Would the Season Be Different if We had a Few More Seniors?

[UNIAlum95]

brooks a leader? yes. when he stops trying to be the go-to scorer. sure in his past he scored, A LOT. but since college when he has played the role of point guard, true point guard things have gone great. he'll still avg. a decent amount, but let coleman, stout and the others do what the can do.

as far as lineup change? are you crazy to take stout out? sure i'd love to see what our future my hold for next year but no... no way. koch, i think WILL be great but he needs to figure out if he is going to be 3 or a 4 because everyone can see his indecisiveness when he's in. i think an interesting line up would be kwadzo, josten, coleman, stout and jordan... but realistically that won't and shouldn't happen.

I am a big Stout fan but he hasn't been a force for some time now. I don't know if it is an injury that they aren't talking about or what, but he isn't all there.

[UNIinMN]

I think with Stout it just may be fatigue and pressure. If you look at him he looks exhausted. It didn't help with Jared's injury and at the ineffectiveness of Koch at times that Stout had to play significant minutes. The team I watched tonight was outstanding. As much as I would love to sit here and think that we could have just played "harder" and played "with fire" more tonight, all the fire in the world wasn't gonna stop that team in the second half. When the other team goes 5/6 from the 3 pt line in the first 8 minutes your gonna find yourself in a world of hurt. Nevada had better athletes and a big that caused us to sag a little. They were BETTER. And by saying that it doesn't take anything away from our guys.

What I saw tonight gives me a lot of hope on two fronts.

The future is BRIGHT. I love kwadzo at the point. He really has grown into the role and provides quickness there. Jared played possessed and played GREAT. Tonight he EARNED more playing time, something that is hard to pull away from Grant and Coleman. Josten is my pick to give the ball to when the shot clock is going down, he hits that shot on a dime mid range jumper better than anyone I have ever seen. Pressure time, give it to JJ. Coleman was AWESOME. I can't WAIT for his senior year! Koch is slowly turning into that player that we have all heard about from coaches in practice. The last 8 minutes of the first half showed us that we have a lot of talent and heart coming at us for the next couple of years.

The second front leads me to believe that even though we lost tonight I thought we played our best basketball in a while. I saw fire and desire that I think the MVC schedule had taken out of our team. I think that it will lead to a nice finish of the season. I feel that if the shots start falling that we have as good a chance as anybody to take the MVC Tourney.

[UNIAlum95]

I've seen Koch grow into a player over the last two weeks. He is starting to go after rebounds and isn't afraid to battle a bit down low. Jordan is showing that his mere presence on the defensive end alters the game for the other team. On offense, his shot is already almost unstoppable. Once he gets better at positioning he is going to dominate the league.

[panthersatheart]

well put UNIinMN

[N_8]

As for Stout looking fatigued, wouldn't you be if you played your last 11-12 games in like 17 days. There is not time for rest if you've got practices and travel days. They played good at the beginning of the year because their schedule was not as tough-day in and day out. I honestly think that Stout is one of the best players UNI has ever had and everybody bad mouthing him should look at his career stats and not just him by a stretch of games.

[Panthers to the Bone]

I don't think it is as much fatigue as it is maybe lingering effects from his foot injury. When was the last time Stout got an opening tip? He used to always win the opening tip, but since the injury, I can't remember one opening tip he has won, and it doesn't look like he has the explosiveness he had prior to the injury, which is too bad, b/c that's not the way you want your senior season to end. Just an observation.

Stout will go down as one of the best post players ever at UNI. He has been clutch at times (last year vs. SIU in the Dome), yet for the most part pretty steady and consistent. I hope he has a great final two MVC regular season games, and can help this team to a strong tourney run.

[MediaPanther]

This team needs something to shake it up. I propose the following lineup for Bradley on Tuesday (after all we can't do any worse)...

Kwadzo - PG
Josten - SG
Koch - SF
Coleman - PF
Eglseder - C

I saw more fire out of Jordan and Koch to end the first half that I think they deserve a start. I could be talked out of starting Kwadzo but right now this looks like the team of the future. Might just as well start now...

Great idea. Bench the two seniors who have taken this program to 3 straight tournaments. They only have 2 games left in their amazing careers at UNI, why not slap them in the face and make them sit and watch. Alright, enough sarcasm......that is a terrible idea.

[MediaPanther]

Bricks isn't a leader.

Great nickname moron.

[BMPanther]

Great idea. Bench the two seniors who have taken this program to 3 straight tournaments. They only have 2 games left in their amazing careers at UNI, why not slap them in the face and make them sit and watch. Alright, enough sarcasm......that is a terrible idea.

I see you point...however, that is a line-up I like. I also really like the idea of Stout, Coleman, and Jordan all starting. I promise they would dominate both sides of the floor.

[HebrewHammer]

This is becoming a rediculous thread. Jacobson will NOT bench brooks and stout. end of discussion. HOWEVER, i believe the younger guys will start getting a lot more minutes to rest the guys for the MVC tourney where potentially something can happen. Hopefully jake will take this as an opportunity for the future, and not as a failure of a season.

[Panthers#1]

Great nickname moron.

Thats what he does best. You know it and I know it.

[BCPanther]

So, Panthers #1,
So how many 4 year starters are there at point guard across the country, let alone ones that go to 3 (if not 4, still holding out some St. Louie hope)???

If Brooks is as bad as you think he is, how has this team been so successful with him on the floor so much the past 4 years??

[UNIAlum95]

Great idea. Bench the two seniors who have taken this program to 3 straight tournaments. They only have 2 games left in their amazing careers at UNI, why not slap them in the face and make them sit and watch. Alright, enough sarcasm......that is a terrible idea.

Thought it would spark some discussion. I'm not saying it should happen and I know it won't. I thought it would be interesting to see what lineup would shake us out of the funk we are in. Since you talk about benching a starter, remember that last year we sat Crawford in favor of Little when he wasn't able to perform like he did prior to his injury. I think as PTTB has indicated, Stout hasn't been the same since the foot injury.

[Panthers#1]

So, Panthers #1,
So how many 4 year starters are there at point guard across the country, let alone ones that go to 3 (if not 4, still holding out some St. Louie hope)???

If Brooks is as bad as you think he is, how has this team been so successful with him on the floor so much the past 4 years??

Lets just think shall we?

The reason he has been so successful the in the past 3 season is because of people like Schneiderman, Gruber, Jacobson, Crawford, Stout, Coleman and Little. He was able to pass the ball to these great players and they made baskets.

Lets see, it's his 4th season and he still turns the ball over at half court at least twice a game. You would think that he would get better but no. Since our posts get double teamed every game, we rely on shooting from our guards that isn't there. Bricks tries to take over but he can't make a bucket.

And don't tell me, "Well he had 25 pts against ISU!" or tell me about how many points he had against Team X. My response to that is: Even the sun shines on a dogs ass some days.

Don't get me started on defense. Any PG in the league can shake him and brake his ankles. Also it doesn't look to promising for UNI to get into the Dance this year. Yeah it could happen but it will take a lot better play from Bricks and the rest of the team.

I not blaming all of our losses on Bricks, I just don't see how so many of you can think he is a good PG. Yeah there are times where he has been great but he is very inconsistent. There are many others that I would want to run the point instead of him.

[BCPanther]

So, Do you agree that Chris Foster was in the same class as Brooks?? The complaints you have are the same ones that you could make about Foster. I can definitely accept your argument better if I know that its not personal about Brooks individually.

I remember an instance when Foster was dribbling up the floor and inexplicably just fell down. Brooks hasn't pulled that one off yet...