|
Post by bsu1 on Mar 9, 2019 12:27:40 GMT -6
I enrolled at Ball State in 1965 and have been a rabid fan since then; I've been a season ticket holder most of those years until moving away from Muncie. I've seen some great BSU teams, some others have been good and others plain bad, but never one that has been such a disappointment as this one. I thought that this was going to be the year to bring us back to being a top 75 team and best in the MAC with the exception of Buffalo. We started out the season great, losing to Purdue and Virginia Tech by just 9 points and beating Loyola and dismantling Toledo in our first MAC action. What happened after that game? 1. Scouting showed that we can't hit outside the lane so clog the middle and force us to shoot from outside. 2. We are a lousy outside shooting team. 3. We have no point guard, nor have we had in any of Whitford's six years. 4. There is game plan to utilize Teague or Moses. 5. Walton is effective only as a slasher. 6. Our players are not taught to block out and rebounding suffered. 7. Taking care of the ball. You can't expect to win if you turn the ball over 17-20 times a game. 8. Fundamentals, 9. Lack of player development. We saw that last year with both Kiapway and Tyler this year with both Persons and Moses. Mallers and Gunn both regressed this year. I could add Huggins to that also. He should have had some minutes in almost all games to develop his skills in game action. 10. Whitford cannot make adjustments to his game plan. We were ahead of NIU 18-4; Northern called time out and made adjustments, and outscored us 60-39 the rest of the game. We stayed with the same game plan and cannot adjust in game.
I remember Tayler Persons said after one of the games that Whit had told them he had loosened up control of the team and Persons said they were playing more of rec ball. It showed.
I am, unfortunately, used to Whitford's teams' February meltdowns, but this year the meltdown was January, February and March. The greatest meltdown in Ball State history. No other team rivals this. Our roster has good athletes but need a coach to develop their talent. James Whitford is not that coach.
|
|
|
Post by thebsukid on Mar 9, 2019 12:48:43 GMT -6
Ours posts were within 20 minutes of each other....I could not agree more!
This team was far from perfect from a talent standpoint but had certainly enough talent to be a seeded team in Cleveland.
|
|
|
Post by rmcalhoun on Mar 9, 2019 12:52:29 GMT -6
No one can argue either of your posts.. We had talent but damn we shit the bed.. The question now becomes how do we fix it
|
|
|
Post by reevo on Mar 9, 2019 14:18:00 GMT -6
Not enough talent inside, nor do we have a true distributor of the ball nor do we have a pure shooter on the perimeter to open things up for Walton. Very poor roster management and pretty much shitty recruiting put us in this mess. Again, his style of play requires athletes that can shoot and run and an interior player that can score consistently to open up the perimeter and driving lanes. We simply don’t have it nor do we have enough toughness to play in close, grind it out games which is a prerequisite in the MAC. This roster and they way he wants to play is a colossal incompetent mess.
|
|
|
Post by redbirdman on Mar 9, 2019 14:29:36 GMT -6
We all know where to start. But unless Whit decides to move on to avoid headaches & depression it won't change next year. I think it's interesting to read the Terre Haute paper sports writer saying ISU needs a change in leadership but unless $500,000 comes in it won't happen for probably 2 yrs. (their record 15-16 & lost by 22 to Valpo in tourney)Fellow MAC schools NIU,EMU,WMU & Ohio are also wanting their coaches not to come back. But those coaches w exception of WMU's were 5-1 against us. What can we do to avoid the same thing 5 years from now? Can we at least push the AD to select a new coach in a different manner & not give extensions immediately?
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2019 14:42:23 GMT -6
It's the football program's fault.
|
|
|
Post by rmcalhoun on Mar 9, 2019 15:13:28 GMT -6
It's the football program's fault. It always is lol
|
|
|
Post by bsu1 on Mar 9, 2019 19:04:30 GMT -6
Not enough talent inside, nor do we have a true distributor of the ball nor do we have a pure shooter on the perimeter to open things up for Walton. Very poor roster management and pretty much shitty recruiting put us in this mess. Again, his style of play requires athletes that can shoot and run and an interior player that can score consistently to open up the perimeter and driving lanes. We simply don’t have it nor do we have enough toughness to play in close, grind it out games which is a prerequisite in the MAC. This roster and they way he wants to play is a colossal incompetent mess. I'm not sure about lack of talent inside with Moses, Teague and Huggins. I think they were underutilized and without proper coach and game plan.
|
|
|
Post by CallingBS on Mar 9, 2019 19:14:04 GMT -6
Not enough talent inside, nor do we have a true distributor of the ball nor do we have a pure shooter on the perimeter to open things up for Walton. Very poor roster management and pretty much shitty recruiting put us in this mess. Again, his style of play requires athletes that can shoot and run and an interior player that can score consistently to open up the perimeter and driving lanes. We simply don’t have it nor do we have enough toughness to play in close, grind it out games which is a prerequisite in the MAC. This roster and they way he wants to play is a colossal incompetent mess. I'm not sure about lack of talent inside with Moses, Teague and Huggins. I think they were underutilized and without proper coach and game plan. There's no question we've lacked toughness and physicality in the post during Whit's entire tenure, though.
|
|
|
Post by reevo on Mar 9, 2019 19:20:37 GMT -6
Not enough talent inside, nor do we have a true distributor of the ball nor do we have a pure shooter on the perimeter to open things up for Walton. Very poor roster management and pretty much shitty recruiting put us in this mess. Again, his style of play requires athletes that can shoot and run and an interior player that can score consistently to open up the perimeter and driving lanes. We simply don’t have it nor do we have enough toughness to play in close, grind it out games which is a prerequisite in the MAC. This roster and they way he wants to play is a colossal incompetent mess. I'm not sure about lack of talent inside with Moses, Teague and Huggins. I think they were underutilized and without proper coach and game plan. None of these guys are true post players and none are consistent low post scorers and offensive rebounders. I love Trey but he should be a 20 minute back up at the 4 and 5 on a good Ball State team. Not what we needed to win the MAC.
|
|