Leatherneck Nation

The men's basketball team is 10-10 overall with a 1-6 conference record after losing last week at Denver (70-58) and at North Dakota State (80-69).

Up this week...

South Dakota Coyotes

Thursday, February 1, 2018 at 7 PM
Location: Western Hall, Macomb, IL
South Dakota is 18-6 overall with a 6-2 conference record. They've won Summit league games at home against Denver, Oral Roberts, South Dakota State, and our Leathernecks. Wins on the road against Fort Wayne and Omaha. Losses are at home against North Dakota State and last Saturday at Denver.

Oral Roberts Golden Eagles

Saturday, February 3, 2018 at 2 PM
Location: Western Hall, Macomb, IL
Oral Roberts is 9-15 overall with a 3-4 conference record. They have won Summit League games against Omaha, Fort Wayne, and WIU. Conference losses are at South Dakota State, at North Dakota State, at South Dakota, and at Denver. They play a game at Fort Wayne on Thursday prior to their game against us on Saturday.

WGEM has really been promoting the game with South Dakota--running lots of commercials for the Thursday night game. Let's hope that it results in a large crowd.

Leatherneck fans will remember our home game with USD 5 years ago on March 2, 2013. That was the last regular season game. Western defeated the South Dakota Coyotes, 61-59, earning a share of The Summit League's regular season title for the first time in 30 years. The men's team had its highest attendance since the 1986-87 season as 5,089 packed Western Hall on that night.

wiu712 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 31, 2018 11:52 am WGEM has really been promoting the game with South Dakota--running lots of commercials for the Thursday night game. Let's hope that it results in a large crowd.

Leatherneck fans will remember our home game with USD 5 years ago on March 2, 2013. That was the last regular season game. Western defeated the South Dakota Coyotes, 61-59, earning a share of The Summit League's regular season title for the first time in 30 years. The men's team had its highest attendance since the 1986-87 season as 5,089 packed Western Hall on that night.

Yeah Wgem is the game sponsor.

Nice Matt Pocket interview of Brandon Gilbeck today for your listening pleasure (starts at 1:21:00):

Yotes run away with it 80-54. I will sum it up like this: we were simply out-*ed.

This team hopefully needs to realize jobs and scholarships are on the line. Finishing in the cellar of the conference once again does nothing to show the team is improving or heading in the right direction. Hopefully they find a way to find a sense of urgency and desire to win in the very near future.

South Dakota wins the game 80-54.

C.J. Duff led the Western scoring with 13 points.

Western shot 30% (17 of 57) for the game.

Attendance at Western Hall = 567. The crowd looked smaller than that. That has to be considered a very disappointing turn-out for a home conference game. Western had 5,089 for the home game with USD 5 years ago.

What’s the answer? Recruiting, Coaching, Facility’s , Conference?
Something needs fixing, basketball won’t be around long with a gate of 500 people.

There has been no improvement the last few years. Zilch. Zero. Nada.

What is more startling is the performance decline throughout the season. Competitive in non conference then absolutely terrible basketball in conference play.

When you continue to be a bottom feeder in the summit, that’s an issue that needs resolved.

I think the answer is obvious, unless you think billy is the next Greg Kampe.

Have we really experienced a decline in the level of play during the season? The numbers might indicate otherwise. We are not very good. We managed to squeak by a few not-so-good D1 teams.

AU 5-17
IUPUI 7-14
SIUE 7-15
EIU 7-15
UWM 12-13 (they lost to IUPUI)

Billy is grasping for straws at this point. Our first big off the bench in the game is now the same kid who only could get 4 minutes in a 100 something to 25 blowout of some Christian team earlier in the year. If a D1 coach is recruiting JUCOs who are not good enough to start or at least be his go to guys off the bench, his days are rightly numbered. The only thing that could save him at this point is to pull off the Sioux Falls Shocker. We almost did last year (OT loss to USD in quarters) so anything is possible.