Any reports from yesterday or today?

(06-07-2017 05:36 PM)HUSKIEFOOTBALLFAN Wrote:  Any reports from yesterday or today?

I guess this tells you a lot about apathy and the current state of NIU football.

I was also at the Two Brothers event. Small crowd (it was never that big, but a little smaller than usual, maybe 20 people that weren't NIU coaches or staff). I seem to recall they had name tags last year unless I'm misremembering, but not this year. The silent auction items were basically tickets to games except for a wine and 2 glasses kit and one other set of tickets, scarf, hat, etc. Oh, and a jersey. Kind of limited (although I don't need any more signed footballs anyway). And it said cash or check only, which I didn't have a checkbook with me so didn't bid on them. One person bought most of the items I think. I believe last year they sold raffle tickets and you put them in containers next to the items you wanted.

Neither football nor basketball did good last year and those would be the teams that would prompt interest in an event like this. Or, the event has simply gotten to the "been there, done that" phase.

Food was ok, they had burger sliders, BBQ pork sliders, some little taco-like contraptions, and a few other things I didn't eat. Not bad if you only paid $5 to get in, and not a terrible deal for $10 either. No complaints there (better than cold hot dogs and chips)

I am going tomorrow and I will give an update.
I hope we can ask questions.

(06-07-2017 10:56 PM)huskie1stdown Wrote:  I am going tomorrow and I will give an update.
I hope we can ask questions.

After all the coaches talk they opened it up for questions, at our session, as they did in prior years.

(06-07-2017 10:56 PM)huskie1stdown Wrote:  I am going tomorrow and I will give an update.
I hope we can ask questions.

If you feel brave enough, ask about the schedule.

1) Only two Saturday games
2) Two and possibly three weekday games starting at 6 pm (inconvenient for those coming from Chicago and does nothing for DeKalb businesses)
3) Friday game starting at 8:30 pm
4) Tell Sean that we need a fan friendly schedule
5) Then ask to Take Back The MAC!

I went tonight. Small turnout. Spoke to the Women's Softball coach and she said last night was packed. All the coaches were present except Track coaches (Oregon) and Volleyball. Gooden is in Texas so an Assistant came. They each spoke about their teams and the accomplishments they had. I was able to ask 1 question and it was about red shirts playing 4 games. Carey thinks it will pass and he is for it. They don't know if it will be the first 4 games or spread out. I asked him on the side about the early signing period and he said this in place and he is not for it. Carey said you are recruiting junior's early in the year and they really don't know what they want. Talked to him about Florida kids and that it seems we get some good and some that don't pan out. Carey said that Chicago has as much top talent as Florida but Florida is way deeper. He said we get good and ones that don't pan out all over. I talked to Brad Hoey about Head Coaches being younger. Oklahoma has a 33 year old now and Brad could see someone in their late 20's becoming one. He told me that were looking at PJ when he was way younger. Did not know that NIU was serious about him. Spent 20 minutes with the Softball coach and was so impressed that I told her I will be making a donation to the team because of it. A woman asked about the Big12. Paraphrasing Frazier forget about it. At the end everybody watched Hope finish first in the Steeplechase race and gave her a rousing ovation!
They came in a Van Galder bus and were looking forward to the summer. I even saw the NIU football truck. That was it. Great Night to be a Huskie in my opinion.

Great update, thanks.

Not to be a downer but I have to imagine they cancel or reinvent these kickoff events next year. Unless football or men's basketball surprises you're going to have low attendance. It sounds like the Downer's Grove event was the only one with decent turnout.

(06-09-2017 08:30 AM)armour248 Wrote:  Not to be a downer but I have to imagine they cancel or reinvent these kickoff events next year. Unless football or men's basketball surprises you're going to have low attendance. It sounds like the Downer's Grove event was the only one with decent turnout.

Was this the first year this event was in DG or immediate area?

(06-09-2017 08:57 AM)HuskieJohn Wrote:  

(06-09-2017 08:30 AM)armour248 Wrote:  Not to be a downer but I have to imagine they cancel or reinvent these kickoff events next year. Unless football or men's basketball surprises you're going to have low attendance. It sounds like the Downer's Grove event was the only one with decent turnout.

Was this the first year this event was in DG or immediate area?

I believe so...No Schaumburg this year.

I also agree with armour248's point about the viability of these events.
There's a tremendous amount of time and effort by NIU & coaches but if the attendance isn't there.....

Early June is a busy with graduations...weddings...beginning of summer for folks to take time to attend.

My problem is on first few days of month. People in corporate accounting are closing books. Hard to get away

One other thing. Monty hinted that he wants to play more uptempo this year.
He was talking about the Women's team averaging 85 a game and it would take the Men 2 games to get to 85.
I hope it is true but I will believe it when I see it.

The men scored 72pts a game and the women scored 85pts per game. Here is a surprising stat: The men's fg% was 438 and the women's was 429. The women scored more by basically making more 3's and one more free-throw a game than men. Monty always says he wants to be more up tempo. I believe he has the roster to do it but we shall see.