3-5/6:00PM - ISU v DU (MVC Opening Round)

[ricohill]

Knocked out by Drake consecutive years by Drake on Thursday night. Is this rock bottom?

Next year on Thursday will be worse.

 

[ISU FAN 1]

About what I expected. Tons of turnovers. Dug a big hole. Teased with a fake rally. Collapsed at crunch time. This is Redbird Basketball ... Dan Muller style.

 

[Loyl2u]

Now what do we do with Bruninga, Rey, and Chastain

Maybe consider playing them instead

 

[Manchester Matt]

What’s scary is Copeland and Hillsman are our two top scorers. We might get worse.

Volume scorers. What else do they do well? Seriously. Addition by subtraction.

 

[ISU FAN 1]

Time for the coaching staff to start working on next year's roster. Reeves, Horne, and Fischer to build around.

Going to need to add a lot. Those three aren’t winning us anything.

Dan’s strong suit is player development.

 

[ILLST25]

Now what do we do with Bruninga, Rey, and Chastain

Maybe consider playing them instead

I love all three but they also give us nothing at all. Rey’s defense is an absolute joke. He has terrible feet and not enough length to defend. Chastain has been hampered with several knee surgeries and is really only a hustle type player who is not particularly good at any one thing. Bruninga, obviously hampered by injuries, gives us zero defense and 3pt shooting with no post presence.

 

[ILLST25]

What’s scary is Copeland and Hillsman are our two top scorers. We might get worse.

Volume scorers. What else do they do well? Seriously. Addition by subtraction.

They made 3’s for us (actually very solid shooters) and that is it. Horrible basketball IQ guys and took the role as guys who tried to make things happen by taking it to the hoop. They were both TERRIBLE at this and usually ended up in turnovers. Copeland especially was always slipping and falling, losing the ball, or getting it stolen.

 

[ISU FAN 1]

With all the player and fan optimism, I bought in & planned to play thru to Sunday. My weekend is ruined. Thanks Muller.

 

[Redbird222]

Copeland and Hillsman are turnover city whenever they take it to the hoop and neither are very good at finishing around the rim

Waited too long to take them out ... finally made a run with them on the bench

 

[WoodlandWarrior]

The past three years have truly been pitiful. Think of the recruits who haven’t really worked out, either due to selfish play, off court issues, negative efficiency ratings, turnovers, poor three point shooting, etc. Valpo lost several key players due to transfer yet fielded a fairly competitive team. Then look at the competitiveness of SIU this year, relative to conference play. And our program was in disarray with the youth and transfer players. Leadership from the seniors was notably absent, and team weaknesses could not be remedied by the coaching staff. Redbird fans are fed up and rightfully so. This season was far worse than I could have imagined.

 

[ILLST25]

Copeland and Hillsman are turnover city whenever they take it to the hoop and neither are very good at finishing around the rim

Waited too long to take them out ... finally made a run with them on the bench

Agreed. Then muller called timeout when we cut the lead from 17 to 5 and drake responded with a 9-0 run to secure the game. Beyond frustrating.

 

[jamminjamarsmiley]

Knocked out by Drake consecutive years by Drake on Thursday night. Is this rock bottom?

Next year on Thursday will be worse.

Rico wake up!!! We have blue chippers walking in to add to our turnover prone undisciplined guards - granted they have some talent. Too bad their talent is wasted by a guy who has absolutely no frickin clue how to coach basketball.

Anyone who defends this crap is a joke and u should go join redbird twitter at the brew house Who’s probably tweeting at Bradley players about how bad their program is and making themselves look like a complete laughing stock. This is isu basketball.

 

[ISU FAN 1]

It’s time to go back to the Stallings caching tree and bring in a 3rd failed assistant to lead this program. Or maybe it’s time to hire and fire another Final 4 coach. Time to move on.

 

[91Bird]

Copeland and Hillsman each with 5 turnovers tonight. Ugh.

 

[V Boy]

Worst ISU team in 15 years.

Still no identity. No defensive intensity. No willingness to share the ball for the greater good of the team. Still take tons....TONS....of low-percentage contested shots. And this includes the new guys who have instantly developed bad habits that are hard to break. Still don’t value the ball and give it away to bad teams who apply basically no pressure.

It’s basically a less talented and poorly coached team than everyone but Evansville. We belong in 9th and we suck.

Player by player.

Fisher - got better. Still an average Valley big. Maybe he can do more next year. I’m not sure.

