The Holy Land of Hoops

One game Monday night...

Mon Nov 27th:
Eastern Illinois at Marquette, 8pm EST.

The Panthers of Eastern Illinois, of the OVC, are 1-3, losing at Nebraska by 4, losing at Western Illinois by 2, beating UIPUI by 1 at home, losing at San Diego State by 31, and beating up on Div-3 Fontbonne out of St Louis by a score of 96-44. Over the next 10 days Eastern lllinois plays at Marquette, Bradley and Green Bay, then on to South Alabama, then they host Western Illinois in what must be a pretty strong rivalry I'm gonna guess.

Former students and/or alums of Eastern Illinois include singer-actor Burl Ives, who we young kids might only recognize for playing the narrator in one of those Rudolph Christmas shows... and former Trailblazer star Kevin Duckworth... but more recently EIU has produced Tony Romo, and if you're a fan of the Patriots/49ers, Jimmy Garappolo.

Here's an interesting EIU alum for all you old-tyme Milwaukee Brewers fans and KC Royals fans... innings-eater Marty Pattin, who also had a cup of coffee as a Red Sox starter in like 1972... i think Boston traded George Scott in his prime for one year of Marty Pattin for '72, right around the time they traded Sparky Lyle for Danny Cater... crazy, right? What a team Boston would have had in 74-75-76. Not sure, but the genius Red Sox front office then traded with Milwaukee to get an old George Scott back in like 77, by handing the Brewers a young Cecil Cooper... omg, infuriating, right?... it wasn't easy being a Sox fan back then. But looking back, the 1974 Pawtucket Red Sox must've had Cooper, Lynn and Rice at some point. Wow!

Seeing Marquette down 4 with 6:38 to go. When combined with Cheatham's pretty sudden departure, is something up? E Illinois lost by 4 to Nebraska and by 31 to San Diego St.

come on marquette....

OT! 68 apiece.

wow that was close

That was an awful performance by Marquette. Hauser keep them in it. They didn't lead in the 2nd half. Tied it and went to OT. So many missed bunnies. Lucky, but will take it.

Big East is getting pretty lucky with the close games (this'll probably be a Stever talking point), but a win is a win! Take all of them and be thankful. I do think in the case of SJU at least, some of it is luck but some maturity.

Just out of the past 4 games, we've had Marquette, Butler, and SJU pulling out wins. I wonder what the conference is in close games...

Like any airplane landing, any one that you can walk away from is a good one. Take it and move on.

adoraz wrote:Big East is getting pretty lucky with the close games (this'll probably be a Stever talking point), but a win is a win! Take all of them and be thankful. I do think in the case of SJU at least, some of it is luck but some maturity.

Just out of the past 4 games, we've had Marquette, Butler, and SJU pulling out wins. I wonder what the conference is in close games...

I do think the close games are huge. Definitely at least helps with the RPI. The thing you see is with advanced metrics. Marquette dropped tonight in KP from 52 to 58. As we see advanced metrics used more and more- that's going to become a much bigger factor I think.

Just looking the Big East is 7-1 so far in games 5 points or less.

Bad, bad, bad game for us. I am happy to come away with the win. I am willing to call this one a mulligan as Cheatham's somewhat unexpected exit could have had an effect on team psyche coming into the game. Hopefully we will rebound but I will hold my judgment until we get done with our games against Georgia and Vermont. Those will be the soonest test of whether This team is truly broken without Haanif.