Parting is such sweet sorrow

[gobirds72]

Since Muller made the layup against Tennessee here is how ISU has fared in Football and Men's Basketball. The only two sports that really matter.

Football:
99 - FCS Semi-Finals - this was actually an accomplishment because this was before all the powers in 1AA left to go to FBS.

06 - Beat Eastern in playoffs lost to Youngstown State for a second time that season.

12 - Beat Appy State to only go out and get waxed by Eastern Washington

14/15 - back to back titles in MVC titles that they don't win if they play NDSU in the regular season. Choke on the final drive in FCS championship game. Choke at home to Richmond.

16- Don't deserve a playoff bid. Choke to Central Arkansas.

Since then not even competitive in a watered down FCS.

Basketball:

1 MVC regular season championship. The MVC was so bad that year that no team could beat ISU or Wichita.

6 MVC Championship games and absolutely destroyed in 4 of 6.

I'm not sure what there is to be positive about?

Women's Volleyball made the NCAA tournament this year, Softball and Soccer tend to be among the best programs in the midwest and top 20% in the country. It seems like ISU ALWAYS has a track and field athlete competing for a national championship. All this and women's basketball has an arrow pointing to the moon at the moment.

You need to get out of your bubble and notice the DEPARTMENT instead of just what you can watch from your couch on ESPN+

A. I've attended almost every football home and road games for several years. Every home men's basketball and several road games. Go to Volleyball, Women's basketball, and baseball games. So I don't watch from my couch.

B. Softball won 38% of it's games last year. Women's Soccer was .500. Baseball was 22-30 and fired it's coach (2nd one Larry has hired). Women's basketball is currently 2-4 coming off a 14-16 season (this I give them some slack because of the situation), Men's basketball is struggling, football is sliding backwards. We finished 3rd in the MVC all-sports trophy without Wichita that would have won it ( Illinois State won five of six all-sports championships from 1996-01). We can't build or finish the facilities we have.

I give Volleyball credit. They won and that is great.

I look at the whole department and I see the big picture. We are not going in a positive direction.

Don’t waste your time. Many on here are happy with mediocrity. They think it’s all the NCAA’s fault that we haven’t sniffed the tournament in 20 years. It’s a conspiracy against us.

 

[ricohill]

Women's Volleyball made the NCAA tournament this year, Softball and Soccer tend to be among the best programs in the midwest and top 20% in the country. It seems like ISU ALWAYS has a track and field athlete competing for a national championship. All this and women's basketball has an arrow pointing to the moon at the moment.

You need to get out of your bubble and notice the DEPARTMENT instead of just what you can watch from your couch on ESPN+

A. I've attended almost every football home and road games for several years. Every home men's basketball and several road games. Go to Volleyball, Women's basketball, and baseball games. So I don't watch from my couch.

B. Softball won 38% of it's games last year. Women's Soccer was .500. Baseball was 22-30 and fired it's coach (2nd one Larry has hired). Women's basketball is currently 2-4 coming off a 14-16 season (this I give them some slack because of the situation), Men's basketball is struggling, football is sliding backwards. We finished 3rd in the MVC all-sports trophy without Wichita that would have won it ( Illinois State won five of six all-sports championships from 1996-01). We can't build or finish the facilities we have.

I give Volleyball credit. They won and that is great.

I look at the whole department and I see the big picture. We are not going in a positive direction.

Don’t waste your time. Many on here are happy with mediocrity. They think it’s all the NCAA’s fault that we haven’t sniffed the tournament in 20 years. It’s a conspiracy against us.

:text-+1:

 

[SgtHulka]

For a toilet paper salesman I can understand why farting is such sweet sorrow. It's another sale lost.

 

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

Women's Volleyball made the NCAA tournament this year, Softball and Soccer tend to be among the best programs in the midwest and top 20% in the country. It seems like ISU ALWAYS has a track and field athlete competing for a national championship. All this and women's basketball has an arrow pointing to the moon at the moment.

You need to get out of your bubble and notice the DEPARTMENT instead of just what you can watch from your couch on ESPN+

A. I've attended almost every football home and road games for several years. Every home men's basketball and several road games. Go to Volleyball, Women's basketball, and baseball games. So I don't watch from my couch.

B. Softball won 38% of it's games last year. Women's Soccer was .500. Baseball was 22-30 and fired it's coach (2nd one Larry has hired). Women's basketball is currently 2-4 coming off a 14-16 season (this I give them some slack because of the situation), Men's basketball is struggling, football is sliding backwards. We finished 3rd in the MVC all-sports trophy without Wichita that would have won it ( Illinois State won five of six all-sports championships from 1996-01). We can't build or finish the facilities we have.

I give Volleyball credit. They won and that is great.

I look at the whole department and I see the big picture. We are not going in a positive direction.