Ndaiye - no skill. That overrules everything else combined (and I am being nice). The fact that we gives scholarships to project players like this really captures the desperate state of the program.

Idowu - Softest 6-9 240 guy maybe I have ever seen. Nobody in this league fears him. Liability defensively so much so that it’s hard to keep him on the court.

Bruninga - feel bad for the kid but he can’t do enough offensively to keep him on the court defensively.

Chastain - like the attitude but the skill level and health overrule it. Muller fell in love with him at LeRoy and never really broke up with him.

Boyd - when I called out that he shot 37% at E Kentucky despite scoring double figures it got no action on this board. He is just a smaller less skilled version of Yarbrough (so far). He’s athletic enough to play here but he needs to totally change his commitment to how he plays team ball on both ends or he should never be on the court.

Torres - too slow and not skilled enough to play in this league. I don’t understand why we brought him here.

Copeland - a less skilled (offensively and definitely defensively) version of Tyler Brown. Never demonstrated leadership how to get the frosh to play with him. He just kept shooting. And now they keep shooting because they watched him do it for 30 games.

Horne - the talent is there. He is a point guard who plays like a 2. Maybe if the kid from Louisville is good next year he can play off the ball more. He is a liability on defense still. Doesn’t share it enough. Good stroke. Will get a lot better if he sticks around. It’s his team now.

Reeves - should move into Copelands spot instantly. Potential to score 15+. Athletic enough to cause major problems offensively in this league. Defensively still a step slow and doesn’t anticipate. Has to get stronger and more physical even though that’s not his style. Hope he sticks around.

Hillsman - should have played tight end instead of small forward. Bull in a china shop out there. Weak defensive player. Streaky offensively. Gave good effort. Just not good enough laterally to play in this league.

Overall you can see that we have MAJOR gaps in the front court and defensively we don’t have a single strong player. That is not likely to change next year.

Maybe we can get back to .500 next year if the new class is really strong (which you always have to doubt). The league will be better next year. UNI, Loyola, Mo St, SIU, Bradley, Drake, Valpo will all go into the year significantly better than ISU. It’ll take a miracle couple players for us to close that gap.

 

[Birdswin]

Pathetic - Muller consistently gets outcoached at halftime. My wife just said "It Sucks to Suck'" We are all tired of it.

That timeout after a made basket with like 6:20 to go - cutting the lead down to five - What was That??? Unbelievable Brilliance!! I am soooooo glad we have Dan "Smarter than anyone else anywhere" Muller in charge. I can barely wait for next year!!!!

 

[ricohill]

Horne had 4 turnovers as well. Going to have turnovers when your offense is just driving 1 on 5. It was a good year for Horne and Reeves, but life won’t be easy next year. Copeland and Hillsman had the best defender on them. They go from role players to main attraction. Some guys make the jump others plateau.

 

[CaliRdBrd]

Worst ISU team in 15 years.

Still no identity. No defensive intensity. No willingness to share the ball for the greater good of the team. Still take tons....TONS....of low-percentage contested shots. And this includes the new guys who have instantly developed bad habits that are hard to break. Still don’t value the ball and give it away to bad teams who apply basically no pressure.

It’s basically a less talented and poorly coached team than everyone but Evansville. We belong in 9th and we suck.

Player by player.

Fisher - got better. Still an average Valley big. Maybe he can do more next year. I’m not sure.

Ndaiye - no skill. That overrules everything else combined (and I am being nice). The fact that we gives scholarships to project players like this really captures the desperate state of the program.

Idowu - Softest 6-9 240 guy maybe I have ever seen. Nobody in this league fears him. Liability defensively so much so that it’s hard to keep him on the court.

Bruninga - feel bad for the kid but he can’t do enough offensively to keep him on the court defensively.

Chastain - like the attitude but the skill level and health overrule it. Muller fell in love with him at LeRoy and never really broke up with him.

Boyd - when I called out that he shot 37% at E Kentucky despite scoring double figures it got no action on this board. He is just a smaller less skilled version of Yarbrough (so far). He’s athletic enough to play here but he needs to totally change his commitment to how he plays team ball on both ends or he should never be on the court.

Torres - too slow and not skilled enough to play in this league. I don’t understand why we brought him here.

Copeland - a less skilled (offensively and definitely defensively) version of Tyler Brown. Never demonstrated leadership how to get the frosh to play with him. He just kept shooting. And now they keep shooting because they watched him do it for 30 games.

