where is isiah martin

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sickamores

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Why does coach Mckenna choose not to play Martin anymore. Is he not watching the same game as me and every other person in the crowd. When Martin finally did get into the game, with about a minute and a half to go in the first half, the team performed well. Then as usual he didn't get up off the bench the rest of the game. In the mean time Brant Leitnaker was getting absolutely owned by every Ball State player on the court. I am sorry but Leitnaker is quite possibly the worst player in ISU history, there is no debating he is the most un-athletic. On my way out of the building I encountered a stick on the sidewalk that is more athletic than Brant. He may be a great guy for all I know but he is clearly not a capable player on the court. If McKenna can't see that then it is going to be a very long year but then again why would we want anything to change.
 

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sickamores said:
Why does coach Mckenna choose not to play Martin anymore. Is he not watching the same game as me and every other person in the crowd. When Martin finally did get into the game, with about a minute and a half to go in the first half, the team performed well. Then as usual he didn't get up off the bench the rest of the game. In the mean time Brant Leitnaker was getting absolutely owned by every Ball State player on the court. I am sorry but Leitnaker is quite possibly the worst player in ISU history, there is no debating he is the most un-athletic. On my way out of the building I encountered a stick on the sidewalk that is more athletic than Brant. He may be a great guy for all I know but he is clearly not a capable player on the court. If McKenna can't see that then it is going to be a very long year but then again why would we want anything to change.
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Leitnaker is probably the most uncoordinated player in the MVC.
 
sycamores28 said:
Well, McKenna isn't really the brighest coach there is
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Oh listen to you all, we have one bad game and you all are off ship. Yeah he made some questionable decisions tonight and yeah I would like to see Isiah get some more time and Brant get a little less time but come on.

If you all are going to come on here and trash the coaching staff then take it some place else... They lost the freakin game, yeah they might have got out coached. So what, that will happen sometimes. This team has shown the ability to bounce back. I think they will on Sunday.
 
There is no doubt coaches sometimes get out-coached. But, the adjustments that needed to be made were obvious. So obvious that they were clear to me and I am in no way qualified to coach basketball. I am not saying that Leitnaker can't help this team but he has to be put in the right situations and those situations didn't show themselves tonight.
 
I'm actually starting to feel sorry for Brant. He is trying with all he's got but it is painfully obvious to everyone in attendance that he jsut can't cut it. Even the student section noticed it and was chanting for Isiah to come into the game.
 

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Sickamores: I am fine with that, but to come on here and throw these kids under the bus and to throw the coaching staff under the bus after one loss is just silly. I mean here are your options at the Center position (Brant, Josh, Isiah) now is one of those players clearly better than the other? NOPE - my point is pretty simple here: Josh and Isiah must do NOTHING at all in practice because if they did ANYTHING they would get more PT, you don't have to be a coach to figure that out. We don't know what goes on behind closed doors, because their is something more to him no playing in the games...

If you all got something to say and a point to be made then I think that's great - but coming on here and saying someone "sucks" or is "terrible" with nothing to support it is plain ignorant. For the record here would be my depth chart at Center:

Josh
Isiah
Brant

and I would play them each 15 to 25 mins. a game depending on who is the best match up and who is playing well. But all 3 need to get a look on the court every game in my opinion.
 
Oh I'm not bashing him! I like the guy! We just got out played. It happens.. It's basketball. But he just has some play calling, I don't understand..
 
Morgan said:
Oh listen to you all, we have one bad game and you all are off ship. Yeah he made some questionable decisions tonight and yeah I would like to see Isiah get some more time and Brant get a little less time but come on.

If you all are going to come on here and trash the coaching staff then take it some place else... They lost the freakin game, yeah they might have got out coached. So what, that will happen sometimes. This team has shown the ability to bounce back. I think they will on Sunday.
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If there is one thing I've found here at Sycamorehoops this season, it's that a lot of fans just don't know how to handle a loss, especially when expectations are higher (and I'm still not sure they should be THAT much higher).
 
Sickamores last point is on the money. He has to be put in a position to succeed and tonight wasnt the night. He was overmatched. I see nothing wrong with what he said.
 
bent20 said:
If there is one thing I've found here at Sycamorehoops this season, it's that a lot of fans just don't know how to handle a loss, especially when expectations are higher (and I'm still not sure they should be THAT much higher).
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Some people are just tired of the status quo of ISU basketball that's all.
 

