January 7th games

[Ricardo del Rio]

I try not to trash teams, but I don't know how Bradley fans can ever have optimism or hope about their team this year or for the next several years.

The Bradley team that I saw tonight plays like a lower division team.

Well I wasn't very impressed with the 15th team in the country against a "lower division" team. Got outplayed for a half, and Bradley was right there for thirty minutes. If they could score at all, that game is much closer.

A decent team played poorly.

A poor team played decently.

In the first half.

"If they could score at all, that game is much closer." Of course. Ifs, buts, candy and nuts.

[UE-grad]

It is unacceptable that Big E didn't have an opportunity to own the paint. He should have had 15-20 shots and scored 30. The entire night Loyola didn't have to be pressed into doubling Mock, 2 or 3 other ACES brought their man to him clogging the lane.

The simple answer would have been to S P R E A D the floor give E some room to work, open up some driving lanes (UE had plenty of success driving can you imagine if there was actually room?), give themselves an opportunity to rebound.

what's funny is this is exactly what everyone has been saying for years about Marty and UE fans get all pissy about.

He runs DJ (or Colt before) off 800 screens to get him 20-25+ shots per night. Meanwhile guys like Mock, who could dominate the Valley, get completely thrown aside most nights.

There is a big difference between the (at least early) Colt Ryan days and now. Back then Colt was really it, he had to shoulder the bulk of the offense. Now that is not the case. Moc and DJ are the top two, but then there are 7 or 8 other guys who can all contribute and are worthy of playing time. I don't see a reason why the ACES couldn't go with a mini UK platoon system. Last night Gibson stepped up and hit a ton of 8-15 footers as well as a handful of drives. He also hit his foul shots which has been an issue in the past. Mislav has played really well the last couple of games, I'd like to see him a little more selfish in the lane - going ahead and taking the shot at the rim instead of making a two foot pass.

Benzon played really well in his 10 first half minutes at InSU, but gets token time in the second half and last night. This is baffling as he may be the most athletic guy on the roster, something that would have matched up great last night against Loyola.

It was mentioned on the ACES forum that most every NCAA and NBA team isolates one on one at the end of games - that to try that with DJ last night wasn't out of line. There is one major difference with every other team not coached by Marty - while this is happening the other 4 on offense are 20~25 feet from the basket, in Marty's world he has at least 3 other guys in the lane so it is essentially a 1 on 4 isolation.

Maybe the UE women's coach will move to the Men's program. He at least puts a fun product on the floor for the fans and the team. That prompted a late season streak last year that took them from 8th or 9th in the conference to 2nd.

Otherwise is there an opportunity for Matt Painter to come back to the MVC? His seat has to be blazing doesn't it?

[Rambler63]

For every Loyola game, I do a preview on Ramblermania. The one for Evansville said:

And here’s another counter-intuitive anomaly: in games where Simmons scores in double figures, the Aces are 4-3 (and forced to overtime twice), but a perfect 7-0 in games where he scores 10 or less. It’s a similar pattern with other players—the Aces are 7-1 when Brzoja scores less than 10, but only 4-2 when he scores more than 10. They’re 0-1 when Moore scores more than 10, and 1-1 against D-1 teams (with the win being forced to OT) when Wing scores 10 or more. Evansville is a team that not only relies on two key players, they’re a team that doesn’t function all that well when Balentine and Mockevicius aren’t being heavily relied upon.

That held true for the Loyola-UE game, where Brzoja had 12, Gibson had 16, and Simmons had 8. As for simply forcing the ball into Mock for easy shots against the shortest team in the league (with its tallest starter out), Mock got 4 fouls, 4 turnovers, only 1 offensive rebound, and only 6 fg attempts.

[aceslifer]

it has always been obvious that Simmons coaching style closely resembles his mentor, Jim Crews. The most frustrating would be "poor usage" of the bench, requiring starters to play extended periods of time, where fresh energy off the bench, even for a short burst, would be more beneficial. Where has David Howard been the last 2 weeks?? He doesn't appear injured. The end of game strategy is frustrating. A lead of 4-8 pts down the stretch is always milked on offense. Example, hold the ball out front 25 seconds before going into motion offense generally resulting in a poor shot. It gives the defense a 25 second rest, requiring them now to play defense for one set, which they all know whats coming, anyone can play D for 9 seconds. The time out last night with 25 seconds to go gave the D all the time to prepare for what was to come next. We called time for a 22 foot 3 pt shot?? Wow, what a good strategy. No attempt to drive for a foul??? Wow. been repeated too often.

