vs Northern Iowa - 3/2/2023 - 12:00 PM - MVC TV (BSIN/BSKC/BSMW/BSS/BSSE/NBCSCH)

[CaliRdBrd]

UNI team the youngest team Ben J has ever coached. Gives some perspective on how far we have to go.

Gulp….

 

[CaliRdBrd]

I think we’re the first team eliminated from the postseason?
Glass is half full…Pedon gets first dibs on recruiting

 

[crazzymark]

You know, I was going to delete this. But I've decided to let every one see what you put instead.

A unitard is a full body men's gymnastics uniform or a woman's full body garment

 

[isuquinndog]

A unitard is a full body men's gymnastics uniform or a woman's full body garment

Yep I'm sure that is exactly how you meant it.

 

[Popsto4]

UNI went cold and ILST had 5 straight possessions with turnovers. That's not winning games. You could just tell when there were 6 straight possessions down 6 that Born was going to rise up and he did.

The fight in the second half was good. I like what they have with the core of Burford and Lewis coming back. Lewis had 4 turnovers at crucial times where he dribbled off his foot or passed it directly to UNI. Malachi and Luke coming off the bench next year to provide a spark would be ideal. I'm anticipating filling 4 scholarships this spring. 5 max.

Just be better next year.

There are so much more to this season that most posters on here have missed only because of not knowing. This was definitely a tough season but hey, it’s the first season under Coach P and staff. Lots of things wanted to be done but just didn’t have the horses to run that race. Speaking of who’s coming off the bench or starting, I’d say that pretty premature right after the Dina game of a season. No excuse but, no post players of size, players really playing out of position, no true pg, no wing that can put it on the floor at a high clip without turnover, no dribble driver that see the open man for a kick out and no steady rim protector along with little to no help defense ever. So this off-season and recruiting will be huge in righting the ship after season 1. Let’s hope for the best, he’ll get it done. Go Birds

 

[Redbird82]

There are so much more to this season that most posters on here have missed only because of not knowing. This was definitely a tough season but hey, it’s the first season under Coach P and staff. Lots of things wanted to be done but just didn’t have the horses to run that race. Speaking of who’s coming off the bench or starting, I’d say that pretty premature right after the Dina game of a season. No excuse but, no post players of size, players really playing out of position, no true pg, no wing that can put it on the floor at a high clip without turnover, no dribble driver that see the open man for a kick out and no steady rim protector along with little to no help defense ever. So this off-season and recruiting will be huge in righting the ship after season 1. Let’s hope for the best, he’ll get it done. Go Birds

Pops, I give a lot of credit, you have been very objective considering you have a son playing. Not easy, I’ve enjoyed your posts this year. Let’s hope a lot more wins to discuss next year….

 

[Redbird222]

Down only 9 . . . Burford just picked his 4th . . . time to break our hearts . . .

What happened on that play? I thought Lewis was guarding the ball. I saw the referee motion a forearm

 

[Hamdonger]

No excuse but, no post players of size, players really playing out of position, no true pg, no wing that can put it on the floor at a high clip without turnover, no dribble driver that see the open man for a kick out and no steady rim protector along with little to no help defense ever. So this off-season and recruiting will be huge in righting the ship after season 1.

Folks, you realize that...is...A LOT, right?? Our returnees...whoever they are...HAVE to get better. Our nucleus who might be coming back won 6 games in Valley. Six. And its not like they were freshman. We're not going to get better if these guys don't learn to play together, better, without so much isolation basketball. Our Coach has to get better...he may end up learning more from this season than any other season in which he's ever been associated with basketball. That's my hope, anyway. And...if he's not going to play guys who might be coming back, get 'em out of here so he can get guys that he thinks can contribute to his style...whatever that is. We've got a heck of a lot of ground to make up. In my mind, "we've got a long way to go, and a short time to get there..."

Good news is...the ISU program has done it before.

 

[dpdoughbird06]

Folks, you realize that...is...A LOT, right?? Our returnees...whoever they are...HAVE to get better. Our nucleus who might be coming back won 6 games in Valley. Six. And its not like they were freshman. We're not going to get better if these guys don't learn to play together, better, without so much isolation basketball. Our Coach has to get better...he may end up learning more from this season than any other season in which he's ever been associated with basketball. That's my hope, anyway. And...if he's not going to play guys who might be coming back, get 'em out of here so he can get guys that he thinks can contribute to his style...whatever that is. We've got a heck of a lot of ground to make up. In my mind, "we've got a long way to go, and a short time to get there..."

Good news is...the ISU program has done it before.

