Michael James, I thought you said Highsmith is fine he will be back soon and be 100% by MAC season. I told you he wasn't fine. As 7 and myself said shut him down!!! and come back healthy next year. We will not be winning a MACC but hopefully we can win 20 games.

(11-21-2014 12:31 AM)dekalb222 Wrote:  Michael James, I thought you said Highsmith is fine he will be back soon and be 100% by MAC season. I told you he wasn't fine. As 7 and myself said shut him down!!! and come back healthy next year. We will not be winning a MACC but hopefully we can win 20 games.

All I did was relay what Monty said in the Basketball thing on ESPN3 before the season. I wonder if it was an MCL this time. It happens to the best of them. Just redshirt and hope for something next year I guess..


Overall the team played off of the energy in the Convo, the students got it rocking! Credit to Morris White (Gameday experience guy) for getting all the students up and loud. It set the tone for the whole game.

When I heard Monty say he was 80%, I knew that wasn't good. When they were saying he would be 100% in December, I knew that's what they hoped. These ACL injuries are so different for each guy. He will be fine the biggest hurdle for Dontel will be mental. He is a great kid and when he finally makes it to the court, you guys will love him!

(11-21-2014 01:01 AM)dekalb222 Wrote:  When I heard Monty say he was 80%, I knew that wasn't good. When they were saying he would be 100% in December, I knew that's what they hoped. These ACL injuries are so different for each guy. He will be fine the biggest hurdle for Dontel will be mental. He is a great kid and when he finally makes it to the court, you guys will love him!

Good thing is that we don't have to rely on him like last year. We would obviously be a lot better with him, but we are good without him. .

2-0 is all that matters... we won 6 in a row at the convo right???

NIU will be a good team but they will not get past Toledo, Akron or WMU without Dontel. He was going to be a double figure scorer every night!

I think Idaho will win some games. They have size and can shoot.

(11-21-2014 12:31 AM)dekalb222 Wrote:  Michael James, I thought you said Highsmith is fine he will be back soon and be 100% by MAC season. I told you he wasn't fine. As 7 and myself said shut him down!!! and come back healthy next year. We will not be winning a MACC but hopefully we can win 20 games.

Very sad to learn about Highsmith, I guess we should have known when during media day Monty was going through the depth chart and at the end said "oh and 1 player I didn't mention is Dontel Highsmith". I'm not sure in basketball, especially with how deep this team is, you can say there chances are NIL in winning the MAC without him. Obviously, the chances take a huge hit, but I think there is still enough talent on this team to make a run at it. I mean heck, a weaker NIU team lost to WMU by a few points in each game last year, and beat Toledo soundly in DeKalb. Plus you don't know if UT or WMU are going to remain healthy the whole year. A lot can happen and probably too early to dismiss chances at this point. Really have to feel for Highsmith, he is probably going crazy.

Wow, the Highsmith news was a real kick in the balls this morning. If they just were going to sit him all year to get back at full strength that would be one thing, but the fact he needs another knee surgery is devastating. If you want to look at a "bright side" I guess it's that he'll have nearly a full calander year to recover from this one and can just redshirt this year. I feel terrible for him though. Hopefully he can make it back.

As for the game, I know it's only one game but I couldn't be more impressed by how improved pretty much everyone looked offensively. When was the last time NIU shot 50% from the field, 40% from 3, and 70% from the line as a team against a 1A opponent? Everybody looked like they took a step forward offensively.

Michael Orris is going to be huge for this team. I'm not sure if he can shoot at all, but on a team who struggles with turnovers he's going to be a huge help. 7 assists and 2 turnovers last night for him when the rest of the team had 6 assists and 10 turnovers. With Highsmith out for the year, I would be giving Orris the majority of the team at the PG and have Baker spend some time playing the 2.

When, Anthony Johnson gets back it will be crowded again at guard. Orris is just really rusty. He will start finishing those lay-ups that he is missing.

(11-21-2014 08:49 AM)7 Wrote:  Wow, the Highsmith news was a real kick in the balls this morning. If they just were going to sit him all year to get back at full strength that would be one thing, but the fact he needs another knee surgery is devastating. If you want to look at a "bright side" I guess it's that he'll have nearly a full calander year to recover from this one and can just redshirt this year. I feel terrible for him though. Hopefully he can make it back.

As for the game, I know it's only one game but I couldn't be more impressed by how improved pretty much everyone looked offensively. When was the last time NIU shot 50% from the field, 40% from 3, and 70% from the line as a team against a 1A opponent? Everybody looked like they took a step forward offensively.

Michael Orris is going to be huge for this team. I'm not sure if he can shoot at all, but on a team who struggles with turnovers he's going to be a huge help. 7 assists and 2 turnovers last night for him when the rest of the team had 6 assists and 10 turnovers. With Highsmith out for the year, I would be giving Orris the majority of the team at the PG and have Baker spend some time playing the 2.

Really feel bad for Highsmith.

The ball movement was very good yesterday. I attribute a lot of that to Orris. Bowie made some plays where I was yelling 'No, pull it back out' and then he'd make a nice move and score when Idaho was trying to come back. And he hit 2 free throws coming down the stretch. I think you have to take the good with the bad with him, he's not going to change.

Is the Iowa game on BTN?

Also, I thought Rotewald and Harrington did a really nice job on the broadcast. Since it's NIU produced, I would imagine it'll be those two for most of the games. Certainly have had worse booths call a game before (Baker).

(11-21-2014 09:07 AM)7 Wrote:  Is the Iowa game on BTN?

Also, I thought Rotewald and Harrington did a really nice job on the broadcast. Since it's NIU produced, I would imagine it'll be those two for most of the games. Certainly have had worse booths call a game before (Baker).

IDK, but probably not since it'll be on ESPN3. BTN and ESPN don't usually share games.

(11-21-2014 09:25 AM)WeAreHuskies Wrote:  

(11-21-2014 09:07 AM)7 Wrote:  Is the Iowa game on BTN?

Also, I thought Rotewald and Harrington did a really nice job on the broadcast. Since it's NIU produced, I would imagine it'll be those two for most of the games. Certainly have had worse booths call a game before (Baker).

IDK, but probably not since it'll be on ESPN3. BTN and ESPN don't usually share games.

Oh, it's on ESPN3? I just want to be able to watch it I don't really care where.

Orris ran the team well last nite. I'm sure the shots will start falling.

ACL is a very serious injury that people were taking lightly. I told you people who saw him running and posting positive tweets that's it's not as easy as it seems. I hate to say it (actually no I dont) I told you so.

You told us what? that the kid was lying about running, that the kid really wasn't doing well and he shouldn't tweet that. Everyone knows its a serious injury and every case is different. I personally watched him at practice and he was scrimmaging. So those earlier things were most likely true at that time. He obviously had some sort of set back. For Dontel's sake lets hope he can overcome this and realize his potential as a basketball player and a NIU student!

(11-21-2014 11:35 PM)dekalb222 Wrote:  You told us what? that the kid was lying about running, that the kid really wasn't doing well and he shouldn't tweet that. Everyone knows its a serious injury and every case is different. I personally watched him at practice and he was scrimmaging. So those earlier things were most likely true at that time. He obviously had some sort of set back. For Dontel's sake lets hope he can overcome this and realize his potential as a basketball player and a NIU student!

I was saying that he wouldn't be 100% at the beginning of the season. Many just assumed he would be. I don't know about you, the dumb comments blend together in my head, hard to remember who posted what.

Peoples logic was, he's tweeting that he feels good therefore he's healthy.

The one thing I know about a ACL injury is that everyone is different. I felt that you cant count on him this year. If, you have him its icing on the cake.