GDT: Jackrabbits(1) vs Golden Eagles(4) 5:45pm@Pentagon Midco/ESPN+

[jackdaniel]

my gosh!!!!! i dont even know where to begin. TIRED my asssssssss!!! yes BS was tired at the end of game, i believe it but it had NOTHING to do with how many minutes he played last week. it was becasue he had to play a bunch of maxed out minutes in todays game bc we have nobody left on the bench. i have said before, if you want to have a discussion about conditioning and off season workouts and preparation, maybe i can buy that. i do NOT know what is true i do not have evidence that we are at a disadvantage in this area compared to our competition!! but if you think we are tired then just get to the level of condidion where that discussion is NEVER possible.

i have known players who averaged over 35 minutes a game and played deep into post season every year and dominated every year in post season. TO YOUR POINT, pretty sure Abmas led the league in minutes played.he seemed to play just fine today.

for years as a coach i told my players do NOT tell me that you cannot prove that you deserve to play bc you do not get enough minutes in the game. EVERY day in practice is your chance to prove it. sure there is a comfort level with more minutes but you can tell in practice if someone is ready or not. mfum and fiegen clearly are NOT. and we had very few games where they could have had sustained minutes. i cannot go into all this bc i rally do not want to write a book today and i think everyone has explained it well enough. not a single thing hendo can do about NF, except the absolutely exceptional job he is already doing!!!!! could not be more proud of the way he has handled this!!!! when he goes into some kids living room and tells his parents that he cares first and foremost about thier son as a person, the way he has handled the NF situation is all the proof anyone will ever need!!!! you say this person and that person is the dude, well hendo is the mother F ing DUDE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the whole argument about the girls is meaningless. totally different situations. it is many many many times easier to become develop a great WBB program. again not going to lay this all out for you but for one just look at the teams the girls can schedule to come INTO frost!! you think it does not help recruiting in an amazaing way to tell girls that they will play on their home floor in against notre dame and oregon and oklahoma and............................... they guys have to play home games against wayne f ing state

it is much easier for the girls to have 12 players who have the ability to contribute at the D! level and yet AJ still has players EVERY year at end of bench who play very small minutes. and even AJ and the girls could not overcome the loss of CPOY talent and starting talent. the depth that they developed this year when they had to play bigger role in SLT could not get it done. so lets get over this BS argument

2year ago hendo not head coach. i actuall do agree with you that otz did not develop depth that year. but i believe bc he knew not coming back after daum gone. but that is speculative and not really worth getting into here. but krueger was a kid who DID have talent to play and did not get enough opportunity. but Daum did not only struggle in game against WIU in tourney. he struggled the ENTIRE year!!!!!!! he shot almost 45% from 3 for first 3 years. senior year he shoots 29%. two previous year he had some monster games in the 40s with 6+ 3s. senior year not a single 40pt effort. any way i could go on but Daum was hurt they played a team in consecutive games to end season begin SLT and WIU had the players and the plan to make life difficult for that team and with daum not daum the others could not get it done.

any way, so 3 year ago we have best player in history of our school playing at about 70% and had to have surgery after season and did not participate in pre draft work and barely played in summer league bc was not recovered

last year we have CPOY of year O. U. T. understand???????? how did that work for the apparently breathing reincarnation of john wooden and the girls this year???? not too damn good. they played their butts off but could not get it done. and big tip of cap to omaha for playing incredibly well !!!! probably best game they have played in MANY!!!!! years but they did it

this year we have first team pre season all conference. during season top ten in nation in made 3s and 3% need to opt out to attend to his mental health. wingett goes down. and DW maybe still not totally over foot issue but definitely has a back problem that is so bad that he did not practice the week before SLT. he still played his butt off in both games. do you remember larry bird at end of career when he could not sit on bench when out of game?? he was still larry bird and still had the fire and played with all he had but he could not play like larry bird night in and night out

what do you want dude?? we NEVER had the team this year that we thought we would have. somebody was hurt all year. ended the year with 7 healthy D1 players. still won the conference despite NOT being the most talented team. ORU is easily the deepest and most talented team in the conference and i still thought our guys had a great chance to win tonight. and they did. the mistakes they made tonight they have made all year. they are not a perfect team. NEVER WERE and i have said that REPEATEDLY on this forum this year! but they play together and they do a lot of little things correctly and more often than not playing as a team overcomes their deficit in talent. i not even sure that the team we had to end year is in top 4 most talented in this conference. UMKC puts some dudes on the floor. coach nagy preached it all the time TEAM beats TALENT every day adn this team has proved that many times. but they played an incredibly talented team tonight who is playing very very well and they took them to the wire.

