The Sky Has Fallen (2015-2016 Version)

[dan_beeding]

This one is for all of the naysayers, pessimists, realists, and trolls to air their grievances about this season. It is clear that the regular season is a lost cause, and we will need to make quite the run in STL to get to where we need to be.

Questions to be answered:
What went wrong?
What needs to be improved?
Who is at fault?
Why is our fan base so fickle?
How many times will R&B refer to transfer players over the next 40 weeks?

[unipanthers8907]

Re: The Sky Has Fallen (2015-2016 Version)

This one is for all of the naysayers, pessimists, realists, and trolls to air their grievances about this season. It is clear that the regular season is a lost cause, and we will need to make quite the run in STL to get to where we need to be.

Questions to be answered:
What went wrong? Not sure, maybe just too high of expectations by the fans following the UNC and ISU victories. My expectations coming into the season were NIT, which is still possible. My expectations following UNC and ISU were NCAA Tournament appearance and maybe a win in the Round of 64
What needs to be improved? Defensive effort, rebounding, post play
Who is at fault? Part of it falls on the players, part of it on the coaches
Why is our fan base so fickle? No answer for this one
How many times will R&B refer to transfer players over the next 40 weeks? over/under placed at 200

Here's my answers...

[Schack]

Re: The Sky Has Fallen (2015-2016 Version)

The schedule is part of it. Traveling from Richmond to New Mexico to Hawaii, and then having 2 homes games out our last 12.

[Panther100]

Re: The Sky Has Fallen (2015-2016 Version)

Coaches are at fault. Although Jake has shown signs of willingness to change when the ship is sinking. We need to try occasional 2/3 zone, box and one zone, 1-2-2/2-1-2 press. This can close off the lane and disrupt the opponent's offensive flow. We can still go with the man to man. The team was sick vs the Sycamores and couldn't close out on the 3 point line and got beat off the dribble. Not enough depth and rebounding. Needed to implement the motion offense earlier. The system doesn't fit the talent level. However, next season's talent level might fit the system. Next season starters: Carlson, McDonnell, Morgan, Haldeman, McCloud. 6. Koch, 7. W. Lohas, 8. Brown, 9. Dahl, 10. Connrey/3 guard Juco or Grad Transfer, 11. Freidman, 12. Knar. T. Lohaus red shirts.

[UNIhoops]

Re: The Sky Has Fallen (2015-2016 Version)

Seems like a great kid, but due to injury Knar isn't going to be able to give us anything. He's going to take up five years of scholarships. I'm sure he is valuable off the court, but we could really have used a starter or key reserve with his scholarship. Jake is doing the right thing by honoring the kids years, but we could really use another player.

Arias Austin is another player that was an important reserve that we lost right before the ISU game. We could sure use him now.

Replace those two players with two key bench players and we would have a better team. Most importantly we would give the starters some needed rest. Other teams strategy should be to get one UNI starter in foul trouble, because then we are in big trouble.

I'm guessing Jake doesn't redshirt all the freshmen if he would have known what was going to happen.

[Zakelsta]

Re: The Sky Has Fallen (2015-2016 Version)

THEORY: Post Play Depth. Every year that UNI has had significant success under Jacobson, we've had 3 or more genuinely contributing post players. I will define 'contributing' as playing 15 minutes or more, and being a top 5 scorer/rebounder.

DATA:
2007- Coleman, Stout - No Postseason
2008- Coleman, Egleseder, A. Koch - No Postseason
2009- Egleseder, A. Koch, O'Rear - NCAA
2010- Egleseder, A. Koch, O'Rear, J. Koch - NCAA
2011- J Koch, O'Rear - CIT
2012- Tuttle, J. Koch, Rank - NIT
2013- Tuttle, J. Koch, Rank - CIT
2014- Tuttle, Buss - No Postseason
2015- Tuttle, Buss, Singleton - NCAA
2016- B. Koch, Carlson - ??

RESULT:
All our NCAA years fall in line with the theory, and only 2008 stood out as a year that we had 3 contributing bigs, and didn't have a 'successful' season. And that year was kind of a mess for other reasons. So all in all, I would say the theory is pretty accurate. We will be getting an influx in depth with McDonnell and Dahl next year, plus returning Koch, Carlson, and Friedman.

