Five straight winning seasons, but 0-5 in post-season play

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bent20

bent20

The Odum Level
I won't make this a long tirade because I'm proud of our effort in the conference tournament and I'm proud to have a respectable program that competes and is among the very best in the valley. Thank you to our seniors, thank you to the guys who came before them in recent years, thank you to the guys we still have and will have playing for us for the first time next season.

My only complaint and it's an important one, is that we have to move past getting to this point and being content. We were thrilled to make the NIT. Great, but then we get trounced by an opponent that runs us out of the building. Yes, they were the better team, but it didn't help we played right into their hands. It's inexcusable that for the second season in a row we compete well for a half in an NIT game with a power conference school and then melt away in the second half. It's inexcusable that we missed so many shots.

If getting there and being satisfied is enough than that's disappointing. Not as bad as being below .500 and not caring at all, but still disappointing. Five straight winning seasons, five straight post season appearances, five straight losses and none were close or exciting. We need to learn to win these games, be it in the CBI, NIT, NCAA, whatever. Compete to the end!
 

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Our post season performances over the past five seasons:

NIT - L Arkansas 91-71
NIT - L Iowa 68-52
CBI - L Robert Morris 67-60
NCAA - L Syracuse 77-58
CBI - L St. Louis 63-54
 
I don't think we have a respectable program. Once again we were humiliated on national TV. The SEC is a weak bball conference. We looked like a high school team out there. Under the basket was horrible. No defense. What's the use? NO ONE fears the trees.
 
swsycamore said:
I don't think we have a respectable program. Once again we were humiliated on national TV. The SEC is a weak bball conference. We looked like a high school team out there. Under the basket was horrible. No defense. What's the use? NO ONE fears the trees.
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We could be one of the other eight MVC teams, not named WSU.
 

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bent20 said:
We could be one of the other eight MVC teams, not named WSU.
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AGREE......It's not like we're Evansville......or Southern Illinois.......SIU used to be a quality program....consistently sending teams to the NCAA and winning games............I just hope we don't sink back to where they've been the last few years........
 
BallyPie said:
AGREE......It's not like we're Evansville......or Southern Illinois.......SIU used to be a quality program....consistently sending teams to the NCAA and winning games............I just hope we don't sink back to where they've been the last few years........
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That's why, in my opinion, you can't ever be content or satisfied and we seem to be satisfied.
 
swsycamore said:
I don't think we have a respectable program.
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We do have a respectable program, we are respected in the Valley. Five years ago we were not respected in the Valley, hell four years ago. We have reached that goal. The next step is to continue our success and build upon it, by winning in the post season. A goal we've yet to achieve. My point is, we're a program that is respected by its conference peers and that's the first step to achieving respectability on a greater, national scale. I feel like we're on a good pace here, I'm looking forward to the next five years, starting this fall.
 
bent20 said:
We could be one of the other eight MVC teams, not named WSU.
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Thank you.

Other than WSU and Creighton, name one other team in the Valley who's been to two MVC tourney championship games in the past four years. That's a HUGE stat, in my opinion.
 
bent20 said:
That's why, in my opinion, you can't ever be content or satisfied and we seem to be satisfied.
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I don't think anyone is satisfied.....we all want more...........if we didn't, we wouldn't be on this site bitching about every loss we take......
 

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BallyPie said:
We played MS in 2011 in the Championship game.....
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Exactly, and MSU hasn't been back to the championship game since.

Appearances in the Championship game since 2011

Indiana State 2
Wichita State 2
Creighton 2
Illinois State 1
Missouri State 1
 
bent20 said:
Our post season performances over the past five seasons:

NIT - L Arkansas 91-71
NIT - L Iowa 68-52
CBI - L Robert Morris 67-60
NCAA - L Syracuse 77-58
CBI - L St. Louis 63-54
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Pretty weak when you take an honest look at it. A complete failure to show up in the post season. Too much just happy to get there I suppose whether or not anyone wants to admit it?
 

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If we're good enough to compete with Wichita State on a neutral court and at home, and to compete with Arkansas for a half on the road, we should be good enough to be in tonight's game to the very end. There is a gray area, in my mind, between being pissed and being satisfied. I'm not pissed about the season, but I'm pissed about tonight. We played with heart, but not with smarts and these teams have all folded when they get frustrated.
 
BallyPie said:
Well.....it's usually about coaching and recruiting and how much we are willing to pay for that......
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Bingo. The program needs money to be a winner. Period. We didn't have the players to compete with Arkansas tonight. They had 8-9 guys with Khristian Smith or better athleticism. We don't have it.

Recruit better. It's amazing how good coaches look when players can put the ball in the bucket.
 
ISU_TREE_FAN said:
Pretty weak when you take an honest look at it. A complete failure to show up in the post season. Too much just happy to get there I suppose whether or not anyone wants to admit it?
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It's about players. We don't have 'em. I'm throwing out the Robert Morris game and if you went player by player in those other four games, we'd have 2-3 guys that would be on the other team's rotation whereas their 8-9th guys would likely play significant minutes here. We MUST find a way to recruit better players. Better athletes. Better shooters. Better scorers.

You guys should firmly be planted HERE. For those in Indy, get out to AAU events sporting ISU gear and watching kids we're recruiting. Let them see our fans follow them. It's sickening (and awesome at the same time) to go to AAU events and see IU faithful following around the kids they recruit. The kids notice it -- they talk about it on social media. Until we can upgrade the talent on our roster, Greg is going to be the "close, but no cigar" coach.
 
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Jason Svoboda said:
Bingo. The program needs money to be a winner. Period. We didn't have the players to compete with Arkansas tonight. They had 8-9 guys with Khristian Smith or better athleticism. We don't have it.

Recruit better. It's amazing how good coaches look when players can put the ball in the bucket.
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Doesn't always take eight or nine though. Our athletes didn't do a good of a job of putting the ball in the hoop tonight. We've recruited fairly well in recent years, better than most ISU teams. I don't expect a windfall of money anytime soon, so I doubt we get a big boost in the recruiting budget. Better recruiting would be great, more money for the AD would be awesome, but we're pretty far off from where we need to be. In the meantime, we need to close out seasons. We need to get home court in an NIT. We need to go to the CBI and win a damn game instead of bitching about being there. We need to change the culture at ISU. Hate to say it, but while five straight winning seasons won't do it if you immediately go one and done, if you lose every time you're in the national spotlight and have a chance to captivate your fans.
 
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