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Pressure's Off

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NJCat83588

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Jun 5, 2001
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I think the background chatter in some of the media about this "finally" being the break though year for the NCAA will stop now, and in the end it might be a good thing for this team. Going into the season NU was probably a very long shot at very best, and as tight as the Cats play at home you can't help but wonder if the pressure of getting the monkey off their back has gotten to them. Collins alluded to it in his press conference where he talked about the poor 3-point shooting and how at home the crowd began to groan with each miss, and said he can't blame then, he's groaning inside too. Watching Tre in his press conference you can tell just how much this loss hurts, he was just devastated. And while I really am hoping for a good win, 2 weeks from tonight we'll probably be sitting 3-7 and facing a really uphill climb for any post season play.

The season isn't over by any stretch. But somehow NU needs to relax and get their confidence back. This team is built to hit 3's and sitting last in the Big 10 in shooting isn't an Rx for success.
 
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Turk_rivals223269

Junior
May 29, 2001
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NJCat said:
I think the background chatter in some of the media about this "finally" being the break though year for the NCAA will stop now, and in the end it might be a good thing for this team. Going into the season NU was probably a very long shot at very best, and as tight as the Cats play at home you can't help but wonder if the pressure of getting the monkey off their back has gotten to them. Collins alluded to it in his press conference where he talked about the poor 3-point shooting and how at home the crowd began to groan with each miss, and said he can't blame then, he's groaning inside too. Watching Tre in his press conference you can tell just how much this loss hurts, he was just devastated. And while I really am hoping for a good win, 2 weeks from tonight we'll probably be sitting 3-7 and facing a really uphill climb for any post season play.

The season isn't over by any stretch. But somehow NU needs to relax and get their confidence back. This team is built to hit 3's and sitting last in the Big 10 in shooting isn't an Rx for success.
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They will be fine. This team is capable. Capable of losing to any team or beating any team. The pressure will always be on. If it isn't for the NCAA then it will be for the NIT. And the pressure to win, in general. I'm not sure the term devastating applies here. There was nothing devastating about last night. Was it a bummer? Yes, as it always seems to be the case that whether it be football or BB, when the bright lights are shining in sellout crowds, we put up a stinker. That said, we play well away. My gosh, dude, this is only our 4th loss this season. I think if we only lose 10 games then it will have been a helluva year. When we lost Law, I figured we would have about 7 losses by now, but along the way these kids have found ways to win tight games and become competitive regardless of competition.
 
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YesterdaysCat

Junior
Dec 7, 2015
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NUCat320 said:
It's called "regression to the mean."
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Let me know when Alabama football regresses to the mean as if it's a force of nature like gravity. Let me know when it happens to MSU basketball, too.

This team didn't regress to the mean. The team has been throwing up a ton of 3-pointers and when they don't fall there's no adjustment to take it to the rim or go inside.

This team hasn't beaten anybody of note. Now when we upset Maryland MSU and then lose to OSU again, or something like that, then you can talk about regression.

But nice try.
 
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NUCat320

Senior
Dec 4, 2005
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YesterdaysCat said:
Let me know when Alabama football regresses to the mean as if it's a force of nature like gravity. Let me know when it happens to MSU basketball, too.

This team didn't regress to the mean. The team has been throwing up a ton of 3-pointers and when they don't fall there's no adjustment to take it to the rim or go inside.

This team hasn't beaten anybody of note. Now when we upset Maryland MSU and then lose to OSU again, or something like that, then you can talk about regression.

But nice try.
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The original statement was 'big stage and we flub.' Regression to the mean is that phenomenon, defined as a term.

Whether last night was a big stage is debatable (the crowd says it was, the lack of highlights on national sports shows says it probably wasn't), but that is the comment I was responding to.

Historically, NU tends to lose when it puts together very good runs of games because, historically, NU is not good enough to put together very good runs.
 
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mikewebb68

Senior
Oct 24, 2009
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YesterdaysCat said:
Let me know when Alabama football regresses to the mean as if it's a force of nature like gravity. Let me know when it happens to MSU basketball, too.

This team didn't regress to the mean. The team has been throwing up a ton of 3-pointers and when they don't fall there's no adjustment to take it to the rim or go inside.

This team hasn't beaten anybody of note. Now when we upset Maryland MSU and then lose to OSU again, or something like that, then you can talk about regression.

But nice try.
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Well, it only took a week for MSU basketball to regress....
 
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M

Medill90

Junior
Jan 30, 2011
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I haven't caught up with all the post game threads but the narrative about PSU being a crappy team are off the mark. PSU is well coached and its talent level will increase on par with NU's talent improvement.

