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The Good, Bad and Ugly from ISU's First Win

S

Skippy

Active member
The Good:
--team chemistry. ET was back, got in early foul trouble but ISU didn't miss a beat with Brandon Boyd. The Bengals got out in transition well, and they really passed the ball well out of double teams. Help defense was great, and Topolavic had a career high 6 blocks after having none in the first six games. Rob Jones showed us some real offensive versatility. ISU only turned the ball over 10 times against a very aggressive Cardinals man-to-man defense.
The Bad
--Bengals got killed on ithe glass, giving up 17 offensive rebounds. Cardinals went right at Topolavic offensively, which means Jones and Stephen Lennox had to become the primary weak side rebounders. They combined for only 5 rebounds total. Lennox fouled out without scoring and just one rebound. Foul shooting was again an issue and Topolavic is going to be a "hack a Novak" target late in games if he can't do better than the 1 for 7 performance last night.
The Ugly
--The crowd and ISU's home schedule, which go together. We never got an official figure but there might have been 1,000 people there last night. I blame an 0-6 start and a terrible schedule which sends the team on the road for three weeks after the opening exhibition game. There is no continuity built with fans, the team gets off to a bad record, and there is no buzz or energy around the program. To make matters worse, now the Bengals go back on the road where they will be underdogs at Northridge -- and massive underdogs at Wisconsin. I understand getting D-1 teams to come to Pocatello is extremely difficult but this year's non-conference schedule is criminal. Somebody -- the league, the NCAA, the administration-- has to step in and help ISU and other mid-majors get home games. These kinds of nonconference schedules are killing the sport at this level.
 
Brad:

As you know a few years ago Doug Fullerton made this a priority for the conference. I have no idea what they tired to do or how those efforts were received but obviously not much has changed.

Two years ago I asked someone from the conference hierarchy if the BSC might be able to contribute some money to schools to help them get teams to come in and was told "the conference doesn't have any money to give..."

And it's not just the men. ISU's women have played the fewest home games (93) over the past seven seasons going into this one, out of any team in the conference who has been in the league the entire seven years.

This year, again...seven of the first eight games are away from Pocatello. A few years ago they had a nine game road trip.

I don't think there is an answer to this. Mid major teams don't want to give up home games themselves...now add in the travel difficulties to get to a Pocatello, a Cedar City, a Grand Forks and other teams don't want to deal with it.

PBP
 
PBP said:
Brad:

As you know a few years ago Doug Fullerton made this a priority for the conference. I have no idea what they tired to do or how those efforts were received but obviously not much has changed.

Two years ago I asked someone from the conference hierarchy if the BSC might be able to contribute some money to schools to help them get teams to come in and was told "the conference doesn't have any money to give..."

And it's not just the men. ISU's women have played the fewest home games (93) over the past seven seasons going into this one, out of any team in the conference who has been in the league the entire seven years.

This year, again...seven of the first eight games are away from Pocatello. A few years ago they had a nine game road trip.

I don't think there is an answer to this. Mid major teams don't want to give up home games themselves...now add in the travel difficulties to get to a Pocatello, a Cedar City, a Grand Forks and other teams don't want to deal with it.

PBP
Click to expand...
I think this is an area where conference leadership can have an impact. If the new conference commissioner can organize other small conferences to form a working group to jointly address all these issues, there might be a chance to generate some solutions. The status quo is just simply not acceptable.
 
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