Basketball season is over....and I can't say I'm upset about it. 'Twas a long year, and hopefully a year we look back on and say "That's when things started to go right for NIU basketball." Personally, I feel the arrow is pointing up (as arrows tend to do when placed in the deepest well in hell). It'll be great to be 0-0 next winter.

We all knew (at least I'll give you that much benefit of the doubt) that this year was going to be a rough one. Even though our half of the MAC isn't exactly a gauntlet, going into a season with 8 freshmen, losing Rucker and Henley (and so many others that could have been useful) should have reduced expectations. Even with reduced expectations, even with experience in rough seasons (5 straight 20 loss seasons coming into the year), this was a tough year to watch. Most thought we lacked size, leadership, experience, and talent. Can't exactly say they were wrong....

But! We had a new coach, one that wasn't Ricardo "Give it to Silas and stay out of his way" Patton. One that came with a pretty good pedigree for a rookie head coach in Mark ("don't call me Mike") Montgomery. Newness usually brings out the insanely hopeful and doubtful, and this board is a rather safe place for the insane to vent their...uh, insanity. (No, not Linsanity. Take your bad puns elsewhere.)

I remember specifically telling myself that we might not win 5 games this year before the season. Still, when we lost our first 11 and were behind early to a hot shooting NAIA Roosevelt, I was rather (censored). I saw the two kids with bags on their heads in the student section and thought about asking them if they brought a third one. When we won and those kids took off their bags, it wasn't exactly a great moment for Huskie basketball, but there was a relief. It was good to win at anything against anyone, even if it was really just an exhibition game.

When discussing this team, I think you have to start with game one. (Genius, I know!) Purdue abolutely vivisected us. It....was....brutal. 96-34. Worst loss in school history. I can't stress enough how awful that game was. On that night, it felt like we had the worst team in the entire world and it could have been the keystone to a winless year of bad attitudes and incredibly awful losses. I was just glad we didn't get stupid-mad and start taking stupid hard fouls out of bitterness.

Yet, how did we respond? 3 days later, we lose by to 2 to UW-Milwaukee. A team that won 20 games this year. The team was already tough, which is good, because this season called for incredible toughness.

We didn't get our first legit win until January 14th against CMU, when Nader gave us a taste of something I think we'll see a lot more in the coming years (22 points). More relief. Nobody wants to be like NJIT in 2008 and join the winless season club (it's happened only 7 times in NCAA history). I think most were just happy for the guys to finally have a game go their way....and that's a rather large point for me. Despite the losing, the guys never did anything but show up and give their all and slowly......oh so slowly....improve. It was vindication (a very small amount, perhaps). And it felt good.

The next game we got throttled by Toledeww, and Toler acted a fool and got tossed off the team. Never a fun thing to have a one win team that is kicking people off the team, but most took it the right way; Monty has high standards and it's about the program, not merely you.

We went nearly a month without winning again, beating Miami in an ugly affair at the Convo. It was the Tyler Storm show (17 points, and he really filled up the stat sheet in other categories), and if you couldn't enjoy that, you're pretty heartless (or a rare recent addition the fandom). A guy that has struggled with injuries and whatever that Patton experience did to him FINALLY got to have a moment. Another nice (albeit small) moment of vindication.

The losses started to mount again, but they weren't like the losses earlier in the year....despite the fact that we were playing on the road, we weren't getting destroyed. We had leads. We couldn't close them....the SIUE game, the EMU game, and we had a lead early in the CMU game. It was frustrating, but the progress was undeniable. Although we won just one of the last seven regular-season games, the last four losses were by a combined 26 points, including two defeats by three points or less.

On leap day, we got another crack at Toledeww (it's not a great joke, I know, but who can resist a cheap shot?) and beat them with a total team effort. 6 guys had 8 or more points. Another blip of happiness for us fans.

The Ball State game was ANOTHER road game where we jumped on our unsuspecting opponent but just weren't good enough to hold them down.

