[January 4, 2025] Indiana State (8-6) at Evansville (5-9)

[treeman]

Atmosphere very quiet during 1st half. Around 2K UE fans, imo, unnaturally quiet for a D1 basketball game.

Never been to the ford center, and really have no intention of ever going there. But it seems like that place has no atmosphere. A nice facility but bad experience. Basically the exact opposite of Roberts Stadium. I know they haven't had much to cheer about since they moved to Ford, but I can't remember a game (against anyone) where it was an intimidating environment

 

[MovingScreenOfDeath]

Never been to the ford center, and really have no intention of ever going there. But it seems like that place has no atmosphere. A nice facility but bad experience. Basically the exact opposite of Roberts Stadium. I know they haven't had much to cheer about since they moved to Ford, but I can't remember a game (against anyone) where it was an intimidating environment

In the post game Graves attributed some of our slow start to the Ford Centers floor being very cold since it's also a hockey arena and we weren't prepared for that.

 

[Fife]

Never been to the ford center, and really have no intention of ever going there. But it seems like that place has no atmosphere. A nice facility but bad experience. Basically the exact opposite of Roberts Stadium. I know they haven't had much to cheer about since they moved to Ford, but I can't remember a game (against anyone) where it was an intimidating environment

The Colt Ryan and D.J. Balentine games were pretty good. Intimidating...maybe a little?

 

[jturner38]

I mean… Besides the fact that they get the benefit of having coached him all summer and get to see him and everyone else on the roster in practice every single day? I would hope they see a lot of things that I don’t see, to be clear. Also, you and I have had this +/- discussion in the past but it’s been awhile. It’s fine to use it to evaluate a player but a lot more goes into than just what those #’s look like. Was he on the floor when LeGree was on the floor? Because LeGree got roasted - if he wasn’t then obviously he’s going to have a more positively weighted pts/minutes stat.

I know what they see and quite frankly, I’m not sure who is going to play ahead of him. Sort of like during the game today when Teel was struggling - you don’t have a lot of other options you just ride with the horses you got.

Bruno is a young player and he’s going to have his moments. The last couple games he’s kicked it around pretty good. His defense has been suspect at best. I have been happy with his 3 point shooting as he’s been fairly consistent. He will improve but in the heat of the game I was pretty disappointed with his play.

100% agreed and it’s easy to forget Bruno didn’t get to be there for the summer.

 

[jturner38]

According to what I read JD challenged the team at half time and told everyone they wasn’t playing hard enough. Said they didn’t take shoot around seriously enough and they were joking too much. JD said he has been working extra hard and the work is starting to show. He also said he feels like he’s been maturing and watching a lot of film and he’s starting to see the game differently.

 

[RunSyc]

In the post game Graves attributed some of our slow start to the Ford Centers floor being very cold since it's also a hockey arena and we weren't prepared for that.

Good to know. Glad we played at Ford Center before Peoria Civic Center, believe Bradley's home court is also a hockey arena.

 

[GoSycamores]

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Indiana State men's basketball got back into the win column on Saturday afternoon with a road victory against the Evansville Purple Aces. Indiana State improved to 9-6, 3-1 MVC while UE fell to 5-10, 2-2 MVC.

More...

 

[Bluethunder]

Had a tough morning with a bit of a family situation so the game got put on the back burner. Checked updates on the Pride and then watched the game after it was over and things had settled down a bit here.

Not too much to add that hasn’t already been said, but I did find it to be a strange game in that both fan bases basically came away with the exact same feelings. Both felt their teams played below avg, left a lot of easy points out on the floor and ISU felt lucky to win while Aces fans felt they should have won. You could flip the score and we would have felt the same way, that we let a winnable game slip away.

3-1 in the Valley with two of the wins on the road and the one loss by a hair against the league leader. Not too shabby, especially considering at one point in the first half we had three freshman and two sophomores on the court.

Agree with others that Valpo will be a tough game on Wednesday. Hopefully we can get out of this shooting funk and squeeze out another win.

Season is certainly starting to be more fun that I thought it was going to be back in November.

 

[SycamoreSuperFan]

Never been to the ford center, and really have no intention of ever going there. But it seems like that place has no atmosphere. A nice facility but bad experience. Basically the exact opposite of Roberts Stadium. I know they haven't had much to cheer about since they moved to Ford, but I can't remember a game (against anyone) where it was an intimidating environment

My dad, grandpa, and I went the year Ford Center a couple years after it had opened for a game. We sat in their second deck and the building was relatively full, especially compared to now. Can’t really remember how the atmosphere was but definitely more people in the building then.

 

[SycamoreStateofMind]

Had a tough morning with a bit of a family situation so the game got put on the back burner. Checked updates on the Pride and then watched the game after it was over and things had settled down a bit here.

Not too much to add that hasn’t already been said, but I did find it to be a strange game in that both fan bases basically came away with the exact same feelings. Both felt their teams played below avg, left a lot of easy points out on the floor and ISU felt lucky to win while Aces fans felt they should have won. You could flip the score and we would have felt the same way, that we let a winnable game slip away.

