Brooks McKowen needs to see some pine

[Sex Panther...]

I agree this has been discussed mutiple times. It seems everytime the TEAM loses a game it comes up. If we had got that last stop would it have today?

I'm afraid I share your proclivity for a good debate

Your critique of Brooks' PG play is rehashed, I've heard it before. I doubt the mods will feel the need to delete it since it has been all said before. Your answer is to get another scorer into the lineup and for Brooks to play 10-14 minutes. Who is that scorer? Who runs the point in Brooks' absence? Who brings the ball up? Your stance is we have people on the bench who can do that with equal ability to Brooks plus provide additional scoring. I disagree. Does that scorer in turn give up more on the defensive end of the floor? In my opinion yes.

I feel I am looking at this objectively, but have admitted in the past my opinion may be skewed by an allegiance that isn't going to change. To this point my opinion has been backed up by the UNI coaching staff and the opposing opinions on this board haven't. I think when you put all the pieces to the puzzle together the correct rotation is playing the correct minutes on a game by game basis. Our struggles lie with the team as a whole and the entire burden of every loss doesn't need to fall on one player's shoulders everytime a loss occurs which seems to happen on this board.

Opinions differ and there is no conclusion to this discussion which is why I told myself I wasn't going to do it anymore. Winning a game would help

[jegbomb52]

Hadn't seen this posted anywhere else but JLit started in front of Erik today. I was a little surprised at that. What this team truely needs is to get its confidence back in their ability to shoot the rock from outside.

I posted earlier that Crawford did't start the game and J Lit did. Crawford comes in the game we are in the middle of a 14-0 run, as soon as Crawford comes in we are in a 30 to 6 skid! Hmmm... No one believes me though. Just for the record, 7-1 during his injury, now 1-4 since his return.

[BCPanther]

Crawford was not ready to come back when he did. Mac said it in the pregame show. They are not going to be able to use him as a perimeter player the rest of the year, he has to play the 4. Also, Mac said that Little's injury was worse than we thought. Mac has to stop trusting his guys to make the right decisions about their injuries, he has to step up and do it.

And for those who want Jared Josten, everybody likes a point guard who will come down the floor and jack up a shot as soon as possible. You all like to convieniently forget that when the wonderful and amazing superhuman Eric Crawford was out. Brooks was our 3rd leading scorer and made the difference in a bunch of games!!

[oldcat]

Oh crap.............Gonzo, you hit the nail on the head.........we are not shooting the ball well at all. SP..........I'm with you...........the coaches have probably discussed everything that has been stated here. Guess what? It hasn't changed. Someone mentioned about the cows coming home............well we can discuss this all night, but we don't make the coaching decisions. That's what they are paid to do. I can't believe we see everything so much clearer!!!! What this team needs right now is our total support. They are just kids. They have feelings and they are hurting right now. A little adversity and we are just like the Hawkeye board!

[merkpanthers]

I agree, give Josten a run at it and see what he can do. Nobody knows because he has never played more than 5-6 minutes at a time.

Did you guys see what he did in the 5-6 minutes he played today? He got SIU going because Tatum hits the three and then Josten tackles him for the four point play. Josten is not a D-I player. Just my point of view

[BCPanther]

I just do not understand this crusade against Brooks McKowen. I think this teams problems go much deeper than the PG position. In the Courier this morning there is a quote from Ben Jacobsen saying that this was the first game in a while where everybody was playing hard and on the same page. I just worry that all chemistry was destroyed when Crawford came back. Something smells when you go 1-4 with one of your seniors back in the lineup.

Everybody had adjusted to their new roles and was clicking and then you bring another body into the equation. Obviously Crawford was not going to miss the rest of the season, but I think it was a mistake to throw him in for 30 and 35 minutes a night. In the long run you hurt both him and the team. This team has four days to figure it out before they head to St. Louis. It is not a one-player problem this team is fighting through. This team is fighting to remain a team.

[#1 Panther]

that is new news to me....hearing that crawford won't be used a perimeter player. if he's healthy than he's the guy we would need handling the ball. if he were able to do it i would like to see him at the point joined by benny and little in the backcourt. crawford is the ideal creator for others and he's smart with the basketball, but with him at best i would say 75% then he has to play the role that best suits him. as for brooks the only thing he's lacking is cinfidence. albeit that is a big part of success. if he could somehow, someway, get that back then we wouldn't be having this discussion. But facts are facts. he doesn't have it so we are.

[Newsbreaker]

A couple of additions:

1)SexPanther, I think you are 'blinded' a bit by your feelings for a hometown guy. If the only argument for his play is "the coaches are playing him" and "we won games a month ago", that's not a good argument. Again, I've asked anyone to provide some basis, to post some positives to Brook's game that is not tied to simply pointing to the record, and so far I've not seen that information provided. I haven't read each new thread yet, so I hope someone has done this.

