teams with Hayford's guys will better define his tenure, it isn't too early to evaluate. We don't play good defense, share the ball and Chiverton is likely a mistake. Next year will be more interesting given that most, if not all, will be Coach's guys. Time will tell.