Sorry, but I'm on the ledge with you.  Tonight's game has me depressed.  Just as I was starting to believe this might be a special year again . . . the team plays a first half that made KSU look like UK.  No defense, no offense, no rebounding and turnovers galore.  I have hope for Friday, but I'm worried for some the same reasons you mentioned.

It's virtually impossible to win without at LEAST a top-4 seed. Trouble is, with the scenarios in play, we basically NEED to win Friday... and there's a lot of bad karma there. Our boys usually stink in Oxford (sorry, no sugar-coating it), and "win one for Charlie" night will be a lot to overcome.'

Eastern winning tonight by one on a shot at the buzzer just kind of adds to the bad vibe I'm feeling.

Did we make Kent look like Kent or did they just play better than we did? As far as Eastern goes, this is what we get for not taking care of them when we had the chance.

For some reason I thought they would lose this game.  I had them going 3-1 the last four games with Kent being the loss.  I am sure we will beat Miami with no problem.  Kent is tough at home so I don't know why you all are going "sky is falling" thing.  I am sure we will get on of the top four seeds.  Kent looked good last night and we didn't.  The bigs on our team didn't play their best and I don't know why you want Baltic or Reggie dribbling the ball out top?  That is a receipe for disaster.  They are great down low and can take it to the rim but not while trying to break up a full court press.  And was it me or did Stevie not play a lot last night?  I can't really remember.  And why did we wait to use Goard.  He's been playing good ball lately.  Let's use him.  Especially if Reggie or Ivo is struggling. 

GreenFever, I guess I part company with your analysis of "great down low and can take it to the rim". Ivo in particular has shown a real aversion lately in "taking it to the rim". His game has transformed into taking more 12-15ft jumpers away from the basket and very little strong inside moves.

When looking over the stats of last nites game, we got outscored at the foul line. Greene & Evans combined went 15 for 20 at the line. Ivo and Reggie went 0 for 0 as in ZERO. A quick check of Ivo's stat line over the past 5 games shows about 30 field goal attempts and 1 for 2 at the foul line, which points out the overwhelming majority of his shots are not being taken "taking it to the rim". Not sure if this is part of Groce's game plans regarding Ivo, but for whatever reason, it just seems to me Ivo is playing a completely different style from what one would normally expect of an "inside" guy. Don't know if Ivo's struggles at the foul line, when he has gotten there, have started to affect his shot selection or not. All told, our lack of an inside game last nite was telling. We actually made one more basket than Kent, but were outscored at the line by 9, and again 20 of Kent's 31 foul attempts came from their "bigs". Our only "bigs" foul shots came from Smitty who went 2 for 2.

Well, there was no reason for us to be down to Miami at the Convo earlier this year.  Plus, they are not the team they have had in the past.  So, with us really needing a win for seeding and them being down, I don't care if it's Charlie's last game or Mavunga's senior night or John Wooden came back to coach one more game, we are whipping some RedBird arse!!!!