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LADY RAIDER BB NCAA Tournament: Middle Tennessee (28-4) vs Colorado (23-8), ESPNNews, 6PM, Saturday, March 18, 2023

Every NCAA tournament is the same thing.
Can’t rebound. Can’t score.
It’s like watching the same movie over and over and over again.
 
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First timeout comes after they hit THREE 3s in a row to go up 21. Like how is that even possible? Don’t let it get to that Jesus
 
Uncharacteristic sloppy performance by Lady Raiders. Colorado shooting the lights out and their 2 bigs are grabbing all the boards. Ran into a buzz saw tonight.
 
insell's teams are not built for the tournament, we have an avg athlete he doesn't recruit great athletes. Whe. he made his noise early it was because Stephanie left a team full of great athletes that could ball. We just have an above avg. team of slow athletes that can't create their own shots.
 
It's time for Ole Rick to retire as he can't relate today's athletes, that's why we have the kids we have. All good kids but aren't elite athletes at their position, sounds familiar just like the other Rick.
 
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Matt’s genius plan must involve leaving them open from 3 all game because that’s the only difference so far from how we usually perform. Every shot is wide open. (I don’t think that’s actually the plan but the defense today has been ATROCIOUS.)
 
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How does this team hammer Louisville, win the conference regular season and the the tournament and tank in this tournament. We look like we have never played before. Something is totally wrong with the NCAAS prep.
 
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I don’t believe we’ve even kept an NCAA tournament game within 20 since 2010.
But hey, the blue hairs get to hang out with him.
Exactly what’s wrong with the whole damn athletic department. People would rather have access than be good.
Insell should reimburse every single person that went to Durham and then retire.
 
At least it was cool to see Cameron Indoor. The performance though? Bad. Same old awful coaching in this type of game
 
Not even trying to rebound in this game. Just totally baffling. It’s one thing to be boxed out and out-hustled but they’re not even trying on most shots
 
At least they’re cutting into it a bit. Still, not a good game at all.
 
insell's teams are not built for the tournament, we have an avg athlete he doesn't recruit great athletes. Whe. he made his noise early it was because Stephanie left a team full of great athletes that could ball. We just have an above avg. team of slow athletes that can't create their own shots.
I am as frustrated as anyone but I respecfully disagree with the caliber athlete. And that's not meant to be a knock on you. I respect your opinion and fact is, Stephanie had more NCAA wins in a much shorter tenure. But for every great athlete on Stephanie's teams, I can name a player that was great from the Insell era. My personal belief is we do have talented players that rank with any era of Lady Raider athlete, but X's and O's are his weakness. He makes absolutely no adjustments and just keeps trying to do it his way. When we are ahead and hitting shots, it works. When we aren't hitting shots we are either going to play enough defense to grind it out or we are going to get beat because we didn't adjust. Today, the game plan didn't work, we didn't adjust and we didn't hit shots. Just butt ugly. The nation had us on their radar as a Cinderella. That obviously pissed Colorado off while CRI just chews his gum and looks lost. I think you give Stephanie the talent on several of these Insell teams and she would build on the NCAA resume she already has.
 
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Feel like I'm jumping on the bandwagon, but Insell's NCAA teams have been the poorest prepared I have ever seen. We would be far better served to always lose in the conference tournament so we could just participate in the NIT.
I put a lot of this on Rick. I'm so tired of the "we're not thinking of 1 game, we're thinking sweet 16, elite 8, final 4" talk. He puts too much pressure on his own team. Plus every member of the damn national media totally disrespected Colorado by picking MT. Never has a team had so much locker room fodder to fire themselves up.
 
Let’s be honest folks. It doesn’t take a genius to see the issue when your coach does call a single timeout until you’re down by 21 points. Yes, TWENTY ONE. We have quality players, quality skill and effort, but I’m sorry the coaching quality in this type of setting just does not cut it. He just stands there and watches until they’re down by over 20! Literally just standing there! Matt is the one doing the most of the leading of the huddles anyway. Rick should step aside and let him, or someone else, take the reigns for good and in the game.
 
