Redbirds @ UIC - 12/5 6PM

[RBFANTOO]

That was the worst defensive effort I have ever seen by a Redbird team. First of all they can't play and should never play a man defense. However, they also don't understand the zone and where they should be positioned etc. Donnewald would have locked the whole team out of Redbird Arena. Horrible.

 

[saxman210]

Muller said Copeland, who is ISU's best perimeter defender and one of its main ballhandlers, tweaked his knee last week against Brigham Young. He missed the second half of Monday's practice, but Muller said the junior went through morning shootaround and thought he would be available.

“At the start of the game I went to sub him in, and he said he couldn't play,” said Muller.

Is this weird to anyone else? Muller didn’t know Zach was unavailable until the game started?

 

[ricohill]

Muller said Copeland, who is ISU's best perimeter defender and one of its main ballhandlers, tweaked his knee last week against Brigham Young. He missed the second half of Monday's practice, but Muller said the junior went through morning shootaround and thought he would be available.

“At the start of the game I went to sub him in, and he said he couldn't play,” said Muller.

Is this weird to anyone else? Muller didn’t know Zach was unavailable until the game started?

From the Pantagraph:

Muller said Copeland, who is ISU's best perimeter defender and one of its main ballhandlers, tweaked his knee last week against Brigham Young. He missed the second half of Monday's practice, but Muller said the junior went through morning shootaround and thought he would be available.

“At the start of the game I went to sub him in, and he said he couldn't play,” said Muller.

 

[Brick]

The other thread being locked is complete garbage.

There's the door.

Good one. Quinn!

Here’s another thing I don’t understand. Milik has played hard every game every minute since he was called out. He got called in the carpet for taking too many shots or the wrong kind of shots last night but I believe he was 11/20. The two 3s he made in the second half were wide open shots. He dribbles the
Ball too high but hell when you are 6.6” it’s pretty hard to dribble it low. He routinely gets double teamed so turnovers are inevitable. Plus he really looks to find the open man though they often don’t convert. IMO he’s a major talent but it seems some would rather he didn’t play.

 

[ISU FAN 1]

It sucks that ISU is the only team that has players out with injury, or players that are not 100%.

Ridiculous comment, right?

Quit bemoaning our injury situation. Other teams are likely in the same boat we are. Injuries are part of athletics. We follow ISU, so we know their status on the injury front. Guarantee all the teams we’re playing aren’t at 100% either. The top of our roster has been relatively healthy this season. Missing some bottom feeder minutes and replacing them with top line players should actually make ISU better. That’s the problem. Even with our top players consuming most of the minutes, ISU isn’t very good at basketball. Injury on this team doesn’t excuse performance, and I don’t foresee much improvement when we get our slow white guys back.

 

[gobirds85]

I'm starting to think our at large chances are at risk.

Lol this made me laugh.

Me too.

 

[ChiRedbirdfan]

Muller said Copeland, who is ISU's best perimeter defender and one of its main ballhandlers, tweaked his knee last week against Brigham Young. He missed the second half of Monday's practice, but Muller said the junior went through morning shootaround and thought he would be available.

“At the start of the game I went to sub him in, and he said he couldn't play,” said Muller.

Is this weird to anyone else? Muller didn’t know Zach was unavailable until the game started?

From the Pantagraph:

Muller said Copeland, who is ISU's best perimeter defender and one of its main ballhandlers, tweaked his knee last week against Brigham Young. He missed the second half of Monday's practice, but Muller said the junior went through morning shootaround and thought he would be available.

“At the start of the game I went to sub him in, and he said he couldn't play,” said Muller.

The fact that Muller stated it that way and actually took the effort to state it that way to the press definitely makes one pause. Strange brew. If Muller did not accurately convey the situation then he should clear this up. Looks like there is some discontent with Zach or at a minimum a lack of communication or poor communication with both the trainers/players

 

[Brick]

It sucks that ISU is the only team that has players out with injury, or players that are not 100%.

Ridiculous comment, right?

Quit bemoaning our injury situation. Other teams are likely in the same boat we are. Injuries are part of athletics. We follow ISU, so we know their status on the injury front. Guarantee all the teams we’re playing aren’t at 100% either. The top of our roster has been relatively healthy this season. Missing some bottom feeder minutes and replacing them with top line players should actually make ISU better. That’s the problem. Even with our top players consuming most of the minutes, ISU isn’t very good at basketball. Injury on this team doesn’t excuse performance, and I don’t foresee much improvement when we get our slow white guys back.

