Middle Tennessee (12/31/08)

[UNTflyer]

Tough loss. We didn't play very well at all. 39% from the floor and 65% from the charity stripe, yet we had a 10-point lead with less than 10 minutes to play. Mangrum was a bright spot, hitting 5 3-pointers.

[gruu]

MTSU 89

NT 80

Final

DAMN!!!

[Travis Scott]

very tough loss. The crowd was more than I expected given the day and time of the game. no students as expected but when school is back in session, our attendence should be awesome. I was pumped for the turnout. the team had good energy but could not score from the paint. we had countless misses on tip-ins and the like. stewart had great hussle but missed too many shots. if he can pick up his scoring he could really be a strong senior leader on this team.

[CMJ]

It was a quality team we lost to today, but that doesn't make it any easier. This was a crushing defeat.

I have no idea where we're going from here. This is as distraught as I've been since that losing 3 game streak we had last year in conference play. But at least with those...2 of them were on the road. After that streak though, we had arguably our biggest win of the season over USA.

Hopefully we can right this ship by UALR, or this could go south very fast.

[Side Show Joe]

It's a long season, and I believe JJ will get this turned around. Although, I am worried about trying to turn it around on the road.

[Green Dozer]

JJ does not seem settled on a line up, ran several different ones this afternoon. We were right in it, and then it is just like a plug fell out, and the energy just drained. Good crowd who was really into it today.

[NT80]

NT up by 12 in the second half only to lose by 9 as soon as the Muts went to the press. We cannot get our offense going when pressed. We stopped shooting 3's and didn't drive to the basket. Out rebounded the whole game and we wouldn't dunk to save our lives, so we just rim several lazy layups out instead. We didn't go after their top scorer with 4 fouls until he added another 10 points, poor strategy. JJ still seems to be shuffling the lineups but it was obvious some of the combos lacked either defense or offense. Not a whole reason for the loss but one of the three officials again seemed way out of line in his calls, thought JJ was going on the court after him once.

Edited January 1, 2009 by NT80

[FirefightnRick]

NT up by 12 in the second half only to lose by 9 as soon as the Muts went to the press. We cannot get our offense going when pressed. We stopped shooting 3's and didn't drive to the basket. Out rebounded the whole game and we wouldn't dunk to save our lives, so we just rim several lazy layups out instead. We didn't go after their top scorer with 4 fouls until he added another 10 points, poor strategy. JJ still seems to be shuffling the lineups but it was obvious some of the combos lacked either defense or offense. Not a whole reason for the loss but one of the three officials again seemed way out of line in his calls, thought JJ was going on the court after him once.

I just got back in town and got to go to both games today. I'll simply agree with 80's assesment about the men's game. Ton's of wasted lay up/in opportunities. This game shouldn't have even been close. I cannot believe how it is that this team just can't seem to put their opponents away when they need to? It's like we just go to sleep about the time the other team makes a push. We still can't handle a press. If I were another conference coach I'd press us the entire game.

Rick

Edited January 1, 2009 by FirefightnRick

[GrandGreen]

Has JJ' team every benefited from trying to run clock. With all the momentum NT goes into a semi stall and almost immediately loses a ten point lead. With an official crew calling anything close to contact, why didn't NT's quick guards just drive to the baskets as the Muts did. Without Magrum this game would have been a rout. The team played hard but missed a great number of layups and had no offensive flow. Those that discounted the loss to New Orleans should now recognize that this team is no better than mediore at this point. Throwing up three's with no inside game is not going to win a lot of games.