This might be too painful to watch for some:

it is painful but you can see we are TIREDDD. this team fought hard and i'm glad they kept the big 12 streak alive!! And this gives us hunger for next year.

Brusinbear2001 said:

---

it is painful but you can see we are TIREDDD. this team fought hard and i'm glad they kept the big 12 streak alive!! And this gives us hunger for next year.

---

I love you and your optimistic outlook for our Lady Bears! At some point though we need to just recognize they got beat and quit making so many excuses for them.

SD Starters played 182 minutes Friday before playing us Sunday
BU Starters played 143 minutes Friday before playing Sunday

SD Starters played 170 minutes against us Sunday
BU Starters played 163 minutes on Sunday

If any team had a tired excuse, it should be SD? they had to travel, and we played a home game.

At some point we have to recognize we should have won that game and we did not. I think CNC knew it and said as much....does that mean this year was a failure or CNC did a bad job for the season no it does not but it still is ok to recognize we should have won that game and for whatever reason we just did not play well enough to win. I bet CNC will learn from this...it was her first time as a head coach in the NCAA maybe next time she will be extra diligent in recovery time? who knows but if she is as good as you and I think she is, she will learn from this.

yeah, i didn't see the numbers situation at all about minutes l. It was just like a body language observation. These players have to go head to head every practice with scouts, there really isn't a off day. we can clear our bench but a starter would still have to play. We did not have big guards but we got some in the recruiting and i think that was a huge difference maker as well. I don't think it was a failure but I think coach Nicki will figure out what we have to do better at and make changes

Brusinbear2001 said:

---

yeah, i didn't see the numbers situation at all about minutes l. It was just like a body language observation. These players have to go head to head every practice with scouts, there really isn't a off day. we can clear our bench but a starter would still have to play. We did not have big guards but we got some in the recruiting and i think that was a huge difference maker as well. I don't think it was a failure but I think coach Nicki will figure out what we have to do better at and make changes

---

Always the optimist! I hope you are right! Sic Em!

Eball said:

---

Brusinbear2001 said:

---

it is painful but you can see we are TIREDDD. this team fought hard and i'm glad they kept the big 12 streak alive!! And this gives us hunger for next year.

---

I love you and your optimistic outlook for our Lady Bears! At some point though we need to just recognize they got beat and quit making so many excuses for them.

SD Starters played 182 minutes Friday before playing us Sunday
BU Starters played 143 minutes Friday before playing Sunday

SD Starters played 170 minutes against us Sunday
BU Starters played 163 minutes on Sunday

If any team had a tired excuse, it should be SD? they had to travel, and we played a home game.

At some point we have to recognize we should have won that game and we did not. I think CNC knew it and said as much....does that mean this year was a failure or CNC did a bad job for the season no it does not but it still is ok to recognize we should have won that game and for whatever reason we just did not play well enough to win. I bet CNC will learn from this...it was her first time as a head coach in the NCAA maybe next time she will be extra diligent in recovery time? who knows but if she is as good as you and I think she is, she will learn from this.

---

Honesty is always appreciated. Thank you. I will always believe that when any school gets into a matchup with an opponent that, for whatever reason, said school considers beneath them, that "we're just naturally superior" mentality spills over into at least some of the players and they're thus ripe for an upset that may not in fact have been one. If a coach doesn't seriously address this issue with the team, the outcome is mostly on the coach. If the coach did and the players simply didn't pay attention, the outcome is mostly on the players.

Eball said:

---

Brusinbear2001 said:

---

it is painful but you can see we are TIREDDD. this team fought hard and i'm glad they kept the big 12 streak alive!! And this gives us hunger for next year.

---

I love you and your optimistic outlook for our Lady Bears! At some point though we need to just recognize they got beat and quit making so many excuses for them.

SD Starters played 182 minutes Friday before playing us Sunday
BU Starters played 143 minutes Friday before playing Sunday

SD Starters played 170 minutes against us Sunday
BU Starters played 163 minutes on Sunday

If any team had a tired excuse, it should be SD? they had to travel, and we played a home game.

At some point we have to recognize we should have won that game and we did not. I think CNC knew it and said as much....does that mean this year was a failure or CNC did a bad job for the season no it does not but it still is ok to recognize we should have won that game and for whatever reason we just did not play well enough to win. I bet CNC will learn from this...it was her first time as a head coach in the NCAA maybe next time she will be extra diligent in recovery time? who knows but if she is as good as you and I think she is, she will learn from this.

---

It's not just about the tournament it's the entire season. I doubt that South Dakota state schedule was anything like a Big 12 schedule. I think NaLyssa was still banged up from the injury she sustained in the Big 12 championship game.

Your main point is valid, however: we should have won that game.

So your making excuses ? We should have beat SD there's no other way around it. Now that's not to take away from SD because that's a darn good team. But 1-5 we were much much better. They outplayed us. No other way to put it

yeah i agree we totally should have won!! I was disappointed because of the loss just like anyone would be i just don't think it was a end of the world type of loss. I think there are things we can take out of it

Not sure if anybody remember but we played them a few years ago. I was in attendance in the las Vegas Thanksgiving tournament we played in. They played us good there as well. We barely won and we had Didi, LC, Juicy ect. They were never a scrub team. This year they beat ole miss, Bu, and nearly Michigan. They are a good team. Losing is not the end of the world. I am excited about next year because at least we will have depth. If somebody shots off or in foul trouble we can have the bodies to replace them. I know some of you will doom and gloom us to death but I am excited for the coming year. Can wait to see how we do.