3-1 in the Valley with two of the wins on the road and the one loss by a hair against the league leader. Not too shabby, especially considering at one point in the first half we had three freshman and two sophomores on the court.

Agree with others that Valpo will be a tough game on Wednesday. Hopefully we can get out of this shooting funk and squeeze out another win.

Season is certainly starting to be more fun that I thought it was going to be back in November.

Well a win is a win is a win especially on the road - it doesn’t really feel like a win. Graves was encouraged and what else is he going to say - they found a way to get it done. But I feel about as meh about a road win in the Valley as I ever have. Evansville is dreadful - we should have won by double digits.

 

[bigsportsfan]

According to what I read JD challenged the team at half time and told everyone they wasn’t playing hard enough. Said they didn’t take shoot around seriously enough and they were joking too much. JD said he has been working extra hard and the work is starting to show. He also said he feels like he’s been maturing and watching a lot of film and he’s starting to see the game differently.

Totally agree. It’s ridiculous as poorly as we shoot layups that we spend so much time dunking and throwing alley oops.

 

[Bluethunder]

Well a win is a win is a win especially on the road - it doesn’t really feel like a win. Graves was encouraged and what else is he going to say - they found a way to get it done. But I feel about as meh about a road win in the Valley as I ever have. Evansville is dreadful - we should have won by double digits.

I will be very interested to see how we do against the Aces in Terre Haute.

We didn’t really do anything well in this game except shoot free throws and we didn’t shoot a ton of those.

Evansville did a nice job of muddying the waters and slowing the game down.

I don’t think any fan for either team felt good coming out of this game. We got the win, but it wasn’t anything to brag about.

Really hoping we play better on Wednesday. We will have to if we want to win.

 

[EvilleSycamore]

In the post game Graves attributed some of our slow start to the Ford Centers floor being very cold since it's also a hockey arena and we weren't prepared for that.

So a little more to that. Our game was at 2:00 central time finished about 4ish. They had a hockey game tonight at 7:00. They had a huge crew waiting in the tunnel after the game to breakdown the court and convert it to hockey.

 

[4Q_iu]

In the post game Graves attributed some of our slow start to the Ford Centers floor being very cold since it's also a hockey arena and we weren't prepared for that.

Seriously? That's his claim? That joint has been a hockey arena since it opened; ISU has won their last 8 games there and is 10-4 overall.

 

[4Q_iu]

So a little more to that. Our game was at 2:00 central time finished about 4ish. They had a hockey game tonight at 7:00. They had a huge crew waiting in the tunnel after the game to breakdown the court and convert it to hockey.

But the ice is there the entire season - right? How often do they remake the ice throughout the season?

 

[BallyPie]

I was at the game...to me it was another typical UE game...they muck it up...they use the entire shot clock on every possession. This game, they made a lot shots at end of the shot clock and that can get frustrating. We persevered though.

A win is a win is a win...I'll take it.

 

[EvilleSycamore]

But the ice is there the entire season - right? How often do they remake the ice throughout the season?

They leave the ice down all year unless ther is monster trucks. they put these big 4x8 squares about 2 inches thick made of a foam concrete mix that interlock like a basketball court on top of the ice that insulates it then put the court on top of it. There is an older timelapsed video on YouTube about 2 min long showing them converting between a basketball and hockey game and one showing them converting between monster trucks to a basketball to a concert. Scott Schoneke who runs Venueworks the company who runs everything from the facility to vending to ticket lines does a fantastic job with Ford Center. He would have Hulman Center running smooth in 2 weeks!

 

[4Q_iu]

They leave the ice down all year unless ther is monster trucks. they put these big 4x8 squares about 2 inches thick made of a foam concrete mix that interlock like a basketball court on top of the ice that insulates it then put the court on top of it. There is an older timelapsed video on YouTube about 2 min long showing them converting between a basketball and hockey game and one showing them converting between monster trucks to a basketball to a concert. Scott Schoneke who runs Venueworks the company who runs everything from the facility to vending to ticket lines does a fantastic job with Ford Center. He would have Hulman Center running smooth in 2 weeks!

Thank you for confirming my belief that Graves was bullsh**ing the public regarding his statement of ISU NOT being prepared for the cold floor of the Ford Center

 

[bluestreak]

Thank you for confirming my belief that Graves was bullsh**ing the public regarding his statement of ISU NOT being prepared for the cold floor of the Ford Center

I'll give HCMG the benefit rather than your bullshit accusation.

 

[BrokerZ]

I think a lot of you are misinterpreting Graves’ comments about the cold floor.

He was talking about the overall atmosphere in the building being dead. The crowd was sparse and low energy, it was an early tip time, and the overall temperature in the building was “cold” due to the ice. He wasn’t blaming the ice specifically, but he was including it as one of the many reasons we seemed to lack energy to start the game. That, and it was our 3rd game in a week.