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Stop blaming this on Lottich. We have no shooters on this team except Fazekas and he can't hit anything tonight. Everyone else has had WIDE OPEN looks. They have a legit rim protector and not one player can hit an open look.

Thank you. I wanted to say something to this effect but didn't want to get thrown to the dogs. Just like the Missouri State game, they were getting wide open looks and just could not buy a basket. We have Nick Robinson out here 0-5 on wide open threes. We missed out last 10 three point attempts, 8 of which were good shots, and the other two being forced but still coming from our best three point shooter, Ryan.

Tex - I didn't know illinois st. Was against Valpo joining the league.  How do you know this?  Illinois state seems to be the only team we have a winning record against since joining. 

Didn't we recruit a player that ended up choosing Illinois state over us?

Great win and that was fun.  Would like to enjoy it more but a big part of me is why should I be happy about beating the second to last place team.  It should be expected. 

They beat UNI. Record just does not matter when playing on the road in conference.

Maybe I will be proven wrong, and I understand this was all hypothetical, but I can't imagine John going through a rigorous degree such as mechanical engineering, to end up being an end of the bench coach at a mid major school. With his record as a student athlete walk-on that is majoring in mechanical engineering, he will end up getting a solid, well paying job in his field. However, the point is still valid to me in regards to hiring in house. I have nothing against hiring in house, especially for end of the bench assistants, but it would be nice to have an out of the system x and o guy. Maybe we already have that, I am not too familiar with the roles of each assistant coach, and it certainly is not something to end a fandom over.

[Salukis hungry for more after last-second win over MSU]

Salukis hungry for more after last-second win over MSU
Todd Hefferman  Feb 11, 2020 Updated 5 min ago

https://thesouthern.com/sports/college/salukimania/salukis-hungry-for-more-after-last-second-win-over-msu/article_c4bcee4e-ce57-59a4-a089-4867e5901aee.html

In conference SIU is 8th in offensive efficiency and 2nd in defensive efficiency so we match up fairly well with them.  But they win close games.  We are 3-pt. favorites only due to HCA. 

Doubt there'll be much of a HCA today besides the fact they have to travel and we don't. I would love to see a linear regression relating to forecasted snow impacts on attendance. For every half inch of snow we have to lose 500 fans.

The first few minutes, the shots weren't good, but after that we were just missing everything no matter how open. If this was a one game thing, fine, but this happens consistently. We only have one person that can consistently make a jump shot and that is Ryan. But at this point in most ball players career they aren't just going to transform into shooters, so while we might improve next year, I have a hard time seeing us moving up all that much. We are going to lose our only consistent shooter and maybe Clay or Krikke or Javon (if he doesn't bail) improves their shot a little but will it really be enough to make up for Ryan AND then some (or really a lot, which is what we need after another sub 15% 3pt shooting night)? I am guessing no.

Edit: To be fair, we will also be adding Ognacevic and Edwards. Ognacevic is averaging like 39 and 19, and I think I saw somehwere that he is shooting like 38% from three, which is okay but that is also from high school distance against high school competition. Edwards is supposed to be a good shooter though. So hopefully they can contribute right out of the gate.

Btw, since nobody has posted this and the news came out like 20 minutes ago, Ryan fazekas is playing tonight. Seems important. Thought I might share.

Baylor didn't REALLY leapfrog Gonzaga. Baylor had more first place votes than Gonzaga last week, but were still ranked number 2 because those who didn't have Baylor at 1 had Baylor at 3 behind Duke. Because Duke lost this week, that forced all those voters that had Baylor at three to put Baylor at 2, causing them to get more votes and therefore get more votes than Gonzaga so now they are number one. In reality, this is most likely what the rankings SHOULD have been last week. I would argue that Baylor passing Gonzaga was inevitable as long as Baylor won out last week.

As much as I want to be really optimistic about next year, we have to remember that we already know what we are getting, cause we are watching it. Our contributing players will be exactly who they are now minus John Kiser. We won't have Fazekas next year, so all those issues we say would be solved if Fazekas was on the court, will still apply next year. We are gonna have to expect a lot of consistent production out of our sophomores to make up for that loss.

