Today's NIU hoops loss puts us at seven consecutive seasons with 20 or more losses. 9 out of the last thirteen seasons to be exact. Hard to believe that the last time they won more than 17 games was the 95-96 NCAA tourney team. By the way they played at the field house back then. The story at that time was if the hoops program was going to get to the next level they needed better facilities. OOPS!!!!!

Only one more week plus a first round playoff loss and this season gets put to bed. That's the only positive thing we can say.

It's hard to stay positive but we do have to give Coach Monty the length of his contract to show improvement. Basketball takes longer than football because the rosters are a lot smaller. In two years if we are not close to competing for MAC tourney championships then we can start to wonder if the grass is greener. For now we should hope this is a learning curve for a very young team!

(02-23-2013 11:54 PM)flair6 Wrote:  It's hard to stay positive but we do have to give Coach Monty the length of his contract to show improvement. Basketball takes longer than football because the rosters are a lot smaller. In two years if we are not close to competing for MAC tourney championships then we can start to wonder if the grass is greener. For now we should hope this is a learning curve for a very young team!

Good grief. It does not take longer in basketball than football to build a program. You just need to get at least a few div 1 capable players. We do not have that even now after multiple recruiting classes.

(02-23-2013 11:54 PM)flair6 Wrote:  It's hard to stay positive but we do have to give Coach Monty the length of his contract to show improvement. Basketball takes longer than football because the rosters are a lot smaller. In two years if we are not close to competing for MAC tourney championships then we can start to wonder if the grass is greener. For now we should hope this is a learning curve for a very young team!

I think basketball moves quicker because the rosters are smaller...

Some coaches win because they coach well, some win because the recruit good players, some do both. In which of these two areas has monty shown to have talent? Right now he seems like a likable guy who used to make a good asst. coach. I hope next year proves he is capable of more.

In all reality, nice guys finish last, this team should be showing some improvement by now.

Show me a MAC BBall team that wins with freshman and sophomores. Good mid-major schools exist because their players don't leave early for the NBA. They have a good mix of veterans and under classman. Only high profile schools that get McDonalds All-Americans win with youth. We are not Kentucky. We are missing leadership and experience. Better shooting wouldn't hurt either.

I don't even think it would be fair to evaluate Monty until after another year or two. To say the cupboard was bear would be a major understatement. For god sakes he took over for Ricardo Patton!

I wish there were bears in the cupboard. That'd be cool.

(02-23-2013 11:54 PM)flair6 Wrote:  It's hard to stay positive but we do have to give Coach Monty the length of his contract to show improvement. Basketball takes longer than football because the rosters are a lot smaller. In two years if we are not close to competing for MAC tourney championships then we can start to wonder if the grass is greener. For now we should hope this is a learning curve for a very young team!

What???

That doesn't make any sense at all. The rosters are smaller.. which means in basketball it's much easier to improve. It's a star driven game. Two legitimately good players would be enough to make NIU a .500 team.

Huskiefan84, you are correct. Two good players and NIU would be much better. The problem is we only have one good player. We also cant count on that guy(nader) night in and night out. Put Silas or Anderson on this team and they are much better. Nader does not play hard and is very lazy on defense. It has come down to Monty must hit a homerun with Highsmith or he will be in trouble.

(02-24-2013 05:05 PM)niu2222 Wrote:  Huskiefan84, you are correct. Two good players and NIU would be much better. The problem is we only have one good player. We also cant count on that guy(nader) night in and night out. Put Silas or Anderson on this team and they are much better. Nader does not play hard and is very lazy on defense. It has come down to Monty must hit a homerun with Highsmith or he will be in trouble.

Yeah.. which is still a hell of a lot easier than building a football team.

I sit in a section that is usually pretty much filled. Over the years, I've gotten friendly with a dozen or so fans in the area. This year, fewer and fewer have been showing up. Yesterday, no one from this group showed up except my wife and me. If the administration doesn't wake up, it will lose these true diehard fans. It's tough to play with no students in attendance, as is the case now. It will be tougher when the rest of the few fans stop coming, too.

I purchased 20 Gen. Admission tickets to give to friends to enjoy NIU basketball this year. Used 2 and cannot give away the others. Friends will not even see NCAA basketball for free. That is how bad it is.

(02-24-2013 04:50 PM)HuskieFan84 Wrote:  

(02-23-2013 11:54 PM)flair6 Wrote:  It's hard to stay positive but we do have to give Coach Monty the length of his contract to show improvement. Basketball takes longer than football because the rosters are a lot smaller. In two years if we are not close to competing for MAC tourney championships then we can start to wonder if the grass is greener. For now we should hope this is a learning curve for a very young team!

What???

That doesn't make any sense at all. The rosters are smaller.. which means in basketball it's much easier to improve. It's a star driven game. Two legitimately good players would be enough to make NIU a .500 team.

