Eastern Illinois

BearcatTalk

Help Support BearcatTalk:

L-T said:
I don't know why anyone should be surprised to see player's offensive games stagnate or even go downhill after coming here. We've seen it over and over. Guys like Shaq seem to be thinking way too much rather than just playing. He's thinking too much about the intricacies of an offense that produces 50 points a game. Go figure. We have one NBA player and he was only here only one year. Cobb has one of the best offensive games we've seen in years and Kevin Johnson,who has been horrible all season, was shoved ahead of him into the starting lineup. Thats a great way to build on a player's confidence and reward him for a great game. Thus....he goes 0-for......and so does Johnson. Morman has a great offensive game in the opener and looks like an absolute stud, and then barely plays the next game. In fact he's not allowed out of the locker room after halftime. Since then, he's gotten almost zero playing time and his confidence looks shot. Clark averages something like 37 points last year, and looks afraid to even take a shot this year.

As I've said before, we have a some history of players eventually having pretty good senior seasons, but for the most part, they rarely show us the offensive games that they seemed to have in high school once they get here.

But, they all show a lot of improvement defensively.
Click to expand...

There's a lot packed in that statement. Caupain has showed some good scoring touch. I agree that Cats have had trouble scoring in the Cronin years and prior. I think we have players that will develop into D1 scorers on the roster like Moore, Clark, Caupain, and Cobb.

Trying to compare high school stats and how they translate is an exercise in futility. A lot of these guys scored simply by being bigger, stronger, faster in high school. Now they are learning the intricacies of the game - too early to judge the new guys after 3 games. As far as Shaq goes, he might be a guy that doesn't realize his potential. As mentioned a lot, he seems to be thinking and not reacting.

This team is so young with new guys and current players in expanded roles that they will deliver a lot of frustrating stretches as well as show glimpses of their talent. By January or February they will figure out their identity and roles and be a team that will scare a lot of opponents.
 
L-T said:
I'll just keep it simple and use the present roster...Guyn and Shaq.
Click to expand...

Technically Guyn averaged 4.5 points last year and 2.3 points as a freshman. He currently has a broken finger on his shooting hand. Shaq is a Junior...
 
Mick's 1st team, when we were in the abyss, averaged 64.6 points per game. His very best year was 68.9 points per game (2011). This in spite of front loading the schedule each year with every directional patsy school in the country. Unfortunately, this year's squad is currently occupying the lowest per game average of all of Mick's teams. 9 years of averaging 64 to 68 points per game, numbers that were grossly inflated by the plethora of patsies in November and December where we ran up the scores. That's pretty hard to do.....not a single year where we even got to 70 points per game.

We've already acknowledged that we can't be one dimensional and make a deep run in March, so there obviously should be more emphasis on the offensive side of the ball, yet here we sit, albeit it early, with a team perhaps the worst offensively of all of Mick's teams. 3 of the last four games, we're 6 of 43 from three. Cobb's one super game was the exception. But Mick thought Johnson's solid YTD performance earned him the start ahead of Cobb.
 
Mcginnjw said:
Technically Guyn averaged 4.5 points last year and 2.3 points as a freshman. He currently has a broken finger on his shooting hand. Shaq is a Junior...
Click to expand...

This is Shaq's 4th year in the program, just like Guyn.
 
What I find interesting is how our players have not grasp Mick's motion offense. Motion offense is extremely easy to run, if done right, it is highly effective. But it takes every guy to understand how to properly run motion. Most importantly, you must move without the ball. If all 5 guys don't understand and aren't in sync its going to look like it did last night. The only player that was doing that last night was Caupain. But it goes deeper than just last night. We have guys like KJ, Guyn, Thomas who don't know how to move without the ball. What the hell do they do in practice? lol.

All 3 games so far who have guys who look like deer in headlights when they have the ball in their hands. Hopefully it gets corrected but man, it could get brutal when we start playing quality teams. Hopefully some attitudes change on this team. Because the body language last night was embarrassing.
 
L-T said:
This is Shaq's 4th year in the program, just like Guyn.
Click to expand...

Shaq averaged 3.0 ppg as a freshman and 6.8 ppg as a sophomore. We are only 3 games into his redshirt junior year. He has definitely had a rough start. Let's discuss his Junior year stats when the season is over.

