John Ekey leaving Illinois State

[uniftw]

I'm going to add...

If Mueller is so stuck in his ways that he can't find a way to properly use Ekey, Charmichael, Allen, and Brown he isn't that good of a coach.

Yes, it's great to have a system you want to use but if you can't adjust it to fit the players you have (who are actually pretty damn good) that's on the coach...not the players.

[isuredbirds92]

I'm going to add...

If Mueller is so stuck in his ways that he can't find a way to properly use Ekey, Charmichael, Allen, and Brown he isn't that good of a coach.

Yes, it's great to have a system you want to use but if you can't adjust it to fit the players you have (who are actually pretty damn good) that's on the coach...not the players.

You make a good point. And I would have loved to see Ekey play another year here, but I'm going to give Muller the benefit of the doubt and see what he can do with his own recruits. Keep in mind, he is just starting his head coaching career, so I think he'll figure it out in time.

[rlh04d]

Let's recap some of the gems in this thread by one certain poster:

I know some people close to the U of I basketball program, and the noise coming from there is that he may have to start for them. They are done recruiting for next season and that leaves Ekey as their second biggest player. They may elect to just go with a smaller lineup, but I would imagine he gets some significant playing time because of his size. (Ed Note: Proven wrong)

my mistake. third tallest. (Ed Note: Again proven wrong)

His scholarship was up. That was his only reason for leaving. He redshirted his frosh year, so he used up all four years of his scholarship but still has a year of eligibility. (Ed Note: Yet again proven wrong)

Sorry, my bad. Either way they did not want to renew his scholarship this year so that's why he left. (Ed Note: AGAIN proven wrong)

yes Muller did not want to keep Ekey. If you didn't hear, Threloff and Upshaw are also transferring, mostly because they were given a nudge from the program. Ekey was a solid contributor up until this past year. (Ed Note: Doubling down yet again after a fellow Illinois State fan already proved that Ekey still had a scholarship for next year.)

(Emphasis added.)

[2livewu]

I'm going to add...

If Mueller is so stuck in his ways that he can't find a way to properly use Ekey, Charmichael, Allen, and Brown he isn't that good of a coach.

Yes, it's great to have a system you want to use but if you can't adjust it to fit the players you have (who are actually pretty damn good) that's on the coach...not the players.

+1 Muller probably was the 2nd worst coach in the league this year, just a shade ahead of Phelps. Now, perhaps he's the best coach in the league with "his players" (whatever that means). But there wasn't a team in the league outside of WSU and CU that wouldn't have taken ISU's talent and experience coming into the season and the coach failed miserably at getting the most out of them.

Rarely do juco players make a difference right out of the gate. Mostly they struggle with hit and miss success for the first season, at least. If you can mix in 1 or 2, that's the most likely path to success. ISU is banking on all of them meshing and being top flight D1 players and becoming a team. That's a tall order, to say the least, and that's what most people are trying to say here, imho.

[isuredbirds92]

Let's recap some of the gems in this thread by one certain troll:

I know some people close to the U of I basketball program, and the noise coming from there is that he may have to start for them. They are done recruiting for next season and that leaves Ekey as their second biggest player. They may elect to just go with a smaller lineup, but I would imagine he gets some significant playing time because of his size. (Ed Note: Proven wrong)

my mistake. third tallest. (Ed Note: Again proven wrong)

His scholarship was up. That was his only reason for leaving. He redshirted his frosh year, so he used up all four years of his scholarship but still has a year of eligibility. (Ed Note: Yet again proven wrong)

Sorry, my bad. Either way they did not want to renew his scholarship this year so that's why he left. (Ed Note: AGAIN proven wrong)

Yeah that can be right and furthermore, it is right.(Ed Note: Doubling down on what was already proven wrong)

The coach has that prerogative to keep the players he wants and get rid of the players he wants to bring in new players he wants that fit in the system that want to be there and better the program.

It was Jank's smaller, fatter, slower, less aggressive player blueprint that killed us. (Ed Note: Insulting all of IlSt's own players recruited by Jank)

yes Muller did not want to keep Ekey. If you didn't hear, Threloff and Upshaw are also transferring, mostly because they were given a nudge from the program. Ekey was a solid contributor up until this past year. (Ed Note: None of this fits in with everything he said up to this point.)

(Emphasis added.)

In all of that, he admitted to being wrong only once, in correcting himself to saying he'd be the third tallest person at Illinois. Which even that was still wrong.

After being proved wrong by everyone, regardless of what school they cheer for, he decided to make this into yet another of his adventures-into-trolling-WSU-fans to distract from his own pathetic idiocy. And now we await yet another locked thread.

Let it be known that 3 of those quotes were not even mine...Also, I did not know that scholarships were year to year. Like I said, probably pretty dumb of me, so my bad. If you notice, the one about the U of I program was me relaying what I was told. And actually Ekey is probably closer to 6'8", for what it's worth. (although I'm sure that you will point out the irrelevance of that). Everything I have heard says that Ekey would have had a spot if he wanted it, but would not have had a scholarship. I was simply putting out there what I have heard for discussion. This thread was merely talking about one player transferring, but you had to but in and start trashing muller's coaching in his FIRST year as a head coach. I'm sure there are a cornucopia of very good coaches that struggled mightily their first year as a head coach. But WSU fans just live to insult anything ISU apparently. Anyways, I have no further comments.

[45otseoj]

It's amazing how much credit ISU's talent gets since Osiris graduated...

11: 4-14
12: 9-9
13: 8-10

And 92. From all the Redbird fans you're embarrassing: Please stop.

[ilstu2013]

To Shocker fans:

[45otseoj]

WSU fans aren't hating. They're basking in the spoils of victory. Don't argue with someone vicariously living through a F4 team. It won't end well.

And don't give recruits as a comeback. No one cares if they don't produce. Just pray Muller and Dana know how to do it as well as they did in their previous job.

[Bmarq04]

And 92. From all the Redbird fans you're embarrassing: Please stop.

+1000

As a fellow ISUr fan, I find myself wanting to apologize for a couple if the posters we have. It's absolutely embarrassing and not representative of the vast majority of our fan base.

Are our recruits good on paper, yes. But until they prove it, there is no sense arguing over some of what you're arguing about with a team/fan base that has results on their side.

Just stop.

[rlh04d]

Let it be known that 3 of those quotes were not even mine...

Wow. I apologize. I assumed you two were the same person. I edited my post to take out the quotes from ilstu2013 ... he's the one that's trolling, not you.

However, I didn't butt in to trash anyone's coaching. I butted in to say your claims were insane, because they were. Then I said that your roster next year is weak and Ekey was needed on it (with a sarcastic "With that stunning roster you have next year?"). And then I said your coach has never won a Coach of the Year award, and thus comparing him to Gregg Marshall, who has six such awards and would have been a favorite for national Coach of the Year this year if it had included the postseason in the voting, is absurd. And then I pointed out that 17 wins and 6th place in the Valley is not "Coach of the Year" worthy.

Any of those things strike you as incorrect or insulting? Did I trash your program? Did I once comment on Muller's coaching ability?