Anyone who thinks PSU is still a bottom-dweller reads last week's newspaper to get tomorrow's weather.

Law and Rap will give next year's team something this team doesn't have. The ability to make something happen on offense from 15 feet in.

Next year's team will be a step up. The year after, NU should be pretty scary.
 
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Windy City Cat Fan

Sophomore
May 29, 2001
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PSU lost by double digits to Duquesne (26 point loss) and something called the Radford Highlanders (12 point loss). They are bad and you absolutely can not lose to them at home.
 
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Turk_rivals223269

Junior
May 29, 2001
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NJCat said:
Agree. That was a bad loss. Only losing to Rutgers would be worse.
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It's pretty bad when NU is your signature road win, and signature win of the year. Certainly, inexcusable for us to not only lose but look like the much worse team. That City ball "Give me the ball" team just spanked us hard.

We gotta play better basketball, as the PSU loss makes fans wonder if maybe we were just playing above ourselves against a avg Wisconsin team. One thing is for sure, when we lose, we lose easily. There are no 'tight losses'. I don't mean that as a necessarily bad thing because we have found a way to gobble up the close games into the win column. Moral to the season,

"keep it close, stupid! And we win"
 
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NJCat83588

Senior
Jun 5, 2001
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Turk said:
It's pretty bad when NU is your signature road win, and signature win of the year.
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Someday, I hope beating NU will actually BE a signature win! Can't wait until NU is firmly entrenched in the upper half of the Big 10. Need several more good recruiting classes.
 
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Fitz51

Senior
Oct 21, 2008
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NJCat said:
Someday, I hope beating NU will actually BE a signature win! Can't wait until NU is firmly entrenched in the upper half of the Big 10. Need several more good recruiting classes.
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We need a lot more than that to be firmly entrenched. 20 years hasn't been enough for football.
 
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Turk_rivals223269

Junior
May 29, 2001
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Fitz51 said:
We need a lot more than that to be firmly entrenched. 20 years hasn't been enough for football.
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I've seen basketball teams rise up very quickly since the amount of building and scholarships are a lot less than putting together 22 starters on a field. Some coaches have taken crap teams to the NCAA's in a matter of 1 or 2 years. That's not how it will work here because of academics but I would be shocked if Collins doesn't bring the Cats to the NCAA's next year or in 2018.
 
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NJCat83588

Senior
Jun 5, 2001
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Turk said:
I would be shocked if Collins doesn't bring the Cats to the NCAA's next year or in 2018.
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Not me. Collins himself talks all the time about how hard it is to win in the Big 10. He faces two challenges no other Big 10 coach faces: academics, and facilities. Players win in this conference, and he needs to recruit guys who are above average Big 10 players with at best one hand tied behind his back. May take more time than we think. We'll see.
 
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Catreporter

Senior
Sep 4, 2007
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NJCat said:
Not me. Collins himself talks all the time about how hard it is to win in the Big 10. He faces two challenges no other Big 10 coach faces: academics, and facilities. Players win in this conference, and he needs to recruit guys who are above average Big 10 players with at best one hand tied behind his back. May take more time than we think. We'll see.
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The thing people lose sight of is how hard it is to make the NCAA playing in the Big Ten. NIU may make the dance this year partly because the MAC is having a bad cycle. They just have to win their tourney. Nobody in that league has any good wins this year. NIU only has three losses but two were by double digits to BIG teams. On the other hand, in what some call a mediocre BIG, we have six teams that appear to be locks for NCAA already (Mich,MSU,Iowa,Indiana,Maryland,Purdue), which probably means NU would have to beat out the rest of the teams, including perennial NCAA participant Ohio State, to just get on the bubble, so, yes, this could take quite a bit of time and good fortune on the injury front.
 
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hdhntr1

All-Conference
Sep 5, 2006
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Turk said:
They will be fine. This team is capable. Capable of losing to any team or beating any team. The pressure will always be on. If it isn't for the NCAA then it will be for the NIT. And the pressure to win, in general. I'm not sure the term devastating applies here. There was nothing devastating about last night. Was it a bummer? Yes, as it always seems to be the case that whether it be football or BB, when the bright lights are shining in sellout crowds, we put up a stinker. That said, we play well away. My gosh, dude, this is only our 4th loss this season. I think if we only lose 10 games then it will have been a helluva year. When we lost Law, I figured we would have about 7 losses by now, but along the way these kids have found ways to win tight games and become competitive regardless of competition.
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It has to do with our talent level generally being below that of our opponents. When it is a big game, it is just that for both sides. No sneaking up on anyone as they are also aware just how big a game it is as well. Maybe we are approaching the level of a number of our opponents in BB but we are not quite there yet.
 
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