I attended the game last night and enjoy coming to the campus to watch a game every year (WMU is in town).

I think Montgomery and NIU will be fine, in time.

Physically the Huskies lack an inside presence, though I like the play of the one Gray brother. However, he would be a world of a difference better if there was someone he could play off of. Alone, he is over matched.

Nader has talent but seems to lack heart. A shooter who will only excel if he is on. If not, he doesnt attempt to get is vibe back by excelling in any other area. Good players will use defense, rebounding, making assists to get their primary skill working if it is currrently sputtering.

Bowie seemed athletic enough but is a role player. Your three headed point guard is fine but not difference makers. Bolin is skilled and seems willing but played as if he were rudderless. Going with the flow. Not a flow changer.

Highsmith should make a difference. He excells with the ball in his hands. Though he scores well in HS he is more than capable in dishing to others. However, those others need to be able to make shots or he will need to finish everytime. That isnt a good prospect in a balanced and competitive league. One kid isnt going to beat 5.

If the big kid transfer someone referred to can make a difference particularly on defense and on the glass a kid like Gray will bloom and Nader could find himself more in transition with open space (which suites his psyche). Add Highsmith pushing the ball with the ability to finish or get it to Nader or Bolin on the break NIU wont be limited to trying and grind it out in each possession.

Just my two cents.

Gobaseline, you are right on everything you said. We need a guy bigger than the Grays. Even if, he is a stiff and can only rebound and hustle. The grays then will be guarded by and guard someone their size. Most likely it will also create a mismatch for Nader. We are easy to guard because no one can penetrate and dish or score and there is no threat inside. Coaches make the schedule not the AD.

I'm hoping that the giant transfer isn't a stiff next year. Then the Grays could play forward rather than center, and it would make them a lot better. Much better matchups.

I see very very little to create hope. Bad mix of players that have similar weaknesses. We should have hired Coach Mo again.

(01-20-2013 05:01 PM)NIU75 Wrote:  NIU RPI is 304 out of 347 and we are still losing. Imagine if JC toughen up our schedule and we stop playing Judson. We are ranked lower than Chicago State which is 296. That is how bad we are.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/...=5&group=2


RPI Rankings
The RPI (Rating Percentage Index) is a measure of strength of schedule and how a team does against that schedule. Created in 1981, the RPI is a tool used in selecting and seeding the 68 teams for the NCAA Men's basketball Division I tournament. RPI data includes games against Division I schools only.

I'd pay big money to watch an NIU-Chicago State matchup. That would be kickass.

Chicago St -2 1/2

To me the similarities between the NIU football team in the first years of the Novak era and the current incarnation of NIU basketball are striking. My only question is how patient will Compher be if the basketball team has similar results in the first three years as Novak's first 3 football teams did.

(01-20-2013 10:12 PM)BarsemaBone2 Wrote:  To me the similarities between the NIU football team in the first years of the Novak era and the current incarnation of NIU basketball are striking. My only question is how patient will Compher be if the basketball team has similar results in the first three years as Novak's first 3 football teams did.

As an outsider...I would say he deserves year 3 no matter what. Getting to year 4 requires SOME progress in the win column...even if it's getting to .500

(01-20-2013 10:12 PM)BarsemaBone2 Wrote:  To me the similarities between the NIU football team in the first years of the Novak era and the current incarnation of NIU basketball are striking. My only question is how patient will Compher be if the basketball team has similar results in the first three years as Novak's first 3 football teams did.

Yeah, there has been progress, just so slowly it's easy to overreact.

Still prefer Chick Evans field house.
Convo is the biggest single waist of money in NIU athletics history.
NIU at Chick Evans was once known as a BB school.

The Convo was to greatly help recruiting?
All it did was raise student tuition and take money away from renovating H.S.?

(01-20-2013 10:12 PM)BarsemaBone2 Wrote:  To me the similarities between the NIU football team in the first years of the Novak era and the current incarnation of NIU basketball are striking. My only question is how patient will Compher be if the basketball team has similar results in the first three years as Novak's first 3 football teams did.

I question how patient Monty will be if that's the case. In many ways, this situation is worse than what Novak inherited, and I fear Monty is already starting to wonder what other options are out there...

(01-20-2013 10:50 PM)sterling1man Wrote:  Still prefer Chick Evans field house.
Convo is the biggest single waist of money in NIU athletics history.
NIU at Chick Evans was once known as a BB school.

The Convo was to greatly help recruiting?
All it did was raise student tuition and take money away from renovating H.S.?

sigh. I hate this argument. Chick Evans was a very good venue. But it was inline with WIU/EIU's field houses. Yeah the location was nice, yeah it was great when there was a crowd, but it was unimpressive to anyone other than Huskie Fans. And you quickly forget the first years the convo was open and Judson had a team that won the MAC West and the Conference. The place was rockin'. The single best NIU BB game I've seen was when we beat K State and the place was insane. I hope that someday it will be like that again.

(01-21-2013 09:54 AM)thehappyhuskie Wrote:  

(01-20-2013 10:50 PM)sterling1man Wrote:  Still prefer Chick Evans field house.
Convo is the biggest single waist of money in NIU athletics history.
NIU at Chick Evans was once known as a BB school.

The Convo was to greatly help recruiting?
All it did was raise student tuition and take money away from renovating H.S.?

sigh. I hate this argument. Chick Evans was a very good venue. But it was inline with WIU/EIU's field houses. Yeah the location was nice, yeah it was great when there was a crowd, but it was unimpressive to anyone other than Huskie Fans. And you quickly forget the first years the convo was open and Judson had a team that won the MAC West and the Conference. The place was rockin'. The single best NIU BB game I've seen was when we beat K State and the place was insane. I hope that someday it will be like that again.