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Well I don't know maybe it was the fact that his user name is "sickamores" and his first 2 post are nothing but negative... Other than that, yeah he makes some pretty decent points and I am ok with that.

I would rather have high expectations than no expectations at all and I can tell you this much bent, we have not had any expectations for any of our athletic programs (besides track, cross country and women hoops) around here for a long time. They have created a little buzz around this program this year and the crowd tonight proved that. However they were dead silent after about 10mins into the game. The first half was awful/painful to watch - outside of the Lathan dunk (oh shit, that's what my friend texted me after that dunk) we didn't do anything.
 
It was a bad game for sure, in the first half. They fought their way back and I don't see anyone saying anything positive about that. There is something to be said for it. Also something to be said for 5-3, which is a lot better than what we've seen in recent years.
 
Morgan said:
Sickamores: I am fine with that, but to come on here and throw these kids under the bus and to throw the coaching staff under the bus after one loss is just silly. I mean here are your options at the Center position (Brant, Josh, Isiah) now is one of those players clearly better than the other? NOPE - my point is pretty simple here: Josh and Isiah must do NOTHING at all in practice because if they did ANYTHING they would get more PT, you don't have to be a coach to figure that out. We don't know what goes on behind closed doors, because their is something more to him no playing in the games...

If you all got something to say and a point to be made then I think that's great - but coming on here and saying someone "sucks" or is "terrible" with nothing to support it is plain ignorant. For the record here would be my depth chart at Center:

Josh
Isiah
Brant

and I would play them each 15 to 25 mins. a game depending on who is the best match up and who is playing well. But all 3 need to get a look on the court every game in my opinion.
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Leitnaker played 23 minutes and had 4 points and 1 rebound. Jones, who is the main person who dominated our big men had 16 points and 5 rebounds. Is that enough evidence to support my claims that Martin should play a lot more whereas Leitnaker should play a lot less. And for you to get on here and suggest Crawford and Martin don't put out full effort in practice, with nothing to support it, is ignorant.
 
Fair enough good post - however what else can explain why they are not playing in the games? I mean take it for what it's worth but if you listen to our coaches talk on the local radio that's something they always talk about - you earn your playing time in practice. They just had 2 interviews this week with Coach McKenna and Coach Lansing and they both mentioned this. So actually I can draw that conclusion from what I am seeing. The reason that they don't see the floor is the show NOTHING in practice. I can't imagine it would be anything else, you just showed us the numbers from tonights game (great post) what else could it be... I mean you tell me what else could it be?

I am not saying that I disagree with you - but something must be going on, right?
 
A lack of effort in practice does make the most sense. It just seems to me that beginning last year Martin's playing time decreased which could lead to him being discouraged. If I were in his position I can't say that I would want to go all out in practice if I was not guaranteed playing time. I guess the only thing we can do is hope that the big guys coming in next year will make this a non-issue.
 
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In Brant's defense, in my opinion he is the best passing of all the big men on our team. Also tonite, he was playing against one of the better big men in all of Mid Major basketball, Jarrod Jones of Ball State is a colleginsider.com Mid Major All-american.d
 
Also hes a good guy who you know will give everything he has everytime he is out there....he may get pushed around a little every once in a while, he does have a tendency to find the occasional wide open sycamore or use his actual couple capable moves as we saw a couple of times. Coach actually said in interviews, we need to give him more touches, and actually I agree because he only got two three times, this kid runs off of confidence and if we give him more, I believe we will be better.
 
I purposely did not post after the game last night. Now I will just say two words.......UNACCEPTABLE PERFORMANCE...............by all involved.
 
I believe the coach lost this game. Here me out- 1st I think switching to the press much earlier would have worn ball state down. They would not have been able to handle the defensive pressure( as was obvious when we switched to the press.) 2nd- There is no way brant should have played in this game. 1 rebound is just unacceptable from the center position. How many times do you have to watch a guy go right around him before you make a change? If the coach has a problem with martin either get over it or get rid of him. Hell, even crawford was playing better than brant. On another subject, jake needs to take the ball to the hole. He goes halfway and stops. When he was aggressive he was getting to the foul line. He seems totally out of sync. This team has the ability to play great, for some reason they are just wildly inconsistent.
 
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