Official NIT Hype Thread

[Bay Area Billiken]

Miss. State is loaded with talent, looks like an NBA team, plays 6’10” & 6’11” bigs together, starts a 6’9” wing. Best player is Molinar, 6’3” guard from Panama. Ben Howland is a good coach. 

[wgstl]

32 minutes ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

Miss. State is loaded with talent, looks like an NBA team, plays 6’10” & 6’11” bigs together, starts a 6’9” wing. Best player is Molinar, 6’3” guard from Panama. Ben Howland is a good coach. 

Molinar is good, and so is stewart. But after that, the team can’t score, and most importantly can’t shoot 3s. Our defense’s are the same. 

[billikenfan05]

53 minutes ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

Miss. State is loaded with talent, looks like an NBA team, plays 6’10” & 6’11” bigs together, starts a 6’9” wing. Best player is Molinar, 6’3” guard from Panama. Ben Howland is a good coach. 

If the Billikens show up with effort, and take this tournament seriously we will win. Mississippi State is nothing special. Molinar is the only real consistent 3 point threat statistically speaking. 

[Bay Area Billiken]

Winning in the NIT is a lot about attitude.  Texas won the NIT in '19.

The Good Billikens can win this NIT and hoist a Championship banner at Chaifetz Arena next season.

[Compton]

43 minutes ago, billikenfan05 said:

If the Billikens show up with effort, and take this tournament seriously we will win. Mississippi State is nothing special. Molinar is the only real consistent 3 point threat statistically speaking. 

Jalen Johnson is also pretty consistent from 3. 

[billikenfan05]

6 minutes ago, Compton said:

Jalen Johnson is also pretty consistent from 3. 

Fair, but from what I've watched he doesn't get much run and is only averaging 5 a game.

[wgstl]

They are a very good rebounding team, and play 10 players

[brianstl]

We should win the game, but what scares me is that State is pretty good at dictating the tempo.  If we let them slow this game down, we could be in trouble.  Our last 3 losses we really let our opponents slow the pace which lead to a higher turnover rate and a lower effective field goal %.  When the talent is closer we aren't nearly as good if we aren't playing at a faster pace.

[wgstl]

5 minutes ago, brianstl said:

We should win the game, but what scares me is that State is pretty good at dictating the tempo.  If we let them slow this game down, we could be in trouble.  Our last 3 losses we really let our opponents slow the pace which lead to a higher turnover rate and a lower effective field goal %.  When the talent is closer we aren't nearly as good if we aren't playing at a faster pace.

True, also vcu and bonnies are both in the top 17 in defense, while state is 59th, so hoping that gives.

[Bay Area Billiken]

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

 Here’s 4 Shamrocks for the 4 Wins for the Billikens to win the NIT!

[CBFan]

I am excited about finally having high speed internet at the Lake of the Ozarks at my new place that I will be able to watch my beloved Billikens instead of listening on KMOX.

I am now past my disappointment of missing the big dance and now into the NIT that I think will be dominated by the A10 conference.

I just love watching my team play and when the season is over it’s a long wait for December.

[wgstl]

13 minutes ago, CBFan said:

I am now past my disappointment of missing the big dance and now into the NIT

Lucky.  I really don't think I'll be there until November 

[billiken_roy]

2 hours ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

Miss. State is loaded with talent, looks like an NBA team, plays 6’10” & 6’11” bigs together, starts a 6’9” wing. Best player is Molinar, 6’3” guard from Panama. Ben Howland is a good coach. 

if he is such a good coach, with that kind of size and talent, why isnt he a number one seed undefeated this year?

[RUBillsFan]

1 hour ago, wgstl said:

Molinar is good, and so is stewart. But after that, the team can’t score, and most importantly can’t shoot 3s. Our defense’s are the same. 

Mississippi State is a lot like the Billikens last season.  Nothing special on offense except for offensive rebounding.  Terrible at FTs.  Very good on defense.  They even have their own Perkins type scorer in Molinar.

This game is going to be about effort / execution.  Box out and prevent offensive rebounds and I'm fairly confident our defense can hold them.  On offense, we need to move the ball side to side near the rim / pump fake to avoid easy blocked shots / kick it out to open shooters rather than forcing up shots into or over their bigs.    Our best offense may be turning them over and scoring on the break.  They turn the ball over a pretty decent amount.

If we don't get out in transition, force things inside & get stuffed repeatedly, and allow a bunch of O rebs, we're toast.

