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Post by thevampire5 on Jan 21, 2024 12:18:39 GMT -6
There’s just no excuse for a 50 point beatdown. ISUr, Valpo, and Mo State all got blown out but kept it within 20 of them. There’s no reason we shouldn’t have been capable of that too. Poor gameplan combined with a lack of heart and effort from the players led to that outcome. Both players and staff need to be a hell of a lot better on Tuesday night. 💯
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Post by thevampire5 on Jan 21, 2024 12:21:22 GMT -6
Many examples of new coaches coming in and having immediate success. This shouldn’t be a 10 year plan here like the NFL Colts. Bowling Green is 14-4 and lead their league. New coach. Last year they were 11-20. If you don’t demand excellence, you will not achieve it. Ragland can talk about a process all he wants and learning how to win. That’s hogwash. It’s not hard. Fight like hell, be committed and expect and demand all out effort and you do not lose by 50. I don’t care who you are. There’s an accountability issue on this team. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see it. Excuses are like buttholes, everybody’s got one. 💯
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Post by 6thman on Jan 21, 2024 16:11:46 GMT -6
Quick Make a call to UHSP and book a game so we can win again. 3.5 months into the schedule and it went to lemon so yall got puckered up. 1st season for the coach and there are call for a change. Yes a bad loss hurts but... suck it up buttercups and hang on. Take that D-3 crap and put it where it'll never see the light of day again!
two teams we haven't met in action and one we recently beat are left in the schedule. Illinois State this Saturday and UIC twice and Valpo . These are winnable games Belmont and SIU are both away game and have a split record.
There are possible 3 loss to the leaders of the conference.
Is Ben back? Will he ever play again?
If the team can't play like a team it'll be a longer 24-25 season.
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Post by evilleintentions on Jan 21, 2024 17:41:05 GMT -6
2nd season. Again, the crime of low expectations, lack of accountability, and the ‘we’ll get ‘em next year’ syndrome.
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Post by acesslover on Jan 21, 2024 18:41:37 GMT -6
In this day and age, with the facilities likely being the best in the MVC, there is no excuse for losing by 50 even to Purdue at Mackey (of which we’d likely lose by 100).
This is a division 1 MVC team. We have lost several games by more than 40 in our own league over the last couple of years. It can not be this hard to figure out. I am sick as hell of acting like lil ole Evansville who can’t possible complete resource-wise with the rest of the league.
And don’t you dare say the fans need to step up. What in the hell has this program shown to be worthy of any support over the last 20 years? Disgusting the way it’s been handled and in all likelihood we should seriously consider a move to the Horizon or OVC. We just can not hang at this level from a basketball standpoint.
Coach Ragland as much as I admire his attitude and hard work is not cut out for this. We needed to step up and hire someone who’s been a head coach before and preferably had some success at building a program.
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Post by ad1770 on Jan 21, 2024 19:10:10 GMT -6
Here is the thing. I keep hearing everyone on here saying Kenny should sit, Gage should sit, Haffner should sit, and so forth and so on. It seems that the consensus is that the five playing the most is Cuff, Bailey, Ben (if healthy), Hughes, and Toumi. I’ll say it like this. If you are saying everyone above needs to sit, then you should be saying that Toumi should be riding the pine as well. Numbers do not lie:
Toumi playing in non con games (11 games) 132 total points (12 PPG), 18 assists (1.6 APG), 13 turnovers (1.2 TOPG), while shooting 62% from the field (59-95)
Toumi in conference games (8 games): 74 total points (9.25 PPG), 13 assists (1.6 APG), 26 turnovers (3.25 TOPG), while shooting 48% from the field (31-64)
Toumi has become a turnover machine in conference games, and is not picking up the assists. Basically, he was in on 7 FGs a game, while only giving away the ball only once per game in NC.
In conference play, he is only contributing on 5.5 FGs a game while giving it away over 3 times a game.
Unfortunately, he has reverted to “hero ball” instead of looking to pass from the top of the key, and the free throw line. Defenders are staying on him when he gets it knowing he will do one of two things:
1) He takes a contested shot that is less likely to be made, or
2) He turns the ball over trying to dribble the ball.
These are the same problems we saw out of him last season, and I swore he had it fixed in Non-con, as he was making the right decision on when to pass (if the defender pressed up on him, he was passing the ball to the cutter, and if they sagged, he would dribble to the basket, or take his midrange jumper.
In conference, if he gets pressed, instead of passing to a cutter (and I have seen plenty of times that the cutter had their man beat, and Toumi didn’t even look their way), and immediately starts trying to beat his man to the basket. Honestly, he should be averaging over 3 assists a game if he would look to pass to the cutter from the high post, and it would free up his midrange jump shot that he loves.
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Post by austinace on Jan 21, 2024 19:34:48 GMT -6
Good analysis ad1770 on Yacine. I'm guessing some of this can be attributed to him trying to do too much with Ben out in five of our conference games.
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Post by 6thman on Jan 21, 2024 19:44:37 GMT -6
I believe it's a lack of Ben.