The regular season over, a 12 seed in the MAC tourney and a matchup against EMU. Another boring EMU pace, but the offense was incredibly efficient and we won....on the road, in the MAC tourney. Huh? I mean...Hell yes! We blew a lead...but then won anyway? More progress, another feather in the ol' hat, and some crappy streaks ended (first road win in MAC tourney, first win in tourney since '03, just the general road losing streak).

Then the second half of the WMU game happened, and here we are.

What to make of this year? 5-26 is an awful record. We had losing streaks of 11 (13 if you don't count Roosevelt), 6, and 5 games in the same season. We had our worst loss in school history. Dead last in the MAC. We beat only one team that finished with a winning record (Toledo, 18-16). Way more turnovers than assists, and we shot 67% from the free throw line, 37% from the field. There is a lot of bad to point to or fixate on. A buffet of bad.

Yet....I'm personally satisfied with the season.

I like what we have in Montgomery. He still isn't proven as a coach, but he handled this year very well. Never once did he "Patton" and trample his youngsters in public. You know the losing got to him, it had to....but he kept smiling. He kept coaching and encouraging. I have no idea if he'll turn out to be an awesome coach or not, but he is one tough, classy and positive guy. I think he'll make us victorious and proud. He also recruited Nader, a guy that is going to beat the crap out of the MAC, using some sort of voodoo technique. I like that he coached with the long view in mind and played everybody. He held guys accountable and won't accept crap. Despite the losing, the kids never gave up on him. We got our butts handed to us on multiple nights, but I never thought we quit, which is incredible. The kids believe, that's all I can think. If they didn't believe, if he wasn't commanding them well, we would've seen quit/bad attitudes. I never even sniffed it (other than that Toler thing).

Monty also tried various things on D (we played a couple different zones and man-to-man). Although nothing works all the time, it shows me they're working in practice. I was hoping that some guys would step up and demand more playing time, but that really didn't happen and Monty rode hot hands and got everyone involved instead. I can't really argue too much with anything he did this year (anybody can nitpick, of course). He got what most of us thought was a small lineup to rebound like animals most nights. Though our D wasn't consistenly good, we certainly hustled and gave a lot of teams a hard time. It's clear that our recipe is going to be rebound, defend, and move move move move on offense. Hmmm...kind of like Michigan State....if he can get a few more good horses, I feel really good about this style's possibilities in the MAC.

As for the players, I'm left encouraged, for the most part.

Nader is going to be a stud. He has length, speed, some hops, and a good gas tank. He isn't an amazing defender yet, but I see effort and ingredients. He already rebounds pretty well too. He's got swagger, he loves to compete, and when he gets a little more efficient, is going to destroy the MAC on many nights. He can slash and when he gets a little more consistency on his shots (he was rather streaky this year).....look out. He had 17 double digit games as a freshman...I could see him averaging 20+ before his career is over.

Tony Nixon really came on at the end of the season, probably because he was finally healthy. Nixon averaged 9.7 points in his last seven games, and had 14 in each of the last two games when we needed them the most. He's always struck me as a pure shooter/scorer, and I could see him averaging in double digits next year. Hopefully he has a healthy junior year, he could really be useful for a team that struggled to score for long stretches this year.

Aksel Bolin is sneaky good. He takes good shots, might be a little too unselfish sometimes, but he shoots well. He rebounds, defends, and can distribute pretty well. He does all the non-flashy stuff that helps a team win. I look for him to have at least a good handful of double-doubles next year. Winning teams have guys like Aksel.

Keith Gray clearly got better as the season went on. He really gave the Ball State big (Jarrod Jones) a rough ride in the regular season finale. He showed some post moves as the season went on too...his finishing around the basket and free throws need work and he needs to bulk up (same for his twin) but he looks like a legit contributor. His twin Kevin might not be as good (which is odd...), but hopefully he can at least be a solid rotation guy.

Quay Ford showed he has the physical ability to play at this level (he is super fast) but he just didn't play with enough discipline to help consistenly. However, he really played better the last four games; he had 19 assists to 8 turnovers. He has the ability to slash and dish like nobody's business if he reigns himself in some. And with that speed, he should be able to harass guys on D and pick their pockets pretty well. I was really getting frustrated with him 'til the last four games happened. I feel a lot better about his possible contributions in the future now. He might be able to give us good minutes at the point if he improves.

