LADY RAIDER BB Middle Tennessee (10-3) at Grand Canyon (8-3) Sat Dec 30, 3 pm

[MTFAN61]

Grand Canyon (8-3) has a victory over PAC12 Arizona St, & close loss to Oregon. For anyone interested in catching an early glimpse of GCU they're playing NAIA Arizona Christian Wednesday night on ESPN+.
GCU recently went to Liberty who has a losing record & got beat by about a dozen points. If the Lady Raiders come out & play a solid game they should come out with a hard fought victory. Hopefully we won't come out & play a rusty first half from the holiday layoff.

 

[MTFAN61]

Grand Canyon (8-3) has a victory over PAC12 Arizona St, & close loss to Oregon. For anyone interested in catching an early glimpse of GCU they're playing NAIA Arizona Christian Wednesday night on ESPN+.
GCU recently went to Liberty who has a losing record & got beat by about a dozen points. If the Lady Raiders come out & play a solid game they should come out with a hard fought victory. Hopefully we won't come out & play a rusty first half from the holiday layoff.

As a follow up GCU has a #112 Women's Net Ranking.

 

[MTOleBlue]

This will be a tough test. Regardless of their schedule, they are tough to play at home. I hope the ladies are firing on all cylinders - we'll need that!

 

[MTFAN61]

This will be a tough test. Regardless of their schedule, they are tough to play at home. I hope the ladies are firing on all cylinders - we'll need that!

Agreed, GCU's a decent team. Their loss to Liberty was the last of a 4 game road swing, & the 3 previous games were all road wins. The additional cross country travel on top of things were sure to take a toll. Bad timing for GCU, perfect timing for Liberty. Luckily the Lady Raiders are coming off a nice break. They do have a few players in the 6' 2" range, but we have the height advantage with Boldyreva & Iullia. Hopefully Wheeler & Gregory can maintain shooting touch from deep. I like how we seem to have come out of our early season shooting slump. I think Iullia's added inside presence has aided in opening the outside spaces for our shooters.

 

[MTOleBlue]

Agreed. It seems like everyone is hitting a stride right now... that will help, if it can be continued!

 

[SpaceRaider]

Marquee matchup set for Saturday afternoon - Grand Canyon University Athletics

Saturday, Dec. 30 | 2 p.m. | Global Credit Union Arena | Phoenix, Ariz. MIDDLE TENNESSEE LADY RAIDERS 10-3 at GRAND

gculopes.com

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[MTOleBlue]

Wayyyy too sloppy so far. Lucky the deficit is only 5 right now. Totally gone away from offense of throwing ball into the post which is baffling considering the height advantage. Not even trying to throw it inside which is just silly

 

[MTOleBlue]

Ineza has played great in this one, just hit a MASSIVE 3 pointer in the corner. Gregory having another bad game and got 3 fouls pretty quick. Hopefully she can catch fire in the second half!

 

[tyler90wm]

I don't feel too bad only down two at half as I don't think we played all that great. Hoping for a huge shift out of halftime.

 

[tyler90wm]

GCU played suffocating defense and we just could never get a rhythm on offense. Boldyreva couldn't get anything going either; she had limited touches. Feel bad about GCU's injuries in the second half; hope their players make a quick recovery.

 

[Blue Raider Lightning]

Raiders never had the lead from the tip. Fall 68-59 . Wheeler was a warrior but offense was out of sync all afternoon. Hate to say it, but might be good for Whitson to sit a bit. Is starting to look more like a liability instaed of 5th year senior. Our size was negated by GC's pressure defense where we basically dribbled away the shot clock and fired up a desperation three. When we did get it inside, we didn't score anyway. Give GC credit, they are a good team but this is disappointing.

 

[SpaceRaider]

Reminded me of NCAA play.

 

[MTFAN61]

Better team won today.

 

[Blue Raider Lightning]

Reminded me of NCAA play.

Yes, you are spot on. We live or die doing the same thing. Today, they got up in our grill and we didn't adapt to overcome. I haven't listened to any post game commentary but I would guess Insell said "we stopped running our offense" when in reality it was stopped and we made no adjustments to get it going.

 

[MTFAN61]

Yes, you are spot on. We live or die doing the same thing. Today, they got up in our grill and we didn't adapt to overcome. I haven't listened to any post game commentary but I would guess Insell said "we stopped running our offense" when in reality it was stopped and we made no adjustments to get it going.

These are good relative points about a CRI coached team that happens on occasion. Every once in a while an opposing team's plan & corresponding play will work better than ours from the outset. It has been mentioned before, CRI always stays strictly to the original scouting report. There's no need for time outs to counter opponent strategy because in his system there are no on the fly strategy changes ever made. Even though I still feel we still win the conference & tournament this year, I don’t see MT winning a NCAA tournament game under Rick. At the end of the year he can talk about sweet 16's & elite 8's all he wants, but there's a reason why his team's have lost so many consecutive 1st round NCAA match ups. When in trouble a quality coach has to be able to counter what the opponent is doing to defeat you. Unfortunately that aspect of coaching is not part of CRI's repertoire. Not too upset this evening, seen situations like this too many times before.

