CSNbbs

Thought what the hey ... so ...

MBB 6 p.m. tonight @ Akron ESPN+

Wednesday 6 p.m. WBB @ CMU ESPN+

Akron is undefeated at home and their D1 record is 6-5 with the five losses to teams ranked 37 to 75. The Zips NET rank is 132 while ours is 294. Trendon Hankerson will be playing but unfortunately for us he now plays for Akron.

-Trendon; 9.5 pts per game, 4.5 rebs and 3pt % 4.14
-the other guard Castaneda 19.5 pts per game, 4.5 rebs and 3pt % .413
-the big man Freeman 12.7 pts per game, 10 rbs but 0 for 1 in 3pt attempts

Don't let Hankerson get hot and slow down the big man (not easy for the Huskies) and we might have a chance on the road.

GO HUSKIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Big litmus test for MBB.

Poor men's team can't play any games at home. Played a bunch of road games in OOC and now start the conference season with multiple road games.

Twenty of 25 o-o-c games on the road since Burno got here. That's obviously the plan: any paydays are paying the bills and keeping the lights on. Nine of the 18 MAC games are home, so there's the 50-50.

Akrons leading scorer 19pts a game is out. Sucks that Hankerson is on Akron

Guessing Amos is done for the year- was excited to see him develop this year

Freeman is almost unstoppable right now. Konan is all over him (and probably fouling him) and he makes everything.

I know everyone fell in love with Eastern Michigan and the new player but this Akron team is going to be hard beat out for the top spot in the conference.

(01-03-2023 08:38 PM)ChicagoHuskie Wrote: [ -> ]Guessing Amos is done for the year- was excited to see him develop this year

He was reportedly in a walking boot before the holidays, correct?

I'm also not sure how many games can be played to still qualify for a redshirt.

(01-03-2023 08:41 PM)Big Red Wrote: [ -> ]Freeman is almost unstoppable right now. Konan is all over him (and probably fouling him) and he makes everything.

I know everyone fell in love with Eastern Michigan and the new player but this Akron team is going to be hard beat out for the top spot in the conference.

+1

This is a Jekyll and Hyde team. There are going to be nights where they look absolutely terrible (tonight) and then there will be nights where they look like contenders for the conference (the EIU night). And, unfortunately, we have no idea which team is going to show up.

Turnovers continue to be the Achille's Heel of this team. At the time of this comment, Akron has scored 24 points off turnovers (to NIU's 6). Even if you cut that number in half, it's still way in favor of Akron but the overall score is so much closer, plus every time there's a turnover, it's a guaranteed 0 points on our side.

Tonight, the TO culprit is everyone. No one has more than 3 and only 3 guys have 0.

Until the turnovers get under control, this team is going to continue to struggle most nights. Luckily, there are enough crappy MAC teams to help keep us in games.

I really wish Russell would come back because I'm 100% over Kaleb Thornton.

Huskies don’t have enough scoring. Coit is like a slow little old man and has trouble getting a shot when someone actually guards him. Hankerson wanted a shot at being in march madness and there was zero chance that was going to happen at NIU. Burno is basically having the same career as Montgomery here. Williams and Amos will be hard to keep here. Huskies must have a more friendly non conference schedule next year or it’s over for Burno. This schedule no matter who came up with it has been so unfair to the team.

Free beer tomorrow

Where is the free beer?

(01-03-2023 09:21 PM)CollegeMan33 Wrote: [ -> ]Where is the free beer?

Everywhere. Just be there tomorrow.

I wonder how much of this is the "people impact" of an o-o-c schedule with 19 of 24* games on the road thus far in the Burno regime. We all know that $ is paramount in an athletic budget that is dipping toward the high-FCS/D1 level, and that bball road games are one way to dribble (pun intended) cash into the coffers.

But 10 of 13 o-o-c on the road this year and 9 of 11 (2 Chicago games count as roads) last year is a huge local "absence."

Starting off a season with a home exhibition and then it's mostly bye-bye until January is no way to acclimate the players or the fans/campus to the team. Even with 500 or so in attendance, it's still home with at least the semblance of home atmosphere, no travel, being around campus between games, etc.

Hard to measure. And maybe this dovetails with athletics' lack of even an on-campus marketing mentality.

But that isn't Step One. If you want to market to gain attendance -- here comes the shocker -- you first have to have games to attend. Otherwise, keep moving, nothing happening, nothing to see here. And/or just wait 'til the conference season starts ... at least half of those are at home.

This may be way-out psychobabble but I was just wonderin'.

(* Corrected numbers from earlier post. Does not include exhibition games)

So when would one expect burno to start competing? I thought we would have seen some improvement this season. Next year you have to see an improvement atleast be .500

(01-04-2023 12:10 AM)HuskiePride12 Wrote: [ -> ]So when would one expect burno to start competing? I thought we would have seen some improvement this season. Next year you have to see an improvement atleast be .500

Realistically next year but also, you'd want to see signs of it this year (last half of conference schedule). Obviously, making the MACT would be a good step in that direction.

He doesn't lose much next year (sans anyone who decides to transfers but at this point in time, I wouldn't want to speculate because it'd be just guessing and Facebook level rumors). He has one guy (HS Senior) committed for next year who looks interesting and a lot of lines in the water for other guys to bring in. Not much in the way of JUCO guys but it's way too early for him to really show anything there.

Anyway, if he can keep the main core together another year and add another big and a tall G/F type and probably another couple of guards, then he should be able to have a competitive and hopefully more consistent squad next year. You'd have to think with Coit and Nutter having a year under their belt at this level plus a year on Konan (if he can stop getting hurt), you've got something to look at and say...hey...that looks interesting.

But, imo, this year is going to be a lot of ups and downs hopefully building toward a competitive squad. If you look at Monty's last team, which was only 2 seasons ago, there is exactly 2 hold overs from that squad (not named Drew Wiemers). Crump and Thornton and I think this board is collectively done with both of those guys. Crump is what he is and has actually probably gotten better under Burno but he's still Crump. Thornton on the other hand...he's regressed. I can't really tell but it kind of looks to me like an attitude issue. He was always a speedy flea who dished bullets around the court. Too many of them clanked off foreheads and whizzed by guys who weren't ready for it but I always said, if Thornton is on the floor and you are even marginally open, be ready because the ball will be coming your way.

But he doesn't do that as much anymore and he shoots a lot more and that is him moving away from his strengths.

Anyway, as soon as Russell gets back (no idea what is wrong with him), then I'd much rather see him on the floor for all of Thornton's minutes.

I hope Burno can have some success but I personally feel Monty was getting much better players here and it took him 9 years to just become the 4th seed for the MAC tournament. NIU has had enough talent to win the MAC recently just not at the same time and some injuries have hurt. Imagine if this years Huskies had Bradley and Maric on it they probably could be very good. Maybe Burno is a better coach than Monty what could Burno have done with the talent Monty got here?