Thoughts for this week and going into 2019-2020--HCDM centric

[DannyCooksey]

Hello

Just a few thoughts I'd like to express and I'm grateful for Quinn giving us this forum to do so. I don't believe Dan is going anywhere and that's just the way it is. But I think he can do some things to improve the current situation as we move into the Spring Signing period and the summer. I know these views are not going to be popular (mine rarely are) but they are my views and after careful consideration this is what I'd like to see:

1--I think the best thing for this program now and moving forward is to lose Thursday. Just rip the band aid off an end this dreadful season. No reason to prolong this. I see it being necessary to wash the stink off this season as soon as possible. A loss Thursday will expedite this.

2--Dan needs to take a week away from basketball and truly re-evaluate his position and what he sees this program realistically doing the next 2-3 years. This starts with an escape from B-N and solitude in my opinion. He needs to look at things realistically and not "best case scenario" because best case scenario doesn't seem to ever occur.

3--Dan needs to really look at the type of players he's recruiting. He's not recruiting effort since he states so often that he's not interested in coaching it. Then he needs to recruit kids that don't need to be coaxed into giving 100% at all times. He can't have it both ways. If you refuse to coach it.....then please begin to recruit it. I am not certain on the number of scholarships he has left but please recruit kids and try to sign kids with the remaining rides that are truly self starters and hard workers.

4---Dan needs to seriously re-evaluate the summer/pre season conditioning program. Every single year we have leg injuries that occur and linger on well into the season or in TB's case......it cost him a season. Why does this keep happening seemingly every single season. why? Whatever you are doing is not working. please stop doing it and do something else. Put the time and effort into studying more successful (less injured) programs and try to follow suit.

5--pls upgrade the coaching staff. I fully embrace and understand Dan's desire to help other young coaches along in the profession. He has done that better than any ISU coach ive ever seen. That's great for those coaches and for the game itself. But please stop doing this. It's time for Dan to look out for himself and Illinois State University Basketball. Make some aggressive changes to your staff that will help Illinois Sate and its players. Go out and hire some coaches that are going to help THIS program.....not the one they go to next after learning at ISU. Pick coaches that might be smarter than you. pick coaches that you might not necessarily get along with. pick the BEST coaches you can find. I highly doubt that is what you currently have sitting on your bench. in the last several years you have lost some really talented coaches and you have replaced them with far less talented coaches.

6---Find a defense that works for the roster you have next year and teach it. have the players study it. Learn it. master it. use it. There is no consistency here. I don't care what kind of defense it is but pick one that best fits your personnel and use it. Seriously.....this should be the easiest thing on this list to do.

7--do the same on offense. This is trickier. but please try to build an offense around the talent on your roster. You recruited them. you know what they can and cannot do well. pls follow accordingly.

8--do not change your scheduling philosophy. this is probably what you do best and what I respect most. You bust your ass to get a great schedule. keep doing this.

9--find, recruit, sign an Alpha. Find that guy that everyone on the team gets behind 100% and if not, that Alpha will kick that kid's ass until he does follow. I don't care what position (prefer a PG) and I don't care if the kid is even a starting caliber player. But find that leader. the kid that makes everyone better just by being there.

10--do what's best for the program at all times. even if that means making unpopular decisions both publicly and within the team. I am not sure this has been the case the last couple years.

These are issues as I see them. I think these can be addressed and I think they could help the situation moving forward. Do i think Dan has tried some of these? I'm sure he has. But maybe it was not the right combination of players or whatever the case.

I only know that staying the course, recruiting the same type of players/personalities, keeping the same coaching staff, training the same way, running the same systems is not working at all.

 

[ISU FAN 1]

Hello

Just a few thoughts I'd like to express and I'm grateful for Quinn giving us this forum to do so. I don't believe Dan is going anywhere and that's just the way it is. But I think he can do some things to improve the current situation as we move into the Spring Signing period and the summer. I know these views are not going to be popular (mine rarely are) but they are my views and after careful consideration this is what I'd like to see:

1--I think the best thing for this program now and moving forward is to lose Thursday. Just rip the band aid off an end this dreadful season. No reason to prolong this. I see it being necessary to wash the stink off this season as soon as possible. A loss Thursday will expedite this.

2--Dan needs to take a week away from basketball and truly re-evaluate his position and what he sees this program realistically doing the next 2-3 years. This starts with an escape from B-N and solitude in my opinion. He needs to look at things realistically and not "best case scenario" because best case scenario doesn't seem to ever occur.

