BASKETBALL Middle Tennessee (12-5, 3-1) vs WKU (11-6, 2-2), (ESPN+). 6PM, Saturday, January 18, 2025

[JohnDavidBlue]

Worth the trip. Always great to get a win against Western.

The local McDonald’s was confused with the free 10 chicken McNuggets following the win with a promo with MT but whatever

 

[JohnDavidBlue]

After the timeout, we promptly pulled up the fight between MT and Tennessee Tech. Had to watch Mike Buck with his hooks. 😂

Yes, thought we were in for a fight!

 

[SpaceRaider]

Blue Raiders topple WKU, 71-57, in the Glass House - Middle Tennessee State University Athletics

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. — In the highly anticipated matchup between the Blue Raiders and the Hilltoppers, MTSU came out on top, 71-57, in the Glass House Saturday night.

goblueraiders.com

 

[SpaceRaider]

Hilltoppers Fall at Middle Tennessee, 71-57 - Western Kentucky University Athletics

WKU men's basketball fell on the road at Middle Tennessee, 71-57, on Saturday night in Murphy Center. With the loss, WKU drops to 11-7 overall with a 2-3 rec...

wkusports.com

 

[MTFAN61]

Side note: Maybe my vision is going bad, but I just checked the latest ESPN BRACKETOLOGY dated from 01/17. I reviewed it 5 times, & I didn't see a single team from CUSA listed in the brackets. Appreciate if someone would verify behind me.

 

[blue rai]

Interesting how when you get a group of mature veteran players together your coaching starts to looking a lot smarter….. This bunch has a Big upside if we can stay healthy.

 

[MTOleBlue]

Side note: Maybe my vision is going bad, but I just checked the latest ESPN BRACKETOLOGY dated from 01/17. I reviewed it 5 times, & I didn't see a single team from CUSA listed in the brackets. Appreciate if someone would verify behind me.

New Mexico State is listed as #14 seed in first region. They’re the auto from CUSA listed

 

[MT01]

Side note: Maybe my vision is going bad, but I just checked the latest ESPN BRACKETOLOGY dated from 01/17. I reviewed it 5 times, & I didn't see a single team from CUSA listed in the brackets. Appreciate if someone would verify behind me.

New Mexico St 14 seed.

 

[SpaceRaider]

 

[TrueBlue147]

Good win last night. The team kept grinding through their first half offensive woes and turned it on the second half. I never felt like we were in trouble of losing the game. It was just gonna be a matter of time before our shots started falling. Wish it would have started a little earlier to get the crowd into the game a bit sooner, but it what it is. Also, officiating was really poor last night. A few horrendous calls made.

 

[ewglenn]

A fair amount of students were there not even in the seats for a portion of the game. I think that helped the numbers too which was nice to see. The fact that they sold General Admission tickets but didn't even open the bleachers goes to show it was definitely a "let's buy some extra tickets and boost that number" situation. But hey, every school does it.

Too be fair, there were lines for the parking, box office, bathrooms, and concessions. I’ve never seen it like that. By far the most people I’ve seen there. 6500 is a bit high but it was a lot.

 

[SpaceRaider]

This is from the wku board, I enjoy reading the poster's breakdown:


PACE 70. As noted many times, "normal pace" won't serve us well. We aren't built for it...and injuries are forcing us into it.

EFFICIENCY

WKU 81

MTSU 101

Sigh. I feel like injuries are robbing our guys, team, and fans this season. Lost Moore. We adapted and climbed the rankings anyway with early play. Then, we lost Faye. We became a team that REALLY needed to make shots to win. Now, Thedford as well? At some point you cannot continue to absorb and hold it together physically, mentally, emotionally. Thedford's injury looked awful. Recent news gives some hope it was not as bad as it first looked, but we cannot pretend this won't take some time. Painful, on several levels.

But, while I don't have millions of words to spill, we STILL played good D on balance (particularly until Thedford went down). MTSU puts up 108 EFF on the season and we held them to 101 on their home court even with their post-Thedford-injury offensive explosion. While MT shot well, they didn't dominate the glass (a 28%-21% O-reb advantage for them), WKU won turnovers with a +2 margin win, and free throws were pretty close on the road (only +2 makes for MT). That's not a bad mix on the road.

The reason this got out of hand from a stat POV is we REALLY struggle with the Ol' Ball in Hoop. The Tops managed just 42% on 2s and shot 5-25 from deep (20%). That's not going to beat anyone no matter how good our D is. Honestly, our 1H D was as good a half we've had all season statistically: MT managed just 82 EFF in the 1H on their home court and they have one of the better offenses in CUSA (#4).

Bright spots? If we cannot push Plona Pace, we'll need something from the Bigs. Odiahi/Keita combined for 42 mins, 6 pts, 12 rebs, only 1 TO. Not bad. The game was getting out of hand, but Don rolled up 16 in the 2H. Before going down, Thedford stacked up 10 pts in 9 mins.

IDENTITY STATS

1. PACE. Loss. And it's becoming about number and types of bodies we have to put on the floor now. It'll be harder to fix this.

2. THREES. Loss. Pretty disastrous one.

3. FREE THROWS. Loss. -8 takes is bad, but only -2 makes. That's close enough on the road so a pretty narrow loss.

I haven't the time nor the energy to dissect this team's soul when they are in a battle with The Whims of Serious Injury. Faye and Thedford were seriously injured on what looked like pretty normal basketball plays. There's nothing to blame, really. "Every team deals with injuries." True. Every team does not lose one starter preseason, another 1/3 of the through (Faye was probably our MVP), and a key cog/most dynamic FR in years 1/2 way through. So, whatever people think about Plona or this team, if anyone rolls out the "every team deals with injuries" as a pretext for criticizing this team, you should ignore them. At this point, they are either ignorant, lazy, or aren't making an honest argument. Hopefully no one will, but some people... This injury string is cruel and unusual. It does happen to a handful of 363 teams every season, but we're on the extreme end of The Breaks of Injury here in 2025. It sucks, but that's what we're experiencing.

So, contextualize critiques and rally behind this team. Expectations have to be adjusted. Hate it--it's reality. But, it's a beautiful, satisfying thing to free yourself from performance expectations and root for the sheer will to keep playing hard and bonding through adversity by going through some crap life deals you. Here's to healing.

https://247sports.com/college/western-kentucky/board/104580/contents/wku-at-mtsu-efficiency-breakdown-244397174/?page=1

 

[SpaceRaider]

MTSU mens' basketball vs Western Kentucky: Our best photographs

Middle Tennessee Men at home vs Western Kentucky at MTSU on Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025.

www.dnj.com

Tops' Thedford injures knee in 71-57 loss at MTSU - Bowling Green Daily News

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- Western Kentucky's men's basketball team potentially lost much more than just a game Saturday against Middle Tennessee.

bgdailynews.com