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Post by williamtsherman on Jan 28, 2024 12:55:49 GMT -6
Lewis in presser stressed mental focus. Old quote mental to physical 4:1. When you don't have the physical you better have a lot of mental... Northern is hard to shut down, we did about as well as we could 1st half. Not so good, 2nd. Some mental there for sure, but the mental was really evident on our offense, we certainly didn't need to turn the ball over as much. Good answer he gave about our getting in trouble when we dribble too much. Said he has been at work in practice, limiting everybody to one dribble to force moving the ball by pass. Players move. Screen, and cut. Ball moves by passing... Hey, it's just fine to go to the basket on the dribble when you get the opening but we're not going to beat most teams by playing 1 on 1 off the dribble. Need to get that opening by good cuts, screens and the guy with the ball seeing it and getting it to you. This is all well and good, and of course it's his responsibility to deal with these things this season. It all could make the difference between finishing, say, 7th best case or 10th worst case. Meanwhile, I hope he's putting a lot of thought into how to improve his performance in the transfer portal, which will dictate his success or failure here at Ball State. |
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Post by lmills72 on Jan 28, 2024 15:07:16 GMT -6
KenPom Rankings of BSU and Opponents 1/28/2024 Akron (15-5) 96 LOSS Toledo (13-7) 134 LOSS Ohio (10-10) 167 Kent State (10-10) 178 LOSS Bowling Green (14-6) 218 Miami (10-10) 242 LOSS Ball State (11-9) 253 Central Michigan (11-9) 268 LOSS Western Michigan (8-12) 285 Northern Illinois (6-13) 287 WIN Eastern Michigan (9-11) 326 WIN Buffalo (2-17) 342 WIN Indiana State (18-3) 39 LOSS Minnesota (13-7) 84 LOSS Evansville (12-9) 226 LOSS Texas State (7-13) 235 Southern Illinois Edwardsville (12-9) 255 WIN Little Rock (11-10) 273 LOSS Old Dominion (5-16) 277 WIN USC Upstate (6-14) 296 WIN Bellarmine (5-17) 309 WIN Arkansas Pine Bluff (8-11) 343 WIN Detroit Mercy (0-22) 358 WIN So we're 11-9 overall, 3-5 in the MAC. With 10 conference games left, based on those rankings, we'd go 5-5. I'd suspect that's about right, although I might expect to us to drop a road game against a lesser opponent and win a home game against a higher ranked team. There's also a likely loss at Texas State, so finish the season 5-6 for 16-15 overall and an 8-10 MAC record. Would love to see it a bit better than that but hard to imagine. |
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Post by prestonp on Jan 28, 2024 17:20:34 GMT -6
KenPom Rankings of BSU and Opponents 1/28/2024 Akron (15-5) 96 LOSS Toledo (13-7) 134 LOSS Ohio (10-10) 167 Kent State (10-10) 178 LOSS Bowling Green (14-6) 218 Miami (10-10) 242 LOSS Ball State (11-9) 253 Central Michigan (11-9) 268 LOSS Western Michigan (8-12) 285 Northern Illinois (6-13) 287 WIN Eastern Michigan (9-11) 326 WIN Buffalo (2-17) 342 WIN Indiana State (18-3) 39 LOSS Minnesota (13-7) 84 LOSS Evansville (12-9) 226 LOSS Texas State (7-13) 235 Southern Illinois Edwardsville (12-9) 255 WIN Little Rock (11-10) 273 LOSS Old Dominion (5-16) 277 WIN USC Upstate (6-14) 296 WIN Bellarmine (5-17) 309 WIN Arkansas Pine Bluff (8-11) 343 WIN Detroit Mercy (0-22) 358 WIN So we're 11-9 overall, 3-5 in the MAC. With 10 conference games left, based on those rankings, we'd go 5-5. I'd suspect that's about right, although I might expect to us to drop a road game against a lesser opponent and win a home game against a higher ranked team. There's also a likely loss at Texas State, so finish the season 5-6 for 16-15 overall and an 8-10 MAC record. Would love to see it a bit better than that but hard to imagine. Watched the ISU v. Bradley game that went to overtime at a sold-out ISU. The Trees are very good but appear to have an almost non-existent bench. Fun team to watch. |
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Post by williamtsherman on Jan 28, 2024 18:35:15 GMT -6
You must be mistaken, prestorp, about the sold out part. Struggling towns like Terre Haute and Muncie will no longer support college basketball in today's environment because blah, blah, blah, blah.
This is one of the main reasons we must accept failure, you know.
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Post by rmcalhoun on Jan 28, 2024 18:46:23 GMT -6
You must be mistaken, prestorp, about the sold out part. Struggling towns like Terre Haute and Muncie will no longer support college basketball in today's environment because blah, blah, blah, blah. This is one of the main reasons we must accept failure, you know. Attendance for that game was 8k |
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Post by 00hmh on Jan 28, 2024 19:41:59 GMT -6
Last year average attendance about 4K.