Yes other teams have injuries but I simply cannot remember ANY college basketball team reduced to 7 players. Unbelievable to say the least. Bruninga isn’t the quickest player alive but he brings shooting ability and size/beef at 225. That cannot hurt. I don’t think Chastain is slow. I don’t think we have seen him yet at his best. He was just coming around in the BYU game when he blew out the ankle. Maybe he’s too fragile and it will always be an issue but I hope he will be a contributor down the road. Respectfully One!

 

[ChiRedbirdfan]

It sucks that ISU is the only team that has players out with injury, or players that are not 100%.

Ridiculous comment, right?

Quit bemoaning our injury situation. Other teams are likely in the same boat we are. Injuries are part of athletics. We follow ISU, so we know their status on the injury front. Guarantee all the teams we’re playing aren’t at 100% either. The top of our roster has been relatively healthy this season. Missing some bottom feeder minutes and replacing them with top line players should actually make ISU better. That’s the problem. Even with our top players consuming most of the minutes, ISU isn’t very good at basketball. Injury on this team doesn’t excuse performance, and I don’t foresee much improvement when we get our slow white guys back.

Yes other teams have injuries but I simply cannot remember ANY college basketball team reduced to 7 players. Unbelievable to say the least. Bruninga isn’t the quickest player alive but he brings shooting ability and size/beef at 225. That cannot hurt. I don’t think Chastain is slow. I don’t think we have seen him yet at his best. He was just coming around in the BYU game when he blew out the ankle. Maybe he’s too fragile and it will always be an issue but I hope he will be a contributor down the road. Respectfully One!

The issue alone isn’t the injuries...it is the fact that ISU choose to only have 11 players available including walkons. Look at the facts... having 3 players out is not that uncommon and some other teams have 4 players out. A well run D 1 program CANNOT start the season with 11 players. Muller needs to better manage his schollies, transfers, redshirts and walkons.

http://www.donbest.com/ncaab/injuries/

 

[JHBird]

Tinsley has two free throw attempts FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR???
I could get to the line more than him. What is he even doing out there besides missing 3 pt shots and playing lousy defense?

 

[ricohill]

Tinsley has two free throw attempts FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR???
I could get to the line more than him. What is he even doing out there besides missing 3 pt shots and playing lousy defense?

He's shooting 29% from 3, so he's not even making those. Also, if you take out the Lindenwood game he's shooting 25% against D1 competition.

 

[ISU FAN 1]

It sucks that ISU is the only team that has players out with injury, or players that are not 100%.

Ridiculous comment, right?

Quit bemoaning our injury situation. Other teams are likely in the same boat we are. Injuries are part of athletics. We follow ISU, so we know their status on the injury front. Guarantee all the teams we’re playing aren’t at 100% either. The top of our roster has been relatively healthy this season. Missing some bottom feeder minutes and replacing them with top line players should actually make ISU better. That’s the problem. Even with our top players consuming most of the minutes, ISU isn’t very good at basketball. Injury on this team doesn’t excuse performance, and I don’t foresee much improvement when we get our slow white guys back.

Yes other teams have injuries but I simply cannot remember ANY college basketball team reduced to 7 players. Unbelievable to say the least. Bruninga isn’t the quickest player alive but he brings shooting ability and size/beef at 225. That cannot hurt. I don’t think Chastain is slow. I don’t think we have seen him yet at his best. He was just coming around in the BYU game when he blew out the ankle. Maybe he’s too fragile and it will always be an issue but I hope he will be a contributor down the road. Respectfully One!

The issue alone isn’t the injuries...it is the fact that ISU choose to only have 11 players available including walkons. Look at the facts... having 3 players out is not that uncommon and some other teams have 4 players out. A well run D 1 program CANNOT start the season with 11 players. Muller needs to better manage his schollies, transfers, redshirts and walkons.

http://www.donbest.com/ncaab/injuries/

I’ve always been okay with Muller taking some risks. I think he needs to, at this level, to be successful. I think it’s acceptable risk to have transfers sitting out, and preferable to taking players he may have perceived to be less talented than those players. I don’t think he turned away any 3 stars to take these transfers. Where’s Javaka Thompson when we need him?

