at UIC - 11/30/23 - 7 pm - ESPN+

[MadBird]

Well if you were out for dinner during that first half that was time very well spent. If you had a good dinner then you had a great entire night!

Pretty good all the way around, new place for the first time. Our bill said we had a good time!!

Lola's - Madison, WI

www.lolasmadison.com

 

[cubird]

Banks posted up at least once as well. It's all about guys recognizing mismatches. Still think some guys need a lot of work passing the ball into the post. Lewis made a terrible pass to Foster and then next trip gave up on the post and passed cross court into a Flame defenders hands. End of game did anyone notice Kasubke flip the ball at Rivera in the back court? Will see if carries over to their next meeting.

 

[Baltimore Bird]

I absolutely saw the ball flip. Rivera did not appreciate it.

 

[Redbirdmike]

Banks posted up at least once as well. It's all about guys recognizing mismatches. Still think some guys need a lot of work passing the ball into the post. Lewis made a terrible pass to Foster and then next trip gave up on the post and passed cross court into a Flame defenders hands. End of game did anyone notice Kasubke flip the ball at Rivera in the back court? Will see if carries over to their next meeting.

I did see Luke do that too. Rivera immediately held his hand up and looked at the ref. There must be some bad blood created during that game. Rivera is a transfer from Colorado State so I don’t think they knew each other before. I’m sure it will carry over to RA. Let’s hope not.

 

[Bird Friend]

I did see Luke do that too. Rivera immediately held his hand up and looked at the ref. There must be some bad blood created during that game. Rivera is a transfer from Colorado State so I don’t think they knew each other before. I’m sure it will carry over to RA. Let’s hope not.

And what’s the ref supposed to do? Call a postgame T? Was it smart by LK? No, not at all. Just like DB’s “T” . . . which was a ridiculous call, but still DB shouldn’t have given the refs a reason to get involved. I think he stuck his arm out just to stop himself, but added the extra push. Next time just run him over since the other guy initiated contact first.

 

[Redbirdmike]

And what’s the ref supposed to do? Call a postgame T? Was it smart by LK? No, not at all. Just like DB’s “T” . . . which was a ridiculous call, but still DB shouldn’t have given the refs a reason to get involved. I think he stuck his arm out just to stop himself, but added the extra push. Next time just run him over since the other guy initiated contact first.

 

[Redbirdmike]

I agree. The Burford foul was one of the most ridiculous “T’s” I’ve ever seen. Based on the looong conversation by the the refs I had a bad feeling in the out of my stomach. The radio guys said the same. Looking for something where there was absolutely nothing there. The late movement by Burford’s arm definitely caught their attention. He was mugged by 3 UIC defenders at full speed. Leave it alone zebras!

 

[Redbird222]

Banks posted up at least once as well. It's all about guys recognizing mismatches. Still think some guys need a lot of work passing the ball into the post. Lewis made a terrible pass to Foster and then next trip gave up on the post and passed cross court into a Flame defenders hands. End of game did anyone notice Kasubke flip the ball at Rivera in the back court? Will see if carries over to their next meeting.

I saw Luke flip the ball at Rivera and personally I think it lacked class. Not the biggest deal but it wasn't needed either. I watched the two teams shake hands afterwards and saw

1) Pedon paused with Rivera and seem to have a nice moment
2) A few other ISU players had bigger pats and quick words with Rivera but nothing seemed strained
3) Rivera walked right past Luke.

BTW - Tony W and had big hugs for Banks

 

[SgtHulka]

Banks posted up at least once as well. It's all about guys recognizing mismatches. Still think some guys need a lot of work passing the ball into the post. Lewis made a terrible pass to Foster and then next trip gave up on the post and passed cross court into a Flame defenders hands. End of game did anyone notice Kasubke flip the ball at Rivera in the back court? Will see if carries over to their next meeting.

Lewis did lead us in assists. Though with 3

Banks and Burford did a lot of 1on1 breaking down defenders, but overall assists are the craw in my neck.

 

[RedbirdSoxFan]

I saw Luke flip the ball at Rivera and personally I think it lacked class. Not the biggest deal but it wasn't needed either. I watched the two teams shake hands afterwards and saw

1) Pedon paused with Rivera and seem to have a nice moment
2) A few other ISU players had bigger pats and quick words with Rivera but nothing seemed strained
3) Rivera walked right past Luke.

BTW - Tony W and had big hugs for Banks

Tony & Dalton were probably pretty close from their time together at SIU

 

[CB2K]

I thought one of the points that coach made was that since UIC is long and guards the three very well and stayed home with their man-style defense then they were resigned to take what was given. This meant more than usual driving and one on one play ala Burford and Banks which nominally resulted in a lower margin for assists. I did enjoy the postgame 6 minute interview because it was interesting to get coach‘s analysis; he did say they have been working on improving the offense and implied they planned for this type of game where often he had 4 guards on the floor to try and counter their defense. It’s a chess game and this strategy worked.

