December 18, 6:00 PM vs Illinois-Chicago (-5.5/138.5) on ESPN3

[BirdGrad2011]

That clip isn’t Fisher’s fault at all. Zach tried to use the baseline as a defender and failed miserably. Fisher wasn’t in position to help unless he watched Zach get beat and could come over instantly. Blaming a big for not cleaning up for the guard across the court is stupid.

 

[DoubleDeuce]

Jeez what a bunch of complaining. Fisher had a nice game 15/14 but he’s “fundamentally flawed” for one defensive lapse. My first game in person this year as I am up here for the grandkids. What I saw was a team that’s not physically strong other than Rey. So they are basically a finesse team that must shoot the ball well to compete. I thought they played hard actually. Plus they didn’t quit.
They shot about 46% despite only 1/15 from three. That tells me they ran their basic offense pretty well. Rey and Keith had good games. Reeves was good off the bench second half. Made a bunch of clutch Free throws when they counted. Both freshmen guards are going to be nice players. Zach stepped up and buried a clutch three and we got a win. Personally I am happy we won though some in this thread seem to wish we lost.

:text-+1:

Still looking forward to a fun season...hope to see a lot of growth and improvement.

 

[jamminjamarsmiley]

That clip isn’t Fisher’s fault at all. Zach tried to use the baseline as a defender and failed miserably. Fisher wasn’t in position to help unless he watched Zach get beat and could come over instantly. Blaming a big for not cleaning up for the guard across the court is stupid.

Yeah because isu guards never get beat so why would we expect any help defense???

Also fisher was in the middle of the lane, that’s like you know right next to the basket, where the guy with the ball was heading. Might not be a bad idea to try and protect it

Copeland and fisher both failed miserably on the play. That’s the type of defense that cannot happen at the D1 level.

 

[BirdGrad2011]

That clip isn’t Fisher’s fault at all. Zach tried to use the baseline as a defender and failed miserably. Fisher wasn’t in position to help unless he watched Zach get beat and could come over instantly. Blaming a big for not cleaning up for the guard across the court is stupid.

Yeah because isu guards never get beat so why would we expect any help defense???

Also fisher was in the middle of the lane, that’s like you know right next to the basket, where the guy with the ball was heading. Might not be a bad idea to try and protect it

Copeland and fisher both failed miserably on the play. That’s the type of defense that cannot happen at the D1 level.

You’ve clearly never played ball. If Fisher overcommits to the help then he gets beat by his man 10/10 times.

 

[jamminjamarsmiley]

That clip isn’t Fisher’s fault at all. Zach tried to use the baseline as a defender and failed miserably. Fisher wasn’t in position to help unless he watched Zach get beat and could come over instantly. Blaming a big for not cleaning up for the guard across the court is stupid.

Yeah because isu guards never get beat so why would we expect any help defense???

Also fisher was in the middle of the lane, that’s like you know right next to the basket, where the guy with the ball was heading. Might not be a bad idea to try and protect it

Copeland and fisher both failed miserably on the play. That’s the type of defense that cannot happen at the D1 level.

You’ve clearly never played ball. If Fisher overcommits to the help then he gets beat by his man 10/10 times.

In that situation the options are;

A) don’t help, give up the uncontested layup
B) help off your man to stop the man with the ball - this could result in many things, the ball handler may still score, he may pass to another player, or he may charge or miss a shot etc


By Keith doing what he did, he essentially decided to give UIC 2 points and not attempt to stop them from scoring in any way shape or fashion.

Seems like you’re the one who didn’t play much ball dude... what are u watching man??? Lol

 

[birdlife]

I second @DWRedbird ‘s motion to request that we at least consider boxing out

It would be fun to see that happen.

Keith had a good game. I was hard on him early this year. There were still some bad moments.. He’s turning a corner, but maybe let’s do less flexing after buckets. And less jersey popping after needing a last second 3 to beat kenpom 220 (ish) at home.

Rey also had a nice game, but how many more times is he gonna let someone poke the ball out of his hands as he’s going up for a bunny or a dunk? Strongest guy on the floor. Act like it.

Feed me more Reeves.

Tough night for D.J. but I don’t care. Keep getting him minutes.

Chas ankle?

Jaycee only 10 min? Anything going on there? Maybe his minutes are going to D.J./Reeves.

Boyd got some more minutes than the past few games.

Torres looked a little nervous on the offensive end at times. Not good from your senior guard. Did well distributing though.

Cope - just when you think he might stop shooting, he keeps shooting

I’m just happy they didn’t lose this one.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[CB2K]

Great comeback by the Birds!! They have had some heart breakers with close games but I have to give them their due for gutting this one out. They didn't give up and dug deep to pull this one out.

I enjoy watching the Redbirds play regardless if they have are having a tough year or not.

There has been some improvement with some of the guys on the defensive/offensive end -- you can tell they have been working on specific things like making it a point to drive into the paint and either dish it down low or get fouled. They went to the line quite a bit tonight which is an improvement. Hope they keep attacking especially when they were struggling from downtown.

