vs UIC (1-11) - Wednesday, 2/7/2024 - 7 pm - ESPN+/Marquee Network

[isuquinndog]

vs UIC @ CEFCU Arena

TV: ESPN+/Marquee Network

Radio: Varsity Network (WJBC)

Live Stats: Stats

Redbird Tickets

History

 

[BirdGrad2011]

Idk if it’s a legit thing or not, but this team has been bad at home. Can’t lose this one.

 

[Redbird60451]

Idk if it’s a legit thing or not, but this team has been bad at home. Can’t lose this one.

Totally agree. This one is extremely important because the next two games are likely L's, @SIU and @ISUIn. So get the win here, keep UIC down. Then hope that we get back into the 6/7/8/9 hodge podge where we hold tie breakers.

 

[TBus_Birds]

Would be nice to see Davis back in the fold and for Mal's shooting stroke to carry over from Saturday if called upon. Certainly wasn't a pretty win last time out vs. UIC but ISU's 40 points in the paint show you where the focus should be tomorrow. One would hope...

 

[Phantom]

If we show up this time, we have a chance to win. But since we inexplicably suck so much raccoon shit at home it might not matter.

 

[cpacmel]

Illinois State -4

Over / under 131

 

[ISU86]

This year's edition plays a lot like the HCDM swan song team. Lots of perimeter passing with limited interior penetration, and not being able to effectively switch off screens on defense. One area that team still did well was come out of a timeout and have a productive play drawn up (it was the other 3:42 until the next timeout that was questionable).

Our sporadic offense makes any game a crap shoot, but if there is one opponent left where a little less could still result in a "W", this would be the one.

Going into the season, playing in home uniforms (eight seed or better) on Thursday and playing at all on Friday in St. Louis would be an improvement. That is still achievable. The four thru twelve place teams are all flawed and vulnerable to various degree.

At least Jonathan Hood is not doing the telecast play-by-play.

Flames 63
Redbirds 71​

 

[DoubleDeuce]

I'll be the first that I'm not well versed in the x's and o's...but I see Foster and Walker getting an awful lot of touches.

 

[RedbirdSoxFan]

Nobody, absolutely Nobody, on this board gave the 2023-24 Redbirds a chance of finishing in the top three. And guess what, we are not in the top three. And I doubt that anyone on this board gave them much of a chance to finish in the top four. But if not for three games where we could not buy any 3’s we could be sitting solidly in fourth place. And with a Win against UIC & SIU we may be sitting in fourth place. Most people on this board picked the Redbirds to finish somewhere between 6th and 8th (some worse) Well that’s where we are. So not sure why all the negativity about the Redbirds being right where most thought they would be. Like Mel earlier posted, with a Win tomorrow and a Drake Win tomorrow, the Redbirds will be one game out of avoiding Thursday.

 

[Redbirdmike]

This year's edition plays a lot like the HCDM swan song team. Lots of perimeter passing without limited interior penetration, and not being able to effectively switch off screens on defense. One area that team still did well was come out of a timeout and have a productive play drawn up (it was the other 3:42 until the next timeout that was questionable).

Our sporadic offense makes any game a crap shoot, but if there is one opponent left where a little less could still result in a "W", this would be the one.

Going into the season, playing in home uniforms (eight seed or better) on Thursday and playing at all on Friday in St. Louis would be an improvement. That is still achievable. The four thru twelve place teams are all flawed and vulnerable to various degree.

At least Jonathan Hood is not doing the telecast play-by-play.

Flames 63
Redbirds 71​

Agree!

Our losses at home are:
Norfolk State
SIU
Valpo
Drake
Bradley

We should absolutely not have lost to NSU (in Horton), SIU or Valpo. Drake and Bradley are cream of the crop in the Valley along with Indy St. so there is no shame in that. There are only four teams in the MVC with overall losing records. Let’s get that down to three tomorrow night. No reason we should lose to UIC at home. They had some early non-con success, but since then have been horrible. Their only MVC win was vs. Valpo. Bust the ball inside to Foster and Chase all night and make at least three 3-pointers and we should win. The middle of the MVC is a log jam and if we have any success outside the arc going forward there is no reason we are not part of that log jam.

Go Birds!

 

[MadBird]

Well, from the Kool-Aid Department --- if you believe in the "law of averages" and the "law of getting better as the season goes along", you figger the shooting is gonna come around (Poindexter already showed some signs), at least a little, and as I pointed out in another thread, they only need to hit a couple more a game to get their average up to "average". Johnny Kzig is getting better game by game, and so is Walker, and Pedon sure seemed to indicate in the Pantagraph that he thinks Pence is coming along. Lewis gets out of his funk, Foster hangs tough, and things are looking up.

So you could say the Birds haven't played their best ball yet (please, please, make that be the case) and are gonna get in a groove down the stretch and give us some hope! That's all we're looking for right now, some hope. And a couple home wins.

 

[SgtHulka]

We have shown good signs in many aspects of the game. And conversely the inability to show any sign of life in those same aspects. So, the ability is there to get them all on the same page. We'd be a top half team if we could.

