Poll: Keeping Muller

What does Muller need to do, in your mind, to keep his job?

  • Win Arch Madness

    Votes: 29 37.7%
  • Win 1st rd NCAA game

    Votes: 3 3.9%
  • Sweet 16

    Votes: 2 2.6%
  • Elite Eight

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Final Four

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • National Title

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Nothing, needs to be let go regardless

    Votes: 16 20.8%
  • Safe already

    Votes: 27 35.1%

  • Total voters
    77
  • Poll closed .
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Birdfriend72

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This year is "young in terms of playing together." LOL. The team he's rolling out with every night isn't young. The top 8 has a senior, 5 juniors, and a RS and true sophomore. Youth won't be the excuse this year. Inexperience playing together will be, coupled with the covid shut down and now Sy to round it out.
It’s too bad every other team in America has to deal with the same thing. Somehow Muller is the one that it’s creating a problem for.
 

jamminjamarsmiley

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They need to call the owners of the Pekin Dome. See how that worked for them.


This is exactly the type of concerns that come to mind. I remember the Dallas Cowboys had a dome that could not sustain high winds and actually got someone killed inside the facility. This just seems like a band aid approach to the problem. Similar to having a football stadium that is only half finished…
 

Birdfriend72

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This is exactly the type of concerns that come to mind. I remember the Dallas Cowboys had a dome that could not sustain high winds and actually got someone killed inside the facility. This just seems like a band aid approach to the problem. Similar to having a football stadium that is only half finished…
It’s all about making them feel like they have a big time football program. It’s all good. They could be spending this money on an already established basketball program that just needs an oil change.
 

Yogi

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Bob Donewald had 1 bad year and got fired He had 3 ncaa appearances I am sure the new AD will do the right thing at the end of the season
 

gobirds85

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Donewald was fired for more reasons than having one bad year; and his firing was reflective of the level of expectations for the program at the time.

Donewald made it easy for ISU to fire him. He didn't endear himself to anyone. He expected everyone to kiss his ring and as a Bobby Knight disciple, expected the admin to cower and bend at his every demand. That wasn't going to play in Normal. Also, ISU wasn't locked into a crappy contract extension like we see in our current situation. Muller is still the hc because of the contract. Period.

Oh, almost forgot...thank you, Larry Lyons.
 

TIMMY

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We would not have redbird arena without Bob Donewald he may have been an ass but he won Do we want a friend or a coach
Just a few things about Donewald that have gone unsaid through the years. His office door in Horton was always open. If you asked him a basketball question you got a half-hour answer. Sometimes with diagrams. And he took care of people. I know two Robinson/Smithson guys that Coach took care of and made sure they finished their degrees. It didn't matter that they never played for him.
 

gobirds85

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We would not have redbird arena without Bob Donewald he may have been an ass but he won Do we want a friend or a coach

Yes, we would have. Donewald was actually detrimental to the process and almost caused the referendum to fail. RA was billed as a multi purpose facility for the entire student body but as the process moved forward it was abundantly clear that his intentions had nothing to do with sharing the arena.
 

MadBird

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Just a few things about Donewald that have gone unsaid through the years. His office door in Horton was always open. If you asked him a basketball question you got a half-hour answer. Sometimes with diagrams. And he took care of people. I know two Robinson/Smithson guys that Coach took care of and made sure they finished their degrees. It didn't matter that they never played for him.
Corresponded with him a few times - back in the last century when letters were handwritten - and he always wrote back and seemed sincere and open. Dropped my season tickets and dropped contributions to the minimum when he was canned. I get it now (not that I agree), but at the time, sure seemed dumb to me.
 

Brick

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He could be and often was a jerk. At other times he could be very generous. As a HS coach I went to one of his practices and he was very generous and open.
 

