NWMSU Bearcats 2019-2020

[DapperDan]

The jump from D2 to a Power Five is pretty extreme and virtually unheard of. Think more along the lines of a move to a low major like Sather. Despite the comfort of a dominant program many, probably most, coaches relish the challenge (and the bigger paycheck).

[Purple Mav Man]

Isn't the record between us (at least recently) just 2-3? With both of our wins coming after that 2015 game you're referring to? Am I forgetting a game?

That being said, yes, we do need to get our house in order again. No denying that. But there are other teams currently living in my head that are not NWMSU. I don't think about you guys a ton other than being noticeably surprised that UCM picked you off. But as I commented in the beginning of the year, I was as complimentary of the Bearcats as anyone after the Duke game. McCollum is a good coach. I'm surprised he hasn't gotten a D1 job yet, and I won't complain when he does.

[Taxman]

I'll take Unoriginal Overused Sports-Internet Phrases for $200, Alex.

That close to home huh.

[Augie Skyhook]

Northwest Missouri State Basketball. Living rent free in Augie's head since 2015. You love to see it. #culturewins

I'll take Unoriginal Overused Sports-Internet Phrases for $200, Alex.

[MisterWizard]

Northwest is going to be #1 ranked again come Tuesday. Bellarmine went down Monday night.

[MrAugustana]

Northwest Missouri State Basketball. Living rent free in Augie's head since 2015. You love to see it. #culturewins

Isn't the record between us (at least recently) just 2-3? With both of our wins coming after that 2015 game you're referring to? Am I forgetting a game?

That being said, yes, we do need to get our house in order again. No denying that. But there are other teams currently living in my head that are not NWMSU. I don't think about you guys a ton other than being noticeably surprised that UCM picked you off. But as I commented in the beginning of the year, I was as complimentary of the Bearcats as anyone after the Duke game. McCollum is a good coach. I'm surprised he hasn't gotten a D1 job yet, and I won't complain when he does.

[Thepeman]

Northwest Missouri State Basketball. Living rent free in Augie's head since 2015. You love to see it. #culturewins

Sounds to me, Mr. Augie better be worried about his team than those of opponents.

[Taxman]

How dare you have an opinion of a team and then share that opinion in a public forum created for people to share their opinion of teams?!?!

You will adore and worship your team and its coach unquestionably or you will NOT call yourself a Bearcats fan!!!

Northwest Missouri State Basketball. Living rent free in Augie's head since 2015. You love to see it. #culturewins

[Alfred33]

How dare you have an opinion of a team and then share that opinion in a public forum created for people to share their opinion of teams?!?!

You will adore and worship your team and its coach unquestionably or you will NOT call yourself a Bearcats fan!!!

This is great! NW fans are what we are, but if you paid attention to the football forums, you'd know that there is plenty of criticism dealt by our own. My post was not meant to be critical of anything he said. If it had been or I wanted to take him to task for his post I would of said something like "Hudgens just scored 31 points and carried our team to a conference win over our closest rival, but we can't win the MIAA in part because he didn't do enough to get layups with his right hand?" But being the objective NW poster that I am, I chose not to go there. ;)

[NSU4LIFE]

How dare you have an opinion of a team and then share that opinion in a public forum created for people to share their opinion of teams?!?!

You will adore and worship your team and its coach unquestionably or you will NOT call yourself a Bearcats fan!!!

Harrumph

[MrAugustana]

How dare you have an opinion of a team and then share that opinion in a public forum created for people to share their opinion of teams?!?!

You will adore and worship your team and its coach unquestionably or you will NOT call yourself a Bearcats fan!!!

[GrifFan]

I mean he did say "first impression." Tough crowd.

[Bearcat97]

1st game to see NW this season yesterday. 1st impression is that they will not win the MIAA. Hudgins is a phenomenal ball handler, shoots the ball well but needs to go to hoop with right hand. NW goes as he goes. NW is Hawkins, Hudgins and Bernard. Bernard is a very good defender and very good on boards. He needs to be more aggressive or more involved in offense. He's good ball handler and can take defenders to the hoop because of his speed and leaping ability. Walters freaks out sometimes when he gets the ball. It appears that speed of collegiate basketball is bothersome to him. NW has no rim defender.

MW is Carroll and Millholin. Millholin is just one of those kids you love to hate. Plays hard but his court attitude just irritates the heck out of you. Carroll is very comparable to Hudgins as ball handler but better going to hoop. 2nd half MW went to a 2-man game with Carroll and a high pick. Should've stuck to it the entire half. NW had no answer with Bernard switching to big man. Carroll ate us up in the 2nd half and kept MW in the game.