3--Dan needs to really look at the type of players he's recruiting. He's not recruiting effort since he states so often that he's not interested in coaching it. Then he needs to recruit kids that don't need to be coaxed into giving 100% at all times. He can't have it both ways. If you refuse to coach it.....then please begin to recruit it. I am not certain on the number of scholarships he has left but please recruit kids and try to sign kids with the remaining rides that are truly self starters and hard workers.

4---Dan needs to seriously re-evaluate the summer/pre season conditioning program. Every single year we have leg injuries that occur and linger on well into the season or in TB's case......it cost him a season. Why does this keep happening seemingly every single season. why? Whatever you are doing is not working. please stop doing it and do something else. Put the time and effort into studying more successful (less injured) programs and try to follow suit.

5--pls upgrade the coaching staff. I fully embrace and understand Dan's desire to help other young coaches along in the profession. He has done that better than any ISU coach ive ever seen. That's great for those coaches and for the game itself. But please stop doing this. It's time for Dan to look out for himself and Illinois State University Basketball. Make some aggressive changes to your staff that will help Illinois Sate and its players. Go out and hire some coaches that are going to help THIS program.....not the one they go to next after learning at ISU. Pick coaches that might be smarter than you. pick coaches that you might not necessarily get along with. pick the BEST coaches you can find. I highly doubt that is what you currently have sitting on your bench. in the last several years you have lost some really talented coaches and you have replaced them with far less talented coaches.

6---Find a defense that works for the roster you have next year and teach it. have the players study it. Learn it. master it. use it. There is no consistency here. I don't care what kind of defense it is but pick one that best fits your personnel and use it. Seriously.....this should be the easiest thing on this list to do.

7--do the same on offense. This is trickier. but please try to build an offense around the talent on your roster. You recruited them. you know what they can and cannot do well. pls follow accordingly.

8--do not change your scheduling philosophy. this is probably what you do best and what I respect most. You bust your ass to get a great schedule. keep doing this.

9--find, recruit, sign an Alpha. Find that guy that everyone on the team gets behind 100% and if not, that Alpha will kick that kid's ass until he does follow. I don't care what position (prefer a PG) and I don't care if the kid is even a starting caliber player. But find that leader. the kid that makes everyone better just by being there.

10--do what's best for the program at all times. even if that means making unpopular decisions both publicly and within the team. I am not sure this has been the case the last couple years.

These are issues as I see them. I think these can be addressed and I think they could help the situation moving forward. Do i think Dan has tried some of these? I'm sure he has. But maybe it was not the right combination of players or whatever the case.

I only know that staying the course, recruiting the same type of players/personalities, keeping the same coaching staff, training the same way, running the same systems is not working at all.

So losing Thursday is BEST, even better than winning Sunday?

:text-+1: on #5. Nice guys finish 7th.

 

[Birdman07]

good stuff

 

[MadBird]

Very good Cooksey. I tend to stay off the hoops board since it seems to get a little wild, but just want to weigh in on this, and agree with your thoughts.

If I had to pick one single thing about HCDM and current state of affairs that bugs me, it is this deal that he doesn't seem to recruit very many Dan Mullers to play for him. He's the coach and the recruiter, and he gripes and gripes about effort and attitude and body language, etc . etc. As Cooksey says, either FIX IT or find those kids.

I've never agreed with the idea ISU has to "settle" for guys "on the edge", take chances, etc. UNI is probably the best MVC example I can think of that has a long history of "good citizens". There are tons of them playing HS ball in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, etc. This program was built on these guys, from Coach Will to Coach Donewald to Coach Stallings. Well, Coach Will and Coach Smithson had a few doozies in the day, but for the most part . . . . Go out and get these kids. Bring them in from Florida or California if you feel you have to, but bring in kids that will play like Dan Muller did!!!

To me the other biggest deal Cooksey mentioned was the assistant coach business, that helping them move on is total BS IMHO. Get some solid guys who are willing to stay with you.

 

[DannyCooksey]

Hello

Just a few thoughts I'd like to express and I'm grateful for Quinn giving us this forum to do so. I don't believe Dan is going anywhere and that's just the way it is. But I think he can do some things to improve the current situation as we move into the Spring Signing period and the summer. I know these views are not going to be popular (mine rarely are) but they are my views and after careful consideration this is what I'd like to see:

1--I think the best thing for this program now and moving forward is to lose Thursday. Just rip the band aid off an end this dreadful season. No reason to prolong this. I see it being necessary to wash the stink off this season as soon as possible. A loss Thursday will expedite this.

