[Oskee] Typical season loss

Fri Mar 26 10:40:47 EDT 2010

I'm going old school and hope he gets Montgomerized. It could happen. :-)

Greg

To: oskee at heins.net
Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2010 09:12:17 -0400
From: gtillini95 at aol.com
Subject: Re: [Oskee] Typical season loss

A Chris Gandy reference this early in the morning ... you blew my mind!  Also file under Warrened.

OWW!

Geoff

-----Original Message-----
From: Chris Goldenstein <cgoldens at yahoo.com>
To: Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List <oskee at heins.net>
Sent: Fri, Mar 26, 2010 8:53 am
Subject: Re: [Oskee] Typical season loss

I also noticed that we missed way too many bunnies, that part was maddening....I agree on Davis, too soft and too lazy, I hope he somehow gets Gandified for his senior year.

From: Todd Sweet <trsweet at ilstu.edu>
To: Fighting Illini Sports Enthusiasts List <oskee at heins.net>
Sent: Thu, March 25, 2010 11:01:57 AM
Subject: Re: [Oskee] Typical season loss

Well, I was at the game.  Everyone has raised some very good points but there are a couple I’d like to expound upon.

First….heart.  I won’t say this team has no heart, but I will say they don’t have enough heart and some players have more than others.  Thanks to Tyler Griffey for completely laying out his body to save a ball in bounds that directly resulted in us getting a dunk (that we didn’t miss).   That’s heart.  That’s desire.  That’s toughness.  This team needs a lot more of that kind of attitude.

Second….Mike Davis , meet the bench.  Yes, I said it.  I know he had 330 rebounds this year, but having been at the last two games in person I spent time watching only Mike Davis.  His rebounds are almost always uncontested (I’d say about half are off of free throw misses) and way too many times I saw him running AWAY from the basket BEFORE our shots even hit the rim.  Last night, he had a one on one situation on a fast break with an angle to the basket, he pulled it out.  He hides from contact, has no toughness, and has a lousy attitude.  Last night while he was whining at the ref, Dayton already took the ball down the floor and scored.  Davis was still at the other end of the floor.  Oh yeah, Tis picked up a foul trying to guard Davis ’ man on that play.  I’m tired of watching a whiny player who won’t attack the rim get lauded for being able to catch rebounds that land in his lap.  One more thing on Mike Davis.  He was quoted in the paper saying how he loves to be in a running game.  First play of the game Dayton drove for an uncontested layup while Davis had his back turned running down the floor.  Hey Mike, in running games, you actually have to run….fast.

Third,  I had a long discussion with a friend of mine who coaches high school yesterday.  We got into a discussion about what has changed since 2005.  Obviously, we don’t have quite the athletes and not nearly the speed.  Everyone on the boards like to blame Weber (and I hold him responsible for some of this recent fiasco), but honestly, is Bruce that much different from 2005?  I’m sure he is still preaching and teaching toughness, defense, screens and all the things that worked in 2005.  During our discussion we agreed that the trend toward recruiting athletes instead of basketball players has resulted in many coaches dealing with players that are good athletes but who have no basketball IQ.  THIS TEAM HAS VERY LITTLE BASKETBALL IQ!   They routinely make bad decisions on the floor.  Last night, Brandon Paul stole the ball just before half time and with one man between him and the basket and 4 seconds left, he looked for someone to pass to.   It doesn’t take a genius to figure out with 4 seconds to go you either have to drive or shoot.  My 11 year old was at the game with me and immediately started yelling for Brandon to shoot as soon as he caught the ball.  Toward the end of the game, we were still spending time dribbling around the perimeter when we should have been pushing to the rim quickly.  We simply play dumb basketball, and we play a lot of it.  This is on the coaches AND the players.

Overall, if you don’t have the athletes that can play the dribble drive type of game then you have to have the smart players who know how to play as a team, make good decisions, and play with a lot of heart.  We don’t have the super athletes (we have good ones), we don’t make good decisions, we don’t play as a team, and we have very little toughness and heart.  This is a formula for the season we just saw.  And if the incoming freshmen don’t bring the skills to get playing time next year, we will have a repeat because the same players will be on the floor.

Sorry for the lengthy diatribe, but it’s a season’s worth of frustration.  Good thing spring football is around the corner….oops…nevermind.

Todd S 

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