vs Belmont (4-4) - Tuesday, 1/23/24 - 7 pm - ESPN+

[redblood]

As far as Walker not playing much, looks like Coach went primarily 4 guards to matchup with the Bruins and what they do. Lewis played less minutes as well. Not very good minutes.
Play Kinzinger. Period.

 

[isuquinndog]

As far as Walker not playing much, looks like Coach went primarily 4 guards to matchup with the Bruins and what they do. Lewis played less minutes as well. Not very good minutes.
Play Kinzinger. Period.

He had the second most minutes, 32. They are playing him.

Men's Basketball vs Belmont on 1/23/2024 - Box Score - Illinois State University Athletics

The official box score of Men's Basketball vs Belmont on 1/23/2024

goredbirds.com

 

[MadBird]

I'm just happy to see most of the "on fire hair" on this board get a pail or two of water!!

Pretty nice game. Belmont is a tough match-up. Dia is a load. No, a LOAD! I'm sure that's why Chase didn't see more time, matching up with that guy would not have been pretty. Belmont has some "crafty" dudes, for sure. They know how to move and use their "close to the line" picks and elbows and so forth.

I know a lot of folks don't like the rotation, or lack of a rotation, but I give Pedon credit for trying to find what's working, for looking at situational match-ups, for giving guys a chance. He's got a lot of confidence in Kinziger at this point, it appears. Too bad Lieb is injured and overall not as productive as hoped - this team could use more inside (obviously, you all know that). I think he's a little too cautious with Walker, worried about "mistakes" or injuries or something. Maybe he's not as healthy. Maybe last night was just the concern with match-ups.

Funny about basketball, you look a lot better when the ball goes in the basket!

 

[ScoreboardDotRace]

Really good moments of ball movement and decision making last night.

One, Foster catching the ball at the elbow and finding a cutter back door for a layup. The second, there was a play where Johnny had a 3 on the wing or the corner, but instead made a move and banked in a jumper off the glass.

Those are two that stick out, not the only two. Nice to finally win at home.

 

[DaveBird10]

Last night was such a fun game to watch. The way the ball has been moving and the shots falling its the best its been all year. Some guys are starting to play with confidence and its showing, what a difference it makes when shots start to fall.

Myles Foster- 19, 10 and 5. He brought it vs probably the best big in the conference.
Jordan Davis- Steady. Knocked down a few 3s but more importantly held Cade Tyson to only 8 shot attempts.
Dalton Banks- Had a quiet game but knocked down THE DAGGER
DB- Had his usual 13 points but more importantly 4 assists. Thats huge as he gets in the lane to kick it over bc he draws defenders.
Kinziger- 13 points but 7 rebounds for a 5'11 point guard. Kid plays above his height and is such a competitor. Going to be fun watching him grow.
Mal- SOOOOOO glad to see him knock down a 3, have a smile on his face and play with confidence. So happy for that kid.

 

[Redbird60451]

I wrote down their names at the end when they signed off - Kevin Lehman and Telly Hughes. Hughes is out of Milwaukee, an ISU alum and former baseball pitcher. I remember him doing an ISU game previously, but only once or twice. And not good as I recall. Lehman looks to be an announcer (and former sports anchor out of Cedar Rapids???) out of Iowa. Has done UNI broadcasts? Former UNI coach?

Yeah, I just looked at the ISU game notes on the web site, and their names are listed, as above. Not the credentials I threw out up there, but the names.

I am going to cut Telly some slack, color guy who they probably called at the last min because he has an ISU connection, worked on Fox Sports for Milwaukee, probably covers the Big Ten more, cause that's where the money is at. Maybe next time call Craig Robinson if you want connection but doesn't know the names, at least he's funny singing the Pizza Hut jingle. Probably should have had him in for the Drake game, since that was over early.
But Lehman, he's an announcer, that's his profession. Pronunciation and Enunciation are key, especially of names. I could not tell who was constantly screwing up Kinziger's name. Like he was reversing the Z and N. We aren't talking Antetokounmpo here. I understand that almost every game in the nation is on some sort of TV/Streaming service and there's only so many people to go around. But it got frustrating, cause he had a ton of involvement. On to the next one. Hopefully Pegler is back, he is not the best but at least he knows our players and can correct who's ever on his left.

 

[Redbird28]

Foster played "The Man" role last night. We could do without the 3 point attempts from him, but I guess a heat check is ok when a guy is having a game like he had last night.

Kinziger showed once again that he's a winner and makes winning basketball plays.

Definitely good to see Malachi get a couple shots to drop last night. Hope the lid is off for him the rest of the way.

Davis deserves his due. He's been playing better, and hit a couple of shots at the right times last night on top of the solid D.

Teamwise, we only turned it over 6 times which looks to be the recipe for beating Belmont. 1st meeting we turned it over 17x and took a 7 point L. Last night only 6x times and got the 10 point W. It's also a positive trend, dare I say improvement, in that we've had 7, 8,10, and now 6 TO in our last 4 games.