2--Dan needs to take a week away from basketball and truly re-evaluate his position and what he sees this program realistically doing the next 2-3 years. This starts with an escape from B-N and solitude in my opinion. He needs to look at things realistically and not "best case scenario" because best case scenario doesn't seem to ever occur.

3--Dan needs to really look at the type of players he's recruiting. He's not recruiting effort since he states so often that he's not interested in coaching it. Then he needs to recruit kids that don't need to be coaxed into giving 100% at all times. He can't have it both ways. If you refuse to coach it.....then please begin to recruit it. I am not certain on the number of scholarships he has left but please recruit kids and try to sign kids with the remaining rides that are truly self starters and hard workers.

4---Dan needs to seriously re-evaluate the summer/pre season conditioning program. Every single year we have leg injuries that occur and linger on well into the season or in TB's case......it cost him a season. Why does this keep happening seemingly every single season. why? Whatever you are doing is not working. please stop doing it and do something else. Put the time and effort into studying more successful (less injured) programs and try to follow suit.

5--pls upgrade the coaching staff. I fully embrace and understand Dan's desire to help other young coaches along in the profession. He has done that better than any ISU coach ive ever seen. That's great for those coaches and for the game itself. But please stop doing this. It's time for Dan to look out for himself and Illinois State University Basketball. Make some aggressive changes to your staff that will help Illinois Sate and its players. Go out and hire some coaches that are going to help THIS program.....not the one they go to next after learning at ISU. Pick coaches that might be smarter than you. pick coaches that you might not necessarily get along with. pick the BEST coaches you can find. I highly doubt that is what you currently have sitting on your bench. in the last several years you have lost some really talented coaches and you have replaced them with far less talented coaches.

6---Find a defense that works for the roster you have next year and teach it. have the players study it. Learn it. master it. use it. There is no consistency here. I don't care what kind of defense it is but pick one that best fits your personnel and use it. Seriously.....this should be the easiest thing on this list to do.

7--do the same on offense. This is trickier. but please try to build an offense around the talent on your roster. You recruited them. you know what they can and cannot do well. pls follow accordingly.

8--do not change your scheduling philosophy. this is probably what you do best and what I respect most. You bust your ass to get a great schedule. keep doing this.

9--find, recruit, sign an Alpha. Find that guy that everyone on the team gets behind 100% and if not, that Alpha will kick that kid's ass until he does follow. I don't care what position (prefer a PG) and I don't care if the kid is even a starting caliber player. But find that leader. the kid that makes everyone better just by being there.

10--do what's best for the program at all times. even if that means making unpopular decisions both publicly and within the team. I am not sure this has been the case the last couple years.

These are issues as I see them. I think these can be addressed and I think they could help the situation moving forward. Do i think Dan has tried some of these? I'm sure he has. But maybe it was not the right combination of players or whatever the case.

I only know that staying the course, recruiting the same type of players/personalities, keeping the same coaching staff, training the same way, running the same systems is not working at all.

So losing Thursday is BEST, even better than winning Sunday?

:text-+1: on #5. Nice guys finish 7th.

I don't believe this group can reach Saturday let alone Sunday and win Sunday. so IMO, yes, losing Thursday is best.No reason to prolong the inevitable.

My apologies to all who are attending the tourney. i mean no disrespect or ill will.

 

[TheTruth]

Some good points made......

As much as I want this abomination of a season to be over, I want one more victory to get to a "winning season". As bad as 17-16 would be, I must prefer it to 16-16.

I think one change in the staff is inevitable, two coaches leaving is almost as likely.

I think they may have an Alpha in Fisher, I hope that's true because I'm beyond disgusted in the "we just didn't play with intensity" postgame comments.

I don't see Dan radically changing the way he recruits/puts a roster together. That could continue to burn him, or finally click...who knows.

Exactly right on needing to keep the non-con scheduling philosophy. As the MVC continues its slide into OVC/Horizon League territory, this program will need to scratch & claw at relevance to keep the fans interested.

 

[RicoBryson]

Very good points. I do agree, but cant give up hope on this team until its officially over. Thats the Cub fan in me I guess. Weird things happen in March. Very weird. Lets not forget these Seniors that we do have. Im hoping that they are ready to put on one heck of a show.

 

[Adunk33]

1- I would be interested in seeing what happens here. If they make it to Saturday, honestly even Friday, they could be invited for one of those podunk tournaments in the CBI or CIT. I don't know if we would actually play in it, but it might help "send the seniors out on a high note."

3- Chastain, Fisher, Gassman, Hein, Copeland (now), Abdou, Jaycee, Dedric, Rey, and Taylor are all high effort guys. This is trending significantly up.