Birds were 6-12 and one-and-done on Thursday in ‘06-‘07; and in ‘10-‘11 we were so bad we stormed the court because sweeping Bradley kept us out of the 10-seed. In both cases the next year was far more enjoyable.

 

[Hamdonger]

Birds were 6-12 and one-and-done on Thursday in ‘06-‘07; and in ‘10-‘11 we were so bad we stormed the court because sweeping Bradley kept us out of the 10-seed. In both cases the next year was far more enjoyable.

Looking forward to it.

 

[Aggie]

This season was a disappointment, but I think we all knew before the season we were not that good. Pre season “polling” had ISU near the bottom.
I want to thank the players that stepped up and put on the ISU uniform. Would have loved to have Sandage and Knight for four years. Hope Lewis comes back, but understand if he wants to go pro somewhere and make some money while he is still young.

With that said I asked my coaching friends their honest opinions. ISU has two pretty good guards if they had the pieces around them. Two guys that could come off the bench and contribute for many teams. If
Lewis comes back with a good center or coke machine by him, he could be very good. The rest need to be complete surprise next year to really contribute. Couple coaches thought it maybe could happen but they were not counting on it. They basically said ISU needs a lot of pieces and can ISU attract that level of talent?

So I polled them on the future of the valley. Their picks not mine so my emotion is out of it.
Bottom teams ISU/UIC/Valpo/Evansville all four need lightning to strike to be good in the next few years
Drake has to reload but getting a reputation for a certain type of player.
Southern, Indiana State, and Missouri State just ok going forward
Belmont and Murray good reputations and should attract good players.
Bradley, they think as long as Wardle stays he will get the players
UNI, all three think Northern Iowa is loaded for three years and will attract more talent.

Their take not mine but none of them gave me a lot of confidence. Hope they are wrong, but if not I am preparing myself for next year now. One also mentioned the assistant coach “problem” should not be tolerated again. He thought that was bad and probably cost us some games and he wonders how many potential recruits?

Once again thank you to all the players that put on and represented the ISU jersey.

 

[jwa123]

This season was a disappointment, but I think we all knew before the season we were not that good. Pre season “polling” had ISU near the bottom.
I want to thank the players that stepped up and put on the ISU uniform. Would have loved to have Sandage and Knight for four years. Hope Lewis comes back, but understand if he wants to go pro somewhere and make some money while he is still young.

With that said I asked my coaching friends their honest opinions. ISU has two pretty good guards if they had the pieces around them. Two guys that could come off the bench and contribute for many teams. If
Lewis comes back with a good center or coke machine by him, he could be very good. The rest need to be complete surprise next year to really contribute. Couple coaches thought it maybe could happen but they were not counting on it. They basically said ISU needs a lot of pieces and can ISU attract that level of talent?

So I polled them on the future of the valley. Their picks not mine so my emotion is out of it.
Bottom teams ISU/UIC/Valpo/Evansville all four need lightning to strike to be good in the next few years
Drake has to reload but getting a reputation for a certain type of player.
Southern, Indiana State, and Missouri State just ok going forward
Belmont and Murray good reputations and should attract good players.
Bradley, they think as long as Wardle stays he will get the players
UNI, all three think Northern Iowa is loaded for three years and will attract more talent.

Their take not mine but none of them gave me a lot of confidence. Hope they are wrong, but if not I am preparing myself for next year now. One also mentioned the assistant coach “problem” should not be tolerated again. He thought that was bad and probably cost us some games and he wonders how many potential recruits?

Once again thank you to all the players that put on and represented the ISU jersey.

Coaching friends or not, it’s insanity to throw in the towel. I am not ready to listen to your coaching friends or slash my wrists over the future of Redbird bball. The previous coach killed the program but it can be resurrected and I think Pedon is the coach to do it. It would seem to me the next order of business is to hire the new assistant coach who can help with the recruiting. As dismal as this season was, there are still some nice players on this team that are coming back but they need help. Let’s see what the final recruiting class looks like.

Drake? I can remember when they were a consistent bottom sucker in the league. Nothing is permanent except the Chicago Bears. They’ve been consistently awful since the MacCaskey brothers started running the show.

 

[Redbirdfan06]

This season was a disappointment, but I think we all knew before the season we were not that good. Pre season “polling” had ISU near the bottom.
I want to thank the players that stepped up and put on the ISU uniform. Would have loved to have Sandage and Knight for four years. Hope Lewis comes back, but understand if he wants to go pro somewhere and make some money while he is still young.

