Articles about MVC coaches

[Da Coach]

A couple new articles about MVC coaches-

Indiana State's new coach Kevin McKenna took the job March 29. But he didn't sign his contract until last Friday. He'll have a guaranteed compensation of $200,000 per year for 5 years. He'll also have incentive bonuses for winning titles or awards, making the postseason, and for attendance increases.

http://www.tribstar.com/sports/local_story_164233642.html

A writer for the Evansville Courier Press wrote this article :
"Simmons will be just fine".
but it is not much about new coach Marty Simmons, but rather a hit piece in which the writer vents his anger toward their previous coach Steve Merfeld (now an assistant at Bradley). He makes some ridiculous statements about Evansville losing several games a year because officials hated Steve Merfeld and whistled extra calls against the Aces just to stick it to Merf.

http://www.courierpress.com/blogs/university-evansville-sports/2007/jun/13/marty1/

And in case anyone missed it, here is an article about Jim Les and his optimism for next year from the Springfield Journal Register--

http://www.sj-r.com/sections/sports/stories/116583.asp

[tornado]

If you read that Evansville article, the guy is actually claiming Bradley will lose 2 or 3 extra games a year because we now have Merfeld, and that's how many games his sideline antics cost them. The guy says Bradley seems to always get the breaks and that's why we beat Evansville!!
He also has really intelligent statements about Merf like...

"(Merfeld)...chided them with an air that sceamed he thought he was smarter than they could ever hope to be."

(what does "sceamed" mean??)

"Bradley won't be getting those breaks any more, either. That's where Merfeld landed as an assistant for Jim Les, a curious hire at best."

Hey, Steve Ford....maybe when you coach a team to the Sweet Sixteen, we can call your judgement "curious"??

[smitty]

It's always a lot easier to rip people, like this guy is doing, after they leave town. He was there for 5 years, I wonder if this writer ever wrote those things while he was the Evansville coach. And he was fired 2 months ago, but it's interesting that he waits until a couple days after Merf has moved to Peoria to rip him.

[Dubl R 1]

Wow, those are pretty bold statements against Merfeld from that reporter. I'll tell you one thing, Merfeld's relationship with the refs didn't prevent Matt "flop into the defender" Webster from getting his share of calls last year.

This reporter is either a friend of Simmons or had a personal problem with Merfeld. I wonder what he'll be saying in a few years if Simmons has a losing record at UE.

[tornado]

The reporter's claim is strong in saying Evansville gets fewer foul calls than their opponents, and it is a clear difference due to the antics of Merfeld and the fact that the refs don't like him, and react by giving him unfavorable treatment.
If you don't think that's what the article is saying, let me know, but I think it's pretty clear...

Well...here are some actual facts, not just bigoted, anti-Merf rhetoric....

2006-2007
Total fouls called on the season against UE: 598
Total fouls called on the season against UE's opponents: 614
(the difference is only 0.5 fouls per game -- BUT more were actually called on the opponents)

Fouls on UE in conference games:358
Fouls on UE's opponents in conference games: 348
(the difference is again, only 1/2 foul per game...not likely it would even be noticed!)

FT's shot by UE on the season: 678
FT's shot by UE's opponents: 616
(WOW...this one is going to be very hard for the writer to explain!!)

Turnovers whistled against UE: 399
Turnovers whistled against UE's opponents: 393
(a difference of only about one in every five game span!!)

so..................I'd say the actual facts dispute this guy's griping.

meanwhile, maybe he should check out the stats for BU

Fould again BU: 647
Fouls against BU's opponents: 462

Fould again BU (in conf.): 344
Fouls against BU's opponents (in conf.): 290

FT shot by BU: 618
FT shot by opponents: 727

FT shot by BU (in conf.):293
FT shot by BU's opponents (in conf.):395
(NEARLY 35% MORE!!)

I'd say we have lots more ammo to make the claims this guy is making then he does at UE.

