Multiple players leaving ISU

[tornado]

while you're at it, Roland Griffin ...

bad news for Roland Griffin...
the ex-ISU player, now at Iona, gets himself kicked off the team

https://watchstadium.com/news/fight-lands-iona-coach-in-hospital-player-out-of-program-10-26-2018/

In an incident that was apparently kept confidential since it happened Monday morning- Roland Griffin got into a fistfight with his assistant coach Ricky Johns
...
In his own words, Griffin was told to go to study hall but objected and said he didn't have to....
the altercation escalated and Griffin- (quote) "punched him four or five times" - sending John's to the hospital..

Griffin has been kicked off the team & dismissed from Iona and obviously this ends his college career...as he has no eligibility left to transfer..
...the article above details that Griffin had been suspended at least twice before.....There was never any good reason given why he suddenly left ISU under suspicious circumstances.
...so Roland Griffin can probably be added to the list of Yarbrough, Lynch, Brewer, Griffin and many others players with arrest, discipline and behavior issues...

[tornado]

There is talk that multiple players are leaving ISU again...
Reports that were discussed among ISU fans in St. Louis are that both Matt Hein and Zach Copeland are leaving and transferring
and there's a full thread on the ISU board about it...because they both redshirted, they could both possibly go as grad-transfers and play right away elsewhere....
I guess time will tell.....

Meanwhile, the, ISU student newspaper, the Vidette ran a hit piece on Muller - http://www.videtteonline.com/sports/...6c93cda53.html

Their beat guy has stayed pretty silent & soft on Muller - he's been carrying water for the Redbirds all along and making excuses & apologies for their horrid play and legal indiscretions.

[tornado]

There is talk that multiple players are leaving ISU again...
.....Matt Hein and Zach Copeland ....

still nothing official but another name now being mentioned - Josh Jefferson - he likewise would have only one year left.....
They may have so few players left that they will have to play Bruninga with a cast on his leg and call up that coach at
D-II Illinois-Springfield to lure a few more DII players over to the roster like they did with Donnelly- https://www.pantagraph.com/sports/co...ca51d2950.html

[Dub]

The best thing for Bradley fans is for ISU to keep everybody on their eligible roster and on staff.

[tornado]

good thought Dub - but one of the comments I heard was that at least one of the ISU players doesn't even have the grades to come back next year..

and... remember..... three of their guys have burned their redshirt year sitting out after transferring (2 from 3-win San Jose State, which was literally about the worst school in DI - LINK) ...those poor guys have nowhere to go unless they want to transfer to D2 or lower.

But one good thing they learned from this season is that no matter how bad they play and no matter how many times they get arrested - if they just show up and score a few points, heck, they will probably be starters and log 35 minutes!!
Heck - one of their starters averaged only 3 ppg and hit 32% and another averaged 4 ppg and hit 29% from outside.
And the guy they hailed as the crucial guy to winning averaged 1.6 ppg & hit 14%!
In the end it was Clarance who was the smartest - he got out before this dumpster fire got raging..

[Tommy]

he got out before this dumpster fire got raging..

[tornado]

One more interesting thing....

even tho ISU is done for the season, their NET ranking continues to creep downwards
as the teams they played this year keep losing - even the ones they boasted would be Quadrant 1 games (Georgia is now 11-20, Boise State 11-19...)


ISU's NET is now 201!!
WORSE even than 8th & 9th place Indiana State & Valparaiso and about to pass & drop below Evansville as the worst NET in the MVC.

But go back and read the threads & predictions we had about Muller's recruiting, taking in disgruntled transfers, failing to discipline their rule-breakers and arrested kids,
and then playing the guys who were the team-wreckers and troublemakers...enabling the bad seeds to take over the whole team just because he lusted for a few wins.
Many here predicted all that was Muller's attempt to "take the expedient route instead of the disciplined route" (to use Phil Theobald's phrase)
..and to take shortcuts to success - and that it would backfire - and land ISU in the basement at some point. ISU fans mocked Bradley & BU fans
and laughed that it was taking so long for Bradley to rebuild - but who's laughing now?

