Lets assume Manny not playing was justifiable, what about Grady not playing???? This cannot be overstated, he is our best ball handler, best 3 point shooter % wise and scored 13 points in 14 minutes last game out. Lee played poorly defensively and failed to score a single point in 36 minutes!?!? WTF, im sick of all the excuses for a coach thats not giving his team the best chance to win.

I’m not very optimistic about either the Big Ten tournament or the last 3 games. This team has needed overtime to beat two of the worst teams in the big ten on the road. Minnesota is a much better team at The Barn, and we have about as good a chance of beating Wisconsin on the road as we did vs. UConn.

Agreed Gidds, definitely agreed. I myself will be screaming at the TV in insane optimism right until the very end. Lets all hope the program as a whole, but most importantly JB learns from this, and in moving forward devises better game plans. My suggestion: Dump it inside more against teams in which you have advantages.

Well Minnesota certainly recovered. Definitely can’t see us winning in Madison and if Minnesota is gonna be fighting for a berth don’t think I see that one happening either. Hope I’m wrong.

Man, everybody here is so pessimistic. The way I see it, we need three more wins to at least give us a chance. Even if we only get 1 in the regular season, it will either give us anothe quality win, or help knock Minny off the bubble. The BTT should be good for us considering JB’s quality record in tourneys. Bottom line, if we can get three wins, I’ll have something to watch for on selection sunday, and really, that’s all i can ask for considering what i was expecting coming into the season.

Man, Dylan i know how hard of work it is, but this is a game that needs some of your plus minus analysis. I am so positive that Merritt was killing this team when he was in. He CANNOT be the runner on the bottom of the 1-3-1. Iowa got so many open threes when he was in. I remember thinking it seemed like he was at fault on a lot of them, and then seeing during the halftime highlights that almost every one of their threes, it was Merritt running after them. He is way too short/slow for that spot. Kelvin may take poor paths through screens, but he is not slow.

Not to pile on, JB, and thank God you’re here, because we’re [almost] relevant again because of you, but really? Merritt and Lee and no Manny in OT? Does anyone remember how terribly Manny was playing against Purdue? He was awful…yet, we were close, until he was ejected. The team cannot perform without Manny, period. Stu and Zack and even Peedie, really, have trouble creating shots on their own. Manny changes defenses and creates openings for the rest of the team. Everyone knows this, ask any coach in the big ten how they plan for us.

The big debate about Kelvin this week will rage on, but I think the point is that CJ does bring things besides scoring and helps the team. So does Kelvin though, and no one suggests he replaces Lee, its Merritt that needs to sit.

Frustrating game in every way. I hope they pull together for a miracle run. They shoulbe up for the Purdue game given how it went in W Lafayette, but I’m afraid coach’s decision to bench Manny and Grady has the team reeling a little bit.