[Zakelsta]

Re: The Sky Has Fallen (2015-2016 Version)

In the research for that theory, I saw another trend I want to look into:

THEORY: Leading scorer. If our leading scorer is a post-player, we have more success than if we depend on a guard to be our leading scorer:

DATA:
2007: Eric Coleman - 13.1 ppg - No Postseason
2008: Eric Coleman - 12.3 ppg - No Postseason
2009: Adam Koch - 12.2 ppg - NCAA
2010: Jordan Eglseder - 11.9 ppg - NCAA
2011: Kwadzo Ahelegbe - 14.1 ppg - CIT
2012: Anthony James - 12.5 ppg - NIT
2013: Anthony James - 13.2 ppg - CIT
2014: Seth Tuttle - 15.4 - No Postseason
2015: Seth Tuttle - 15.3 - NCAA
2016: Wes Washpun - 15.1 - ??

RESULT:
Busted. 3 seasons with a post guy leading scorer with no post season at all. Plus I'd add 2012 with AJ leading us to the NIT was probably 'sucessful'. This is one we can throw away.

[BBALL_NATION]

Re: The Sky Has Fallen (2015-2016 Version)

What went wrong? Nothing.. Its a "team" made up of a PG and 2 spot up shooters. That's not much of a team. What did you expect? 3 players average over 30mins per game and two of them only do one thing. This "team" just isn't that good, as everyone is finding out. A team is made up of more than 5 players not 3 or 4

Who is at fault: Coaching staff clearly. Not X's & O's but recruiting. Look at the bench... is there anyone you're excited about????

The fix: Bring in someone who can recruit a "TEAM"

What will be referred to as the glory days seems to have ended last year.

[Panther100]

Re: The Sky Has Fallen (2015-2016 Version)

What went wrong? Nothing.. Its a "team" made up of a PG and 2 spot up shooters. That's not much of a team. What did you expect? 3 players average over 30mins per game and two of them only do one thing. This "team" just isn't that good, as everyone is finding out. A team is made up of more than 5 players not 3 or 4

Who is at fault: Coaching staff clearly. Not X's & O's but recruiting. Look at the bench... is there anyone you're excited about????

The fix: Bring in someone who can recruit a "TEAM"

What will be referred to as the glory days seems to have ended last year.

DO you want Coach fired? The above was a big statement.

[DWadle1983]

Re: The Sky Has Fallen (2015-2016 Version)

10 characters.

Questions to be answered:
What went wrong? Expectations became too high after upset wins. This was always going to be a team that needed to win the MVC Tournament to go back to the NCAA Tournament after graduating 4 of its best players including its 3 best post players.
What needs to be improved? Rebounding.
Who is at fault? Seth Tuttle for not having a 5th year of eligibility.
Why is our fan base so fickle? Because there is always the hope after a great season that UNI will become the next Gonzaga or Wichita State.
How many times will R&B refer to transfer players over the next 40 weeks? ?[/QUOTE]

[UNIdad]

Re: The Sky Has Fallen (2015-2016 Version)

What went wrong? Nothing.. Its a "team" made up of a PG and 2 spot up shooters. That's not much of a team. What did you expect? 3 players average over 30mins per game and two of them only do one thing. This "team" just isn't that good, as everyone is finding out. A team is made up of more than 5 players not 3 or 4

Who is at fault: Coaching staff clearly. Not X's & O's but recruiting. Look at the bench... is there anyone you're excited about????

The fix: Bring in someone who can recruit a "TEAM"

What will be referred to as the glory days seems to have ended last year.

You post 1-2 times per year and this is it! You seem to have both insight and an ax to grind. Too bad you aren't able to engage in more conversation about these ideas. Or not. At any rate, enjoy your hibernation. Look forward to hearing from you in a year or so.

[run&blade]

Re: The Sky Has Fallen (2015-2016 Version)

Only thing different is the players.

If you want Uni to stop slipping back into rebuild mode you have to try different things to get better players. Currently a couple of their best players are transfers, gets me more.

Stop loading up the bench with roll players, how many chuckers do you really need?

I would rather bomb out on a couple of juco's every year than waste five years of scholarship on some short guy that heated it up from downtown in high school for a couple of years.

