Northern Iowa - 12/31/2022 - 2:00 PM - Marquee

CaliRdBrd

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 17, 2017
Messages
5,620
This is not in anyway a knock on the current ISU roster, but sometimes you got the great talent and other times your talent is not the best in the league. Some years getting the most out of what one has is all we should expect.
I have a good friend who has coached at different times high school football, basketball and junior high basketball. The team he was most proud of only won 7 games in high school basketball. He still believes the talent level was at zero wins. He also says it was one of, if not the most difficult year coaching. The thing he was most proud of and why he ranks that team so high is because the kids had tremendous hearts. They played as hard as they could, as smart as they could and as a team.
And I will add I have followed those kids on later in life and they all are pretty successful.

As a coach, and this is just my opinion, you have to at times adjust your approach, adjust your system and make it fit what you have in front of you. And, try to appeal to them to get as much out of them as they can do. As long as they play hard, work hard and do as best as they can, I will ask and expect no more.

We are what we are and it may take awhile to get out of the cellar, but as long as ISU basketball ball keeps heading up and trying to improve I will be satisfied with the results

Sorry rant over.
Agreed.
I’d like to add that ISU getting a game-changing talent is unrealistic. The only way we get the kind of player we need is if we get lucky with a 2-star talent that blossoms into a 4-star talent. The problem with that scenario is that “blossom” player will be immediately poached by P5 schools.
Pedon is in a near impossible situation…not unlike all mid-major coaches.
 

BirdGrad2011

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 16, 2017
Messages
2,225
Agreed.
I’d like to add that ISU getting a game-changing talent is unrealistic. The only way we get the kind of player we need is if we get lucky with a 2-star talent that blossoms into a 4-star talent. The problem with that scenario is that “blossom” player will be immediately poached by P5 schools.
Pedon is in a near impossible situation…not unlike all mid-major coaches.
Ty Pence is literally a top 200 player and 3*.
 

jwa123

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 20, 2017
Messages
518
Up to 6 pages and working on page number 7. Not like the good old days when a loss would elicit 30 plus pages but getting better nonetheless.
 

Aggie

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 11, 2020
Messages
289
Ty Pence is literally a top 200 player and 3*.
Probably upset a few here, but……
If one looks at the “former” Redbirds thread, nobody really burning it up Doug COllins style either. Now will ISU ever have another Doug COllins? That is probably not happening in all of college basketball now. But, I think I speak for many when we would be beyond thrilled with a Rick Lamb, Hank Cornley, Rickie Jackson, etc., etc. I know some will say we had 2 guards leave that were pretty good, but I don’t think either or both would move the needle as far as ISU needs it to move.
How does ISU get back to that? And, would some of those caliber of players be poached in the portal? Probably yes, but if we can show we can developer talent, I believe it will come here.
Build it and they will come philosophy. And, with our geographic location, family can get here to watch and regional media. We need desperately to be competitive, win more than we lose, and be fun to watch.
So my personal opinion is are we competitive? Yes, but starting to look like last year and that is not good.
Winning more than losing? No
Fun to watch? On again off again. Several stretches been great, return to Horton was awesome, but really only the second half. Beginnings of games have been downright horrible ugly at times. I am not a coach but I think in at least two of the games 2-3 minutes in I would call time out, sit them all down, and ask them do you really want to be here?
ISU needs fans beside the diehards on here. No one in the Midwest cares about ISU or even thinks about us and that was not the case for about 30 years. Can we get back there? YES but I think we need to be competitive and fun to watch to have a hope of winning more than we lose.

I guess this is my second rant of the day.
 

Reggie Redbird

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 17, 2017
Messages
1,769
Agreed.
I’d like to add that ISU getting a game-changing talent is unrealistic. The only way we get the kind of player we need is if we get lucky with a 2-star talent that blossoms into a 4-star talent. The problem with that scenario is that “blossom” player will be immediately poached by P5 schools.
Pedon is in a near impossible situation…not unlike all mid-major coaches.
Part of attracting and retaining talent will be based on if the NIL collective can get anything going. Do we have a combination of people with resources who also care enough to spend them on paying a player to come/stay here.

For the current roster, it appears playing time is sending a message to some guys. Pedon walked in to a roster that did not perform under DM and had to recruit some guys to try and help win now but also round out his roster in a way that banked scholarships to recruit this offseason. As much as I want to win now, we did not see enough change in the roster that was going to lead us to compete for a Valley title or anywhere close.

It should tell us something when scholarship players have played about 10 or 20 minutes all season so far. A fair question to ask after the season would be coach’s thoughts on non-renewing a scholarship next year like we saw after year 1 when Porter took over.
 
P

Popsto4

Guest
That’s not a rant at all and very understandable. I see the team as better than they themselves think they are. Turnovers will happen in this game. The key is to limit them as a collective group. It’s not as hard to fix as it seem to be either. It’s an old saying that you can never have too many ball handlers, I believe that’s all bull. I see this team having too man which is hard for some to see because there is not one true pg out there. Limit the pounding of the rock from our undersized bigs beyond the free throw line and there will be probably be 4 to 6 less turnovers per game. There is no way any big should be at or near the top in turnovers on a basketball team at this level. The bulk of turnovers should be coming from other positions as they should be handling the rock more. I like your post. That Coach seem to have plain and simple human feelings as we all should.
There will be a new look to the offense n tomorrow’s night game, and it’s exactly what I’ve been waiting to see.
 

Adunk33

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 21, 2017
Messages
9,989
I honestly think Pedon has had enough of our slow starts. He’s trying hard.
I listened to the post game this morning and one thing that is consistently echoed from the players is exactly that. The coaches are giving the players all of the tools and prep to be successful but it's just not translating. Liam sounded emotional when he talked about it. There is no question about the effort around the program. It's execution. With Indiana State coming in, if you start slow, it can get out of hand quickly.

I didn't read this whole thread but I'll say something I've mentioned before. Get to the damn FT line. When they are struggling to put the ball in the hole, that is always there. Especially with the team shooting just shy of 80%. I think the Birds need 15-20 points from the line to win games. In league play, Birds have shot just 47 FTs to their opponents 81.

In earlier games this season when the guys got to the paint, they'd get a shot up or get fouled. It seemed against UNI, they'd get solid positioning in the paint off the drive and then kick out. Can't shy away from contact. Get to the line, win more games. Birds shot 13 and and 11 FTs in the last two losses. Lets get that number up to 20-25 and make most of em, and you'll be in position to win.
 

Tpguy

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 17, 2017
Messages
2,401
could someone post the interview videos after the game
 
Top Bottom