2 MVC games Tuesday 2/3/15

[Da Coach]

There are 2 MVC games tonight, Tuesday, Feb. 3-

http://scores.espn.go.com/ncb/scoreboard?date=20150203&confId=18

Northern Iowa at Indiana State at 6:05 PM- UNI favored by 5.5 points
Evansville at Illinois State at 7:00 PM on ESPN3- ISU favored by 6.5 points

Get your picks in before the early game time!

[tornado]

Anyone watch the ESPN game last night - Virginia at North Carolina?
Virginia won 75-64 but the game was comfortably in Virginia's hands most of the way (they led by 18 with 3:30 left and kinda took their foot off the gas)

I doubt many of our board regulars could even NAME one player on Virginia's squad without looking it up (I might have gotten Marial Shayok just because of the connection to BU's Shayok Shayok) -

I am really impressed by Virginia's coach Tony Bennett....they are a very fun team to watch

-First - he does NOT have a team full of superstars - in fact probably all five of North Carolina's starters are higher rated Blue Chippers than Bennett has.

-But they play so well together - they are very well coached...
they pass well, they dribble only when necessary - they don't jack a lot of tough long-distance shots trying to impress NBA scouts.
They get an assist on almost every basket...they shoot a high percentage and they defend well.

-there's a good reason they are 20-1 and one of the best teams - they combine decent talent with UN-selfishness & great coaching.

http://www.rantsports.com/ncaa-basketball/2015/02/02/virginia-cavaliers-executing-tony-bennetts-concept-to-near-perfection/

-a couple familiar faces were on their bench last night

http://www.virginiasports.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/mckay_ritchie00.html

http://www.virginiasports.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/mark_vershaw_931461.html

http://www.virginiasports.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/marial_shayok_906584.html

A couple other teams that had televised games are also really fun to watch -

Green Bay (18-5) is a similar team - no real true superstar - just small, unathletic kids who know the game, play smart, great shot selection, good passing, defense, and hustle. Both head coach Brian Wardle & assistant Brian Barone (Tony's son) would make great head coaches in the MVC!!

http://www.horizonleague.org/blog/balanced-attack-leads-to-green-bay-win

Then there's this team, but WARNING** it is coached by an ex-BU Brave

http://www.ucdavisaggies.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/020215aag.html

http://www.ucdavisaggies.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/020215aah.html

http://www.ucdavisaggies.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/020215aal.html

[BUspartan]

Anyone watch the ESPN game last night - Virginia at North Carolina?
Virginia won 75-64 but the game was comfortably in Virginia's hands most of the way (they led by 18 with 3:30 left and kinda took their foot off the gas)

I doubt many of our board regulars could even NAME one player on Virginia's squad without looking it up (I might have gotten Marial Shayok just because of the connection to BU's Shayok Shayok) -

I am really impressed by Virginia's coach Tony Bennett....they are a very fun team to watch

-First - he does NOT have a team full of superstars - in fact probably all five of North Carolina's starters are higher rated Blue Chippers than Bennett has.

-But they play so well together - they are very well coached...
they pass well, they dribble only when necessary - they don't jack a lot of tough long-distance shots trying to impress NBA scouts.
They get an assist on almost every basket...they shoot a high percentage and they defend well.

-there's a good reason they are 20-1 and one of the best teams - they combine decent talent with UN-selfishness & great coaching.

-a couple familiar faces were on their bench last night

http://www.virginiasports.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/mckay_ritchie00.html

http://www.virginiasports.com/sports/m-baskbl/mtt/mark_vershaw_931461.html

http://www.virginiasports.com/sports...ok_906584.html

I know Roy Williams has won championships, but man, with the amount of All-Americans he receives at UNC, you'd think he'd even have more success than he does.

Tony Bennett is awesome, i'd be surprised if his name wasn't rumored to be involved with bigger vacancies in the near future.

[tornado]

the Kansas message board - believe it or not, since they have a perennial Coach of the Year candidate already - has people who want Tony Bennett --

http://kansas.scout.com/forums/2481-hoops-talk/13621008-tony-bennett?s=172

[tornado]

Final, UNI 61 - Indiana State 51
halftime Illinois State 43 - Evansville 24

[ollienanyes]

52-26 Illinois State 15:47 left in the game. ISU is dominating in all phases of the game.

However, their arena looks even emptier than the Carver Center; mostly empty seats up top, and lots of empty seats in the lower bowl as well.

[tornado]

Evansville & Indiana State are in the upper half of the MVC only by default of the 5 bad teams at the bottom...
They are CIT teams at best... ISU has cleaned house and rebuilt in a fraction of the time BU has been going at it - and many of their guys still have a lot of eligibility left.

[ollienanyes]

ISU 76, Evansville 51, and it wasn't that close. Still: I was surprised a bit by the very small crowd.

[Da Coach]

Evansville & Indiana State are in the upper half of the MVC only by default of the 5 bad teams at the bottom...
They are CIT teams at best... ISU has cleaned house and rebuilt in a fraction of the time BU has been going at it - and many of their guys still have a lot of eligibility left.