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Let’s be honest folks. It doesn’t take a genius to see the issue when your coach does call a single timeout until you’re down by 21 points. Yes, TWENTY ONE. We have quality players, quality skill and effort, but I’m sorry the coaching quality in this type of setting just does not cut it. He just stands there and watches until they’re down by over 20! Literally just standing there! Matt is the one doing the most of the leading of the huddles anyway. Rick should step aside and let him, or someone else, take the reigns for good and
Absolutely true. Pretty sure Rick doesn't call a time out because all he has is "Plan A", there is no "Plan B" for when "A" blows up. The only thing that worries me about Matt is does he also only have 1 Plan? When their original plan blows up I don't think either one has an alternate strategy. Which means they unfortunately don't know what to share with our players to get the game back under control for when things do go wrong. Today is just another prime example.
 
Absolutely true. Pretty sure Rick doesn't call a time out because all he has is "Plan A", there is no "Plan B" for when "A" blows up. The only thing that worries me about Matt is does he also only have 1 Plan? When their original plan blows up I don't think either one has an alternate strategy. Which means they unfortunately don't know what to share with our players to get the game back under control for when things do go wrong. Today is just another prime example.
That may be true to an extent, but you really don’t know about Matt until he’s in the head coach position. Or Kim Brewton or whoever it is. The adjustments in game should be coming from the head man because he is the leader… and we dont see much adjustment at all. The pieces are all there, the assistants are really good, but sadly I think Rick should step back and go out as a legend like he is.
 
As said, Rick has never been one to make adjustments. His rare use of timeouts is a product of that. There is also very little game plan to your specific opponent. Very frustrating.

It's crazy I felt Sweet 16 yet I'm not super upset. I guess deep down a part of me knee what to expect.
 
As said, Rick has never been one to make adjustments. His rare use of timeouts is a product of that. There is also very little game plan to your specific opponent. Very frustrating.

It's crazy I felt Sweet 16 yet I'm not super upset. I guess deep down a part of me knee what to expect.
We had a very good season. Disappointing way to end, but that doesn’t diminish what we DID accomplish - top 25 ranking, big win streaks, and a conference title! These ladies were tremendous. And let’s not forget we are a young team with only two seniors.
 
We definitely had a great season. I think one of the reasons that we didn't rebound is that Courtney Whitson was a little sick. If you watched closely in the the interview that Alexis and Courtney did, you can see that she has less of her enthusiasm and sounds like she had a cold. Even if she was 100% though, those girls are big, fast and athletic. It would have helped though. Rebounding wasn't the only thing though. If the big red head was open, she hit her three pointers. I was hoping we at least had quickness on them, but I think that they even had that.
 
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We definitely had a great season. I think one of the reasons that we didn't rebound is that Courtney Whitson was a little sick. If you watched closely in the the interview that Alexis and Courtney did, you can see that she has less of her enthusiasm and sounds like she had a cold. Even if she was 100% though, those girls are big, fast and athletic. It would have helped though. Rebounding wasn't the only thing though. If the big red head was open, she hit her three pointers. I was hoping we at least had quickness on them, but I think that they even had that.
Yes they had the quickness, shooting, & rebounding. Colorado played with a chip on their shoulder tonight. Their were a lot of lower seed upsets in the women's 1st round this weekend, but definitely not in Durham. Not that I care anymore, but Colorado & Duke should be a good game. Still have to favor the Dukies at home.
 
After thinking for a while and reading the post I will say that the team and coaches are more disappointed than any of us. This team gave us something to be proud of during the season and represented MTSU the way we want to be represented. Colorado was hot tonight and hit more threes than they ever have in three games put together. I'm proud of this team and the coaches. Go Blue!
 
After thinking for a while and reading the post I will say that the team and coaches are more disappointed than any of us. This team gave us something to be proud of during the season and represented MTSU the way we want to be represented. Colorado was hot tonight and hit more threes than they ever have in three games put together. I'm proud of this team and the coaches. Go Blue!
Me too. They recognize the disappointment we had and, hopefully, will come back even stronger next year.
 
What is South Dakota State and Florida Gulf Coast doing different to us that allows them to win games in the tournament? I wouldn't say those teams have more talent than us, equal perhaps as I would expect a toss up in those matchups. Hard to tell if it is preparation for tournament games or maybe just a continuation of unlucky breaks like getting matched up with a team that's clicking late in the season.
 
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