Our BB program may be inline with WIU/EIU, however we waist allot more money over it then those school do, which means higher student tuition. NIU stadiums only need to meet the needs of Huskie Fans. Paying tens of millions of dollars for a big white elephant, with a good memory which does not compare to Chick Evans field house memories
is a historical mistake of epic proportions that should not be repeated.
Remember when NIU beat Wisconsin-Madison the year they went to the final four!
What is more important for NIU fans?
Impressing non-Huskie fans by losing in modern facilities or winning games in Spartan like environments?

(01-21-2013 12:05 PM)sterling1man Wrote:  Our BB program may be inline with WIU/EIU, however we waist allot more money over it then those school do, which means higher student tuition. NIU stadiums only need to meet the needs of Huskie Fans. Paying tens of millions of dollars for a big white elephant, with a good memory which does not compare to Chick Evans field house memories
is a historical mistake of epic proportions that should not be repeated.
Remember when NIU beat Wisconsin-Madison the year they went to the final four!
What is more important for NIU fans?
Impressing non-Huskie fans by losing in modern facilities or winning games in Spartan like environments?

NIU vs WIU athletic fee is $17.49 higher per semester for a 15 credit hour load.

That $17.49 happens to include a FBS football program for NIU instead of FCS for WIU.

http://www.wiu.edu/catalog/admission/tuition.php

http://www.niu.edu/bursar/tuition/sp13.shtml

(01-20-2013 05:47 PM)HuskieJ Wrote:  We should have hired Coach Mo again.

This. WIU was in even worse shape than NIU when he arrived (I don't think they've ever made the NCAAs), and he's turned them into a Summit leader after 3 or 4 years. It's his 3rd such remarkable rebuilding job, and it didn't happen overnight. I don't know if he would have wanted to come back to DeKalb though, being a retread, plus the fact he lives in Peoria and I don't think he wanted to move, so WIU was a more convenient final stop for him.

You have to give Montgomery 4 years. If after that time, with his own recruited seasoned players and distinctive culture in place, he's still not winning, then he should go.

(01-21-2013 12:21 PM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  

(01-21-2013 12:05 PM)sterling1man Wrote:  Our BB program may be inline with WIU/EIU, however we waist allot more money over it then those school do, which means higher student tuition. NIU stadiums only need to meet the needs of Huskie Fans. Paying tens of millions of dollars for a big white elephant, with a good memory which does not compare to Chick Evans field house memories
is a historical mistake of epic proportions that should not be repeated.
Remember when NIU beat Wisconsin-Madison the year they went to the final four!
What is more important for NIU fans?
Impressing non-Huskie fans by losing in modern facilities or winning games in Spartan like environments?

NIU vs WIU athletic fee is $17.49 higher per semester for a 15 credit hour load.

That $17.49 happens to include a FBS football program for NIU instead of FCS for WIU.

http://www.wiu.edu/catalog/admission/tuition.php

http://www.niu.edu/bursar/tuition/sp13.shtml

Are you saying that we did not raise student tuition to pay for our convocation White elephant? What do these two schools charge for tuition?

(01-21-2013 12:26 PM)Max Power Wrote:  

(01-20-2013 05:47 PM)HuskieJ Wrote:  We should have hired Coach Mo again.

This. WIU was in even worse shape than NIU when he arrived (I don't think they've ever made the NCAAs), and he's turned them into a Summit leader after 3 or 4 years. It's his 3rd such remarkable rebuilding job, and it didn't happen overnight. I don't know if he would have wanted to come back to DeKalb though, being a retread, plus the fact he lives in Peoria and I don't think he wanted to move, so WIU was a more convenient final stop for him.

You have to give Montgomery 4 years. If after that time, with his own recruited seasoned players and distinctive culture in place, he's still not winning, then he should go.

Coach Molinari led us to the big dance. How many years has it been since NIU BB went to the Big dance?

(01-21-2013 12:32 PM)sterling1man Wrote:  

(01-21-2013 12:26 PM)Max Power Wrote:  

(01-20-2013 05:47 PM)HuskieJ Wrote:  We should have hired Coach Mo again.

This. WIU was in even worse shape than NIU when he arrived (I don't think they've ever made the NCAAs), and he's turned them into a Summit leader after 3 or 4 years. It's his 3rd such remarkable rebuilding job, and it didn't happen overnight. I don't know if he would have wanted to come back to DeKalb though, being a retread, plus the fact he lives in Peoria and I don't think he wanted to move, so WIU was a more convenient final stop for him.

You have to give Montgomery 4 years. If after that time, with his own recruited seasoned players and distinctive culture in place, he's still not winning, then he should go.

Coach Molinari led us to the big dance. How many years has it been since NIU BB went to the Big dance?

1996 was the last time.

Silver lining...Toledo hasn't been since 1980.

Can't believe some people are bailing on MM already. He may suck, but it's still way too early.

Also, you can count me in as somebody who thinks the Convo was a waste of money. They designed that place all wrong.

(01-21-2013 12:55 PM)7 Wrote:  Can't believe some people are bailing on MM already. He may suck, but it's still way too early.

Also, you can count me in as somebody who thinks the Convo was a waste of money. They designed that place all wrong.

We have been down this path a few times. Building was put together by incompetent people in Athletic Admin at the time. Designed and built around a track that was not even regulation in size. You could have made a much better building for a lot less.