Anyways, last week I spoke with Men's basketball Head Coach Lennox Forrester about next season's home schedule. Because Lennox is the man, he told me what he could off the top of his head, and that the schedule should be finalized sometime in late July. There are still a few dates to be agreed upon between SIUE and other schools, so specific dates and the full schedule are not available at this time.
This should be a very exciting season for SIUE basketball, given it is our final year bearing the title "Independent" before joining the Ohio Valley Conference in 2011-2012. The Cougars added a very strong recruiting class with two freshmen from St. Louis and three junior college transfers to aid a group which has experienced a lot in the past two seasons. Mark Yelovich, who was named pre-season All-Independent last season is back as a junior, and there are guys like LeShaun Murphy, Nik Bundalo, Kevin the only SIUE basketball player with a Twitter account Stineman ect. a year older and wiser. I just took a class with Anthony Mitchell and the dude looks like a basketball player! Let's hope he can play like one too in 2010.
The future is bright.
So, who will we see at the VC? I was going to blog them all at the same time, but I got a little carried away with statistics and backstories, so I decided to do them over the course of a few posts. Lazy? maybe. Here's a quick look at two opponents, IPFW and South Dakota.
IPFW:
Backstory: 26 year old Head Coach Dane Fife is entering his third year at IPFW, and signed former SIUE center Terrence Williams as a JUCO transfer for next season. When I talked to Forrester I mentioned Terrence and he seemed hesitant whether or not he would actually make the IPFW team. The dude has work ethic problems, we all know this from his time at SIUE, It's an I'll see it when it happens sort of deal with him, and I tend to agree. SIUE played the Mastadons, their former counterpart in the Division II Great Lakes Valley Conference twice last season, a nail-biter at the Vadalabene Center, where Nick Daniels hit a three from the corner with 36 seconds left to put the game away, and then very late in the season IPFW rolled to a 78-40 win in Fort Wayne.Analysis: SIUE was drained the second time they met IPFW last season. The Cougars team that beat Drake was not the same team we saw late in the season. SIUE barely managed Hannibal Le-Grange in the season finale. The game was a fluke, because the team traveled from SIUE to North Dakota to Fullerton to IPFW. They stopped in Minnesota and bused to North Dakota if I remember correctly. The team was flat out tired, and there was no motivation, given the team's record. The guys admitted this after the HLG game. IPFW is no doubt going to be a different team than last year without Dielvez Yearby and Daniels who graduated and senior Antwone Snead, who was released from the team recently. Snead started in 11 games and averaged just 5.5 points per game, but had his outlying big performances, scoring 11 against Gonzaga in one of his five double digit games. Yerby averaged 13.8 points per game, leading the team and 8.7 rebounds per game, good for second in the Summit League. Yearby scored 21 and 16 in the two games against SIUE, with a beastly 15 rebounds in the second match-up. Good riddance. Aside from scoring the winner against SIUE at the VC, Daniels scored in double-digits 11 times in conference play. Coach Fife has a good thing in Fort Wayne, I just don't think its necesarilly going to be that good this year. It was a big step for IPFW to surpass .500 for the first time as a Division I program, but they are losing loads of good experienced players with little to add in that regard. They do however, have Mike Kibiloski, tabbed an 83 by Scouts as a Freshmen.
Kibiloski's intensity and tenacity, as well as, his intelligence will be a good fit for Dane Fife's program. Mike is like most Indiana high school basketball players with great fundamentals and a solid understanding of the game. - Scouts Inc.
At 6'7 210, he is going to be a big body to contest with in the lane.