 

[ChiRedbirdfan]

Yes other teams have injuries but I simply cannot remember ANY college basketball team reduced to 7 players. Unbelievable to say the least. Bruninga isn’t the quickest player alive but he brings shooting ability and size/beef at 225. That cannot hurt. I don’t think Chastain is slow. I don’t think we have seen him yet at his best. He was just coming around in the BYU game when he blew out the ankle. Maybe he’s too fragile and it will always be an issue but I hope he will be a contributor down the road. Respectfully One!

The issue alone isn’t the injuries...it is the fact that ISU choose to only have 11 players available including walkons. Look at the facts... having 3 players out is not that uncommon and some other teams have 4 players out. A well run D 1 program CANNOT start the season with 11 players. Muller needs to better manage his schollies, transfers, redshirts and walkons.

http://www.donbest.com/ncaab/injuries/

I’ve always been okay with Muller taking some risks. I think he needs to, at this level, to be successful. I think it’s acceptable risk to have transfers sitting out, and preferable to taking players he may have perceived to be less talented than those players. I don’t think he turned away any 3 stars to take these transfers.

He needs to take risk recruiting I agree but he needs to get more strategic with the roster one way or another. Any given game players can have foul trouble too.. if that happened last night it could have been real ugly. At least on paper this team had promise going into the season and this lack of available player risk should have been managed to avoid last night’s situation unless this season is not that important.

 

[JHBird]

By the way, don't we have a preferred walk on player this year? Is he hurt too? Geez!

WE WANT LUKE! WE WANT LUKE! WE WANT LUKE!

 

[RedBirdBallisLife]

All 3 guys made a decent percentage of their shots
Fayne attempted more than 5 shots, but those additional shots don't count when getting fouled. Being 4 guys short handed with Tinsley and Key tossing up bricks...these 3 will be carrying the load until Copeland is back.

True but that's no excuse for Phil to not finishing strong when going to the basket. He's quick enough to get there he just needs to find a away to get it in.

If he was confident that his guards can knock down a shot when he's double teamed in the post 90% of the time that would help too

 

[ChiRedbirdfan]

All 3 guys made a decent percentage of their shots
Fayne attempted more than 5 shots, but those additional shots don't count when getting fouled. Being 4 guys short handed with Tinsley and Key tossing up bricks...these 3 will be carrying the load until Copeland is back.

True but that's no excuse for not finishing strong when going to the basket. He's quick enough to get there he just needs to find a away to get it in.

If he was confident that his guards can knock down a shot when he's double teamed in the post 90% of the time that would help too

I am not certain Tinsley has the handles to get to the hoop... could that be the reason?

 

[ChiRedbirdfan]

Tinsley has two free throw attempts FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR???
I could get to the line more than him. What is he even doing out there besides missing 3 pt shots and playing lousy defense?

I am not certain Tinsley has the handles to get to the hoop... could that be the reason?

 

[Buffett]

Tinsley is a bust I think, looks like Tarzan plays like Jane

 

[CaliRdBrd]

So if you're a basketball player and you know that you only have 2 guys available on the bench how does that effect you? Do you go balls to the wall? Do you dial it back a notch because you know you can't foul out and you know your going to log heavy minutes? Do you stay on the court when you're gassed and would normally come out? I know it would effect my football players if they had to go both ways and knew they were never coming out. Same in basketball? Kids are human. Perspective.

Balls to the wall. If you foul out, you foul out. To bring anything less than your best isn't even acceptable in JR High or HS.
If it's conditioning, you're not sprinting all 40 minutes, There are plenty of times to catch your breath. In the NHL, Chelios would log 7-8 shifts at a time...way harder than NCAA basketball

 

[CaliRdBrd]

Muller said Copeland, who is ISU's best perimeter defender and one of its main ballhandlers, tweaked his knee last week against Brigham Young. He missed the second half of Monday's practice, but Muller said the junior went through morning shootaround and thought he would be available.

“At the start of the game I went to sub him in, and he said he couldn't play,” said Muller.

Is this weird to anyone else? Muller didn’t know Zach was unavailable until the game started?

Was thinking the same. What is going on here?!