5- I really like what he has done with his assistant coaches. The jury is still out on Duhon for me, but I like what Reese and Mullins bring to the table. Reese built Fayne. You are right that Muller gets young, up and comers as assistants that have gone on to great things. I understand your point about getting guys to help the program, but realistically, no assistant is going to be "life long" here. Good assistants at this level become good assistants at the P6 level, or even head coaches. I have a feeling you will get to see this to the test this off season. I would guess it is very likely Mullins ends up at SIU if his brother gets the job there.

6-This is one of the most interesting things to follow in Muller's time here. If you remember when he came in, he wanted to become the new HAVOC VCU type defense. That didn't really pan out. What he has done is exactly what you have outlined. He plays to his team's strength. When he has players in the game who might be slower than the man they are supposed to guard, he goes zone. Inversely, he'll play man if the match up allows it. I really like how active our zone is and the breakdowns

7- I do not like this Duhon offense. It honestly takes a lot of energy to run without making the defense work too hard. My favorite set is when they give it to Phil and let him work.

8- :text-+1: +1
9- Keith Fisher
10- I think he has done a decent job of this. Keep in mind, he kept Yarbs when a majority of fans called for him to be booted. That was unpopular.


All in all, I think next year's team attitude with be 100% better than this year's. From what I've seen, all of the guys are really buying in. The starters weren't kidding a few weeks ago when they said the scout team whoops them sometimes. That is a good start. I will say, I do not expect to be a Thursday night team in 2020. Very likely in the 4/5 game where the winner will play Missouri State on Saturday.

EDIT: Re-reading your post, I just wanted to say I appreciate it. There is so much Muller bashing and everything right now with knee jerk "FIRE MULLER" where as your post was clearly thought out. I'm not in the fire Muller camp, but there are things he needs to improve on, which I think he is doing. It just takes time. I think a couple of the seniors graduating might be addition by subtraction. That said, Lets play 5 more games.

 

[ISU FAN 1]

I don't believe this group can reach Saturday let alone Sunday and win Sunday. so IMO, yes, losing Thursday is best.No reason to prolong the inevitable.

My apologies to all who are attending the tourney. i mean no disrespect or ill will.

You can obviously couch an argument however you like. But our odds are 5%, and until they become zero after a defeat, I’ll still argue it’s best to keep winning. I’ll take my chances with disappointment starting from Friday forward. If 100 simulations produces 5 Redbird championships, that’s good enough for me to want to explore beyond Thursday.

But I’m all for everyone being whatever kind of fan they want to be. So go ahead a hope we lose to EU, because that’s what’s BEST for the program.

 

[RedbirdMan]

EDIT: Re-reading your post, I just wanted to say I appreciate it. There is so much Muller bashing and everything right now with knee jerk "FIRE MULLER" where as your post was clearly thought out. I'm not in the fire Muller camp, but there are things he needs to improve on, which I think he is doing. It just takes time. I think a couple of the seniors graduating might be addition by subtraction. That said, Lets play 5 more games.

It’s been 7 years. He is not a young gun inexperienced coach. He should have these things figured out.

 

[HT59]

:text-+1:

Hello

Just a few thoughts I'd like to express and I'm grateful for Quinn giving us this forum to do so. I don't believe Dan is going anywhere and that's just the way it is. But I think he can do some things to improve the current situation as we move into the Spring Signing period and the summer. I know these views are not going to be popular (mine rarely are) but they are my views and after careful consideration this is what I'd like to see:

1--I think the best thing for this program now and moving forward is to lose Thursday. Just rip the band aid off an end this dreadful season. No reason to prolong this. I see it being necessary to wash the stink off this season as soon as possible. A loss Thursday will expedite this.

2--Dan needs to take a week away from basketball and truly re-evaluate his position and what he sees this program realistically doing the next 2-3 years. This starts with an escape from B-N and solitude in my opinion. He needs to look at things realistically and not "best case scenario" because best case scenario doesn't seem to ever occur.

3--Dan needs to really look at the type of players he's recruiting. He's not recruiting effort since he states so often that he's not interested in coaching it. Then he needs to recruit kids that don't need to be coaxed into giving 100% at all times. He can't have it both ways. If you refuse to coach it.....then please begin to recruit it. I am not certain on the number of scholarships he has left but please recruit kids and try to sign kids with the remaining rides that are truly self starters and hard workers.

4---Dan needs to seriously re-evaluate the summer/pre season conditioning program. Every single year we have leg injuries that occur and linger on well into the season or in TB's case......it cost him a season. Why does this keep happening seemingly every single season. why? Whatever you are doing is not working. please stop doing it and do something else. Put the time and effort into studying more successful (less injured) programs and try to follow suit.