Horne - the talent is there. He is a point guard who plays like a 2. Maybe if the kid from Louisville is good next year he can play off the ball more. He is a liability on defense still. Doesn’t share it enough. Good stroke. Will get a lot better if he sticks around. It’s his team now.

Reeves - should move into Copelands spot instantly. Potential to score 15+. Athletic enough to cause major problems offensively in this league. Defensively still a step slow and doesn’t anticipate. Has to get stronger and more physical even though that’s not his style. Hope he sticks around.

Hillsman - should have played tight end instead of small forward. Bull in a china shop out there. Weak defensive player. Streaky offensively. Gave good effort. Just not good enough laterally to play in this league.

Overall you can see that we have MAJOR gaps in the front court and defensively we don’t have a single strong player. That is not likely to change next year.

Maybe we can get back to .500 next year if the new class is really strong (which you always have to doubt). The league will be better next year. UNI, Loyola, Mo St, SIU, Bradley, Drake, Valpo will all go into the year significantly better than ISU. It’ll take a miracle couple players for us to close that gap.

Pretty good player by player analysis. My biggest frustration, by far, has to be Idowu. How you can have that size and be so weak is hard to imagine He needs a streak of tough. That's something you're either born with or not...he was born without.

That said, my expectations were very low for this team given what we lost and all the unknowns. Muller has one more year, IMO....

 

[ricohill]

Worst ISU team in 15 years.

Still no identity. No defensive intensity. No willingness to share the ball for the greater good of the team. Still take tons....TONS....of low-percentage contested shots. And this includes the new guys who have instantly developed bad habits that are hard to break. Still don’t value the ball and give it away to bad teams who apply basically no pressure.

It’s basically a less talented and poorly coached team than everyone but Evansville. We belong in 9th and we suck.

Player by player.

Fisher - got better. Still an average Valley big. Maybe he can do more next year. I’m not sure.

Ndaiye - no skill. That overrules everything else combined (and I am being nice). The fact that we gives scholarships to project players like this really captures the desperate state of the program.

Idowu - Softest 6-9 240 guy maybe I have ever seen. Nobody in this league fears him. Liability defensively so much so that it’s hard to keep him on the court.

Bruninga - feel bad for the kid but he can’t do enough offensively to keep him on the court defensively.

Chastain - like the attitude but the skill level and health overrule it. Muller fell in love with him at LeRoy and never really broke up with him.

Boyd - when I called out that he shot 37% at E Kentucky despite scoring double figures it got no action on this board. He is just a smaller less skilled version of Yarbrough (so far). He’s athletic enough to play here but he needs to totally change his commitment to how he plays team ball on both ends or he should never be on the court.

Torres - too slow and not skilled enough to play in this league. I don’t understand why we brought him here.

Copeland - a less skilled (offensively and definitely defensively) version of Tyler Brown. Never demonstrated leadership how to get the frosh to play with him. He just kept shooting. And now they keep shooting because they watched him do it for 30 games.

Horne - the talent is there. He is a point guard who plays like a 2. Maybe if the kid from Louisville is good next year he can play off the ball more. He is a liability on defense still. Doesn’t share it enough. Good stroke. Will get a lot better if he sticks around. It’s his team now.

Reeves - should move into Copelands spot instantly. Potential to score 15+. Athletic enough to cause major problems offensively in this league. Defensively still a step slow and doesn’t anticipate. Has to get stronger and more physical even though that’s not his style. Hope he sticks around.

Hillsman - should have played tight end instead of small forward. Bull in a china shop out there. Weak defensive player. Streaky offensively. Gave good effort. Just not good enough laterally to play in this league.

Overall you can see that we have MAJOR gaps in the front court and defensively we don’t have a single strong player. That is not likely to change next year.

Maybe we can get back to .500 next year if the new class is really strong (which you always have to doubt). The league will be better next year. UNI, Loyola, Mo St, SIU, Bradley, Drake, Valpo will all go into the year significantly better than ISU. It’ll take a miracle couple players for us to close that gap.

Great assessment. Scary thing is all first-team MVC players are back next year. Most teams will better...ISU, who knows? Putting a lot of eggs in two small guards to lead a turnaround. Neither is as good as AJ Green. That and Muller being a complete disaster as a coach. Get your season tickets now.

 

[Hamdonger]

With all the player and fan optimism, I bought in & planned to play thru to Sunday. My weekend is ruined. Thanks Muller.

Not to worry, curmudgeon. Go stand outside of Busch and wait patiently for a scalper. You're sure to score a great ticket for tomorrow's Cardinal game.