@ Missouri St (2-5) - Saturday, 1/20/24 - 1 pm - ESPN+

[isuquinndog]

vs MSU @ Great Southern Bank Arena

TV: ESPN+ (sign up here)

Radio: Varsity Network (WJBC)

Live Stats: Stats

Missouri St comes in playing just about as bad as we are. Dana's seat seems to be getting warm in Springfield as the AD put out a statement saying he has talked to Dana about his teams play. Probably will not be a well played basketball game.

 

[BirdGrad2011]

Must win. Not really, but we need to salvage our season.

 

[Birgs]

Must win. Not really, but we need to salvage our season.

I'm with ya..."
What does "must win" really even mean at this point?

• We are mired in the epitome of mediocrity.
• W-L wise, it would be miraculous to have any statistcally measureable success.
• Intangiably, the arrow has no place to go but up right now, as it seems moralw (visible team non-swagger, fandom, et al) is in an abyss.
• Performance-wise, I suppose seeing some sort of adjustment in scheme and execution? I guess?
• "Must win" doesn't even apply to Pedon and a hot seat, as we all know nothing's happening there (quite contrarily to Dana's obvious scorcher of a stool)

Yuck.

 

[ISUalum19]

This seems like a bad game between two middling teams. MoState wins 64-55.

 

[DoubleDeuce]

Birds win this one.

 

[Redbird60451]

I'm with ya..."
What does "must win" really even mean at this point?

• We are mired in the epitome of mediocrity.
• W-L wise, it would be miraculous to have any statistcally measureable success.
• Intangiably, the arrow has no place to go but up right now, as it seems moralw (visible team non-swagger, fandom, et al) is in an abyss.
• Performance-wise, I suppose seeing some sort of adjustment in scheme and execution? I guess?
• "Must win" doesn't even apply to Pedon and a hot seat, as we all know nothing's happening there (quite contrarily to Dana's obvious scorcher of a stool)

Yuck.

This is positioning for the 8 vs 9 game. This is for the noon game on Thursday. And with any luck the right to lose to Drake for a third time this season on Friday morning at noon. Then we can hear about everything Drake does right again and nothing about what our coaches are going to do or our players are going to do to get better.

Kinziger will be at the Army Pop o Shot practicing his free throws during the evening session and the older guys will be at the Lumier spending all their NIL money in the nickel machines.

And if we are lucky, we will get to play these guys in that 8/9 game and see a real dance team at half time.

 

[Baltimore Bird]

I am struggling to see who we are going to beat to get in the 8/9 game. This one would be a great start.

 

[cpacmel]

Illinois State +7.5

Over / under 131

 

[Bird Friend]

This seems like a bad game between two middling teams. MoState wins 64-55.

Being tied for 9th in a 12 team conference makes us both less than middlin’ teams.

 

[ISU86]

Two teams whose fan bases are grumbling. Going back to an earlier thread, maybe have an undercard five-on-five of each team's most disgruntled posters and they can bemoan to each other who has it worse.

Ironic that some on this board wanted Dana Ford at our helm and the Bears (at least record wise) are on a similar program path.

Missouri State has seven transfers on their roster, three from P6 programs (Arkansas, Oklahoma, Xavier); however, two of them are among their most productive players.

And, much like us, MSU is also struggling to get keisters in seats (3,053, vs ISU 3,434). They have not been to the Big Dance since 1999 (including their 2005-06 season, when they were not selected despite an RPI ranking of 21 (best RPI ranking to not get chosen)). Much like some on this board want our athletics in a FBS conference (MAC), they have similar wishes (CUSA)). A lot of similarities between the programs.

Redbirds 68
Bears 71

 

[Scipio]

I’d like to see the Birds put together a good game and take a win; but I’m not counting on it. I don’t see us winning another game this season. Fight, if we ever had any, has gone out of this team. At this point just as well play the Freshmen. Give them some game experience, or more likely maybe a chance to transfer to a competitive program next year.

 

[RedbirdSoxFan]

I’d like to see the Birds put together a good game and take a win; but I’m not counting on it. I don’t see us winning another game this season. Fight, if we ever had any, has gone out of this team. At this point just as well play the Freshmen. Give them some game experience, or more likely maybe a chance to transfer to a competitive program next year.

I don’t agree that this team has no fight. This team plays hard, they just can’t make shots and defend against the better teams, which makes them not a very good team. What would there record be if our guys were shooting 40% from beyond the arc?

 

[Aggie]

Being tied for 9th in a 12 team conference makes us both less than middlin’

Being tied for 9th in a 12 team conference makes us both less than middlin’ teams.

If we lose to Missouri State today there will be only one team below us with one win since Valpo and UIC play today. It is really really disappointing, mind boggling, ridiculous how far this once proud program has collapsed into. We are not a middle team in a middle conference.

 

[DBird]

I don’t agree that this team has no fight. This team plays hard, they just can’t make shots and defend against the better teams, which makes them not a very good team. What would there record be if our guys were shooting 40% from beyond the arc?

Agree.
Shooting is the issue!

 

[Manchester Matt]

Great half.

Shooting 50 percent from the field and 38 from distance. That’ll play. Taking care of the ball, too.

More of this in the second half, please.

 

[Redbird Alum 2004]

My ESPN app must be broke because I swear I just watched an ISU team that can shoot

 

[Redbirdfan06]

More Johnny running the point and getting more fast break buckets. Fun half.

 

[Redbird82]

If we keep MSU off the line they will struggle to score

 

[WoodlandWarrior]

I used to be able to follow the play by play and statcast from the ISU schedule. For some reason I have lost that access capability. Please advise who is scoring for us and is Kinziger getting extended time as point guard? Thanks.

 

[normalbird]

Stats broadcast seems to have disappeared. A truncated version of stats is available on ESPN. I don’t know who is responsible for the changes (Learfield?), but I intend to let the AD know IMO it stinks.