Finally, last night the name of the game was BALANCE. 5 guys in double figures. That makes us a much more difficult team to defend, and I hope to see more of this going forward.

 

[Manchester Matt]

So I know people said this wasn't a good match up for Chase, etc. But 2 minutes? I am completely baffled on what we are doing with him. I don't understand taking off the redshirt for 6 minutes a game.

If he was playing 10 minutes a game and struggling, then fine. I get that. But if he isn't going to play anyway, what is the point? How do we know if this was a good matchup? He had 6 pts and 5 rbs vs Missouri St in 10 minutes.

I get the point to an extent, but who did you want him to play for last night? Clearly, Foster was the man last evening and played 30 minutes. As someone else said, it was a guard heavy lineup lasty night and obviously something Pedon and company saw as an advantage against Belmont. The team had six turnovers in 40 minutes, and Chase had two of them. I

Let's see what happens moving forward. If he continues to play two minutes every night, I'd agree it was silly to pull the redshirt. Then again, if he gives us similar production like he did against the Bears, here and there, then I'm good with it.

 

[Hootyhoofan]

According to the portal report Foster is top 5 in efficiency for transfers in the valley.

 

[Hootyhoofan]

According to the portal report Foster is top 5 in efficiency for transfers in the valley.

Probably went up after yesterday

 

[ISU86]

Towards the end of the game, they threw up a graphic and mentioned the next Valley Game of the Week would be Drake at Valpo tonight, I think - suggesting that this was a VGOW, too. Would that have been the reason they booked these two announcers?

Did MVCTV opt out of this game, leaving it on ESPN+ instead of Marquee/Bally? 7 PM tip suggests it was always an ESPN+ game. Usually the regional networks prefer 6/8 PM tips.

There is seemingly always a designated "The Valley on ESPN" game of the week that is strictly streaming but done in conjunction with the MVC (as opposed to the standard school) announcers and production.

The Valley has also selected an 18-game, regular-season digital exclusive men’s basketball package for distribution on ESPN+.

November 28 Southern Illinois @ Indiana State
November 29 Drake @ Valparaiso
January 3 Bradley @ Valparaiso
January 13 Belmont @ Indiana State
January 17 Bradley @ Southern Illinois
January 20 Illinois State @ Missouri State
January 23 Belmont @ Illinois State
January 24 Drake @ Missouri State
January 30 Illinois State @ Murray State
January 31 Indiana State @ Belmont
February 7 Missouri State @ Northern Iowa
February 11 Northern Iowa @ Illinois-Chicago
February 13 Drake @ Evansville
February 14 Illinois-Chicago @ Bradley
February 17 Indiana State @ Southern Illinois
February 21 Bradley @ Missouri State
February 28 Belmont @ Murray State

That is why we got designated MVC Network "talent" as opposed to Pegler and Burke/Roan. The same was true last weekend at MoSt and will be next week at MuSt.

Kevin Lehman has become the pseudo-official "analyst" role of the MVC since Mark (enthusi) Adams was migrated to AAC telecasts after Wichita State's departure. Lehman was a former assistant coach at Northern Iowa and head coach at Nebraska-Omaha (six seasons, 72-91); Adams was a former head coach at Central Connecticut State (five seasons, 40-95).

 

[ISU86]

I get the point to an extent, but who did you want him to play for last night? Clearly, Foster was the man last evening and played 30 minutes. As someone else said, it was a guard heavy lineup last night and obviously something Pedon and company saw as an advantage against Belmont. The team had six turnovers in 40 minutes, and Chase had two of them.

Let's see what happens moving forward. If he continues to play two minutes every night, I'd agree it was silly to pull the redshirt. Then again, if he gives us similar production like he did against the Bears, here and there, then I'm good with it.

Last night just looked tough for Walker in his (very) minimal time on the court. But I also agree that it makes little sense to sit him half a season then pull the redshirt for seven minutes/game (or less). Would like to at least see him get to fifteen. In spite of the two game winning streak, this season is still virtually a loss (at least record-wise) but can still be leveraged to get Kinziger, Pence and Walker prepared for season two.

Was there any reason given for Pence not being on the court or was it simply a coach's decision?

Probably thirty of the best minutes of play this season (about one half of that second half brought unneeded flashbacks).

 

[ScoreboardDotRace]

I am going to cut Telly some slack, color guy who they probably called at the last min because he has an ISU connection, worked on Fox Sports for Milwaukee, probably covers the Big Ten more, cause that's where the money is at. Maybe next time call Craig Robinson if you want connection but doesn't know the names, at least he's funny singing the Pizza Hut jingle. Probably should have had him in for the Drake game, since that was over early.
But Lehman, he's an announcer, that's his profession. Pronunciation and Enunciation are key, especially of names. I could not tell who was constantly screwing up Kinziger's name. Like he was reversing the Z and N. We aren't talking Antetokounmpo here. I understand that almost every game in the nation is on some sort of TV/Streaming service and there's only so many people to go around. But it got frustrating, cause he had a ton of involvement. On to the next one. Hopefully Pegler is back, he is not the best but at least he knows our players and can correct who's ever on his left.

