I like Saul as a person. The two times I've chatted with him after basketball games have been enlightening. With that said, he does not know how to break up runs with timeouts. Spurts of 10-0 are happening far too often against this team because he is waiting for media timeouts.

No, we are not getting our ROI! It's hard to believe that we couldn't have offered someone much less to produce the same results. Phillips still has a lot of work to do.

I still love the guys, but to think we're going to do much this year is asking too much. You don't lose a player like Tony and excel afterward. I'm hope I'm eating my words, but something is missing besides Tony.

We just did that. So what else would make you happy? I agree that most people's expectations have fallen, maybe just not enough.

Exactly. That was flat out pathetic.

15-0 run to end half in less than 3 mins.

Sound familiar?

Oh yeah. 21-4 lead at WKU evaporated in a matter of minutes.

Oh. 10 pt lead in final five minutes. Hmmmm. Late game collapse? Oh, that's right...happened last week vs Toledo....and against EMU....and against Iona...

Horrible defense. Oh yeah. That's happened...Toledo, Marshall.

AC or no AC, this team has serious flaws (FT shooting, rebounding, etc.)

This was as troubling loss I've seen. Bad coaching, decision making, execution....all of it sucked

And the saddest thing....I saw it coming the whole way. This teams ability to let up double digit runs in the matter of minutes is like something I've never seen. So awful.

Pathetic.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I will repeat what I stated before on a couple of threads. The late Coach Rick Majerus of Ball State, whom I wasn't particularly fond of but did respect his record, had a meltdown in a game once. I believe it was the year before Ball State made their miraculous 1990 NCAA tournament run and gave UNLV the only scare of the tournament, losing by two or three points.

Coach Majerus was given a technical and maybe thrown out of the game (I can't say for sure.) When the press asked him afterward why he melted down; he stated, and I am paraphrasing; I didn't know what else to do. We are too good to play that bad. I am going to make life hell for them until they play to their potential.

I am not one for dramatics, but perhaps someone on the team, Coach Philips or another member of his coaching staff should try something, because as the late Coach Majerus said, we are far too good to play this bad.

Was terrible. Really bad.

Last night is exactly what happens when you get up 20 and stop playing. That's the only explanation I can come up with for what happened last night. They got up big and stopped playing. The offense was amazing last night, scored over 80 and shot over 50% on the road, which is usually a recipe for success. All they needed was literally one or two stops on defense in the 2nd half and they couldn't do it. Incredibly frustrating to watch.

And twice this season now in late game situations Saul and the players have decided to try and take a game-tying three pointer with plenty of time left on the game clock rather than getting a quick two to extend play. Not sure if that's how things were drawn up, but I don't think that's the way to go about it.

And for the second straight game, it's Jason Carter shooting the 3ptr late. He was 1-7 from 3 last night. WHY IS JASON CARTER SHOOTING THAT MANY 3PTRS WHEN HE'S 22% SHOOTER???

Makes no sense.

Rest of team was 10-16 3ptr. That's awesome.

Carter was great otherwise. Stick to what worked. 18 pts on LUs & FTs.

I don't mind him shooting that shot, he can make it. But late game and tired legs? Yeah I like another option. I remember us saying the same thing about TC early on his career when he was shooting a lot of threes.

Look. I told a buddy before that game that liked Ohio -1'. I said "Beware of Ohio on the road...they haven't won back-to-back games since starting 3-0 in the MAC"

So it's obvious, I wasn't expecting them to win at WMU...a place where they've had little success in the last 10+ years.

But c'mon!

You can't tell me that after watching that game, you weren't the bit frustrated and tired of watching another chapter of this – inability to close out games/land the knockout punch/continue to blow big leads – story this team has written?

This wasn't like they just went to Kalamazoo and lost....they did it in a way that they have done multiple times this year – at what point can we expect this to quit happening?