South Dakota:
Backstory: No! not South Dakota again!!! I am sick of playing these guys, I hate the Great West Conference, I hate them using it as a means of bypassing the hard times they should be having as a transitioning school and playing in the CBI. I hate their bigs, I hate the Dakota Dome, I hate the cold weather there although I have never been there and never plan to be there, I hate that they call themselves "The U" when I am pretty sure Miami (Fl.) has the phrase under copyright and hate their stupid Coyote logo. I hate the refs they had when we played them at their place last season and all of their antics. I honestly hate this school.Analysis: Okay, so now that we have that out of the way, let's talk basketball. These two schools have a brief history together because we are transitional buddies. Both schools decided to jump to Division I at the same time so naturally we play each other a lot. South Dakota was even kind enough to host a tournament for us tournamentless teams two seasons ago. That all changed last year when the Coyotes opted for inclusion in the Great West Conference, an imaginary illusion conceived by a number of homeless independent schools to lose the unflattering label put on them. The inception spans the country, including the hapless New Jersey Institute of Technology Higlanders (although they are getting better) Chicago State, Houston Baptist and Utah Valley. It is essentially a geographical clusterfuck. The Great West does not have a free ride to the NCAA tournament because it has not been active long enough to apply for an automatic bid and frankly, there are zero deserving teams in the group. (This coming from a person who is familiar with mid-major college basketball, win shares, and is rather sympathetic.) The winner of the Great West does get an automatic bid into the CBI (technically, if SIUE was deserving we could get into this loser tournament as well with our current status, but what's the use?) which South Dakota happened to recieve last year with a 22-10 record, 11-1 in the Great West. They lost to Creighton by 11 in the opener. The big thing with South Dakota is similar to what I talked about with IPFW. Senior leadership is going to be at a premium next season and for years to come in Vermillion. I remember coach Dave Boots saying when SIUE played them two years ago the different approach his team was taking with the transition. They wanted to have senior leadership early on and win games against a weaker schedule, whereas SIUE took its lumps with younger players and a tougher schedule in order to be tournament ready by 2013 (or so I assume the plan is at this point.) That is all well and good, but don't look now, because Tyler Cain (6''8 PF) and Steve Smith (6''11 Center) are gone. These guys were UNSTOPPABLE in capital letters last season against SIUE.
Season
Cain - 14 ppg 10 rpg 3 apg 2 bpg (BEAST)
Smith - 8 ppg 5 rpg
Against SIUE (100-76 @USD 91-69 @SIUE, both USD wins)Factor in another guy USD is losing in Roman Gentry (13.8 ppg 33 points against SIUE combined) and the team belongs to one man, but an able one at that in Jake Thomas, who was third on the team scoring (13.3 ppg) but held in check by the Cougars, scoring just four points in both games. SIUE really had trouble with the big guys and that our weak post play was exploited to its full potential by the Coyote's bigs. SIUE matches up MUCH better this season than last against USD, but it is still a test, and very important to beat these guys, USD owns the all-time series with the Cougars 4-1 through two seasons.
Cain - 26 points, 15 rebounds and 16 points and 9 rebounds
Smith - 9 and 5, and 14 and 5
Other teams we will see
Murray State
Kennesaw State
Eastern Kentucky
Tennessee Tech
Tennessee Martin
Southeast Missouri State
Middle Tennessee State
AND....A HOME BRACKETBUSTER!!!!
