WIU - Week 11

vatusay · Wed Jan 20, 2016 9:33 pm

Ive said it before, this team reminds me of the Derek Thomas teams.

They had waaay more talent, but more off the court issues.

This team has, what seems to be, plenty of talent but the same "let's see what we can individually create" mentality as DTs teams.

vatusay · Wed Jan 20, 2016 9:35 pm

One thing did stand out to me though, they attacked the basket. Only bad thing is 75% of the time is was a guard.

Still no inside game from a forward/center. They spend all their time setting useless screens at the top of the key.

Necks2003 · Wed Jan 20, 2016 9:52 pm

What has happened to the defense. The second half of each game seems to be worse than the last. Not sure if they are simply under conditioned, or they are just getting out played and out coached. We didnt have these issues the first part of the season. But they definitely have some issues now. I hope they figure something out. Having the season over already is a downright disaster.

wiu712 · Wed Jan 20, 2016 10:11 pm

South Dakota outscores Western by 14 points in the second half to win the game 76-67.

Western had a 10-point lead early in the second half before South Dakota went on a big run to take a 14-point lead with eight minutes left in the game.

J.C. Fuller led the Western scoring with 16 points. Garret Covington had 13. Tate Stensgaard had 10.

Dalan Ancrum got into the game towards the end.

Attendance at South Dakota was 1,674.

wiu2013 · Thu Jan 21, 2016 12:45 am

Let's face it...there are no "real" leaders on this team just a bunch of followers! One plays bad they all follow suit! They are lacking in that "kill or be killed" mentality. I do believe there is plenty of blame to go around, but when are the players going to be held accountable for their lack of productivity. You can not blame the coaches for shots missed close to the basket, unforced turnovers that have you shaking your head, or tonight how many times did "we" just fall down? Only the players can decide enough is enough and one of them is going to have to step up and start calling-out their teammates.

sealhall74 · Thu Jan 21, 2016 6:20 am

Watched a replay of game this morning. Combination of forced turnovers and good coaching on their part did us in. Craig Smith did some "feeling out" of us, mixing in some zone and man defense to see what was working best. Varied his full court pressure from soft to hard as needed. During that 29-5 USD run, no urgency for Billy to call a timeout. Maybe we were short a timeout or two? I know we burned one very early in game on a potential held-ball situation. Never like to use those that way except in last stages of game.

I love to see a team get on a big run and then call a timeout. It is like a dagger. Gives team some rest time to continue their run and gives the fans something to cheer about.

vatusay · Thu Jan 21, 2016 10:17 am

Well, on the bright side, during selection sunday and the month leading up to it, we will see "WESTERN ILLINOIS" at the top of Wisconsins' "bad losses" while they are on the bubble.

Talk about exposure money cant buy!!

cubsflag · Thu Jan 21, 2016 12:09 pm

there just isn't enough talent or toughness.does anyone still believe this year's team has wiu best player ever?i laughed then and am laughing even louder now.i'll have to watch replay to see how s.d. got their best shooter open so much.our big 3 all played over 35 minutes and went 10 for 26 with 10 turn-overs.and one of them was in charge of guarding the kid who put up 26 on wiu on 9 of 16 shooting.

Thu Jan 21, 2016 12:54 pm

cubsflag wrote:there just isn't enough talent or toughness.does anyone still believe this year's team has wiu best player ever?i laughed then and am laughing even louder now.i'll have to watch replay to see how s.d. got their best shooter open so much.our big 3 all played over 35 minutes and went 10 for 26 with 10 turn-overs.and one of them was in charge of guarding the kid who put up 26 on wiu on 9 of 16 shooting.

Best player ever?...do you mean Covington? He's good, but I don't even consider him our best player this decade (CC3 takes that honor for me).

I think we've got the talent to be good, but the team just isn't playing together like they should be able to by this point in the season. Watching their two home games last weekend, it still felt like early season...missed passes, giving up easy steals, not even trying for rebounds, letting opponents get open more often than should be happening. I don't know if that's just player personalities, coaching, a combination...but it's just not coming together this season.

WIU0812 · Thu Jan 21, 2016 1:13 pm

We have the talent to be good if literally everyone is having their A game on a night. What you need in DI is enough great talent and bench talent that not everyone has to be able to put up great stat lines and you still win. I do not think we have that and thus we come up short every time. We have a good DII team, but as for DI we are still bottom feeders who happened to win a big game and then take on a bunch of small schools and other DI bottom feeders which made us look good until we got to conference. I want the team to be good, but was afraid of this all along. I thought we showed our talent level starting with the Creighton game, but tried not to say much. These are all talented kids, but most are 6th man on over 50% of other teams which takes talent, but you are unable to sustain the same level of energy all game. Just a thought and could be wrong I am no basketball genius.