Is this the year?

[redbirdron1]

ADunk - you're a fine poster and you get Bird ball.

I don't want/expect Phil Fayne to even dream about expanding his range. Once he learns how to make a 15' free toss, then we all can begin
the thought of him expanding to outside of the paint. Not his game imo. Plant yourself about 6' away and continue to do your thing.

Not sure I'm a believer re: EC - as stated, Hein played ahead of him often so.......what in the world was Muller seeing in practice to have him go that
route? Jefferson may be our backup PG when Key goes down with his annual injury. Sorry, he's prone to injury.

Milik - improved decision making?? Once he starts that with improved off-court behavior, well u get that too and then I'll buy in to his smarts. Hope he's POY as
he's got the skill once he develops a consistent outside jumper and ball control.

And then the whole Ndaiye thing - am I the only person on the board who has this sick feeling he's not going to B cleared by NCAA???

I'll be elated if all scholarship guys R on the floor come November - this could be a special group but I've been conditioned to expect some bad
news along the way.

 

[DWRedbird]

ADunk - you're a fine poster and you get Bird ball.

I don't want/expect Phil Fayne to even dream about expanding his range. Once he learns how to make a 15' free toss, then we all can begin
the thought of him expanding to outside of the paint. Not his game imo. Plant yourself about 6' away and continue to do your thing.

Not sure I'm a believer re: EC - as stated, Hein played ahead of him often so.......what in the world was Muller seeing in practice to have him go that
route? Jefferson may be our backup PG when Key goes down with his annual injury. Sorry, he's prone to injury.

Milik - improved decision making?? Once he starts that with improved off-court behavior, well u get that too and then I'll buy in to his smarts. Hope he's POY as
he's got the skill once he develops a consistent outside jumper and ball control.

And then the whole Ndaiye thing - am I the only person on the board who has this sick feeling he's not going to B cleared by NCAA???

I'll be elated if all scholarship guys R on the floor come November - this could be a special group but I've been conditioned to expect some bad
news along the way.

You are not, I'm nervous about this, with our history of Redbird bad luck, that he will be redshirting this year. I'm optimistic that we won't have any issues, but I know how things usually play out for us...

Regardless though, I think this is the year for us. We have more talent, IMO, top to bottom than we have had in the past. If we can play as a team from the start, I think we are going to be scary good, and we will be dancing. I can't wait for the season to start.

 

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

ADunk - you're a fine poster and you get Bird ball.

I don't want/expect Phil Fayne to even dream about expanding his range. Once he learns how to make a 15' free toss, then we all can begin
the thought of him expanding to outside of the paint. Not his game imo. Plant yourself about 6' away and continue to do your thing.

Not sure I'm a believer re: EC - as stated, Hein played ahead of him often so.......what in the world was Muller seeing in practice to have him go that
route? Jefferson may be our backup PG when Key goes down with his annual injury. Sorry, he's prone to injury.

Milik - improved decision making?? Once he starts that with improved off-court behavior, well u get that too and then I'll buy in to his smarts. Hope he's POY as
he's got the skill once he develops a consistent outside jumper and ball control.

And then the whole Ndaiye thing - am I the only person on the board who has this sick feeling he's not going to B cleared by NCAA???

I'll be elated if all scholarship guys R on the floor come November - this could be a special group but I've been conditioned to expect some bad
news along the way.

1. No worries about Ndaiye being cleared. And, if he isn't oh, well. I don't expect him to be a major contributor next season. I expect him to play decent minutes but not be a huge factor. Hope I'm wrong.
2. Milik definitely needs to stop getting stripped when he dribbles inside. I've never seen anything like it. EC loses the grip on the ball when he dribbles inside.
3. The ticky tacky fouls need to stop. Stop hitting people on the wrist for no reason (although that was mostly Williams and he's gone). Another thing I noticed about defense is all the fouls the birds got on the baseline. Stop bumping them out of bounds.
4. Use the shotclock more and pass the ball a couple more times.
5. Stop relying on the 3 as much.

I really hope the birds were watching Loyola in the NCAA tournament and saw how important defense is and how to be more efficient. I hope Dan saw this too and drives the point home.

 

[ISU FAN 1]

I’ve been a Redbird fan since the Moser era. I’m sure some of the older guys/gals can point to other great teams, but could this be one of the best assembled Redbird rosters in a very long time? On paper it seems that way. We didn’t really have the defections we thought we might and we signed some really good talent to support what we are bringing back. I think most of us would simply be happy with making the tournament, but dare I say this team has top 25 potential? I know it’s very homerish to put statements out like that, but I’m very interested in hearing what everyone thinks on this.

We have had good teams on paper, and on the court in the last 20 years. But results matter, and trump the talent from 2 years ago IMO. Have to get to the Dance if they want to be in the discussion to compare to the other 6 big Dance participants.

 

[Phantom]

I’ve been a Redbird fan since the Moser era. I’m sure some of the older guys/gals can point to other great teams, but could this be one of the best assembled Redbird rosters in a very long time? On paper it seems that way. We didn’t really have the defections we thought we might and we signed some really good talent to support what we are bringing back. I think most of us would simply be happy with making the tournament, but dare I say this team has top 25 potential? I know it’s very homerish to put statements out like that, but I’m very interested in hearing what everyone thinks on this.