Fisher played a great game with 16/14. He has definitely turned it around as of late. Always heard he was capable of this and he has shown it these past few games. Great energy guy and when he slows things down can do some damage. Loved his post game interview -- he says he is always working to improve and coming in on his own to work on some things he needs to improve on. Great attitude and leadership.

Rey was a beast in the middle tonight. I love it when he gets fired up especially at the end when he made that shot and ran over to the bench.

Defense was pretty solid overall with some misses and overplays here and there. Overall good defensive performance. DM and Luedtke said the same at post game.

UIC shot over their head on three's (individually) which isn't saying much but when offense is a struggle on both sides it does make a difference.

All in all -- it's a good win to build upon and get their confidence going in the right direction. The close games with UCF, Cincy and GCU didn't go their way so it was encouraging to see them battle back and win the close one.

 

[Redbird222]

We're not playing great but I have seen a lot worse games than this one .... from Muller teams and teams from prior to that.

I know UIC is not a great team but they just got back two of their best three players. Also, Ferguson hit some contested shots. Give the kid credit ... many if the three were contested or very deep.

Keith was better today. 14 rebounds against anyone is a good game. Is their room for improvement ... sure but this was step in the right direction. He may not be Karl Malone but it appears that he played more like Keith Fisher vs. the person impersonating him the first six games of the season.

Reeves looked stellar offensively. Great penetration and clutch free throws.

Horne was off. His misses were not even in the same zip code.

Down 10 with under 4 to play ... they found a way to win. Let's get a road win and see if we can create some confidence prior to the start of conference.

 

[Chicagobirdfan]

That clip isn’t Fisher’s fault at all. Zach tried to use the baseline as a defender and failed miserably. Fisher wasn’t in position to help unless he watched Zach get beat and could come over instantly. Blaming a big for not cleaning up for the guard across the court is stupid.

Correct. He got beat in the corner completely out of fishers line of sight as his man was moving to free throw
Line.This is not on fisher one bit. It seems as if this may be the first basketball game some on this board have watched.

 

[redbirdron1]

Copeland - thank you for making the shot.

Need Muller to sit down with Zack and go over those costly turnovers and poor decision making with the ball
in the last 5 minutes of the game. Zack has the Hero Mentality and tries to do TOO MUCH when we struggle.

Torres was shaky with his handles last night and that too is a concern heading into conference. I saw Horne with several excellent
passes last night though wasn't credited for all his work, as we fail to finish but that's development on his part. U guys are right - DJ couldn't hit
a bucket and seemed to force a few.

D - why doesn't Dan mix up the Defense a bit more with some Zone? Opponents seem to drive at will against us during segments of games? Loved
that he went zone at the very end but his rationale on postgame begs the Question why don't you do it more often???

Reeves and DJ gotta get minutes. Apparently Ndaiye is not in rotation at this juncture.

 

[ricohill]

It's on both of them. How is Copeland not awake and how can Fisher have his back to the basketball?

Copeland was his typical Juco self last night. No defense and bad shots. He's great when he chucks in shots, when he doesn't he is awful. However, I'm sure he thinks he played a great game because he hit that last shot.

It's a sad day when ISU has to have the 308th team in the country meltdown at home to get a win. Expectations have been lowered so far that the fans that are left don't remember the time when a game like this wasn't acceptable.

All night from my premium lawn chair in the loge box I couldn't believe what I was seeing. A passionless and small fanbase, a team playing lazy undisciplined basketball, and a coaching staff that seemed to have no fight (or even seem to care that much). Yet, here we are in 2019 where thats ok. I shake my head at how the program has fallen .

 

[redbirdron1]

One more thing on Ndaiye - remember the watch party and everyone sitting on the edge of their seats about Abdou signing with
ISU and all the schools we beat out for his commitment.
R we playing him out of position and hurting his development - was he simply overrated - just one game on the pine but never thought I'd see
him looking disinterested during timeout huddles like he was last eve.

 

[DWRedbird]

One more thing on Ndaiye - remember the watch party and everyone sitting on the edge of their seats about Abdou signing with
ISU and all the schools we beat out for his commitment.
R we playing him out of position and hurting his development - was he simply overrated - just one game on the pine but never thought I'd see
him looking disinterested during timeout huddles like he was last eve.

I don't think we're playing him out of position or hurting his development. I honestly think he was just the odd man out from a minutes perspective last night. If Keith and Rey get into foul trouble, I have a feeling we might see more of him.

I think he will be a good player down the road, but needs a little time to work on his defense (as most frosh bigs do). Once he does that and isn't fouling as much the offensive side will flow to him more and we'll see the skill set we've heard about.

 

[jamminjamarsmiley]

That clip isn’t Fisher’s fault at all. Zach tried to use the baseline as a defender and failed miserably. Fisher wasn’t in position to help unless he watched Zach get beat and could come over instantly. Blaming a big for not cleaning up for the guard across the court is stupid.