Yes, Dan Muller completely cleaned house 2 years ago, after his only losing season in the MVC, and totally restocked his roster with all new recruits over the last 2 years. No scholarship player on the roster at ISU has played on the the current team for more than 1 1/2 seasons, yet they are already better than any team other than UNI and WSU. It is complete proof that the excuses that a bunch of clueless apologists, including the PJS experts, have been telling us for the last several years that it takes many years to rebuild, are completely false and phony.-
It's not only possible to rebuild and develop a successful team in less than 4 years, Muller has done it well in just the last 2 years.
ISU roster-
Reggie Lynch is just a soph
Paris Lee is just a soph
Daishon Knight is a 2nd year player, a senior juco transfer
Bobby Hunter is a 2nd year player, a senior juco transfer
Mikyle McIntosh is a redshirt freshman playing his first season
Deontae Hawkins is a redshirt freshman playing his first season at ISU
Tony Wills is a soph in his second season of eligibility
Justin McCloud is a juco playing his first season at ISU
Mark Hall is a juco playing in his first season with 2 additional years left after this year
Will Ransom is a juco playing his first season
DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell is a juco playing his first season
John Jones is in his second season of eligibility after being ineligible

Plus they have New Mexico transfer Nick Banyard sitting out this season with 2 years left after this year, and a group of good incoming recruits for next year, while Bradley is the only school in the MVC with available scholarships that does not have a single recruit.

Their game tonight is final- ISU 77 Evansville 51

http://espn.go.com/ncb/boxscore?gameId=400586441

ISU improves to 15-8, 7-4; attendance only 4,352. They move into a tie for 3rd place in the MVC.

[BU212121]

Yes, Dan Muller completely cleaned house 2 years ago, after his only losing season in the MVC, and totally restocked his roster with all new recruits over the last 2 years. No scholarship player on the roster at ISU has played on the the current team for more than 1 1/2 seasons, yet they are already better than any team other than UNI and WSU. It is complete proof that the excuses that a bunch of clueless apologists, including the PJS experts, have been telling us for the last several years that it takes many years to rebuild, are completely false and phony.-
It's not only possible to rebuild and develop a successful team in less than 4 years, Muller has done it well in just the last 2 years.
ISU roster-
Reggie Lynch is just a soph
Paris Lee is just a soph
Daishon Knight is a 2nd year player, a senior juco transfer
Bobby Hunter is a 2nd year player, a senior juco transfer
Mikyle McIntosh is a redshirt freshman playing his first season
Deontae Hawkins is a redshirt freshman playing his first season at ISU
Tony Wills is a soph in his second season of eligibility
Justin McCloud is a juco playing his first season at ISU
Mark Hall is a juco playing in his first season with 2 additional years left after this year
Will Ransom is a juco playing his first season
DeVaughn Akoon-Purcell is a juco playing his first season
John Jones is in his second season of eligibility after being ineligible

Plus they have New Mexico transfer Nick Banyard sitting out this season with 2 years left after this year, and a group of good incoming recruits for next year, while Bradley is the only school in the MVC with available scholarships that does not have a single recruit.

Mueller has done a great job of rebuilding isu. Here he is in year 3 and has a solid chance of having an NIT team and will have a punchers chance to win mvc and get to ncaa.

He has everyone back and should be a lock for nit next year and have a shot at ncaa.

I would extend him long term now if I was ISU.

This year he has a great record with about 4 one or two point losses... Give him 3 of those and he's on the ncaa bubble... Guy has done a great job and has been unfairly criticized

[bigjimmy]

ISU Red has an easy night against Evansville. Evansville led 2-0 then the Redbirds scored the next 12 and never looked back. In the 2nd half ISU extended their lead to 36. Reggie Lynch of ISU won the battle of the big men as he had 16 points and 5 blocks. 3 other Redbirds scored in double figures with point guard Paris Lee contributing 11 points and 7 assists. DJ Balentine was the only one for Evansville in double figures with 12. ISU shot 49% from the field while Evansville shot 33% from the field and were 0 for 10 from 3.

UNI gave up the first 2 points to ISU Blue and never trailed the rest of the game. They led by 11 at the half, built it up to as much as 18 points, and the lead was never cut into single digits. Seth Tuttle led the Panthers with 15 points and 8 rebounds. Devonte Brown led ISU Blue with 14 points.

[mvcfan]

Birds played really well last night and Evansville did not. ISU is starting to have some guys get fully healthy and shoot the ball better. DJ Balentine had to work for everything he got. In my opinion he looked wore down a bit and maybe the grind of being their Mr. Everything is catching up. I know Blake Simmons has had some decent games for them but why he plays they amount of minutes he does is sad. Marty has to be feeling the heat a bit.

[tornado]

Only eight freshmen players in the nation played more than Blake Simmons last year and he's playing almost as many minutes this year despite some new guys like Brzoja to take the load off...
But, I think Marty is safe for another year or so barring they lose to us this Saturday.
- if for no other reason than BOTH Mockevicius & Balentine also might not be back next year otherwise...
...but he's definite either on or not far from the hot seat and will likely stay there unless Egidijus & Ballentine lead them to the NCAA.

[tornado]

Anyone watch the ESPN game last night - Virginia at North Carolina?...

Virginia is currently playing #9 Louisville and just held them to 13 1st half points on 4-21...
I continue to be amazed at how good of a team Tony Bennett has built at Virginia without landing Calipari-style blue-chipper recruits

[tornado]

Plus they have New Mexico transfer Nick Banyard sitting out this season ...

story on ISU's Nick Banyard, transfer from New Mexico - who had a scare with a heart problem earlier this season but after shutting him down a while then testing, he's now cleared for activity. I don't know all the details - maybe some ISU fan knows more - but it sounds similar to the Taylor Brown situation.

http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/college/basketball/men/relieved-banyard-eager-for-future-with-isu-after-heart-scare/article_f2f77f50-7f95-5430-bae6-d3ed6a07ad0a.html

In two seasons at New Mexico before he transferred to ISU he averaged 1.2 ppg, 1.5 rpg, 29.9% FG shooting (23-77) and 15.4% from the 3-pt line.