The only game this year where you can puff you chest out and say "They did a great job closing out that game" was maybe at UB? But Kenny bailed them out with a helluva shot at the end. Ohio was up 5 with 3:30 left....4 with 1:14 left....and still needed a buzzer-beater to avoid another collapse. Yes..bonus points for coming back from 14 down in the 2H on the road.

Milwaukee:
Led by 8 in 1H.....UWM goes on 13-2 run in less than 5 mins.
They should have NEVER been in a close game with sh***y Milwaukee. They're 8-15...AND HAVE WON 3 OF THEIR LAST 4. They were 5-14 at one point. That's a horrible team!

Iona:
Up 5 with 7:40 left at Iona......10-0 Gael run next 4+ minutes
Tied with 1:36 left....don't score rest of game, lost by 5

WKU:
Up 21-4....WKU goes on 31-6 run over next 9 mins
Up 2 with 4:34 left....don't hit a FG the rest of the game...lost by 1

EMU:
Tied with 5:22 left....don't hit a FG rest of the game. 1-4 FTs...2 turnovers...0-4 3ptrs.
Lost by 4

Akron:
Down 1 early 2H......29-8 run over next 10 mins
Lost by 15
Sidenote: Akron is 9-0 in MAC...wins by 5, 7, 4, 4, 15, 7, 10, 1, 3. Yup. We're the only team they really stomped.

Toledo:
Up 10 in 2H....UT goes on 18-4 run in less than 3 mins
Down 1 with 3:17 to go....score 3 pts rest of game....1-5 3ptr (most coming when only down 2 or 3 with plenty of time left)
Lost by 3

WMU:
Up 44-23.....WMU 15-0 run to end half
Up 10 with 4:58 to go......19-4 run to end the game. 1 defensive stop in final 5 mins and that came when WMU missed 2 FTs on a possession
Lose by 5

17 & 15 - in same game, 14, 21, 25, 10 point runs allowed in 5 of our losses. I'm sure there are more if I dug into every game.

This team's ability to allow huge runs in such short periods of time is scary.

I'm not saying FIRE SAUL! But c'mon....something has to change. I know losing AC really, really sucks...but something has to be done from the bench to avoid these meltdowns. Use a timeout....different subs...something.

Ohio is 8-6 since Iona.....with wins over only two teams with winning records (Kent 12-10, NIU 13-9)

I don't see this team winning more than one road game the rest of the year.
at Kent
at Ball State
at Miami
at EMU

I don't see them beating Akron on Saturday.

And out of UB, CMU, Miami, Buffalo left at home....I'm hopeful 3-1 is possible? 4-0? Maybe?

I'm guessing a 4-5 finish to the MAC season.....leaving them 9-9 in the MAC and most likely playing a 1st round home site game in the MAC Tourney.

C'mon. There is way too much talent on this team (even minus AC) for them to be a .500 team in this league.

I hope I'm wrong on my view going forward this season...

But the fact are the facts for the first 20 games. The FT shooting...the in-game lapses...the huge runs they allow....the inability to close games out....it's troubling.

We've seen them close out game vs. SHSU, Kent, WMU, at BG....so we know they have it in them. Why it can't be consistent is infuriating.

I've watched a lot of MAC basketball and the talent on this roster is far better than a 5-4 record. 7-2 maybe. But last night was just another chapter in a disappointing season thus far.

And it seems they don't know the difference between the MAC and the MVC. In both games we've had them (Akron & WMU) their crawl has a MAC game listed as MVC, in addition to being listed in the MAC. A couple weeks ago it was the CMU game and last night it was Akron-NIU.

bshot44 pointed out that ( outside of whipping us by 15 pts.)Akron has won its MAC games by 5,7,4,4,7,10, 1, and 3 pts. I don't find it a coincidence that they are undefeated in the conference. Finding ways to win at the end is exactly what good teams do that separate them from this year's 'Cats.
I still love them and watch every second that I can (either live or on ESPN) but damn, they make me crazy!!