2)I'm going to say this one last time, just in a different manner to those of you who see things differently then I do. Something has to change, so to you folks, what is it? Just keep doing the same thing and sending the same guys out there? I'm sorry, but wrong. Just wrong. We have to make a change of some kind, but every change that is proposed, the people proposing it are knocked down for "not being the coaches" or "not supporting our guys completely" or "acting like Hawkeyes" (oldcat, I'm extremely disappointed that you'd equate an intelligent, emotionfree, basketball based discussion on our team and a young man to acting like a hawkeye board...you know better then that.)

So, comon...propose a fix!

3)I've answered what we do with Brooks on the bench. Who brings the ball up, any of the guards. Who runs the offense...hell, Jacobson is doing that already, just give him the job. Do we lose something in the defensive end? No more then we're losing in the offensive end now.

4)Why is Brooks always the guy targeted? Becasue, and I'll repeat this for the last time (I hope some of you are actually reading other people's opinions, rather then guessing as to what they're saying and giving a generic, head-in-the-sand reply), Brooks is the most obvious change to make with a team that BADLY needs to do something. IMHO, some of us are blinded by our record, pure and simple.

5)Finally, Crawford coming back obviously has caused some change in this squad. It's not his fault, he has done nothing wrong, and has worked HARD for this team...I think guys just lost confidence in, and confused about, their rolls when he came back, and we haven't really gotten it figured out just yet. Brooks is probably the one who's suffered the worst. I think he understood what to do, and how to do it, when Crawford was gone. Now he's lost, and not as confident.

What's the fix here? You can't put the genie back in the bottle, so I really don't know.

[Ozzie Guillen]

Brooks has to be a huge concern with everyone with a lack of any kind of production this season except for 2 or 3 games against MVC bottom feeders. He has not been alone in that backcourt all season though. The backcourt is a fairly small, not very quick, and inconsistent group for the most part with the exception of Jacobsen who is money for around 14pts a game. But even our "star" player has not had anywhere near the season everyone expected out of him especially being considered in the pre-season to be a possible candidate for the Wooden award. I know saying anything against Benny on this board is almost sacralig and I do not wanna discount the amazing things he has done for this program during is career which has been amazing at UNI. Although I'm positive I am not the only one who feels this way.

[Ozzie Guillen]

Not that anybody did anything spectacular today. But I totally agree with panther05. Nobody said Brooks is the total fault for the losses, but man when we play teams that really pressure the ball, he gives us nothing. YOu cannot start each offensive set from 90 feet away. When he is inbounded the ball he immediately turns his back to shield the defender. Then he proceeds to do this all the way down the court! This is his only move, and its not really even a "move". I'm sorry but the Bob Cousy technique isn't going to get it down anymore, you need to be able to get by guys with your ball handling. Be a threat. We may NOT have an answer for that, but Brooks can't do that, that is for sure.
Running each offensive set when the shot clock starts at 8 seconds and giving it to Benny isn't cutting it. We just can't possibly offensively rebound that well to count on all those put backs to stay in games. It leaves too much to the officials at that point to control the game.
It hurts to watch. Whats the answer?

Don't we have some guards that were red-shirting this year I'm sure they could at the very least do that every game.

[EastonWest]

I agree, lets talk about Ben Jacobson. Bench him for part of the game. First he plays too much which causes him to be tired and he is frustrated when he cant score...and that comes directly from his teammates. 33/34 minutes max.

I would like to see Travis Brown play 20+ minutes. Not saying I have the answers, but Ben plays too much.

[Newsbreaker]

The answer to "why always Brooks" has been answered no less then a half-dozen times.

[EastonWest]

The answer to "why always Brooks" has been answered no less then a half-dozen times.

Bad wording...my bad. Fixed it.

[oldcat]

Newsy, that's just the way I felt. The Hawkeye Board is just a bunch of vultures..............I've had my fill of that approach. Brooks is slow............golly, the whole team isn't blessed with alot of quicks! We are built around shooting and defense. Gonzo says we can't hit the ocean from here right now......and I agree. We are not shooting well............haven't most of the season. That takes me to part 2..........defense. Our defense has carried us most of the year. It's starting to let us down............because we are wearing down.....just plain tired. That's where we are at now. They don't need this nit picking. They need our support............we can still do great things!!

[Newsbreaker]

We're cool then.

Let's address your question, it's a fair one.

If this was a month, or better yet, two months ago, I think you probably had the right idea in a certain respect. There is an argument that can be made, stating that our current troubles are the result of a team running out of gas, with players who've logged too many minutes. Jacobson has played the most minutes, and there is something to be said for having played him less earlier in the year to save his legs for today.

Are his high minutes the cause of his shooting woe's? I personally don't think so. I don't see really bad shots, shots left short, shots falling off the side of the rim...I see a guy who's been keyed in on. My opinion.

At this point, sitting Ben only takes away potential contributions, and possibly lessens his current per-game points, while providing little benefit. While I think we can accomplish what another player does, and add to it, by changing lineups, I do not think that is true with Ben.

A fair question though, I'm glad you asked it.