BU goes to 1-0 at Doug Collins Court

[jfellershamster]

I think the bottom line is that Illinois State is simply becoming a football school. Our AD has a football background as an administrator and Coach and with the remodeling projects in line for Hancock Stadium I think one can assume that basketball (at least men's, will become an afterthought in Normal). Attendance will never recover. The losing has demolished the once proud program.

It's not that ISU is becoming a football school, it's that ISU is finally paying attention to the football program. Investing in the football program will ultimately be a very good thing for the basketball program at ISU. ISU and Michigan do have similarities in their basketball programs right now, but it isn't the fact that they don't care about basketball, it's the fact that they've both made two bad hires in a row. Attendance can and most likely will recover to pre-Moser levels, when a new coach gets things going again. The attendance isn't so bad because of the losing, it's bad because people have very little faith in Porter's ability to get the job done, and if anyone has seen the "offense" this team runs, they'd be devoid of faith as well.

I think Illinois State basketball as we've all come to know it, is gone. Forever.

I think you are right, but I am happy about that. The administration that is in charge at ISU wants to do more than just get to the NCAA tournament, they want to make deep runs. But the administration understands that they need a real athletic dept in place to help build teams capable of those types of runs. The types of programs that routinely make deep runs in the tournament run their athletic depts quite differently than how ISU has run theirs over the last several decades. The best is yet to come for ISU, and I say bring it on.

It will take too long to rejuvenate a fan base that simply doesn't care anymore. It's over. It would take 3-4 straight 20 win seasons and some serious post-season runs to return to the passionate fans we knew in the 80's and 90's. With the way this league is right now and more importantly the status that SIU and BU have reached.

It won't take as long as you think. People are voicing their opinion of the coaching staff, with their absence. Once ISU gets a coach in there who can recruit AND coach X's and O's, they will come back.