Week two of the NIT Season Tipoff has sent the Milwaukee Panthers to the state of Texas for matchups with Texas State and Colgate. Monday's game comes against TSU.
First of all, I'm not sure who we paid off at the NIT, but they sure are getting us good weather on these road trips. Sunny and 70 today in Fort Worth - another welcome respite with snow showers in Milwaukee forecasts for later this week.
Secondly, two thumbs up for downtown Fort Worth. I'm sure it seems even nicer with the weather being what it is, but it is a nice downtown with plenty of restaurants and such. The hotel downtown is beautiful and the team enjoyed a little Texas barbeque at Risky's last night just across from the hotel. That followed practice on the TCU campus after the trip down in the late morning. Today included some film work from Saturday's game against Hillsdale and the scouting report on Texas State.
On the court, the Panthers are looking for their second win in a row while Texas State is trying to snap a three-game losing streak. I talked a little bit to Daron Sutton - who as you know lives in Phoenix and works some Arizona State games during the season - and he had the chance to see Texas State in person when the Bobcats faced Arizona State in an earlier NIT game. His general report was that TSU struggled against Arizona State - no surprise - but that they did have some individually talented players. Scoring doesn't seem like it has been a big problem for TSU until Saturday's loss at New Orleans, when the Bobcats scored just 55 points. They put up 102 against Howard Payne and 82 against Cal State Northridge. And, reasonably, with the defense Arizona State plays, the 62 points in that contest wasn't all bad, either.
I will have a live blog rolling shortly, plus you can catch Bill Johnson's call on WISN (AM 11300) online through WISN's website. I am not sure yet about live stats, but I'll put an update on the live blog if I get one.