you got me so worked up with this we are tired and hendo does not do a good job and we should have a team with 10 guys who can come in at any time and play equal to first team all conference guys that i couldnt even say how bad it sucks to put forth such an effort and then lose on an offensive board after totally owning the boards the whole night. for me it is absolutely the crappiest possible way to lose a game.

i cant even imagine how many times i said to my team if they make a great shot to beat us then they make a great shot to beat us but if we lost because we got them to miss a shot and we give up an offensive board y all will have nightmares about that forever. wow glad i am not coaching. gonna leave a bad enough scar as a fan but i bet hendo will have ugly memories about that for long time. do NOT get me wrong it NEVER is all about the last play!!! too often fans and others only remember the last few minutes. but obviously ONE more bucket would have been the difference so there hundred different plays that could make that difference. but that is a particularly IRONIC and sucky way to have this game and this season end

Although your whole post is great, and I read it all, what I've highlighted stands out to me because it's kind of a pet peeve of mine , every time it happens I'm yelling at the TV , great defense, but block out, go for the ball, it's anybody's who wants it, too often it's the opposition. Guess what, after great defense the first time , the put back seems like it always goes in. Very frustrating if you see it too much over and over. Anyway, glad you brought it up, was beginning to wonder if this bothered anyone else, or if I was just being too nit-picky. Again, great post.

[da_coach]

Really good season from the guys, and the coaching staff.

I'm not pointing any fingers, or laying any blame, and maybe that's just mid major basketball... but it sure seems like people shot well against the Jackrabbits this year.
Once will happen
Two is a trend
Three and more... IDK what it is, but ORU (twice), USD (twice), NDSU (once) lit it up against the Jackrabbit defense.

Just not as good defensively as I had hoped they would be. And I'm not saying they didn't play hard. And they're weren't a ton of blown assignments (at least to us, the casual fans).

Very talented group, still won the regular season title, get Noah back... Doug returning... and a couple highly regarded freshmen coming in.

I love Coach Hendo. Love him. Great staff. Great kids. (seriously, have you ever met any of the kids on the team... such good people)

This is life as a mid major basketball fan. We've won a lot more close games, and hit many more game winners than our opponents over the years.

I enjoy this team, these players, and these coaches. I hope they regroup, and come back stronger than ever next year.

[LetsGoRabbits]

oh NO JD you can rest assured knowing that you are NOT alone in your pain!! we obviously are generally a VERY good rebounding team, but we consistently give up some painful O boards. WOW was last night the absolutely WORST perfect example of that. we totally dominated them on the boards. probably one of the biggest reasons we were even in the game. i mean if we do not completely OWN them on the boards, particularly in the first half that game is maybe really really close to OVER at half.

and as i said, if we went back and watch that game, i think we can find AT LEAST 50 places to get the ONE extra bucket we need, either by adding to ours or subtracting from theirs. so i am NOT saying we lost game bc of final play. and to DW defense, i believe the mistake he made is the mistake he most commonly makes and truly i think it is the mistake the whole team makes. he was trying to do just a little too much. he seemed to be try to keep one eye on MA and one eye on KO. and credit to KO he did a very good job of getting douglas stuck just a tiny bit too far under the bucket

of course i do not know exact what was plan in huddle, but it did not seem like we were wanting to get ball out of MA hands. so i am guess plan was let mims do best he can one on one and make sure they do not get a second chance and i think the announcers even said that they saw BS tell everyone leaving the huddle to box out, which would kinda confirm that plan. still hard, however, to not want to help a little on the leading scorer in the country but leaving the leading rebounder in the conference even slightly under attended under the bucket is not ideal either. obviously!!! and the way EVERY other guy on the team was dropping shots WHERE exactly should help come from. again ALL CREDIT to ORU they are VERY talented!! i truly believe they are significantly the most talented team in the conference and when they put it all together and they shoot well they are very very hard to beat