JFL - PG - Junior
Gordon - SG - 5th Year
Krikke - PF - Sophmore
Robinson - SF - 5th Year
Clay - SF - Sophmore

I'd take that starting lineup next year (should be the starting line up now too).

I would like to see that starting lineup too, just have a hard time seeing Lottich sitting Mileek as a senior after starting him the past two seasons. Also don't see him taking Sackey out of there. I would LOVE to see that starting lineup tried out, though.

As much as I want to be really optimistic about next year, we have to remember that we already know what we are getting, cause we are watching it. Our contributing players will be exactly who they are now minus John Kiser. We won't have Fazekas next year, so all those issues we say would be solved if Fazekas was on the court, will still apply next year. We are gonna have to expect a lot of consistent production out of our sophomores to make up for that loss.

I've learned from the workplace that there are great millennials.  The key is to separate the wheat (thoughtful, respectful young adults with good values) from the chaff (entitled narcissists) during the interview process. Something I've learned to ask is  "Tell me about a time when you doubted your abilities." Their answer helps determine their level of coachability, and whether they've been able to transform self-doubt into self-growth.  Entitled narcissists really struggle to come up with an acceptable answer because they consider themselves a finished product. Concepts like self-reflection, introspection, personal growth, etc. are so foreign to them, they struggle to even make up a phony answer.   

Is this not true for every generation ?

I've come to the conclusion that this team needs a legitimate point guard. I think that might be the source of most of the issues. Unfortunately I don't see one on the roster (unless sackey completely turns it around, and yes he is only a sophomore but he has seemingly regressed) and I don't see one in the recruiting. Only wings and shooting guards, albeit very promising ones.

I hate to say it but losing Lottich would likely do more bad than good. He is a heck of a recruiter and without him we probably don't have most of these players that make this team have the potential that is does.

Looking at the tickets remaining, it's not gonna happen

It's really baffling how people could complain about our recruiting the past few years. Javon and Clay were top players out of Illinois. The freshman class clearly has a lot of potential. Sackey is a starting point guard as a sophomore, and has shown that he is deserving of that. He's not perfect, but he's only a sophomore. Jacob Ognacevic goes to the same school Sam Dekker did and is breaking his records while receiving praise from Sams dad. The guy from Florida can score against good competition. I love John Kiser and he is very important because of his consistency, rebounding, and hustling, but he's not the third best player on the team, and if he is it's because the other candidates are underclassmen that aren't consistent yet.

Ok, I admit, my reaction was a little extreme. Knee jerk reaction.  Just frustrating to keep losing games that we could have easily won (trend over the past few years). This team is much better than the past few years however, and has VERY high potential in my mind, but it will take time as it is a very young team.

Game preparedness has been awful. Have the roster to compete but consistently have have come out of the gate slow, played catch up the whole game, turned the ball over, and have looked bad on defense despite having the talent to be a good defensive team. Don't really know what the solution for this is at this point. Lottich has had 4 years to fix this and hasn't been able to. But if we get rid of him we lose the roster

We are doomed. Freeman will be gone after this year if not then the year after leaving us with a few years developing him with nothing to show for it except some losing season. Clay will probably be gone too. We have a fantastic roster and a fantastic recruiting class coming in next year, but it doesn't matter. We have seen the same problems every year under lottich and they haven't been fixed, whether it was with a good roster or bad. The problem is that we get rid of the common denominator, coach lottich, then we also get rid of his recruiting. He's a great recruiter and I don't think anybody else would be able to get some of the talent he has gotten to come to a university that is sinking fast, has no students coming to the games, and fills 1/5 of the stadium. But he is not a good coach coach.

Loser of Bowling Green- Cincinnati

The concession stand is downright shameful. They said at the season ticket holder dinner that we would see an improved concession stand. So far, the lines are longer and I can say with certainty that isn't because attendance is up. I don't know who is running it now but it is awful. Ordered the "loaded nachos" (I believe a dollar more than the regular "nachos") and got a bag of chips in a plastic container with a little bit of cheese. I asked why the "loaded nachos" were an extra dollar over the basic nachos if they were just basic nachos, and the cashier said "I'm not sure".  So I asked what comes with the basic nachos if a bag of chips with cheese was "loaded". The person filling drinks informed me that the basic nachos were just the chips. Last time I checked, a bag of chips is a bag of chips, not nachos.