This year just shy of 5K.
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Post by CallingBS on Jan 28, 2024 19:47:22 GMT -6
You must be mistaken, prestorp, about the sold out part. Struggling towns like Terre Haute and Muncie will no longer support college basketball in today's environment because blah, blah, blah, blah. This is one of the main reasons we must accept failure, you know. Attendance for that game was 8k 8,223 to be exact, but the TV announcers said 9k late in the game - I'm assuming that's where Proc got 9k/ sellout. That place was rockin'. My observation about their team - very perimeter-oriented, but they have a few alphas who get buckets when they must have them. Bradley threw everything they had at them - great college BB game - made me jealous as hell |
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Post by rmcalhoun on Jan 28, 2024 20:37:13 GMT -6
We have not sniffed 8 since IU 6 something last year
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Post by 00hmh on Jan 28, 2024 21:09:15 GMT -6
We have not sniffed 8 since IU 6 something last year No idea about makeup of their crowd, season tickets, students, alumni or town support for typical game. Or ticket price, revenue. That 5K figure is at outside of what we might expect in a good year. Bradley game had to be a good draw, big game, must have gone all out to promote it to get 8K. ISU with the win has a good chance to be regular season champ, have beaten Drake on the road, the other top 3 team. Maybe a chance for at large if they lose in conference tourney? |
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Post by universityjim on Jan 28, 2024 21:44:16 GMT -6
I'd like to have an 18-3 season and #39 Kenpom ranking to see for real what we might expect in a good year.
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Post by 00hmh on Jan 29, 2024 6:52:56 GMT -6
I'd like to have an 18-3 season and #39 Kenpom ranking to see for real what we might expect in a good year. Probably need two years. Had we closed strong last year, had Sellers and Sparks return, and were 1st in the MAC this year? We'd have sold more season tickets. Need that, and 3 times the student turnout. I don't know we can get much walk up without better opponents than MAC has this year? Need a real headliner or big in state rival to hit 8K. |
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Post by williamtsherman on Jan 29, 2024 8:51:38 GMT -6
Going to the tourney is what gets the attention of the casual, currently disengaged fans.
Even though the administration de-emphasized winning and shit all over anyone who cared about the program starting in 2000, one tourney appearance followed by good basketball the following season is the obvious way to rebuild the fanbase. How far that would go is open to discussion, but until that is done, everyone's theories about the potential fanbase are just speculation.
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Post by 00hmh on Jan 29, 2024 9:16:09 GMT -6
Going to the tourney is what gets the attention of the casual, currently disengaged fans. Even though the administration de-emphasized winning and shit all over anyone who cared about the program starting in 2000, one tourney appearance followed by good basketball the following season is the obvious way to rebuild the fanbase. How far that would go is open to discussion, but until that is done, everyone's theories about the potential fanbase are just speculation. Potential fan base longer term than a one or two season run depends on demographics which are not speculation at all. Income and population locally, number of alumni within 40 or 50 miles, quality of schedule we can build for home games, budget for promotion. Quality basketball on TV, including ESPN+ coverage of BSU games isn't going away as a factor which limits weeknight attendance especially. Whether you can ever "rebuild" a fan base longer term would require our students and recent alumni to be a lot more interested in CBB and in BSU. The administration, believe it or not, had an ambitious plan to expand when they hired TC. Had all the market research, it was part of every AD candidate's pitch for that vacancy. Of course the President thought execution of that plan should include a dynamic young coach with a big name brand was a part of that ...CRASH! Looked real good on the cover of the press guide that year, I have a whole box of those somewhere in the attic. By the time the season was started, you couldn't give them away. |
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Post by williamtsherman on Jan 29, 2024 12:25:36 GMT -6
Strangely, all the fabulous excuses you and your like have offered over the years has not galvanized and grown the fanbase. People are just unrealistic I guess.
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Post by 00hmh on Jan 29, 2024 13:12:32 GMT -6
Strangely, all the fabulous excuses you and your like have offered over the years has not galvanized and grown the fanbase. People are just unrealistic I guess. You are the only one that seems to think there is enormous future in growing the fan base more than a modest amount. Luke Brown leading a ranked BSU team for 4 years, the second coming of Larry Bird? That isn't the way CBB works any more.
I think it is possible we can get average attendance up to 4500+ tops, a little more than 2019, compared to 7500 for our peak average, those glory years 86-01 averaged about 6000. With more population and local income and less TV competition, big schools willing to visit Muncie. Get real.
Without a game like Butler where a school is bringing their fans here, or a miracle signing of another name school willing to come to Muncie, I can't see it very likely that any MAC game reaches 8000, even with a regular season conference championship game late in the season. Especially with the tourney being where the real championship is decided.
Well, maybe, if both BSU and another MAC team were both ranked and ESPN was featuring the game, and the moon was full.
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