Correct. He got beat in the corner completely out of fishers line of sight as his man was moving to free throw
Line.This is not on fisher one bit. It seems as if this may be the first basketball game some on this board have watched.

Dan, is that you?? I can now understand why your teams are so bad defensively ...

Seriously - if you think fisher did what he was supposed to do, I can no longer have an educated basketball conversation with you. Although I’m learning RBF is not the outlet for that anyways

 

[ricohill]

That clip isn’t Fisher’s fault at all. Zach tried to use the baseline as a defender and failed miserably. Fisher wasn’t in position to help unless he watched Zach get beat and could come over instantly. Blaming a big for not cleaning up for the guard across the court is stupid.

Correct. He got beat in the corner completely out of fishers line of sight as his man was moving to free throw
Line.This is not on fisher one bit. It seems as if this may be the first basketball game some on this board have watched.

Dan, is that you?? I can now understand why your teams are so bad defensively ...

Seriously - if you think fisher did what he was supposed to do, I can no longer have an educated basketball conversation with you. Although I’m learning RBF is not the outlet for that anyways

I will say this. Our defense is so bad it is hard to know what guys should be doing.

 

[Brick]

CRIMINY wake up this morning and the inmates are still freaked out about ONE defensive lapse!

 

[isuquinndog]

Stop the name calling

 

[Adunk33]

I highly recommend the use of the "foe" feature. I just got through this whole thread in about three minutes.

Anyway, the game was ugly and should've never been close as it was. The good news is, the lessons can be taught after a win. It was sloppy, we turned the ball over way too much, and had a lot of unforced errors. The defense wasn't as bad as you might think. UIC came in to the game shooting in just above 30% from 3 and shot nearly 35%. I'd say at least 5 of their 9 makes were well contested or deep with shot clock winding down.

Keith had a quiet 16/14 and Rey had a quiet 16 himself. I think it would be beneficial for the team if Cope was more of a catch and shoot or 2-3 dribble, collect, and pass guy. His ball care yesterday was terrible despite having a couple of really nice dimes, specifically that one to Chas for the easy dunk. Tone should play more for sure. Should be more in the 18-20 min range rather than 12.5.

Copeland showed his clutch shooting ability with the final shot. Unfortunately, it had to happen to get the win, but it's good to know that someone on the team has the ability. Regardless of the opponent, it feels nice to be on the other side of blowing a 10 point lead with 3 minutes left. I've said this before but this is a game the last year's team, in the same situation, would've lost. They would've dropped their heads and felt sorry for themselves. The team didn't lose that fight and won a game only making two 3-pointers. When does that happen in today's game?

Ugly, but a win is a win. On to UTSA for our first non-Redbird arena win of the season.

 

[Loyl2u]

I am hoping right now that Dan feels like the players have been beat down by losses to the point that he doesn’t want to pile on much. That being said, in the post game show, He said that the Redbirds were getting good shots, they just weren’t going down - I have to disagree. Other than interior work on the block by Rey and Fisher, there were a lot of 20 foot fall away runners and those are not good shots for most teams and especially a team with one consistent shooter, Copeland. Even for him, those are difficult shots that he is not going to make all the time. I can’t believe if you watch the film that you would see most shots coming from shooters that were squared up and unchallenged- those are the “good shots” that guards should be making the 1rst pass & 2nd pass to get and also give us the ability to rebound. I do think this team will continue to improve. Horne and Reeves both made plays and appear ready to take additional minutes at point and 2 spot. I thought Fisher played his best game of year. If Birds figure out that at this D1 level, you can’t take plays off at either end, they can be competitive, if not it will be a long conference season.

 

[ricohill]

I am hoping right now that Dan feels like the players have been beat down by losses to the point that he doesn’t want to pile on much. That being said, in the post game show, He said that the Redbirds were getting good shots, they just weren’t going down - I have to disagree. Other than interior work on the block by Rey and Fisher, there were a lot of 20 foot fall away runners and those are not good shots for most teams and especially a team with one consistent shooter, Copeland. Even for him, those are difficult shots that he is not going to make all the time. I can’t believe if you watch the film that you would see most shots coming from shooters that were squared up and unchallenged- those are the “good shots” that guards should be making the 1rst pass & 2nd pass to get and also give us the ability to rebound. I do think this team will continue to improve. Horne and Reeves both made plays and appear ready to take additional minutes at point and 2 spot. I thought Fisher played his best game of year. If Birds figure out that at this D1 level, you can’t take plays off at either end, they can be competitive, if not it will be a long conference season.

Agree 100%. We take horrendous shots on offense. Last night UIC has no post players. They were one of the weakest teams in the country.

One time we run a ball screen, they switch, Fisher is posting up a 5'9" guard. Instead of throwing it in to him we chuck up a contested 3.

We were lucky that UIC is an awful shooting team. They had some wide open looks they missed. The one kid airballed back to back wide open 3's. Also, if they make layups and dunks we get blown out.