We have had good teams on paper, and on the court in the last 20 years. But results matter, and trump the talent from 2 years ago IMO. Have to get to the Dance if they want to be in the discussion to compare to the other 6 big Dance participants.

Exactly. And that's what's both frustrating and causing the optimism to be guarded (speaking for myself at least.)

We've been consistently good for a long time now. We've had one sub .500 season in the last 11 years. I think it's 10 of 11 seasons with 18+ wins and about half of those with 20+ wins. Several NIT & CBI appearances too. But how many times have we failed to get it done on Sunday in STL? I don't even want to post the number, it's embarrassing.

So yes, we've been good---but still not where we want to be.

 

[WSpringsBird]

I’ve been a Redbird fan since the Moser era. I’m sure some of the older guys/gals can point to other great teams, but could this be one of the best assembled Redbird rosters in a very long time? On paper it seems that way. We didn’t really have the defections we thought we might and we signed some really good talent to support what we are bringing back. I think most of us would simply be happy with making the tournament, but dare I say this team has top 25 potential? I know it’s very homerish to put statements out like that, but I’m very interested in hearing what everyone thinks on this.

We have had good teams on paper, and on the court in the last 20 years. But results matter, and trump the talent from 2 years ago IMO. Have to get to the Dance if they want to be in the discussion to compare to the other 6 big Dance participants.

Exactly. And that's what's both frustrating and causing the optimism to be guarded (speaking for myself at least.)

We've been consistently good for a long time now. We've had one sub .500 season in the last 11 years. I think it's 10 of 11 seasons with 18+ wins and about half of those with 20+ wins. Several NIT & CBI appearances too. But how many times have we failed to get it done on Sunday in STL? I don't even want to post the number, it's embarrassing.

So yes, we've been good---but still not where we want to be.

This has the potential to be the most talented Redbird team we've seen in a while. It should be a deeper team than the '16-'17 team.

Some other teams in the MVC will also be really good. Loyola will again be very good. This will be the best team Southern has had in a while. Same for Bradley. Valpo will be solid.

For the MVC to get multiple NCAA bids, which it will deserve, the nonconference season will have to go well. With a couple notable exceptions, the MVC teams have put together a really solid nonconference schedule, so there should be a chance to show how good the conference is.

 

[CaliRdBrd]

We have had good teams on paper, and on the court in the last 20 years. But results matter, and trump the talent from 2 years ago IMO. Have to get to the Dance if they want to be in the discussion to compare to the other 6 big Dance participants.

Exactly. And that's what's both frustrating and causing the optimism to be guarded (speaking for myself at least.)

We've been consistently good for a long time now. We've had one sub .500 season in the last 11 years. I think it's 10 of 11 seasons with 18+ wins and about half of those with 20+ wins. Several NIT & CBI appearances too. But how many times have we failed to get it done on Sunday in STL? I don't even want to post the number, it's embarrassing.

So yes, we've been good---but still not where we want to be.

This has the potential to be the most talented Redbird team we've seen in a while. It should be a deeper team than the '16-'17 team.

Some other teams in the MVC will also be really good. Loyola will again be very good. This will be the best team Southern has had in a while. Same for Bradley. Valpo will be solid.

For the MVC to get multiple NCAA bids, which it will deserve, the nonconference season will have to go well. With a couple notable exceptions, the MVC teams have put together a really solid nonconference schedule, so there should be a chance to show how good the conference is.

IMO, a long way to go to catch the '97-'98 squad...

 

[WSpringsBird]

Exactly. And that's what's both frustrating and causing the optimism to be guarded (speaking for myself at least.)

We've been consistently good for a long time now. We've had one sub .500 season in the last 11 years. I think it's 10 of 11 seasons with 18+ wins and about half of those with 20+ wins. Several NIT & CBI appearances too. But how many times have we failed to get it done on Sunday in STL? I don't even want to post the number, it's embarrassing.

So yes, we've been good---but still not where we want to be.

This has the potential to be the most talented Redbird team we've seen in a while. It should be a deeper team than the '16-'17 team.

Some other teams in the MVC will also be really good. Loyola will again be very good. This will be the best team Southern has had in a while. Same for Bradley. Valpo will be solid.

For the MVC to get multiple NCAA bids, which it will deserve, the nonconference season will have to go well. With a couple notable exceptions, the MVC teams have put together a really solid nonconference schedule, so there should be a chance to show how good the conference is.

IMO, a long way to go to catch the '97-'98 squad...

To me, that is definitely "a while." Most talent since then, I think.

 

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

SWEET 16 OR BUST!!!

 

[Bird Friend]

https://twitter.com/Redbird_Pro/status/1005170129691389952

 

[Bird Friend]

And then the whole Ndaiye thing - am I the only person on the board who has this sick feeling he's not going to B cleared by NCAA???

https://twitter.com/Pg_Benson/status/1008802917242032128