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Post by wags102 on Jan 21, 2024 21:22:15 GMT -6
I understand the frustration from fans who are tired of the constant losing, especially this recent stretch. It is incredibly tough to win consistently on the road in conference play unless you are a blue blood program. However, there is no excuse for this team, with or without Ben, to lose a game by 49 points. Without Ben, the execution has been non-existent on both ends of the floor and there are times where it appears mental and physical toughness with this group lacks incredibly. That is the challenge that Ragland has for the rest of the year in my opinion. How can he get his team to compete at a higher level in conference play? At this point, I am more concerned about that than wins and losses. Certain players have needed to step up with Ben out of the lineup, and they have not done so. Not even close. They were not ready to play in Peoria, at home against Murray, or in Des Moines, and the coaching staff deserves blame. However, the players deserve to have their toughness questioned as well.
This is UE's 30th season in the MVC. UE has 5 winning seasons in MVC play during those 30 years, yes only 5 winning seasons (3 of those winning seasons were in the Crews era). That doesn't even take into account the debacles and mismanagement from previous coaches, AD's, and administration. Again, I completely get the frustration, but to think that Ragland should have this corrected in less than 2 seasons is unrealistic. Whether Ragland can turn this ship in the right direction depends on one thing. Can he bring in recruits that are Valley caliber recruits? Other than Humrichous and Bailey, you could argue there are no other MVC quality players on this current roster. Based on UE's performance in the conference the past 30 years, UE has failed to bring in Valley quality recruits way more often than not.
I believe in Ragland and think he deserves another season to bring in recruits that best fit his vision for the program and this conference. I believe Ragland and the coaching staff know the caliber of player they need to recruit, but getting them to commit to the program is a much taller task. These continued beat downs in conference play do not help matters. If he can't find ways to boost recruiting in a way this program hasn't seen in decades, we will continue to live in Groundhog Day. We can debate heart, toughness, X's and O's, etc. until we are blue in the face, but until UE recruits better players, this fan frustration will continue.
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Post by evilleintentions on Jan 21, 2024 21:33:11 GMT -6
Maybe the coach is looking in the wrong places. He has Dunham, a local kid who would be an upgrade over any guard we currently have, but he’s not good enough? The kid would commit in a minute. He can shoot the ball also, something that is sorely lacking on this team. Hilarious that Lickliter thought the same thing of Isaiah Swope and look at how he turned out. There’s been players to be had. We just keep recruiting the wrong ones.
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Post by wags102 on Jan 21, 2024 22:33:51 GMT -6
Maybe the coach is looking in the wrong places. He has Dunham, a local kid who would be an upgrade over any guard we currently have, but he’s not good enough? The kid would commit in a minute. He can shoot the ball also, something that is sorely lacking on this team. Hilarious that Lickliter thought the same thing of Isaiah Swope and look at how he turned out. There’s been players to be had. We just keep recruiting the wrong ones. Maybe the coaches haven't been looking in the right places, but I believe this staff knows the type of players they need to compete in the Valley. Ragland had no time to fill roster openings last year and he inherited a roster full of guys who had no business playing Division 1 basketball. He needs some more time. I don't know enough people in the recruiting trails to know who they should be offering. I have not personally seen Dunham play, but I have seen where he has performed well this year and shot lights out. However, Haffner shot pretty darn well last year in his first year of Division 1 play. That has not translated into too much success this year on either side of the ball. Does the increase in competition, size, and athleticism in the Valley every night have something to do with that? It is quite possible. Shooting is obviously something that needs to improve drastically on the recruiting trail. However, the Valley is a physical conference. You need shooting, but you must have guys who also have size, length, quickness, and athleticism to defend and create scoring opportunities for themselves. Some how, UE needs to find these types of players. Whether Dunham is a player that can help UE in the future is up to Rags and the gang. Missing out on Swope was a huge mistake, but I think we can both agree Ragland is a better evaluator of potential and talent than Todd Lickliter.
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Post by acesfan65 on Jan 22, 2024 9:06:04 GMT -6
I had to take Valpo and the points again, they covered against UE and are underdogs at home to UIC. Go Crusader Beacons I would like to think UE can cover 18 pts, but not putting my money on it. Go Aces Good choice. I doubt that we have covered the spread (or even come close) when Ben has not played. Austinace, I was right about Valpo covering against UIC, Valpo seems like they are trending up. But my statement about UE covering against Drake was with Ben playing at least 10 min. I thought the UE team that beat Valpo had a chance to hold Drake under 20. As soon as the announcement came out that Ben wasn't dressed, I made a wager that Drake would cover and then some and boy howdy! Hopefully Ben gets healthy, the team needs him dressed out to win, he is the obvious leader of this squad dressed out or not.
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Post by municup14 on Jan 22, 2024 10:56:32 GMT -6
Toumi is a turnover machine when he has the ball with less than 10 seconds on the shot clock. But our players need to be moving and talking also.
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Post by purpleaces on Jan 22, 2024 11:38:50 GMT -6
When you only have 3 maybe 4 Valley type players your not going to win very many games.
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Post by indymoon on Jan 22, 2024 12:46:58 GMT -6
Toumi is a turnover machine when he has the ball with less than 10 seconds on the shot clock. But our players need to be moving and talking also. You can't spell Toumi without TO.
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