but yeah losing on an o board is wildly and painfully ironic and it sucks about as much as it possibly could!!! my hope now SINCE WE have THE WHOLE TEAM returning is that this will be so DAMN PAINFUL for them that we will never lose another game this way. but i can say from many years of coaching, lots of players are stubbornly resistant to learning this lesson. i think hendo REALLY stresses boards and i know for a fact that there was not one thing that coach nagy talked about more but it still happened. anyway, you are definitely NOT alone in your pain)) for whatever that is worth))

sorry for going off again, but this is a very short version of me talking about rebounding. i can go off about this endlessly. ask my son) haha i am sure he felt a great dred the second the game ended that way bc he knew he would have to hear about it WAAAYYYYYYYY more than he wants to)

[LetsGoRabbits]

hey coach i LOVE everything you say about this team and coach and players and program. and we are so so blessed to be rabbit fans and have been for really my entire life and or the last 50+ years. it does seem that someone is often going off on us shooting wise, but when i look at the stats they say that we are a solid defensive team. NOT great or elite by any means, but NOT terrible either.

i think some of it is the teams you listed have some REALLY talented offensive players. ORU is loaded. 2 guys who could hang around on an nba bench perhaps but definitely will be able to make money playing bball in europe for as long as they want to and a bunch of other LONG fellas who can all shoot. our southern redheaded step brother has stan and AJP who are both really really difficult to stop and bunch of other guys who are not bad shooters.

those 2 teams did not ONLY shoot well against the jacks this year. they shot well against EVERYONE. again abmas is leading scorer in country and his percentages are nuts. and AJP last half of season was putting up almost 30 a game and shooting something like 50 fg% 55 3% and 98 ft% so it is not just the jacks. every time the jacks lose several people here want to say something about the jacks suck at this or the jacks suck at that

you know there are 2 teams in every game and BOTH teams are trying really hard to win and sometimes the other team is pretty good

i dont think ndsu is quite as good at shooting, but they simply ALWAYS find some way to be a pain in the butt!!! one game they come at you with D, one game they own the boards, one game they shoot it, etc....... they just find a way

and UMKC and UND are pretty good too. little scary that J Alick is only sophomore. he could be a problem. i guess what i am saying is i think the summit is looking really strong going forward and i think the jacks will be as strong as anyone. strong conference is a really really good thing for the jacks since it is IMPOSSIBLE for us to schedule OOC home games against respectable opponents

[LetsGoRabbits]

conference defensive stats, just to add some numbers to the conversation, for whatever they are worth:

defensive FG%
usd- 42%
umkc- 43.3%
oru- 43.4%
jacks- 43.6%
ndsu- 43.8%
everyone else between 46.5- 47.7%

defensive 3pt fg%

umkc- 32.5%
ndsu- 33.9%
oru- 34.6%
usd- 34.8%
jacks- 35%

everyone else 38.2- 39.4%

and the counter to that the jacks lead league in both fg% and 3pt fg% on offense. usually a solid victory for success. solid on D. great on the boards. and share it and shoot it well on O. too many unforced turnovers and not great from the ft line. obviously our ft shooting looks a lot better when DW shoots well. i think maybe he has ADHD. every way that he gets himself in trouble has to do with trying to do too much or not slowing down a little. when he puts his feet solidly on the ground and does not fall or fade off the line i believe he shoots over 80% from the line. when he is unstable or just cannot be STILL he shoots 50% at best

again i think he has been hurt basically ALL YEAR. and maybe that is why he seems to try just a little too hard. trying to make up for lost time, last year and this, or overcompensating for being less than 100%

BACK to the conversation of defense. ndsu is kind of the standard for year in year out quality defense. we are better than them overall FG% and only 1% worse in 3pt fg%

i TOTALLY agree with you that it feels like someone is often GOING OFF on the jacks. i have said it MANY times to my son and others who i talk with about this. in quarterfinal UNO has okinwoley, SORRY about spelling go off for 6 threes and the other guy hit 3 in a row in first half. but overall the numbers indicate that we are pretty solid on defense