Antone Christian took a step back this year on offense, which is odd. He really showed flashes at the end of last year and I was looking forward to seeing him take a step forward....but it just never seemed to happen for him. He shot worse (on the whole, but his shot from the arc got better) this year and turned it over more...I'm not sure what to expect from him but he seems like a good guy that will do the work. Hopefully he gets better results; he seems capable. Even if he just keeps getting better at shooting the three, that would be a nice weapon to have. It's not that he stunk or anything, I was just hoping for a more obvious step forward, but things don't always happen that way. He had a nice game to close out the year, so that's encouraging.

Zach Miller isn't going to wow anyone athletically, but I think he could be a useful bench player eventually. If he can run the point, hit some threes, and hit some free throws, those are all things we could use. He was hurt this year, so it's hard to judge him well. He's never going to dominate, but he could be a useful part.

Stian Berg wasn't exactly electric, but like Miller, he looks like he could be useful. He looks like he'll be able to hit threes, in the least.

Jeremiah Jackson? He didn't really play enough for me to give you much analysis.

So, what will happen next year? I have no idea...if we do the Ball State schedule, maybe we'll end up with an inflated record. But if we play as hard as we did this year, with a little more savvy, cohesion, and perhaps some contributions from a couple of new freshmen, 10 wins doesn't seem too crazy. I'd certainly love to end our streak of 20 loss seasons. That's for sure.

Sorry this was so long. But I hadn't posted anything in a few days so....yeah. At least it's paragraph rich (and rich with apostrophe abuse).

Thanx for the analysis, and I share your optimism.

I was listening to the NIU radio show this morning and MM was a guest. He said that there are 4 incoming freshman. He said that one of them was a 6" 9' guy from Wisconsin. I know how some people keep on saying that we STILL need a guy with size so whats wrong with this guy?

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/...CWqwvXO5B4

Either way the plan is to have all 4 of them here for the Summer semester for classes and conditioning/lifting. The rest of the team after spring break will be conditioning/lifting 4 days a week.

Wow....great synopsis....It was fun reliving the season with all of its ups and downs...love your positive perspective and agree with the long range view. It does look like Quay finally "gets it" and I love his explosiveness.

(03-10-2012 09:15 AM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  I was listening to the NIU radio show this morning and MM was a guest. He said that there are 4 incoming freshman. He said that one of them was a 6" 9' guy from Wisconsin. I know how some people keep on saying that we STILL need a guy with size so whats wrong with this guy?

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/...CWqwvXO5B4

Either way the plan is to have all 4 of them here for the Summer semester for classes and conditioning/lifting. The rest of the team after spring break will be conditioning/lifting 4 days a week.

He is a face the basket 3 pt shooter without much of a post game and he weighs about 175 lbs. He could learn it, but will he want to mix it up.

Yeah, the guy from Wisconsin is tall, but he's a shooter/facing the basket guy. Personally, I don't how you score points, just do it for the Huskies. We need some offense.

MM seems to say that Mader and Balls could be starting early next season. Encouraging that they have that kind of talent; hopefully they can deliver on their potential.

We're gonna be very young again next season.

Frisky Bisquit, Tony Nixon will be a senior next year. Huskie John, if we have to play Zach Miller next year, we will be just as bad as this year. I believe miller is a third team pt gaurd at this level. Sam Mader is the 6'9 guy and he will help but he isnt the answer to our low post woes. I believe we must get another size guy the following class. Monty has said he wants several bigs who do different things. Next years starting line-up probably will be a Freshman pt. gaurd, Tony Nixon, Askil Bolin, Abdel Nadar and Sam Mader. The other line-up they may use will have one of the grays instead of nixon, it depends on how we are rebounding. Next year we must win our home games and steal a couple road wins. I give this season a grade of a D. I would give it a F but beating Emu and all the playing time many guys got make it a D. I feel monty has things going in the right direction!