Good win. Honestly, great win for ISU since it was on the road and we have struggled in this type of game the last several years. It may have been ugly at times but who cares.

I didn’t see the “hit the wall” scenario that others claim from UIC but I did see some hard nose defense and hard driving offense in the second half that took its toll on the outcome of the game.

 

[DBird]

I thought one of the points that coach made was that since UIC is long and guards the three very well and stayed home with their man-style defense then they were resigned to take what was given. This meant more than usual driving and one on one play ala Burford and Banks which nominally resulted in a lower margin for assists. I did enjoy the postgame 6 minute interview because it was interesting to get coach‘s analysis; he did say they have been working on improving the offense and implied they planned for this type of game where often he had 4 guards on the floor to try and counter their defense. It’s a chess game and this strategy worked.

Good win. Honestly, great win for ISU since it was on the road and we have struggled in this type of game the last several years. It may have been ugly at times but who cares.

I didn’t see the “hit the wall” scenario that others claim from UIC but I did see some hard nose defense and hard driving offense in the second half that took its toll on the outcome of the game.

Agree with your last paragraph!

 

[Redbird222]

One of our Achilles the past 2 years has been our 2pt shooting efficiency. Yesterday we were 22 for 33 or 67% which was excellent. It is the equivalent of shooting 45% from 3 from the field. It was great seeing guards (Burford and Banks) finishing in the paint and post players putting the ball in the hoop.

Our defense was good after the first 12 minutes. While Mal didn't have a great offensive game, I thought he set the tone defensively on guarding Rivera. I didn't think Mal or Johnny would have a high scoring game given how UIC guards the perimeter so it was great seeing Banks step up the scoring in the second half.

One area of concern continues to be the turnovers. We were very efficient yesterday when we didn't turn the ball over. I feel we are extremely fortunate to have 4 wins given how we take care of the ball. Here are our turnovers by game

UIC - 19
Wright ST 17
High Point 6
Long Beach 18
EIU 11
SLU 15
Lourdes 15

Average 14.4

In my opinion, this has to get resolved in order to compete on a consistent basis.

 

[Redbird14]

One of our Achilles the past 2 years has been our 2pt shooting efficiency. Yesterday we were 22 for 33 or 67% which was excellent. It is the equivalent of shooting 45% from 3 from the field. It was great seeing guards (Burford and Banks) finishing in the paint and post players putting the ball in the hoop.

Our defense was good after the first 12 minutes. While Mal didn't have a great offensive game, I thought he set the tone defensively on guarding Rivera. I didn't think Mal or Johnny would have a high scoring game given how UIC guards the perimeter so it was great seeing Banks step up the scoring in the second half.

One area of concern continues to be the turnovers. We were very efficient yesterday when we didn't turn the ball over. I feel we are extremely fortunate to have 4 wins given how we take care of the ball. Here are our turnovers by game

UIC - 19
Wright ST 17
High Point 6
Long Beach 18
EIU 11
SLU 15
Lourdes 15

Average 14.4

In my opinion, this has get resolved in order to compete on a consistent basis.

This continues to be the biggest concern. Losing 19 possessions in Valley play will make it hard to stay competitive. So many of them are just mental errors. A good reminder for the team would be you have to dribble if you are going to start moving……had to be 8 traveling calls at UIC.

If we fix the turnovers and play the defense that was played in the second half we will see the growth in year 2 for Pedon and potentially a top half finish in MVC.

 

[Phantom]

This continues to be the biggest concern. Losing 19 possessions in Valley play will make it hard to stay competitive. So many of them are just mental errors. A good reminder for the team would be you have to dribble if you are going to start moving……had to be 8 traveling calls at UIC.

If we fix the turnovers and play the defense that was played in the second half we will see the growth in year 2 for Pedon and potentially a top half finish in MVC.

Another contributing factor to the turnovers - especially loose ball plays and coralling boards - is weak hands. I dunno what that's all about. It was REALLY bad last year. Sample size is still small for this season but there seems to be a lack of SECURE THE F'ING BALL! too often.

 

[Bird Friend]

Another contributing factor to the turnovers - especially loose ball plays and coralling boards - is weak hands. I dunno what that's all about. It was REALLY bad last year. Sample size is still small for this season but there seems to be a lack of SECURE THE F'ING BALL! too often.

I agree with the secure the ball statement, but I don’t know about the weak hands part. I’ve seen very strong post players with very big hands get stripped of the ball very easily. Round balls with sweat on them are going to be inherently harder to hold when slapped at by strong defenders. It’s not weak hands so much as not keeping the ball high in the post so that smaller defenders can’t slap the ball. JMO