…but, I was at the game last night, and I don’t know how much I can add. It. Was. UGLY. I’ll say this up front. The team was not healthy. If the game had been played Monday, Jake would not have played, and Denis would have been pretty questionable. Denis was farther along than Jake last night (also heard Sutton was sick, but can’t verify that), so that might explain some of the issues. Just hope they can use the next two days to get back to 100%. That said, to play the way they did was inexcusable.

Reading through the comments on the game thread, I said a lot of the same things to my fellow gluttons for punishment last night…“get it to 10 by half, we will not shoot this bad all night” and “if we continue to get out-rebounded, we stand no chance.” By halftime, I was welcoming back the team that started 0-4. The energy was just not there, especially on the defensive end. And that is what the game came down to…energy. If we play with more energy, we probably don’t get out-rebounded, and we don’t get back-doored the entire first half. More energy = less lazy passes = less turnovers = less easy points. I liked the way Denis stepped up in the 2nd half, it was obvious no one else was going to. But it really didn’t matter at that point.

I will say this, that was the most poorly officiated game I think I have ever seen. It made no difference in the outcome of the game, but the “brawl inside and touch fouls outside” pretty much sums it up. There was a reason when our guards (sans Denis in H2) got inside their shooting % was so low, it’s because there were no calls when we got bodied on a drive and shoot. It wasn’t as prevalent on the other end because their guards didn’t drive as much, their bigs did the damage down low. Over the back was non-existent, save one or two times, block/charge/no-call was a complete guess all night. It was just horrible on both ends. They got the benefit of a number of call/no-calls, but that is expected as the home team. There were 12 fouls called prior to the first media timeout in the second half, for crying out loud. As I said, it didn’t affect the outcome of the game, but it was seriously the worst officiating job I have seen in a long, long time. The 2nd half, particularly, it made it impossible for either team to get into a good rhythm and took the crowd out of the game for most of the second half. All that said, Mizzou Arena is very nice, and a good place to watch a game. It was built by my employer, so I have to say that. But, give me the Bram any day. Mizzou Arena is pretty sterile for a college arena, and would be a great home for an NBA team with 3k more seats.

Enough about last night. I agree with TB, we need to win out, no questions asked. Even if we do that, I think we need to win two games in OKC (assuming we are the 4 seed). For us to get an at-large, we’ll need to reach the conference final. I’d love to make the Dance this year, but if these guys can get a 1st round buy for the 3rd year in a row, I will be perfectly happy no matter what happens after that. They have far exceeded my expectations this year, and I can’t wait for next year.