(10-31-2022 10:54 PM)pvk75 Wrote: Illinois-Springfield will be a more important test than it should be (Monday, Nov. 7, 7 p.m., ESPN3/+). It's also a DII from the GLVC. That one's not an exhibition.
With those Canadian games, extra practices and this one, we should expect even the newcomers to gel pretty fast, and a basic gameplan to emerge. (Box score, btw, showed 467 attendance).
Burno comment from official website: " ... We haven't played an opponent since Canada, so we showed some rust. I'm happy with the outcome, more so than the score. These guys battled, we went down five and you could easily fold tent and get down on yourselves, blame each other. But those guys battled. I knew we were mentally tough going into this game, so I was really proud to see that."
OK, I'll give Burno that. Winning is what matters. We fans expected a blowout vs a DII and didn't get it. Repeat ... the next one's not an exhibition.
Note: after Ill-Spring, and a trip to Northwestern (11-11), NIU hosts Purdue Northwest on 11-14, another DII in the GLIAC). This is not a world-beater schedule like last year. Draw your own prognostications.
Hopefully the gelling comes quickly. With that said, out of the 14 guys on the roster, 7 of them have never played any competition above JUCO and of the guys with D-1 experience, that's including guys like Durosinmi (9 games...most of which were 1 or 2 minute exposures) and Drew Wiemers.
And, I'm not sure as I wasn't in attendance, but Niederhauser didn't seem to be dressed last night as he didn't show up on the scorecard.
A game like last night is definitely a way for coach to get guys playing together against some form of competent competition but yeah, you'd like to see the talent level pull away from McKendree much more than it did. Next Monday should reveal a lot, but I'm far from making any sweeping grandiose proclamations on this squad until probably January.
I will say that it appears Nutter and Coit are going to be prominent players and they both showed the ability to score last night but I expect Coit's success rate to increase with play. He didn't shoot well from the arc until late. Williams also didn't shoot much from outside (only 1 three, which he missed). So, it's unclear what the objectives were last night but with so many newcomers and guys who are new to the level, there's going to be some kind of learning curve.
Maybe the lesson learned was, just because you're playing D1, it doesn't mean you can underestimate a motivated opponent from a lower level?
Either way, it wouldn't surprise me to see Thornton start the next game. I wonder if he's truly recovered from the injury last year but he did play 21 minutes last night so, if last night was a test for him, it seems he may have passed. Also because Hunter really doesn't need to be starting. He's fine off the bench. He's competent and reliable. Low ceiling but stable floor. You basically know what you're getting with him and its nothing special but you can basically trust him to be competent.
I'd probably be fine with Russel starting over Thornton too but if they're both going to play roughly 20 minutes, it's probably just as fine to sub those two in and out for each other.
Another box score observation. 73% FT in the 2nd half/down the stretch is at minimum a welcome sight from last year. With Williams, Nutter and Coit, we have some reliable FT shooters. But overall, they just need to be middle of the NCAA pack in shooting and not bottom of the league.