Wbbfan29 said:

---

Not sure if anybody remember but we played them a few years ago. I was in attendance in the las Vegas Thanksgiving tournament we played in. They played us good there as well. We barely won and we had Didi, LC, Juicy ect. They were never a scrub team. This year they beat ole miss, Bu, and nearly Michigan. They are a good team. Losing is not the end of the world. I am excited about next year because at least we will have depth. If somebody shots off or in foul trouble we can have the bodies to replace them. I know some of you will doom and gloom us to death but I am excited for the coming year. Can wait to see how we do.

---

No doom and gloom here! Excited for next year and some of the new recruits and those to still acquire through the portal!

I just want to make sure that we are realistic in our approach to this team and our new coach...any negative criticism is not an attempt to compare CNC to anyone else it is just what we fans do!

Our last coach certainly had her fair share of criticisms thrown her way, so no reason to suspect our fans will give CNC a free pass!

Was at the game and the things that disappointed me was 1. We came out what seemed to be flat and uninterested. 2. We were really never in the game as SD opened up an 11-0 lead and I think the closest we cut it in the first half was 7 a couple of times and in the second half I don't think we ever got closer than 9. Look we've had some disappointing elite 8 losses before and even one in the sweet sixteen but at least we were a competitive team that had a shot at winning all those games. After the 11=0 run to start the game it never really ever felt like we had a chance to win the game.

Wbbfan29 said:

---

Not sure if anybody remember but we played them a few years ago. I was in attendance in the las Vegas Thanksgiving tournament we played in. They played us good there as well. We barely won and we had Didi, LC, Juicy ect. They were never a scrub team. This year they beat ole miss, Bu, and nearly Michigan. They are a good team. Losing is not the end of the world. I am excited about next year because at least we will have depth. If somebody shots off or in foul trouble we can have the bodies to replace them. I know some of you will doom and gloom us to death but I am excited for the coming year. Can wait to see how we do.

---

I believe you are referring to South Dakota STATE (Jackrabbits) and not South Dakota (Coyotes) at the Vegas tournament as I was there also.

Bottom line for this loss was we could not make a bucket! Our shooting was ice cold from outside even when our defense held them scoreless for the first 7 minutes of the 4th quarter.

That team was not good at all, we just flat out beat ourselves. Simple as that.

On to next season

I apologize for recognizing the wrong team but my messages stands. They were a good team. If we played and made our shots I still don't think we would have blown them out. I think more people are looking at the seed of SDS then how good the team was.

You are correct. Either way people can make all the excuses they want ... We lost. We were flat and it started with the Texas game. After the first 3 minutes I stopped watching because I knew what kind of game it was going to be. I will be honest .. I don't think I have ever seen a Baylor team (guards) all be off all at once. And we have done this a few times this year, are guards were not consistent.

Dr. J said:

---

Wbbfan29 said:

---

Not sure if anybody remember but we played them a few years ago. I was in attendance in the las Vegas Thanksgiving tournament we played in. They played us good there as well. We barely won and we had Didi, LC, Juicy ect. They were never a scrub team. This year they beat ole miss, Bu, and nearly Michigan. They are a good team. Losing is not the end of the world. I am excited about next year because at least we will have depth. If somebody shots off or in foul trouble we can have the bodies to replace them. I know some of you will doom and gloom us to death but I am excited for the coming year. Can wait to see how we do.

---

I believe you are referring to South Dakota STATE (Jackrabbits) and not South Dakota (Coyotes) at the Vegas tournament as I was there also.

Bottom line for this loss was we could not make a bucket! Our shooting was ice cold from outside even when our defense held them scoreless for the first 7 minutes of the 4th quarter.

---

If you don't make shots you are not going to win in most situations. You can talk about the strength or weakness of the opponent. You can SPECULATE as to whether the team was "ready to play". You can SPECULATE about whether the coaching staff prepared them or not. Any or all of those last things I listed could have been present, but as Dr. J said, the bottom line is that we could not hit the ocean. You could have all the things I mentioned above done correctly....the team was prepared and ready to play, but if you can't hit your shots you are going to lose and it makes you look bad doing it. And when the shots don't fall, it has a tendency to cause a major hit to your confidence, which just feeds the cycle of missed shots and ultimately your focus suffers. It doesn't help when the opponent hits bam, bam , bam to start the game, a percentage they could not maintain the rest of the game. But the start gave them confidence and probably shook ours as we almost didn't even score the first quarter.

The NCAAs this year, both men and women are littered with teams who lost that "should have won", and anyone who has watched basketball for as long as I have, has seen many instances where the supposedly weaker team prevailed, either because they shot lights out, your team couldn't hit the broad side of a barn, key players got into quick foul trouble, or it was a Tuesday when the moon was full with rain forecast the next day. It happens. It doesn't mean people were tired or fresh, poorly or adequately prepared, or over confident or not, and most importantly says nothing about the future or anything about the quality of the players or coaches.

In looking at the season, you could see this coming beginning with the game against Texas in the tournament. I think they did finally run out of gas, both physically and mentally, but if they had shot even 40%, the Bears would have won this game. I am told that legs greatly affect your shooting. Those legs, if worn out were not worn out by the number of minutes played that weekend, but a cumulative effect of having to deal with no depth the entire season. There is no need to overanalyze or point fingers at anyone. It was just a bad game for us that likely resulted from many factors. If you can analyze as to why shots don't fall, you probably have a lucrative future as a consultant to teams from high school to the NBA.

Absolutely. First & foremost, we need more depth. MBB proved that too.

I have nothing but respect for Coach Collen for what she has done under very difficult circumstances.

Well said !!!