Total Red

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Yes, we would have. Donewald was actually detrimental to the process and almost caused the referendum to fail. RA was billed as a multi purpose facility for the entire student body but as the process moved forward it was abundantly clear that his intentions had nothing to do with sharing the arena.
I don't have any first hand knowledge but I find this believable. For some reason our fanbase has always wanted to single out an individual responsible for getting the arena built. Donewald was the MBB HC at the time so he is given the credit. If I remember right he made a token public appearance in favor of the arena but I think it would have passed either way. If any one person was responsible, it was the person who was clever enough to put a fee increase referendum before the students. Think about it. Students were not required to vote on the referendum and not all did. Who would be motivated to vote? Basketball fans would be, while students that were not interested in basketball would be more inclined to blow it off.
Also, these students were making a decision for all future students because the fee increase remained in place. If you were an upperclassman eligible to vote what did you really care? Even if you didn't care about basketball or Redbird Athletics in general, it was a minor fee increase that you would only pay for a year or so. We had a nice core group of students that were basketball fans so it passed. Give those students the credit for RA or the person who thought of putting it on a ballot. Bob Donewald? Not so much.
 
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StLRedbird

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Another 'how times have changed' anecdote. The night that the news broke that Donewald was fired, all of the Peoria stations ran banners across the bottom of the screen, during primetime. The 10 o'clock news lead with the story.

I was angry when he was fired. He doesn't get enough credit for cleaning up operations in a program that was probably headed towards probation.

Anyone else remember the 'the Deadbirds'? There was a fair amount of angst in the fanbase about this "playing defense" thing. But we all came around. Donewald's defenses were like knives at the throats of the other teams.
 

Adunk33

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I don't have any first hand knowledge but I find this believable. For some reason our fanbase has always wanted to single out an individual responsible for getting the arena built. Donewald was the MBB HC at the time so he is given the credit. If I remember right he made a token public appearance in favor of the arena but I think it would have passed either way. If any one person was responsible, it was the person who was clever enough to put a fee increase referendum before the students. Think about it. Students were not required to vote on the referendum and not all did. Who would be motivated to vote? Basketball fans would be, while students that were not interested in basketball would be more inclined to blow it off.
Also, these students were making a decision for all future students because the fee increase remained in place. If you were an upperclassman eligible to vote what did you really care? Even if you didn't care about basketball or Redbird Athletics in general, it was a minor fee increase that you would only pay for a year or so. We had a nice core group of students that were basketball fans so it passed. Give those students the credit for RA or the person who thought of putting it on a ballot. Bob Donewald? Not so much.
I'm one of the few that had student fees go towards Redbird Arena and Hancock Stadium...lucky me.
 

Total Red

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I'm one of the few that had student fees go towards Redbird Arena and Hancock Stadium...lucky me.
Grateful for your generosity.
Jumping Up And Down Georges Niang GIF by Philadelphia 76ers
 

gobirds85

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I don't have any first hand knowledge but I find this believable. For some reason our fanbase has always wanted to single out an individual responsible for getting the arena built. Donewald was the MBB HC at the time so he is given the credit. If I remember right he made a token public appearance in favor of the arena but I think it would have passed either way. If any one person was responsible, it was the person who was clever enough to put a fee increase referendum before the students. Think about it. Students were not required to vote on the referendum and not all did. Who would be motivated to vote? Basketball fans would be, while students that were not interested in basketball would be more inclined to blow it off.
Also, these students were making a decision for all future students because the fee increase remained in place. If you were an upperclassman eligible to vote what did you really care? Even if you didn't care about basketball or Redbird Athletics in general, it was a minor fee increase that you would only pay for a year or so. We had a nice core group of students that were basketball fans so it passed. Give those students the credit for RA or the person who thought of putting it on a ballot. Bob Donewald? Not so much.

I was the student body president at the time and had to sign the document calling for a vote on the fee increase from the student body. The admin made it sound like I had to sign it or the vote couldn't take place. According to my faculty director, the individual from the admin who apparently drew the short straw and was tasked with mentoring me, that technically only the student body president could call for a referendum regarding student fees but there were ways around it. At first, I was all in. I was a huge Redbird bball fan and as an upperclassman, as Total Red eluded to, I wasn't going to be paying for it. As the process began rolling down hill, it became more and more transparent the student body was going to be pushed out and I became less enamored with the plan. I was on the Architect Selection Committee and while everyone got to fly to USF to view the Sun Dome, I surprisingly was excluded. I believe they wanted me to join the committee to view the arena at UIC. I passed. One of the few regrets I have in life was not going down for the ground breaking ceremony and turning over a shovel full of dirt. Dang it.
 
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