I respectfully disagree with you. In football you have a roster of 105 players (85 scholarships). You don't have to play youth right away. You can develop and redshirt them. NIU hoops has had to play way too many frosh and sophs this year. Teams .500 or better don't have their starting lineups stacked with freshman and walk-ons. Still think we are two years away from being able to judge anything. If NIU were to make a coaching change right now wouldn't we say the new coach would need a few recruiting classes to get his players in? We need consistency at the helm. I'm not suggesting he is right the guy but just stating I feel it's too early to judge.

Flair6, you also make some good points. If NIU ftball relied on frosh and sophs for 80% of its snaps, we would lose to many fcs schools. We would also be at the bottom of the MAC. The bball program cannot afford to redshirt guys. Just replace Lynch with a true freshman q-back and I bet you, NIU finishes last in the MAC WEST. At the end of next year, we will know what the outcome will be for Monty.

(02-24-2013 11:31 PM)niu2222 Wrote:  Flair6, you also make some good points. If NIU ftball relied on frosh and sophs for 80% of its snaps, we would lose to many fcs schools. We would also be at the bottom of the MAC. The bball program cannot afford to redshirt guys. Just replace Lynch with a true freshman q-back and I bet you, NIU finishes last in the MAC WEST. At the end of next year, we will know what the outcome will be for Monty.

We will know the outcome of MM by Feb. 1 of next year. Before the season started, I really believed he would see 4 years of his contract. After this season, JC has some thinking to do.
Who has the coaching staff coach up this year? Bolin, Grays and Nader have not improved this year considering the playing time for this year and last.

(02-25-2013 12:24 AM)NIU75 Wrote:  

(02-24-2013 11:31 PM)niu2222 Wrote:  Flair6, you also make some good points. If NIU ftball relied on frosh and sophs for 80% of its snaps, we would lose to many fcs schools. We would also be at the bottom of the MAC. The bball program cannot afford to redshirt guys. Just replace Lynch with a true freshman q-back and I bet you, NIU finishes last in the MAC WEST. At the end of next year, we will know what the outcome will be for Monty.

We will know the outcome of MM by Feb. 1 of next year. Before the season started, I really believed he would see 4 years of his contract. After this season, JC has some thinking to do.
Who has the coaching staff coach up this year? Bolin, Grays and Nader have not improved this year considering the playing time for this year and last.

Except for Patton, all the coaches of the last 15 yrs, men and women, appear to have been solid picks. It is mindboggling on the inability to turn this thing around. We really have not made any progress this year as 2 of our wins were against Judson and SIU Edwardsville. C'mon!!. I truly don't know what I would do if I am Jeff Compher. MM comes from a great background and his assts are soild. We probably will have a couple more transfer on us which means they would be replaced by more freshman. Its just a loop of futility. MM has at least 3 yrs remining and we can't eat that amount of salary. But eventually,maybe we need a Bo Ryan clone. I am just at a loss. We may have turned this program into what was for most coaches a sleeping giant to a coaches burial ground.

MM is a very nice guy. I just don't know if he has the ability to coach up these guys and also to recruit. It could be a combination of poor coaching and players with a lack of D1 talent - a horrendous combination. The bottom line, IMO, is that we will never win with the current crop of players. Whatever happens next year will depend on who we can get to come and play here. If we lose a player or two to transfers, that could set us back even further if it's not handled right.

The answer is recruiting. If we can't get anyone decent to come here, then we have very little chance of pulling out of this mess. We can maybe hope for some transfers to open up scholarships. If that happens, I would go the JUCO route and bring in some players with experience beyond high school. We need to right the ship as soon as possible - if it is even possible. What a sad, freakin' mess.

I have attended games to show my support. The players have not put forth the effort, however, to match the little fan support there is left. More and more people are not coming to the games, and no one can blame them. The fans who do come to the games sit there quiet, bored, and asleep because there is nothing to cheer for - except the Halftime Pizza. Compher needs to get involved, sit down with MM, and figure out how to get this fixed.

He really needs to find some help inside through the JC route. If this is done, maybe with some more scoring next year they could move up from embarrassing to mediocre.

Don't we have a 7 ft center who transferred into the program this year and is eligible to play next season? I really think coach Montgomery needs to be given a chance. Every time that you make a coaching change, you cannot rebuild overnight. You have to realize how bad the program was that he inherited. Each of his predecessors took the program to new lows. I think the key is that we need to keep these young kids interested in building this program so that they don't transfer out and start you back at square one. Even though this team is 5-20 so far this season. It's clear to me that they are more athletic this season and better on the defensive end. Our problem is scoring. We have one guy who is not afraid to take a leadership role on the offensive end. There have been others who have stepped up on occasion, but nothing with any consistency. My hope is that we maintain our current team, develop these kids, and that coach brings in some scoring help with his recruits.