Except even Pegler adds a ‘zing’ to Johnny’s name more often than not.

With Johnny and Luke getting mispronounced so much, you’d hope someone with ISU comm would loop in announcers pregame on how to say the names.

 

[ISU86]

I am going to cut Telly some slack, color guy who they probably called at the last min because he has an ISU connection, worked on Fox Sports for Milwaukee, probably covers the Big Ten more, cause that's where the money is at. Maybe next time call Craig Robinson if you want connection but doesn't know the names, at least he's funny singing the Pizza Hut jingle. Probably should have had him in for the Drake game, since that was over early.
But Lehman, he's an announcer, that's his profession. Pronunciation and Enunciation are key, especially of names. I could not tell who was constantly screwing up Kinziger's name. Like he was reversing the Z and N. We aren't talking Antetokounmpo here. I understand that almost every game in the nation is on some sort of TV/Streaming service and there's only so many people to go around. But it got frustrating, cause he had a ton of involvement. On to the next one. Hopefully Pegler is back, he is not the best but at least he knows our players and can correct who's ever on his left.

Telly was not brought in at the last minute, he is part of the MVC Network men's basketball roster of talent:

Play-By-Play: Tom Ackerman, Scott Warmann, John Rooney, Brad Wells, Connor Onion, Telly Hughes, Andy Masur, Harry Schroeder
Analyst: Rich Zvosec, Kevin Lehman, Adam Emmenecker, Dan Muller

And last night's game was produced by it as a designated "The Valley Game Of The Week". It was not an ISU production.

 

[Redbird60451]

Telly was not brought in at the last minute, he is part of the MVC Network men's basketball roster of talent:

Play-By-Play: Tom Ackerman, Scott Warmann, John Rooney, Brad Wells, Connor Onion, Telly Hughes, Andy Masur, Harry Schroeder
Analyst: Rich Zvosec, Kevin Lehman, Adam Emmenecker, Dan Muller

And last night's game was produced by it as a designated "The Valley Game Of The Week". It was not an ISU production.

Well the Valley needs keep him off our games. Cause then he was the one with the Enunciation problem. I figured Telly was the off and Lehman looked like the announcer from the photo on X/Twitter. But you show it's the other way around. Maybe he should have showed up to normal at noon instead of 4 pm and asked both teams people how you pronounce each persons name.

 

[isuquinndog]

I didn't watch the game last night because I was working, but all this time I thought Redbird60541 was saying telly like he was British. No, it's the announcers name.

 

[dabirds0987]

Huge credit Myles for continuing to work on that to where I expect him to make his free throws now. He's a good hard working kid who takes to the coaching. His ppg is down but his rebounds are the best of his career and his assists to turnovers are positive for the first time in his career. If he works on his shooting and continues to learn in this offense he will be force.

Watch his form from the free throw line, starting with his knees, body and through the follow throw. He has a nice arc on his shot and as someone said earlier, backspin on the ball. Sometimes he gets a hitch in his free throw shot, but when the movement is fluid he is usually going to make it. Like many, when he is a little tired there can be some struggles.

 

[dpdoughbird06]

So I know people said this wasn't a good match up for Chase, etc. But 2 minutes? I am completely baffled on what we are doing with him. I don't understand taking off the redshirt for 6 minutes a game.

If he was playing 10 minutes a game and struggling, then fine. I get that. But if he isn't going to play anyway, what is the point? How do we know if this was a good matchup? He had 6 pts and 5 rbs vs Missouri St in 10 minutes.

Didn’t they add a rule a few years ago where a player could still redshirt if they only played a handful of games? If I recall, it was four or less for football…

 

[fdbird83]

I am going to cut Telly some slack, color guy who they probably called at the last min because he has an ISU connection, worked on Fox Sports for Milwaukee, probably covers the Big Ten more, cause that's where the money is at. Maybe next time call Craig Robinson if you want connection but doesn't know the names, at least he's funny singing the Pizza Hut jingle. Probably should have had him in for the Drake game, since that was over early.
But Lehman, he's an announcer, that's his profession. Pronunciation and Enunciation are key, especially of names. I could not tell who was constantly screwing up Kinziger's name. Like he was reversing the Z and N. We aren't talking Antetokounmpo here. I understand that almost every game in the nation is on some sort of TV/Streaming service and there's only so many people to go around. But it got frustrating, cause he had a ton of involvement. On to the next one. Hopefully Pegler is back, he is not the best but at least he knows our players and can correct who's ever on his left.

Telly used to work in Des Moines tv but that has probably been over 10 years ago.

 

[Baltimore Bird]

I thought Chase looked over-matched last night in his brief time in the game on the defensive end. The motion was too quick for him. On the offensive side, in 2 minutes, he traveled and got an offensive foul. Personally, I thought Pedon's decision was correct.

I am also not worried about Year 5. I do not believe ISU has ever had a 5 year player. It is hard enough to keep talent over 2 years. He will have more good games this season and be better in Year 2 because of it.