It makes absolutely ZERO sense to evaluate a team after seeing one game. It laughable that you 'got it figured out' after watching us play a rival game. It would seem as though we can trust our head coach at this point. He's only done the unbelievable the past few years.

[Alfred33]

1st game to see NW this season yesterday. 1st impression is that they will not win the MIAA. Hudgins is a phenomenal ball handler, shoots the ball well but needs to go to hoop with right hand. NW goes as he goes. NW is Hawkins, Hudgins and Bernard. Bernard is a very good defender and very good on boards. He needs to be more aggressive or more involved in offense. He's good ball handler and can take defenders to the hoop because of his speed and leaping ability. Walters freaks out sometimes when he gets the ball. It appears that speed of collegiate basketball is bothersome to him. NW has no rim defender.

MW is Carroll and Millholin. Millholin is just one of those kids you love to hate. Plays hard but his court attitude just irritates the heck out of you. Carroll is very comparable to Hudgins as ball handler but better going to hoop. 2nd half MW went to a 2-man game with Carroll and a high pick. Should've stuck to it the entire half. NW had no answer with Bernard switching to big man. Carroll ate us up in the 2nd half and kept MW in the game.

I'm not sure how much you can gather from seeing one game. Let's not forget MoWest took us to the buzzer at home last year, which was the closest we came to losing after the season opener against NSU. Hudgins is the catalyst and he is terrific. He doesn't get sped up and is always under control. He gets what he wants when he wants it... I've been told that sometimes Ben has to push him to shoot more or to take over games at times. That's not in anyway a knock. It's when you look at the boxscore after a game, and are like wow... he just has some of the quietest 19-20 point games. There is some truth in saying that as he goes, NW goes... he shows up and is so consistently good from game to game, which is exactly why this team has only lost 1 game over the last two seasons. That said, this team has had 4 different guys lead them in scoring this year. Granted, it's usually going to be Hawkins or Hudgens, but it just goes to show you though that on a given night, they can get points from other places. I feel like Diego has been pretty aggressive this year... at times he goes so fast and so aggressive that he has high turnover games, but it's not something you'd ever want to scale back. He's averaging 15 points a game and had the second most shot attempts Saturday, so I guess I'm missing the part where he's not involved enough. His weakness would still be consistency with his jumpshot... Improving that part of his game would make getting to the basket even easier. I've felt the same about Waters over the course of the season, but he had been playing better. He made some good moves and big buckets in the Washburn game when we needed them, but yeah, at times he looks a little overwhelmed. Dreamer is the one that has kind of disappeared offensively and I'm not sure what's going on there.

Defensively, we're no different than we were a year ago. Joey was a tremendous offensive player, and a good enough defensive player, but he definitely wasn't a rim protector. When was the last time Northwest even had a rim protector? Hawkins and Dougherty are two that can guard bigs and they're still here. I'm not saying we'll win the MIAA, but I'm definitely not saying that we won't. If serve holds, it looks like it'll come down to NW and MoSo again. Maybe you were saying if we play like we did Saturday, we won't win the league, but if we're going to say that, if MoSo plays like it did Saturday, they aren't going to either. Those games may come down to who gets in foul trouble... If Cam Martin gets in trouble and only plays 25 minutes, I like our chances, but if he plays 35 with Hawkins sitting on the pine, we're probably going to be in trouble. I would lean towards MoSo just because their size goes against what would be our weakness. I also think they're probably deeper, but it's awfully hard to bet against NW until they don't get it done. There's a lot of season left, so hope and pray for good health and continued success.

[Taxman]

1st game to see NW this season yesterday. 1st impression is that they will not win the MIAA. Hudgins is a phenomenal ball handler, shoots the ball well but needs to go to hoop with right hand. NW goes as he goes. NW is Hawkins, Hudgins and Bernard. Bernard is a very good defender and very good on boards. He needs to be more aggressive or more involved in offense. He's good ball handler and can take defenders to the hoop because of his speed and leaping ability. Walters freaks out sometimes when he gets the ball. It appears that speed of collegiate basketball is bothersome to him. NW has no rim defender.

MW is Carroll and Millholin. Millholin is just one of those kids you love to hate. Plays hard but his court attitude just irritates the heck out of you. Carroll is very comparable to Hudgins as ball handler but better going to hoop. 2nd half MW went to a 2-man game with Carroll and a high pick. Should've stuck to it the entire half. NW had no answer with Bernard switching to big man. Carroll ate us up in the 2nd half and kept MW in the game.

Tough critic. And Welty? Those 3 just happen to be 3 of the best players in the nation. You only play 5 at a time. Ben's got it figured out. Have your best players on the court as much as possible. With all of the stoppages in play now minutes played is less of an issue.

This team is really, really good. Really comparable to last year's team. I see Southern as the only challenger to the conf. title.