MVC basketball previews

by **tkjay1** » July 24th, 2011, 6:54 pm

MVC hoops fans--
Bluejay Banter radio show is beginning to preview one team in the Valley each week. Our show is streamed on am 590 in Omaha. Or you can go to bluejaybanter.com to listen to the podcasts. Last week we previewed Drake, on Monday the 25th it will be SIU and the following week it will be Bradley. We have on a mixture of coaches and media members during our preview shows. Feel free to e-mail us with questions you would like asked of guests at bluejaybanter@gmail.com. We will update you when the rest of our preview schedule is set. Thanks

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by **wildjays** » July 27th, 2011, 11:09 am

You guys can nitpick at this if you want, but I put together a little Summer Update for Rush the Court. Let me know what I missed or what I might have wrong. Always open to feedback.

http://rushthecourt.net/2011/07/27/rtc- ... onference/

by **45otseoj** » July 27th, 2011, 2:42 pm

wildjays wrote:You guys can nitpick at this if you want, but I put together a little Summer Update for Rush the Court. Let me know what I missed or what I might have wrong. Always open to feedback.

http://rushthecourt.net/2011/07/27/rtc- ... onference/

A bad schedule does not equate to a bad team. IlSU has had a miserable schedule since Jank came to Normal, but he has put out a decent team 3 out of his first 4 years.

Yes, the team they put on the floor last season was young and weak, but the upside and athleticism was undeniable. The Birds have one of the better young front-courts in the conference, and Jank & Co. brought in the best group of incoming guards in the Valley. With no seniors on this year's roster, I look for IlSU to finish somewhere 5-7 with an optimism going into next season much like MSU this past season.

by **DoubleJayAlum** » July 27th, 2011, 4:30 pm

45otseoj wrote:IlSU has had a miserable schedule since Jank came to Normal, but he has put out a decent team 3 out of his first 4 years.

Yup - with Porter Moser's players.

I think a pretty reasonable argument could be made that Jank underperformed even in his most successful years. He had the consensus best player in the conference in Eldridge and never won a conference title (regular season or MVC tourney) or made the NCAA tournament. One year he had the leading scorer in the conference in OE and the leading rebounder (and defensive POY) in the conference in Odiakosa, yet still failed to win a title or garner an NCAA bid.

In essence he is like Lowery in that all of his success came with players he didn't recruit, yet he can't even boast about the conference titles or NCAA births that are on Lowery's resume.

by **45otseoj** » July 27th, 2011, 7:47 pm

DoubleJayAlum wrote:Yup - with Porter Moser's players.

Porter's players got him fired. Jank took them and made them pretty darn good. Odiakosa was nothing when Jank arrived; he gets credit for molding him. Jank brought in Champ Oguchi (the team's leading scorer) and Lloyd Phillips in his second year; he gets credit for recruiting them. And yes, he gets all the credit and glory for that awful team he put together last year.

Listen, he can't schedule (or chooses not to) and doesn't seem to be a good X and O guy, but people agree that he wins games by the bunch when he has the talent to do so. IMO the talent level will be much improved this season which will lead to many more Valley wins.

Much of this optimism is based on IlSU having the top incoming freshman PG, the top incoming juco SG, and the most successful Chicago-area product since Osiris coming in this season. Jank could be packing up if they don't contribute like many expect them to.

Lowery inherited a much better team than Jank did too.

by **Aargh** » July 28th, 2011, 12:42 am

Many WSU fans have IlSU as their second-favorite team in the Valley. I'm one of those.

IMHO, Jankovich is the worst thing that's happened to IlSU BB since they entered the Valley. He's bad for the entire Valley. IlSU should be at least a top-100 RPI team and a mid-pack MVC team. They had that until they hired Jank.

First, it was the cupcake schedules. Then he led IlSU to play at the level of the cupcake schedule.

A Valley team hiring a coach from KU is risky. I'm confident Jank is justifying his failure as a coach on the fact that he's coaching in the MVC. The "KU attitude" is that there are no teams in the MVC worthy of winning anything. I'm afraid Jank has bought into that and is blaming his failure on the fact that he took a job in the wrong conference.

It's sad for me to see what Jankovich has done to a Redbird program that once was a proud program with a little bit to go to get to "the next level". Jankovich's next level for IlSU is not in the direction I was hoping to see IlSU move.

by **bcg** » July 28th, 2011, 8:01 am

45otseoj wrote: Jank brought in Champ Oguchi (the team's leading scorer)

It looks like you accidently added an "r" in the second word.

by **BirdmanBB** » July 28th, 2011, 8:08 am

Aargh wrote:Many WSU fans have IlSU as their second-favorite team in the Valley. I'm one of those.

IMHO, Jankovich is the worst thing that's happened to IlSU BB since they entered the Valley. He's bad for the entire Valley. IlSU should be at least a top-100 RPI team and a mid-pack MVC team. They had that until they hired Jank.

I appreciate that we are your second favorite team inthe valley and we all know Jank has to win this year or he could be out (especially with a new AD in place). But to make that statement above is crazy. Let's take a look at what ISU had before they hired Jank.

'03-'04 10-19 (4-14)
'04-'05 17-13 (8-10)
'05-'06 9-19 (4-14)
'06-'07 15-16 (6-12)

Yeah.....we were definetely on the top 100 RPI path before Jank arrived.

Jank arrives and then.....

'07-'08 25-10 (13-5) NIT 2nd round
'08-'09 24-10 (11-7) NIT 1st round
'09-'10 22-11 (11-7) NIT 1st round
'10-'11 12-19 (4-14)

so one bad season out of four and he is the worst thing to ever happen to ISU and the valley. It sounds like you are just more upset about the schedule and trust me, we all are. As 45 said, we reloaded with some of the best talent for this recruiting class in the valley while retaining our good players and shedding off/graduating bad players. I'm about as optimistic as 45 is when it comes to where we will finish next year (about the middle), but we will be a senior laden team the following year and should be in contention for an MVC title if our conference holds par to its cyclical nature. If carmichael goes back to playing the way he did 2 years ago and these new PG/SG are as good as advertised, I do not see us finishing in last again (technically BU finished in last BTW). Jank also scooped up another big man last minute who is supposed to have NBA potential with qualities similar to Dinma but much further along at this point than he was. They did a pretty good job molding Dinma, so we will see how they do with John Jones.

by **sixth ace** » July 28th, 2011, 8:16 am

wildjays wrote:You guys can nitpick at this if you want, but I put together a little Summer Update for Rush the Court. Let me know what I missed or what I might have wrong. Always open to feedback.

http://rushthecourt.net/2011/07/27/rtc- ... onference/

Evansville will be playing UNC at Chapel Hill NC. The schedule date has not been announce yet

by **45otseoj** » July 28th, 2011, 8:58 am

bcg wrote:
45otseoj wrote: Jank brought in Champ Oguchi (the team's leading scorer)

It looks like you accidently added an "r" in the second word.

Innocent until proven guilty...

As far as Jank being the worst thing that has happened to ISU... :bs: