Closed door scrimmages and exhibitions

[jturner38]

Indiana state defeats Trine 68 to 54. Three in Double figures. Smith (21 pts), Gant (18 pts, 8 Rbds), and Murphy (13 pts, 5 Rbds)

Overall: Good Defense in the first half. We didnt really run sets just played. It looked like we played somewhat conservative. Offense was stuck for a long time especially in the 2nd half when we had Gant or Smith on the bench. We missed some shots we should have made. I think we really missed Scott and Etherington for scoring. Guard play is a concern if they play like that which I dont think they will. Lansing will have to figure out rotations.

Individual
Bennett - didnt make some good passes. Didnt look to score most of the time. Played somewhat conservative.
Brown - didnt shoot well. Good defense as ususal and can get to the rim just like last season.
Smith - More agressive and not settling for jumpshots. He will be fouled alot more this year bc of that. Looks good.
Gant - Shot still looks good. Want to see how he looks to score closer to the rim without double team.
Kitchell - Not really a good game. Got blocked by a smallerdefender.
Prusator - Might not be such a liability on D as we thought but then again that was a D3 opponent. Didnt shoot well.
Bell - Looks alot better than last year. Hustles alot more.
Murphy - Impressive. Might be the crowd's favorite. Big body and quick for being 290 pounds. Geesh lol
Paige - Surprised he played. Impressive D although he did over committ at times (typical for a freshman though). Didnt look to score as he shouldnt of bc of a broken hand
Scott - DNP, finished serving suspension. Missed his agressiveness of trying to score at times.
Etherington - DNP, finished serving suspension. We really missed his scoring ability

[agrinut]

Four scorers reached double figures in Evansville men’s basketball team Saturday as the Aces routed Division III Wabash 95-50.
Box scores

http://splashurl.com/n4c2r7f

Good for the Aces! Next step is for Marty to figure out how to use an athletic PF in his system.

Next step is for the athletic PF to learn the system so Marty can exploit his talent

Only thing Marty has ever exploited is the golden corral all you can eat buffet. What a wasted year for the aces.

[PantherSigEp]

UNI beat Bemidji St today 64-45. Jacobson went with a more traditional and taller lineup today compared to his Upper Iowa lineup. There are also seemed to be more of a focus on the traditional Panther D and UNI forced 25 turnovers and limited Bemidji to 37% shooting.

Deon and Tuttle led the Panthers with 10 pts, Washpun had 9 and Koch and Lohaus had 8. Klint Carlson got 16 mins in this game and recorded 7 pt (3-5 shooting), 6 rebs, with a block, assist and steal.

Probably the biggest concern was that UNI let the Beavers go on an 18-3 at partway through the 1st half, giving them a 19-17 lead. But considering it was a 61-27 game outside of that, whatever.

Still some tweaking and lineup adjustments in play but I hope the Panthers continue to rotate in 10-12 guys. Really like what I've seen from the freshmen Koch, Lohaus and Carlson.

[Dean Wormer]

Only thing Marty has ever exploited is the golden corral all you can eat buffet. What a wasted year for the aces.

UE is 2-0 in EXHIBITION games and you are already proclaiming it a "wasted year"?? Why don't you post next weeks lottery picks?

BTW, making a weight reference is pretty childish, so I should consider the source of the comment before I even reply. He may have a weight ie..health issue, but I would consider that he has logged more minutes PLAYING D-1 basketball than you could ever fantasize about from your mother's basement.

[Cdizzle]

UE is 2-0 in EXHIBITION games

[rlh04d]

UE is 2-0 in EXHIBITION games

Well, he kind of has a point. At least Evansville hasn't crapped the bed like Bradley and nearly MoSt.

At this point I'm proud of any MVC team that can finish 2-0 in exhibition games. But that shows how little my hopes are for the bottom half of the MVC.

[Aargh]

Do I have this right? Did IlSU have to come from behind to beat Lewis by 9 points?

[Redbirdfan21]

If by "come from behind" you mean, when we were down 26-21 midway through the first half, then yes, you are correct. Was between 8-12 pts most of the 2nd half. We out rebounded them by 27. They had a kid go off for 30, mostly on contested 3's. It was pretty impressive. Hawkins and Mcintosh were rusty. All the guards played well. Lynch played well. No cause for concern from this Redbird fan.

[Rollbird5]

Lee, Knight, Hunter all played really well
WIlls- Good defender, doesn't make many mistakes
Lynch-10 pts 11 reb 7 blocks, kids a beast down low, free throws looked much improved
DAP-really impressive hit 2 threes, good drives and scores, good defense
McIntosh-looked rusty, the mask he has to wear now from breaking his nose probably threw him off as he's getting used to it, played good defense and rebounded well
Teddy-looked rusty and was pressing some, played good defense and rebounded well tho
Jones and McCloud-will give good minutes off the bench

What I expected, some really good stretches and some sloppy ones. Max Strus from Lewis looked really good hit 7 threes mostly contested ones if he didn't go off it would've been more of a 20-30 pt win. Looking forward to Sunday!

[valleyclimber]

Was at the ISU-Lewis exhibition game tonight, and the Birds lead by double digits for quite a bit of the game. I've been to so many exhibition games through the years, and that was by far one of the better teams I've seen ISU play.

Lewis is pre-season rated #11 in D2 and returns 91 % of their scoring from last year when they went 21-6. They moved well with the ball, had some crisp passing, were aggressive going to the bucket and had a couple real decent players. In fact, their freshman #31 was deadeye from 3 point land and went off for over 30 points.

The Birds played a bit sloppy, but having a real frontline this season is going to make a world of difference as they killed it on the boards. Paris Lee, Knight, Hunter and Lynch all looked like they've stepped up their game from last year. While the newcomers Purcell, Hawkins and McIntosh definitely all lived up to the pre-season hype. Think Purcell is going to be a handful once the MVC season rolls around.

So overall, a good first game for the BIrds. From a couple different sources, I heard that the Redbirds did indeed take care of business against Northwestern in their secret scrimmage game.

I'm sure I'll be shouted down by many MVC fan posters, but IMHO this edition of the ISU Redbirds have a good shot at winning a serious amount of games this year. Some terrific athleticism and an all for one attitude to boot.

Anyhow...just my two cents.