No letdowns!

Safe to say, this is applicable to every game here on out! Sure would be nice to have this week "off" as it was originally planned. Darned $5 shooter!!

I presume you're talking about the regular season title.  This game has practically no bearing on the tourney title, although it may affect seeding in the tourney.  Still, it would be great to get at least a share of the regular season crown.  Besides, when was the last time we swept the West?  Not in my memory. 

The team should see this game (or any MAC game) as MUCH more important than the Belmont game.  Belmont is for RPI purposes, which only matters for seeding IF we make it to the NCAA.  But to get to the NCAA, we'll need to win the MAC tourney.  Our RPI -- 74 according to AP; 76 by ESPN -- isn't going to be good enough for an at-large, even if we win out the regular season but lose to Akron in the final.  The cutoff will probably be upper 40s, and we blew our chance to get there with the losses to Memphis, Okla, Mr. Morris and Winthrop.  Make any one of those a win and it would be different.  Yes, beating Belmont does matter because we want the best record possible if we get to the NCAA.  But MAC games matter most.  We need to get the best seed possible for the MAC tourney.  Beating EMU would just about lock up at least a 2 seed.  We'd be 3 up on WMU with four to go, and we have the tiebreaker on them.  A loss and we're still two up with four to go, so I still like our chances.  So let's beat EMU and have basically one less thing to worry about.

If this seems rambling, it's only because I have the day off and have time to ramble.

 
First 1000 students get that flag.  Awesome giveaway.  Props to marketing...  Students will go for this!

Hate to think bad thoughts.......but this Eastern team beat the $#=%  out of Ohio last year.  If practice intensity is any indication, I am happy to report that Ohio reported for work this afternoon!   Spirited, focused work from the Bobcats on Monday.   It appears they are focused on one game at a time.......the next one being the important one.  We owe the Eagles a beating !  They will zone us a bunch to try to slow us down and play at their speed.  We will try to get after them to keep that from happening.  Their size up front is a concern.

EMU also isn't a very good road team, like most teams in this conference. Most nights, they can't shoot well at all.  Simple approach has to be pushing the tempo as much as possible (as always) to take their length out of the equation in the half court, and to win the turnover battle. 

Anyone suppose that Kadeem, because of size, get's some extra minutes in this one against EMU's big fella?

Quickly looking at their schedule and results, the highest point total they have allowed in a WIN is 58.  In other words, score 60+ points against them and you're going to win most of the time against them.  I like our chances of getting 60+ even though the 2-3 zone makes me a little uneasy.  I'll be there, barring another $5 mugging.

Ozcat, I like your confidence, and your "location" !  Your "location" is "not playing", so your attitude about this game will not cause us any problems!   I am hoping that none of our kids feel the way you do !!   After watching how hard they got after it at yesterdays practice, I do not believe that we have to worry about looking ahead, or over-confidence.  Not going to guarrantee a win, but I believe  that we are focused on the task at hand.  Go Cats !

We're 17.5pt favorites.

Haha, that would have been awesome!  They should've made the giveaway $5 bills.  Not only would it be funny, but sadly it would draw the students out as good as anything.

On average, there's 117.0 points per game scored in an EMU game and 138.3 scored in an Ohio game. So it looks like the odds makers are favoring the pace to be more Eastern's style.

Totally agree, doubledribble!

One thing that annoys me about Eastern's style of play is the weave they sometimes run WAY out front...just to run the shot clock down.  Last year at Ypsilanti (I was there for the debacle), we seldom disrupted this weave with our defense.  Hopefully things are different tonight!