 

[SlackBooDom]

Nobody, absolutely Nobody, on this board gave the 2023-24 Redbirds a chance of finishing in the top three. And guess what, we are not in the top three. And I doubt that anyone on this board gave them much of a chance to finish in the top four. But if not for three games where we could not buy any 3’s we could be sitting solidly in fourth place. And with a Win against UIC & SIU we may be sitting in fourth place. Most people on this board picked the Redbirds to finish somewhere between 6th and 8th (some worse) Well that’s where we are. So not sure why all the negativity about the Redbirds being right where most thought they would be. Like someone earlier posted, with a Win tomorrow and a Drake Win tomorrow, the Redbirds will be one game out of avoiding Thursday.

Certainly opinion-based, but this is a fine example of being results focused as opposed to being process focused. Saying “well we almost finished fourth” is a bit of a stretch given how the process has looked. We’re 6-9 against Quad 1-3 NET teams, 1-4 against Quad 1&2. We’ve beat 3 teams over .500. Finishing in the top six of the league is clear progress, but I don’t think anyone evaluating the men’s basketball program would say that finishing position changes the glaring issues.

 

[Aggie]

Certainly opinion-based, but this is a fine example of being results focused as opposed to being process focused. Saying “well we almost finished fourth” is a bit of a stretch given how the process has looked. We’re 6-9 against Quad 1-3 NET teams, 1-4 against Quad 1&2. We’ve beat 3 teams over .500. Finishing in the top six of the league is clear progress, but I don’t think anyone evaluating the men’s basketball program would say that finishing position changes the glaring issues.

Agree with the above. The Valley has three good teams and then the rest. I would not want the measure of success moving forward be determined by how well ISU plays against “the rest”, but how well ISU plays against “the best” which in this case is the top three. ISU was a premier program for most of the time in the 70s,80s, and 90s. That is where our goal for the future should be. If Indiana State can do it why not Illinois State?

 

[ISUalum19]

We need a win here. If we fall to UIC that will kill the confidence for the rest of the season. (What little we currently have).

We SHOULD roll here but I have a suspicious feeling about this game.. the line being only at 4 backs me up on this.

ISU - 65 UIC - 70.

 

[DaveBird10]

This game concerns me a little bc Yack coming back to ISU will have this team ready and ready on defense. ISU shoots the 3 at 27% and UIC only allows teams to shoot the 3 at 29%, they don't give up 3 point shots.
-We should get points in the paint
-Burford had 20 points and Banks 19 in the last meeting.
-UIC doesn't have a ton of length so we should be able to get shots in the paint. Key will be can we convert our points in the paint.

 

[MadBird]

This game concerns me a little bc Yack coming back to ISU will have this team ready and ready on defense. ISU shoots the 3 at 27% and UIC only allows teams to shoot the 3 at 29%, they don't give up 3 point shots.
-We should get points in the paint
-Burford had 20 points and Banks 19 in the last meeting.
-UIC doesn't have a ton of length so we should be able to get shots in the paint. Key will be can we convert our points in the paint.

Plus which, a look at the box shows we had 19 turnovers that game -- NINETEEN!! So maybe we cut that down some and we'll have an easier time of it.

The last game was a classic example of my latest rant (looking at only the numbers, we don't need to make that many more to have a decent 3 pt %). We shot 30% from 3 point range - 3 for 10. Right about at their defensive average. We make one more measily shot, 4 for 10, and we're at 40% and we look slick.

Yes to all your points DaveBird10, plus cut down on the TO's. Get a little more from Foster and Walker and Kinziger was just starting to get it together back in November.

 

[Birgs]

Certainly opinion-based, but this is a fine example of being results focused as opposed to being process focused. Saying “well we almost finished fourth” is a bit of a stretch given how the process has looked. We’re 6-9 against Quad 1-3 NET teams, 1-4 against Quad 1&2. We’ve beat 3 teams over .500. Finishing in the top six of the league is clear progress, but I don’t think anyone evaluating the men’s basketball program would say that finishing position changes the glaring issues.

And never, under any circumstances, excuses, progress, whatever, the Pedon apologists 'round some parts citing improvement (no way to go up I suppose) should hever have lost a home game to Valpo. Unless Bryce Drew was suiting up that fateful Sunday afternoon. That loss, and the Norfolk one are absolute, hard to forget for awhile stinkers. Period,

 

[Manchester Matt]

And never, under any circumstances, excuses, progress, whatever, the Pedon apologists 'round some parts citing improvement (no way to go up I suppose) should hever have lost a home game to Valpo. Unless Bryce Drew was suiting up that fateful Sunday afternoon. That loss, and the Norfolk one are absolute, hard to forget for awhile stinkers. Period,

Pedon apologists? Didn’t you want Yaklich to get this job? If anything, there are more Yak apologists than Pedon apologists on this board.

The Birds win by double digits tonight and Yak finished last in the Valley.

 

[Metamoron]

Agree with the above. The Valley has three good teams and then the rest. I would not want the measure of success moving forward be determined by how well ISU plays against “the rest”, but how well ISU plays against “the best” which in this case is the top three. ISU was a premier program for most of the time in the 70s,80s, and 90s. That is where our goal for the future should be. If Indiana State can do it why not Illinois State?

I agree that we eventually need to measure us against the best in the valley. But to be able to beat the best, we need to be able to beat the rest. We haven’t done that consistently for several years. So if we can play more consistently and beat the rest this year, it puts us in a position to focus on beating the best next year.