Up Next: Southern Illinois

[Pantherlope2019]

Re: Up Next: Southern Illinois

Some players buy into their roles and have patience with their development. When you see guys having success after developing their game for a couple years, and you see that your Coach values veteran players, you aren't quite as quick to transfer.

In any case, I disagree with Dahl falling below Freidman on the food chain. The Freidman kid has a bright future ahead of him outside of basketball. He has just really struggled his entire time here on the BB court. So basketball isn't Ted's bag. The world kept spinning just fine...

[DownGoesKansas]

Re: Up Next: Southern Illinois

Ashton has definitely turned a corner and is becoming a very solid contributor. I was also happy with the fact that someone took the lid off the basket for Carlson. His shots didn't look bad they were just front rim back rim and out for a loooong stretch. I like the way he was driving the lane tonight as well.

McDonnell really looks like he belongs on the court, seems to have very good basketball sense. I still believe in Haldeman, I think his shot will eventually start to fall.
I for one was not predicting Haldeman and McDonnell to have the biggest impact out of that group.

Long ways to go, but they are competing / playing D. Much more fun to watch.

Not sure why you wouldn't believe in Haldeman. Other than being in a shooting slump lately (still 35% from 3 on the year and one of our leading scorers as a freshman). He's also made huge late 3's late in the game in each of the last two. It would be ideal if he could play off the ball more to try to get him shots but the play of McCluod hasn't allowed that yet.

Agreed on Luke. Hopefully he hits the weight room hard this year to take the next step. Adding a shooter like McDermott next year will also help

[unipanther2154]

Re: Up Next: Southern Illinois

Man, McCloud really gets bashed. I don't get it. I agree with hoopfan that he needs to play. He's good defensively and does a good job taking care of the ball. Obviously, we haven't seen too much of him lately, but he seems like a confidence guy. Earlier this year, he played a few games where he really looked better offensively. It just seemed like he was more aggressive, like Jake told him to take over. He needs the confidence, and the opportunity. He'll be fine.

So it's bashing to bring up things that are obvious? I don't think anyone really thinks he won't be any good, actually most ppl think he'll be a good player in time. He is really struggling and Spencer is simply playing better. If you don't think he is struggling and should be praised and given a participation trophy then great.... His shooting is pretty awful, his defense is very good for a freshmen. But when you're offense is that bad you become a major liability. I'm on the side that I think he'll be a fine player for this program but turnovers and mostly offense need to be improved.

[Panthers to the Bone]

Re: Up Next: Southern Illinois

FWIW, McCloud is averaging less than 1 TO per game and is averaging 16+ minutes per game over the past 8 games. I don't think his TO's are the reason he's not playing as many minutes right now. Yes, last night it looked like he got pulled after both TO's, I don't think that's the reason why he's not been playing more. I feel he's been taking care of the ball fairly well (especially for a freshman) as the season has grown longer. .

[DownGoesKansas]

Re: Up Next: Southern Illinois

FWIW, McCloud is averaging less than 1 TO per game and is averaging 16+ minutes per game over the past 8 games. I don't think his TO's are the reason he's not playing as many minutes right now. Yes, last night it looked like he got pulled after both TO's, I don't think that's the reason why he's not been playing more. I feel he's been taking care of the ball fairly well (especially for a freshman) as the season has grown longer. .

Agreed. I think it is the shooting. I forgot the game (One of the first conference games) but the defense was playing 10 feet off of him when he had the ball. It just kills the offense when that happens. He'll get better but Jake is trying to win now also.

[PantherAlum 2008]

Re: Up Next: Southern Illinois

Agreed. I think it is the shooting. I forgot the game (One of the first conference games) but the defense was playing 10 feet off of him when he had the ball. It just kills the offense when that happens. He'll get better but Jake is trying to win now also.