5--pls upgrade the coaching staff. I fully embrace and understand Dan's desire to help other young coaches along in the profession. He has done that better than any ISU coach ive ever seen. That's great for those coaches and for the game itself. But please stop doing this. It's time for Dan to look out for himself and Illinois State University Basketball. Make some aggressive changes to your staff that will help Illinois Sate and its players. Go out and hire some coaches that are going to help THIS program.....not the one they go to next after learning at ISU. Pick coaches that might be smarter than you. pick coaches that you might not necessarily get along with. pick the BEST coaches you can find. I highly doubt that is what you currently have sitting on your bench. in the last several years you have lost some really talented coaches and you have replaced them with far less talented coaches.

6---Find a defense that works for the roster you have next year and teach it. have the players study it. Learn it. master it. use it. There is no consistency here. I don't care what kind of defense it is but pick one that best fits your personnel and use it. Seriously.....this should be the easiest thing on this list to do.

7--do the same on offense. This is trickier. but please try to build an offense around the talent on your roster. You recruited them. you know what they can and cannot do well. pls follow accordingly.

8--do not change your scheduling philosophy. this is probably what you do best and what I respect most. You bust your ass to get a great schedule. keep doing this.

9--find, recruit, sign an Alpha. Find that guy that everyone on the team gets behind 100% and if not, that Alpha will kick that kid's ass until he does follow. I don't care what position (prefer a PG) and I don't care if the kid is even a starting caliber player. But find that leader. the kid that makes everyone better just by being there.

10--do what's best for the program at all times. even if that means making unpopular decisions both publicly and within the team. I am not sure this has been the case the last couple years.

These are issues as I see them. I think these can be addressed and I think they could help the situation moving forward. Do i think Dan has tried some of these? I'm sure he has. But maybe it was not the right combination of players or whatever the case.

I only know that staying the course, recruiting the same type of players/personalities, keeping the same coaching staff, training the same way, running the same systems is not working at all.

 

[HT59]

Very good Cooksey. I tend to stay off the hoops board since it seems to get a little wild, but just want to weigh in on this, and agree with your thoughts.

If I had to pick one single thing about HCDM and current state of affairs that bugs me, it is this deal that he doesn't seem to recruit very many Dan Mullers to play for him. He's the coach and the recruiter, and he gripes and gripes about effort and attitude and body language, etc . etc. As Cooksey says, either FIX IT or find those kids.

I've never agreed with the idea ISU has to "settle" for guys "on the edge", take chances, etc. UNI is probably the best MVC example I can think of that has a long history of "good citizens". There are tons of them playing HS ball in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, etc. This program was built on these guys, from Coach Will to Coach Donewald to Coach Stallings. Well, Coach Will and Coach Smithson had a few doozies in the day, but for the most part . . . . Go out and get these kids. Bring them in from Florida or California if you feel you have to, but bring in kids that will play like Dan Muller did!!!

To me the other biggest deal Cooksey mentioned was the assistant coach business, that helping them move on is total BS IMHO. Get some solid guys who are willing to stay with you. :text-+1:

 

[Hrtnfldhse]

Hello

Just a few thoughts I'd like to express and I'm grateful for Quinn giving us this forum to do so. I don't believe Dan is going anywhere and that's just the way it is. But I think he can do some things to improve the current situation as we move into the Spring Signing period and the summer. I know these views are not going to be popular (mine rarely are) but they are my views and after careful consideration this is what I'd like to see:

1--I think the best thing for this program now and moving forward is to lose Thursday. Just rip the band aid off an end this dreadful season. No reason to prolong this. I see it being necessary to wash the stink off this season as soon as possible. A loss Thursday will expedite this.

2--Dan needs to take a week away from basketball and truly re-evaluate his position and what he sees this program realistically doing the next 2-3 years. This starts with an escape from B-N and solitude in my opinion. He needs to look at things realistically and not "best case scenario" because best case scenario doesn't seem to ever occur.

3--Dan needs to really look at the type of players he's recruiting. He's not recruiting effort since he states so often that he's not interested in coaching it. Then he needs to recruit kids that don't need to be coaxed into giving 100% at all times. He can't have it both ways. If you refuse to coach it.....then please begin to recruit it. I am not certain on the number of scholarships he has left but please recruit kids and try to sign kids with the remaining rides that are truly self starters and hard workers.

