Wow. This was embarrassing. This coaching administration has the distinction of not only blowing up the “This is our State” slogan, but now they blew up the “This is Our City” Slogan too! We lost to a team that is predicted to be 11th in the MVC.

Other thoughts:

1. This team has no killers on it. The game was tight, they got trashed talked and they suffered major shrinkage.

2. What happened to the game plan tonight? We did not do any of the things we did against Eastern Illinois. Right out of the box, Norris and Dolan were playing hero ball and dribbling way too much. Where was the crisp player movement and passing of the ball? What happened to our defense? We let two guys beat us tonight. Quise sealed it, but #1 and # 5 destroyed us all night and we constantly went underneath screens and lost them on defense.

3. I also don’t see the infatuation with Norris or Dolan right now. They certainly can’t be on the floor together as much as they were tonight. Quite frankly, since Norris has been the “man” we have been bad. They both played mediocre tonight. Norris was 2-9, all 3’s, and Dolan was 3-10. It started in the first few minutes when they both were dribbling way too much. When they are playing bad and we are not shooting it well, how about giving a shooter like Edward’s some minutes? Ben got minutes and played well and the team played well while he was on the Court, yet really did not play in 2nd half.

4. Let’s hope that Miles is not hurt as he did not play last 15 minutes of the game. Miles had a distinct effect on the game while in there he 8 points couple of blocks, altered a couple of shots. Alston got hurt as well and only played 9 minutes. Drew just does not seem to coach well well things go south and his sheet is useless.

5. If we did not shoot WAAAAAAAY OVER our FT average (we were in the 90’s 23-25). We get blown out because we shot 33% overall and 24% from 3. How can we shoot this bad in our building?

6. I am very frustrated watching this team and this coaching staff. Quite frankly any hopes I had for this group took a beating tonight. Is Drew is on a hot seat? Have to think Steve has to be thinking about it a little.

7. Well, I am a glutton for punishment (I am a Sox fan too!), so as a season ticket holder I will continue to support the team and program and just keep my figures crossed these guys somehow put it together.

Drew makes a lot of substitutions but never seems to actually make adjustments to what we’re running during the game. UIC went zone after we went up and promptly went on like a 12-0 run, and Drew changed nothing — and this run happened before halftime and continued right on after halftime.You know, plenty of time to draw something up. We are always on our back heel as the opponent other coaches throw stuff at us, and we’ve got no counters.

Hell now that I think of it, it’s not even just the quick-moving in-game adjustments that’s giving us trouble, it’s the big obvious ones too. I think of last year, when teams figured out we couldn’t break a press — it was crazy, the book was clearly out on us, there was a period where EVERY team we knew later pressed us, and it took us until like mid January to address it. That’s when I really lost all confidence with Drew, and this year is not doing much to restore it.

Honestly just a bummer. Looks like another long season ahead.

Same bleeping —-t as last year.

I also do not understand overhauling a style of play that led to a Final Four and Sweet 16.

Great post. While UIC was making the run, Drew did not call a Time Out and let it snowball. Very frustrating. We got to 37 and our offense literally stopped in the first half.

Honestly, not seeing any changes to the approach of the game. When do we start asking if Drew is the man for the job?

well this game was a punch to the gut and the schnoz.... we could write off our first two games as a loss to a great team and Eastern to a win over a horrible team... but in a dog fight we were the dog that limped away.....This loss is the challenge they needed,,,how they respond will tell us a ton. I think the tough guys on the team are Dawson and Alston...so that they were not in was troublesome.

Alston, Dawson, and Rubin not being available down the stretch was a kick in the balls. That being said, on paper, the Des/Quinn/Welch/Dolan/Schweiger/Mwamba rotation should be enough to win this game. Those are 6 guys that have shooting, size, quickness, and the ability to defend. They looked lost out there on offense. A little better defensively but there were a lot of blown rotations that led to open threes. But god damn, in the final possessions we got one good shot to Dolan that he missed and then it was a junkshow after that until the whistle blew. It seems like a coaching problem to me that they were not able to execute any coherent sets down the stretch when the game was still in reach.

I wish Coach Valentine would crack down a bit on some of the stupid bullshit out there. Why is Mwamba shooting threes? How many times do we have to watch Jalen Quinn drive to no mans land and attempt a crazy pass to bail himself out? This team (and last year's team) are so sloppy. It is not a fun team to watch play basketball.

This is the first game where I think I caught the vision on what Rubin can be. He looked like the only player in white not scared to go at the rim for long stretches of the game, and there were a lot of shots he affected on the other end. The two blocks on the stat sheet dramatically understates his defensive impact. That being said, he let a couple guys blow by him and tried to clean it up by trailing and going for the block and I never saw that work. It might have in high school but he's going to either need to get faster laterally or they need to stop switching those screens. I'd love to see them develop the pick and role game with him.

We have room for improvement. I am not convinced that this is a coaching issue - other than maybe we need other people on the court.

We missed more than 70% of our shots in the second half! Think about that. We shot 28.57% in the second half and 0-11 from the three point line. We missed lay-ups. About half of our 3s were uncontested, this is an execution issue.

Not going to win many games with those averages. We win this game if we shot 36%.

Agree with this. Dolan shot one of the flattest threes I've ever seen, which really surprised me at the improbability of it going in. I'd read that he was a 42% three point shooter, and that shot looked like a Brad Tice free throw (deep cut from the 90s). Des and Welch had some urgency in their play, but not many others. That's a motivation, confidence, play-calling, and execution issue that goes to coaching and player development, I think.

Rubin is going to be fantastic if he develops right in some areas. You're right about him staying in front of players who sometimes slip by. That should be easy to address. Footwork is really advanced, and physicality will improve-- possibly even by the end of the season. Very long, and he's got some hops for a big man. I'm wondering about his knee, though. Welch is great against EIU and give some good minutes against better teams. But he can't hold down the center spot alone against long and mobile players like Okani and Vlad. Dame and Rubin need to get healthy.