ONE THING i can say for sure that historically in our most painful losses we have had someone go off from the 3pt line, highlighted by the Northern State/ Ryan Miller tragedy. i know they made 17 threes in that game and i believe they shot over 70% from 3. definitely an ugly scar

metro state went off maybe more shooting in general than 3s in austin hansens junior year

not gonna try to do the whole ugly list but obviously last year PFW went off from 3

so overall it seems that hendo has on the right track defensively, but for this year and historically it feels unfortunately familiar to lose a game to an opponent who makes 14 3s and shoots over 50% from deep

ultimately sometimes BOTH teams play well enough to win and i definitely appreciate that. it is nice to have games where both teams play well. i know we made mistakes in this game but overall our guys played very well and the other team played well too and they made one more play

[blue?]

conference defensive stats, just to add some numbers to the conversation, for whatever they are worth:

defensive FG%
usd- 42%
umkc- 43.3%
oru- 43.4%
jacks- 43.6%
ndsu- 43.8%
everyone else between 46.5- 47.7%

defensive 3pt fg%

umkc- 32.5%
ndsu- 33.9%
oru- 34.6%
usd- 34.8%
jacks- 35%

everyone else 38.2- 39.4%

and the counter to that the jacks lead league in both fg% and 3pt fg% on offense. usually a solid victory for success. solid on D. great on the boards. and share it and shoot it well on O. too many unforced turnovers and not great from the ft line. obviously our ft shooting looks a lot better when DW shoots well. i think maybe he has ADHD. every way that he gets himself in trouble has to do with trying to do too much or not slowing down a little. when he puts his feet solidly on the ground and does not fall or fade off the line i believe he shoots over 80% from the line. when he is unstable or just cannot be STILL he shoots 50% at best

again i think he has been hurt basically ALL YEAR. and maybe that is why he seems to try just a little too hard. trying to make up for lost time, last year and this, or overcompensating for being less than 100%

BACK to the conversation of defense. ndsu is kind of the standard for year in year out quality defense. we are better than them overall FG% and only 1% worse in 3pt fg%

i TOTALLY agree with you that it feels like someone is often GOING OFF on the jacks. i have said it MANY times to my son and others who i talk with about this. in quarterfinal UNO has okinwoley, SORRY about spelling go off for 6 threes and the other guy hit 3 in a row in first half. but overall the numbers indicate that we are pretty solid on defense

ONE THING i can say for sure that historically in our most painful losses we have had someone go off from the 3pt line, highlighted by the Northern State/ Ryan Miller tragedy. i know they made 17 threes in that game and i believe they shot over 70% from 3. definitely an ugly scar

metro state went off maybe more shooting in general than 3s in austin hansens junior year

not gonna try to do the whole ugly list but obviously last year PFW went off from 3

so overall it seems that hendo has on the right track defensively, but for this year and historically it feels unfortunately familiar to lose a game to an opponent who makes 14 3s and shoots over 50% from deep

ultimately sometimes BOTH teams play well enough to win and i definitely appreciate that. it is nice to have games where both teams play well. i know we made mistakes in this game but overall our guys played very well and the other team played well too and they made one more play

Is it fair to guess none of your pregame speeches to your teams are short?

[da_coach]

conference defensive stats, just to add some numbers to the conversation, for whatever they are worth:

defensive FG%
usd- 42%
umkc- 43.3%
oru- 43.4%
jacks- 43.6%
ndsu- 43.8%
everyone else between 46.5- 47.7%

defensive 3pt fg%

umkc- 32.5%
ndsu- 33.9%
oru- 34.6%
usd- 34.8%
jacks- 35%

everyone else 38.2- 39.4%

and the counter to that the jacks lead league in both fg% and 3pt fg% on offense. usually a solid victory for success. solid on D. great on the boards. and share it and shoot it well on O. too many unforced turnovers and not great from the ft line. obviously our ft shooting looks a lot better when DW shoots well. i think maybe he has ADHD. every way that he gets himself in trouble has to do with trying to do too much or not slowing down a little. when he puts his feet solidly on the ground and does not fall or fade off the line i believe he shoots over 80% from the line. when he is unstable or just cannot be STILL he shoots 50% at best

again i think he has been hurt basically ALL YEAR. and maybe that is why he seems to try just a little too hard. trying to make up for lost time, last year and this, or overcompensating for being less than 100%

