Stage fright?

[Oldgeezer]

I watched Drake-Evansville stumble through 40 minutes of ugly basketball. I also watched Baylor disintegrate in the second half against Arkansas. That does not qualify me as an expert, but how was Drake able to beat ISU by 35? Was the crowd a factor? I know they hit a lot of 3s against us, and yesterday they couldn't hit them but---? I have heard that the Baylor crowd can be pretty ugly, but we can beat Baylor if the crowd is ignored. Is this possible? These guys have not had a lot of games in hostile environments. I'm thinking of a 3-0 start, but 12-4? Not gonna happen!

[The_Architect]

We could beat Drake now IMO.

[ISUFan22]

It's no secret that Drake is going to live/die by the outside shot. They won despite not shooting those as well as other games - so - they didn't die by it.

People are so hung up on us getting pasted by Drake. I didn't like it either - but I also know that game was early in the season, was at the height of our injury issues and Drake just couldn't miss.

[cybsball20]

They still shot 7 out of 19 from three, thats not bad at all. Evansville just decided to take away the three and not let them get shots off, something we weren't able to do. Drake adjusted and drove in for easy layups and shot over 50% from the floor as a team, not too bad if you ask me.

Saying 'Drake didn't miss' is a terrible excuse imo. If a team is shooting well from three you take that option away, deny the pass. Evansville did a great job of this.

[Cydkar]

Drake played GREAT agains us. It happens and we weren't good at all back then.

[wonkadog]

The problem is that to "take that option away" wouldn't have worked that night at Drake. They were something like 7 of their first 9 from 3 that night and they were NOT uncontested shots. Maybe 2 or 3 of them came from guys more open than they should have been but they also had everyone on their team throwing one in from downtown. For some reason it seems like they always have one of their hottest shooting games of the year against us when we play down there. That being said, I don't think there's any way I would predict a win against them now just because we've improved a little. I still think they'd probably beat us.

[keepngoal]

any given day. and that is why we play the game.

-keep.

[DaddyMac]

Drake played GREAT agains us. It happens and we weren't good at all back then.

Not to mention not real healthy either. Jiri, Rahshon and especially Wesley were all still nursing injuries and most of the rest were in game 6 or so of their D1 career.