This sums it up well. Spencer will sub in for Juwan when we need offense every time until Juwan improves his shooting, especially when we are down in the 2nd half and away from home. I don't think this team has good enough off the ball movement for Juwan to be purely an assist PG. Juwan has showed improvement getting to the rim and I have no doubt he will continue to improve. His defense is already pretty solid for a freshman so he should be able to focus most of his time on his offense.

[Khan4Cats]

Re: Up Next: Southern Illinois

That rotation should work well in another 2 or 3 weeks when Carlson, Morgan, Ashton and Haldeman have been playing 35+ minutes per night for over a month. I'm sure ther legs will be fresh to keep knocking down jumpers. Anyway, I agree with you that the best way for someone to find their stroke and build some confidence is with their ass on the bench.

That's the biggest factor for arguing for more playing time out of everyone. We are going to need more even playing time for the tournament, because, even with how tough our guys our, no one can play 120 minutes over three days, and we're on pace to have three guys doing that (one of them on a recently bad ankle, at that). I like that we're seeing more Luke, because we're going to need more guys in general. McCloud should for sure get more time, if for no other reason than to be a facilitator. Morgan doesn't need to play point, and he shouldn't be. I'd say McCloud has the ability to be an assist first Point Guard for now, scootch Morgan back over to being our SF, and let the team tear it up.

Sure McCloud's thrown it away a few times, more than I would like, but he's also got the ability to pass it right where it needs to go. As Hoopfan said, he assisted on the only transition bucket of the day, and I'm also thinking of that perfect lob he threw to Bennett against Drake. He's got passing ability, and no one argues about his defense. I say we use him, if for no other reason than to keep Spencer fresh.

You mean like we last year when we played with a 7 man rotation for 3 straight days in St. Louis (and pretty much all conference season)? Friedman played all of 9 minutes in St. Louis. Lohaus and Koch played 11 and 10 minutes respectively in the championship game (3rd game in as many days). Knar, player 9 of 9 on the bench, didn't play at all. We will be fine. Jake has obviously been finding the right combinations recently, I will continue to trust him.

['70 Grad]

Re: Up Next: Southern Illinois

Wondering if Barry Hinson had any of his "classic" comments in the post-game presser after a semi-serious meltdown in the game?

[BCPanther]

Re: Up Next: Southern Illinois

That was a vintage grinding UNI win last night. This team is really starting to figure it out defensively. The key down the stretch was forcing SIU into bad, late clock shots.

Two games where we should be fairly heavily favored to get back to 5-5 with hopefully a 5 game winning streak heading into Normal.

It took a while, but Jake appears to have things somewhat figured out.

[claw]

The only thing figured out is SIU crapping that down their leg.

13-0 run given up in the first half. Allowing one player to dominate the second half and getting lucky SIU wanted to dribble to a shot clock violation the final 8 minutes of the game after taking a 14 point lead isn't figuring anything out

[Gboom23]

Re: Up Next: Southern Illinois

We did win last night, didn't we? Some of these posts make it seem like we're on a 3 game losing streak instead of a 3 game winning streak!

Watching that comeback was so much fun after it looked like we were toast down double digits. I look forward to enjoying the ride for the rest of the year and seeing where this team takes us.

[catsize]

Re: Up Next: Southern Illinois

We did win last night, didn't we? Some of these posts make it seem like we're on a 3 game losing streak instead of a 3 game winning streak!

Watching that comeback was so much fun after it looked like we were toast down double digits. I look forward to enjoying the ride for the rest of the year and seeing where this team takes us.

I know right? I saw Mudrafan was on right after the game last night but he could only post in the football forum, couldn't be caught posting in a thread where we won. Though I am sure he came on when we were losing looking forward to posting.

[UNIdad]

Re: Up Next: Southern Illinois

Wondering if Barry Hinson had any of his "classic" comments in the post-game presser after a semi-serious meltdown in the game?

Hinson has had some classic. I don't think anybody gives a better interview than him. His speech at the MVC awards last year was classic.