Indiana State - 01/04/2023 - 7:00 PM - ESPN+

[TIMMY]

I blame DBird.

 

[Bird Friend]

Is McCheese ill?

 

[DBird]

I blame DBird.

Because I havent made the drive in a few years you are correct!!!

 

[Redbird Alum 2004]

I will admit I am wrong if he turns it around but I am done with Lewis. He is a turnover waiting to happen. Schmitt can't possibly be worse. Even on defense Schmitt can't be any worse.

 

[Redbird Alum 2004]

Hell give me Andrews. Lewis's head is somewhere else and it is hurting the team.

 

[91Bird]

The lack of competing the last few games has been disappointing and a little surprising. There should be plenty of playing time for our recruits coming in next year.

 

[jwa123]

I missed the first half. How did it go?

 

[Popsto4]

InSU is already playing like's an open gym.

Not even remotely close to it

 

[schoolsportsfan]

I blame Greenspan for hiring Richardson. If you think about it, our program has been in shambles ever since he was hired.

 

[Bird Friend]

Not even remotely close to it

They played the first half like they were playing against an open gym defense . . . aka no defense at all.

 

[stats]

It's it Miller and Schmitt time yet

I agree it's Miller time, but do they still make Schmidt beer?

 

[Bird Friend]

So they made it interesting . . . but interesting ain't worth the price of admission if you don't like the beginning or ending. I'd love to say they'd played hard and just lost to a better team . . . but, no, they were AWOL in the first half and then didn't begin to really play hard way too late in the 2nd half. Seems like this will be the narrative for season: slow or sluggish start digs a deep hole, gemefully tried to climb back out but just couldn't do it.

 

[fdbird83]

I agree it's Miller time, but do they still make Schmidt beer?

Yes...https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/447/3455/

 

[Popsto4]

So they made it interesting . . . but interesting ain't worth the price of admission if you don't like the beginning or ending. I'd love to say they'd played hard and just lost to a better team . . . but, no, they were AWOL in the first half and then didn't begin to really play hard way too late in the 2nd half. Seems like this will be the narrative for season: slow or sluggish start digs a deep hole, gemefully tried to climb back out but just couldn't do it.

What’s the reason behind coming out so dang slow? I don’t understand that at all, mind blowing

 

[Redbird3298]

Us starting off slow I think is due to the starting lineup changes. We need Malachi, burford, knight, Lewis and Liam to start and not yank one of them after 3 mins.

 

[Buffett1]

YMCA kids playing at half time overachieved.

 

[WoodlandWarrior]

The attendance was listed below 3K. Not so good.

 

[Bird Friend]

What’s the reason behind coming out so dang slow? I don’t understand that at all, mind blowing

Wish I had an answer . . . actually, wish Pedon had an answer.

 

[MadBird]

So they made it interesting . . . but interesting ain't worth the price of admission if you don't like the beginning or ending. I'd love to say they'd played hard and just lost to a better team . . . but, no, they were AWOL in the first half and then didn't begin to really play hard way too late in the 2nd half. Seems like this will be the narrative for season: slow or sluggish start digs a deep hole, gemefully tried to climb back out but just couldn't do it.

This is kinda my main takeaway basically all year - not each and every game, but starting with WIU. The Birds have gone down to several "inferior" teams, because they haven't played together, haven't hustled, haven't played smart - what else do you have? Plain old sad. Down the stretch, the other team goes to the line, misses a FT, and we let them come away with the board and get another possession. The other team misses a shot down the stretch when we need a board and they out hustle us and get the board. Or, we get the board but somebody drives into a 1 on 4 fast break, 4 men between our guy and the basket, and tosses up some gar-bage.

I don't blame Pedon much for all of this, altho maybe he's chewed the guys up at practice and no one has any confidence and they haven't learned to play together. And he hasn't "lit the fire" under them to hustle and play smart and all of that. I don't know.

Tonight, Poindexter hit a 3 with 4:57 left to cut the lead to 11. Sycamores were scoreless until 1:01 was left - the Birds held them for almost 4 minutes down the stretch. After Poindexter's 3, here's what we had - steal followed by turnover, steal followed by missed 3, rebound followed by missed FT, rebound followed by TO, missed jumper, rebound followed by 2 FT's to cut it to 9 with 1:57 left. 3 point play by Burford cut it to 6 with 1:01 left before InSU hit 2 FT's, and then basically a stand off. So five empty possessions in 3 minutes, then 5 points in a minute before they woke up and put the Birds away. Gotta do better.

I'm discouraged, but the damn thing is there is so much room for improvement and there've been some close games - 3 points to WIU, 3 points to Northwestern ST., 3 points to Murray St., 4 points to UIC. 6 to UNI. With some luck and smarts could be 10-6 with some self-respect.

 

[The Beak]

The head-scratcher is "what happened?" This team wasn't going to win the Valley, but they were starting to jell and working toward an identity, the high point was Horton, then kaboom, this team forgot everything. I'm giving Pedon a chance, but these last few games have been difficult to watch. Can someone smarter than me explain what happened to this team?