With that said I asked my coaching friends their honest opinions. ISU has two pretty good guards if they had the pieces around them. Two guys that could come off the bench and contribute for many teams. If
Lewis comes back with a good center or coke machine by him, he could be very good. The rest need to be complete surprise next year to really contribute. Couple coaches thought it maybe could happen but they were not counting on it. They basically said ISU needs a lot of pieces and can ISU attract that level of talent?

So I polled them on the future of the valley. Their picks not mine so my emotion is out of it.
Bottom teams ISU/UIC/Valpo/Evansville all four need lightning to strike to be good in the next few years
Drake has to reload but getting a reputation for a certain type of player.
Southern, Indiana State, and Missouri State just ok going forward
Belmont and Murray good reputations and should attract good players.
Bradley, they think as long as Wardle stays he will get the players
UNI, all three think Northern Iowa is loaded for three years and will attract more talent.

Their take not mine but none of them gave me a lot of confidence. Hope they are wrong, but if not I am preparing myself for next year now. One also mentioned the assistant coach “problem” should not be tolerated again. He thought that was bad and probably cost us some games and he wonders how many potential recruits?

Once again thank you to all the players that put on and represented the ISU jersey.

I am not sure we should wish we had Sandage and Knight as four year players. I hope they were both stop gap players for better things to come.

I think if Lewis and Burford come back they need to be in an offense where they don’t have to think too long before making passes. Both players turn the ball over too much when they have the ball in their hands too long.

As far as your coaching friends opinion of the valley, it will be interesting how Drake is next year without guys who have played college basketball since 2018. They probably have the Valley player of the year returning but the rest of his supporting cast this year is average age of 24. You take his kid off the team, is he really bringing in all this talent for years to come? If Bradley craps the bed in the tourney this year, then it shows Wardle needs everything to work in his favor in the conference tournament and can’t win with a favorite. If Northern Iowa goes out and get pounded by Bradley tomorrow, all that talent doesn’t look near as good considering they didn’t overwhelm anyone in the conference this year.

 

[DannyCooksey]

Rough year. Appreciate the efforts of all involved. Best of luck to those that move on and hopefully all that return can apply some hard earned lessons next year and show improvement next year.

 

[Bird Friend]

Rough year. Appreciate the efforts of all involved. Best of luck to those that move on and hopefully all that return can apply some hard earned lessons next year and show improvement next year.

Are you talking about players moving on or posters moving on?

 

[Popsto4]

Folks, you realize that...is...A LOT, right?? Our returnees...whoever they are...HAVE to get better. Our nucleus who might be coming back won 6 games in Valley. Six. And its not like they were freshman. We're not going to get better if these guys don't learn to play together, better, without so much isolation basketball. Our Coach has to get better...he may end up learning more from this season than any other season in which he's ever been associated with basketball. That's my hope, anyway. And...if he's not going to play guys who might be coming back, get 'em out of here so he can get guys that he thinks can contribute to his style...whatever that is. We've got a heck of a lot of ground to make up. In my mind, "we've got a long way to go, and a short time to get there..."

Good news is...the ISU program has done it before.

Finally a post about kids playing together. Finally someone else notice the lack of playing together by this team. When the offense is so much one-on-one there is no playing together. Once again though that’s what this roster kind of produced, that’s the style the talent allowed to play out. Also playing together is on the players and pretty much not the coach. That’s why recruiting his type of kids are Coach P’s biggest need right now. Plus that’s all about Basketball IQ. Sometimes you can be a huge post player and get away without having a good basketball IQ. Size alone can open up space for teammates and that can have you on the floor. A wing player that can shoot the 3 well but have no midrange but can get to the rim and free throw line at a high clip should be getting just below the free throw line and then kicking out to a teammate. If not defenses will collapse and cause lots of turnovers. Playing this way is playing with a high Basketball IQ. Guards need to be on the High Basketball IQ to have a really good team in general. Both guard spots should actually look to pass first, especially the pg. All it takes is for one player to be out of position offensive and the whole play is blown up. Trust me trust trust me that happen omg I’m gonna be generous here probably 60% of the time. So yeah you’re gonna have lots of one-on-one possessions there’s no getting around that. I will say again. I think Pedon did a good job with these kids.

 

[crazzymark]

Yep I'm sure that is exactly how you meant it.

Was a play on words and twa I did

 

[ILLST25]

This season was a disappointment, but I think we all knew before the season we were not that good. Pre season “polling” had ISU near the bottom.
I want to thank the players that stepped up and put on the ISU uniform. Would have loved to have Sandage and Knight for four years. Hope Lewis comes back, but understand if he wants to go pro somewhere and make some money while he is still young.