[Da Coach]

Dan Muller talks about their disappointing season in a new Pantagraph article-
https://www.pantagraph.com/sports/co...076d7a8fd.html

Muller is a bit subtle, but he clearly is referring to players like Yarbrough and a couple others with these criticisms-

"If you want to know my biggest disappointment of the year, I do take pride in representing this program with toughness and competitiveness and effort, and the team is supposed to be a reflection of the head coach," said Muller in his office earlier this week before heading out of town recruiting.
"I'm ashamed of how my team played this year in a year where I certainly had high expectations ... it's my job to get them to play hard. In the end, we didn't play hard."
"This year's effort level, toughness, discipline, body language and coachability was unacceptable. I'm not putting up with it again," said Muller. "I want every player to understand what it takes to be successful and buy into those things."

The article goes on to make some excuses, suggesting they would have lived up to expectations and their defense would have been better if Taylor Bruninga hadn't gotten hurt or Elijah Clarance hadn't left to play in Europe. That is not very likely, IMO.
And then the article hypes all their incoming transfers, ineligible players, and recruits for next year.

[tornado]

...."This year's effort level, toughness, discipline, body language and coachability was unacceptable. I'm not putting up with it again," said Muller"....

What?? LOL - time after time after time - he kept calling out his players then went right back to starting them and playing them again and again and again...and using injuries as an excuse again...

From the earliest games this season and even last season Muller has been repeating the same words...
-uncoachable
-no leadership
-lack of maturity
-bad body language
-no defense
-doesn't compete
-not coachable
https://www.bradleyfans.com/forum/sp...aturday-nov-10
https://www.pantagraph.com/sports/co...48eb2e1f0.html


any other coach in DI or even DII would never have put up with this.... they'd have booted any such player long aog and yet despite
all the warning signs and even the fans telling Muller to get rid of the guy, Muller not only kept starting and playing the guy - he made the guy the centerpiece of the entire team.

Most coaches would say "fool me once shame on you - fool me twice shame on me" -- or "once burned, twice shy"

Muller says to himself "fool me once, twice or even 100 times, then shame on you and never shame on me" -- or once burned, repeat 100 times"


But Benson himself is kind of a joke - he's seen all this unfolding right before his eyes (disgruntled transfers, bad eggs, kids with felonies, repeated discipline issues, arrests, drugs, beating girlfriends..).... and has completely missed it over and over...,
Benson has praised Muller for years acting like he's great on discipline. Then there was this where he benched Milik in December for attitude & body language...
..Benson was a little off with this prediction..."Redbirds should now be undisputed #MVC favorite in 2018-19"

[LittleBrave]

I used to like Dan Muller, but since he became head coach, so much not to like about his character and the way he promotes himself as a leader.

[tornado]

every team has ups and downs....

When Bradley had their downs - a bunch of unexpected and disappointing losses -
we responded with POSITIVITY, extra HARD WORK and our guys turned it around

When ISU had their downs - a bunch of unexpected losses and poor play -
they responded with NEGATIVITY, selfishness, infighting and resentment of the criticism...

night & day difference between how two two COACHING STAFFS handled the exact same situation -
the whole ISU staff & players could not handle the adversity and the criticisms and took the shortcuts, grumbled and team play suffered even worse. As they received some criticism for poor play they quit on their teammates and their fans and played even more poorly -
the criticisms flowed even more as they were making themselves low-hanging fruit for anyone who wanted to find someone to blame or to gripe about the losses.

Our staff stuck with the plan, issued a little discipline where necessary, the players responded and we had tremendous success.

Like I say - NIGHT & DAY difference

[tornado]

... another name now being mentioned - Josh Jefferson - he likewise would have only one year left............

now it appears official - Josh Jefferson is leaving ISU
That leaves them with only two of their top eight players this year and only one who scored more than 3.5 ppg
Jefferson shot 40% from the arc - Copeland & Chastain both shot 32%, Hein shot 14%
*