A bit of a meltdown here over the loss, I get it but we need to step back.
-We are going to have lousy games, it happens. Look at the conference. MSU got bost raced by Indiana, Purdon't sneaks by MD at home and by the way lost to this Rutgers team. Wisky loses to NW. O$U on a losing streak including losing to last place Minny at home, Illinois on a losing streak, crushed by Indiana at home although winning tonight. Indiana getting blitzed by PSU, etc. etc. Of course our talent cannot weather a bad performance like some others.
-Shrews needs to somehow get us to the dance. This was not a game we had to win to get there, would have been great but I had it as a loss. We do have to run the table at home starting with Mich on Sun. Need to beat either Nebby or Minny on the road. It is possible and not a far fetched dream. Can't play or shoot like we did tonight, though.
-Give Shrews time to develop some of the young guys. Saying some of these guys will never be legitimate Power 5 guys is premature in my opinion. Also the portal has totally disrupted college basketball like college football. We can do some damage there for next season. Also have Booth and Braeden Shrewsberry coming in. Yes, I know we lose Pickett, etc but we are not going to collapse as a program.
NW is not better than we are. C'mon. They may have better post play so I guess more "complete"?? They are not better. Purdue is better, Sparty better, NW, No. Does that mean they can't beat us. No, they can beat us but we can easily beat them and I expect us to win when we play them at BJC.
-On this game, I missed the second half but it was 37-34 with 13 min left and we managed to lose 65-45, that's a 28-11 Rutgers run. Not sure what happened besides us missing practically every shot. Is that going to happen most nights, No. The score looks lopsided, just need to regroup, doesn't mean the program is now in free fall.
I love Shrews getting emotional especially about defense. Defense is effort and grit, you can bring that every night and make up for less talent within reason. That is why Harrar was so valuable for us. He epitomized grit. IF we can bring gritty D every night we have a good shot of winning and yes that means winning on the road such as at Minny or Nebby.
I am still optimistic about this program and what Shrews is building.