4---Dan needs to seriously re-evaluate the summer/pre season conditioning program. Every single year we have leg injuries that occur and linger on well into the season or in TB's case......it cost him a season. Why does this keep happening seemingly every single season. why? Whatever you are doing is not working. please stop doing it and do something else. Put the time and effort into studying more successful (less injured) programs and try to follow suit.

5--pls upgrade the coaching staff. I fully embrace and understand Dan's desire to help other young coaches along in the profession. He has done that better than any ISU coach ive ever seen. That's great for those coaches and for the game itself. But please stop doing this. It's time for Dan to look out for himself and Illinois State University Basketball. Make some aggressive changes to your staff that will help Illinois Sate and its players. Go out and hire some coaches that are going to help THIS program.....not the one they go to next after learning at ISU. Pick coaches that might be smarter than you. pick coaches that you might not necessarily get along with. pick the BEST coaches you can find. I highly doubt that is what you currently have sitting on your bench. in the last several years you have lost some really talented coaches and you have replaced them with far less talented coaches.

6---Find a defense that works for the roster you have next year and teach it. have the players study it. Learn it. master it. use it. There is no consistency here. I don't care what kind of defense it is but pick one that best fits your personnel and use it. Seriously.....this should be the easiest thing on this list to do.

7--do the same on offense. This is trickier. but please try to build an offense around the talent on your roster. You recruited them. you know what they can and cannot do well. pls follow accordingly.

8--do not change your scheduling philosophy. this is probably what you do best and what I respect most. You bust your ass to get a great schedule. keep doing this.

9--find, recruit, sign an Alpha. Find that guy that everyone on the team gets behind 100% and if not, that Alpha will kick that kid's ass until he does follow. I don't care what position (prefer a PG) and I don't care if the kid is even a starting caliber player. But find that leader. the kid that makes everyone better just by being there.

10--do what's best for the program at all times. even if that means making unpopular decisions both publicly and within the team. I am not sure this has been the case the last couple years.

These are issues as I see them. I think these can be addressed and I think they could help the situation moving forward. Do i think Dan has tried some of these? I'm sure he has. But maybe it was not the right combination of players or whatever the case.

I only know that staying the course, recruiting the same type of players/personalities, keeping the same coaching staff, training the same way, running the same systems is not working at all.

Items 3 and 9 YES YES YES. I understand #5 but that would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Any up and coming coach wants to advance in the profession. Assistant coaches will always turn over especially at a mid-major. 10 should always happen, it may suck in the beginning, but in the end will be the best thing.

 

[ISU FAN 1]

Hello

Just a few thoughts I'd like to express and I'm grateful for Quinn giving us this forum to do so. I don't believe Dan is going anywhere and that's just the way it is. But I think he can do some things to improve the current situation as we move into the Spring Signing period and the summer. I know these views are not going to be popular (mine rarely are) but they are my views and after careful consideration this is what I'd like to see:

1--I think the best thing for this program now and moving forward is to lose Thursday. Just rip the band aid off an end this dreadful season. No reason to prolong this. I see it being necessary to wash the stink off this season as soon as possible. A loss Thursday will expedite this.

2--Dan needs to take a week away from basketball and truly re-evaluate his position and what he sees this program realistically doing the next 2-3 years. This starts with an escape from B-N and solitude in my opinion. He needs to look at things realistically and not "best case scenario" because best case scenario doesn't seem to ever occur.

3--Dan needs to really look at the type of players he's recruiting. He's not recruiting effort since he states so often that he's not interested in coaching it. Then he needs to recruit kids that don't need to be coaxed into giving 100% at all times. He can't have it both ways. If you refuse to coach it.....then please begin to recruit it. I am not certain on the number of scholarships he has left but please recruit kids and try to sign kids with the remaining rides that are truly self starters and hard workers.

4---Dan needs to seriously re-evaluate the summer/pre season conditioning program. Every single year we have leg injuries that occur and linger on well into the season or in TB's case......it cost him a season. Why does this keep happening seemingly every single season. why? Whatever you are doing is not working. please stop doing it and do something else. Put the time and effort into studying more successful (less injured) programs and try to follow suit.

5--pls upgrade the coaching staff. I fully embrace and understand Dan's desire to help other young coaches along in the profession. He has done that better than any ISU coach ive ever seen. That's great for those coaches and for the game itself. But please stop doing this. It's time for Dan to look out for himself and Illinois State University Basketball. Make some aggressive changes to your staff that will help Illinois Sate and its players. Go out and hire some coaches that are going to help THIS program.....not the one they go to next after learning at ISU. Pick coaches that might be smarter than you. pick coaches that you might not necessarily get along with. pick the BEST coaches you can find. I highly doubt that is what you currently have sitting on your bench. in the last several years you have lost some really talented coaches and you have replaced them with far less talented coaches.