Good call on Nixon being a senior next year.....whoops.

Huskie Bob, thanks for pointing out what monty said about Mader and Balls. We all know we needed a pt gaurd but many say we dont need more size. There is only one reason monty sees Mader as a starter already and it is his size( 6'9 ). We need it and monty knows it!

Great season recap. I also share the optimism. I think anyone from Izzo's MSU program can only benefit us. I think all the worries about scoring will go away eventually when these kids get some confidence and experience. I would think they will begin stepping up midway through their soph season's. That's usually when a big step is taken in the basketball maturing process. My hope is that they stay together and nobody transfers. It's difficult these days to maintain a college basketball roster. Hopefully those frosh like the school, the coach and believe in building something.

What is the over under on wins next season? is 10 wins a big enough improvement?

10-12 wins would be very good. Goals for next year: Dont lose 20 games, Host a Mac tourney game, Nadar, Bolin and Nixon average double figure scoring, win 80% of home games, monty recieves or wins Mac coach of the year. Lead the league in rebounds, shoot 70% from free-throw line and average less than 13 tournovers a game.

(03-10-2012 04:52 PM)klake87 Wrote:  What is the over under on wins next season? is 10 wins a big enough improvement?

It really depends on our non-conference schedule. I'm more interested in seeing us beat up on the MAC...if we go anywhere near .500 in the MAC, that'd be solid progress from 3-13.

Also, winning 3 or so games on the road. Maybe being around .500 at home. These goals aren't exactly shooting for the stars, but we still have a ways to go before we start demanding championships, I feel.

And like this year, I want to see guys adding stuff to their game. By the end of the year, it should be obvious what they worked on because we should see some results.

(03-10-2012 04:52 PM)klake87 Wrote:  What is the over under on wins next season? is 10 wins a big enough improvement?

With the strong possibility of two freshmen starting next year, I wouldn't put too much emphasis on the number of wins. To me, the main thing is how well we're playing toward the end of the season. I think we'll be much stronger heading into the MAC Tournament next year.

Bolin and Nader's skill set and size will give Monty some nice flexibility. He go small with them playing the 3/4 or big with them playing the 2/3.

I also don't see Miller playing very much anymore. He's behind Ford and Berg already and if what everybody says is true and Balls starts next year, that puts him as the 4th PG on the team. Granted, I think Ford will play some 2 guard, but I still don't see him getting much action.

(03-10-2012 06:09 PM)7 Wrote:  I also don't see Miller playing very much anymore. He's behind Ford and Berg already and if what everybody says is true and Balls starts next year, that puts him as the 4th PG on the team. Granted, I think Ford will play some 2 guard, but I still don't see him getting much action.

Seems right to me. I wouldn't be surprised if Miller transfers out. Not that I have heard that or know anything more than anybody else. Just a guess.

I dont see miller getting a scholly from anyone so I doubt he leaves. We still have one scholly left for next year and it sounds like another pt gaurd will get it. If miller leaves he and his family would be paying for it.

Excellent recap Frisky.

And much appreciated, I followed NIU bball closely for the last few years but did not get to watch the Huskies all year was busy enjoying my first high school coaching gig.

I think the program is heading in the right direction, from the sounds of it Montgomery has a plan and he's going to stick to it no matter how ugly it might look in the beginning.

I'm excited to see how Nader progresses in the off-season, I think he's the key to how our season will go next year.

I also think a good gauge of progress will be our record during the MAC season next year. I agree that a record anywhere close to the .500 mark will be a great sign of progress.

Glad to see that we won some road games, especially one in the MAC tournament. Just remember how epically bad Huskies were under Patton on the road and in MAC tournament games. I think we were 0-4 in tournament games and I think we only won 4 away games total during his regime.

And for everyone asking for a big man...those are hard to find in all levels of basketball. A kid with size AND skill will be highly recruited by better programs than us (at least right now), so for the moment I will settle for undersized players with high motor and good athleticism.

I'm excited for our second year under Monty, I think he's a solid hire and has taken this program in the right direction.