The season has just started....it isn't over yet. We are currently 3-0, hopefully they keep learning lessons while winning.
 
L-T said:
This is Shaq's 4th year in the program, just like Guyn.
Click to expand...

Yeah I get what you're saying but you can't really blame Guyn's and Shaq's development on Mick. There are 13 players on that team and Mick cannot control how much they put in outside of practices, workouts and games. If they aren't in the gym until late hours of the night like Kilpatrick and Stephenson were, then that is on them.

I know if I was 6'7 and had the athletic ability of Shaq, I would live in the gym
 
Last edited:
To put our performance in perspective, Division III Eureka was able to match us offensively against E. Illinois scoring 51. Two obscure schools...UC Davis and Missouri State outscored us by more than 10 points against E. Illinois. That says a lot.
 
KJ got off to a slow start from 3 last year too. He had good looks yesterday...I'm hoping he just needs to see a few go down so he can give us 6-10 points every game.
 
BearcatSpaniard513 said:
Yeah I get what you're saying but you can't really blame Guyn's and Shaq's development on Mick. There are 13 players on that team and Mick cannot control how much they put in outside of practices, workouts and games. If they aren't in the gym until late hours of the night like Kilpatrick and Stephenson were, then that is on them.

I know if I was 6'7 and had the athletic ability of Shaq, I would live in the gym
Click to expand...

We don't know that Shaq isn't living in the gym. Do you see a loose and aggressive offensive squad out there? Mick said on his postgame show on the previous game that he'll never take a guy out for taking a shot. Yet last night, Morman took a shot and missed it and Mick immediately turned and told his replacement to go in. Our offense definitely plays afraid. Clark gets it obviously. Just rebound, play defense block shots, and you play. The only way he takes a shot pretty much is if he gets a steal and has a breakaway.
 
L-T, that 6 for 43 number from 3 is the key to everything offensively imo. We are getting decent looks and we aren't chucking up a ton of them...but we just don't have any going in. Not sure what the answer is there other than hope KJ heats up and he, Cobb and Sanders are the only ones shooting a lot from deep. We have to stretch the defense out a little and that's the only way. Sanders only shot 1 3 yesterday and the rest of the team was 1-12. He needs to be a bigger threat, even if that means he has to shoot a couple more that he normally wouldn't.

I don't want to turn this into anything about coaching or overall recruiting philosophy, we have who we have this year. We just have to hope we can clean some things up before we take some bad losses.
 
L-T said:
We don't know that Shaq isn't living in the gym. Do you see a loose and aggressive offensive squad out there? Mick said on his postgame show on the previous game that he'll never take a guy out for taking a shot. Yet last night, Morman took a shot and missed it and Mick immediately turned and told his replacement to go in. Our offense definitely plays afraid. Clark gets it obviously. Just rebound, play defense block shots, and you play. The only way he takes a shot pretty much is if he gets a steal and has a breakaway.
Click to expand...
Your so predictable and laughable. You site one example to try and counter a statement Mick made not knowing why he took him out and refuse to see how many jumpers others missed that weren't made and Mick left them in. The best thing you do for the program is buy a seat. Don't get out of your comfort zone.
 
jacobkdoyle said:
L-T, that 6 for 43 number from 3 is the key to everything offensively imo. We are getting decent looks and we aren't chucking up a ton of them...but we just don't have any going in. Not sure what the answer is there other than hope KJ heats up and he, Cobb and Sanders are the only ones shooting a lot from deep. We have to stretch the defense out a little and that's the only way. Sanders only shot 1 3 yesterday and the rest of the team was 1-12. He needs to be a bigger threat, even if that means he has to shoot a couple more that he normally wouldn't.

I don't want to turn this into anything about coaching or overall recruiting philosophy, we have who we have this year. We just have to hope we can clean some things up before we take some bad losses.
Click to expand...
You wasting your time trying to explain to him. It is obvious from day 1 here he uses every opportunity to degrade our coach. He'll tell you he only wants the best for the School and many other things but what he wants is Mick gone. He is the last of the Mohicans. Mick isn't going anywheer and he can't stand it.

We have a bunch of new players trying to learn a new system and play together. It will get better as the year goes on. They are trying to learn Mick's system and he is trying to find out what system works well for them. Him speeding up and trapping yesterday was his attempt to get Shaq involved and jump start him. Shaq is much better in the open court then a structured offense. Terry Nelson said this many times yesterday during the broadcast.
 