Basically we need to do the exact opposite of what we did vs the Bonnies.  I feel like our plan was to try to get Osun in early foul trouble.  This isn't /wasn't a terrible plan, but it didn't work / ended up with a bunch of blocked shots.  Mississippi State has so many big guys that it doesn't matter if we get 1 or 2 in foul trouble, so forcing it inside is a terrible strategy.

Run Jalen Johnson off the 3pt line if he's in the game and make him defend in space.

[Littlebill]

1 hour ago, billikenfan05 said:

Fair, but from what I've watched he doesn't get much run and is only averaging 5 a game.

He'll be far and away the worst athlete on the floor. Including Ford and probably Howland

[Bay Area Billiken]

17 minutes ago, billiken_roy said:

if he is such a good coach, with that kind of size and talent, why isnt he a number one seed undefeated this year?

I don’t know, haven’t seen Miss. State play enough. I’m reading they play slow down, which is Ben Howland’s style. That landed him into disfavor at UCLA. 
 

I saw Howland in person coach for UCLA at Cal, and was favorably impressed with his bench coaching.

[Box and Won]

1 hour ago, CBFan said:

I am excited about finally having high speed internet at the Lake of the Ozarks at my new place that I will be able to watch my beloved Billikens instead of listening on KMOX.

I am now past my disappointment of missing the big dance and now into the NIT that I think will be dominated by the A10 conference.

I just love watching my team play and when the season is over it’s a long wait for December.

Lake

Grill/smoker

Beer

Billiken basketball

Sounds like a pretty good combo.

[HoosierPal]

1 hour ago, CBFan said:

I am excited about finally having high speed internet at the Lake of the Ozarks at my new place that I will be able to watch my beloved Billikens instead of listening on KMOX.

Sync up the TV broadcast with the radio.  It's the only way to follow Billiken basketball from a remote location, in my opinion.

[Cowboy]

9 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

Sync up the TV broadcast with the radio.  It's the only way to follow Billiken basketball from a remote location, in my opinion.

-I hope that next season Rammer and Earl travel to away games as they, especially Rammer, were not as good as when they are at the games

-I understand it is difficult to call a basketball game using a feed and they did the best they could with the circumstances

[Taj79]

I saw Dayton beat Mississippi State 85 to 82 on December 12.  That game went 2 overtimes at YouDee.  They were tied at 64 in regulation.  Smith, Molinar and Stewart all had decent games.  Three Miss State starters fouled out.   Dayton had Chatman and Johnson (15 each) at the time.  Neither team got anything from their benches and State shot 29% from three and 41% from the line.  It was a slugfest inside and Crutcher took over at the end of the second overtime getting fouled and making free throws.

This has all the makings of a slugfest as I see it.

[3star_recruit]

6 hours ago, Bay Area Billiken said:

Miss. State is loaded with talent, looks like an NBA team, plays 6’10” & 6’11” bigs together, starts a 6’9” wing. Best player is Molinar, 6’3” guard from Panama. Ben Howland is a good coach. 

Miss State has more talent than us but they have a tendency to play low IQ ball too often throughout the game.  If they ever figure out how to stop shooting themselves in the foot, they will be dangerous.

[slufan13]

I could be misremembering because I am trying to forget this season for the most part but it seemed to me that early in the season we let the defense clog the paint early in games and we used the 3 pointer to eventually spread the floor and let our guys get in the paint. Then later in the season, opponents still clogged the paint but we tried to take it inside anyway. 

[wgstl]

2 hours ago, billiken_roy said:

if he is such a good coach, with that kind of size and talent, why isnt he a number one seed undefeated this year?

Is team is mainly sophomores..

[Compton]

Would not mind if this year starts a trend of the NIT Final Four not always being at MSG and maybe it expanding beyond just the Final Four to more of the tournament (maybe Sweet 16) being played in a host city. 

St. Louis would be a great host and the NIT feels like an appropriate follow-up to Arch Madness.

[3star_recruit]

59 minutes ago, slufan13 said:

I could be misremembering because I am trying to forget this season for the most part but it seemed to me that early in the season we let the defense clog the paint early in games and we used the 3 pointer to eventually spread the floor and let our guys get in the paint. Then later in the season, opponents still clogged the paint but we tried to take it inside anyway. 

Without Perkins and Jimerson both hitting shots, it's tough for us to beat long teams who can defend the rim.  Teams have discovered that Jimerson is easy to defend.  And Goodwin is going to try to score inside no matter how tall the opposition is.  Most of the time that works, sometimes it doesn't. 

This is not a good matchup for us.  We need to force them into mistakes, which they are prone to commit.