Not enough minutes?

[Red]

If Chase Courbat plays any kind of significant role for UNI, you can go ahead and pencil us in for 10th. I've watched him several times and I have no idea what the staff sees in him, other than being the 6-10 grandson of one of UNI's most prominent boosters. He got routinely owned in high school by 6-6 kids that are playing D3 ball. He'll have to make light year type strides to get to the level of being an Austin Pehl or Justin Dahl.

How do you really feel? I guess I will be rooting to see a lot of young Mr. Courbat this season now.

[BCPanther]

If Chase Courbat plays any kind of significant role for UNI, you can go ahead and pencil us in for 10th. I've watched him several times and I have no idea what the staff sees in him, other than being the 6-10 grandson of one of UNI's most prominent boosters. He got routinely owned in high school by 6-6 kids that are playing D3 ball. He'll have to make light year type strides to get to the level of being an Austin Pehl or Justin Dahl.

How do you really feel? I guess I will be rooting to see a lot of young Mr. Courbat this season now.

I'd be THRILLED to eat crow but I'm nowhere near the only one with the same opinion...

[DUBulldog]

I watched Courbat in the Iowa state tournament last season....BC is right.....he's a long way from being ready to contribute in the MVC

[Adunk33]

The Redbirds are going to have a lot of competition, especially at guard.

Here is the roster makeup with advancing a year and not accounting for the free COVID year.

Seniors: All have 1 year remaining after this season
Sy Chatman
Josiah Strong

Juniors: All have 2 years after this season
Mark Freeman
Abdou (RS)
Antonio Reeves
Kendall Lewis
Alex Kotov
Ryan Schmitt

Sophomores: All have 3 years after this season
Howard Fleming
Emon Washington
Alston Andrews
Liam McChesney (RS)
Nik Stadelman (WO)
Harouna Sissoko (RS)
Malcolm Miller (RS) (WO)
Jayden Johnson (WO)

Freshmen: All have 3 years after this season (unless they RS).
Julian Samuels (WO)
Elijah Williams (WO)

In his best seasons, Muller had a solid 8 (with a 9th getting spot minutes)-man rotation and rarely deviated from it unless fouls or injuries.

We know at guard that Mark Freeman, Howard Fleming, Antonio Reeves, and Josiah Strong can all start. Muller will use a combo of three to start with the odd man out being the first off the bench, and playing close to starter's minutes.

I think you can pencil in Freeman and Strong as the top two, which would likely have Fleming coming off the bench.

Top 9
Strong [29]
Freeman [28]
Reeves [27]
Emon Washington [25]
Ryan Schmitt [25]
Fleming [24]
Kendall Lewis [24]
Sy Chatman* [9]
Abdou [9]

*Sy still seems to be struggling to be an every day consistent player. So, if he doesn't show improvement, Abdou will take his spot. Splitting their minutes for now.

Expect a lot of 4 guard line ups from the Birds this year. The most of the guards can be wings and vice versa. And in the 2-3 zone, you really just need a 5 in the middle and length on the corners which, will be 6'6+ on both sides.

Muller has mentioned he believes this is the most talented team from top to bottom that he's had in a long time. It just a matter of putting the pieces together. We'll see. It does seem they have talent. I love what Emon Washington brought to the table last season. Freeman is said to be the first true pg (along with Fleming) that Muller has had since Paris Lee. Kendall Lewis is supposed to be an elite defender, which Muller loves. This is Josiah Strong's first time in his college career being in the same system for a couple years so he should be more comfortable.

I think Muller's gotta finish top 6 to save his job for another year (though the new AD says he has to show "improvement" well...only one place to go from 10th....) With Loyola, Drake, MoSt, and UNI at the top of the league, its gonna be tough. The top of the league is strong and I'll be rooting everyone to have great noncons so we can hopefully get multiple bids.

[IllinoisState]

The Redbirds are going to have a lot of competition, especially at guard.

Here is the roster makeup with advancing a year and not accounting for the free COVID year.