6---Find a defense that works for the roster you have next year and teach it. have the players study it. Learn it. master it. use it. There is no consistency here. I don't care what kind of defense it is but pick one that best fits your personnel and use it. Seriously.....this should be the easiest thing on this list to do.

7--do the same on offense. This is trickier. but please try to build an offense around the talent on your roster. You recruited them. you know what they can and cannot do well. pls follow accordingly.

8--do not change your scheduling philosophy. this is probably what you do best and what I respect most. You bust your ass to get a great schedule. keep doing this.

9--find, recruit, sign an Alpha. Find that guy that everyone on the team gets behind 100% and if not, that Alpha will kick that kid's ass until he does follow. I don't care what position (prefer a PG) and I don't care if the kid is even a starting caliber player. But find that leader. the kid that makes everyone better just by being there.

10--do what's best for the program at all times. even if that means making unpopular decisions both publicly and within the team. I am not sure this has been the case the last couple years.

These are issues as I see them. I think these can be addressed and I think they could help the situation moving forward. Do i think Dan has tried some of these? I'm sure he has. But maybe it was not the right combination of players or whatever the case.

I only know that staying the course, recruiting the same type of players/personalities, keeping the same coaching staff, training the same way, running the same systems is not working at all.

Items 3 and 9 YES YES YES. I understand #5 but that would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Any up and coming coach wants to advance in the profession. Assistant coaching ches will always turn over especially at a mid-major. 10 should always happen, it may suck in the beginning, but in the end will be the best thing.

If anybody values Yak, I can nearly guarantee him still being here if not for Dan’s promotion and marketing of him. State Farm never marketed their best people assets to Allstate. You need to keep a vested interest in your own success. Dan is a great friend for doing this, but it’s at the expense of his coaching success.

 

[Adunk33]

EDIT: Re-reading your post, I just wanted to say I appreciate it. There is so much Muller bashing and everything right now with knee jerk "FIRE MULLER" where as your post was clearly thought out. I'm not in the fire Muller camp, but there are things he needs to improve on, which I think he is doing. It just takes time. I think a couple of the seniors graduating might be addition by subtraction. That said, Lets play 5 more games.

It’s been 7 years. He is not a young gun inexperienced coach. He should have these things figured out.

I'm with you, but keep in mind, there were a couple of player issues, and losing coaches that have kept the program from moving forward. I know Muller brought these guys in but guys like a Zach Lofton, Teddy Hawkins, or even Milik can effect an entire team's attitude. Then he still had to play catch up from losing two assistants to Michigan in the same week. Now that he has that settled for the most part, I do believe this new group of recruits have, at the very least, a great mindset, high energy, and effort. We'll see if the talent is there in coming years but *knock on wood* the days of our guys showing up in the police blotter are behind us.

 

[Birdman07]

You cant keep a man down for your benefit. Isn't that slavery? Yak has outgrown ISU at this point anyway. If he leaves his head coach in waiting position at Michigan it will definitely be for a P6 job. He's not messing with mid-majors anymore.

 

[ISU FAN 1]

The chances of a loss Thursday prompting Dan to take a good, hard look at himself seems unlikely to me. I’m guessing he would consider the season as an outlier, and not conduct an exercise in lessons learned. Given that lack of confidence in introspection and self assessment, I prefer to keep winning as long as possible.

 

[isuquinndog]

Hello

Just a few thoughts I'd like to express and I'm grateful for Quinn giving us this forum to do so. I don't believe Dan is going anywhere and that's just the way it is. But I think he can do some things to improve the current situation as we move into the Spring Signing period and the summer. I know these views are not going to be popular (mine rarely are) but they are my views and after careful consideration this is what I'd like to see:

1--I think the best thing for this program now and moving forward is to lose Thursday. Just rip the band aid off an end this dreadful season. No reason to prolong this. I see it being necessary to wash the stink off this season as soon as possible. A loss Thursday will expedite this.

2--Dan needs to take a week away from basketball and truly re-evaluate his position and what he sees this program realistically doing the next 2-3 years. This starts with an escape from B-N and solitude in my opinion. He needs to look at things realistically and not "best case scenario" because best case scenario doesn't seem to ever occur.

3--Dan needs to really look at the type of players he's recruiting. He's not recruiting effort since he states so often that he's not interested in coaching it. Then he needs to recruit kids that don't need to be coaxed into giving 100% at all times. He can't have it both ways. If you refuse to coach it.....then please begin to recruit it. I am not certain on the number of scholarships he has left but please recruit kids and try to sign kids with the remaining rides that are truly self starters and hard workers.