Don’t waste your time. Many on here are happy with mediocrity. They think it’s all the NCAA’s fault that we haven’t sniffed the tournament in 20 years. It’s a conspiracy against us.

:text-+1:

 

[SgtHulka]

Women's Volleyball made the NCAA tournament this year, Softball and Soccer tend to be among the best programs in the midwest and top 20% in the country. It seems like ISU ALWAYS has a track and field athlete competing for a national championship. All this and women's basketball has an arrow pointing to the moon at the moment.

You need to get out of your bubble and notice the DEPARTMENT instead of just what you can watch from your couch on ESPN+

A. I've attended almost every football home and road games for several years. Every home men's basketball and several road games. Go to Volleyball, Women's basketball, and baseball games. So I don't watch from my couch.

B. Softball won 38% of it's games last year. Women's Soccer was .500. Baseball was 22-30 and fired it's coach (2nd one Larry has hired). Women's basketball is currently 2-4 coming off a 14-16 season (this I give them some slack because of the situation), Men's basketball is struggling, football is sliding backwards. We finished 3rd in the MVC all-sports trophy without Wichita that would have won it ( Illinois State won five of six all-sports championships from 1996-01). We can't build or finish the facilities we have.

I give Volleyball credit. They won and that is great.

I look at the whole department and I see the big picture. We are not going in a positive direction.

Don’t waste your time. Many on here are happy with mediocrity. They think it’s all the NCAA’s fault that we haven’t sniffed the tournament in 20 years. It’s a conspiracy against us.

Stupid comments like that are why we are where we are.

 

[ISU FAN 1]

Rico, respectfully, I stopped reading at "these are the only sports that matter". That's false and a complete slap in the face to all the other men and women who put on a uniform that has Reggie on it.

This is an argument that nobody wins, but those sports don't exist without Football and Basketball. They are nice to have, but they don't bring in enough fans and donors to cover their expenses. I probably should have worded it differently.

I go to watch all of their games, but your athletic department is judged by success in Football and Men's Basketball.

I’m all for Title IX, but IMO it hurts mid majors disproportionately that have football and basketball programs. That’s 76 men’s scholarships that have to be offset by 76 women’s scholarships, basically mandating women’s sports that almost assuredly create huge deficits in the athletic dept. The costs to run these programs are high, but even more difficult without big revenue generating sports like the P5s have to offset these expenses. ISU has 17 sports, and 2 meaningful revenue generators. That’s a tough business model, where 15 programs are revenue negative.

 

[Reggie Redbird]

Since Muller made the layup against Tennessee here is how ISU has fared in Football and Men's Basketball. The only two sports that really matter.

Football:
99 - FCS Semi-Finals - this was actually an accomplishment because this was before all the powers in 1AA left to go to FBS.

06 - Beat Eastern in playoffs lost to Youngstown State for a second time that season.

12 - Beat Appy State to only go out and get waxed by Eastern Washington

14/15 - back to back titles in MVC titles that they don't win if they play NDSU in the regular season. Choke on the final drive in FCS championship game. Choke at home to Richmond.

16- Don't deserve a playoff bid. Choke to Central Arkansas.

Since then not even competitive in a watered down FCS.

Basketball:

1 MVC regular season championship. The MVC was so bad that year that no team could beat ISU or Wichita.

6 MVC Championship games and absolutely destroyed in 4 of 6.

I'm not sure what there is to be positive about?

I do see you didn't note three FBS wins here recently: Northwestern, Colorado State, and Eastern Michigan. You could say we were about 50-50 against CSU and EMU, but that NW game was a great win. Any reason you didn't note that? I haven't been happy about the last two years with FB, but I think those are three important games to call out as how we have fared, especially in the Spack era.

Also, could you let me know by what you mean "competitive"? For example, we finished 6-5 in 2017, which is not good. But included in our wins was beating #4 South Dakota 37-21 and at #21 YSU 35-0. Our losses: at NAU, at SIU, #15 WIU, at #5 SDSU 27-24 in OT with our starting QB out, and at home to #4 NDSU. I wouldn't call that good, but I wouldn't call that "not even competitive."

I think if we have no playoffs next year, then we have to evaluate Spack as being the guy who can get there again or do we go in a different direction. We have to be able to win the big games, just like in basketball. We have done that a lot in FB recently. We haven't in MBB. If I'm looking where my greater focus is, it's on MBB and needing to see them make the tournament.

 

[TIMMY]

Rico, respectfully, I stopped reading at "these are the only sports that matter". That's false and a complete slap in the face to all the other men and women who put on a uniform that has Reggie on it.

Thank You from the father of 2 kids who wore college uniforms in other sports that DO indeed matter.

 

[ricohill]

Rico, respectfully, I stopped reading at "these are the only sports that matter". That's false and a complete slap in the face to all the other men and women who put on a uniform that has Reggie on it.

