Forgive the change of pace thread. During halftime of the bowl game I did some searching and looked a little at the next opponent for our men's basketball team. Both Toledo and NIU played on Dec. 20th. We play next at home vs. Toledo on Jan 20. Since the Dec. 20th game, Toledo will be game ready and have no rust as they will have played 4 games during our layoff. I think the schedule could put us at a disadvantage going into the start of MAC play. Hopefully the coaches are able to clean up things and put in new stuff during this time but there is no substitute for game action and I expect our guys to be rusty and possibly have "first game jitters" all over again early in that game. I hope not though.
Tue, Dec 23 Illinois-Chicago - Toledo, OH 7:00 p.m.
Tue, Dec 30 Delaware - at Newark, DE 7:00 p.m.
Fri, Jan 02 Dayton - Toledo, OH 7:00 p.m.
Tue, Jan 06 Rhode Island - Toledo, OH 7:00 p.m.
Sat, Jan 10 Northern Illinois - at DeKalb, IL 3:00 p.m.
The MAC is downright awful right now. When it's all said and done I think Miami OH or Akron will pull ahead of the rest of the league but there really is no clear cut favorite. I think this young squad can compete and finish close to .500.
And yeah... 3 weeks without a game is ridiculous. I really want to hear Patton's explanation for this.
(12-28-2008 10:05 PM)NIUtrav09 Wrote: [ -> ]The MAC is downright awful right now. When it's all said and done I think Miami OH or Akron will pull ahead of the rest of the league but there really is no clear cut favorite. I think this young squad can compete and finish close to .500.
And yeah... 3 weeks without a game is ridiculous. I really want to hear Patton's explanation for this.
Does Patton make the schedule?
(12-30-2008 12:10 PM)NIU17 Wrote: [ -> ] (12-28-2008 10:05 PM)NIUtrav09 Wrote: [ -> ]The MAC is downright awful right now. When it's all said and done I think Miami OH or Akron will pull ahead of the rest of the league but there really is no clear cut favorite. I think this young squad can compete and finish close to .500.
And yeah... 3 weeks without a game is ridiculous. I really want to hear Patton's explanation for this.
Does Patton make the schedule?
In basketball, coaches make the schedule. Most of the time the assistants do, but Patton said the non-conference schedule that included many early road games was "his bad."
I'm not really giving him a pass, but any idea how far in advance BBall schedules are made? I'm sure he probably has had to scramble as a newer coach in a new conference with a new athletic director. I don't imagine we'll see something like this again. I imagine he'll be able to get other teams to come to NIU in the future. Doesn't really excuse him from making some questionable calls (Georgia, Alaska, Colorado?? Talk about toughening up your young guys, but the layoff I'm fine with.
Our guys clearly needed some rest, with this young a team, the 3 week layoff isn't a terrible thing in my opinion. Tough early road games let them get a feel for the college game, now give them three weeks to work on what they need to work on, so they'll be rested and ready for MAC play. I'm still pretty optimistic for MAC play (possibly even over .500 in conference).
For crying out loud, Ricardo Patton may have meaningful input on schedule construction, but he is not the guy who is picking the dates and times of games. How is he supposed to make sure there isn't a lengthy layoff?? I can't fault him for the OOC portion of the schedule.
Lets face it. MAC basketball remains among the most pathetic brands of basketball in nation. And the MAC West is horrificly bad. So yes, there is decent chance NIU will do decent in the MAC this year. Is that saying much? No. But at least it is something to hang our hat on.
I only shudder to think what home attendance is going to be like in January and February. We may not break the 1,000 mark on more than a handful of occasions.
I do fault NIU for a schedule that had team wandering across the map early, coming home to SIU, then going on road to play a forminable opponent then not play again for nearly a month before opening MAC play.
It's plainly D U M B .
The bigger question is whether or not NIU learned anything from the experience to avoid next season. I cannot think of any schedule worse to dampen player confidence or fan support.
I see it as a "mini-offseason"
Not a bad thing if you ask me. Time to work on the basic fundamentals and get ready for conference play after fixing what was wrong against non-conf opponents.
(12-30-2008 11:36 PM)rabidawg900 Wrote: [ -> ]I see it as a "mini-offseason"
Not a bad thing if you ask me. Time to work on the basic fundamentals and get ready for conference play after fixing what was wrong against non-conf opponents.