On the road:
Iowa - Nov. 26
Indiana
Northern Iowa
Las Vegas Classic (we will play two of the Citadel, South Carolina State and Longwood)
Milwaukee
Illinois State
6 comments:
Who might we be playing for our 5 non D-1 schools? exhibition games? I knew we looked weak last year, because of our exhibition game( barely a 30 pt win). If we come out winning by more than 35-45 pts, then I believe we might have a a lot better season. If we win an exhibition by 50, I think that we may have a greeeeeaaaaaaat season. Its getting close for the official schedule to come out. I hoping maybe this week. I have read some comments your site and I generally agree with everyone on the team, but man how can we become better by red-shirting anyone. That just doesn't seem logical with a small D-1 team like us. In the years to come, we should continue to get better recruits. I imagine at the pace were going we could be a top 2 OVC team in 5 years. The OVC is only getting stronger too. Morehead State and Murray State have done a lot for the conference. The best thing we can do this season is to play somebody other than Kevin Stineman. If this is accomplished we would be a better team no matter what. I think Chatt, Tillman, and Jones will have a better season than Messer and Wickware. I'm just not seing the hype with Messer. Ive seen about 4 of his games on some basketball streaming site and he just seems lost most of the time. He has a similar style to Mark, but he seems slower and less aggressive. Murphy might be short, but he can defend and give a spark to SIUE. We need someone that can dunk at all times on the floor. It excites fans and the team. Boarden and Mitchell should get more playing time. Mitchell can play, but he is a quick in and out player. He plays well with minimal time. Boarden seems to have a good drive to play solid defense along with a decent shot. If Mark keeps on getting better, which he will, then we will do well. Someone needs to be bangin down low though. Bundalow is ok when he has the hook down, but he comes off soft in a majority of times. Still he is by far the best that we had last season. Allan , do you know if we still have that walk on last year Alex Newlin? He has provided no depth and I was just puzzled why a D3 player at best was on the team. Any news about Desmond Young? He seems workable if he hits the gym and packs on some weight.
Yeah, Newlin is back... not going to see the court very often obviously. he'll be in the Dane Church role. The team was capped on scholarships after the trio of JUCOs, so Newlin is there to just kind of hang out. I didn't find out about the non-DI's until I saw the schedule handout on campus, luckily I think I got it the day it came out, I'm puzzled as to why the athletic dept. didn't at least throw it on the site as a release and Lennox didn't tell me about those. The only positives from them are they are all games we should win by 30, They add more home games, which means the team won't be blown out by February because of travel and will help confidence. The negatives of course: they don't count towards our RPI, nobody wants to see these teams at the VC and we have lost to one each of the last two seasons. There is a lot of potential for sure going into the future, Lennox is a great recruiter and great in practice, but things still have been somewhat shaky with personnel decisions. I honestly see Stineman starting the point, but hopefully Wickware or Gerald Jones can work their way in there somehow.
Been hoping to have more content on the site, but the Alestle has been pretty hectic for the last couple of weeks, later
Allan
We have to play those non DI's just to get the games......I find it odd that we do not have any games scheduled against the regional univ like NIU, WIU, EIU you would think that they would be willing to schedule SIUE as a regional opponent......Newlin is a Walk on everyone has them........Also I may post this here but someone ranked the players on playing with them up at the V.......I just have a couple of questions....Is Chatt enrolled in school? Did he qualify? I think wickware will be better than he displayed.......Messer a 10? HAHAH Ok Ill take your word on it but I saw the guy on video and too much standing around letting the game come to him........I think they want Tillman to stay off until he bulks up I wouldnt be surprised to see him take a redshirt if he is eligible for one and the reason I say that is because he supposedly, and this is not a knock on him, has to have specialized tutoring......So give him a year to bulk and learn D I basketball as well as settle into the routine of bigger college academics.......Gerald Jones was probably injured so I guess we can slide but that dissapoints me because I saw that guy and he was probably one of the most complete ballers I have seen in a long time......Time will only tell......Any more news would be appreciated
you big guys ever played ball with Newlin? oh ok so you know all about him...i just think it is weak you trashed a person on here you don't even know. just weak....weak
you guys are right on. Me as for rest of the entire school has high hopes for this years hoops team, with veterans like stinemen and bundalow, this could be a breakout year for the cougars. recruits like messer and gerald are gonna turn this program around. yelovich averaged about 18 a game last year, so of course freshmen mike messer ( aka mark #2) will average about 15, especially with G running point ( hopefully) with his 3rd eye, droppin dimes all over. the only weak thing about siue hoops is there walk ons, d3 ( at best) newlin and country boy cody rincker arent bringin much to the table, at least cody is a sniper, newlin just flat out sucks. cant wait for an amazing season this year, blow outs over SLIAC macmurray and tough competitive games against teams like Indiana will make this season exciting to watch!
t boosted this blog
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