Seniors: All have 1 year remaining after this season
Sy Chatman
Josiah Strong

Juniors: All have 2 years after this season
Mark Freeman
Abdou (RS)
Antonio Reeves
Kendall Lewis
Alex Kotov
Ryan Schmitt

Sophomores: All have 3 years after this season
Howard Fleming
Emon Washington
Alston Andrews
Liam McChesney (RS)
Nik Stadelman (WO)
Harouna Sissoko (RS)
Malcolm Miller (RS) (WO)
Jayden Johnson (WO)

Freshmen: All have 3 years after this season (unless they RS).
Julian Samuels (WO)
Elijah Williams (WO)

In his best seasons, Muller had a solid 8 (with a 9th getting spot minutes)-man rotation and rarely deviated from it unless fouls or injuries.

We know at guard that Mark Freeman, Howard Fleming, Antonio Reeves, and Josiah Strong can all start. Muller will use a combo of three to start with the odd man out being the first off the bench, and playing close to starter's minutes.

I think you can pencil in Freeman and Strong as the top two, which would likely have Fleming coming off the bench.

Top 9
Strong [29]
Freeman [28]
Reeves [27]
Emon Washington [25]
Ryan Schmitt [25]
Fleming [24]
Kendall Lewis [24]
Sy Chatman* [9]
Abdou [9]

*Sy still seems to be struggling to be an every day consistent player. So, if he doesn't show improvement, Abdou will take his spot. Splitting their minutes for now.

Expect a lot of 4 guard line ups from the Birds this year. The most of the guards can be wings and vice versa. And in the 2-3 zone, you really just need a 5 in the middle and length on the corners which, will be 6'6+ on both sides.

Muller has mentioned he believes this is the most talented team from top to bottom that he's had in a long time. It just a matter of putting the pieces together. We'll see. It does seem they have talent. I love what Emon Washington brought to the table last season. Freeman is said to be the first true pg (along with Fleming) that Muller has had since Paris Lee. Kendall Lewis is supposed to be an elite defender, which Muller loves. This is Josiah Strong's first time in his college career being in the same system for a couple years so he should be more comfortable.

I think Muller's gotta finish top 6 to save his job for another year (though the new AD says he has to show "improvement" well...only one place to go from 10th....) With Loyola, Drake, MoSt, and UNI at the top of the league, its gonna be tough. The top of the league is strong and I'll be rooting everyone to have great noncons so we can hopefully get multiple bids.

Dan's job is safe until the contract runs out. They aren't paying him money to leave.

[tribecalledquest]

Ahh. Preseason. When every team in America has amazing depth

[slambam]

But yeah, it does mean limited minutes and makes guys want to transfer. Noah Carter put his name in the transfer portal and then stayed. Not sure what made him make each of those decisions. I would think that he found that every other school everywhere was similarly over-stocked.

Carter never wanted to leave. He got spooked when Jake was going to take the Minnesota job (which he would have if the money worked) and didn't want to play for Kyle Green (because they freaking hate each other). He would have found a home if he wanted to find a home.

UNI is going to play 10 guys with a sprinkle of an 11th, that's how Jake's two best teams operated.

Green
Born
Berhow
Carter
Phyfe

Kimmons
Pickford
Heise
Betz
Mar, Anderson, Duax (sprinkle depending on matchup)

Cole Henry is the odd man out.

I heard from a player who graduated recently and still has ties to the team that Noah himself never intended to enter the portal. I won't go into detail, but think the Juwan McCloud situation. Noah took his name out of the portal as soon as he found out. It had nothing to do with the Minnesota position (Minnesota hired Johnson on 3/22 and Noah entered the portal on 3/26). IMHO, maybe I was getting a sugar coated story, but what I heard proves to me that Noah loves UNI and is a strong kid - he's not going to let support else make a decision for him.

What that said I agree with BC for the most part, but I wouldn't be too surprised to see Anderson pass Betz. The guy is a firecracker, and Jake played him a lot more than I expected last year coming off an injury as a true freshman. Obviously that'll depend on matchups too, I'd assume Betz will get more minutes against teams playing a true center.