You need a couple of shooters and that is it.

Can they get to the rim? If not do you really need them?

Can they kick some butt inside physically? If not do you really need them?

Stop running a scholarship charity service also, if they are not cutting it, invite them to leave. If you want to play big boy basketball and expect people to pay big boy prices and buy tickets than have the product to back it up.

You have to be more athletic than ever with the new defensive rules. A slow hand checker will be in foul trouble quickly.

These are some of the things it takes to win more than one season out of four. I am fine if they are not gong to be that aggressive but don't expect people to pack McLeod to watch a team that isn't built for success.

[SteinPizza]

Re: The Sky Has Fallen (2015-2016 Version)

Only thing different is the players.

If you want Uni to stop slipping back into rebuild mode you have to try different things to get better players. Currently a couple of their best players are transfers, gets me more.

Stop loading up the bench with roll players, how many chuckers do you really need?

I would rather bomb out on a couple of juco's every year than waste five years of scholarship on some short guy that heated it up from downtown in high school for a couple of years.

You need a couple of shooters and that is it.

Can they get to the rim? If not do you really need them?

Can they kick some butt inside physically? If not do you really need them?

Stop running a scholarship charity service also, if they are not cutting it, invite them to leave. If you want to play big boy basketball and expect people to pay big boy prices and buy tickets than have the product to back it up.

You have to be more athletic than ever with the new defensive rules. A slow hand checker will be in foul trouble quickly.

These are some of the things it takes to win more than one season out of four. I am fine if they are not gong to be that aggressive but don't expect people to pack McLeod to watch a team that isn't built for success.

Another example of why I generally like R&B's posts. Do I agree with all of it? No. Is it on the whole directionally correct? Yes. The best part is about bringing in more players who can create and get to the rim. A few spot up shooters are good, but not an entire roster minus one guy.

[BBALL_NATION]

Re: The Sky Has Fallen (2015-2016 Version)

DO you want Coach fired? The above was a big statement.

That's not what I said. Perfect example: UNLV

They just fired Dave Rice but they have a top 15 recruiting class going on 3 years now. The problem there is he wasn't a game coach. If you ever watched them you will notice that he didn't call the plays in the huddle during late game situations. His staff did it. Jake has the game coaching down as much as anyone but clearly he can't bring in enough talent.

So replace whoever on the staff with someone that can bring players that people want to see and actually make a difference on the court. This once every 4 or 5 years crap sucks.

[UNIChippewa]

Re: The Sky Has Fallen (2015-2016 Version)

This one is for all of the naysayers, pessimists, realists, and trolls to air their grievances about this season. It is clear that the regular season is a lost cause, and we will need to make quite the run in STL to get to where we need to be.

Questions to be answered:
What went wrong?
What needs to be improved?
Who is at fault?
Why is our fan base so fickle?
How many times will R&B refer to transfer players over the next 40 weeks?

I consider myself to be a realist out of all the labels you listed above.

Anyway...

What went wrong? Lack of development from our post players, primarily due to the limited minutes they all got last season. General inconsistency, especially on the offensive side. Our defense is a shell of itself from last season, and I don't think it's all due to the new rules either.

What needs improved? See above...I do have increased hope for Bennett Koch based on how he played in the first half last night before the wheels came off in the second half.

Who is at fault? I think the coaching staff can rightfully take some of the blame; our frontcourt players were all way too raw at the start of the season to have any hope of replacing the production of last season's starters. I'm not going to blame the coaching staff for AA mysteriously transferring out when he did without knowing the details, but his sudden departure certainly makes his a wasted recruitment and roster spot, and the coaching staff needs to be held to at least some small sense of accountability for that. With that being written, our players need to step it up in terms of consistency and performing better in certain areas of the game. Example; Wes has GOT to be a better free throw shooter, that's all there is to it.

Fickle fan base? I honestly thinks it comes down to ignorance and arrogance. Case in point; there's a certain poster (who shall go unnamed, although some of you will probably be able to figure out who I'm talking about) whom I don't remember posting one single time during last season's dream season who is on record as insisting that this season's team should be better than last year's 31-game winning NCAA tournament team. How do you deal with kind of mentality?