I really agree here, it's not like we were setting the world ablaze and it's a shame we are cooling off. We needed this little stretch here and I think it will only pay off for us in MAC play.
I agree with the mini-offseason idea... nothing wrong with that at all with this exceptionally young team. But why not schedule 2 winnable home games? 2 games in 21 days is still a huge break with lots of practice time. Play New Jersey Institute of Technology and Aurora U or something. Practice AND give the guys some confidence with a couple W's.
(12-31-2008 12:25 PM)NIUtrav09 Wrote: [ -> ]I agree with the mini-offseason idea... nothing wrong with that at all with this exceptionally young team. But why not schedule 2 winnable home games? 2 games in 21 days is still a huge break with lots of practice time. Play New Jersey Institute of Technology and Aurora U or something. Practice AND give the guys some confidence with a couple W's.
I can tell you that they are working REALLY HARD this week. Coach Patton is working on getting things shored up before MAC play and the intensity level has been high. While Ty and the rest of the guys are really sore and exhausted, he said it's been good stuff and what they need to work on defensively especially. They are turning it up a notch with this time off getting ready for the conference season. They can't simulate an actual game to make up for what others are getting, but rest assured that intensity and effort have been simulated this week! With the time available, it is a good time for the guys to go hard and still have another week to prepare for MAC play.
(12-31-2008 07:56 PM)Coach Storm Wrote: [ -> ] (12-31-2008 12:25 PM)NIUtrav09 Wrote: [ -> ]I agree with the mini-offseason idea... nothing wrong with that at all with this exceptionally young team. But why not schedule 2 winnable home games? 2 games in 21 days is still a huge break with lots of practice time. Play New Jersey Institute of Technology and Aurora U or something. Practice AND give the guys some confidence with a couple W's.
I can tell you that they are working REALLY HARD this week. Coach Patton is working on getting things shored up before MAC play and the intensity level has been high. While Ty and the rest of the guys are really sore and exhausted, he said it's been good stuff and what they need to work on defensively especially. They are turning it up a notch with this time off getting ready for the conference season. They can't simulate an actual game to make up for what others are getting, but rest assured that intensity and effort have been simulated this week! With the time available, it is a good time for the guys to go hard and still have another week to prepare for MAC play.
I'm not questioning the fact that the team is getting lots of good practice in right now. But 21 days without a game is a mistake.
(01-02-2009 02:04 PM)NIUtrav09 Wrote: [ -> ]I'm not questioning the fact that the team is getting lots of good practice in right now. But 21 days without a game is a mistake.
I agree. It's too long, and I honestly don't recall seeing anybody ever go that long in the middle of a season without playing a game, at least not where it was originally scheduled like that.
It would seem to me like you're almost starting the season completely over when they do go back to playing games and I don't think that's what you want to be doing in early/mid-January.
We will find out Saturday. I have a bad feeling that this will be like a first game complete with all the jitters and having to relearn how to play that way just as UIHuskie stated. Toledo will be game ready when they come to Dekalb on Saturday. How can our guys be after not playing for so long? Practice is different no matter what you do during it.
Until Ricardo Patton is able to identify at least a semi-solution at point guard this team will struggle badly. Michael Patton is not the answer. The problem is I have hard time seeing anybody on this current roster being the answer. In hindsight Patton should have identified a band-aid solution via recruiting somebody out of the juco ranks. But that didnt' happen and we are left with the mess on hand.
(01-06-2009 12:14 AM)rabidawg900 Wrote: [ -> ]CMU played an exhibition game today. Why didn't we do that?
http://www.cmuchippewas.com//ViewArticle...ID=3640865
Good thing is that Toledo is on a 6-game losing streak.
Toledo might be on a 6 game losing streak but they have played a top 30 sos, and hung with URI tonight the same team that blew Akron by 30 and lossed at Duke by only three. Toledo is a much better team than the record indicates.
That knowledge along with the layoff is concerning. NIU must find a way to play like they haven't had a layoff and better than they were vs. Loyola to head into break. Otherwise we will struggle in our MAC home opener on Saturday. Hopefully the Huskies come out and play well!