BACK to the conversation of defense. ndsu is kind of the standard for year in year out quality defense. we are better than them overall FG% and only 1% worse in 3pt fg%

i TOTALLY agree with you that it feels like someone is often GOING OFF on the jacks. i have said it MANY times to my son and others who i talk with about this. in quarterfinal UNO has okinwoley, SORRY about spelling go off for 6 threes and the other guy hit 3 in a row in first half. but overall the numbers indicate that we are pretty solid on defense

ONE THING i can say for sure that historically in our most painful losses we have had someone go off from the 3pt line, highlighted by the Northern State/ Ryan Miller tragedy. i know they made 17 threes in that game and i believe they shot over 70% from 3. definitely an ugly scar

metro state went off maybe more shooting in general than 3s in austin hansens junior year

not gonna try to do the whole ugly list but obviously last year PFW went off from 3

so overall it seems that hendo has on the right track defensively, but for this year and historically it feels unfortunately familiar to lose a game to an opponent who makes 14 3s and shoots over 50% from deep

ultimately sometimes BOTH teams play well enough to win and i definitely appreciate that. it is nice to have games where both teams play well. i know we made mistakes in this game but overall our guys played very well and the other team played well too and they made one more play

You did make me feel better about our defense.

And, LOL at blue. That was funny.

[LetsGoRabbits]

hey blue, what do you mean? i am confused?)))))))) HAHAHAHHHHH SORRY everyone. i took today off in advance. was planning to watch the jacks play 2 today. so i am a little bored and a little hardup for jacks hoops)

believe me i could say a lot more if you want more stuff to talk about))

[blue?]

hey blue, what do you mean? i am confused?)))))))) HAHAHAHHHHH SORRY everyone. i took today off in advance. was planning to watch the jacks play 2 today. so i am a little bored and a little hardup for jacks hoops)

believe me i could say a lot more if you want more stuff to talk about))

All in good fun. Love your passion. I usually take off a day in advance to catch up on your posts

[LetsGoRabbits]

hey buddy i definitely took it in good fun. i am too dumb to be easily insulted))))) and i am happy to give you something to do with your vacation days)) HAHAHHHH

[wcbsas]

Although your whole post is great, and I read it all, what I've highlighted stands out to me because it's kind of a pet peeve of mine , every time it happens I'm yelling at the TV , great defense, but block out, go for the ball, it's anybody's who wants it, too often it's the opposition. Guess what, after great defense the first time , the put back seems like it always goes in. Very frustrating if you see it too much over and over. Anyway, glad you brought it up, was beginning to wonder if this bothered anyone else, or if I was just being too nit-picky. Again, great post.

The last play disappoints me a little

... penetration that deep into the paint should not have happened. The guard off to the left didn’t do enough to help deny penetration. Gap help was poor. He stood and waved his hands.
... Wilson started blocking his guy out, but I thought he let up rather than maintaining his blockout with intensity.
... the forward on the right side who’s guy was set up in the corner didn’t even try to rebound. Go get the freakin ball.

Again it is just one play!

[LetsGoRabbits]

here is somehting that has been spoken about but here is perhaps a slightly different and interesting perspective.

we have 4 really good teams in our conference. i really think if you played this tournament 100 times each of ORU, NDSU, usd, and the jacks would win it at least 15 to 20 times. i have said many times i believe ORU is the most talented team. anyway in a SLT with 4 really equally matched teams, which 2 survived to make the final????

the two that are MOST healthy. it matters and there is no getting around it

the jacks came into this tourney with 9 uniformed players. 7 D1 level players who were healthy enough to play and the most physically gifted of those 7 is definitely not completely healthy

[LetsGoRabbits]

looks like ORU is going to continue with their white hot shooting. NDSU could be in serious trouble. KO has i think 17pts in under 12 minutes

[Southeast]

If I had an ORU shirt I’d be wearing it right now. They embarrassed NDSU in that first half. When that team is on, they’re REALLY on. They play a fun style too, which is nice when they share the court with NDSU.

I expect a run from NDSU, but boy are they buried right now.

[goon]

Im sticking with its the nevue. Honestly cant imagine we have a good winning percentage there.