With that said I asked my coaching friends their honest opinions. ISU has two pretty good guards if they had the pieces around them. Two guys that could come off the bench and contribute for many teams. If
Lewis comes back with a good center or coke machine by him, he could be very good. The rest need to be complete surprise next year to really contribute. Couple coaches thought it maybe could happen but they were not counting on it. They basically said ISU needs a lot of pieces and can ISU attract that level of talent?

So I polled them on the future of the valley. Their picks not mine so my emotion is out of it.
Bottom teams ISU/UIC/Valpo/Evansville all four need lightning to strike to be good in the next few years
Drake has to reload but getting a reputation for a certain type of player.
Southern, Indiana State, and Missouri State just ok going forward
Belmont and Murray good reputations and should attract good players.
Bradley, they think as long as Wardle stays he will get the players
UNI, all three think Northern Iowa is loaded for three years and will attract more talent.

Their take not mine but none of them gave me a lot of confidence. Hope they are wrong, but if not I am preparing myself for next year now. One also mentioned the assistant coach “problem” should not be tolerated again. He thought that was bad and probably cost us some games and he wonders how many potential recruits?

Once again thank you to all the players that put on and represented the ISU jersey.

Our program does not need lightning to strike to get things turned around but I would say UIC, Valpo, and Evansville does. From facilities to athletics support to a growing university, we should be top half of the valley (at least) in recruiting without question.

 

[Birdfriend72]

Finally a post about kids playing together. Finally someone else notice the lack of playing together by this team. When the offense is so much one-on-one there is no playing together. Once again though that’s what this roster kind of produced, that’s the style the talent allowed to play out. Also playing together is on the players and pretty much not the coach. That’s why recruiting his type of kids are Coach P’s biggest need right now. Plus that’s all about Basketball IQ. Sometimes you can be a huge post player and get away without having a good basketball IQ. Size alone can open up space for teammates and that can have you on the floor. A wing player that can shoot the 3 well but have no midrange but can get to the rim and free throw line at a high clip should be getting just below the free throw line and then kicking out to a teammate. If not defenses will collapse and cause lots of turnovers. Playing this way is playing with a high Basketball IQ. Guards need to be on the High Basketball IQ to have a really good team in general. Both guard spots should actually look to pass first, especially the pg. All it takes is for one player to be out of position offensive and the whole play is blown up. Trust me trust trust me that happen omg I’m gonna be generous here probably 60% of the time. So yeah you’re gonna have lots of one-on-one possessions there’s no getting around that. I will say again. I think Pedon did a good job with these kids.

From what I saw yesterday at the game- we run very little offensive set plays! The only thing we seem to look organized with is the weave in the 2nd half that only ran clock and produced air balls! Our defense was terrible! #15 was eating us up like Charles Barkley! Everything seems to be let a group of 20 year old players figure it out on our own! Even down 6 after 4 straight ISU turnovers and 4-6 UNI misses Pedon didn’t call timeout to run a play!

 

[dpdoughbird06]

I am not sure we should wish we had Sandage and Knight as four year players. I hope they were both stop gap players for better things to come.

I think if Lewis and Burford come back they need to be in an offense where they don’t have to think too long before making passes. Both players turn the ball over too much when they have the ball in their hands too long.

As far as your coaching friends opinion of the valley, it will be interesting how Drake is next year without guys who have played college basketball since 2018. They probably have the Valley player of the year returning but the rest of his supporting cast this year is average age of 24. You take his kid off the team, is he really bringing in all this talent for years to come? If Bradley craps the bed in the tourney this year, then it shows Wardle needs everything to work in his favor in the conference tournament and can’t win with a favorite. If Northern Iowa goes out and get pounded by Bradley tomorrow, all that talent doesn’t look near as good considering they didn’t overwhelm anyone in the conference this year.

This

The Valley changes fast with graduations and coaches moving on. Indiana State is down a third of their pre-Covid enrollment. Normal >>> Terre Haute. They were playing a roster of DII transfers last year, but took a leap this year. How is their long-term outlook better than ours? Bradley was a dumpster fire pre-Wardle, as was Drake before Devries.

ISU remains a stable school on the upswing with a healthy community around it. Pedon can sell his plan to a recruit, and the campus experience should take care of the rest.

Who’s to say Pedon doesn’t surprise us all and get the team he envisions on the court playing in sync next year?

If Sandage is healthy we win a few more games and the future looks rosier.

We also lost Madison Williams, Bruninga and Chastain to medical retirements before him. Three Muller guys who’d have been 2-3 year Valley starters - maybe even winning some awards as seniors. Pedon is probably a better natural recruiter - he can get the players here; they just need to stay healthy.