BearcatSpaniard513 said:
I wouldn't doubt it. That $99 season ticket price is hard to pass up. I called to do the mini plan and when they offered that I couldn't say no to that many more games for the same price
Click to expand...

Correct BS. Waite is running damage control so often for Mick that I'm starting to think he is a family member of Mick. When he goes to a game, he makes a big proclamation that he is putting his money where his mouth is. The people who put their money where their mouth is are the season ticket holders who contribute thousands to UCATS in addition to contributing thousands more to buy 4, 6, or 8 tickets to every single game.

Our program was once at a level where season ticket holders paid astronomical prices, plus were forced to have to buy football season tickets (whether we wanted them or not), just for the right to buy basketball season tickets. And...we all did it, and filled up the same arena that everyone now blames for holding Mick back. Today, Waite is gloating about a 33% increase in season ticket holders when we're giving these bargain basement $99 prices...and...waiving the handling charges on top of it just to get people to attend. We were Top 10 most of last year and total attendance dropped by 800 per game. Thats the bottom line. Mick has only had one season of attendance that has surpassed his very first season, when we were in the so-called abyss.

There was once a time when the "Team" was what attracted the season ticket holders. Today, it's the cheap price of the tickets.
 
L-T said:
Correct BS. Waite is running damage control so often for Mick that I'm starting to think he is a family member of Mick. When he goes to a game, he makes a big proclamation that he is putting his money where his mouth is. The people who put their money where their mouth is are the season ticket holders who contribute thousands to UCATS in addition to contributing thousands more to buy 4, 6, or 8 tickets to every single game.

Our program was once at a level where season ticket holders paid astronomical prices, plus were forced to have to buy football season tickets (whether we wanted them or not), just for the right to buy basketball season tickets. And...we all did it, and filled up the same arena that everyone now blames for holding Mick back. Today, Waite is gloating about a 33% increase in season ticket holders when we're giving these bargain basement $99 prices...and...waiving the handling charges on top of it just to get people to attend. We were Top 10 most of last year and total attendance dropped by 800 per game. Thats the bottom line. Mick has only had one season of attendance that has surpassed his very first season, when we were in the so-called abyss.

There was once a time when the "Team" was what attracted the season ticket holders. Today, it's the cheap price of the tickets.
Click to expand...
gloating??? I was asking a question. As I said your laughable.
 
L-T said:
Correct BS. Waite is running damage control so often for Mick that I'm starting to think he is a family member of Mick. When he goes to a game, he makes a big proclamation that he is putting his money where his mouth is. The people who put their money where their mouth is are the season ticket holders who contribute thousands to UCATS in addition to contributing thousands more to buy 4, 6, or 8 tickets to every single game.

Our program was once at a level where season ticket holders paid astronomical prices, plus were forced to have to buy football season tickets (whether we wanted them or not), just for the right to buy basketball season tickets. And...we all did it, and filled up the same arena that everyone now blames for holding Mick back. Today, Waite is gloating about a 33% increase in season ticket holders when we're giving these bargain basement $99 prices...and...waiving the handling charges on top of it just to get people to attend. We were Top 10 most of last year and total attendance dropped by 800 per game. Thats the bottom line. Mick has only had one season of attendance that has surpassed his very first season, when we were in the so-called abyss.

There was once a time when the "Team" was what attracted the season ticket holders. Today, it's the cheap price of the tickets.
Click to expand...

Yes but it is still a good marketing plan. If attendance is up more than 33% this year because of that price then it could be the bait and switch. Say it goes up next year, I'll still pay the difference for better seats and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Say we sell those bleachers for $99 every season. It might not be much, but it still gets fans in the building and that's heading in the right direction. Trust me, the view is not great but I wanted to attend the Shootout, UConn, Memphis and some others and because of that deal I am there every game
 

Similar threads

Q
Northern Kentucky
Replies
10
Views
33K
TheLongHaul
T
Q
Eastern Washington
Replies
10
Views
28K
Queens_NYC
Q
Q
UCF Part II
Replies
14
Views
26K
David H
D
Q
USF Part II
Replies
3
Views
17K
Queens_NYC
Q
Q
Houston
Replies
19
Views
28K
TheLivingLegend
T
Back
Top