 

[SpaceRaider]

Lady Raiders fall to Lopes 68-59 in the desert - Middle Tennessee State University Athletics

PHOENIX, Ariz. – Middle Tennessee fell to Grand Canyon 68-59 on Saturday afternoon at the Global Credit Union Arena.

goblueraiders.com

 

[MTOleBlue]

These are good relative points about a CRI coached team that happens on occasion. Every once in a while an opposing team's plan & corresponding play will work better than ours from the outset. It has been mentioned before, CRI always stays strictly to the original scouting report. There's no need for time outs to counter opponent strategy because in his system there are no on the fly strategy changes ever made. Even though I still feel we still win the conference & tournament this year, I don’t see MT winning a NCAA tournament game under Rick. At the end of the year he can talk about sweet 16's & elite 8's all he wants, but there's a reason why his team's have lost so many consecutive 1st round NCAA match ups. When in trouble a quality coach has to be able to counter what the opponent is doing to defeat you. Unfortunately that aspect of coaching is not part of CRI's repertoire. Not too upset this evening, seen situations like this too many times before.

Well said. Rick really doesn't have any adjustment at all ever, in terms of offensive scheme. At least defensively we can switch the schemes up multiple times a game... but there is basically nothing happening on offense. If we get discombobulated by the opponent's defense, it's game over. That is a glaring issue and I agree, probably a huge part of why we haven't won an NCAA game in a while.

 

[Scomo64]

The substituting thing is always an issue. We had 2 players play the full 40 minutes. When Liberty played them, they had 1 player play the full 40 minutes. That was the first time a Liberty player had done since 2012. Playing 8 or 9 players not only gives players a rest, but it also gives you more options. Who knows when a Gracie Dodgen may pop off a couple of 3's or a Jada Grannum may have 2 or 3 offensive putbacks?
I would've liked to have seen Boldyreva and Grabovskaia in the game at the same time.

 

[SpaceRaider]

2024 NCAA Bracketology: Middle Tennessee Women's March Madness Resume | January 1​

How Middle Tennessee ranks​

Record	CUSA Record	AP Poll	Coaches Poll	RPI
10-4	0-0	NR	NR	63

Middle Tennessee's best wins​

Middle Tennessee's best win this season came on December 6 in a 73-62 victory over the Tennessee Volunteers. The leading point-getter against Tennessee was Jalynn Gregory, who compiled 22 points with five rebounds and three assists.

Next best wins​

• 70-45 on the road over Houston (No. 129/RPI) on November 29
• 71-69 over DePaul (No. 156/RPI) on November 19
• 72-47 at home over SFA (No. 187/RPI) on December 17
• 64-57 over Memphis (No. 189/RPI) on November 20
• 67-47 at home over Memphis (No. 189/RPI) on November 6

Middle Tennessee's quadrant records​

Quadrant 1: 0-2 | Quadrant 2: 1-2 | Quadrant 3: 3-0 | Quadrant 4: 6-0

• The Raiders have tied for the 47th-most Quadrant 2 wins in the nation based on the RPI (one), but also have tied for the 43rd-most Quadrant 2 losses (two).
• According to the RPI, Middle Tennessee has three wins over Quadrant 3 opponents, tied for the 43rd-most in Division 1.
• When facing Quadrant 4 opponents (based on the RPI), the Raiders are 6-0 (1.000%) -- tied for the 24th-most wins.

Schedule insights​

• In terms of difficulty, Middle Tennessee has the 113th-ranked schedule the rest of the year.
• The Raiders have 16 games remaining on the schedule, with four contests coming against teams that are over .500, and 16 games against teams that have a worse record than their own.
• As far as MT's upcoming schedule, it has 16 games left, with none coming against teams currently ranked in the Top 25.

Middle Tennessee's next game​

• Matchup: Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters vs. Middle Tennessee Lady Raiders
• Date/Time: Wednesday, January 10 at 7:00 PM ET
• Location: Thomas Assembly Center in Ruston, Louisiana

 

[MTFAN61]

MT women's basketball will find its team significantly jumped in net rankings by a school it's been used to dominating in years past. Vanderbilt 13-1 just went on the road & beat Mississippi St 13-3 in front of approximately 4,500 fans. Meanwhile MT got handled by Grand Canyon (#112 ranking) in front of its fan base of only 650.
Look for Vandy to move into the 35-45 range in net rankings, & to get a number of top 25 votes. MT which had won 8 of 9 missed out on an excellent opportunity to maintain net position going into conference play. However, lack of consistent play & weak sidelines coaching reared its head again & dropped the ladies 10 spots to #60. With a fairly weak conference it will be hard to move up in the net now. And with 4 losses already I don't see this team being able to achieve a Top 25 ranking such as prior squads. Due to our inconsistent shooting & coaching it will be tough to make it through conference play without an additional 2-3 losses. With the possibility of 6-7 losses by season end this team will have to win its conference tournament to make the ncaa field again.
One benefit on MT's side is the Tennessee victory. With the return of Jackson they are a considerably improved team. Every quality win for UT is a bonus for MT going forward.

 

[Blue Raider Lightning]

Is it just me or does it feel like we have had an extra long break? By the time we play next week, we will have played one game in almost 3 weeks. We beat N. Kentucky on 12/20 and the only game since has been the GCU loss on 12/30.