[Da Coach]

I agree. Webster and Evansville seemed to get their share of the calls in the games I saw. I thought I'd check the actual numbers--

In 31 games, Evansville shot 678 free throws (for comparison, Bradley in 35 games shot 61. Here are the actual numbers--
Team.....total games....MVC games...total FT..FT/game...MVC FT..MVC FT/game
Drake.........32................18..............79 4.........24.8........390..........21.6
MissouriSt..33.................18..............727 .........22.0........422...........23.4
Evansville....31................18..............67 8........21.9........353...........19.7
Creighton....33................18..............710 ........21.5........380...........21.1
So.Ill.........36.................18.............. 748.........20.8........363...........20.1
No.Iowa......31................18..............620 ........20.0........359...........19.9
In.State......31................18..............60 2........19.4........303...........16.9
WichitaSt...31................18...............589 ........19.0........334............18.6
ILLSt.........31.................18..............5 57.........17.9........311...........17.3
Bradley......35.................18..............61 8.........17.7........293...........16.3

So, in reality, Evansville got a lot of foul calls in their favor. They were barely behind Missori State for the 2nd most Free Throws per game at 21.9 FT/game. In just conference games, they didn't get quite as many calls, but still fared far better than Bradley and several other teams.
It looks to me like the MVC officials stick it to Jim Les a lot more than Steve Merfeld!

[BUBraves06]

Good stuff T, makes that guy look like the ignorant tool he apparently is.

[meth]

Not necessarily ignorant, just obviously biased and letting his bias steer his agenda and affect the stuff he writes.
Sound familiar??

[MacabreMob]

Not necessarily ignorant, just obviously biased and letting his bias steer his agenda and affect the stuff he writes.
Sound familiar??

ERRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...............

--CRASH--

BOOOOOMMMMMMMM!!!!!!

Look out - another member of the Drive-by media!

[Dubl R 1]

So, in reality BU might actually get MORE calls by adding Merfeld to the staff. I am excited.

[daPAWW1]

We might get more calls with an inside game!

I'm not sure we really got the shaft - playing a 4 guard offense didn't help us get to the free throw line much - but we did have a ton of 3's! And having JJ guard a guy like Webster or some of the other active post and pf players in the league usually resulted in a foul against! JJ was as tough a player that I've seen here in decades and he could play the baseline with the best - but he had only so much stamina and he gave it his all, but fouls eventually do come to those who get worn down! Hopefully we'll have an inside presence next season and Merf will use his experience to help develop it on both ends of the court! I for one expect those ft numbers to balance out in our favor!

Don't you?

[BUBraves06]

Re: We might get more calls with an inside game!

I'm not sure we really got the shaft - playing a 4 guard offense didn't help us get to the free throw line much - but we did have a ton of 3's! And having JJ guard a guy like Webster or some of the other active post and pf players in the league usually resulted in a foul against! JJ was as tough a player that I've seen here in decades and he could play the baseline with the best - but he had only so much stamina and he gave it his all, but fouls eventually do come to those who get worn down! Hopefully we'll have an inside presence next season and Merf will use his experience to help develop it on both ends of the court! I for one expect those ft numbers to balance out in our favor!

Don't you?

It's a good point that a more post-oriented offense probably would/will get more calls, whether it be from the man gaurding the player with the ball, or guards collapsing. Well said re: JJ also, he certainly gave it his all for 40 minutes.

[bert notorius]

Are assistant coaches even allowed to have sideline antics?

[Da Coach]

Re: We might get more calls with an inside game!

I'm not sure we really got the shaft - playing a 4 guard offense didn't help us get to the free throw line much - but we did have a ton of 3's! And having JJ guard a guy like Webster or some of the other active post and pf players in the league usually resulted in a foul against! JJ was as tough a player that I've seen here in decades and he could play the baseline with the best - but he had only so much stamina and he gave it his all, but fouls eventually do come to those who get worn down! Hopefully we'll have an inside presence next season and Merf will use his experience to help develop it on both ends of the court! I for one expect those ft numbers to balance out in our favor!

Don't you?

I mostly agree, but then how do you explain that Drake shot way more FTs per game than any team? They played a 3 guard offense, too, and were ostly a perimeter team, like BU.

[daPAWW1]

Drake?

I can't argue your point on Drake, however I would have to look at their shot stats. I did see Drake play 5 times last year 2 against BU, 2 against MSU and once in the tourney! Just from recall (and I'm getting old) I beleive they played a bit more within the 3 point arc than BU. I don't think they shot worth a t-d but I do beleive they may have put up more shots within the arc than we did and probably got more rebounds and calls in there as well! I'm not knocking JL's plan last season I'm just saying we did not have an inside presence, which unfortunately or fortunately - whichever way you look at it resulted in us having one of the worst rebounding teams and least fouls against records in the league! Obviously, the high percentage on 3's made up for most of those short comings - and as a result led to one of the best 'team' seasons I've witnessed since 1988.

So I realize JC got slapped on the wrist and hand on about 50% of his 3's but rarely ever got a call (in fact it would be interesting to see how many fouls were called on 3's in this league) - but other than that, hopefully we'll balance it all out next season!