4---Dan needs to seriously re-evaluate the summer/pre season conditioning program. Every single year we have leg injuries that occur and linger on well into the season or in TB's case......it cost him a season. Why does this keep happening seemingly every single season. why? Whatever you are doing is not working. please stop doing it and do something else. Put the time and effort into studying more successful (less injured) programs and try to follow suit.

5--pls upgrade the coaching staff. I fully embrace and understand Dan's desire to help other young coaches along in the profession. He has done that better than any ISU coach ive ever seen. That's great for those coaches and for the game itself. But please stop doing this. It's time for Dan to look out for himself and Illinois State University Basketball. Make some aggressive changes to your staff that will help Illinois Sate and its players. Go out and hire some coaches that are going to help THIS program.....not the one they go to next after learning at ISU. Pick coaches that might be smarter than you. pick coaches that you might not necessarily get along with. pick the BEST coaches you can find. I highly doubt that is what you currently have sitting on your bench. in the last several years you have lost some really talented coaches and you have replaced them with far less talented coaches.

6---Find a defense that works for the roster you have next year and teach it. have the players study it. Learn it. master it. use it. There is no consistency here. I don't care what kind of defense it is but pick one that best fits your personnel and use it. Seriously.....this should be the easiest thing on this list to do.

7--do the same on offense. This is trickier. but please try to build an offense around the talent on your roster. You recruited them. you know what they can and cannot do well. pls follow accordingly.

8--do not change your scheduling philosophy. this is probably what you do best and what I respect most. You bust your ass to get a great schedule. keep doing this.

9--find, recruit, sign an Alpha. Find that guy that everyone on the team gets behind 100% and if not, that Alpha will kick that kid's ass until he does follow. I don't care what position (prefer a PG) and I don't care if the kid is even a starting caliber player. But find that leader. the kid that makes everyone better just by being there.

10--do what's best for the program at all times. even if that means making unpopular decisions both publicly and within the team. I am not sure this has been the case the last couple years.

These are issues as I see them. I think these can be addressed and I think they could help the situation moving forward. Do i think Dan has tried some of these? I'm sure he has. But maybe it was not the right combination of players or whatever the case.

I only know that staying the course, recruiting the same type of players/personalities, keeping the same coaching staff, training the same way, running the same systems is not working at all.

Items 3 and 9 YES YES YES. I understand #5 but that would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Any up and coming coach wants to advance in the profession. Assistant coaching ches will always turn over especially at a mid-major. 10 should always happen, it may suck in the beginning, but in the end will be the best thing.

If anybody values Yak, I can nearly guarantee him still being here if not for Dan’s promotion and marketing of him. State Farm never marketed their best people assets to Allstate. You need to keep a vested interest in your own success. Dan is a great friend for going this, but it’s at the expense of his coaching success.

I don't agree with that analogy. ISU (State Farm in your anology) didn't market Yak, Muller (a leader at State Farm) did. And, yes that happens all the time. A good leader wants their employees to succeed and move on to bigger and better things.

 

[ISU FAN 1]

You cant keep a man down for your benefit. Isn't that slavery? Yak has outgrown ISU at this point anyway. If he leaves his head coach in waiting position at Michigan it will definitely be for a P6 job. He's not messing with mid-majors anymore.

So State Farm enslaves their best by not promoting them to competitors? Everyone is ultimately responsible for their own career success and upward mobilty. It’s fine for Dan to endorse Yak once Yak decided to pursue Michigan. But Dan acts more like an agent, providing to impetus to jumpstart the process of pushing quality out the door.

 

[DannyCooksey]

You cant keep a man down for your benefit. Isn't that slavery? Yak has outgrown ISU at this point anyway. If he leaves his head coach in waiting position at Michigan it will definitely be for a P6 job. He's not messing with mid-majors anymore.

So State Farm enslaves their best by not promoting them to competitors? Everyone is ultimately responsible for their own career success and upward mobilty. It’s fine for Dan to endorse Yak once Yak decided to pursue Michigan. But Dan acts more like an agent, providing to impetus to jumpstart the process of pushing quality out the door.

This is the way i see it as well save for the reference to slavery :roll:

If someone comes looking for your guys and they hire them away for a better opportunity.....great. But i got the sense with both Oliver and especially Yak that Dan was dressed in a neon suit holding bright red flares trying to get the attention of Wisconsin and Michigan and i think he did himself a disservice in the process.

Our guard play has been lacking ever since Oliver left and we know what has occurred defensively since Yak left.