This is an argument that nobody wins, but those sports don't exist without Football and Basketball. They are nice to have, but they don't bring in enough fans and donors to cover their expenses. I probably should have worded it differently.

I go to watch all of their games, but your athletic department is judged by success in Football and Men's Basketball.

I’m all for Title IX, but IMO it hurts mid majors disproportionately that have football and basketball programs. That’s 76 men’s scholarships that have to be offset by 76 women’s scholarships, basically mandating women’s sports that almost assuredly create huge deficits in the athletic dept. The costs to run these programs are high, but even more difficult without big revenue generating sports like the P5s have to offset these expenses. ISU has 17 sports, and 2 meaningful revenue generators. That’s a tough business model, where 15 programs are revenue negative.

It hurts football right now because I am pretty sure they don't get the cost of attendance stipend and believe most other schools in the MVFC do. That I could be wrong on, but last I knew it was an issue.

It's the basketball board so I will keep it to basketball, but there are issues like that looming behind the service that hold us back. Traveling by bus instead of plane to Belmont and other games when schools like Wichita charter everywhere.

$$$$ wins, we don't have it and can't raise it.

 

[TheTruth]

Stupid comments like that are why we are where we are.

No, poor leadership is why Illinois State is where it's at.

 

[ricohill]

Stupid comments like that are why we are where we are.

No, poor leadership is why Illinois State is where it's at.

I was going to go with 20 years of losing, returning 90 percent of your scoring, somehow getting worse, and blowing any chance at an at-large bid 2 weeks into the season, but that will suffice.

 

[SgtHulka]

Stupid comments like that are why we are where we are.

No, poor leadership is why Illinois State is where it's at.

you're missing my point

 

[bb fan]

It's comments like "20 years of losing" that really shows spin against our program. We have less losing seasons than any valley team. We have more championship valley tourney games. Several 20 win seasons. Our current head coach has never had a losing season in 7 years. Facts are we have been a winning program by any measure, not losing. Yep, it stinks we have not made it to the NCAA tourney. And there are reasons for that, some out of our control.

But the "20 years of losing" nonsense comment is clearly someone out to find ways to put down our program. Really, it's that type of dishonesty by someone that says they are one of our fans that make this site hard to follow sometimes.

 

[ISU FAN 1]

It's comments like "20 years of losing" that really shows spin against our program. We have less losing seasons than any valley team. We have more championship valley tourney games. Several 20 win seasons. Our current head coach has never had a losing season in 7 years. Facts are we have been a winning program by any measure, not losing. Yep, it stinks we have not made it to the NCAA tourney. And there are reasons for that, some out of our control.

But the "20 years of losing" nonsense comment is clearly someone out to find ways to put down our program. Really, it's that type of dishonesty by someone that says they are one of our fans that make this site hard to follow sometimes.

Big difference between 20+ years of losing and 20+ year NCAA tourney drought. I agree the former is dishonesty, but the latter is fact.

 

[Brick]

For crying out loud, no one wants mediocre teams. Nor is winning year in year out mediocre. Not winning as much as we all desire perhaps but a long way from mediocre.

 

[birdlife]

For crying out loud, no one wants mediocre teams. Nor is winning year in year out mediocre. Not winning as much as we all desire perhaps but a long way from mediocre.

:text-+1:

 

[TheTruth]

you're missing my point

No, I'm expanding upon it.

 

[ricohill]

You guys are correct. 20 years of losing is not correct. However, it's been 20 years of not good enough basketball to get an at-large bid and 20 years of not being good enough to win the tournament. If the NCAA Tournament isn't the standard of excellence then what is the point of fielding a team?

Our two best chances for an at-large bid lost the conference tournament championship games by 30 (2008) and 20 (2017). We haven't beaten a top 25 team from a Power 5 conference in 31 years (0-15 since beating Iowa in 87). Haven't been ranked in the AP poll since November 24, 1997. 5-27 vs. the Top 25 since 2007 when Janko took over.

Those aren't numbers of a successful basketball program in my opinion.

 

[SgtHulka]

you're missing my point

No, I'm expanding upon it.

No trouck, your missing it. I'm talking about the forum, not the program

 

[bb fan]

Thanks for the correction, Rico. So, what is it we should have, or still could do to guarantee that all important NCAA bid?

Again, I certainly understand the frustration. I have lived it for 2 decades. So has my family of Redbirds. But you can curse the wind all you want. What are the ideas? We have had many different coaches and admins. Are you saying they all have been substandard and every one does not get it? Really the one thing I can think of, that was really in our control was letting Porter go when we did. Of course that's easy to say now. At the time the consensus what that it needed to be done.

Personally, I think it has been, mostly dumb luck. and the fact that the P5's have made at larges virtually impossible for the last 12 years for anybody but them. At the same time, they have made it easier for them.

But let's hear it, Rico? You can keep b1tching if you wish. I am tired of all of that from a few of you, personally. I will hang up and listen...