[Play Angry]

The most striking thing about that clip of Thomas' bucket at the end of last night's game is the fact there are, what, maybe 5 fans sitting in the baseline endzone seats? That includes the first row. Against a top 100 team. In an "up" year for the Aces.

What on earth? Dead horse I know, but JFC that is just pathetic. Do fans expect to be able to pony up and get anyone decent after Marty finally gets shitcanned? Or has the program reached a terminal diagnosis?

[aceslifer]

who wants to sit in the endzone baseline seats anyway, when there is over 5000 seats baseline to baseline facing the court, btw over 4000 attended last night. The shot of endzone you saw, would be band and students, both on break.

[Play Angry]

Right, there are definitely choicer seats available. But paid attendance figures dancing between 3800-4500 for the best Aces team in 15+ years is not good at all. The trendline on butts in seats over the last 1.5 decades looks like a double black diamond.

Do the remaining faithful think a new head coach could reverse the trend?

[Wufan]

For every Loyola game, I do a preview on Ramblermania. The one for Evansville said:

And here’s another counter-intuitive anomaly: in games where Simmons scores in double figures, the Aces are 4-3 (and forced to overtime twice), but a perfect 7-0 in games where he scores 10 or less. It’s a similar pattern with other players—the Aces are 7-1 when Brzoja scores less than 10, but only 4-2 when he scores more than 10. They’re 0-1 when Moore scores more than 10, and 1-1 against D-1 teams (with the win being forced to OT) when Wing scores 10 or more. Evansville is a team that not only relies on two key players, they’re a team that doesn’t function all that well when Balentine and Mockevicius aren’t being heavily relied upon.

That held true for the Loyola-UE game, where Brzoja had 12, Gibson had 16, and Simmons had 8. As for simply forcing the ball into Mock for easy shots against the shortest team in the league (with its tallest starter out), Mock got 4 fouls, 4 turnovers, only 1 offensive rebound, and only 6 fg attempts.

You should start linking your analysis to this site if they are that in depth! Otherwise, I'm going to have to start searching them out.

[Ace75]

Right, there are definitely choicer seats available. But paid attendance figures dancing between 3800-4500 for the best Aces team in 15+ years is not good at all. The trendline on butts in seats over the last 1.5 decades looks like a double black diamond.

Do the remaining faithful think a new head coach could reverse the trend?

The fans are fed up and don't want to come out and support a Marty Simmons coached team. People don't want to watch Marty ball. Jim Crews was a motion offense coach but had teams that were fun to watch and five guys on the court who could shoot. The community is fed up with the way the University has done things the past 15 years. I don't think there is any way Marty and the Aces can pack the place anymore on a consistent level. We will have a good crowd for WSU but mainly because people want to come watch WSU play. Evansville wants fun basketball to watch and not the cap we have seen under Merfeld and Simmons. Hopefully this changes soon and we can get back to the 10,000 plus crowds watching our Aces play real ball like we used to do.

Sincerely a very frustrated fan for the past 15 years.

[Ace75]

Right, there are definitely choicer seats available. But paid attendance figures dancing between 3800-4500 for the best Aces team in 15+ years is not good at all. The trendline on butts in seats over the last 1.5 decades looks like a double black diamond.

Do the remaining faithful think a new head coach could reverse the trend?

The fans are fed up and don't want to come out and support a Marty Simmons coached team. People don't want to watch Marty ball. Jim Crews was a motion offense coach but had teams that were fun to watch and five guys on the court who could shoot. The community is fed up with the way the University has done things the past 15 years. I don't think there is any way Marty and the Aces can pack the place anymore on a consistent level. We will have a good crowd for WSU but mainly because people want to come watch WSU play. Evansville wants fun basketball to watch and not the cap we have seen under Merfeld and Simmons. Hopefully this changes soon and we can get back to the 10,000 plus crowds watching our Aces play real ball like we used to do.

Sincerely a very frustrated fan for the past 15 years.

To answer your question Yes Evansville will support a team just not with Simmons as a coach.